The drill bit

It seems to me that in modern Zen its practitioners are never completely sure of what Zen is about .  I think this is due in part to being content with a shallow, non-penetrating hermeneutic. 

I think all of us would agree that in the case of Zen, to read and study Zen is to do hermeneutics, hopefully, to understand ourselves at a much deeper level than before so we can read Zen masters at a much deeper level than before and understand ourselves even more than previously.  As we might have already guessed, this is the hermeneutic circle. 

But maybe the hermeneutic circle is more like a drill bit that while going in circles nevertheless is able to penetrate through the thick and dense mass of confusion that obfuscates Zen and arrive at a clearer understanding of it—even kensho.  At the same time, this also means that we can stop the penetrating hermeneutic.  Our drill bit can just spin on the surface of the material; never pushing through or coming to any sort of resolution.

We can read books about Zen which consist of a very shallow interpretation of Zen, one missing its real content as if Zen is, supposedly, the apotheosis of the mundane life in the example of “washing a bowl” or being aware of “peeling an onion.”  There is really no hermeneutic circle going on and certainly no need of one since what is shallow assumes no depth at all and, therefore, nothing beyond the space/time moment.

Just because we take up the study of Zen there is no guarantee of success as if all those who study Zen attain proper kensho.  Many refuse to push the drill bit through the metal of their ignorance that stands before them; to penetrate through it to see spiritual light come through the empty hole they’ve made when finally the drill bit as gone through.

Comments

[Nina B]

Apotheosis of the mundane life, like washing a bowl... or conducting a tea ceremony. I went to a tea ceremony last week in Kyoto conducted by a young Japanese guy who lived in a house within the Daitoku-ji Zen temple complex. He was not a monk but he was really into Zen. For him, the concentration required for every act in the tea ceremony was not an end in itself, but one of the ways to attain kensho. He said that many people get stuck in the means - the doing of the tea ceremony itself. And it's difficult not to get caught up in the means like sitting in a zendo, chanting, etc. Before he conducts a tea ceremony, he reminds himself that it is only a means to an end.