Essays in Zen Buddhism
D.T. Suzuki
2,061 passages indexed from Essays in Zen Buddhism (D.T. Suzuki) — Page 27 of 42
License: Public Domain
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 436
When they were brought in, his room, formerly large enough for one seat, now miraculously accommodated all the retinue of Mañjuśrī, each one of whom was comfortably seated in a celestial chair, and yet the whole town of Vaiśāli and the rest of the world did not appear on this account crammed to overflowing.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1488
Full of tears, he explained how he was taken to task by his fellow-monk and that it was the reason why he was here even against the monastery rules. The master abruptly asked him: “What is the fundamental principle of Buddhism?” Replied Kashin,
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 689
For when they are eliminated, we cease to worry, to harbour hatred, to be belabouring, and to be seized with fears,—which is tranquillisation (_santi_), and Nirvana, and the seeing into the reality and truth of things. When paññā is awakened in us, morality is abandoned, meditation left behind, and there remains only an enlightened state of consciousness in which spirit moveth as it listeth.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 2027
Bokuju (Mu-chou), on staff, 21; treatment of Ummon, 10; on dressing and eating, 12f.; on teacher of Buddhas, 269; on Zen, 269; on doctrine going beyond Buddhas, 269f.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 309
But the doctrine of Enlightenment was something that could not be kept thus imprisoned, it had many things in it that would overflow all the limitations set to it. When the conception of Bodhisattvahood came to be emphatically asserted, a monastic and self-excluding community could no longer hold its ground, a religion of monks and nuns had to become a religion of laymen and laywomen.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1355
“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!”
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 892
One day a monk Shên-kuang[4.33] visited him and most earnestly implored him to be enlightened in the truth of Zen, but Dharma paid no attention. Shên-kuang was not to be disappointed, for he knew that all the great spiritual leaders of the past had gone through with many a heart-rending trial in order to attain the final object of their aspiration. One evening he stood in the midst of the snow waiting for Dharma to notice him when at last the fast-falling snow buried him almost as deep as his knees.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 908
This story taken from Tao-hsüan’s _Biographies_ varies from that in the Tao-yüan’s _Records_, but they both agree in making Hui-k‘ê a martyr at the hands of his enemy. There is no doubt that in the Zen teaching of Bodhi-Dharma and his first Chinese disciple, Hui-k‘ê, there was something that was unintelligible to most of the Buddhists of the time who had been trained either in the abstract metaphysics or in the tranquillising exercises, or in the mere morality, of Buddhism.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1864
[f20] That the personality of the Buddha was an object of admiration and worship as much as, or perhaps more than, his extraordinary intellectual attributes, is gleaned throughout the Agama literature.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 214
When history conflicts with our idea of value, can it not be interpreted to the satisfaction of our religious yearnings? What is the objective authority of “facts” if not supported by an inwardly grounded authority? Varieties of interpretation are then set forth in the Mahayana texts as to the implications of Nirvana and other cognate conceptions to be found in the “original” teaching of the Buddha.[f24]
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 710
After returning one is no longer the same person as before. The will, back from his excursion through time-consciousness, is God himself.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1159
The satori cannot be a phantasm, empty and contentless, and lacking in real value, while it must be the simplest possible experience perhaps because it is the very foundation of all experiences.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 507
There were so many points of contact between Taoism and Buddhism: and naturally the first object against which Buddhism worked, as it grew in importance and power not only as a religious system but as philosophy and the possessor of an inexhaustible wealth of knowledge, was Taoism; while it was admitted that Buddhism in its turn borrowed many things from Taoism in order to make itself more easily acceptable to the native minds.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1013
While Hui-nêng was working for the cause of Zen in the south, Shên-hsiu representing another school was active in the north. Before he was converted into Buddhism, he was a learned Confucian and thus destined from the start to cut a different figure, compared with his brother-disciple, Hui-nêng. The Emperor Wu of the T‘ang dynasty was one of the devoted followers of Shên-hsiu, and naturally around him were gathered a large number of courtiers and government officers. When the Emperor Chung-tsung came to the throne, A.D. 685, he was all the more treated with reverence, and it was Chang-shuo, one of the state ministers, who inscribed a biographical sketch and eulogy on the memorial stone erected over his grave when he died. One of his sermons recorded reads:
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 472
But if they were sufficiently critical, they could do that with comparative ease, which was however something we could never expect of those earlier Buddhists; for even in these modern days critical Buddhist scholars will in some quarters be regarded as not quite devout and orthodox.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 865
When a man in singleness of thought abides in _chüeh-kuan_ 覺觀, he will clearly see into the Buddha-nature, of which we cannot say whether it exists or exists not, and in which there is neither selfhood nor otherness. He will also find that the nature is the same both in the masses and in the worthies. He thus firmly holds the ground of the diamond-heart and never moves away therefrom; he is serene and not-doing, and free from conceptual discrimination. This is called ‘Entrance by Reason.’
