A tiger on the mountain

Hello again,

A number of us have been providing short comments following morning online zazen hosted by the Missouri Zen Center. Those comments are collected at the Missouri Zen Center Mitras site on YouTube, and written versions appear on MZC Here-Now and Dr. Yoshida's Buddhism site (the latter in English and Japanese). I shared a favorite phrase from the Fukanzazengi in one of these comments and have included the text below.

Anyone is welcome to join our morning zazen using this link and password:

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/86356252376?pwd=8gEIhj4NEGjZguweDAUGDZvpclaxVv.1

Meeting ID: 863 5625 2376
Passcode: gassho

--Erin

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You are like a tiger reclining on the mountain

A while back, I read a couple of writings by Dogen Zenji -- the Fukanzazengi, and a section of Bendowa that describes jijuyuu zanmai. They're good texts to read from time to time because they provide a kind of orientation to zazen.

The reference to the tiger comes from a passage in the Fukanzazengi:

What is here called zazen is not learning mere meditation. It is the Dharma gate of pure peace and bliss. It is the cultivation and verification of ultimate awakening. Here the universal truth is realized, and nets and cages are totally absent.

If you realize this tenet completely, you are like a dragon obtaining water and a tiger reclining on the mountain.

Of course, we're human. We cultivate our humanity through the three learnings of sila (ethical conduct, precepts), samadhi (meditative concentration), and prajna (wisdom, what Dr. Yoshida calls prognosis). And when we sit in zazen, all those things are there exactly because we are like a tiger reclining on the mountain.