Essays in Zen Buddhism: First Series

When that has made the eyes to be closed,—

a—a—ah!

So far concerning Deity [devata].”

Lightning flash is a favourite analogue with the Zen masters too; the unexpected onrush of satori into the ordinary field of consciousness has something of the nature of lightning. It comes so suddenly and when it comes the world is at once illumined and revealed in its entirety and in its harmonious oneness; but when it vanishes everything falls back into its old darkness and confusion.

f124 Pao-tz‘u Wên-ch‘in, a disciple of Pao-fu Ts‘ung-chan, who died 928 A.D.

f125 Another time when Jōshu was asked about the “first word,” he coughed. The monk remarked, “Is this not it?” “Why, an old man is not even allowed to cough!”—this came quickly from the old master. Jōshu had still another occasion to express his view on the one word. A monk asked, “What is the one word?” Demanded the master, “What do you say?” “What is the one word?”—the question was repeated when Jōshu gave his verdict, “You make it two.” (Ch. N., [6.3].)

Shuzan (Shu-shan) was once asked, “An old master says, ‘There is one word which when understood wipes out the sins of innumerable kalpas:’ what is this one word?” Shuzan answered, “Right under your nose!” “What is the ultimate meaning of it?” “This is all I can say”:—this was the conclusion of the master. (Ch. N., (Ch. N., [6.4].)

f126 There are many mondoes purporting to the same subject. The best known one by Jōshu is quoted elsewhere; of others we mention the following. A monk asked Risan (Li-shan), “All things are reduced to emptiness, but where is emptiness reduced?” Risan answered, “The tongue is too short to explain it to you.” “Why is it too short?” “Within and without, it is of one suchness,” said the master. (Ch. N., [6.6].)

A monk asked Keisan (Ch‘i-shan), “When relations are dissolved, all is reduced to emptiness; but where is emptiness reduced?” The master called out to the monk, and the monk responded, “Yes,” whereupon the master called his attention, saying, “Where is emptiness?” Said the monk, “Pray, you tell me.” Keisan replied, “It is like the Persian tasting pepper.” While the one light is an etiological question as long as its origin is the point at issue, the questions here referred to are teleological because the ultimate reduction of emptiness is the subject for solution. But as Zen transcends time and history, it recognises only one beginningless and endless course of becoming. When we know the origin of the one light, we also know where emptiness ends. (Ch. N., [6.7].)

f127 Another time a monk was told, “Hold on to your poverty!” Nan-yin Yegu’s (Nan-yüan Hui-yü) answer to his poverty-stricken monk was more consoling, “You hold a handful of jewels yourself.” The subject of poverty is the all-important one in our religious experience—poverty not only in the material but also in the spiritual sense. Asceticism must have as its ground-principle a far deeper sense than to be merely curving human desires and passions, there must be in it something positive and highly religious. “To be poor in spirit,” whatever meaning it may have in Christianity, is rich in signification for Buddhists, especially for Zen followers. A monk, Sei-jei (Ch‘ing-shi), came to Sozan (Ts‘ao-shan), a great master of the Sōtō school in China, and said, “I am a poor lonely monk: pray have pity on me.” “O monk, come on forward!” Whereupon the monk approached the master, who then exclaimed, “After enjoying three cupfuls of fine chiu (liquor) brewed at Ch‘ing-yüan, do you still protest that your lips are not at all wet?” As to another aspect of poverty, cf. Hsiang-yen’s poem of poverty.

f128 An analogous story is told of Sekito Kisen (Shih-t‘ou Hsi-ch‘ien) who is grandson in faith of the sixth patriarch. The story is quoted elsewhere.

f129 When this is literally translated, it grows too long and loses much of its original force. The Chinese runs thus: hao li yu ch‘a t‘ien ti hsüan chüeh. It may better be rendered, “An inch’s difference and heaven and earth are set apart.”

f130 That is, Ts‘ao-ch‘i, where the sixth patriarch of Zen used to reside. It is the birthplace of Chinese Zen Buddhism.

f131 Does this not remind us of an old mystic who defined God as an unutterable sigh?

f132 A monk asked Hsüan-sha, “What is the idea of the National Teacher’s calling out to his attendant?” Said Hsüan-sha, “The attendant knows well.” Yün-chü Hsi commented on this: “Does the attendant really know, or does he not? If we say he does, why does the National Teacher say, ‘It is you that are not fair to me’? But if the attendant knows not, how about Hsüan-sha’s assertion? What would be our judgment of the case?”

