DOCSLIB.ORG

Great Master Bodhidharma: His Life and Teachings a Lecture Series Given in February 2021 - by Rev

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Great Master Bodhidharma: His Life and Teachings a Lecture Series Given in February 2021 - by Rev Great Master Bodhidharma: His Life and Teachings A lecture Series given in February 2021 - by Rev. Master Leandra Robertshaw - 1: Setting the Scene I have chosen to offer these talks largely because I know many trainees have a particular attraction to Bodhidharma and his teachings. I seem to have come to share their sense of him but at first more circumspectly. This may be part of a general questioning of what it is to be a monk and how we conduct ourselves as monks of the OBC. Nowadays I dare to question our rites and rituals and whether they do help us to live our lives as fully as any human being can so that we really know in a way that is beyond belief, that we all have the potential to become Buddha. This seems to be the essence of any spiritual life, though other spiritual traditions would, of course, describe it differently. Nowadays I love and respect Bodhidharma’s iconoclastic approach and smile at the legends that abound around his life and death. How much is fantasy; how much is weaving an intriguing story; how much is verifiable fact at this distance of many centuries later? Bodhidharma (Bodaidaruma) is our 28th Ancestor as Makakashyô is considered the first Ancestor (see the Denkôroku). Bodhidharma is also thought of as the first Zen Ancestor in our Ancestral line. Why was he given the title of the “first ancestor of Zen” given that there were so-called Zen masters in China before he arrived? I will return to this question in due course. The descriptions of his life has aberrations, or maybe ‘variations’ is a more polite word to use. It helps to see the somewhat different descriptions of his life as an inevitability as they are more like hagiographies; i.e descriptions the life of a saint, rather than an accurate biographies. He was the subject of many legends. Along with Zen and kung-fu, he reportedly brought tea to China. To keep from falling asleep while meditating, he cut off his eyelids and where they fell tea bushes grew. Hence there are descriptions, as well as drawings, paintings and sculptures of a monk with 1 bulging, lidless eyes. Buddhism came to China 2,000 years ago. Since then, thousand of Indian and Central Asian monks have journeyed to China by land and sea, but among those who brought the teaching of Buddha to China, none has had an impact comparable to that of Bodhidharma. Bodhidharma was born in the late 5th or early 6th century in southern India, the third son of a local monarch of the warrior cast. His father King Kôshi had a reverence for Buddhism. You can read the description of King Kôshi’s three sons in the Denkôroku and how Hannyatara who became Bodhidharma’s master, tested the spiritual wisdom of the three princes by showing them a priceless pearl and asking Can anything rival this pearl? Hearing Bodhidharma’s eloquent response Hannyatara knew that Bodhidharma was karmically descended from a sage. Yet, he still held back for a while before he accepted Bodhidharma as his disciple. Bodhidharma was Hannyatara’s disciple for forty years and when his Master died and he was approaching his sixties he knew his karmic connection with China had ripened and he sailed for three years crossing the Southern Sea to arrive at Nankai where the well-known audience with Emperor Wu took place. Emperor Wu is portrayed as a devout Buddhist intent on gaining merit through good works. He told Bodhidharma that he had been working very hard to establish Buddhism in China. Then he asked how much merit he would have earned. Bodhidharma replied “None whatsoever”. This first teaching of Bodhidharma was that all deeds are empty not because they are devoid of meaning, but because nothing is fixed and separate. He sought to turn the emperor’s attention away from spiritual success to an understanding of emptiness. What is emptiness? The Chinese word is Wu, the Japanese Mu. Empty doesn’t mean nothing; there is a fullness in emptiness because everything is connected. All our thoughts, opinions and experiences come from our interactions with everything else. My views are just a collection of others’ views. Views are not a problem. The problem is that we live our