The formality is not merely formality, but it depends on you, whether formality is alive or not. It really depends on you. Without formality, you cannot manifest. There is no place to manifest your Buddha nature here. So there must be some formality where you can have a chance to manifest Buddha nature.
This is the all phases of human life. Washing your face, sleeping in a bed. You cannot sleep on the street. You have to have a bed. If it’s a little small, if it’s just one blanket, then you have to spread the blanket and sleep. This is formality. When you walk on the street, when you walk hard, I think you cannot walk with a robe, such a robe. You have to wear one robe anyway. So now those things are really formality. When you can have a chance to manifest Buddha nature, Buddha nature means what you are doing, living life. What you are doing, your life is really alive. This is the Buddha. So formality, form, is a very great chance which you can manifest Buddha nature, living life. (from the Katagiri Roshi Archive)
As part of my preparation for my talk tomorrow, I went and looked at all the talks in the Zen Center archive that were tagged as being about dharma transmission. Katagiri’s take was the most interesting.
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