April 2001 Guide

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Hanamatsuri, April 8th

Bathing the Baby Buddha

The founder of our Center, Ven. Dr. Thich Thien-An, often said that the
Buddha’s birthday is everyone’s birthday. Ven. Karuna will be sharing some
stories of baby Prince Siddhartha at Sunday service. Please join us in
bathing the baby Buddha as we celebrate the Buddha’s birthday in Japanese
style on Sunday, April 8, followed by a potluck luncheon in the Zendo
garden. Please bring a vegetarian dish or drinks to the lunch. If you would
like to bake a birthday cake please call the office to let us know.

The historical Buddha was born 2643 years ago in a garden at Lumbini in the
Himalaya mountains, as Queen Maya was attempting to get from Kapilavastu to
her parents’ home in Devadaha. She held onto the branches of a fragrant sala
tree and gave birth to the prince, who was bathed by the gods with sweet
waters and flowers falling from the heavens. He supposedly took seven steps
as lotus flowers bloomed under each footfall, and raising his right hand
towards the heavens and his left to the ground, declared, “Under heaven and
above the earth, I am the most honored one. This is my last birth. I will
put an end to the suffering of birth, old age and death.”

While the traditional day observed differs from school to school, we observe
the Japanese date of the Flower Festival Hanamatsuri. In May we celebrate
the traditional Vaisakha (the triple blessed day of his birth, enlightenment
and death) with a retreat. The Hanamatsuri ceremony ends with all of us
reenacting the bathing of the new born prince.

One Day Seminar/Meditation Retreat on Comparisons of Buddhism & Christianity

with Rev. Vajra

Rev. Vajra Karuna will lead a one day Seminar/Meditation retreat on
Saturday, April 28, from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm on the topic of Aspects of
Buddhism and Christianity Smilarities and Differences. The retreat will
take place in the Zendo and will feature both sitting and walking
meditation, alternating with some talk and discussion. Some of the
comparisons to be discussed include Buddha and Christ, Buddhist Compassion
and Christian Love, and The Feminine and Masculine in Religion. This brief
retreat is good as a prelude to our Vaisakha intensive which will take place
May 18-20. The Vaishaka retreat is required for everyone who wishes to Take
Refuge (officially take on the status of a lay Buddhist) at the close of the
retreat. We encourage all of you to attend. The fee for this seminar is $25
and includes a delicious vegetarian lunch.

April 1, 2001

108 Bows Ceremony with Bro. Ksanti

Every first Sunday of the month we perform the ceremony to honor all Buddhas
who have ever existed in the ten directions. The service begins at 9:30 am
with chanting the Daily Service chants, followed by the Veneration of the
88 Buddhas. Please join us for the ceremony, led by Bro. Ksanti this
month.


Pot Luck Lunch for
Abbess’61st Birthday

This year our Abbess, Ven. Dr. Karuna Dharma, turns 61, so we are holding a
party for her on Sunday, April 22, following our Sunday service. If you have
any talent, such as singing, dancing, playing a musical instrument, flower
arrangement, poetry reading, martial arts, etc., call our office at (213)
384-0850, and we will add you to our talent lineup that afternoon. The party
will begin at 1 pm with a potluck luncheon, followed by a lineup of
cultural activities. The program will run until 3 pm. Please bring drinks or
a vegetarian dish to share. Gifts are not necessary.

Sunday, April 28th at USC

Joint Vaisakha ceremony

This year we are joining the Buddhist Sangha Council for a joint Vesak
celebration, commemorating Buddha Sakyamuni’s birth, enlightenment and
passing at University of Southern California, U.S.C, .in Los Angeles on
Saturday, April 28. The ceremony will feature chanting in Pali, Chinese,
Japanese, Korean, Vie-namese, Tibetan and English and will end with the rite
of Bathing the Baby Buddha. Check next month’s Guide for a complete listing
of events. or call us for details.

College of Buddhist Studies Spring Classes

The Ven. Havanpola Shanti, Acting President of the College of Buddhist
Studies has announced the following partial list of courses for the Spring
term, scheduled to begin April 9.

