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Teisho October 3 (1992)
by Harada Tangen Roshi, Bukkoku-Ji
We are already well into sesshin. sesshin is limited in a sense to one week. But we are eternally nourished. Utterly cared for. More than we can know. Daily, not only at sesshin, but daily we rise at 3:50 and we get to do zazen from 4 a.m. How privileged. We get to just sit quietly. Just sitting quietly, a few of you are prone to stagnate.
Other, who are sitting steadily, pushing steadily, don’t experience stagnation. Each one of you is different. For thousand people, thousand experiences; ten thousand people, ten thousand experiences. Everybody’s way of stepping this step is unique. And so each will take it in its own unique form.
We are all unique, but from every angle, everyone is saved. Everybody is saved on this path, everybody can be saved. Not just certain blessed people. It isn’t special persons who can know satisfaction, who can know great peace of mind. If that would be the way of this way, of this path, then we could not say much for its usefulness. We could not call it the Way if it were not for everybody. If salvation, we’ll call it, were not offered, were not available to everybody. Why so? The way is universal, perfect. It’s written in the calligraphy over the entrance to the zendo, the way is universal, perfect.
Roundly penetrating the universe. Universal. Means everything, all of all. Nothing is left out, nothing is missing. All, everything. The way is universal, perfect. You hear this right from the beginning, and it means you. It means you, sitting as you are, you are perfect. Nobody’s outside, it’s universal. Nobody’s leaking out.
But there are those of you here practicing who feel that there is really no hope for you.
That you really can’t quite make it. You aren’t really the right stuff for practice. I am too weak, the practitioner has to be like a lion, a fierce lion. If not, they’ve got have no business practicing. I am more like an ant, hopeless. So you’ve decided that it’s this way, and what you are doing is holding yourself down. There are those of you here who are holding yourselves down with this attitude.
You are evaluating yourself in this way or giving yourself a low rating.
As a matter of fact though, we have a saying that goes like this: the lion teaches her cubs by making them lose their way. By making them doubt. The lion does not raise its cubs by simply indulging them, spoiling them. Once the lion cubs are bit up in age, and they are lively and healthy, the mother takes her cubs for a walk. Five, six, eight cubs follow their mother. It’s great how they follow their mother. They don’t want to be separated from her. We can look at this from the standpoint of practice, too, and learn something from it. Anyway, the baby lion cubs have been nurtured and indulged for five, six month. Trusting her mother completely, they follow her and she leads them to the edge of a cliff. The mother, who has up to now shown only the softest, kindest expression, suddenly glares like the devil and growls, grrrrrrr. The cubs are surprised, they begin to cover, to scramble back away from the cliff.
But the mother forcefully grabs a cub and pushes it over the cliff. The cub puts all its efforts into climbing back up. But when its little eyes, its little face, finally peer up over the side of the mountain, the mother does not go to it and embrace it, take it into her arms to protect. Instead, the mother swats the cub forcefully back down the mountain. This happens over and over, the cubs make their way back up and the mother pushes them back over the cliff again. The cubs are shocked. This is the mother who up until now has treated them so lovingly.
What’s happening here? The cubs begin to wonder and to doubt. The lion teaches her cubs by making them doubt, lose their way. But some of the cubs or a cub, at least a cub, will stick with their mother, crawl back up the cliff every time they are pushed over. A cub is not discouraged, but only keeping their eyes on their mother and persevering, bravely, with noble urgency. 
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