The Way of Zen - Alan Watts [54]
The period of prosperity which came with the tenth and eleventh centuries was attended by a sense of “loss of spirit,” which in turn gave rise to much study of the great T’ang masters. Their anecdotes were subsequently collected in such anthologies as the Pi-yen Lu (1125) and the Wu-men kuan (1229). The use of these anecdotes for the koan method was originated by Yüan-wu (1063–1135) and his disciple Ta-hui (1089–1163), in the tenth or eleventh generation of descent from Lin-chi. However, something which already began to resemble it was employed by Huang-lung (1002–1069) in order to cope with his particularly large following. He devised three test-questions known as “Huang-lung’s Three Barriers”–
Question: Everybody has a place of birth. Where is your place of birth?
Answer: Early this morning I ate white rice gruel. Now I’m hungry again.
Question: How is my hand like the Buddha’s hand?
Answer: Playing the lute under the moon.
Question: How is my foot like a donkey’s foot?
Answer: When the white heron stands in the snow it has a different color.43
No doubt the answers given were the original replies to the questions, but later the problem becomes both the question and its answer, for the student is expected to see into the relationship between the two, which, to say the least, is none too obvious. For the moment, it is enough to say that every koan has a “point” which is some aspect of Zen experience, that its point is often concealed by being made very much more apparent than one would expect, and that koans are concerned not only with the primary awakening to the Void but also with its subsequent expression in life and thought.
The koan system was developed in the Lin-chi (Rinzai) School of Zen, but not without opposition. The Soto School felt that it was much too artificial. Whereas the koan advocates used this technique as a means for encouraging that overwhelming “feeling of doubt” (i ching ff) which they felt to be essential as a prerequisite for satori, the Soto School argued that it lent itself too easily to that very seeking for satori which thrusts it away, or–what is worse–induces an artificial satori. Adherents of the Rinzai School sometimes say that the intensity of the satori is proportionate to the intensity of the feeling of doubt, of blind seeking, which precedes it, but for Soto this suggests that such a satori has a dualistic character, and is thus no more than an artificial emotional reaction. Thus the Soto view was that proper dhyana lay in motiveless action (wu-wei), in “sitting just to sit,” or “walking just to walk.” The two schools therefore came to be known respectively as k’an-hua Zen (observing the anecdote Zen) and mo-chao Zen (silently illumined Zen).
The Rinzai School of Zen was introduced into Japan in 1191 by the Japanese T’ien-t’ai monk Eisai (1141–1215), who established monasteries at Kyoto and Kamakura under imperial patronage. The Soto School was introduced in 1227 by the extraordinary genius Dogen (1200–1253), who established the great monastery of Eiheiji, refusing, however, to accept imperial favors. It should be noted that Zen arrived in Japan shortly after the beginning of the Kamakura Era, when the military dictator Yoritomo and his samurai followers had seized power from the hands of the then somewhat decadent nobility. This historical coincidence provided the military class, the samurai, with a type of Buddhism which appealed to them strongly because of its practical and earthy qualities and because of the directness and simplicity of its approach. Thus there arose that peculiar way of life called bushido, the Tao of the warrior, which is essentially the application of Zen to the arts of war. The association of the