Essays in Zen Buddhism
D.T. Suzuki
2,061 passages indexed from Essays in Zen Buddhism (D.T. Suzuki) — Page 20 of 42
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Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 449
It is evident that the Mahayana writers of these Sutras had in their minds something much different from the Hinayana compilers of the Nikayas in their narratives of the miraculous power of the Buddha. What that something was I have here pointed out in a most general way. A systematic study in detail of the Mahayana supernaturalism will no doubt be an interesting one.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 119
To those who carelessly go over such remarks as Bokuju’s may regard them as quite nonsensical. Whether the stick is called a staff or not, it does not seem to matter very much as far as the divine wisdom surpassing the limits of our knowledge is concerned. But the one made by Ummon, another great master of Zen, is perhaps more accessible.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1544
At meal times a gong is struck, and the monks come out of the Meditation Hall in procession carrying their own bowls to the dining room. The low tables are laid there all bare. They sit when the leader rings the bell. The bowls are set,—which by the way are made of wood or paper and well lacquered. A set consists of four or five dishes, one inside the other.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 536
This intellectual outcome, however philosophically presented, does not necessarily enter into the inner essence of Enlightenment experienced by the Buddha. When we want, therefore, to grasp the spirit of Buddhism, which essentially develops from the content of Enlightenment, we have to get acquainted with the signification of the experience of the founder,—experience by virtue of which he is indeed the Buddha and the founder of the religious system which goes under his name.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 902
After Bodhi-Dharma, Hui-k‘ê (486–593)[4.35] was the chief exponent of Zen Buddhism. He was already a learned scholar before he came to his teacher for instruction, not only in the Chinese classics but in Buddhist lore. No amount of learning however satisfied him; indeed he seems to have had a sort of enlightenment in his way, which he wanted to be testified to by Dharma. After he left the master, he did not at once begin his preaching hiding himself among the lower strata of society.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1755
“Three stages of Oneness (_ittihád_) are distinguished here: 1. ‘I am She,’ _i.e._, union (_jam‘_) without real separation (_tafriqa_), although the appearance of separation is maintained. This was the stage in which al-Halláj said Ana ’I-Haqq ‘I am God.’ 2. ‘I am I,’ _i.e._, pure union without any trace of separation (individuality). This stage is technically known as the ‘intoxication of union’ (_sukru ’I-jam‘_). 3. The ‘sobriety of union’ (_saḥwu ’I-jam‘_), _i.e._, the stage in which the mystic returns from the pure oneness of the second stage to plurality in oneness and to separation in union and to the Law in the Truth, so that while continuing to be united with God he serves Him as a slave serves his lord and manifests the Divine Life in its perfection to mankind.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1816
5.39. 巖頭全豁禪師. 常謂衆曰. 老漢去時. 大吼一聲了去. 唐光啓之後. 中原盜起. 衆皆避地. 師端居晏如也. 一日賊大至. 責以無供饋. 遂仆刄焉. 師神色自若. 大叫一聲而終. 聲聞數十里. (傳燈錄卷十六.)
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1542
In truth, the intellect, imagination, and all other mental faculties as well as the physical objects surrounding us, our own bodies not excepted, are given us for the unfolding and enhancing of the highest powers possessed by us as spiritual entities and not merely for the gratification of our individual whims or desires, which are sure to conflict with and injure the interests and rights asserted by others.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1372
“In this city south of the Lake, people are thriving well,— Cheap rice and plentiful fuel and prospering neighbourhood.”
