Miss Buddha
Page 89
According to tradition, Zen was introduced into China in 520 CE by the Indian Buddhist monk BodhiDhamma.
Zen and Chan are, respectively, the Japanese and Chinese ways of pronouncing the Sanskrit term dhyana (Pali jhana), which means contemplation or meditation.
In fact, Jhana is the eighth step of the Buddha’s Noble Eightfold Path: Right Concentration, and designates the state of consciousness of a Buddha, of one whose mind has lost the conviction that the apparent individuality of oneself and other things is real.
All schools of Buddhism hold that separate things exist only in relation to one another and that nature cannot be grasped by any system of fixed definition or classification; in other words, one cannot reason oneself to the final answer: it has to be experienced—through Jhana.
Doctrines and Practices
Reality is the “suchness” of nature, “just as it is” apart from any specific thoughts about it. Opinions and interpretations will not add to or detract from that suchness.
Zen, then, is the peculiarly Chinese (Japanese) way of accomplishing the Buddhist goal of seeing the world just as it is; that is, with a mind that has no grasping thoughts or feelings. This attitude is called “no-mind,” a state of consciousness wherein thoughts move without leaving any trace—if they indeed move, or appear, at all.
Unlike other forms of Buddhism, Zen holds that such freedom of mind cannot be attained by gradual practice but must come through direct and immediate insight. Thus, Zen abandons both theorizing and systems of spiritual exercise and communicates its vision of truth by a method known as direct pointing.
Its exponents answer all philosophic or religious questions by non-symbolic words or actions; the answer is the action just as it is, and not what it represents. Typical is the reply of the Zen master Yao-shan, who, on being asked “What is the Way of Zen?” answered, “A cloud in the sky and water in the jug!”
Zen students prepare themselves to be receptive to such answers by sitting in meditation (Japanese zazen) while they simply observe, without mental comment, whatever may be happening.
Sects
The two main sects of Zen are Rinzai Zen and Soto Zen.
Soto Zen puts more emphasis on the discipline of zazen, while Rinzai Zen makes use of meditation problems, or koans, based on the dialogues between the old masters and their students.
Students are expected to present their understanding of an incident to the teacher in some nonverbal direct form, say, by pointing, in a private interview called in Japanese sanzen.
Influence on Arts and Crafts
Zen is studied ordinarily in semimonastic communities to which laymen are admitted for limited periods. However, the Zen monastery is more strictly a training school combining meditation with a considerable amount of manual labor.
The students in such schools give special attention to the arts and crafts, notably painting, calligraphy, gardening, architecture, and ceremonial tea drinking. In Japan the arts of fencing, archery, and jujutsu are also pursued.
Zen has had a strong influence upon Far Eastern arts and crafts because its point of view is connected with action rather than theory and with direct vision of nature rather than interpretation.
According to Zen the mind serves properly as a window glass rather than as a reflector, that is, the mind should give an immediate view instead of an interpretation of the world.
All theories of nature and reality are considered to interfere with this direct vision. Zen thereby shows its continuity with the original idea of the Buddha: that suffering is the result of grasping desire, for it holds that the mind and feelings frustrate their own proper functioning when they cling deliberately to the world of experience.
Thus, the subject matter of Zen religious painting consists of natural forms, such as birds, grasses, rocks, and mountains, presented merely as images in a style that combines a maximum of technique with a minimum of planning and deliberation.
Such art avoids iconography and expresses a way of experiencing rather than ideas based upon experience, for Zen is not committed to any system of doctrine or belief.
:: Oneness of Purpose ::
As mentioned in the introduction to the section on Religion, above: Were there no suffering in this world, there would be no Religion. There would be no need for that balm.
Perhaps I can extend that to: Were there no suffering in this world, there would be no Philosophy, nor Science either—for who would be curious about anything in a world of bliss?
Human beings want to know why they are unhappy, they rarely, if ever, wonder why they are happy. I propose that the concept of problem preceded and spawned the concept of curiosity.
Be that, however, as it may, once curiosity had indeed risen, and once it had gained a firm hold as a human endeavor, it soon proliferated and branched off into its three main paths: Science, Philosophy, and Religion.
But the initial question was, I am sure: Why do I hurt?
It was not: Why do I laugh? for happiness is its own answer, and raises no questions.
Three Paths
Today, as we look back over this journey of discovery (why do I hurt?), we see three paths that each lay claim to its own territory and uniqueness—although Science now and then attempts to commandeer the other two, and subordinate them to its (obviously) only right way to go about things.
Such arrogance.
For, if anything, all paths of discovery fall under the wider umbrella of philosophy, the all-encompassing love of wisdom and of truth, for is it not the truth that we are all after, after all?
A Thousand Truths
Perhaps one’s first conclusion (after the above whirlwind survey of Science, Philosophy, and Religion) is that there are a thousand, a thousand thousand, and a thousand thousand thousand truths, and more as more little truths are discovered (or dreamed up) every day.
But this is tracking water upstream; tracing it to finer and finer tributaries. A thousand thousand thousand tributaries finer and finer every day.
But what, ultimately, feeds all tributaries, and where do all tributaries ultimately return to?
One Ocean
Whether you follow the river of Science, Philosophy, or Religion, it will, eventually, return to the one truth that ultimately gave birth to them: the Ocean. The One Ocean.
Water is water, gravity is gravity, truth is truth.
::
About the Author
Raised in Northern Sweden (apparently by trolls), Ulf Wolf now makes California’s Pacific North his home.
To date he has written six novels, five novellas, as well as a host of stories, poems, and songs. More is always underway.
For more about this particular wolf, please visit http://ulfwolf.com.
Also, you can contact him at ulfwolf@gmail.com.
Other stories by Ulf Wolf (and also available on Smashwords):
He Fell Through Clouds — a novel
Love Thyself Last — a novel
Storm — a novel
The Faces of Harriet Brown — a novel
The Katha Upanishad — a novel
A Larry Comes — a novella
Boil a Manchild for Odin — a novella
Flannery’s Bear — a novella
Only The Albatross Remembers — a novella
The Path Walkers — a novella
Many of his short stories are also available on Smashwords.