Certificate Course in Buddhist Studies, R101
Dr. Siri Warnisuriya, Dr. Karuna Dharma
Mondays, 6:30-8:30 pm, College Office
One year course on the development of Buddhism, structured for students who
want a comprehensive study of all of Buddhism from its beginning to the
present day. The third quarter focuses upon Buddhism today: all of the
various schools and their practices; comparison with other religious
traditions as well.

Applied Buddhism, R130
Rev. Kusala Ratna Karuna
Wednesday, 7-9 pm, Zendo; Buddhist approaches to every day life using the
training precepts of the lay person (sila) as a guide. Changing personal
attitudes to promote internal balance and harmony, understanding the nature
of suffering, developimg skills of compassion, loving kindness, sympathetic
joy and equanimity, all with an increasing understanding of self.

History of Zen
Rev. Vajra Karuna,
Mpnday, 6:30-8:30 pm,Ananda Hall; continuation of the History of Zen
Buddhism in China and its influence on other Zen schools: Japan, Korea and
Vietnam

Lotus Sutra
Thursday, 7-9 pm, Library; The premiere sutra of Mahayana Buddhism and its
most popular; It is concerned with the prophecies of the future of the
disciples and Bodhisattvas. It also gives many famous parables regarding
karma and its conse-quences. This is the first time that this Sutra has
been taught at the College.

Pali Chanting
Ven. Havanpola Shanti; time to be arranged
A “how to” beginning course on Pali chanting, with no prior knowledge of
Pali required, using basic Pali sutras as the foundation for chanting

Elementary Pali, L101a
Dr. Siri Warnisuriya; time to be arranged
Individualized class for those interested in the ancient language of the
canonical texts of early Buddhism. Basic grammar and vocabulary, using Roman
script

Elementary Sanskrit, 102b
Dr. Siri Warnisuriya, time to be arranged
three quarter class, emphasis upon reading and writing, using Devanagari
script; development of extensive vocabulary, selections from Sanskrit
literature, e.g. Bhagavad Gita, Upani-shads, Maha Bharata, Pancatantra, and
Buddhist canonical texts


April Events

Sunday Talks

4/1 Buddhism and God, Part II
11am Rev. Vajra Karuna

4/8 The Coming of the Buddha
11am Ven. Dr. Karuna Dharma

4/15 Test of Faith
11am Bro. Sraddha Karuna

4/22
11am Rev. Kusala Ratna Karuna

4/29 A Motning of Chanting and Meditation
11am Ven. Dr. Karuna Dharma

Classes at IBMC

Mon Certificate Course in Buddhism
6:30 Dr.Siri Warnisuriya, College office

6:30 History of Zen Buddhism in China
6:30 Rev. Vajra Karuna, Ananda Hall

Wed Applied Buddhism
7:00 Rev. Kusala Ratna Karuna, Zendo

Thu Lotus Sutra
7:00 Dr. Karuna Dharma, Library

tba Pali Chanting
Ven. Havanpola Shanti
Elementary Sanskrit
Dr. Siri Warnisuriya
Elementary/Intermediate Pali
Dr. Siri Warnisuriya

Special Events

4/1 108 Bows Ceremony, Bro. Ksant , 9:30am
4/22 Abbess’ Birthday Party, 1 pm
4/28 Seminar/Retreat with Rev. Vajra, 10-4 pm

Meditation times

Tuesday, Thursday, Friday 7-8 am

Mon, Thurs, Sun evenings from 6-9 pm, led by Rev. Sakya Bodhi

Wed evening: 7-9 pm, led by Rev. Kusala
Fri evening: 7:30-9 pm, led by Rev. Kusala


IBMC web page is found at:
InternationalBuddhistMeditationCtr.org
You can email us at:
IBMC@InternationalBuddhistMeditationCtr.org
Rev. Karuna’s email address is:
Karunadh@earthlink.net
Karuna’s web page is:
www. home.earthlink.net/~karunadh.
Rev. Kusala’s email: Kusala@kusala.org
Rev. Kusala’s web page: www.kusala.org
Rev. Shanti’s email: Hshanti@earthlink.net
Rev. Prabuddhi’s is: Prabuddhi@yahoo.com
Rev. Vajra’s email: Madmonk88@aol.com
Bro. Sunya’s email: Sunya2@Earthlink.net
Bro. Ksanti and Bro.Sraddha’s email:
VictorTom@AOL.com

