Zen Keys

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religionA979 A Doubleday AnchorOriginal $1.95

Zen KeysThich Nhat HanhIntroduction by pHfJrP KapleauTranslated by Albert and Jean Low

Zen Keys is a unique explication of Zen Buddhism.Beginning with a discussion of the daily regimen of l ife ina Zen monastery, Thich Nhat Hanhillustrates the character of Zen as practiced in V i e t n a m . " ' D ~ w i n g f rom bothhistorical and personal examples, the author explains thecentral philosophic concepts of Awareness, Imperman-ence, and Not-I. But Zen is more than a philosophy, it isan attitude which must be involved in the awareness of allthat one is and does.

As a leading spokesman of the Vietnamese Buddhistpeace movement, Nhat Hanh has practiced his religion inthe secular world. Rather than follow a path of worlddenying self-illumination, he has integrated his beliefs andhis actions as a response to the needs of the cul ture andsociety in which he l ives. His example has particular significance for Western readers as we attempt to developour own form of Zen for we too must create a living tradition applicable to our own situation. Zen Keys provides avaluable l ink between the great Asian traditions and theemerging outline of American Zen.

lank Examines The Vietnamese Tradition

rhich NhatHan-hI 1Ioduction by PhilipKapleauISBN: 0-385-08066-2Cover Design by Bonnie and Hideo letaka

ii\A Doubieday Anchor Original~ 0 > ~

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TmeR NHATHANH is a Vietnamese Zen monk, a formerprofessor at the University of Saigon, an d a noted poet.He is th e autho r of a number of works on Buddhismand has published three books in English: Vietnam:Lotus in a Sea of Fire, Vietnam Poems, and Zen Poems.He is internationally known as one of the leadingspokesmen of the Vietnamese Buddhist peace move-ment.Rosm PHILIP KAPLEAU is the director of The Zen Centerat Rochester, New York, and widely recognized for hisscholarship and pract ice of Zen. He is the author ofThe Three Pillars of Zen an d The Wheel of Death: ACollection of Writings from Zen Buddhist and OtherSources on Death-Rebirth-DYing.ALBERT AN D JEAN Low, the translators of this volumefrom the French, have studied at The Zen Center atRochester for the past seven years. They have alsotranslated Dr. Hubert Benoit's Let Go.

ZENXEYSTHICH NHAT HANH

TRANSLATED F R O M TH E FRENCH:B Y A L B E RT AND J E A . . . ~ LowW I T H AN INTRODUCTIONBY

PIDLIP KAPLEAU

A N C H O R B O O K SAnchor Press/DoubledayGarden City, New York1974

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I

Zen Keys was originally published inFrench as Clefs Pour Le Zenby Editions Seghers Editions Seghers, Paris, 1973.

The Anchor Books ediponis the first publication in the English language.

Anchor Books edition: 1974

ISBN: 0-385-08066-2Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 74-3556Translation Copyright 1974 byDOUBLEDAY & COMPANY, INC.Introduction Copyright 1974 by PmLIP KAPLEAU

All Rights ReservedPrinted in the United States of AmericaFirst Edition

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTIONAwareness of BeingThe Little BookNecessary AwarenessTo Be Mindful

I I A Cup of TeaSeeing into One's Own NatureBodhidharma's DictumThe Buddhist RevolutionNot-IThings and ConceptsThe Principle of the Interdependence ofThingsThe Vanity of MetaphysicsExperience ItselfThe Moment of Awakening

II I The Cyprus in the CourtyardThe Language of ZenThe Finger and the Moon"I f You Meet the Buddha, Kill Himl"

11719212327293323436

373844143454749

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vi CONTENTS CONTENTS vii"Go an d Wash the Bowl" 51 Th e Vijnanavada School 118Th e Good Reply 52 Classification of th e Dhannas 119Th e Kung-an an d Its Function 53 Conscious Knowledge 120Th e Significance of the Kung-an 57 Method of Vijnanavada 123Chao-Chou's "Nol" 59 Alaya as th e Basis 126Entering the Circle 62 Th e Process of Enlightenment 128Th e Mind Must Be Ripe 65 VI The Regeneration of Man 133

IV Mountains Are Mountains and Rivers Monastic Life 135Are Rivers 71 Th e Retreats 138The Mind Seal 73 Th e Encounter 140True Mind an d False Mind 75 Th e Role of th e Laity 141Reality in Itself 77 Th e Zen M an a nd the World of Today 142Th e L am p a nd Lampshade 80 Future Perspectives 144A Non-Conceptual Experience 82 Is an Awakening Possible? 147The Plinciple of Non-Duality 84 Spirituality versus Technology 15 1Interdependent Relation 88 VI I Lessons on Emptiness 155

V Footprints of Emptiness 91Th e Birth of Zen Buddhism 93Zen an d the West 96Zen an d China 97Th e Notion of Emptiness 99Complementary Notions 101Anti-Scholastic Reactions 102Return to the Source 103Th e A Which Is Not A Is Truly A 105Penetrating the Tathata 108Subject an d Object 109Th e Three Gates of Liberat ion I I ITh e Eight Negations of Nagarjuna 113Th e Middle Wa y 116

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*IntroductionTHE PUBLICATION in English of Thich1 Nhat Hanh'sZen Keys has particular significance for Americans. Fo rnot only is his work the first p recise statement of Vietnamese Buddhism to come to us-we who have such adeep and tragic karmic connection with Vietnam-butalso Thich Nhat Hanh is not an average Buddhist. Heis a Zen monk, trained and developed in a Zenmonastery, a man who has rea lized the wisdom andcompassion which are the fruits of Buddhist practice.In the last f if teen years Thich Nhat Hanh, one of theleading spokesmen of the Vietnamese Buddhist peacemovement, has taken himself into the market place,i nto the twen ti et h- cen tur y hel l of war- ravaged Vietnam, and brought an "engaged" Buddh ism in to themainst ream of life of t he Vietnamese masses. In thef ace of threats of persecution, imprisonment, and evendeath, he has repeatedly spoken out , u rg ing his countrymen to avoid hatred and acrimony and insisting thatthe real enemy is no t man bu t the grenades of greed,anger, and delusion in the human heart. Those Americans who bel ieve Buddhism is a wor ld-denying cul t ofinner illumination and its practice of meditation a navel-

1 "Thich" is not , as many suppose, the Vietnamese equivalent of "Venerable," an appel la tion of Buddhist monksthat roughly corresponds to "Reverend," bu t is the shortened form of "Thich-Ca," the Vietnamese for Shakya, whichis the abbreviation of Shakyamuni, the name by which theBuddha is known in Asia. I t is a family name that monksassume upon ordination, replacing their own.

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2 ZEN KEYS INTRODUCTION 3gazing escape from the suffer ings of l ife do not 1.'110WThich Nha t Hanh or the Buddhism about which heWlites. I t is i ~ p o r t a n t that American readers, beforedelving deeply into this book, be aware of these aspectsof its author's life. .Itis well to not e that while Zen Keys often presentsweighty aspec ts of Buddhist philosophy, Nhat Ranh

begins his book with the concrete, practical aspects oflife in a Zen monastery, where the emphasis is not onthe l ea rn ing of philosophic concepts bu t on simplelabor and a l if e of awareness. For in Zen, intellectuallearning is nothing bu t the studying of the menu, whi leactual practice is the eating of the meal. As Nhat Ranhsays, the truth of existence is revealed through a deepening awareness that comes from living a life of singlemindedness, of being "awake" in whatever one isdoing. There is no better l abo ratory for doing this"aware work" than everyday life, especially one's dailywork.

Yet we live in a society where the object for so manyis to do as little work as possible, where the workplace, whether office or home, is looked upon as a placeof drudg81Y and boredom, where work rather than being a creat ive and fulBlIing aspect of one's life isseen as oppressive and unsatisfying. How different isthis from Zen! In Zen everything one does becomes avehicle for self-realization; every act , every movementis done wholeheartedly, with nothing lef t over. In Zenparlance, eV81ything we do thi s way is an "expressionof Buddha," and the greater the single-mindedness andunself-consciousness of the doing, the closer we are tothis realization. For what else is there bu t the pure act-the lifting of the hammer, the washing of the dish,the movement of the hands on the typewriter, the pulling of the weed? Everything else-thoughts of the past,fantasies about the future, judgments and evaluationsconcerning the work itself-what are these bu t shadows

and ghosts flickering about in our minds , preventing usfrom enter ing ful ly into life i tsel f? To enter into theawareness of Zen, to "wake up," means to cleanse themind of the habitua l disease of uncontrolled thoughtand to bring it back t o its original s tat e of purity andclarity. In Zen it is said that more power is generatedby the ability to practice in the midst of the world thanby jus t s it ting alone and shunning all ac tivi ty. Thus,one' s dai ly work becomes one's meditat ion room; thet ask at hand one 's practice. This is called "working foroneself."

