PHILLIPS ACAD ZEN SOURCEBOOK Traditional Documents from China, Korea, and Japan Edited by Stephen Addiss, with Stanley Lombardo and Judith Roitman Introduction by Paula Arai # C_yfnno 1778 • ft # # PHILLIPS • ACADEMY f> *# ##<*### #-^ass©iaSH!# % # # OLIVER - WEN DELL • HOLMES f># # # LIBRARY # # # # f>* # * ADAMS BOOK FUND ZEN SOURCEBOOK Traditional Documents from China, Korea,, Japan Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2019 with funding from Kahle/Austin Foundation https://archive.org/details/zensourcebooktraOOOOunse ZEN SOURCEBOOK Traditional Documents from China, Korea, japan Edited by Stephen Addiss With Stanley Lombardo and Judith Roitman Introduction by Paula Arai Hackett Publishing Company, Inc. Indianapolis/Cambridge GfT o '’HOB Copyright © 2008 by Hackett Publishing Company, Inc. All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 123436 For further information, please address: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc. P.O. Box 44937 Indianapolis, IN 46244-0937 www.hackettpublishing.com Cover design by Abigail Coyle Text design by Meera Dash Composition by Agnews, Inc. Printed at Edwards Brothers, Inc. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Zen sourcebook : traditional documents from China, Korea, and Japan / edited by Stephen Addiss, with Stanley Lombardo and Judith Roitman ; introduction by Paula Arai. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references. ISBN-13: 978-0-87220-909-1 (pbk.) ISBN-13: 978-0-87220-910-7 (cloth) 1. Zen Buddhism—Early works to 1800. 2. Zen literature. I. Addiss, Stephen, 1935- II. Lombardo, Stanley, 1943- III. Roitman, Judith, 1945- BQ9258.Z464 2008 294.3'927—dc22 2007038739 The paper used in this publication meets the minimum standard requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48—1984. CONTENTS Preface vii Introduction x Notes on Translation xxx Chinese Zen 1 1. The Heart Sutra and the Kanzeon Sutra (complete) 3 2. Bodhidharma (died c. 532), The Two Paths (complete) 9 3. Seng-ts’an (died 606), Hsin-hsin-ming (Trust in Mind, complete) 13 4. Hui-neng (638-713), Autobiography (complete), from the Platform Sutra 19 5. Shih-t’ou (700-790), Harmony of Difference and Equality (,Sanddkai, complete) 31 6. Huang-po (died c. 850), Transmission of Mind (excerpts) 34 7. Lin-chi (died 866), Lin-chi Record (excerpts) 43 8. The P’ang Family: Layman P’ang (740-808), Mrs. P’ang (n.d.), and P’ang Ling-chao (d. 808), Anecdotes and Poems (excerpts) 52 9. Selected Poems by Chinese Nuns 61 10. Chao-chou (778-897), Recorded Sayings (excerpts) 72 11. K’uo-an (active c. 1150), The Ox-Herding Poems (complete) 85 12. Wu-men (1183-1260), compiler, Wu-men-kuan (The Gateless Barrier, complete) 89 13. The Blue Cliff Record (excerpts) 112 14. Ta-hui (1089-1163), Swampland Flowers (excerpts) 118 15. The Biography of Miao-tsung (1095—1170; complete) 126 Korean and Japanese Zen 133 16. Chinul (1158-1210), On CultivatingtheMind(excerpts) 135 17. Dogen (1200-1253), Selected Writings 140 18. The Awakening of Mugai Nyodai (died 1298) (complete) 173 19. Muso Soseki (1275-1351), Selected Poems 181 20. T’aego (1301-1382), Collected Sayings (excerpts) 188 V VI Contents 21. IkkyuSojun (1394-1481), Selected Poems in Chinese and Japanese 197 22. So Sahn (1520—1604), The Mirror of Zen (excerpts) 208 23. Bankei Yotaku (1622-1693), The Ryiimon-ji Sermons (excerpts) 223 ° Illustrated text: Ryonen Genso (1646—1711), Autobiographical Poems 241 24. Hakuin Ekaku (1684—1768), Autobiographical Writings (excerpts) and Song of Meditation (complete) 243 25. Daigu Ryokan (1758-1831), Selected Poems in Chinese and Japanese 252 26. Kyong Ho (1849-1912), The Great Matter of Life and Death (complete) 260 Glossary and Chinese Name Chart 266 Selected Bibliography 271 PREFACE Zen is believed to have begun when the historical Buddha Shakyamuni, in¬ stead of giving a sermon, simply showed a flower to his pupils without a word; one follower understood, smiled, and was enlightened. Later it was said in Zen that when a Master explains too much, his eyebrows fall off. Even more succinctly, Huang-po (see Chapter 6) warned, “Open your mouth— already a mistake.” Zen is called a teaching beyond words and writing, and yet there are more books on Zen than any other form of Buddhism. How can this be explained, and why are we publishing still one more Zen volume now? Although Zen Masters stress that the study of texts is no substitute for actual experience, they have utilized words in their teachings for fifteen hun¬ dred years. However, while the most historically significant Zen writings are generally available in English in individual volumes, there is no com¬ pendium of fundamental texts by male and female Masters from China, Korea, and Japan. Therefore, in the Zen Sourcebook, we offer a collection of sermons, anecdotes, questions, interactions, autobiographical writings, and poems, with the