Sitting Quietly or Acting in the World?

Quietism and Zen Buddhism Jacob Raz

Sitting quietly, doing nothing, Spring comes, and the grass grows by itself Jingde chuan deng lu, [Record of the Transmission of the Lamp], 26 The very trans-lation [carrying over] of a concept from one culture to the other is problematic. When one says king, love, silence, or noise one naturally refers to ones personal and cultural context of the word. Attachment and non-attachment are good examples; they carry very specific and loaded sense in the West, but they resonate in a quite different psychological and spiritual space in the Buddhist world. Therefore, both writer and reader should be wary of carrying over the original cultural and religious sense of Christian Quietism to Zen Buddhism [both western terms]. This is not a linguistic remark; it has to do with the very essence of the subject in question here. Do we universally agree upon what quiet is? All essays in this conference probably open with an attempt to air the definition of Quietism. As is well known, the term comes from Christianity, more specifically from the teachings of Miguel de Molinos [17th c.]. He preached the ideal of devotional and quiet contemplation, abandonment of worldly affairs, including ones own will and the very personal self. The term also implies the religious acceptance of things as they are without trying to resist or change them. These ideas align with the ideal of silence: silent meditation, the ineffability of mystical and contemplative experience, the awareness of the misleading power of words, and the silent communion with God or the Ultimate. No words needed. This sounds quite Buddhist: The silent sitting, the oneness of all phenomena, the denial of self, even, in some sects, the unity with the Cosmic Buddha. I now invite my readers to a mountain monastery of a Zen master of the past who is asked by one of the monks about Quietism, and reacts immediately, ---ism what?!?! Have you finished the weeding in the backyard yet???!!! In this imagined, but authentic, scene I suggest that the master rejects or even expresses contempt towards any attempt of taking seriously any ism, that is, the reduction of life experience into formal definitions, sects, organizations, ideologies or any abstraction whatsoever. Go and do your weeding. You will get all insights and enough Buddhahood there. Still, Buddhism is about meditation, is it not? And meditation is about being quiet, is it not? Buddhism speaks of Nirvana, quiet being; it is about monasteries, retreats, hermits, and ascetics. It cherishes noble silence. How do we reconcile the masters harsh remark and these Buddhist notions and practices? But do we have to reconcile them? The problem lies in the questions assumptions, our imagined master would say. In this paper I claim that the practices, insights, and philosophy of

Buddhism, particularly Zen Buddhism, teach the non-duality of quietist and active practice; that this non-dual nature is rooted in the deepest level of Zen-Buddhist philosophy of life; and that in spite of continuous, often heated, debates on the issue there has never been in Zen a true rivalry between quietist and active practices and philosophies. I am aware that my claim is tricky; nondual claims pre-suppose duality - in our case, that of quietism and action in the world. Admittedly, it could be argued that Zen Buddhism masters observed the duality present in former Buddhist practices but succeeded in bridging these polar directions into one doctrine. But, as I shall try to show, these seemingly polar directions are no more than variations on a basic spiritual belief that rejects the very claim for any one true doctrine. It would even reject the duality between duality and non-duality. These terms exist in the realm of concepts, not in reality; certainly not in the reality of the Zen practitioner. Spiritually and practically, both quietism and action are two different words to describe a unified state of being that includes and transcends these terms, thus denying them altogether. A Brief Introduction to Zen Zen Buddhism is a Western term for a variety of Buddhist practices and philosophical attitudes developed in China from the sixth century A.D.. These were gradually given the name Chan. The Chan School developed as a process of constant intercourse between certain movements in Mahayana Buddhism and Chinese philosophical and religious movements, particularly Daoism. It was later introduced to Japan in late twelfth century, and given the name Zen; it developed in Japan in continuity to its Chinese origin but also with a great deal of innovation. From the beginning of the twentieth century it was introduced to the West from Japan as Zen. It has been flourishing in the West particularly since WWII, first in America and then all over the world. Its influence may be observed in philosophy, psychotherapy, painting, music, dance, design, fashion, martial arts, environmentalism, as well as in social and peace activism. These testify, no doubt, to its non-quietist, or even anti-quietist, nature. And yet, literally, the word Zen, short for Zazen, means sitting meditation. This form of meditation is sitting quietly, legs crossed, observing ones breathing and all there is, inside or outside, rejecting nothing, holding on to nothing, preferring nothing. Until mid-twentieth century the ideal Zen training meant living in a monastery, often in a mountain forest, under the guidance of a roshi [master]. Life in a monastery involves two daily meditations; periodically the disciples practice longer periods of intensive meditations - full days or even weeks, of constant, quiet, meditation sessions. This approach to Zen training that concentrates on sitting was coined by the Japanese Zen Mater Dogen [13th c.], shikantaza, just sit. But a close observation of the history of Zen, in both China and Japan, shows that heated discussions, arguments, even rivalries, between quietists and activists have always been the reality of Zen. My claim is that both sides always represented both approaches. Differences were more of emphasis, not essence. Often they were expressions of trends and local differences, as often happens in spiritual and religious movements. In the following I shall first survey briefly the Western image of Buddhism as a quietist religion, and then describe both sides of Zen, the quietist and the activist. I shall then claim that these have always been one and the same. My use of the word activist here is broader than the common use of the word in the sense of, e.g. social activist; my own use of the word is in the sense that the ideal of the Zen practitioner is being in the world; helping others; practicing his Zen through work, martial arts, cooking, weeding, and other everyday activities; being connected and engaged; all that in addition to his daily sitting. The word quietist in the Zen context will