In Zen all l abor is vi ewed with the eye of equality,for it is nothing bu t the workings of a dualist ical ly ensnared mind that discriminates between agreeable anddisagreeable jobs, between creative and uncreativework. I t is to root out this weighing and judging thatZen novices are set to work pulling weeds by hand,l ick ing enve lopes, or doing other seemingly unimpor tant "non-creative" work at the start of their tra ining,and why the abbot himself 'often cleans the toilets. Fortrue creativity is possible only when the mind is emptyand totally absorbed in the task at hand. Only at thepoint where one is f reed of the weight of self-consciousness in the complete identmcation with work is theretranscendence and the joy of fulfillment. In this typeof creativity ow intuitive wisdom and joy are naturallybrought into play.All this does not mean, of course , that attempts atbettering working conditions and making work moremeaningful, such as we are witnessing today as a reaction against robot-like mechanization of the workplace,are worthless. But for a worker constan tly to resen t hiswork or his supeliors, for him to become sloppy andslothful in his working habits, for him t o become embittered toward life-these at ti tudes do most hmm tothe worker himself and serve l it tl e to change his working conditions. When i t' s t ime to work one works, noth-

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4 ZEN KEYS INTRODUCTION 5i ng hel d back; when it's time to make changes onemakes changes; when it's time to revolt one even revolts. In Zen everything is in the doing, not in thecontemplating.There is one more area in which the untrained, ego

dominated mind plays thief to man, and this is in termsof energy. The fatigue that grips many of us at theend of the workday is not a natural tiredness, bu t theproduct of a day filled with was te d thought and feelings of anxiety and worry, not to speak of anger andresentments openly expressed or inwardly held. Thesenegative mental states probably do more to sap energythan anything else. In contrast, the trained Zen personmoves through his dai ly round aware and alert. Thetask in h an d receives its due share of his energy, bu tnone is wasted in anxiety, fantasy, or smouldering resentment. Even at the end of a ful l day' s work his s to reof energy is not exhausted.Throughout Zen Keys, Thich Nhat Hanh stresses that

Awareness-and this is more than mere attentiveness-i s evelything. I t is prec ise ly this lack of Awarenessthat is responsible for so much of the violence and sutfering in t he world today. For it is the mind that feelsi tsel f a separated unit from life and nature, the minddominated by an omnipresent Ego-I that lashes outto desh'oy and kill, to satisfy its desire for more andmore at whatever cost. I t is t he unawa re mind thatbreeds insensitivity to people and things, for it doesn'tsee and appr eci at e the value of things as they are,only seeing them as objects to be used in satiating one'sown desires. The aware man sees the indivisibility ofexistence, t he deep complexity and interrelationship ofall life, and this creates in him a deep respect for theabsolute value of things. I t is out of this respect for theworth of evelY single object, animate as well as inanimate, that comes the desire to see things usedproperly, and not to be heedless or wasteful or destruc-

tive. Truly to practice Zen therefore means never toleave lights burning when t hey a re not needed, neverto allow water to run unnecessarily in th e faucet, neverto leave a scrap of food uneaten . Fo r not only are theseunmindful acts, bu t they indicate an indifference tothe value of the object was ted o r destroyed and tothe efforts of those who made it possible for us: in thecase of food, the fanner, the trucker, the storekeeper,the cook, the server. This indifference is the productof a mind that sees itself as separated from a wor ld ofseemingly random change and purposeless chaos.From a Buddhist point of view th e doctr ines of

Impermanence and Not-I, with which Nhat Hanhdeals, hold the key to resolving the anxiety of this isolated point of view. Anyone alive to the realities of lifecannot bu t acknowledge, for example, that Impermanence is not a creat ion of myst ical ph ilosophers bu tsimply a concretization of what "is." In the last hundredyears this process of constant and explosive change onthe social and ins ti tu tional level has accelerated to adegree unknown to men of earl ie r ages. Almost dai lythe newspapers re po rt new and dizzying crises in theworld: famines and natural disasters; wars and revolutions; clises in the environment, in energy and in thepolit ical arena; crises in the world of finance and economics; crises in th e increasing number of divorces andnervous breakdowns, not to speak of crises in pe rsonalheal th , i n the mounting inc idence of heart attacks,cancer, and other fatal diseases. The average personlooking out on this ever-changing, seemingly chaoticworld sees anything but natural karmic laws at work,nor does he perceive t he uni ty and hannony underlying this constant and inevitable change. I f anything,he is filled with anxiety, with a feeling of hopelessness,and with a sense that life has no meaning . And becausehe has no conc re te insight into the t rue cha racter ofthe world or intuitive understanding of it, what else

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6 INTRODUCTION 7can he do bu t surr ender to a life of matel ial comfortand sensual pleasure? And yet right in the midst ofthis seemingly meaningless swirl ing chaos of changestands the Zen Buddhis t. His equanimity is prooftha t he knows there is more to life than what the sensestell him-that i n t he midst of change there is somethingthat never changes, in the midst of impermanence thereis something always permanent, in the midst of im"perfection there is perfection, in chaos there is peace,in noise there is qu iet , and , finally, i n death there isl ife. So without holding on or pushing away, withoutaccepting or rejecting, he jus t moves a long with hisdaily work, doing what needs to be done, helping wherever he can, or, as the sutras say, "In all things he isneither overjoyed nor cast down."

Like the law of 1mpelmanence, th e doctrine of th eNot-1 is no t t he pro du ct of philosophical speculationbu t the expression of the deepest religious experience.I t affirms that contrary to what we think, we are notmerely a body or a mind. I f not e ithe r or both, whatare we? The Buddha's answer, stemming from his ex"perience of Great Enl ightenment , is ego sha tter ing:

" In t ru th I say to you that within this fathom-highbody, with its thoughts and perceptions, lies the worldand the rising of the world and the ceasing of th e worldand the Way that l eads to the extinction of rising andceasing."What could be grander or more reassuring? Here isconfirmation from th e highest source that we are morethan this puny body-mind, more than a speck throwninto the vas t universe by a capricious. fate-that we areno less than t he s un a nd the moon and the stars andthe great earth. Why if we already possess the wor ldin fee simple, do we try to enlarge ourselves throughpossessions and power? Why are we "alone and afraidin a world I never made," at times self-pitying andmean, at other times arrogant and aggressive? It is be-

cause our image of ourselves and our relat ion to theworld is a false one. We are deceived by our limited fivesenses and discriminating intellect (the sixth sense inBuddhism) which convey to us a picture of a dualist icworld of self-and-other, of things separated and isolated,of pa in and struggle, birth and extinction, killing andbeing killed. This picture is untrue because it barelyscratches the surface. I t is like looking at the one eighthof an iceberg above the water and being unawar e o fthe seven eighths underneath. For i f we could seebeyond the ever-changing forms into the underlyingreality, we would realize that in essence there is nothing bu t harmony and unity and stability, and that thisperfection is no different from the phenomenal worldof incessant change and transformation. But our visionis limited and our intuitions weak.Nor is this the whole of i t. S it ting astride the sensesis a shadowy, phantomlike figure with insatiable desires and a lust for dominance. His name? Ego, Ego theMagician, and the deadly tricks he carries up his sleeveare delusive thinking, greed, and anger. Where he camefrom no one knows, bu t he has surely been around aslong as the human mind. This wi ly and slippery conjurer deludes us into believing that we can only enjoythe delights of the senses without pain by deliveringourselves into his hands.

Of the many devices employed by Ego to keep us inhis power , none is more effective than language. TheEnglish language is so structured th at it demands therepeated use of the personal pronoun "1" for grammatical nicety and presumed clarity. Actual ly this I is nomore than a f igure of speech, a convenient convention,bu t we talk and act as though it were real and true.Listen to any conversation and see how the stress in-. bl f 11 h "I" "1'd " "1 d' d " "1ana y a s on t e - sm .., 1. . .like . . ." "1 hate . . ." All this plays into t he handsof Ego, strengthening our servitude and enlarging our

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sufferings, for the more we pos tu la te this I the morewe are exposed to Ego's never-ending demands.

We cannot evade responsibi li ty for this s ta te of affairs by claimfu.g ignorance, for the machinations ofEgo, as well as the way to be fr ee of them, have beenpointed out time and again by the wisest of men. Afterall, l anguage is our creation. I t reflects our values,ideals, and goals, and the way we see and r elate tothe world. There are languages that do not insist onthe constant repetition of the vertical pronoun for clarity or grammatical completeness. In Japanese, forexample, it is possib le to make sentences without the"I" or other personal pronouns in all bu t a few cases.The Japanese ideal of per sona l behavior, which thelanguage ref lects, is modesty and self-effacement, intheory at least i f not always in practice. The strongassert ion of the Ego-I in contemporary Amelicanspeech, as well as the decline of the passive voice infavor of the act ive shows that we no longer valuehumility and self-effacement, i f we ever did.

Our relative mind of Ego, aided by language, deceives us in other ways. I t constan tly tempts us intodistinctions and judgments that take us farther andfarther from the concrete and the real into the realmof the speculative and the abstract. Take the case ofan ind iv idua l walking alone who suddenly hea rs thesound of a bell. Immedia te ly his d iscr iminat ing mindevaluates it as beaut iful or wei rd , or d is tinguishes itas a church bell or some other kind. Ideas associa tedwith a similar sound heard in the past may also intrudeupon the mind, and these are analyzed and compared.With each such judgment the experience of pure hearing becomes fainter and fainter until one no longerhears the sound bu t hea rs only his thoughts about it.

Or again, we t aci tly agree among ourselves to calla certain object a " tree." We then forget that "tree"is an arbih'alY concept which in no way reveals the

8 ZE N KEYS INTRODUCTION 9hu e ident ity of this object. What, then, is a tree? Aphilosopher might call it u lt imat e t ru th ; a bo tanis t, aliving organism; a physicist, a mass of protons andneutrons swirl ing around a nucleus; an artist, a uniqueshape with distinctive coloring; a carpenter, a p o t e ~ t i a ltable. To a dog, however , it is nothing bu t a unnal.All descriptions, explanations or analyses are bu t a looking from one s ide a t tha t which has infinite dim.ensions.The true nature of the t ree is more than anything thatcan be said about it.

Similarly, we tinker with time by dividing it intopast, present, and future and into years, months, days,e tc. This is convenient, bu t we need to remember thatthis "slicing" is artificial and arbitrary, the product ofour discr iminating mind, which discerns only the surface of things. Timelessness is unaccounted for, Thus,we conce ive a wor ld that is conceptual, limited, andfar removed from the actual.Speaking of t he way in which language falsifies reality Korzybski the father of general semantics, pointsaccusing Bnger at the verb "to be" as the chiefoffender. "The difficulty with the verb ' to be,' ' ' Korzybski is quoted as saying, "is that it impl ies a stati:,absolute quali ty, whereas the law of universeconstant change. The moment one says, This rose ISred' it has a lready changed into something else. Bes ides to someone else the rose may appear to be pink.B e t t ~ r to say," adds Korzybski, "'This rose appea rs tome as red.' ' ' Fo r Zen, however, a rose is not merelyred, pink, yellow, bu t it is all"colors. and at ~ e s a m ~time it is no color. Does not a Rose IS a rose IS a rosemore nea rly convey the cosmic grandeur and i n f i n i ~ ebeauty of a rose than "This rose appears to me as red ?But why say anything? En te r the he ar t of the rosesmell it, t ouch it, t as te it-and what is there to s ay except perhaps , "Ah, wondel fu l! " or better yet, simply,"Ah!" or best of all, just a smile-a smile that flowers.

