,,zen ,,buddhism and ,its ,relation to ,art ,by ,,arthur ,,waley ,,london3 ,,luzac ,,co41 #df1 ,great ,russell ,street1 ,w4,c4#a4 #aibb ,,zen ,,buddhism ,,zen ,,buddhism ,,and ,,its ,,relation ,,to ,,art ,books on the ,far ,east often mention a sect of ,buddhism called ,zen4 ,they say that it was a 8school of abstract meditation0 and that it exercised a profound influence upon art and literature2 but they tell us very little about what ,zen actually was1 about its relation to ordinary ,buddhism1 its history1 or the exact nature of its influence upon the arts4 ,the reason of this is that very little of the native literature which deals with ,zen has yet been translated1 perhaps because it is written in early ,chinese colloquial1 a language the study of which has been almost wholly neglected by ,europeans and also 7to judge by some of their attempts to translate it7 by the ,japanese themselves4 ,the present paper makes no attempt at profundity1 but it is based on the study of original texts and furnishes1 ,i hope1 some information not hitherto accessible4 99 99 99 99 99 ,before describing the origins of ,zen itself ,i must give some general account of ,buddhism4 ,at the time when it reached ,china#a there were two kinds of ,buddhism1 called the ,lesser ,vehicle and the ,greater4 ,the former1 ,primitive ,buddhism1 possessed scriptures which in part at any rate were genuine2 that is to say1 they recorded words actually used by ,shkyamuni4 ,the ordinary adherent of this religion did not hope to become a ,buddha2 ,buddhas indeed were regarded as extremely rare4 ,he only aspired to become an ,arhat1 that is 8an ascetic ripe for annihilation10 one who is about to escape from the wheel of reincarnation--whose present incarnation is an antechamber to ,nirvna4 ,to such aspirants the ,buddha gives no assistance2 he is what children in their games call 8home10 and his followers must pant after him as best they can4 #a ,first century ,a4,d4 ,those who found this religion too comfortless invented another1 which became known as ,mahyna1 the ,greater ,vehicle4 ,putting their doctrines into the mouth of ,shkyamuni1 they fabricated ad hoc sermons of enormous length1 preached 7so they asserted7 by the ,buddha himself in his 8second period0 to those who were ripe to receive the whole truth4 ,the great feature of this new ,buddhism was the intervention of the merciful ,bodhisattvas1 illuminati who1 though fit for ,buddhahood1 voluntarily renounced it in order to help mankind4 ,the first ,buddhist books to reach ,china emanated from the ,lesser ,vehicle4 ,but the ,greater ,vehicle or ,bodhisattva-,buddhism soon prevailed1 and by the sixth century ,a4,d4 over two thousand works1 most of them belonging to the ,greater ,vehicle1 had been translated into ,chinese4 ,,buddhist ,,sects4 ,there were already many sects in ,china1 the chief of which were3 7#a7 ,the ,amidists4 ,this was the form of ,buddhism which appealed to the uneducated4 ,it taught that a ,buddha named ,amida presides over the ,western ,paradise1 where he will receive the souls of those that worship him4 ,the conception of this ,paradise closely resembles the ,christian idea of ,heaven and may have been derived from it4 7#b7 ,the ,tendai ,sect1 founded at the end of the sixth century4 ,its teaching was based on a scripture of enormous length called the ,saddharma ,pundarka ,stra1 which is translated by ,kern in the ,sacred ,books of the ,east4 ,it was perhaps the broadest and most representative sect4 ,it laid great stress on the ethical side of ,buddhism4 ,we now come to ,zen4 ,in the year #ebj ,a4,d4 there arrived at ,canton a missionary from ,southern ,india4 ,his name was ,bodhidharma and he appears to have been the younger son of an ,indian ,prince4 ,the reigning ,emperor of ,china was a munificent patron of ,buddhism4 ,he had built monasteries1 given alms1 distributed scriptures1 defended the faith4 ,hearing that a ,buddhist prince had arrived from ,india he summoned him at once to his ,capital4 ,the following conversation took place in the ,palace at ,nanking3 ,emperor3 ,you will be interested to hear that ,i have built many monasteries1 distributed scriptures1 given alms1 and upheld the ,faith4 ,have ,i not indeed acquired merit8 ,bodhidharma3 ,none at all4 ,emperor3 ,in what then does true merit consist8 ,bodhidharma3 ,in the obliteration of ,matter through ,absolute ,knowledge1 not by external acts4 ,emperor3 ,which is the ,divine and ,primal ,aspect of ,reality8 ,bodhidharma3 ,reality has no aspect that is divine4 ,emperor3 ,what are you1 who have come before my ,throne8 ,bodhidharma3 ,i do not know4 ,the ,emperor could make nothing of him4 ,monasticism1 a huge vested interest1 decried him1 and after a short stay in ,nanking he started northward1 towards the ,capital of the ,wei ,tartars1 who then ruled over a large part of ,china4 ,the ,wei ,emperor1 like his ,chinese confrre1 was also a great patron of ,buddhism1 and he1 too1 desired an interview with the ,indian priest4 ,but ,bodhidharma had done with ,emperors1 and settled in a small country temple1 where he lived till his death nine years later4 ,some say that he tried to visit the ,capital of the ,weis1 but was prevented by the intrigues of the monks there4 ,he left behind him a few short tractates1 the substance of which is as follows3 ,there is no such person as ,buddha4 ,buddha is simply a ,sanskrit word meaning 8initiate40 ,the ,absolute is immanent in every man's heart4 ,this 8treasure of the heart0 is the only ,buddha that exists4 ,it is no use seeking ,buddha outside your own nature4 ,prayer1 scripture-reading1 fasting1 the observance of monastic rules--all are useless4 ,those who seek ,buddha do not find him4 ,you may know by heart all the ,stras of the twelve divisions1 and yet be unable to escape from the ,wheel of ,life and ,death4 ,one thing alone avails--to discover the unreality of the ,world by