This is the famous advice of the Zen Master Bukko to Hojo Tokimune, the young Japanese shikken or regent to the shogun, effectively the ruler of Japan during the Kamakura Shogunate, in response to the latter’s inquiry on how to deal with fear. The Field Notes offer a means to track what you learn from this practice.
The following is an excerpt from Trevor Leggett, Zen and the Ways. I met Trevor as young judoka. We had tonkatsu at a restaurant near the Kodokan. I didn’t realize at the time that he was a legend.
“Tokimune was Regent of Japan from 1268 to 1284, taking up the absolute power at the age of 18. He was a brilliant youth but troubled with inner fears and anxieties.” Bukko, the great Chinese Zen master came to Japan during this period and Tokimune began training in Zen with him. There is a book attributed to Tokimune called Grass of the Way which gives an account of some of these interviews. The follow is said to be one of them.
Tokimune: “Of all the ills of life, fear is the worst. How can I be free from it?”
Bukko: “You must shut off the place where it comes from.”
Tokimune: “Where does fear come from?”
Bukko: “It comes from Tokimune.”
Tokimune: But Tokimune hates fear so much, how can you say it comes from Tokimune?”
Bukko: “Try and see; abandon Tokimune and come tomorrow; your courage will be as great as the whole world.”
Tokimune: “How do I abandon Tokimune?
Bukko: You must simply cut off all thinking; plunge yourself into meditation ,and wait for the body and mind to become serene.”
Tokimune: My duties in the world leave me so little time what ca.”
Bukko: “Going and sitting, staying and lying, whatever you have to do, that itself is the best place to practice (dojo) training; this is the place to learn profound meditation.”
At the end of this encounter, Bukko gave Tokimune this further advice:
- “Keep your mind set at the field of elixir (in Japanese, hara; Chinese dantian.)”
- “Keep yourself always calm like pure water, don’t be anxious about anything.”
- “Don’t clutch after any outer thing, remain in the state of ‘I am the honored one.’”
- “Don’t labor to check thinking, but neither is thinking to be left unchecked, just see to it that no thought is born.”
- “Always keep a spirit of fierceness and daring.”
- “If your vision is narrow, your courage also will be narrow; always try to keep your thoughts universal.”
Reference:
- Trevor Leggett, Zen and the Ways