The Great Matter Of Life And Death Great is the matter of life and death

In all Zen sesshins I have been to, there was an evening service where the guy leading the sesshin recited something akin to the following.

Great is the matter of life and death.
Life slips quickly by.
Time waits for no one.
Wake up! Wake up!
Don’t waste a moment.

Actually, i visited only one English speaking retreat, so mostly it was a German version as the one below.

Aus tiefstem Herzen sage ich euch:
Immer geht es um Leben und Tod.
Alles vergeht und kein Verweilen kennt der Augenblick.
Seid achtsam. Nicht nachlässig. Nicht vergesslich.

I have an additional English translation for you, just in case you do not appreciate the first one.

Let me respectfully remind you.
Life and death are of supreme importance.
Time swiftly passes by and opportunity is lost.
Each of us must strive to awaken, awaken.
Take heed! Do not squander your life.

Usually, there is a wooden block, somewhere at the entrance of the Zendo, where the same stuff is written. Mostly, it is written in Japanese kanji, so you probably cannot read it.

This wooden block is struck with a mallet in increasing tempo and instills a sense of urgency. It is not a pleasant sound, but rather jolting. You can see the impact of the mallet at the wooden block, as there is some wood chipped away. Sometimes the wooden block even breaks (although i have never witnessed that).

The beat becomes faster and faster. Just like the rhythm of time. As children, we cannot plan for the next year or even the next weekend. As an adult, we look back and wonder where all those years went. First seasons and then whole years blur together.

Sometimes i start a story with the word “recently”, only to then remember that the story i am going to tell already happened a year ago.

Contrary to popular belief, Buddhism does not teach rebirth. At least not Zen Buddhism. In Buddhism there is no self that can be reborn. In the Genjo Koan, the founder of the Soto lineage Dogen Zenjo wrote the following.

Firewood becomes ash. Ash cannot become firewood again. However, we should not view ash as after and firewood as before. We should know that firewood dwells in the dharma position of firewood and has its own before and after. Although before and after exist, past and future are cut off. Ash stays in the position of ash, with its own before and after.

I do not know what “dwelling in a dharma position” means. Other translations have different words in that place that i also do not get, such as the following.

You should understand that firewood abides in the phenomenal expression of firewood which fully includes past and future, and is independent of past and future. Ash abides in the phenomenal expression of ash which fully includes future and past.

But that is not the point. If we still do not get it, Dogen becomes even more clear in his next sentence.

As firewood never becomes firewood again after it has burned to ash, there is no return to living after a person dies.