Essays in Zen Buddhism
D.T. Suzuki
2,061 passages indexed from Essays in Zen Buddhism (D.T. Suzuki) — Page 16 of 42
License: Public Domain
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1881
When spirit attains to the reality of enlightenment and as a result is thoroughly purified of all defilements, intellectual and affective, it grows so perfect that whatever it does is pure, unselfish, and conducive to the welfare of the world.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 932
When no offence is offered by them, they are as if not existing; When the mind is not disturbed, it is as if there is no mind. The subject is quieted as the object ceases, The object ceases as the subject is quieted.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1833
7.17. 師 (臨濟) 普請鋤地次. 見黃蘗來. 拄钁而立. 黃蘗云這漢困那. 師云钁也未擧. 困道什麽. 黃蘗便打. 師接住棒. 一送送倒. 黃蘗喚維那. 維那扶起我. 維那近前扶云. 和尙爭容得這風顚漢無禮. 黃蘗纔起便打維那. 師钁地云. 諸方火葬. 我這裡一時活埋. (臨濟錄.)
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1255
It is not that Zen wants to be morbidly unholy and godless, but that it knows the incompleteness of a name. Therefore, when Yakusan (Yüeh-shan) was asked to give a lecture, he did not say a word, but instead came down from the pulpit and went off to his own room. Hyakujo (Pai-chang) merely walked forward a few steps, stood still, and opened his arms—which was his exposition of the great principle of Buddhism.[5.43]
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1698
On another occasion he said: “Kāśyapa handed [the Law] over to Ānanda, and can you tell me to whom Bodhi-Dharma handed it over?”
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1653
“At Nantai I sit quietly with an incense burning, One day of rapture, all things are forgotten, Not that mind is stopped and thoughts are put away, But that there is really nothing to disturb my serenity.”
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1654
This is not to convey the idea that he is idly sitting and doing nothing particularly; or that he has nothing else to do but to enjoy the cherry-blossoms fragrant in the morning sun, or the lonely moon white and silvery: he may be in the midst of work, teaching pupils, reading the Sutras, sweeping and farming as all the masters have done, and yet his own mind is filled with transcendental happiness and quietude. He is living in God as Christians may say.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1732
Transcendentally, we are all Buddhas just as we are, ignorant and sinful if you like; but when we come down to this practical life, pure idealism has to give way to a more particular and palpable form of activity. This side of Zen is known as its “constructive” aspect, in contradistinction to its “all-sweeping” aspect.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1823
6.42. 天台山德韶國師. 歷參五十四員善知識. 皆法緣未契. 最後至臨川. 謁法眼. 眼一見深器之. 師以徧涉叢林. 亦倦於參問. 但隨衆而巳. 一日法眼上堂僧問. 如何是曹源一滴水. 眼曰是曹源一滴水. 僧惘然而退. 師於坐側豁然開悟. 平生凝滯. 渙若氷釋. (五燈會元卷十.)
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 527
It goes without saying that in both of these efforts the original impulse lies in the inmost religious consciousness of pious Buddhists.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1632
Let each one of us reflect within himself and see if he is in possession of one bridge over which pass not only horses and asses, men and women, carts heavy and light, but the whole world with its insanities and morbidities, and which is not only thus passed over but quite frequently trampled down and even cursed,—a bridge which suffers all these treatments, good as well as despised, patiently and uncomplainingly. Was Jōshu referring to this kind of bridge?
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 612
When the Buddha was talking with his disciples concerning various speculations prevalent in his days, he made the following remarks about the knowledge of things in command by the Tathagata:
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 563
It is a faculty both intellectual and spiritual, through the operation of which the soul is enabled to break the fetters of intellection. The latter is always dualistic inasmuch as it is cognisant of subject and object, but in the Prajñā which is exercised “in unison with one-thought-viewing” there is no separation between knower and known, these are all viewed (_ikshaṇa_) in one thought (_ekacitta_), and enlightenment is the outcome of this.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1668
In Christianity, we seem to be too conscious of God, though we say that in Him we live and move and have our being. Zen wants to have even this last trace of God-consciousness, if possible, obliterated. That is why Zen followers advise us not to linger even where the Buddha is and to pass quickly away where he is not. All the training of the monk in the Zendo, in theory as well as in practice, is based in the notion of “meritless deed.” Poetically, this idea is expressed as follows:
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1369
But the teacher’s answer was no answer as we understand it, for he merely repeated the question, “How is it that the Originally Pure has all of a sudden come to produce mountains and rivers and the great earth?” Translated into English, this dialogue loses much of its zest. Let me write it down in Japanese-Chinese: Chōsui asked, “_Shō-jō hon-nen un-ga kos-sho sen-ga dai-ji_,” and the master echoed, “_Shō-jō hon-nen un-ga kos-sho sen-ga dai-ji_.”