contemplating the ,absolute which is at the root of one's own nature4 ,some one asked him3 8,why may we not worship the ,buddhas and ,bodhisattvas80 ,he answered3 8,ogres and hobgoblins can at will assume the outward form of ,bodhisattvas2 such are heretical and not of the true ,buddha4 ,there is no ,buddha but your own thoughts4 ,buddha is the ,way4 ,the ,way is ,zen4 ,this word ,zen cannot be understood even of the wise4 ,zen means #8for a man to behold his fundamental nature4'0#b #b ,zen 7,sanskrit3 dhyna7 means literally 8contemplation40 99 99 99 99 99 ,the highest truths cannot be written down or taught by speech4 ,a man who cannot write a word1 can yet contemplate his own heart and become wise4 ,knowledge of #a1jjj ,stras and #aj1jjj ,shstras cannot help him to realise the ,absolute within him4 ,he was asked3 8,can a layman with wife and children1 one given over to the lusts of the flesh1 achieve ,buddhahood80 ,he answered3 8,provided he contemplate his own inner-nature1 he will achieve ,buddhahood4 ,it does not matter about his lusts4 ,even a butcher can achieve ,buddhahood1 if he searches in his own heart40 8,what10 cried his listeners1 8a butcher1 who lives by taking life1 and he achieve ,buddhahood80 ,the master replied3 8,it is not a question of the man's trade4 ,if he has learnt to know his own nature he will be saved4 8,i have come from ,india only to teach you that ,buddha is ,thought4 ,i care nothing for monastic rules or ascetic practices4 ,as for walking on water or through fire1 climbing sword-wheels1 fasting1 sitting upright for hours without rest--all such practices are heretical2 they belong to the ,world of ,being4 8,thought1 ,thought1 ,thought6 ,it is hard to seek4 ,expanding1 it covers the whole world2 shrinking1 it is too small to lodge a pin4 8,i seek the heart2 ,i do not seek ,buddha4 ,for ,i have learnt to know that the outer world is empty and untenanted40 ,such was the teaching of ,bodhidharma4 ,it was ,vedantic#c rather than ,buddhist4 ,the terms 8thought10 8,buddha10 etc41 used by ,bodhidharma correspond exactly to the brahman of the ,upanishads4 ,mystic contemplation or yoga had been used by the ,brahmins and was not unknown to the early ,buddhists4 ,but ,bodhidharma was the first to insist upon it as the sole means of salvation4 #c ,dr4 ,mc,govern tells me that ,zen would seem to be more immediately derived from the ,nihilistic ,school of ,ngrjuna 7#ast century ,a4,d474 ,yet though his whole teaching turned on this 8meditation0 or 8,zen10 he left behind him no exact directions for the practice of it4 ,having shown the end1 he left it to each individual to find his own means4 ,rules1 dogmas and definitions were precisely what he set out to destroy4 ,less than a hundred years after his death another ,indian1 ,buddhapriya1 came to ,china and there defined with exactitude and blunt materiality the various forms of meditation4 ,the transition from the spirituality of ,bodhidharma to the grossness of his follower is1 however1 typical of religious history4 ,the poetry of ,christ turns into the theology of ,paul2 the hovel of ,saint ,francis into the mansion of ,brother ,elias4 ,,buddhapriya4 ,he first describes the different attitudes in which ,zen may be practised1 with an exact account of the correct position for hands1 feet1 head1 etc4 ,the normal attitude of meditation1 cross-legged1 with upright back and hands locked over the knees is familiar to every one4 ,zen could also be practised while walking and1 in cases of sickness1 while lying down4 ,buddhapriya's instructions are in the form of question and answer4 ,question4--,how does the ,zen practised by heretics and by the other schools of ,buddhism differ from our ,zen8 ,answer4--,the ,zen of the heretics is not impersonal4 ,the ,zen of the ,lesser ,vehicle is material4 ,the ,zen of the ,greater ,vehicle only abstracts man and phenomena4 ,question4--,how ought one to set about practising ,zen8 ,answer4--,first put far away from you all anger and malice1 and fill your heart with kindness and compassion4 ,question4--,can the beginner at once proceed to the contemplation of non-,being8 ,answer4--,by no means6 ,he must by stratagems gradually enter in4 ,i have never yet seen one who straightway achieved the vision of non-,reality4 ,if for example he were meditating in this room he must first banish from his mind every part of the world except the city of ,ch'ang-an4 ,next every building in the city except this monastery4 ,next1 every room in the monastery except this cell1 every object but himself1 every part of himself except the end of his nose4 ,finally the end of his nose hangs in space like a drop of dew and on this nose-end he concentrates his mind4 ,this is only a preliminary exercise4 ,there are others of the same kind4 ,for example--persuade yourself that your navel is a minute rivulet running through the sands4 ,when this conception is firmly achieved1 you will see a bright light and ultimately1 the body growing transparent1 you will behold the working of your bowels4 ,or again1 regard your head as the top of a hollow pipe which runs straight down through your body into the earth4 ,meditate upon the top of your head1 that is to say1 upon the mouth of the drain-pipe1 and then gradually ascend in your thoughts to a height of four inches above the head1 and concentrate firmly on this conception4 ,you will thus easily pass into the contemplation of non-,being1 having performed the transition from elementary to complete ,zen as comfortably as a workman climbs the rungs of a ladder4 ,question4--,are there any signs whereby ,i may know that ,i have attained to ,samdhi8#d ,answer4--,to be sure there are4 ,sometimes you will feel a sensation as of bugs or ants creeping over your skin2 or again1 it will appear to you that a cloud or mass of white cotton-wool is rising immediately behind your back4 ,in neither case must you be discomposed or put