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The Zen Masters have always been alelt to the snareof language, which "fits over experience l ike a glove,"and have used language in such a way as to l ibe ra tetheir discip les from its bind. What are these methods?Hui-neng, the Sixth Pahiarch, once taught: "If somebody asks you a questi on expect ing 'Yes' for an answer, ~ n s w e r 'No: and vice versa. If he asks you aboutan ordinmy man , answer as if he asked about a saintand vice versa. By this use of relatives teach him th;doct:ine of t he Mean. Answe r all his questions in thisfashIOn and you will not fal l into error."

Chao-Chou (Joshu in Japanese), a famous Zen Master , was frequently asked, "Is it true that even a dog~ a s t h ~ Buddha-nature?" the implication of the question bemg that i f such an exalted being as man has th epure, all-embracing Buddha-nature, how can such alowly creature as a dog also have it? To this question~ h a o - C h o u sometimes answered, "No, it hasn't" (Mum Japanese, Wu in Chinese ), and at other t imes "Yesit has." The questioners may have been g e n u i n e l ~ p u z ~zled by the statement in the sub-as to the effect thatall be ings possess the Buddha-nature, or they mayhave been feigning ignorance in order to see how ChaoChou would respond. Since Buddha-nature is commonto all existence, logically either answer makes no sense.But more than logic is involved here. So what is ChaoChou up to? Is he :Bouting the logic of language to showthe monks that absolute truth lies beyond affirmationand negation, or is he, by the manner in which heutters "Yesl" or "Nol" actually thrusting this Buddhanature at his questioners?In another well-known episode Nan-Chuan, theteacher of Chao-Chou, returned to his monas te ry one

day to find some of his monks qua rr el ing about a ca ts it ting in front of them. Presumably they were arguingabout whether a cat, like a dog, also has the Buddhanature. Sizing up the situation at once and taking ad-

van tage of the occasion to bling home to them thetruth they were obscuring, Nan-Chiian suddenly seizedth e cat, held it aloft and demanded, "One of you monks,give me a word of Zenl I f you can I will spa re th e lifeof the cat , o therwise I wil l cu t it in twol" No one knewwhat to say, so Nan-Chuan boldly cut the ca t in two(not really, though; he merely went through the mot ions of do ing so; "cutting the cat" makes the episodemore vivid and dramatic). That evening Chao-Chou,who had also been away, returned. Nan-Chuan toldh im wha t had happened and asked, "Suppose you hadbeen there. What would you have done?" Without aword Chao-Chou took off his s lippers, p laced them onhis head and slowly walked out of th e room. "I f onlyyou had been there," said Nan-Chuan admiringly, "youwould have saved the life o f the cat."

Now what is a word of Zen? In Zen there a re wha tare called live words and dead ones. The admired liveword is the gu t word, concrete and vibrant with feeling; th e dead wo rd is the explanatory word, dry andl ifeless, issuing from the head. The first unifies; thesecond separates and divides. Neither the monks norChao-Chou spoke a word, yet Nan-Chuan put downthe monks and praised Chao-Chou. Why? What wasthe significance of Chao-Chou's putting his slippers onhis head and walking out? What d id Nan-Chuan demonsh'ate by his act of "cutting" the cat in two? Andsay where that dead cat is light now! Aren't weall dead cats whenever we argue and speculate, makegratuitous assumptions, jump to conclusions?A Chinese Zen Mas te r once gave this problem to hisdisciples: "A monk is hanging by his teeth from abranch high up in a tree. His hands can 't rea ch abranch above h im nor his fee t touch a branch underneath. On th e ground below someone seliously asks,'What is the highest truth of Buddhism?' I f he openshis mouth to sp eak he will fall down and possibly be

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killed. Yet if he doesn't respond he evades his duty.What should he do?"This is not a teaser designed to t it ilate the intellectfar from it. Among other things, it points up a fundamental problem in human relations: when to speak and

when to remain sil.ent. For to spin fine words and emptyp? rases, to embrOIder theories and explanations of onekind or .anothe r can be harmful, even fatal, to one's

p e ~ s o n a l i t y . But to be silent and not speak when by sodomg we can help a suffering fellow being is craven.Also, the re are many forms of silence. There is tllesilence where one doesn't know what to say the silencewhich is the better part of valor, and the siience whichs ~ e a k s louder than words. Which of these forms ofsilence was the monk's, and furthermore, was he answering the question put to him or not?These episodes or teaching methods were col lectedby later generations of masters and given to theirstudents to solve as part of their training. They cameto called,. koan (kung-an in Chinese; li terally "apublic. re,eord ) ; th at is, cases that could be relied uponas pomting to and embodying ultimate huth. Theyare not unlike cases at common law that establish

l e g ~ precedent. One of the prizes of Zen Keys is asenes of forty-three koan, appearing in English for thefirst time, by Tran Thai Tong, a Vietnamese who wasIst king of the Tran Dynasty (1225 -1400 ) inVIetnam. He pract iced Zen while still reigning, and

at the age of forty-one gave up his Wane to his son~ e v o t i n g himself thereafter to the most intensive p r a c ~t ice of Zen. Each of the koan contains a theme a br iefcommentary and a verse, all by Tran Thai Tong.Though in the style of the Mumonkan a well-knownChinese book of koan, they n o n e t h e l e s ~ have a flavordistinctly their own.Chapter VI of Zen Keys, entitled "The Regenerationof Man," may strike sophisticated readers as naIve and

12 ZEN KEYS INTRODUCTION 13perhaps even s:implistic. Yet it would be a mistake t opass over l ight ly what lies beh ind the simple expression. Among other things, Thich Nhat Hanh pleadsfor a dialogue between Eas t and West based uponmutual respect and understanding and not on feelingsof Western superiori ty . These sentiments have be enechoed innumerable times by thoughtful and knowledgeable Asians. We in the Wes t must heed this wiseand earnest voice speaking out of the heart of Asia ifwe are to avoid a thi rd world war and the not improbable de stmc tion of most of t he human race and ourplanet ear th . Americans espec ially mus t listen withan unprejudiced, bel ieving heart , for not only is ourkarma with Vietnam and Asia deep-in one generationwe have fough t three land wars there-but to a largeextent the fat e of humanity rests upon us. To all butthe obtuse it is clear that the world is at a crossroads,its velY survival at stake.We need to recover our basic humanity. Pride inour technological achievements has replaced love of our

fellow man, as Nhat Ranh observes. We need to purgeourselves of pride and self-seeking. Above all, we mustregenerate ourselves morally and awaken spiritually,and this means becoming aware of the t rue nature ofthings and of our responsibilities to the world. Thecontamination of our own and the world's environmentand our squandering of dwind ling natural resourcesthrough over-consumption, waste, and mismanagementspeak eloquently of our greed and irresponsibility. Howlong will the rest of the world stand by while we inAmerica with only 6 per cent of tlle world's populationconsume 40 pe r cent of its resources? The energy crisiswe are now experiencing may well be the Ist signalof the revolt against this intolerable situation.Many in America are beginning to understand this,and even our government leaders are saying we mustdrastically alter our style of living. Do they really un-

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ern cultural accretions and develop new forms in response to the needs of our own culture and society.This Thich Nhat Ha nh and other Zen-oriented Asiansaffinn.

The out line of the new Amelican Zen is a lre adyemerging. I t is away from temple-based Zen and morein the direction of large centers where monks and laymen and women practice the Buddha's way together,with smalle r affiliated communities func tioning inother areas of the counhy. We also find many of themore "aware" trends in American society being incorporated into the l ife-style of these Zen communities.Many of these gl'OUpS are eating natu ra l foods,gardening organically, and l iving communally, as wellas including within their Zen training such body-minddisciplines as hatha yoga and tai-chi chuan. In theirreligious life as well, they are beginning to create meaningful ceremonies and rituals appropriate to the American scene and the New Age. Also, in the citiesmembers of Zen communities, car rying bur lap bags,periodically clean up their neighborhoods, therebylearning humility and non-attachment. Others take suchmenial jobs as housecleaners, dishwashers, and garbagemen for the same reasons. Their lives truly reflect theprinciple tha t " a man is rich, not in what he possessesbut in what h e can do without with dignity."

I t would be a great p ity, though , if Amer ican Zensevered i ts links with t he great Asian traditions thatspawned and nourished i t; this would in effect be discarding hundreds of years of experiential knowledge ofthe human mind. Always there is the danger of throwing out the baby with the bath water.

As the fust authoritative book in English on the ZenBuddhist h'adition of Vietnam, Zen Keys is one morebright link i n the chain of Asian Zen and for this reasoninvaluable.

14 ZE N KEYSderstand the spiritual implications of this? How are weto uproot the greed, anger, and wrong thinking lyingat the base of our actions? How, in o ther words, a rewe to horizontalize the mast of the inflated nationalego?

One obvious answer is-through Zen. Not necessarily Zen Buddhism bu t Zen in its broad sense of a onepointed Aware mind; of a discipl ined life of s impl icityand naturalness as against a cont rived and artificialone; of a life compassionately concerned with our owna nd th e world's welfare and not self-centered and aggressive. A life, in short, of harmony with the naturalorder of things and not in constant conflict with it.

