Zen: The Three Pillars of Zen

[shaman sun]

This wonderful book gives a comprehensive view of Zen while diving you into details, practice and first-hand experiences between masters and students. It's a must read for anyone who wishes to have a fundamental view of Zen. I highly recommend it to any student here, and like it so much I'm putting a few excerpts up. Expect this thread to be continuously updated. This is part of the Zen Buddhism lesson.

[squawkers7]

I just wanted to recommend the following books that I also own

"Not Always So: Practicing the True Spirit of Zen"
"The Way of Zen"
Buddhism without Beliefs
Buddha Mind, Buddha Body: Walking Toward Enlightenment
How to Practice : The Way to a Meaningful Life
Awakening the Buddha Within : Tibetan Wisdom for the Western World

[shaman sun]

First Quote,


7/ To the Nun of Furusawa/ You have written me that the object of Zen practice (you believe) is the manifestation of Mind-in-itself. But how does it manifest itself? What can be seen with the eyes or be known by reason cannot be called Mind-in-itself. You must begin your zazen by looking into your own mind. As your thoughts diminish you will become aware of them, but it is a mistake to struggle to stop them from arising. Neither loathe nor cherish your thoughts, only realize the source from which they stem. By constantly questionjing whence thoughts arise, the time will come when your mind, unable to answer, will be free of even a ripple of thought. Yet weven now you will find no answer. But still ask, "What is this Mind?" to the very rock bottom and the questioning mind will suddenly vanish and your body feel as thought it were without substance, like the -empty-space of ten quarters.

This is the first stage to which Zen beginners attain and they are encouraged to some extent. but if they mistake this for manifestation of Mind-in-itself (or Truth-in-itself), they are like one who takes fish eyes for pearls. Those who persist in such error become haughty, malign Buddhas and Partriarchs, and ignore the law of causation. So they have to struggle with evil spirit ins this life and tread thorny paths in the next. But with favorable karmic relations they will eventually attain enlightenment. Men, however, who cannot perceive the truth of all this, who do not believe their own Mind is Buddha and who look for Buddha, or Truth, outside this Mind, are infinitely worse off than non-Buddhists who attach themselves to the phenomenal world.

As I have already written you, when some insight comes to you go to a competent Zen master and openly demonstrate to him what you have perceived, exactly as it came to you. If it is faulty and needs to be dissolved, let it be done like boiling water destroying ice. At last, like a bright moon shining in an empty sky through clouds that have broken open, your Face before your parents' birth will be revealed, and for the first time you will understand what is meant by 'the saw dances the Sandai.' Now, Sandai is the name of the dance. Just consider: a saw dances the Sandai! What does this mean? Tackle it resolutely but without reasoining, for it has no meaning in the usual sense. You will be able to comprehend it only upon Self-realization.

You next mentioned that you are going to fast. Fasting is a non-Buddhist practice. Don't ever do it! Renunciate your wrong views which discriminate gain from loss, good from bad- this is true fast. Relinquishment of delusion in the whole-hearted practice of Zen- this is self purification. To desire abnormal experiences is as misguided as wanting to appear different from ordinary people. You have but to keep your mind steadfast and yet flexible, concerning yourself with neight good nor evil in others and not obstructing them. If you remind yourself that this world is but a dream in which there is no grief to avoid and no joy to look for, your mind will become visibly serene. Not only this, but your illness will disappear as your delusive feelings and perceptions fall away. You must even discard whatever you realize through enlightenment. What is more, you must not attach yourself to or be repelled by visions of any kind, for they are illusional. Don't involve yourself in such fantasies but only inquire: "What is the master who sees all this?"

I have fully answered the questions you have raised. Should you not realize your True-Self in this lifetime even though you practice Zen exactly as I now advise you, you will unquestionably meet a perfectly enlightened Zen master in your next life and attain Self-realization a thousand times over though one Sound of truth.

I dislike writing you in such detail, but since you have written me from a sickbed to which you have long been confined, this is the only way I can answer so you will readily understand."

[SeekerofTruth]

I have ''Three Pillars''. It's gr8 . However, i'm having trouble understanding the nature and purpose of koans. Can anyone help me?

[shaman sun]

I have ''Three Pillars''. It's gr8 . However, i'm having trouble understanding the nature and purpose of koans. Can anyone help me?The nature of a Zen Koan is instantaneous enlightenment. It's purpose is to force the mind to stop short, to crash into a thunderous silence at the paradox, and simply be thereafter. When the mind has finally let go of the 'chattering monkey' of thought, no matter how illustrious and ornate, it is open to the silence. The cup is emptied, the mind is reposed, and all that is left? The stirring of cherry blossoms in the garden.

