Relaxing the Frontal Lobe

The Light That Shines Through Infinity: Zen and the Energy of Life by Dainin Katagiri.  Shambhala.  229 pp.  $16.95.

I’ve always thought of Dainin Katagiri as a difficult Zen teacher, partly because I read Returning to Silence when I was new to Zen and found it confounding.  He was a rough contemporary of Shunryu Suzuki, and taught with him at the San Francisco Zen Center, but I found Suzuki much more accessible, so I didn’t initially read Katagiri’s posthumous works, You Have to Say Something (one of the all-time uninspiring titles) or Each Moment Is the Universe, a series of lectures on one of Dogen’s most difficult fascicles[1].

But something compelled me to pick up this book—with its much better title—and I discovered a whole new Katagiri, one who was deeply inspiring and not difficult at all.  Take, for instance, a couple of passages from the first chapter, which sets the tone for the whole book.[2]

“Shakyamuni Buddha taught that a magnificent event is unfolding in every aspect of everyday life.  Vivid, living energy is constantly at work, creating and supporting your life.  It is just like a fire that is eternal and boundless.  Whoever you are, your life is very precious because the original energy of life is working in your life.

“Buddhism uses the technical term dharma to describe the functioning of this great original energy.  But no matter how long we try to explain dharma, we always fail because it is completely beyond words.  Still, even though you cannot explain dharma, it is alive in you, so you can use it to take care of your life.  To take care of your life is to burn the flame of your life in everything you do. . . .

“We study and practice Buddhist teachings in order to go deep into our own life.  There you discover your original place, the place where all beings live together in peace before we exist as individual beings.  From that place you can join the flow of life, living in harmony with all beings and walking hand in hand.  This is the guideline for Buddhist study and practice.”

I can’t remember when I’ve read a passage that so exactly conformed to my experience of Buddhist practice (which has been a vital part of my life for 27 years.  Maybe at an earlier point these words wouldn’t have registered at all).  I had always heard the word dharma explained either as the ultimate reality of life, or the Buddha’s teaching, but never as “the functioning of this great original energy.”  I thought of the dharma as the knotty teachings I couldn’t get my head around.  I hadn’t related it to my experience of zazen.

I was in Arizona when I first read these words, accompanying my wife while she did a training with some Christian ministers, and I especially noticed the way Katagiri cut across religious distinctions.  “But whatever practice you do—Buddhist practice, Christian practice, or nonreligious practice—when you become aware of the magnificent energy of being arising in your body and mind, you feel fully alive.  You are boundless and broad, compassionate and kind.  This is the guideline for living as a human being.”

The guideline for living as a human being.  There it is.

I was so inspired by the first chapter that, like a moron[3], I kept reading it over and over, not bothering with the rest of the book.  I dipped into later passages from time to time, but kept retreating to that first chapter.  Finally, this year—some fifteen months after my original encounter—I went through and finished it, and though I found some places where Katagiri got difficult, he kept coming back to these early subjects, the energy that runs through life, the light that shines through infinity, the truth of Buddhism that cannot be expressed in words.  I am at a point where I’m getting tired of words, the idea that I’ll ever discover the truth through reading[4], but I’m more and more devoted to sitting, and to writing that inspires it.  This book is at the top of that list for me.

I’m also at a time when the distinctions among religions seem petty and ridiculous when compared to this light they all point to.  One of the ministers at that Arizona conference wrote a book about his spiritual journey, and here’s what he said about his own awakening, at the age of ten: “God doesn’t live in one specific place, nor is God constrained by the religious traditions we perform to experience closeness with God.  God is the Energy that flows through us and every living thing.”[5]  And here is Katagiri talking about a teaching by Vimalakirti, who when asked where he came from replied, “I come from a bodhimandala (a holy site).

“The answer that Vimalakirti gave is just like the answer given by Jesus Christ in the Bible (John 8:12).  Jesus spoke to the Pharisees, saying, ‘I am the light of the world.  He who follows me will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life.’  The Pharisees said, ‘You are bearing witness to yourself.  Your testimony is not true.  So Jesus answered, ‘Even if I do bear witness to myself, my testimony is true, for I know where I have come from and where I am going.’  The Pharisees asked, ‘Where do you come from?’  Jesus answered, ‘I come from the Father.’  Then they asked, ‘Where is your father?’[6]  Jesus said, ‘If you knew me you would know my father also.’

“Jesus Christ doesn’t explain who his father is, what God is, what paradise is.  Actually, it’s not necessary to explain.  No matter how long you try to explain, your explanation is still only an idea, so it doesn’t hit the mark.  The point is you should understand Jesus Christ who is in front of you right here, right now.  This is a very good teaching.  Jesus Christ knows where he comes from.  Whatever religion you study, this is the first important point you have to seek.”

When I first read this book, I got in touch with editor Andrea Martin and told her how much different it seemed from my memories of Returning to Silence.  She told me that Katagiri’s editors in the old days were cowed at the thought of editing a Zen master, so they didn’t make changes in his work.  He was unhappy with the result, and told her to edit as she saw fit.  I do find the two books that she has done to be his most accessible—this one and Everything Is the Universe, which I have now read—and appreciate her continuing the work of her teacher, who died almost thirty years ago.  Martin also looks after the Katagiri project at the Minneapolis Zen Center, and has written an interesting brief biographical sketch.[7]

People often say, when reviewing a book, this isn’t the place to start.  But with Katagiri, this is the place.  The heart of his work is here.

[1] On that subject I would now recommend Being Time by Shinshu Roberts, a book that opens up Dogen.

[2] It’s a little lazy for a reviewer to quote so extensively, but I don’t know a better way to get my point across.  Katagiri’s words are far more eloquent than mine.

[3] I was following the advice of Song of the Jewel Mirror Samadhi: “Practice secretly, working within as though a fool, like an idiot.”

[4] I don’t mean I’m tired of reading.  It’s still a major part of my life, and I spend some of my happiest hours of the day reading literature, also reading Buddhism.  But I don’t expect to find the truth that way.  The truth comes out of our lives.

[5] I Know What Heaven Looks Like by Lawrence T. Richardson..  By some odd coincidence, Richardson hails from Minneapolis, where Katagirl taught for years.

[6] The Pharisees really did sound moronic at times.

[7] Take a look.  http://mnzencenter.org/katagiri/