Zen Master Hakuin

a talk given at IBMC by Bro. Jñana Vajra on February 25, 2001

Hakuin is a very singular figure in the history of Zen, not only for his
achievements, but for the fact that he has left behind a written and visual
record of his life and religious experience that is almost unparalleled,
including the rarest of contributions, extended autobiographical writings.
The paintings of his latter years are also themselves a form of
autobiography, not only in his numerous self-portraits but also his
depictions of other Buddhist priests and figures from Buddhist folklore,
such as Bodhidharma and Po-tai, many of which bore remarkable similarities
to their creator.

The purpose of Hakuin’s writings and artistic creations, liike his oral
teachings themselves, was clearly instructional. He believed that by telling
others about his experiences he could encourage them in their own training.
In so doing he could clarify his basic approach to Zen study and help
students avoid falling victim to contemporary teachings that he felt were
destroying the Rinzai school’s time-honored tradition of koan study.

Most people would not recognize the name of Nagasawa Iwajiro as anyone
special, but this was Hakuin’s name at birth and as he grew into adulthood
beneath the snow covered cone of Mount Fuji. His birth took place on
January 19, 1686 in a small farming and fishing community called Hara. It
was not for another thirty-two years, in 1718, that Hakuin adopted the
religious name by which he has come to be best known. Reference to the
physical environment of early life is found in his ultimately chosen name of
Hakuin, which literally means Hidden in whiteness.

Hakuin’s father studied for a time during his youth at a Zen temple in Hara,
Shoin-ji, that had been rebuilt by his uncle. It was in this same temple
that Hakuin was ordained at age 14 and to which he returned in his early
thirties to be installed as abbot. He would reside and teach at this tiny
country temple for the next fifty years of his life, transforming it into a
center of Buddhist practice known throughout Japan.

The young Hakuin apparently had an early disposition to religious life; I
say “apparently” because such impulses are also an indispensable element in
conventional Japanese hagio graphy. What does seem clear is the significant
influence of his mother, a devout Nichiren Buddhist. The young Hakuin often
accompanied his mother to Nichiren temples and was profoundly influenced by
various of the sermons he heard. In Hakuin’s spiritual autobiography, Wild
Ivy, he recounts one such occasion from the tender, but very impressionable
age of eleven:

“There was in those days a priest of the Nichiren sect by the name of
Nichigon Shonin...and [he] was widely known for the unsurpassed power of his
sermons....He took as his text the letters of Nichiren Shonin. People came
from all around the village to hear him. They flocked in like clouds. I
went with my mother, and we heard him describe in graphic detail the
torments in each of the Eight Scorching Hells. He had every knee in the
audience quaking, every liver in the house frozen stiff with fear. As little
as I was, I was certainly no exception. My whole body shook in mortal
terror. When I went to bed that night, even in the security of my mother’s
bosom, my mind was in a terrible turmoil. I lay awake sobbing miserably all
night, my eyes swollen with tears.”

This passage documents the beginning of an abnormal fear of having to
eventually face such terrible retribution himself. Hakuin said that it was
such fear that drove him to seek a means of escape from such a fate by
turning to intense religious practice and ultimately to the priesthood,
where he would be free to devote his time and attention exclusively to his
religious concerns. Thus, Hakuin’s initially reluctant parents delivered
him to the Zen temple of Shoin-ji to become a novice monk at the age of
fourteen.

A quotation from one of Hakuin’s English language translators, Norman
Waddell, helps to summarize these early influ-ences:”Many of the elements
that came to distinguish Hakuin’s lifelong effort to reform Rinzai Zen--his
extraordinary energy and single-minded determination, his vehement
denunciations of those he deemed unorthodox--seem somehow to have more in
common with the militancy of Nichiren’s evangelistic zeal than they do with
the teaching style traditionally ssociated with the Zen school and may well
be traced at least in part to Hakuin’s childhood environment.”

