Zen Masters of Japan. Richard Bryan McDaniel
was, however, a Confucian scholar named Ji who had been searching for a teacher to help him resolve the concerns that weighed heavily on his mind. He had visited Confucian, Daoist, and Buddhist teachers and was well versed not only in the Confucian classics but also in the doctrines of both the Theravada and Mahayana traditions. Nothing, however, had brought him peace of mind. In desperation, he came to the Wall-gazing Hermitage, seeking the barbarian monk who had come from the land of the Buddha.
When Ji presented himself at Bodhidharma’s hermitage, the old Indian monk suspected his visitor was another who came seeking an intellectual explanation of Buddhist doctrine rather than the experiential insight that comes from the practice of meditation. So, for a long time, he ignored Ji. The Confucian, however, remained patiently outside the hut, waiting for Bodhidharma to acknowledge him. One night, it began to snow. The snow fell so heavily that by morning, it was up to the supplicant’s knees. Seeing this, Bodhidharma finally spoke, asking, “What is it you seek?”
“Your teaching,” Ji told him.
“The teaching of the Buddha is subtle and difficult. Understanding can only be acquired through strenuous effort, doing what is hard to do and enduring what is hard to endure, continuing the practice for even countless eons of time. How can a man of scant virtue and great vanity, such as yourself, achieve it? Your puny efforts will only end in failure.”
Ji drew his sword, cut off his left arm, and presented it to Bodhidharma as evidence of the sincerity of his intention.
“What you seek,” Bodhidharma told him, “can’t be found through another.”
“My mind isn’t at peace,” Ji lamented. “Please, master, help me pacify it.”
“Very well. Bring your mind here, and I’ll pacify it.”
“I’ve sought it for these many years, even practicing sitting mediation as you do, but still I’m not able to get hold of it.”
“There! Now it’s pacified!”
Upon hearing those words, Ji achieved awakening, the same insight that earned Gautama the title “Buddha.”
After Ji’s awakening, Bodhidharma gave him the name Huike, which means, “his understanding will do.” By bestowing his disciple with a new name, Bodhidharma signaled his approval of the younger man’s insight. This began a tradition by which a teacher recognized those students whose insight were equal to or surpassed his own and thus were worthy to be called Masters of Meditation, or Zen Masters. In the Rinzai School, the process is known as inka or transmission. In bestowing inka, the teacher acknowledges the student as his successor.
The Japanese, who developed their own pronunciation of the kanji characters they adopted from China, pronounced Huike as “Eka.” From this point forward, the Japanese renderings of Chinese names will be used.
Bodhidharma was an Indian and his understanding of both Zen and Buddhism were the product of the culture from which he came. With Eka, the slow process of developing a Chinese meditation school began. It has been suggested that Zen is the result of the coming together of the philosophical Indian Buddhist tradition with native Chinese Daoism, with its emphasis on the rhythms of nature—the natural flow, or “way” (Dao), of things.
Eka met the man to whom he would give transmission when a layman, named Sosan, who was afflicted with leprosy, approached him. The leper hoped that Eka could free him of the sins that he believed were the cause of his condition. Echoing his own teacher, Eka told Sosan, “Bring your sins here, and I’ll rid you of them.”
“When I reflect on my sins,” the man admitted, “I’m not sure what they are.”
“Then you’re cleansed,” Eka told him. “Now all that remains is for you to take refuge in the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha.” “Dharma” is the Sanskrit term for both the teachings of the Buddha and the way things are in general (the truth). “Sangha” was originally the term for the congregation of Buddhist monks and nuns.
Sosan said, “I understand that you are member of a group referred to as the Sangha, but what are the Buddha and the Dharma?”
“Mind is Buddha. Mind is Dharma. Dharma and Buddha are not two. So it is with the Sangha.”
Sosan then made one of those intuitive leaps of understanding only possible when one has been considering a problem, as he had been considering the problem of sin, for a long time: “Now I understand that sins are neither within nor without,” he exclaimed. “Just as the Mind is, so is Buddha, so is Dharma. They aren’t two.”
Eka recognized the leper as his successor and gave him the name Kanchi, which means, “jewel monk.”
Sosan Kanchi would later write the Inscription on the Believing Mind, a verse composition that would come to be revered in Japan as well as China and is still popular with Zen practitioners today. The opening verses demonstrate the way in which Kanchi’s Zen combines Daoist terminology with Buddhist principles.
The Perfect Way [Dao] knows no difficulties
Except that it refuses to make preference:
Only when freed from hate and love,
It reveals itself fully and without disguise.
A tenth of an inch’s difference,
And heaven and earth are set apart;
If you want to see it manifest,
Take no thought either for or against it.
To set up what you like against what you dislike—
This is the disease of the mind:
When the deep meaning of Tao is not understood
Peace of mind is disturbed and nothing is gained. (2)
Both Eka and Sosan Kanchi dwelt in obscurity in the mountains alongside the Yangtze River because the political environment in China after the death of Emperor Wu was hostile to Buddhism. Wu’s successors were traditional Confucianists who considered both Daoism (which had originated in China) and Buddhism (which they dismissed as a foreign teaching) to be disruptive elements in society. In particular, the celibate life of monks and nuns in Buddhist monasteries was repugnant to Confucianists, who put great value on family life and social responsibility. They argued that the monks and nuns living in temples such as Shaolin were parasites who contributed nothing to society.
An edict was passed banning these two traditions. Religious texts and works of art were destroyed. Monks and nuns, such as those formerly supported by the Emperor Wu, were ordered to return to lay life.
When acknowledging Sosan as his successor, Eka told him he had a responsibility to protect the teaching he had received. Therefore, instead of dwelling in the cities and towns where he would draw the attention of the authorities, he should remain in the mountains. Thus began the tradition of establishing Zen temples in mountain settings far from the activities of city life.
Regardless of how reclusive Zen masters were, highly motivated students continued to search them out. So it was that a seeker named Doshin tracked down Sosan. The third patriarch asked his visitor what he was looking for, and Doshin replied: “Please show me the way to achieve liberation.”
“Who is it that holds you in bondage?” Sosan asked.
“Well, no one,” Doshin admitted.
“Then why are you seeking liberation?”
These words startled the young man, and he became Sosan’s disciple. After many years, he too attained awakening, and Sosan