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Zen
The Emporer of Japan invited Kakua, the first Japanese to study Zen in China, to expound upon everything that he had learned in China. Kakua drew forth a flute out from his robes, blew a short note, bowed courteously, and left the audience. (Reps, 60)
When Bodhidharma came to China, the pious Emperor Wu, who had erected numerous temples and monasteries, asked him about the highest truth. He answered: "Empty without holiness." The following lines about Zen are also attributed to him: "A particular transmission outside of the holy writings, independent of words and letters: show the human heart directly, - look at your (own) real nature and become a Buddha." (Dumoulin, 83)
A Zen teacher should stop speaking here. Although the Dharma does not need a defender and the Truth can only be verified in the Dokusan-Room and not in polemical writings, the Zen master has the duty now and then to attempt to explain the teaching on an intellectual level. I know that this is ultimately not possible and want to orient myself on Shakyamuni Buddha who traveled throughout the country 49 years in order to teach truth and said at the end, "I have not spoken a single word."
1. There is no teaching about, and also no Buddhistic teaching, about Zen. Meister Yuansou correctly maintained, "There is no teaching for you to chew on or upon which you can squat. If you do not believe in yourself, take your bundle and make the rounds to other people's houses in the search for Zen and the Tao. You are looking for mysteries, for wonders, for Buddhas, for Zen masters and teachers. You believe that is the search for the highest truth and you make that to your religion, but that is like running eastwards in order to find something that lies in the West." (Cleary, p 138)
Therefore, no one can be trained to become a Zen teacher or simply be given the title of Zen master. Whoever has solved Koan No. 6 in Mumonkan knows that nothing is given.
Buddha held up a flower. Whoever has experienced reality in this manner is enlightened and can eventually be given a teaching certification.
2. Zen is not a religion. Thus, there is no Christian Zen and no Buddhist Zen. And so, there are also no Buddhist Zen masters, but rather only Zen masters who are Buddhists, and likewise also Zen masters who are Christians or even ones who even do not belong to any confession. Unfortunately, in the East as well as in the West, there are Zen teachers who are still deeply implanted in a confession. The fundamental difference between the religions does not run vertically between the single denominations, but rather horizontally between the esoteric and exoteric levels of these religions.
All religions have an exoteric side; that means they have beliefs, holy writings, rituals, and ceremonies. Most of the worshipers are active on this level.
However, all religions also know a spiritual path which leads over and above the denomination itself into the experience of that which the teachings can only describe. In Hinduism it is the path of Raja-Yoga, Kria Yoga, or Patanjali; in Buddhism it is Zen and Vipassana; in Islam it is Sufism; in Judaism it is the Kabbala; and in Christianity it is the path of Mysticism.
Godhead, Satori, Unio Mystica can only be experienced outside of all intellectual representations. This final state is the pure Beingness in "here and now" and not a transcendental or future state. There is a "Sophia perennis," an eternal wisdom, which is lived today only by very few, which however will be recognized some day as the true goal of every religion. The human being of the future will be "awakened."
This will only come to pass when Zen and all the esoteric paths free themselves from the trammels of the confessions. Zen is playing an import role in this liberation because it is clear that Shakyamuni gave warnings about religion instead of practicing it.
Zen is indeed closely tied with the Buddhist religion, but it transcends it and every other religion. Zen and every esoteric path, be it Yoga, Vipassana, Contemplation, etc. lead us out of and above the confession of a religion; that means that they also lead us out of a superficial religious understanding as it is taught in religious textbooks.
3. And a third thing appears important to me: Zen should lose its monastical character when it is applied to the Western world. No one needs to shave their hair off or to don a Buddhistic monk's raiment in order to practice Zazen. We must not adopt all the rituals which have developed in the course of time within the Zen monasteries. The inclination towards external forms is a beginner's illness common to all converts. Zen will change its outer structure in the West just as it changed itself after contact with Taoistic China. Its essential nature cannot be adulterated, also not by Christians and Buddhists. The Dharma does not need a defender.
