ZEN BUDDHISM

HISTORY

The spiritual impulses regularly launched by envoys are subject to the law of this world: The law of change, crystallization, degeneration. From the beginning, Buddhism presented itself under two aspects:

– The Dharma, which is the intangible, eternal law, and

 – The Sasana which is the teaching manifested in the world of « rising, shining, descending », subject to space-time and therefore destined to disappear once its task is accomplished.

Unfortunately, we regularly see humanity clinging to the empty form left after the passage of an envoy. Inner realization is projected outside and we witness the creation of an exoteric religion.

Thus Hinduism had lost itself in the worship of a multitude of Gods, forgetting the essential, Bhraman, the Unique Spirit source of all things. It took several centuries to see the first outward manifestation of Buddhism, namely the statues of Buddha that appeared around the 1st century AD.

The Buddha’s teaching was oral, he taught his disciples that each one must find within themselves the path to enlightenment by following the Noble Eightfold Path. They noted down his words, commentaries were added, great saints gave their vision of the Buddha’s teaching. All these sacred texts were written and then copied by monks who devoted their lives to this task. We thus ended up with a treasure of thousands, tens of thousands of books.

But writing, reading, meditating on these texts, cut off the seekers of truth from reality, preventing them from PRACTICE the Path of Enlightenment.

To combat the illusion, they had created another one, even more formidable because more subtle.

The teaching therefore had to be reformed once again, or rather revived. It was essentially the mission of Bodhidharma who, coming from India in the

6th century, propagated Mahayana Buddhism called the Great Vehicle in China. His teaching took the name of Ch’an then became Zen when it passed to Japan. To break with the deviations committed, he advocated the practice of meditation in direct contact with the Cosmic Mind, the Supreme Reality present in the heart of each being. He swept aside with a wave of the hand the abundant sacred literature which, according to him, had no use in progressing on the Path of Awakening; as Hui-neng (638-713) said:

« Do not let yourself be upset by the Sûtra, rather upset the Sûtra yourself »

In Bodhidharma’s eyes, Buddhism had to be a living religion, free from rites, magic, scriptures and intellectual speculations. One thing mattered to him above all else: the actual achievement of the state of awakening.

The spirit and goal of Ch’an were according to him:

– An oral transmission outside of the scriptures.

– No dependence on words and letters. – A direct search for the essence of man.

– Seeing into one’s own nature and attaining perfect awakening.

Bodhidharma was not the only initiator of Ch’an Buddhism which in fact succeeded  the Chinese Mystical School. The latter aspired to achieve the synthesis of the oppositions existing between Spirit and Matter, between the Supreme Essence of the Universe and external appearances.

The main initiators were Tao-an (312-385), then Tao-cheng (360-434) and Seng-chao (384-414) who was the student of the Hindu monk Kumarajiva, the translator of the Sûtras into Chinese.

Ch’an Buddhism entered Japan from the 6th century through Korea. But one of the main people responsible for the spread of Ch’an in Japan was Myoan Eisai (1141-1215) who went to China. On his return to Japan, he created the Rinzai school. He founded the Shofukuji temple in Katata in 1194, which still exists today.

Another great initiator of Zen was Dôgen Kigen (1200-1253) who, also on his return from a trip to China, created the Soto Zen school. This school attaches more importance to the meticulousness of daily practice than to the mental search for inner illumination.

Let us also note Hakuin (1685-1768) of the Rinzai school, initiator of the Koan method; these are statements of paradoxical truths that cannot be understood by the intellect. They force thought into silence, an inner silence that allows the manifestation of a higher level of consciousness.

Finally Bankei (1622-1693): he insisted on the importance of perfect attention to all the details of daily life and opposed training in meditations that could establish a split between spiritual life and ordinary life.

The so-called positive methods or means are dangerous because they limit the mind in an attitude of imitation.

Zen has degenerated into many sects such as Amidism founded by Hônen (1133-1212). It is based on the vow that the Bodhisattva Amitâbha would have made before achieving the state of Buddha:

« I do not accept to become Buddha as long as I can come to meet the one who will have believed in me ».

