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One of the hallmarks of Hakuin\u2019s vivid style of Zen was his emphasis on the importance of practice post-kensh\u014d, digging into the subtlety of many subsequent k\u014dans. This work was seen \u2013 and is still seen in our Harada-Yasutani k\u014dan-introspection tradition for which Hakuin was one of the founders \u2013 as essential refining of the initial insight, enabling one to function freely, and serve as a guide for others intent on awakening, actualizing the Four Great Vows.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s also one of the things that Hakuin was pumped about in terms of his contribution to the dharma<\/a> world. For example, in\u00a0The Complete Plum Blossoms in a Thicket of Thorn<\/em>\u00a0(CPB, \u201cGud\u014d\u2019s Lingering Radiance\u201d), Hakuin reports how he helped an old priest named Zenkai to kensh\u014d and then continue the work. Hakuin further tells us that Zenkai would bow down daily,\u00a0and mournfully weep out praise like this (I hear this with Hakuin as the ventriloquist, and Zenkai, the puppet):<\/p>\n \u201cI have recently been greatly puzzled as to why none of the fine Buddhist<\/a> teachers of the past has spoken of the practice that comes after satori. I searched through the\u00a0 [many Zen records]\u2026. But I never found any mention of this very important matter. How wonderful it is that my teacher [Hakuin] has devoted his life to making this great truth known, to teaching people that post-satori practice invariably gives rise to the Bodhi-mind and enables people to avoid the awful fate that otherwise awaits them in the evil paths. \u201d<\/p>\n However, one of Hakuin\u2019s main students, Daiky\u016b, left Hakuin\u2019s temple, Sh\u014din-ji, soon after his initial awakening, an awakening that was said to have \u201cpenetrated deeply to the Dharma source.\u201d Perhaps rather than living with the reportedly overbearing Hakuin, Daiky\u016b opted to travel around and looking for a beautiful, quiet spot to settle in and devote himself to his practice. In a letter preserved in\u00a0CBP 191, Hakuin tells Daiky\u016b that if he doesn\u2019t return and continue k\u014dan work,\u00a0\u201c\u2026 You will never acquire the ability to teach even a dunce of the poorer sort.\u201d<\/p>\n Old Hakuin was a wild man, living with his emotions pouring out, apparently, not all the \u201cZen master\u201d spiritual masquerade.<\/p>\n Hakuin\u2019s letter to Daiky\u016b begins on a seemingly friendly note, though, letting him know that all of Hakuin\u2019s other senior priests are there with him at Sh\u014din-ji and that \u201c\u2026Everyone is resolutely bent on refining and polishing their attainment. They endure the bitter cold and other privations without complaint, never slackening their efforts at all.\u201d<\/p>\n From what I\u2019ve seen, though, I\u2019d say it isn\u2019t at all uncommon for practitioners to slacken their efforts after kensh\u014d. \u201cOh, there\u2019s sesshin this weekend? I\u2019d love to do it, but \u2026 it\u2019s really the only time that I have to change the storm windows.\u201d<\/p>\n In addition, ignorance has a wonderful way of reasserting itself after kensh\u014d. Practitioners sometimes sail through a whole bunch of\u00a0k\u014dan in the wake of an opening, only to find themselves stuck on one of the k\u014dans in the Miscellaneous Collection or on some tasteless thing like\u00a0No Gate Gateway<\/em>, Case 4:\u00a0\u201cWhy has the Western Paradise Barbarian no beard?\u201d<\/p>\n One tell-tale sign that we\u2019re going off in stuckland is that\u00a0we focus time and energy on how to present the koan to the teacher, rather than accepting the likely fact that there is more to see in this k\u014dan, then focussing on being more intimate with the koan itself, attending to the subtle aspects, which usually lay waiting in our blind spots. Worry\u00a0about the presentation is a way of focussing too much on the teacher rather than our own insight.