Sit
Page 1
EDITED BY PHILIPPE COUPEY
I dedicate this book to the sitting dragon.
It tumbles over, turbulent like a cloud of rain.
One line becomes two, And were anyone to ask wherefrom comes its source, It's the fierce thunder whose roar breaks asunder the high rock.
Daichi, 1290-1366
I wish to thank Lee Lozowick and his editor Regina Sara Ryan for making this book available to the American public.
Let thanks also go to Eddy, Charles and Robert.
Introduction xix
The Zen transmission in China and Japan xxxiii
1ST SESSION, JULY 21 - JULY 29 1
No steps to climb 3
Two brains: The great crisis 4
Soft education or hard? 6
Hero of Chinese Zen: Rinzai, disciple of Obaku 8
Shikan-samu: Planting pines and drying mushrooms 12
The gentle Joshu 14
Anwering by the stick and the katsu 17
Five thousand sutras: Furniture of the great way 22
MONDO Tobacco, not so good, not so bad 24
A dojo is a holy place, not a hospital 25
The quacking duck theater 26
MONDO Sex and the Zen monk 30
The ceremony 32
Exact criticism, the words of Buddha 34
The four principles of Rinzai 37
Beyond the four principles 42
MONDO Compassion, not love 45
The Obaku sect: noisy in the mind 46
Bowl and kesa: symbols 47
Without object, this is better 48
Commentary on metaphysics 49
The metaphysics of reincarnation 50
Transmission of the highest posture 51
Beyond thinking, beyond non-thinking 52
MONDO The merits of zazen: none 55
Giving the transmission 56
Fifteen thousand Soto masters 57
True ego: Your original self 58
True criticism is necessary 59
An historical comparison: Rinzai and Soto 59
No different than the patriarchs 60
The ancient feud: The practice was forgotten 65
Zazen, summit of the mountain 68
2ND SESSION, AUG. 1 - AUG. 9 73
Sesshin: To touch true mind 75
Rinzai education: Severe but not strong 77
Hitting to educate 77
Administering the rensaku 78
Mind moving 79
Master Nyojo: He was like raw iron 81
A master not concerned with greatness 85
Searching in old China for a master 86
The pretty young monk and the old tenzo 88
The tenzo said: "One, two, three, four." 90
Importance of the word 91
A celestial wonder 92
From the dark they enter the dark 92
Rinzai and Soto: The barbaric and the delicate 93
The dojo became a battlefield 94
Killing the Buddha 97
No need of sects 99
Unknown mondo on the sutras 101
Satori 102
No inside, no outside to the teaching 103
The understanding which comes later 105
One hundred kusens and not one hit 106
Buddha finds the essence 109
The Indian was mysterious 110
The Chinese were dramatic 111
The Japanese are decorative 114
Return to the essence 115
MONDO On dreams 116
Karma 117
Psychoanalysis: An inside spiritual mistake 118
The soft world of Nyojo 121
Fuke had the air of an ass 125
MONDO Helping the Pope to paradise 128
Mushotoku and the martial arts 128
The rensaku until the stick broke 130
A prize from the Shogun 132
Two poems 132
Two proud horses kicked each other 134
MONDO Greater than the atom bomb 135
Half a person 135
This is not a conference 136
Pain and the fat man 137
The Rinzai tenzo did sampai 137
Master Hakuin 140
The ka-pa koan 140
The forbidden book 141
The Buddhic spirit of Rinzai, Dogen and all great religious leaders is the same 143
3RD SESSION, AUG. 12 - AUG. 20 147
Genjo: The highest realization 153
The great sages and the true mountain 154
Satori visits you 155
With no-mind comes everything 158
Staying on samadhi 159
The philosopher's method 160
Zazen: The content of Buddha under the Bodhi tree 161
Doshu: To express 163
The necessity of expression 167
Zazen posture: The expression of satori 167
Shobogenzo: An elaborate expression 168
Eyes horizontal, nose vertical 169
The wisdom which visits 170
Companions in satori 173
Buddha finds his companions, and his realization becomes expression 175
The waves strike and the waves break 178
MONDO Big satori or small? 181
Now is an inhalation, an exhalation 182
Christian enlightenment 182
The normal condition 187
