Paul Wienpahl - The Matter of Zen: A Brief Account of Zazen

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ROUTLEDGE LIBRARY EDITIONS: ZEN BUDDHISM

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Volume 5

THE MATTER OF ZEN

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THE MATTER OF ZEN

A brief account of Zazen

PAUL WIENPAHL

First published in Great Britain in 1965 by George Allen & Unwin Ltd
First published in the USA in 1964 by New York University Press

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

1964 Paul Wienpahl

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: 978-1-138-65792-2 (Volume 5) (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-61991-0 (Volume 5) (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.

The Zen meditation of the Mahayana Is beyond all our praise. Giving and morality and the other perfections, Taking of the name, repentence, discipline, And the many other right actions, All come back to the practice of meditation.
HAKUIN, Song of Zazen

The matter of

ZEN

A brief account of ZAZEN by Paul Wienpahl

London
GEORGE ALLEN & UNWIN LTD
RUSKIN HOUSE MUSEUM STREET

FIRST PUBLISHED IN GREAT BRITAIN IN 1965

This book is copyright under the Berne Convention. Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, 1956, no portion may be reproduced by any process without written permission. Enquiries should be addressed to the publisher.

1964 by New York University

PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN
BY UNWIN BROTHERS LIMITED
WOKING AND LONDON

For Zuigan Goto Roshi

THE FRONTISPIECE SHOWS THE ROCK GARDEN AT RYOAN-JI. PHOTOGRAPH BY JANET WIENPAHL.

CONTENTS

THIS BOOK concerns the practice of Zen Buddhism. The practice is a particular form of meditation. In Japan, the only country in which it is any longer seriously pursued, the practice is called zazen.

I am endeavoring to direct attention to zazen because it is being overlooked in the current interest in Zen. My purpose is not to provide a manual of zazen. Adequate instruction in this practice requires a teacher. The present volume may be regarded as though the author were a man who is pointing and shouting, Hey, look! when his fellows do not see the tiger lurking in the bushes.

I have had a secondary reason for writing, which will be no more than mentioned. It is that of taking some of the mystery out of mysticism. For mysticism appears to me simply as a radical form of empiricism or common sense to which we can all pay attention with profit. Mysticism is not something incomprehensible or supernatural. It is only rarethough its scarcity has helped to make it seem mysterious.

Throughout the book when the word zen is capitalized, it is being used as an abbreviation for the phrases Zen Buddhist or Zen Buddhism. When it is not capitalized, it is used to designate a kind of study at the basis of which is the practice of zazen. A mystique has grown up in the use of the word zen that has caused it to be used alone with practically no sense. This has helped to obfuscate what is otherwise simple. It has also lent mystery where there is naught but hard work and unflagging effort.

A word about the style in which this book is written. Zen Buddhist masters have since ancient times used a peculiar common-folk dialect. Translations of Zen texts and books about Zen do not usually reflect this vernacular and the frequent coarseness of the speech. They thus miss some of the earthiness that characterizes Zen Buddhism. Wherever it has been natural, therefore, I have used abbreviations, slang, and a deliberate curtness of expression. Not in imitation, but to convey the character of Zen Buddhists, which has been reflected in their own manner of speech.

I wish to thank the publishers of the works referred to in the text for permission to quote from their books. Thanks are also due to Mr. and Mrs. Herbert Fingarette and to my wife for reading the manuscript and for offering a number of helpful suggestions.

Without the kindness and instruction of Mrs. Ruth Sasaki, Mr. Walter Novick, and other members of The First Zen Institute of America in Kyoto this book would not have been possible. I wish further to thank Mrs. Sasaki and Mr. Novick for making possible something far more important than a book. Mrs. Sasaki also read the manuscript and made a number of helpful comments.

Santa Barbara

June, 1963

THE MATTER OF ZEN

AMONG Zen Buddhists there is an old saying that Zen cannot be transmitted in books. On the other hand, Zen literature is voluminous and a great deal has been written about Zen. The question naturally arises: What accounts for this paradox?

The answer is simple, although, like all things that are perfectly obvious, it is at the outset obscure. The reason why Zen cannot be transmitted in books or by words in any form is implied by the very name of this form of Buddhism. For zen means meditation. Zen Buddhism is literally Meditation Buddhism. And meditation cannot be transmitted in books any more than swimming or any other physical practice can. On the other hand, both meditation and the experience in which it results can be described in words, just as swimming can; in neither case, however, should the description be confused with that of which it is the description. This is obvious in the matter of swimming. It has been far less obvious with Zen Buddhism.

From the foregoing, it follows that a person can learn more about Zen in a half hour of meditating than he can by reading a dozen books. It also follows, however, that, if a person is practicing meditation, words in the form of lectures, stories, or even books might help him with his understanding of Zen by helping him to improve his meditation practice. Because this is so, the literature of Zen is large and Zen teachers are by no means mute.

Later it will become clear that the practice of Zen Buddhism is characterized by steps. Meditation may be likened to an onion. It has layers and, like those of the onion, they resemble each other and yet are distinct. One can penetrate ever more deeply into meditation although the same thing is always going on. The zen student, a person engaged in zen practice, finds that he makes steps forward in improving his meditationor, as one might say, in his understanding of Zen Buddhism. The thing does not come all at once any more than walking does.

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