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1081
Hui-nêng died at the age of seventy-six in A.D. 712, while the T‘ang dynasty was enjoying its halcyon days and Chinese culture reached the highest point in its history.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 479
His work on “Tranquillisation and Contemplation” is explicit on this point. His idea was to carry out intellectual and spiritual exercises in perfect harmony, and not partially to emphasise either one of the two, Samādhi or Prajñā, at the expense of the other. Unfortunately, his followers grew more and more one-sided until they neglected the dhyana practice for the sake of intellection.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 530
The superabundance of Indian imagination issued in supernaturalism and wonderful symbolism, and the Chinese sense of practicalness and its love for the solid everyday facts of life resulted in Zen Buddhism. We may now be able to understand, though only tentatively by most readers at present, the following definitions of Zen offered by its masters:
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1574
“If there are no śaīras to be found in it, may I have the remaining two Buddhas for my fire?” retorted Tanka.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1773
With the energy of his whole soul, he has at last taken hold of the cow: But how wild her will, ungovernable her power! At times she struts up a plateau, When lo! she is lost in a misty unpenetrable mountain-pass.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 173
They are Christians just as much as the brethren of their primitive community were; for there is an historical continuation of the same faith all along its growth and development which is its inner necessity. To regard the form of culture of a particular time as something sacred and to be transmitted for ever as such is to suppress our spiritual yearnings after eternal validity. This I believe is the position taken up by progressive modern Christians.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1101
As life thus feels quite free in its activity, which was not the case before the awakening, it now enjoys itself to the fullest extent of its possibilities, to attain which is the object of Zen discipline. This is often taken to be equivalent to “vacuity of interest and poverty of purpose.” But according to the Zen masters the doctrine of non-achievement concerns itself with the subjective attitude of mind which goes beyond the limitations of thought.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1814
5.21. 馬祖次日陞堂. 衆纔集. 百丈出. 卷却拜蓆. 馬祖便下座. 歸方丈. 次問百丈. 我適來上堂. 未曾說法. 儞爲什麽便卷却蓆. 丈雲. 昨日被和尙扭得鼻孔痛. 祖雲. 儞昨日向甚處留心. 丈云. 今日鼻頭又不痛也. (碧巖集.)
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1951
[f98] This means: When the absolute oneness of things is not properly understood, negation as well as affirmation will tend to be one-sided view of reality. When Buddhists deny the reality of an objective world, they do not mean that they believe in the unconditioned emptiness of things; they know that there is something real which cannot be done away with. When they uphold the doctrine of void this does not mean that all is nothing but an empty hollow, which leads to a self-contradiction. The philosophy of Zen avoids the error of one-sidedness involved in realism as well as in idealism.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 926
Pursue not the outer entanglements, Dwell not in the inner void; When the mind rests serene in the oneness of things, The dualism vanishes by itself.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1124
The Zen masters, as we see below, are always found trying to avail themselves of every apparently trivial incident of life in order to make the disciples’ minds flow into a channel hitherto altogether unperceived. It is like picking a hidden lock, the flood of new experiences gushes forth from the opening. It is again like the clock’s striking the hours; when the appointed time comes it clicks, and the whole percussion of sounds is released.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1043
When he made his first declaration of Zen for the benefit of Yin-tsung, the statement was quite unmistakable, “We talk of seeing into our own Nature, and not of practising dhyana or obtaining liberation.”[4.56] Here we have the gist of Zen, and all his later sermons are amplifications of this idea.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 650
“He knows as it really is,” ti yathābhūtaṁ pajānāti,—we must come to this; for Yathābhūta-ñāṇa-dassana is the insight that destroys the Defilements (_āsavānaṁ khaya-ñāna_) and produces the consciousness of spiritual emancipation (_cetovimutti_).