Originality is individuality 189
By looking in the mirror 190
The writings of Dogen, the mondos of Rinzai 191
The katsu mondo 192
MONDO Layman P'ang 194
Companions everywhere 196
Fuke's kolomo was his coffin 198
The essence of Buddhism: Inside or outside the sutras? 200
The great Zen classics and the Shin Jin Mei 201
Sosan's biography 203
Faith is non-doubt 203
True satori is not knowing it 206
Abandon the selecting mind 208
MONDO God and Buddha 209
The American supermarket 211
Dokusan 212
The death of Buddha, the death of Christ 214
Mind is always the same 215
Nothing is so important 216
Genshi and the light of the moon 219
The last zazen: The flower has fallen and the mountain is tranquil 221
4TH SESSION, AUG. 23 - AUG. 31 225
The hard kisses of master Kiss 227
Understanding Rinzai 231
The great wisdom of pre-history: Ceremonies of simple morals and manners 235
The five revolutions of humanity 236
The contradiction: Halberd or shield? 239
Happiness, and the American Declaration of Independence 242
New phenomenon: The seeking for psychological happiness 244
Man's primitive brain: The hypothalamus 245
The four elements of the brain: ju so gyo shiki 248
Hindu thought 248
How brain functions 251
Controlling the senses and observing the mind 253
Consciousness: or the hindering of wisdom 256
Observation of mind: The opening horizon 259
MONDO Analysis vs. repetition 262
In the toilet 263
The anger of a true educator 264
Kito 265
Hearing the sutra, or cutting the mind which sticks 267
No theater 269
MONDO The beggars sang shomyo 270
Karma continues 272
Zen and Budo 273
His secretary was his shadow 276
From the simple comes the complicated 278
When mind rests on nothing, or why pilots do zazen 279
A different breed of man 281
MONDO The importance o
f self-certification 282
The truth? 283
The scientist is a searcher 284
The brain bid 284
The splendid book 286
The 180-degree change 288
Be like a donkey 290
All civilizations, all religions, pass on 291
Glossary 295
Index 355
This book represents the oral teachings given by master Deshimaru* to his disciples during the summer of 1978 in Val d'Isere, France. The main subjects of these talks are Soto and Rinzai Zen. In addition to being a comparison of the two, it is a strong critique of both schools of Zen today.
IT'S AN EDUCATION
This book is about education. It brings up the fundamental question, what is the purpose of education? It is also, in a sense, a how-to-educate book. Do you just educate the frontal brain, while continuing to ignore the instinctive or central brain (the hypothalamus and thalamus), the connecting link between the body and the mind?
The idea of education is to develop the full human character, and to do this the entire body and mind, the entire brain, must come to life. Zen is a religion which thinks with both the head and the body.
Concerning this question of education, Doshu Okubo, the well-known professor and foremost specialist on Dogen, says: "Academic interpretations or presentations are not suitable for this purpose. First we must clarify what 'Zen' is, and then how it should be applied to education."' And that's what master Deshimaru attempts to do in these teachings.
MANY ZEN SCHOOLS
Originally there was one teaching, and each master was pointing to the same truth, the same source. There really wasn't anything which distinguished one from the other, beyond the character of the masters themselves. All the teachings came from the same root; they all had the same twenty-seven Indian patriarchs beginning with the Buddha, as well as the same six Chinese ones, beginning with the 1st Zen Patriarch Bodhidharma.
With the passing of time, however, disparity began to separate practitioners into different schools and finally into different teachings. By the time of Sekito (d. 790) there were a great many masters, and the disciples began to proclaim their own masters' teaching as the only true teaching.
