Roshi P.T.N.H. Jiyu-Kennett - Zen is Eternal Life

Zen is Eternal Life — read online for free the complete book (whole text) full work

Below is the text of the book, divided by pages. System saving the place of the last page read, allows you to conveniently read the book "Zen is Eternal Life" online for free, without having to search again every time where you left off. Put a bookmark, and you can go to the page where you finished reading at any time.

Light

Font size:

↓

↑

Georgia Tahoma Arial Verdana

Reset

Interval:

↓

↑

Bookmark:

Make

1234567...74

ROUTLEDGE LIBRARY EDITIONS:
ZEN BUDDHISM

---

Volume 11

ZEN IS ETERNAL LIFE

---

ZEN IS ETERNAL LIFE

RSHI P.T.N.H. JIYU-KENNETT

Originally published in 1972 as Selling Water by the River by Allen & Unwin Ltd
Second edition published in 1976 as Zen is Eternal Life by Shasta Abbey
Third edition 1987; fourth edition 1999

This edition first published in 2016
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

1999 Shasta Abbey

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978-1-138-18505-0 (Set)
ISBN: 978-1-315-61954-5 (Set) (ebk)
ISBN: 978-1-138-65896-7 (Volume 11) (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-61968-2 (Volume 11) (ebk)

Publishers Note
The publisher has gone to great lengths to ensure the quality of this reprint but points out that some imperfections in the original copies may be apparent.

Disclaimer
The publisher has made every effort to trace copyright holders and would welcome correspondence from those they have been unable to trace.

Zen is Eternal Life

Zen
is Eternal Life

by

RSHI P.T.N.H. JIYU-KENNETT

Formerly published as

Selling Water by the River

Third Edition1987

Fourth Edition1999

1999 Shasta Abbey.

All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form except
for brief excerpts for purposes of review without written
permission from Shasta Abbey, 3724 Summit Drive,
Mt. Shasta, CA 96067-9102; (530) 926-4208.

Originally published in 1972 as Selling Water by the River.
Second edition published in 1976 as Zen is Eternal Life.

Front cover: The author meditating in the Meditation Hall at
Dai Hon Zan Sjiji. Back cover: The author sweeping
leaves in the grounds of Dai Hon Zan Sjiji.

Frontispiece: The author after her Dharma Transmission ceremony.
She received Dharma Transmission from the Very Reverend Koh
Keid Chisan Zenji, Chief Abbot of Dai Hon Zan Sjiji
and Archbishop of St Zen of the Kant Plains.

Printed in the United States of America.

ISBN 0-930066-20-0
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 99-072819

The TransIndic font used to print this work is available from Linguists Software, Inc.,
PO Box 580, Edmonds, WA 980200580 USA tel (425) 7751130

To my master, the Very Reverend Koh Keid Chisan Zenji,
late Chief Abbot of Sjiji and Archbishop of the Kant Plains.

CONTENTS.

In 1186 military government, under Yoritomo Minamoto, was established in Japan and, with it, came one of the greatest changes ever experienced in the history of that country. Up until that time the seemingly pleasure-loving aristocracy in Kyoto had written their poems, painted pictures and sung, apparently forgetting that the peasantry existed; degeneracy appeared to be in the air. The Buddhist hierarchies had enjoyed political support in return for mysterious and beautiful ceremonies which were seemingly more or less devoid of genuine spirituality. Then, with the fall of the aristocracy, the temples and monasteries found themselves on their own, a prospect very few seemed to be able to adapt to.

Amidst all the turmoil a new spiritual force began to arise. In the year 1191, Eisai Zenji, a Japanese Buddhist priest, returned from China and established the Rinzai school of Zen: he had spent four years studying under Master Esh. The new and vital school of Buddhism that he brought with him was like a beacon of light shining in the religious darkness of mediaeval Japan.

The kan system of the Rinzai school was itself a fairly new development in the history of Zen. It was mainly through the eloquent master Daie Sk, in the early part of the twelfth century, that it had become widely used in China. The kan exercise, with its shouting, kicking, crying and beating, culminating in the sudden understanding of kensh, attracted the young samurai of Japan who seemed to have quickly absorbed its methods into their own discipline.

