Continuous Buddha - Shoaku Makusa

Continuous Doing Buddha; Refrain from Doing Harm
Shoaku makusa by Dogen
The dewdrop is you; the moon is you; actualizing the fundamental point.
This is the fundamental point.

I cease from doing harm
I devote myself to practicing good
This purifies my heart
And this is the Great teaching of all buddhas
For all times,
Everywhere.

This teaching is the foundation. This teaching is the one taste of all buddhas. This teaching is the teaching of peace. This teaching is the end to conditioned suffering. Yet, it does not mean that you will avoid pain and injury; it does means liberation and freedom from the bondage of the self-centered ego; from that suffering that hinders our awareness and our ability to see clearly. Examine this truth carefully and with effort.

NO master, no teacher, no higher up of any kind demands this of you for that is not the Way; this is given to you as an offering, as a spiritual key, a lock opener, a cork screw to pop open your self and find Buddha love. It is a teaching to take up as you take up the rakasu; it is a teaching given to you and it is a teaching made by your own hands; stitch by stitch, one moment of your life after another. It is a name-finding teaching. It is intimately given from your own heart to your own heart seen and recognized by other Buddha hearts. Nevertheless, do not hunt for praise nor shun any blame. Wholeheartedly practice and refrain your self from you as your main concern and harm no being.

Don’t worry about your past misconduct; that is chasing a false god; a dream, a phantom where you create wishes upon wishes to clean your self up. Do not live your life fixing up your mistakes; that is wrong practice. Cultivating dead seeds does not bring freedom. Planting and nourishing the past keeps you in the past. There is no self centered atonement. There is liberation now with no thought of time. It is not a gathering of dead leaves. Although burning dead leaves may clear your way the Way is to practice doing no harm and devotion to goodness. Buddha is no harm and Buddha is goodness. This is the fundamental vision of all Buddhas, everywhere.

Don’t worry about being right or being wrong; that is the self tricking you into thinking you can divide the world into categories. Simply stop doing harm, give your self to doing good and your pure heart which is already there manifests as the world honored one.