Lecture 8:
There Is No Other Time But Now
There are lots of ego tricks. When can most recognize them?
In the passing of daily life you get into the ego tricks and it’s only later when you reflect that you really start to realize, right? But the clearest time to recognize ego tricks is when you sit down to meditate or practice Nembutsu Samadhi. It's simple right? For example in Ki Breathing Meditation, bring up the vow and visualization of wishing the best for all beings. If it’s Nembutsu, put up the vow and visualization of Buddha and constantly, constantly increase the heart.
In one moment you can do, maybe the next moment too, but then in some moment you get hooked by ego and start thinking other things. This is very clear right? This is the time you can most realize the ego trick happening. This is the time you are hooked by the ego tricks and your ego starts playing with you. There is no other time when you can see so clearly. In daily life you have so many other things to do that it’s only later if you reflect that you can realize.
Sometimes though, even doing Nembutsu or meditation, you start thinking other things but you don't realize that it is an ego trick. But actually when you lose it your heart is hooked by the ego. This is the reality. Which means on the other hand, if you can really increase the heart in your meditation ? the vow and visualization of the Buddha - then you can really find relief from the ego tricks and keep constantly increasing the heart. You don't get the opportunity in quite the same way in daily life to experience the ego tricks. That's why we call this practice, right? Not just sitting, observing your breathing and spending one hour, this is not really practice.
It is really how the heart is concentrated, how it is constantly increasing that is practice. And if you can keep, lets say one hour and then do this 70 times, so that’s like 70 hours, if you can keep this state, your subconscious really, totally changes. Can you even imagine that?
Then a new stage will come. Before this it always goes like; be in the vow and out, be in the vow and out. This cycle of going in and out creates the illusion that some day you will be in this state. Some day, but not now. It puts up the illusion of "some day." This is just an excuse for yourself, an excuse for yourself not to put in the effort moment to moment. Until you really cross over this first wall - pass over this ego barrier - it is really hard. The first wall is really hard.
In Nembutsu chanting we have Twelve Light of Buddha vows. In the tenth we have the word Nanshiko. Na- means difficult. Shi- is thought or thinking. It seems that this word is really difficult. It’s difficult to imagine what exists after passing through the ego world and how the reality of the unification world really is.
So there are two aspects to the explanation here: one aspect is that it seems so difficult because it is expressed as such in the word. The other aspect is that it’s difficult to imagine what the world of unification is like, just what the experience of it really is. So there is just the moment-by-moment increasing of the state.
In addition, after Nanshiko there is Mushoko. Musho is that which cannot be described, really the unification state that can't be described. So we can't explain it by words. Next is Chonichigako, which has two aspects. Cho- is beyond or over. Nichi- is sun and moon. One aspect of the explanation is that it is much brighter than the sun, much brighter than the moon. This is very symbolic. The other aspect is the real meaning that is, all the time, anytime, anywhere, you are in this state. After hitting the wall, break through the wall of your ego and experience the reality of this unexplained state. Be in this state at any time, anywhere, not just during sitting and practice. Any time, anywhere, you are in this state. This is the state of Chonichigako.
Many different aspects of the whole picture of Nembutsu Samadhi are explained by the Twelve Lights.
After relieving from the illusion of putting up that some day in the future it might be, and really practising from moment to moment in trying to increase the state, the point of view becomes different. Doesn't it remind us, this "some day," of what Karl Marx said when criticising religion? "Religion is the opium of the people". It gives us an illusion: after dying you will go to heaven. Do you understand what I mean?
If it is a superficial understanding then it is in the future, put up in the future. But the real meaning is that it is inside you now. For example, in the Bible Jesus Christ said: "Don't look for heaven here and there, heaven is in your heart." But to try to discover the heaven in your heart is tough work, tough practice, so we put it off into the future.
This artificial understanding also happens in Pure Land Buddhism. So don't drop into this. In every moment see how it changes? In this moment all past, present and future is included. This is really one of the essences of Tantric Buddhism right? Not only just the space aspect - "one part include the whole" ? but the Time aspect too ? "one moment includes all past, present and future." Because we have illus ional ego it makes us understand time as we do now.
Time is the way the spirit goes, which is to the center of the universe. This is really what time is. Especially since the industrial revolution time has became very much concrete e.g. 8:15am - leaving the house to go to the office (laugh) or factory (laugh). Earlier in human history the concept of time was completely different from the straight line of today. It was always back and forth. Like the symbol in Okinawa's graveyards, where the form of the grave is called “utless” - death returns to birth.
More and more, as in the philosophical development of Mahayana Buddhism, the concept of time will change to reflect that in this moment all dimensions are included. Just as in Tao Shiatsu where the understanding is that the tsubo includes many tsubo, which in turn include many tsubo, smaller and smaller into infinity. Time is also like this, in one moment infinitively going smaller and smaller and smaller from moment to moment to moment. Everything is going inside, inside, inside, smaller, smaller, smaller, and infinitely into the center. And the center is the whole of nature, the whole of Buddha nature. This is the center. So don't cut the time, don't waste time. Time is our life, it's our life and this is universal life that we are sharing.
So this artificial interpretation of religion, of life and death, which postpones to the future (which Pure Land also drops into) affects our opportunity to really practice Tao Shiatsu: "Now I can't, but in the future maybe I can do the Tao Shiatsu method". No ? don’t fall into this trap! We just do now and go deeper and deeper. Now we start and now we go deeper and deeper.
Remember what Marx said, or as Tantric Buddhism states, or the teaching of Mahayana Buddhism which is: "Don’t believe that you practice many lives to become a Buddha. No, this moment is really the chance, this moment is really alive, is living, there is no other time."
So we practice in this way OK!