The problems of pollution and energy we hear somuch about have always been dealt with in Zen training. Zen, after all, speaks to the most fundamental pollut ion of all, the pollution of the human mind. As foran energy crisis, we have never been without one. Thereal energy crisis is an internal one: how to mobilizethe unl imited energy locked within us-how to splitthe atom of the mind if you like-and use it wisely forourselves and mankind. For it is the release of thisenergy that leads to awakening and Awareness.As Zen Keys points out, in the E ast Zen is decliningdue to war and t he heavy inroads of materialism andtechnology. In the West, however, it is the disenchantment with the "good" li fe produced by materialismand technology that is largely fueling the current interest in Zen. For together with the realization thattechnology makes "major contributions to minor needsof man" is the awareness that we have become cogsin an out-of-control wheel, living by a value systemthat does not see man as a human being bu t merelyas a consumer of things. I f Zen is to find a permanenthome in America and become a l iving force in the livesof Americans, it is obvious i t will have to shed its East-

INTRODUCTION 15

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16 ZEN KEYS

A\VARENESS OF BEING

Albert and Jean Low, the translators of Zen Keysfrom the French in which it was wri tten, are no stran-gers to the world of Zen or to translations of Zen books.Both have been training in Zen at The Zen Center ofRochester for the past seven years. Before that they hadstudied and practiced several other spiritual traditions.Their translation of Dr. Hubert Benoit's Le t Go evokedfrom the author a personal l et te r of commendation.When Thich Nhat Hanh was asked by t hem whe therhe wished to review their translation before it was pub-lished, he wrote: "I have perfect confidence in yourabilities and do not feel it necessary to check yourwork." This confidence has not been misplaced. ZenKeys conveys the authent ic "feel" and flavor of Zen.Understandably so, for it is a loving and knowledgeabletranslation. ,

PHILIP ."KAPLEAURoshi and Director,The Zen CenterRochester, New York

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*The Little BookI ENTERED THE ZEN MONASTERY when I was seventeenyears old. After a week's adjusbnent to monas tic life,I presented myself before the monk who had beenpu t in charge of me to ask him to teach me the Zen"way." He gave me a small book printed in Chinesecharacters and recommended I learn it by heart.Having thanked him, I ret ired to my room with thesmall book. This book-which is famous-is divided intothree parts: 1) Essentials of Discipline to Apply EachDay; 2) Essential Elements of Discipline for a Novice;3) Exhortation of the Zen Master Kuai Chan.There is no Zen philosophy in this book. The threeparts treat practical problems only. The first teachesthe method of mind control and concentration; thesecond sets down the required discipline and behaviorof monastic li fe; the third part is a velY beautiful pieceof writing, an exhortation addressed to Zen disciplesto encourage them in their meditations so that theywill take to heart the fact that their time and l ife areprecious and should not be vainly dissipated.I was assured that not only novices of my age muststart with this book-which is called Loot Tieu in V i e ~ -namese (Little Manual of Discipline) -but that monksof even thi rty or for ty years of age must also follow theprescriptions of Luat Tieu.Before entering the monastery, I had already re-ceived a lit tle Western education, and I had the impression that the method of teaching the doctrine inthe monastery was old-fashioned.

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20 ZEN KEYS AWARENESS O F BEING 21First it was necessary to lea rn by heart the wholebook; then people were to engage in its prac tice , with

out even. having been given the fundamental princi ples of the theory. I unburdened myself to anothernovice who had ah'eady been there two years. "I t is t heway followed here," he told me. "I f you want to learnZen, you must accept this way." I had to resign myselfto it.The first part of the Little Manual, "Essentials ofDiscipline to Apply Each Day," conta ins only formulations aimed at bringing about Awareness of Being(samyaksrm1"ti). Each act of the novice must be accompanied by a particular thought. For example, whenI wash my hands, I must evoke this thought: "Washing

my hands, I wish that the whole world shou ld havevery pure hands, capable of holding the Truth of En-lightenment." When I am sit ting in the Meditation Hall,1 must think: "In this upright position, I wish thatall living beings should be seated on the throne of perfec t enl ightenment, the ir mind puri fied of an illusionand of all error." And even when 1 am in the toilet Isay to myself: "Being in the toilet, 1 wish that a l l l i v i ~ gbeings might rid themselves o f greed, hat re d, ignorance, and all other defilements.""Essentia ls of Discipline to Apply Each Day" contains a limited number of similar thoughts. A ready intelligence should be able to make up others to be usedon different occasions. Those proposed by the Manualare only examples; the practit ioner can modify them,even change them and make them into others moresui ted to his needs and to his physiological and mentalconditions. Suppose I should be about to use the tele

phone and I wish to evoke in my mind a thought capable of keeping me in a sta te of Awareness. This thoughtis not found in the Little Manual because at the timethe book was written there were no telephones. Icould then invent a thought like the following: "Using

the telephone, I wish that all l iving beings should freethemselves of doubt and prejudice in order that communication between them should be readily established."

When I was seventeen years old, I thought that theLittle Manual was des igned for ch ildren or for peopleon the fringes of Zen. I did not attach any more import anc e to this method than as preparation. Today,twenty-nine years later , I know that the Little Manualis the very essence of Zen and Buddhism.

*Necessary Awareness1 REMEMBER A SHORT CONVERSATION between Buddhaand a phi losopher of his t ime.

"1 have heard tell of Buddhi sm as a doct ri ne of enlightenment. What is i ts method? In other words, whatdo you do every day?""We walk, we eat, we wash ourselves, we sit

down .. '. ""What is there that is special in those actions? Every

one walks, eats, washes himself, si ts down . . .""Sir, there is a difference. When we walk, we areaware of the fact t ha t we walk; when we eat, we areaware of the fact that we eat, and so on. When others

walk, eat , wash themselves, or sit down, they are 'notaware of what they do."This conversation clearly expresses the Awareness ofBeing which in Buddhism is the secret by which man"sheds light" on his existence, produces the power of

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22 ZEN KEYS AWARENESS OF BEING 23concentration, and, nally, brings wisdom to fruition.Awareness of Being is the backbone of the Buddhistmethod.

To light existence? Yes, and this is the point of departure. I f I live without having Awareness of this life,that amounts to not having lived. I can then say, as didAlbert Camus in his novel The Outsider, I live as onedead." The ancients used to say, One lives in forgetfulness, one dies in a dream." How many people thereare among us and around us who live as though dead"!That is why the rs t thing to do is to come back to life, .to wake up, to be aware of what we are, of what wedo. The one who eats, who is he? And who the one whodrinks? The one who sits in meditation? And who is he,the one who consumes his life in forgetfulness andnegligence?To produce the power of concentration? Yes, becauseAwareness of Being is a discipline that helps man torealize himself. Man is a prisoner of his social sphere.He is governed by social events. He disperses himself.He loses himself. He cannot return to his integral state.In this case, to be aware of what one does, of whatone says, of what one thinks, is to begin to resistinvasion by the surroundings and by all the errors towhich forgetfulness gives bu th . When the lamp ofAwareness of Being is lit, moral conscience l ights up;and the passage of thoughts and emotions likewise islit up. Respect for oneself is re-established, the shadowsof illusion can no longer invade a man. From this fact,. spir itua l force is concenh'ated and develops. Youwash your hands, you dress yourself, you perfonn everyday actions as before; bu t now you are aware of allyour actions, words, and thoughts.This prescription is not only designed for a novice:this prescription is for evelyone, including the greatEnl ightened Ones, even Buddha himself. And, in

fact, are not power of concentration and spiritual forcethemselves the characteristics of the great men of humanity?

To bring wisdom into bloom? Yes, because the ultimate aim of Zen is the vision of reality, acquired bythe power of concentration. This wisdom is Enlightenment, the perception of the t ru th of being and of life.This is what all practitioners of Zen wish to attain.

'*To Be MindfulTms PROCESS-To Light Existence, Produce the Powerof Concentration, and Bring Wisdom to B l o o ~ i s , ~ a ~ e din Buddhism the Process of the Three Studies. Stla,Samadhi and Prajna (Discipline, Concentration, andWisdom) are the Sanskrit terms. The word Sila" (Disc ipline) mus t here be t aken to signify Awareness ofBeing. Sila does not denote rules to prevent . i m m o r ~ lactions. To be attached to rules without graspmg thenmeaning is to take a means for an end; it is to fall intowhat Buddhism calls attachment to rules, one of themajor obstacles to knowledge. I t is not by virtue ofmoral conduct that one can realize Wisdom, bu t bymaintaining body and mind in the pennanent Awareness of Being. That is why the application of thoughtsleading to Awareness of Being is called the Essentialsof Discipline."When a scientist works in his laboratory, he does notsmoke, he does not eat sweets, and does not l isten tothe radio. He abstains not because he thinks that these

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24 ZEN KEYSthings are sins, bu t because he knows that they impedethe perfec t concentration of his mind on the objec t ofhis study. It is much the same in Zen Discipline: theobservance of this discipline must help the practitionerto live in Awareness of Being; it does not lead to moralobjectives.Zen Wisdom cannot be obtained by the intellect:study, hypothesis, analysis, synthesis. The practitionerof Zen must use all of his ent ire being as an instrumentof realization; the intellect is only one part of his being,and a part that often pulls him away from living reality,the velY object of Zen. I t is for this reason that theLittle Manual does not have as i ts object the prepara-tion of a theory-it introduces the practitioner directlyinto the Way of Zen.In the monastery, the practitioner does everything:

he carries water, he looks for firewood, prepares food,cultivates the garden. . . . Although he l eams the wayto sit in the Zen position and to practice concentrationand meditation in this position, he must strive to re-main constantly aware of being, even when he carrieswater, cooks, or cultivates the garden. He knows thatto carry water is not only a useful action, it is alsoto practice Zen. I f one does not know how to practiceZen while carrying water, it is useless to live in a mon-astery. The Little Manual, as I have already said, in-troduces the practitioner directly into the world of Zen,even i f the practitioner seemingly does exactly thesame things as those who do not pract ice the way.The Zen Master observes his s tudent in silence,while the lat ter tries to "light" his existence. A studentmay have the impression that not enough a ttentionis paid to him, bu t in reali ty his ways and his actscannot escape the observation of the Master. The Mas-ter must know i f his student is or is not "awake." I n themonastery, one must be aware of all that one does. If ,for example, the student shuts the door in a noisy way,

AWARENESS OF BE INGhe thus proves that he is not aware of his being. Virtuedoes not lie exactly in the fact of closing the door gently,but i n the awareness of the fact that one is in the proc-ess of closing the door. In this case, the Master simplysummons his st udent and reminds him that he mustclose the door gently; tha t i t is necessary for him "to bemindful" of himself. He does this not only in order thatthe silence of the monastery be Tespected, bu t in OTderto show the s tudent that he is not in keeping with theway of Zen; this explains the absence of "acts of ma-jestic behavior" (uy nghi) and "subt le gestures" (tehanh). I t is said that in Buddhism there a re ninetythousand "subt le gestures" the novice must pract ice.These gestures and acts are the expression of the pres-ence of the Awareness of Being. All that one says,thinks and does in this sta te of conscious awareness isdescribed as having "the taste of Zen."

