The Zennist

What it takes to attain Zen's great mystery

Among other things, a personality suited for Zen is one that is never easily disappointed or depressed; that in the face of countless ups and downs it still manages to have a great deal of respect and gratitude toward the teachings of the Buddha and the Zen masters.  It is also a heaven soaring personality whose faith in the Buddha's teachings never diminishes.

On your journey to intuit your true nature, you will have lots of fake enlightenments—too many to count.  It’s somewhat like getting excited at finding gold but only to discover later that you’ve only found fool’s gold (iron pyrite).  If you’ve seen only fool’s gold and not real gold it will be difficult for you to let go of your belief even though you worked many months or maybe years to find this fool’s gold.  But you have to let go of it.  You are far from finding El Dorado.  In some of the Buddha’s discourses he teaches that there are ten false enlightenments for each one of the five constituents (skandha) making a total of fifty false enlightenments!

Most important, a personality suited for Zen must have a strong inclination towards intuition where the new is discovered or where a great breakthrough is made which might at first seemed impossible.  Zen’s method is not through the analysis of the various parts or their possible connection with each other as if trying to construct an accurate picture of Zen’s mystery.  In fact, the parts have very little to do with the kind of intuition that Zen demands. 

What Zen hides—its great mystery—you must intuit.  There is no other way to comprehend Zen.  Intuition, is like looking at an out of focus picture such that you want to know what it is.  Sometimes you can almost make out what the picture is, but still you are unable to recognize it.  At other times, it almost seems that the more you look at this out of focus picture it becomes even more blurry!  After many years of looking at this out of focus picture, one day, without thinking about it, you see what the picture is. You know now what all the strange sections are part of, whereas before you didn't.  It’s so easy to see what the picture is even though others can't.  With directly intuiting your true nature, the teachings of Buddhism and Zen make perfect sense whereas before they didn't.

The teachings of the 1926 Maytag Buddha in appliance world

In appliance world there were many kinds of different machines from vacuum cleaners, toasters, hair dryers to washing machines. 

One day some young washing machines happened to come upon an old Buddhist washing machine. He was a 1926 Maytag.  He could still do the job of any young washing machine.  But there was something about this old washing machine that despite its age seemed timeless and had a certain flair that seemed unusual and unaffected by the years.

The young washing machines, attached to their youth had, as we might expect, a certain arrogance about them as is natural with all youth; who hadn’t really accomplished anything of worth and knew even less about themselves.

Still, they managed to be polite to the old Maytag, after all he was a venerated Maytag who many appliances said was fully awakened and knew the very essence of an appliance—what made them run.  After an exchange of polite words and the customary greetings expected between washing machines one of the young washing machines asked the old Maytag if it was true that he knew of the universal essence of all appliances.  The old Maytag quietly nodded and said that he did.

“But what could this universal essence be?” inquired the young washing machine somewhat seriously.  “We all know the parts we were made from.  We have an outer frame which contains all the parts such as a water pump, transmission and motor, the agitator, tub and various kinds of controls.  This is all we are sir.”

The old Maytag looked at all the young machines. Then in a jovial voice he said, “Relax friends and listen to my words.  Although you are much younger than I, your parts very new and made with plastics that are quite light as compared with what this old machine is made from, in the example of the agitator, there is something ageless within us that suffers no change whatsoever.  Of course you can’t see it.  You only know the parts of the washing machine such as the spin pulley and the water supply hoses.  But as for what makes this odd contraption work and give the motor its power, you do not know.  But this is what I know.”

The young washing machines didn’t know whether to laugh or to take this old Maytag seriously. They were stuck in between you could say.  Then the old Maytag sensing their unease said something strange they never heard before.  “Have you ever heard of electricity?”

All of the machines remained quiet except one who said that he had not heard of electricity before.

