1he Meaning and Context o Zen

by Baron Julius Lola

\e know the kind o interest Zen has eoked een outside specialized disciplines, since being
popularized in the west by D.1. Suzuki through his books Introduction to Zen Buddhism and
Lssays in Zen Buddhism. 1his popular interest is due to the paradoxical encounter between Last
and \est. 1he ailing \est perceies that Zen has something "existential" and surrealistic to oer.
Zen's notion o a spiritual realization, ree rom any aith and any bond, not to mention the mirage
o an instantaneous and somehow gratuitous "spiritual breakthrough", has exercised a ascinating
attraction on many \esterners. loweer, this is true, or the most part, only supericially. 1here is a
considerable dierence between the spiritual dimension o the "philosophy o crisis", which has
become popular in the \est as a consequence o its materialistic and nihilist deelopment, and the
spiritual dimension o Zen, which has been rooted in the spirituality o the Buddhist tradition. Any
true encounter between Zen and the \est, presupposes, in a \esterner, either an exceptional
predisposition, or the capability to operate a metanoia. By metanoia I mean an inner turnabout,
aecting not so much one's intellectual "attitudes", but rather a dimension which in eery time and
in eery place has been conceied as a deeper reality.



Zen has a secret doctrine and not to be ound in scriptures. It was passed on by the Buddha to his
disciple Mahakassapa. 1his secret doctrine was introduced in China around the sixth century C.L. by
Bodhidharma. 1he canon was transmitted in China and Japan through a succession on teachers
and "patriarchs". In Japan it is a liing tradition and has many adocates and numerous Zendos
,"lalls o Meditation",.



As ar as the spirit inorming the tradition is concerned, Zen may be considered as a continuation o
early Buddhism. Buddhism arose as a igorous reaction against the theological speculation and the
shallow ritualism into which the ancient lindu priestly caste had degraded ater possessing a sacred,
liely wisdom since ancient times. Buddha mad tabula rassa o all this: he ocused instead on the
practical problem o how to oercome what in the popular mind is reerred to as "lie's suering".
According to esoteric teachings, this suering was considered as the state o caducity,
restlessness, "thirst" and the orgetulness typical o ordinary people. laing ollowed the path
leading to spiritual awakening and to immortality without external aid, Buddha pointed the way to
those who elt an attraction to it. It is well known that Buddha is not a name, but an attribute or a
title meaning "the awakened One", "le who has achieed enlightenment", or "the awakening".
Buddha was silent about the content o his experience, since he wanted to discourage people rom
assigning to speculation and philosophizing a primacy oer action. 1hereore, unlike his
predecessors, he did not talk about Brahman ,the absolute,, or about Atman ,the transcendental
Sel,, but only employees the term nirana, at the risk o being misunderstood. Some, in act,
thought, in their lack o understanding, that nirana was to be identiied with the notion
o "nothingness", an ineable and eanescent transcendence, almost bordering on the limits o the
unconscious and o a state o unaware non-being. So, in a urther deelopment o Buddhism, what
occurred again, mutatis mutandi, was exactly the situation against which Buddha had reacted,
Buddhism became a religion, complete with dogmas, rituals, scholasticism and mythology. It
eentually became dierentiated into two schools: Mahayana and linayana. 1he ormer was more
grandiose in metaphysics an Mahayana eentually grew complacent with its abstruse symbolism. 1he
teachings o the latter school were more strict and to the point, and yet too concerned about the
mere moral discipline which became increasingly monastic. 1hus the essential and original nucleus,
namely the esoteric doctrine o the enlightenment, was almost lost.