If a koan is leaving your perplexed or confused; good! That is its intent. To "tire out" the rational thinking and force the mind to abandon reason, if for an instant, and instead rely upon transrational abilities we are each capable of. "Mind" in Zen is not thought. It is "true nature" or "ultimate" or "truth," etc. Wei-wu-wei, or "being, non-being." Is this any help to you?

[squawkers7]

I have ''Three Pillars''. It's gr8 . However, i'm having trouble understanding the nature and purpose of koans. Can anyone help me?
Koans - Some Definitions



<LI>"A koan is a Zen presentation in the form of a Zen challenge" (DeMartino 1983)

<LI>"...stories and verses that present fundamental perspectives on life and no-life, the nature of the self, the relationship of the self to the earth - and how these interweave. Such stories and verses are called koans, and their study is the process of realising their truths." (Aitken 1990:xiii)

<LI>"Koan, J. Universal/Particular. A presentation of the harmony of the Universal and the Particular; a theme of Zazen to be made clear. A classic Mondo, or a Zen story." (Aitken 1993:212-213)

<LI>"Koans are the folk stories of Zen Buddhism, metaphorical narratives that particularize essential nature. Each koan is a window that show the whole truth but just from a single vantage. It is limited in perspective.One hundred koans give one hundred vantages. When they are enriched with insightful comments and poems, then you have ten thousand vantages. There is no end to this process of enrichment." (Aitken 1990b:ix)

<LI>"...the [Korean - tmc] term hwadu usually refers to the particular question itself as well as the state of mind to be cultivated through concentrating upon the question. [...] the term hwadu is also used as a virtual synonym for the Japanese term koan (K. kong an). Technically speaking, though, these terms differ in meaning. A koan - literally " a public case" - is a description of an entire situation, usually of a dialogue between a Zen master and his disciple; the hwadu is only the central point of the exchange which is then singled out as a topic for meditation." (Batchelor 1985:53)

<LI>"The koans do not represent the private opinion of a single man, but rather the highest principle ... [that - tmc ] accords with the spiritual source, tallies with the mysterious meaning, destroys birth-and-death, and transcends the passions. It cannot be understood by logic; it cannot be transmitted in words; it cannot be explained in writing; it cannot be measured by reason. It is like [...] a great fire that consumes all who come near it." (Chung-feng Ming-pen [1263-1323] quoted in Miura and Sasaki 1966:5)

<LI>"These stories and sayings contain patterns, like blueprints, for various inner exercises in attention, mental posture, and higher perception, summarized in extremely brief vignettes enabling the individual to hold entire universes of thought in mind all at once, without running through doctrinal discourses or disrupting ordinary consciousness of everyday affairs." (Cleary 1994:xv)

<LI>"A koan is simply the time and place where Truth is manifest. From the fundamental point of view, there is no time or place where Truth is not revealed: every place, every day, every event, every thought, every deed, and every person is a koan. In that senses, koans are neither obscure nor enigmatic. Howvere, a koan is more commonly understood as a tool for teaching true insight." (Shimano 1988:70)

<LI>"It is exactly the no-way-out situation in which the human being finds itself - that fundamental and unbridgeable inner cleavage of that being which is conscious of itself - that is said to be the way....[Zen Master Shin'ichi - tmc] Hisamatsu put this into a more general form: 'Doshitemo ikanakereba do suru ka?': 'Nothing will do. What do you do?' He called this the 'fundamental koan' - i.e., the koan that is the common denominator of the thousands of extant koans." (App 1994:52-53)

<LI>"In the past, kong-an practicing meant checking someone's enlightenment.Now we use kong-ans to make our lives correct... You must use kong-ans to take away your opinions. When you take away your opinions, your mind is clear like space, which means from moment to moment you can reflect any situation and respond correctly and meticulously." (Seung Sahn 1992:236)

<LI>"In Zen, practitioners use kung-an as subjects for meditation until their mind come to awakening. There is a big difference between a kung-an and a math problem - the solution of the math problem is included in the problem itself, while the response to the kung-an lies in the life of the practitioner. The kung-an is a useful instrument in the work of awakening, just as a pick is a useful instrument in working on the ground. What is accomplished from working on the ground depends on the person doing the work and not just on the pick. The kung-an is not an enigma to resolve; this is why we cannot say that it is a theme or subject of meditation." (Nhat Hanh 1995:57)

"There are all told about 1,700 koans, of which present-day Japanese Zen masters use only 500 to 600, since many are repetitious or are not so valuable for training purposes." (Schuhmacher and Woerner 1986:182)