Zen 96
by Alex Stone
Copyright 2016 Alex Stone
All rights reserved
License Notes
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with other persons, please refer them to the link you have used for picking it up. No part of this publication may be reproduced, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or otherwise, without written permission from the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law. Thank you for respecting the creative work of this author.
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Contents
Author's Note
My Zen Poems:
The Bodhi Tree
Continuity of Purification
Internal Light
Interference
Insight
Virtue's Colour
Innate Elegance
Influence
In the Steel-plant Smoking-room
In the Dark as in the Light
In the Autumn Rain
Second Youth
Implements
Hence the Chaos
A Trance
Heaven's Operation
Plum Stone of Mind
Karma Cycling
Agents of Sacredness
Harmonization of 6:9
Light of Changes
Delimitations
Amenity of Life
The Vital Tree
Is Life a Dream?
The Planet of Plants
Filial Piety
Diplomacy
An Envoy and Duty
A Tutor's Prediction
Survival of Virtue
Mahayana Blues
My Orchard
Pains and Penalties
Cultivation
General Sherman
An Ugly Man's Charm
Man of the Future
Forefathers
Thing-in-Itself
A Palindrome
I Guess
Water Drinking Effect
The Spots of Power
The Tea Ceremony
Drinking the Spring Water
On the Cliff
The Bodily Mystery
The Puppet World
The Small Man of Great Heaven
Transfiguration
In the Field of Good Management
The Governor
A Willing Horse
Benevolence
The Campaign Trail
A State of Harmony
The Close Terms
Timeserving
At the Dawn of Humanity
A Robber or a Benefactor
Saints and Thieves
Blinded by Science
The Knowledge
Doomed HD & Hi-Fi
Letting Go
Opening and Closing
Words
The Human Nature
What If
The Old Hand at Governing
Rewards and Punishments
The Human Mind
Phrases and Faces
Trees, Tears, Trees
A Bear's Affection
Heaven's Layout
The Sabbath
High Peaks
The Bamboo Grove
Still Stands Up and How!
Among the Thickets
Patrimony
Springtime
Overlapped Manifestations
A Settled Abode
When It Goes to Imbalance
Good Old Times Blossoming
A Clear View
We All Are Like Trees
Routine
The Guardians
The Celestial Office
Final Realization
A Song of Contemplation
It Takes Time
About the Author
Endnote
Author's Note
Today, more and more people want to know what Zen is. The problem is that it is not an easy task to describe it, as Zen is beyond wording. It is something that cannot be talked about nor expressed in written form. The moment language is used we are no longer dealing with the spirit of Zen. However, Zen cannot be left unexpressed. In order to introduce the reader to the world of Zen, there is no alternative but to resort to the use of language; and that language is poetry. That's why there are so many poems written by the numerous adepts of Zen.
So, what is Zen? This question can be answered in a number of ways, with each definition being correct within the context being explained. For example, Zen is the Japanese pronunciation of 'Chan,' the abbreviated form of the Chinese translation of the Sanskrit term "dhyana"; it's a type of Indian Buddhism transplanted into China. Better known to the West by its Japanese pronunciation, it is translated as "quiet contemplation." Paradoxically, but Zen/Chan has almost nothing to do with the practice of 'dhyana' (meditation) either. Yes, it is rather difficult to describe what Zen is through the medium of words, so long as it is an anti-logic school of Buddhist thought that applies illogicality to free the mind.
Within the Chinese school of Chan, there is macrostructure that carries the tradition from one generation to the next; there also exists a microstructure of antithesis. This creates what might be described as a post-modern state that is comprised of a ‘certainty’ (macrostructure) that is in continuous communication with an ‘uncertainty’ (microstructure), with both ultimately canceling one another out. This is in accordance with Nagarjuna’s tetralemma, or ‘four-sided logic,’ which can be simply stated as follows: either (1) objects are themselves, or (2) they are not themselves, or (3) they are both themselves and not themselves(simultaneously), or (4) they are neither themselves nor are they not themselves (simultaneously).
It would seem to common sense that at least the first statement ought to hold true, and thus offer some explanation of experience. But, none of the four options does. None does—yet experience remains. Nagarjuna (c. 150 – c. 250 CE) is widely considered one of the most important Buddhist philosophers after Gautama Buddha, read through the Buddha’s teachings contained in the sutras, and formulated that the Buddha’s logic comprised of the above four assertions. Therefore, it can be said that (a) Zen exists; (b) Zen does not exist; (c) Zen exists and does not exist (simultaneously); (d) Zen neither exists nor does not exist (simultaneously).
The point here is that the ordinary intellect is unable to function on this frequency of interpretation, and in its unenlightened or unevolved state, views the Buddha’s logic as gibberish, or ‘mystical’ inspired nonsense, when in fact, the Buddha’s logic has more in common with higher science (i.e. quantum theory), than it does with theistic religion or the imaginations of superstitious based thinking.
If Zen could be presented to another, men would all present it to their superiors; if it could be served up to others, men would all serve it up to their parents; if it could be told to others, men would all tell it to their brothers; if it could be given to others, men would all give it to their sons and grandsons. The reason why it cannot be transmitted is no other but this: that 'if,' within, there be not the presiding principle, it will not remain there, and if, outwardly, there be not the correct obedience, it will not be carried out. When that which is given out from the mind in possession of it is not received by the mind without, the sagely minded man will not give it out; and when, entering in from without, there is no power in the receiving mind to entertain it, the sagely minded man will not permit it to lie hidden there.
Therefore, better known in the West as Zen, it is a Western art-based movement that serves as the antithesis to established norms and conventions. It is a vague sense of performing a function, skill or art in the secular form that is devoid of strenuou
s effort, or somehow new or unexpected. In fact, Zen is not the experience, nor the realm, less still any heretical forms of Buddhist practice that ignores Buddhist conventions. Zen is just Zen, and that's it.
Attachment to Zen (regardless of how dedicated or expert the attachment might be) is still only ever attachment to delusion. Being 'exact' in enlightened function is not the same as being 'precise' through attachment to terminology, ritual and procedure. Those attached to Zen carry with them the stench of Dharma contradiction and mistake the dream world for the living. Like a vicious whirlpool -- these people drag everyone into their orbit through impressing others with their certificates and experiences. However, no matter how many times they have visited China or Japan and sat in a temple, as long as they have not realised the empty mind ground, they are simply placing a head upon head and mistaking the delusion it casts as truth.
Bare awareness that instantaneously reconciles the subject-object dichotomy is a true enlightenment. This is not 'mystical' or 'religious,' but can be defined as 'spiritual' if by spirituality is meant 'consciousness.' Conscious thought, conscious awareness and conscious being. Consciousness does not only exist 'in the mind' or it risks falling into the realms of 'imagined' understanding and progression. When you look at a picture the picture looks at you; when the contact is achieved, there is no more confusion.
Realizing the real essence of Zen, one can attain it as the enlightened mind of Buddhahood. It means the extensive realization of Lord Buddha Sakyamuni, of perfect mind and pure feeling, who, at thirty-five years of age, sitting quietly under a Bodhi tree, realized that the way to release oneself from the chain of rebirth and death lay not in asceticism but in moral purity.
Still, most people think that Zen is something subtle and mysterious, that it is so profound that it cannot be measured and is too high to be reached. These are the feelings of those who observe Zen from outside. But Zen can be found within each and every one of us; however, an unenlightened intellect has no capacity to perceive that which lies beyond the borders of its limited vision. Zen enlightenment is not freedom from discipline or convention, and cannot be equated with any form of anarchy as such. It is not nature’s unfolding, as nature unfolds quite happily regardless of whether the perceiver