Hsüan-chiao Chêng said to a monk, “What is the point the attendant understands?” Replied the monk, “If he did not understand, he would never have responded.” Hsüan-chiao said, “You seem to understand some.”

A monk asked Fa-yen, “What is the idea of the National Teacher’s calling out to his attendant?” Fa-yen said, “You go away now, and come back some other time.” Remarked Yün-chü, “When Fa-yen says this, does he really know what the National Teacher’s idea is? or does he not?”

A monk approached Chao-chou with the same question, to which he replied, “It is like writing characters in the dark: while the characters are not properly formed, their outlines are plainly traceable.”

f133 Literally, “A day [of] no work [is] a day [of] no eating.” cf. II. Thessalonians, III., 10: “If any would not work, neither should he eat.” It is noteworthy that St. Francis of Assisi made this the first rule of his Brotherhood.

f134Tso ch‘an is one of those compound Buddhist terms made of Sanskrit and Chinese. Tso is Chinese meaning “to sit,” while ch‘an stands for dhyāna or jhāna. The full transliteration of the term is ch‘anna, but for brevity’s sake the first character alone has been in use. The combination of tso-ch‘an comes from the fact that dhyana is always practised by sitting cross-legged. This posture has been considered by the Indians the best way of sitting for a long while in meditation. In it, according to some Japanese physicians, the centre of gravitation rests firmly in the lower regions of the body, and when the head is relieved of an unusual congestion of blood, the whole system will work in perfect order and the mind be put in suitable mood to take in the truth of Zen.

f135 He was the noted Confucian disciple of Baso (Ma-tsu), and his wife and daughter were also devoted Zen followers. When he thought the time had come for him to pass away, he told his daughter to watch the course of the sun and let him know when it was midday. The daughter hurriedly came back and told the father that the sun had already passed the meridian and was about to be eclipsed. Hō came out, and while he was watching the said eclipse, she went in, took her father’s own seat, and passed away in meditation. When the father saw his daughter already in Nirvana, he said, “What a quick-witted girl she is!” Hō himself passed away some days later.

f136 This historical temple was unfortunately destroyed by the earthquake of 1923, with many other buildings.

f137 In those monasteries which are connected in some way with the author of this admonition, it is read or rather chanted before a lecture or Teisho begins.

f138 I must not forget to mention that after the reading of the Hṛidaya Sūtra the following names of the Buddhas and others are invoked: 1. Vairocana-Buddha in his immaculate Body of the Law, 2. Vairocana-Buddha in his perfect Body of Bliss, 3. Śākyamuni-Buddha in his infinite manifestations as Body of Transformation, 4. Maitreya-Buddha who is to come in some future time, 5. All the Buddhas past, present, and future in the ten quarters of the world, 6. The great holy Bodhisattva Mañjuśrī, 7. The great morally-perfect Bodhisattva Samantabhadra, 8. The great compassionate Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara, 9. All the venerable Bodhisattva-mahāsattvas, and 10. Mahāprajñāpāramitā.

f139 When the slop-basin goes around, spiritual beings are again remembered: “This water in which my bowls were washed tastes like nectar from heaven. I now offer this to the numerous spirits of the world: may they all be filled and satisfied! Om ma-ku-ra-sai (in Pekingese, mo-hsiu-lo-hsi) svāha!”

f140 This question of dust reminds one of Berkeley’s remark: “We have just raised a dust and then complain we cannot see.”

f141Shê-li, is some indestructible substance, generally in pebble-form, found in the body of a saint when it is cremated.

