What Is It? She said this all matter-of-factly without any hesitation or even a glimmer of embarrassment. “We each have an innate, bright, After she left, Cathy apologized to me and shinyness of mind. We have no word for said, “I couldn’t believe how rude Jane was to it so we call it ‘Buddha nature’.” you!” You see, I have been the one making the —Harada Shodo-roshi desserts.

“Once you stop clinging and let things I just laughed and said, “I really don’t care if be, you’ll be free, even of birth and people prefer her desserts or not. Everyone death. You’ll transform everything. likes to be good at something and she obviously You’ll possess spiritual powers that can’t takes a lot of satisfaction in being a good cook be obstructed. And you’ll be at peace and baker.” wherever you are.” —Bodhidharma, in his Bloodstream Sermon, We both agreed that after Jane’s mother dies found in The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma, (she’s in hospice), if she wants to take back the tr. Red Pine kitchen, we have no objection. I even said that I would work for her. Dear Roshi, This is just such a huge change in my normal Had a really interesting experience last evening. reaction. My ego normally would have been Interesting because it was so unlike my habitual right there front and center, saying, “How reaction. I work in the kitchen here at the dare she say that to me! How rude!---etc., etc, apartment building on Saturdays. The woman etc,....” Nothing. Of course, my ego is pretty (will call her Jane) who used to be in charge of tickled about the whole thing now! Actually, the kitchen said she couldn’t get anyone to help the whole incident both amuses me and makes her and then her mom developed cancer and is me sad for Jane at the same time. I can’t help on hospice. She is the primary caregiver during wondering if similar remarks might have made this time. others quit working for her in the kitchen. I am often clueless about the impact of my words The woman (will call her Cathy) who took over until I get a reaction from someone, but even I the position and I get along fairly well together. know that you don’t say this!!! Our meals are not going over as well as we had hoped. Last night, Jane came down as we were Anyway, what fun to see my ego NOT come to finishing up the dinner. She showed us a picture the plate. of the beautiful triple strawberry cupcakes that she had made. Cathy said, “They won’t go for The person who wrote this has been practic- them here. They like chocolate or vanilla”. Jane ing for quite awhile—and it shows. The more said, “No, they ate everything I made. They just we dive into our practice, the freer we become. like my desserts better.” As part of that process, however, it’s important to recognize that, as someone very perceptive-

