Essays in Zen Buddhism
D.T. Suzuki
2,061 passages indexed from Essays in Zen Buddhism (D.T. Suzuki) — Page 24 of 42
License: Public Domain
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 969
Hui-nêng (637–713)[4.48] came from Hsin-chou in the southern parts of China. His father died when he was yet young. He supported his mother by selling wood in town. When one day he came out of a house where he sold some fuel, he heard a man reciting a Buddhist Sutra. The words deeply touched his heart. Finding what Sutra it was and where it was possible to get it, a longing came over him to study it with the master. The Sutra was the _Diamond Sutra_ (_Vajracchedikā-sūtra_) and the master was the fifth patriarch residing at Yellow Plum in Chin-chou. Hui-nêng somehow managed to get money enough for the support of his aged mother while he was gone.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 2025
Baso (Ma-tsu), 16, 30, 163, 190, 199, 218, 221f.; in his sick bed, 269; his “Kwats!” 279f.; and Tō-Impo, 291.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1265
The reason is, the one moves in the logical circle and the other is out of it; that is to say, in one case rigid rules of intellection so called are asserting themselves, and the actor even when acting is unable to unfetter himself from these intellectual bonds; while in the other case the subject has struck a new path and is not at all conscious of the duality of his act, in him life is not split into object and subject or into acting and acted.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 999
The patriarch answered, “In what I have shown to thee there is nothing hidden. If thou reflectest within thyself and recognisest thy own face, which was before the world, secrecy is in thyself.”
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1297
“Empty-handed I go and yet the spade is in my hands; I walk on foot, and yet on the back of an ox I am riding: When I pass over the bridge, Lo, the water floweth not, but the bridge doth flow.”
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 159
The teaching is of course important, but mainly as having come from the mouth of such an exalted spirit, and not necessarily as containing the truth of love or Enlightenment. Indeed, the teaching is to be interpreted in the light of the teacher’s divine personality. The latter now predominates over the whole system, he is the centre whence radiate the rays of Enlightenment, salvation is only possible in believing in him as saviour.[f16]
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 535
According to my view, however, the first thing we have to do in the elucidation of Buddhist thought is to inquire into the nature of this personal experience of the Buddha, which is recorded to have presented itself to his inmost consciousness at the time of Enlightenment (_sambodhi_). What the Buddha taught his disciples was the conscious outcome of his intellectual elaboration to make them see and realise what he himself had seen and realised.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1650
The state of mind in which all traces of conceptual consciousness are wiped out is called by the Christian mystics poverty, and Tauler’s definition is: “Absolute poverty is thine when thou canst not remember whether anybody has ever owed thee or been indebted to thee for anything; just as all things will be forgotten by thee in the last journey of death.”
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1743
Lieh-tzŭ did not urge him to stay. For several months Yin-shêng kept himself away from the master, but did not feel any easier in his mind. He came over to Lieh-tzŭ again. Asked the master, ‘Why this constant coming back and forth?’ Yin-shêng replied, ‘The other day, I, Chang Tai, wished to be instructed by you, but you refused to teach me, which I did not naturally like. I feel, however, no grudge against you now, hence my presence here again.’
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1302
When Jōshu, the great Zen master of whom mention was repeatedly made, was asked what he would give when a poverty-stricken fellow should come to him, he replied, “What is wanting in him?”[f127][6.10] When he was asked on another occasion, “When a man comes to you with nothing, what would you say to him?” his immediate response was, “Cast it away!”[6.11] We may ask him, When a man has nothing, what will he cast? When a man is poor, can he be said to be sufficient unto himself?
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1815
5.35. 解夏至南明. 欽一見便問. 阿誰與儞拖箇死屍到遮裡. 師便喝. 欽拈棒. 師把住云. 今日打某甲不得. 欽曰. 甚麽打不得. 師拂袖便出. 翌日欽問. 萬法歸一. 一歸何處. 師云. 狗䑛熱油鐺. 欽日儞那裏學遮虛頭來. 師云. 正要和尙疑著. 欽休去. (高峯錄.)
