Shundo David Haye – Zen Priest

‘Finally the stage which you can reach is completely nothing. So in the nothing, what happens? What is there? Completely nothing – well, it’s pretty difficult to explain “completely nothing.” But if you use “nothing,” immediately we are caught by the “nothing,” which is conceptualized by our consciousness, so [it is] no longer nothing. So it’s pretty hard to say what the nothing is.

That’s why finally through the practice of zazen, probably buddhas and ancestors touch the truth of nothing, what the nothing is. So finally, maybe we say nothing is kind of motion, or activities in dynamism. If I say so, very naturally we are caught by the form of motion, which is explaining what emptiness is. So we fall into the trap.

So motion is not the motion we can believe. Because motion existant in the nothing is not the usual motion, because it is completely activities […] running at super-speed. So motion is no longer motion; motion is stillness. If something moves at super-speed, it becomes still, very quiet.

And then next we are caught by the stillness: “Oh yes; emptiness is complete stillness.” And then if you understand emptiness as stillness, you fall into pessimism, or sadness, […] inactivity. But stillness is also not the usual stillness, because if you become completely still, well, [the] state of existence becomes very sharp, very sensitive, to be[-ing]. So if there is a perfect stillness, that stillness no longer stays with itself, so-called stillness, but it creates noise. Because if even a speck of dust touches that stillness, it vibrates. Stillness, if it is completely, absolutely stillness, becomes very sensitive to vibrate. So stillness creates noise.

But at that time, that noise is not something opposed to stillness. Simultaneously noise and stillness come together. It’s impossible to believe this, but it’s exactly there.

So can you call it stillness? No, it’s not stillness, because it’s moving. But is it moving? No it’s not moving, it’s quiet, very quiet. So what is the truth? The truth is stillness? No, it’s not stillness. Is it movement? No, it’s not movement. Is it energy? No, it’s not energy. So, nothing to conceptualize.

What makes them exist? We don’t know what makes them exist.’ (from Katagiri Transcripts)