Essays in Zen Buddhism
D.T. Suzuki
2,061 passages indexed from Essays in Zen Buddhism (D.T. Suzuki) — Page 13 of 42
License: Public Domain
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1033
Some of the sermons of the sixth patriarch are preserved in the book known as the _Platform Sutra on the Treasure of the Law_ (_Fa-pao-t‘an-ching_). The title, “sutra” has generally been given to writings ascribed to the Buddha or those somehow personally connected with him, and that a collection of the sermons of Hui-nêng has been so honoured shows what a significant position he occupies in the history of Chinese Buddhism.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1580
“There,” said the master smilingly, “why don’t you wipe the dirt off your own face?” In the study of Zen, the power of an all-illuminating insight must go hand in hand with a deep sense of humility and meekness of heart.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 688
They are the ideas that “I am,” “I am that,” “I shall be,” “I shall not be,” “I shall have form,” “I shall be without form,” “I shall have thought,” “I shall be without thought,” “I shall neither have thought nor be without thought.”[f67] We have to get rid of all these _maññitams_, arrogant, self-asserting conceptions, in order to reach the final goal of Buddhist life.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 63
But the outcome of all this singularly was what was desired by both of them. As to the master, he was satisfied to see the disciple attain an insight into the secrets of his being; and as regards the disciple he was most grateful for all that was done to him. Evidently, Zen is the most irrational, inconceivable thing in the world. And this is why I said before that Zen was not subject to logical analysis or to intellectual treatment.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 200
While on earth, the Buddha tried to make it intelligible in accordance with the capacities of his immediate followers, that is to say, the latter did their best to comprehend the deeper significance of the various discourses of their master, in which he pointed the way to final deliverance. As we are told, the Buddha discoursed “with one voice,”[f23] but this was interpreted and understood by his devotees in as manifold manners as possible.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1210
Hakuin (1683–1768)[f117][5.36] is another of those masters who have put down their first Zen experience in writing, and we read in his book entitled _Orategama_[5.37] the following account: “When I was twenty-four years old, I stayed at the Yegan Monastery, of Echigo. [“Joshu’s Mu” being my theme at the time] I assiduously applied myself to it. I did not sleep days and nights, forgot both eating and lying down, when quite abruptly a great mental fixation[f118][5.38] (_tai-i_) took place.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 299
Prajñā is the name given to this power by the Buddhists, as I said, and what Zen Buddhism aims at in its relation to the doctrine of Enlightenment is to awaken Prajñā by the exercise of meditation.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 812
By this “bearing of fruit” did Dharma prophesy the full development of Zen later in China? The “five petals” are supposed to mean the five Zen Fathers in China after Dharma when Zen came to be recognised as a branch of Buddhism with a message of its own. Whether this gāthā was really a prophetic one by Dharma himself, or whether it was composed by some Zen historian after the sixth patriarch Hui-nêng (Yeno), we have no means to decide.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 761
This is quite true, but as far as facts are concerned, Zen as such did not exist in India, that is, in the form as we have it to-day; and therefore when we try to go beyond China to trace its origin and development, the only way open to us will be the one I have followed in my previous Essays collected here.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1492
If people ask me what Zen is like, I will say that it is like learning the art of burglary. The son of a burglar saw his father growing older and thought, “If he is unable to carry out his profession, who will be the bread-winner of this family, except myself? I must learn the trade.” He intimated the idea to his father, who approved of it.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1202
This at once made him dissolve his eternal doubt as to “Who’s carrying around this lifeless body of yours?” He was baptised and became an altogether new man.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1538
In India, the Buddhist monks never eat in the afternoon. They properly eat only once a day as their breakfast is no breakfast in the sense that an English or American breakfast is. So, the Zen monks too are not supposed to have any meal in the evening. But the climatic necessity in China and Japan could not be ignored, and they have an evening meal after a fashion; but to ease their conscience it is called “medicinal food” (_yüeh-shih_).[7.10] The breakfast which is taken very early in the morning while it is still dark, consists of rice gruel and pickled vegetables (_tsukemono_).
