Zen is Eternal Life Zen is Eternal Life by RÜSHI P.T.N.H. JIYU-KENNETT Formerly published as Selling Water by the River SHASTA ABBEY PRESS, MOUNT SHASTA, CALIFORNIA 96067 Third Edition—1987 Fourth Edition—1999 © 1999 Shasta Abbey. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form except for brief excerpts for purposes of review without written permission from Shasta Abbey, 3724 Summit Drive, Mt. Shasta, CA 96067-9102; (530) 926-4208. Originally published in 1972 as Selling Water by the River. Second edition published in 1976 as Zen is Eternal Life. Front cover: The author meditating in the Meditation Hall at Dai Hon Zan Sájiji. Back cover: The author sweeping leaves in the grounds of Dai Hon Zan Sájiji. Frontispiece: The author after her Dharma Transmission ceremony. She received Dharma Transmission from the Very Reverend Kohá Keidá Chisan Zenji, Chief Abbot of Dai Hon Zan Sájiji and Archbishop of Sátá Zen of the Kantá Plains. Printed in the United States of America. ISBN 0-930066-20-0 Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 99-072819 The TransIndic font used to print this work is available from Linguist’s Software, Inc., PO Box 580, Edmonds, WA 98020Ð0580 USA tel (425) 775Ð1130 To my master, the Very Reverend Kohá Keidá Chisan Zenji, late Chief Abbot of Sájiji and Archbishop of the Kantá Plains. CONTENTS. Preface to the First Edition xi Preface to the Third Edition xvi Preface to the Fourth Edition xvii Book One. The Stem of the Lotus. Chapter 1 History of the Buddha According to Zen Belief 3 Chapter 2 Basic Original Doctrines Essential to Zen 8 Chapter 3 Growth of Zen from Basic Hinayana Doctrine 14 Chapter 4 The Necessity of Zazen or Meditation Practice 23 Chapter 5 The Necessity of Understanding the Heart of Avalokitesvara 36 Chapter 6 Activity in the Heart of Samantabhadra 46 Chapter 7 The Heart of Manjusri 54 Chapter 8 What are Káans? 66 Chapter 9 Apostolic Succession 73 Book Two. The Teachings of Dágen Zenji. Introduction to the Translations 91 Shushági (What is Truly Meant by Training and Enlightenment) 94 viii Contents Eihei-shingi (Dágen’s Monastic Rules) 104 Taitaikohá (How Junior Priests Must Behave in the Presence of Senior Priests) 104 Shuryá-shingi (Trainees’ Hall Rules) 108 Fushuku-hampá (Meal-Time Regulations) 113 Bendáhá (How to Train in Buddhism) 131 Tenzo-kyákun (Instructions to the Chief Cook) 145 Gakudá-yájinshâ (Important Aspects of Zazen) 162 Shábágenzá (The Treasury-Eye of the True Teaching) 179 Bendáwa (Lecture on Training) 179 Sháji (Life and Death) 196 Uji (The Theory of Time) 198 Genjá-káan (The Problem of Everyday Life) 205 Kyájukaimon (Giving and Receiving the Teaching of the Precepts) 211 Book Three. The Teachings of Keizan Zenji. Introduction to the Translations 217 Denkároku (Transmission of the Light) 224 Chapter 1 Shakyamuni Buddha 224 Chapter 2 The First Ancestor, Saint Makakashyo 227 Chapter 3 The Second Ancestor, Saint Ananda 231 Chapter 4 The Third Ancestor, Saint Shánawashyu 237 Chapter 5 The Fourth Ancestor, Saint Ubakikuta 240 Chapter 6 The Fifth Ancestor, Saint Daitaka 245 Chapter 7 The Sixth Ancestor, Saint Mishaka 248 Chapter 8 The Seventh Ancestor, Saint Bashumitsu 253 Chapter 9 The Eighth Ancestor, Saint Butsudanandai 256 Chapter 10 The Ninth Ancestor, Saint Fudamitta 260 Contents ix Chapter 11 The Tenth Ancestor, Saint Barishiba 264 Chapter 12 The Eleventh Ancestor, Saint Funayashya 267 Chapter 13 The Twelfth Ancestor, Saint Anabotei Memyá 269 Chapter 14 The Thirteenth Ancestor, Saint Kabimora 273 Chapter 15 The Fourteenth Ancestor, Saint Nagyaarajyuna 277 Chapter 16 The Fifteenth Ancestor, Saint Kanadaiba 282 Chapter 17 The Sixteenth Ancestor, Saint Ragorata 285 Chapter 18 The Seventeenth Ancestor, Saint Ságyanandai 290 Sankon-zazen-setsu (The Three Types of Personalities Resulting from Training) 297 Annotations 299 Glossary 301 Index 341 About the Author 349 About the Order of Buddhist Contemplatives 351 About the Monasteries of the Order 353 PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. In 1186 military government, under Yoritomo Minamoto, was established in Japan and, with it, came one of the greatest changes ever experienced in the history of that country. Up until that time the seemingly pleasure-loving aristocracy in Kyoto had written their poems, painted pictures and sung, apparently forgetting that the peasantry existed; degeneracy appeared to be in the air. The Buddhist hierarchies had enjoyed political support in return for mysterious and beautiful ceremonies which were seemingly more or less devoid of genuine spiritu- ality. Then, with the fall of the aristocracy, the temples and monasteries found themselves on their own, a prospect very few seemed to be