lives on the basis of attachment to an ingrained assumption and identity, namely that we possess 2 a permanent “I”. We may think we know ourselves and others, but really we do not. Because of our rigid assumptions, we categorise things in terms of good and bad, and to be honest, specifically things that are good or bad for “me”. In responding None whatsoever, Bodhidharma attempts to subvert the emperor’s religious piety, leaving him with nowhere to stand and nothing to grasp. This story leads me to consider whether I am a pious being at all! Probably not and I feel somewhat embarrassed to say this but not ashamed. Why not? It could be that instead I touch a deep sincerity in trying to follow the path, not only for my gratification but also trusting it can help others to find their own individual way in human life. There is a real wish to know the Truth. The emperor’s second question was “Who is facing me?” Bodhidharma replied “I don’t know.” Bodhidharma’s provocative replies are a challenge to let go of consoling beliefs and dwell in the unknowing perplexity of emptiness. Isn’t this a grave challenge for all of us? Can we let go of consoling beliefs and dwell in the perplexity of emptiness? Some days this can feel more challenging than I can bear and I long for easeful death (Keats). This is familiar territory and from time-to-time I am drawn back into the memory of a three-month winter retreat at the hermitage. I did not turn to Rev. Master Daishin for help. Why not? Was it a sort of obstinacy? Or a vivid sense that only I could find my way. Somehow Rev. Master must have sensed the struggle because he sent an encouraging card about finding a way in the echo chamber of the mind which helped me to investigate the nature of my own immediate experience and to investigate questions about training that arose for me. For instance, was monasticism really the path for me? If I stepped out of monastic life would this take away the pain and confusion? But I knew in my bones that was a hiding to nothing. So I tried another tack any found myself looking to death as the way out. I was drawn to reread Keats’s Ode to a Nightingale where he describes being “...half in love with easeful death.” 3 Finally, at last, at last, I stopped trying to dodge the pain, I ‘knew’ there was no way out, nothing to do but sit as still with feelings and thoughts as I could manage at each and every moment. These words of Shantideva’s were a lifeline: I should dispel the pain of others Because it hurts like my own And I should be good to them Because they feel just as I do When both they and I Are the same in wanting joy And not desiring pain What is so special about me? It was at this stage that my important friendship the neighbours across the valley came into being. The loving connection has endured even though nowadays I rarely see them. After his encounter with Emperor Wu Bodhidharma recalled Hannyatara’s words Do not abide in the South and went north. It is said by literal-minded people that he floated there on a reed and you have probably seen drawings of him floating on a reed. In fact, a reed is the name for a small passenger boat so called because of its shape; it was not an actual reed. He made his way to Mount Sung where an emperor had constructed Shaolin Temple. Some accounts say he stayed in the monastery’s east gallery, others say that he spent nine years facing the rock wall of a cave about a mile from the temple. No one could fathom what he was doing when he sat cross-legged throughout the day facing a wall; as a consequence they called him “The Brahmin who contemplates the wall.” What we recite in Rules for Meditation is “...although Bodhidharma transmitted the Buddha Mind, we still hear the echoes of his nine years facing a wall...” How blessed we are to have him as an Ancestor. Bodhidharma had few disciples, the most prominent being Taiso Eka (Hui-ko) to whom he entrusted his robe and bowl and it is said by some the Lankavatara Sutra. Was this the case others wonder as Bodhidharma in his teachings mostly quotes from the Nirvana, Avatamsaka and Vimalakirti 4 Sutras. So perhaps it was Taiso Eka not Bodhidharma who thought so highly of the Lankavatara Sutra. Here is another example of Bodhidharma’s teaching. Legend has it that when Taiso Eka, or Huike to use his Chine name, first sought out Bodhidharma for his teachings he said: “I am here to