The Oak Tree in the Garden November/December 2014 page 1 ly reported after having a kensho experience: published as the contents of this volume—with “First it shows you where you’re caught—and a few parts left out and others separately pub- then it sets you free!” lished. It was certainly a monumental effort on the part of Norman Waddell, and of Professor So when those moments of clarity arise in Yoshizawa, whose translation from Hakuin’s which you have a sudden insight into some- era Japanese into modern Japanese was an thing you’ve said or done, something you’re not essential prerequisite, to gather all the back- very proud of, it’s not that zazen is making you ground information and choose which of the a worse person; it’s that it’s beginning to set annotated copies to translate. What results you free. There’s something about the clarity is an excellent resource on the teachings of a with which we begin to see our own behavior great Japanese Zen master who singlehanded- with the help of zazen, and the remorse that ly resurrected Rinzai Zen, and a wonderful ex- that recognition brings up, that is a good part pression of the dynamic personality that Hakuin of the work toward letting whatever dysfunc- Ekaku appears to have been. What follows in tional behavior pattern that was, weaken and the next article is a teisho given on one of the eventually—if we are careful and aware—drop writings in the book. away. Some things can take a long time: Yasu- tani roshi reported that it took a good ten years v v v POST-kensho before he was able to drop his habit pattern of reacting in anger. Hakuin’s Reply to Priest Rempō As we do our practice and begin to see where of Keirin-ji we need to work, and commit to doing that vital This is a letter written in answer to one from work—the Long Maturation—our life begins to Rempō, a student of Hakuin’s. One of the change. While it’s tough work, the results are reasons this book of translations is so excel- worth it! And this is but one gift of practice... lent is due to the extensive and detailed work of the translator, Norman Waddell, in introduc- v v v ing the material he has translated, as well as his inclusion of notes handwritten in the text Poison Blossoms by Hakuin’s own students. He also, according From a Thicket of Thorn to other translators, seems to truly capture the essence of Hakuin’s personality, which is clear Norman Waddell is the premier translator of the and right up front in this translation. Here is writings of Hakuin, having spent a career be- Waddell’s introduction to this letter: coming intimate with the old sage. His transla- tions, to go by the comments of people who Rempō Chishō (d.1770) a Dharma heir have read Hakuin’s works in Japanese, truly of Ranshitsu Tōiku (d.1743), was the catch the flavor of that vibrant personality. head priest of Keirin-ji in Kai province, a temple Hakuin visited frequently to Here comes the latest in a series of translations conduct practice meetings. An an- by Professor Waddell: Hakuin’s seminal collec- notation tells us that Rempō “studied tion of his own teachings, Poison Blossoms with the master for many years, even From a Thicket of Thorn. In the days of Chan after becoming head priest at Keirin-ji.” teachings in China a tradition was established He was thus one of a number of Zen of recording the sayings and doings of em- teachers in Suruga and the surrounding minent masters, for the benefit of generations provinces of Kai, Tōtōmi, and Izu who to come. This was still the case in Japan in continued their post-satori training Hakuin’s day, but being the iconclast he was, under Hakuin while training students in he had one of his students edit his collections their own temples. According to Tōrei, of teachings and then proceeded to have them Rempō applied himself to koan study page 2 The Oak Tree in the Garden November/December 2014 under Hakuin “with the greatest deter- those priests as well, and is an excellent model mination” (Draft Biography). for Zen practice as it unfolds in the West.

This is one of the hallmarks of the Rinzai Since it is known that Rempō succeed- Sect—and of dedicated Zen students regard- ed Ranshitsu at Keirin-ji on the latter’s less of Zen sect: the ongoing post-satori train- death, this letter can date no earlier than ing. The Jataka Tales are the stories of the pur- Hakuin’s late fifties, and given Hakuin’s ported previous lives of the Buddha, remem- reference to “enjoying the years left to bered during the seven nights and eight days him” possibly even a decade or so later. of the deep meditation that culminated in his great enlightenment. (It is not uncommon for The Letter: Zen folk who do many sesshin to have insights into not only our behavior but also our past; Your letter of the twelfth of the fourth while this is neither sought after nor celebrated, month reached my desk on the twelfth it is a natural result of the level of attention and of the fifth month. Reading it over awareness that can be developed with com- several times, I felt as though you were mitted, concentrated, ongoing zazen.) During actually here conversing with me. Won- each of these lives the Buddha recalled, he derful. Wonderful. appeared to have been working toward living an increasingly awakened life. This ongoing I was concerned that you may have effort is what Tōrei Enji, Hakuin’s first Dharma wondered why I had not replied to your successor, termed “The Long Maturation.” By letter. It was not due to conscious all accounts, Tōrei himself exemplified this neglect on my part. The letter you sent ethic—that vital aspect of practice in which we took an entire month to reach me. work to integrate into our thought, speech and action what we have realized in our kensho I fear that I didn’t treat you with proper experiences and insights born of the ongoing hospitality when you visited Shōin-ji at zazen we do. the end of the third month. Now when- ever I sit in my room and think about This work is true bodhisattva work. The more how impolite I was, the shame makes clear and awake and free of conditioning we beads of perspiration trickle down my ourselves are, the more clear and awake and spine. free of conditioning is the possibility for ev- eryone; while we appear as discreet individu- I was very glad to hear that your health als, neuroscience in particular is beginning has been good since your return. For to realize that the internal signals produced myself, I am still enjoying the years left in “my” body can be picked up by others to me, living like a simpleton, without “outside” me. When babies are born, of care or trouble. I potter around the premium importance is the communication, temple gardens to check how my unspoken and spoken, between caregiver eggplants are doing. I am happy to be and child; it’s known that the presence and able to tell you that you need not be quality of this attunement is a significant de- concerned about me. terminant in the child’s quality of growth and development. You said you are boring into the impassable koan I gave you day and It is to Hakuin’s credit that so many priests who night, putting it right down inside you were already teaching were committed to con- and attacking it as relentlessly as you tinuing to deepen their own practice under a would a mortal enemy, not even stop- teacher at all, and one of Hakuin’s level in par- ping to eat. Splendid! Bravo! This ticular. This no doubt benefited the students of is the incomparable joy of the Zen