be used as describing that side of Zen practice that emphasizes quiet sitting, seclusion, contemplation, observation, serenity, and the idea as well as practice of emptiness. Note: Hereafter the word Chan will be used for the beginning of the School in China, and Zen for its Japanese and Western developments. Western Images of Buddhism as Quietist Here are two recent Christian descriptions of Buddhism as quietist: Like Quietism, many eastern religions [Hinduism and Buddhism, for instance] aim at a state of detachment or indifference, whether it be Nirvana for Buddhists, tranquil oneness with the pantheist all-god, or the Tao.1 Both Pantheistic Brahmanism and Buddhism aim at a sort of self-annihilation, a state of indifference in which the soul enjoys an imperturbable tranquility. And the means of bringing this about is the recognition of one's identity with Brahma, the all-god, or, for the Buddhist, the quenching of desire and the consequent attainment of Nirvana, incompletely in the present life, but completely after death.2 Going back to earlier encounters between Christian missionaries and Buddhism, Chan/Zen and other Buddhist sects during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Early Christian missionaries to East Asia and Christian commentators created a quietist image of Buddhism. These were based on observation of monastic life and from references to Daoist, Buddhist, and Zen Buddhist scripts. Bernard Faure [1993] has studied several Christian texts of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries regarding their views on Buddhism and Zen Buddhism. He begins with the writings of the Jesuit historian Jean-Baptiste du Halde [17th-18th c.]. In one of his works du Halde writes, The inner doctrine advocated by the Chinese monks [esp. chan] taught that a vacuum or Nothing is the Principle of all Things, that from this our first Parents had their Origin, and to this they returned after their Death3. In another work he says, apparently in an attempt to speak from the mouths of Buddhist monks, To live happily we must continually strive by Meditation. . . and to this end accustom ourselves to do nothing, to desire nothing, to perceive nothing, to think on nothing; . . . all Holiness consists in ceasing to be, and to be swallowed up by Nothing. [Man] has nothing to fear for the future, because properly speaking he is Nothing.4 This he accompanies with harsh words: Who would take of cultivating fields, and make the useful products of the loom?5 As Faure shows, often these characterizations of Chan Buddhism as Quietism or a form of ataraxy were used to support inner Christian debates about the pros and cons of Quietism, according to the writers stand. In most cases the criticism of Buddhism was actually aimed at
1The

Original Catholic Encyclopedia, Online, http://www.catholic.com/thisrock/1994/9402hotm.asp] Catholic answers. (July 9, 2009) 2 BELIEVE Website, Online, http://mb-soft.com/believe/txn/quietism.htm (July 9, 2009) 3 du Halde, Jean-Baptiste , Descriptions geographique, 1735, p. 51. Quoted in Faure, Bernard, Chan Insights and Oversights: An Epistemological Critique of the Chan Tradition, (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1993), p. 30. 4 du Halde, Jean-Baptiste ,The General History of China, quoted in Faure, ibid., 30. 5 Ibid., p. 277. Quoted in Faure, ibid., p. 31. 3

enemies back home6. The French Protestant philosopher Pierre Bayle is quoted by Faure as saying, If we did not know the folly of our quietists, we would believe that the writers who tell us about these speculative Chinese have neither understood things nor related them very well; but considering what happens among Christians, it would be out of place to be incredulous concerning the folly of the Foe Kiao [fojiao] or Vu guei Kiao [wuwei jiao] sect.7. By wuwei, non-action, the writer refers to one of the main ideas of Daoism, to which I will return later. Comparing Buddhism to Quietists served, then, not the interest in or the scholarship of Chinese Buddhism, but to fight Christian enemies. Of special interest is Pierre Bayles description of Japanese Zen monks: [they] neglect the externals, apply themselves exclusively to meditation, reject any discipline that has to do with words, and apply themselves only to the exercise Soquxin Soqueut [J: sokushin sokubutsu, This very mind is the Buddha], that is to say, the heart.8 The debate on the quietist, or non-quietist nature, of Zen continued well into the twentieth century. D.T. Suzuki, a Japanese scholar of Zen Buddhism, and a Zen practitioner, is considered responsible for introducing Zen to the West, acted and lived mainly in America in the latter part of his life. Being both a Zen-man and, in many ways, a Western scholar, he served as an intermediate of sorts. Discussing the debate on quietism, he often accused several Zen sects [e.g., the Northern School see below - and Soto Zen] as being quietist. As Faure rightly suggests, Suzuki, at the early stage of his scholarly life, seemed to have been ambivalent about the quietist or non-quietist nature of Zen, and about his own attitude towards the issue. Later on, however, especially when facing some Western perceptions of Zen as a spiritual movement where everything goes, he seems to be warning against any quietist interpretation of Zen. His comment about the legendary nine-year wall contemplation of Bodhidharma, the founder of Zen [6th c.], is that such means are something unapproachable for the ordinary practitioner.9 In the same line, he warns against the interpretation of sunyata, emptiness, as negation. Sunyata is, for him, what makes the existence of everything possible. For Suzuki, Zen practice, for example the koan practice, is a hard work of spiritual inquiry and is anything but quiet quest. Moreover, it is precisely the koan practice that keeps Zen from degenerating into quietism or intellectualism. For Suzuki, everydays experience is the highest goal of Buddhism. By this stand he follows many masters of the past. But is Zens position clear about this? And is there any Zen position about this, or any other, issue? Suzukis ambivalent position towards the question of Zen and quietism may well reflect the ambivalence of Zen itself over its long history. In order to understand the complexity of the Chan/Zen attitude towards quietism it is necessary now to look into some of the earlier nonBuddhist influences on Zen Buddhism in both India and China. Non-Buddhist Ideas and Practices of a Quietist Nature in India At the time of its emergence in the 6th-5th BCE, Buddhism was a growing movement within the spiritual and philosophical arena in India. In some significant ways it rebelled against these traditions. In other ways, though, Buddhism was influenced by them and absorbed ideas from contemporary religious and philosophical movements prevalent in India, although it altered them Faure., pp. 31-32. Bayle, Pierre, Ecrit sur Spinoza, (Paris: LAutre Rive, 1983), p. 41. Quoted in Faure, p. 33. 8 Quoted ibid. p. 33. 9 Suzuki, D.T., Essays in Zen Buddhism, 3 vols. (London: Rider and Company, 1949-1953), vol. 2, pp. 125.
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to suit its own intention and practice. It also influenced these movements. Examining some of these ideas, one finds a strong quietist factor in some of these movements, particularly Yoga and the Upanishads. We shall briefly examine a sample of these ideas. A famous passage in the Mundaka Upanishad [III,i.] offers the simile of the two birds on the life-tree: one, on a lower branch, eats both bitter and sweet fruits. The other, seated on top of the tree eats neither the sweet not the bitter fruit. It just sits calmly and serenely. This bird is the Ultimate, the Cosmic and Transcendental Self, while the lower bird is the individual self. The Upanishadic ideal was, no doubt, the calm and serene state of being, which is one with Being. The Bhagavad Gita, one of the most important and influential philosophical discourses in the Hindu tradition, states [5:27-28], When the sage of silence, the Muni, closes the doors of his soul and, resting his inner gaze between the eyebrows, keeps peaceful and even the ebbing and flowing of breath; and with life and mind and reason in harmony, and with desire and fear and wrath gone, keeps silent his soul before final freedom, he in truth has attained final freedom.10 The famous opening of the Patanjalis Yoga Sutra, the most important text of the Yoga philosophy, says, yogash chitnirodhata vritti nirodha [Yoga is the cessation of mental activity]. Patanjali teaches here, and later, the ideal of the silent, lone yogi: He is sitting calmly, gaining ultimate knowledge, and that implies cessation, elimination, abnegation, and total disintegration. Silence is the ultimate truth. These three examples represent several dominant voices in Indian thought and practice around the emergence and early development of the Buddhist movement in India. The Buddha and his followers were familiar with these religious/philosophical trends, and one can find their deep traces in Buddhist thought and practice; after all, the Buddha experienced his great awakening while sitting silently in meditation under a tree. Basic notions and practices of emptiness, the Third Noble Truth of nirodha [fading out, cessation of craving], the life in the monastery, the notion and practice of anatta [non-selfhood], and other ideas and practices in Buddhism support the observation that it adopted quietist directions. Let us turn now to China and look into one of the most dominant Chinese influences on Chan/Zen Buddhism, the philosophy and practice of Daoism. Doaism and Quietism Daoism [Taoism], an ancient complex of religious rituals and intriguing philosophies, emerged, according to tradition during the sixth century BCE, with the teachings of the legendary sage Laozi. When Buddhism was introduced to China from India from the first century [AD] on, it naturally interacted with Daoism, and by the sixth century, it had a tremendous influence on the beginning of the Chan School of Buddhism, mainly because many of its ideas corresponded or echoed basic Buddhist ideas such as emptiness and suchness. It is therefore worth looking briefly at these Daoist ideas. In Daoism, and particularly in the first Daoist work, the Laozi [or Daodejing], the ancient term dao takes on for the first time in the meaning of Ultimate Truth, one and transcendent, invisible (yi), inaudible (xi), and imperceptible (wei; chap. 14), not usable and not namable. These characteristics of the dao were retained in all schools of Daoism.