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1040
1. We can say that Zen has come to its own consciousness by Hui-nêng. While Bodhi-Dharma brought it from India and successfully transplanted it in China, it did not fully realise its special message at the time. More than two centuries were needed before it grew aware of itself and knew how to express itself in the way native to the Chinese mind; the Indian mode in which its original teaching had been expressed as was the case with Bodhi-Dharma and his immediate disciples had to give way as it were to become truly Chinese. As soon as this transformation or transplantation was accomplished in the hands of Hui-nêng, his disciples proceeded at once to work out all its implications. The result was what we have as the Zen school of Buddhism. How did then Hui-nêng understand Zen?
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 182
As the later Buddhists state, a Buddha alone understands another Buddha; when our subjective life is not raised to the same level as the Buddha’s, many things that go to make up his inner life escape us; we cannot live in any other world than our own.[f18] Therefore, if the primitive Buddhists read so much in the life of their Master as is recorded in their writings, and no more, this does not prove that everything belonging to the Buddha has thereby been exhausted.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 654
The Defilements (_āsavā_), or Oozings (_lou_)[3.2] as the Chinese translators have them, are three, sometimes four, in number. They are the Defilements of Desire (_kāma_), Existence (_bhāva_), Ignorance (_avijjā_), and Intellection (_diṭṭhi_). What kind of insight is it that destroys all these Defilements? And what is it that will be left in us after such a destruction? The answers may be anticipated to be thoroughly nihilistic, because nothing but absolute void will be seemingly the result of such destruction. Especially when we read a verse like the following (_Sutta-nipāta_, vv. 949 and 1099), we may reasonably be tempted to regard the teaching of the Buddha as absolutely negativistic:
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 603
Those who only see the doctrine of non-atman in Buddhism and fail to inquire into the meaning of Enlightenment are incapable of appreciating the full significance of the Buddha’s message to the world.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 149
By this I mean, in the first place, that the founder so called had in the beginning no idea of being the founder of any religious system which would later grow up in his name; in the second that to his disciples, while he was yet alive, his personality was not regarded as independent of his teaching, at least as far as they were conscious of the fact; in the third that what was unconsciously working in their minds as regards the nature of their master’s personality came out in the foreground after his passing with all the possible intensity that had been latently gaining strength within them, and lastly that the personality of the founder grew up in his disciples’ minds so powerful as to make itself the very nucleus of his teaching, that is to say, the latter was made to serve as explanation of the meaning of the former.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 858
Wherever there is the merit of brightness there follows the demerit of darkness. This triple world where one stays too long is like a house on fire; all that has a body suffers, and who would ever know what is rest? Because the wise are thoroughly acquainted with this truth, they get never attached to anything that becomes, their thoughts are quieted, they never seek. Says the Sutra: Wherever there is seeking, there you have sufferings; when seeking ceases, you are blessed.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 835
But this is not doing justice to Zen, nor to Tao-hsüan who never thought of writing a Zen history before Zen came to be known as such. Tao-hsüan could not be a prophetic historian. While the biographical history of Tao-yüan contains much that is to be discredited as regards the life of Bodhi-Dharma, especially as regards that part of his life before he came to China, we have reason to believe that the greater part of Tao-yüan’s account of Dharma’s doings after his arrival in China is historical.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 440
There was also the Bodhisattva Mahāmati in each of these innumerable assemblies asking the Buddha to declare the content of his inner spiritual experience; and when the Buddha finished his discourse on the subject with hundreds of thousands of exquisite voices, the whole scene suddenly vanished, and the Buddha with all his Bodhisattvas and his followers were no more; then King Rāvaṇa found himself all alone in his old palace. He now reflected: “Who was he that asked the question?
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 150
It is a great mistake to think that any existent religious system was handed down to posterity by its founder as the fully matured product of his mind, and, therefore, that what the followers had to do with their religious founder and his teaching was to embrace both the founder and his teaching as sacred heritage—a treasure not to be profaned by the content of their individual spiritual experience.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1783
To return to the Origin, to be back at the Source—already a false step this! Far better it is to stay home, blind and deaf, straightway and without much ado, Sitting within the hut he takes no cognisance of things outside, Behold the water flowing on—whither nobody knows; and those flowers red and fresh—for whom are they?
