``when you are hungry, eat; when you are tired, sleep.''
Zen in its essence is the art of seeing into the nature of one's being.1 The only adequate description of this ``self-nature'' is mu, that is, ``nothingness'' or ``void''... but, alas, mu helps nobody in understanding the spiritual, philosophical, and social reverberations of Zen.
Spiritually, Zen leads one to the ultimate freedom from the ultimate bondage (ignorance) via meditation. Literally, Zen means ``thinking'' or ``meditation'' and through ``thinking'' or ``meditation'' we come to the realization that we are all of the One, the void, and from this knowledge we attain spiritual tranquility.
Philosophically, Zen proposes that the infinite is indistinguishable from the finite, that the One is inseperable from the Many, that we are all God yet none of us are. It is radical empiricism: the Buddha, the originator of Zen (as will be explained later), took life as it is and did not try to read it according to his interpretation, though that is impossible epistemology speaking.2
Socially, Zen is either an amazing release from the bondage of the Mind, a cute way to title a book (``Zen and the Art of ______''), or a radical cult that promises the impossible. From most it is looked at in awe, though few have more than a vague idea about its meaning, while others see it as the currently chic trend in Hollywood (much like yoga); however, there are also many who see Zen as an excuse, or verification, for believing that all is meaningless and morality is relative. Unfortunately, and oddly, considering its awesome significance for the individual who attains Enlightenment, a devoted follower is a rare find (in America, that is).
In order to understand what Zen truly is, one must first understand the origin. The beginnings of Buddhism and Zen are so old that the historical record is vague at best. Orthodox Zen Buddhism understand the following to be the origin of Zen: the Buddha, Sakyamuni, was once preaching at the Mount of the Holy Vulture to a congregation of his disciples. He did not preach through thick rhetoric, but simply held up a flower (or a bouquet of flowers) before the people, which was presented to him by one of his lay-disciples. He spoke not a word. Nobody understood the meaning of this except Mahakasyapa, who quietly smiled at the master, as if he fully understood this teaching of the Enlightened One. The Buddha saw this and proclaimed solemnly, ``I have the most precious treasure, spiritual and transcendental, which this moment I hand over to you, O venerable Mahakasyapa!''3
Many Zen followers describe that moment as the first incident that disclosed the inmost mind of the Buddha as well as the secret of the religion. As Zen claims to be the inmost essence of Buddhism (that is, Enlightenment) and to have been directly transmitted by the Buddha to his great disciple, Mahakasyapa, followers naturally search for the moment when this transmission took place. It is known that Mahakasyapa succeeded the Buddha as the leader of (Zen) Buddhism, but as to his special transmission of Zen, there is no record in the Indian Buddhism writings.4 Regardless of whether the event at the Mount of the Holy Vulture is authentic, it can be stated that Zen really became a separate faith when the Bodhidharma brought Indian Buddhism to China (Hui-neng was the receiver of Bodhidharma's wisdom), dated to be in 520 C.E. He came to China with a special message that can be expressed as such:
A special transmission outside the scriptures;
No dependence upon words and letters;
Direct pointing at the soul of man;
Seeing into one's nature and the attainment of Buddhahood.
The
message was very
different from the common
mystic understanding of
Buddhism in
India. While
Buddhist followers were mostly more
preoccupied with following the
ethics and
society teachings of the
Buddha, the
Chinese Zen followers tried to obtain
Enlightenment, the
root and
purpose of
Buddhism.
Suzuki explains the
situation well in his ``
Introduction'':
At the time of the introduction of Zen into China, most of the Buddhists were addicted to the discussion of highly metaphysics questions, or satisfied with the merely observing of the ethics precepts laid down by the Buddha or with the leading of a lethargy life entirely absorbed in the contemplation of the evanescence of things worldly. They all missed apprehending the great fact of life itself, which flows altogether outside of these vain exercises of the intellect or of the imagination. Bodhidharma and his successors recognized this pitiful state of affairs. Hence their proclamation of ``The Four Great Statements'' of Zen as above cited. In a word, they mean that Zen has its own way of pointing to the nature of one's own being, and that when this is done one attains to Buddhahood, in which all the contradictions and disturbances caused by the intellect are entirely harmony in a unity of higher order.
Therefore, it is said that though Zen originated after
Buddhism,
Buddhism is a sub-sect of Zen, a
social-ethical dogma layered on top of
Enlightenment. While
Buddhists praise the
Buddha and his teachings, Zen
Buddhists
praise Enlightenment and its
emancipation power.
