Question



Good morning! I am not especially interested by money or power on the other people; I have no political vocation - anyway, money is in process to win; I know that I will die one day - tomorrow or later, and I try to love the ones I love without succeeding in it the way I would like to (well, a bit like everybody I guess). If I tell you all that, it is because I see all the people who jump completely into action, in the professional world for example, it is always for their own personal interest or the one of their family (ok, everybody has to eat), or that it is that they pretend help the others because they know what is good for them. I find that it creates essentially a lot of damage and personally I do not find simple to see the consequences of actions. Then, I would like to know what is action for zen ? Is it "to do good" like for the Catholics ? What would it be, the action in a zen society ? When I see what happens in Tibet still today, at start I thought I was understanding the Dalai-Lama's action, I was considering it close to the one of Gandhi, that happened fairly ok, and now, there are still many deaths in Tibet and nobody gives a damn because they have interests in China, so should we not go for something else ? What is the good action for zen ?
Pierre_75020









Answer from Master Kosen

The essence of zen teaching through action is expressed by the word "Mushotoku". If you realize "Mushotoku", you posses the satori, you are a Buddha, you are free, you are just, natural, you are not dualistic. Mushotoku is a word which does not exist except in the zen language; it cannot be translated in any language not even in Japanese or Chinese and even if we would translate it and it would be in dictionaries, you could not understand it. Even my disciples, after ten years of practice, still do not understand it. Sometimes, we understand it at the very moment of our death but then it is too late. The only valid attitude is "Mushotoku".



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