Zen Buddhism
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ZEN BUDDHISM by CHRISTMAS HUMPHREYS President of the Buddhist Society, London WILLIAM HEINEMANN LTD Me l b o u r n e :: LONDON :: To r o n t o ZEN BUDDHISM By the same Author WHAT IS BUDDHISM? 1928. CONCENTRATION AND MEDITATION. 1935. STUDIES IN THE MIDDLE WAY. I94O. k arm a a n d REBIRTH (Wisdom of the East Series). 1943. WALK o n ! 1947. v i a to k y o (illustrated). 2948. Poem s POEMS OF PEACE AND WAR. 194I. SEAGULLS AND OTHER POEMS. 1 9 4 2 . SHADOWS AND OTHER POEMS. 1945. UODHIDHAKMA i n z a z e n From a painting by ? Ikkai (nineteenth century). I-ent by Dr. Duncan Whitaker to whom it was given by the late Dr. Kenneth Saunders. ZEN BUDDHISM by CHRISTMAS HUMPHREYS President of the Buddhist Society, London WILLIAM HEINEMANN LTD Me l b o u r n e :: LONDON :: To r o n t o F o r H ASUKO who designed the Wrapper, and laughed heartily in the Right Places. CONTENTS PAGS PREFACE XI ONE Be y o n d th e I n te lle c t . I TWO T h e B irth of Z en Buddhism 24 THREE T h e N a t u r e o f Z e n Buddhism 43 FOUR I n S e a r ch of Z en 65 FIVE T h e F ruits of Z en 81 SIX But What is Zen? 99 SEVEN Z e n T echnique 116 EIGHT S a to r i 144 NINE T h e R esults o f S ato ri 168 TEN Z e n in E nglish L iterature 181 ELEVEN Z en fo r th e W est 194 TWELVE L e t ’s T r y I t ! 213 I n stead of C onclusion 22 X A bbreviations U sed in F ootnotes 232 B ibliography 233 I ndex 237 ILLUSTRATIONS Bodh idh arm a in Z a z e n . From a painting by ? Ikkai (19th c.) lent by Dr. Duncan Whitaker, to whom it was given by the late Dr. Kenneth Saunders. frontispiece Plate 1 P ropessor D aisetz T eitaro S u zu ki in the garden of his house at Kamakura. Photo by Author in 1946 2 A Z en M aster. A modern painting presented to the Author in Japan. 3 A B uddhist Bon ze o r M o n k. Japanese. Carved and painted wood of die 15th c. 20 ins. high. Author’s collection. 4 G roup T a k e n in K yo to in 1946. Seated (L to R), Prof. D. T. Suzuki, the Abbot Daiko Yamasaki of Shokoku-ji, the Author with, on his lap, the small son of the Abbot Sohaku Ogata of Chotoko-in. Note the Zen robes of the at pages Abbots (Rinzai sect). 64-65 5 T he Z endo (M ed itatio n H a l l ) of Soji-j i, the mother temple of the Soto sect of Zen. Photo by Author from Via Tokyo. 6 C hinese G a t e w a y a t “ O b a k u -San”, the mother temple of the Obaku sect o f Zen. 7 K in kaku -j i. T h e Golden Pavilion in the Zen temple of Rokuon-ji, Kyoto, built in 1397 by the Ashikaga Shogun Yoshimitsu. 8 T he 14TH C en tury G ar d en op D a i- toku-j i, K y o t o . Note the expanse o f at pages combed white sand. Photo by Author. 96-97 viii X ILLUSTRATIONS 9 T h e F amous K oan , “ T h e sound op one h a n d cla p p in g ” . A woodcut by Hasuko (Mrs. Christmas Humphreys). page 1*5 10 T h e F amous K o a n , “ D ro p it ” . A Drawing by Hasuko (Mrs. Christmas Humphreys). page 127 11 C h a-no-y u , th e J apan ese T e a -G erb- m o n y . Two of three panels of a modem Japanese print lent by Mr. G. Koizumi. Note the single picture and flower in the Tokonoma, and the general sim plicity of furnishing. 12 “A F in g e r P ointing to th e M oon”. A painting presented to the Author by the Abbess of Enkoji, Kyoto. 13 A Z en T em ple B e l l . The wooden beam is swung against the rim of the clapper- less bronze bell. 14 A G r o u p o p J udo P ractitioners at the Budokwai, London, founded in 1918 by Mr. G. Koizumi (centre: somewhat in at pages verted). 