The Oak Tree in the Garden November/December 2014 page 3 Dharma! a thought, having no more use for it than a merchant would for a mattock The bold type of this last paragraph was added or plow. One of their teachers says to emphasize how important the ongoing, things like this: “Don’t look at the koan focused and committed work on the koan is for stories; that is a muddy quagmire that anyone who is working on koan practice. will only suck your self-nature under. Don’t look at words or letters; that is a A Rinzai Zen teacher will first work with a dense thicket filled with entangling vines student on the extremely effective breath that will strangle the life from your Zen practice known as susok’kan—we call it the spirit. Your self-nature has no love for Extended Outbreath. This practice alone can words and letters. It has no fondness take a person quite far, even to kensho, if it is for koans. It wants simply to retain an done correctly, and by “correctly” is meant with easy tranquility, a free and unrestricted that same level of commitment and focus one state of mind. That is the true and au- would use in working on a koan. Susok’kan thentic meaning of Zen’s direct pointing. as it is taught by Mitra-roshi includes not only The self-nature that is inborn in each the total focus on the physical sensations of and every person is originally perfectly breathing out and extending that outbreath, clear, free, and unrestricted. It doesn’t but also whatever sense of curiosity, yearn- mistake a heron for a crow. It doesn’t ing, need to know, that brings a person to Zen mistake the sky for the earth. It feels practice to begin with. Of course we will be fire as hot and water as cold. It works tempted to work with varying degrees of focus, perfectly well, with no lack whatsoever, not to mention encountering that Buddhist without recourse to Shakyamuni’s “devil,” Mara. Even the Buddha was tempted teachings, without borrowings from by Mara, with visions of beautiful women, with Bodhidharma’s Zen. Why would you pain, and finally, with accusations express- want to go seeing anything beyond ing insecurity: ”You don’t have what it takes that?” to come to awakening! Who do you think you are?!” Have you ever known a Zen student He certainly sounds plausible, all too who hasn’t had to deal with some such makyo plausible. The trouble is, following at one time or another? In doing our prac- such a path means you are mistak- tice we are made painfully aware of the subtle ing the workings of your mind for workings of our mind: our slide into boredom, ultimate truth and turning yourself judgment, frustration, anger, grief, sadness, eu- into a piddling little imp. The patriarchs phoria—we’re likely to become intimately famil- characterized such a person as “the iar with a host of them, as zazen, done deeply Great King Stuck-in-the-Mud, slumber- and consistently enough, will reveal wherever ing away all by himself at the rear of a we are caught. But it is through awareness of deserted old shrine.” The ancients— these very habit patterns of mind we go a long people who rejected fame and profit way toward dropping them! and without a thought to their own well-being devoted themselves single- These days, people in temples through- mindedly to the pursuit of the Way—are out the country have submerged them- as different from such priests as cloud is selves in the dead, stagnant water of from mud. quiescent, silent illumination Zen. They make no headway whatever, achieve But at some future date a monk will nothing at all. They just dilly-dally their come along, so bold and shameless lives away in that half-alive half-dead he won’t even acknowledge his own state. They reject the essential matter teacher. He will grab one of those of koan study, shoving it aside without koans, the kind that resembles a stick of page 4 The Oak Tree in the Garden November/December 2014 flaming hot steel or a deadly poisonous commits himself to authentic Zen chestnut burr, and thrust it under this practice, throwing his entire being fellow’s nose, demanding, “What is the into a koan with single-minded focus principle of this?! It will be like a daunt- that does not allow previous notions, less warrior rushing headlong at him views, or emotions to intrude, and flourishing an enormous sword over his he keeps boring into it—gnawing head, intent on cleaving his head in two. from the top, gnawing from the At that moment, not a word or phrase bottom, and from the sides—he will will issue from his lips. He won’t be able reach a point when words and logic to grunt even a simple sound like “gu.” are totally exhausted. All at once, There is nowhere he can escape. The everything will suddenly fall away slightest hesitation means certain death. and he will then have “words and This is something he can’t swallow letters” truly in his grasp. Strutting down and can’t spit out either. He won’t through the world with the complete have the strength to muster any anger and utter freedom of the lion king, or summon up any tears. He’ll just whenever he encounters someone he stand there with glazed and goggling responds with the speed and force of eyes, his mouth turned down in a frown. lightning. This is a level of attainment There won’t be even a spark of life. He those idle, disembodied spirits [of silent won’t be able to raise his head. All illumination Zen], lying open-eyed like that talk, all the big sermons he’d been zombies in their coffins, could not even making to people in the hinterlands glimpse in their dreams. won’t do him a bit of good now. He’ll be like a sick horse under a heavy load Hakuin is famous for blasting away at the stumbling down an endless road on a “dead cave sitting” prevalent in his day among scorching day—his whole body will be at least some—and to read Hakuin, many— bathed in heavy, shame-induced sweat. of the Zen teachers in Japan. But there is a Can someone like that be called a de- point, highlighted in the bold in the paragraphs scendent of the Zen patriarchs? Later above, and that is that all too easily, even in our on, when he is charged with training a modern day, is a quiet and still mind state— group of monks, heroes who have come or one of euphoria—assumed to be kensho. to him from all over the land, how can (This is one reason why it is so important to he possibly deal with them and provide work with a teacher who is known to have the guidance they need? been sanctioned in a lineage where kensho is considered at least one of the prerequisites to The reason he finds himself in this being given permission to teach.) predicament is simply because he has mistaken the unmoving stillness Later on in this paragraph Hakuin gives us de- of the storehouse consciousness for tailed instructions on working with koans. In his original face. If he had genuinely our Rinzai tradition, when the teacher deems clarified the heart and mind of the the student is ready to work on a koan, a koan Buddha-patriarchs, how could he is assigned after some discussion to determine fear the old koans that transmit their whether the student has a “natural” koan, i.e., sayings and doings? In the past, a has come to practice through an abiding life Zen teacher of the true stripe did not question such as “Where did I come from?” trouble students with the ramifications “What will happen to me when I die?” “What of Buddhist doctrine or with the study of is life all about?” What is REAL?”—in which words and phrases. He just gave them case that may be assigned as the breakthrough a short and venomous koan and had koan. Or if there is no concentrated concern them bore steadily into it. If a student such as that, then the teacher determines