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 143
The lay-disciple, Nêng, was quite unique in this respect, for _he did not at all understand Buddhism_.[f15] He understood the Way only and no other thing.”
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 768
But as I pointed out, this idea lies only superficially buried among the other and less important ideas, and can easily be made manifest by logically and psychologically following up the course of events related in the canonical writings concerning the Enlightenment of the Buddha.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1151
One day he was weeding and sweeping the ground, and when a piece of rock brushed away struck a bamboo, the sound produced by the percussion unexpectedly elevated his mind to a state of satori. The question proposed by Yisan became transparent; his joy was boundless, he felt as if meeting again his lost parent. Besides he came to realise the kindness of his abandoned senior brother monk who refused him instruction.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 402
The phrases are: “_Vāg-vikalpa-ahita_” or “_vāg-akshara-prativikalpanaṁ vinihata_” or “_śāśvata-uccheda-sad-asad-dṛishṭi-vivarjita_.” With these the reader is most frequently greeted in the Sutra. The first and the second phrases mean that the inner content of the noble understanding is beyond the reach of words and analytical reasoning, and the third phrase says that the ultimate truth is not to be found in eternalism, or nihilism, or realism, or non-realism.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 94
One of these utterances by the Zen masters that will stir a revolution in our minds is this: Hōkoji (P‘ang-yün), formerly a Confucian, asked Baso (Ma-tsu, –788), “What kind of man is he who does not keep company with any thing?” Replied the master, “I will tell you when you have swallowed up in one draught all the waters in the West River.”[1.15] What an irrelevant reply to the most serious question one can ever raise in the history of thought!
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1427
If so, the Zen masters may be said to be moving also in this mystic realm which reveals its secrets at the moment of supreme enlightenment (_anuttara-samyak-saṁbodhi_).
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 706
The will struggles and grows despondent over its work. “Why?”—the intellect asks, but it is the question no human intellect can ever hope to solve; for it is a mystery deeply inherent in the will. Why did the Heavenly Father have to send his only child to redeem the creation which was his own handiwork and yet went further astray from its home? Why had Christ to be so dejected over the destiny of the erring children of God?
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 897
“According to my view,” said Tao-fu, “the truth is above both affirmation and negation, for this is the way it moveth.”
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1947
[f96] In the _Vimalakīrti_, Chapter III., “The Disciples,” we have the following: “Do not worry about the sins you have committed, O monks,” said Vimalakīrti, “Why? Because sins are in their essence neither within nor without nor in the middle. As the Buddha taught us, all things are defiled when Mind is defiled; all things are pure when Mind is pure: and Mind is neither within nor without nor in the middle. As is Mind, so are sins and defilements, so are all things—they never transcend the suchness of truth.”