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1592
Not necessarily that they are too abstruse, but that the reader is still wanting in insight into the truth of Zen.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 543
He then exclaimed: “I have penetrated this Dharma, deep, hard to perceive, hard to understand, calm, sublime, no mere dialectic, subtle, intelligible only to the wise. (_Dhammo gambhīro duddaso duranubodho santo panito atakkāvacaro nipuṇo pandito vedanīyo._) But this is a race devoting itself to the things to which it clings, devoted thereto, delighting therein.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 406
It requires a direct, personal confirmation or transmission from the Buddhas, but even these latter are unable to awaken us to the exalted state of Enlightenment unless we ourselves concentrate our spiritual efforts in the work of self-emancipation. Therefore, meditation (_dhyāna_) is recommended in the Sutra as the means of attaining to the truth of the inmost consciousness.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1204
While spreading the napkin, producing the bowls, or attending to my natural wants, whether I moved or rested, whether I talked or kept silent, my whole existence was wrapt up with the question, ‘Where does this one return?’ No other thoughts ever disturbed my consciousness; no, even if I wanted to stir up the least bit of thought irrelevant to the central one, I could not do so. It was like being screwed up or glued; however much I tried to shake myself off, it refused to move.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1470
We seem to be in the same objective surroundings, but subjectively we are rejuvenated, we are born again.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 282
It is said that on hearing this exposition of the Dharma, there arose in the mind of Śāriputra a clear and distinct perception of the Dharma that whatever is subject to origination is subject also to cessation. Śāriputra then attained to the deathless, sorrowless state, lost sight of and neglected for many myriads of kalpas.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1178
On the day following the incident of the flying geese,[5.21] to which reference was made elsewhere, Baso appeared in the preaching hall and was about to speak before a congregation, when Hyakujo came forward and began to roll up the matting.[f111] Baso without protesting came down from his seat and returned to his own room. He then called Hyakujo and asked him why he rolled up the matting before he uttered a word.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1486
When they were having a walk together one day, they discussed Zen. His friend picked up a piece of a broken tile and putting it on a flat rock, said, “If you can say a word at this juncture, I will grant your really being Zimyo’s disciple.” Kashin wavered, looked this way and that, trying to make some answer.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 690
The well-known simile of the raft (_kullūpamaṁ_)[f68] which may seem somewhat unintelligible to some of the Buddhist critics who are used to an altogether different “intellectual landscape,” is a good illustration of the Buddhist teaching of non-attachment.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1061
“Birth-and-death is a matter of grave concern, and time waits for nobody!” said the T‘ien-tai philosopher.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1785
Bare-chested and bare-footed, he comes out into the market-place; Daubed with mud and ashes, how broadly he smiles! There is no need for the miraculous power of the gods, For he touches, and lo! the dead trees come into full bloom.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1483
But as I said elsewhere Zen is the opening of one’s own inner consciousness occasioned by some external incidental happening which may be of purely physical nature but may invoke some mental operation.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1310
The masters generally go about with a kind of short stick known as shippé (_chu-pi_), or at least they did so in old China. It does not matter whether it is a shippé or not, anything in fact will answer our purpose. Shuzan, a noted Zen master of the tenth century, held out his stick and said to a group of his disciples:[6.13] “Call it not a shippé; if you do, you assert. Nor do you deny its being a shippé; if you do, you negate.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 633
Ignorance is thus not to be got rid of by metaphysical means but by the struggle of the will. When this is done, we are also freed from the notion of an ego-entity which is the product or rather the basis of Ignorance, on which it depends and thrives. The ego is the dark spot where the rays of the intellect fail to penetrate, it is the last hiding lair of Ignorance, where the latter serenely keeps itself from the light.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1914
The possessor of the mystic wonder can work the following logical and physical impossibilities: “From being one he becomes multiform, from being multiform he becomes one: from being visible he becomes invisible: he passes without hindrance to the further side of a wall or a battlement or a mountain, as if through air: he penetrates up and down through solid ground as if through water: he walks on water without dividing it, as if on solid ground: he travels cross-legged through the sky like the birds on wing: he touches and feels with the hand even the moon and sun, beings of mystic power and potency they be: he reaches even in the body up to the heaven of Brahma.” Shall we understand this literally and intellectually?
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 673
All surpassing in everything, steadfast. Freed from all ties, The highest repose belongs to him, Who has attained Nirvana, with no fear from any side.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 987
In my opinion, this emphasising of the contrast between the two most eminent disciples of the fifth patriarch was at the same time the emphasising of the real character of Zen as independent of learning and intellectuality. If Zen is, as its followers claim, a “special transmission outside the scriptural teaching,” the understanding of it must be possible even for the unlettered and unphilosophising. The greatness of Hui-nêng as Zen master is all the more enhanced.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1794
4.18. 齊安禪師嗣馬祖. 因僧問. 如何是本身盧舍那佛. 師云. 與我將那箇銅缾來. 僧即取淨缾來. 師云却送本處安置. 其僧送缾本處了. 却來再徵前語. 師云. 古佛也過去久矣. (傳燈錄卷七.)
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1199
This is done best by quoting some of the masters themselves whose introspective statements are on record.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1115
Let us once see into our own original Nature and we have the truth even when we are quite illiterate, not knowing a word....
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 427
“This said, the Buddha spoke to those Bodhisattvas Mahāsattvas as follows: I announce to you, young men of good family, I declare to you: However numerous be those worlds where that man deposits those atoms of dust and where he does not, there are not, young men of good family, in all those hundred thousands of myriads of kotis of worlds so many dust atoms as there are hundred thousands of myriads of kotis of æons since I have arrived at Supreme, Perfect Enlightenment.”[f46]
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 884
As one of the Sutras belonging to the Prajñāpāramitā class of Buddhist literature, the teaching of the _Vajracchedikā_ was comparatively simple and had something much akin to the Laotzŭan ideas of emptiness and non-doing. It was not hard for the average Chinese to follow its philosophy of Śūnyatā, in fact this agreed well with a certain aspect of Chinese thought.[f89]