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1671
“Habit-energy is not separated from mind, nor is it together with mind; though enveloped in habit-energy, mind has no marks of difference.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1248
Zen therefore without satori is like pepper without its pungency. But at the same time we must not forget that there is such a thing as too much satori, which is indeed to be detested.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1758
During the Sung dynasty a Zen teacher called Seikyo[8.2] illustrated stages of spiritual progress by a gradual purification or whitening of the cow until she herself disappears. But the pictures, six in number, are lost now.[f163] Those that are still in existence, illustrating the end of Zen discipline in a more thorough and consistent manner, come from the ingenious brush of Kakuan,[8.3] a monk belonging to the Rinzai school.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 419
The Chinese are in many ways great, their architecture is great indeed, their literary achievements deserve the world’s thanks; but logic is not one of their strong points; nor are their philosophy and imagination. When Buddhism with all its characteristically Indian dialectics and imageries was first introduced into China, it must have staggered the Chinese mind.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 575
I truly have attained release, The world’s unequalled teacher I, Alone, enlightened perfectly, I dwell in everlasting peace.”[f56]
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 2038
Hōkoji (P‘ang Yun), on the companionless man, 16; Chinese Vimalakīrti, 17; on drawing water, 306, 306fn.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 125
“One particle of dust is raised and the great earth lies therein; one flower blooms and the universe rises with it. But where should our eye be fixed when the dust is not yet stirred and the flower has not yet bloomed? Therefore, it is said that, like cutting a bundle of thread, one cut cuts all asunder; again, like dyeing a bundle of thread, one dyeing dyes all in the same colour. Now yourself get out of all the entangling relations and rip them up to pieces, but do not lose track of your inner treasure; for it is through this that the high and the low universally responding and the advanced and the backward making no distinction, each manifests itself in full perfection.”
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1719
Yakusan (Yüeh-shan, 751–834)[7.46] gave no sermons for some little time and the chief secretary came up to him asking for one. The master said, “Beat the drum then.” As soon as the congregation was ready to listen to him, he went back to his own room. The secretary followed him and said, “You gave consent to give them a sermon, and how is it that you uttered not a word?” Said the master, “The Sutras are explained by the Sutra specialists, and the Śastras by the Śastra specialists; why then do you wonder at me? [Am I not a Zen master?].”
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1070
Have your mind like unto space and yet have no thought of space.” Thus learning of the sixth patriarch’s view on samadhi or dhyana, Chih-huang came to the master himself and asked to be further enlightened. Said the patriarch, “What Hsüan-ts‘ê told you is true. Have your mind like unto space and yet entertain in it no thought of emptiness. Then the truth will have its full activity unimpeded.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 414
To understand how the doctrine of Enlightenment or self-realisation came to be translated in China as Zen Buddhism, we must first see where the Chinese mind varies from the Indian generally. When this is done, Zen will appear as a most natural product of the Chinese soil where Buddhism has been successfully transplanted in spite of many adverse conditions. Roughly, then, the Chinese are above all a most practical people while the Indians are visionary and highly speculative.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 718
The Buddha himself gave utterance to the feeling of return when his eye first opened to the Dharma unheard of before at the realisation of Enlightenment.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 409
The second dhyana is designated “statement-reviewing” (_artha-pravicaya_) by which is meant an intellectual examination of statements or propositions, Buddhist or non-Buddhist, such as “Each object has its individual marks,” “There is no personal Atman,” “Things are created by an external agency,” or “things are mutually determined”; and after the examination of these themes the practiser of this dhyana turns his thought on the non-atman-ness of things (_dharma-nairātmya_) and on the characteristic features of the various stages (_bhūmi_) of Bodhisattvaship, and finally in accordance with the sense involved therein he goes on with his contemplative examination.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1616
In the life of the Zendo there is no fixed period of graduation as in a school education. With some, graduation may not take place even after his twenty years’ boarding there. But with ordinary abilities and a large amount of perseverance and indefatigability, one is able to probe into every intricacy of the teachings of Zen within a space of ten years.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 373
The main thesis of the _Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra_ is the content of Enlightenment, that is, the Buddha’s own inner experience (_pratyātmagati_) concerning the great religious truth of Mahayana Buddhism. Most of the readers of the Sutra have singularly failed to see this, and contend that it principally explains the Five Dharmas, the Three Characteristics of Reality (svabhāva), the Eight Kinds of Consciousness (_vijñāna_), and the Two Forms of Non-Ego (_nairātmya_).
