Essays in Zen Buddhism : $b First seriesSuzuki, Daisetz Teitaro
Religion
Essays in Zen Buddhism : $b First series
Suzuki, Daisetz Teitaro
Zen Buddhism
The first of the following two verses is by Yōdainen (Yang Tai-nien,
973–1020), a statesman of the Sung dynasty,”[5.27] and the second by
Iku, of Toryō (Tu-ling Yü),[5.28] who was a disciple of Yōgi
(Yang-ch‘i, 1024—1072), the founder of the Yōgi Branch of the Rinzai
School.
“An octagonal millstone rushes through the air;
A golden-coloured lion has turned into a cur:
If you want to hide yourself in the North Star,
Turn round and fold your hands behind the South Star.”
“I have one jewel shining bright,
Long buried it was underneath worldly worries;
This morning the dusty veil is off, and restored is its lustre,
Illumining rivers and mountains and ten thousand things.”
A sufficient variety of the verses[f114] has been given here to show
how they vary from one another and how it is impossible to suggest any
intelligible explanation of the content of satori by merely comparing
them or by analysing them. Some of them are easily understood, I
suppose, as expressive of the feeling of a new revelation; but as to
what that revelation itself is, it will require a certain amount of
personal knowledge to be able to describe it more intelligently. In
any event all these masters testify to the fact that there is such a
thing in Zen as satori through which one is admitted into a new world
of value. The old way of viewing things is abandoned and the world
acquires a new signification. Some of them would declare that they were
“deluded” or that their “previous knowledge” was thrown into oblivion,
while others would confess they were hitherto unaware of a new beauty
which exists in the “refreshing breeze” and in the “shining jewel.”
VII
When our consideration is limited to the objective side of satori as
illustrated so far, it does not appear to be a very extraordinary
thing—this opening an eye to the truth of Zen. The master makes some
remarks, and if they happen to be opportune enough, the disciple will
come at once to a realisation and see into a mystery hitherto undreamed
of. It seems all to depend upon what kind of mood or what state of
mental preparedness one is in at the moment. Zen is after all a
haphazard affair, one may be tempted to think. But when we know that
it took Nangaku (Nan-yüeh) eight long years to answer the question,
“Who is he that thus cometh towards me?” we shall realise the fact that
there was in him a great deal of mental anguish and tribulation which
he had to go through with before he could come to the final solution
and declare, “Even when one asserts that it is a somewhat, one misses
it altogether.”[5.29] We must try to look into the psychological aspect
of satori, where is revealed the inner mechanism of opening the door
to the eternal secrets of the human soul. This is done best by quoting
some of the masters themselves whose introspective statements are on
record.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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