Resting in the unborn

Resting in the unborn –
New Kusen collection of Guy Mokuhō Mercier

(available in french only)

By Liliann Shu Rei Manning

RESTING IN THE UNBORN is the 3rd collection of Guy Mokuhō Mercier’s kusen. This booklet consists of five groups of kusen, delivered on various occasions, and a teisho on samsara, the wheel of life. The subject of this teisho has interested Guy Mokuhō for a long time and his enthusiasm is infectious!

As with the two previous collections, this 3rd booklet offers us a unique meeting between the subjects traditionally taught in zen and the particular way in which the author approaches them. To read Guy Mokuhō’s kusen is to enliven and invigorate our practice! Thanks to his teachings, we become particularly aware of the need to be conscious of our sensations. The booklet has about sixty paragraphs, in which Guy Mokuhō refers to sensations. Here are two examples, which illustrate this perfectly. They appear in the first pages of the booklet 3.

“Bringing your awareness to your sensations, following them as they spread out, and then disappear, is an instruction which allows us to come back into the flow of life, from moment to moment. The present moment is as it is, neither good nor bad.”

And a little further on:

“The more we become One with sensation, the more we feel life, which flows in heat, energy,, tension, waves, and the more our field of consciousness widens until it simply disappears in the sensation of being, which is not bodily. It isn’t an exercise which we can do just by personal will. We must let ourselves be. The sensation of being -or to take up the Buddha’s expression: pure consciousness of the presence of self.”

The more we become One with sensation, the more we feel life, which flows in heat, energy,, tension, waves, and the more our field of consciousness widens until it simply disappears in the sensation of being, which is not bodily. It isn’t an exercise which we can do just by personal will. We must let ourselves be. The sensation of being -or to take up the Buddha’s expression: pure consciousness of the presence of self What is more, coming back to the first quote, reading his kusen allows us to acknowledge that the present moment can only be pure: nothing is added, and it can only be felt, so, it cannot be willed.

If I could sum up in one sentence what I felt after reading this collection of kusen, I would say that knowing that these teachings are available whenever I want to read them again means that I can ensure a constant source of spiritual nourishment. •