2025
You have received the rakusu. You stood before Buddha, Dharma and Sangha and said, “I take refuge.”
Now I will say what I did not say at the ceremony. The precepts are not the path. Zazen is the path. Zazen does not need the precepts. Zazen is the precepts. When you truly sit there is no one left to kill, no one left to steal, no one left to intoxicate. Ethics are not the cause of awakening. They are its perfume. Like incense on cloth after the flame has gone out. Do not cling to the smoke.
There is a kind of Zen that teaches the precepts like commandments. Behave well and you are good. Follow the rules and you are safe. That is not what I have given you. I have given you Vow. “Do not kill” does not mean be polite or harmless. It means: Do not turn away. Do not turn away from pain. Do not turn away from your own confusion. Do not turn away from zazen even when it gives you nothing.
The precepts are a mirror. If you break one…..good. You see yourself. If you cling to one…..good. You see yourself. If you let one go…..good. You see yourself. But if you think the precepts are the Way, you have already stepped off it. The Way is vow. Zen is not behaviour management. It is the death of an idea, An idea that the self is real.
So what now? Keep sitting. Let the rakusu sink into your bones. Let silence be your robe. Above all: Do not turn away from your life.