This talk was given by Harada Sekkei Roshi at Hosshin-ji monastery in Japan during evening sitting in 1993. Koten Roshi based his February 2024 zoom teisho on this talk.
趙州が師匠の南泉に、「道とは何ですか」と尋ねた。道というのは言葉を換えれば禅、法、或いは仏というようなふうに置き換えてもよろしい	Joshu asked his master Nansen, “What is it that is called the Way?” The Way, in other words, can be also called Zen or Dharma or Buddha
そこでその師匠が答えるのに、「平常心是道」と答えた。	Here the master Nansen answered, “The ordinary mind, everyday mind is the Way.”
平常心というのは、私たちの毎日の生活そのものである。人の生きざまということです。ある時は笑う。悲しむ、腹を立てる。	Everyday mind, what we call everyday mind is our daily lives just as it is. It is the way we live now. At times we laugh, as times we are sad. We get angry.
よく分からない、半分はわかる。信じれる、信じられない、皆そういう私たちの形に表れないもの、或いは形に表れておるもの、それが道であり、法であり、襌であると答えた	Not understanding or only half understanding. Being able to believe, and not being able to believe. All the various forms of our present condition, both tangible and intangible, all of these are the Way, the Dharma. It is Zen. That is how he answered.
しかし道を求める者としては、そう言われてもよく分からない。そこで「如何に趣向すべきや」。「どうしたら平常心ということが分かるのでしょうか	But the master even answering like this to someone still seeking the Way, it is very difficult to understand. And so Joshu asked the master again, “How do you come to understand what everyday mind is?”
どういう修行をしたらよろしいのでしょうか」と尋ねた。これは当然ですね そうしますと師匠が曰くのに	What kind of Zen practice or shugyo should you do, Joshu asked. It is only natural that he ask this question. And the master answered in this way:
「向かわんと擬すれば即ち乖く」と	“If you seek the Way, you will lose it.”
求めようとするならば、或いはどこかに道というものがあって、それを探そうとするならば、求めることは出来ない	“If you seek the Way, in other words if you think that the Way exists and you try to seek that, you'll never find the Way.”
自分のものと気が付くことは出来ない」とこう言っている	You will never realize that it is yours already. This is how he answered.
日々の生活、私たちの一挙手一投足	Our daily lives, every detail of our daily lives
様々な葛藤、思惑、見解、理屈というのは全部、師匠から言えば、それが道だとこう言つているのですから、道の中におって、道を探すなんてそういうことは不可能なことです	Various troubles and discord, expectations, our opinions, our reasoning: everything. Everything is the Way, this is what the master is saying. It is in the Way, and therefore it is impossible to seek for it.
だから「向かわんと擬すれば、即ち乖く」と	Therefore seeking it is the same as turning away from it.
探し求めようとすれば、求めることは出来ないということです	If you try and seek the Way, it is impossible to find it.
分からない弟子にとっては、そう言われてもなお分からない	The master saying this to his disciple only confused the disciple even more.
「しかし求めようとしなければ、どうして道ということが分かるんでしょうか」 とまた尋ねた	So the disciple asks again, “But if you don't seek the Way, how are you going to come to understand it.”
そうしますと師匠が、「道というのは知にも属さない、不知にも属さない。	In response to this the master said, “The Way is not dependent on knowing or not knowing.”
これは人の考えの問題だ」と答えた。人が色々考えて、そして「ああ、これが道というものか、禅というものか」そのように自分で考えを起こして、認識をする。物を認めて考えを起こす。	In other words, the problem here is thinking, he is saying. A person raises various thoughts, then he or she thinks, “Yes, I see, this is what the Way is,” or this is what Zen is. In this way we raise our own ideas about Zen or the Way, and then we acknowledge them, we concede their existence and accept them. In other words, we observe thoughts and then judge them.
分かりやすいことばで言えば、「なるほど、そういうものか」と信じる。師匠の言う言葉を信じる。	To say it in another way, “Now I see, this is what Zen is.” Raising this thought, we then believe it. We make an object out of it. Or, we believe what our teacher tells us about the Way.
あるいは、自分で自分自身に納得をさせる。そういうものが知識の知です。だから「知にも属せず」。	What we do is we convince ourselves. And this is what the word “knowing” means here. This is why the master said the Way does not depend on knowing or not knowing.
人の考えによって、「なるほどそうか」と自分自身が頷くことでもない。	We have somehow convinced/ persuaded/ assured ourselves somehow intellectually or rationally, but in reality we are not truly satisfied.