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1995
[f135] He was the noted Confucian disciple of Baso (Ma-tsu), and his wife and daughter were also devoted Zen followers. When he thought the time had come for him to pass away, he told his daughter to watch the course of the sun and let him know when it was midday. The daughter hurriedly came back and told the father that the sun had already passed the meridian and was about to be eclipsed. Hō came out, and while he was watching the said eclipse, she went in, took her father’s own seat, and passed away in meditation. When the father saw his daughter already in Nirvana, he said, “What a quick-witted girl she is!” Hō himself passed away some days later.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1555
These monks are a self-governing body. They have their own cooks, proctors, managers, sextons, masters of ceremony, etc. In the days of Hyakujo there seem to have been ten such offices, though the details are not now known due to the loss of his Regulations. While the master or teacher of a Zendo is its soul, he is not directly concerned with its government. This is left to the senior members of the community, whose character has been tested through many years of discipline.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 870
Tao-hsüan, the author of the _Biographies_, refers to Dharma’s _tai ch‘êng pi kuan_, Mahayanistic wall-contemplation, in his commentary notes to Zen, as the most meritorious work Dharma achieved in China.[f85] For this reason he is often spoken of as the _pi-kuan_ Brahman, that is, wall-contemplating Brahman, and in Japan the monks belonging to the Soto school of Zen are supposed to follow the example of the founder of their religion when they keep up the practice of sitting facing the wall while meditating.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1677
To my mind, the Chinese language is pre-eminently adapted for Zen, it is probably the best medium of expression for Zen as long as its literary side alone is thought of. Being monosyllabic the language is terse and vigorous, and a single word is made to convey so much meaning in it.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 96
In fact, the rise of Zen after the sixth patriarch, Hui-nêng, was due to the brilliant career of Baso under whom there arose more than eighty fully-qualified masters, and Hōkoji who was one of the foremost lay disciples of Zen, earned a well-deserved reputation as the Vimalakīrti of Chinese Buddhism. A talk between two such veteran Zen masters could not be an idle sport. However easy and even careless it may appear, there is hidden in it a most precious gem in the literature of Zen.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 589
No gods would sing of the Awakened One as “a lotus unsoiled by the dust of passion, sprung from the lake of knowledge; a sun that destroys the darkness of delusion; a moon that takes away the scorching heat of the inherent sins of existence.”[f58] If Enlightenment made the whole universe tremble in six different ways as is recorded in the Sutras, Ignorance over which it finally prevailed must have as much power, though diametrically opposed to it in value and virtue, as Enlightenment.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 13
When the cloud of ignorance disappears, the infinity of the heavens is manifested where we see for the first time into the nature of our own being.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 979
He had, however, some misgivings concerning the matter; for the majority of his disciples were not enlightened enough to see anything of deep religious intuition in the lines by the rice-pounder, Hui-nêng: and if he were publicly awarded the honour they might do him harm. So the fifth patriarch gave a secret sign to Hui-nêng to come to his room at midnight, when the rest of the Brotherhood was fast asleep.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1540
One ought not, however, to consider asceticism the ideal life of Zen. As far as the ultimate signification of Zen is concerned, it is neither asceticism nor any other ethical system. If it appears to advocate either the doctrine of suppression or that of detachment, the supposed fact is merely on the surface; for Zen as a school of Buddhism more or less inherits the odium of a Hindu discipline.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1646
“O you, followers of Truth, show yourselves here independent of all objects, I want to weigh the matter with you. For the last five or ten years I have waited in vain for such, and there are no such yet. They are all ghostly existences, ignominious gnomes haunting the woods or bamboo-groves, they are elfish spirits of the wilderness. They are madly biting into all heaps of filth. O you, mole-eyed, why are you wasting all the pious donations of the devout!
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 422
One quotation from a Mahayana Sutra will convince readers of the difference between Indian and Chinese minds, in regard to their imaginative powers. In the _Saddharma-puṇḍarīka_ the Buddha wishes to impress his disciples as to the length of time passed since his attainment of Supreme Enlightenment; he does not merely state that it is a mistake to think that his Enlightenment took place some countable number of years ago under the Bodhi-tree near the town of Gayā; nor does he say in a general way that it happened ages ago, which is very likely the way with the Chinese, but he describes in a most analytical way in how remote an age it was that he came to Enlightenment.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1123
These preliminary remarks will help the reader carefully to consider the following “Questions and Answers”[5.9] (known as _Mondo_ in Japanese); for they will illustrate my thesis that Zen aims at the opening of satori, or at acquiring a new point of view as regards life and the universe.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1193
“An octagonal millstone rushes through the air; A golden-coloured lion has turned into a cur: If you want to hide yourself in the North Star, Turn round and fold your hands behind the South Star.”
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1220
All of a sudden the sound of striking the board in front of the head-monk’s room reached my ear, which at once revealed me the ‘original man’ in full. There was then no more of that vision which appeared at the closing of my eyes. Hastily I came down from the seat and ran out into the moonlit night and went up to the garden house called Ganki, where looking up to the sky I laughed loudly, ‘Oh, how great is the Dharmakāya! Oh, how great and immense for evermore!’
