Zen Center of Los Angeles Podcast
Aug 4, 2026 · 47 min · 10 segments
Here's a teisho (Dharma talk) from our archives by founding Abbot Maezumi Roshi. The recording was made in 1993 as Maezumi Roshi was about to depart for a teaching tour. He left the sangha with some…
And as you know, in this quotation, our most important word is, say this, Internet.
How being Internet? And recently I was asked to write the preface for Daido Sensei's new book.
This is actually the second, maybe the third book, which is going to be published by...
Which publisher was that? Anyway, I forgot.
And the title of the book is Two Arrows Meeting in the Mid-Air, which is taken from that Sandokai which we chant every day.
And he further asked me that, relating to that passage, where that passage is found originally, see? And furthermore, wanted to say something about the relationship between teacher and student as such.
So this one says it's the most basic theme, and actually even that particular passage kind of implies the most important point expressed in the Sandokai.
See, in the Sandokai, the title itself, it's translated as Identity of Absolute and Relative.
my identity, I don't know identity is quite right choice of word or not.
Not just two are one thing, but they've got to be the activity of being one, see? So perhaps words such as integration or interaction, and yet that of being one.
That's what sandokai means, see? And that's what this intimacy means.
Intimate, just not two things sticking together as one.
But see, that intimacy, being so practical, all energies and everything comes out of that kind of sense of identification or the unity.
So relating to that subject, I was thinking about how it could be laid out practically.
Everything is related to that, see? And that meeting, to meet.
In this case, that's another way to express this intimacy, see? When you think of two arrows meeting in the air, how can that kind of thing happen? It's literally impossible.
Then how come that kind of analogy still makes sense? And this is, again, a very symbolic thing, you see, this analogy.
The Absolute works together with the relative, like two arrows meeting in the mid-air.
In the original one we read, When Ji exists, It's in a lid and box, fit together, see? And literally means, and then, when li, the principle, or the absolute, here it's translated as absolute, when absolute responded to it, It's like, see, two arrows meeting here.
But since it's a poem, it's expressed in such a way, see? 自尊すれば考えがし、利用すれば潜むさし。 But then, 自尊すれば利用す, see? When 自 exists, 利 responds to it.
In other words, 自 and 利 are one thing, see? It is like box and lid and two arrows meeting in there.
Then the thing is that what is Ji and what is Li? Here, in this case, in this particular part, it's translated as ordinary life and the absolute.
That is to say, how our ordinary life, at the phenomenal part, and that, see, sort of more fundamental, so-called like entity or essence or the nature, which is, in a way, kind of invisible with our kind of half-physical eye.
And as you know, in this quotation, our most important word is, say this, Internet.
How being Internet? And recently I was asked to write the preface for Daido Sensei's new book.
This is actually the second, maybe the third book, which is going to be published by...
Which publisher was that? Anyway, I forgot.
And the title of the book is Two Arrows Meeting in the Mid-Air, which is taken from that Sandokai which we chant every day.
And he further asked me that, relating to that passage, where that passage is found originally, see? And furthermore, wanted to say something about the relationship between teacher and student as such.
So this one says it's the most basic theme, and actually even that particular passage kind of implies the most important point expressed in the Sandokai.
See, in the Sandokai, the title itself, it's translated as Identity of Absolute and Relative.
my identity, I don't know identity is quite right choice of word or not.
Not just two are one thing, but they've got to be the activity of being one, see? So perhaps words such as integration or interaction, and yet that of being one.
That's what sandokai means, see? And that's what this intimacy means.
Intimate, just not two things sticking together as one.
But see, that intimacy, being so practical, all energies and everything comes out of that kind of sense of identification or the unity.
So relating to that subject, I was thinking about how it could be laid out practically.
Everything is related to that, see? And that meeting, to meet.
In this case, that's another way to express this intimacy, see? When you think of two arrows meeting in the air, how can that kind of thing happen? It's literally impossible.
Then how come that kind of analogy still makes sense? And this is, again, a very symbolic thing, you see, this analogy.
The Absolute works together with the relative, like two arrows meeting in the mid-air.
In the original one we read, When Ji exists, It's in a lid and box, fit together, see? And literally means, and then, when li, the principle, or the absolute, here it's translated as absolute, when absolute responded to it, It's like, see, two arrows meeting here.
But since it's a poem, it's expressed in such a way, see? 自尊すれば考えがし、利用すれば潜むさし。 But then, 自尊すれば利用す, see? When 自 exists, 利 responds to it.
In other words, 自 and 利 are one thing, see? It is like box and lid and two arrows meeting in there.
Then the thing is that what is Ji and what is Li? Here, in this case, in this particular part, it's translated as ordinary life and the absolute.
That is to say, how our ordinary life, at the phenomenal part, and that, see, sort of more fundamental, so-called like entity or essence or the nature, which is, in a way, kind of invisible with our kind of half-physical eye.
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