f72 For the Buddhist version of the story, see the Saddharma-puṇḍarīka Sūtra chapter 4, and the Vajrasamādhi Sūtra, chapter 4 (Chinese translation).
f73 Samyutta XII., 65, Nagara; cf. also one of the Prajñā-pāramitā sūtras which is known as one preached by Mañjuśrī (Nanjo Catalogue, No. 21). In the Sutra we find that the Buddha, after mentioning the simile of a gem-digger, makes reference to a man who feels overwhelmed with delight when people talk pleasantly about the old towns and villages once visited by himself. The same sort of a delightful feeling is expressed by one who will listen to the discourse on Prajñāpāramitā and understand it; for he was in his past lives present at the assembly which was gathered about the Buddha delivering sermons on the same subject. That the understanding of the doctrine of Prajñāpāramitā is a form of memory is highly illuminating when considered in relation to the theory of Enlightenment as advanced here.
That the ushering of Enlightenment is accompanied with the feeling of return or remembrance is also unmistakably noted by the writer of the Kena-Upanishad (VI., 50):
Sonadanda the Brahman had the following to say when he grasped the meaning of the Buddha’s discourse on the characteristics of the true Brahman (Rhys David’s translation): “Most excellent, oh Gotama, most excellent! Just as if a man were to set up that which has been thrown down, or were to reveal that which has been hidden away, or were to point out the right road to him who has gone astray, or were to bring a light into the darkness so that those who had eyes could see external forms—just even so has the truth been made known to me, in many a figure, by the venerable Gotama.”
f74 Buddhacarita, translated by E. B. Cowell, pp. 131–132.
f75 Lefmann’s edition, p. 289.
f76 Ariyapapariyesana-sutta, Majjhima-Nikāya, XXVI., p. 167.
f77 Used to designate the school which upholds the doctrine of enlightenment (sambodhi).
f78 This translation is not at all satisfactory.
f79 Jōshu (778—897) was one of the early masters of Zen in the T‘ang dynasty when it began to flourish with its vigorous freshness. He attained to a high age of one hundred and twenty. His sermons were always short and to the point, and his answers are noted for their being so natural and yet so slippery, so hard to catch.
f80 Six Essays by Bodhi-Dharma[4.25] is the book in which the so-called writings of Bodhi-Dharma are collected. See also the Essay “On Satori” which follows.
f82 This is the most significant phrase in Dharma’s writing. I have left it untranslated, for later this will be explained fully.
f83 The author of this story or prefatory note is T‘an-lin (Donrin), who, according to Dr. Tokiwa, of the Tokyo Imperial University, was a learned scholar partaking in the translation of several Sanskrit works. He is also mentioned in connection with Yeka (Hui-k‘ê) in the biography of the latter by Tao-hsüan. If Donrin were more of a scholar as we can see by this identification than a genuine Zen master, it was quite natural for him to write down this “Meditation on Four Acts,” which mainly appeals as it stands to the scholarly interpretation of Zen. While the doctrine of Pi-kwan is emphatically Zen, there is much in the “Meditation” that lends itself to the philosophising of Zen.
f84 Translated into Chinese during the Northern Liang dynasty which lasted A.D. 397–439. The translator’s name is lost.
f85 大乘壁觀功業最高
f86 We read in Tao-hsüan’s Biographies that wherever Bodhi-Dharma stayed he taught people in his Zen doctrine, but as the whole country at the time was deeply plunged into scholastic discussions, there was a great deal of slanderous talk against meditation when they learned of Bodhi-Dharma’s message.
f87 Is it possible that this passage has some reference to the Vajrasamādhi where Bodhisattva Mahābala speaks of a “flaccid mind” and a “strong mind”? The former which is possessed by most common people “pants” (or gasps or hankers) very much, and prevents them from successfully attaining to the Tathāgata-dhyāna, while the “strong mind” is characteristic of one who can enter upon the realm of reality (bhūtakoṭi). As long as there are “pantings” (or gaspings) in the mind, it is not free, it is not liberated, and cannot identify itself with the suchness of reason. The mind must be “strong” or firm and steady, self-possessed and concentrating, before it is ready for the realisation of Tathāgata-dhyāna—a dhyana going far beyond the reach of the so-called four dhyānas and eight samādhis.
f88 This subject was treated in another place, though rather sketchily, and will be further elaborated later in an independent essay.
