by Peter Haskel
Statue of Umpo, carved by Bankei. Dated 1669. Property of the Zuiōji, Akao. (Courtesy Daizō shuppan)
Statuette of Śākyamuni, carved by Bankei. Property of the Ryōmonji. (Courtesy Shunjūsha)
Returning from the bath: street scene from Bankei’s period. A seventeenth century wood-block print reproduced in the Kottōshū (Compendium of Curios), an illustrated miscellany of popular manners and customs in the Tokugawa period, composed by the ukiyo-e artist and pulp writer Santō Kyōden (1716–1816).
Calligraphy by Bankei. left: “Transcend the buddhas, transcend the patriarchs.” center. “Ka!” (a shout, the cry of enlightenment). right: “The pine is straight, the brambles bent.” Property of the Ryōmonji. (Courtesy Shunjūsha)
Main gate of the Hōshinji, Marugame. (Courtesy Shunjūsha)
PART II
* * *
Now I’m going to talk to the women
“I see we have a great many women here too at the meeting today. Women tend to anger easily and stir up delusions, even over quite trivial things. I’m going to talk to the women now, but I’m sure that what I say will be familiar to everyone. Well, then, I’ll begin, so pay close attention.
“For the most part, women usually busy themselves with sewing. If any of you ladies are busy sewing a kimono, or whatever, and someone happens along—an old woman, the nursemaid or whoever it might be—you’ll probably start to talk. But when this happens, your sewing doesn’t get in the way and prevent you from hearing what’s said. And the conversation doesn’t get in the way and prevent you from sewing. Without dropping your work, you can easily hear what’s said and even respond appropriately—you can sew and listen too without neglecting anything. Isn’t that because the marvelously illuminating Buddha Mind is unborn, so that you can both sew and listen at the same time? On the other hand, suppose you happen to be sewing, or weaving, and the thread keeps breaking, the needle snaps, or you stitch things wrong. Whichever it is, at that moment you start to seethe with impatience and fly into a rage. Terribly foolish, isn’t it? How are you going to sew or weave properly when you’re getting yourself angry? When you’re in the habit of losing your temper like that, the only result is that your needle snaps all the more, your thread breaks all the more!
“If, when you got angry while you worked, things got done, while when you failed to get angry, your work fell behind, then you’d be well-advised to go ahead and get yourself angry everytime you had to do anything at all. But that’s simply not the way things are! In fact, just the reverse, when you get yourself angry while doing your work, the job doesn’t get done. On the other hand, when you don’t get mad, but keep a cheerful attitude and an even disposition, your work is certain to move along. However much you insist that your work gets done when you’re angry, all you’re doing is changing the One Buddha Mind for a fighting demon while you work. So, it seems to me that getting angry and changing your precious Unborn Buddha Mind for a fighting demon is totally useless. By getting yourselves into a temper over worthless things, you become deluded, switching your Buddha Mind for a fighting demon, a foolish beast, a covetous hungry ghost, transmigrating through every sort of [base realm]. So I want you women to pay close attention!
“There are some of you who employ others, keeping a great many errand boys and maids. Suppose one of these servants should be careless and accidentally break some valuable household object—a tea bowl or some such thing. Even though it’s hardly worth making such a fuss over, the blood rushes to your face and, flying into a rage, you attack them with unreasonable severity. No matter how valuable a tea bowl it is, it’s not as if they’d smashed it deliberately! When something is broken accidentally, there’s nothing more you can do about it. But in the meanness of your selfish desire, you rashly switch the precious Buddha Mind that you were born with for a fighting demon. Isn’t this even more thoughtless than smashing a tea bowl? If you buy a tea bowl, you can always replace it. What’s more, between the tea you drink from a Korean tea bowl and the tea you drink from a tea bowl made in Imari,1 there’s no particular difference so far as flavor goes: either way, you’ve got everything you need for drinking tea. But once you’ve stirred up your anger, there’s no going back on it!
