Words

With palms together


Good Morning Everyone,

Mark, on our Zen Living list, wrote to ask why we don’t use our native language in Zen rather than foreign words.



Very good question and one often asked. He framed his question with this:



“To me the words, regardless of the language, are only labels we place on reality and not actually reality. Who was it that said, "The teaching that is spoken is not the true teaching"? The fullness of sitting for meditation cannot be described in any words that I have heard or read, yet it can be experienced.”





I do not exactly disagree. In fact, I agree with Mark. Words are, indeed, just labels. So, then, as such, should it matter which words we use? Actually no, so there may be something else going on, something under this question. Or some other reason for using one word over another.



Is it that we do not like foreign words? Is it that we resist learning new words? Is it a resistance to difference itself or to the fact there is a Teacher offering this new language? Is it a veiled attack on tradition? I don’t know and as long as the subtext is not revealed, I really don’t care to address it.



So, setting the aim of the question aside, we might consider how some words just are better as they are. Dharma is a good example of this. What is Dharma? Do we have an English equivalent? Is it teaching? Scripture? Truth? Reality? Or all of that.



We could use a string of words that get us to the sense of the word, but that would be cumbersome. Why not use the word of the buddhas and ancestors before us? To paraphrase what Master Dogen said about the practice of Zazen, or Suzuki-roshi said about wearing his robes, 'its just what we do.'





As founder of a Zen Buddhist Order I selected certain liturgical pieces to be chanted in their original for two reasons. First, they are a serious and direct connection to our ancestors, a lineage going back to the Buddha himself. Second, they are often far richer than the English equivalents. Take the phrase "sei gon," for example, in the Four Great Vows. It has the meaning of prayerful vow, but not prayer in the sense of supplication. Rather, prayer in the sense of unification with the aim of the vow. A lot of words when "sei gon" will do nicely, and, at the same time, using it connect us to other practitioners worldwide.





Mark also suggested that perhaps there was a mystical reason for the use of certain words, that certain words might be believed to have spiritual power. I think it is less the definition of the words than their sound, cadence, and resonance that makes them "mystical." And if some believe them to be mystical, powerful, or otherwise avenues to awakening, so? Who are we to argue they are not? Perhaps we would do well to regain a little sense of the mystical in our lives.





Our world has been denuded, so to speak, of its living nature, that nature I perceive to be spiritual . When parks are just tracts of land to be developed, or food wrapped in plastic in grocery stores is not recognized for its source, or words are just words, we have lost something very important.





Yours,