Gyōji (行持) — Continuous Practice | PART ONE

“The Great Way of Buddhas and Ancestors invariably involves unsurpassed ceaseless practice. This practice rolls on in a cyclic manner without interruption. Not a moment’s gap has occurred in Their giving rise to the intention to realize Buddhahood, in Their doing the training and practice, in Their experiencing enlightenment, and in Their realizing nirvana, for the Great Way of ceaseless practice rolls on just like this. As a result, the practice is not done by forcing oneself to do it and it is not done by being forced to do it by someone else: it is a ceaseless practice that is never tainted by forcing. The merits from this ceaseless practice sustain us and sustain others.

The underlying principle of this practice is that the whole universe in all ten directions receives the merit of our ceaseless practice. Though others may not recognize it, though we may not recognize it ourselves, still, it is so. As a result, owing to the ceaseless practice of all the Buddhas and Ancestors, our own ceaseless practice has clearly manifested. And, owing to our ceaseless practice, the ceaseless practice of all the Buddhas clearly manifests, and the Great Way of the Buddhas pervades everywhere. And, owing to our ceaseless practice, the Buddha’s Way rolls perpetually onward. Accordingly, Buddha after Buddha and Ancestor after Ancestor have dwelt within Buddha, have acted from the Heart of Buddha, and have fully manifested Buddha, and They have done so without a single moment’s interruption.

Due to this ceaseless practice, there is the sun, the moon, and the stars. Due to ceaseless practice, there is the great earth and the vast expanse of space. Due to ceaseless practice, there is body and mind, along with the internal effects of our past karma and the external conditions of our surroundings. Due to ceaseless practice, there are the four great elements and the five skandhas. Even though ceaseless practice is not something that worldly folk desire, it will be what all human beings truly come back to. Due to the ceaseless practice of all Buddhas of past, present, and future, all Buddhas manifest ceaseless practice in the past, present, and future. And there are also times when the merit from that ceaseless practice no longer lies hidden, and, as a result, the intention to realize Buddhahood arises, along with training and practice. And there are times when that merit does not show itself, and, as a result, it is not encountered or perceived. You need to explore through your training that even though it may not show itself, it does not lie hidden, because it is not tainted with appearing and disappearing or with existing and dying away. Though it may be concealed from us at the present moment, the ceaseless practice that has brought us into existence is present in every single thought and thing, all of which arise due to coexisting conditions, and we just do not realize that we are actually doing ceaseless practice.

Moreover, if we wish to grasp what ceaseless practice is, we should not make a special case out of every new thing that comes along. This is because, from the perspective of Dependent Origination, there is simply ceaseless practice, and ceaseless practice does not come about as a result of depending upon anything. You need to explore this point with diligence and in detail. The ceaseless practice that makes ceaseless practice manifest is nothing other than our own ceaseless practice in the here and now. Ceaseless practice is not present here and now because it is something that we innately have within ourselves; it is not something that already dwells within us. Its presence in the here and now is beyond the comings and goings of a ‘self ’ and beyond the departings and emergings of a ‘self ’. The phrase ‘here and now’ does not refer to something that existed prior to ceaseless practice: ‘the here and now’ refers to ceaseless practice fully manifesting itself in the present.

Accordingly, the ceaseless practice of one day is the seed of all Buddhas: it is the ceaseless practice of all Buddhas. By means of it, all Buddhas fully manifest Themselves. So, to not do ceaseless practice is to loathe all Buddhas, and to fail to make alms offerings to all Buddhas is to loathe ceaseless practice, and to fail to live and die together with all Buddhas is to fail both to learn from Them and to explore the Matter with Them. To see a flower opening or a leaf falling in the here and now is to fully see what ceaseless practice is. There is no polishing of the Mirror or smashing of the Mirror that is not ceaseless practice. Thus, if anyone tried to set aside ceaseless practice—ignoring it in an attempt to conceal their wicked intention to escape from ceaseless practice—this too would be ceaseless practice. Accordingly, some who are inclined towards ceaseless practice may merely resemble someone who has a genuine intention to do ceaseless practice, still, such persons would be like the perplexed son who threw away the treasures and riches of the native land of his true father and wandered off into foreign lands. Even though, during the time of his wandering about aimlessly, the winds and waters did not cause him to lose life or limb, nevertheless he should not have thrown away his true father’s treasure, for that is to mistakenly lose the Dharma Treasure of his True Father. This is why ceaseless practice is Dharma that is not to be neglected even for a moment.”

SENSEI MICHAEL BRUNNER COMMENTARY

We open with a vista of the Great Way, the Awakened Way, so vast and large it is breathtaking. The Great Way of Buddhas and Ancestors is not something that appears at certain times or under certain conditions. It is described as ceaseless practice, rolling on without interruption, without a single gap. Not just in moments of clarity, not just in formal practice, but continuously. It is the practice of your life.

This cuts against how we usually understand practice. We think of practice as something we do. Something we begin and end. Something we succeed at or fail at. Something we return to after drifting away. But this is pointing to something very different: practice is not something we step into and out of; it is what is already and always happening. There has never been a moment outside of it.

It need not be forced, as a matter of fact that would be futile. It is not something we impose on ourselves, or something given to us from the outside. The moment practice becomes something we are trying to make happen, we have already separated ourselves from it. We have already turned it into an object, something we can succeed or fail at. Ceaseless practice is not touched by that. It continues regardless of what we think we are doing.

So the question begins to shift. It isn’t “Am I practicing now?” but “What do I think is not practice?” Because whatever we are excluding, whatever we are setting aside as outside the Way, that is exactly where we are dividing what has never been divided. We need to include everything.

Ceaseless practice is not confined to an individual. It is not “my” practice. The whole universe receives its merit. Whether we recognize it or not, whether anyone names it or not, it is functioning. Our practice is not separate from the practice of all Buddhas and Ancestors. Their practice is not something in the past. It is manifesting here, as this, right now. The sun, the moon, the stars, the earth, the body, the mind, everything we encounter, everything we experience, is not outside of this ceaseless practice. Nothing stands apart from it. Nothing falls outside of it.

This is where it becomes difficult, because we do not want to include everything. We want to separate out what counts and what does not. We want to call some moments practice and others distraction. Some thoughts delusion and others clarity. But if practice is truly ceaseless, then there is nothing we can point to that is not it.

So even when it says that sometimes this is not perceived, that it does not show itself, that too must be included. The fact that we do not recognize it does not mean it is absent. It only means we are looking for it in the wrong place, trying to locate it as something that appears and disappears, something illusory and conceptual.

When we embody this, it changes the entire way we approach the path. There is no entry point or exit, there is no moment where practice begins, and no moment where it stops. There is only this ongoing functioning that we either divide or do not divide.

It always brings it right here to the infinite present. Ceaseless practice is not something we possess. It is not something already stored inside us. It is not something we can hold onto. It is simply what is manifesting as this moment, beyond the idea of a self coming and going, beyond the idea of something being gained or lost.

So the question is not how to begin. It is whether we are willing to stop setting parts of our life aside, and see that what we are calling “this moment” is nothing other than ceaseless practice, already complete, already functioning, whether we acknowledge it or not!