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PRACTICE PERIOD
IN AN INFORMAL talk to open the summer practice period, Rujing, my late master, Old Buddha Tiantong, presented this poem:
Piling up bones in an open field,
gouging out a cave in empty sky,
break through the barrier of dualism
and splash in a bucket of pitch-black lacquer.
To grab hold of this spirit, to train constantly for thirty years, eating meals, sleeping, and stretching your legs—this requires unstinting support. The structure of the ninety-day summer practice period provides such support. It is the head and face of buddhas and ancestors. It has been intimately transmitted as their skin, flesh, bones, and marrow. You turn the buddha ancestors’ eyes and heads into the days and months of the ninety-day summer practice period. Regard the whole of each practice period as the whole of the buddhas and ancestors.
From top to bottom, the summer practice period is buddha ancestors. It covers everything without an inch of land or a speck of earth left out. The summer practice period is an anchoring peg that is neither new nor old, that has never arrived and will never leave. It’s the size of your fist and takes the form of grabbing you by the nose. When the practice period is opened, the empty sky cracks apart and all of space is dissolved. When the practice period is closed, the earth explodes, leaving no place undisturbed.
When the koan of opening the summer practice period is taken up, it looks as if something has arrived. When the fishing nets and birds’ nests of the summer practice period are all thrown away, it looks as if something has left. However, those who participated intimately in the practice period have been covered with opening and closing all along. An inch of grass has not appeared for ten thousand miles, so you might say, “Give me back the meal money for these ninety days.”
Priest Sixin of Mount Huanglong said, “My pilgrimage of more than thirty years amounts to one ninety-day summer practice period, not a day more, not a day less.”
Thus, after a pilgrimage of more than thirty years you develop an eye that sees summer itself as a ninety-day practice period. Even if you try to stretch it or contract it, the ninety days will always bounce back and be just ninety days. You yourself cannot leap over the boundary of ninety days, but if you use the ninety days as your hands and feet, you can make the leap. Although the ninety-day summer practice period serves as a support for us, the buddha ancestors did not create it on our behalf. They only handed it down to us from the past, heir to heir, authentically.
This being so, to experience a summer practice period is to experience all buddhas and all ancestors. To experience a summer practice period is to see buddhas and ancestors directly. Buddhas and ancestors have been produced by the summer practice period for a long, long time. Although the ninety-day summer practice period is only as long as your forehead, it is beyond time. One kalpa, ten kalpas, one hundred, one thousand, or innumerable kalpas cannot contain it. Although ordinary events can be contained within one thousand or innumerable kalpas, the ninety days contain one hundred, one thousand, or innumerable kalpas. Even if the innumerable kalpas experience the ninety days and see the buddhas, the ninety days are still free of innumerable kalpas.
To become fully immersed in the liveliness of the summer practice period is to be free of the liveliness of the summer practice period. Although it has origination and cause, it has not come from another place or another time, nor has it arisen here and now. When you grasp for the origination of the ninety-day period, it immediately appears. When you search for the cause of the ninety-day period, it’s immediately right here. Although ordinary people and sages use the ninety-day period as their abode and sustenance, it is beyond the boundary of ordinary and sacred. It is also beyond the reach of discernment and nondiscernment, and even beyond beyond the reach of discernment and nondiscernment.
During a dharma talk that the World-Honored One gave in the country of Magadha, he announced his intention to go into a summer retreat. He said to Ananda, “My advanced disciples, the four types of human and celestial practitioners, are not truly paying attention to my dharma talk, so I have decided to enter Indra’s cave and spend the ninety days of summer in sitting practice. If people should come to ask about the dharma, please give them your explanation on my behalf. All things are beyond birth, beyond death.”
Then he closed the entrance to his meditation chamber and sat. It has been two thousand one hundred ninety-four years since then. Today is in the third year of the Kangen Era [1245].
Those who haven’t entered the inner chamber regard the World-Honored One’s retreat in the country of Magadha as proof of expounding the dharma without words. These confused people think, “The Buddha’s closing off his chamber and spending the summer in solitary sitting shows that words and speech are merely skillful means and cannot indicate the truth. Cutting off words and eliminating mental activity is therefore the ultimate truth. Wordlessness and mindlessness is real; words and thoughts are unreal. The Buddha sat in the closed chamber for ninety days in order to cut off all human traces.”
Those who say such things are greatly mistaken about the World-Honored One’s true intention.
If you really understand the meaning of cutting off words, speech, and mental activity, you will see that all social and economic endeavors are essentially already beyond words, speech, and mental activity. Going beyond words and speech is itself all words and speech, and going beyond mental activity is nothing but all mental activity. So it is a misunderstanding of this story to see it as advocating the overthrow of words, speech, and mental activity. Reality is to go into the mud, enter the weeds, and expound dharma for the benefit of others; turning the dharma and helping all beings is not something optional. If people who call themselves descendants of the Buddha [leaders in the monastery] say that the Buddha’s ninety days of solitary summer sitting means that words and speech are cut off, you should demand a refund for those ninety days of summer sitting.