10

Mascaro, Juan, trans., Bhagavad Gita, (Harmondsworth: Penguin Classic, 1962), p. 29. 5

These features seem to refer to an inner experience resulting from meditation techniques [which are not clarified in the text] aiming at quiescence. Two terms first come to mind as pointing to a quietist tendency in Daoism, and through its influence, in Chan: wuwei and qingjing. The notion of wuwei [non-action, not-doing, non-intervention], means a state of being of letting matters and events go in their natural course, without intervention, and without disrupting the world from its ziran [self-so, so-of-itself, natural] state. This can be interpreted, no doubt, as a recommendation for sitting quietly and doing nothing. However, numerous classical and modern commentators point that the idea suggests non-intervention in the natural course of things rather than literal non-action. The term qingjing is also central to Daoism. It means clarity and quiescence [Daodejing, chap. 45]. Daoism consistently attached importance to qingjing as the ideal state of body and mind, where the mind is constantly quiet and calm, thereby becoming clear, desires disappear, and the practitioner can attain the dao. In the Shiji [Records of the Historian; J. 130] Laozi, the founder sage of Daoism, is described as man who transformed himself through wuwei and established himself as correct through qingjing.11 Miura Kunio, in his article on qingjing, observes that, This compound [qingjing. J.R.] cannot but call to mind Buddhist terminology. The idea of qingjing already existed in early Buddhism, since terms equivalent to the Chinese compound qingjing can be found in both Sanskrit and Pali [parisuddhi, visuddhi: clear and pure, free from defilement], and was later developed within Mahayana [Great Vehicle] Buddhism into the idea of the innately pure mind [meaning that the mind of sentient beings is inherently pure and free from defilement]. Whereas Chinese Buddhism always uses the compound qingjing (clarity and purity) rather than qingjing (clarity and quiescence), Taoism uses both interchangeably. When qingjing [clarity and purity] is used, however, there is ample room for considering a Buddhist influence. 12 In the Tang period [CT 620] there appears another Daoist scripture, the Qingjingjing [Scripture of Clarity and Quiescence]. The text combines the thought and phrasing of the Daodejing with the structure of the Pranjaparamita Hrdaya Sutra [Heart Sutra of Perfect Wisdom], famous for the centrality of the idea of emptiness. The Sutra is so central in Zen that monks all over the Zen world chant the full text every morning. The practitioner who followed the Qingjingjing, was supposed to achieve the observation of emptiness and quiescence.13 As mentioned above, Christian missionaries were quick to identify the central Daoist notion of wuwei in the Chan School, and thereby pointed to its quietist nature. In fact, the idea of wuwei is important but is just one among many ideas that can support the quietist image of Daoism. The Daodejing, the first Daoist scripture, offers rich metaphors of a quietist nature: the character of the Dao as invisible, silent, empty, unnamable, inaudible, intangible, ineffable, an empty vessel; its features of quietude, nothingness, serenity; its mysterious, formless nature, and so on. [for example, chapters 1, 16, 25, 40, 42, 43, 48 in the Daodejing]. Lets look at chapter 16, for a full example: I do my utmost to attain emptiness; Miura, Kunio, Clarity and Quiescence, The Online Encyclopedia of Taoism, Online, http://www.stanford.edu/~predagio/eot.html (August 10, 2009) 12 Ibid. 13 Kohn, Livia, Scripture of Clarity and Quiescence, in The Online Encyclopedia of Taoism, Online, http://www.stanford.edu/~predagio/eot.html (August 10, 2009)
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I hold firmly to stillness. The myriad creatures all rise together And I watch their return. The teaming creatures All return to their separate roots. Returning to one's roots is known as stillness14 or In the pursuit of learning one knows more every day; In the pursuit of the way one does less every day. One does less and less until one does nothing at all, And when one does nothing at all there is nothing that is undone.15 Let us turn now to Chan/Zen Buddhism itself to examine how these ideas were introduced, influenced, or rejected by the new spiritual movement. Unity and Complexity in Buddhism and Chan/Zen Buddhism Buddhism, particularly within the first millennium of its existence, expanded from India to most of the Asian continent, and underwent significant transformations into a great variety of directions, sects, and practices, at times seemingly contradictory to one another. For example, from the second century AD on, Mahayana Buddhism simultaneously developed both mystical transcendental and earthly branches of thought and practice. These at first sight may these may even seem to belong to completely different religious and spiritual traditions. The path that led to Chan/Zen was already present during the first centuries AD in several Mahayanic texts; these predict the seemingly double nature of Zen: quietist and non-quietist. I shall present here briefly several samples from these texts. The first is The Heart Sutra, in which the most famous lines declare that, Form is emptiness, emptiness is form, emptiness does not differ from form, form does not differ from emptiness; whatever is form, that is emptiness, whatever is emptiness, that is form.16 The term sunyata, emptiness, has been repeatedly interpreted as a concept and practice leading to mystical silence. Understanding the ultimate reality lies, according to this interpretation, beyond philosophical reasoning; the ultimate is ineffable. So the way to experience it is itself stillness of body and mind. Yet another possible interpretation of emptiness is the absurdity of the concept of ultimate reality itself, when wrongly conceived as separate from the relative and conventional. The idea of ultimate reality, stripped from concepts and the observer, is just another delusion of the mind. So the practice of the Zen disciple leads him back to the conventional, to the marketplace, as we shall see later; to realizing that the conventional is one and the same as the ultimate. It is the dualism of the ultimate and the conventional that is erased through the practice of emptiness, along with the delusion that the independent mind can experience ultimate truth. Lau, D.C., trans., The Tao Te Ching, chap 16, Online, http://www.terebess.hu/english/tao/lau.html (August 16, 2009) 15 Ibid., chap. 48. 16 Conze, Edward, trans., The Heart Sutra, in Buddhist Scriptures, (Harmondsworth: Penguin Classics, 1962), p. 162
