Letter From the Abbot: Ukenagasu

Double rainbow at sunset as Hurricane Douglas skirted Hawaii.

“To receive and let flow away.”  
—Tanouye Tenshin Rotaishi

This phrase is found in Master Takuan Soho’s letters to swordmaster Yagyu Munenori on the Immovable Mind in fencing.  It refers to a technique in which the opponent’s attack is received and returned against him.  For example, the opponent cuts for your head.  Receiving the strike with your sword, you let its momentum initiate your cut to his body.

Master Takuan writes:

For example, suppose ten men are opposing you, each in succession ready to strike you with a sword.  Ukenagasu the first one without your mind stopping.  Forget that man and encounter the next and in this way, although there are ten men, all will be dealt with successively and successfully.

Tanouye Rotaishi used to say, “Here’s the secret to life.”  Receive and let flow away.  

To receive you must be open and not repress or defend.  You must be willing and able to experience all internal and external objects, all thoughts, feelings, and sensations.  To do this your mind must be immovable so that your consciousness remains clear whatever it encounters.  The Mind is immovable because it does not stop on any object encountered.  If the Mind stops, it will lead to disturbance in the mind (ignorance) and the heart (affective disturbance), then there will be no freedom of movement.

Zazen is our basic practice to learn to be open.  In zazen you are alert to both internal and external stimulation, you are concentrated and relaxed, and you are not allowed to move.  You develop a perspective which allows you to see through the disturbances in mind and heart which otherwise would spin you around.  Tanouye Rotaishi likened this to seeing through the spinning blades of a propeller rather than being stuck on the blade and being spun around.  When you are being spun around, you should sit zazen for 45 minutes and reset.

If you can receive and let flow away, you will experience the moon, reflected underneath the waves as described by Yagyu Munenori, “I am moving all day and not moving at all.  I am like the moon underneath the waves that ever go on rolling and rocking.” As I write this, Hurricane Douglas approaches; COVID-19 rages across states and nations; racism must be confronted; and the economy is melting down.  How do you ukenagasu this moment in your life?