At this crucial time Zen appeared, declaring the uselessness o these so-called methods and
proclaiming the doctrine o satori. Satori is a undamental inner eent, a sudden existential
breakthrough, corresponding in essence to what I hae called the "awakening". But this ormulation
was new and original and it constituted a radical change in approach. Nirana, which had been
ariously considered as the alleged Nothingness, as extinction, and as the inal end result o an eort
aimed at obtaining liberation ,which according to some may require more than one lietime,, now
came to be considered as the normal human condition. By these lights, eery person has the nature
o Buddha and eery person is already liberated, and thereore, situated aboe and beyond birth and
death. It is only necessary to become aware o it, to realize it, to see within one's nature, according to
Zen's main expression. Satori is like a timeless opening up. On the one hand, satori is something
sudden and radically dierent rom all the ordinary human states o consciousness, it is like a
catastrophic trauma within ordinary consciousness. On the other hand, satori is what leads one back
to what, in a higher sense, should be considered as normal and natural, thus, it is the exact opposite
o an ecstasis, or trance. It is the rediscoery and the appropriation o one's true nature: it is the
enlightenment which draws out o ignorance or out o the subconscious the deep reality o what
was and will always be, regardless o one's condition in lie. 1he consequence o satori is a
completely new way to look at the world and at lie. 1o those who hae experienced it, eerything is
the same ,things, other beings, one's sel, "heaen, the riers and the ast earth",, and yet eerything
is undamentally dierent. It is as i a new dimension was added to reality, transorming the meaning
and alue. According to the Zen Masters, the essential characteristic o the new experience is the
oercoming o ery dualism: o the inner and outer, the I and not I, o initude and ininity, being
and not-being, appearance and reality, "empty" and "ull", substance and accidents. Another
characteristic is that any alue posed by the inite and conused consciousness o the indiidual, is
no longer discernible. And thus, the liberated and the non-liberated, the enlightened and the non-
enlightened, are yet one and same thing. Zen eectiely perpetuates the paradoxical equation o
Mahayana Buddhism, nirana-samsara, and the 1aoist saying "the return is ininitely ar". It is as i
Zen said: liberation should not be looked or in the next world, the ery world is the next world, it is
liberation and it does not need to be liberated. 1his is the point o iew o satori, o perect
enlightenment, o "transcendent wisdom" ,prajnaparamita,



Basically, this consciousness is a shit o the sel's center. In any situation and in any eent o
ordinary lie, including the most triial ones, the ordinary, dualistic and intellectual sense o one's
sel is substituted with a being who no longer perceies an "I" opposed to a "non-I", and who
transcends and oercomes any antithesis. 1his being eentually comes to enjoy a perect reedom an
incoercibility. le is like the wind, which blows where it wills, and like a naked being which is
eerything ater "letting go" -abandons eerything, embracing poerty.

Zen, or at least mainstream Zen, emphasizes the discontinuous, sudden and unpredictable character
o satori disclosure. In regard to this, Suzuki was at ault when he took issue with the techniques
used in lindu schools such as Samkya and \oga. 1hese techniques were also contemplated in early
Buddhist texts. Suzuki employed the simile o water, which in a moment turns into ice. le also used
the simile o an alarm, which, as a consequence o some ibration, suddenly goes o. 1here are no
disciplines, techniques or eorts, according to Suzuki, which by themseles may lead one to satori.
On the contrary, it is claimed that satori oten occurs spontaneously, when one has exhausted all the
resources o his being, especially the intellect and logical aculty o understanding. In some cases
satori it is said to be acilitated by iolent sensations and een by physical pain. Its cause may be the
mere perception o an object as well as any eent in ordinary lie, proided a certain latent
predisposition exists in the subject.



Regarding this, some misunderstandings may occur. Suzuki acknowledged that "generally speaking,
there are no indications on the inner work preceding satori". loweer, he talked about the necessity
o irst going through "a true baptism o ire". Ater all, the ery institution o the so-called "lalls o
Meditation" ,Zendo,, where those who strie to obtain a satori submit themseles to a regimen o
lie which is partially analogous to that o some Catholic religious orders, bespeaks the necessity o a
preliminary preparation. 1his preparation may last or seeral years. 1he essence o Zen seems to
consist in a maturation process, identical to the one in which one almost reaches a state o an acute
existential instability. At that point, the slightest push is suicient to produce a change o state, a
spiritual breakthrough, the opening which leads to the "intuitie ision o one's nature". 1he
Masters know the moment in which the mind o the disciple is mature and ready to open up, it is
ten that they eentually gie the inal. Decisie push. 1his push may sometimes consist o a simple
gesture, an exclamation, in something apparently irreleant, or een illogical and absurd. 1his
suices to induce the collapse o the alse notion o indiiduality. 1hus, satori replaces this notion
with the "normal state", and one assumes the "original ace, which one had beore creation". One
no longer "chases ater echoes" and "shadows". 1his under some aspects brings to mind the
existential theme o "ailure", or o "being shipwrecked" ,das Scheitern, in Kierkegaard and in
Jaspers,. In act, as I hae mentioned, the opening oten takes place when all the resources o one's
being hae been exhausted and one has his back against the wall. 1his can be seen in relation to
some practical teachings methods used by Zen. 1he most requently employed methods, on an
intellectual plane, are the koan and the mondo. 1he disciple is conronted with a saying or with
questions which are paradoxical, absurd and sometimes een grotesque and "surrealistic". le must
labor with his mind, i necessary or years, until he has reached the extreme limit o all his normal
aculties o comprehension. 1hen, i he dares proceed urther on that road he may ind catastrophe,
but i he can turn the situation upside down, he may achiee metanoia. 1his is the point where satori
is usually achieed.



