“Nothing we see or hear is perfect. But right there in the imperfection is perfect reality”.
- Shunryu Suzuki
I don't think Zen is necessarily the best state of being. I do think it is one state of being. One that can be useful for spiritual and mental health (same thing). In this short essay I don't claim to know all of Zen. This is an incomplete compilation of some of the resources I have come across so far in my personal exploration of Zen.
Zen is a school of Buddhism. But it's different in that enlightenment isn't held up to be supernatural. Enlightenment is something that exists for all beings in the present moment. We all have the capacity to experience Satori. In studying Zen, day long meditations, little sleep, and a question and answer system are used to educate, or un-educate, the student. A Koan is a riddle that must be solved before continuing on to the next one. By completing the Koans you can become a master.
Probably the most notable Zen Koan is the sound of one hand clapping (The Sound of One Hand: 281 Zen Koans with Answers). It goes like this. The master sits opposite the student and asks him, “What is the sound of one hand clapping?”. The student must answer correctly to show that he has got the state of mind, more properly being, that is Zen. What do you think is the sound of one hand clapping? You're answer will show you how you approach Zen's form of enlightenment. Take a moment.
Before I give away the answer, lets go into what Zen thought, or non-thought, is like (Wikipedia). Firstly, Zen is a school of Mahayana Buddhism, and is heavily influenced by Toaism. It originated in China and later traveled to Japan. The practice is to find your own Buddha nature (or the “true nature”) through meditation. Emphasis is put on being in the present moment instead of letting the mind wonder. The Koan is used as a test and a contemplative exercise.
The Koan is paradoxical problem that can't be solved by rational thought (Khan Academy video). It is used to illustrate non-conceptual insight that the Buddhist teaching points to. It is contemplated in meditation, both sitting, walking, and doing daily tasks. The goal, is to be pointed to the true nature of the mind (the Buddha nature). As Sakyamuni Buddha held up a flower silently, and Mahakasyapa smiled, understanding the teaching. Enlightenment is a state of mind that can come at any moment.
Zen teaching is of non-discriminatory wisdom (Stanford Education: Japanese Zen Buddhist Philosophy). The process of discovering wisdom causes an experiential change where the thing-event is perceived differently. Zen is simple and straightforward in getting at reality and acting in the here and now because it believes that thing-events that are happening before on'es eyes or under ones foot is the very manifestation of “suchness”. The is-ness of Being. It focuses on the tat in “tat tvam asi”. The “that” in “you are that”. There is also the idea of “not one” and “not two”. Or the positionless position where “not two” means a negation of the belief that you can cut the whole (of the universe as it is manifesting as you now) in two. In this way it rejects dualism. On the other hand, “not one” rejects non-dualism because it disagrees with the practitioner being whole as one. Think universe wise. How could your psyche be all there is. But at the same time, how could it be separate from the causes that made it outside itself (evolution, culture, free will of choices of your past or the past of those you interact with). Zen could also be thought of as anti philosophy. Because it isn't graspable by the intellect. And philosophy means the pursuit of the kingdom of reason.
Alan watts was an excellent ambassador of Zen and Eastern thought in the West (Alan Watts Youtube video: Zen). He described Zen as a mode of transmission apart from religious texts. Apart from tradition. There is no dependence on words and letters. It's direct pointing into one's own mind, seeing the Buddha mind. Your real mind. There's an appeal of Zen in the West because of its unusual kind of humor. Zen isn't a serious practice, but it is sincere. There are no doctrines. It's not really a framework of moralized rules. Zen is a field of inquiry, as a physicists might look into how the Universe works at it's most basic level. In a way, Zen is spiritual ophthalmology. It's correcting how we see our minds. Now, in Japan they sit. It's called Zazen. But there are other forms of practice. Zen has the four “dignities” of man. These are: walking zen, standing zen, sitting zen, and lying zen. When you do these four, it is possible to maintain the state of Zen. One master described practicing these dignities as, “When hungry eat, when tired sleep.” It's about acting while you act. And not thinking about anything else.
One Zen Master said to a Westerner: “Don't act but act”. The Westerner interpreted this as the Taoist “wu wei”, which is acting in the spirit of not being separate from the world, where you are the universe, as an expression of it. What the master had really said was: “Don't act bad act”. So the practice is acting naturally and not getting caught in analysis paralysis. Thinking about thinking, and abstracting too much away from where life is happening.