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 2028
Buddha, his deification, 33; no metaphysician, 39; motherly, 40; deified, 40fn.; as the world-light, 41; the reason of his appearance, 61; his secluded habit, 68; as a magician, 86; his personality, 101; his personal experience, 107; his predecessors, 108; his reluctance to preach, 109; his proclamation to Upaka 115; and metaphysics, 124ff.; as empiricist, 127; his gāthā of law-transmission, 159; and an old lady, 162; as mind, 220.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1424
In the case of Sansho Yenen (San-shêng Hui-jan) and Kyozan Yejaku (Yang-shan Hui-chi), the thought of Daizui is more concretely presented. Yejaku asked Yenen,[6.60] “What is your name?” and Yenen replied, “My name is Yejaku.” Yejaku protested, “Yejaku is my name.” Thereupon said Yenen, “My name is Yenen,” which brought out a hearty laugh from Yejaku.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1637
Lieh-tzŭ, the Chinese philosopher, describes this frame of mind in a figurative manner as follows: “I allowed my mind without restraint to think of whatever it pleased and my mouth to talk about whatever it pleased; I then forgot whether the ‘this and not-this’ was mine or other’s, whether the gain and loss was mine or other’s; nor did I know whether Lao-shang-shin was my teacher, and whether Pa-kao was my friend.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 657
The insight therefore is to see unity in multiplicity and to understand the opposition of the two ideas as not conditioning each other but as both issuing from a higher principle; and this is where perfect freedom abides. When the mind is trained enough, it sees that neither negation (_niratta_) nor affirmation (_atta_) applies to reality but that the truth lies in knowing things as they are or rather as they become.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 2020
[f161] According to Fariduddin Attar, A.D. 1119–1229, of Khorassan, Persia, Cf. Claud Field’s _Mystics and Saints of Islam_, p. 123 et seq.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 533
A monk asked Kan (Chien), who lived in Haryo (Pa-ling), “Is there any difference between the teaching of the Patriarch and that of the Sutras, or not?” Said the master, “When the cold weather comes, the fowl flies up in the trees while the wild duck goes down into water.” Hō-yen (Fa-yen) of Gosozan (Wu-tsu-shan) commented on this, saying, “The great teacher of Pa-ling has expressed only a half of the truth. I would not have it so. Mine is: When water is scooped in hands, the moon is reflected in them; when the flowers are handled, the scent soaks into the robe.”[2.12]
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1420
A monk requested Jimyo (Tzŭ-ming) to “set forth the idea of Dharma’s coming from the west,” and the master said, “When did you come?”[6.55] When Rasan Dokan (Lo-shan Tao-hsien) was asked, “Who is the master of the triple world?” he said, “Do you understand how to eat rice?”[6.56] Tenryu (T‘ien-lung), the teacher of Gutei, was hailed by a monk who asked him,[6.57] “How are we released from the triple world?” He retorted, “Where are you this very moment?” A monk asked Jōshu, “What would you say when a man is without an inch of cloth on him?” “What did you say he has not on him?” “An inch of cloth on him, sir.” “Very fine this, not to have an inch of cloth!” responded the master.[6.58]
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 848
The Teacher of the Law was moved by their spirit of sincerity and disciplined them in the true path, telling them, ‘This is the way to obtain peace of mind,’ and ‘This is the way to behave in the world,’ ‘This is the way to live harmoniously with your surroundings,’ and ‘This is the upāya (means).’ These being the Mahayana ways to keep the mind tranquil, one has to be on guard against their wrongful applications.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 818