f89 In this connection I wish to make some remarks against certain scholars who consider the philosophy of Śūnyatā to be really the foundation of Zen. Such scholars fail utterly to grasp the true purport of Zen which is first of all an experience and not at all a philosophy or dogma. Zen can never be built upon any set of metaphysical or psychological views; the latter may be advanced after the Zen experience has taken place, but never before. The philosophy of the Prajñāpāramitā can never precede Zen, but must always follow it. Buddhist scholars like those at the time of Dharma are too apt to identify teaching and life, theory and experience, description and fact. When this confusion is allowed to grow, Zen Buddhism will cease to yield an intelligent and satisfactory interpretation. Without the fact of Enlightenment under the Bodhi-tree near the Nairañjanā, no Nāgārjunas could ever hope to write a single book on the Prajñā philosophy.
f90 As I stated before, there is a confusion between Dharma’s mien-pi habit of sitting and his doctrine of the pi-kuan meditation. The confusion dates quite early, and even at the time of the author of the Records the original meaning of pi-kuan, wall-contemplation, must have been lost.
f91 Sometimes this man is said to be a civilian and sometimes a soldier embracing Confucianism.
f92 As one can readily see, this story is more or less fictitious. I mean Kuang’s standing in the snow and cutting-off of his arm in order to demonstrate his earnestness and sincerity. Some think that the snow story and that of self-mutilation do not belong to that of Kuang, but borrowed from some other sources, as Tao-hsüan makes no reference to them in his book. The loss of the arm was due to a party of robbers who attacked Kuang after his interview with Dharma. We have no way to verify these stories either way. The whole setting however is highly dramatic, and there must have been once in the history of Zen some necessity to interweave imagination largely with facts, whatever they may be.
f93 According to Hsieh-sung, the author of the Right Transmission of the Law, Bodhi-Dharma has here followed Nāgārjuna in the anatomy of Zen-understanding. For Nāgārjuna says in his famous commentary on the Prajñāpāramitā-sūtra, “Moral conduct is the skin, meditation is the flesh, the higher understanding is the bone, and the mind subtle and good is the marrow.” “This subtle mind,” says Hsieh-sung, is what is secretly transmitted from the Buddha to his successors in the faith. He then refers to Chih-I of the Sui dynasty who regards this mind as the abode of all the Buddhas and as the middle way in which there is neither unity nor multiplicity and which can never be adequately expressed in words.
f94 According to this, there must have been a special volume of sermons and letters by Hui-k‘ê, which were compiled evidently by his disciples and admirers before they were put down in writing and thoroughly revised by the author himself. In the case of Bodhi-Dharma too, according to Tao-hsüan, his sayings were apparently in circulation in the day of Tao-hsüan, that is, early in the T‘ang dynasty.
f95 Understood by some to be leprosy.
f96 In the Vimalakīrti, Chapter III., “The Disciples,” we have the following: “Do not worry about the sins you have committed, O monks,” said Vimalakīrti, “Why? Because sins are in their essence neither within nor without nor in the middle. As the Buddha taught us, all things are defiled when Mind is defiled; all things are pure when Mind is pure: and Mind is neither within nor without nor in the middle. As is Mind, so are sins and defilements, so are all things—they never transcend the suchness of truth.”
f97 Hsin, is one of those Chinese words which defy translation. When the Indian scholars were trying to translate the Buddhist Sanskrit works into Chinese, they discovered that there were five classes of Sanskrit terms which could not be satisfactorily rendered into Chinese. We thus find in the Chinese Tripitaka such words as prajñā, bodhi, buddha, nirvāṇa, dhyāna, bodhisattva, etc., almost always untranslated; and they now appear in their original form among the technical Buddhist terminology. If we could leave hsin with all its nuance of meaning in this translation, it would save us from the many difficulties that face us in its English rendering. For hsin means mind, heart, soul, spirit—each singly as well as all inclusively. In the present composition by the third patriarch of Zen, it has sometimes an intellectual connotation but at other times it can properly be done by “heart.” But as the predominant note of Zen Buddhism is more intellectual than anything else, though not in the sense of being logical or philosophical, I decided here to translate hsin by “mind” rather than by “heart.”
f98 This means: When the absolute oneness of things is not properly understood, negation as well as affirmation will tend to be one-sided view of reality. When Buddhists deny the reality of an objective world, they do not mean that they believe in the unconditioned emptiness of things; they know that there is something real which cannot be done away with. When they uphold the doctrine of void this does not mean that all is nothing but an empty hollow, which leads to a self-contradiction. The philosophy of Zen avoids the error of one-sidedness involved in realism as well as in idealism.
