Zen Way by Myokyo-ni

Author:Myokyo-ni,
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Tuttle Publishing
Published: 2011-12-06T05:00:00+00:00

FUNDAMENTALS

Bodhidharma, an Indian monk, is said to have brought the Zen School to China. Whether historical or not, the quatrain traditionally attributed to him sums up the essence of the Zen School:

'A special transmission outside the teachings;

Not standing on written words or letters.

Direct pointing to the human heart,

Seeing into its nature and becoming Buddha.'

Flowers bloom and wither. One of the basic tenets of Buddhism is that all changes. But the deluded I clings to fixtures as a safety anchor. Being itself no-thing, it needs to have some-thing, physical and/or mental possessions, both to prove its existence to itself and to incorporate more and more 'insatiably' for its security. Since this process is limited, because no I can incorporate or possess the world, this is a fruitful source of hurt and frustration, that un-ease which the Buddha found fundamental as the basic delusion.

When the living spirit leaves the word, the word becomes rigid, an empty husk. When the living spirit is forgotten in an exposition that it has forged, the formulation becomes dead language to which the mind clings and which it seeks to interpret. As to that, the ironical question of the Zen Masters through the ages is: 'What juice do you think you can suck from dry bones?'

The Zen School does not deny the scriptures and its Masters are deeply versed in them, but they do not countenance clinging to mere words and fashioning shortsighted interpretations. They insist on the cultivation of the living spirit. Thus the first two lines of the quatrain.

The Zen School holds itself as the Buddha Heart School. It says of itself that it is a transmission from heart to heart. It is concerned with the heart, and the last two lines of the quatrain show this concern. They point directly to the human heart, and the Zen Way is to follow this pointing and to see into the nature of the human heart, which is one's own heart, and so to become Buddha, awakened.

Hui Neng, the sixth Chinese patriarch, after whom the Zen School becomes Chinese, says that the essence of the heart is intrinsically pure. Two frequent analogies for it are the bright mirror, and the brilliantly clear, cold winter moon. Pondering these analogies, we may look along the pointing finger to where it actually points.

The brilliantly cold winter moon. That which is intrinsically pure, shines of its own nature. That we can see. But why cold ? When Love/Compassion is the very nature of the heart, and Wisdom its function? And the Buddha is called the All-Compassionate One? How can it be possible? The heart, intrinsically pure, shines of its own nature- However, this shining purity is overcast by the cloud of basic delusion from which every I suffers. Thus, it is not perceptible to I, which stands to reason, for I is but a bundle of delusions and appetites, in itself non-existing. Since we all know to our cost what havoc, misery and suffering these delusions and appetites can and do

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