Zen & Karma: Teachings of Roshi Taisen Deshimaru

by Roshi Taisen Deshimaru

Overview

Taisen Deshimaru (1914-1982) was a Japanese Zen Master, and the individual largely responsible for bringing Soto Zen to Europe. A legendary figure, widely acknowledged throughout the Zen world, he stands in the ranks of the great Zen teachers of modern times, including, Suzuki Roshi, Maezumi Roshi, and others. This second edition of his book The Voice of the Valley, first issued in 1979, contains the pure Deshimaru vintage-teaching. Uniquely, it is one of the few Zen books treating the subject of karma, a principle deeply entrenched in Hindu and some Buddhist traditions, but rarely taught within Zen. Karma generally refers to the principle of cause and effect, acknowledging that each individual will “reap what they sow,” whether in this lifetime or some future life. Deshimaru, however, explains that this doctrine really has nothing to do with a simple good or bad balance-chart for the individual person, but rather concerns the activity of humanity as a whole. He highlights the necessity for clearly seeing one’s own thinking, which is creating the hell that we and others endure?an immediate karmic payback. With zazen, a practitioner becomes not only acquainted with the contents of mind, but able to refocus it, allowing the body to “think” in ways that are beneficial to oneself and others. As he compares this doctrine of karma within Mahayana Buddhism with Western philosophy, he points to the need for wise and ethical action in all aspects of life. His dedication, like that of great masters in all traditions, is with the relief of suffering and the clarity needed to pierce to the cause of suffering. Serious sitting practice, in the way he presents it, creates that access. The book is a live record of the Master’s teaching content (kusens) and his style of presentation during a practice sesshin (retreat) of several days. Deshimaru spoke in English, and his words were recorded and compiled from notes taken by the editor (Coupey) and other students. His subjects are as timely today as they were in the late ‘70s. At a time when contemporary Zen practice has been co-opted by the culture of “new and now,” his teachings do not compromise. This is no self-oriented “wellness Zen” cultivated for feeling more relaxed. This is the real deal, a call to a stark, “no-gain” approach to clear perception of reality from one who studied and practiced this tradition fully aligned to its source. As such, this book is a precious vehicle of direct transmission.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781942493211
Publisher:	Hohm Press
Publication date:	06/10/2015
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Taisen Deshimaru Roshi, born in Japan in 1914 of an old Samurai family, was a close disciple of the famous Zen master Kodo Sawaki. He took it as his life's mission to transmit the authentic teaching of Zen Buddhism to the West. Based in Paris since 1967, Taisen Deshimaru taught Zen for 15 years all over Europe. At the time of his death in 1982, he had published 15 books in various languages and gathered a following of many thousands from all over the world, including some of the most sophisticated minds of the West. Taisen Deshimaru never taught clerical ritualized Buddhism.

Philippe Rei Ryu Coupey, born and raised in New York City, is a Soto Zen teacher in the lineage of Kodo Sawaki. He met Master Deshimaru in 1972 and followed him as a close disciple. Having studied literature at the Sorbonne, he worked with Deshimaru on the latter's teaching. Three books came out of this collaboration, including this current volume. Today, after 40 years of Zen practice, Coupey directs a large community of practitioners in Europe, in a lineage directly transmitted from master to disciple. The practice is shikantaza: simply sitting, without goal or profit-seeking mind.

Read an Excerpt

When the macrocosm and the microcosm harmonize within the body, and particularly within the brain, we can obtain the great energy of the macrocosm. At this moment, here in this Dojo, the energy of the macrocosm is entering into the microcosm. Through zazen we can obtain this energy, which is not simply strength–it is the energy of the infinite. This energy of which I speak is a force both spiritual and material. It has the power both of harmony and of destruction. The cosmos in itself includes these two opposite and contradictory forces.
The first sesshin is now beginning, and surely in these next two days you will be capable of obtaining this cosmic power. Especially here in this Dojo, with the beautiful mountains and the sound of the flowing river.
Master Dogen said that the color of the mountain, the sound of the valley—all this, everything—is the voice and the posture of Shakyamuni Buddha.
Sotoba, a famous Bodhisattva and a great writer of old China, got Satori through the Keishei-sanshoku. Kei means the valley, shei is the sound, and sanshoku is the color of the mountain. The sound of the valley is giving a great conference. The color of the mountain is the true, purified body. From midnight to sunrise I hear 84,000 sutra-poems. How can I explain this to others? How can I explain such a religious impression?
Val d'Isere means the river in the valley. A good name for zazen.
About Karma

We must understand that from within the relationship between the fundamental cosmic power and one's personal, subjective existence arises the fundamental source of karma.
Fundamental cosmic power has no beginning and no end. It is beyond time and space. It does not have to do with personal choice, for this power directs man from the outside. Even if we imagine that we are completely free, thanks to our own willpower, this is not so. We can never separate ourselves from the cosmic system. Willpower itself is realized from within this fundamental cosmic power.
We are at times directed by the frontal brain-and this is self-will, self-thinking. At other times we are directed by the fundamental cosmic power. When our will is opposed to the cosmic power, we become attached to our own personal bonnos. At such times our body-action, our body-karma, as well as our personal consciousness, arises, and so we become governed by our personal willpower, by our inner bonnos. In Buddhism this js called Mana-consciousness.