Study Yourself

To have some deep feeling about Buddhism is not the point; we just do what we should do, like eating supper and going to bed. This is Buddhism.

The purpose of studying Buddhism is not to study Buddhism, but to study ourselves. It is impossible to study ourselves without some teaching.

Through the teaching we may understand our human nature. But the teaching is not we ourselves; it is some explanation of ourselves. So if you are attached to the teaching, or to the teacher, that is a big mistake. The moment you meet a teacher, you should leave the teacher, and you should be independent. You need a teacher so that you can become independent.

(Rinzai) Sometimes he talked about the disciple himself; sometimes he talked about the teaching itself; sometimes he gave an interpretation of the disciple or the teaching; and finally, sometimes he did not give any instruction at all to his disciples.

When he is not aware of it, he has everything, but when he becomes aware of it he thinks that what he is aware of is himself, which is a big mistake.

But we should remember that the purpose of practice in a particular place is to study ourselves. To be independent, we study.

It is the people who are outside of the monastery who feel its atmosphere. Those who are practicing actually do not feel anything.

Dogen-zenji said, "To study Buddhism is to study ourselves. To study ourselves is to forget ourselves."

The purpose of our practice is to be aware of this fact.