The Zen Life by Koji Sato

17
The Problem of Education

For the objectives of Zen training to be realized in the larger society, it has long been held that various means must be used. In the widest sense of the problem all science and technology should be included as means. When one reflects seriously upon the first vow of the Bodhisattva--to save all sentient beings though their number be limitless--it is impossible not to regret that there is not a single Dr. Schweitzer to be found in present-day Japanese Zen or in Japanese Buddhism in general. This lack was vividly illustrated by the fact that when a Japanese medical assistance team was recently sent to Nepal, the area in which the Buddha was born, it was not sent by Japanese Buddhists but by Japanese Christians.

Another important problem is the kind of education future Zen leaders should receive. The seriousness of this problem is clearly seen in the fact that even famous Zen masters often make quite inaccurate comments on various social problems, losing a great deal of their credibility in the process. Various people, including Ryomin Akizuki, a present-day leading Zen master, are particularly worried about this problem. Although Zen priests do not need the knowledge of a scientist, there is still the necessity for them to have a sufficient understanding of the fundamentals of the social and natural sciences, philosophy, history, art, and the humanities in general, so that they will be able to make educated decisions. It is possible, of course, that a Zen master might wish to limit himself to simply giving guidance in Zen in the traditional manner; but in that case I think it would be ad visable for him to remain silent in regard to social problems.

Another mistake which people engaged in Zen practice are prone to make is that since Zen makes "being in everything" its prime objective there is a dangerous tendency for present conditions simply to be accepted as they are. Such simple acceptance, however, could be more accurately described as the corruption of Zen rather than Zen itself. The true situation can be seen when one considers that it is Zen that stands in the wellspring of creativity and is in a process of daily renewal, and that it is Zen which boldly states that self- vigilance and self-awareness must never be neglected, emphasizing that Zen must be that which kills the Buddha and the Zen patriarchs and therefore kills even Zen when it is encountered.

In attempting to reform the present, however, it is also necessary to be aware of the law of causality, to be in love with destiny, and be ready to use present conditions as one's starting point. It is only then that one can use the power of natural laws to accomplish one's goals. The Zen life is something that has been polished by more than a thousand years of history, yet in its continual interchange with each new age it is something that must be ever emerging anew, creating itself in the process. Acquiring a broad foundation of learning is, I believe, necessary not only for Zen life in our present era but also for the realization of the Bodhisattva vow, "to save all sentient beings, though their number be limitless."
18
For Life in a New Era

It has been more than ten years since the so- called Zen boom began in the United States. Partially as a repercussion of this boom there has been a general increase in interest in Zen here in Japan, and the number of books written on Zen has increased like bamboo sprouts after a rain. When we consider this phenomenon we should realize that it is not simply a momentary fad and that we must strive to prevent it from becoming one.

In sharp contrast to this increased interest is the drastic decrease in the number of novice monks training at Zen monasteries, being only a shadow of what it was in the past. And while it is undeniable that traditional religions are growing progressively weaker in Japan, the new religions are flourishing as never before.

If Zen is simply the product of an earlier age that has lost its former value, then its decline is unavoidable. However, we modern followers of Zen believe that Zen is fully capable of including both religion and science and providing mankind with an unexcelled way of life. If this is so, then the question arises as to what kind of leadership as well as what type of life planning is necessary to develop Zen and make it meaningful to our new age. This is a question both for those Zen masters who are engaged in giving guidance to novice monks and those who are instructing laymen. In regard to the former group I do have a number of opinions, but since this is a question which requires an extremely detailed examination I would like to postpone a discussion of it at this time. Instead I would like to limit myself to a discussion of some new methods of Zen guidance for ordinary laymen, hoping that they may be of some help to my readers.

Ryomin Akizuki-roshi, in his book on koan, makes a distinction between the Zen transmitted from the historical Buddha (Tathagata Zen) and patriarchal Zen (Soshi Zen). Whereas Tathagata Zen arose in India, patriarchal Zen developed in China during the T'ang and Sung dynasties ( A.D. 618-1279 ). He places particular emphasis on this latter form of Zen as well as the tradition which developed from it. From the psychological point of view I find it hard to agree with his rather arbitrary distinction, but in regard to his attempt to make Zen meaningful to our new age by presenting a new proposal, I feel as if we share the same mind. As the leader of a Zen group at Tokyo's Ochanomizu Women's University, the Kikusui-kai, Akizuki-roshi has had experience in giving instruction to women students, and he feels that there is a need for a place where laymen can study Zen and practice living apart from the normal Zen monastery where monks train. For this reason he is hoping for the construction of a student dormitory to be run on Zen principles.

