Flower Does Not Talk: Zen Essays

PREFACE

The whole world today, both East and West, seems to be going through a period of convulsion, a time of travail, as it seeks to give birth to a new culture. There cannot be one simple cause for the tensions in so many parts of the world, but one of the major factors may be that while remarkable progress has been made in the use of new scientific knowledge, we human beings 'have not developed sufficiently spiritually and ethically to meet the new conditions.

It is most urgently required, therefore, that we must work to create a new human culture by striving for a truer understanding of humanity and a higher level of spirituality, We must attain a higher level of personality so that we can cope with the brilliant scientific achievements of modern times.

Zen presents a unique spiritual culture in the East, highly refined in its long history and traditions, and I believe it has universal and fundamental values that can contribute toward creating a new spiritual culture in our time. The important point about Zen is, however, that we should understand it, experience it, and live it in the varying circumstances of our everyday life. Small and insignificant as my existence and work as a Zen Roshi may be, I believe that they contribute to the infinite future.

Five years ago, at the kind invitation of The Hazen Foundation, I made my first lecture trip to the United States. Since then on four different occasions I have had the privilege of talking with students and professors at several American colleges and universities. On each trip, as we came to know each other better, I have come to realize more clearly the differences and unique characteristics of Eastern and Western traditions. We should not too easily conclude that there is just one Truth, and that East and West are after all the same. If, however, we are awakened to our true humanity, we will realize that at the bottom of all the differences there is the fountainhead which is the basis for the happiness of all mankind. I am grateful for the invaluable opportunities to get in close touch with the people in the West, not only for the sake of superficial cultural exchange, but because from these experiences has come the significant realization that we are all living as the same kind of human beings in this present moment in history and working for a new human culture together.

I should also like to express our appreciation for the assistance given by The Hazen Foundation in publishing this volume. This book includes several essays written on different occasions: some are lectures given at various universities in the United States, some are texts used for seminars, and some are in the form of light prose, for I believe that Zen can be savoured and enjoyed in such a form, too. Although there are some repetitions, I have decided to present these essays as they were originally composed.

It was Dr. Daisetz T. Suzuki who persuaded me to make my first trip abroad five years ago. I feel especially honoured to include in this English volume an introduction by Dr. Suzuki. It moves me deeply to think that this introduction was the final work penned by Dr. Suzuki at the end of his extraordinary life of ninety-five years. I learned later that upon completion of this introduction he was taken ill the following day, and passed away early the next morning on July 12th, 1966. Even now this expression of Dr. Suzuki's deep friendship and the wondrous workings of the Dharma relationship fill my heart with gratitude.

Thus, the friendship and gracious intentions of our various good friends are contained in this book. I sincerely hope that it will, even in a small way, help to promote real understanding between East and West.

Zenkei Shibayama

Nanzenji Monastery, Kyoto

INTRODUCTION

Zen claims to be a specific transmission outside the scripture and to be altogether independent of verbalism, but it is Zen Masters who are most talkative and most addicted to writings of all sorts. Almost every Master of note has left what is known as Sayings (J. goroku or C. yü-lu) which is more or less filled with paradoxical expressions altogether off the ordinary logical line of human understanding. The Masters seem to be particularly delighted to lead the readers to bewilderment with their apparently irrational and often irrelevant utterances. But the fact is these utterances issue from the Masters' most kind and loving heartedness as they wish to open for their students the higher way of observing things enabling the latter to rid themselves of the entangling network of relativity. It is indeed because of these entanglements that we are sinking deeper and deeper into the abyss of intellectual confusions and affective embarrassments.

Rev. Zenkei Shibayama, author of this book, is the Abbot of the Nanzenji Monastery in Kyoto. As a good Zen Master he talks and writes, though he knows that the flower does not talk, nor does it write; and the book here rendered into English by Miss Sumiko Kudo, one of his promising disciples, is a prologue attached to a collection of the Abbot's talks occasionally given to his students and to the general audience. He tells us here what Zen is and how it expresses itself by quoting the old masters liberally from The Transmission of the Lamp. This book serves as a good introduction to the study of Zen for English speaking peoples of the.West.

One of the stories quoted here from Nansen (Nan-ch'üan P'u-yüan, 748-834) characteristically demonstrates a master's attitude towards life and gives us, even of today, a fine example, teaching us how to live Zen. I like this story very much, and wish our readers to especially keep it in mind when pursuing the study of Zen.

When Nansen was working in the field cutting grass with his monks, a travelling monk asked him, Where is the road to the Nansen Monastery? The traveller of course did not know that the man he so asked was the Master himself of the Nansen. The latter then nonchalantly held out the sickle he was using and said, I paid 30 pieces of money for this! as if he did not hear the question the traveller wished to have answered. It goes without saying that the Master of the Nansen knew perfectly well what the traveller was expecting, but he wished even more to make him realize that Zen's business is not to accumulate abstract knowledge, or to be versed in devious ways of philosophical discussion. Zen is to live a concrete life of this very moment. Hence not the road to the philosophical understanding at the Nansen Monastery, but the actual sickle in hand.

We may presume that the travelling monk was by no means a novice in Zen, but one with a certain experience. He thus wanted to see what Nansen would say and went on: I am not asking about the cost of your instrument. What I want is the road leading to the Nansen. The Master again apparently ignoring the question, at least in its literal sense, said, It cuts very well.

