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[This version: 22 March 1994]
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HEART TO HEART: ZEN AND RELIGION: THE ROOTS AND THE SHAPE.

An un-dated teisho, most likely delivered to an Enlish speaking,
Christian audience in the mid- or late 1980s, made available to Sydney
Zen Center in a xeroxed form.

This text addresses some of the most fundamental and delicate religious issues.
Therefore, it should be read, quoted and analysed in a mindful way.

All copyrights to this document belong to Father Ama Genunken SAMY
S.J., Bodhi Zen Centre, Madras, India

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Heart to Heart:
Zen and religion: the roots and the shape.

by Ama SAMY S.J. Roshi
Bodhi Zen Centre, Madras, India

Zen originally comes from the religion of Mahayana Buddhism. But the
spirit and practise of Zen go beyond institutional religion. The heart
of Zen, is indeed religious, and the heart of religion is Zen. What
relationship is there between Buddhism and Zen, between Christ ianity
and Zen, and between religion and Zen ?

The roots of Zen are in ancient India. Indian Mahayana sutras and
philosophy being at the source and origin. Particularly the
'indwelling of everything in everything else', of the Avatamsara Sutra
(Hua Yen Buddhism), and the Heart Sutra's 'form is no other than
emptiness, and emptiness no other than form', are the very heart of
Zen. The 'heart to heart' transmission of Zen can be traced back to
Indian origins, as can be seen in Kukai's response to Saicho's request
for Kukai's Indian manuscripts. The straight-backed lotus sitting of
zazen is yogic in origin as well. Chinese Taoism gave to Zen an
appreciation of, and identification with, nature.

The Japanese contribution was the systematization of the Zen practice
and the addition to it of discipline and aesthetics via the Zen arts.
As regards the koan practice, 'who am ?' Is the well known inquiry of
Ramana Maharishi which goes back to the upanishads. Who am i? What is
the real? Where do I go? Such is the quest of the ancient Indian
seekers for salvation-enlightenment. It was, however, the
heart-response of East Asia which formed the heart of Zen,

Zen is sometimes identified with the discipline, or the rituals, or
the aesthetics, all of which is distortion of authentic Zen. Zen is
primarily and fundamentally a way of salvation, or of enlightenment-
compassion which bursts forth in Linchi's realisation of the concrete
human individual as the "absolute" subject & master, or better, the
true person of the way, and which is actualised in the great
compassion of the bodhisattva "Four Great Vows". Zen as is known today
by most, has a 'Japanese-made' body and form. There are also Chinese,
Korean and Vietmanese forms of Zen and these cannot be ignored in the
understanding and transmission of Zen. Being rooted in these
traditions and discipline is vital, but these are not without
ambiguity and darkness. The letter kills, the spirit gives life.
Spirit, even Zen spirit, cannot live apart from the letter. It is
above all in the truly enlightened, authentic person that the letter
becomes spirit, and the spirit becomes life-giving word. He or she is
the 'ferryman' between the worlds.

The main point made in the essays is - that Zen must be practised
simply as Zen, which means, zazen and koan practice, and that
Christians can practice Zen wholeheartedly, can lose themselves into
Zen and find new life. Standing in the in-between of Buddhism and
Christianity, one can come to quite a new perspective and depth. In
this journey, a Christ ian is not a Christ ian, a Buddhist not a
Buddhist: then, the Buddhist is truly a Buddhist and the Christ ian
truly a Christian. As one Christian practitioner put it nicely, -
"when I am a Buddhist, my mother hates me: when I am a Buddha, she
adores me". 'Putting on'the mind of Christ ; 'putting-on' the
heart-mind of Buddha. From heart to heart.

Heart: hsin or shin, can mean mind, heart, self, soul. Yamada Ko-un
Roshi used to translate it as heart-mind: in Zen literature it was
usually translated as mind, and Zen in the West tended towards the
philosophical, intuitive, wilful, mindless, a-personal, freedom
aspects. Zen, as Mahayana Buddhism, is the heart-mind of wisdom -
compassion: suffering heart, seeking heart, discerning heart, heart
liberated, transformed, enlightened, compassionate. This 'heart' is
the unity of the human and cosmos and god. Heart is presence and
mystery: knowing as well as unknowing: grace and freedom: time and
eternity: beauty, truth and goodness: joy, peace, sorrow and
compassion. The journey is from heart to heart. From heart-mind to
heart-mind is the transmission. Mu_shin to mu-shin: empty heart to
empty heart of no-heart.

How many heart-minds are there? Standing nowhere how do you let your
heart-mind come forth ? Middle of the night, the moon is laughing - do
you hear ?
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