Meido Moore - The Rinzai Zen Way: A Guide to Practice

Bodhidharma, the First Zen Patriarch. Kensho Jobutsu:
Seeing [ones true] nature, becoming Buddha
Painting and inscription by Dogen Hosokawa Roshi.

S HAKYAMUNI B UDDHA turned his eye inward, realized his True Self, and set in motion the wheel of the dharma. In the twenty-some centuries since, the many schools of Buddhism developed, all of them centered on this fundamental experience but varying in their modes of expression and techniques of training.

The Zen school began in China, starting from the sixth century C.E. Zen emphasizes the primacy of realization and the necessity of continued refinement of that experience. Even within Zen, different styles of expression developed. The school of Zen associated with Rinzai (d. 866) is known for its dynamic style and its emphasis on the body: all activity can be meditation; wisdom must manifest in every action of the realized person. The Rinzai school became the dominant school of Zen in China, and was eventually transmitted to Japan.

Our line of Zen was transmitted to the West by Omori Sogen Roshi, one of the foremost Japanese Rinzai Zen masters of the twentieth century. He once expressed his understanding of Zen in these words:

Zen is to transcend life and death (all dualism), to truly realize that the entire universe is the True Human Body through the discipline of body-mind in oneness.Zen without the accompanying physical experience is nothing but empty discussion.

Drawing on his own background, Omori Roshi developed a distinctive manner of training in Zen that can be summed up (in Japanese) as Zen ken sho. Zen stands for traditional training in Rinzai Zen, including meditation and related practices. Ken means sword and stands for the use of physical trainingin Omori Roshis case, martial artsto develop energy and dynamic use of the body and breathing. Sho means brush and stands for the fine arts; in the context of our training, it means to develop refinement and sensitivity. All these activities are the discipline of body-mind in oneness. All these can be the manifestation of wisdom in action.

In this book, Meido Moore introduces the fundamentals of Rinzai Zen. provides an overview of training in Zen. It locates Zen within the larger landscape of Buddhist practice, and presents the distinctive Zen approach to the motivations for undertaking training, the role of compassion, the nature of enlightenment and its manifestation, and connection between the physicality of training in Zen and the meditative states usually associated with Buddhism.

gives practical instruction in the basics of Zen training in a manner suitable for beginners. Zen training is difficult to accomplish without direct instruction from a knowledgeable teacher. Moore Roshi has provided a detailed and accessible introduction to the use of the body, breath, and mind in meditation that can be fruitfully followed on ones own. He introduces the important practice of training in daily life; even the simplest activities provide the opportunity for training, and to begin these practices is to enter the practice of Zen. Finally, because progressing on the path requires instruction and correction, the text concludes with discussion of the role of a Zen teacher, selecting a teacher, and working with a teacher.

Though Zen has now spread widely, it is clear that modern students often lack an understanding of Zens physicality and the embodied nature of Zen realization. The thread of bodily realization is in danger of being lost. Without this, Zen easily becomes the empty discussion about which Omori Roshi warned. For this reason, it is important that the Rinzai approach to Zen practice that Omori Roshi transmitted be clearly explained and more widely known.

I therefore hope that beginners will make use of this book as an entrance into correct Zen practice, thus avoiding mistaken steps on the path. Further, I hope that practitioners of any levelin any lineagewill use it to clearly see both the strong and weak points in their training.

S O ZAN M ILLER

Abbot, Daiyuzenji Rinzai Zen Temple

Chicago, Illinois

A Z EN B UDDHIST LINEAGE descended from the Chinese master Rinzai Gigen (Linji Yixuan, d. 866) was first transmitted to Japan in a lasting way by Myoan Eisai (11411215). From that time onwardand with patronage from the ruling warrior class and imperial familythe Rinzai Zen school became well established. In particular, the great cultural and spiritual flowerings of the Japanese medieval period were largely centered in Rinzai monasteries.

Of the various Rinzai lines that eventually arrived in Japan, the vital Otokan* lineage alone survives to the present day. This was the lineage inherited by Hakuin Ekaku Zenji (16861768), who revived Rinzai Zen from a period of decline and organized the path of training into its present form. Today, all existing Japanese Rinzai lineages can be traced to that preeminent master.

A few of those lineages have now taken fragile root in the West. We may therefore say that we are witnessing another crucial stage of Rinzai Zen transmission, perhaps as crucial as that from China to Japan. Unfortunately, at this time there are few original works by Western authors that are useful for beginners desiring to actually practice Rinzai Zen. Certainly nothing in the West can yet match works such as Omori Sogen Roshis Sanzen Nyumon

I, too, am unable to author anything matching those earlier works. But I believe that a short book for beginners primarily stressing actual practice details from a Rinzai Zen perspective might be useful. I therefore began writing this book with my students in mind, hoping simply to address points of practice that easily go awry. Recently, however, I have been often contacted by distant persons asking how they also may start to practice Rinzai Zen. Of course, practice instructions are ideally received from a living teacher, face-to-face, and that relationship remains indispensable. Yet those who have not yet found a teacher can still begin in a limited way. Providing guidance for such people might thus be another use of this book.