Bankei Zen

by Peter Haskel

  Listen carefully

  The Master addressed the assembly: “Among all you people here today there’s not a single one who’s an unenlightened being. Everyone here is a buddha. So listen carefully! What you all have from your parents innately is the Unborn Buddha Mind alone. There’s nothing else you have innately. This Buddha Mind you have from your parents innately is truly unborn and marvelously illuminating. That which is unborn is the Buddha Mind; the Buddha Mind is unborn and marvelously illuminating, and, what’s more, with this Unborn, everything is perfectly managed. The actual proof of this Unborn which perfectly manages [everything] is that, as you’re all turned this way listening to me talk, if out back there’s the cawing of crows, the chirping of sparrows or the rustling of the wind, even though you’re not deliberately trying to hear each of these sounds, you recognize and distinguish each one. The voices of the crows and sparrows, the rustling of the wind—you hear them without making any mistake about them, and that’s what’s called hearing with the Unborn. In this way, all things are perfectly managed with the Unborn. This is the actual proof of the Unborn. Conclusively realize that what’s unborn and marvelously illuminating is truly the Buddha Mind, straightaway abiding in the Unborn Buddha Mind just as it is, and you’re a living tathagata10 from today forever after. Since, when you realize conclusively, you abide like this in the Buddha Mind from today on, my school is called the School of Buddha Mind.11

  “Well, then, while you’re all turned this way listening to me talk, you don’t mistake the chirp of a sparrow out back for the caw of a crow, the sound of a gong for that of a drum, a man’s voice for a woman’s, an adult’s voice for a child’s—you clearly recognize and distinguish each sound you hear without making any mistake. That’s the marvelously illuminating dynamic function. It’s none other than the Buddha Mind, unborn and marvelously illuminating, the actual proof of the marvelously illuminating [nature of the Buddha Mind].

  “I doubt there’s anyone among the people here now who’d say: ‘I heard [what I did] because I was deliberately trying to hear it.’ If anyone says he did, he’s a liar. Wondering, ‘What’s Bankei telling us?’ all of you are turned this way, intent only on hearing what I’m saying; no one’s deliberately trying to hear the various sounds coming from out back. That’s why, when all of a sudden these sounds appear and you recognize and distinguish them, hearing them without any mistake, you’re hearing with the Unborn Buddha Mind. Nobody here can claim he heard these sounds because he’d made up his mind beforehand to listen for them when they were made. So, in fact, you’re listening with the Unborn.

  “Everyone who conclusively realizes that what is unborn and marvelously illuminating is truly the Buddha Mind, abiding in the Unborn Buddha Mind, is a living tathagata from today forever after. Even ‘buddha’ is just a name given to traces that have arisen,12 so, from the standpoint of the Unborn, it’s only a secondary matter, a peripheral concern. The man of the Unborn abides at the source of all buddhas. That which is unborn is the source of all things, the starting point of all things. There’s nothing more original than the Unborn, nothing prior to it. That’s why, when you abide in the Unborn, you abide at the source of all buddhas; so it’s something wonderfully precious. There’s no question of ‘perishing’ here, so when you abide in the Unborn, it’s superfluous to speak about the Imperishable13 too. That’s the reason I only talk about the Unborn and don’t mention the Imperishable. What isn’t created can’t be destroyed, so since it’s unborn, it’s obvious it’s imperishable without having to mention it. Isn’t that so?

  “Of course, the expression ‘unborn and imperishable’14 has appeared here and there in the sutras and records from times of old—but not the actual proof of the Unborn. Everyone just learns the expression ‘unborn and imperishable’ and goes about repeating it; but when it comes to realizing conclusively and actually getting right to the heart of the matter, they haven’t any idea of what the Unborn is.

  “When I was twenty-six, I first hit on the realization that all things are perfectly managed with the Unborn, and, in the forty years since, I’ve taught everyone with the actual proof of the Unborn: that what you have from your parents innately is the Unborn Buddha Mind—the Buddha Mind which is truly unborn and marvelously illuminating. I was the first to teach this. I’m sure that even among you monks in the assembly now, and everyone else too, nobody’s heard of anyone before me who taught people with the actual proof of the Unborn—that the Buddha Mind is truly Unborn and marvelously illuminating. I was the first to teach this. If anyone claims he’s heard of somebody before me who taught people with the actual proof of the Unborn, he’s a liar!

