“Training is enlightenment, and enlightenment is training.”

SHUGYO

The Japanese have six words referring to the intensity of training in any activity:  keiko, renshu, shunren, tanren, kufu, and shugyo.  The first four can be translated respectively as: practice, training, discipline, and forging.  There are no adequate English words for the last two.  Shugyo is the deepest spiritual training possible.  Refining the self in shugyo is like forging a sword from raw iron ore.  Fire, water, and iron are folded upon each other by the pounding of the hammer over and over again to create the cutting edge.  Without shugyo, all realizations are passing highs.  The natural form of the body will not be developed, nor will the structures of mind emerge from the Unconscious; and a person will regress to egotistical patterns under pressure.  If a person trains to attain enlightenment as an end, frustration and despair is inevitable for the Way is endless.  But if you accept life as shugyo, see through both good and bad fortune as the effects of karma, and continually refine breath, posture, and awareness, then one day you will clearly realize the truth of Master Dogen’s words, “Training is enlightenment, and enlightenment is training.”

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