f99 I.e., Tat tvam asi.
f100 There is however a variation from five years to fifteen years according to different authorities.
f101 These accounts, whether truly historical or not, concerning the controversy between the two leaders of Zen early in the T‘ang dynasty prove how heated was the rivalry between the North and the South. The Sermons of the Sixth Patriarch (Fa-pao-tan-ching) itself appears as if written with the sole object of refuting the opponents of the “abrupt” school.
f102 This is a constant refrain in the teaching of the Prajñāpāramitā Sūtras—to awaken one’s thought where there is no abode whatever (na kvacit pratishṭitaṁ cittaṁ utpādayitavyam). When Jōshu called on Ungo, the latter asked, “O you, old wanderer! how is it that you do not seek an abiding place for yourself?” “Where is my abiding place?” “There is an old temple ruin at the foot of this mountain.” “That is a fitting place for your old self,” responded Jōshu. Later, he came to Shūyūsan, who asked him the same question, saying, “O you, old wanderer! why don’t you get settled?” “Where is the place for me to get settled?” “Why, this old wanderer doesn’t know even where to get settled for himself.” Said Jōshu, “I have been engaged these thirty years in training horses, and to-day I have been kicked around by a donkey!”
f103 This is the name of the place where Hui-nêng had his Zen headquarters.
f104 Hsing means nature, character, essence, soul, or what is innate to one. “Seeing into one’s Nature” is one of the set phrases used by the Zen masters, and in fact the avowed object of all Zen discipline. Satori is its more popular expression. When one gets into the inwardness of things, there is satori. This latter however being a broad term, can be used to designate any kind of a thorough understanding, and it is only in Zen that it has a restricted meaning. In this article I have used the term as the most essential thing in the study of Zen; for “seeing into one’s Nature” suggests the idea that Zen has something concrete and substantial which requires being seen into by us. This is misleading, though satori too I admit is a vague and naturally ambiguous word. For ordinary purposes, not too strictly philosophical, satori will answer, and whenever chien-hsing is referred to, it means this, the opening of the mental eye. As to the sixth patriarch’s view on “seeing into one’s Nature,” see above under “History of Zen Buddhism.”
f105 According to the Mahāparinirvāna-sūtra, translated into Chinese by Dharmaraksha, A.D. 423, Vol. XXXIII., he was one of the three sons of the Buddha while he was still a Bodhisattva. He was most learned in all Buddhist lore, but his views tended to be nihilistic and he finally fell into hell.
f106 That is, from the idea that this sitting cross-legged leads to Buddhahood. From the earliest periods of Zen in China, the quietist tendency has been running along the whole history with the intellectual tendency which emphasises the satori element. Even to-day these currents are represented to a certain extent by the Soto on the one hand and the Rinzai on the other, while each has its characteristic features of excellence. My own standpoint is that of the intuitionalist and not that of the quietist; for the essence of Zen lies in the attainment of satori.
f107 W. Lehmann, Meister Eckhart. Göttingen, 1917, p. 243. Quoted by Prof. Rudolf Otto in his The Idea of the Holy, p. 201.
f108 In Claud Field’s Mystics and Saints of Islam (p. 25), we read under Hasan Basri, “Another time I saw a child coming toward me holding a lighted torch in his hand, ‘Where have you brought the light from?’ I asked him. He immediately blew it out, and said to me, ‘O Hasan, tell me where it is gone, and I will tell you whence I fetched.’” Of course the parallel here is only apparent, for Tokusan got his enlightenment from quite a different source than the mere blowing out of the candle. Still the parallel in itself is interesting enough to be quoted here.
f109 See the Essay entitled “Practical Methods of Zen Instruction.”
f110 The lightning simile in the Kena-Upanished (IV. 30), as is supposed by some scholars, is not to depict the feeling of inexpressive awe as regards the nature of Brahman, but it illustrates the bursting out of enlightenment upon consciousness. “A—a—ah” is most significant here.
f111 This is spread before the Buddha and on it the master performs his bowing ceremony, and its rolling up naturally means the end of a sermon.
f112 Tou chi chia, meaning “the verse of mutual understanding” which takes place when the master’s mind and the disciple’s are merged in each other’s.
f113 It was originally a mosquito driver, but now it is a symbol of religious authority. It has a short handle, a little over a foot long and a longer tuft of hair, usually a horse’s tail or a yak’s.