“If you’ve clearly grasped what’s involved in this business about the tea bowl, it goes without saying that with every other matter, too, it’s just the same. So it’s obvious without my going into each particular case. In everything else, too, just keep from moiling things over and over in your mind, getting angry and turning into a fighting demon or a foolish beast, or turning into a hungry ghost because of your selfish desires, and that’s nothing but abiding naturally in the Unborn Buddha Mind. Realize the preciousness of the Buddha Mind, and even if you don’t want to, you’ll find yourself having to abide in the Unborn!
“What I’m telling you about not switching your Buddha Mind for the Three Poisons2 is extremely important, so learn it well, and do your utmost not to switch your Unborn Buddha Mind for anything else.”
The old nurse from Sanuki
“Let me tell you about something in this connection. When I was giving a sermon at Marugame in Sanuki, everyone in town showed up in a huge crowd to listen. The lady of a samurai retainer came with a maidservant and her old nurse, and, after hearing my instruction, returned home. Later, this lady and her nurse came again, and this time the lady told me:
“‘Before meeting your Reverence, my nurse was continually short-tempered and willful, ready to fly into a rage at the slightest thing. But ever since she heard your instruction that day, in spite of all the time that’s passed, she hasn’t lost her temper once. What’s more, she says only sensible things and doesn’t let her mind dwell at all on useless matters. The result is that I myself have now come to feel ashamed before this old nurse. She just seems to have completely grasped your Reverence’s teaching, and as I believe this to be particularly thanks to you, both she and I are truly grateful.’
“Even afterwards, when I happened to hear about her, everyone told me that she’d never again strayed into delusion. The Buddha Mind I’m speaking about is unborn and marvelously illuminating, so the person for whom everything is perfectly managed with the Unborn and for whom everything functions through the Unborn will open the eye that sees into men and conclusively realize that everyone is a living tathagata here today. Then, like the old nurse from Sanuki, he’ll keep from being deluded any more and realize the preciousness of the Buddha Mind. It’s because all of you fail to realize the preciousness of the Buddha Mind that you stir up delusions about everything, even the most trivial matters, and remain unenlightened beings. Just keep from creating delusions, and you’ll abide in the function of the marvelously illuminating Buddha Mind.”
Nothing to do with rules
“That’s why, in my place, I’m always telling everyone, ‘Abide in the Unborn Buddha Mind and nothing else!’ Other than that, I’m not setting up any special rules3 and making them practice. All the same, since everyone got together and decided to practice for [a period of] twelve sticks of incense4 every day, I told them, ‘Go ahead, do whatever you like’; so I’m letting them practice every day for [a period of] twelve sticks of incense. But the Unborn Buddha Mind isn’t a matter of sticks of incense! When you abide in the Buddha Mind and don’t become deluded, then, without looking for enlightenment outside, you’ll just sit in the Buddha Mind, just stand in the Buddha Mind, just sleep in the Buddha Mind, just get up in the Buddha Mind—just abiding in the Buddha Mind, so that in all your ordinary activities you function as a living buddha. There’s really nothing to it.
“As for zazen, since za [’sitting’] is the Buddha Mind’s sitting at ease, while zen [’meditation’] is another name for Buddha Mind, the Buddha Mind’s sitting at ease is what’s meant by zazen. So when you’re abiding in the Unborn, all the time is zazen; zazen isn’t just the time when you’re practicing formal meditation. Even when you’re sitting in meditation, if there’s something you’ve got to do, it’s qui
te all right to get up and leave. So, in my group, everyone is free to do as he likes. Just always abide at ease in the Buddha Mind. You can’t simply remain sitting from morning till night, so do walking meditation5 for one period; and you can’t just keep on your feet, either, so sit down and meditate for one period. You can’t very well do nothing but sleep, so you get up; and you can’t just keep on talking, so I let you practice meditation. But this has nothing to do with rules!”
Devices
“Generally speaking, Zen teachers nowadays instruct people by setting up rules or using devices. Believing that without devices they can’t manage, behaving as if without them it’s impossible to instruct anyone, they’re unable to teach by simply pointing things out directly. To teach people [this way], unable to manage without devices, is ‘devices Zen.’
