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Sunday 27 December 2020

Muso Soseki

 One spring evening, Muso Soseki was meditating under a tree outside his hermitage. When it was fully night, he stood up to return to the hut. Because it was too dark for him to be able to see, he reached out to where he thought the hermitage wall should be. There was nothing there, and he stumbled and fell. At that moment, it was as if he had fallen through a “wall of darkness” into light. The “unity of all things” was no longer a concept but rather an achieved experience. He wrote this verse to commemorate the event:

For many years I dug the earth and searched for the blue heaven,

And how often, how often did my heart grow heavier and heavier.

One night, in the dark, I took stone and brick,

And mindlessly struck the bones of the empty heavens.

Zen Masters of Japan: 107-13

The Story of Zen: 181-83, 185

Saturday 26 December 2020

Daito Kokushi [Shuho Myocho]

The retired Japanese Emperor Hanazono heard a rumor that a Zen master of exceptional ability had come to the city of Kyoto where, instead of establishing himself at one of the city’s temples, he had chosen to live among the derelicts and beggars residing under the Gojo Bridge. The emperor was intrigued by the story and asked his informant if there were any way he could identify which of the beggars was the modest Zen Master. All the informant could tell him was that it was rumored the master was particularly fond of honeydew melons. 

Hanazono disguised himself as a fruit peddler and pushed a cart laden with melons to the region by the bridge. As the residents gathered around him, he held up a ripe melon and announced, “I will give this melon freely to anyone who can come up to me and claim it without using his feet.”

One of the beggars immediately challenged him, “Then give it to me without using your hands.”

It was as much the gleam in the eye of the beggar as his reply which told Hanazono that he had found the Zen teacher he was seeking. His name was Shuho Myocho. He would later come to be known as Daito [Great Light] Kokushi [National Teacher].

Zen Masters of Japan: 90-96

The Story of Zen: 180-81

Thursday 24 December 2020

Keizan Jokin

Keizan Jokin wrote the Zazen Yojinki, which continues to be used as a basic introduction to meditation in the Soto tradition. In it, he describes zazen this way: “Zazen clears the mind immediately and lets one dwell in one’s true realm. This is called showing one’s original face or revealing the light of one’s original state. Body and mind are cast off, apart from whether one is sitting or lying down. Therefore one thinks neither of good nor of evil—transcending both the sacred and the profane, rising above delusion and enlightenment—and leaves the realm of sentient beings and Buddhas.”

Zen Masters of Japan: 102-07

The Story of Zen: 175-78

Wednesday 23 December 2020

Kanzan Egen

On the day of his death, Kanzan Egen told his disciples, “I ask only this of you. Dedicate yourselves to the Great Matter!” Then he donned his travel clothes and went to stand quietly by a pond near the monastery’s front gate. In this manner, he died.

Zen Masters of Japan: 97-99, 113

Tuesday 22 December 2020

Nampo Jomyo [Daio Kokushi]

 

At his investiture ceremony as abbot of Kenchoji in Kamakura, Nampo Jomyo proclaimed, “My coming today is coming from no where. One year hence, my departing will be departing to no where.”

Just as he predicted, one year later to the day he died. The death poem he left behind reads:

I rebuke the wind and revile the rain,

I do not know the Buddha and patriarchs;

My single activity turns in the twinkling of an eye,

Swifter even than a lightning flash.

Zen Masters of Japan: 85-87, 92

The Story of Zen: 181


Monday 21 December 2020

Shinchi Kakushin


Emperor Go-Uta asked Shinchi Kakushin about Zen. Kakushin told him: “A Buddha is one who understands mind. The ordinary fellow does not understand mind. You cannot achieve this by depending upon others. To attain Buddhahood you must look into your own mind.”

Zen Masters of Japan: 83-85

Sunday 20 December 2020

Mukan Fumon

According to a popular tale, the Emperor Go-Kameyama believed his palace was haunted, so he called upon various priests to exorcise the ghosts. When none were successful, his advisors suggested he seek the assistance of the Zen Master, Mukan Fumon. Called to the court, Fumon told the Emperor, “The honored Confucius wrote that demons and ghosts are helpless before men of virtue. My monks and I can dispose of them without difficulty.” Then Fumon and several of his disciples took up residence in the palace. Unlike the earlier priests who had tried to rid the palace of its unwanted occupants by magic rites and religious ceremonies, Fumon did not perform any particular rituals; he did not even chant the sutras, as was common for Buddhists. He and his monks simply sat quietly and persistently in zazen. The ghosts did not disturb them. The Emperor was so impressed that he declared the palace a monastery and appointed Fumon its abbot.

Zen Masters of Japan: 82-83

Saturday 19 December 2020

Enni Ben’en [Shoichi Kokushi]

Enni Ben’en told his disciples that Zen is not a system of thought like other Buddhist traditions but is a vehicle by which one achieves the same state of mind as the Buddha himself. “When one practices Zen, one is Buddha! If one practices for a day, one is Buddha for a day. In one were to practice one’s whole life, one would be Buddha one’s whole life. Zen is the Buddha mind.”

Zen Masters of Japan: 79-82

The Story of Zen: 179-80, 183

Friday 18 December 2020

Chiyono [Mugai Nyodai]

One evening, the nun Chiyono was fetching water in an old pail. The bucket, held together with bamboo which had weakened over time, split as she was carrying it, and the water spilled out. At that moment, she came to awakening. She commemorated the event with these lines:

In this way and that I tried to save the old pail

Since the bamboo strip was weakening and about to break

Until at last the bottom fell out.

No more water in the pail!

No more moon in the water!

Zen Masters of Japan: 77-79