f114 In the Chinese Notes I have added six more such verses which may further help the reader to gain an insight into the content of satori.
f115 This is one of the most noted kō-an and generally given to the uninitiated as an eye-opener. When Jōshu was asked by a monk whether there was Buddha-Nature in the dog, the master answered “Mu!” (wu in Chinese), which literally means “no.” But as it is nowadays understood by the followers of Rinzai, it does not mean anything negative as the term may suggest to us ordinarily, it refers to something most assuredly positive, and the novice is told to find it out by himself, not depending upon others (aparapaccaya), as no explanation will be given nor is any possible. This kō-an is popularly known as “Jōshu’s Mu or Muji.” A kō-an is a theme or statement or question given to the Zen student for solution, which will lead him to a spiritual insight. The subject will be fully treated in the Second Series of the Essays in Zen Buddhism.
f116 Another kō-an for beginners. A monk once asked Jōshu, “All things return to the One, but where does the One return?” to which the master answered, “When I was in the province of Seiju (Ts‘ing-chou), I had a monkish garment made which weighed seven kin (chin).
f117 He is the founder of the modern Japanese Rinzai school of Zen. All the masters belonging to this school at present in Japan trace back their line of transmission to Hakuin.
f118 Literally, “a great doubt”, but it does not mean that, as the term “doubt” is not understood here in its ordinary sense. It means a state of concentration brought to the highest pitch.
f119 Ganto (Yen-t‘ou, 828—887) was one of the great Zen teachers in the T‘ang dynasty. But he was murdered by an outlaw when his death-cry is said to have reached many miles around. When Hakuin first studied Zen, this tragic incident in the life of an eminent Zen master who is supposed to be above all human ailments, troubled him very much, and he wondered if Zen were really the gospel of salvation. Hence this allusion to Ganto. Notice also here that what Hakuin discovered was a living person and not an abstract reason or anything conceptual. Zen leads us ultimately to somewhat living, working, and this is known as “seeing into one’s own Nature” (chien-hsing). The Chinese Notes, [5.39].
f120 Kō-ans (kung-an) are sometimes called “complications,” (kê-t‘êng) literally meaning “vines and wistarias” which are entwining and entangling; for according to the masters there ought not to be any such thing as a kō-an in the very nature of Zen, it was an unnecessary invention making things more entangled and complicated than ever before. The truth of Zen has no need for kō-ans. It is supposed that there are one thousand seven hundred kō-ans which will test the genuineness of satori.
f121 Tsu-yüan (1226–1286) came to Japan when the Hōjō family was in power at Kamakura. He established the Engakuji monastery which is one of the chief Zen monasteries in Japan. While still in China his temple was invaded by soldiers of the Yüan dynasty, who threatened to kill him, but Bukko was immovable and quietly uttered the following verse:
See Chinese Notes, [5.40].
f122 That is, sitting cross-legged in meditation.
f123 This lively utterance remind one of a lightning simile in the Kena-Upanishad (IV. 30):
Lightning flash is a favourite analogue with the Zen masters too; the unexpected onrush of satori into the ordinary field of consciousness has something of the nature of lightning. It comes so suddenly and when it comes the world is at once illumined and revealed in its entirety and in its harmonious oneness; but when it vanishes everything falls back into its old darkness and confusion.
f124 Pao-tz‘u Wên-ch‘in, a disciple of Pao-fu Ts‘ung-chan, who died 928 A.D.
f125 Another time when Jōshu was asked about the “first word,” he coughed. The monk remarked, “Is this not it?” “Why, an old man is not even allowed to cough!”—this came quickly from the old master. Jōshu had still another occasion to express his view on the one word. A monk asked, “What is the one word?” Demanded the master, “What do you say?” “What is the one word?”—the question was repeated when Jōshu gave his verdict, “You make it two.” (Ch. N., [6.3].)
Shuzan (Shu-shan) was once asked, “An old master says, ‘There is one word which when understood wipes out the sins of innumerable kalpas:’ what is this one word?” Shuzan answered, “Right under your nose!” “What is the ultimate meaning of it?” “This is all I can say”:—this was the conclusion of the master. (Ch. N., (Ch. N., [6.4].)
f126 There are many mondoes purporting to the same subject. The best known one by Jōshu is quoted elsewhere; of others we mention the following. A monk asked Risan (Li-shan), “All things are reduced to emptiness, but where is emptiness reduced?” Risan answered, “The tongue is too short to explain it to you.” “Why is it too short?” “Within and without, it is of one suchness,” said the master. (Ch. N., [6.6].)
