Transmigration

Kenpo asked his monks, "What kind of eyes do they have who transmigrate to the six worlds?"

It is told that those who are not enlightened will transmigrate to the six worlds: the world of hell (suffering), the world of hungry demons (greed), the world of animals (ignorance), the world of bloodshed (killing), the world of man (moral rectitude, happiness, and sorrow) and the world of angels (happiness only). The seventh world is the buddha's world. When one attains the Buddha's world, one need not transmigrate (suffer) further. Kenpo asked his monks what kind of eyes do they have, those who go again and again into the six worlds.

To begin with, those who live in the six worlds do not have eyes to see. Their blind ignorance is the very reason they live in such greed and suffering. Zen teaches reality beyond reason, reality itself.

Things simply are, and there is no good or bad reason. Each world has its own eyes. The world of bloodshed has the eyes of aggression, and the animal world has the eyes of ignorance. The farmer's eye is to cultivate, and the businessman's eye is to buy and sell. But those eyes are hindrances and should be forgotten. True love forgets the idea of "love." Fire is hot; ice is cold. Samsara is Nirvana; Nirvana is Samsara ("there is no enlightenment outside of worldly life") The eye of Zen is to see things as they are: no love, no hate, no enemy, no ally.