Also, do not misunderstand the Buddha’s further words to Ananda, Please give them your explanation on my behalf. All things are beyond birth, beyond death. Since the Buddha’s closing the room and sitting through the summer is not merely an activity without words and speech, ask the World-Honored One, in Ananda’s place, “What is the meaning of all things are beyond birth, beyond death and how do we practice it?” In light of your question, examine the World-Honored One’s teaching.
This story about the Buddha contains the primary truth and the primary beyond-truth of his expounding and turning the dharma. It is a mistake to use it as proof that the Buddha taught abandonment of words and speech. If you see it that way, it is like taking a three-foot dragon-fountain sword and hanging it up on the wall of a potter’s shop [to be used as a shaping knife].
Thus, sitting for ninety days of summer is an ancient method used by authentic buddha ancestors for turning the dharma wheel. The important part of this story is just the Buddha announcing his intention to go into a summer retreat. This makes it quite clear that sitting the ninety-day summer practice period is something to be done without fail. Not to practice in this way is to be outside the way.
When the World-Honored One was alive he held the summer practice period in Tushita Heaven, or he held it with five hundred monks in a hall on Vulture Peak. It didn’t matter to him which of the five parts of India he was in; he always held a summer practice period when the time came. Buddha ancestors for generations up to the present have been practicing it as the essential matter; it is the unsurpassable way of practice and enlightenment. In the Indra’s Net Sutra the winter practice period is mentioned, but that tradition has not been passed on; only the ninety-day summer practice period has come down to us, authentically transmitted for fifty-one generations up to the present.
The Guidelines for Zen Monasteries says: “When a seeker comes to a monastery wanting to join in a practice period, the person should arrive half a month in advance so that the welcoming tea and other entering rituals can be perfo
rmed without haste.”
Half a month in advance means the last part of the third month. Thus, seekers should arrive sometime in the third month. The season for traveling to enroll in a monastery ends before the first day of the fourth month. After that, the guest office and the visitors’ room close. By then, according to tradition, all monks wishing to reside in a monastery should have their traveling bags hanging either in the monks’ quarters, or in the nearby quarters for laypeople. This is the style of the buddha ancestors, and it should be respected and practiced. By then the fists and nostrils [teachers and elders] should also have their bags in place.
Nevertheless, a group of demons say that what is essential is the development of the Mahayana view, and that the summer practice period is a Hinayana training and should not be followed. Those who say such things have never seen or heard the buddha dharma. A ninety-day summer practice period of sitting is itself unsurpassable, complete enlightenment. Both Mahayana and Hinayana have fine teachings and practices; these are all branches, leaves, flowers, and fruits of the ninety-day practice period.
After the morning meal on the third day of the fourth month, the official preparation begins. Preceding this, from the first day of the fourth month, the practice coordinator prepares a preliminary list of the names of the participants according to their dharma ordination seniority. On the third day of the fourth month, after the morning meal, the preliminary list is posted on the lattice window to the right of the entrance to the study hall. The list is posted every day after the morning meal and taken down after the bell that signals the end of the practice for the day. It is displayed this way from the third day until the fifth day of the fourth month.
Care must be taken with the order in which the names are arranged on the preliminary list. They are not listed according to the monastic offices held, but according to seniority in ordination date. However, the titles of those who have served as officers in other monasteries should be written on the list, especially if they have served as head monk or administrator. If they have served in several positions, the title pertaining to the highest position they reached should appear on the list. Those who have been abbots should have the title “former abbot” added to their names. Sometimes people who have served as abbots in small temples unknown to most monks prefer out of modesty not to be acknowledged as former abbots.
Also, there are monks who have served as senior teachers in monks’ halls, and as such have sat in the “former abbot” seat in the hall, without actually having served as abbots. The listing of such monks should not include the title “former abbot.” In such cases the term “senior monk” can be used. If such senior monks volunteer to serve as humble caretakers of the abbot’s robes and bowls, or as the abbot’s incense attendants, as they often do, this can be an excellent example. The senior monks can be appointed to other positions by the teacher. Some monks who have previously trained in small monasteries, including those who have been abbots of small temples, might be invited to serve as the head monk, secretary, treasurer, or administrator in large monasteries. Since it is not unusual for people to make fun of positions in minor monasteries or temples, such monks may prefer their past positions not to be acknowledged.