receive your teachings. I seek the Dharma.” Bodhidharma’s terse response was: “Dharma? I have nothing to teach you. I have nothing to say.” Taiso Eka: “But my mind is not at ease. Please pacify it for me.” Before becoming a monk, Taiso Eka had been an army general who killed many people - dis-ease and guilt weighed heavily on him. Bodhidharma said: “Bring me your mind and I will pacify it.” Taiso Eka: “I cannot find my mind.” Bodhidharma; “Then I have already pacified it.” Looking at another mystery, that of Bodhidharma’s death, was it true that he was poisoned by a jealous monk? Were his remains interred at a temple on Bear Ear Mountain? Or was it true that three years after his reported “death” he was said to be seen walking in the mountains of Central Asia, carrying a staff from which hung a single sandal? This rendition of his life says he was returning to India.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Subjectivity of 'Mu-Shin' (No-Mind-Ness): Zen Philosophy As
    No.01503005, March 2015 Journal of Integrated Creative Studies Subjectivity of ‘Mu-shin’ (No-mind-ness): Zen Philosophy as interpreted by Toshihiko Izutsu Tadashi Nishihira1 1 Professor, Graduate School of Education, Kyoto University, Yoshida-honmachi, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606-8501, Japan E-mail: [email protected] Abstract. In this paper, we consider whether there is any subjectivity in the state of ‘Mu-shin (No-mindness)’. Dr. Toshihiko Izutsu, a Japanese philosopher, has tried to answer this question with the example of a master musician absorbed in playing his harp. The master musician is so absorbed in playing and so completely one with the music itself, that he is no longer conscious of his fingers or of the instrument. But he is not ‘unconscious’, for he is conscious of himself as identified with the music. Izutsu explained that ‘Paradoxical as it may sound, he is so fully conscious of himself as identified with music that he is not ‘conscious’ of his act of playing in any ordinary sense of the word.’Izutsu called this particular phase of ‘awareness of self in full identification with music’ ‘Mu-shin teki Syutaisei (the subjectivity of Mu-shin)’.We may think of this particular phase as that which is prior to the subject-object bifurcation. However, Izutsu taught us that Zen-text has expressed this phase in four different ways, and it is these four types of ‘Mu-shin’ expression that we consider here. Keywords: Mushin (No-mind-ness), D.T.Suzuki, T.Izutsu, Zen Philosophy, Concureent nature 1 Subjectivity of ‘Mu-shin’ (No-mind-ness): Zen Philosophy as interpreted by Toshihiko Izutsu 1.
    [Show full text]
  • HOW to GET ZEN ENLIGIITENMENT - on MASTER ISHIGURO's FIVE-DAYS' INTENSIVE COURSE for ITS Atfainment
    Psydtolollia. 1959. Z. 107-1 E. HOW TO GET ZEN ENLIGIITENMENT - ON MASTER ISHIGURO'S FIVE-DAYS' INTENSIVE COURSE FOR ITS ATfAINMENT- KO]l SATO Kyoto Univmity Westerners have mostly approached Zen Buddhism through the writings of Dr. Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki. Suzuki's contribution in this respect is incomparably great. He is not only the highest Zen philosopher, but also the best example of Zen personality. When Dr. Cla­ rence H. Graham of Columbia University stayed in Kyoto as a lecturer of the AmeriCan Studies Seminar in the summer of 1952, the writer introduced him to Dr. Suzuki, who was also lecturing at Columbia and who happened to come to Kyoto with Karen Homey. They talked together about one hour, and after that Graham said to me that "he (Suzuki) is one of the most charming persons I ever met." Then the writer said to him, "that is Zen person­ ality." Suzuki is now in his ninetieth year and still active, continuing his study and writing. When the writer met him in New York in 1956, he asked the writer to get for him Trigant Burrow's book "Science and Mall's BcJwvior" and Franz Alexander's book "Fundamcntals of Psychoanalysis." When the writer met him in December last year, he was physically and mentally in very good condition. He is so-to-say the Zen 'personality' itself. But Dc. Suzuki is not a Zen master who trains disciples in monasteries.* Here arises some limitation in the understanding of Zen among Westerners who have approached Zen through his books. Many of them have read Suzuki's writings, and understood the Zen way of thinking quite well, some of them like Dc.