A monk asked Keisan (Ch‘i-shan), “When relations are dissolved, all is reduced to emptiness; but where is emptiness reduced?” The master called out to the monk, and the monk responded, “Yes,” whereupon the master called his attention, saying, “Where is emptiness?” Said the monk, “Pray, you tell me.” Keisan replied, “It is like the Persian tasting pepper.” While the one light is an etiological question as long as its origin is the point at issue, the questions here referred to are teleological because the ultimate reduction of emptiness is the subject for solution. But as Zen transcends time and history, it recognises only one beginningless and endless course of becoming. When we know the origin of the one light, we also know where emptiness ends. (Ch. N., [6.7].)
f127 Another time a monk was told, “Hold on to your poverty!” Nan-yin Yegu’s (Nan-yüan Hui-yü) answer to his poverty-stricken monk was more consoling, “You hold a handful of jewels yourself.” The subject of poverty is the all-important one in our religious experience—poverty not only in the material but also in the spiritual sense. Asceticism must have as its ground-principle a far deeper sense than to be merely curving human desires and passions, there must be in it something positive and highly religious. “To be poor in spirit,” whatever meaning it may have in Christianity, is rich in signification for Buddhists, especially for Zen followers. A monk, Sei-jei (Ch‘ing-shi), came to Sozan (Ts‘ao-shan), a great master of the Sōtō school in China, and said, “I am a poor lonely monk: pray have pity on me.” “O monk, come on forward!” Whereupon the monk approached the master, who then exclaimed, “After enjoying three cupfuls of fine chiu (liquor) brewed at Ch‘ing-yüan, do you still protest that your lips are not at all wet?” As to another aspect of poverty, cf. Hsiang-yen’s poem of poverty.
f128 An analogous story is told of Sekito Kisen (Shih-t‘ou Hsi-ch‘ien) who is grandson in faith of the sixth patriarch. The story is quoted elsewhere.
f129 When this is literally translated, it grows too long and loses much of its original force. The Chinese runs thus: hao li yu ch‘a t‘ien ti hsüan chüeh. It may better be rendered, “An inch’s difference and heaven and earth are set apart.”
f130 That is, Ts‘ao-ch‘i, where the sixth patriarch of Zen used to reside. It is the birthplace of Chinese Zen Buddhism.
f131 Does this not remind us of an old mystic who defined God as an unutterable sigh?
f132 A monk asked Hsüan-sha, “What is the idea of the National Teacher’s calling out to his attendant?” Said Hsüan-sha, “The attendant knows well.” Yün-chü Hsi commented on this: “Does the attendant really know, or does he not? If we say he does, why does the National Teacher say, ‘It is you that are not fair to me’? But if the attendant knows not, how about Hsüan-sha’s assertion? What would be our judgment of the case?”
Hsüan-chiao Chêng said to a monk, “What is the point the attendant understands?” Replied the monk, “If he did not understand, he would never have responded.” Hsüan-chiao said, “You seem to understand some.”
A monk asked Fa-yen, “What is the idea of the National Teacher’s calling out to his attendant?” Fa-yen said, “You go away now, and come back some other time.” Remarked Yün-chü, “When Fa-yen says this, does he really know what the National Teacher’s idea is? or does he not?”
A monk approached Chao-chou with the same question, to which he replied, “It is like writing characters in the dark: while the characters are not properly formed, their outlines are plainly traceable.”
f133 Literally, “A day [of] no work [is] a day [of] no eating.” cf. II. Thessalonians, III., 10: “If any would not work, neither should he eat.” It is noteworthy that St. Francis of Assisi made this the first rule of his Brotherhood.
f134 Tso ch‘an is one of those compound Buddhist terms made of Sanskrit and Chinese. Tso is Chinese meaning “to sit,” while ch‘an stands for dhyāna or jhāna. The full transliteration of the term is ch‘anna, but for brevity’s sake the first character alone has been in use. The combination of tso-ch‘an comes from the fact that dhyana is always practised by sitting cross-legged. This posture has been considered by the Indians the best way of sitting for a long while in meditation. In it, according to some Japanese physicians, the centre of gravitation rests firmly in the lower regions of the body, and when the head is relieved of an unusual congestion of blood, the whole system will work in perfect order and the mind be put in suitable mood to take in the truth of Zen.