The Oak Tree in the Garden November/December 2014 p a g e 5 which of the breakthrough koans would most entanglements. What runs through grip the student, and that is the one that those minds of theirs? How sad that would be assigned. There are a number of the groves of Zen have been reduced to breakthrough koans, of which Mu is the most such unprecedented decay. widely known. Hakuin felt that The Sound of One Hand was more effective for his students. Rempō Oshō, how truly praisewor- There is also the koan of My Face Before My thy that in the midst of this sorry Parents Were Born, and its modern corollary: situation you alone have girded up Who Am I? Another breakthrough koan is your spirit, set your jaw, and vowed What Is This? to penetrate the great matter that furrows such deep creases in Zen Having received the breakthrough koan it is monks’ brows. Ahh! It is as rare as an then up to the student to chew on it day and Udumbara flower blooming amid the night, as Hakuin urges—even if it seems like flames! Your effort is certain to be re- one is chewing on a dry bone, even if it seems warded with a marvelous result. Your like the koan has vanished from conscious- attainment of the claws and fangs ness, i.e., no matter what comes up to seem of the Dharma cave is near at hand. to dissuade us from pursuing it, to chew on it This is my earnest prayer, my earnest relentlessly. This is where the koan does its prayer. most excellent work! Persist! Persist! Persist! It is no accident that one of the Practices of This is the earnest prayer of every Zen teacher Perfections is Patient Endurance, which trans- for their students! lates as working on that koan from the top The great matter is achieved in the and the bottom and the left and the right, even same way that a red-finned carp butts if it tastes like dry sawdust and you wonder its way upstream, plunging through whether you’ve lost your senses in working on the hundred leagues of black-cloud v v v it or can’t possibly solve it. RESIST the temp- barriers blocking off the Dragon Gate to tation to adjust the koan or to drop it temporar- become a dragon; in the same way that ily to pick up a different practice; it will SEEM the gold garuda plummets into the vast like it freshens things up, but it is really a ploy sea to seize its dragon prey beneath the to distract yourself from doing the essential waves. It is an altogether formidable work of probing and probing and probing and undertaking, possible only for someone probing that assigned koan. It is that persistent of genuinely great stature. Students probing that will eventually bring results. of middling talent cannot hope even to attempt it. After hearing only a single word, worthy teachers of the past would set out on Long ago, Chen of Ts’ui-yen and Super- a journey of ten thousand leagues in visor Monk Hsuan-tse contracted dif- order to pay respects to the person ficult maladies similar to the one we see wh uttered it, prostrating themselves in today’s priests. Finding themselves before him and offering incense to him. unable either to die or to stay alive, Students thought nothing of travel- they visited the great priests Fa-yen ing a thousand leagues and enduring and Tz’u-ming. When those teachers untold hardships to visit a true teacher. pointed out their errors, they were like Hence the saying, “The single phrase, sick monkeys breaking free of their ‘Together with it’ made a Zen monk golden chains. Su-shan was another walk through a thousand mountains.” monk who toppled back down into the Yet the sightless shave pates of today comfortable old nest he had created regard the old koan stories as no more for himself. He remained lodged inside than needless words, unnecessary it for a long time, rising and falling like

