SO TO ZEN - Shasta Abbey

The Basic Thought of Buddhism 15to live. We can only live peacefully so long as this is true. Wemust concretely express our gratitude for the great favors of theBuddha and Ancestors who made clear the way for us to understandourselves. Shinran Shonin declared, ÒWe must recompensethe Tathagata (Buddha) for his great compassion nomatter how great the sacrifice. We must recompense our teacherfor the knowledge he has bestowed upon us no matter how greatthe effort.Ó An understanding of engi (the law that all thingsarise from cause) will awaken within us a deep sense ofgratitude toward the world and will lead us to the practice ofrita-gy‡, literally, Òbenefiting others,Ó for it will enable us to seeto what extent we enjoy the benefits of others.The point mentioned above where time and space intersectis where our Real Self is. In the West our self is affirmed as it is.There is no denying its naturalness or sense of instinct. However,in the Orient we do not accept ourselves in our presentform. We idealize the natural and try to purify our instincts.Buddhism teaches that there is no ego or unchanging soul. Asnothing has a permanent existence, there is no sense in clingingto things. Common sense seems to indicate that matter reallyexists. However, this is misleading. The tying together andfunctioning of our sense faculties lead us to believe that there isa soul. However, there is no soul apart from the body. To negateourselves and grasp the real nature of things is nothing otherthan the scientific spirit. M. Planck, the founder of the quantum