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CHAPTER 3

Middle Period in Japan

In the world of the truly pure, there is no separation. Why wait again for another time? The tradition of Vulture Peak has arrived.

The authority of the Dharma needs no one.

—Muso, national teacher of Japan, in Dumoulin 1990, 163

EARLY BUDDHISM IN JAPAN

Japan was prepared for Zen by the earlier introduction of Buddhism in 552. During the reign of Emperor Kinmei, Korea first introduced Buddhism to Japan with its gift of a golden statue of Buddha. Several forms of Buddhism were brought to Japan by a succession of emperors. Prince Shotoku Taishi (572-621) incorporated Buddhism into the Japanese constitution. Prince Shotoku was fond of the Vimalakirti Sutra, which portrayed a householder who became a bodhisatva. This sutra explained that even a layperson could find enlightenment, setting the stage for Zen. Everyday life can be an opportunity to live morally and stay focused meditatively. Prince Shotoku became the most renowned interpreter of the Vimalakirti Sutra in Japan.

Fukurokuju by Hakuin

Buddhism soon grew to be a well-established institution that was supported by the government of Japan. Buddhist monks were given political influence and played an active role in court policies. Shingon and Tendai Buddhism had attracted royal support and patronage for hundreds of years and became the dominent forms of Buddhism.

As time passed, the doctrines and rituals of Buddhism evolved to become more and more complex. Tendai Buddhism emphasized meditation as part of a triad of practices along with performance of rituals and elaborate analysis. At first, Zen was linked to Tendai. Eventually, Zen evolved to become its own distinct discipline, the Rinzai tradition.

MYOAN EISAI BRINGS RINZAI ZEN

Zen was brought to Japan by several monks between the years A.D. 600 and 800, but it did not take hold until a dedicated Buddhist monk named Myoan Eisai (1141-1215) founded a Zen temple that endured.

Eisai had been guided toward a religious life from his early years. His father entrusted Eisai’s education to the monks, and at age fourteen he entered the monkhood, shaved his head, and was ordained on Mount Hiei, near Kyoto. He eagerly learned Tendai, a form of Buddhism brought from China that taught the “ThreefoldTruth: Absolute truth of Emptiness, Relative truth of phenomenas, and the Middle Way between.”

Eisai could see that Buddhism was in need of reform, and in April 1168 he made a pilgrimage to China to deepen his knowledge. He hoped to renew and revitalize Buddhism, which was failing in Japan. He took with him a Shingon monk named Chogen (1121-1200). Together they visited Mount T’ien-t’ai, the source of Tendai Buddhism, where they learned that the meditation that was part of Tendai practice originated in Zen temples in China. Upon his return to Japan, Eisai founded a new line of Tendai called Yojo. The regent Hojo Mikkyo declared Eisai the patriarch of this line.

Twenty years later, Eisai returned to China to retrace Buddhism to its roots in India. However, his plans were thwarted when he was refused a visa to enter India, so he did the next best thing and studied Zen in China. Zen claimed to have the true dharma, transmitted directly, over the centuries, from Buddha himself. Eisai believed that this flourishing Chinese sect could revitalize Japanese Buddhism. He returned to Mount T’ien-t’ai where he found a master of the Rinzai sect, Hsuan Huai-ch’ang (Koan Esho, in Japanese), the eighth generation of the Huang-lung (Oryo, in Japanese) line of Lin-chi (Rinzai). He followed this master when he left the temple to reside at Mount T’ien-t’ung. Through Zen meditation, Eisai found the deeper inspiration he had been seeking. He received a certificate, insignia of succession, as dharma heir of the Huang-lung line.