Zen's norm is that o absolute autonomy, no gods, no cults, no idols. 1o literally empty onesel o
eerything, including God. "I you meet Buddha on the road, kill him", a saying goes. It is necessary
to abandon eerything, without leaning on anything, and then to proceed orward, with one's
essence, until the crisis point is reached. It is ery diicult to say more about satori, or to compare it
with arious orms o initiatory mystical experience whether Lastern or \estern. One is supposed
to spend only the training period in Zen monasteries. Once the disciple has achieed satori, he
return to the world, choosing a way o lie that its his need. One may think o satori as a orm o
transcendence which is brought to immanence, as a natural state, in eery orm o lie.



1he behaior which proceeds rom the newly acquired dimension, which is added to reality as a
consequence o satori, may well be summarized by Lao 1zu's expression: "1o be the whole in the
part". In regard to this, it is important to realize the inluence which Zen has exercised on the lar-
Lastern way o lie. Zen has been called "the samurai's philosophy," and it had also been said
that "the way o Zen is identical to the way o archery," or to the "way o the sword". 1his means
that any actiity in one's lie, may be permeated by Zen and thus be eleated to a higher meaning, to
a "wholesomeness" and to an "impersonal actiity". 1his kind o actiity is based on a sense o the
indiidual's irreleance, which neertheless does not paralyze one's actions, but which rather coners
cam and detachment. 1his detachment, in turn, aors an absolute and "pure" undertaking o lie,
which in some cases reaches extreme and distinct orms o sel-sacriice and heroism, inconceiable
to the majority o \esterners ,e.g. the kamikaze in \\II,.



1hus, what C.G. Jung claims is simply ridiculous, namely that Psychoanalysis, more than any other
\estern school o thought, is capable o understanding Zen. According to Jung, satori coincides
with the state o wholeness, deoid o complexes or inner splitting, which psychoanalytic treatment
claims to achiee wheneer the intellect's obstructions and its sense o superiority are remoed, and
wheneer the conscious dimension o the soul is reunited with the unconscious and with "Lie".
Jung did not realize that the methods and presuppositions o Zen, are exactly the opposite o his
own. 1here is no "subconscious", as a distinct entity, to which the conscious has to be reconnected,
Zen speaks o a superconscious ision ,enlightenment, bodhi or "awakening",, which actualizes
the "original and luminous nature" and which, in so doing, destroys the unconscious. It is possible
though, to notice similarities between Jung's iew's and Zen', since they both talk about the eeling
o one's "totality" and reedom which is maniested in eery aspect o lie. loweer, it is important
to explain the leel at which these iews appear to coincide.



Once Zen ound its way to the \est, there was a tendency to "domesticate" and to moralize it,
playing down its potential radical and "antinomian" ,namely, antithetical to current norms,
implications, and by emphasizing the standard ingredients which are held so dear by "spiritual"
people, namely loe and serice to one's neighbor, een though these ingredients hae been puriied
in an impersonal and non-sentimental orm. Generally speaking, there are many doubts on
the "practicability" o Zen, considering that the "doctrine o the awakening" has an initiatory
character.



1hus, it will only be able to inspire a minority o people, in contrast to later Buddhist iews, which
took the orm o a religion open to eeryone, or the most part a code o mere morality. As the re-
establishment o the spirit o early Buddhism, Zen should hae strictly been an esoteric doctrine. It
has been so as we can see by examining the legend concerning its origins. loweer, Suzuki himsel
was inclined to gie a dierent account, he emphasized those aspects o Mahayana
which "democratize" Buddhism ,ater all, the term Mahayana has been interpreted to mean "Great
Vehicle", een in the sense that it extends to wider audiences, and not just to a ew elect,. I one was
to ully agree with Suzuki, some perplexities on the nature and on the scope o satori may arise. One
should ask whether such an experience merely aects the psychological, moral or mental domain, or
whether it aects the ontological domain, as is the case in eery authentic initiation. In that eent, it
can only be the priilege a ery restricted number o people.

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