able to adapt to. Amidst all the turmoil a new spiritual force began to arise. In the year 1191, Eisai Zenji, a Japanese Buddhist priest, returned from China and established the Rinzai school of Zen: he had spent four years studying under Master Eshá. The new and vital school of Buddhism that he brought with him was like a beacon of light shining in the religious darkness of mediaeval Japan. The káan system of the Rinzai school was itself a fairly new development in the history of Zen. It was mainly through the eloquent master Daie Sáká, in the early part of the twelfth xi xii Preface to the First Edition century, that it had become widely used in China. The káan exercise, with its shouting, kicking, crying and beating, cul- minating in the sudden understanding of kenshá, attracted the young samurai of Japan who seemed to have quickly absorbed its methods into their own discipline. Shortly before Eisai’s death, a young trainee, named Dágen, began studying under the aged master. Upon the death of his teacher, Dágen, who was not satisfied even with the Rinzai teachings, found it necessary to travel to China in order to further his studies. There he found the “serene reflection” type of meditation practiced by the Sátá school of Zen and it is with these teachings, which he brought back to Japan, that this book is concerned. Sátá Zen followed mainly the Indian tradition and was the religion of the ordinary person, man or woman. In his writ- ings, after his return, Dágen proclaimed that there was no dif- ference between the meditations of a man and a woman, a rich person and a poor one, everyone being able to find peace and freedom if he truly sought it. It is because of its apparently sim- ple approach, the very opposite, to me, of the approach of Rinzai, that I have chosen Sátá for myself. Under his Chinese master, Nyojá, Dágen learned that Sátá masters were not bound by any one system of teaching: they preferred to use kaleidoscopic teaching methods and to allow the káan to develop naturally in the daily life of the trainee, as his spiritual understanding ripened, rather than force his growth through the unnatural tension created by a fixed system of káans. It was in 1227 that Dágen returned to Japan to teach the “new” Sátá system; so called despite the fact that Sátá is the oldest of the three Zen schools. During his lifetime, Dágen realised that the time for spreading Sátá Zen in Japan had not yet come so he spent most of his life organising small communities. It is for this reason, Preface to the First Edition xiii and this reason only, that Sátá Zen had to wait several gener- ations before it was to enjoy widespread acceptance in Japan under the aegis of Keizan Zenji. Anesaki tells us, in his History of Japanese Religions, that the times were ripe for a new and vital religion, Rinzai seemingly having, by then, degenerated into a means of artistic religious expression rather than being a source of real spiritual help for the masses who were in dire need of it. Until the time of Keizan, Dágen’s Zen seemingly had clung to its Chinese heritage thus alienating itself from the common people of Japan. Keizan brought the old ideas of Buddhism into line with the new spirit of the times—and in so doing exem- plified one of Dágen’s greatest teachings—by his insistence that Zen could survive only if it came alive for the time in which its adherents were living. To this end he, like Dágen, taught the most advanced forms of hygiene and living habits then extant, blending them with the culture of the Japanese people and the ancient spirit of Zen so that every act of daily life became an act of religious understanding. Through this simple process Sátá Zen spread throughout the country until today it is the second largest school of Buddhism in Japan, its teachings keeping ever in step with the times and yet retaining their original spirit. I studied at the London Buddhist Vihara and was a lec- turer at the London Buddhist Society. It was while studying Buddhist history that I discovered that all the seemingly known great Zen masters appeared before the Sátá and Rinzai lines separated, although there were many good masters later in both lines. I spent time in Chinese temples of the Rinzai school in Malacca, Singapore and Hong Kong but felt that its teachings did not go far enough; it therefore seemed only natural that I should devote my fullest energies to pursuing the Sátá way; after all, this had been my original intention. This I did for seven xiv Preface to the First Edition years and seven months in Japan with a three-month return visit to Malaysia during this time. There is a Japanese saying that, whilst Rinzai is for the generals, Sátá is for the farmers.