The Indian Buddhist way of impressing the idea is this: A Brahman named Black-nails came to the Buddha and offered him two huge flowering trees which he carried each in one of his hands through his magical power. The Buddha called out, and when the Brahman responded the Buddha said, “Throw them down!” The Brahman let down the flowering tree in his left hand before the Buddha. The latter called out again to let them go, whereupon Black-nails dropped the other flowering tree in the right hand.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 562
The Mahayana account of Enlightenment as is found in the _Lalita-vistara_ (Chapter on “Abhisambodhana”) is more explicit as to the kind of mental activity or wisdom which converted the Bodhisattva into the Buddha. For it was through “_ekacittekshaṇa-samyukta-prajñā_” that supreme perfect knowledge was realised (_abhisambodha_) by the Buddha. What is this Prajñā? It is the understanding of a higher order than that which is habitually exercised in acquiring relative knowledge.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1655
All hankerings of the heart have departed, there are no idle thoughts clogging the flow of life-activity, and thus he is empty and poverty-stricken. As he is poverty-stricken, he knows how to enjoy the “spring flowers’’ and the “autumnal moon.” When worldly riches are amassed in his heart, there is no room left there for such celestial enjoyments. The Zen masters are wont of speaking positively about their contentment and unworldly riches.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 541
O when shall a way of escape from this suffering be made known, from decay and death?” Thus thinking, the Bodhisattva reasoned out that decay and death arose from birth, birth from becoming, becoming from grasping, grasping from craving, until he came to the mutual conditioning of name-and-form (_namarūpa_) and cognition (_viññāna_).[f50] Then he reasoned back and forth from the coming-to-be of this entire body of evil to its final ceasing-to-be,—and at this thought there arose to the Bodhisattva an insight (_cakkhu_)[f51] into things not heard of before, and knowledge arose, and reason arose, wisdom arose, light arose.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 605
When Ignorance is understood in the deeper sense, its dispelling unavoidably results in the negation of an ego-entity as the basis of all our life-activities. Enlightenment is a positive conception, and for ordinary minds it is quite hard to comprehend it in its true bearings.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1240
Even since the unfoldment of consciousness we have been led to respond to the inner and outer conditions in a certain conceptual and analytical manner. The discipline of Zen consists in upsetting this artificially constructed framework once for all and in re-modelling it on an entirely new basis. The older frame is called “Ignorance” (_avidyā_) and the new one “Enlightenment” (_saṁbodhi_).
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1625
There are many other notable ones, the history of Zen abounds with such instances. The idea however is not to practise asceticism, it is the “maturing,” as they have properly designated, of one’s moral character. Many serpents and adders are waiting at the porch, and if one fails to trample them down effectively, they raise the heads again and the whole edifice of moral culture built up in vision may collapse even in one day. Antinomianism is also the pitfall for Zen followers, against which a constant vigil is needed. Hence this “maturing.”
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 367
But to justify the position of Zen for those who have not yet grasped it and yet who are desirous of learning something about it, an external authority may be quoted and conceptual arguments resorted to in perfect harmony with its truth. This was why Dharma selected this Sutra out of the many that had been in existence in China in his day. We must approach the _Laṅkāvatāra_ with this frame of mind.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1244
The latter now appears to be dressed in a different garment which covers up all the ugliness of dualism, which is called in Buddhist phraseology delusion (_māyā_) born of reasoning (_tarka_) and error (_vikalpa_).