Followers practicing Nembutsu, that is to say invocations (Namu Amida Butsu) and prayers, are reborn in the paradise of Amitâbha, the Pure Land. This practice is similar to Catholicism which says:

Whoever believes in Jesus Christ and in the authority of the church will be saved.

The inner path is transposed into an external intervention. However, the great Buddhist masters have always declared that no awakened person can do anything for the disciple. The latter must find Awakening in himself and through practice.

TEACHING

Buddhism teaches us that the Nature of Buddha, the Divine Nature, is present, like the mystical rose, in the heart of every human being.

As Hsi-yun ( -850) said: « The Cosmic Mind is the Buddha… and the Buddha is all living beings. This Mind is no less manifested in ordinary beings, nor more manifested in the Buddha ».

We are the supreme reality, we are the Cosmic Mind, but we do not know it. We therefore have nothing to do in the accumulative sense of the term but rather to release the treasure that lies in the depths of consciousness, to undo the innumerable complications that imprison us, the Karmic, astrological, hereditary influences…

The religious man tries to discover the secret link that unites him to the divine presence that dwells in himself and in all things. There is no distinction between creator and creatures; no communion but an integration.

The main obstacle to this work is our Self, our consciousness which is in fact only an illusion, an uninterrupted flow of disjointed thoughts. Dogen, in the Soto Zen school, taught that the Spirit must be freed from all attachment, family, education, reading…

(If you love your father and mother more than me, you are not worthy of me). He affirmed that it is useless to be educated because science can divert from the only goal: the attainment of Enlightenment.

The study of the inertia of the force of habit is one of the main concerns of Buddhism, Ch’an and Zen.

The force of habit engenders inner poverty, laziness, monotony, unconsciousness and ignorance. This force is opposed to Awakening or Satori. This is creation, renewal, pure intelligence and cosmic consciousness. It is said in the Diamond Sutra:

« We do not perceive the world as it really is. Our imagination, nourished by the energy generated by habit, superimposes on the world an illusory construction, a mirage, images similar to those seen in dreams ».

PRACTICE

Ch’an and Zen offer a freedom from this dream. This liberation requires work done in depth. It is not a question of simply becoming aware of this or that bad habit (smoking, gluttony or excess of all kinds) and engaging in the practice of opposing habits. It is necessary to go very deep to put an end to the very process of the habit in its entirety. To do this, the disciple must strive to calm the flow of thoughts until seeing the interstitial void between 2 thoughts and concentrate on this void.

The Void comes from the Sanskrit Sûnyata which means Non-Self, foreign to reality. It is not a nothingness but the absence of our usual values, our dualistic conceptions, the properties or attributes that we grant to beings and things; it is Non-Attachment.

It is not possible to define the nature of the Real. This is why we proceed by negations: « That » is neither high, nor low, nor hot, nor cold, nor green, nor yellow…

Master Eckhart expressed it thus:

« To be empty of all creation means to be full of God, and to be filled with creation means to be empty of God.

The empty heart has power over all things!

What is an empty heart? A heart that is not attached to anything, sees its advantage nowhere in the world but is immersed in the will of God, having renounced its own will ».

Another concept coming from Taoism, and often misunderstood is Wu Wei or Non-action (or rather Non-reaction). It is not about inaction but about action based not on our ego but on the other reality in us.

(Not my will but let Your Will be done).

It expresses the need for silence among the agitations of the Self. If we want to be receptive to the Tao, the divine principle, our mental agitations, our violence, our greed, our fears must cease.

The absence of a plan or goal as we conceive them does not lead to incoherence or inaction.

« Although the Tao has no goal, it leaves nothing unfinished ».

Lao Tzu.

« The more means the people have to enrich themselves, the more family life becomes troubled. The more clever and ingenious the people are, the more useless inventions arise. The higher the flood of laws and regulations, the more bandits there are.

That is why the holy man says: I practice Non-action and the people, (man), transform themselves.

I do not act for profit and the people enrich themselves.

I am without desire and the people return to primitive simplicity ». Lao Tzu.

We must concentrate on what we are doing, live in the present and not let thoughts of the past and speculations about the future invade us.