What, then, is the essence of Zen? Firstly, we must understand what the Buddha taught. The most fundamental truth the Buddha discovered after his spiritual quest is the Four Noble Truths:
- Life is suffering
- Suffering is due to attachment (desire)
- Attachment can be overcome
- There is a path for overcome attachment
Nearly every
human suffers; this is
obvious. But this
suffering exists because we
ignore or we are
unaware of the
fact that
nothing is
permanent, even
ourself. We
grasp to the
false ideas that
desire can be satisfied, that
loved ones will always be with us, that `
I' is
fundamentally
different from `
you'. Because of our
ignorance, we
suffer; however, there
is a
path out of
suffering:
the middle way.
The middle way is the
crevice between
idealism and
materialism,
hedonism and
asceticism, the
one and the
many; it can be thought of as neither
indulgence nor
starvation, but the
perfection in between. Via
the middle way, one understands that
anger and
joy, for example, leave the
mind as quickly as they came, if allowed to do so. One is no longer a
slave to the
rise and fall of all that is, but he exists
outside of that
realm; he steps aside and simply
observes. The
essence of Zen is the
essence of
non-attachment.
Suzuki states, ``One may not be
conscious of all this, and may go on
indulge in those
momentary pleasures that are afforded by the
senses. But this being
unconcious does not in the least alter
the facts of life. However
insistently the
blind may deny the
existence of the
sun, they cannot
annihilate it. The
tropical heat will mercilessly
scorch them, and if they do not take proper
care they will all be wiped away from
the surface of the earth.''
Zen cannot
exist in the
barriers of the
intellect. When Zen is
cut and
categorized by
the analytical knife something is
lost...
infinity cannot be understood using numbers. Because Zen is the ``
alpha and the omega'' of
reality, the ``
infinity'' of
life, it cannot be
captured in
words and
ideas. The common
analogy is: ``to point to the
moon, a
finger is needed, but woe to those who take the
finger for the
moon; a
basket is welcome to carry our
fish home, but when the
fish are safely on the
table why should we
eternally bother ourselves with the
basket?''
5 The
intellect is a
barrier to our understanding of Zen but, like the
finger, it must be
utilized as a
catalyst;
Zen never explains but indicates.
Logically considered, it is full of
contradictions and
absurdity but as it stands above all things, it goes
serenely on its own way. And therefore, the
truth can only be
discovered through
personal,
direct,
intuitive experience. ``Just as two
stainless mirrors reflect each other, the
fact and our own
spirits must stand facing each other with no
intervening agents. When this is done we are able to
seize upon
the living, pulsating fact itself.''
6
The path to understanding Zen must lead toward no-mindness; the mind is ``ordinarily chock full with all kinds of intellectual nonsense and passional rubbish.'' Suzuki continues:
They are of course useful in their own ways in our daily life. There is no denying that. But it is chiefly because of these accumulations that we are made miserable and groan under the feeling of bondage. Each time we want to make a movement, they fetter us, they choke us, and cast a heavy veil over our spiritual horizon... Being so long accustomed to the oppression, the mental inertia becomes hard to remove.7
The
process of ``
reconstruction'' is ``
stained with tears and blood'' and, historically speaking, one must
surrender one's
self to
death, to
mortality (
the ultimate fear,
the ultimate grasping) before
understanding will be
possible. At the exact
moment when the
student8 decides, with every
fiber of his body, that he would rather
die than not attain
Enlightenment, he is
enlightened (again, historically speaking; this
statement is not to be
understood as
the way to Enlightenment, but merely what is often
necessary for
Enlightenment).
The only way to
cease attachment and understand Zen, or
the nature of one's self, is
meditation.
Zazen, or
Zen meditation, has three aims: 1) development of
the power of concentration (
joriki), 2)
satori-awakening9 (
kensho-godo), and 3) actualization of the
Supreme Way in our
daily lives (
mujudo no taigen).
10 Zazen clears the
mind and improves
concentration via
dull repetition. By monotonously uttering a
word (for example, ``
mu''), or
counting breaths, the word or breath counting
loses all meaning (similar to repeating the word ``
yes'' until it no longer has any
significance); at that point, when the
mind is suddenly
clear of all thought, the
student sees
Life:
sounds enter and leave,
sights come and go, and
desire and
emotion flow like
a faucet over a drain.