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1416
This _liang-chiu_ does not always merely indicate the passage of time, as we can see in the following cases: A monk came to Shuzan (Shou-shan) and asked,[6.53] “Please play me a tune on a stringless harp.” The master was quiet for some little while, and said, “Do you hear it?” “No, I do not hear it.” “Why,” said the master, “did you not ask louder?” A monk asked Hofuku (Pao-fu),[6.54] “I am told that when one wants to know the path of the uncreate, one should know the source of it.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1604
“How innumerable sentient beings are, I vow to save them all; How inexhaustible our evil passions are, I vow to exterminate them; How immeasurable the holy doctrines are, I vow to study them; How inaccessible the path of Buddhas is, I vow to attain it.”
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1280
And Zen tends to emphasise the speculative element, though confessedly it opposes this, more than anything else in the whole process of the spiritual revolution, and in this respect Zen is truly Buddhistic. Or it may be better to say that Zen makes use of the phraseology belonging to the sciences of speculative philosophy.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 80
“My robe is all worn out after so many years’ usage. And parts of it in shreds loosely hanging have been blown away to the clouds.”[1.13]
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1669
“The bamboo shadows are sweeping the stairs, But no dust is stirred: The moonlight penetrates deep in the bottom of the pool, But no trace is left in the water.”
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 365
It refuses to do anything with externalism in all its variegated modes; even the Sutras or all those literary remains ordinarily regarded as sacred and coming directly from the mouth of the Buddha are looked down upon, as we have already seen, as not touching the inward facts of Zen. Hence its reference to the mystic dialogue between the Enlightened One and Mahākāśyapa on a bouquet of flowers.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 874
The master simply said, ‘No! No!’ and never proposed to explain to his disciple what was the mind-essence in its thought-less state, [that is, in its pure being]. [Later] said Hui-k‘ê, ‘I know now how to keep myself away from all relationships.’ ‘You make it a total annihilation, do you not?’ queried the master.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 346
But frequently in China dhyana and samadhi are combined to make one word, _ch‘an-ting_;[2.3] meaning a state of quietude attained by the exercise of meditation or dhyana. There are some other terms analogous to these two which are met with in Buddhist literature as well as in other Indian religious systems.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1404
In this case, however, the term does not mean anything of the sort, it is simply “Kwan!” an exclamatory utterance which does not allow any analytical or intellectual interpretation. Seccho, the original compiler of the _Hekigan_, comments on this, “He is like one who, besides losing his money, is incriminated,” while Hakuin has this to say, “Even an angry fist does not strike a smiling face.” Something like this is the only comment we can make on such an utterance as Ummon’s.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 446
But when we come to the Mahayana Sutras we at once perceive that the miracles described here on a much grander scale have nothing to do with supernaturalism as such or with any ulterior motives such as propagandism or self-aggrandisement, but that they are essentially and intimately connected with the doctrine itself which is expounded in the texts.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1594
While the master is offering incense to the Buddha and to his departed master, the monks recite a short dharani-sūtra called _Daihiju_,[f145] which means “the dharani of great compassion.” Being a Chinese transliteration of the Sanskrit original, mere recitation of the Sutra does not give any intelligent sense. Probably the sense is not essential in this case, the assurance is sufficient that it contains something auspicious and conducive to spiritual welfare.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1940
[f89] In this connection I wish to make some remarks against certain scholars who consider the philosophy of Śūnyatā to be really the foundation of Zen. Such scholars fail utterly to grasp the true purport of Zen which is first of all an experience and not at all a philosophy or dogma. Zen can never be built upon any set of metaphysical or psychological views; the latter may be advanced after the Zen experience has taken place, but never before.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 696
Accordingly, O monks, suppose this man to gather together reeds and twigs and leaves and branches and bind them all together into a raft, and launching forth upon it and labouring with hands and feet, attain in safety the other shore. And now, the flood crossed, the further shore attained, suppose the man should say: Very serviceable indeed has this my raft been to me.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1357