Some schools were very wide and inclusive (like the Hogen school) and they mixed with the Nembutsu; others were exclusive of other practices (like the Soto school) and mixed with none. Some were very wild and rough (zusan), and yet others were soft and lenient (men-mitsu); some practiced with koans and kensho, while others practiced only zazen (shikantaza). What's more, Zen had become very polemical. There were lots of discussions between the different schools, and mondos and dharma combats flourished.This is why the ancient master Sekito, forefather to Soto Zen, composed his poem Sandokai. In those days, monks and others were much concerned with what teaching was so-to-speak "heretical," and what teaching was "traditional." In other words, what was "the right teaching" and what was not. Sekito in his Sandokai answers this question; and being the eternal question that it is, master Deshimaru answers it again, in our own times. At least I think so.
THE ORIGINS OF SOTO AND RINZAI ZEN
During Sekito's time there was another great master by the name of Baso. While it was Sekito's temperament to use the gentle (men-mitsu) method to awaken his disciples, Baso's way was to use the rough method of teaching (zusan). Indeed, Baso was most certainly the first great master to use this technique, that of the shout, the kick and the blow.
Baso (d. 788) set up his dojo at Kosei, west of the river Yangtse. At the same time, Sekito set up south of the lake ToungTing, and the disciples often travelled between the two. Though there existed little difference between masters Sekito and Baso themselves, the differences could be felt among their respective disciples. So you have the old expression: "West of the river, south of the lake."
Here perhaps is the true origin of Rinzai and Soto Zen"Rinzai" being the Baso dojo west of the river, and "Soto" being the Sekito dojo south of the lake. Consequently the true forefather of Rinzai Zen is Baso, and the true forefather of Soto is Sekito.
RINZAI & SOTO ZEN
Rinzai Zen was founded officially upon the teaching of master Rinzai (d. 867). Much of this teaching can be found in the Rinzai Roku (Record of Rinzai), a small one-volume work that was recorded by Rinzai's disciple Enen. Today this work is counted "among the classical works of Zen Buddhism," writes the prominent Buddhist scholar Heinrich Dumoulin; "indeed, among the classics of world religious literature."2 Anyway, it is this very text that master Deshimaru continually refers to in the following pages.
Soto Zen, which was founded shortly thereafter as a response to Rinzai Zen during the time of master Tozan (d. 869), is not based on any one book, nor on the teaching of any one master. Of course, there is Dogen and his celebrated work, the Shobogenzo, but this came much later, in thirteenth century Japan. So, while the Rinzai Roku is at the base of the Rinzai teaching, the Shobogenzo is not the base, but rather the confirmation of the so-called Soto Zen teaching (that is, the teaching of Bodhidharma, Eno and Nyojo, Dogen's own master).
Education for Dogen is the practice of being here now. The real form of Zen is not in theory or in different teaching techniques, says Dogen, but only in the actual practice, the practice entailing not just the mind but the body as well. Satori according to Soto (as opposed to Rinzai) is the excellent practice itself, shikantaza.
Rinzai Zen follows what they call a "special teaching" (kyo ge betsuden), something outside the scriptures and a little separated from the rest of Buddhism. Also, they are concerned with getting satori, and to obtain it they have worked out certain methods, one of them being the use of the koan. A koan is a statement, act or gesture which functions as a tool used to bring about the truth, satori.
The Soto school is not at all like the Rinzai one. In Soto there is no goal, no object: mushotoku. One practices for nothing. This is why many people who can't understand this, including certain Rinzai monks and Zen scholars, claim that the Soto practice of sitting "doing nothing" is good only for sleeping. The celebrated Professor D.T. Suzuki claims that if you practice just skikantaza, you will "fall into darkness." But zazen is not like this, it's not like sleep. To really sit in zazen you need to be awake to your breathing and attentive to your posture. "Zazen is on the one hand a resolute attitude and a strong posture," said master Deshimaru, "and on the other a delicate, elegant one, like the fragrance of sandalwood or incense."
