Hakuin’s Rules Were Lax And Dogen Canceled Zazen

The above is by Soen Nakagawa Roshi (thanks to Genmyo Smith for allowing me to share this calligraphy, a gift to him from Maezumi Roshi that appears in his Prairie Sky Newsletter and includes a well-done talk by Genmyo on Zazenshin). Soen Roshi’s calligraphy is a pattern concealed in a freedom and so is difficult to read. It might be “Buddha” or “New” or something else.

It conveys what I have in mind to say today.

In his Extensive Record, Dogen is recorded as canceling zazen during the summer because it was too dang hot. How could it be that the great founders were such slackers? What does that have to say to many students today who think that Zen is all about discipline?

These questions came up while I’m reading Norman Waddell’s Hakuin’s Precious Mirror Cave: A Zen Miscellany when I found this about Hakuin in the introduction:

While he demanded total dedication from his monks, temple routine was relatively informal. There were no set schedules for sutra-chanting or other rituals and, if temple legend is to be believed, Hakuin would appear for teisho, formal Zen lectures, wearing a tattered old jacket and carrying a long kisera pipe in his hand.

This prompted a couple reflections. First, it’s a lot like early reports of Dogen’s monastery where they’d chant a sutra if the rice wasn’t cooked yet when zazen was over. Interesting to me that the founders didn’t seem to stress “discipline” (as in strict schedules and routines) so much as the later tradition.

This spirit might go back to the Buddha. His Seven Factors of Enlightenment – mindfulness (sati), investigaion (dhamma vicaya) into the nature of dhamma, enthusiasm (viriya), joy or rapture (piti), tranquility (passaddhi), concentration (samadhi), and equanimity (upekkha) – don’t include “discipline” or “following the schedule.” Attachment to rules and rituals is regarded as a fetter to freedom.

I understand this as suggesting that “investigation” and “enthusiasm” are more reliable guides. I’m reminded of Trungpa’s phrase “disciple in delight.” This is really important for people who are doing home-based practice today. A practice with too much super-egoish discipline will break when the conditions are challenging.

So when investigation and enthusiasm are strong, as in the early communities of Hakuin and Dogen, there isn’t so much need for rigid schedules.

A second angle on this was provoked by Danny Fisher posting a video clip of Robert Thurman distinguishing spirituality (“pattern breaking behavior”) and religion (“pattern maintaining behavior”). Perhaps Hakuin and Dogen stressed pattern breaking behavior more than pattern maintaining behavior but it’s a mistake, imho, to think that we can just do one and not the other.

Want to break a pattern and the pattern is there. Teenagers rebel, for example, like teenagers have been doing for centuries. Older people can hunger to break the dull pattern of life and so have an affair (like ~70% of men and ~50% of women). Hospitals (like the one I spent the morning in with a loved one) set up patterns for intake, for example, and then add humans who don’t necessarily fit.

On the other hand, strictly following a schedule and engaging in pattern maintaining behavior can break our pattern of living a willy-nilly life. And within the pattern, breakthrough can occur.
In other words, wearing a tattered coat and smoking a pipe while giving a dharma talk can be maintaining or breaking a pattern. What’s vital is how we do it.

Religion needs spirituality and spirituality needs religion. To paraphrase Dogen, not only is it important to be a person free from pattern (i.e., rank) but also a person who is completely home within a pattern.

Comments welcome, especially about the home-based practice observation.

Hakuin’s Rules Were Lax and Dogen Canceled Zazen