Passing Through the Gateless Barrier: Koan Practice for Real Life Free

FREE PASSING THROUGH THE GATELESS BARRIER: KOAN PRACTICE FOR REAL LIFE PDF

While D. Suzuki brought the philosophy and culture of Zen Buddhism to America, it was Nyogen Senzaki who taught Zen as a steady, disciplined, unromantic yet transformative path of everyday life. Nyogen Senzaki came to America, in part, because he had become disenchanted with modern Buddhism in Japan. Then after seventeen years, he began to present lectures on Buddhism whenever he could save enough money to rent a hall. He notes that real Zen teachers never give anything; rather, they take away whatever their students are attached to. Nyogen Senzaki died in at the age of He left his manuscripts to his friend Soen Nakagawa Roshi, and he in turn passed them to his dharma successor, Eido Roshi. Get even more Buddhist wisdom delivered straight to your inbox! Zen has no gates. Now, how does one pass through this gateless gate? There is a saying that whatever enters through the gate is not the family treasure. Whatever is produced by the help of another will dissolve and perish. The young stage of a religious mind always lingers around such an idea. One thus has to have a Supreme Being, and the agency of prophets. The compilers of old scriptures had to work hard to satisfy those childish minds, and thus stitched together the ragged pieces of old traditions and legends. Zen has nothing to do with such antiquities. You are here to meditate only because you want to know your true self. No agent of a Supreme Being provoked you to come. No scriptures enticed you to study meditation. Therefore, the essence of the teaching has no particular form or mold. In his time, all students of Buddhism understood that Zen is the essence of Buddhism, not a school or a sect of it. I am a senior student to you all, but I have nothing to impart to you. Whatever I have is mine, and never will be yours. You may consider me stingy and unkind, but I do not wish you to produce something that will dissolve and perish. I want each of you to discover your own inner treasure. Even such words are like raising waves in a windless sea or performing surgery upon a healthy body. If you cling to what others have said, and try to understand Zen through explanations, it is as though you are trying to hit the moon with a pole, or scratch your itchy foot from the outside of your shoe. It is not at all possible. Those who understand Zen need not listen to Mumon or anyone else. But most students have something lurking in their minds, something that is bound to become a harmful parasite: a feeling of dependence upon others for their own growth. These students need sharp and emphatic encouragement, not soft and kind words. I will offer it here and stop raising waves in a calm sea, or performing surgery upon a sound body. In the yearI was giving Dharma discourses to Passing Through the Gateless Barrier: Koan Practice for Real Life monks in the temple of Ryusho, City of Toka, in the Province of Onshu, and at their request I retold old koans, endeavoring to inspire their Zen spirit. I meant to use the koans Passing Through the Gateless Barrier: Koan Practice for Real Life one uses a piece of brick to knock at a gate: after the gate is opened, the brick is useless and is thrown away. Unexpectedly, however, my notes were collected as a group of forty-eight koans, together with my comments in prose and verse on each, although their arrangement was not in the order in which I spoke about them. I have titled the book the Mumonkan Gateless Gateand offer it to students to read as a guide. If you are brave enough and go straight ahead in meditation, you will not be disturbed by delusions. You will attain Zen just as did Passing Through the Gateless Barrier: Koan Practice for Real Life ancient masters of India and China; perhaps even more so. The great Way has no gate; Thousands of roads enter it. When one passes through the gateless gate, One walks freely throughout heaven and earth. Soon we will begin a week of seclusion in commemoration of Bodhidharma, from the third of October to the ninth. This is a fine opportunity for all of you to practice Zen with self-determination. Let us see what we can do for attainment. Many masters in China and Japan entered Zen through this gate. Do not think that it is easy just because it is the first. A koan is the thesis of the postgraduate course in Buddhism. Each koan is the key of emancipation. Once you are freed from your fetters, you do not need the key anymore. The wonderful power of emancipation! It is applied in countless ways—in limitless ways. One should make four kinds of offerings for this power. If you want to pay for it, A million gold Passing Through the Gateless Barrier: Koan Practice for Real Life are not enough. If you sacrifice everything you have, it cannot cover your debts. Only a few words from your realization are payment in full, Even for the debts of the remote past. The great Chinese Zen master Joshu always spoke his Zen, using a few choice words, instead of hitting or