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This last delusion in itself reveals a hidden belief in self, that is contrary to the basic observation of Buddhism of non-selfhood. As suggested before, a Zen master will send his deluded disciple to go back to his daily work, and experience ultimate truth through weeding the backyard or cutting vegetables for dinner. The other text worth mentioning in this context is the Mahayana-sraddhotpada shastra [The Awakening of Faith in Mahayana; around 5th c. AD]. Its opening lines say, the principle of the One Mind has two aspects. One is the aspect of Mind in term of the Absolute [tathata; suchness] and the other is the aspect of Mind in term of phenomena [samsara; birth and death; the world of phenomena]. Each of these two aspects embraces all states of existence. Why? Because these two aspects are mutually inclusive.17 The anonymous writer equates here the relative world of phenomena [samsara] and the ultimate [tathata: suchness, thisness]. Note that the Utimate, which hitherto had been named nirvana [blowing out, fading out, cessation], is replaced by suchness, or thisness, that is, things as they are. This was a brave, revolutionary turn in Buddhist thought and practice. The highest goal of the practitioner was, then, not cessation, but observing and living with phenomena as they are, in their suchness. Nirvana is there, thisness is here; nirvana is a goal, thisness is presence. Nirvana, as a goal, negates the present, while thisness affirms the present, whatever it is. One starts from approving the here, not by craving for something that is there. The Huayan sect of Buddhism, which provides the philosophical basis for the Chan School, preached, through the teachings of its founder, Dushun [7th c.], the doctrine of the Four Dharmadhatu [The Four Dharma Realms]. These are: 1. The realm of shi [phenomena, matter] 2. The realm of li [ultimate reality, emptiness] 3. The realm of lishi wuai [non-obstruction between the ultimate and phenomena] 4. The realm of shishi wuai [non-obstruction between phenomena] This doctrine clearly declares the absence of a gap between emptiness and form, absolute and relative. It makes clear that there is no recommendation for the practitioner to separate himself from the world, since the principle of interpenetration of all phenomena and thought denies the very concept of dual existence of Ultimate and Relative. Teaching of the Great Masters Reading the teachings of the first Chan Patriarch, Bodhidharma [6th c.], we can see already in early Chan both quietist and activist nature of the spiritual practice. In his Two Entrances he recommends the real and coagulated state [in which the practitioner] abides in wall-examining [and] then [realizes that] self and other, common man and sage are identical; firmly abiding without shifting, in no way following after the written teachings - this is mysteriously tallying with principle. It is non-discriminative, quiescent, and inactive. We call it entrance to principle.18 But in other writings and dialogues we find repeated warnings against quietist Hakeda, Yoshito, trans., The Awakening of Faith in Mahayana, Online http://zbohy.zatma.org/Dharma/zbohy/Sruti-Smriti/Shastras/awakening-of-faith.html (August 29, 2009) 18 Broughton, Jeffrey L., trans., The Bodhidharma Anthology, (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press,1999), p. 9.
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tendencies. The following dialogue is revealing. A disciple asks his teacher, What is the mind? What is calming the mind? to which the master replies, You need not set up a mind, and you do not need to exert yourself in quieting it. That is called quieting. 19 Huineng, the sixth Chan Patriarch [7th C.], was a remarkable master who gave the Chan School its Chan/Zen flavor. D.T. Suzuki says that it was due to Huineng that his sect, hitherto comparatively inactive and rather tending to ascetic quietism, now assumed a more energetic role, and began to have a growing influence [Studies in Zen, 1955, 16]. We can find Huinengs attitude towards Buddhist practice in the most famous incident in the Tanjing [Platform Sutra]: His teacher, Master Hongren, challenged his disciples to write a verse expressing their understanding of the Buddhist doctrine. The winner was to be nominated as his dharma heir. Shenxiu, the chief monk, wrote the following: The body is the Bodhi tree,20 The mind is like a clear mirror standing. At all times we must strive to polish it, And must not let the dust collect.21 Huineng, an illiterate disciple who worked in the kitchen, heard this and asked someone to write the following verse for him: Bodhi originally has no tree, The mirror also has no stand. Originally, not one thing exists; Where is there room for dust?22 These two verses present two opposing approaches to the basic questions of Buddhist doctrine as well as the practice of meditation: How do we observe and sense the world? What is the goal of spiritual practice? What is it we do in meditation? What is the sense and aim of sitting meditation? D.T. Suzuki, commenting on this incident, says, This dust wiping attitude of Shenxiu and his followers inevitably leads to the quietistic method of meditation, and it was indeed the method which they recommended. They taught the entering into a Samadhi [calm abiding. J.R.] by means of concentration, and the purifying of the mind by making it dwell on one thought.23 He further comments that [the disciples] meditation may end in clearing the mirror of consciousness in which he expects to see the image of his original pure self-being reflected. This may be called static meditation. But serenely reflecting or contemplating on the purity of the

