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THREE AIMS OF ZAZEN I 47sense of the word. It is a dynamic power which, once mobilized,enables us even in the most sudden and unexpected situations to actinstantly, without pausing to collect our wits, and in a mannerwholly appropriate to the circumstances. One who has developedjoriki is no longer a slave to his passions, neither is he at the mercy ofhis environment. Always in command of both himself and the circumstancesof his life, he is able to move with perfect freedom andequanimity. The cultivation of certain supranormal powers is alsomade possible by joriki, as is the state in which the mind becomes likeperfectly still water.The first two of the five kinds of Zen I have spoken about dependentirely on joriki, as does the state of mushinjo in shojo Zen-the stateof blankness in which the conscious fWlctioning of the mind has beenstopped. Now, although the power ofjoriki can be endlessly enlargedthrough regular practice, it will recede and eventually vanish if weneglect zazen. And while it is true that many extraordinary powersflow from joriki, nevertheless through it alone we cannot cut the rootsof our illusory view of the world. Mere strength of concentrationis not enough for the highest types of Zen; concomitantly theremust be satori-awakening. In a little-known document handed downby the Patriarch Sekito Kisen, the founder of one of the early Zensects, the following appears: "In our sect, realization of the Buddha-nature,and not mere devotion or strength of concentration, isparamount.''The second of these aims is kensho-godo, seeing into your Truenatureand at the same time seeing into the ultimate nature of theuniverse and "all the ten thousand things" in it. It is the sudden realizationthat "I have been complete and perfect from the very beginning.How wonderful, how miraculous !" If it is true kensho, its substancewill always be the same fo r whoever experiences it, whether he bethe Buddha Shakyamuni, the Buddha Amida, or any one of yougathered in this temple. But this does not mean that we can all experiencekensho to the same degree, for in the clarity, the depth, andthe completeness of the experience there are great differences. As anillustration, imagine a person blind from birth who very graduallybegins to recover his sight. At first he can only see very vaguely anddarkly and only objects close to him. Then as his sight improves he isable to distinguish things a yard or so away, then objects at ten yards,