Learn the Essence of ZEN: Graffiti on the Margins of "The Ten Oxherding Pictures"

Our life began due to the immeasurable circumstances and coincidences. Our body and mind, shaped by a long chain of past lives, accumulated all those circumstances and coincidences, and acquired the love, body, and mind of our parents. We became human beings, bearing a vast amount of precious information and functions shaped by evolution. That is the root of our soul, our mind, our self-awareness. There lies the exact proof of being a human being, but at the same time, this "self-knowing" is also the beginning of bon-nō, the cause of toraware. We create bon-nō by ourselves, and as a result, we experience chaos, conflicts, we suffer and go around in unnecessary circles. All phenomena, including all the wrongdoings and troubles, begin in the mind. In order to end suffering and obtain peace, we must do something with the root of it all, our minds. However, using common measures is ineffective. How fortunate we are that Shakyamuni-butsu (the Buddha) was born into this world! It was approximately 2600 years ago. Without sparing his body, he sat in meditation for six years and opened the gate to nirvana for us. We are lucky that the generations of the Buddhist masters brought us the Buddha's teachings through the work like "Shōbōgenzō" and others. Acquiring this Law (or the Path, or the Teaching) made it possible for us to get liberated from bon-nō and the four kinds of suffering (birth, old age, disease, and death). Read more