out your hand4 ,sometimes it will seem as though oil were dripping down from your head and face2 sometimes a light will shine from out of the ground you are sitting upon4 ,these are all preliminary signs4 ,sometimes when you have been sitting for a long while and your back is aching1 you will suddenly hear a sound of rapping with the fingers or a noise as of some one bumping against the door4 ,do not be disquieted4 ,these are the ,good ,spirits of ,heaven1 come to warn you against sleep4 ,again1 it may happen that you have an agreeable sense of lightness and floating2 this is a good sign4 ,beware1 however1 of a painful sense of lightness2 for this may merely indicate flatulence4 ,patches of heat on the body are a sign of ,fiery ,samdhi4 ,a light filling the whole room is a premonitory sign of ,zen2 to smell strange fragrances not known on earth is a sign of whole and utter ,abstraction4 ,such and many more are the signs of ,zen4 ,the practicant must not heed them2 for if by them he be encouraged or dismayed1 all his work will be undone4 ,question4--,can ,zen be practised in a ,buddha ,shrine8 ,answer4--,no1 indeed6 ,zen should be practised in a quiet room or under a tree or among tombs or sitting on the dewy earth4 ,question4--,can ,zen be practised by many sitting together8 ,answer4--,to be sure it may2 but each must face his neighbour's back4 ,they must not sit face to face4 ,when there are many sitting together at night1 a lamp or candle may be lit2 but when there are few together1 it ought not to be used4 ,question4--,need ,i wear monastic vestments at my meditations8 ,answer4--,vestments8 ,why1 you need wear no clothes at all1 if so be you are alone4 #d ,concentration4 ,,later ,,development ,,of ,,zen4 ,zen was at first a purely personal discipline1 non-monastic1 non-ethical1 not demanding the acceptance of any ,scripture or any tradition4 ,in modern ,japan it has to some extent regained this character4 ,in ,china the habit of quoting written authority was too strong to be easily discarded4 ,the ,zen masters soon began to answer difficult questions by quoting from the ,buddhist ,scriptures4 ,convenience dictated that practicants of ,zen should live in communities and monasticism was soon established in their sect1 as in every other sect of ,buddhism4 ,questions of conduct arose1 and ,zen was squared with the contemporary ethical outlook2 though in medieval ,japanese literature wicked and cynical persons are generally depicted as adepts of ,zen4 ,bodhidharma denied the existence of ,good and ,evil2 but it was pointed out by later apologists that the ,zen adept1 having viewed the ,absolute1 is convinced of the unreality and futility of those pleasures and possessions which are the incentive to sin4 ,the ,zen practicant1 though he makes no moral effort1 nevertheless is certain not to sin1 because he is certain not to be tempted4 ,finally1 ,zen forged itself a tradition4 ,probably during the eleventh century a ,scripture#e was fabricated which recounts how once when ,buddha was preaching1 he plucked a flower and smiled4 ,only the disciple ,kshyapa understood the significance of this act4 ,between him and the ,buddha there passed a wordless communication of ,absolute ,truths4 ,this communication was silently passed on by ,kshyapa to his disciple1 and so ultimately to ,bodhidharma1 who brought it to ,china4 #e ,dai ,bonten ,monbutsu ,ketsugi ,ky4 ,the method of teaching by symbolic acts 7such as the plucking of a flower7 was extensively used by the ,zen masters4 ,for example1 when a disciple asked ,enkwan a question about the nature of ,buddha1 he answered1 8,bring me a clean bowl40 ,when the priest brought the bowl1 the master said1 8,now put it back where you found it40 ,he signified that the priest's questionings must return to their proper place1 the questioner's heart1 from which alone spiritual knowledge can be obtained4 ,the object of the ,zen teachers1 as of some eccentric schoolmasters whom ,i have known1 seems at first sight to have been merely to puzzle and surprise their pupils to the highest possible degree4 ,a peculiar 8brusquerie0 was developed in ,zen monasteries4 ,the literature of the sect consists chiefly in an endless series of anecdotes recording the minutest happenings in the lives of famous ,zen monks and their 7apparently7 most trivial sayings4 ,but behind these trifling acts and sayings a deep meaning lay hid4 ,the interpretation of such teaching depends on a complete knowledge of the symbolism used4 ,i am not inclined to agree with those students of ,zen who assert that its written teaching are wholly devoid of intellectual content or so completely esoteric as not to admit of explanation in words4 ,like other ,buddhist philosophers the ,zen masters were chiefly concerned with the attempt to define the relation between the ,one and the ,many1 between the subjective and objective aspects of life4 ,the idealism of ,zen does not mean that the phenomenal world has no importance4 ,to those who have not reached complete self-realisation the urgencies of that world remain paramount and are the only stepping-stones upon which he can climb higher4 ,on the day of his arrival at the monastery a novice presented himself before the abbot1 begging to be allowed to begin his spiritual exercises without further delay4 8,have you had supper80 asked the abbot4 8,yes40 8,then go and wash your plate40 ,,the ,,zen ,,masters4 ,let us begin with ,en1 a master of the seventh century4 ,he lost his parents when he was young and earned his living by gathering firewood4 ,one day when he was in the market-place he heard some one reading the ,diamond ,stra4#f ,he asked where such books were to be had and was told 8,from ,master ,knin on the ,yellow ,plum-blossom ,hill40 ,accordingly he went to ,knin's ,monastery in ,anhui and presented himself before the ,master4 8,where do you come from80 8,from the ,south40 8,bah6 ,in the ,south they have not ,buddha in their souls40 8,north and ,south10 replied ,en1 8are human distinctions that ,buddha knows nothing of40 #f ,translated by ,w4 ,gemmell1 #aiab4 ,its use by ,knin shows that ,zen did not long avoid the use of scriptures4 ,knin accepted him as a lay-brother and put him to pound rice in the bakery4 ,knin was growing old and wished to choose his successor4 ,he therefore instituted a poetical competition in which each monk was to epitomise in a quatrain the essence of ,zen4 ,the favourite candidate was the warden ,shinsh1 who sent in the following verses3 ,the body is the trunk of the ,bodhi-tree2 ,the mind is the bright mirror's stand2 ,scrub your mirror continually1 ,lest the dust eclipse its brightness4 ,en1 as a lay-brother1 was not qualified to compete4 ,some one told him of ,shinsh's quatrain4 8,mine would be very different10 he exclaimed1 and persuaded one of the boys employed in the bakery to go stealthily by night and inscribe the following poem on the monastery-wall3 ,knowledge is not a tree2 ,the ,mirror has no stand2 ,since nothing exists1 ,how could dust rise and cover it8 ,the authorship of the poem was discovered and the abbot ,knin visited ,en in the bakery4 8,is your rice white or no80 he asked4 8,white80 answered ,en2 8it has not yet been sifted40 ,thereupon the abbot struck three times on the rice-mortar with his staff and departed4 ,en understood his meaning4 ,that night at the third watch he came to ,knin's cell and was invested with the abbot's mantle1 thereby becoming the ,sixth ,patriarch of the ,zen ,church4 ,he died in #gab ,a4,d41 without having learned how to read or write4 ,,fashionable ,,zen4 ,the warden ,shinsh had lost the ,patriarchate and with it the spiritual headship of ,zen4 ,but as a compensation ,fate had in store for him worldly triumphs of the most dazzling kind4 ,leaving the rural monastery of ,knin1 he entered the ,temple of the ,jade fountain in the great city of ,kingchau4 ,his fame soon spread over central ,china4 ,he was a man of 8huge stature1 bushy eyebrows and shapely ears40 ,the ,empress ,wu ,hou1 who had usurped the throne of ,china1 notoriously cultivated the society of handsome priests4 ,about #fhd ,a4,d4 she summoned him to the ,capital4 ,instead of commanding his presence at ,court she came in a litter to his lodgings and actually knelt down before him4 ,the friendship of this murderous and fiendishly cruel woman procured for him temporal dignities which in the eyes of the world completely outshone the rustic piety of the ,sixth ,patriarch4 ,shinsh at the ,capital became as it were the ,temporal ,father of ,zen1 while ,en at his country monastery remained its spiritual pope4 ,the successors of ,en became known as the ,fathers of the ,southern ,school2 while the courtly and social ,zen of ,shinsh is called ,zen of the ,north4 ,was it in sincere goodwill or with the desire to discredit his rival that ,shinsh invited ,en to join him at the ,capital8 ,in any case ,en had the good sense to refuse4 8,i am a man of low stature and humble appearance10 he replied2 8,i fear that the men of the ,north would despise me and my doctrines0--thus hinting 7with just that touch of malice which so often spices the unworldly7 that ,shinsh's pre-eminence in the ,north was due to outward rather than to spiritual graces4 ,shinsh died in #gjf1 outliving his august patroness by a year4 ,to perpetuate his name a palace was turned into a memorial monastery2 the ,emperor's brother wrote his epitaph2 his obsequies were celebrated with stupendous pomp4 ,his successor1 ,fujaku1 at first remained at the ,kingchau monastery where he had been ,shinsh's pupil4 ,but in #gbd the irresolute ,emperor ,ming-huang1 who had proscribed ,buddhism ten years before1 summoned ,fujaku to the ,imperial ,city4 ,here princes and grandees vied with one another in doing him honour4 8,the secret of his success10 says the historian1#g 8was that he seldom spoke and generally looked cross4 ,hence his rare words and occasional smiles acquired in the eyes of his admirers an unmerited value40 ,he died at the age of #hi4 ,on the day of his interment the great streets of ,ch'ang-an were empty4 ,the whole city had joined in the funeral procession4 ,the ,governor of ,honan 7one of the greatest functionaries in the ,state71 together with his wife and children1 all of them clad in monastic vestments1 followed the bier1 mingling with the promiscuous crowd of his admirers and disciples4 #g ,old ,t'ang ,history1 #aia4 ,religion was at that time fashionable in the high society of ,ch'ang-an1 as it is to-day in the great ,catholic capitals of ,munich1 ,vienna or ,seville4 ,when ,i read of ,fujaku's burial another scene at once sprang into my mind1 the funeral of a great ,bavarian dignitary1 where ,i saw the noblemen of ,munich walk hooded and barefoot through the streets4 ,i shall not refer again to the ,northern ,school of ,zen4 ,one wonders whether the founders of religions are forced by fate to watch the posthumous development of their creeds4 ,if so1 theirs must be the very blackest pit of ,hell4 ,let us return to the ,southern ,school1 always regarded as the true repository of ,zen tradition4 ,,baku4 baku lived at the beginning of the ninth century1 and was thus a contemporary of the poet ,po ,ch-i4 ,he enjoyed the patronage of a distinguished statesman the ,chancellor ,hai ,ky1 of whom the ,emperor said1 8,this is indeed a true ,confucian40 ,it is to the ,chancellor that we owe the record of baku's conversations1 which he wrote down day by day4 ,i will make a few extracts from this diary3 ,hai ,ky4--,en could not read or write4 ,how came it that he succeeded to the ,patriarchate of ,knin8 ,the warden ,shinsh was in control of #ejj monks1 gave lectures1 and could discourse upon thirty-two different ,stras and ,shstras4 ,it was certainly very strange that he was not made ,patriarch4 baku 7replying74--,shinsh's