zatsunen1

Zazen and Devequth

by Jacob Yuroh Teshima, Doctor of Hebrew Literature

an extract from "Zen Buddhism and Hasidism, a comparative study"

(University Press of America, 1995)

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What distinguishes Zen Buddhism and Hasidism from other Buddhist and Jewish schools is not necessarily a philosophical view that is characterized by dialogue between masters and disciples, but rather their inner discipline. It has attracted lay people as well as religious professionals. Generally speaking, there are three approaches to attaining the goal of religion: a practical one, which involves observance of precepts and performance of rituals; an intellectual one, which is concerned with the interpretation of dogmas and analysis of doctrines; and a spiritual one, through which a human being attempts to achieve spiritual perfection.

In Buddhism these three disciplinary aspects are known as "Three Studies": sila (morality), samadhi (concentration), and prajna (wisdom). In order to attain salvation, one must, first of all, keep the moral rules and precepts for orderly conduct and spiritual welfare. Then he must train himself in tranquility to control his mind and to probe the ultimate question. And finally wisdom, which consists in insight into truth, brings him to enlightenment and emancipation.

We find their counterparts in Judaism in the following three basic disciplinary aspects: performance of mitzvoth (commandments) in accordance with the halakhah (law); study of Torah (teaching, particularly of the Bible and the Talmud ), which evolves into wisdom -- Torah is often translated by "law" for conveniences. Its precise meaning is a teaching or an instruction any kind. --; and observance of 'avodah (worship), in which one devotes himself to listening to the still small voice of the Creator as well as conversing with Him. All three are supposed to be equally important both in Buddhism and in Judaism in order to achieve the goal of religion. However, only the practical and intellectual sides are, in most cases, widely adopted by people in their religious life. For instance, the Three Studies were equally important for a Buddhist according to Shakyamuni, the Buddha. But after the Buddha, as time went on, the Triple Disciplines was split into three individual items of study. Teravada Buddhism is characterized by ascetic observance of the precepts, and Mahayana Buddhism concerned itself with the development of Buddhist theology and philosophy. In Judaism, study of Torah, observance of mitzvoth and participation in 'avodah have been equally encouraged, yet intensive devotion (kavvanah) was usually not found among people, except for very devoted men or mystics. The spiritual side is usually either rather neglected or, at most, might be seen among a limited few individuals. In fact, extraordinary effort is needed to eliminate cor-poreality in one's life. Therefore, the spiritual approach traditionally has been limited to ascetic religious communities, such as the hermit of Mt. Athos, Franciscan Fathers, monks of Teravada Buddhism in Southeast Asia, or Jewish mystics of Safad in the seventeenth century.

Compared with the spiritual approach, the practical and intellectual approaches are much easier to carry out. They are very effective in bringing people closer to the common interests of the community. By enforcing the observance of rules, the community maintains the orderly conduct of its members. And by teaching them the doctrines of religion, it not only offers a uniform system of belief but also eliminates the potential for heresy. Therefore, the observance of rules and doctrines has been repeatedly emphasized by the leaders of religious communities.

When Judaism and Buddhism came to a spiritual stalemate after centuries of material growth and spiritual edification, small groups of concerned people began to reflect seriously on the situation. Realizing the lack of spiritual flexibility and freshness in the routine elaboration of rituals and doctrines, they hoped that intensive practice of spiritual discipline zazen in Buddhism and prayer in devequth in Judaism would release new spiritual energies to thirsty souls. Zazen (meditation in sitting) was not strange to the Buddhists nor was prayer in devequth (cleaving to God) to the Jews, for each was a part of its own tradition from the outset. But their intensive practice had been forgotten. So, those concerned people raised their voice, asking for a return to the intensive devotion which once had occupied a major part of the religious discipline for the pious of old. The restoration of old pietistic tradition was one of the goals which Hasidism dreamed in the early period. Their opponents criticized the way of Hasidic prayer, "they [the Hasidim] are used to staying in concentration over two hours before prayer, even though the time for the Invocation of Shema' and the Eighteen Benedictions passes in the mean time." Obviously, the Hasidic way of prayer was an attempt to restore the ancient pious men's habit reported in the Mishnah (Berakhoth 5:1). In Zen Buddhism, Bodhi-dharma and his followers propagated the significance of meditation through which one eventually attains enlightenment like the Buddha.

