SO TO ZEN - Shasta Abbey

The True Spirit of the Two Ancestors 61involved in formal seated meditation is enlightenment. But aslong as one plays with mental discriminations of good and bad,right and wrong, as intellectual ideas, it will be impossible tofind the True Way of the Buddha. D‡gen said, ÒAttainment ofthe Way can only be achieved with oneÕs body.Ó The formalseated meditation is the attainment of Buddhahood through ourbody. It is life and vitality itself. It is commonly said thatenlightenment is the ideal of serene reflection meditation, andthat serene reflection meditation is the means for the attainmentof that ideal. But, as explained before, meditation can never beconsidered merely a means to an end.D‡gen rejects the duality of enlightenment and thereligious training of meditation, writing in ÒBend‡waÓ (a chapterof the Sh‡b‡genz‡): ÒIt is heretical to believe that trainingand enlightenment are separable for, in Buddhism, the two areone and the same. Since training embraces enlightenment, thevery beginning of training contains the whole of originalenlightenment; as this is so, the teacher tells his disciples neverto search for enlightenment outside of training since the lattermirrors enlightenment.Ó [Quoted from Zen is Eternal Life,1999 edition, p. 186.] Just-sitting meditation based on faith isthe fullest form of true enlightenment. The world of religion isabsolute in that it rejects the categories of means and end, for itis its own end. Today is not something for tomorrow, butremains absolute as today. Therefore, Great Master D‡gen