    [Show full text]
  • Soto Zen: an Introduction to Zazen
    SOT¯ O¯ ZEN An Introduction to Zazen SOT¯ O¯ ZEN: An Introduction to Zazen Edited by: S¯ot¯o Zen Buddhism International Center Published by: SOTOSHU SHUMUCHO 2-5-2, Shiba, Minato-ku, Tokyo 105-8544, Japan Tel: +81-3-3454-5411 Fax: +81-3-3454-5423 URL: http://global.sotozen-net.or.jp/ First printing: 2002 NinthFifteenth printing: printing: 20122017 © 2002 by SOTOSHU SHUMUCHO. All rights reserved. Printed in Japan Contents Part I. Practice of Zazen....................................................7 1. A Path of Just Sitting: Zazen as the Practice of the Bodhisattva Way 9 2. How to Do Zazen 25 3. Manners in the Zend¯o 36 Part II. An Introduction to S¯ot¯o Zen .............................47 1. History and Teachings of S¯ot¯o Zen 49 2. Texts on Zazen 69 Fukan Zazengi 69 Sh¯ob¯ogenz¯o Bend¯owa 72 Sh¯ob¯ogenz¯o Zuimonki 81 Zazen Y¯ojinki 87 J¯uniji-h¯ogo 93 Appendixes.......................................................................99 Takkesa ge (Robe Verse) 101 Kaiky¯o ge (Sutra-Opening Verse) 101 Shigu seigan mon (Four Vows) 101 Hannya shingy¯o (Heart Sutra) 101 Fuek¯o (Universal Transference of Merit) 102 Part I Practice of Zazen A Path of Just Sitting: Zazen as the 1 Practice of the Bodhisattva Way Shohaku Okumura A Personal Reflection on Zazen Practice in Modern Times Problems we are facing The 20th century was scarred by two World Wars, a Cold War between powerful nations, and countless regional conflicts of great violence. Millions were killed, and millions more displaced from their homes. All the developed nations were involved in these wars and conflicts.
    [Show full text]
  • Critical Sermons of the Zen Tradition Dr Hisamatsu Shin’Ichi, at Age 87
    Critical Sermons of the Zen Tradition Dr Hisamatsu Shin’ichi, at age 87. Photograph taken by the late Professor Hy¯od¯o Sh¯on¯osuke in 1976, at Dr Hisamatsu’s residence in Gifu. Critical Sermons of the Zen Tradition Hisamatsu’s Talks on Linji translated and edited by Christopher Ives and Tokiwa Gishin © Editorial matter and selection © Christopher Ives and Tokiwa Gishin Chapters 1–22 © Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2002 978-0-333-96271-8 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 4LP. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The authors have asserted their rights to be identified as the authors of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2002 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 Companies and representatives throughout the world PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave Macmillan division of St. Martin’s Press, LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. Macmillan® is a registered trademark in the United States, United Kingdom and other countries.