In the suburbs of Kyoto is the Nagaoka Zen Center run by Shonen Morimoto-roshi, a person for whom Akizuki-roshi has great respect. Akizuki-roshi's plans are not yet advanced to the point where he is ready to open such a center, but he is convinced that he would like to provide a place where "motionless" zazen could be united with the practice of more active Japanese arts such as the tea ceremony, poetry, the koto, the bamboo flute known as the shakuhachi, the chanting of traditional No plays, traditional dancing, and such Japanese martial arts as kendo, karate, and aikido. In the Kikusui-kai Zen group one of his female students followed his recommendation to practice aikido and did so at a gym until she graduated a year and a half later. At the time of her graduation she also received her black belt in aikido; and, according to the roshi, not only was her body firm but her eyes sparkled and she had become truly beautiful.

Akizuki-roshi has said that during work periods when he has heard his young girl students naturally join their voices in chorus, he has come to feel that the students need not limit themselves to reciting sutras to the accompaniment of the mokugyo drum, but they might also try to write hymnlike songs as well.

Another person who is engaged in giving training with unique features is Sogen Omoriroshi , the author of Sanzen Nyumon, which I have mentioned previously. In order to more completely understand his own spirit this roshi entered Tenryu-ji monastery where he devoted himself to Zen training, later combining the practice of Zen with Japanese fencing, in which he is an instructor. After having become the chief priest of Koho-in temple, which was founded by Tessen Yamaoka and is located in Tokyo's Nakano Ward, he has continued to give instruction in both Zen and fencing. Because of his broad vision and unassuming attitude he is one of the Zen masters living today for whom I have the highest respect. When Mr. Matsumura of Tankosha publishing company and I went to visit Omori-roshi one New Year's, we learned that the Chinese practice of t'ai-chi has many outstanding points as a martial art and that one of the forms of aikido could be made into a dance so women can master it more easily. Together with Zen and fencing, Omori-roshi was also giving instruction in calligraphy. He told us that after he has hung one of his student's calligraphy specimens on the wall of his room and looked at it for two or three days, he is able to discern the student's personality quite clearly.

Some time ago I received a small mimeographed pamphlet, on which were pasted many small photographs, from Akitsugu Wakamiya, a wan who was a stranger to me at the time. In the accompanying letter he explained that the Creative Life Society (Seikatsu Sozo Kyokai), to which he belonged, had been helped in various ways by a book I had written, and that as a sign of the members' appreciation he was sending me the enclosed pamphlet which described their activities. To be frank, when I looked at the pamphlet I was quite surprised because many of the activities, no, even finer activities than I had previously thought of as the basis for a new type of Zen training, were actually being carried out in practice or were being attempted by his group. The day before I went to visit Omori-roshi, I visited Mr. Wakamiya's home where I had the opportunity to closely observe the group's daily activities with Mr. Matsumura, who accompanied me and recorded them on film.

Akitsugu Wakamiya's father was an earnest Christian who achieved fame as the head of the Matsumoto School for the Blind. The younger Mr. Wakamiya was also baptized as a Christian in his youth and received his religious education from his father. During his time at Waseda University, however, he became sick and was forced to drop out of school. After that, he became skeptical of Christianity and began studying Buddhism under Seika Goto and Gohei Ishimaru. He also lived for a time in one of Japan's new Buddhist-influenced religious communities, Ittoen, located in the suburbs of Kyoto. He studied psychoanalysis under Kenji Otsuki as well as the physiological health exercises of Harumichi Hida under his disciple and collaborator, Kurakichi Hiratauchi. About fifteen years ago he moved from Matsumoto to Tokyo where he became ill with asthma, suffered from poverty, and at one time even contemplated committing suicide. Finally as a result of a letter to the reader's column of a local newspaper in which he proposed "to establish a group which would make life worth living," a few people gathered around him and helped him to buy a house in Nakano Ward. He invited people with various spiritual problems to live together as one large family community, training both their minds and their bodies while seeking to create a new life.

The Creative Life Society's day begins at 5:45 A.M. with the sounding of wooden clapers and it encompasses a day full of various activities that lasts until past 10 P.M. After waking up, the members' immediate activities include a rub-down with cold water, clearing both inside and outside their quarters, Japanese fencing practice with a wooden sword, yoga exercises, zazen, reciting sutras, and. eating breakfast. Following breakfast those who must leave for work do so, while those who have time go out shopping for provisions, do their washing, or chop firewood. The two meals a day that are prepared for the whole group consist of unpolished rice mixed with wheat. In addition to this, various kinds of vegetables are liquefied in a juicer and drunk. Another dish in which this group takes pride, in addition to its Japanese pickles and bean paste soup, consists of large cabbage leaves on which they spread soybean paste specially brought from Japan's Shinshu District.