When Nan-yin Yê-gu (Nan-yüan Hui-yung)[6.33] was once asked what the Buddha was, he said, “What is not the Buddha?” Another time his answer was, “I never knew him.” There was still another occasion when he said, “Wait until there is one, for then I will tell you.” So far Nan-yin does not seem to be so very incomprehensible, but what follows will challenge our keenest intellectual analysis. When the inquiring monk replied to the master’s third statement, saying, “If so, there is no Buddha in you,” the master promptly asserted, “You are right there.” This evoked a further question, “Where am I right, sir?” “This is the thirtieth day of the month,” replied the master.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1932
[f79] Jōshu (778—897) was one of the early masters of Zen in the T‘ang dynasty when it began to flourish with its vigorous freshness. He attained to a high age of one hundred and twenty. His sermons were always short and to the point, and his answers are noted for their being so natural and yet so slippery, so hard to catch.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 488
The Kegon (Avataṁsaka), Tendai (T‘ien-tai), Sanron (San-lun), Kusha (Abhidharma-kośa), Hosso (Yogācāra) and Shingon (Mantra), if they were not completely wiped out through persecution, suffered tremendously from the lack of fresh blood. Perhaps they were to die out anyway on account of their not having been completely assimilated by Chinese thought and feeling; there was too much of an Indian element which prevented them from being fully acclimatised.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1718
One day Yōgi ascended the seat, and the monks were all assembled. The master, before uttering a word, threw his staff away and came right down jumping from the chair. The monks were about to disperse, when he called out, “O monks!” The latter turned back, whereupon said the master, “Take my staff in, O monks!” This said, the master went off.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 317
Later Buddhism may have lost something in austerity, aloofness, and even saintliness, which appeal strongly to our religious imagination, but it has gained in democracy, picturesqueness, and largely in humanity.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 617
Some scholars wonder why two entirely disconnected ideas are treated together in one body of the Sutra, which however shows scholarly ignorance in regard to matters spiritual, as they fail to notice the true import of Enlightenment in the system of Buddhist faith. To understand this, we need imaginative intuition directly penetrating the centre of life, and not always do mere literary and philological talents succeed in unravelling its secrets.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 434
When Vimalakīrti was asked by Śāriputra how such a small room as his with just one seat for himself could accommodate all the hosts of Bodhisattvas and Arhats and Devas numbering many thousands, who were coming there with Mañjuśrī to visit the sick philosopher, replied Vimalakīrti, “Are you here to seek chairs or the Dharma?...
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 568
Eckhart, the great German mystic, is singularly one with the “one-thought-viewing” of things as done by Buddhists when he expresses his view thus: “Das Auge darin ich Gott sehe, ist dasselbe Auge, darin Gott mich sieht. Mein Auge und Gottes Auge ist ein Auge und ein Gesicht und ein Erkennen und eine Liebe.”[f55] The idea of reversion is more clearly expressed in Jacob Boehme’s simile of the “umgewandtes Auge” with which God is recognised.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 2000
[f140] This question of dust reminds one of Berkeley’s remark: “We have just raised a dust and then complain we cannot see.”
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 51
There is no reason why it should antagonise the intellect which may sometimes be utilised for the cause of Zen itself. To show some examples of Zen’s direct dealing with the fundamental facts of existence, the following are selected:
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 948
What is is the same with what is not, What is not is the same with what is: Where this state of things fails to obtain, Be sure not to tarry.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 737
As long as the dualistic conception is maintained in regard to the liberation of the soul, there will be no real freedom as is truly declared by the Buddha.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1282
According to the philosophy of Zen, we are too much of a slave to the conventional way of thinking, which is dualistic through and through. No “interpenetration” is allowed, there takes place no fusing of opposites in our everyday logic. What belongs to God is not of this world, and what is of this world is incompatible with the divine. Black is not white, and white is not black. Tiger is tiger, and cat is cat, and they will never be one. Water flows, a mountain towers.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1745
At the end of five years, my mind again began to think of right and wrong, and my tongue to talk about gain and loss. Then for the first time the master relaxed his expression and gave me a smile. At the end of seven years I just let my mind think of whatever it pleased and there was no more question of right and wrong, I just let my tongue talk of whatever it pleased, and there was no more question of gain and loss. Then for the first time the master beckoned me to sit beside him.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 518
Besides the Mādhyamika school of Nāgārjuna and the Yogācāra school of Asanga both of which developed in the country of the Buddha itself, there were Chih-I’s Tendai philosophy and Hsien-shou’s (643–712) Avataṁsaka system of Buddhism.