192-193 15 M rs. R u th S asaki, founder of the First Zen Institute of New York, in a facing Japanese garden. page 206 16 The Author with the artist, Mr. Take facing Sato in a Japanese mountain Hotel. page 207 17 Propessor D. T. Su zu k i’ s c o n tr ibu t i o n to the Author’s autograph album in Japan. It reads (top to bottom) “ The Power of Non-Deception” . page 231 viii PREFACE Z en is the essence and value o f life, that which makes life worth living. Being that which uses and discards all forms, whether o f thought, words or material substance, it cannot be described in terms of form. As Taoism, the godmother of Zen, declared of Tao, “The Tao that can be described is not the eternal Tao.” Yet “ to get it across” (a most thought-provoking phrase) some form is necessary, and in a book which is not merely about Zen, but which attempts to transfer the life of Zen to the receptive reader, a style must be devised to the occasion. To this end I have fashioned a mixture of the flippant and the deadly serious, the rational and the irrational, or, as Zen would put it, super-rational It leads the reader’s mind to the precipice which lies between the highest thought and the humblest truth and then, by a jerk or joke, tries to push it over. It tries to unite the far and near, the pseudo-holy ideal and the no less holy umbrella-stand. As Ruysbroeck said, “ You are as holy as you will be,” and in Zen all things are as holy as you make them, being in themselves neither divine nor blush- producing, but precisely what they are. When all is Mind, says Zen, why divide into the compartments of space and time the all-here and the only now? The style o f this book, then, is deliberate. I f it holds the reader to the task in hand it is good: if not, it is not so good, for the reader. I do not apologise for being occasionally personal, in x i xii PREFACE opinion or the record of experience, for one cannot speak of the deeps of Zen like a salesman selling a car. Nor do I regret occasional repetition. The young are advised in m y profession to say a thing once to a judge, twice to a bench o f magistrates, and three times to a jury. This is often too polite to the judge. My liberal use of quotations has three causes. I wish to show that others, widely scattered in time and space, hold views which, however strange, are those now being expressed, and the writers quoted generally say what I wish to say in far better words than my own. Thirdly, their voices vary the attack, as one might say, on the citadel o f the reader’s mind. The most quoted author is, o f course, Professor D. T. Suzuki o f Japan, for, as a glance at the Bibliography will show, his books, booklets and articles on Zen provide at least three quarters of all that has yet been written on the subject in English; and much that others have written in the last twenty years is only a paraphrase of his material. To him must be rendered thanks, by all who understand the profound importance of gratitude, for our Western knowledge of Zen. M y reasons for writing this book are, first, that the interest in Zen is rapidly rising, and although the Buddhist Society, with the help of Rider and Co., are now reprinting Dr. Suzuki’s Collected Works on Zen, there is need for a book which attempts to collate this eastern way of attainment with our western approach to the same experience. Alan Watts’ little book, The Spirit of Zen> though brilliant, only whets the appetite; W. J. Gabb’s Beyond the Intellect, even though fortified by his later lectures, soon, I hope to be published as Studies in Zen Buddhism, is too subjective to cover the intellectual PREFACE xiii field. But if these are the reasons for the book, the cause is otherwise, and quite irrational. I wrote it as one writes a poem— because it came. My qualifications are small. I studied the works of Dr. Suzuki as they appeared; I am editing his Collected Works, and in the course o f this tremendous task have re-read the whole o f them. I spent seven months in Japan in 1946, and much o f this time at the feet of the Master; I have tried to live Zen. But I am not a master of Zen, not even a pupil of one, and the average Zen master, were he to read this book, would probably roar with laughter and put it to useful purposes.