ibid., p.85. The tree of the Buddhas awakening. 21 Yampolsky, Philip B., trans., The Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch, (New York and London: Columbia University Press, 1967), p. 130. I have made a small correction: I added standing to the second line. J.R. 22 Ibid., p. 132. I have changed the third line. Yampolsky offer two other versions of the Huinengs verse. See his notes on p. 132. The line I changed follows later versions of the verse. 23 Suzuki, D.T., The Zen Doctrine of No-Mind, (London: Rider and com. 1958), p.18.
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Mind has a suicidal effect on life, and Huineng vehemently protested against this type of meditation.24 Huineng and his disciples proposed the term jianxing [kensho in Japanese], as the goal of meditation. Jianxing means to look into the nature [of the Mind]. The term replaced kanjing, to keep an eye on purity, which has a flavor of supervision. As we saw above, this was Shenxius attitude to meditation, and it was criticized by Huineng, who viewed it as going against the true understanding of Chan. His proposal of jianxing meant that the practitioner was looking into the nature of things, not supervising the cleaning of the dust. Another dispute between the two approaches was around the implied or open demand by the mirror-wipers that the disciples practice be the negation of all qualities and entering a state of absolute no-ness. True, one can often find expressions such as cleansing the mind also in Huinengs writings, yet his condemnation of quietist tendencies is clear: When you sit quietly with an emptied mind, this is falling into a blank emptiness, or there are some people with the confused notion that the greatest achievement is to sit quietly with an emptied mind, where no thought is allowed to be conceived. His clear advice is neither to cling to the notion of a mind, not to cling to the notion of purity, nor to cherish the thought of immovability; for these are not our meditation. Or further, when you cherish the notion of purity and cling to it, you turn purity into falsehood . . . Purity has neither form nor shape, and when you claim an achievement by establishing a form to be known as purity, you obstruct your own self-nature, you are purity-bound.25 In section 17 of the Tanjing Huineng says, Good friends, in this teaching of mine, . . . all have set up to no-thought [wunien often rendered equivalent to wuxin, no-mind] as the main doctrine, non-form as the substance, and non-abiding as the basis. Non-form is to be separated from form even when associated with form. No-thought is not to think even when involved in thought. 26 Note that there is neither affirmation nor denial of thought or form here. And at his deathbed he says to his disciples Sentient beings can move, Non-sentient things are without motion; If you undertake the practices of non-motion, [i.e. the quietist approach. J.R.]] You will be identical with the non-motion of the non-sentient.27 These teachings do not mean, though, that Huineng or his disciples preached against sitting in meditation. The question was not whether to sit in meditation or not. The question was what the nature and goals of sitting were. The Southern [Sudden] school of Chan [affiliated with Huineng] and the Northern [Gradual] School were in disagreement about the question. The Southern School insisted that the Northern School failed to understand the non-dual nature of awakening. Their criticism claims that sitting in meditation, purifying and concentrating the mind, expecting to attain awakening, is a form of senseless passivity. It is a wrong perception of awakening, conceiving it as separate from sitting itself, or for that matter, from all conventional reality.