Both Zen Buddhism and Hasidism emphasized the significance of the annihilation of self: Zen Buddhism attempted to attain it through the practice of zazen, that is, meditation while sitting cross-legged, and Hasidism through devequth and kavvanah, that is, cleaving to God and intensive awareness of the divine meaning. Devequth in Hebrew, from the root dvq (to attain, to join), means a total devotion or concentration of one's mind and thought upon a particular object as well as attachment in general. Hasidism uses it in the sense of perpetual clinging to God. Kavvanah is intention or attention. In Jewish mysticism it means an intensive attention to God in accordance with the divine categories.

Every Buddhist who intensively disciplines himself in zazen will ultimately achieve the same level and content of enlightenment experienced at first by Shakyamuni the Buddha, the founder of Buddhism. And every Jew who intensifies his deeds in devequth is considered not only to be with God but also to be fulfilling a messianic function, to some extent, by accomplishing his personal salvation, which is a part of the messianic process. Through full practice of zazen or devequth a human being is no longer just a lesser being who is in need of salvation, but is a benefactor who promotes it on behalf of all of creation, like the Buddha or the Messiah.

But what is zazen? What is devequth? We will begin this study by reviewing these two dynamic experiences.

Zazen for Enlightenment 　

Zen should not be considered to be identical with Hindu meditation, though it owes the origin of the name "Zen" (Ch'an in Chinese) to Sanskrit dhyana, which means meditation. In Zen smooth and calm breathing is necessary in order to continue sitting in meditation. Zen requires no posture, unlike the variety of permissible Yoga postures, other than to sit upright with legs crossed in the full or half lotus position. Below are the instructions for zazen given by Dogen, the founder of the Japanese Soto school:

If you wish to realize the Buddha's wisdom [lit., the matter of thusness, that is, enlightenment], you should begin training [lit., the matter of thusness, that is, zazen] immediately.

Now, in doing zazen it is desirable to have a quiet room. You should be temperate in eating and drinking, forsaking all delusive relationships. Setting everything aside, think of neither good nor evil, right nor wrong. Thus having stopped the various functions of your mind, give up even the idea of becoming a Buddha. This holds true not only for Zazen but for all your daily actions.

Usually a thick square mat is put on the floor where you sit and a round cushion on top of that. You may sit in either the full or half lotus position. In the former, first put your right foot on your left thigh and then your left foot on your right thigh. In the latter, only put your left foot on the right thigh. Your clothing should be worn loosely but neatly. Next, put your right hand on your left foot and you left palm on the right palm, the tips of the thumbs lightly touching. Sit upright, leaning to neither left nor right, front nor back. Your ears should be on the same plane as your shoulders and your nose in line with your navel. Your tongue should be placed against the roof of your mouth and your lips and teeth closed firmly. With your eyes kept continuously open, breathe quietly through your nostrils. Finally, having regulated your body and mind in this way, take a deep breath, sway your body to left and right, then sit firmly as a rock.

Think of non-thinking. How is this done? By thinking beyond thinking and non-thinking [非思量 lit., by non-discrimination]. This is the vary basis of zazen.

By the term ﾒthusnessﾓ (恁麼 jen-mo in Chinese, immo in Japanese), Dogen means the ultimate, absolute and true reality which is the essence of enlightenment. The word jen-mo, a colloquial Chinese term in the T'ang dynasty ( 618-907), means "thus, such, how, or what." The term is seen almost everywhere in the records of dialogue between masters and disciples after the tenth century when it became a technical term to imply things related to enlightenment. For example, Yun-chu (d. 906) said, "Whoever desires to attain the matter of thusness [enlightenment, Buddhism], he is a man of thusness [he has the essence of Buddhism in himself]."

