ESSAYS in ZEN BUDDHISM (Second Scries) Piftg Works in the Colutltd Series, Puklishtd by Rider Sc Cc~>
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GOVERNMENT OF INDIA DEPARTMENT OF ARCHAEOLOGY CENTRAL ARCHAEOLOGICAL LIBRARY H«a> _ <V- Til* THE COMPLETE WORKS OF D. T. SUZUKI Edited by Chkiituai Humphreyi Pusidtrt if the Buddhist Society, London ESSAYS IN ZEN BUDDHISM (Second Scries) Piftg Works in the ColUtltd Series, puklishtd by Rider Sc Cc~>- An Introduction to Zen Buddhism The Zen Doctrine of No-Mind E«»*y* in Zen Buddhitm (Pint Serin) Manual of Zen Buddhism Living by Zen SAKYA COMING OUT OF HIS MOUNTAIN RETREAT By Ijawi-Kai (fiir/jr Xtllth Gtnfwj) This if a moft ambitious subject for an artist, Who¬ ever first fried ha brush on ic muil have been a bold, daring spiral but full of confi¬ dence in his apirflual power and artistic imagination. For the entire significance of (lie Uuddhiat life is derived from lists leaving by Sakyarr.uni of his mountain retreat afire the Enlightenment. While Huddhism starts with En¬ lightenment and ends in F.n- lighlcnmcnl, die connecting panage must be paved with love and companion. When die eye of Prajna opens for I lie first lime, a man s feeling is that of absolute loorluicw. for he has gone over to llte other tide nf Nirvana; hut no time is allowed to him to remain in this solitude. The loneliness of transcendental wisdom departs, and an all- emliraring love affirms itself, in which the entire universe is revealed with all its plurali¬ ties and complexities. Are the eyes of the Enlightened One gazing at the far-olf land of perfect freedom where ignorance and misery are en¬ tirely subjugated? Or are they looking inward into the realm of transcendental in¬ sight, which is revealed to him, shorn of all its external trumperies, i.e.. of all its con¬ ceptual encasements? That hr walks oloor, like the king of beasts, among the inani¬ mate objects uf nature— rocks, trees, and shrubs—is significant enough to direct the reader's attention lu llsr Ideals uf the Zen life, which, is filled with a certain kind of intellectual atmosphere. I T-V.S-. ESSAYS IN ZEN BUDDHISM If/' (SECOND SERIES) DAISETZ TEITARO SUZUKI /v«w ^ BiMiiut na*iify d Olani Unietnty Kyole <£e— WITH TW«WTV-nV« OOLLOTYF* mrnocwmoS*cr» OLD MMTtAI S’)* i Cl 3 Published for the Buddhist Society, London by RIDER AND COMPANY LONDON NEW YORK MELBOURNE SYDNEY CAM TOWN YAKICHI ATAKA ON THE OCCASION OP HU ATTAININO Til* AO* OP SIXTY- ONX, AS AN APPRECIATIVE OFFERING FOR HIS LONO FRIENDSHIP AND HO CON¬ STANT WHOIE-HEARTKD ENCOURAGEMENT IN ALL THK AUTHOR'S LITERARY UNDERTAKINGS, AND WITH THE PRANIDHANA THAT HU USEFUL BODIUSATTVA LIFE MAY CONTINUE FOR MANY YEARS YET TO COME TO BENEFIT THE WORLD IN ITS SPIRITUAL ADVANCE TOWARDS UNIVERSAL ENUOinENKENT EDITOR'S FOREWORD Daisetz Tritaro Suzuki, D.Litt., Professor of Buddhist Philosophy in the Otani University, Kyoto, was born in 1869. He is probably now the greatest living authority on Buddhist philosophy, and is certainly the greatest authority on Zen Buddhism. His major works in English on the subject of Buddhism number a dozen or more, and of his works in Japanese as yet unknown to the West there are at least eighteen. He is, moreover, as a chronological bibliography of books on Zen in English clearly shows, the pioneer teacher of the subject outside Japan, for except for Kaiten Nukariya's Religion oj the Samurai (Luzac and Co., 1913) nothing was known of Zen as a living experi¬ ence, save to the readers of The Eastern Buddhist (1931- •939). the publication of Essajs in Zm Buddhism (First Scries) in 1937. Dr. Suzuki writes with authority. Not only has he studied original works in Sanskrit, Pali, Chinese and Japanese, but he has an up-to-date knowledge of Western thought in German and French as well as in the English which he speaks and writes so fluently. He is, moreover, more than a scholar; he is a Buddhist. Though not a priest of any Buddhist sect, he is honoured in every temple in Japan, for his knowledge of spiritual things, as all who have sat at his feet bear witness, is direct and profound. When he speaks of the higher stages of consciousness he speaks as a man who dwells therein, and the impression he makes on those who enter the fringes of his mind is that of a man who seeks for the intellectual symbols wherewith to describe a state of awareness which lies indeed "beyond the intellect”. To those unable to sit at the feet of the Master his writings must be a substitute. All these, however, were 5 6 editor’s foreword out of print in England by 1940, and all remaining stocks in Japan were destroyed in the fire which consumed three- quarters of Tokyo in 1945. When, therefore, I reached Japan in 1946, I arranged with the author for the Budd¬ hist Society, London—my wife and myself as its nominees —to begin the publication of his Collected Works, reprinting the old favourites, and printing as fast as possible translations of the many new works which the Professor, self-immured in his house at Kyoto, had written during the war. This undertaking, however, was beyond the powers of the Buddhist Society, and