For reasons which are not entirely clearly, the novice monk Hakuin was
transferred almost immediately to a sister temple of Shoin-ji in a
neighboring town. Here he spent the next three to four years serving as an
attendant to the resident priest, performing the menial duties expected of a
young novice and gaining a solid grounding in classical Chinese, which was
the language of the Buddhist texts whose study would be an important part of
his training. One of the texts he read at this time was the Lotus Sutra,
the most famous and popular of the Mahayana sutras. Rather than being
impressed by the work Hakuin reported being deeply disappointed to find “it
consisted of “nothing more than simple tales about cause and effect.”

Hakuin next moved, at age eighteen, to the nearby training temple of
Zenso-ji, and here he was to experience further significant doubts and
concerns. Here he had his first encoun- er with the type of monastics, the
likes of which he would encounter also in future travels, which he came to
regard with great contempt as “purveyors of quietist do-nothing Zen.”
Whereas Lin-chi, the founder of what came to be Rinzai in Japan, said that
“Doing nothing is the person of true nobility”, Hakuin criticized the Zen
priests he encountered for merely mouthing Lin-chi’s words without having
attained the truth contained in them. In later years he used the words
“doing nothing” and similar terms to disparage those who had adopted what he
considered a complacent, quietistic approach to practice.

Doubt turned temporarily to despair upon his reading the historical accounts
of the death of the great Chinese Zen master, Yen-t’ou, who was beheaded by
bandits. It was hard for the young Hakuin to conceive if such a great priest
could not even protect himself from bandits in this world, what possible
hope could an ordinary monk like himself have of avoiding the firey torments
of hell in the next?

After a year’s residence at Zenso-ji, Hakuin traveled further west with a
group of other monks, and arrived at the temple of Zuiun-ji. The year that
Hakuin spent at this temple included not only the devastating impact of his
mother’s death, but also one of the most famous episodes in Japanese Zen
history. Here is part of Hakuin’s own account of the incident.

“I had reached a total impasse...the fears still dominating my
thoughts...no idea where to turn for help. Streams of tears ran
unconsciously down my cheeks...my gaze happened to go up to the veranda of
the Guest Hall, where hundreds of books had been stacked on top of desks
following the annual airing of the temple library...I lit an offering of
incense before the books, performed a score or so of prostrations, and
prayed earnestly to the gods and Buddhas for their help...telling them how,
four or five years after shaving my head, I was still at sixes and sevens,
had no idea what to do with my life...which of the paths--Buddhism,
Confucianism, or Taoism--I should follow...I closed my eyes and slowly
approached a pile of books on one of the desks. With my thumb and
forefinger, I reached out and fished blindly among the stacks until I had
fixed on a single volume...I pulled it out and raised it high above my head
in veneration two or three times. Then I opened it....

The volume selected was a collection of anecdotes and quota-tions relating
to Zen study collected from a wide variety of Buddhist texts entitled
Spurring Students Through the Zen Barriers. Hakuin opened the pages
randomly to a passage describing the life and practice of the celebrated
tenth-century Chinese priest Tz’u-ming, who had kept Lin-chi Zen alive early
in the Sung dynasty when it was on the verge of extinction. The text
described how Tz’u-ming, while engaging in zazen through the freezing nights
of northern China, had jabbed himself in the thigh with a needle-sharp awl
whenever he sensed the “sleep demon” approaching. To Hakuin, Tz’u-ming’s
serendipitous intervention at this juncture could have only one meaning: a
person who commits himself to attaining religious awakening must push
forward with unwavering determination, whatever difficulties he encounters,
until the goal is reached. Tz-u-ming’s compilation accompanied Hakuin
everywhere he went after this experience.

After leaving Zuiun-ji Hakuin embarked on what was to become a period of
wandering pilgrimage for several years
throughout central and western Japan. His travels confirmed in his mind
what he saw as wrong with contemporary Zen. We will briefly digress from
our chronological narrative to consider at greater length his criticisms of
the Zen of his time.