The following is an example of such a list of participants:
In such-and-such monastery on such-and-such mountain in such-and-such province of such-and-such country, the names in the ocean assembly forming the summer practice period are [for example] as follows:
Venerable Ajnatakaundinya [the first disciple of the Buddha], Chief Monk, Priest ____, Abbot
Ordained in the first year of the Kempo Era
____, Senior monk
____, Librarian
____, Senior monk
____, Senior monk
Ordained in the second year of the Kempo Era
____, Former abbot
____, Ino
____, Head monk
____, Senior monk
____, Bathhouse keeper
Ordained in the first year of the Kenreki Era
____, Work leader
____, Attendant monk
____, Head monk
____, Head monk
____, Guest coordinator
____, Lay contact monk
____, Senior monk
____, Tenzo
____, Infirmary manager
Ordained in the third year of the Kenreki Era
____, Secretary
____, Senior monk
____, Former abbot
____, Head monk
____, Senior monk
____, Senior monk
I respectfully present this preliminary list. Please notify me if there is a mistake.
Sincerely yours, monk [so-and-so], Ino
The third day, the fourth month, the year ____.
This is calligraphed in formal script on a white sheet of paper. Cursive or decorative script is not used. This list is fastened to a paperboard with a flax string, about the thickness of two grains of rice, and hangs like a screen. It is removed at the end of the break from zazen on the fifth day of the fourth month.
On the eighth day of the fourth month, the Buddha’s Birthday is celebrated.
On the thirteenth day, after the midday meal, the study hall monks are served tea and treats and do melodic sutra chanting in the study hall. The study hall director is in charge of this event, boiling the water and offering the incense. The study hall director sits at the end of the hall, in the middle [the place of highest honor], while the study hall head monk is positioned to the left of the enshrined image. It is the study hall director who rises to offer incense. The head monk and officers of the monastery do not join in this sutra chanting. Only the study hall monks participate in this ceremony.
The practice coordinator hangs the revised list of participants on the east wall in front of the monks’ hall after the morning meal on the fifteenth. It hangs above the front platform on the south side near the center [where the monastery officers sit]. The Guidelines for Zen Monasteries says, “The practice coordinator prepares the list of participants beforehand and offers incense and flowers, and hangs the list in front of the monks’ hall.”
On the fourteenth day of the fourth month after the midday meal, a sign announcing the chanting ceremony is hung in front of the monks’ hall as well as other halls. By the evening, officers have set up incense and flowers in front of the sign outside the shrine of the local earth deity, and the monks assemble.
This is the procedure for the ceremony: After the monks assemble, the abbot offers incense, then the officers and the heads of departments offer incense in a way similar to the style of offering made during the ceremony of bathing the Buddha. Then the practice coordinator comes forward, makes a standing bow to the abbot, faces north, bows to the local earth deities, and chants as follows:
As we reflect quietly, fragrant winds waft over the fields, and the god of summer holds dominion in all directions. At this time, the Dharma King ordains that the monks remain secluded in the monastery, and on this day the children of Shakyamuni invoke the life-protecting deities. We assembled here respectfully worship the shrine of spirits, and chant the great names of myriad virtues, dedicating offerings to the deities enshrined here. We pray for protection and for the complete accomplishment of the practice period.
Now we invoke the venerable ones (after each of the following names a small bell is struck): Pure Dharmakaya Vairochana Buddha, Complete Sambhogakaya Vairochana Buddha, Uncountable Nirmanakaya Shakyamuni Buddhas, Future Maitreya Buddha, All Buddhas throughout space and time, Great Sacred Manjushri Bodhisattva, Great Sacred Samantabhadra Bodhisattva, Great Compassion Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva, All Venerable Bodhisattva Mahasattvas, Maha Prajna Paramita.
We dedicate the merit of our chanting and offerings to the dragon deities of the earth who protect the true dharma. May the wondrous light illuminate and activate this merit so that pure enjoyment and selfless happiness will arise. We again invoke All Buddhas throughout space an
d time, All Venerable Bodhisattva Mahasattvas, and Maha Prajna Paramita.
The drum is hit and the monks go for ceremonial tea in the monks’ hall. Serving the tea is the responsibility of the monastery administrator. The monks enter the hall with a formal circumambulation and sit in their positions facing the center of the hall; the officer in charge opens the ceremony with an incense offering. The Guidelines for Zen Monasteries says, “This ceremony is usually conducted by the monastery administrator but the practice coordinator may substitute.”
Prior to the chanting ceremony the officer in charge writes an announcement of invitation to the tea ceremony and presents it to the head monk in the following manner: The officer, wearing the kashaya and carrying the folded bowing cloth, faces the head monk, spreads the bowing cloth twice [on the floor, spreading it in two folds, standing up, folding it up, and spreading it again] and makes three formal bows, then presents the announcement to the head monk. The head monk responds by bowing in the same way. The invitation is placed on a fine silk cloth spread over [the lid of] a box. This box is carried ceremonially by an assistant. The officer bringing the invitation is escorted into, and later, out of the hall, by the head monk. The invitation reads:
Treasury of the True Dharma Eye Page 86