shaking his students as other teachers did. I know that students who cling to worldly sentiments do not like Passing Through the Gateless Barrier: Koan Practice for Real Life rough manner of Zen. Each sentient being has buddhanature. This dog must have one. So you think of the manifestation of buddhanature as a dog. Get out! Whatever you say is just the shadow of your conceptual thinking. Whatever you conceive of is a figment of your imagination. Now, tell me, has a dog buddhanature or not? You are not an independent person if you do not pass this barrier. You cannot walk freely throughout heaven and earth. You may ask, what is the barrier set up by the patriarchs? This one word, Mu, is it. This is the barrier of Zen. If you pass through it, you will see Joshu face-to-face. Then you can walk hand in hand with the whole line of patriarchs. Is this not a wondrous thing? If you want to pass this barrier, you must work so that every bone in your body, every pore of your skin, is filled through and through with this question, What is Mu? You must carry it day and night. Just carry the koan, and ignore all contending thoughts. They will disappear soon, leaving you alone in samadhi. Do not believe Mu is the common negative. It is not nothingness as the opposite of existence. Joshu did not say the dog has buddhanature. He did not say the dog has no buddhanature. He only pointed directly to your own buddhanature! If you really want to pass this barrier, you should feel as though you have a hot iron ball in your throat that you can Passing Through the Gateless Barrier: Koan Practice for Real Life swallow nor spit up. Then your previous conceptualizing disappears. Like a fruit ripening in season, subjectivity and objectivity are experienced as one. You are like a dumb person who has had a dream. You know it, but you cannot speak about it. When you enter this condition, your ego-shell is crushed, and you can shake the heavens and move the earth. You are like a great warrior with a sharp sword. Neither Japan nor China has such a warrior; therefore they have to fight each other. This is an expression in Chinese rhetoric, meaning once you become a buddha, you have no more use for buddha. Some Japanese blockhead could not understand such a peculiar expression, and many other quaint Chinese terms as well, and took them all as invitations to stir hatred. This is one of the causes of the conflict between China and Japan. Ignorance is not bliss; it is a terrible thing. You will walk freely through birth and death. You can enter any place as if it were your own playground. I will tell you how to do this. Just concentrate all your energy into Mu, and do not allow any discontinuity. When you enter Mu and there is no discontinuity, your attainment will be like a candle that illuminates the whole universe. Discontinuity may be allowed at first while you are engaged in your everyday work, but when you are meditating in the zendo or in your home, you must carry on with this koan, minute after minute, bravely. Our seclusion week is an opportunity for Passing Through the Gateless Barrier: Koan Practice for Real Life to engage in this sort of adventure. Why Can’t the Tail Pass Through? - Michael Stone Teachings

The Gateless Gate. Wu-wen kuan; Jap. English Translation. Original Chinese Text. The original Chinese text is taken from the following Japanese web site:. Chinese Characters. Unfortunately a few Chinese characters were not Passing Through the Gateless Barrier: Koan Practice for Real Life in this site. Where there was a definition about these ideograms, they are entered them using Chinese system Big 5. There are also ideograms that appear as mere black boxes, without any explanations. These are replaced with dummy characters empty square boxes. Wu-wen kuan Mumonkan. Mumon's Preface. Buddhism makes mind its foundation and no-gate its gate. Now, how do you pass through this no-gate? It is said that things coming in through the gate can never be your own treasures. What is gained from external circumstances will perish in the end. However, such a saying is already raising waves when there is no wind. It is cutting unblemished skin. As for those who try to understand through other people's words, they are striking at the moon with a stick; scratching a shoe, whereas it is the foot that itches. What concern have they with the truth? The text was written down not according to any scheme, but just to make a collection of forty-eight cases. It is called Mumonkan"The Gateless Gate. A man of determination will unflinchingly push his way straight forward, regardless of all dangers. Then even the eight-armed Nata cannot hinder him. Even the four sevens of the West and the two threes of the East would beg for their lives. If one has no determination, then it will be like catching a glimpse of a horse galloping past the window: in the twinkling of an eye it will be gone. Mumon's Comment. In order to master Zen, you must pass the barrier of the patriarchs. To attain this subtle realization, you must completely cut off the way of thinking. If you do not pass