conception of ,thought was too material4 ,his proofs and practices were too positive4 8,the master told me that when he was studying with ,enkwan1 the ,emperor ,tai ,chung came dressed as a monk4 ,the master happened to be in the chapel prostrating himself before an image of ,buddha4 ,the ,emperor1 who thought he had learnt the lesson of ,zen idealism1 said to him3 #8,there is nothing to be got from ,buddha1 nothing from the ,church1 nothing from ,man2 for nothing exists4 ,what do you mean by praying at your age8' 8baku answered him3 #8,i seek nothing of ,buddha1 the ,church1 or of ,man4 ,i am in the habit of praying4' ,the ,emperor said3 #8,what do you do it for8' baku lost patience and struck him with his fist4 #8,you rude fellow1' cried the ,emperor4 #8,since nothing exists1 what difference does it make to you whether ,i am rude or polite8' and baku struck him again4 ,the ,emperor retreated hastily40 ,in his old age baku visited his native village and stayed a year in his mother's house1 without revealing his identity4 ,after he had set out again for his monastery1 his mother suddenly realised that he was her son and went in pursuit of him4 ,she reached the shore of a certain river1 only to see him disembarking on the other side4 ,thereupon she lost her reason and flung herself into the water4 baku threw a lighted torch after her and recited the following verses3 ,may the wide river dry at its source1 to its very bed ,if here the crime of matricide has been done2 ,when one son becomes a priest1 the whole family is born again in ,heaven2 ,if that is a lie1 all that ,buddha promised is a lie4 ,henceforward the throwing of a lighted torch into the bier became part of the ,zen funeral ceremony2 it was accompanied by the reciting of the above verses4 ,probably formula1 ritual1 and story alike belong to a period much more ancient than ,buddhism4 ,in the seventeenth century a ,chinese priest named ,ingen#h carried the teaching of baku to ,japan1 where it now possesses nearly #gjj temples4 #h #aeib-afgc ,a4,d4 ,,baso4 ,baso was a master of the ninth century4 ,one day he was sitting with his feet across the garden-path4 ,a monk came along with a wheel-barrow4 8,tuck in your feet10 said the monk4 8,what has been extended cannot be retracted10 answered ,baso4 8,what has been started cannot be stopped10 cried the monk and pushed the barrow over ,baso's feet4 ,the master hobbled to the monastery and seizing an axe called out 8,have any of you seen the rascal who hurt my feet80 ,the monk who had pushed the barrow then came out and stood 8with craned head40 ,the master laid down his axe4 ,to understand this story we must realise that the wheel-barrow is here a symbol of the ,wheel of ,life and ,death1 which1 though every spoke of it is illusion1 cannot be disregarded till we have destroyed the last seed of phenomenal perception in us4 ,,rinzai4 baku1 as we have seen1 taught wisdom with his fists4 ,when the novice ,rinzai came to him and asked him what was the fundamental idea of ,buddhism1 baku hit him three times with his stick4 ,rinzai fled and presently met the monk ,daigu4 ,daigu3 ,where do you come from8 ,rinzai3 ,from baku4 ,daigu3 ,and what stanza did he lecture upon8 ,rinzai3 ,i asked him thrice what was the fundamental doctrine of ,buddhism and each time he hit me with his stick4 ,please tell me if ,i did something ,i ought not to have done8 ,daigu3 ,you go to baku and torture him by your questions1 and then ask if you have done wrong6 ,at that moment ,rinzai had a ,great ,enlightenment4 ,rinzai substituted howling for baku's manual violence4 ,he shouted meaningless syllables at his disciples2 roared like a lion or bellowed like a bull4 ,this 8howling0 became a regular part of ,zen practice1 and may be compared to the yelling of the ,american ,shakers4 ,upon his deathbed ,rinzai summoned his disciples round him and asked which of them felt capable of carrying on his work4 ,sansh volunteered to do so4 8,how will you tell people what was ,rinzai's teaching80 asked ,rinzai4 ,sansh threw out his chest and roared in a manner which he thought would gratify the master4 ,but ,rinzai groaned and cried out1 8,to think that such a blind donkey should undertake to hand on my teaching60 ,it was in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries that ,zen most completely permeated ,chinese thought4 ,upon the invasion of the ,mongols#i many ,zen monks from ,eastern ,china took refuge in ,japan2 the same thing happened during the ,manchu invasion in the seventeenth century4 ,but by that time ,zen had a serious philosophic rival4 #i ,on the attitude of the ,mongol rulers to ,zen1 see an article by ,prof4 ,kunishita1 ,tygakuh1 xi41 #d1 #hg4 ,in the fifteenth century the philosopher ,wang ,yang-ming began to propagate a doctrine which1 in all but names1 strongly resembled the philosophic side of ,zen4 ,he taught that in each one of us is a 8higher nature10 something which1 borrowing a phrase from ,mencius1 he called 8,good ,knowledge40 ,of this inner nature he speaks in exactly the same terms as the ,zen teachers spoke of their 8,buddha immanent in man's heart40 ,he even uses the same kind of doggerel-verse as a medium of teaching4 ,rigid ,confucianists1 who would not have listened to any doctrine of professedly ,buddhist origin1 were able through ,wang ,yang-ming's tact to accept the philosophy of ,zen without feeling that they were betraying the ,confucian tradition4 ,the followers of ,yang-ming are to-day very numerous both in ,china and ,japan4 ,they cultivate introspection1 but not the complete self-hypnosis of ,zen4 ,in ,china1 where ,zen is almost forgotten1 the followers of this later doctrine are not even aware of its derivation4 ,,zen ,,and ,,art4 ,i said at the beginning of this paper that ,zen is often mentioned by writers on ,far ,eastern ,art4 ,the connection between ,zen and art is important1 not only because of