Ibid., p. 25. Ibid., pp. 26-27. 26 Yampolsky, The Platform Sutra, p. 17. 27 Ibid., p. 48.
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Huineng cautioned his followers to avoid quietism by all means, and warned against its dangers. But most other disciples of his master Hongren were more or less inclined to adopt quietism as the orthodox method of meditation practice. Huinengs own disciples, though, were not clear about the issue. One example is Shenhui, one of his main disciples. Shenhuis teachings at times preach practices of world denying, as part of his doctrine of the calm and purity of awakening, a state of being opposed to the impure nature of this world. But some writings and stories suggest the opposite. In a certain dialogue between Maters Shenhui and Cheng they mention Vimalakirti [in Vimalkirti-nirdesa], a central figure in Zen teaching. In this dialogue Shenhui clearly prefers a non-quietist approach: If someone sits [in meditation] and freezes the mind in order to enter concentration, fixes the mind in order to contemplate purity, arouses the mind in order to illuminate externally and restrains it in order to experience it internally, this person is hindering enlightenment . . . how is one going to be able to attain liberation? Not by continuing to sit in meditation . . . If sitting were the correct approach, then Vimalakirti would not have upbraided Sariputra [one of the Buddhas main disciples. J.R.] when the latter sat in silence in the forest.28 Shenhui observes that nondoing as a conscious effort in meditation is no different from other forms of karmic construction; it is an action. As Gregory points out in his commentary to his translation of the passage, even a retired contemplation and observing the mind is a kind of activity. The worlddenying attitude of the Northern school was based on a perception of a gap between what they perceived as the pure world of the Ultimate and the contaminated realm of the Relative or conventional, that is, the world of illusion. Shenhui rejects this attempt at purification. He uses the word samadhi as pointing to a meditation practice that does not deny the world of phenomena, or its appearance in the meditating mind. Still, both schools have their inner contradictions, and it seems that the dramatic changes in contemporary Chan are reflected in their indecision as to the quietist or non-quietist nature of spiritual practice. Let us look now into a few examples of later masters after Huineng, from both China and Japan. Mazu [8th C.] was an avid Zen practitioner before he met Huairang [7th, 8th C.], one of Huinengs greatest disciples. He was a quiet sitter who wanted to gaze at the pure nothingness of selfnature. But then Huairang told him once, that if you intend to attain Buddhahood by sitting cross-legged in meditation, this is murdering the Buddha. Baizhang [8th C.] was the Zen Master famous for establishing the Zen monastic rule. He propagated physical labor and was very insistent on working every day. He is famous for his saying, A day of no work is a day of no eating. True to his teaching, Baizhang worked until old age. The monks felt sorry for him so they hid his tools. He then said, I have no virtue. Why should others work for me? And he refused to eat. Baizhang revolutionized monastic life, and to this day the Zen schools are noted for their practice of work as part of the spiritual discipline; a monks pratice is both sitting and working. Zhaozhou [9th C.], one of the most remarkable of Chan masters, was famous for his repeated provocations aimed at grounding his students. In a very famous incident, a monk makes a request of Zhaozhou, I have just entered the monastery, please give me instructions. Zhaozhou says, Have you had your breakfast? Yes, I have, replies the monk. Then go and wash the bowls, says Zhaozhou. The monk is awakened. Quoted in Gregory, Peter N., Sudden and Gradual: Approaches to Enlightenment in Chinese Thought, (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1987), p. 81.
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In a famous case of the Bianlu [Blue Cliff Record], Deshan [10th C.], a master famous as an expert of the Diamond Sutra, wants to buy some refreshments from an old woman selling ricecakes. The woman asks, According to the Diamond Sutra, the past mind is non-abiding, the present mind is non-abiding, and the future mind is non-abiding. So, where is the mind that you now seek to refresh with rice-cakes? The old woman thus teaches Deshan a lesson about the non-duality of the Ultimate and rice-cake refreshments, between silence and discourse. Dahui [12th C.] says the awakening is like dead ashes and cold wood, but also harshly criticizes the heretical Chan of silent illumination. A work of great significance that appeared in the twelfth century in China exemplifies the complexity of later Chan attitude. Widely known as Shiniu [Ten Oxherding Pictures], it is a series of ten pictures showing, symbolically, the path to awakening. It is attributed to Master Guoan. The series is accompanied by a series of complementary poems that poetically illustrate the pictorials. The story is simple: an oxherd lost his ox. In the first picture he sets out to look for it in the mountains. In the second picture he finds its traces in the grass. In the third he sees the ox. In the fourth he catches the ox, and there is a violent struggle between them. In the fifth picture the oxherd leads the ox peacefully towards home. The sixth picture presents a more peaceful scene the oxherd is riding the ox, facing the tail, and playing a flute. The seventh picture, titled ox forgotten, person remaining, shows the oxherd sitting calmly at home. The eighth picture, titled person and ox, both forgotten is an empty circle. The ninth picture shows a natural scene, and is titled going back to the sources. The tenth picture presents the final stage of awakening: it shows the oxherd returning to the marketplace. This says all. A close examination of the texts accompanying the pictures shows that the oxherd journey presents both quietist and activist attitudes. We shall take a look now at the poems accompanying the seventh, eighth, and tenth pictures. The poem attached to the seventh picture [ox forgotten, person remaining] says, You have mounted the ox, and already reached your home in the mountains, The ox is gone and the person has nothing more to do. Though the morning sun has already risen three bamboo lengths, he dreams on. The whip and the halter, no longer of use, are hung up in the stall. The following is an empty picture titled person and ox, both forgotten. The poem says, Whip, tether, person and ox all are empty. The blue sky spreads out far and wide, it cannot be communicated. On a hot-red oven, how can there be any place for snow? Having come this far, you understand the intention of the patriarchs. The final poem, accompanying the last picture [entering the market with arms hanging loose], says, Shoeless and bare-chested he enters the market place; He is daubed with earth and ashes, and a smile fills his face. Making no use of the secrets of gods and wizards,

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He causes withered trees to bloom.29 The oxherds journey presents, then, a gradual shift from the search of the first picture to the struggle of the fourth. It continues to the state of serenity of the seventh picture, where there is nothing more to do; then to the eighth, blank picture, where all is empty and there is no place for snow, or anything, because it melts into nothingness. There is nothing to be communicated. Finally it leads to the last picture where the oxherd, now turned into a Bodhisattva saint, returns to the hustle-bustle of the marketplace, daubed with earth and ashes. It is quiescence is within action. Dogen [13thC.], the greatest of Japanese religious masters, expressed his ideas on meditation in a variety of seemingly contradictory ways. On the one hand he preached silent meditation, as the ultimate practice where one needs no further action; he called it shikantaza [just sit]. On the other hand, he repeatedly stressed the everyday, active, aspect of Zen practice. Dogen taught that one does not sit in meditation in order to become a Buddha; one sits in meditation because he is Buddha. In other words, in Zen practice one does not deny anything; one affirms ones own Buddha nature as is. This is exemplified also in his many poems. For example, Attaining the heart Of the sutra, The sounds of the Bustling marketplace Preach the dharma30 Day and night, night and day, The way of the dharma as everyday life; In each act our hearts Resonate with the call of the sutra The mystical cry of the monkeys Resounding from the mountain peaks, Echoing in the valleys below; The sound of the sutra being preached31 Colors of the mountains, Streams of the valleys; One in all, all in one, The voice and body of our Buddha32 There are two stories told by Dogen about his two different meetings with two tenzo monastery cooks. In the first story he tells how he met an old cook working in the sun, and asked him, Why are you working so hard in this scorching sun? The tenzo replied, If I do not do it now, when else can I do it? In the other story, Dogen asked a tenzo about Zen practice and about the Kubota, Jiun , Ten Oxherding Pictures with the Verses Composed by Kakuan Zenji, Online, http://www.sanbo-zen.org/cow_e.html (August 29, 2009) 30 Heine, Steven, The Zen Poetry of Dogen: Verses from the Mountain of Eternal Peace, (Boston: Tuttle Publishing, 1997), p. 92. 31 Ibid., p. 97. 32 Ibid., p. 98.
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meaning of the Chinese characters of zazen [sitting Zen]. The tenzo replied, There is nothing in the world that is hidden; the meaning of the characters is one, two, three, four, five. That is, the truth of life manifests itself in all places and in all things, as they are. In one of his famous books, Tenzo kyokun [Instructions for the Cook] he teaches Buddhist practice through cooking. For Dogen this is no more, no less than any other action, including meditation. Putting the mind of the Way to work, serve carefully varied meals appropriate to each occasion and thus allow everyone to practice without hindrance.33 Ikkyu, the great Japanese master [15th C.], was one of the most provocative figures in Japanese Zen. Calling himself Crazy Cloud and Blind Donkey, his antinomian acts may cause outrage even in most liberal communities. In his teachings and poetry we find descriptions and recommendations for a wide variety of spiritual practices. On the one hand, he spent long periods of time as a hermit in the mountains and wrote poems expressing experiences of deep serenity and quiescence, A thatched hut of three rooms surpasses seven great halls. Crazy Cloud is shut up here far removed from the vulgar world. The night deepens; I remain within, all alone, A single light illuminating the long autumn night.34 I like it best when no one comes, Preferring fallen leaves and swirling flowers for company. Just an old Zen monk living like he should, A withered plum tree suddenly sprouting a hundred blossoms.35 But in other poems he might present quite another face of spiritual practice, Ten days in this temple and my mind is reeling! Between my legs the red thread stretches and stretches. If you come some other day and ask for me, Better look in a fish stall, a sake shop, or a brothel. Or Monks these days study hard in order to turn A fine phrase and win fame as talented poets. At crazy Clouds hut there is no such talent, but he serves up the taste of truth As he boils rice in a wobbly old cauldron. 36 Emerging from the worlds grime, a puritan saint is still nowhere near a Buddha. Enter a brothel once and Great Wisdom will explode upon you. Manjusri should have let Ananda enjoy himself in a whorehouse Now he will never know and joys of elegant love play.37