Whenever Zen masters asked questions like "What is it?" "Who are you?" or "How did you come?" they intended to examine how much their students or fellow monks penetrated the depth of the ultimate understanding. If a student answers to any of such questions by saying "It is so-and so," "I am so-and so," or "I came from so-and so," it would be a proof of his failure in attaining the ultimate understanding, which is not a matter of verbal exchange but something beyond conventional thinking. The understanding of one's own ultimate nature should be expressed through his own language.

Once a monk visited Pai-chang (720-814), the drafter of Zen Monastery Code, who was known for his words, "A day without work, a day without eating."　

The monk asked: "Who is the Buddha?"

Chang: "Who are you?"

Monk: "I am such and such."

Chang: "Do you know this such and such?"

Monk: "Most certainly!"

Chang then raised his ritual flapper and said: "Do you see it?"

Monk; "I see."

The Master did not make any further remark [because the monk responded to his question in verbalism and was not aware of the real meaning of his questions.]

First, the monk presented the question which deals with the ultimate issue in Buddhism: "Who is the Buddha?" It is the same as asking: "What is the absolute reality?" To the question the master responded by a counter question: "Who are you?" By this the master meant: "Look at yourself if you want to know anything directly about the Buddha." But the verbosity of the monk shows that he apparently failed to understand the real intention hidden in the words. Daisetz Suzuki, a modern Japanese Zen scholar, comments on the dialogue as follows: "As far as our ordinary human understanding goes, the monk apparently answered the master correctly. Nothing faulty, then with the monk?"

Here is another case of mondo (Zen dialogue), in which the disciple, Nan-ch'uan (748-834), showed obvious competence with his master, Ma-tsu: One day while Nan-ch'uan was serving rice gruel to his fellow monks, Ma-tsu asked him, "What is [in] the wooden bucket?" Nan-ch'uan replied, "This old fellow should keep his mouth shut and not say such words." Then the master gave up to ask further. Chang Chung-Yuan gives the following commentary on it.

It was apparent to everybody that it was rice gruel in the bucket. Nan-ch'uan saw that the Master was trying to trap him into answering on a relative plane, and replied instead as we see. This was not rudeness on Nan-ch'uan's part, but rather a statement that the absolute reality cannot be expressed by words.

Like the term ju ( 如 so, such ), which is the translation of Sanskrit tathata (thusness), jen-mo expresses the absolute reality in the language of Zen. Dogen says that the thusness of truth is inclusive and comprehensive. Being is essentially included within "thusness." Dogen explains further:

Great Master Yun-chu... said to the monks one day: "If you want to get immo you must become a man of immo. And since we are already followers of the Buddhist Way [lit., immo] why is there any hesitation?"

The real meaning of this statement is that people have already manifested the Way, as they are, in their original nature. Immo is "it", the incomparable form of the Buddhist Way that contains the entire world; indeed, it transcends all worlds and is limitless.

We are part of the entire world so why is it necessary to find immo? Immo is the real form of truth as ti appears throughout the world. It is fluid and differs from any stable substance....

The idea of "thusness of being" can traced back through the philosophy of Nagarjuna, an Indian Buddhist philosopher, to the teaching of the Prajnaparamita Sutra. According to the Sutra, "emptiness, thusness and the wisdom of perfect knowledge all stand on the same plane, exalted above the fluctuation of change, and thus compose the absolute state attained in mystical experience."

The Prajnaparamita Sutra (Discourses on the Perfection of Wisdom) teaches that all realty is empty and this truth is perceived only by the insight of wisdom (prajna). The Sutra was widely accepted by the Chinese because of its philosophy of emptiness, which was similar to the idea of "wu" (無 nothingness) in Taoism. Thus it became an indispensable bridge between Mahayana Buddhism and Chinese civilization.

As in the case of the Buddha, who was called as tathata-gata (one who thus comes), the word tathata was often used as a synonym for truth in Indian philosophy, because "truth exists where all forms of discrimination have been negated."

But the Chinese Zen masters applied jen-mo or ju to thusness of particular events rather than to that of abstract truth. To them, thusness meant the actual realtiy in which they lived, and "the comprehension of things in their thusness is what the Chinese Zen masters were to call enlightenment in daily life."