page 6 The Oak Tree in the Garden November/December 2014 a drowning man, until Lan-an’s old Driving off students with his deafen- wisteria vines encircled him, squeezed ing roars, he was like a ferocious tiger the life from him, and freed him of all his eyeing a lame sheep, like a starving shackles. falcon drawing a bead on a limping hare. But if he had stopped and At the beginning of his career, Master remained like a dead man, fastened Kao of Mount Ching, “the Reviler of to the words, “Even the great earth Heaven” was content to remain within cannot hold it,” none of these remark- an initial, rudimentary understanding. able achievements would have been He later engaged in extremely difficult possible. How grateful we should be practice for several years, until one that our Zen school is possessed of morning he was bowled over by a lethal these marvelous prescriptions [koans] wind sweeping in from the south and all that can transform your very bone and obstructing and impeding spikes and marrow. At the same time, there were wedges finally vanished. also among the followers of Zen those who were never able to cure themselves These are all examples of monks who were for completely until the day they died—ex- awhile satisfied with minimal results from their amples are Master Tun of Lung-ya and practice, but returned to practice on meeting Master I of T’ien-p’ing. true teachers and broke free of their limited un- derstanding. Hakuin holds up these stories as Hakuin then writes that it would not be fair or examples to inspire our own practice! appropriate to give Rempō koan answers; it would rob him of the joy of true comprehen- At the beginning of Hsu-t’ang Dhih-yu’s sion—and he’d never forgive Hakuin for it! And career, when he was a monk in the as- he finally signs off with his best wishes for sembly under Zen master Yun-an, he Rempō’s good health. was given the story Nan-ch’uan Kills the Cat. He offered the turning words, “Not even the great earth could hold it.” v v v Yun-an acknowledge the words with a faint smile. Hsu-t’ang was still not satis- fied, howedver, and spent the next four years working on the story of Su-shan’s NOTICE Memorial Tower. One day he blundered into a poisonous flame that issued The morning following a weekend from the old Buddha of Ta-ling, and sesshin is a “sleep in” morning, he lost both home and country. Now i.e., there is no morning sitting that when he reexamined the koan stories day; there will, however, continue he had penetrated before, he found his to be an evening sitting the day understanding of them was altogether following a weekend sesshin. different.

