Opening the fourth precept on illusory words with reflection on the dreamlike nature of life
What is unreal and what is real is a very big subject for all of us. The life we live feels fantastic, but it feels like a continuous dream. Our experiences of the past twenty years, forty years, even seventy years, where are they?
Warning that religion itself can intoxicate
Even a so-called religious way can be the wine of delusion. Many times we call on spiritual subjects in order to polish ourselves, but these can have the same kind of effect as wine.
Defining great wisdom through appreciation, distinguishing real religion from intoxication
Great wisdom is something which makes you want to deeply appreciate yourself and others. If practice causes that deep appreciation and respect, there is peace and satisfaction. That is what real religion does.
Seventh precept: no praise or blame as the level scale of Buddha mind
Like a scale, always the mind acts to put yourself high and others low. In Buddha mind there is no such activity. The scale is always level. There are no others. There is no self.
Dogen's expression of the non-duality underlying no praise/blame
Dogen Zenji said there is no being proud of yourself and devaluing others, because there are no such others to devalue. When you devalue others, you are scratching at your body. When you are proud of yourself, you are scratching at the air.
Dogen on the no-hoarding precept
Dogen Zenji's words on the Eighth Precept were: "One phrase, one force, myriad phenomena. One Truth, one confirmation, All Buddha, All Patriarch. It has never been hoarded at all."
Dogen's hand metaphor for possession and freedom
Dogen Zenji said, "When you open your hand, everything is in your hand. When you close your hand, the air is very limited."
Everything as teaching, nothing to hoard
Every minute, every second, we are unfolding teachings, and all materials are the dynamics of life. So there is nothing to hoard, nothing to not show to people, nothing to keep apart from the whole, calling it your own.
Anger as communication of suffering within the ninth precept
When someone gets very angry with you, his suffering is deeply concerned with you. He is letting you know how he exists. When he sees that you understand him, this anger disappears.
Anger does not negate Buddha nature
If you become angry, you don't stop being Buddha. Anger appears, that's all. At that time you don't say to yourself that you shouldn't be getting angry. When you get close to fire, you don't say, "It should be cold!"
The preciousness of human life as radiant existence
To be here as a human being is a natural arrangement. But how rare it is. It is a miraculously rare thing, so we have utmost respect and care for our own life. For we are radiant life.