the barrier, and do not cut off the way of thinking, then you will be like a ghost clinging to the bushes and weeds. Now, I want to ask you, what is the Passing Through the Gateless Barrier: Koan Practice for Real Life of the patriarchs? Why, it is this single word "Mu. Therefore it is called the "Mumonkan of Zen. Isn't that a delightful prospect? Wouldn't you like to pass this barrier? Arouse your entire body with its three hundred and sixty bones and joints and its eighty-four thousand pores of the skin; summon up a spirit of great doubt and concentrate on this word "Mu. Carry it continuously day and night. Do not form a nihilistic conception of vacancy, or a relative conception of "has" or "has not. It will be just as if you swallow a red-hot iron ball, which you cannot spit out even if you try. All the illusory ideas and delusive thoughts accumulated up to the present will be exterminated, and when the time comes, internal and external will be Passing Through the Gateless Barrier: Koan Practice for Real Life united. You will know this, but for yourself only, like a dumb man who has had a dream. Then all of a sudden an explosive conversion will occur, and you will astonish the heavens and shake the earth. It will be as if you snatch away the great sword of the valiant general Kan'u and hold it in your hand. When you meet the Buddha, you kill him; when you meet the patriarchs, you kill them. On the brink of life and death, you command perfect freedom; among the sixfold worlds and four modes of existence, you enjoy a merry and playful samadhi. Now, I want to ask you again, "How will you carry it out? Employ every ounce of your energy to work on this "Mu. If you hold on without interruption, behold: a single spark, and the holy candle is lit! When the monks left the hall, the old man would also leave. The old man replied. In the old days of Kashyapa Buddha, I was a head monk, living here on this mountain. One day a student asked me, 'Does a man of enlightenment fall under the yoke of causation or not? I answered, 'No, he does not. Since then I have been doomed to undergo five hundred rebirths as a fox. I beg you now to give the turning word to release me from my life as a fox. Tell me, does a man of enlightenment fall under the yoke of causation or not? No sooner had the old man heard these words than he was enlightened. Making his bows, he said, "I am emancipated from my life as a fox. I shall remain on this mountain. I have a favor to ask of you: would you please bury my body as that of a dead monk. The monks wondered at this, saying, "Everyone is in good health; nobody is in the sick ward. What does this mean? That evening he ascended the rostrum and told the monks the whole story. Now, suppose he had given the right answer, what would have happened then? Not falling under causation: how could this make the monk a fox? Not ignoring causation: how could this make the old man emancipated? Once a visitor asked Passing Through the Gateless Barrier: Koan Practice for Real Life boy attendant, "What does your master teach? The boy too raised his finger. Hearing of this, Gutei cut off the boy's finger with a knife. The boy, screaming with pain, began to run away. Gutei called to him, and when he turned around, Gutei raised his finger. The boy suddenly became enlightened. When he had finished saying this, he entered into eternal Nirvana. The enlightenment of Gutei and of the boy does not depend on the finger. Wakuan said, "Why has the Western Barbarian no beard? Study should be real study, enlightenment should be real enlightenment. You should once meet this barbarian directly to be really intimate with him. But saying you are really intimate with him already divides you into two. Someone appears under the tree and asks him, 'What is the meaning of Bodhidharma's coming from the West? If he does answer, he will lose his life. What would you do in such a situation? Even if your eloquence flows like a river, it is of no avail. Though you can expound the whole of Buddhist literature, it is of no use. If you solve this problem, you will give life to the way that has been dead until this moment and destroy the way that has been alive up to now. Otherwise you must wait for Maitreya Buddha and ask him. When Shakyamuni Buddha was at Mount Grdhrakuta, he held out a flower to his listeners. Everyone was silent. Only Mahakashyapa broke into a broad smile. This I have entrusted to Mahakashyapa. Golden-faced Gautama really disregarded his listeners. He made the good look bad and sold dog's meat labeled as mutton. He himself thought it Passing Through the Gateless Barrier: Koan Practice for Real Life wonderful. If, however, everyone in the audience had laughed, how could he have transmitted his True Eye? And again, if Mahakashyapa had not smiled, how could the Buddha have transmitted it? If you say the True Dharma Eye can be transmitted, then the golden-faced Passing Through the Gateless Barrier: Koan Practice for Real Life man would be a city slicker who cheats the country bumpkin. If you say it cannot be transmitted, then why did the Buddha approve of Mahakashyapa? Please teach me. With this the monk gained insight. He displays his heart and liver. Boundless Way Zen Westchester: Gateless Gate 1