    [Show full text]
  • Empty Cloud, the Autobiography of the Chinese Zen Master Xu
    EMPTY CLOUD The Autobiography of the Chinese Zen Master XU YUN TRANSLATED BY CHARLES LUK Revised and Edited by Richard Hunn The Timeless Mind . Undated picture of Xu-yun. Empty Cloud 2 CONTENTS Contents .......................................................................................... 3 Acknowledgements ......................................................................... 4 Introduction .................................................................................... 5 CHAPTER ONE: Early Years ............................................................ 20 CHAPTER TWO: Pilgrimage to Mount Wu-Tai .............................. 35 CHAPTER THREE: The Journey West ............................................. 51 CHAPTER FOUR: Enlightenment and Atonement ......................... 63 CHAPTER FIVE: Interrupted Seclusion .......................................... 75 CHAPTER SIX: Taking the Tripitaka to Ji Zu Shan .......................... 94 CHAPTER SEVEN: Family News ................................................... 113 CHAPTER EIGHT: The Peacemaker .............................................. 122 CHAPTER NINE: The Jade Buddha ............................................... 130 CHAPTER TEN: Abbot At Yun-Xi and Gu-Shan............................. 146 CHAPTER ELEVEN: Nan-Hua Monastery ..................................... 161 CHAPTER TWELVE: Yun-Men Monastery .................................... 180 CHAPTER THIRTEEN: Two Discourses ......................................... 197 CHAPTER FOURTEEN: At the Yo Fo & Zhen Ru Monasteries
    [Show full text]
  • Was Buddha Completely Mu
    Buddha lost in translation? I have always had great faith in zazen. Before ever practicing it, I had already experienced temporary cessation of my separateness in different kind of activities; during sports or under extreme stress or danger. So when I began zen I immediately knew that this is it, the direct, uncompromising path which leads to complete and permanent dissolution of separation. In a life or death situation it is relatively easy to follow our true nature. The real issue is everyday life. At the beginning of my zen training, during a three-day retreat, I spontaneously experienced the real power of zen. Due to severe back pain, I had to sit in half-lotus and just persevere like an idiot. Without preconceptions, expectations, or thoughts about progress, breath-counting, samadhi, kensho, satori, or Mu. (At the time these zenistic terms meant nothing to me.) Less than two days after being completely stuck, almost unable to breathe, it all just collapsed and everything was fresh and shining. After a couple of months, this experience, which had come a bit too early, faded. But it sealed my marriage to zen and gave me huge motivation – perhaps too huge. I was like the poor man who found treasure in someone else’s yard and was ready to sell all his own property to buy it. A couple of years later I was in Japan experiencing the effects of the Japanese Rinzai system on my own body. To sum it up: keisaku to Nirvana. Forcibly being beaten into enlightenment. My first impression was that this is the way for those who don’t want to sit, who do not have real faith or doubt, who have not yet come to their own personal koan.
    [Show full text]
  • The Koan Is Said to Pose to the Ze N Practitione R a Parado X Unsolvabl E by the Rational , Intellectualizing Mind
    11 Koan and Kensho in the Rinzai Zen Curriculum G. VICTOR SOGEN HORI LCCORDING to a widely accepted model, a koan i s a clever psycho- logical device designed to induce satori or kensho. The koan is said to pose to the Ze n practitione r a parado x unsolvabl e by the rational , intellectualizing mind. Drive n int o a n eve r more desperat e corne r b y his repeate d futil e at - tempts to solve what cannot be rationally solved, the practitioner finally breaks through the barrier of rational intellection to the realm of preconceptual an d prelinguistic consciousnes s variousl y calle d pur e consciousness , no-mind , without-thinking, or emptiness. Thi s breakthrough i s called satori or kensho. The cleverness of the koan consists in the fact that rather than attacking reason and logi c fro m outside, th e koa n use s reaso n t o driv e itsel f int o a self - contradiction and cause its own destruction. In this picture, the koan is funda- mentally an instrument and has no use except as a means for psychologically inducing kensho. These two notions—the koan as nonrational, psychological instrument, an d kensho a s th e breakthroug h t o nonrational , noncognitive , pure consciousness—nicely support each other.1 However, thes e conceptions o f koan an d kensho were criticized long ago . Dogen, i n th e "Sansuiky5 " ("Mountains an d Water s Sutra") fascicle of the Shobogenzo, writes: In grea t Sun g Chin a toda y there ar e a grou p o f scatterbrained people , whose number i s so large that the y cannot possibly be scare d of f by the faithfu l few.