  “When you abide in the Unborn, you’re abiding at the source of all things. What the buddhas of the past realized was the Unborn Buddha Mind; and what buddhas in the future will realize is the Unborn Buddha Mind too. We today are living in the Degenerate Age of Buddhism,15 yet when there’s even one man who abides in the Unborn, the true teaching16 has been restored to the world. All of you, isn’t it so? It certainly is! When you’ve conclusively realized this, then and there you’ll open the eye that sees into men’s minds, and that’s why my school is called the Clear-Eyed School.17 When the eye that sees into men is manifested, whenever it happens to be,18 that moment is the complete realization of the Dharma.19 I want you to know this. Whoever you may be, at that moment, you are my heir!”

  Precepts

  A certain master of the Precepts School20 asked: “Doesn’t your Reverence observe the precepts?”

  The Master said: “Originally, what people call the precepts were all for wicked monks who broke the rules; for the man who abides in the Unborn Buddha Mind, there’s no need for precepts. The precepts were taught to help sentient beings—they weren’t taught to help buddhas! What everyone has from his parents innately is the Unborn Buddha Mind alone, so abide in the Unborn Buddha Mind. When you abide in the Unborn Buddha Mind, you’re a living buddha here today, and that living buddha certainly isn’t going to concoct anything like taking the precepts, so there aren’t any precepts for him to take. To concoct anything like taking the precepts is not what’s meant by the Unborn Buddha Mind. When you abide in the Unborn Buddha Mind, there’s no way you can violate the precepts. From the standpoint of the Unborn, the precepts too are secondary, peripheral concerns; in the place of the Unborn, there’s really no such thing as precepts. . . .”

  The same old thing

  “A certain teacher of Buddhism told me: ‘Instead of teaching the same old thing in your sermons day after day, you ought to throw in a few Buddhist miracle stories21 once in a while and give people a refreshing change of pace.’ Of course, he could be right. I may be thickheaded, but provided something is really helpful to people, then, thickheaded or not, I’m not beyond memorizing one or two old stories if I put my mind to it. However, teaching this sort of thing is like feeding poison to sentient beings. And feeding people poison is something I certainly can’t do!”

  I don’t talk about Buddhism

  The Master further said: “I don’t teach people by quoting from the words of the buddhas and patriarchs.22 Since I can manage simply by dealing with people’s own selves, there’s no need on top of that to quote the words of the buddhas and patriarchs too. I don’t talk about Buddhism, and I don’t talk about Zen. There’s really no need to talk about these things. Since I can manage perfectly just by dealing with people’s own selves as they are right here today, there’s no need for me to talk about Buddhism, or Zen either. . . .”

  Meeting masters: Dōsha and Ingen

  “Until the age of thirty, I continued to wear my jittoku23 robes without putting on a proper monk’s robe. When I was thirty, however, my teacher24 suggested I go to meet the Chinese Zen Master Dōsha Chōgen of Naninsan,25 who’d recently landed at Nagasaki. I decided to go, and my teacher told me: ‘Up to now you’ve been able to get by with your jittoku robes; but now that you’re going to call on a real Chinese monk, they won’t do. As it’s also f
or the sake of the Dharma, from here on you’d better wear a proper monk’s robe, so go put one on and call on Dōsha.’

  “And that’s how, at the age of thirty, following my teacher’s advice, I put on a monk’s robe for the first time and went off to see Dōsha. I immediately presented my understanding. Dōsha sized me up at a glance and told me: ‘You have transcended birth and death!’

  “Among the Zen teachers at that time, only Dōsha was able, to this modest extent, to confirm for me my experience of enlightenment; but, even so, I wasn’t fully satisfied. Now, looking back, today I wouldn’t even find Dōsha acceptable. If only Dōsha had gone on living till now, I might have made a better man of him. But he was an unlucky fellow and died young, to my great regret.”

