Life is like a person in a
boat. Aboard the boat, one uses a
sail, holds a
tiller, poles the boat along. Yet the boat carries
you and without the boat you are not
there. Riding the boat is what makes it a boat. You must study and penetrate this very moment. In this moment, the whole
world is this boat. Thus “life” is what
I live and “I” is life living me. Getting aboard the boat, this bodymind and all that is around are all the complete activity of the boat. Both the whole world and the vast
sky are the boat’s complete activity. This I that lives and the life that is I is just like this.
from "Zenki: Complete Activity"
by Dogen zenji
translated by
Yasuda Joshu Dainen and Anzan Hoshin