f142Kung-an is a question or theme given to the student for solution. It literally means “public document,” and, according to a Zen scholar, it is so called because it serves as such in testing the genuineness of enlightenment a student claims to have attained. The term has been in use since the early days of Zen Buddhism in the T‘ang dynasty. The so-called “cases” or “dialogues” (mondo) are generally used as kō-ans. A special chapter devoted to the subject will be found in the second series of The Essays.

f143 I cannot tell how early this “Sesshin” originated in the history of the Zendo. It is not in Hyakujo’s Regulations, and did not start in China but in Japan probably after Hakuin. The Sojourn period generally being a “stay at home” season, the monks do not travel, but practise “Sesshin” and devote themselves to the study of Zen; but in the week specially set up as such, the study is pursued with the utmost vigour.

f144 That is, ti-ch‘ang. Tei means “to carry in hand,” “to show forth,” or “manifest,” and sho “to recite.” Thus by a Teisho the old master is revived before the congregation and his discourses are more or less vividly presented to view. It is not merely explaining or commenting on the text.

f145 Dharaṇī is a Sanskrit term which comes from the root dhṛi, meaning “to hold.” In Buddhist phraseology, it is a collection, sometimes short, sometimes long, of exclamatory sentences which are not translated into other languages. It is not therefore at all intelligible when it is read by the monks as it is done in the Chinese and Japanese monasteries. But it is supposed to “hold” in it in some mysterious way something that is most meritorious and has the power to keep evil ones away. Later, dharanis and mantrams have grown confused with one another.

f146 The founder of Tenryuji, Kyoto. He is known as “Teacher of Seven Emperors.” 1274–1361.

f147San-ch‘an literally means “to attend or study Zen.” As it is popularly used now in Japan, it has, besides its general meaning, the special one as is referred to in the text.

f148 Formerly, this was an open affair, and all the mondos (askings and answerings) took place before the whole congregation, as is stated in the Regulations of Hyakujo. But, later, undesirable results followed, such as mere formalism, imitations, and other empty nonsenses. In modern Zen, therefore, all sanzen is private, except on formal occasions.

f149 While thus going around, he came to a house where an old woman refused to give him any rice; he however kept on standing in front of it, looking as if nothing were said to him. His mind was so intensely concentrated on the subject which concerned him most at the time. The woman got angry, because she thought he was altogether ignoring her and trying to have his own way. She struck him with a big broom with which she was sweeping and told him to depart right at once. The heavy broom smashed his large monkish hat and knocked him down on the ground. He was lying there for a while, and when he came to sense again, everything became to him clear and transparent.

f150 As to the life of his teacher, Daito, reference was made to it elsewhere.

f151 The wind is probably one of the best imageries to get us into the idea of non-attachment or Śūnyatā philosophy. The New Testament has at least one allusion to it when it says, “The wind bloweth as it listeth,” and here we see the Chinese mystics making use of the wind to depict his inner consciousness of absolute identity, which is also the Buddhist notion of the void. Now compare the following passage from Echkart: Darum ruft die Braue auch weiter: “Weiche von mir, mein Geliebter, weiche von mir”: “Alles, was irgend der Darstellung fähig ist, das halte ich nicht für Gott. Und so fliehe ich vor Gott, Gottes wegen!”—‘Ei, wo ist dann der Seele Bleiben?’—“Auf den Fittichen der Winde!” (Büttner, Meister Eckeharts Schriften und Predigten, Erster Band, p. 189.) “So flieche ich vor Gott, Gottes wegen,” reminds us of a Zen master who said, “I hate even to hear the name of the Buddha.” From the Zen point of view, “Gottes wegen,” may better be left out.

f152 The full passage is: “He who seeks learnedness gets daily enriched. He who seeks the Tao is daily made poor. He is made poorer and poorer until he arrives at non-action (wu wei). With non-action, there is nothing that he cannot achieve.” (Chap. 48.)

f153

Na vāsanair bhidyate cit na cittaṁ vāsanaiḥ saha,