In the evening, after bathing with both hot and cold water, they conduct pronunciation exercises, and, depending on the day, choral singing, lectures, discussions, and sutra recitation practice. Kurakichi Hiratauchi visits the group to give medical treatments, using moxabustion and other techniques, and, on occasion, will provide guidance for fasting over a period of one to three weeks. Mr. Hiratauchi's guidance is very severe and, at times, he will revile the participants or even slap them on the cheek. One high school girl who thought that he wouldn't dare strike her, was dozing when she shouldn't have been and had her face slapped three or four times to wake her up. Sometimes he strikes the participants so hard that they are sent flying, and he has even been known to have thrown them in a nearby pond. Although there was one woman university student who ran away while undergoing this kind of treatment, many others have had neuroses or asthma cured as a result of the same treatment. And in one case the head of a large city hospital, who was suffering from insomnia, asked to undergo this treatment.

The thing that has deeply impressed me about the Creative Life Society is that they have gathered together so many different good practices. In a university situation it would be very difficult to do this. That it has been able to be done at all is because Mr. Wakamiya himself was deeply troubled by problems concerning religious belief, the meaning of life, and his own health. It was only after he visited various teachers in search of solutions to Iiis problems that be was able to initiate and give guidance in this new way of life. Receiving only enough money from the group's participants to cover actual costs he is continually taking care of approximately ten people. It is certain that without the infinite compassion of a Bodhisattva he would not be able to do this kind of work.

Guiding the group is not merely the work of Mr. Wakamiya alone; his whole family is involved. Although his wife is kept very busy with cooking and other household tasks, she also participates in Yoga exercises, zazen, and choral singing. Their two sons, one who is in junior high school and the other in senior high, also share the same room as the other participants and take part in the same activities when they are not occupied with their school work. It might well be said that the program run by Mr. Wakamiya is an expression of infinite compassion on the part of his whole family.

In the vast majority of the approximately 20,000 Zen temples in Japan it is safe to say that the head priest is married and living together with his family. But when one thinks that in only a few of them zazen is practiced by an entire family, it is hard not to be deeply moved by the example that Mr. Wakamiya and his family have set. Of course, the rules which his group follows are not yet as refined as those in a Zen monastery, but it would be no exaggeration to say that Zen is living in a very creative way thanks to his endeavors.

Dr. Bernard Phillips once said he had noted that in some Japanese Zen monasteries the monks were very slothful in their practice of zazen, though those in Hosshin-ji monastery seemed to be extremely earnest. I would say that the zazen of the Creative Life Society is similar to that of Hosshin-ji.

An important problem for all of us who are interested in Zen's future is the form and content of the guidance that should be given to those laymen whose interest in Zen has gradually increased of late.
19
Zen: Fountainhead of Love and Creativity

As a measure of his high respect for Zen, the French psychoanalyst Hubert Benoit has called his book on Zen Supreme Doctrine. After forty years of acquaintance with Zen, with particular emphasis given in recent years to scientific research on the subject, I have come to feel that Zen embraces not only religion but science as well. As such it may well be the highest way of life in the world.

Erich Fromm, who studied Zen under the guidance of Daisetz Suzuki and founded a new school of psychoanalysis, placed particular emphasis in Zen Buddhism and Psychoanalysis (which he coauthored with Suzuki and De Martino) on Suzuki's description of Zen as a method for awakening to our Original-nature, becoming free from various restrictions, being able to freely use the creative and compassionate impulses with which our spirits are endowed, and in this way finding happiness as a result of having been able to discover our inner potential for mutual love.

In the preface of Toyo no Kokoro (The Spirit of the Orient), which he wrote not long before his death in 1966, Suzuki has written: "Zen is that which penetrates to the limitless creativity at the bottom of our spirits." He then went on to say that we should act according to this creativity, emphasizing this positive aspect of Zen rather than its negative aspect that "all is relative."

From the standpoint of a psychologist I would like to point out the following characteristics of Zen. First, Zen is that which puts not only our life and body in order but our spirit and Self as well. Furthermore, because of a deep experience of the essential unity of our Self and the universe, we awake to our true-Self, thus being willing to work on behalf of all creation as a result of the deep love that spontaneously springs forth. I think that what Dr. Suzuki has described as limitless creativity is that which pours forth from our Original-nature after it has been tapped.