SO TO ZEN - Shasta Abbey

12 Sōtō Zenenlightenment. The Buddha is held to be a man who awakenedenlightenment in himself and who also awakened it in others.His personality is characterized by Perfect Compassion andPerfect Wisdom; because of Wisdom, he achieves enlightenmentfor himself; because of Compassion, he endeavors toenlighten others. The main object of religion is to enable us tounderstand ourselves. Reflection upon the realities of life isthe fastest and shortest way to find ourselves. Socrates says,ÒKnow thyself,Ó and D‡gen teaches, ÒWhen one studiesBuddhism, one studies oneself; when one studies oneself, oneforgets oneself; when one forgets oneself one is enlightened byeverything and this very enlightenment breaks the bonds ofclinging to both body and mind not only for oneself but for allbeings as well.Ó [Zen is Eternal Life, 1999, p. 206.] Selfreflectionon reality is the starting point of philosophy and is thebasic condition of religion. We are standing at a point which intersectstwo lines: one of time and one of place. Our point on thetime line is ÒnowÓ and on the place line, Òhere.Ó This is reality.Reality means we are born here, work here, and die here. It is,so to speak, the actual place of our life. Buddhism describes thevertical, i.e., time, aspect of reality with the oft-quoted phrase,ÒAll things are impermanent,Ó which means that all phenomenaare in a continuous state of flux. According to this law, allmatter, which we may be tempted to regard from a commonsense point of view as having a permanent, fixed existence, is