“Listen carefully my young friends,” said the old Maytag.  “We are all fundamentally electrical machines.  This electricity is the power that runs our motor and makes the agitator swish back and forth.  It is ageless, you could say, and undying too.  It never grows old in other words.  It is all around us.  Even our sun is electrical.  Some call it energy some call it a force, but these are just names.  Electricity is fundamentally one thousand, billion, billion, billion, billion times more powerful than gravity.”

The young washing machines were dumbstruck.  What could they say? They knew nothing about this mysterious power that made them work and made them useful.  With their new knowledge, they bowed in respect to the old Maytag as asked if they could become his disciples.  He nodded indicating that they could.

Stuck in the house of mirrors: a world gone dark

I found myself this morning humming a Beatles’ song, “Eleanor Rigby” trying to recall the lyrics. For me is like stepping into a time machine.  This period in my life was before I set off on my enlightenment quest to eventually sit in meditation in an abounded copper mine searching for pure Mind, which at the time I believed was possible to attain.

This is only a guess on my part based on what I have seen on social media and elsewhere, but this age has gone dark.  It seems to have lost or sold its soul having exchanged it for a maze-like house of mirrors in which images of the false self dominate but not a single image in this house is who any of us really is.

These images are, in fact, obstacles which make up the house of mirrors not unlike the one found in the 1928 Charlie Chaplin movie, The Circus, when Chaplin is chased into the ‘Mirror Maze’ by a thief then a policeman.

Looking at our self in a mirror is the first loss of one’s path to the authentic self which, by the way, is imageless.  Next, add to this the house of mirrors where now our image can be stored electronically—a fixed mirror at a particular time.  I am the young teenager. I am now the aspiring college student. Now I am married.  Here is our first child.  So many images and not one is our true self.  But who is the real self?

This reminds me somewhat of Mumon’s comment to the koan, Zuigan Calls His Own Master.

Old Zuigan sells out and buys himself. He is opening a puppet show. He uses one mask to call "Master" and another that answers the master. Another mask says "Sober up" and another, "Do not be cheated by others." If anyone clings to any of his masks, he is mistaken, yet if he imitates Zuigan, he will make himself fox-like.

Mumon could also be saying, “If anyone clings to any of these images, he is mistaken.”  There is, of course, a right answer to this koan.  It is eternal and invariant and most certainly unconditioned.  But it never appears the way an image does in the example of this corporeal body from birth to old-age and death.  Fa-Yung  Niutou Farong (594-657) said: 

“The Ultimate Essence of things is what is most important. But in the realm of illusion it becomes different from what it is. The nature of Reality is invisible and cannot be understood by our conscious mind.”

In what direction is Zen is going?

I suspect that most Zennists have read D.T. Suzuki and Alan Watts, Cleary and a few other authors that are popular among the Zen community.  But we need to keep in mind that their books are about people who awakened to what the Buddha realized, people who say things like, “True Reality is the substance of thoughts.”Or, “No-thought is nothing other than true Mind.” 

Right now, almost everyone who studies Zen can only imagine that they can understand these words.  And it is likely most will never realize true reality or true Mind like the Zen masters in old China.  Reading about Zen is not enough because words at some point block the path.

If you are lucky enough to find a great teacher, do not let this person out of your sight.  They know what Zen is really about.  But now let’s be honest.  For the huge majority who take up Zen, their chances of meeting a real teacher, the kind they’ve read about, who are enlightened, is very slim to non-existent.  It’s safe to say that the teachers most people will encounter today do not know what Zen is really pointing to which is beyond words.  So what should the individual do?  Best advice, a person had better learn to rely on their own abilities—trust in yourself and your innate Buddha-nature. 

The first lesson in Zen is to know in what direction Zen is going and that Zen is difficult.  It’s not a cakewalk.  What makes Zen so difficult is that it rests upon a mystical intuition (that’s the direction).  Those who have had this mystical intuition are the Buddhas.  Those who haven’t are ordinary people of the world who could not care less about such an intuition because they are so enthralled with the world.  And because they are so enthralled with the world.  If they are curious about Zen, they want a Zen that speaks to them in which mystical intuition is ignored.