the inspiration which ,zen gave to the artist1 but also because through ,zen was obtained a better understanding of the psychological conditions under which art is produced than has prevailed in any other civilisation4 ,art was regarded as a kind of ,zen1 as a delving down into the ,buddha that each of us unknowingly carries within him1 as ,benjamin carried ,joseph's cup in his sack4 ,through ,zen we annihilate ,time and see the ,universe not split up into myriad fragments1 but in its primal unity4 ,unless1 says the ,zen sthetician1 the artist's work is imbued with this vision of the subjective1 non-phenomenal aspect of life1 his productions will be mere toys4 ,i do not mean to suggest that ,chinese artists found in ,zen a short cut to the production of beauty4 ,zen aims at the annihilation of consciousness1 whereas art is produced by an interaction of conscious and unconscious faculties4 ,how far such an interaction can be promoted by the psychic discipline of ,zen no layman can judge2 moreover the whole question of the artist's psychology is controversial and obscure4 ,perhaps it is not even very important that the artist himself should have a sound sthetic2 but it is of the utmost importance to the artist that the public should have some notion of the conditions under which art can be produced--should have some key to the vagaries of a section of humanity which will in any case always be found troublesome and irritating4 ,such a key ,zen supplied1 and it is in the language of ,zen that1 after the twelfth century1 art is usually discussed in ,china and ,japan4 ,,the ,,rokuts,,ji ,,school4 ,one institution1 about which till recently very little was known1 seems to have been an important factor in the propagation of ,zen art and ideas4 ,about #abae ,a4,d4 a ,zen priest came from the far south-west of ,china to ,hangchow1 the ,capital1 and there refounded a ruined monastery1 the ,rokutsji1 which stood on the shores of the famous ,western ,lake4 ,his name was ,mokkei4 ,he seems to have been the first to practise the swift1 ecstatic type of monochrome which is associated with ,zen4 ,in hurried swirls of ink he sought to record before they faded visions and exaltations produced whether by the frenzy of wine1 the stupor of tea1 or the vacancy of absorption4 ,sometimes his design is tangled and chaotic2 sometimes as in his famous 8,persimmons10#aj passion has congealed into a stupendous calm4 #aj ,see ,kmmel1 ,die ,kunst ,ostasiens ,pl4 #aah4 ,of his fellow-workers the best known is ,ras1 a painter of birds and flowers4 ,rykai1 once a fashionable painter1 left the ,court and with his pupil ,rikaku worked in the manner of ,mokkei4 ,examples of ,rykai's work before and after his conversion are still preserved in ,japan4 ,finally1 about the middle of the fourteenth century1 a ,japanese priest came to ,china and1 under circumstances which ,i shall describe in an appendix1 confusingly became ,mokkei ,,ii4 ,it may be that it was he who sent back to his own country some of the numerous pictures signed ,mokkei which are now in ,japan4 ,which of them are by ,mokkei and which by ,mokuan is a problem which remains to be solved4 ,this ,zen art did not flourish long in ,china1 nor in all probability do many specimens of it survive there4 ,but in ,japan it was a principal source of inspiration to the great painters of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries4 ,sessh himself is the direct descendant of ,mokkei2 as in a decadent way are ,kan masters such as ,tsunenobu4 ,zen paintings are of two kinds4 7#a7 ,representations of animals1 birds and flowers1 in which the artist attempted to identify himself with the object depicted1 to externise its inner ,buddha4 ,these were achieved not by study from the life1 as the early ,sung nature-pieces have been1 but by intense and concentrated visualisation of the subject to be painted4 ,this mental picture was rapidly transferred to paper before the spell of concentration 7samdhi7 was broken4 7#b7 ,illustrations of episodes in the lives of the great ,zen teachers4 ,this branch of ,zen art was essentially dramatic4 ,it sought to express the characters of the persons involved1 subtly to reveal the grandeur of soul that lay hidden behind apparent uncouthness or stupidity4 ,typical of this kind of painting are the pictures of 8,tanka burning the ,image40 ,one night ,tanka1 a ,zen priest1 stayed as a guest at an ordinary ,buddhist monastery4 ,there was no firewood in his cell4 ,as the night was cold he went into the chapel1 seized a wooden statue of ,shkyamuni and1 chopping it up1 made himself a comfortable fire4 ,to him the idol of ,buddha was a mere block of wood2 his indignant hosts took a different view4 ,the controversy is the same as that which occupies the central place in the ,n play ,sotoba ,komachi4 ,there is another aspect of ,zen which had an equally important effect on art4 ,the ,buddha-nature is immanent not in ,man only1 but in everything that exists1 animate or inanimate4 ,stone1 river and tree are alike parts of the great hidden ,unity4 ,thus ,man1 through his ,buddha-nature or universalised consciousness1 possesses an intimate means of contact with ,nature4 ,the songs of birds1 the noise of waterfalls1 the rolling of thunder1 the whispering of wind in the pine-trees--all these are utterances of the ,absolute4 ,hence the connection of ,zen with the passionate love of ,nature which is so evident in ,far ,eastern poetry and art4 ,personally ,i believe that this passion for ,nature worked more favourably on literature than on painting4 ,the typical ,zen picture1 dashed off in a moment of exaltation--perhaps a moonlit river expressed in three blurs and a flourish--belongs rather to the art of calligraphy than to that of painting4 ,in his more elaborate depictions of nature the ,zen artist is led by his love of nature into that common pitfall of lovers--sentimentality4 ,the forms