dharma<\/a> teacher).<\/p>\nHashimoto Roshi was also a clear voice in the zazen-as-a-koan-free zone interpretation of Dogen\u2019s teaching.<\/p>\n
One of the themes that I\u2019ve been working through in this blog for the last few years is that both just-sitting and koan introspection Zen are really about the same fundamental point and that the differences between the two approaches are often overstated for Japanese sectarian purposes that can now be released as Zen enters the global arena. I\u2019ve argued, for example, that for Dogen, koan introspection and just-sitting were one and the same practice, that the version of just-sitting advocated by the narrative of the post-Meiji Soto orthodoxy often lacks wisdom teeth, and that verifying the truth of the buddhadharma for oneself (aka, kensho or satori) is vitally important.<\/p>\n
In this post, I look at the sayings of three central figures in the\u00a0post-Meiji Soto orthodoxy, Hashimoto Roshi, Sawaki Roshi, and Bokusan Roshi. I\u2019ll suggest that these old teachers used koan and advocated for kensho while saying that they didn\u2019t. In other words, the difference between their just-sitting approach and koan introspection was largely semantic and a question of emphasis.<\/p>\n
First, Hashimoto Roshi\u2019s statement, \u201cSit down, become Buddha,\u201d is a fine example of a koan and Katagiri Roshi\u2019s approach to it, embodying it fully, is a fine (and, yes, zealous) example of how to be the koan.<\/p>\n
Some American apologists for the post-Meiji Soto orthodoxy\u00a0insist that teachers like Katagiri Roshi and Hashimoto Roshi didn\u2019t use koans in their teaching or claim, \u201cOf course, there are koans in Soto Zen, but just not<\/span> in zazen.\u201d<\/p>\n\u201cSit down, become Buddha,\u201d however, was intended for zazen. Hashimoto Roshi strongly encouraged the monks at Eiheiji to \u201csit down\u201d in zazen and \u201cbecome Buddha\u201d on the cushion. Katagiri Roshi followed his instruction and focussed his zazen to this very practice of enlightenment.<\/p>\n
I\u00a0wonder what Hashimoto Roshi thought a koan was if \u201cSit down, become Buddha\u201d wasn\u2019t one for him.\u00a0It\u2019s curious how a great teacher like Hashimoto Roshi might have started out with the premise, \u201cWe don\u2019t do koans,\u201d but then taught a koan for the practice of just sitting \u2013 exactly what Dogen did, by the way (e.g., used koan to teach just sitting).<\/p>\n
Second, Sawaki Kodo Roshi (1880-1965) in his recent Commentary of the Song of Awakening,\u00a0<\/em>writes, \u201cWhen zazen is strong, suddenly at one stroke you realize the zen<\/em> of the Buddha. That is to say, you grasp that you are Buddha.\u201d<\/p>\nThis example compliments the \u201cSit down, become Buddha\u201d koan of Hashimoto Roshi and the similarity between what both of these masters\u2019 sayings and Matsu\u2019s koan \u201cThis very mind is Buddha\u201d (Gateless Barrier<\/em>, Case 30) is striking. Sawaki Roshi\u2019s utterance, however, more clearly emphasizes a particular quality of zazen, strong sitting, that brings forth the identity of practitioner and Buddha: \u201cYou grasp that you are Buddha.\u201d<\/p>\nIn the koan-introspection tradition, the experience Sawaki Roshi encourages might be regarded as kensho, and could provide the basis for successive koan training while also illuminating what just-sitting is really about.<\/p>\n
My third\u00a0example of relatively recent Soto masters using a koan while saying they didn\u2019t comes from Nishiari Bokusan Roshi (1821-1910). In his commentary on Dogen\u2019s Genjokoan <\/em>he says this:<\/p>\n\u201cWhen the old teachers presented their essential teaching, they each had one phrase that none of their predecessors had chosen, and on which they based their teaching. With this phrase they penetrated a whole lifetime. Teachers in the past did not have two phrases. Therefore, that one phrase expressed their Dharmakaya [i.e., \u201ctruth body\u2019]. For example, the \u201cOne Bright Jewel\u201d of Xuansha, the \u201cCypress Tree\u201d of Zhaozou, and \u201cThis very mind is Buddha\u201d of Mazu are all words of iron never spoken by anyone before. With one phrase they thrust forward the suchness of the cosmos, and set in motion the same wheel of dharma as the Buddha.