<\/p>\n Hakuin, also in the letter to his errant student Daiky\u016b, explains the process of post-kensh\u014d training:<\/p>\n \u201cGenuine [ancestors] of the secret depths, in order to be able to undertake the teaching of the true Dharma, enter the training hall, mingle with the [community], sit silently at the rear of the hall, work on koans they haven\u2019t yet passed, engage in practice sessions with their comrades, and in this way gradually accumulate Dharma assets and mature into great Dharma vessels. \u201d<\/p>\n In our Harada-Yasutani k\u014dan curriculum, after passing through the initial k\u014dan and checking questions, the student sets out on a journey that may well take ten years or a lifetime, working through hundreds of subsequent k\u014dans and checking questions, just in this spirit. Not only does everyone who undertakes the journey not<\/span> reach the end, but everyone who reaches the end will not<\/span> become a\u00a0k\u014dan teacher. There are many ways to manifest the dharma and not everyone is karmically suited to teach. Or better, some folks are karmically suited to manifest in other ways than to take on the yoke of teaching.<\/p>\n However, Hakuin, thirty-years\u00a0Daiky\u016b\u2019s senior,\u00a0seems to have identified\u00a0Daiky\u016b as a potential successor and teacher, so he tried all sorts of shenanigans to tug on his heart to bring him back to Sh\u014din-ji.\u00a0\u201cYou will have plenty of time later [after I die], to hide yourself in the boondocks and investigate the matter of your self<\/em>, but only limited time remains to me in which to sit in these broken-down old chambers laughing and chatting with my monks. I just wait, counting the days and nights off on my fingers, until you return.\u201d<\/p>\n Ah, to sit in Hakuin\u2019s chambers, laughing and chatting \u2013 if only there holodeck were online!<\/p>\n It isn\u2019t clear from the record whether\u00a0Daiky\u016b returned or not. The wonderful translator and annotator, Norman Waddell, seems to think that he didn\u2019t. What is clear is that\u00a0Daiky\u016b did become a powerful teacher. Waddell reports that \u201c\u2026Hakuin describes attending a large lecture meeting that Daiky\u016b conducted at the great T\u014dfuku-ji in Kyoto. According to the Annals of T\u014dfuku-ji<\/em>, eight hundred and thirteen priests and monks, including T\u014drei and other students of Hakuin, participated in the meeting. Through assemblies such as this, Daiky\u016b introduced Hakuin-style Zen to the large Gozan monasteries in the capital.\u201d<\/p>\n So the student went the wrong way and it seems to have all worked out.<\/p>\n Or did it?<\/p>\n Daiky\u016b died in 1774, just six years after Hakuin, so it turned out that he didn\u2019t have much time after Hakuin died to wallow in the boondocks. The continuing line of transmission coming to us flowed through another of Hakuin\u2019s students,\u00a0Gasan Jit\u014d\u00a0(1727\u20131797).<\/p>\n D\u014dsh\u014d Port began practicing Zen in 1977 and now co-teaches with his wife, Tetsugan Zummach Sensei, with the Vine of Obstacles: Online Support for Zen Training<\/a>, an internet-based Zen community. D\u014dsh\u014d received dharma transmission from Dainin Katagiri R\u014dshi and inka sh\u014dmei from James My\u014dun Ford R\u014dshi in the Harada-Yasutani lineage. D\u014dsh\u014d\u2019s translation and commentary on The Record of Empty Hall: One Hundred Classic Koans,<\/em><\/a>\u00a0is now available (Shambhala). He is also the author\u00a0of\u00a0Keep Me In Your Heart a While: The Haunting Zen of Dainin Katagiri<\/a><\/i>. Click here<\/a> to support the teaching practice of Tetsugan Sensei and\u00a0 D\u014dsh\u014d R\u014dshi.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" One of the hallmarks of Hakuin\u2019s vivid style of Zen was his emphasis on the importance of practice post-kensh\u014d, digging into the subtlety of many subsequent k\u014dans. This work was seen \u2013 and is still seen in our Harada-Yasutani k\u014dan-introspection tradition for which Hakuin was one of the founders \u2013 as essential refining of the […]<\/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":[129,149,6,146],"class_list":["post-4304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-hakuin","tag-harada-yasutani-koan-curriculum","tag-koan","tag-post-kensho-training"],"yoast_head":"\n
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