What is Shugyo?

The original meaning of Shugyo is the body of enlightenment itself.

When I received my inner calling as a Zen priest in 1988, I chose "Shugyo Daijo" for my Japanese ordination name and continue to embody it as the expression of my true commitment as a Zen teacher and Dharma holder.

In brief, I define Shugyo as "continuous daily practice." The Japanese word Daijo can be translated as "Great Way." So Shugyo Daijo can be understood as "Continuous Practice of the Great Way."

By "Continuous Practice" I mean the endless Zen practice of living from our still-body-core-intelligence while deeply listening and surrendering to the ever arising wisdom and compassion of Zen that therapeutically transforms and spiritually fulfills our everyday life and relationships. By "Great Way" I mean the Infinite Wisdoming Process that orchestrates the vast Oneness, boundless intimacy, and limitless Interdependency of all quantum energy, sentient beings, solar systems, infinite galaxies, and multidimensionalities that exist within and beyond the spherical continuum of life and death.

Given this brief introductory definition, let me share with you the Japanese martial arts historical understanding of 'Shugyo' and why my own daily embodied understanding "of Shugyo" is the Way of living enlightenment itself.

The Martial Arts Meaning of Shugyo

In the Japanese martial arts, 'Shugyo' has been historically translated as "austere training" or "rigorous practice" for days, weeks, or months. Today, both in Japan and the United States, 'Shugyo' is still commonly understood as "engaging in intense training periods or hard rigorous practice periods" in order to master your martial art, deepen your humanity, and attain a spiritual awakening of your True Nature, the True Nature of all human beings, and the True Nature of reality as a whole. However, if we analyze the component parts of the Japanese kanji, or pictographic character for the word "Shugyo", we can unravel a more pristine or root meaning of the term that has broader and deeper moral, ethical, and therapeutic implications for living enlightenment during our everyday life and relationships.

The Japanese kanji for gyo in the pictographic character is loosely translated as "practice." However, exploring its root metaphorical meaning reveals several interdependent aspects of our human life experience.

The left part of the pictogram is symbolic of the human footprint of the left foot (a), and the right part is symbolic of the complementary footprint of the right foot (b). Thus, we can understand gyo as "to practice taking a step, to travel or walk."

On another level, the pictogram outlines a vertical and horizontal four-way crossroads (c) — a place where a decision must be made so that the feet can know which way to continue the practice of walking. Gyo thus means making a decision to wakefully practice the journey of life moment by moment — for each moment is not only the crossroads of our whole life, but also the crossroads of our life and death.

Starting from the left of the "Shu" Japanese kanji or pictogram, we have the abbreviated image for a human being next to a 'wooden stick' (d).The three dashes to the right of the stick are indicative of "delicate hairs," like those wrapped on a wooden duster brush (e). Above the "delicate hairs or dashes" are four brush strokes which form a pictogram that is usually translated as "the function of a hand to hold or use something "(f). However, this part of "Shu" is also visually related to four other Japanese kanji that come from four ancient Chinese pictograms. I believe that this visual similarity is not accidental and needs to be taken into account in any pristine and complete translation of "Shu". By translating and integrating the four similar pictograms and their additional meanings we are able to derive a deeper root definition for the "Shu" pictogram or kanji as a whole.

The first similarity is to the primitive Chinese pictogram "chung" which stands for "end" or "completion". The second is to the Chinese pictogram "sui"which represents "a human being who goes on, despite of shackles". The third is to the Chinese pictogram "nuren" which represents "feminine, a woman". The fourth is to the Japanese pictogram "mata" which stands for the concept of "again and again".

By translating and integrating four similar Japanese kanji or pictograms — chung (completion), sui (a human being who goes on despite shackles), nuren (feminine, a woman), and mata (again and again) — we arrive at a broader, deeper root definition of shu:

• Dusting one's heart/mind to authenticate their original clarity and openness
• One's willingness to take up endless dusting (again and again)
• A human being who embraces themselves completely as they are (completion) while remaining committed to character refinement in the midst of greed, aggression, ignorance, and delusion (shackles)
• The archetypal symbol of the feminine in human beings — that which compassionately listens and is unconditionally receptive

The Root Definition of Shugyo

"The constant, sincere, decisive, and passionate practice of deep bodily listening to a Vast Wisdom beyond our ignorances, delusions, and prejudices — while faithfully and courageously stepping forward to act and BE our innately complete and originally enlightened humanness at the every-moment crossroads of life and death."

This authentic meaning of Shugyo reveals the urgent opportunity in each moment to practice compassionate bodily listening and unconditional receptivity to an everywhere-emerging Wisdom — capable of manifesting and authenticating our innately enlightened humanness for the mutual benefit of all sentient beings.

Constancy in Zen Shugyo life practice is based on a balance between self-compassion and devoted discipline. The purpose of Zen Shugyo life practice is to create an ongoing dynamic tension, much like the string tension of a guitar. This means that we daily tighten the guitar strings of our Zen Shugyo life practice with a devoted self-discipline while also softening the string tension with self-empathy and self-compassion. In this Way, the wondrous musical spirit of living enlightenment is expressed and authenticated in the Zen practice of Shugyo within all our activities and relations.

Clearly, Shugyo Zen reflects 1) a unwavering commitment to practice our daily life as deep bodily listening to each wisdoming moment of Now far beyond our ego-self and thinking mind, 2) a willingness to honor and live the truth before our rationalizations, prejudices, biases, and delusions, 3 ) the courage to remain open while ceaselessly embracing change, uncertainty, mystery, and wonder, and 4) the unconditional acceptance of our individual personality while being determined to endlessly improve and refine one's character, one's life, and one's relationships. With each step that we take in the practice of Shugyo we have the opportunity to learn new things about ourselves and our world---the opportunity to constantly deepen our humanness, redefine ourselves, and enrich the meaning and purpose of our life and the lives of others.

What Shugyo is Not

Shugyo is not concerned with gaining an enlightenment by increasing the intensity and duration of seated meditation. It is not about the willful development of mental concentration to empty the mind of thoughts or enter into a blissful transcendental calmness. It is not about the attainment of deep silence through the application of some inner technology.

Shugyo practitioners understand concentration as "just being the pristine nature and total aliveness of their whole body that always happens as this only moment of Now" — a matter of surrender and renunciation. Surrender to their compassionate and wholly lucid self-embodiment; and renunciation of their enslaved identification with personality, thinking mind, divisive beliefs, and ego-self functioning.

Thus, Shugyo practice not only provides an experiential base for embodying an all inclusive empathy that clarifies and deepens our humanity, it also encourages us to reach out with courage, curiosity, faith, mutual respect, and whole body mindfulness to express and verify our boundless intimacy and limitless interdependency with all beings and things that randomly and sequentially meet us in our everyday lives.