Yasuda Joshu Daiden and Anzan Hoshin Roshi, trans. Tenzo Kyokun, Online, http://www.wwzc.org/translations/tenzokyokun.htm#_ftn7 (September 5, 2009) 34 Stevens, John, Wild Ways: Ikkyu Zen Poems, (Buffalo: White Pines Press, 2003), p. 41 35 Ibid., p. 43. 36 Ibid., p. 27. 37 Ibid., p. 77.
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Another wild Zen master, Hakuin [18th C.], preached vehemently against quietist attitudes in Zen practice, and pointed to the universality of awakening experience: What is true meditation? It is to make everything: coughing, swallowing, waving the arms, motion, stillness, action, the evil and the good, prosperity and shame, gain and loss, right and wrong, into one single koan.38 He repeatedly called for dochu no kufu, [meditative] diligence in the midst of activity. Hakuin walked his talk; in his humble monastery in a small village he welcomed everyone, monk and layperson, and was fully involved in a variety of personal, social, and political affairs. In his iconoclastic interpretation of the Heart Sutra, his comments on the famous closing mantra [gate gate paragate parasamgate bodh isvaha] are the voice of humanistic Zen, He is still at it! Over and over! What about woodcutters songs? Fishermens chanteys? Where do they come in? What about warbling thrushes and twittering swallows? 39 Hakuins Zazen Wasan [Praise for Zazen], ends with the following famous lines, Singing and dancing are the voice of the Law. Boundless and free is the sky of Samadhi! Bright the full moon of wisdom! Truly, is anything missing now? Nirvana is right here, before our eyes. This very place is the Lotus Land, This very body, the Buddha.40 Turning, finally, to a modern Zen Master, Yasutani Hakuun [20th C.], we find in his teachings a powerful elaboration of the idea that contemplation and action are one. When Yasutani comments on the famous koan of mu [A monk asks Master Zhaozhou,Does a dog have Buddhanature. Zhaozou replies, Wu [Chinese for no, or nothingness; mu in Japanese], he says, Let all of you become one mass of doubt and questioning. Concentrate and penetrate fully into Mu. To penetrate into Mu means to achieve absolute unity with it. How can one achieve this unity? By holding to Mu tenaciously day and night!41 David Loy rightly comments on this passage, Notice what is not encouraged here. One should not cultivate blankness of mind, which is quietism.42 As w can see, contemplation is presented here as an extremely intensive spiritual activity. Is there, then, a single or dominant Zen voice suggesting the highest goal of Zen path? A unified Zen voice sounds almost self-contradictory. But the following has been repeated so often that it might seem to represent the one voice of Zen: I sleep when tired, I eat when hungry or I fill the bucket when it is empty. Similarly, many masters of the past are depicted Quoted in Kasulis, T.P. , Zen Person, Zen Action, (Honolulu: The University Press of Hawaii, 1981), p. 111. 39 Waddell, Norman, trans., Zen Words for the Heart: Hakuins Commentary on the Heart Sutra, (Boston: Shambhala Publications, 1996), p. 83. 40 Waddell, Norman, trans., Hakuins In Praise of Zazen, Online, http://www.thezensite.com/ZenTeachings/Translations/Song_of_Zazen.htm (September 3, 2009) 41 Yakutani, Hakuun, Commentary on MU, in Kapleau, Philip , The Three Pillars of Zen: Teaching, Practice, and Enlightenment, (New York: Anchor Books, Doubleday, 1989), pp. 58. 42 Loy, David, A Zen Cloud? Comparing Zen Koan Practice with The Cloud of Unknowing, in Buddhist-Christian Studies, 9 [1989], p. 46.
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in classical Zen stories and paintings as pine-planters [Hongren], bamboo-cutters [Huineng] and the like; that is, people fully involved in life. These sayings and incidents thus exemplify the full equation of means and ends, silence and action, contemplation and full involvement in daily affairs. So what is the big deal? If Zen practice leads to eating when hungry, and to filling the bucket, why bother? Why not live simply as an ordinary person without the monastery fuss with meditations, retreats, koan practice and all that? And how do these ideas accommodate the Zen Buddhist ideas of nothingness, emptiness, no-mind and so on? And if they do, are these latter ideas quietist in nature? The answer is complex. As I hope is clear from the above, Chinese Chan and Japanese Zen were not molded as a single, rigid doctrine. Chan/Zen masters recommended their followers go to the source of being. That source is a pre-conceptual state of being, where no conceptions are present or needed, but from where conceptions and forms do arise. Being in that source of existence is indeed often viewed as a quiet, calm, non-active state. It also creates an insight into evanescence and the impermanence of all beings, into the vanity of the idea of self. This sounds quietist. But is? Is this really a quietist attitude? Is this spiritual state of being compatible with the Christian ideal of union and absorption into the Divine? How can one be absorbed into god when god does not exist or does not concern the Buddhist practitioner in the slightest? Or is it absorption into the Buddha? But how can one be absorbed into the Buddha when the masters recommend to kill the Buddha when you meet him on the way? Yet, quietude and silent contemplation were and are part of Zen practice. Most of the insightful quotations offered above were uttered in a monastery context, where the master took refuge in a calm surrounding, away from worldly affairs, where he and his disciples practiced daily meditations, and, periodically, long meditation weeks. What, then, is the purpose of this meditative aspect of the practice? We may imagine that a Zen masters reply would be pointing to a rusty pot in the garden, that is, to the inadequacy of the question itself. The question assumes serenity outside action, and action as separate from quiescence. They are not separate!!, would roar the master and raise his teacup. This would probably be his answer. The question [What is the purpose. . . ] assumes duality and dichotomy, where there is none. The question assumes a purpose and a purpose assumes something to attain, which in turn assumes duality - that between means and ends. This is a cause for dis-ease. And worse, when one becomes aware of the delusion of this duality, the very wish to solve the conflict of duality is itself a further conflict, which implies another duality [of problem and solution]. And so the wheel of samsara endlessly turns on and on. Going to a monastery for a short period or for life; taking upon oneself the monks vows; working in the monastery fields and cleaning the toilets; going into years of hard-working inquiry into the nature of the mind through mind/body-breaking koan; and practicing retired contemplation, all are forms of action. Koan is a strenuous quest, and satori awakening - calls for serious, active exertion in the spirit of inquiry. The opposite is also true; monastery labor and hard work in the fields can be imbued with serenity. This spoils the image of the monastery life as a place for quiet contemplation, as well as the image of the Zen master as the epitome of serenity. So, is a masters life different from the ordinary persons? No, except that his life is imbued with full mindfulness and awareness. And

