The practice of Zen is often referred to as a form of cultivation. Like growing a garden, where we cultivate by tilling and amending the soil, providing water, locating for adequate sunshine. Then comes planting the seeds, preventing weeds from crowding out the plantings, scavengers from eating the produce, and both from taking over the plot.

In cultivating the Buddhist Precepts, the process may be seen as analogous to gardening. Long before we become aware of something called precepts, the context of their cultivation is already present, just as the soil, sunshine, rain, and adverse, competing forces are already in place, long before we decide to plant our garden.

It is also true that something must have happened to make us decide to attempt gardening in the first place. Our parents or grandparents may have been gardeners. We may not have access to an adequate supply of fresh produce from the local market. We may have concerns over the quality of the produce we find at the local market, including whether it contains preservatives or residual pesticides, or is not really fresh enough. Or we may just think it is the cool thing to do.

Once the garden is underway, we confront the unromantic realities. Gardening is hard work. We have to make decisions regarding what to do about weeds, insects, and other bothersome realities that are working against the success of our project. The process of discovery often involves more negative surprises than positive ones.

The parallel to practice of Precepts should be obvious.

Last things first. I’ve said it before, and at the risk of repeating myself, will say it again: Buddha was not a Buddhist, any more than Christ was a Christian. Obviously, there was no such thing as Buddhism at the time of Siddhartha; and there was no such thing as Christianity at the time of Jesus. This is not meant to be a scholarly statement of historicity, nor is it intended to stir up controversy. Instead, I am suggesting that in considering our own, personal practice, our perspective needs to be informed by that of the ancient Masters (Harmony of Sameness and Difference):

Not understanding the Way before your eyes
How do you know the Path you walk?

No such thing as Buddhism
From a strictly Zen perspective, even today, there is still no such thing as “Buddhism.” If we misunderstand that Buddhism — that is, the teachings of Shakyamuni Buddha and his followers — is pointing to anything other than, or separate from, reality itself, our “first step is mistaken.”

If we mistake the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path for a doctrine about reality — rather than the outline of an approach to directly apprehending reality in our own experience — we have relegated Zen Buddhism to just another idea, philosophy, or belief system.

If we do apprehend the “Way before our eyes,” however (not “understanding” is a translator’s choice — even Buddha did not understand the Way), we will see directly into the insight of Buddha, penetrating to the only, singular point that he was actually making. This point is a turning-point, however, not an intellectual one (Precious Mirror Samadhi):

The meaning does not reside in the words
But a pivotal moment brings it forth
Move and you are trapped
Miss and you fall into doubt and vacillation

And this point, this “pivotal moment,” like any point, is so small — zero dimension on all axes — that it might easily be overlooked, or neglected (Precious Mirror Samadhi):

You would do well to respect this
Do not neglect it
So small it enters where there is no gap
So vast it transcends dimension
A hairsbreadth deviation
And you are out of tune

So this point is also inconceivably vast; it is beyond conventional measurement. Like the “eternal moment,” emphasized by Matsuoka Roshi, the “real time” of our existence. The deviation of a “hairsbreadth” represents a huge gap, by today’s standards of micro-measurement in physics; but it will suffice to make the point, that if we are only slightly to the left or right of center, as on an analog radio dial, all we will receive is static. We have to be tuned to just the right frequency, in order to “hear the true dharma” (Dogen’s Vow).