Posts Tagged ‘Non-duality’

July 1965

Wednesday, September 8th, 2010

MODEL SUBJECT NO. 86

FROM THE HEKIGAN ROKU

“UMMON’S ‘STORE-ROOM AND TEMPLE GATE‘”

Translation and Commentary by Master Shunryū Suzuki

Roku:

Ummon Bun’en (?-949) was a disciple of Seppō and founder of the Ummon School, one of five schools of Chinese Zen Buddhism (Rinzai, Igyō, Ummon, Hōgen, and Sōtō).

During the political confusion at the end of the Tang Dynasty all the major schools of Chinese Buddhism (Tendai, Hosso, Ritsu, and Shingon) were in decline, except Zen, which was strengthened by the persecutions and the difficulty in traveling to escape persecution and to visit various Zen masters.  The hard practice of Seppō and Ummon during that time has been and still is a good example for all Zen students.

Introductory Word:

Introducing, Engo said:  To control the world without omitting a single feather, to stop all the streams of passion without losing a single drop, this is the great teacher’s activity.  If you open your mouth (in a dualistic sense) in his presence, you will fall in error.  Hesitate and you will be lost.  Who has eyes to penetrate barriers of this kind?  Ponder the following.

(more…)

April 1965

Wednesday, September 8th, 2010

SRC0076

MODEL SUBJECT NO. 84

FROM THE BLUE CLIFF RECORDS

YUIMA’S “THE LAW GATE TO THE ONE AND ONLY”

The Hekigan Roku, translated into English by R.D.M. Shaw under the title of the Blue Cliff Records,[1] is a famous collection of 100 kōan stories compiled by Setchō Juken (A.D. 980–1052), who added an “Appreciatory Word” to each one.  A later Zen Master, Engo Kokugon (A.D. 1063–1135) added his “Introductory Word” as a kind of Preface to each Main Subject.  The following is a translation and commentary of Main Subject No. 84 by Reverend Suzuki.

YUIMA’S “THE DOCTRINE OF ATTAINING NON-DUALITY”

This Model Subject is about the Yuima-gyō (the Vimalakīrti-nirdesha Sūtra). This sūtra is as famous as the Shoman-gyō (the Srimala-simhanada Sūtra). Both sūtras relate stories reputed to have taken place during the time of Shākyamuni Buddha, and both have great Mahāyānistic spirit. The hero of the Yuima-gyō, Yuima, was a koji (a householder or lay Buddhist), while the heroine of the Shoman-gyō was a daughter of King Hashinoku (Prasenajit) and empress of a king in a neighboring country. She became an adherent of Buddhism and received juki (recognition as one who will achieve Buddhahood), and gave her people a sermon about Mahāyāna Buddhism in the presence of Buddha.

(more…)

February 1965

Wednesday, September 8th, 2010

MODEL SUBJECT NO. 82

FROM THE BLUE CLIFF RECORDS

DAIRYŪ’S IMMUTABLE LAW-BODY

Translation and Commentary by Reverend Suzuki

Introductory Word:

Introducing, Engo said:  Only a man with open eyes knows the catgut line of the fishing rod.  Only an advanced mind catches the true idea of the extraordinary procedure.  What is the catgut line of the fishing rod and the extraordinary procedure?

Main Subject:

Attention!  A monk asked Dairyū, “The physical body is disintegrating, but what about the immutable spiritual body?”

Note:

As you may see, this monk is apparently asking a question based on a dualistic idea: an immutable spiritual body and as a disintegrating physical body. However, not speaking of Zen experience or pure Enlightenment, according to the Buddhist philosophical canon: every existence has the same essential nature which is spiritual and physical, permanent and impermanent.

(more…)