Nothing remains constant (even the
no-mindness), and
suffering ceases, for that short period of
time. Once this
experience has presented itself to the
student, he must follow up with even more
meditation and he must
integrate meditation into every moment of his
life; this
integration is one of
the three main purposes of Zen, of
zazen (stated above). And
without zazen, there is no Zen.
Contemporary Zen in America is riddled with false practices, abuse of power, and confused followers who know nothing more about Zen than its periodic waves of appeal among the fashionable. The same is that, because the Western mind is so fundamentally different from the Eastern mind, purely Eastern ideas, such as Zen, become twisted and abused as they are transplanted to Western civilizations. Contemporary mutilations of Zen include ``Dark Zen''11, merchandise such as ``Osho Zen Tarot'' cards12 and Zen clocks13, and hundreds upon hundreds of books claiming to have Zen influence (most disgustingly The Zen of Organizing: Creating Order and Peace in Your Home, Career and Life by Regina Leeds, Zen Interiors by Vinna Lee, and, the most ridiculous one yet, The Zen of Food: The Philosophy of Nourishment by Sallyann J. Murphy, whose first recipe is Pot Roast). But besides the commercialization of false-Zen, the real tragedy is from organizations such as the Internation Zen Association (AZI) which has often been accused of being authoritarian and utilizing ``mind-control'' and numerous masters of various Zen centers throughout America who have been accused of sexual and financial exploitation.14 These rare trendy and exploitive offenses against Zen cloud the judgement of possible students when considering its world-view.
In the end, Zen is simply personal liberation. Suzuki says it well:
If we feel dissatisfied somehow with this life, if there is something in our ordinary way of living that deprives us of freedom in its most sanctified sense, we must endeavor to find a way somewhere which gives us a sense of finality and contentment. Zen proposes to do this for us...15
The
ultimate standpoint of Zen is that we have ``been led
astray through
ignorance to find
a split in our own being, that there was from
the very beginning no need for a struggle between
the finite and the infinite, that the
peace we are seeking so eagerly after has been there all the time... We are thus made to live on
the superficiality of things. We may be
clever,
bright, and all that, but what we produce lacks
depth,
sincerity, and does not appeal to
the inmost feelings. Some are utterly unable to create anything except makeshifts or
imitations betraying their
shallowness of character and want of
spiritual experience.''
16
Perfection is the actualization of one's self with reality:
Misty rain on Mount Lu,
And waves surging in Che-chiang;
When you have not yet been there,
Many a regret surely you have;
But once there and homeward you wend.
And how matter-of-fact things look!
Misty rain on Mount Lu,
And waves surging on Che-chiang.
-Sotoba
1 D.T. Suzuki, from ``Introduction'' of Essays in Zen Buddhism, ISBN 0-8021-5118-3
2 D.T. Suzuki, from ``Enlightenment and Ignorance'' of Essays in Zen Buddhism, ISBN 0-8021-5118-3
3 D.T. Suzuki, from ``History of Zen'' of Essays in Zen Buddhism, ISBN 0-8021-5118-3
4 D.T. Suzuki, from ``History of Zen'' of Essays in Zen Buddhism, ISBN 0-8021-5118-3
5 D.T. Suzuki, from ``Introduction'' of Essays in Zen Buddhism, ISBN 0-8021-5118-3
6 D.T. Suzuki, from ``Introduction'' of Essays in Zen Buddhism, ISBN 0-8021-5118-3
7 D.T. Suzuki, from ``Introduction'' of Essays in Zen Buddhism, ISBN 0-8021-5118-3
8 ``Student'' meaning ``one training in Zen'', not ``one studying Zen (academically)''
9 ``Satori'' is a Japanese word meaning ``enlightenment''
10 Roshi Philip Kapleau, from ``Three Aims of Zen'' of The Three Pillars of Zen, ISBN 0-3852-6093-8
11 http://www.darkzen.com
12 http://www.osho.org/Magazine/Tarot/OshoZenTarot.cfm
13 http://www.now-zen.com
14 Stuart Lachs, ``Coming Down from the Zen Clouds: A Critique of the Current State of American Zen'', available at http://www.darkzen.com/Articles/uszen3.html
15 D.T. Suzuki, from ``On Satori - The Revelation of a New Truth in Zen Buddhism'' of Essays in Zen Buddhism, ISBN 0-8021-5118-3
16 D.T. Suzuki, from ``Introduction'' of Essays in Zen Buddhism, ISBN 0-8021-5118-3