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then, the very distinction between master and ordinary, quietism and action in the world, becomes null and void. Following most of Zen teachings from the first patriarchs to modern masters, we can end this paper with the observation that, working in the fields is the absorption into the Ultimate, because it is the Ultimate. This, probably, would be the living answer. My daily activities are not unusual, Im just naturally in harmony with them. Grasping nothing, discarding nothing . . . Marvelous power and marvelous activity -Drawing water and carrying firewood43 [Layman Pangyun, 9th C. China] The wind has settled, the blossoms have fallen; Birds sing, the mountains grow dark - This is the wondrous power of Buddhism44 [Ryokan, 18th C. Japan]

Sasaki, Ruth F., The Recorded Sayings of Layman Pang: A Ninth Century Classic, (New York: Weatherhill, 1971) , p. 46. 44 Stevens, John, trans., Dewdrops on a Lotus Leaf: Zen Poems of Ryokan, (Boston: Shambhala Publications, 1996), Online, http://civet-cat.buddhistisk-forum.org/poetry-stories/ryokan.htm (September 10, 2009)
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Works Cited Bayle, Pierre , Ecrit sur Spinoza, (Paris: LAutre Rive, 1983) BELIEVE Website, Online, http://mb-soft.com/believe/txn/quietism.htm (July 9, 2009) Broughton, Jeffrey L., trans., The Bodhidharma Anthology, (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press,1999) Conze, Edward, trans., The Heart Sutra, in Buddhist Scriptures, (Harmondsworth: Penguin Classics, 1962 Faure, Bernard, Chan Insights and Oversights: An Epistemological Critique of the Chan Tradition, (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1993) Hakeda, Yoshito , trans., The Awakening of Faith in Mahayana, Online http://zbohy.zatma.org/Dharma/zbohy/Sruti-Smriti/Shastras/awakening-of-faith.html (Aug. 29, 2009) Heine, Steven, The Zen Poetry of Dogen: Verses from the Mountain of Eternal Peace, (Boston: Tuttle Publishing, 1997) Gregory, Peter N., Sudden and Gradual: Approaches to Enlightenment in Chinese Thought, (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1987) Kapleau, Philip, The Three Pillars of Zen: Teaching, Practice, and Enlightenment, (New York: Anchor Books, Doubleday, 1989) Kasulis, T.P., Zen Person, Zen Action, (Honolulu: The University Press of Hawaii, 1981) Kohn, Livia, Scripture of Clarity and Quiescence, in The Online Encyclopedia of Taoism, Online, http://www.stanford.edu/~predagio/eot.html (Aug. 10, 2009) Kubota, Jiun , Ten Oxherding Pictures with the Verses Composed by Kakuan Zenji, Online, http://www.sanbo-zen.org/cow_e.html (Aug. 29, 2009) Lau, D.C., trans., The Tao Te Ching, Online, http://www.terebess.hu/english/tao/lau.html (Aug. 16, 2009) Loy, David, A Zen Cloud? Comparing Zen Koan Practice with The Cloud of Unknowing, in Buddhist-Christian Studies, Vol. 9 (1989) Mascaro, Juan , trans., Bhagavad Gita, (Harmondsworth: Penguin Classic, 1962) Miura, Kunio, Clarity and Quiescence, The Online Encyclopedia of Taoism, Online, http://www.stanford.edu/~predagio/eot.html (Aug. 10, 2009) Sasaki, Ruth F., The Recorded Sayings of Layman Pang: A Ninth Century Classic, (New York: Weatherhill, 1971)

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Stevens, John, trans., Dewdrops on a Lotus Leaf: Zen Poems of Ryokan, (Boston: Shambhala Publications, 1996) Stevens, John, Wild Ways: Ikkyu Zen Poems, (Buffalo: White Pines Press, 2003) Suzuki, D.T., Essays in Zen Buddhism, 3 vols. (London: Rider and Company, 1949-1953) Suzuki, D.T., The Zen Doctrine of No-Mind, (London: Rider and com. 1958) The Original Catholic Encyclopedia, Online, http://www.catholic.com/thisrock/1994/9402hotm.asp] Catholic answers. (July 9, 2009) Yampolsky, Philip B., trans., The Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch, (New York and London: Columbia University Press, 1967) Waddell, Norman, trans., Zen Words for the Heart: Hakuins Commentary on the Heart Sutra, (Boston: Shambhala Publications, 1996) Yasuda Joshu Daiden and Anzan Hoshin Roshi, trans. Tenzo Kyokun, Online, http://www.wwzc.org/translations/tenzokyokun.htm#_ftn7 (Sep. 5, 2009) Waddell, Norman, trans., Hakuins In Praise of Zazen, Online, http://www.thezensite.com/ZenTeachings/Translations/Song_of_Zazen.htm (Sep. 3, 2009)

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