64. ZEN REMARKS

64. What is your aim in Zen? To liberate the goose from the jar in which it was raised.

63. ZEN COMMENTS

63. Many who are new to Zen, and some who are not so new, ask how often they should meditate and for how long. Underlying such questions is a query about effort. How much effort must a practitioner be prepared to expend on Zen to gain its promised benefits? Quite a lot, if Master Mumon Ekai, the 13th century Chinese master, is to be believed. Master Mumon urges the Zen novice to arouse his or her entire body so as to employ every ounce of energy on this work. His advice is in keeping with the traditional slogan that has it that progress in Zen requires great faith, great doubt, and great determination. Clearly the practice of Zen has been traditionally seen as a demanding discipline. Yet when the 9th century master Joshu was a young monk he was warned that if he tried to seek after the Way he would be separated from it. Here it would seem that trying, putting in effort, would be counter-productive. So what should be done: practise hard or simply relax and take things easy? A contemporary master, who is clearly of the view that trying is necessary, has suggested that if a practitioner's effort is not supported by the universe as a whole then he or she could not make any real effort at all. On this view, what's at stake is not so much the amount of effort required but rather that the effort be real. Real effort in Zen is an intelligent discipline that works within the unity of the seeker and the sought. That is, one's effort is the work not of the isolated and limited self alone but rather of the Self that is operative at once in the practitioner and the practitioner's world. It is to the 'effort' of the True Self that the practitioner must surrender. In this way the practitioner is supported by 'the ten thousand things', that is, by the universe as a whole. It is a case of the Self that seeks and finds and knows and loves the Self. The Zen practitioner needs to surrender the empirical self to the workings of the True Self.

62. verse for a naming

          mysterious this cloud
          untethered unanchored
          adrift in a sky
          so vast so empty

          wild this wind
          cloud shaping propelling
          its whence and its whither
          who knows who knows

61. ZEN REMARKS

61, A commitment 'to follow the Way of the Dharma' might appear to be no more than a pious nod in the direction of honouring some vague Buddhist ideal. After all it is a little difficult to pin down exactly just what the word 'dharma' means in the context of Buddhist discourse. Clearly it has more than one meaning.
     In some contexts the word is used in a plural sense so that the word 'dharmas' points to all those things that are encountered in the world. These are what the Zen practitioner gestures towards with the formula 'the ten thousand things'. Such things (or dharmas) come into being and pass out of being.
     But in the expression 'the Way of the Dharma' the word is used in the singular sense and its first letter is capitalised. For here it is said to point to the law that is at work in the universe, what has been called 'the cosmic order'. Buddhists find this universal law manifested and articulated in the teachings of Gautama Shakyamuni, the Buddha. So a commitment 'to follow the Way of the Dharma' would seem to be an undertaking to study and put into practice the teachings of the Buddha and thus come into harmony with the law that governs all of reality. But the question then arises as to the most effective way to pursue such a study and practice. That Buddhism has taken diverse forms testifies to the different ways in which this question has been answered.
     The answer found in the Zen tradition is distinctive in that it privileges meditative inquiry over intellectual study and academic research. The Zen approach is encapsulated in an ancient verse that reads as follows:
                     A special transmission outside the scriptures,
                     Not founded upon words and letters;
                     By pointing directly to one's heart-mind
                     It lets one see into one's own true nature
                     And thus realise Buddhahood.

This verse has been attributed to Bodhidharma, the Indian monk and dhyana master who is credited with transmitting the Dharma from India to China in the early part of the sixth century of the Common Era. What the verse expresses is exemplified in the behaviour of Bodhidharma himself at his interview with Emperor Wu of Liang. It seems that the emperor, being on his own account a devout Buddhist, wanted to know what merit he had gained through all his good works. But Bodhidharma bluntly told him 'no merit at all'. Visibly taken aback the emperor then inquired as to what was the first principle of the holy teaching. Again he was in for a shock when the master answered 'vast emptiness, nothing sacred'. Flabbergasted the emperor found himself compelled to question the identity of the one standing before him. Bodhidharma simply replied 'I don't know' and then left the royal presence.
     For the Zen practitioner a commitment 'to follow the Way of the Dharma' entails a readiness to enter into the mysterious vast emptiness of which Bodhidharma spoke, an emptiness that transcends 'words and letters', an emptiness in which 'not knowing is most intimate'. To enter this vast emptiness one must follow the Way that is not a way, the Way in which there is neither coming nor going.

59. ZEN REMARKS

59. 'In the presence of Buddha and Christ.' Some may be troubled at the sight of a Christian being acknowledged as a Zen master. But the Zen master who happens to be a Christian is one who refuses to make an idol of either Buddha or Christ. Rather, like Jesus journeying to his destiny, he would walk the borderlands between Samaria and Galilee.

58. BECOMING INDEPENDENT

      In the presence of Buddha and Christ,
      I commit myself to follow the Way of the Dharma,
      to serve the Sangha,
      to be true to the vision of Bodhi Sangha    
      and to realise the Four Great Vows for All.
      I promise to be committed to the Sangha and to care for my disciples.
           
                Zen Master Carl Hooper (Mysterious Cloud Bodhi ken),
                sesshin with Zen Master AMA Samy (Gen Un ken),
                Jamberoo Abbey,
                5 October, 2016.

57. ZEN REMARKS

57. Intellectuals and scholars tend to get a bad press in the Zen tradition. A case in point is that of the ninth century Chinese master Kyogen, a scholar renowned for his erudition. He began his training under Master Hyakujo and then, after Hyakujo died, became a disciple of Master Isan who saw at once that his learned disciple was too clever by half. Telling Kyogen that his great learning stood in the way of him attaining enlightenment, Isan challenged his disciple with the question, 'What is your true self - the self that existed before you came out of your mother's womb, before you knew east from west?' At this Kyogen was at first dumbfounded and didn't know what to say. Then, racking his brains, he came up with all sorts of answers, none of which hit the mark. Isan rejected each of them out of hand. In his desperation Kyogen begged his master to explain the matter to him. Isan, however, insisted that Kyogen should find the answer for himself. True to form, Kyogen turned to his books and the copious notes he had taken over the years. But for all his poring over these learned texts he remained completely baffled. He evidently failed to realise that Isan had not asked him about what he had learned from his reading or from his study of the sutras. Eventually he saw that the books couldn't help him and he gave up on them. Such was his disgust with what they had to offer that he actually burnt them and resolved that henceforth he would live the life of a simple monk or, as he put it, 'a rice-gruel monk'. To this end he left his master and went off to serve as caretaker for the graveyard where a famous master was buried. There he lived in a small hut and busied himself with meditation and the performance of simple everyday tasks. And so it came to pass that one day while he was sweeping the ground around the dead master's tomb his broom picked up a small stone and sent it flying to bang against some bamboo. Tock! The sound of the stone hitting the bamboo brought Kyogen to a sudden realisation of his true self, the self that existed before he came out of his mother's womb, before he knew east from west.