Zen & Health: Wholly Wholesome Way World

By Hajime Iwamoto Yoshida

This book tells the true significance, necessity, merits, and possibility of the practice of Zen, Awakened Way, and the wholly wholesome way in everyones all daily activities and throughout ones whole life in a new, original perspective and prognosis of them. Zazen, sitting meditation, stops all karmas (physical, verbal, mental actions and action results, which became our psycho-physical beings and behaviors), thus witnesses primordial purity, peace and prognosis. Zen is the core practice (cultivation/verification) of the Awakened Way (Buddhism), realizing unconditioned peace (nirvana) and unsurpassed awakening (anuttara sambodhi) into existence and wakeful life by them in the wholly wholesome way and world. From this vantage point it pervades and penetrates through all actions in harmonious, healthy, happy breathing, body-mouth-mind bearing, cooking, eating, executing errands, cultivating capacities, sporting in skills, etc. Anyone can come and see the detailed description of how Zen is applied and appreciated in breathing, calming and clearing minds and hearts, cooking, eating, sporting, doing duties, transforming the life ways and world in this book.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Nov 14, 2013
• ISBN: 9781483643830

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Copyright © 2013 by Hajime Iwamoto, Rosan Osamu Yoshida.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Rev. date: 09/29/2014

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Contents

Introduction

Chapter I

Zen, Ultimate Objective

Realizing the Wholly Wholesome Way World

Chapter II

Zen, Breathing, Behavior

Hakuin’s Naikan no Hihō & Nanso no Hō

Chapter III

Zen, Cooking, Eating

Dogen’s Tenzo-kyōkun & Fushukuhanpō

Chapter IV

Zen, Sports, Cultivation

The Effects of Zen on Sports and Mental and Physical Medicine

Introduction

This book explains Zen with respect to health: how Zen improves health and makes it truly wholly wholesome. The volume is comprised of four chapters on 1) Zen, Awakened Way, 2) breathing, behavior (psychosomatic ordering), 3) cooking, eating, and 4) sport, cultivation (in full free function).

Chapters include one by Dr. Yoshida on the Awakened Way, Zen, and health, explaining their significance. The succeeding chapters by Prof. Iwamoto deal with breathing, behaviors, cooking and eating, and sport with cultivation (sporting in the original meaning of sport—free full function).

The book reveals the true revolution of the Awakened Way, the concrete life of the awakened one as the true self, functioning freely and fully in a holy (wholly wholesome), harmonious, healthy, and happy life through breathing, eating, acting, and associating with all as true friends in the ultimate truth.

Zen is the fundamental core practice of Buddhism, the Awakened Way, which is to live awakened from our delusion driven by karma (action/habits/heredity). By stopping karma (psycho-physical habits), one can become awakened, witnessing unconditioned peace (nirvana) and unsurpassed awakening (bodhi).

Karma has created all psycho-physical forms and functions, directing them to self-survival instincts and habits, separated from the wholly wholesome world and way—fundamentally with the triple poisons of delusion (of self, like foam), desire, and divisiveness from the universal truth (like an ocean).

Zazen (sitting Zen) enables one to stop all karmas, past and present, psycho-physical conditions, and to settle in wholly wholesome, primordial purity, peace, and prognosis, in full function with all beings in space and time, according to the true nature of limitless life, like an ocean beyond bubbles.

Zazen practice enhances perceptions and prognoses. It makes one ready to put a dirty kitchen waste basket into bleach water and find it completely cleaned and purified after a few days, finding the universal truth there that anyone can become the same—accumulated karma dirt completely cleaned and purified—and do the same—easily act and understand the universal truth penetrating all.

Zazen practice renews and reorients our actions (breathing, eating, seeing, speaking, etc.) into an awakened way in the actual, concrete world, not only intellectually, but existentially. It makes one as awakened ones (buddhas), living every day harmoniously, healthily, and happily with all (: wholly).

Zen life is cultivation of karmas and verification of dharmas (true norm/form: law/phenomena) returning from selfish karmas to selfless dharmas. Without it, we cannot return to holy harmony, health, and happiness, and enjoy them, and we must remain in delusive division, disease, and dissatisfaction

(: suffering, duk-kha).

Zen life enables the wholly wholesome way (holy health), regaining true limitless liberation, light, love, and learning, revealing them in actual daily life as we deal with our psycho-physical functions of eating, dressing, dwelling, sitting, standing, doing any actions in awakened manners and modes, making every day a good day.

Ordering body, breath, and mind (into free full function) is important. Proper posture is important for breathing. Breathing is the vital force to control (order) uncontrolled (disordered) functions such as blood pressure, heart rate, nerves’ function, etc. Deep long breathing makes the mind calm and clear and the whole system in free and full function.

Nanso no hō (method of soft curd melting down through the whole body from the crown to the tips of toes) is a good way to concentrate on and communicate with all parts of the body in sequence and serenity, curing diseases, bringing back the body and mind together in holy harmony, health, and happiness.

Maintaining the best posture, breathing, and mind is essential in behaving in free full function in health and harmony with the whole world in our daily life. This is done through daily Zazen, controlling oneself, other situations, constantly taking the path of practice—the way cycle of aspiration, action, awakening, and unconditioned peace.

The Tenzo-kyōkun (Lesson for Monastery Cook) is Dogen’s advice to the head cook monk—the role of a well-trained monk to cook and serve food and to cultivate the three minds of great mind, mature mind, and joyful mind—the Buddha mind, which Dogen’s teacher Juchin called the "soft tender mind (nyū-nan-shin: 32548.png )."

The Fushukuhanpō (The Way to Fare for Porridge and Cooked Rice) is Dogen’s rule of how to reflect on, receive, respect, and repay for meals: the mindful manners to take them. The attitude toward food (life, life system and style, labor) presents important lessons and life ways for people today and into the future. Sharing and saving have been practiced among practicing and participating people.

Realizing the awakened way beginning with eating, clothing, dwelling, dealing with all daily activities is essential in Zen, Awakened Way, and any religious paths aiming at transforming our life from a selfish, sinful (=separated) way to a holy (wholly wholesome), harmonious way and world with and for all.

Practicing paths (ways) is the essential and universal way of cultivation and verification (religions, arts, sciences, sports, etc.). All paths (ways,—dō, 32546.png ) in Japan—for example gakudō (learning ways), geidō (art paths), and budō (martial arts)—were influenced by and modeled on Zen training (cultivation), not simple hobbies, games or sports.

Perfecting paths (ways) in Japanese culture is to perfect life in holy harmony, health, and the happiness of all through practice (controlling and conquering the self in harmony, respect, serenity, and equanimity in universal truth and peace with and for all, as in tea way), as only practice makes possible, and perfect.

Traditional Japanese sports (jūdō, aikidō, kendō, kyūdō) are to cultivate one’s body and mind in order to perfect one’s arts and life. This sense is inherited in other sports, such as baseball (students or professionals). This point is unique and different from competitive and commercialized modern sports.

We hope this book, comprising these four chapters and introducing the above mentioned truth, significance, and meaning to our life, will enable our readers to taste the essence of the awakened