そうかと言って「不知にも属せず」。「それじゃ、求めなくてもいいのだから、このままになっておればいいのだ」というふうに、自分でまた自分自身に言い聞かせる。	And this is what “not depending on knowing” is. One may go on to think that not depending on knowing or not knowing one then may assume that it is okay not to know. Therefore, one should just become one’s present condition. Here, once again, you are telling yourself something again.
知も不知も、これは人の考えとしてあることです	Knowing and not knowing, these conditions only appear through thought, or in thought.
ですから「そういうものではない」とこういうのでしよう	Therefore, the Way has nothing to do with such things.
｛人の考えを起す以前に、既に私たちは全部道そのものである	Before thinking, or before thought arises, everything is the Way.
今の状態が道そのものである	Our present condition right now is the Way itself.
法そのものである	It is the Dharma itself
禅そのものである」という、そういうことを言われたんです	It is Zen itself, as it is. This is what Master Nansen is saying.
長く坐っておられる人は『よくこのことは聞いて承知している筈なんです	Many people who have been sitting for a long time are probably already aware of that.
釿しい方は、このようにお釈迦様がまず、「道というのはどこにでもあるものだ	And newer people practicing zazen should keep in mind that the Buddha instructed, The Way is found everywhere, at all times. There is nowhere it is not found.
いつでもあるものだ」というふうに、はっきりとお示しになった	And, it is always manifest. In time and space, there is nowhere it is not found. This is what the Buddha clearly pointed out.
そのことを、お駅迦棣の教えに従って修行をした人が、’なるほどそうだ‘と悟られた	And those people in the past who practiced according to this teaching of Shakyamuni Buddha were able to awaken and nod in consent to this. They truly grasped it for themselves
また這を求める人がそのように悟られる	In the same way, we today who seek the Way are able to awaken in this same way.
そしてこういう「禅、道、仏教」というものが伝わって来て、今日に至っている訳ですから、今道を求めて、禅を求めて坐禅をなさる人は、それをまずよく信じることです	It is like this that Zen, the Way, Buddhism has been transmitted to this day.　Those of us who are truly seeking the Way, seeking Zen by doing zazen practice should first of all believe the teaching
このもの、今の状態そのものが道であり、紳であり、法である」というように、仏とか祖師といわれる人がもう明確に示しておられる	The teaching that our present condition really just as it is, is Zen, is the Way, is the Dharma, and that all the Buddhas and patriarchs clearly manifested/demonstrated this.
結論を出しておられるんですから、求める側としては、「なぜ自分がそのことをそのこととして、本当に自分のものにならないだろうか」ということだけに、問題意識を持って頂きたい	This, right here and now, is already the conclusion, the determination or outcome of shugyo, of Zen practice. We are already at the conclusion. Dogen Zenji said that practice and enlightenment are one. But as seekers of the Way we should foster this doubt, the “great doubt” it is called: If we are already at the conclusion of practice, then why doesn’t that fact come home to us yet? Why can’t we really make it our own? This was Dogen Zenji’s great doubt as a youngster: If the sutras tell us we are already enlightened, then why the all of the past Buddhas and Patriarchs have to cry tears of blood in order to realize this?
他に求めると、得られることはあり得ません	To seek elsewhere, outside the present, the Way–the Dharma–will not become our own.
どうぞそのようにして、よそに、自分以外の所に、ものを求めないようにして頂きたい	Please be careful not to seek somewhere outside the self.
永平守のご開山道元禅師は、「仏道を習うというは自己を習うなり、自己を習うというは自己を忘るるなり」とこう言った	Dogen Zenji said, the study of Buddhism is the study of the self; to study the self is to forget the self.
「仏道を習うというは自己を習うなり」	The study of Buddhism is the study of the self
自己というのは、仏教の難しい言葉でいえば、「実相は無相である	The self, to say this in another way using more difficult to understand terms, is, true form is no original form.
自分というものは、本来姿形がないものである	In other words, the self has no original form.
認めることが出来ないものである	It is impossible to perceive a self, even now. What we perceive now as the egoself is merely a marker or symbol for–a representation of–something that does not exist.
本来無我のものである	Originally, there is no self.
そのことをよく自分で納得をしなさい	Please come to recognize this fact that there is no self and then give proof of it through practice.
それが「仏道を晋う」ということです	This is what is called, To study the Buddha Way