I f a practitioner hears himself reproached for lackingthe "taste of Zen" in what he says and does, he shouldrecognize tha t he is being reproached for living withoutAwareness of Being.

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*Seeing into One's Own NatureIN MY MONASTERY, as in all those belonging to the Zentradition, there is a very flne portrai t of Bodhidharma.I t is a Chinese work of ar t in ink, depicting the Indianmonk with sober and vigorous features. The eyebrows,eyes, and chin of Bodhidharma express an invinciblespirit. Bodhidharma lived, i t is said, in th e fth century A.D. He is considered to be the First Patriarch ofZen Buddhism in China. I t might be that most of thethings that are repor ted about his l ife have no historical validity; but the personality as well as t he mind ofthis monk, as seen and described through tradition, havemade him the ideal man for all those who aspire to Zenenlightenment. I t is t he picture of a man who has cometo perfect mastery of himself, to complete freedom inrelat ion to himself and to his surroundings-a man having that tremendous spiritual power which allows himto regard happiness, unhappiness, and all the vicissitudes of l ife with an absolute calm. The essence of thispersonality, however, does not come from a positiontaken about the problem of absolute reality, nor from anindomitable will, but from a profound vision of hisown mind and of living reality. The Zen word usedhere signilies "seeing into his own nature." When onehas reached this enlightenment, one feels all systemsof erroneous thought crushed inside oneself. The newvision produces in the one enlightened a deep peace, agreat tranquility, as well as a spiritual force characterized by the absence of fear. Seeing into one's own na-ture is t he goal of Zen.

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Bodhidharma's DictumBUT TO SEE INTO ONE'S OWN NATURE is not th e fmit ofstudies and research. I t is accession to Wisdom througha life lived in the very heart of reality; in a perfectawareness of being. Thus, one might say that Zen isagainst all speculation and all writing. Words do notcarry wisdom. According to Bodhidharma, Zen is:

a special transmission outside the scriptures, notbased on words and letters, a direct pointing to theheart of man in order th at h e might see into hisown nature and become an enlightened being.In the fifth century, when Bodhidharma came to

China, the Chinese Buddhists were enteri ng an eraof studying Buddhist texts that had just been translatedin the preceding period (a period that might be charac-ter ized as being that of translations). Buddhists wereoccupied more with systematizing the ideas and withforming particular Buddhist sects than with practicingmeditation. The dictum thmst forward by Bodhidharmawas, therefore, like a clap of thunder which awak-ened the Buddhists and brought them to the practicaland experiential spirit of Buddhism.

I t is because it is like thunder that Bodhidharma'sdictum seems excessive. Le t us briefly examine the re-lations between Zen and Indian Buddhism, and we shallsee that Zen is none other than Buddhism.

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ZEN KEYS A CUP OF TEABodhidharma said:Zen has been transmitted by the Buddha and hasno relation with the scriptures and doctrines thatyou are in the process of studying [a specialtransmission outside the scriptures].At first sight, it seems then that Zen must be a secret

teaching, transmitted from Master to student throughthe generations; a doctr ine that is not carried on bywriting and cannot be discussed, commented upon, orspread-a spiritual heritage that no one can understandexcept the initiates. One would not even be able tot alk about t ea ch ing it, since Zen cannot be taught,that is, taught through symbols; it passes directly frommaste r to student, from "mind to mind." The imageemployed here is a seal imprinted on a mind; not asea l of wood, copper, or ivory, bu t a "mind seal." Theword "transmission" thus denotes here the transmissionof this .mind seal. Zen is itself a mind seal. The thingsthat one might find in the enormous literature of Buddhist scriptures might be of Buddhism, bu t not of ZenBuddhism. Zen is not found in the scriptures, becauseZen "is not founded on writing." Such is the interpre-tat ion given to Bodhidharma's dictum by the majorityof Zen commentators.

In reality, tosee in the principle "not based on writ-ings" that which characterizes Zen and differentiatesit f rom all the other Buddhist sects is to ignore the veryclose ties existing between Zen and primitive Buddhism-above all the Mahayana Buddhist system-as wellas the historical facts concerning the birth and develop-ment of Zen. The negative att t itude toward the de-scription of ultimate reality by words is common to allBuddhist doctrine. The dictum used by Bodhidharmais only a dras tic way of bringing people to this originalattitude which underlines the importance of direct

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32 ZE N KEYS A CUP OF TEA 33spiritual experience and discredits intellectual specu-lation.

*The Buddhist RevolutionBuunmsM W AS B OR N toward the end of the sixth century B.C. The word "Buddhism" comes from the Sanshit verb Budh, which in the Vedic scriptures fo1'e-mostly signies "to know," then "to wake up." The onewho knows, t ll e one who wakes up, is called Buddha.The Chinese have translated t he word "Buddha" as"the awakened man." Buddhism is, therefore, a doctrineof awakening, a doctrine of knowledge.

But Buddha made i t known from the beginning thatthis awakening, this knowledge, can only be acquiredby the practice of the "Way" and not by studies andspeculation. At the same time one catches sight ofanother particular aspec t of Buddhism: salvat ion, inBuddhism, comes about by wisdom and not by graceor melit.

The entry of Buddhism into Indian history must beconsidered as a new vision concerning man and life.This vis ion was expounded fust as a reaction againstthe Brahmanic conception that dominated Indian society at t he time. This is why the doctrine of Buddhism,reacting 'against the Brahmanic thought and society, isvelY clear ly of a revolutionary nature.

What was this society? From the intellectual standpoint, the authori ty of the Brahmanic tradition dominated all: the Vedic revelat ion, the divine supremacy

of Brahma, and the miraculous power of sacrice, werethe three princ ipal fundamentals one could not dispute. F ro m th e standpoint of belief, Brahma, Vishnu,and Shiva were the object of all the cults. F rom th ephilosophical standpoint, the thoughts of the Vedas andUpanishads were the basis of all philosophical concepts.Sankhya, Yoga, and the six philosophical schools wereborn and were developed upon this basis. Buddhism wasthoroughly opposed to this Vedic au thOl ity and to allthe points of view stemming from it. From the standpoint of belief, Buddhism rejected all deisms and allforms of saclice. From the social point of view, Buddhism combated the caste system, accepting the Untouchables in the Orders at the same level as a king.(Buddha, having met an Untouchable who canied excrement, brought him to the edge of the r iver to washhim, then afterwards took him wi th him and acceptedhim into the Buddhist community, despite the protestsof the others.) From the intellectual standpoint, itrigorously rejected the concept of I (Atma) , whichis the very heart of Brahmanism.

One can see how Buddha reacted against the curre nt s of thought of his time by reading, for example,the Brahmajasutta, which is found in the series TheLong Discourses (Dighanikaya). His opposition to Brahmanic thought mus t be rega rded plimarily as a reaction, a revolt , rather than as an effolt to present theBuddhist point of view. This t ot al oppos ition to Brahmanism does not signify that all the thoughts containedin the Vedas and Upanishads are erroneous or contraryto truth. This opposition is a clap of thunder aimed atgiving a great shock to change the customs, the man-ners, and the modes of thought that enclosed man inan impasse.

I t is because Brahmanism cons iders the concept ofAtma (I ) as a basis for its methodo logy and its ontol-

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34 ZEN KEYS A CUP OF TEA 35ogy, that Buddha expounded the doc trin e of theAnatma (the N o t ~ I ) . What did Buddha mean? This 1 of.whi ch you speak, no m at te r whe th er it be the great 1or small 1, is only a pure conc ep t w hi ch does n ot cor-respond to any reality. That is what Buddha meant.

I f we think in ontological terms, we shall say thatthe doctr ine of the Not-I was considered by Buddhaas a truth opposing the doctrine of I, which is wrong.But if we think in methodological terms, we shall seeimmediately th at the notion of Not-I is an ant idot eaimed at liberating man from the pri son of dogma. Before examining the problem of truth and falsehood, itis necessalY to examine the problem of the attitudeand the method . This allows us to say t ha t th e notionof Not -I was born ini tial ly in reaction to the notion ofthe Brahmanic I , and not as a discovery which hadnothing to do with the thought of the t ime. Yes, initially, it was a simple reac tion; bu t one that was toserve la ter as the point of departure for the presentation of a new Wisdom.

'*Not-IDRASTIC METHODS are ve ry f re quen tl y u sed in Buddhism to upset habits and prejudices. This characteristictrai t of Buddhism is manifested clearly in Zen.

Buddha used the not ion of the Not-I to upset andto destroy; but, later, he used it to expound his doctrine of Awakening. I t can thus also be said that thenot ion of Not-I is the point of departure of Buddhism.