It is true that a mystery is always found within ordinary things but not beyond them. The problem of mystery is not in the reality but in the language. To describe the total situation of enlightenment is simply beyond the capacity of language. Therefore, Zen masters prefer to call it "thusness" for convenience. For instance, Shakyamuni the Buddha was said to have discovered the Four Noble Truths in his initial enlightenment. What has been summarized in words as the Four Noble Truths was nothing but a part of what he had experienced as enlightenment. The details of the entire event which happened to him under the bo tree cannot be reproduced in words even by Shakyamuni himself. It was, therefore, rather clever of Zen masters to call the total truth revealed in enlightenment by the term "thusness" in order to grasp its wholeness as it is.

In my understanding, the concept of "the ineffable" in the philosophy of Abraham Joshua Heschel shares almost the same implication with Zen's "thusness." For instance, Heschel stated:

"The essence of things is ineffable and thus incompatible with the human mind.... By the ineffable we mean that aspect of reality which by its very nature lies beyond our comprehension, and is acknowledged by the mind to be beyond the scope of the mind." Abraham Joshua Heschel, God in Search of Man (New York, 1955), 104

"But the divine as a first insight is a reality, transcending both the power of mind and the order of the world rather than a compound of characteristics found within the world. The divine is too ineffable to be a product of the human mind, too grave, demanding and all-surpassing to be postulated by wishful thinking." Abraham Joshua Heschel, Man Is Not Alone (New York, 1951) 83-84.

　

Although enlightenment must be expressed by means of words to let others know, it takes place in the absolute reality whose total situation can never be explicable in words. If words are no avail, what can be done with silence? A legend from the ninth century tells of the tran-smission of the Dharma (truth) in this manner.

One day Shakyamuni stood on the platform and turned a flower in his fingers, while smiling in silence. None of his disciples could understand the deep meaning of their Master's smile. Only Kasyapa did; so he too smiled. Then Shakyamuni declared, "There is a separate tradition outside the Scriptures. It has no dependence on words and letters. Now I entrust it to Kasyapa." Kasyapa is listed as the heir of the Buddha.

From this story we learn that it is still possible for two persons who have already achieved the right understanding to communicate without relying upon language. Insight emerges through silence. Eloquence in many cases causes confusion and even deception. Truth reveals itself in silence. Shakyamuni, gave no explanation of the separate tradition, because it was a matter of the ultimate truth and the understanding of the absolute reality. He expected his disciples to grasp it through intuition and insight. In a sense, the way of Zen is a way to train for insight.

The choice of Kasyapa teaches us another lesson. Insight, not erudition, is the essential qualification to attain a religious goal. Ananda, another disciple of the Buddha, had the reputation of knowledge and memory. Serving the Buddha as his attendant, he heard hundreds and thousands of things from the master and knew the life of the Buddha firsthand. Yet he was not chosen by the Buddha to succeed him, because he was to fond of acquiring conceptual knowledge instead of pursuing true wisdom. However, Ananda was appointed by Kasyapa to succeed him when his religious insight came to maturity. Wide knowledge is desirable but is not a necessary condition for us to achieve the goal of religion.

A similar account was told of how Hung-jen, the Fifth Patriarch, chose the unlearned Hui-neng to become his heir instead of Shen-hsiu, the head monk of his monastery. The illiteracy of Hui-neng was reported twice in The Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch. The report seems to be deliberately exaggerated either by the compilers or by the Sixth Patriarch himself to discourage the tendency of intellectual indulgence.

At the interview with the Fifth Patriarch, Hui-neng pointed out the limit of intellectualism and said to him: "If man does not know his own pen-hsin [authentic mind], the study of the Dharma is of no avail. If he knows his own pen-hsin, he then awakes to the cardinal meaning."