One of the most remarkable features of Zen is that it is far from being mystical, quizzical or argumentative but altogether practical, matter-of-fact and firmly stands on solid ground. Another remarkable characteristic of Zen is that Zen people do not build up an artificial gradation among them, and that when they work they all partake in the work regardless of age, elder or novice. Master Hyakujo (Pai-chang Huai-hai, , 720-814) says: A day of no work is a day of no eating, and he was a strict observer of the motto.

There are some Western critics of Zen who contend that the Oriental approach to Zen does not necessarily apply to the Western way of thinking and that therefore the West must have or discover its own method whereby Zen can be readily made understandable for them. This is true in one way, but not at all in another way. To be sure the East, that is China and Japan, has had a long history of Zen, and Zen is a familiar word to them, and satori is not a strange and inaccessible experience. It is imagined that the East is, therefore, naturally at an advantage in this respect. For the Western people, however, this is not the case, and it is thought that their approach must be different.

Superficially, this may sound reasonable. But the fact is, Zen is as remote for the Easterner as it is for the Westerner when Zen tells us to change or reverse our usual way of understanding. This is to say, Zen teaches that in order to understand a mountain to be a mountain in the Zen way, this experience is to be negated first—a mountain is not a mountain—and it is only when this negation is understood that the affirmation a mountain is a mountain becomes Reality. This identity of contradiction is at the basis of all Zen thought however bizarre and irrational they may appear to a Westerner as well as an Easterner.

In any case let us not forget that Zen always aspires to make us directly see into Reality itself, that is, be Reality itself, so that we can say along with Meister Eckhart that Christ is born every minute in my soul, or that God's Isness is my Isness. Let us keep this in our minds as we endeavour to understand Zen as explained here by Rev. Zenkei Shibayama.

Daisetz T. Suzuki

Matsugaoka Bunko, Kamakura

CHARACTERISTICS OF ZEN

As you know, Buddhism originated in India about 2,500 years ago, founded by the Indian saint Sakyamuni Buddha. In the course of its long history it was taken to various areas of Asia and developed in different ways in each country, being much influenced by the indigenous culture of each land.

Briefly explained, Buddhism consists of two basic elements. One is "the incomparable, perfect, and supreme satori," which Sakyamuni Buddha attained after long years of hard searching. This true satori is the core of all Buddhist teachings. It is the life and spirit of Buddhism. The second element consists of the various teachings of Sakyamuni Buddha during the forty-nine years of his life after his attainment of satori, the teachings by which he demonstrated and explained the satori he had experienced.

Thus, Buddhism is based on Sakyamuni Buddha's religious experience, satori, and his teachings are expressions and explanations of this satori experience. Of course, these two were fused into one in Sakyamuni Buddha's personality, and neither should be taken up independently of the other. In the course of time, however, some people came to think that they might reach satori by merely studying and accepting various teachings of Sakyamuni Buddha, and this resulted in the founding of many schools and sects in Buddhism. On the other hand, there were people who thought that the rise of different sects and schools showed an alienation from the true spirit of Buddhism, which is satori, and they emphasized the necessity of transmitting the satori experience of the founder, which is, after all, the basis of all his teachings.

Zen can be explained as a school which insists on the direct transmission of the satori experience itself as the very core of all Buddhist teachings. While most Buddhist schools rely on some particular teachings or sutras left by Sakyamuni, Zen is based on satori, the religious experience of Sakyamuni, and regards all of his teachings and explanations as of secondary importance.

Master Eisai (1141-1215) who introduced Zen into Japan, described the position and the significance of Zen in relation to other Buddhist schools when he said, It is the foundation of Buddhism and is the basis of all sects and schools. He thus defined Zen as the very spirit and source of the Buddhism in which all the schools are embraced.

Satori is the religious basis of Sakyamuni Buddha's personality as the Buddha, and his teachings are its expressions, explanations, or descriptions. It is natural that Zen, which is founded on the satori experience, calls itself the Foundation of Buddhism, and insists on its all-inclusive character as the basis for other Buddhist schools.

Thus, Zen can be accepted in the broad sense as Zen itself, or the Truth itself, apart from its narrow sectarian interpretation as a school of Buddhism. When Zen is seen in such a broad sense, Zen means the Truth, or the Absolute; it is not limited to Buddhism alone, but is the basis of all religions and all philosophies. In this sense, Zen does not remain simply the core of Buddhism, but it works to deepen and revive any religion or philosophy. For instance, there can be Christian Zen, or Taoistic Zen; there can be Zen interpretations of Christianity or of Taoism.

Once a British gentleman came to see my own teacher and decided to study under him. The koan my teacher gave to this British gentleman was a famous Christian passage, Blessed are the poor in spirit. Or, St. Paul's The outer man perishes, but the inner man is revived day by day can be a Zen koan.

A Zen text tells us that when a Confucian named Kosangoku came to study under the Zen Master Maido, the Master gave him as his koan the famous Confucian saying, "Do you think that I am hiding It from you? There is nothing that I keep away from you. Another famous Confucian saying, Tao-just Oneness all through," is today accepted as a Zen koan.

Dr. Daisetz T. Suzuki, in his essay entitled Kabir's Zen, introduced a poem by Kabir, the fifteenth-century Indian mystic. I still