of ,nature tend with him to function not as forms but as symbols4 ,something resembling the mystic belief which ,zen embraces is found in many countries and under many names4 ,but ,zen differs from other religions of the same kind in that it admits only one means by which the perception of ,truth can be attained4 ,prayer1 fasting1 asceticism--all are dismissed as useless1 giving place to one single resource1 the method of self-hypnosis which ,i have here described4 ,i have1 indeed1 omitted any mention of an important adjunct of ,zen1 namely tea-drinking1 which was as constant a feature in the life of ,zen monasteries as it is here in the rgime of charwomen and girl-clerks4 ,i have not space to describe the various tea-ceremonies4 ,the tendency of monasteries was to create in them as in every part of daily life a more and more elaborate ritual1 calculated to give some pattern to days otherwise devoid of any incident4 ,we possess minute descriptions of every ceremony--the initiation of novices1 the celebration of birth and death anniversaries of the ,patriarchs1 the procedure in cases of sickness1 madness1 disobedience1 disappearance or death of monks2 the selection and investiture of abbots2 the lectures1 liturgies and sessions which constituted the curriculum of ,zen instruction4 ,in ,china decay set in after the fifteenth century4 ,the ,zen monasteries became almost indistinguishable from those of popular1 idolatrous ,buddhism4 ,in ,japan1 on the other hand1 ,zen has remained absolutely distinct and is now the favourite creed of the educated classes4 ,it has not hitherto conducted any propaganda in ,europe1 whereas the ,amida ,sect has sent out both missionaries and pamphlets4 ,but ,i believe that ,zen would find many converts in ,england4 ,something rather near it we already possess4 ,quakerism1 like ,zen1 is a non-dogmatic religion1 laying stress on the doctrine of ,immanence4 ,but whereas the ,quakers seek communion with the ,divine ,spark in corporate meditation and deliberately exploit the mysterious potencies of crowd-psychology--the ,zen adept probes in solitude 7or at least without reference to his neighbour7 for the ,buddha within him4 ,in cases where a ,quaker meeting passes in silence1 the members having meditated quietly for a whole hour1 a very near approach to a ,zen gathering has been made4 ,but more often than not the ,holy ,spirit1 choosing his mouthpiece with an apparent lack of discrimination1 quickly descends upon some member of the meeting4 ,the ineffable1 which ,zen wisely refused to express1 is then drowned in a torrent of pedestrian oration4 ,some1 then1 may turn to ,zen as a purer ,quakerism4 ,others will be attracted to it by the resemblance of its doctrines to the hypotheses of recent psychology4 ,the ,buddha consciousness of ,zen exactly corresponds to the ,universal ,consciousness which1 according to certain modern investigators1 lies hid beneath the personal ,consciousness4 ,such converts will probably use a kind of applied ,zen1 much as the ,japanese have done2 that is to say1 they will not seek to spend their days in complete ,samdhi1 but will dive occasionally1 for rest or encouragement1 into the deeper recesses of the soul4 ,it is not likely that they will rest content with the traditional ,eastern methods of self-hypnosis4 ,if certain states of consciousness are indeed more valuable than those with which we are familiar in ordinary life--then we must seek them unflinchingly by whatever means we can devise4 ,i can imagine a kind of dentist's chair fitted with revolving mirrors1 flashing lights1 sulphurous haloes expanding and contracting--in short a mechanism that by the pressure of a single knob should whirl a dustman into ,nirvna4 ,whether such states of mind are actually more valuable than our ordinary consciousness is difficult to determine4 ,certainly no one has much right to an opinion who has not experienced them4 ,but something akin to ,samdhi--a sudden feeling of contact with a unity more real than the apparent complexity of things--is probably not an uncommon experience4 ,the athlete1 the creative artist1 the lover1 the philosopher--all1 ,i fancy1 get a share of it1 not when seeking to escape from the visible world2 but rather just when that world was seeming to them most sublimely real4 ,to seek by contemplation of the navel or of the tip of the nose a repetition of spiritual experiences such as these seems to us inane2 and indeed the negative trance of ,zen is very different from the positive ecstasies to which ,i have just referred4 ,i say that it is different2 but how do ,i know8 8,zen10 said ,bodhidharma1 8cannot be described in words nor chronicled in books02 and ,i have no other experience of ,zen4 ,if ,i knew1 ,i might transmit to you my knowledge1 but it would have to be by a direct spiritual communication1 symbolised only by a smile1 a gesture1 or the plucking of a flower4 ,i need not therefore apologise for having given a purely external and historical account of ,zen1 a creed whose inner mysteries are admittedly beyond the scope of words4 ,,appendix ,i4 ,reproductions of ,zen ,paintings in ,japanese art publications4 7,the ,kokka and the other publications here referred to may be seen at the ,art ,library1 ,victoria and ,albert ,museum2 and at the ,print ,room of the ,british ,museum47 ,,mokkei--,kokka4 #cg1 #aab1 #abb1 #agg1 #ahe1 #bch1 #bdb1 #bfe1 #bfh1 #bia1 #bic1 #cad4 ,,ras4--,shimbi ,taikwan ,,xx4 ,,mokuan4--7,mokkei ,,ii74--,kokka #bie1 ,shimbi ,taikwan ,vol4 ,,ix4 7,nos4 #ba and #bb in the collection of ,chinese ,paintings at the ,british ,museum are probably by ,mokuan47 ,,ry,,kai4--,kokka #dj1 #aad1 #ade1 #aeb1 #bbj1 #bbg1 #bbi4 ,,rikaku4--,kokka #bfi4 ,,mujun4--7,an important thirteenth century ,zen writer47 ,kokka #bdc4 ,,indra4--7,a ,hangchow priest1 presumably an ,indian2 flourished c4 #abhj47 ,kokka #ce1 #aaj1 #bbc1 #caj4 ,shimbi ,taikwan ,,ix4 ,,appendix ,,ii4 ,,mokuan4 ,the ,nikksh#aa1 a diary by the priest ,gid1 has the following entry under the year #acgh 7month and day uncertain73 ,to-day ,donfu#ab came1 and we fell to talking of ,mokuan4 ,it seems that he was once known as ,ze-itsu4 ,but on becoming a pupil of the priest ,kenzan#ac1 he changed his name to ,mokuan4 ,afterwards he went to ,china and entered the ,honkakuji#ad1 where he became the disciple of ,ry-an#ae and was made librarian4 ,here he published at his own expense 7lit4 8selling his shoes07 the ,second ,collection of ,sayings by ,korin4 ,subsequently he lived at the ,shtenji at ,soochow1 and was warden there under ,nanso#af1 dying soon afterwards4 ,when he first came to ,china he spent some time at the ,jji ,monastery at ,hangchow and from there visited the ,rokutsji on the shores of the ,western ,lake4 ,this monastery was inhabited by the followers of ,mokkei4 ,the abbot greeted ,mokuan with a smile1 saying to him3 8,last night ,i dreamt that our founder ,mokkei came back again4 ,you must be his reincarnation02 and he gave to ,mokuan ,mokkei's two seals1 white and red4 ,henceforward he was known as ,mokkei the ,second4 #aa ,see my ,n ,plays of ,japan 7,allen ,unwin1 #aiba71 p4 #ai4 ,the passage here translated is taken not from the current1 two-chapter abridgement of ,gid's ,diary1 but from the ,kokuchosh1 a miscellany by the #aeth century priest ,zuikei1 who quoted many passages from the lost portion of the ,diary4 ,see ,mr4 ,saga ,tsh1 ,shina ,gaku1 ,i41 #a4 #ab #acad-achd4 #ac ,died #acbc4 ,both he and ,donfu were ,japanese priests who visited ,china4 #ad ,at ,chia-hsing in ,chehkiang4 #ae ,entered this temple in #accd4 #af ,visited ,japan2 was at the ,shtenji from #acdb-acde4 ,,appendix ,,iii4 ,reproductions of paintings illustrating ,zen legend4 ,,bodhidharma4 7#a7 ,with tightly closed lips1 as he appeared before the ,emperor of ,china in #ebj4 ,masterpieces of ,sessh1 ,pl4 #dg4 7#b7 ,crossing the ,yangtze on a reed4 ,perhaps the best example may be seen not in a reproduction1 but in ,no4 #bb of the original ,chinese ,paintings at the ,british ,museum4 7#c7 ,sitting with his face to the wall4 ,he sat thus in silence for nine years in the ,shrin ,monastery on ,mount ,sung4 ,kokka #ccc4 ,,eka4 ,second ,patriarch of the sect4 ,severed his own arm and presented it to ,bodhidharma4 ,in spite of his fanaticism 7or because of it7 the ,founder did not at first regard him with complete confidence and recommended to him the study of the ,langkvatra ,stra1 not considering him ripe for complete1 non-dogmatic ,zen4 ,eka waiting waist-deep in the snow for the ,founder to instruct him4 ,masterpieces of ,sessh1 ,pl4 #de4 ,,en4 ,sixth ,patriarch4 ,see above1 p #ae4 ,kokka1 #bhi1 #big4 ,,tokusan1 died #hfe ,a4,d4 ,shimbi ,taikwan1 ,i1 #ac1 shows him with his famous ,zen stick4 ,he is also sometimes depicted failing to answer an old market-woman's riddle2 and tearing up his commentary on the ,diamond ,stra4 ,,tanka4 ,a painting by ,indra 7,kokka #agc7 shows him burning the wooden statue of ,buddha at the ,erin ,temple4 ,,bibliography4 7#a7 ,,european4 ,the only writer who has made extracts from the works of ,bodhidharma is ,pre ,wieger1 whose remarks 7in his ,histoire des ,croyances religieuses en ,chine1 pp4 #eag-ebh7 show a robust and likeable bigotry4 ,of ,zen literature he says3 8,nombre d'in-folio remplis de rponses incohrentes1 insenses4444 ,ce ne sont pas1 comme on l'a suppos1 des allusions des affaires intrieures1 qu'il faudrait connatre pour pouvoir comprendre4 ,ce sont des exclamations chappes des abrutis1 momentanment tirs de leur coma40 ,for the tea-ceremony in ,japan see ,okakura's ,book of ,tea 7,foulis1 #aiai74 ,the 8military0 ,zen of ,japan is well described by ,nukariya ,kaiten in his ,the ,religion of the ,samurai1 #aiac4 7#b7 ,,native4 ,most of this paper is derived from the section on ,zen 7,series ,,ii1 ,vol4 #ae1 seq47 in the 8,supplement to the ,collection of ,buddhist ,scriptures10 ,dai ,nihon ,zoku ,z ,ky4 ,much of the information with regard to the ,rokutsji ,school is taken from the article by ,mr4 ,saga to which ,i have already referred4 ,for the ,rokutsji 78,temple of the ,six ,penetrations07 see ,hsien ,shun ,lin-an ,chih 78,topography of ,hangchow1 #abfe-abge ,a4,d4071 ch4 #gh1 f4 #i recto4 ,i have also used ,yamada's ,zensh ,jiten 7,dictionary of ,zen7 and the ,hekiganroku1 edited by ,syen1 #aibj4 ,,short ,,index4 7,chinese pronunciations given in brackets47 ,amida1 #h4 ,baso 7,ma ,tsu71 #bj4 ,bodhidharma 7,ta-mo71 #h seq41 #bi4 ,bodhisattvas1 #h4 ,buddhapriya 7,chio-ai71 #aa4 ,dai ,bonten ,monbutsu-ketsugi ,ky1 #ad4 ,daigu 7,ta-y71 #bj4 ,diamond ,stra1 #ae4 ,dhyna1 see ,zen4 ,also1 #aj4 ,eka 7,hui-k'o71 #bi4 ,enkwan 7,yen-kuan71 #ad4 ,en 7,hui-nng71 #ae1 #bi4 ,fujaku 7,p'u-chi71 #ag4 ,haiky 7,p'ei ,hsiu71 #ah4 ,hokkeky1 see ,saddharma1 etc4 ,honkakuji 7,pn-chio-ss71 #bh4 ,joji 7,ching-tz'u71 #bh4 ,kern1 #h4 ,knin 7,hung-jn71 #ae4 ,korin 7,ku-lin71 #bh4 ,mahyna1 #g4 ,mokkei 7,mu-ch'i71 #bb1 #bg4 ,mujun 7,wu-chun71 #bg4 ,nanso 7,nan-ch'u71 #bh4 baku 7,huang ,po71 #ah4 ,okakura1 #cj4 ,ras 7,lo-ch'uang71 #bc1 #bg4 ,rikaku 7,li ,ch'eh71 #bg4 ,rinzai 7,lin-chi71 #bj4 ,rokutsji 7,liu-t'ung-ss71 #bb4 ,ry-an 7,liao-an71 #bh4 ,rykai 7,liang ,k'ai71 #bc1 #bg4 ,saddharma ,pundarka ,stra1 #h4 ,saga ,t4 #bh1 #cj4 ,samdhi 7,san-mei71 #ab4 ,sansh 7,san-shng71 #ba4 ,shkyamuni1 #g4 ,shina ,gaku1 #bh1 #cj4 ,shinsh 7,shn-hsiu71 #af4 ,shtenji 7,ch'ng-t'ien-ss71 #bh4 ,tanka 7,tan-hsia71 #bc1 #bi4 ,tendai 7,t'ien-t'ai71 #h4 ,tokusan 7,t-shan71 #bi4 ,wieger1 #cj4 ,wu ,hou1 #ag4 ,zen 7,ch'an71 #g1 etc4 99 99 99 99 99 ,transcriber's ,note ,a duplicate title page has been removed from the text4 ,externise on p4 #bc is a variant form of externalise1 and has been left as printed4 ,the diacritics in ,saddharma ,pundarka ,stra on p4 #h were marked in pen on the printed copy1 and may not have been printed4