According to Hui-neng, the amount of knowledge is not essential to religious enlightenment. What is indispensable for religion is knowing one's pen-hsin. The word pen-hsin (本心) is usually translated "original mind" in English. However, the Chinese character hsin (心) means not only "mind" but also "heart, innermost." Pen (本) means "root, origin, authentic." Therefore, pen-hsin means something which is in the innermost of a person as well as what he originally thinks. Hui-neng's words are quite close to the famous inscription on the Delphian temple: "Know thyself!" Yet to Hui-neng, knowing pen-hsin was an ontological matter, while knowing oneself was an epistemological subject to the ancient Greek philosopher. Knowing one's own pen-hsin involves the essence of one's being rather than the form or mode of the being. The study of the Dharma is of no avail without awakening to pen-hsin, because pen-hsin is the essence of one's mind that takes root in the ultimate reality out of which all of beings emerge. In other words, truth is never identified by a person unless self-identity is established in the root of reality. To awaken to the truth in one's mind is essentially the same as to know one's essence.

One hundred years later, Huang-po (d. 855/9), a heir of Pai-chang and the teacher of Lin-chi, repeated the same warning to his disciples: "No matter how widely a student understands the Dharma in terms of doctrine, he will never become a Buddha even after a myriad years of study unless he awakens to it in his mind."

A widespread misunderstanding about religion is to consider religion to be similar to philosophy, ethics and science. One may teach as well as learn an interpretation of religion in school alongside natural science and history. But knowledge of religion cannot satisfy one's soul, for religion is not a matter of intellectual knowledge alone but a matter of one's existence. Knowledge of religion is not the same as wisdom and understanding. Therefore, increase in knowledge does not promise a person the attainment of ultimate truth. Understanding with heart and mind is not conceptual but empirical. It is direct, immediate and straight. It is a way of knowing which involves the whole person. According to one of the earliest documents, Two Entrances and Four Acts, reliability of empirical understanding was already stressed by Bodhidharma, the legendary founder of Zen Buddhism:

In terms of approaches to learning the truth, those who develop their understanding through the words of the classics are low in spiritual vitality; those who obtain their understanding based upon actual reality are full of vigor. Those who perceive truth through reality never forget it wherever they are, while those who understand through words of the classics soon become blind when they face reality. To discuss reality by means of the scriptures and discourses is remote from truth. It is much more desirable to experience the reality in one's own body and mind than to talk of it with mouth and to listen to it with ears. And one in whom the reality itself is actually the truth is very profound, and any ordinary mortal cannot judge his understanding.

About the same period when the new school of Bodhidharma began to take root in Chinese civilization, there were already several major Buddhist schools in China whose influence penetrated the imperial court. The T'ien-t'ai School founded by Chi-i (538-598) succeeded in systematizing all doctrines of Indian Buddhism known to the Chinese by focusing them around the Lotus Sutra. The Hua-yen school attracted many people because of its syncretic interpretation of the universal causation of the Dharma. And Hsuan-tsang (600-664), after eighteen years of pilgrimage in India, brought back numerous sutras with him and translated the six hundred volumes of the Prajnaparamita Sutra and many others. But, the more elaborately their teachings were taught, the further their hearts were from the essence of religion itself. Tu-fei, the compiler of Ch'uan Fa-pao chi (The Chronicles of Transmission of the Precious Dharma, edited in 712), reported on the situation of Buddhism in the early eighth century:

In the period after the Han and Wei dynasties when the Scriptures became available to the Chinese through translation, men who studied Buddhism depended much more upon words and doctrines. Analyzing sentences and words, they elaborated conceptual interpretations to beautify wisdom and to magnify its expression. Since these fellows pursue already known ideas, none of them sees the essence of the absolute reality, nor opens his insight to the perfection of body of the Dharma.... There is no one among them who has ever entered into the enlightenment of the Dharma Gate to demonstrate its truth by his own mind.

Zen Buddhism came into being as a reaction to the excessive reliance on literature, which was a traditional tendency of Chinese civilization. As Hajime Nakamura explains it, "Chinese Buddhism was a religion for literati in its intellectual aspect. Chinese Buddhism might be called 'a religion of documents' because the whole Chinese culture is characterized by an emphasis on documents."