« When you sit, sit; when you walk, just walk. But above all avoid mental agitations. » Yun-men ( -945)

« Do not think of good, do not think of evil, but look at what is, at the present moment, your original physiognomy: the one you had even before being born. » Hui-neng (638-713)

« If you cannot find the reality where you are, where do you hope to find it? Nyogen Senzaki

« What a supernatural wonder! And what a miracle. Here: I draw water and I carry wood. » P’ang-iun

The process is individual and must be lived inwardly by each one.

« Be your own lamp. » The Buddha.

Buddhist monks are not intermediaries between God and men. They show the road that each one must travel himself, by his own efforts, his own lucidity. The Awakened Ones, the instructors, the monks, can only really help the world by realizing the inner Awakening. They cannot affirm anything. Their role is limited to denouncing the obstacles that prevent us from awakening to the discovery of our real nature. Of the latter, nothing can be said.

« I know that I know nothing ». Socrates

Karma, law of cause and effect:

Westerners readily accept the idea that what each one sows, he reaps; but many of them wish for the intervention of an external power or hope for the forgiveness of a God.

Such a concept is foreign to Buddhism, Ch’an and Zen. To each cause for which we are responsible corresponds simply an effect that must manifest itself. No external power, no master, no God can interfere in the process of cause and effect presiding over the life of human beings.

« By oneself alone, evil is done. By oneself, evil is undone.

By oneself alone, one is purified.

Purity or impurity belongs to each one.

No one can purify another. » Dhammapada

Za Zen

Sitting meditation is an expression which, like Non-action, should not be taken literally. This meditation must be practiced continuously, whatever one’s activity. It is a permanent orientation on the goal to be achieved: Awakening. There is no separation between meditation and action.

« When you train in Za Zen, you should know that Ch’an is neither sitting nor lying down. If you train to become a seated Buddha, you should know that the Buddha is not a fixed form. Because Truth has no fixed form, it cannot be the object of any act of choice. If you transform yourself into a seated Buddha, by that very fact you kill the Buddha. If you attach yourself to the sitting position, you will not attain the principle of Ch’an. » Huai-jang

Satori

The goal of this approach is to attain Awakening or Satori (Tun-wu in Chinese), to enter Nirvana. The Masters of Ch’an and Zen use the expression « to return home » (Return to the Father, to the Original Kingdom); to attain Za Zen, the mental silence during which no thought arises. Thanks to this transparency, one discovers one’s deep and true nature.

Satori is achieved by the cessation of all self-affirmation. One must die to oneself (He must increase and I must decrease).

Personal consciousness dissolves and integrates with the universal consciousness of the Cosmic Mind. The Divine Reality present in each being connects it to the Original Spirit: Unity of all beings and surpassing the notion of personal reward in any spiritual or other act. Selflessness must be total.

Nirvana comes from Nirva which means to go out. This word means extinction, extinction of the flame of the Self, of its attachments, its desires, its ignorance. The result of this extinction is not nothingness but a plenitude that does not result from any rational work.

Awakening or Satori is not a « result ». It is in no way built by our mental manipulations. The inner attitude preparing for Satori consists of clearing away habits and useless attachments. « When we remain in Dhyana (meditation in Sanskrit), we are slaves of Dhyana. However excellent the merits of these spiritual exercises may be, they inevitably lead us to a state of servitude.

There is no liberation there. Thus the whole discipline of Zen can be considered as consisting of a series of efforts to free ourselves from all forms of servitude. » D.T. Suzuki

Satori is characterized by an intuitive vision that goes beyond our mental representations. This is linked to its supra-rational character. It is an experience that goes beyond the familiar dualities of spectator and spectacle, experimenter and experience: Inner Awakening eliminates the gap between the subject who knows and the objects of his knowledge. In the experience of Satori we are delivered from the traps set for us by the apparent distinctions of things and beings. We do not deny them. We situate them in their proper context, place they occupy in a larger whole and we feel no attachment to them.

