Japan -- Social life and customs; Japanese tea ceremony; Tea
Zennism, like Taoism, is the worship of Relativity. One master defines
Zen as the art of feeling the polar star in the southern sky. Truth can
be reached only through the comprehension of opposites. Again, Zennism,
like Taoism, is a strong advocate of individualism. Nothing is real
except that which concerns the working of our own minds. Yeno, the sixth
patriarch, once saw two monks watching the flag of a pagoda fluttering
in the wind. One said "It is the wind that moves," the other said "It is
the flag that moves"; but Yeno explained to them that the real movement
was neither of the wind nor the flag, but of something within their own
minds. Hiakujo was walking in the forest with a disciple when a hare
scurried off at their approach. "Why does the hare fly from you?" asked
Hiakujo. "Because he is afraid of me," was the answer. "No," said
the master, "it is because you have murderous instinct." The dialogue
recalls that of Soshi (Chaungtse), the Taoist. One day Soshi was walking
on the bank of a river with a friend. "How delightfully the fishes are
enjoying themselves in the water!" exclaimed Soshi. His friend spake
to him thus: "You are not a fish; how do you know that the fishes are
enjoying themselves?" "You are not myself," returned Soshi; "how do you
know that I do not know that the fishes are enjoying themselves?"
Zen was often opposed to the precepts of orthodox Buddhism even as
Taoism was opposed to Confucianism. To the transcendental insight of
the Zen, words were but an incumbrance to thought; the whole sway of
Buddhist scriptures only commentaries on personal speculation. The
followers of Zen aimed at direct communion with the inner nature of
things, regarding their outward accessories only as impediments to a
clear perception of Truth. It was this love of the Abstract that led
the Zen to prefer black and white sketches to the elaborately coloured
paintings of the classic Buddhist School. Some of the Zen even became
iconoclastic as a result of their endeavor to recognise the Buddha in
themselves rather than through images and symbolism. We find Tankawosho
breaking up a wooden statue of Buddha on a wintry day to make a fire.
"What sacrilege!" said the horror-stricken bystander. "I wish to get
the Shali out of the ashes," calmly rejoined the Zen. "But you certainly
will not get Shali from this image!" was the angry retort, to which
Tanka replied, "If I do not, this is certainly not a Buddha and I
am committing no sacrilege." Then he turned to warm himself over the
kindling fire.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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