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1007
“My master had no special instruction to give, he simply insisted upon the need of our seeing into our own Nature through our own efforts, he had nothing to do with meditation, or with deliverance. For whatever that could be named leads to dualism, and Buddhism is not dualistic. To take hold of this non-duality of truth is the aim of Zen. The Buddha-Nature of which we are all in possession, and the seeing into which constitutes Zen, is indivisible into such oppositions as good and evil, eternal and temporal, material and spiritual. To see dualism in life is due to confusion of thought; the wise, the enlightened see into the reality of things unhampered by erroneous ideas.”
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 152
But the very fact that there are such struggles in religion shows that they are here to some purpose and that religion is a living force; for they gradually bring to light the hidden implications of the original faith and enrich it in a manner undreamed of in the beginning.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1568
Though there are some things in the monastic education which may be improved, its highly religious and reverential feeling must be preserved if Zen is at all to live for many years yet to come.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 482
Hui-nêng (637–713) who was the sixth patriarch after Bodhi-Dharma, was the real Chinese founder of Zen; for it was through him and his direct followers that Zen could cast off the garment borrowed from India and began to put on one cut and sewn by the native hands. The spirit of Zen was of course the same as the one that came to China transmitted without interruption from the Buddha, but the form of expression was thoroughly Chinese, for it was their own creation.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1641
Goso said,[7.36] “You are all right, but you have a trivial fault.” Yengo asked two or three times what that fault was. Said the master at last, “You have altogether too much of Zen.” “Why,” protested the disciple, “if one is studying Zen at all, don’t you think it the most natural thing for one to be talking of it? Why do you dislike it?” Replied Goso, “When it is like an ordinary everyday conversation, it is somewhat better.” A monk happened to be there with them, who asked, “Why do you specially hate talking about Zen?” “Because it turns one’s stomach,” was the master’s verdict.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 139
What, for instance, would they really make out of such statements as follows: In the _Sayings of Nan-ch‘üan_[2.l] we read that, when Ts‘ui, governor of Ch‘i District, asked the fifth patriarch of the Zen sect, that is, Hung-jên, how it was that while he had five hundred followers, Hui-nêng, in preference to all others, was singled out to be given the orthodox robe of transmission as the sixth patriarch, replied the fifth patriarch: “Four hundred and ninety-nine out of my disciples understand well what Buddhism is, except one Hui-nêng.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1630
The district of Jōshu where this Zen master’s monastery was situated and where he got his popular title, was noted for a fine stone-bridge. A monk one day came up to the master and asked,[7.35] “We hear so much of the splendid stone-bridge of Jōshu, but I see here nothing but a miserable old rustic log-bridge.” Jōshu retorted, “You just see the rustic log-bridge, and fail to see the stone-bridge of Jōshu.” “What is the stone-bridge then?” “Horses go over it, asses go over it,” was Jōshu’s reply.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1658
“My last year’s poverty was not poverty enough, My poverty this year is poverty indeed; In my poverty last year there was room for a gimlet’s point, But this year even the gimlet is gone.”
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 100
While there may be many who do not worry themselves as to the ultimate significance of the solitary, “companionless” One, there are none perhaps who have not once at least in their lives asked themselves concerning their destiny after death. Whether Sekito when young saw the sixth patriarch or not, does not seem to have any inherent connection with the departure of Nansen. The latter was the teacher of Chōsa, and naturally the monk asked him whither the teacher finally passed.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 955
They were now about to enter a little hut near by where they might talk about religion, when Tao-hsin saw some wild animals such as tigers and wolves wandering about the place, and he threw up his hands as if he were greatly frightened. Fa-jung remarked, “I see this is still with you.” The fourth patriarch responded at once, “What do you see yet?” No answer came from the hermit.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 411
The fourth and last is “Tathāgata-dhyāna.” In this one enters into the stage of Buddhahood where he enjoys a threefold beatitude belonging to the noble understanding of self-realisation and performs wonderful deeds for the sake of all sentient beings. In these dhyanas we observe a gradual perfection of Buddhist life culminating in the utmost spiritual freedom of Buddhahood, which is above all intellectual conditions and beyond the reach of relative consciousness.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 639
If the Buddha could be said to have had any system of thought governing the whole trend of his teaching, it was what we may call radical empiricism. By this I mean that he took life and the world as they were and did not try to read them according to his own interpretation. Theorists may say this is impossible, for we put our subjectivity into every act of perception and what we call an objective world is really a reconstruction of our innate ideas.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 2010