  “When I was a member of Dosha’s assembly, an invitation was sent to China to [the Zen Master] Ingen.26 I was among those who consulted on this, and, fortunately, Ingen arrived in Japan while I was with Dōsha, landing at the harbor in Nagasaki.27 I went along to welcome him, but the moment Ingen stepped ashore from the boat, I realized he wasn’t a man of the Unborn, and that’s why I never studied with him.”

  I’m ready to be your witness!

  “All of you right now are extremely fortunate. When I was young, either there were no enlightened teachers about, or else, if there were, I just wasn’t lucky enough to meet them, and being from youth exceedingly thickheaded, I suffered unimaginable hardships. How uselessly I struggled! I can’t forget those wasted efforts, which have left a deep impression on me. I had to learn the hard way, from experience. That’s why, in my desire to have all of you attain complete realization of the Dharma in perfect comfort, at your ease, and without any useless struggle, I do my best to come out like this every day and urge you on. All of you should consider yourselves fortunate. Where could you ever find this sort of opportunity!

  “Although I didn’t intend to tell you about this—how when I was young I struggled uselessly thanks to my own thickheadedness—if among the young people here there’s anyone who struggles as I did, thinking it’s impossible to attain complete realization of the Dharma without doing so, why then I’ll be to blame. So, although I didn’t intend to tell you, you young people listen carefully! Since, without struggling as I did, you can attain complete realization of the Dharma, first of all let me tell you about my own struggles, and that way you’ll realize that you can attain complete realization without going and doing as Bankei did. While you listen, I want you to keep this in mind. Well, then, I’ll begin, so pay close attention!

  “My father, whose original family name was Suga,28 was a rōnin29 from Shikoku30 and a Confucian. He came and settled in this area,31 where I was born, but died while I was still a small child, leaving my mother to raise me. I was, according to her story, a naughty boy, and as leader of all the children in the neighborhood would get into mischief. However, my mother told me that from the time I was two or three I’d already developed a horror of death: when I cried, if someone made believe he were dying, or if I was told about someone’s having died, I’d instantly dry my tears and even give up any mischief I happened to be engaged in.

  “Gradually I grew up. At the time I was young, Confucianism was very popular hereabouts, and my mother sent me to a teacher to learn to read the Great Learning aloud by rote.32 But when I came to the passage that states, ‘The Way of the Great Learning lies in illuminating the Bright Virtue,’33 I couldn’t make out what this Bright Virtue was, and, beset by doubt, puzzled over it for some time.

  “At one point, I went and questioned some Confucian scholars. ‘What sort of thing is this Bright Virtue?’ I asked them, ‘Just what is the Bright Virtue, anyway?’ But there wasn’t one of them who knew.

  “However, one of the Confucian scholars told me: ‘Difficult matters like this are the kind of things Zen monks understand, so go and ask a Zen monk. Even though with our mouths we can talk endlessly about the meaning of the words and letters in the Classics,34 when it comes to just what sort of thing the Bright Virtue is, we really have no idea.’

  “‘Well,’ I thought, finding myself still in the dark, ‘so that’s how things are!’ But since there were no Zen monks hereabouts then, I had no chance to ask anyone. Nevertheless, then and there I resolved that somehow I’d realize the meaning of this Bright Virtue and tell my aged mother about it before she died. Even before realizing it myself, I wanted above all to communicate it to my mother who, being old, might die at any time. Hoping to resolve this matter of the Bright Virtue, I floundered about desperately, scurrying all over. A talk here, a lecture there—whenever I learned there was a sermon, no matter where it was, I hurried right off to hear it. Returning home, I reported to my mother anything significant I might have heard, but my question about the Bright Virtue was still unresolved.

  “Next, I made up my mind to visit a master of this Zen school. When I asked him about the Bright Virtue, he told me: ‘If you want to understand the Bright Virtue, do zazen35 and the Bright Virtue will be understood.’

