"It is not that I understood from the moment I was born, but that after
exhaustive investigation and grinding discipline,
in an instant, I knew myself."
Rinzai

Zen

What is Zen? In a way it takes one's whole life to answer this question.

At heart Zen is not a philosophy, religion, art, or movement, but a way of life. It is claimed to have been passed from teacher to student in a living tradition from the time of the historical Buddha down to the present. Zen came to full flower in 7th century China, out of a synthesis of Buddhism and Taoism, and later traveled through Japan and Korea.

A student once asked a Zen master, "What is Zen?" The master instructed, "Go ask the wall." After some time the student returned, confounded. "I don't understand," he said. "Neither do I!" retorted the master -- who roared with laughter. If only we could "not understand" like a master!

When Nansen, an 8th century Chinese master, was asked what is Zen, he expressed the impossibility of giving a satisfying answer through words, in his reply, "Can a cloud in the sky be nailed there, or bound there by a rope?"

In our own time, the contemporary Japanese master Yasutani Roshi said, "Zen is the perfection of character."

Here is a collection of passages on Zen that I have found inspiring. Much of the material was encountered through the talks of Albert Low, director of the Montreal Zen Center. (If you are interested in practicing Zen with a group in Tucson, contact the Zen Desert Sangha.)


Passages


Ordinary Mind is the Way

In desperation Joshu asked Nansen, "What is the Way?"
"Ordinary mind is the Way," answered Nansen.
Still tormented Joshu continued. "How do you get onto it?"
"The more you try the further you push it away," Nansen replied.
Joshu pressed on. "If you do not try how do you know you are on the Way?"
And Nansen said:
The Way has nothing to do with knowledge. Neither is it not-knowing.
Knowledge is illusory; not-knowing, lack of discrimination.
It is like vast space --
where is there room for right or wrong,
is or is not?
Upon this Joshu was suddenly awakened.

       The Mumonkan (Koan 19)

Joshu's Mu

A monk in despair came to Joshu. "I implore you:
in all of existence and non-existence, is there anything I can count on?"
Joshu said: "Mu!"

       The Mumonkan (Koan 1)

This encounter is a koan, a core situation that offers a window on the truth. The word mu in Japanese is a form of "no" used for ultimate negation. To see into the koan Mu usually takes a student of Zen ten to fifteen years of arduous work with a master.

The above version rephrases the monk's question, which is traditionally given as, "Does a dog have the Buddha nature?" The action in Mu takes place after the exchange between Joshu and Nansen in Ordinary Mind is the Way, when Joshu has become a master in his own right.


True Nature

A monk asked Nansen: "How can I see into my true nature?"
Nansen replied: "That which sees into is your true nature."


A Joke

Q.  What did the Zen master say to the hotdog vendor?
A.  "Make me one with everything."

(Thanks to my friend Paul Gold for this joke.)


To Follow the Way is to Study the Self

To follow the Way is to study the self.
To study the self is to forget the self.
To forget the self is to be one with the ten thousand things.
To be one with all things is to drop body and mind.
To drop body and mind is to go beyond awakening while manifesting it
at every moment.

       Zen Master Dogen


Mind Is Without Form

Followers of the Way,
mind is without form and pervades the ten directions:
In the eye it is called seeing,
in the ear it is called hearing.
In the nose it smells odors,
in the mouth it holds converse.
In the hands it grasps and seizes,
in the feet it runs and carries.
Fundamentally, it is one pure radiance;
divided, it becomes harmoniously united spheres of sense.
Since the mind is nonexistent,
wherever you go, you are free.

       Zen Master Rinzai


Sustained Exertion

The great Way involves the highest form of exertion,
which goes on unceasingly in cycles
from the first dawning of religious truth,
through the test of discipline and practice,
to awakening and nirvana.
It is sustained exertion proceeding without lapse from cycle to cycle.
Accordingly, it is exertion that is neither self-imposed, nor imposed by others,
but free and uncoerced.
The truth is that the benefits of one's own struggles and sustained exertions
are shared by all beings in the ten directions.
Others may not be aware of this, but it is so ....

The merits of these exertions are sometimes disclosed,
and thus arises the dawn of religious consciousness,
which is then tested in practice.
Sometimes, however, these merits lie hidden
and are neither seen nor heard nor realized.
Yet hidden though they may be, they are still available
because they suffer no diminution or restriction
whether they are visible or invisible,
tangible or intangible.

At this moment a flower blossoms, a leaf falls --
it is a manifestation of sustained exertion.
A mirror is brightened, a mirror is broken --
it is a manifestation of sustained exertion.
Everything is exertion.
To attempt to avoid exertion
is an impossible evasion
because the attempt itself is exertion.
This sustained exertion
is not something that people of the world naturally love or desire;
yet it is the last refuge of all.

       Zen Master Dogen


The Wise Man

Irrigators guide water;
fletchers straighten arrows;
carpenters bend wood;
wise people shape themselves.

       The Dhammapada (80)

Suffering

This is the truth about suffering.
Birth is suffering.
Decay is suffering.
Sickness is suffering.
Death is suffering.
To be with those we dislike
and apart from those we like
is suffering.
Not to get what one wants is suffering.
In a word, this body --
this five-sensed mass based on grasping --
is suffering.

       The Samyuttanikaya (v 421)

Causality

I will teach you the truth:
if this is, that comes to be;
from the arising of this, that arises;
if this is not, that does not come to be;
from the ceasing of this, that ceases.

       The Suttanipata (ii 3)

The End of Suffering

There is a realm wherein
is neither earth,
nor water,
nor fire,
nor air;
nor the infinity of space,
nor the infinity of consciousness;
nor the void,
perception,
or non-perception;
where there is neither this world
nor the world beyond;
neither the sun,
nor the moon;
nor a coming
or a going
or a standing still;
nor a falling away,
nor a rising up.
It is without fixity,
without mobility,
without basis.

It is the end of suffering.

       The Udana (viii 80)

The Unborn

There is an unborn,
an unbecome,
an unmade,
an unconditioned.

If there were not,
there could be no escape
from what is born, become, made, and conditioned.

But since there is
an unborn, an unbecome, an unmade, an unconditioned,
therefore is there release
from what is born, become, made, and conditioned.

       The Udana (viii 80)

The One Who Shows the Way

Here we have nirvana,
here we have the way to nirvana,
and here stand I as instructor of the way.
Yet some of my disciples
thus advised and trained by me
attain nirvana
and others do not.
What do I do in the matter?
The Buddha is the one who shows the way.

       The Majjhimanikaya (iii 107)

The Last Refuge

And whosoever shall be
an island unto themselves
and a refuge unto themselves,
shall take to themselves
no other refuge,
but seeing truth as an island,
seeing as a refuge truth,
shall not seek refuge
in anyone but themselves --
it is they who shall reach
the further shore.
But they must make the effort themselves.

       The Dighanikaya (ii 101)

Buddha's Last Words

This I tell you:
decay is inherent in all conditioned things.
Work out your own salvation, with diligence.

       The Dighanikaya (ii 154)


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