I Alone Am the World Honored One: Being Born Now

Elihu Genmyo Smith

Zazen is being born now. On being born, it is said, the Buddha took seven steps in each of the four cardinal directions, pointed with one hand up and one hand down, and said, “Above the heavens, below the earth, I alone am the world honored one.” Of course, babies don’t take seven steps. People create such stories. And yet, each of us, on being born, can say, “Above the heavens, below the earth, I alone am the world honored one.” How do we say that?

We hear a baby say this. We all know, if we are present. This life is our opportunity, each moment, this moment being born, this moment, only myself. Or, saying it another way: only the whole universe that is myself right here. Or: whole universe and myself completely wiped out, only “WWAaaaaaaaah!” And this is exactly our opportunity. Even that, throw away.

In the womb, a baby doesn’t concern itself about being born. Of course, being born is difficult, sometimes painful. So we may be in the midst of painfully going through the birth canal. Whether we are being born, or giving birth, this is our whole life at this moment. Coming out, what was in the womb is no longer here; being born is a new universe. In the same way, this life, moment, moment, being born into this universe as it is now, giving self away to this universe now. No need to carry along the womb of yesterday or five minutes ago. Of course, it is the womb that gives birth to us right now. It is the conditions and circumstances of so-called “before” that give birth to right now. So, if before someone poured tea into this cup, when I pick this cup up, <drinks> right now, I taste tea. Before is right here. The before of life is right here. But it is the right-here-taste that is my opportunity. The right-here-taste of our life is our opportunity to taste the tea, to be this “above the heavens, below the earth”, the whole universe that we encounter right here. Being alone, being the whole world honored one, the whole world honoring being right here. This is zazen, this is sesshin, what we have as our life. Each moment, the opportunity to give self away to this life that we are. To let this life that we are give itself away right here, this moment, functioning, breathing.

Since this sesshin began April 8th, the day we celebrate Buddha’s birthday, we have the baby Buddha and special flowers on the altar for sesshin. The point of celebrating the Buddha’s birth is to celebrate your birth, our birth, right this moment. This is an opportunity that sesshin supports and reminds us of. Sometimes we say we breathe in the whole universe, sometimes we say the whole universe breathes us. Of course, though we say one, though we say another, both of those are just daydreams. But sometimes we make good use of daydreams. So our practice is to keep being born. Keep being born requires that we keep dying into the moment as well. Just as the baby dies to the womb as she/he is born.

When we use an expression, “above the heavens, below the earth, I alone,” sometimes we can take that and think it is some special personal egotistical expression; but this is egotistical only if we attribute it to our self and not to someone else, or to someone else and not our self. The flowers on the altar are “I alone.” It is up to us to hear that, to see that, to hear with our eyes. This is the intimacy of this moment. If we do not, we miss our life. Then even our life just becomes a story about someone else, somewhere else. And that is dukkha, stress, dissatisfaction, suffering.

Sitting together, we all have this wonderful opportunity, being supported by others, being supported by the schedule, being supported by this body-mind-world that we are born into this moment. To declare our life, to declare our birth, and declare it in the simple activities of sitting, breathing, walking. The simple activities of releasing the womb that gives birth to us in this moment. Releasing holding to fears and considerations about the universe we are born into. In general, a baby doesn’t have considerations about the universe (of course, you can always find exceptions). This is exactly “above the heavens, below the earth”. And that “above the heavens, below the earth” includes circumstances that are difficult, painful, even so-called oppositional.

Images and stories are wonderful opportunities, opportunities to support us in being who we truly are, being this intimacy that is our functioning, that is our functioning of the universe, that is our functioning of the wind, the sky, the traffic, the sunlight. Being born this breath-moment, this right-here-now.

We humans sometimes misunderstand the simplicity of “I alone”. “To study the self is to forget the self.” Unless we forget the self, unless we give away any bondage of self, bondage of dualism, unless we hang on the cross of self, we aren’t born as “I alone”, aren’t liberated, aren’t resurrected. Then, holding to self manifests in stress and suffering.

In truth, there is not anything to give away, not anything to let go of. Simply being born right here; “I alone” is the natural birth of this moment. This is the way it is. This “I” isn’t just “me”. This “I” is the whole universe. The whole universe is “I”. “I” am just this moment universe. Don’t hold on to “I” versus “others” versus etc. Yes, we can easily misunderstand. We may take practice and the strength that comes from deepening of practice and turn that into something that justifies all sorts of things. That is caught in self-centeredness. But we don’t need practice for that; much in our culture and habits of mind, the habits of emotion-thought, perpetuate self-centeredness. So those are the habits that we have to open up, release, in order to be born right here. That is the womb that we have to come out of, sometimes in a painful, difficult way. Releasing the womb is releasing stress, suffering.

Going through the birth canal is being born, difficult as it seems at the moment. We clarify, we practice. And as we practice, we see where release is necessary, where to open, where to let go, where to cut. According to circumstances, we see the appropriate action. This practice intelligence is exactly “I alone”. The intelligence of wisdom that sees practice is exactly the realized wisdom. It is not a matter of going from A to B to C to getting to some point when we are going to be born. Right now, the condition and circumstances that we are is being born. This is the womb that is giving birth right now. The womb and being born are not two. It is not somewhere else or something else. This is revealed as our life as it is.

No need to figure it out. No need for any of it to make sense. Those of us who like to think about it get twisted up in, “What does it mean? What do I agree with? What do I disagree with?” Don’t worry about any of it. It comes in; if it resonates, is useful, fine. If it is a problem, let it go. The only point of speaking is to support and encourage us in being born right now, in manifesting right now the whole universe. And the whole universe is nothing but your words, your breath.

Remind yourself with “Happy Birth Day” when you start sitting. I mean it seriously. When you start a sitting period, breathe. If you find yourself carrying along and holding onto a womb that is difficult, let go. Step forth seven steps in each direction. All we need is one step to sit down. That is seven steps. Don’t worry. Just like a baby. When we are a baby, we don’t concern our self with making sure we have everything that we need. We have what we receive, biologically, genetically, and so forth. All sorts of wombs give birth to this. It manifests as body-mind-life. Not because we make sure we carry it along, but because it does. And in the same way, we don’t have to make sure we carry along all our skills, memories. Even if I say concerns and plans, when it is time to deal with them, they appear. If you put it in your calendar, when you open your calendar, you find it. If you didn’t, then you discover you need help. The rest of the time, nothing is necessary.

Throughout this life, remind yourself from time to time to be born into this sitting, into this bowl of food, into this water washing your face, this piece of toilet paper. Each is this moment being born, the opportunity for you to greet and declare the universe, to give birth to the universe, to give birth to yourself as the universe, give birth to the universe as yourself. So, forgetting yourself, the whole universe supports, encourages, realizes you, realizes your life, manifests your life.

Thank you.

© 2010 Elihu Genmyo Smith