DESHIMARU
The mind-to-mind teaching
There wasn't anything mysterious or special about Deshimaru's teaching. He held no dokusan. In the dojo proper there was no study of koans, and during the practice there was no sutra reciting, no breath-counting, visualizations or mantras; and there was no quest for satori. Zazen was already satori. "When we do zazen," said the master, "it's like fishing for the moon and tilling the clouds. The mind grows vast, everying becomes calm, and we become intimate with ourselves."
Person-to-person contact counted the most. With words or without. It was a question of character meeting character. And if the master spoke or kept silent, it was the same. Finally, it wasn't so much the kusens (oral teachings) in themselves that counted, as it was the I shin den shin, the mind-to-mind transmission. I shin den shin lit up the zazens and made life around him so fascinating. What Deshimaru gave us was the mind transmission he had received from his own master, Kodo Sawaki.
IN HIS DOJO
In Deshimaru's dojo there were no loud Rinzai-like kwatz; and no rough-house stuff. Nor were there any zazen initiations, nor any preliminary steps to steps to take. Everyone sat together, the beginner in his jeans and the old-timer in his kesa, they did the same practice and listened to the same kusen. Of course there was hierarchy, but it wasn't based on any particular Zen knowledge, or any special wisdom, on any Dharma accomplishments or on any shiho certificate you might have; rather it was based on how much you helped out: those who helped out the most were on top. Other than this there were no ranks, no first-class
monks and no second-class ones, there were no old-hands at the practice and no novices either. Of course during zazen there was the posture, which was of prime importance, as was the attitude of mind and the breathing. The thing is, Deshimaru was a Soto monk in the unamalgamated tradition, and when Rinzai, Tibetan or Theravada monks visited the Deshimaru dojo, like the Tibetan Karmapa and other such religious leaders, they gave no conferences and no special ceremonies were held; they simply sat quietly in zazen with the rest of us.
THE PRACTICE OF ZAZEN
Deshimaru was not a severe man, and he imposed no restrictions on anyone. You could do as you wished. Comme vous voulez! he was always saying. However, in the dojo you practiced only zazen and kinhin. You sat down in the lotus or the half-lotus, placed your right hand, palm upward, on your left foot, and your left hand, palm upward, on top of your right hand. You sat upright, breathing in and breathing out, and you let your mind think from the bottom of non-thinking (hishiryo).
Mind during zazen
Deshimaru was always telling us to sit without object, without goal. To be beyond thought. His most often repeated story had to do with an exchange that once occurred between Yakusan and a monk. Deshimaru would tell it during zazen:
"One day after zazen a monk asked the great master Yakusan, 'During zazen what is it you are doing which is like the unmoving mountain?'
'I am thinking non-thinking.'
'How do you do that?'
"Hishiryo!' replied Yakusan." (Hi means beyond, and shiryo means thinking.)
"Hishiryo includes all things," Deshimaru said on another occasion during zazen. "It includes all existences, the good and the bad, the relative and the absolute, the rational and the irrational. Hishiryo is non-egoistic; it is cosmic thinking. It is the secret essence of Zen."
Breathing during zazen
The exhalation is deep and long, the inhalation short and steady. Breathing is the connecting link between the conscious and the subconscious, between body and mind. In fact, the ability to control our body and mind, and to change our lives, our karma, depends upon this breathing. One must concentrate on the breathing, or more specifically upon the out-breath. All schools of Buddhism agree that anapanasati (mindfulness of our breathing) was the Buddha Shakyamuni's first teaching.
TAISEN DESHIMARU
Born in the Saga prefecture of Kyushu, Japan on November 29, 1914 of an old samurai family, Taisen Deshimaru was raised by his grandfather who was a yawara master, and by his mother, a devout follower of the Buddhist Shinshu sect. He graduated from the University of Yokohama, worked as a businessman and practiced Rinzai Zen at Engakuji. However, he left off this practice immediately after his encounter with Kodo Sawaki, who was then functioning as the shusso, or second-in-charge, in the temple of Eiheji. When they met, Kodo Sawaki was not officially a master, let alone a roshi, but Deshimaru followed him anyway.