"This Very Situation Right Now"
The Primacy of Concrete Experience in Zen Buddhism
Keidō Fukushima Roshi was a Rinzai Zen master who made significant contributions to bringing Rinzai practice to the West. Fukushima Roshi was a Dharma heir of Zenkei Shibayama Roshi and Okada Kidō Roshi (岡田熙道). He first came to the United States in 1969 as Shibayama’s attendant. He also taught at an American university for one year, and beginning in 1989, he made annual visits to the United States to give lectures and lead sesshins, including sesshins in Little Rock, Arkansas.
In Japan, Fukushima Roshi served as head abbot of Tōfuku-ji, following Yasuda Tenzan Roshi (安田天山, 1909–1994). A number of Western Zen teachers traveled to study under him, including Jeff Shore, Kuzan Peter Schireson, and Myoan Grace Schireson, among others.
Near the end of his life, Keidō Roshi was in poor health and suffered from Parkinson’s disease. On October 22, 2009, he retired as abbot of Tōfuku-ji. His student and Dharma heir, Harada Ji’en Roshi, also known as Harada Yūdō Roshi (原田融道, b. 1959), succeeded him as abbot of Tōfuku-ji.
Keidō Fukushima Roshi retired to Okayama for care and passed away on March 1, 2011, his 78th birthday.
In Japan, Fukushima Roshi served as head abbot of Tōfuku-ji, following Yasuda Tenzan Roshi (安田天山, 1909–1994). A number of Western Zen teachers traveled to study under him, including Jeff Shore, Kuzan Peter Schireson, and Myoan Grace Schireson, among others.
Near the end of his life, Keidō Roshi was in poor health and suffered from Parkinson’s disease. On October 22, 2009, he retired as abbot of Tōfuku-ji. His student and Dharma heir, Harada Ji’en Roshi, also known as Harada Yūdō Roshi (原田融道, b. 1959), succeeded him as abbot of Tōfuku-ji.
Keidō Fukushima Roshi retired to Okayama for care and passed away on March 1, 2011, his 78th birthday.
The Primacy of Concrete Experience
Everything you feel, everything you see, everything you hear, everything you taste is real. A Zen priest focuses on what is real, what is concrete, what is actual. You should know hot and cold for yourself. No matter how much you may say about hot and cold, what you say is only an explanation. In Zen it is the experience of feeling the heat that is most important. Experience the cold that comes from touching ice. This is the way of the Zen priest in his everyday life, a way that emphasizes concrete experience.
Fukushima, Keido. Zen Bridge: The Zen Teachings of Keido Fukushima (p. 169). Wisdom Publications. Kindle Edition.
This Very Situation Right Now
“…a newcomer monk showed up one morning and said to Joshu, ‘I’m a newcomer; I arrived just yesterday. Please give me a teaching suitable to a newcomer.’ Joshu asked the monk if he’d eaten breakfast, and the monk said he had. Joshu replied, ‘In that case, go wash your bowls.’
This is a good teaching. It is an example of the importance of everyday life. All good religions, including Zen, must teach their followers a way of life. What way of life does Zen teach? Zen teaches how I myself should live here and now. It focuses on here and now, and on I myself. In Chinese Buddhism, particularly in Zen, teachings are concrete: here, now, I myself. What could be more concrete than that?
“Here, now, I myself” is very important. Once you finish eating breakfast, wash your bowls. “Here” applies to this very situation right now. As a speaker, I myself should here and now concentrate on giving the talk. You, as the listener, should concentrate on listening to it. This way of life—here, now, I myself—is the focus of Zen.”
— Keido Fukushima, Zen Bridge: The Zen Teachings of Keido Fukushima (Wisdom Publications), p. 118.
Subjective Immediacy
A Whiteheadian Commentary
In Whitehead’s philosophy, “subjective immediacy” is a name for what is happening in each present moment. It is this very situation, right now, as lived from the inside, from the vantage point of a concrescing subject.
True, there has been subjective immediacy in the past, and there will be subjective immediacy in the future, but it is only in the present that subjective immediacy is now occurring.
Applied to our lives, this means that we ourselves, as living persons, are always in the present moment. The present moment is not something we own or possess, as if we stand outside it. It is who we are.
As Zen Master Keido Fukushima puts it, subjective immediacy is “here, now, I myself.” It includes the entirety of our immediate experience in the present moment: our memories, our sense perceptions, our aspirations, our sufferings, our joys, and our interior responses to the situations we face. This immediate experience is, as it were, the sacred ground on which we stand—and, truth be told, we ourselves are this sacred ground.
The focus of Zen, so Fukushima says, is for us to awaken to this fact and to live from it. Not in a way that is ego-centered or self-preoccupied, but in a way that is creatively responsive, and often lovingly responsive, to each new situation.
Living from it does not mean remaining fixed in one place. Even though we are never in the past or the future, the present moment itself is always moving. Yes, yesterday has passed and tomorrow has not yet occured. But the "today" of this moment becomes "yesterday" with each moment, and we are always in a new today.
The universe is, as Whitehead says, “a creative advance into novelty,” and the subjective immediacy of our lives partakes of this advance. Indeed, we ourselves are this advance in the small pilgrimage of our lives. We are always here and now, and yet always changing—always becoming different from moment to moment.
Imagine that you are in the presence of a teacher who believes that awakening to this fact is the very heart of lived Buddhism. You ask him what the teachings of Buddhism are. It would be perfectly understandable for him to say: “Go wash your bowls.”
True, there has been subjective immediacy in the past, and there will be subjective immediacy in the future, but it is only in the present that subjective immediacy is now occurring.
Applied to our lives, this means that we ourselves, as living persons, are always in the present moment. The present moment is not something we own or possess, as if we stand outside it. It is who we are.
As Zen Master Keido Fukushima puts it, subjective immediacy is “here, now, I myself.” It includes the entirety of our immediate experience in the present moment: our memories, our sense perceptions, our aspirations, our sufferings, our joys, and our interior responses to the situations we face. This immediate experience is, as it were, the sacred ground on which we stand—and, truth be told, we ourselves are this sacred ground.
The focus of Zen, so Fukushima says, is for us to awaken to this fact and to live from it. Not in a way that is ego-centered or self-preoccupied, but in a way that is creatively responsive, and often lovingly responsive, to each new situation.
Living from it does not mean remaining fixed in one place. Even though we are never in the past or the future, the present moment itself is always moving. Yes, yesterday has passed and tomorrow has not yet occured. But the "today" of this moment becomes "yesterday" with each moment, and we are always in a new today.
The universe is, as Whitehead says, “a creative advance into novelty,” and the subjective immediacy of our lives partakes of this advance. Indeed, we ourselves are this advance in the small pilgrimage of our lives. We are always here and now, and yet always changing—always becoming different from moment to moment.
Imagine that you are in the presence of a teacher who believes that awakening to this fact is the very heart of lived Buddhism. You ask him what the teachings of Buddhism are. It would be perfectly understandable for him to say: “Go wash your bowls.”