Zen and the left and right hemispheres of the brain

The way I see it, those who use the right hemisphere of the brain more than the left in which the left is secondary, are much more likely to understand Zen because this hemisphere favors intuition and insight.

The left hemisphere is more concerned and focused on identification by parts, or bits and pieces of data which have not yet been contextualized remaining, in this regard, abstract, that is,  insufficiently factual.  The right hemisphere, on the other hand, is looking for the underlying unity, what connects and holds the parts together in their unity.  As we might expect, the right hemisphere understands both context and the metaphor. 

It also appears that the left hemisphere is ultimately dependent on the right.  But while the left depends on the right hemisphere the left can also block our access to the right hemisphere where we might encounter another reality closed off to the left hemisphere.  I think a good example would be kenshō in which we suddenly intuit the underlying essence of the universe and our true nature.

I think related, the chattering that goes on in our head when we sit in meditation is from the left hemisphere (its blocking maneuver?).  I find it interesting that Zen always stresses no-thought 無心 in which the chattering left side is stopped which culminates in kenshō. 

While both Asian and Western culture use both right and left hemisphere, the history of ancient Chinese Buddhism appears to rely much more on the right hemisphere where intuition is used although it is true that Chinese culture during this period and before had achieved great advances in engineering and the sciences which is the principle concern of the left hemisphere which favors the abstract, utility and the mechanical. 

It seems that ancient China found a harmony between the two sides.  One might even argue that this harmony is what gives a civilization its longevity in which the right hemisphere leads the way—seeing the big picture.  The fall of a civilization then occurs when the left hemisphere dominates which then proceeds to cut off access to the right.  

 

Zen's great escape from the cage of thought, language and concepts

The goal of Zen is the actual realization of ultimate reality.  This realization called kenshō is really about our escape from the invisible cage of thought which includes language and concepts. Ultimate reality viewed from within this cage is not ultimate reality anymore than the finger pointing to the moon is the moon, itself. Kenshō is only possible if we can break out of this cage, staging a prison break so to speak.  Those who have escaped from this cage are the only ones who know what the term "ultimate reality" is pointing to.  These are the Buddhas.

For Zen Buddhism, the koan is about a prison break from the invisible cage of thought, including language and the concepts words evoke.  In Zen, the signifier includes thought, language and concepts whereas the signified is the hua-tou 話頭, what is actually prior to thought, language and concepts being the real substance of the universe. 

In the West things are a bit different.  The signifier refers to a symbol, sound, or image whereas the signified is a concept which is distinguished from the sign. This difference is significant.  It is all still within the cage earlier mentioned.  That it is still within the cage is enough to make Zen almost impossible to understand from a Western perspective.

Looking at this matter further, we can see the difference between Zen and the West in Joshu’s ‘Mu’ 無.  It begins when a monk asks Joshu, “Has a dog Buddha-nature or not?" Joshu answers, “Mu!”  Mu means no.  Both the question and Joshu’s response belong to the invisible cage.  We could say that Mu is one of the bars.  But as for the real Buddha-nature, it is beyond the cage.  It is the hua-tou which is also true reality.  It is before the arising of a single thought, word or concept.

This is where the Zen adept has to go.  The adept is not interested in a conceptual interpretation of this koan through language.  In fact, that is the problem.  The koan has no answer other than personally to see the hou-tou. 

Put another way, in order to know our Buddha-nature we have to break out of this invisible cage which is represented by Mu; which acts both like a barrier and a checkpoint 關 through which we cannot pass owing to the fact that we are attached to words and the concepts they evoke. 

And would it be true to say that Zen is always showing us the invisible bars of this cage? Yes! But it is also saying that we have to escape from this invisible cage.  We have to effect a prison break! 

 

Zen is a barrier—only pure Mind can pass

At sometime in our brief life, in our study of Zen, we have to pass through the world of the conditioned to apprehend the transcendent (the unconditioned).  Metaphorically, in Zen it is like a gate or a checkpoint that acts as a barrier.  It will not permit us to go through to the other side which is unconditioned called the “no-gate”.

