Zen Buddhism, which aims at breaking through the thought-barrier to direct enkghtenment, is coming West. In the last fifteen centuries Zen train- has ing produced some of the greatest minds and the finest art and culture of China and Japan. Now, the more intui- tive Western thinkers, frustrated by ^- limitations of the intellect, are ^:x::^ for a means of developing tlie mind towards this direct experience of reality. Dr. D. T. Suzuki has brought to the West a knowledge of Zen Buddhism, but can books alone enable the Western student to achieve the Zen experience ? Mr. Christmas Humphreys, founder of the Buddhist Society and author of Zen Buddhism,, is attempting to solve this problem. Here is a method of approach as practised by a gr wp in London, with a record of their fa i ire and success. It involves removing a host of fixed ideas, developing a trairud will with a new singleness of aim, md an intuitive aware- ness of the onertss wLidi lies beyond thought. It is c : aracter-buildiiig with deliberate purpoti; A:d all this in the course of tie day s M t)rk, in a blend of fierce determim; : 0.1 anc enormous *; i, . Zen Comes West Christmas Humphreys ; eorge Allen & Unwin KANSAS CITY, MO PUBLIC LIBRARY D DDD1 OBlOfln 7 294 H927z 66-21560 Humphreys Zen comes west 66-21560 H927z 294 **"* Humphreys Zen comes west f ZEN COMES WEST by the same author ZEN BUDDHISM STUDIES IN THE MIDDLE WAY THE WAY OF ACTION etc., etc. o a "d * a > cd *> .S |~J g^ w tti cJ u JS O <J w w 8J I 8 a IBG co Ocj >- q oo co to Zen Comes \Vest THE PRESENT AND FUTURE OF ZEN BUDDHISM IN BRITAIN CHRISTMAS HUMPHREYS Ruskin House GEORGE ALLEN & UNWIN LTD MUSEUM STREET LONDON FIRST PUBLISHED IN 1960 This book is copyright under the Berne Convention. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, 1956, no portion may be reproduced by any process without written permission. Enquiries should be addressed to the Publishers George Allen & Unwin Ltd., 1960 Printed in Great Britain in ii on 12 pt. Imprint type by East Midland Printing Company Limited Bury St. Edmunds, Peterborough, Kettering and elsewhere PREFACE The purpose and scope of this book are sufficiently described in the Introduction. Chapters i, 2, 8, 9 and 10 first appeared in The Middle Way, the organ of the Buddhist Society, London, and I am grateful to its Editor, Mrs Muriel Robins, for permission to re- print. For retyping the atrocious typing in which I 'write' my books I am grateful to many assistants, notably Miss Amy Bedwell, Mrs Mary Anthony and Miss Peggy Kennett. The Frontispiece is the only known photograph of the three persons most con- cerned in the subject of Zen comes West, Dr D. T. Suzuki, Alan Watts and myself. The snapshot was taken in the lounge of the Rembrandt Hotel, South Kensington in June 1958 by Miss Mihoko Okamura. CONTENTS page PREFACE 7 INTRODUCTION 15 PART ONE: ZEN COMES WEST I ZEN BUDDHISM 21 II ZEN COMES WEST 28 III THE PROBLEM BECOMES ACUTE 34 PART TWO! CLASS WORK IV PREPARATION FOR THE JOURNEY 49 Letter i TO MR BRAMPTON. Zen is within. What will you pay for it? What you must drop. The tram- lines of the intellect. Non-duality. 49 Letter 2 TO MARTHA. Zen not 'an additional 9 activity . One does not 'find time for Zen\ Zen is, call it what you will. 52 Letter 3 TO ZELNUK. Zen cannot be found with thinking. Thought forms. Thinking to the end of thought. 53 Letter 4 TO RODNEY. The Zen teacher/pupil relationship. Don't lean forward or backward or either side. The 'moving rock in a moving sea*. 55 Letter 5 TO MISS MELLAND. If in love work through it. Then give whole time to Zen. 56 Letter 6 TO BUNGY. Thirty masks for thirty minds in Class. How see through them, and mine? A Class gets the teacher it deserves. 56 Letter 7 TO MADAM . Goodness not enough for Enlightenment. The NOTHING, the One, the Two, the Many. Why do we want Zen? 58 Letter 8 TO MARY. The injury caused by spiteful criticism. Tolerance of others' lives and loves and methods. Criticism preserves distinctions, which are all 'falsely imagined*. Zen know? none, 59 ZEN COMES WEST Page Letter 9 TO SILVER. How prove that satori not merely subjective? Proof and the intuition. 61 Letter 10 TO MARTHA. Psychic visions. Psychic faculties. Devas and fairies. 62 Letter n TO MARY. The small things that annoy and please us. Loneliness. Taming the animal. Patience. Peeps at the high peaks. 64 Letter 12 TO ZELNUK. Escaping from, bonds of thought. Direct action. Sterility of concepts. 