Shortly before Eisais death, a young trainee, named Dgen, began studying under the aged master. Upon the death of his teacher, Dgen, who was not satisfied even with the Rinzai teachings, found it necessary to travel to China in order to further his studies. There he found the reflection type of meditation practiced by the St school of Zen and it is with these teachings, which he brought back to Japan, that this book is concerned.

St Zen followed mainly the Indian tradition and was the religion of the ordinary person, man or woman. In his writings, after his return, Dgen proclaimed that there was no difference between the meditations of a man and a woman, a rich person and a poor one, everyone being able to find peace and freedom if he truly sought it. It is because of its apparently simple approach, the very opposite, to me, of the approach of Rinzai, that I have chosen St for myself.

Under his Chinese master, Nyoj, Dgen learned that St masters were not bound by any one system of teaching: they preferred to use kaleidoscopic teaching methods and to allow the kan to develop naturally in the daily life of the trainee, as his spiritual understanding ripened, rather than force his growth through the unnatural tension created by a fixed system of kans. It was in 1227 that Dgen returned to Japan to teach the new St system; so called despite the fact that St is the oldest of the three Zen schools.

During his lifetime, Dgen realised that the time for spreading St Zen in Japan had not yet come so he spent most of his life organising small communities. It is for this reason, and this reason only, that St Zen had to wait several generations before it was to enjoy widespread acceptance in Japan under the aegis of Keizan Zenji. Anesaki tells us, in his History of Japanese Religions, that the times were ripe for a new and vital religion, Rinzai seemingly having, by then, degenerated into a means of artistic religious expression rather than being a source of real spiritual help for the masses who were in dire need of it.

Until the time of Keizan, Dgens Zen seemingly had clung to its Chinese heritage thus alienating itself from the common people of Japan. Keizan brought the old ideas of Buddhism into line with the new spirit of the timesand in so doing exemplified one of Dgens greatest teachingsby his insistence that Zen could survive only if it came alive for the time in which its adherents were living. To this end he, like Dgen, taught the most advanced forms of hygiene and living habits then extant, blending them with the culture of the Japanese people and the ancient spirit of Zen so that every act of daily life became an act of religious understanding. Through this simple process St Zen spread throughout the country until today it is the second largest school of Buddhism in Japan, its teachings keeping ever in step with the times and yet retaining their original spirit.

Next page

1234567...74

Light

Font size:

↓

↑

Georgia Tahoma Arial Verdana

Reset

Interval:

↓

↑

Bookmark:

Make

Similar books «Zen is Eternal Life»

Look at similar books to Zen is Eternal Life. We have selected literature similar in name and meaning in the hope of providing readers with more options to find new, interesting, not yet read works.

Lee B. Kennett

Sherman: A Soldiers Life

Lee B. Kennett

Marching Through Georgia: The Story of Soldiers and Civilians During Shermans Campaign

Kosho Uchiyama Roshi

Wholehearted Way: A Translation of Eihei Dagens Bendowa, with Commentary by Kosho Uchiyama Roshi

Shodo Harada Roshi

Path to Bodhidharma, The

Debbie Kennett

The Surnames Handbook: A Guide to Family Name Research in the 21st Century

Jiyu Kennett

The Wild, White Goose: The Diary of a Female Zen Priest

Roshi Pat Enkyo OHara

Most Intimate: A Zen Approach to Lifes Challenges

Jakusho Kwong-roshi

Mind Sky: Zen Teaching on Living and Dying

Harada Roshi Shodo

Moon by the Window: the Calligraphy and Zen Insights of Shodo Harada

Kennett

GI: the American soldier in World War II

Kennett Debbie

DNA and Social Networking

Roshi Fernando

Homesick

Discussion, reviews of the book Zen is Eternal Life and just readers' own opinions. Leave your comments, write what you think about the work, its meaning or the main characters. Specify what exactly you liked and what you didn't like, and why you think so.