we therefore secured the assistance of Rider and Co., who, backed by the vast resources of the House of Hutchinson, can honour the needs of such a considerable task. Of Zen itself I need say nothing here, but the increas¬ ing sale of books on the subject, such as The Spirit of Zen by Alan Watts (Murray), my own Zm Buddhism (Heine- mann), and the series of original translations of Chinese Zen Scriptures and other works published by the Buddhist Society, prove that the interest of the West is rising rapidly. Zen, however, is a subject extremely easy to mis¬ understand, and it is therefore important that the words of a recognized expert should come readily to hand. It is proposed to publish the works of Dr. Suzuki in groups of three, each group to contain, if possible, one of his larger works, a smaller work, and a work as yet unpublished in English. The first three chosen were the First Series of his Essays in Zm Buddhism, his valuable Introduction to Zm Buddhism, with a translation by Miss Constance Rolfe of Dr. C. G. Jung’s long Foreword to the German edition, and a new work which appears under the title of The Zn Doctrine of Mo-Mind (The Signifiacnct of the Sutra of Hui-ntng [Wei Lang]). The Sutra itself is published for the Buddhist Society by Luzac and Co. as The Sutra of Wei Lang. i editor’s FOREWORD 7 The second group, of which this is one, also includes another of the smaller works, The Manual of Zm Buddhism, and a completely new work, Living by %tn. The choice for later groups will be influenced by popular demand. Christmas Humphreys *95° President of the Buddhist Society, London EDITORIAL NOTE References in the footnotes to the First Scries of Essays in Zen Buddhism are to the Second Edition, already * published in these “Complete Works of D. T. Suzuki”. CONTENTS EDITOR’S FOREWORD ... 5 AUTHOR’S PREFACE .... ,3 ESSAY I THE KOAN EXERCISE . 15-^86 PART I—<i) An Experience Beyond Knowledge, 15—(a) The Significance of Satori in Zen, 21— (3) Chief Characteristics of Satori, 28—(4) Psy¬ chological Antecedents of Satori Prior to the Koan System—Some Practical Examples, 35— (5) Factors Determining the Zen Experience, 50—(6) The Psychological Antecedent and the Content of the Zen Experience, 60—(7) Tech¬ nique of Zen Discipline in its Early History, 70— (8) The Growth of the Koan System, and its Signification, 81—(9) Practical Instructions Re¬ garding the Koan Exercise, 89—(10) Various Generalizations on the Koan Exercise, 98—(11) Personal Records of the Zen Experiences, 102— (12) The Importance and the Function of the Spirit of Inquiry, 115. PART II—(1) The Koan Exercise and the Nembutsu, 13a—(2) Nembutsu and Shomyo, , 141—(3) The Value of Shomyo (“Uttering the Name”) in the Jodo School, 147—(4) The Psy¬ chology of the Shomyo Exercise, and Where it Becomes Related to the Koan Exercise, 158—(5) What is the Object of the Nembutsu Exercise? 167—(6) Mysticism of the Nembutsu, and the Uttering of the Name, 173—(7) Experience and Theorization, 177—(8) Hakuin's View on Koan and Nembutsu, 180. APPENDICES.187-209 9 IO CONTENTS ESSAY II THE SECRET MESSAGE OF page BODHIDHARMA 210-236 ESSAY III TWO ZEN TEXT-BOOKS . 237-250 I. THE PI-YEN-CHI *37 II. THE CASE LV—TAO-WU AND CHI EN-YU AN *39 III. THE WU-MEN-KUAN 247 ESSAY IV PASSIVITY IN THE BUDDHIST LIFE . 251-325 Preliminary Note .... 251 I. The Doctrine of Karma, 252—The Conception of Self, 258—Mahayana Buddhism on the Theory of Karma, 260. II. The Development of the Idea of Sin in Bud¬ dhism, 262—A Reality Beyond Self, 263—A New Phase of Buddhism, 265. III. The Psychology of Passivity, 267—Absolute Pas¬ sivism and Libertinism, 269—The Passive Life Described, 274—Passivity and Pure Land Buddhism, 277—Passivity is Accepting Life as it is, 280—Ignorance and Passivity," 285—Selflessness and Emptiness, 289. IV. Passivity and Patience or Humility, 291—The Story of Sadaprarudita, 293. V. Prayer and Nembutsu, 301—The Practice of Zazen and Passivity, 304—The Function of Koan in Zen, 309. VI. The Perfection of Passivity in Buddhist Life, 313—Emptiness and the Zen life, 320. APPENDICES.326-331 INDEX.333 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Sakya coming out of his mountain retreat Frontispiece Bodhidharma and Hui-k'e facing page 32 Hui-neng listening to the Diamond Sutra 33 Hung-jcn seeing off Hui-neng 48 Bodhidharma with Lin-chi and Te-shan +8-49 Two Zen Fathers in meditation 80-81 Sakya as ascetic 96 Shih-kung and San-ping 97 Wei-shan turning down the pitcher 176 Manjusri incarnate as the God of Literature 177 Hsiang-yen and the bamboos 192 Ling-yun and the peach-blossoms >93 Kwannon, monkeys, and a stork 206 Yueh-shan and Li-ao 256 The Sixth Patriarch tearing the scroll 257 Tan-hsia burning (he wooden Buddha 272 Kuei-tsung Chih-ch'ang and Li-p‘o, Governor of Chiang-Chou 273 Bodhidharma 3t>4 Feng-kan 305 Pu-tai 320 PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION When the First Series of Zm Essays appeared in 1927, the author's intention was to write the Second Series soon after; but in the meantime the study of the Lankaoatara as an important text of Zen Buddhism claimed his attention.