Kludge Zen

By the term kludge Zen I mean a cobbled together interpretation and practice of Zen that hardly matches the works of the old Zen masters going as far back as Zen master Tsung-mi—maybe further.  Foremost, kludge Zennists, including a kludge Zen master, have never realized the nature of Mind (you'll notice than in their works they hardly ever mention Mind and its importance).  

For most serious kludge Zennists, Zen is a career opportunity—a profession.  It's not about seeing Mind.  Such a Zennist probably believes their ordinary everyday awareness, itself, is the nature of Mind which also means their so-called practice of Zen consists of sitting in zazen being aware of just sitting and the physical discomforts which often attend prolonged sitting such as intestinal gas. 

If the reader by now has the impression that this is a rant they are right!  But it comes by a strange and honest way.  After I spend time reading traditional Zen literature, probably composed during the Sung Dynasty; then chance to read something that falls into the ballpark of modern Zen, well, I go into a WTF state of mind.  This causes me to wonder why most modern Zen practitioners don't grasp the fact that traditionally the Ch'an or Zen school is based upon "a transmission from Mind to Mind" this Mind being the Buddha's Mind, not the mind of an ordinary being (prithagjana). This transmission is absolutely esoteric.  This transmission is aptly described by Ch'eng-kuan (737–820) who was a representative of the Hua-yen school (S., Avatamsaka school).

"The mind-to-mind transmission of Bodhidharma corresponds precisely to this teaching.  If one does not point to this one word [the mind] and there with directly explain that mind is Buddha, then how else would [that mind] be transmitted?  Therefore, they speak (yen) while relying on the ineffable, and directly verbalize (ch'üan) that principle which is separate from verbalization.  This teaching is also clear.  Therefore, the Southern and Northern schools of Ch'an are indistinguishable from the sudden teaching" (Lopez, Buddhist Hermeneutics, p. 234).

It needs underscoring that the transmission of Mind transcends language altogether yet speech and gestures can help to transmit it to one who is open to such an esoteric transmission.  This is to say, in other words, that Mind cannot be transmitted to just anyone.  The necessary work to get to the level in which the gnosis of Mind is likely is not easy.  It is not an overstatement to say that awakening to Mind requires a thorough knowledge of the ordinary mind, perceptual awareness, etc., which has to be transcended.  

As a kludge practice, the modern exercise of sitting in meditation, i.e., zazen, is hardly a worthwhile road to laying the necessary foundation for the Mind transmission.  Zen master Sawaki Roshi is clearly wrong who taught that all we have to do is just sit.  Such a ridiculous path is regrettably pursued by modern day Zennists, especially those in the West who are addicted to outward appearances.  But the Buddha Mind is neither outward nor an appearance.  It is not revealed by sitting or lying down.  True zazen is not dependent on a posture.  It is not hatha yoga, in other words. When Zen master Shido Munan said, "Not doing zazen is no other than zazen itself" he was speaking on behalf of the Buddha Mind which is not bound to a particular posture.  

When we look at the Chinese characters for za and zen which are 坐 and 禅, the first character represents two people sitting on the earth facing each other.  The second refers to dhyâna or contemplation .  Roughly translated, zazen can mean facing our Buddha Mind (i.e., the true person), as we might face another, thus to contemplate it directly.  From this, as we might expect, a kludge Zen interpretation of zazen is just sit still for a certain period of time which, incidentally, is okay for beginners—but let’s face it, this practice only goes so far.  Such zazen misses the subtlety contained in the Chinese characters.  Likewise a kluge interpretation of Mind is “awareness” despite the fact that Mind has been given a lot of ink in both Zen literature and Tibetan Vajrayana literature that in no way remotely suggests awareness.  Mind is a substance in contrast to what we see which are its vibrational forms.  Now how subtle is that?  And that is still baby stuff.  One still has to stick thy toe into this blessed substance and take a profound dip!

Comments

[Bob Morris]

I also read Phillip Kapleau's "Three Pillars of Zen" back in the day and just finished rereading it. I love that book.

[minx]

When Mao died the Chinese government instituted free market economic reforms starting in the late 1970s. What you essentially see of China today was decided during the late 70ies. Now that is what I call long term planning. In the same way the leadership of that time decided to bring forth the cultural heritage of China and thus many daoist and buddhist temples were restored to great splendor and open to tourists today. If you try to watch the recent movie karate kid you can see a glimpse of such temples (in this case a buddhist shaolin mountain temple) outside a greater chinese city. Perhaps you could plan a future travel to china. It is very cheap to live there, the ppl are very friendly and I am sure you would have something to remember for life.

[Frank]

Thanks for the reply, minx. What I like about 3 PILLARS are the personal stories of zen students having breakthroughs; also, the talk on MU in that tome is excellent. Travel to China? Haven't the Chi-coms cracked down on Buddhists there, or do I have a simplistic view of the situation in China? Anyway, I take care of homeless cats around here and travel is out of the question. I did read a book of Huang Po's teachings--can't recall the title. offhand.

[minx]

The three pillars of Zen by Philip Kapleu and The One Mind by Huang Po was the first zen books I read in my late teens. I have fond memories of both of them although I choose Huang Po before Kapleu at any given time. Comparing these two zen teachers is like comparing an apple with an apple tree. You might enjoy the apple but it is the tree that will produce more apples.

Now Alan watts is not an author I recommend for the serious students of the Buddha Mind. If you like a mindset heavily imbued in hippie culture with a new age blend of course Alan could be a reasonable choice, but if you are serious about smashing the chains to any current and future suffering in samsara I certainly recommend a more indepth study of old chinese chan teachers and even a travel to china.

Visit some temples and monasteries as a tourist or stay and get a tiny taste of what the students of the ancient Tang and Sung dynasties did to achieve not only first enlightenment but also cultivated an indepth intuitive understanding and use of the greatest treasure in the universe.

[Frank]

I was just reading THE THREE PILLARS OF ZEN. I'm nearly finished reading it, and it seems that this book is filled with what you refer to as authentic practice. Is this right? It sure inspired me to triple my meditation time and to focus on MU rather than breathing. The masters in this book gave those who wanted to experience enlightenment koans to work on. On the other hand, reading Alan Watts, I get the impression that he's a brilliant philosopher, but do you think he experienced this Buddha mind? What do you think, Minx and the author of this site?