In Zen we come to face this gate with a special word of phrase like “Mu” or “One has it, the other hasn’t.”  It could even be Jōshū’s, “Go wash your bowl.”  We could repeat Mu for a lifetime and never would we be able to pass through the barrier gate to the no-gate.  Likewise with the various mysterious other phrases and gestures.

In working with these mysterious words and phrases that come from the Zen masters it’s like we are butting our heads against an invisible barrier.  No matter how hard we try—no success.  It’s also like we are approaching the edge of a dark and terrifying abyss, fearing to fall into it.  At this point, no one can help us.  We have become our own obstacle. 

The next phase is to further delude ourselves and imagine that we’ve solved a koan or at least can understand the sense of it.  Ironically, this is where most beginners are stuck making no advance whatsoever.  No matter how many koan books they've read even with good translations they are no closer to the no-gate.

We cannot gain access to the no-gate by words and concepts.  This means our ordinary understanding cannot enter.  This includes our intellect, too.  Not even a single thought can enter or silence and stillness.  If this is disheartening it is meant to be.  In Zen we are supposed to give up our presuppositions not cling to them.  You can have nowhere to run and no place to hide.  In truth, there is only one koan: See pure mind.

Getting to the heart of the Heart Sutra

I have used Conze’s translation. Where I have changed it, it has been italicized.

Avalokita, The Holy Lord and Bodhisattva, was moving in the deep course of the Wisdom which has gone beyond. He looked down from on high, He beheld but five skandhas, and he saw that they were empty of inherent existence.

Here, O Sariputra, form is emptiness and the very emptiness is form; emptiness does not differ from form, form does not differ from emptiness; whatever is form, that is emptiness, whatever is emptiness, that is form, the same is true of feelings, perceptions, impulses and consciousness.

Now I will explain this.  The five skandhas are only appearances.  They can be likened to images in a mirror.  We see them clearly and vividly in the mirror.  Still, we understand that they are not real. Though they appear, still they are inherently empty.  This is the nature of all conditioned reality which is nothing in itself.  This reality certainly appears, but all these appearances are never other than inherently empty. 

In addition, conditioned things have no true inherent nature or svabhāva because this nature is always unconditioned.  Being unconditioned, it never appears just like my life force never appears although it can wiggle my fingers and use my body’s vocal cords.

In this respect, our world is very much like a dream that we may have had last night.  But in our dream, no matter how beautiful or frightening it was, it lacked true inherent existence.

Our five skandhas are only an illusion, you could say, including the world that appears through them.  And as with any such illusion there is nothing really there.  Yes, there is a true reality behind all this just like the basis of the mirror’s reflections is the reflective coating on the back of the mirror.  But we cannot see it.  We see only vivid appearances on the mirror’s surface.

Here is another interesting passage from the Mahāratnakūṭa Sūtra on the five aggregates/skandhas.

“Manjusri said, "The five aggregates constitute what we call the mundane world.  Of these, the aggregate of form has the nature of accumulated foam, the aggregate of feeling has the nature of a bubble, the aggregate of conceptions has the nature of a mirage, the aggregate of impulse has the nature of a hollow plantain,  and the aggregate of consciousness has the nature of an illusion. . . .If he is so liberated, he is not attached to mundane things.  If he is not attached to mundane things, he transcends the mundane world”.

These aggregates or skandhas are not more than a very vivid illusory phenomena devoid of an inherent nature.  By transcending the mundane world of appearance one sees and resides in their true inherent nature which they have actually always have been.  The spellbinding power of the the illusion has been overcome.

Realize what Zen masters realized rather than just sit

To understand the heart of Zen, that is, where Zen masters are really coming from, which also includes being able to understand early Zen literature, a person must realize what these masters personally realized.  This is called satori or the same, kenshō 見性. 

