Last week Roshi discussed the Paramita of Dana.  However, he neglected to mention the obligation of Dana which a teacher has for his students.  At the most basic level, a teacher needs to provide the material goods which are necessary for practice.  For instance, this could include creating a suitable environment for Zazen.

However, this material level is just the beginning. At a higher level, the teacher must share the Dharma.  What does this actually mean?  For Tesshin Roshi, it means being available when someone asks for the teaching.  This obligation of “being available” is how Yorktown Zen actually started years ago.  Roshi was engaged in his “day job” as a corporate trainer.  However, it was clear during the training that the Dharma was pouring out of every one of his pores.  It is important to note that Roshi has a busy secular life with a training business and a large family.  It was clear that he was a master, but he could have turned away when asked about his Buddhist background.  However, he did not!  He did not because a master is obligated to share the Dharma.  This sharing is what has become Yorktown Zen.

Beyond sharing the Dharma, there is a higher level of Dana which a teacher is also obligated to share.  This is the Dana of “Fearlessness.”  For students to become truly free, a teacher must install this – and it is one of the most challenging things they have to do.  Here, Roshi stopped and noted that he has fulfilled the first two obligations, but has not really done as much as he would like on this third, and highest level.  As such, this month we will focus on fear and how its transcendence is vital for full realization.  The first topic Roshi covered is the difference between fearlessness and recklessness.  We need to be brave in the face of reality, but this does not mean to be unthinking.  A good metaphor here may be being brave enough to jump out of a plane.  However, it would be stupid and reckless not to thoroughly check and recheck your parachute equipment before the jump.  Wisdom is knowing the difference between bravery and stupidity!

So, what is fearlessness in the Buddhist context.  Roshi read a passage from Dogen’s Zenki …

“The Great Path of the Buddhas, in its consummation, is passage to freedom, is actualization. That passage to freedom, in one sense, is that life passes through life to freedom, and death too passes through death to freedom. Therefore, there is leaving life and death, there is entering life and death; both are the Great Path of consummation. There is abandoning life and death, there is crossing over life and death; both are the Great Path of consummation.”

Roshi stopped and asked us to consider why there is such a heavy reference to death in Dogen’s passage.  We are hardwired to fear anything about death because we are designed to preserve ourselves.  This is completely normal and natural.  The problem is the ego-mind extends this preservation to any threat.  Suddenly any failure is a type of death and thus the ego brings the whole existential reaction of death to the most minor perceived risk.  We spend our whole life running away from “death” and trying to be safe.  Yes, we may achieve some degree of safety, but at the huge cost of living in constant fear.    In this way we become totally blocked and in terror of making any mistake which could injure our delicate ego.

How can this fear be overcome?  Dogen tells us very clearly.  In life there is death and in death there is life.  This is the core of the “Mu” we chase after.  If we separate everything out then there is a life which we spend all our energy protecting from any harm.  It is not just physical harms, but also financial, interpersonal, professional harms.   So many blockers holding us back from being truly authentic and alive.  Dogen is telling us that any avoidance is fear.  Any time we take the “easy way out” and not face our fears, we are adding another brick to the prisons we build for ourselves.

Here Roshi related one of his master’s favorite stories.  In this story a samurai warrior comes to town and finds a well-respected Zen master.  The samurai believes he is much braver and more powerful than a simple monk.   He publicly challenges the monk to a dual.  Surprisingly, the Zen master agrees.  How can this be – the master does not even possess a weapon and has taken Bodhisattva vows not to harm any being!  The next day the two meet and the Zen master sits down in Zazen in front of the samurai.  The warrior draws his sword but at the last second decides not to strike – why?  It is because he had a realization.  The master had true fearlessness whereas the warrior only had bluster and bravado.  The master understood the interrelatedness of life and death and thus had no fear.  Sure, the samurai could be brave in the heat of battle, but could he really be brave in the quiet face to face challenge posed by the monk?  The story concludes with the samurai shaving his head and taking up the robes.

Roshi wrapped up by returning to Dogen’s statement that any avoidance is fear.  This fear manifests itself when we don’t fully commit to something.  It could be in a relationship when we don’t commit to a person, but hold back fearing that the other person will reject us.  It is the avoidance of taking a stand at work in the fear that you may be proven wrong and embarrassed.  It is in the million little decisions we take to protect our ego from any harm or “micro-death.”  Practice makes us come face to face with this fear.  Roshi asked us to explore what we really afraid of and why during practice.  We should explore what is stopping us from “going all in” on our life.