The Buddhis t scr ip tu res often speak of the "Not-I"nature of all phenomena. Things do not possess an ''1''(Sarva dhm'mas nairatmya). This means that nothingcontains in itself an absolute ident ity. This means a rejection of the principle of identi ty which is the basis offormal logic. According to this principle, A mus t be A,B must be B, and A cannot be B. The doctrine of theNot-I says: A is not A, B is not B, and A can be B. Thisis something that shocks people; something that invitespeople to re-examine themselves.

In order to understand the expression Not-I (Anatma) , the concept of Impermanence (Anitya) inBuddhism must be considered.

All is impennanent, because all is in a state of perpetual change. A thing does not remain the same dmingtwo consecutive ksanas (the ksana being the shortestpe ri od of time in Buddhism). I t is because thingstransform themselves ceaselessly that theycam10t maintain their identity, even during two consecutive ksanas.Not being able to fix their identity, they are Not-I;that is to say, devoid of absolute i dent ity. Not havingan identity, A is no longer the A of the preceding ksana;this is why one says that A is not A. Impermanence isonly another name for Not-I . In time, things are impennanent;in space they a re devoid of i dent ity . Not

. only are physical phenomena impennanent and devoidof identity, bu t the same is t rue even for physiologicalphenomena, as for example our body, and psychicphenomena, such as our feelings.However, Impermanence and Absence of Identityare by no means t ru ths taken f rom reali ty with the

intent to found a doctrine of Action. Many people,who are not conscious of this f a ~ t , say that Anatmaand Anitya are the bas is fo r a negat ive and pessimisticmoral dochine. To say, "If all things are impermanent

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A CU P OF TEAZE N KEYSand devoid of ident ity, it is not worth the t rouble tostruggle so hard in orde r to obt ai n t hem," is t o misunderstand the true spirit of Buddhism. We know thatBuddhism aims at salvation through the means of Wisdom. I t is therefore necessary to examine the Buddhistdoctrine from the point of view of the problem of understanding, and not has tily to embrace a ph ilosophyof Action. Impermanence and Absence of Identity mustbe studied as guiding pr incip les with a v iew to Understanding.

*Things and ConceptsTHE PRINCIPLE of Non -Ident ity brings to light thatenormous chasm that opens between things and theconcept we have of them. Things are dynamic andliving, while our concepts of them are s tatic and poor.Look, for example, at a table. We see the table; wehave the impression tha t the tab le in itself and the concept of table that is in our mind are identical. In reality,what we bel ieve to be a t ab le is nothing other than ourconcept of the table, while t he tabl e in itself is something else entirely. Some scant notions-wood, of browncolor, hard, being three feet h igh, old, etc.-bring aboutthis concept of a t abl e in us. The t ab le in i tse lf is notso scanty in reality. For example, a nuclear physicistwould tel l us that the table is not a p iece of s ta ti c matter, that it is const ituted of a multitude of atoms whoseelectrons move like a swarm of bees, and that if we

37could pu t these atoms next to each other, we wouldhave a mass of matter smaller than a finger. This table,in reality, is always in t rans fo rmat ion; in t ime as wel las in space it is connected to other things that we mightcall non-table. I t depends upon them so closely that ifwe should take from the table all that which is nontable, th e table itself would no longer exist.

The forest, th e tree, the saw, the hammer, the cabinetmaker, for example, are part of this non-table, andt he re a re still other elements that are in relat ion tothis non-table, such as the parents of t he cabinetmakerthe bread that they eat, the blacksmith who makeshammer, and so on. I f we know how to look at th etab le in i ts relat ionship with all this non-table, we cansee in it the presence of all th e non-table. We can saytha t the existence of the table implies, or demonsh'ates,the existence of that which is non-table; that is to say, ofthe ent ire universe. Thi s idea is expressed in theAvatamsaka system of Buddhism by the notion of the"mult i- in ter-orig in" of things. A notion i n which theone is equal to the all, and the all equal to the one.

*The Principle of the Interdependence of ThingsTHE PRINCIPLE of cause and effect is called in Buddhismthe principle of "inter-origin." The birth, growth, anddecline of things depend on a number of conditionsand not upon a single one. These conditions are calledpratyayas. The presence of a thing (dharma) implies

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ZEN KEYS A CUP OF TEA 39the presence of all o ther th ings. The enlightened mansees this thing not as a separate entity bu t as a complete manifesta tion of reali ty. A Vietnamese Zen monkof the twelfth century, Dao Hanh, said, "I f it is of

. existence, eve ry th ing exists, even a speck of dus t; if itis of emptiness, everything is empty, even this universe."The doctrine of Non-Identity aims at bringing to light

the inter-dependent natme of things; at the same timeit demonstrates to us the fact that the concepts wehave of things, as well as t he categories such asexistence/non-existence, unity/plurality, etc. do notfaithfully reflect reality and cannot convey it. I t showsus that the wor ld of concepts is other than t he wo rl dof reality in itself. I t forewarns us that conceptual knowledge is not the per fe ct instrument for studying truth;that our words are inc apab le of expressing the truthabout that which concerns ultimate reality.

*The Vanit y o f MetaphysicsTHESE PRELIMINARY REMARKS have a direc t re la tionship with Zen; we can say tha t they constitute thepoint of departure of Buddhism and at the same timeof Zen Buddhism.

I f concepts do not represent reality, conceptualknowledge of rea li ty must be considered erroneous.That is demonstrated many times in Buddhism. Buddhaalways told his disciples not to spend their time and energies in metaphysical speculation. Each time he was

a sked a question of a metaphysical kind, he remainedsilent. He directed his disciples toward practical efforts.Questioned one day about the problem of the infinityof the world he said, "Whether the world be finite orinfinite, whether it be limited or unlimited, the prob-lem of your salvation remains th e same." Anothertime he said, "Suppose a person should be sh'uck by apoisoned arrow and tha t the doctor wished to take outthis arrow immediately. Suppose that the wounded per-son did not want the arrow removed before having received certain information: who had shot it? what is thename of the bowman? his age? who a re his paren ts?for what reason had he fired on him? and so on. Whatdo you think would happen? If one were to wait untilall these questions had been answered , I f ea r that theperson would be dead beforehand." Life is short; itmust not be spent in endless metaphysical speculationswhich will not be able to bring us the Truth.But i f conceptual knowledge is fallible, what other

insh1.lment shall we use in order to grasp reality?According to Buddhism, one can only reach realitythrough direct expelience. Study and speculation arebased on concepts. In conceptualizing we cut up realityinto small pieces which seem to be independent of oneanother . This manner of conceiving things is cal ledimaginative and discriminative knowledge (vikalpa)in the Vijnanavada Mahayanist sect. The faculty which,on the contrary, directly exper iences reali ty withoutpassing through concepts is cal led non-discriminativeand non-imaginative Wisdom (nirvikalpajnana). ThisWisdom is the fmit of meditation. I t is a d ire ct and per-fect knowledge of reali ty, a form of knowledge in whichone does not distinguish subject and object, a form ofknowledge that cannot be conceived by tI1e intellectand expressed by language.

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*Experience ItselfSUPPOSE THAT W E AR E TOGETHER at my house and Iinvite you to have a cup of tea. You take your cup , youtaste the tea which is contained in the cup, and youdrink a little of it. You seem to take pleasure in thet ea . You pu t y ou r cup on the table and we continueour conversation.

Now, suppose that I should ask you what you thinkof the tea. You are going to use your memOlY, yourconcepts, and your vocabulary in order to give a de-;,cription of your sensation . You wil l say, for example,I t is very good tea. I t is the best Tieh Kuan Ying tea,

manufactured at Taipei. I can still taste it in my mouth.I t refreshes me." You could e),.'Press your sensation inmany other ways. But these concepts and these wordsdescribe your direct experience of the tea; they are notthis experience itself. Indeed, in the direct experienceof th e tea, you do n ot m ak e the distinction that youare- th e subject of the experience and that the tea isits object; you do not think that the tea is t he bes t orthe worst , o f t he T ieh Kuan Ying of Taipe i. T h e r ~ isno concept or word tha t frames this expelience, thispure sensation resulting from experience. You can giveas many descriptions as you wish, bu t it is only youwho witness this direct experience of the tea that Ihave given you. '\iVhen someone l is tens to you he canonly recreate for himsel f a certain sensation, basing thison expeJiences t hat h e m ig ht have had himself in thepast concerning tea. And you yourself, when you tr y

A CU P OF TE A. to describe your expelience, are already no longer inthe experience. In the experience, you ar e one with thetea, there is no distinction between subject and object,there is no evaluat ion, there is no discrimination. Thispure sensation can be presented as an example of non-discriminative knowledge. I t is that which introduces usto the hea rt of reality.

*The Moment of AwakeningTo R EA CH T RU TH is not to accumulate knowledge, bu tto awaken to the heart of reality. Reality reveals itselfcomplete and whole at the moment of awakening. Inthe l ight of this awakening, nothing is added and nothing is lost; bu t emotions that are based on c ~ n c e p t s canno longer affect a man. I f Bodhidharma is the ideal man,it is because his image is that of a hero who has brokenthe chains of illusion that enclose man in the world ofemotions. The hammer that is used to break thesechains is the practice of Zen. The moment of awakeningis marked by an outburst of laughter . But thi s is notthe laughter of someone who suddenly acquires a greatfortune; neither is it the laughter of one who has wona viCtOly. I t is, rather, the laughter of one who; afterhaving painfully searched for something for a long t ime,finds it one morning in the pocket of his coat .