On the other hand, human life is limited in a relatively short term, while to seek the Dharma through words is not only gradual but endless, for there are hundreds and thousands of doctrines and interpretations. It is almost impossible for a man to assimilate all of them in his life. The brevity of human life is another reason why Zen is so reluctant to engage in the study of the scriptures. The words of Huang-po still sound as fresh as when they were uttered before his students more than a thousand years ago:

"Dear students, if you want to become Buddha, stop studying all Buddhist doctrines; only learn no-desire and no attachment!"

How can we become the Buddha? As we have seen in the instruction for zazen given by Dogen, Zen refuses to answer this question. Instead, it strongly urges students to devote, first of all, their maximum effort in zazen to the practice of meditation and samadhi. By practicing zazen, one will eventually discover the absolute reality. The problem is the veil of delusion and false opinions which shield people from truth and reality. f a person wholeheartedly desires to find en-lightenment, he will discover at the end. Muso (1275-1351), a celebrated Zen master and the builder of the "Five Mountains," said:

A person may break this great doubt after only a couple of days; another might take a few months or from ten to twenty years to break it. There is a difference in achieving early or later according to one's nature and attitude. However, there is no one who cannot break it eventually in his life.

And Dogen encouraged his disciples in these words:

The Buddhas and the Patriarchs were all at one time ordinary men. While in this common state, some were guilty of evil conduct and evil thought, some were dull and others foolish. Yet because they all reformed themselves, followed a good teacher, and practiced, they became Buddhas and Patriarchs. People nowadays must do the same. Don't demean yourself by saying that you are dull and stupid. If you don't arouse the determination to seek the Way in this life, when do you expect to be able to practice? If you force yourself to practice now, you will without fail gain the Way.

Everybody can wipe out the mist of doubt, and the truth of reality exists nowhere else except within him. Therefore, someday he will be awakened to the truth and become a Buddha, if he persistently pursues the goal and devotes himself to the practice of zazen in search of the answer. This optimism is the gospel Zen brings to all persons who are in the darkness of ignorance and suffering.

Zen Buddhism before the Sixth Patriarch　

The character of meditation in Zen Buddhism had substantially changed before and after the Sixth Patriarch. The primary concern of Zen students in the early period was to achieve purity while sitting in meditation. Bodhidharma taught his disciples to realize the principle of purity that all beings are pure in essence. He said, "Purity of nature is the principle and the law of reality"(性浄之理、目之為法). His successor, Hui-k'o (487-593), the Second Patriarch, advised people to practice meditation of purity and said, "If you meditate in purity and silence, the great sun of Nirvana shall shine out naturally" (黙然浄坐、大涅槃日、自然明浄). Seng-tsan (d. 606), the Third Patriarch, lived in seclusion and spent most of his life of zazen in silence. "He used to meditate quietly, neither writing any book nor teaching the Dharma"

(蕭然浄坐、不出文記、秘不伝法). In those days dhyana (medita-tion) was translated in Chinese as ching-lu ( 静慮 quiet contemplation) and ssu-wei-hsiu (思惟修 contemplative discipline). According to the early method of zazen, one should begin with contemplating on a certain subject in quietness in order to eliminate miscellaneous thoughts from one's mind. Hung-jen, the Fifth Patriarch, instructed as follow:

When you practice zazen, sit upright in a level place... contemplate the Chinese character " 一 " (one) at the area of horizon.... A novice who is attached to numerous [disturbing] thoughts should contemplate the character " 一 " in the mind for a while.

After achieving purity in zazen, you realize the situation as if you were on the top of a high mountain which alone rises in the midst of a vast plain, and while sitting on the summit, you look to the distance in all four directions, [and learn] there is no end to the bound in sight.... The pure body of the Dharma [Reality] too has no end. Such is the case with zazen.

To Hung-jen, the purity experienced in zazen reflects the perfect purity of the Dharmakaya (the Dharma-body), which means the absolute essence of the Buddha. Thus, a human discovers the Buddha-nature (the essence of being) in the serene purity where there is neither delusion nor dichotomy of phenomena and where form is void and empty.

