The Awakened Way: New Approaches and Applications

By Rosan Osamu Yoshida

This is a book with the author's scholarly research and new interpretation of Buddhism (Awakened Way) to introduce it for everyone so that anyone can attain nirvana with bodhi (awakening) and prajna (prognosis), the goals of the Awakened Way.

Anyone can sit still, still karma (action, habit, heredity), see the Dharma (Norm/Truth) of all dharmas (forms/phenomena) (Law of Interdependent Co-origination, i.e. all phenomena are interdependently co-originated on causes and conditions), serve and save all.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Dec 15, 2022
• ISBN: 9781669811077

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Copyright © 2022 by Rosan Osamu Yoshida.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2022902870

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.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Rev. date: 12/15/2022

Xlibris

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覚道

THE AWAKENED WAY

New Approaches and Applications

Rosan Osamu Yoshida

CONTENTS

Preface

Chapter I The Life Of The Buddha

Chapter II Why Buddhism Now?

1. Why Buddhism Now?

2. What is Buddhism?

3. What is life?

4. What is nirvana?

5. What is Zen?

6. What is karma?

7. What is truth?

8. What is Emptiness (suññatā / śūnyatā)?

9. What is wrong?

10 .What is the matter?

Chapter III Paradigm Shift

A. Introduction

B. Main Thesis

I. Problems

II. Causes

II. Solutions

IV. Methods

C. Conclusion

PREFACE

This book consists of three chapters. The first is the Life of the Buddha, the second, Why Buddhism Now, and the third, Paradigm Shift. These are the history of the founder of the Awakened Way, an understanding of the essence of the Awakened Way, and a proposal for the application and development of the Awakened Way in the present and future.

The first chapter is based on notes I used for a presentation at a church in Scarsdale, New York, in the early 1970s. I had just started my studies at Columbia University on a Fulbright Scholarship, and the church where my host family lived invited me to introduce the Buddha to its members. I added a detailed description of his last journey in my Awakened Way, containing his important teachings, referring to my advisor at Tokyo University, Prof. Hajime Nakamura’s Gotama Buddha, Life of Shakyamuni, etc., in English for the general public.

The second chapter was written to show the necessity of transforming our karma, the root of our current problems, and the necessity of the Awakened Way for a fundamental solution to them. Further, it concretely describes the practice of Zen at this time when the Doomsday Clock has been advanced to 100 seconds before midnight due to nuclear war, global warming, etc. I present the necessity of noticing the fundamental problems of blind people describing an elephant, and I discuss the awakening in nirvana made possible by stilling karma actually, and the wisdom of prognosis (paññā/prajñā). Some clarifications of Dependent Co-origination, nirvana, emptiness, no-self, and morality/concentration/ prognosis are also provided, in order to avoid unclear or misunderstood points. These ten sections were first published on the websites of the Missouri Zen Center and my site on Buddhism, in English and Japanese in parallel, and they are presented in this way here as well.

The third chapter was originally prepared as a small pamphlet for department proceedings at Toyo University, where I taught philosophy, religion, and cultures of Japan and the U.S. I had started a course on the Global Ethic and founded the Global System Ethic Association, etc., after I founded the Missouri Zen Center in St. Louis, and upon retiring from my work in both Japan and the U.S., I used the pamphlet to propose the necessity of a fundamental Paradigm Shift to solve problems of humankind as a summary of my studies, adding footnotes for anyone to read. The English version was abridged from the Japanese one, summarizing its essential points.

In February of this year, Putin’s anachronistic, unpredictable war and invasion of Ukraine started, along with threats of a nuclear attack, which sounds the Doomsday Clock ticking closer to midnight. Human societies have expanded from tribal, racial, and national ones, but the inadaptability and inability of nations and the world have become ever more clear. Outlined below are the conditions for the survival of humankind and an ideal of prosperity, steps for awakening and action so that all beings and life systems may be freed from the delusion of selves and states. This essay was presented as the latest blog piece of the Missouri Zen Center and Buddhism websites, and we ask all to examine it (and the continuing regular posts on our blogs) and to work for the success of all.

Last, but not least, I dedicate my great gratitude to Rev. Erin Daiho, who has been a great contributor to the Missouri Zen Center and who has consistently edited my English in these articles and my life, to my teachers Dr. Hajime Nakamura, Dr. Bunyu Masutani, et al., to my seniors, Zen Center members, my family, friends, and numberless non-relative people, and to all beings in time and space, ecology, and universe, who and which have made these articles and my life possible.

How to save the world from destruction?

The Buddha’s decision to enter the world to save it from destruction, rather than enjoying his personal peace in the forest, is recorded in the Ariya-pariyesana Sutta, Holiness-search Scripture. This scripture describes his search for holiness, his attainment of liberation, and the launching of his life mission to save all beings, despite the world being sunken in ālaya, attachment, and the difficulty of understanding the Dharma of all dharmas, the Law of Dependent Co-origination.

It is clear that he sought holiness, a wholly wholesome way, and discovered the Dharma of all dharmas, but the world is under deep-seated clinging (karma: the Triple Poisons of desire, divisiveness, and delusion of ego), which would destroy the world; he therefore determined to dedicate his whole life to saving all beings, the whole world. He attained awakening, thus was called Buddha, in the Dharma, and he taught the Dharma, sharing it with all, creating Sangha, Community of all.

Dogen said that if not with all, it is neither the Awakened Way nor the Great Vehicle. If we truly understand the Dharma of all dharmas that we are all related and relative, we can be liberated from the Triple Poisons, especially their root, egocentricity. He also said, The Zazen of even one person at one time mutually merges with all dharmas in profundity and perfectly penetrates all time. Like him and the Buddha, we can become one with the whole world, like the Indra-net.

The Awakened Way has the Triple Treasures of the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, not money, matter, and