Zen is notable for it's occurrence of sudden insight into something that's supposed to take years and years. For example, contemplative prayer in Christianity takes a long time and a guide. Hasegawa said, “It may take you 3 seconds. It may take you 30 years. I mean that.” Alan Watts gave a book of dialogue of the interchange between student and master to a friend. The friend said, “I haven't understood a word of it, but it's cheered me up enormously”. Zen is referred to as the “barrier with no gate”, or “the gateless gate”. For instance, a student said to Joshu, “I've been here a while and no one has told me anything.” Joshu replied “Then go re-wash your bowl”. And the student was enlightened. The ordinary mind of clear headed attention to washing your bowl, and really becoming that action fully, is the true mind. The mind itself. Now, Zen also has the effect of a joke. A joke is supposed to be funny. It makes you laugh. You don't think about explaining a joke with words. That just ruins the joke (because it has become intellectual). It's just funny (it has a quality of being humorous). And that's the thing. That's the state of mind Zen points to. A quality of being what you are, and not separating yourself from yourself or from the Universe flowing through you.
I think a few more stories would help, before we get back to the koan on the sound of one hand clapping. A master, Xuyun, was so good he had 100s of students. He arranged a test for his predecessor. He put out a pitcher and asked, what is this? A monk said, “It's not wood”. Then the cook came over and kicked it over. The cook got the job. In a similar way, I was perplexed for a long time by why the colors of the rainbow were the way they were and not other colors that we can't imagine. What are colors anyway? How do they have the Quality that they do? Red isn't blue-er than yellow. But it's traditional in Zen to just accept the colors of the rainbow as what they are, not needing to explain them. In another story, Watt's was talking with a Zen master, who asked, “Which way does toilet water flow? Watt's said, “Right”. The zen master said, No”. Then Watts went “wssh wssh” making a swirling motion. The zen master then asked him, “What came first, the chicken or the egg? Watts correctly replied, “cockadoooodle doooo”. This is the manner in which Koans make a joke of intellectual questions, and point to the Is-ness of the thing. For instance, a Chinese fan isn't a “fan” (a concept that is tied to our associative perceptions). It's really “wsshh wsshh”. Or it can even be a backscratcher. The thing is the thing. We are what we are, from a first person perspective, and not our labels.
Zen also has a particular way of pointing to your own experience. You are who you are. Not your certificates. Not your accomplishments. You're the smell of your own nose. The taste of your own tongue. You're the sensations you are having. You're the thoughts that pop up. You are not separate from the object. The object is in you as a perception. Here's an extreme but amusing example. Dogen, when returning from China, was asked “What did you learn in china?” He replied, “The eyes are horizontal. The nose is perpendicular”. This points to the direct experience of being behind your eyes looking out. This can be useful to remind yourself of when thoughts get you tangled up and lost in the clouds. It's very centering.
And so you don't need any books to learn Zen. It's right under your nose and very obvious. Bokuju was asked, “We have to dress and eat every day, how do we get out of that?”. (i.e How do we get out of the toils of routine and get spiritual insight). Bokuju answered, “If you don't understand, dress and eat”. Furthermore Joshu had a student ask, “What is the way? (The Tao? The Universe?)”. He said, “Your ordinary mind is the Universe.” By trying to get to be it, you aren't it. By not trying, you find it is already happening. All these stories could enlighten someone at an instant if the person were ready. In Zen, awakening is an all or nothing state. As they say, “When the bottom goes out of the bucket, all the water goes together”. Another saying goes, “In Zen we don't have the answers, we lose the questions”. Zen also isn't about making your mind blank. It's more simple than that.
Now we have sufficiently covered Zen to get into the Koan of the sound of the one hand clapping. The master asks the student, “What is the sound of one hand clapping?”. The student correctly replies by putting one hand out in front of himself and waving it as if to clap with another hand. The answer is correct because it doesn't attempt to answer the paradoxical question by saying, “one hand can't clap”. Or clapping one's hand against one's leg. He simply does the action of clapping one hand. The answer is a spontaneous action, where the student becomes the act of clapping one hand with no thought. It's brilliant.
All in all, Zen is a unique way of being. It is influenced by Toaism and is a school of Buddhism. You could use any book to learn Zen, because Zen doesn't have any doctrines. It's a method of changing your perception of yourself and the world to be closer to the truth of things. Zen uses Koan's to stump the intellect and the mind, so that only the thing itself remains without thought. Now that you know a little about Zen and Koans, you can try and stump yourself or a friend by contemplating it's answer.
Resources:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22kmvNxJCzs https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/art-asia/beginners-guide-asian-culture/buddhist-art-culture/v/zen-buddhism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zen https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/japanese-zen/
The Sound of One Hand: 281 Zen Koans With Answers. New York Review Books. 1975.