He found all three Zen schools at fault, that is the zazen practices of
Soto, the Nembutsu Zen of the Obaku school and the “do nothing, Unborn Zen”
espoused by most of the Rinzai priests he encountered. The fault was that
these forms of Japanese Zen had become too passive and quietist, sapping
students of any “great burning tenacity of
purpose” in their religious quest. Hakuin believed that the practice of Zen
required three essentials: a great root of
faith, a feeling of great doubt, and a great burning aspiration.In his mind,
the great burning aspiration was the most
important of the three. The “sleep demons of silent illumination Zen” were
major obstacles to obtaining enlightenment.

Soto, Obaku and the “Unborn” teaching of his own Rinzai lineage all failed
to emphasize the use of koans, and
thus did not demand that a student focus his effort single-mindedly on the
active pursuit of the kensho experience. The reference to the “Unborn” Zen
teaching is specifically in reference to the teachings of the Rinzai priest
Bankei Yotaku (1622-1693). A common formulation of his message was: “All
things are perfectly taken care of if you
just remain in the Unborn Buddha-mind you received at birth from your
parents. Do not transform your Buddha-mind into illusory thoughts”
Bankei’s teachings had gained a wide following throughout Japan in the late
17th century, especially so in the areas of central Japan in which Hakuin
was traveling.

Let us return now to the chronological narrative. Hakuin is still engaged
in his travels, now at the age of 23. During the course of a week-long
solitary retreat in a temple he had meditated intensely for endless hours.
In the predawn hours of the final night of his retreat the sound of a
distant bell reached his ears. As it did, he finally crossed the threshold
into satori, or enlight-enment. In Wild Ivy Hakuin provides this brief
description: ...suddenly, my body and mind dropped completely away. I rose
clear of even the finest dust. Overwhelmed with joy, I hollered out at the
top of my lungs, “Old Yen-t’ou is alive and well.” This latter reference is
to the old Chinese Zen master mentioned earlier, the story of whose murder
had so dis-heartened Hakuin early in his practice. It is interesting that
the words “mind and bodydropped away”are closely associated with the Soto
Zen school of Dogen, who used identical language in describing his own
enlightenment experience.

Shortly after this transformative event Hakuin encountered an elderly priest
named Shoju Rojin, and over an eight-month period developed the most
significant teacher-student relationship of his life, though he did not
appreciate the full significance of Shoju’s teachings and the reasons for
his emphasis on post-satori practice for another eighteen years, until
Hakuin attained his final great enlightenment.

Shoju described post-satori training as going forward after your first
satori and devoting yourself to continued practice-and when that practice
bears fruit, to continue on still further. As you keep on proceeding
forward you will arrive at some final, difficult barriers. It was the lack
of such scrupulous application that Hakuin continually attacked in the
practices of the “Unborn Zennists.” After his studies with Shoju, the
notion of post-satori practice became a distinguishing feature of Hakuin’s
own Zen.

During the travels that followed his time with Shoju, Hakuin realized that
his attainment was still incomplete. He had no doubts about the depth of his
enlightenment; he was sure that his grasp of koans and Zen writings was
sharp and clear, yet he found it impossible to sustain the tranquility he
experienced in the quietness of the Zen hall when he returned to the tumult
of everyday life.

Over the course of his many years of Zen pilgrimage Hakuin visited many Soto
temples and was even offered the position of head priest at one of them, a
proposition which Hakuin seriously considered at the time. Had he done so
it is intrigu ing to reflect how a person with Hakuin’s extraordinary energy
and talents might have influenced the course of later Soto Zen.

Sometime, it is not clear exactly when, during Hakuin’s late twenties he
experienced an illness sufficiently serious that it prevented him from
pursuing his Zen training; Hakuin referred to the ailments as “Zen sickness”
or “meditation sickness”. The illness was significant enough that one of
the four chapters in Wild Ivy is devoted to it. A probable combination of
specialized meditation techniques which he had learned along with
traditional medical and folk therapies common at the time ultimately was
able to cure him.

