The most fruitful growth of Buddhism in the Far East has resulted in
the development of Zen and Shin. Zen attained its maturity in China and
Shin in Japan. The vigour and vitality which Buddhism still has after
more than two thousand years of history, will be realised when one
comes in contact with these two branches of Buddhism. The one appeals
to the inmost religious consciousness of mankind, while the other
touches the intellectual and practical aspects of the Oriental mind,
which is more intuitive than discursive, more mystical than logical.
If Zen is the ultra “self-power” wing of Buddhism, Shin represents the
other extreme wing known as the “other-power,” and these two extremes
are synthesised in the enlightened Buddha-consciousness.
Since the publication of my short note on Zen Buddhism in the _Journal
of the Pali Text Society_, 1907, nothing of importance has been
published in English on the subject except Professor Kwaiten Nukariya’s
_Religion of the Samurai_, 1913. In fact, even in Japanese or Chinese,
this branch of Buddhism has received very slight attention from modern
writers of Buddhism. This is due to the peculiar difficulties which
accompany the study of it. The “Goroku”[f1][1] (sayings) is the only
literary form in which Zen expresses itself; and to understand it
requires some special practical training in Zen, for mere knowledge
of the Chinese, classical and historical, is far from being enough;
even with the masterly understanding of the philosophy of general
Buddhism, Zen is found quite hard to fathom. Some of such scholars
sometimes try to explain the truth and development of Zen, but they
sadly fail to do justice to the subject.
On the other hand, the Zen masters so called are unable to present
their understanding in the light of modern thought. Their most
intellectually-productive years are spent in the Meditation Hall,
and when they successively graduate from it, they are looked up to
as adepts thoroughly versed in the kō-ans.[2] So far so good; but,
unfortunately from the scholarly point of view, they remain contented
with this, and do not show any lively intellectual interest in the
psychology and philosophy of Zen. Thus Zen is left to lie quietly
sealed up in the “Sayings” of the masters and in the technical study of
the kō-ans; it is thus incapacitated to walk out of the seclusion of
the cloisters.
Of course, great mistake it would be if one should ever take the notion
even for a moment that Zen could be mastered from its philosophical
presentation or its psychological description; but this ought not to
mean that Zen is not to be intelligently approached or to be made
somewhat accessible by our ordinary means of reasoning. I need not
mention that my attempts in the following pages are anything but
adequate for the rational treatment of the subject. But as a tentative
experiment to present Zen from our common-sense point of view and as a
direct lineage of Buddhist faith as first proclaimed or rather realised
by the Buddha, I hope I have worked towards removing some of the
difficulties usually besetting us in the mastery of Zen thought. How
far I have succeeded or how utterly I have failed,—this is naturally
for the reader to judge.
The book is a collection of the Essays originally published in _The
Eastern Buddhist_ except one on the “History of Zen Buddhism” which
was written specially for this volume; but all of them have been
thoroughly revised and in some parts entirely re-written and
new chapters added. The book will be followed by a second series of
Essays before long, in which some more of the important points in the
constitution of Zen will be treated.
The publication of these Essays in bookform is principally due to the
most liberal encouragement, both material and moral, of Mr Yakichi
Ataka, of Osaka, who is an old friend of the author’s and who has not
forgotten the pledge half-seriously and half-dreamily made in our
youthful days. The author also owes a great deal to his wife in the
preparation and revision of the MS, without which the book would have
shown many more imperfections than it does now in various ways.
Lastly, in sending this humble work, not written in the author’s native
tongue, out to the world, he cannot help thinking of his late teacher
in Zen, Soyen Shaku, of Engakuji, Kamakura, with regret that his life
had not been spared for several years yet, not only for the sake of
Japanese Buddhism but for many of his lamenting friends. This is the
seventh autumn for the maple-trees to scatter their crimson leaves over
his grave at Matsu-ga-oka. Might his spirit not for once be awakened
from deep meditation and criticise the book now before the reader!