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1347
Their affirmations are as irrelevant, so inappropriate, so irrational, and so nonsensical—at least superficially, that those who have not gained the Zen way of looking at things can hardly make, as we say, heads or tails of them. The truth is that even with full-fledged mystics they are unable to be quite free from the taint of intellection, and leave as a rule “traces” by which their holy abode could be reached.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1051
In the _Sutra on the Moral Conduct of the Bodhisattva_ we read that we are all pure in our Self-nature, and that when we know our own minds we see into this Nature and all attain to Buddhahood. Says the _Vimalakīrti Sūtra_, ‘An instant opening leads us into the Original Mind.’ O my good friends, while under my master Jên, I realised the truth the moment I heard him speak and had an instant [i.e. abrupt] glimpse into the true essence of Suchness.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 2004
[f144] That is, _ti-ch‘ang_. _Tei_ means “to carry in hand,” “to show forth,” or “manifest,” and _sho_ “to recite.” Thus by a Teisho the old master is revived before the congregation and his discourses are more or less vividly presented to view. It is not merely explaining or commenting on the text.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1590
“Sesshin” means “collecting or concentrating the mind.” While this period is lasting, the monks are confined at the Zendo, get up earlier than usual, and sit further into the night. There is a kind of lecture every day during the period. Text books are used, the most popular of which are _The Hekiganshu_ and _Rinzairoku_,[7.25] the two being considered the most fundamental books of the Rinzai School. _The Rinzairoku_ is a collection of sermons and sayings of the founder of the Rinzai Zen sect.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1537
Let however there be just one individual, who may be living in the wilderness in a hut thatched with one bundle of straw and passing his days by eating the roots of wild vegetables cooked in a pot with broken legs; but if he single-mindedly applies himself to the study of his own [spiritual] affairs, he is the very one who has a daily interview with me and knows to be grateful for his life. Who should ever despise such a one? O monks, be diligent, be diligent.”[f137]
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 596
When first the division takes place in the will, consciousness is so enamoured of its novelty and its apparent efficiency in solving the practical problems of life that it forgets its own mission which is to enlighten the will.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1596
The following are translations of Hakuin and of Musō Kokushi,[f146] whose last exhortatory sermon is one of the most popular.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 766
His whole life, in spite of the advice of the Brahmadeva, seems to have been controlled by this feeling—the reluctance to reveal the entirety of his inmost self-realisation (_pratyātmajñāna_, according to the terminology of the _Laṅkāvatāra_). In point of fact, the Buddha himself might have communicated what he realised to all his disciples unreservedly, but the impression we get from the Agama or Nikaya literature is that he was actually reluctant to do so.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1762
In the _Saddharma-puṇḍarīka Sūtra_, Chapter III., “A Parable,” the Buddha gives the famous parable of three carts: bullock-carts, goat-carts, and deer-carts, which a man promises to give to his children if they come out of a house on fire. The finest of the carts is the one drawn by bullocks or cows (_goratha_), which represents the vehicle for the Bodhisattvas, the greatest and most magnificent of all vehicles, leading them directly to the attainment of supreme enlightenment.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 377
“When thou reviewest all things with thy wisdom and compassion, they are like visions, they are beyond the reach of mind and consciousness, as the categories of being and non-being are inapplicable to them.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 913
Where there are no names, we create names, and because of these names judgments are formed. Where there is no theorising, we theorise, and because of this theorising, disputes arise. They are all phantom creations and not realities, and who knows who is right and who is wrong? They are all empty, no substantialities have they, and who knows what is and what is not? So we realise that our gain is not real gain and our loss not real loss. This is my view and may I be enlightened if I am at fault?”
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1571
Humility, poverty, and inner sanctification—these ideals of Zen are what saves Zen from sinking into the level of the Medieval antinomians. Thus we can see how the Zendo discipline plays a great part in the teachings of Zen and their practical application to our daily life.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 395
Fourthly, this principle of mutuality means the denial of individuality as absolute reality, for there is nothing in existence that will absolutely maintain its individuality standing above all conditions of relativity or mutual becoming—in fact, being is becoming. For these reasons, we can realise the truth of Enlightenment only by transcending the first condition of intellection, which is, according to the _Laṅkāvatāra_, Parikalpa, or Vikalpa (discrimination).