His long years of Zen pilgrimage were interrupted when he was 31 by the news
of the dangerous illness of his father, who was anxious that Hakuin return
home to Hara and toalso take over the leadership of the Shoin-ji, which was
now without a priest. Thirteen months after his return to the Shoin-ji
Hakuin was officially installed as head priest and it was also at this time
that he took his dharma name of Hakuin. Hakuin resided at the ramshackle
old temple, amid great difficulty and privation, through his thirties and on
into his early forties. During his first ten years at the Shoin-ji Hakuin
attracted little attention outside of his home province, as he engaged in
running the temple’s affairs, private retreats and occasional lectures to
the small number of monks and lay people who came to him for instruction.

It was while in residence at the Shoin-ji that the religious quest that had
been the single focus of Hakuin’s life for more than a quarter century
finally came to an end one-night in his forty-first year. He was in his
chambers reading the Lotus Sutra, the very same chapter, the one on
parables, he had dismissed years before as a “mere collection of simple
tales about cause and effect.”

As Hakuin read, the sound of a cricket churring at the foundation stones of
the temples reached his ears; at that instant, he crossed the threshold into
great enlightenment. The accumu-lated doubts and uncertainties of forty
yearssuddenly ceased to exist. The reason why the was regarded as supreme
among all the Buddha’s preachings was revealed to him “with blinding
clarity”. He found teardrops “cascading down his face like strings of
beads-they poured out like beans from a ruptured sack”. Hakuin now
understood that he had erroneously regarded his original realization as full
and perfect enlightenment. The timely assistance provided by the teach-ings
of Shoju had finally bore full fruit and now helped him to proceed beyond
that initial realization.

>From this point forward Hakuin’s life was devoted to teaching others, along
with continuing his efforts to reform and reinvigorate the Zen school. He
was constantly encouraging students to strive for the same profound
penetration he had attained and devising new ways to reach out to the
general populace and make them aware of the benefits of koan Zen. He
equated his teaching efforts with Bodhichitta, “the Mind of Enlightenment”,
which he explained as “doing good by helping others and imparting the gift
of het Dharma to them”.

In the years immediately following his great enlightenment Hakuin lectured
to an ever increasing number of monks studying at Shoin-ji and he also spent
consider-able time on the road responding to lecture invitations. In due
course he came to recognized as the foremost teacher in the land. By his
late fifties he also turned his attention to writing, including compilations
of his discourses and Zen lectures. Writings of others had played a key
role in his own monastic development and he, in turn, was undoubtedly
convinced of the important role writing could play in helping to spread his
Zen teaching. He sometimes referred to the practice of writing as “the
exercise of verbal prajna”, which he further described as “a word or rwo
from an enlightened teacher designed to trouble later generations of
students°”.

Hakuin was apparently utterly determined that all people should share in the
benefits of his Zen teachings. Distinctions of rank, class, or gender were
almost meaningless when set against the all-important nature of
kensho--spiritual self-awakening achieved by seeing into the true nature.
The common touch that informs his teaching at the grassroots level is
exemplified by the simple ink drawings he produced by the thousands for the
endless stream of peasants and villagers who came to request them. These,
along with his poetry, verse, folk tales, riddles, etc. all became vehicles
to convey his teaching of kensho.

It is not surprising that such an inventive mind would devise a number of
new and original koans to find better ways of bringing people to the central
experience of kensho.Most famous of these, of course, is The Sound of One
Hand, which Hakuin is believed to have adapted from a comment made by
Hsueh-tou in the Blue Cliff Record, “A single hand does not clap in vain.”
>From his mid-sixties onward Hakuin assigned this koan to his students in
place of the traditional Mu koan, as he found it to be much more effective.

Hakuin continued his teaching and lecturing almost until the very end of his
life, though he did grow too weak in his final months to continue these
efforts. Near the end he responded to concerns from his monks about his
exhaustion with statements like “What’s my fatigue, compared with the great
hunger my students suffer?” Finally, at the age of 83, in the year 1768 the
great master expired.

I hope that you join with me in finding the story of Hakuin to be one of the
most intriguing and inspiring in the history of Zen.