My long residence in Japan and my long study of Zen under my master have shown me that the religious conceptions of my Buddhistic friends changed in exactly the same way when they practiced Zazen, as the religious conceptions of my Christian friends. The exact same transformation awaited the follower of Amida Buddhism on the Zen-path as awaited the Christian who had a personal image of God. "Kill Buddha and the patriarchs when you meet them," says a well-known Zen expression. "I beg God (the Godhead) that he free me from God," formulated Meister Eckehart and meant the same thing. In Asia, Buddhism is exactly as much a wide-spread religion with various entirely different confessional structures as is Christianity in the West. Whoever continues on the path of Zen up to an experience of enlightenment will have transformed their religious convictions so much that they will not hindered by them. They will also not need to leave a confession but will interpret it anew.
4. We are not permitted to compare the confessional side of a religion with the path of enlightenment of another religion; i.e. not Christianity with Zen, but rather Mysticism and Zen. Among all the great mystics, we find comparable allusions about the inutterable reality, even if in different pictures and in other languages. Whether one reads the accounts of Parmenides experiences, almost a Greek contemporary of Shakyamuni, or Plotinus (around 350 A.D.) who counted himself to no religion, or Eckehart, who could have been almost a contemporary of Dogen Zenji; we can always recognize the same timeless message. A few examples can prove this.
The Sufi Indries Shah wrote in a poem, "This, our holy endeavor, will not be completed until schools and minaretts crumble. Until belief is repudiated and repudiation becomes belief, there will be no true Muslim."
Kabir, who had a Muslim Mutter, but was educated by a Brahman and finally stood outside of both religions, poeticised, "Oh, he who serves me, where are you looking for me? Look, I am with you. I am neither in the temple nor in the Mosque, neither in the Kaaba nor on the Kailash. Neither am I in rites and ceremonies nor in Yoga or in renunciation. If you are a true seeker, you will see me immediately, you will meet me in this same moment. Kabir says: O Sadhu! God is the Breath of all Breaths." (Kabir, p 1)
I hear the same message in the formulations of many of the mystics who were Christians. Although the theistic mystics speak about "belief" and "God" over and over again, they mean a reality that is only to be found behind these words. Dionysius, a monk of the 4th. Century, wrote:"The First Cause of everything is neither Being nor Life. For it was indeed there before Being and Life were first created. The First Cause is also not a concept or reason. For, it is that which created concepts and reason. Nothing in this world is the First Cause. For everything in this world has been created by it. And nonetheless is it by no means without power: For it has created everything, has called everything into being, that exists. And Creation, the call into being, needs power so that something also really develops. And nonetheless, this First Cause is also no force. For it was indeed that which first created power."
It is thoroughly possible to belong to a confession and also practice its rituals. One can also support its teachings, but they will then be interpreted out of mystical experience.
In closing, I would like to quote an important contemporary Zen master: "We must approach Zen independently from the Zen-school of Buddhism. Zen does not belong either inclusively nor exclusively to the Buddhistic school of Zen. I consider Zen a universal truth which brings true knowledge and peace into the life of the people in the world. Each religion and culture should take the benefits out of the spiritual values which Zen is able to offer." (Shibayama, p 70) A genuine Zen-freedom speaks out of this quotation which I would wish that many polemist had.
The truly religious person is not characterized by his confession. A truly religious person rises above his confessional beliefs. Religion is the experience of the Divine, of Emptiness, of the Absolute in the "here and now," in the Is-ness of the moment. Religion is the direct immediate perception of what is happening. For, the Primal Reality manifests itself in what is coming to pass now. You can think about it later. However, that is only a poor imitation of the experience - like opening a can of preserves.
John Chapman, a Christian spiritual leader, a great adviser and accompanier for people on a spiritual path, writes about John of the Cross:
"The Holy John of the Cross is like a sponge completely saturated with Christianity. If you squeeze everything out of it, the complete mystical theory remains. As a result, I hated John of the Cross for fifteen years and called him a Buddhist. I loved the Holy Teresa and read her works over and over again. She is a Christian first and only a mystic secondarily. Then it occured to me that I - in regards to prayer - had wasted fifteen years."
References:
Reps P., Zen Flesh, Zen Bones, Doubleday, 1959
Cleary T., Der Mond scheint auf alle Türen, München 1989
Kabir, Im Garten der Gottesliebe, Heidelberg 1984
Dumoulin H., Geschichte des Buddhismus, Bern 1985
Shibayama Z., Zen in Gleichnis und Bild, Bern 1974