T he Great Way Passing Through the Gateless Barrier: Koan Practice for Real Life gateless, approached by a thousand paths. Pass trough this barrier, you walk freely in the universe. One of the principal Zen texts from thirteenth century China is a collection of koans entitled Wu-wen kuan Mumonkan. This translates into English as The Gateless Gateor what we Westerners would think of as an open gateway. Originally envisioned as a hidden, but open passage through otherwise impenetrable mountains, the Gateless Gate once found presents us with unrestricted passage. Written as a collection of precedential cases, the Wu-wen kuan gives us forty-eight examples of how we can pass through the gateless barrier that may have hitherto been barring our progress. The introduction of this text makes it clear that the mind is both the barrier and the gateway to enlightenment. In order to pass freely through, one need only to abandon all cherished possessions. To those who see possessions as being corporeal this seems obvious and is akin to the Christian concept of a rich man trying to enter heaven with his riches as being like a camel passing through the eye of a needle Matthew From the Zen perspective, the possessions that cannot pass through the Gateless Gate are much less tangible. These are the possessions of the mind; Passing Through the Gateless Barrier: Koan Practice for Real Life, assumptions, opinions, understandings, facts and conclusions that make up the excess baggage that prevents our free passage. Like the security gates at the airport, the alarm sounds when we attempt to carry our unchecked baggage through the gate and we are immediately stopped by Fudo-myo, the fearsome gate keeper, unable to proceed. Thinking that the bags we carry with us are necessities for our comfort and survival, we refuse to leave them behind. Understanding our desire, the indomitable yet compassionate gate keeper gives us the option of passing freely without the baggage, but stuck as we are in our own limited knowledge, we cannot imagine continuing on. How can we let go of what we believe when it is the foundation of our understanding? Surely, we cannot be expected to pass through this checkpoint unarmed and unprotected by our theories and reason. There must be some other way! We have learned so much and practiced for so long. Are we to abandon everything? Our education? Our understanding? Our teachers? Our traditions? What of all our training and years spent sitting on the cushion? Wu-wen makes this clear from the very beginning: Those who try to understand through other people's words are striking at the moon with a stick. What is gained from external circumstances will only perish in the end. To even raise these questions is to raise waves when there is no wind. How can they see reality as it actually is? The notions of education, understanding, traditions, are the very mental mountains we are attempting to penetrate. Nothing we know or believe will set us free, freedom is only obtained by letting go of our conceptual baggage. Until we let go, it is impossible to go any further and no amount of "saying" we know will avail. No matter how many times have we read or chanted the Heart Sutrasaying No suffering, no origination, no stopping, no path, no cognition, also no attainment with nothing to attain We may "believe" that we understand what we are reading or saying but these beliefs are our barriers, the very baggage that will not go through the gate, much less to the other shore. This is not to say that we must know nothing, but rather that we should not remain Passing Through the Gateless Barrier: Koan Practice for Real Life to anything we know. In the end, it is our attachment to our so-called knowing that stops us dead in our tracks. Case thirty eight of the Wu-wen kuan illustrates quite clearly the fate of the unenlightened Zen Ox who has practiced and meditated faithfully for many years, studied the sutras, and believed whole-heartedly in the words of the masters:. There is a popular story about a Zen master taking on an erudite pundit regarding the burdens of attachment to one's cherished knowledge: Nan-in, a Japanese master during the Meiji erareceived a university professor who came to inquire about Zen. While the professor proudly expounded his understanding of Zen, Nan-in served tea. He poured his visitor's cup full, and then kept on pouring. The professor watched the overflow until he no longer could restrain himself. No more will go in! How can I teach you Zen unless you first empty your cup? Full of judgments, diagnoses, opinions, attributions and conclusions, he has made it impossible for the revelation of truth to enter. What he knows keeps him from knowing. To "empty one's cup" is the single most difficult aspect of our Zen training. In order to pass through the barrier we must be willing to disregard everything we have learned. What we think we "understand" or "believe" becomes the definitive obstruction to our becoming awakened. It is said that "knowledge is power" and this may be true in a worldly way, but in this case the power Passing Through the Gateless Barrier: Koan Practice for Real Life our knowledge is the power that is stopping us. We have been seduced by the power and security of our conditioned knowing and we will refuse to let it go. Assumptions, opinions, understandings and so called facts are all intrinsically limited and lead us directly to conclusions, which by definition are endings. To conclude something is to bring it to an end. Built one on another, our ever-mounting assumptions and opinions become fixed conclusions that are stacked and interlocked with previous conclusions. Unwittingly, by believing our conclusions, we progressively build the very barrier of knowledge that keeps us from passing freely through the wisdom gate. In cultivating the field of boundless consciousness we must clear it of all obstructions. Everything we believe as "the truth" must be forgotten and replaced with the understanding that "the truth" is a conclusion as well. To be awakened we must break away from our opinions and free ourselves from our delusions. Nowhere is this more evident than in the determined mind of the Zen practitioner who has yet to experienced awakening. The essential mind is open and limitless, yet due to our conclusions, the same mind becomes the impenetrable barrier. Chapter twelve of the Tao Te Ching points directly to the limits of our knowledge and perceptions, as well as, the Passing Through the Gateless Barrier: Koan Practice for Real Life troublesome baggage of desire, and illustrates this concisely: The five colors blind the eye. The five sounds deafen the ear. The five flavors numb the taste. Concepts weaken the Passing Through the Gateless Barrier: Koan Practice for Real Life. Desires wither the heart. How is it that our perceptions can make us senseless? We know that there are more than five colors the number five is just a product of Chinese numerologybut would five hundred colors be any better? It doesn't matter if we believe that there is only one blue or ten thousand blues. By giving blue a finite dimension we have effectively limited our understanding of blue. Colors, sounds, flavors, smells and feelings are all mentioned in the Heart Sutra as being non-existent or empty. This does not so much mean that they do not exist, but rather it means that they are unfathomable and our knowledge of them is both limited and self-limiting. We are forced to limit our minds when we abide by what we think we know. We all know there are more than five colors or even five thousand colors but we limit what we see by what we believe. Everything we experience that limits our consciousness is a product of our so-called "knowledge. No matter Passing Through the Gateless Barrier: Koan Practice for Real Life much we know, what we do not know exceeds that knowledge ten thousand times. Through abandoning Passing Through the Gateless Barrier: Koan Practice for Real Life conceptions and conclusions we open our mind to the process of illumination. Awakening begins with casting off the chains of our limited knowledge and resting our attention in the limitlessness of the boundless mind. Unencumbered by perceptions and assumed knowledge, the mind has Passing Through the Gateless Barrier: Koan Practice for Real Life potential and it is only our limited beliefs that keep us from realizing this. Every precious concept must be left totally open and allowed to be freely transformed. A truly open mind is open in every direction and totally without conclusions. Wisdom is the process of allowing our awareness to rise above our knowledge. Rigid knowledge is allowed to be replaced by fluid awareness, as our innate wisdom displaces our deep-seated insecurities. As we approach the Gateless Gate Passing Through the Gateless Barrier: Koan Practice for Real Life must check our baggage with the intention of never getting it back. To want to hold on to a single claim check is to spring the trap on the Ox's tail. To awaken is to walk fearlessly naked through the open gate, without reservation, free of expectations and without anything in mind. To simply return to the state of the un-carved block, walk right through the barrier and spontaneously begin again. The five colors blind the eye. The Master observes the world but trusts his inner vision. He allows things to come and go. His heart is open as the sky. Tao te Ching, Ch. In fact, all mystical traditions commonly find their members, at some time in their life, retreating Category: Making Connections. Twenty-one years old and from my village, yet! So bright and filled with fresh ideas. No wonder you gained such a high post in Tenchong. I seemed ancient when I came to Chan. Category: Poetry of Empty Cloud. The seeker trudges slowly up the mountain through the mists, not sure which path to take. He takes one path only to find that it dead-ends around a few large trees, forcing him to go back and take a different Category: Articles by Fa Dong.