    [Show full text]
  • The Immaculacy of Emptiness
    "...and to the Source Kept True," Part I: The Immaculacy of Emptiness. Rev. Master Jiyu-Kennett — Shasta Abbey, California – USA — This article was first published in the Spring issue of the Journal of the Order of Buddhist Contemplatives©1989 Order of Buddhist Contemplatives. Revised 1994. Some years ago I changed the translation of the word "mu" in the Hannyashingyo, or Scripture of Great Wisdom, from "voidness" or "emptiness" to "purity." This was not an idle change or a personal opinion since it was based on my master's and my own understanding of the teachings of Bodhidharma of whom we are both direct descendants. Many translators of The Scripture of Great Wisdom, being Christian missionaries and therefore frequently more interested in converting Buddhists to Christianity than having an accurate, in-depth understanding of what the Buddhist Scriptures teach, were not as careful as I believe they could have been in their translations: had they been so, they would have discovered that "voidness" and "emptiness" are words that only peripherally touch the implications of "mu." Anyone who meditates deeply and has any real spiritual realisation knows that this voidness and emptiness are the fullest voidnesses and emptinesses possible. I used the phrase "the immaculacy of emptiness" to try and push people on beyond emptiness and voidness for many years: in the end, however, I decided that the teachings of Bodhidharma, whose authority on the subject is absolutely unimpeachable, made it extraordinarily clear that the word "mu" should be translated as "pure" and that western Buddhists should not be intimidated by the trick sophistry of those who only peripherally understand Zen.
    [Show full text]
  • Three Recent Publications on Zen Dialogues Steven Heine Department of Religious Studies, Florida International University, [email protected]
    Florida International University FIU Digital Commons Steven J. Green School of International & Public Department of Religious Studies Affairs 2010 Yes! We Have No Buddha-Nature; Three Recent Publications on Zen Dialogues Steven Heine Department of Religious Studies, Florida International University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/religion_fac Part of the Buddhist Studies Commons Recommended Citation Heine, Steven, "Yes! We Have No Buddha-Nature; Three Recent Publications on Zen Dialogues" (2010). Department of Religious Studies. 2. https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/religion_fac/2 This work is brought to you for free and open access by the Steven J. Green School of International & Public Affairs at FIU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Department of Religious Studies by an authorized administrator of FIU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 37/2: 367–376 © 2010 Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture review article Yes! We Have No Buddha-Nature Three Recent Publications on Zen Dialogues Steven Heine Ishii Seijun 石井清純, Zen mondō nyūmon 禅問答入門 [Introduction to Zen dia- logues], Kadokawa Sensho 463. Tokyo: Kadokawa Gakugei Shuppan, 2010, 254 pp. ¥1,575, paper. isbn 978-4-04-703463-1. Okimoto Katsumi 沖本克己, Jōshū: Hyōhyō to Zen o ikita tatsujin no azayakana fūkō 趙 州－瓢 瓢と禅を生きた達 人の鮮やかな風 光 [Zhaozhou: Vivid portraits of a master who lived Zen as a free spirit]. Tokyo: Kadokawa Shoten, 2008, 214 pp. ¥2,730, cloth. isbn 978-4-653-03996-9. Yanagida Seizan 柳田聖山 and Umehara Takeshi 梅原猛, Mu no tankyū (Chūgoku Zen) 無の探求 (中国禅) [Investigations of nothingness (Chinese Chan)], Kadokawa Sofia Bunko.