\u00a0The same thing can be said of Dogen. He sees straight through the world of the ten directions as Genjokoan<\/em>, which are his words of iron. When this phrase is cracked, the ninety-five fascicles appear here and there as branches of it. For that reason, the lifetime teaching of Dogen is all in the one phrase, Genjokoan<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\nWhen one phrase is cracked, the truth body of Dogen and all the fascicles of the Shobogenzo<\/em> are cracked. Crack one, crack all. Cut one, cut all. The resonance with what he\u2019s saying here and the koan reformer Dahui\u2019s punchline method, taking up a keyword like the mu<\/em> koan and breaking through (kensho-ing), is unmistakable. \u00a0Punchlines would also be \u201cOne Bright Jewel,\u201d any of Bokusan\u2019s other examples,\u00a0or, according to Bokusan, Dogen\u2019s\u00a0Genjokoan<\/em>. Clearly, Bokusan draws an exact comparison between the koans of the great masters and Dogen\u2019s Genjokoan.<\/em><\/p>\nA proponent of the post-Meiji Soto Orthodoxy, though, might again protest, \u201cYeah, but Bokusan certainly doesn\u2019t say to sit with Genjokoan<\/em> in zazen.\u201d<\/p>\nPerhaps\u00a0not, but Bokusan does give very mu<\/em>-like koan instructions for working Genjokoan, <\/em>\u201cThen what<\/span> in the world is<\/span> \u2018Genjokoan<\/span>\u2018? First of all, you should get it right down in your hara. This cannot be done solely by thinking.\u201d<\/p>\nSounds an awful lot like the instructions for sitting zazen with mu<\/em>.<\/p>\nAnd yet, in the same work, Bokusan derides koan introspection:<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you do zazen, you should become zazen thoroughly. There is no need to bring in the koans. If you work on koans during zazen, the koan becomes the master and zazen becomes the attendant. Thus zazen is no longer zazen. To abide at ease in steadfast non-thinking is the bull\u2019s-eye of zazen. Other schools aside, the dharma descendants of Dogen Zenji should study Dogen Zenji\u2019s Buddha dharma.\u201d<\/p>\n
To think that in koan introspection, the koan is the master and zazen is the attendant, is a profound misunderstanding of koan introspection.<\/p>\n
Hashimoto Roshi, Sawaki Roshi, and Bokusan Roshi, great teachers though they were, may not have realized that what they were teaching and koan introspection were one and the same, nor that there descriptions of really sitting or really genjokoan-ing could also be called \u201ckensho-ing.\u201d The main difference between their teachings cited here and the koan introspection narrative lies in how in koan introspection a process is offered for unfolding an initial realization. That just-sitting Zen, and none of these teachers,\u00a0as far as I know, offers such thing, in my view, is not something to boast about.<\/p>\n
Nevertheless, in terms of koan and kensho, if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, I\u2019d say, it\u2019s a duck.<\/p>\n
Katagiri Roshi thought that now was the time, and that the West might be the place, to return to the Zen of the 6th Ancestor, before the split into the Rinzai and Soto lineages. I agree. Let\u2019s move beyond sectarian posturing in our global dharma dialogue, celebrate our commonalities, and support each other in this great work.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The friendly-looking monk in the photo is\u00a0Hashimoto Eko Roshi (1890-1965). In about 1948, the young Katagiri Roshi heard\u00a0Hashimoto Roshi say, \u201cSit down, become Buddha.\u201d Katagiri, then a new monk at Eiheiji, previously a failure in kamikaze school (he couldn\u2019t get the training glider to fly straight toward the target) and a champion marathon runner, soon […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":182,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2911","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/a>The friendly-looking monk in the photo is\u00a0Hashimoto Eko Roshi (1890-1965).<\/p>\n