One day Buddha was standing in front of the assembly a t Vautoms Mountain. Everyone was wai tingfor the dai ly lesson, bu t he remained silent. After some

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THE CYPRUS INTHE COURTYARD

42 ZEN KEYStime, he l if ted his right hand which held a Hower, allthe while looking at the assembly without saying asingle word. Each looked at him without understandingat all. Only one monk looked at Buddha with sparklingeyes and smiled. Buddha t hen said, "I possess thet reasme of the vision of the perfect doctr ine, I havethe marvelous spirit of Nirvana, I have the realitywithout impurity, and I have transmitted them toMahakasyapa." The monkwho smiled was, indeed, Kas-yapa, a great disciple of Buddha.Kasyapa reached the Moment of Awakening whenBuddha raised his Hower. At the same time he receivedthe "mind seal" of Buddha, to use the Zen terminology.Buddha had t ransmi tt ed his Wisdom from mind tomind; he had taken the seal of his mind and had im-printed it on the mind of Kasyapa. This smile.of Kas-yapa is not a great outbmst , but it is of the same na-w e as the outburs t of l augh ter of the Zen Masters.Kasyapa arrived at Awakening thanks to a Hower; thereare Zen Masters who have obtained the ir Awakeningthrough a resounding ClY and others through a terriblekick.

*

I I I

* *

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'*The Language of ZenTHE ESSENCE OF ZEN is Awakening. This is why one doesnot talk about Zen, one experiences it. But Awakeningis a great phenomenon that radiates like the sun. The"awakened" man is recognizable by particular signs.First of all is liberty; he does not allow himself to beinfluenced by the vicissi tudes of l ife, by fear, joy,anxiety, success, failure, etc. Then there is the spiritualforce that shows itself in calmness, the ineffable smile,and serenity. It can be said without exaggeration thatthe smile, the look, the word, and action of the awakened man constitute the language of Awakening. Thislanguage is employed by Zen Masters to gu ide pr act it ioner s. A Zen Maste r uses concepts and words likeeveryone else; bu t he is neither conditioned nor captivated by these concepts and these words. The language of Zen always aims at destroying the habit s ofthose who only know how to think by concepts. I t tendst o provoke crises, whose funct ion it is to bring tofruition the precious moment of Awakening.

Le t us examine two fragments of conversation:(1) Chao-Chou (to Nan-Chiian) : What is the

Way?Nan-Chiian: I t is our everyday mind.Chao-Chou: In t ha t case, is it necessary torealize it?Nan-Chiian: The inten tion to realize the

Way is something opposedto the Way itself.

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The Finger and the Moon*

cause he well understands the mentality of his disciplethat he can recommend to him effective methods toinitiate him into the world of Awakening. The languageof Zen is one of these ways. Aimed at helping the practitioner, this language must:

1. Possess the power of liberating th e man fromprejudices and attachments to knowledge;2 . Be suitable to the man to whom it is addressed;3. Be a skillful and effective method.

As REALITY CAN ONLY BE - LIVED and experienced,Buddhist doctr ine would never have as an aim the description of reality; the doctrine serves only as a method,as a guide, to the practitioner in his experience ofthis reality.The Sutra "The Perfect Awakening" (Maha-

vaipulyapurrwbuddha sutra) says: "All doctrines taughtby Buddha must be understood as a finger pointing tothe moon." To show the moon, we make use of thefinger; bu t we mus t no t confuse the Bnger and themoon, because the Bnger is not the moon. Skillful means-in Sanskrit, upaya-are things created with the intent ion of guiding people in their efforts toward Awakening. I f these means are taken as ends, that is t o say, asthe descr iption of Awakening or as Awakening itself,they cannot play their useful role; on the contrary, theybecome a sort of pem1anent prison. As soon as one

47HE CYPRUS IN TH E COURTYARDEN KEYSChao-Chou: If one has no intention, how

can one know that it is theWay?

Nan-Chuan: The Way does not depend onwhat one knows or on whatone does not know. I f oneknows it, this knowledge isonly made up of speculative ideas. I f one does notknow it, this ignorance isnot di fferen t from inani mate things. I f you get tothe state of non-doubt, youwill see open in front ofyou an unlimi ted universein which things are onlyone. How can one discr iminate in this undiscr iminating world?

(2) A monk asks Zen Master Chao-Chou: Whatwas Bodhidharma's intention when hecame to China?Chao-Chou: Look at the cyprus in thecourtyard.

The first conversation aims at showing the obstaclescreated by conceptual methods and, at the same time,engaging the questioner in the way o.f n o ~ - d i s c r i m i n a tive realization. The second conversation anns at shaking loose t he hab it of conceptualization . a n ~ creatingthe shock necessary to bring about Awakenmg. I fmind of the man is ripe, Enlightenment can occur il lhim.A Zen Master who has obtained Awakening pos-sesses an extraordimuy capacity to understand the mentality of students working under his direction. I t is be-

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ZEN KEYSthinks that the finger is t he moon i tse lf , one no longerwants to lookin the direction the finger is pointing.

The "skillful means" here can be a verbal declaration or a simple gesture. The great Masters possesswhat Buddhism calls the Wisdom of the Skillful Ways(Upaya-fnana), or capacity to create and employ different methods sui table for different mentali ties anddifferent occasions. The conversations between ChaoChou and Nan-Chiian, for example, are some "skillfulmeans." The cyprus in the courtyard and the :Bowershown by Buddha i n silence are equally skillful means.But t hese means are only truly skillful if they aresuitable to the particular circumstances. They mus t be

effective and for this reason should respond exact ly tothe real needs and to the particular mentali ty of thosewhom they seek to guide. I f the Master is not capableof understanding the mentali ty of the student , he willno longer be able to create these skillful and effectivemeans. A single means cannot be employed in all circumstances. Thus, the Master must create manyothers by relying on his understanding of the mentalityof individuals or of groups-in Buddhism one speaks ofthe 84,000 entrances to reali ty. Zen Buddhism underlines the extreme importance of the effectiveness an dthe skillfulness of the means employed by Zen Mastersseeking to bring to fruition the Awakening of their disciples.

*

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50 ZEN KEYSthe e nd t lle child had to depart, and t he poo r f athe rlost forever his beloved son.

This parable shows that when we have acknowledgeda cert ai n thing to be the absolute truth and cling toit, we can no longer accept the idea of opening tlledoor, even if truth i tself is knocking at it. The Zenpractitioner must t he re fore stri ve to l ibe ra te himselffrom his attachment to knowledge and to open thedoor of his being in order that truth might enter . H isMaster must also help him in these efforts. Zen MasterLin Chi once said: "I f you meet the Buddha, kill theBuddha. If you mee t the Patriarch, kill the Patriarch."Fo r the one who only has devot ion, this decl ara ti onis tenible; it confuses him completely. But its effectdepends on the mentality and capacity of the one whohears.! I f the man is s trong, he truly will have thecapacity to liberate himself from all authority, whateverit might be, and to accomplish in himself ultimate truth.Truth is reality itself and not concepts. I f we cling to acertain number of concepts and consider them as beingreality, we lose real ity . This is why it is necessary to"kill" the concepts of reali ty in order that the realityitself can be realized and reveal itself. To kill theBuddha is without doubt t he only way to see theBuddha. The concept that one has formed of th eBuddha impedes one f rom seeing the Buddha himself.

1 "My friends of the Dham1a Way, if you wish to acquirea correct view of reality, do not allow yourself to be deceived by anyone. When you meet someone, either goingout or returning, you must kill mm. I f you meet the Buddha,kill the Buddha. I f you meet the Patriarch, kill the Patriarch.I f you meet the Saint, kill the Saint. This is the only wayby which you might be liberated, free and independent."Conversations of Lin Chi.

'*

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52 ZEN KEYS THE CYPRUS IN THE COURTYARD 53with Zen." Instead of giving th e questioner explanationsabout Zen, the Master opened the door and invited theman to enter directly into th e wor ld of th e reali ty ofZen. "Go and wash th e bow1." These words contain nosecret meaning to explore and explain; it is a verysimple, direct, and clear declaration. There is no enigmahere, nor is this a symbol, either. It refers to a veryconcrete fact.

*The Good Re pl yBUDDffiST TERMS, such as tathata (reality in itself),svabhava (own nature), dharmakaya ( the body of ultimate reality), nirvana (extinction), etc., suggest concepts that have nothing to do with living reality. ZenBuddhism does not consider abstractions and symbols asbeing important. What is impOl tant is real it y itself,Awakening, Awareness of Being. I t can be understoodwhy questions that have been asked about the tathata,Buddha, and dharmakaya have been turned inside outby many Zen Masters. Le t us take the case of a questionthat has been pu t many times by students of Zen totheir Masters; "What is the Buddha?" Here are someof the answers given;

"The Buddha? He is in the sanctuary.""He is made of clay and covered with gold.""Don't talk nonsense.""The danger comes from your mouth.""We are surrounded by mountains."

"Look at tl1is man who exposes his breast andwalks with bare feet."These r ep lies embar rass us perhaps . But the man

who has lived in Awareness of Being can op en theway to Awakening by one of these replies, and theman lost in forgetfulness can be awakened by t he samereply. He who was busy wandering in t he world ofabstractions can sink back into the heart of reality because of such a reply.

*The Kung-an a nd I ts FunctionTHERE ARE, IT IS SAID, nearly 1 ,70 declarations orshort conversations between Zen Masters and their disciples which s erve as kung-an.2 One understands akung-an as a so rt of med it at ion theme, although againit is not exac tly a theme. Kung-an , a Chi.".ese word,means "official document," or a "juridicial document,"or "a document of official value. " Somet imes oneuses, instead of kung-an, the words co taa (k ou tso),or th oa i d au ( hu a fou), which mean respectively "classical formats" and "the nub of a conversation." Thekung-an are used as training subjects in Zen; the practitioner uses kung-an for meditation until his mind comesto Awakening. I t can be said arbitrari ly that thekung-an is like a mathematical problem t ha t t he student must resolve by furn ishing a reply. However, abig difference exists between the kung-an and the math-

2 In Japanese it is called a koan; in Vietnamese, cong-an.

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54 ZEN KEYS THE CYPRUS IN THE COURTYARD 55ematical problem-the solut ion of the mathematicalproblem is included in the problem itself, while theresponse to the kung-an lies in the life of the practitioner.Pu t in another way, the kung-an is a useful instrument

in the work of Awakening, like a pick is a useful instrument. in working on the ground. What is got fromworkmg on the ground depends on the man who workson the ground and not on the pick. The kung-an isnot an e ~ ~ a to resolve; this is why one 'cannot t ru lysay that It IS the theme or subject of meditat ion. Being ~ e i t h e r a theme nor a subject, t he kung-an is onlya skillful means that helps the practit ioner to reach hisgoal.