    [Show full text]
  • Gushan: the Formation of a Chan Lineage During the Seventeenth Century and Its Spread to Taiwan
    Gushan: the Formation of a Chan Lineage During the Seventeenth Century and Its Spread to Taiwan Hsuan-Li Wang Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 2014 © 2014 Hsuan-Li Wang All rights reserved ABSTRACT Gushan: the Formation of a Chan Lineage During the Seventeenth Century and Its Spread to Taiwan Hsuan-Li Wang Taking Gushan 鼓山 Monastery in Fujian Province as a reference point, this dissertation investigates the formation of the Gushan Chan lineage in Fujian area and its later diffusion process to Taiwan. From the perspective of religion diffusion studies, this dissertation investigates the three stages of this process: 1. the displacement of Caodong 曹洞 Chan center to Fujian in the seventeenth century; 2. Chinese migration bringing Buddhism to Taiwan in the Qing dynasty (1644-1911) and 3. the expansion diffusion activities of the institutions and masters affiliated with this lineage in Taiwan during the Japanese rule (1895-1945), and the new developments of humanistic Buddhism (renjian fojiao 人間佛教) after 1949. In this spreading process of the Gushan Chan lineage, Taiwanese Buddhism has emerged as the bridge between Chinese and Japanese Buddhism because of its unique historical experiences. It is in the expansion diffusion activities of the Gushan Chan lineage in Taiwan that Taiwanese Buddhism has gradually attained autonomy during the Japanese rule, leading to post-war new developments in contemporary humanistic Buddhism. Table of Contents List of Chart, Maps and Tables iii Acknowledgements iv Chapter 1 Introduction 1 1. Research Motives and Goals 2 2.
    [Show full text]
  • Working on Koans
    Zen Bow Article: Working on Koans (An edited transcription of a teisho given by Roshi Bodhin Kjolhede during the 1992 October sesshin.) Let me talk about working on koans. You might be able to divide teachers into those who have gone through koan training and offer it as part of their teaching, and those who don't. In the latter category we can find some of the most illustrious names in Zen. Bodhidharma didn't work on koans. Neither did the Sixth Patriarch, Hui-neng. Ma-tsu, Lin-chi, Hsüeh-feng, Yen-t'ou- the whole koan system came after all of these guys. And the Buddha predated koans by about 1500 years. So obviously it's not really necessary to work on a koan to deepen one's understanding or to realize one's True Nature. But koans are potent devices for liberating our fundamental insight. Every koan points to this Mind of absolute purity and wholeness. In its own unique way, each one is an expression of this Mind, which cannot be encompassed in words. It cannot be described, this fundamental nature of each one of us that has no limits, that is beyond our ordinary discriminating consciousness, beyond our rational intellect. The style of Zen offered here is based on that of our immediate ancestors in Japan - Yasutani Roshi and Harada Roshi. We begin with a breath practice, and can actually stay on a breath practice forever. The breath is a profound medium of meditation, and it's used in many kinds of spiritual traditions. But after one has gotten a solid enough grounding in breath practice and has learned to get some kind of control over the wandering mind, a koan may be better.
    [Show full text]
  • The Compass of Zen by Zen Master Seung Sahn
    I N D E X to The Compass of Zen by Zen Master Seung Sahn John Holland ​ ​ ​ Ty Koontz ​ ​ ​ The Kwan Um School of Zen 2016 Foreword Zen Master Seung Sahn tells many good stories in his book, including how he shocked a group of French priests in explaining primary point to them and how nuns from the Eastern temple and the Western temple vied to impress Zen Master Hak Un with their pronunciations of Kwan Seum Bosal. When I prepare a dharma talk, the question for me has always been, where in The Compass of Zen are ​ ​ the stories discussed? The work desperately needed an index. Experience told me it would be a difficult task, and I turned for help to Ty Koontz. I had admired the index Ty made for Zen Master Wu Kwang’s (Richard Shrobe) book Elegant Failure: A Guide to Zen Koans and was delighted that Ty ​ ​ agreed to help me. Because we have attempted to do justice to DSSN’s teaching, for which we are all so grateful, this index is long. The ideal index does not exist. All an indexer can do is to make the best possible index he or she can. That means following one’s intuition and general knowledge. One of the most challenging aspects of making an index for The Compass of Zen is the way in which everything is ​ ​ interrelated. Cross-references are needed to help the reader find related concepts while avoiding an enormous snarled spider-web of relationships. Main headings for concepts like attainment, emptiness, ​ meditation, mind, practice, suffering, thinking, and truth are necessary, but these concepts relate to so ​ ​ ​ much of the book that subentries could easily overwhelm the index.
    [Show full text]