Sublime

But in the moment when Buddhism, when philosophy or religion, becomes another way of clinging to oneself through seeking a spiritual security, the two thorns become one–and how is it to be taken out? This, as Bankei said, is “wiping off blood with blood.” Therefore in Zen there is neither self nor Buddha to which one can cling, no good to gain and

respected Tanchiu Koji Terayama, director of Hitsu Zendo. The English translation of his book’s title is Zen and the Art of Calligraphy (transl. by John Stevens; Penguin Group, 1983).

Teitaro Suzuki, unofficial lay master of Zen Buddhism, humorous offbeat scholar, and about the most gentle and enlightened person I have ever known; for he combined the most complex learning with utter simplicity. He was versed in Japanese, English, Chinese, Sanskrit, Tibetan, French, Pali, and German, but while attending a meeting of the Buddhist

“Who looks for me in form / who seeks me in a voice / indulges in wasted effort / such people see me not.”

disappearance of his family’s wealth demonstrated the truth of emptiness, while its reappearance demonstrated that true emptiness is empty of emptiness.

Second, because the majority of those who cultivate in the dharma-ending age are attached to material appearances and given to such external practices as offering incense, flowers, and prostrations, they don’t realize their own true nature.

2. Emptiness

bodhisattva

too, a favorite theme of Zen artists. But the main importance of this sutra for China and for Zen was the point that perfect awakening was consistent with the affairs of everyday life, and that, indeed, the highest attainment was to “enter into awakening without exterminating the defilements [klesa].” There was an appeal here to both the Confucian