Kung-an we re in vogue during the Tang Dynasty.Each Zen practitioner had a kung-an to work on. Butbefore this per iod, Zen Masters did not need kung-an.

kung-an is, therefore, not something absolutely indIspensable to the pract ice of Zen. I t is, more or lessa ski llful means created by Zen Masters in orderhelp people who work under their direction. But thekung-an can also become a great obstacle to Awakening i f the practitioner thinks that truth is hidden in thekung-an and that one can interpret it in conceptualterms.

Zen Master Hakuin (a Japanese monk of the Rinzai~ e c t ) used to li ft his hand and ask his disciples, "WhatIS the sound of one hand?" That is a kung-an. Onereflects. One wants to know what is the sound emittedby one hand. Is there a profound significance hidden in this question? I f there is not, why has Hakuin asked the question? And if there is one howmust it be got out? In fact, like a train that ~ l w a y ssees the rail i n front of it and rushes fOlward, our intellect always establishes logical principles in advanceof i tse lf and engages in the search for lTut11. Now,

here, the rails are suddenly cut-taken up. Habit stilltries to establish imaginary rails in order that the t ra inof the intel lect can rush forward as before. But watchoutI To go forward here is to fall into the abyss!

"What is the sound of on'e hand?" Such a question is the ax that cuts the rails in front of the t ra in- i t destroys the habit of conceptualization in us. Andi f the fruit is ripe, that is to say, if our spirit iswell-prepared, this blow of the ax will be able to liberate us f rom the ties that have bound us for so manyyears to th e wor ld whe re we '1ive as though dead,"and bring us back to the heart of living reality. But ifwe are not ready to rece ive i t, we shall continue ourvain pilgrimage in t he wor ld of concepts. The question is there in front o f us, "What is the sound of onehand?" We speculate as much as we can, we imagine this famous "sound of one hand" in a thousand different ways, and what we find we present to the Maste r with th e hope of replying to his ideal But theMaster always says "No!" Arriving then at an impasse,we are on the point of going mad, of losing our mindbecause of this accursed kung-an. And it is exactly atthis moment of terrible crisis that the return to ourselfbegins. Then "the sound of one hand" can become asun which dazzles our whole being.

Hsiang-Yen was a disciple of Maste r Po Chang. Hewas intelligent, bu t on the death of his Maste r he hadnot yet obtained Awakening. He joined Maste r WeiShan and worked under his direction. Wei-Shan askedhim one day, "Speak to me about birth and death. Whatwere your face and your eyes when you were no t yetborn?" Hsiang-Yen, having vainly tried to give a reply,r et ir ed to his room, reflected day and night, rereadthe texts he had studied, searched through the noteshe had made dur ing the time of Po Chang, bu t wasunable to find a reply. When he presented himself to

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ZEN KEYSWei-Shan, the latter said to him, "I do not want toknow what knowledge you have acqui red; I only wantto l earn what is you r spiri tual vision. Wel l t hen , t ellme something." Hsiang-Yen replied, "I do not knowwhat to say, Master. Please t ea ch me something." Bu tWei-Shan replied, "What use will it be to you if Ishould tel l you my own view?"Hsiang-Yen felt desperate, he thought that his Mas

te r did not whole-heaItedly want to help him. Heburned all t he books he possessed and went off to aremote :part. He said to himself, "What is the goodof subjecting myself to so much b'ouble to s tudy Buddhism? I t is not necessary to be a man well-versed indoctr ine. I want t o live the life of a simple monk.".One day, as he was in t he process of preparing theground to sow some beans , his fork dislodged a pebblewhich struck against a bamboo stem and went "crack."This sound "crack" brought about Awakening in him.What Wei-Shan called "your face and your eyes beforeyour birth" suddenly became dazzling in his mind. Hehad attained Awakening. 'Wei-Shan refused to introduce Hsiang-Yen into the world of the intellect. Hewanted Hsiang-Yen to return to his t rue nature. And,in fact, the possibility of Awakening only came toHsiang-Yen when he abandoned the enterprises of theintellect. The kung-an , in this case, had done its workwell. In an effective way, it put the practitioner backon the road of spiritual experience, and created a crisisaimed at releasing Awakening.

*The Significance of the Kung-anWE HAVE DISCUSSED the function of the kung-an ratherthan its significance. But a kung-an, to be effective,must at least signify something for the person to whomit is given. When th e Maste r proposes a kung-an forhis disciple it is necessmy he be certain that this kung-anis suitable to the disciple. Put in another way, thekung-an must be a "skillful means." .

The kung-an cannot be any random word enclosmga cont radict ion des igned to derai l th e practitioner inhis search for t ru th by way of speculation. For this reason when he receives a kung-an, the practitioner is

t e ~ p t e d to discover some significance in it . This desireto decipher the kung-an always takes h im off into thelabyrinth of philosophical reflection.

I t is first necessaIy to recognize that a leung-an onlyhas significance when it is addressed to a determinedperson or to a determined group. Outside of t h i ~ p ~ r -son, or this group, th e kung-an no longer has sIgmficance. This is the princ ip le of skillful means . Eachkung-an is applied to a particular case. If a kung-anis used for more than one person, it is only becausethose people resemble ea ch o ther in thei r ,mental it yand psychological conditions. The significance of a ,kung-an, therefore, only exists for the person concernedand not for others.

To have significance, a kung-an must have significance fo1' someone. This significance cannot be expressed in concepts or reduced to concepts. I f one at-

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tributes the significance to concepts and ideas hiddenin the kung-an , then the kung-an does not indeedpossess any of this sor t of significance. The significanceof the kung-an is the effect produced by the kuna-anitself on the mind of the one who receives it. If akung-an is not adapted to the one for whom it is destined, it no longer has significance, even if it shouldcome from the mouth of a Zen Master.A monk walk ing through a market heard a butchersay to his customer, "This meat is of prime quality."

And the mind of th e monk was enl ight ened , he obtained Awakening. Undoubtedly the butcher is not aZen Mas te r and what he said was not meant to helpthe monk, but by chance, this declaration about thequa li ty of t he mea t struck the mind, already r ipe, ofthe monk and produced a great effect. Only the onenewly enlighteneCl saw the significance and e ffec t ofthe kung-an , whil e the butcher who was its author' ,was totally unaware of what had happened.

The Master must know the mentality of his disciplewell in order to be able to propose an appropriatekung-an. Every Mas te r mee ts success, but he alsoknows failure, and he fails each time he proposes aninappropriate kung-an.

When a fo rmer kung-an-that is to say a kung-analready proposed to another person-is recounted to us,it can sometimes happen that we reach enlightenmentourselves; all that is necessalY is t hat the kung-an issui table to us and our mind is r ipe.

I f t ile kung-an does not produce any ef fect on us, itcan be for two reasons: the first is th at the kung-anis not destined for us; the second is that we are no tyet ready to receive it. In either case, it is necessmy toallow the kung-an to act and not to make efforts atdeduction and reasoning in order to find in i t a conceptual significance. The kung-an only has significance

58 ZEN KEYS THE CYPRUS IN THE COURTYARD 59for th e one who is in the "circle of circumstances."I f we are outside this circle, it can have no meaningfor us at present. Perhaps one day we shall be ~ t h i nth e circle; that is to say, we shall f ind ourselves ill exactly the s:p1e cond iti on as the one .to w ~ o . m thekung-an is presentIy addressed. But while walb?g w,eare still outside the circle. What we mus t do u:.thiscase is to sow this kung-an in the soil of our spmtuallife and water it like a plant with t he water of ourAwareness of Being. One day it will offer to us theflower of Awakening.

*'Chao-Chou's ccNo!"A MONK ASKED CHAO-CHOU, "Does a dog have thenature of Awakening?" "No," said the Master. Anothertime, another monk asked him, " D o ~ s a ~ a v e theAwakening nature?" Chao-Chou rephed: Yes. .

Why two contradictory replies to the same question?Because of the difference of the mentality of t il e twoq u e s t i o n e ~ s . The answers "yes" and "no" .m:rst here beconsidered above all as skillful means, aIffiillg at p r ~ -ducing appropriate effects on the mind of the ~ r a ~ t i . -tioners. Each reply does not c la im to be an o b J ~ c t i v etruth. On the conceptual level, ohjective truth IS onthe side of the word "yes" because in Mahayana Buddhist circles it is said that every being has the A W ~ k ~ :. t -e But in the non-conceptual world of liVIDoll.g n' 1 Ul . th .truth the word "yes" is no longer a concep t at IS op-d U " d ceno"oscd to the concept "no." The wor s yes an

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ac t here. . p r a c t i t ~ ~ n e r in a dif ferent way: th is is,:hy theIr s l g n ~ f i c a n c e can only be received subjectively by t he mlpd of the practitioner concernedThe "no" of Chao-Chou is employed by a n ~ m b e r

of Mast ers as a kung-an for their students. Let us listen,for example , to Master Wu Men3 in his work WU MenKuan:

order to come to Zen it is necessmy to gothlough the gates of the patriarchs. To attainAwakening it is neces sa ry to ge t to the bottom ofthe mind. !f you "cannot pass t hrough the gatesof the pat:"Iarchs, If you cannot ge t to t he bot tom

your mmd, you will remain forever ghosts clingmg plants grass. But what is t he gate of thepatnarchs? ThIs s ingle word "no" is indeed thegate for t he who le school of Zen. The one whocan pass through this gate will be abl e not onlyto meet Chao-Chou, bu t even to walk hand-inha.nd with all the other patriarchs. He will seethmgs with the same eyes, hear things with th esame ears. Is t ha t n