Hsu-t’ang’s example is an invaluable As usual, the day following a one. He went on to serve as the head longer sesshin—one of four, five, priest of ten leading Zen temples, or seven days—will be a “free although while residing in them he day,” i.e., there will be neither comported himself as though he were morning nor evening sittings that dwelling alone in a small grass hut. The day. It’s a day off. last syllable that spilled from his lips was like the deadly milk of the lion king, the tail feathers of the Chen bird.

The Oak Tree in the Garden November/December 2014 page 7 Please help! There are a number March 20-25 5-Day Elder Sesshin at Moun- of members who wish to attend tain Gate; deadline for applications: March 14. sesshin as well as daily sittings but suffer from chemical sensitivity. March 28-April 4 7-Day Sesshin at Moun- If we could all refrain from using tain Gate; deadline for applications: March perfume, aftershave, cologne, and 19. This together with the Elder Sesshin is a scented lotions, soaps, and sham- pair of sesshins at Mountain Gate specifically planned to offer the chance to greatly deepen poos prior to sittings and in sesshin your practice by doing two sesshin in quick it can make a difference between succession. It offers the possibility of greater our Sangha brothers and sisters deepening than to come to two sesshin fur- joining us for sitting—or not. ther apart. This practice is done at Sogen-ji with the 8-day Rohatsu sesshin followed with- November 1 Half-day Introduction to Zen in just a few days by the “second December Meditation, 9 a.m. - noon; please see www. osesshin”—it’s remarkably easy and effective. hvzc.org to download application form. Further half-day workshops will no longer be announced April 10-12 Vesak Ceremonies; Mitra-roshi in The Oak Tree but will continue to be listed in expects to be at HVZC April 7-14. More details the online calendar at.hvzc.org will be available closer to the time.

November 15 All-Day Sitting; exact schedule May 6-10 Regaining Balance Retreat for to be announced Women Veterans with PTSD, at Mountain Gate. These are not sesshin, but specialized November 19-26 7-Day Sesshin at Mountain retreats for women veterans suffering from Gate; application deadline November 2. post-traumatic stress. During these retreats women veterans are taught tools that they can November 30-December 8 Rohatsu Sesshin use to help center and ground themselves. at Mountain Gate; applications due by Nov. 18

December 14 All-Day Sitting; exact schedule May 30 All Day Workshop on Rinzai Zen; to be announced see www.hvzc.org for more info & to download an application form. Members attend for free. 2015 Calendar Roshi expects to be at HVZC May 28-June 4.

January 6-13 7-Day Sesshin at Mountain June 12-14 Regaining Balance Retreat for Gate; applications due by January 1st. Women Partners/Spouses of Veterans with PTSD, at Mountain Gate. Please see www.Re- January 27-February 1 5-Day Sesshin; gainingBalance.org for further information. February 2nd is a Free Day with no formal sit- tings that day. Roshi expects to be at HVZC July 7-14 7-Day Sesshin at Mountain Gate; Jan 27-Feb 3. deadline for applications: July 1.

March 7-14 7-Day Sesshin at Turtleback July 25-August 1 7-Day Sesshin; this is our Zendo; please contact [email protected] only 7-day sesshin this year at HVZC.

The Oak Tree in the Garden is published bimonthly by Hidden Valley Zen Center, P. O. Box 1355, San Marcos CA 92079-1355; subscriptions are $20 per year for hard copy or $16 per year via email. For information about our Center, log onto our website at www.hvzc.org, or call 760-591-9893.

A monk in all earnestness asked Joshu, “What is the meaning of Bodhidharma’s coming from the West? Joshu answered, “The oak tree in the garden!”