“Others tell students pursuing this teaching that it’s no good unless they rouse a great ball of doubt6 and succeed in breaking through it. ‘No matter what,’ they tell them, ‘you’ve got to rouse a ball of doubt!’ They don’t teach, ‘Abide in the Unborn Buddha Mind!’ [but instead] cause people without any ball of doubt to saddle themselves with one, making them exchange the Buddha Mind for a ball of doubt. A mistaken business, isn’t it!”
Plain speaking
“In China too you have this sort of thing. As you can see in the records that have been brought to Japan, the true teaching of the Unborn long ago ceased to exist there, so that nowadays, even in China, men of the Unborn are not to be found, and that’s why no records that speak of the Unborn Buddha Mind have come to Japan.
“When I was young and trying to uncover the Buddha Mind, I even made a serious effort at taking part in mondō7 [using Chinese expressions]. But later on, having come to a real understanding of things, I gave it up. Japanese are better off asking about things in a manner that’s suitable to Japanese, using their ordinary language. Japanese are poor at Chinese, so in dialogues using Chinese [terms], they can’t question [teachers] about things as thoroughly as they might wish. When you put your questions in ordinary Japanese, there’s no matter you can’t ask about. So, instead of taking a roundabout way and knocking yourselves out trying to pose your questions in difficult Chinese words,8 you’re better off freely putting them in easy Japanese, without exhausting yourselves. If there’s some situation in which the Dharma won’t be completely realized unless you ask your questions using Chinese words, then it’s all right to use them. But since, after all, you can manage freely by asking your questions in ordinary Japanese, to ask them using difficult Chinese words is a clumsy way to go about things. So, all of you, grasp this, and whatever matter you take up, just deal with it smoothly by asking your questions without constraint, availing yourselves of the freedom of ordinary language. So long as you can deal with things smoothly, there’s nothing so handy as your own familiar, ordinary speech.
“The reason Japanese monks are teaching laymen inept at Chinese using Chinese words that are hard for them to understand is that they themselves haven’t settled the matter of the Unborn Buddha Mind, and evade people’s questions by using Chinese words that are hard for ordinary folk to grasp. On top of which, these [difficult expressions] are nothing but the dregs and slobber of the Chinese patriarchs!
“When I was young, I determined that somehow I’d realize the marvelously illuminating Buddha Mind, and, even then, as I traveled about here and there, knocking at the doors of various teachers, I questioned them all in ordinary language and was able to manage perfectly, making myself easily understood after all. That’s how things were for me. So even though at the beginning I tried out this sort of thing, afterwards I gave it up as useless. I’m not particularly learned or erudite, so it’s a lucky thing I didn’t continue engaging in mondō using Chinese!”
Illness and the Buddha Mind
“With my only thought to find the Buddha Mind, I struggled fruitlessly, floundering desperately and dashing all over. But what happened was that I got myself ill and was laid up in bed for a long time, so that I’ve come to know a lot about sickness too. Being born into this world and having a body, we must expect to meet with illness. But when you conclusively realize the Unborn Buddha Mind, you don’t distress yourself over the sufferings of illness: you clearly distinguish illness as illness, suffering as suffering. This is because the Buddha Mind, being originally unborn, has nothing to do with joy or suffering, the reason being that that which is unborn transcends thought. It’s when thoughts arise that you experience suffering and joy. The Buddha Mind doesn’t attach to illness, it remains in the Unborn just as it is, so it doesn’t create suffering. If thoughts did arise from the place of the Unborn, there would be no way you could help creating suffering, attaching to your illness and changing the Buddha Mind. [But that’s hardly the case.] Even the successive sufferings of beings in hell, so far as the suffering itself is concerned, aren’t any different.