Eisai returned to Japan, ready to spread the message of the dharma through Zen. He landed at Hirato, a port on Kyushu, one of the islands of Japan, and began to propagate Zen. Eisai wrote a persuasive treatise about the value of Zen entitled Kozen Gokokuron (Treatise on the Spread of Zen for the Protection of the Nation) (1198). He believed that the large city of Kyoto would be the best place to establish Zen. But Eisai ran into resistance from the Tendai and Shingon establishment. Roben, a Tendai monk from Hakasaki, Kyusu, persuaded the emperor’s court to issue an interdict against Eisai’s new Zen sect. Eisai left the city and in 1195 founded Shofoku-ji, a monastery in Hikata that was under the protection of the Shogun Minamoto Yoritomo. Later, in 1202, he established a temple in Kyoto, the Kennin-ji Monastery, which became an important center for Zen.

Eisai’s temples endured. He is given credit for bringing Zen to Japan, and also for introducing tea—he carried tea seeds back with him from China and planted the first tea garden on monastery grounds. This would eventually lead to the development of tea drinking as a Zen art.

Although Eisai’s Zen was always mixed with Tendai, he had planted the seeds. His students carried on the Rinzai Zen traditions that Eisai had started, firmly rooting Zen in Japan.

DOGEN ESTABLISHES SOTO ZEN

One of Eisai’s students, Myozen, studied Tendai Buddhism before he joined Eisai’s temple. He trained with Eisai, and became his number one disciple. After Eisai died, Myozen determined that he would follow his master’s footsteps and go on a pilgrimage to China to the temple where Eisai found enlightenment.

Dogen (1200-1253) was a young student of Myozen at Kennin-ji Monastery at this time. He encouraged Myozen to make the trip and asked to accompany him. Soon after landing in China, Dogen met a cook who opened his eyes to Zen. The cook was an elderly tenzo monk, which means he was the monk in charge of cooking. The cook had come to the ship to buy Japanese mushrooms for the monastery. Dogen, who was interested in talking to this Chinese monk, asked him to stay and talk about Buddhism.

The tenzo monk replied: “I’m sorry, but I must return to the monastery as soon as I purchase the mushrooms. Otherwise, the meals will not get done. Even though I am old, I hold the position of tenzo, and cooking is what I do. And also, I did not receive permission to stay.”

Dogen tried to persuade him saying, “Wouldn’t it be better to meditate and study koans? What good does it do to work so hard at cooking?”

The tenzo monk laughed, “Good foreigner, you seem to be ignorant of the true meaning of Zen!”

Naively, Dogen asked, “What is the true meaning of Zen?”

The monk answered, “Once you can answer your own question, you will understand Zen.”

Dogen did not yet understand that Zen is in everything we do, be it cooking, cleaning, or sitting in meditation. He was so moved and inspired by the cook that he later considered cook an honored position at his monasteries.

Myozen and Dogen went to the temple where Eisai had his enlightenment. But Dogen did not feel satisfied, and so he ventured forth to seek a deeper understanding. He heard about Ju-ching (1163-1228), an abbot at the T’ien-t’ung temple who was considered to be a master of pure Zen. Ju-ching valued sitting awarely in meditation above all else. As a follower of the T’sao-tung tradition (Soto Zen), Ju-ching was against Rinzai’s use of koans and its emphasis on sudden enlightenment. Dogen spent many long hours meditating, but was unable to become enlightened. One day while he was meditating another student fell asleep. The Master reprimanded the student saying, “How do you expect to be enlightened when you are dozing?” Upon hearing this, Dogen experienced enlightenment. Suddenly, he understood what the cook had meant: the quality of practice was most important. This became one of the primary axioms in the teachings of Dogen’s Soto Zen: Practice is not separate from enlightenment. Enlightenment and practice are one.

Ju-ching recognized Dogen’s enlightenment and sent him forth as dharma heir to teach Soto Zen in Japan. He encouraged Dogen to avoid cities and politics. He exhorted Dogen to remain pure above all and to practice fiercely. Young Dogen did not follow his teacher’s advice at first. Upon his return to the Kennin-ji Monastery in Kyoto, Dogen attempted to gain political acceptance for Soto Zen in that city. Unsuccessful in influencing politics, Dogen withdrew to an outlying province, where he found he could best teach and spread Zen.