around the world. Eight hundred years after its establishment in the city, a religion based on sitting has proved remarkably mobile.
Incense serves as a purifying agent in Buddhism and is offered at times of worship. Since an incense stick burns on average for 30–40 minutes, it is used in Zen to measure the length of meditation sessions.
WAYS TO STILLNESS:
THE THREE SECTS OF ZEN
Contrary to the perceptions of many in the West, Zen is not the dominant strand of Buddhism in Japan. In terms of followers, the Pure Land and Nichiren faiths (if one includes the lay organization Soka Gakkai) are bigger, as is the esoteric Shingon sect. Moreover, within Zen there are three different schools: Rinzai, Soto and Obaku. Rinzai is the oldest, Soto the biggest, Obaku the smallest.
Of the 20,000 Zen temples in Japan, Soto has about 75 percent, yet in Kyoto it is Rinzai that is dominant. Indeed, of the 35 temples and subtemples included in this book, only three are Soto (Kosho-ji, Shisendo and Genko-an) while just two are Obaku (Manpuku-ji and Kanga-an). How is this explained? An old saying suggests the answer: “Rinzai for warriors, Soto for commoners.” While Rinzai appealed to the élite of Kyoto, Soto spread in the provinces with the support of regional lords. (Obaku was a latecomer.)
Of the three Zen sects, Rinzai and Obaku are the closest in thinking, for both trace their lineage back to the Chinese master Linji Yixuan (d. 866; Rinzai in Japanese). The difference can best be understood in terms of history. Rinzai arrived from Song China in the late twelfth century and subsequently became Japanized. Obaku arrived from Ming China in the mid-seventeenth century and retained many of its Chinese forms and regulations. The doctrinal differences are slight, however, and in recent times they have joined together in an association in which Obaku stands alongside Rinzai’s fourteen schools (which are mainly a matter of lineage).
The difference between Rinzai and Soto is more substantial. Rinzai sees meditation as a means to awakening, whereas Soto sees it as an end in itself. “Practice and enlightenment are one,” said Eihei Dogen, founder of the sect. For Soto, just sitting (shikantaza) is in itself transformative, and the striving of Rinzai is seen as counterproductive. In its attempt to trigger awakening, Rinzai makes more use of koan than Soto, which looks rather to intensity of meditation. Rinzai is known as the rough school, using a sudden sharp shock to jolt the sitter into enlightenment. Soto is known as the gentle school, taking a gradual approach.
Monks at Shokoku-ji emerge from the monastery’s kitchen, known as kuri. Over time, the quarters evolved to house temple offices and to function as an administrative center. The bell-shaped windows and doors that open outwards were features introduced from China.
In terms of the master–pupil relationship, the Rinzai master is said to be like a wise general ably directing his students, while the Soto master resembles a wise farmer, concerned with nourishing his plants. The difference in approach goes along with differences in practice: Rinzai does zazen facing the center of the room, Soto faces towards the wall. There is a distinction also in the length and manner of holding the kyousaku, the stick used for hitting sitters. As for walking meditation (kinhin), Rinzai prefers a brisk energetic manner with left hand wrapped round right wrist; Soto adopts a slow pace, with right hand wrapped round left. Such distinctions are of little significance, however, compared with the difference in emphasis, for while both aim at attaining a state of compassion, Rinzai is inclined to shout “Wake up!” whereas Soto urges “Just sit!”
Eat, Sit, Sleep:
The Daily Routine Of a Zen Monk
The seven great Zen temples of Kyoto each head a separate school of Rinzai Zen. These schools are administratively distinct but basically the same with regard to practice and teachings, and Zen priests are free to move from one school to another. Each school is headed by a chief abbot who is a qualified Zen master or venerable teacher (roshi). Assisting him in his duties are senior prelates, almost all of whom serve as priests at their own temples. Rinzai was originally a celibate tradition, but following the end of Japanese feudalism in 1868 the government authorized marriage for Buddhist monks as part of a program to weaken the religion. Although most of Kyoto’s great monastic abbots maintain the custom of celibacy, it is no longer obligatory.
To enter the Zen clergy it is first necessary to become the disciple of a temple priest. In the majority of cases, this means the son of a priest registering as a disciple of his father (Japan maintains the hereditary principle in several areas of traditional life). Laypeople are able to become disciples of a local priest or a priest with whom they practiced zazen sitting mediation. They will typically spend a year or two at the priest’s temple, then have an ordination ceremony qualifying them to enter a training monastery.
Entrance to the training monastery (known in Rinzai as sodo or senmon dojo) involves arriving at the entrance hall early in the morning and presenting the necessary documents from the ordaining priest. Applicants are refused entry for two days as a test of resolve. After waiting patiently for the two days, they are moved from the entrance hall to a small room where they must meditate for five days facing the wall. Only when this trial period is completed are they accepted into the monastic community.
A thick wooden block is struck like a gong to summon monks for functions. This one from Manpuku-ji has a Chinese inscription that reads “All who practice the way, pay attention! Birth and death are grave matters. Nothing is permanent; time passes quickly. Awake! Do not dawdle; devote yourself to your practice.”
Zen Training
The Zen sodo is basically a training hall. It is not, as in Christianity, a cloister in which to spend one’s life. Monks who wish to become temple priests are asked to train for at least three years. In this case, the sodo serves the function of a seminary. However, monks who are interested in a life of meditation remain at the monastery many years longer in order to advance as far as they can, which involves working on and passing koan (Zen riddles). In this case, they stay until they have completed the training process, something that can take from twelve to twenty years.
The few monks who finish the entire koan curriculum and are judged to have the qualities necessary to teach others receive a certificate of approval known as inka shomei, which qualifies them to become a Zen roshi. For such individuals it is common to undergo a period of post-monastic training, lasting several years, before they assume their teaching duties.
Just a few decades ago, Rinzai monasteries comprised communities of thirty or more monks, but nowadays, with the steep decline in the number of young people in Japan, most sodo manage with ten monks or fewer. The training consists of zazen, koan study, sutra chanting, physical labor (known as samu) and takuhatsu (begging for alms in nearby communities). However, zazen is central, for the meditative mind should be maintained even during all the other activities.
The formal practice of zazen occupies up to seven hours a day of the normal schedule. It is the basic technique by which practitioners seek to awaken to levels of mind deeper than discursive thought. By observing the mind’s workings, the practitioner comes to realize the illusory nature of the ego, which is basically no more than a construct of thought. This leads to a deeper understanding of the mind as something that is empty yet dynamic in nature. Ironically, in losing the sense of self, the meditator finds oneness with everything. Realization of this is called kensho (‘seeing one’s original nature’).
Koan are enigmatic problems that cannot be solved with the rational mind, such as, “What was your
