Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Mob Psychology

Sawaki Roshi: Mob psychology seems so strange to me. If people don't know anything they'd better not say anything. People do things, say things, an hang on to others, without any convictions of their own. They don't know themselves at all. This is ukiyo, the floating world.
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Although you think you did a brave deed in trying circumstances, if you did it imitating others, it cannot be called a truely brave deed.
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Do not lose your head in distracting circumstances. Don't be intoxicated in an intoxicating atmosphere. This is the only true wisdom. Do not be won over to any idea, or "ism", or any orginization. Have nothing to do with the big fool called "human being."

Uchiyama Roshi: The recent trouble at Waseda University is a good example. I myself was a student at Waseda during a strike in 1931, and I wactched the whole process of the student movement from within. I can appreciate how easily people can become intoxicated in such an atmosphere. Next time however, instead of passing around pamphlets, they should put big banners on the clock tower that read, ALTHOUGH YOU THINK YOU DID A BRAVE DEED IN TRYING CIRCUMSTANCES, IF YOU DID IT IMITATING OTHERS, IT CAN'T BE CALLED A TRUELY BRAVE DEED AT ALL, and DO NOT LOSE YOUR HEAD IN DISTRACTING CIRCUMSTANCES, and DON'T BE INTOXICATED BY AN INTOXICATING ATMOSPHERE and demostrate while looking at those banners.

Sawaki Roshi: To do zazen is to look at the world anew after being in hibernation.
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It is best not to anything but zazen. If you do something else, maybe the devil made you do it.

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