Now compare the following passage from Echkart: Darum ruft die Braue auch weiter: “Weiche von mir, mein Geliebter, weiche von mir”: “Alles, was irgend der Darstellung fähig ist, das halte ich nicht für Gott. Und so fliehe ich vor Gott, Gottes wegen!”—‘Ei, wo ist dann der Seele Bleiben?’—“Auf den Fittichen der Winde!” (Büttner, _Meister Eckeharts Schriften und Predigten_, Erster Band, p.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1292
How is this new way of looking at things demonstrated by the Zen masters? Their methods are naturally very uncommon, unconventional, illogical, and consequently incomprehensible to the uninitiated. The object of the present essay will be to describe those methods classified under the following general headings: I. Verbal Method, and II. Direct Method. The first method may be further divided into: 1. Paradox; 2. Going Beyond Opposites; 3. Contradiction; 4. Affirmation; 5. Repetition; and 6.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1449
This trick of calling out and responding was frequently practised as is seen in the following cases: A high government dignitary called upon Ungo Doyo (Yün-chü Tao-ying) and asked[6.72]: “I am told that the World-honoured One had a secret phrase and Mahākāśyapa did not keep it hidden; what was the secret phrase?” The master called out, “O honoured officer!” and the officer responded. “Do you understand?” demanded the master. “No, Reverend Sir!” was his natural answer. “If you do not understand, there is the secret phrase: if you understand, there is Mahākāśyapa in full revelation.”
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 461
That inevitable formula of Buddhism, the Fourfold Noble Truth, apparently has no place in the scheme of Zen teaching, nor has that persistently enigmatic statement in the _Prajñā-Pāramitā_, “taccittam yaccittam acittam,” threatens us here.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1141
This is partly true inasmuch as there is nothing artificially constructed in Zen, but if the nose is to be really twisted or the candle blown out in order to take the scale off the eye, our attention must be directed inwardly to the working of our minds, and it will be there where we are to take hold of the hidden relation existing between the flying geese and the washed dishes and the blown out candle and any other happenings that weave out infinitely variegated patterns of human life.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1656
Instead of saying that they are empty-handed, they talk of the natural sufficiency of things about them. Yogi (Yang-ch‘i), however, refers to his deserted habitation where he found himself to be residing as keeper. One day he ascended the lecturing chair in the Hall and began to recite his own verse[7.39]:
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 882
But according to Hui-nêng’s Preface to the _Vajracchedikā_, which is still preserved, “ever since the coming-west of Dharma he wanted to propagate the meaning of this Sutra and lead people to understand the Reason and to see into the Nature.” If this were actually the case, Dharma, to say the least, must have had some knowledge of this Sutra from the very beginning of his career in China, and the connection in a way between this and Zen must have been more fundamental than that between the _Laṅkāvatāra_ and Zen.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 919
Replied the master, “Mind is the Buddha, Mind is the Dharma; and the Buddha and the Dharma are not two. The same is to be said of the Brotherhood (_saṁgha_).”
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 140
He is a man not to be measured by an ordinary standard. Hence the robe of faith was handed over to him.” On this comments Nan-ch‘üan: “In the age of Void there are no words whatever; as soon as the Buddha appears on earth, words come into existence, hence our clinging to signs.... And thus as we now so firmly take hold of words, we limit ourselves in various ways, while in the Great Way there are absolutely no such things as ignorance or holiness.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1877
[f32] Ata etasmāt kāraṇan mahāmate mayedam uktaṁ: yāṁ ca rātriṁ tathāgato ’bhisambuddho yāṁ ca rātriṁ parinirvāsyati atrāntara ekam api aksharaṁ tathāgatena na udāhṛitaṁ na udāharishyati.—_Laṅkāvatāra_, Chap. III., p. 144. See also Chapter VII., p. 240. (For this reason, O Mahāmati, I say unto you: During the time that elapsed between the night of the Tathagata’s Enlightenment and the night of his entrance into Nirvana, not one word, not one statement was given out by him.)
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 199
In a word what constituted the life and spirit of Buddhism is nothing else than the inner life and spirit of the Buddha himself; Buddhism is the structure erected around the inmost consciousness of its founder. The style and material of the outer structure may vary as history moves forward, but the inner meaning of Buddhahood which supports the whole edifice remains the same and ever living.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 935
The Great Way is calm and large-minded, Nothing is easy, nothing is hard: Small views are irresolute, The more in haste the tardier they go.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 45
“A special transmission outside the Scriptures; No dependence upon words and letters; Direct pointing to the soul of man; Seeing into one’s nature and the attainment of Buddhahood.”[f3][1.1]