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1861
In this age of the Five Taints (_pañca-kashāyā_), all beings are enveloped in greed, anger, folly, falsehood, arrogance, and flattery; they have few blessings and are stupid and have no understanding to comprehend the Dharma I have attained. Even if I make the Dharma-Wheel revolve, they would surely be confused and incapable of accepting it. They may on the contrary indulge in defamation, and, thereby falling into the evil paths, suffer all kinds of pain.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1946
[f94] According to this, there must have been a special volume of sermons and letters by Hui-k‘ê, which were compiled evidently by his disciples and admirers before they were put down in writing and thoroughly revised by the author himself. In the case of Bodhi-Dharma too, according to Tao-hsüan, his sayings were apparently in circulation in the day of Tao-hsüan, that is, early in the T‘ang dynasty.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1582
Generally, some formal excuse will be found: they may tell him that their establishment is not rich enough to take in another monk, or that the Hall is already too full. If the applicant quietly retires with this, there will be no place for him anywhere, not only in that particular Zendo which was his first choice, but in any other Zendo throughout the land. For he will meet a similar refusal everywhere. If he wants to study Zen at all, he ought not to be discouraged by any such excuse as that.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 439
And before each Buddha there stood King Rāvaṇa himself with all his assemblage as well as all the countries in the ten quarters of the world, and in each of those countries there appeared the Tathagata, before whom again there were King Rāvaṇa, his families, his palaces, his gardens, all decorated exactly in the same style as his own.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 656
But the fact is, from the spiritual point of view, that it is only after the destruction of the Defilements and a release from every form of attachment that one’s inmost being gets purified and sees itself as it really is, not indeed as an ego standing in contrast to the not-ego, but as something transcending opposites and yet synthesising them in itself. What is destroyed is the dualism of things and not their oneness. And the release means going back to one’s original abode.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 378
“When thou reviewest the world with thy wisdom and compassion, it is eternally like a dream, of which we cannot say whether it is permanent or it is subject to destruction, as the categories of being and non-being are inapplicable to it.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1795
4.28. 菩提達摩. 南天竺婆羅門種. 神慧踈朗. 聞皆曉悟. 志存大乘. 冥心虛寂. 通微徹數. 定學高之. 悲此邊隅. 以法相導. 初達宋境南越. 末又北度至魏. 隨其所止. 誨以禪教. 于時合國. 盛弘講授. 乍聞定法. 多生譏謗. 有道育. 慧可. 此二沙門. 年雖在後. 而銳志高遠. 初逢法將. 知道有歸. 尋親事之. 經四五載. 給供諮接. 感其精誠. 誨以眞法. 如是安心. 謂壁觀也. 如是發行. 謂四法也. 如是順物. 教護譏嫌. 如是方便. 教令不著. 然則入道多途要唯二種. 謂理行也. 藉教悟宗. 深信含生. 同一眞性. 客塵障故. 令捨偽歸眞. 凝住壁觀. 無自無他. 凡聖等一. 堅住不移. 不隨他教. 與道冥符. 寂然無爲. 名理入也. 行入四行. 萬行同攝. 初報怨行者. 修道苦至. 當念往劫. 捨本逐末. 多起愛憎. 今雖無犯. 是我宿作. 甘心受之. 都無怨對. 經云. 逢苦不憂. 識達故也. 此心生時. 與道無違. 體怨進道故也. 二隨緣行者. 衆生無我. 苦樂隨緣. 縱得榮譽等事. 宿因所構. 今方得之. 緣盡還無. 何喜之有. 得失隨緣. 心無增减. 違順風靜. 冥順於法也. 三名無所求行. 世人長迷. 處處貪著. 名之爲求. 道士悟眞. 理與俗反. 安心無爲. 形隨運轉. 三界皆苦. 誰而得安. 經曰有求皆苦. 無求乃樂也. 四名稱法行. 即性淨之理也. 摩以此法. 開化魏土. 識眞之士. 從奉歸悟. 錄其言語. 卷流於世. 自言年一百五十餘歲. 遊化爲務. 不測於終. (續高僧傳.)
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 668
The Avataṁsaka philosophers too compare it to the immense expanse of an ocean, calm and translucent, which reflects all the shining bodies of heaven, but where at the same time possibilities of roaring and all-devouring waves lie innocently embosomed.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 343
That this threefold discipline was one of the most characteristic features of Buddhism since its earliest days is well attested by the fact that the following formula, which is culled from the _Mahāparinibbāna-Sutta_, is repeatedly referred to in the Sutra as if it were a subject most frequently discussed by the Buddha for the edification of his followers: “Such and such is upright conduct (_śīla_); such and such is earnest contemplation (_samādhi_); such and such is intelligence (_prajñā_).
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 240
The content of this Enlightenment was explained by the Buddha as the Dharma which was to be directly perceived (_sandiṭṭhika_), beyond limits of time (_akalika_), to be personally experienced (_ehipassika_), altogether persuasive (_opanayika_), and to be understood each for himself by the wise (_paccattaṁ veditabbo viññuhi_). This meant that the Dharma was to be intuited and not to be analytically reached by concepts.