The intuitive vision of Satori is an experience in which the Cosmic Mind – which we were without knowing it – reveals itself to us in its unity and total homogeneity. It is a total union including our world of illusion as expressed by Fa-tsang (643-712):

« Because sentient beings delude themselves, they think that they should abandon what seems illusory to them and find what is true. But as soon as enlightenment comes, the distinctions between the illusory and the true disappear. »

KOAN

This is a « Zen problem », a question whose answer is totally irrational, the Zen Masters being resolutely opposed to any theoretical speculation on this answer. Examples:

« What is the Buddha? 3 pounds of flax! » T’ung-shan

« For what reason did Bodhidharma come from the west?

The cypress in the courtyard! » Chao-chou

« What was your face before you were born? » Hui-neng

(searching for one’s inner nature)

« What is the sound of a single hand? » Hakuin (Chinese proverb: A single hand cannot clap. Can one hear what makes no sound?

Can one have any knowledge of one’s own nature?)

The student is thus finally led to feel completely stupid: he simply knows nothing! The mind seeking to know the mind, the Self seeking to control the Self, have been annihilated. The sense of the opaque veil of the personality masking the Reality behind appearance disappears.

HAIKU

These are small poems of 17 syllables that appeared in the 17th century in the spirit of Wu-shih: « Nothing special ». They translate things in their naturalness, without commenting on them, a vision of the world that the Japanese call Sono-mama:

« As it is ».

« The long night; the sound of the water says what I think. »

« With the evening breeze,

the water licks the heron’s legs. »

They can also express human feelings of solitude, sadness, compassion, and bewilderment:

« Melted snow falling;

unfathomable, infinite

solitude. » « The evening mist; thinking of things past,

how far away they are! »

The Arts and Zen

The constant theme of all Zen arts is the aimless life, the expression of the artist’s state of mind. The favorite subjects of Zen artists are natural, concrete subjects, subjects of everyday life. The work of art is not a representation of nature, but it is itself a work of nature. True technique involves the art of the natural, of simplicity, « controlled accident ». The paintings are composed as naturally as the rocks or plants they represent.

Artists inspired by Zen try to touch the soul by using emptiness, expressed by blank space in painting, by silence in music, the ellipse in poetry, immobility in dance.

Similarly a Zen garden or simply a Japanese living room privileges space. Each work of art emphasizes emptiness, on the other Reality, in order to provoke a shock, a questioning in the one who contemplates it and cannot grasp it with the Ego.

The Tea Ceremony (Cha-no-yu) evokes an atmosphere of relaxation, inner joy, and plenitude.

What is its mystery? There is none. A great Tea Master says this:

« You will arrange the charcoal in such a way that the water boils as it should; you will ensure that the beverage has a pleasant taste. In summer, you will create an impression of freshness in the room where it is taken, and in winter an impression of comfort ».

Japanese Martial Arts express the virtue of « Non-struggle ». One must not resist the force of attack but welcome it as the reed bends under the snow and the wind. And it is this force of attack of the adversary that will finally neutralize him.

According to Lao Tzu, flexibility, fluidity, always prevails over hardness:

« Newborn, man is flexible and frail; dead, he is rigid and hard. Flexibility and fluidity are the companions of life. Solidity and rigidity are the companions of death.

There is nothing in the world more inconsistent and weaker than water; however, it corrodes what is hard, nothing can resist it ».

Archery is the representation of the Original Trinity which manifests itself in the triple body of the Buddha:

Essence, Potentiality, manifestation. (God, Son, Holy Spirit).

It is also represented in the 3 Jewels of Buddhism:

The BUDDHA (the shooter) is the transmitter of the message, the DHARMA (the arrow) which is broadcast on earth by the community of Monks, The SANGHA (the target).

When the shooter, the arrow and the target become one, when total unity is achieved between God and his manifestation, the arrow leaves by itself and comes to stick itself in the center of the target, in its heart.

In conclusion we will say that Zen is not a method but a state of mind governed by spontaneity, an acceptance of human nature that recognizes its limits, thereby allowing us to detach ourselves from it and thus give the possibility to the Supreme Reality present in us to manifest itself again.

Zen Robert Linssen Marabout University

Zen Buddhism Alan W. Watts Payot

Essay on Zen Buddhism D.T. Suzuki Albin Michel