66 Letter 13 TO MR GUNTHER. Zen is not a system of thought. 67 Letter 14 TO MR TOLSON. The high role of the teacher. 68 Letter 15 TO RODNEY. How to help a friend going blind. 69 Letter 16 TO BRAMPTON. 'What is Zen?\ What is Life? 71 Letter 17 TO SILVER. Our present bodies. Cutting new channels of thought. 71 Letter 18 TO RAMPTON. The relation of God and Zen. 73 Letter 19 TO SILVER. The Mahatmas of India and Zen Masters. 75 Letter 20 TO BRAMPTON. First beginnings and ultimate ends. What is satori? 77 Letter 21 TO MARTHA. Study will not lead to Zen. Its true uses. Zen is Non-duality. 78 Letter 22TOSILVER. The need and uses of discipline. 80 Letter 23 TO MARY. Loneliness. Pain inevitable. The Bodhisattva and compassion. 81 Letter 24TOBUNGY. No 'advanced stuff' too soon. The mixture of types in the Class. How best to proceed. My Dharma. 83 THE WAY OPENS 85 Letter 25 TO THE ZEN CLASS. What do you want? Who wants it? Why? How will you find it? 85 Letter 26 TO MARY. On happiness and being unhappy. 88 Letter 27 TO SALLY. The need to be unhappy. Look at what you see. Listen to what you hear. 90 10 CONTENTS Page Letter 28 TO THE ZEN CLASS. Direct Action. Facing situations directly. 91 Letter 29 TO SILVER. Zen is not about anything. Don't attempt to define the indefinable. 92 Letter 30 TO MARTHA. Can the intuition flood the emotions as it does the intellect? 93 Letter 31 TO MARY. Happiness, unhappiness, contentment and joy. 94 Letter 32 TO SALLY. Depression will pass. The artist's cycle of inspiration. Appraisal versus self- praise. 95 Letter 33 TO BUNGY. Clinging to one's balance, 9 frivolous verses on 'the Goose is out . 96 Letter 34 TO SILVER. Tolerance and intolerance. True co-operation. Members must be allowed to decide own methods. 97 Letter 35 TO MR CRASHAW. What has Zen that Western mystics have not got? The answer. 98 Letter 36 TO BUNGY. The Guru-chela relationship compared with Zen master and pupil. The Western psychiatrist and patient. The ideal teacher. 100 Letter 37 TO SILVER. Intuitive inspiration versus spiritualist visions. Spiritualism. Damage to mediums * 9 and departed entity . The psychic graveyard of the seance room. 101 Letter 38 TO MARY. The Self, the Atman and the one SELF. 103 Letter 39 TO BILLY. Advice on books to study which rouse the intuition. None is 'authority*. 104 Letter 40 TO RODNEY. Motive, right and wrong. 105 Letter 41 TO SALLY. Intuition, thought and emotion. 106 Letter 42 TO LETCHWORTH. 'Slick cleverness* in Class. The infinitely subtle Middle Way. 106 Letter 43 TO SILVER. Criticism of teacher may be a good sign, of independence. 107 9 Letter 44 TO BRAMPTON. 'Drop it . Barriers on the way. What must be dropped. Value of laughter. 108 Letter 45 TO SALLY. Value of ritual in Zen monasteries. ii ZEN COMES WEST Page 9 Letter 46 TO MARY* Life cannot be 'too complicated . Mountains and trees. The great are simple-minded. 112 Letter 47 NOTES FROM A TALK TO THE ZEN CLASS. Zen and morality. The 'Three fires' and the Zen life. Criterion of morality. 113 Letter 48 TO RODNEY. We must teach what we learn. 1 14 Letter 49 TO MARTHA. On losing one's friends. 115 Letter 50 NOTES FROM A TALK TO THE ZEN CLASS. Fresh troubles inevitable for all who attempt inner development. A good sign. 116 Letter 51 TO BILLY. All troubles are 'fair*. We suffer from our sins, not for them. 117 Letter 52 TO MRS WELLING. All suffering is deserved. The law of Karma. All sufferers need our help. 118 Letter 53 TO BUNGY. Psychologists. Their superior attitude to spiritual experience. Their own concrete ceiling. 119 Letter 54 TO BUNGY. Good and bad psychiatrists. Buddhism and Western psychology. 120 Letter 55 TO CAPLAN. Is a trained intellect needed for Zen? Progress seen and unseen. True progress that brain may not know. 122 Letter 56 TO RODNEY. All that happens happens right. Acceptance versus indifference. 123 Letter 57 TO MARY. Vulnerability. Coping with intruding thoughts quickly, as they arise. Keeping the higher mind unsullied by circumstance. 124 Letter 58 TO MARTHA. Peace and war. The war within. 'The price of peace is self. Folly of fear. 126 Letter 59 TO BRAMPTON. The limits of logic. Eastern approach to Truth. 127 Letter 60 TO MR WILMINGTON. Duty and riches. Non-attachment. Right use of possessions. 128 Letter 61 NOTES FROM A TALK TO THE ZEN 9 CLASS. Be the Self and forget your self and others . We should meet as Selves of one SELF. 130 Letter 62 TO MARY.