From this month’s first Zen maxim in Japanese site of Rinzai-Obaku Zen.
There are what we might call existential questions.
Why do people live? Why can people not stop fighting?
Even if we ask such questions to a renowned teacher, a well-regarded book, or even an AI said to become wiser than humans, no matter how convincing the answers may sound, we may understand them with our minds, yet rarely do they settle deeply within our hearts.
In truth, questions like these have no final answers that others can give us.
We can only clear the dust from the eye of our own mind and come to our own understanding.
Yet even so—
why did we ask that question in the first place?
一翳在眼空華乱墜（いちえいまなこにあればくうげらんついす）
臨黄ネットの今月の最初の禅語から。
実存的問いというものがあります。
人はなぜ生きるのか。人はなぜ争いをやめられないのか。
こうした問いを、高名な師や評判の書物、さらには人間より賢くなると言われる AI に尋ねてみても、どんなにもっともらしい答えを示されても、頭では分かったようでいて、心の奥まで腑に落ちることはなかなかありません。
実はこのような問いには、他人が与えてくれる最終的な答えはありません。
自分自身の心の眼の塵を払い、自分自身で得心するしかないのです。
しかし、そもそも——
なぜ自分はその問いを問うたのでしょうか。
He puehu i te whatu—ka marara iho ngā putiputi i te rangi kau
Hei tā te kōrero tuatahi o te marama i te wāhanga Hapani o te Rinzai-Obaku Zen.
He pātai ā-tūtanga ētahi.
He aha te take e ora ai te tangata? He aha hoki te take e kore ai te tangata e mutu te whawhai?
Ahakoa ka ui atu tātou ki tētahi kaiako rongonui, ki tētahi pukapuka e tino whakanuia ana, tae noa ki tētahi AI e kīia ana ka nui ake tōna māramatanga i tō te tangata, ahakoa he pēhea te whai kiko o ngā whakautu, tērā pea ka mārama ki te hinengaro, engari kāore e tino tau ki te ngākau.
Ko te mea pono, kāore he whakautu whakamutunga ka taea e tētahi atu te tuku mō ēnei pātai.
Me whakakore kē e tātou te puehu i te whatu o tō tātou ake hinengaro, kia puta ai te māramatanga mā tātou anō.
Heoi anō—
he aha rā i pātai ai tātou i taua pātai i te tuatahi?