The 912th “What are we?” Zen Master Yokota, Engakuji Temple of the Rinzai sect of Buddhism

2023年07月09日

「私たちはどこから来たのですか？」「私たちは誰ですか？」「私達はどこに行くの？」画家ポール・ゴーギャンが投げかけた問いは、根本的な問いとして今も私たちの心に響き続けています。(English) "Where do we come from?" "Who are we?" "Where are we going?" The question the painter Paul Gauguin posed still resonates with us today as a fundamental question.

The 912th "What are we?" Zen Master Yokota, Engakuji Temple of the Rinzai sect of Buddhism

"Where do we come from?"

"Who are we?"

"Where are we going?"

The question the painter Paul Gauguin posed still resonates with us today as a fundamental question.

Zen Buddhism and psychoanalysis, which developed on the different soils of East and West, practical philosophy and clinical medicine, have each approached the human mind uniquely.

This fundamental question for us, especially "What are we?"

I recently had an interview with Dr Hiroshi Fujita.

According to Professor Fujita's statement in the booklet, his history is as follows.

He was born in 1955.

He is a psychoanalyst and anaesthetist who graduated from Shinshu University School of Medicine. He is a former doctor at the University of Nice Pasteur Hospital.

He is developing his quantum psychoanalysis based on Freud/Lacan psychoanalysis.

He is currently the director of the Euroclinique medical corporation, the Sayama Mental Clinic director, and a part-time lecturer at Keio University—author of The Structure of Psychosis.

The pamphlet also describes him as "a lone psychoanalyst who advocates quantum psychoanalysis".

When conversing, I try to read the other person's book first.

So I tried to read books by Professor Fujita and Jacques Lacan.

I tried to read them, but the terminology was complex, and I could no longer keep up with the philosophy, so I gave up.

I thought it would be impossible to have a dialogue, so I asked the organisers, but I accepted the offer because they wanted me to discuss Zen's position.

We talked about the topic "What are we?"

I was worried that Mr Fujita's talk would be too difficult to understand, but it was straightforward.

We live in a world of words.

Without words, there would be no cuts.

Professor Fujita used the word "signifier".

It was preached about the first "signifier", which should be called truth.

I thought the first "signifier" was indescribable.

When it becomes the second or third, it appears as language.

I was impressed by the anecdote that Lacan, in his later years, remained silent for about 30 minutes even after the class had started and then talked to him in vain.

I found it very interesting to hear that Dr Fujita, a psychoanalyst, sends information directly to the brain without using words.

In fact, like a regular psychiatrist, he seems to listen and verbalise symptoms, but at the same time, he uses non-verbal methods.

He says the most important thing is to be confident that this client will be cured.

By giving this important information directly, the patient himself will be cured.

Now it was my turn to speak.

First, I talked about Torajiro Okada as a metaphor for healing people's diseases without using words.

It is said that he was healed just by sitting quietly by the side of someone who today would be called depressed.

Just by being by that person's side, you can be healed, or you can say that the original function of the human being is activated.

Then we talked about "What are we?"

"What are we?" is a difficult question, but the Zen monk answers it in one sentence.

It's just one sentence: "I don't know".

Or when Nantake Zenji is asked by the Six Ancestors, "What kind of things have come?"

This is nothing more than information cut off by words.

When we say we, something we are, somewhere, a line is drawn between what we are and what we are not.

When I think of myself, I think of the inside of this skin.

When we think of us, we think of our friends gathered here.

Or you think of Japanese people in general, or you think of Asian people.

When we think of the earth as a community, we think of all humanity as we are.

10)

But when you do zazen, these boundaries disappear.

Instead of disappearing, I realise I've only been separating things that weren't originally there.

What happens, then?

I quoted the words in "Zen and Education" by Hitoshi Kataoka.

11)

When you become absolute nothing, you see everything as it is.

This means that when you see things, you can only see them by pretending to be the things.

This is different from psychological effects such as simple sympathy or empathy.

Before empathising, from our experience of this absolute nothingness, the thing and the self are intimately connected.

This connection is the root of love.

12)

To see everything that appears before us as I do is to love everything.

Just as you love yourself, other things look like you.

Others see me, and although they see me, I see them similarly.

To see yourself and others with absolute fairness is wisdom and love at the same time.

13)

In other words, mercy and compassion will overflow.

We are surrounded by such compassion.

But they don't know what compassion is.

I introduced the words of a supreme Zen master: "Buddha shows compassion and knows no mercy."

It means there is nothing closer to the truth than ignorance done in ignorance.

Mr Fujita said that although the words were different, what he was trying to say was the same. I was so excited to hear that.

I thought it would be impossible because it was difficult, but I was moved by the fact that we talked a lot and got to know each other.