Tenryu-ji. Norris Brock Johnson

       FIGURE 36. Musō Soseki (Kokushi).

      Soseki initially studied Shingon and Tendai practices of esoteric Buddhism (密教, Mikkyō). Esoteric meant hidden and secreted, as Mikkyō was intended only for an initiated elite.⁶

      The Shingon studied by Soseki at the time conceived of existence as a manifestation of the Supreme Cosmic Buddha, with less emphasis on the historical Buddha. Though esoteric, “we can discern, when free from illusion, the body and life of the Great Illuminator even in a grain of dust or in a drop of water, or in a slight stir of our consciousness.”⁷ Shingon is attributed to Kūkai (Kōbō Daishi, 774–835). Nature was the nature of the Cosmic Buddha. Kūkai loved mountains, in particular, and he lived much of his life within forests and on mountains. The Ise area within which Soseki was born still is associated with venerated mountain shrines (such as Ise-jingū), natural features venerated as kami (such as Meoto Iwa, the “Wedded Rocks” near the village of Futami), and with the mountain yamabushi, practitioners of Shugendō. Soseki was deeply and persistently attracted to the love of nature he found associated with practitioners of Shingon, such as Kūkai.

      Soseki’s studies of Shingon were successful. At the age of seventeen Soseki was given the monk name Chikaku (“Clear Knowledge”). In 1292 his head was shaved and he was ordained a Shingon priest at Tōdai-ji in present-day Nara Prefecture. Here, Soseki studied intensively with the venerated Gyōren (Jikan Rishi). A formative phase in his life began when he witnessed the prolonged death of Gyōren. The beloved teacher appeared to suffer greatly as he died. Esoteric rituals did not ease the priest’s death. Nothing Gyōren had been studying so intently all of his life demonstrated efficacy in negating suffering. “He [Gyōren]” Soseki wrote, “studied the sūtras diligently but not one word could help him at his death.”⁸ In despair over suffering, as well as witnessing that apparently nothing could negate suffering, Soseki ceased his studies of Tendai and began a hundred-day solitary meditative retreat—“effectively ‘sitting under a tree’ again, his mind roaming in the landscapes that had comforted and calmed him when he felt confused or overwhelmed by the suffering in the world around him.”⁹ For Soseki, mindful experience of nature provided him with some respite from suffering. Mindful experiences of nature will be a predominant intent of the temple landscapes, compassionate aids to calming the mind and heart, with which Soseki later will be involved.

      It was during the later phase of his retreat that, from deep within his meditative experience, Soseki became aware of the thought that led him to the name by which he still is venerated. His Way for some time will be trekking, alone mostly, within nature. Nature will continue to be a mirror for deep, calming, meditative experiences of his own nature—thus “mu [夢], dream, and sō [窓[, window.”¹⁰ Musō. This name says that Soseki conceived of himself as the vehicle seeing into and potentially negating his own suffering and perhaps the suffering of others.

      Musō (as we now will refer to him) went on to study Tendai, a school of Buddhism traced to Saichō (Dengyō Daishi, 767–822). Tendai sought to free Buddhism from the dogmatism of esoteric ritual Musō experienced within Shingon. The Tendai to which he was exposed accommodated study of the venerated words attributed to Shākyamuni.

      Musō’s early life experiences at this point in several respects recapitulate early life experiences of Siddhārtha Gautama. Musō’s early confrontations with death and his despair over suffering, for instance, mirror the confrontation with death and despair over suffering early experienced by Shākyamuni.

      Siddhārtha was the son of Shuddhodana [Pure Rice King], ruler of the influential Gautama lineage of the Shākya clan of families. The Shākya were high-caste (Kshatriya) twice-born rulers over hundreds of thousands of people in Kapilavastu in the southern foothills of the Himalaya Mountains, the fertile delta area of the river Ganges in the present-day Terai region of Nepal. It is believed that Siddhārtha’s preordained destiny was to confront suffering directly, and Buddhism fruited from Siddhārtha’s compassionate response to the suffering he witnessed beyond the privilege within the gates of his father’s palace. There are variant narrative descriptions of a signal incident where Siddhārtha, one day riding with Channa, his charioteer, initially bore witness to suffering, first clothed as an old man riddled with decay. The old man, though, was a deity compassionately taking on this form so as to stimulate Siddhārtha’s “awakening.” As they rode in his chariot, Siddhārtha then spied another old man covered with boils. He then witnessed a body being carried by untouchables to the cremation grounds. Finally, Siddhārtha spied a beggar, a wandering priest, who while outwardly poor appeared powerfully calm of mind. Siddhārtha is reputed to have said that “although brought up in wealth, I was by nature very sensitive, and it caused me to wonder why, when all men are destined to suffer old age, sickness, and death, and none can escape these things, they yet look upon old age, sickness, and the death of other men with fear, loathing, and scorn. This is not right, I thought.”¹¹ Siddhārtha subsequently renounced th privileges of the Shākya, left his family, and began to wander amid forests and mountains. Siddhārtha’s renunciation of inherited privilege, and his subsequent compassionate response to suffering, became especially important to Musō.

      Musō Soseki and Siddhārtha Gautama both were born into families of relatively high social status. Around 563 B.C., Queen Māyā gave birth to Siddhārtha within the still--celebrated gardens of Lumbini. She died several days later. Both Musō and Siddhārtha early in life experienced the death of their mothers. Siddhārtha “was reared in delightful palaces from whose parks every sign of death, disease and misery was removed.”¹² Both Musō and Siddhārtha were attracted to what we would term a religious life in association with similar reactions to death and to the apparent persistent existence of suffering in the world. Finally, gardens were an intimate aspect of the life of Siddhārtha Gautama, who was born in a garden, and of Musō. Musō came to see gardens as a compassionate means to stimulate states of awareness and behavior termed “enlightenment,” and he later will influence the design of the pond garden aspect of the Temple of the Heavenly Dragon.

       THE BONES OF EMPTINESS

      Musō felt that the textual study of esoteric Buddhism, both Shingon and Tendai, did not affect suffering in the world. Musō was led to the Zen school of Buddhism through his conclusion that the truth of suffering could not be experienced through formal study of sūtra or the practice of esoteric ritual.

      The pedagogy of Zen Buddhism emphasizes the direct face-to-face relationship of teacher and student, as with Empress Danrin and Gikū Zenshi. Musō thus began his study of the Zen school of Buddhism by seeking an enlightened teacher and a sangha in which to study. Musō had thought to study with the venerable priest Hottō Kokushi. A fellow monk, though, advised Musō to develop his practice (of Zen) before approaching so renowned a priest. So, when he was twenty years of age, Musō traveled to Kyōto to study with the venerable priests Mu-in Eban at the temple of Kennin, with Tokeitokugo at the temple of Engaku, and, traveling to Kamakura and to the temple of Kenchō-ji, with the venerable priest Chido-oshō.

      In 1299, while in Kamakura, Musō studied with the influential Chinese priest Yishan Yining. Ichizan Ichinei, as Yishan Yining was known in Japan, had become abbot of Kenchō-ji. Musō desired answers concerning suffering, but Ichizan Ichinei only replied calmly to Musō that within Zen Buddhism there were no “answers” to “questions.” Frustrated with this pedagogy, Musō ceased his studies with Ichizan Ichinei.

      Kōhō Kennichi, a descendant of Go-Saga, subsequently became Musō’s influential teacher during this phase of his life. Kōhō’s priest name was Bukkoku Zenji (later, Kokushi), and Bukkoku was renowned for having studied Zen Buddhism under the venerable Chinese priests