f135 He was the noted Confucian disciple of Baso (Ma-tsu), and his wife and daughter were also devoted Zen followers. When he thought the time had come for him to pass away, he told his daughter to watch the course of the sun and let him know when it was midday. The daughter hurriedly came back and told the father that the sun had already passed the meridian and was about to be eclipsed. Hō came out, and while he was watching the said eclipse, she went in, took her father’s own seat, and passed away in meditation. When the father saw his daughter already in Nirvana, he said, “What a quick-witted girl she is!” Hō himself passed away some days later.
f136 This historical temple was unfortunately destroyed by the earthquake of 1923, with many other buildings.
f137 In those monasteries which are connected in some way with the author of this admonition, it is read or rather chanted before a lecture or Teisho begins.
f138 I must not forget to mention that after the reading of the Hṛidaya Sūtra the following names of the Buddhas and others are invoked: 1. Vairocana-Buddha in his immaculate Body of the Law, 2. Vairocana-Buddha in his perfect Body of Bliss, 3. Śākyamuni-Buddha in his infinite manifestations as Body of Transformation, 4. Maitreya-Buddha who is to come in some future time, 5. All the Buddhas past, present, and future in the ten quarters of the world, 6. The great holy Bodhisattva Mañjuśrī, 7. The great morally-perfect Bodhisattva Samantabhadra, 8. The great compassionate Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara, 9. All the venerable Bodhisattva-mahāsattvas, and 10. Mahāprajñāpāramitā.
f139 When the slop-basin goes around, spiritual beings are again remembered: “This water in which my bowls were washed tastes like nectar from heaven. I now offer this to the numerous spirits of the world: may they all be filled and satisfied! Om ma-ku-ra-sai (in Pekingese, mo-hsiu-lo-hsi) svāha!”
f140 This question of dust reminds one of Berkeley’s remark: “We have just raised a dust and then complain we cannot see.”
f141 Shê-li, is some indestructible substance, generally in pebble-form, found in the body of a saint when it is cremated.
f142 Kung-an is a question or theme given to the student for solution. It literally means “public document,” and, according to a Zen scholar, it is so called because it serves as such in testing the genuineness of enlightenment a student claims to have attained. The term has been in use since the early days of Zen Buddhism in the T‘ang dynasty. The so-called “cases” or “dialogues” (mondo) are generally used as kō-ans. A special chapter devoted to the subject will be found in the second series of The Essays.
f143 I cannot tell how early this “Sesshin” originated in the history of the Zendo. It is not in Hyakujo’s Regulations, and did not start in China but in Japan probably after Hakuin. The Sojourn period generally being a “stay at home” season, the monks do not travel, but practise “Sesshin” and devote themselves to the study of Zen; but in the week specially set up as such, the study is pursued with the utmost vigour.
f144 That is, ti-ch‘ang. Tei means “to carry in hand,” “to show forth,” or “manifest,” and sho “to recite.” Thus by a Teisho the old master is revived before the congregation and his discourses are more or less vividly presented to view. It is not merely explaining or commenting on the text.
f145 Dharaṇī is a Sanskrit term which comes from the root dhṛi, meaning “to hold.” In Buddhist phraseology, it is a collection, sometimes short, sometimes long, of exclamatory sentences which are not translated into other languages. It is not therefore at all intelligible when it is read by the monks as it is done in the Chinese and Japanese monasteries. But it is supposed to “hold” in it in some mysterious way something that is most meritorious and has the power to keep evil ones away. Later, dharanis and mantrams have grown confused with one another.
f146 The founder of Tenryuji, Kyoto. He is known as “Teacher of Seven Emperors.” 1274–1361.
f147 San-ch‘an literally means “to attend or study Zen.” As it is popularly used now in Japan, it has, besides its general meaning, the special one as is referred to in the text.
f148 Formerly, this was an open affair, and all the mondos (askings and answerings) took place before the whole congregation, as is stated in the Regulations of Hyakujo. But, later, undesirable results followed, such as mere formalism, imitations, and other empty nonsenses. In modern Zen, therefore, all sanzen is private, except on formal occasions.
f149 While thus going around, he came to a house where an old woman refused to give him any rice; he however kept on standing in front of it, looking as if nothing were said to him. His mind was so intensely concentrated on the subject which concerned him most at the time. The woman got angry, because she thought he was altogether ignoring her and trying to have his own way. She struck him with a big broom with which she was sweeping and told him to depart right at once. The heavy broom smashed his large monkish hat and knocked him down on the ground. He was lying there for a while, and when he came to sense again, everything became to him clear and transparent.