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1378
In this case, as in other cases, the idea of the masters is to show the way where the truth of Zen is to be experienced, but not in and through the language which they use and which we all use, as the means of communicating ideas. Language, in case they resort to words, serves as an expression of feelings or moods or inner states, but not of ideas, and therefore it becomes entirely incomprehensible when we search its meaning in the words of the masters as embodying ideas.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 2019
[f159] Cf. also “History of Zen Buddhism” where reference is made to the Northern and Southern school of Zen under the fifth patriarch in China.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 852
“By ‘Entrance by Conduct’ is meant the Four Acts in which all other acts are included. What are the four? 1. How to requite hatred; 2. To be obedient to karma; 3. Not to seek after anything; and 4. To be in accord with the Dharma.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1688
This has been what Zen most emphatically opposed from the very beginning, and the consequence was naturally that the language it chose was that which most appealed to the people in general, that is, to their hearts open for a new living light.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 383
“Those who see the Muni so serene and beyond birth, are detached from cravings and remain stainless in this life and after.”
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 385
The two later translations, which, as aforementioned, contain some extra chapters, are divided regularly in the one into ten and in the other into eighteen chapters, while the earliest one of Gunabhadra has just one chapter title for the whole book, “The Gist of all the Buddhawords.” The first extra chapter which is not found in Gunabhadra’s text is remarkable in this that it gives the outlines of the whole Sutra in the form of a dialogue between the Buddha and Rāvana, Lord of the Yakshas, in the Isle of Laṅkā.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 368
There are three Chinese translations of the Sutra still in existence. There was a fourth one, but it was lost. The first in four volumes was produced during the Lu-Sung dynasty (A.D. 443) by Guṇabhadra, the second in ten volumes comes from the pen of Bodhiruci, of the Yüan-Wei dynasty (A.D. 513), and the third in seven volumes is by Śikshānanda, of the T‘ang dynasty (A.D. 700).[2.4] The last-mentioned is the easiest to understand and the first the most difficult, and it was this, the most difficult one, that was delivered by Dharma to his disciple Hui-K‘ê as containing the “essence of mind”. In form and in content this translation reflects the earliest text of the Sutra, and on it are written all the commentaries we have at present in Japan.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 1324
Zen being practical wants us to make the same noble determination to give up our dualistic life for the sake of enlightenment and eternal peace. For it says that its gate will open when this determination is reached.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 521
We may conclude now that Zen, in spite of the uncouthness and extraordinariness of its outward features, belongs to the general system of Buddhism. And by Buddhism we mean not only the teaching of the Buddha himself as recorded in the earliest Āgamas, but the later speculations, philosophical and religious, concerning the person and life of the Buddha.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 638
As philosophy tends to emphasise unduly the importance of abstract ideas and logical inferences and forgets to keep itself constantly in touch with the actual world of experience, the Buddha, as I have repeatedly stated, flatly refused to subscribe to theorisation (_takka_ or _vitakka_) at the expense of practical discipline. Enlightenment was the fruit of such discipline, and the dispelling of Ignorance could not be effected by any other means.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 765
The feeling he first had after Enlightenment governed him almost throughout the entire course of his earthly life. It was this, that the Perfect Supreme Enlightenment attained by him was too exalted an object for sentient beings to strive after, and that even when it were disclosed to them they would not fully comprehend it but might defile it to their own demerit. Did he not even think of passing into Nirvana right after Enlightenment?
Essays in Zen Buddhism, passage 684
As thus the aim of the dhyana exercises is to prepare the mind for the realisation of the paramasacca which destroys and liberates, and as the truth is realisable only by the awakening of the parama-paññā which is the knowledge (_ñāṇa_) that puts an end to all misery (_sabbadukkha_), the Buddha never fails to duly impress the importance of paññā on the minds of his disciples, for instance, in his general disciplinary scheme given to them under the three headings: śīla (morality), jhāna (meditation), and paññā (intuitive knowledge).