“Caught up in the suffering of attaching to your illness, you start thinking one thing and another: ‘I ought to be well by now. Maybe the medicine’s not right; perhaps the doctor’s no good . . .’ and so on. Clinging to the [hope of] recovery, you switch the Buddha Mind for anguished thoughts so that the illness besetting your mind becomes worse than the original sickness. It’s as if you’re chasing after something that’s running away. Even as you gradually do recover your [physical] health, the mental sickness of chasing after [it] is gaining the upper hand. That’s what’s meant by attaching to things and making yourself suffer.
“All the same, if there’s anyone who tells you he can undergo not only illness but every kind of suffering without feeling any pain, that fellow is a liar who still hasn’t realized the marvelously illuminating dynamic function of the Buddha Mind. If there’s anyone who tells you he feels absolutely no pain at all, I doubt he knows the difference between feeling pain and not feeling it. There’s simply no such thing as not feeling pain. Since the Buddha Mind is endowed with a marvelously illuminating dynamic function, not only illness but everything there is can be clearly recognized and distinguished. That’s why, when you’re faced with the sufferings of illness, if you simply don’t get involved with them or attach to them, there’s nothing you won’t be able to endure. So just go with the illness, and, if you’re in pain, go ahead and groan! But, whether you’re sick or you’re not, always abide in the Unborn Buddha Mind.
“However, you ought to realize that when, in response to the sufferings of illness, you become involved with thoughts, in addition to your illness, you suffer from changing the Buddha Mind for thoughts. That which is originally without thought is the Unborn Buddha Mind. Failing to realize the unborn [nature] of the Buddha Mind, you suffer and exchange it for thoughts. Then, no matter how much you claim you’re not feeling pain, it’s just talking about your idea of being without pain, it’s merely a notion based on thought. So you aren’t free from suffering after all. The fact that such thoughts even arise shows that, having failed to realize conclusively the Buddha Mind that transcends birth and death, you’re suffering from birth and death.”
Being free in birth and death
“When it comes to the idea of being free in birth and death, people are apt to misunderstand. There are some who, beforehand, announce they’re going to die in a certain number of days, while others go so far as to express their intention to die, say, next year, in such-and-such a month and on such-and-such a day. When the time arrives, some of them, even though they’re not ill, die just as they said, while others put it off for another day, or a month, and then pass away. There are lots of people who consider this being free in birth and death. Not that I say this isn’t so. So far as freedom goes, they’re terribly free! But things of this sort are only a result of the strength of people’s ascetic practices, and often they haven’t opened the Eye of the Way.9 Even among ordinary people, you frequently find this. While they may know [the time of their] death, they haven’t yet opened the Eye of the Way, and that’s why I don’t accept this kind of thing. The man of the
Unborn transcends birth and death.
“Now, I’m sure you’re all wondering just what it means to transcend birth and death. That which is unborn is imperishable; and since what doesn’t perish doesn’t die, it transcends birth and death. So, what I call a man who’s free in birth and death is one who dies unconcerned with birth and death. What’s more, the matter of birth and death is something that’s with us all day long—it doesn’t mean only once in a lifetime when we confront the moment of death itself. A man who’s free in birth and death is one who always remains unconcerned with birth and death, knowing that so long as we’re allowed to live, we live; and when the time comes to die—even if death comes right now—we just die, [realizing] that when we die isn’t of great importance. Such a person is also one who has conclusively realized the marvelously illuminating Unborn Buddha Mind. Talking and thinking about something like what hour of what day you’re going to die is really narrow-minded, don’t you think?
“Then there’s the idea that ‘birth and death are nirvana.’10 This again is something bound up with birth and death. [Everyone knows] the realm of birth and death is no different from the realm of nirvana, doesn’t he? The reason [some people have to go and spell it out like this] is that they don’t realize the Buddha mind everyone has from his parents innately is here, today, perfectly managing all things with the Unborn. Wrapped up in words and letters, they search about, looking for some birth and death and nirvana outside, exchanging their Unborn Buddha Mind for notions of birth and death and nirvana, so that all day long they’re functioning in the realm of birth and death and haven’t even a moment’s peace. Pathetic, when you think of it!