understanding that these words are considered nothing more than guides rather than truths unto themselves. The Zen experience is unique to each individual, and we hope that the works contained here may prove helpful not only to those who wish to understand Zen intellectually but also to those who are engaged in meditation. Each section is preceded by a brief historical and contextual introduction, but there is no attempt here to provide detailed interpretations of the texts. As the Japanese Zen Master Zenkei Shibayama (1894-1974) wrote in A Flower Does Not Talk, “However great the conceptual knowledge and un¬ derstanding might be, in the face of real experience, concepts are like flakes of snow fallen on a burning fire.” We therefore hope that our readers will not only study the texts but also experience them. After much consideration, we decided not to include writings by mod¬ ern Zen Masters, despite the many fine books they have published in recent decades. The reasons for this omission are twofold. First, the texts are too new to have become “traditional documents,” and second, if we include only one or two of the many outstanding modern teachers, it is impossible not to seem arbitrary. We encourage our readers to seek out these more recent writings on their own, especially since many of them address questions of Zen experience in Western culture. We should also make clear that this is not a book on the history of Zen. Much of the current scholarship on Zen explores the historicity of early texts, or considers them in terms of what we might call internal Buddhist politics vii viii Preface such as disputes between different schools, sub-sects, and traditions. Al¬ though these elements are significant in historical research, we feel that they are not as germane to our collection of traditional teachings that have been influential on Zen thought and practice over the centuries. For the same rea¬ sons, beyond what is given in the Introduction we have limited our discus¬ sions of temple regulations, funeral rites, and other aspects of Zen life that are important in monasteries but not as relevant in the context of this volume. Our most difficult decisions have come when choosing fundamental texts from the many that we might have included. For example, both Dogen (Chapter 17) and Flakuin (Chapter 24) wrote extensively, and their tradi¬ tions have been vital to Japanese Zen; but we could only find room for the texts that seemed to us the most significant for this volume, realizing that others might equally well have been selected. There are several varieties and levels in Zen writings. Muso Kokushi ex¬ plained in his Dream Conversations on Buddhism and Zen that there is no fixed path for Zen teachers to follow; in spite of the variety of Zen teachings, they all have the same goal, which is to lead people back to the fundamen¬ tal state. Since Zen teachings vary according to the situation and the listen¬ ers, one may question the value of a sourcebook of words from the past. Nevertheless, over the centuries some teachings have been utilized again and again, and their potential is not yet exhausted. Among the many varieties of Zen texts, the first is a straightforward ex¬ pounding of teachings in explanatory form. One might characterize these texts as one step removed from pure Zen activity, since they are couched in language that is linear, rational, and therefore inevitably somewhat dualis- tic. Nevertheless, these teachings have been spoken, written, and published for more than a millennium, so it is clear that they continue to be useful. Second, there are prose texts that move closer to Zen experience in going be¬ yond explanations; these are frequently couched in stories or anecdotes, al¬ though they may also be more philosophical in their approach. A third kind of Zen text consists of autobiographical writings, which can include the record of enlightenment experiences. A fourth category is com¬ prised of anecdotes and koans. More directly tied to Zen activity, these are often the record of encounters between Masters and pupils; often given as meditation questions, they are frequently paradoxical and go beyond the usual limitations of language. A fifth type is Zen poems; although Masters often counseled against becoming too attached to writing poetry, it was nevertheless a form of Zen activity that could express profound insights. This sourcebook contains all five kinds of texts (as well as some that com¬ bine or defy categories). It also contains something else: examples of the vi¬ sual expression of Zen Masters in rhe forms of calligraphy and ink painting. For hundreds of years, leading monks have been asked for examples of their Preface IX brushwork by students and followers in the East Asian belief that such “ink traces’’ express the inner character of their maker; these too have become known as expressions of Zen teachings.