Without kenshō, Zen becomes something akin to an intellectual wild goose chase since kenshō doesn’t exist within any language.  If we are to see 見 our true nature 性 not a single word of any language can take us there. On the other hand, if I say, “Bring me my cup of tea,” we know what a “cup” is and where to find this cup of tea.  We learned about cups when we were children.  But we did not learn to see our true nature. 

If we have awakened to our true nature; if we now set about to describe this 性 to others we could use the word “One Mind” or “absolute.”  There are many such words in Zen we can use.  Nevertheless, what we are trying to describe still remains inexpressible, indefinable and ineffable.  It is above thought-constructions and can only be directly realized through a kind of mystical experience.

This is when the student of Zen soon meets a fork in the road for not all roads in Zen lead to kenshō.  He or she must decide on either pursuing kenshō until they see their true nature which is ineffable or follow the road of fake Zen which believes that sitting in meditation for hours upon hours and days upon days will eventually purify them to the level of a Zen master like Huangbo 黄檗.

If the student of Zen elects to go down the road of kenshō, the means employed for coming to this mystical experience depends largely upon the student’s intuitive abilities—not their intellect.  Clever people will always fail at Zen because they believe their intellectual prowess will help them to win the prize.  It won’t.  Intuition and the intellect are not the same.  Zen sees them differently.  One is  immediate apprehension of one’s true nature.  The other is to understand Zen by way of concepts or physical practices such as seated meditation. 

Also it needs pointing out that sitting meditation, which is a physical exercise, doesn’t make one more intuitive.  Intuition in Zen also demands faith in enlightenment and that kenshō is a real, attainable experience.  It's the heart of Zen.

You cannot conceive the unconditioned through what it is not

Two very important and major terms in Buddhism are the conditioned (saṃskṛta) and the unconditioned (asaṃskṛta) or, the same, the composed and the uncomposed.  For us, they stand in a kind of odd relationship. 

Since nirvana is unconditioned, our attempt to bring it into our conditioned world (samsara), together with our conditioned thoughts and concepts, as if to lay hold of it and examine it, ain’t working for us.  It’s not working because we are always attempting to conceive of the unconditioned through the conditioned then wonder why it all seems so asymmetrical—nothing fits or corresponds.  We repeat this pattern many, many times.  Yes, this is a most difficult habit to break.  But it must be broken.

To have any success, we have to be, personally, put into a position where the unconditioned speaks solely for itself.  It would be a moment when we have suddenly stopped our terrible habit of always trying to conceive the unconditioned by way of the conditioned.  This is as much as saying, you cannot conceive the unconditioned through what it is not. 

This reminds me of the Buddhist story about the turtle and the fish used illustrate nirvana. 

There was once a turtle who lived in a lake with a group of fish. One day the turtle went for a walk on dry land. He was away from the lake for a few weeks. When he returned he met some of the fish.

The fish greeted him, "Mister Turtle, hello! How are you? We have not seen you for a few weeks. Where have you been?”

Mr. Turtle said, "I was up on the land, I have been spending some time on dry land."

The fish were a little puzzled and said, "Up on dry land? What are you talking about Mr. Turtle? What is this dry land? Is it wet?"

Mr. Turtle said, "No, it is not.”

The fish continued, ”Is it cool and refreshing?"

"No, it is not,” said Mr. Turtle.

"Does it have waves and ripples?"

"No, it does not have waves and ripples,” said Mr. Turtle.

"Can you swim in it? asked the fish.”

"No you can’t,” replied Mr. Turtle.

Frustrated with Mr. Turtle's answers, the fish then said, "It is not wet, it is not cool, there are no waves, you can’t swim in it. So this dry land of yours must be completely non-existent, just an imaginary thing, nothing real at all."

Mr. Turtle said, “Well for you, that might be.” He left the fish and went for another walk on dry land.

This is somewhat like asking what concepts are required in order to have the proper concept of the unconditioned.  Do you see how absurd this demand is? Here “concept” is the world of the fish while the unconditioned is like the dry land. The simple fact is that we cannot really know the absolute through what the absolute is not.  To know the unconditioned is to give up the conditioned.