  “As a result, after this I immediately took up the practice of zazen. Here, I’d go into the mountains, eating nothing for seven or even ten whole days; there, I’d find some cliffs, and, seated on a pointed rock, pull up my robes, with my bare backside right against the stone, determined to meditate to the very end, even if it killed me, and refusing to leave my seat until I simply tumbled down. Since there was no way I could even ask anyone to bring me food, I often didn’t eat for days. But all I cared about was resolving the Bright Virtue, so I didn’t mind that I was faint from hunger, and refused to let it bother me. Despite it all, though, I still couldn’t settle my question about the Bright Virtue.

  “After this, I returned to my native area, built a small hut for myself and went into retreat. At times, totally absorbed in practicing the nembutsu,36 I wouldn’t lie down, night or day.

  “So I floundered about desperately, trying in every way, but my question about the Bright Virtue was still unresolved. Without much care for my life, I’d driven my whole body so mercilessly that the skin on my backside had become torn, with the result that I could only sit with the most painful difficulty. However, as I look back on it now, in those years I was still in fine fettle, and, in spite of everything, wouldn’t lie down to rest for even a day. All the same, since I was suffering from the torn flesh on my backside, I had to sit on bundles of Sugihara37 paper that I’d spread under me and replace one after another. Despite this precaution, blood issued constantly from my backside, and with the pain, it became difficult to sit, so that I sometimes had to spread wads of cotton and whatnot underneath me. Even with all that, I could pass an entire day and night without ever lying down.

  “The strain of those years finally caught up with me, and I became gravely ill. Without having settled my question about the Bright Virtue, I’d struggled with it tirelessly for a long time, enduring bitter hardship. My illness gradually worsened now, my body grew weak, and when I’d bring up phlegm, there’d emerge thumb-size gobs of bloody sputum that rolled along congealing into balls. Sometimes when I’d spit against the wall, the sputum was so heavy it rolled right down. At this time, everyone concerned about me said: ‘This simply won’t do! You’ve got to rest and nurse yourself back to health.’ So, following their advice, I retired to my hut, taking on a manservant.

  “But gradually my illness reached a critical point, and for a full seven days I was unable to swallow any food and could get nothing down apart from some thin rice gruel. Because of this, I realized I was on the verge of death. ‘Ah, well,’ I said to myself, ‘there’s nothing to be done.’ But really I had no particular regret other than the thought that I was going to die without realizing my long-cherished desire.

  “Just then, I had a strange sensation in my throat, and when I spit against the wall, I noticed the sputum had congealed into a jet-black lump like a soapberry,38 rolling down the surface. After that, the inside of my chest felt curiously refreshed, and that’s when it suddenly struck me: ‘Everythin
g is perfectly managed with the Unborn, and because up till today I couldn’t see this, I’ve just been uselessly knocking myself out!’ Finally I saw the mistake I’d been making!

  “My spirit now felt clear and buoyant, my appetite returned, and I called to my servant: ‘I want to eat some rice gruel. Go and prepare it!’ My servant, meanwhile, thought this a strange request indeed for a man who until then had been on the very brink of death. ‘Thank heavens!’ he exclaimed, delighted, and hurried right off in confusion to prepare the gruel. In his hurry to feed me something, he promptly served the rice gruel, but what he fed me hadn’t all been fully cooked. I didn’t even care, and went right ahead and devoured two or three bowlsful without any ill effects. After that, I gradually got well again and have lived to this day.39 So I realized my cherished desire after all, and explained things to my mother too before she passed away.40

  “Ever since I realized that everything is perfectly managed with the Unborn, there hasn’t been a person in the land who could refute me. If only, when I was desperately floundering, there had been some man of realization who could have just told me right at the start, the way I’m doing now for you, I might have been spared my useless struggles; but there wasn’t any such person to be found, and with no one to tell me, I struggled long and hard, driving myself beyond all endurance. That’s why, even today, I’m still a sick man and can’t come out to meet with you as much as I would like.

  “At all events, once I realized the fact that everything is perfectly managed with the Unborn, I wanted to try to talk this over with someone. And while I was wondering whom to meet and discuss this with, my teacher41 told me: ‘In Mino,42 there’s a teacher named Gudō,43 who’s said to be a good man. He may be able to confirm your experience, so you’d better go try to speak with him.’