While most early Zen masters took a moderate approach to purity of Zen, Tao-hsin (580-651), the Fourth Patriarch, took a rather different approach in the history of the early quietistic Zen. He taught as follows:

When a novice practices zazen in a quiet place, he should directly examine his body and mind, viz., the four great elements and the five components: eyes, ears, nose, tongue and other organs and senses; desire, anger, ignorance, good or wrong, hatred or favor, or the profane or the sacred, and all beings. Observe that they are from the outset empty, neither coming into being nor perishing; they are the same and not two [different things]; they are from the outset nothing, therefore ultimately silent. Observe that they are from the outset pure and emancipated.

The four great elements are earth, water, fire and airﾑthe materials for physical structure of all being. The five components are components of the psychic aspect of man: body, sensation, perception, volition and consciousness.

Tao-hsin's approach was rather artificial, because he imposed the idea of emptiness on his mind, instead of reaching the same conclusion after contemplation. He reversed the doctrine of emptiness from conclusion to prerequisite in the practice of zazen. This approach seems to be effective in creating and imprinting a ghost image of purity in the mind, if repeatedly applied. Tao-hsin in fact knew such effect:

If you continue to practice this contemplation day and night in walking, in standing, in sitting and in lying on, then you shall realize yourself to be like the moon in the water, like an image in the mirror, like a haze in the heat of the day, and like an echo in the empty valley.

The autosuggestion and self-hypnotism was, however, rejected by succeeding generations after the rise of Hui-neng's school.

Shen-hsiu, the head monk of Hung-jen's monastery, was the last giant in the line of early Zen Buddhism. The quietistic approach which was transmitted to him from his predecessors was finally summarized by him in the doctrine of K'an-ching (看浄 to keep the eyes on purity).

In the Tun-huang edition of The Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch, we find Hui-neng's indirect criticism of the method of practice taught by the school of Shen-hsiu. He said, "Good friends, some people teach men to sit viewing the mind and viewing purity [k'an-hsin k'an-ching 看心看浄], not moving and not activating the mind.... Those who instruct in this way are, from the outset, greatly mistaken." In the Yuan edition of The Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch, Chih-cheng, a disciple of Shen-hsiu, reported to Hui-neng the teaching of his master: "He always instructs people to tranquilize the mind and to keep the eyes on purity [chu-hsin kuan-ching 住心観静 ], and to sit in meditation for hours without rest." Then Hui-neng replied: "Tranquilization of the mind and contemplation of purity is a disease and not Zen. What is the merit of ascetic sitting for the purpose of rationalism?"

The principal understanding is shown in his famous verse:

The body is the Bodhi [enlightenement] tree,

The mind is like a clear mirror.

At all times we must strive to polish it,

And must not let the dust collect.

According to Shen-hsiu, meditation serves to clean the mirror of consciousness in which a person may expect to see the purity of his own being. But his self-striving approach raised another problem. If "at all times we must strive to polish it," we will never have a time to rest in samadhi (trance). One's effort to attain the original purity is constantly threatened by pollution. He must keep an eye on purity and another eye on the danger of pollution. The tension emerging from these two conflicting aspects eventually may mutilate the purpose of Zen itself. K'an-ching means also to observe quietness. When the mind settles down in the quiet purity, it will cease to sense agitation and oscillation, which is the cause of delusion. Early Zen Buddhism grasped the Zen in terms of passivity and sought freedom and emancipation in motionless quiet purity.

Zen according to the Sixth Patriarch

The southern school of Hui-neng criticized the quietistic approach of the northern school of Shen-hsiu. Hui-neng advocated an existentialist doctrine:chien-hsing (見性 kensho in Japanese). The term chien-hsing is usually translated by "looking into one's nature." However, we must be aware of the connotation of the word hsing (性), which means not only mere nature or disposition but also "the ultimate constituent" of being. The self-nature is the ultimate nature of oneself. A remarkable statement issued by Hui-neng indicates that hsing is something behind the human mind and emerges from the absolute essence, that is, the essence of Buddhahood: "They will see their own minds, their own nature, and the true Buddha" (見自心自性真仏). The Chinese text also means that "one who sees his own mind and his own nature is the true Buddha." Hui-neng considered the pursuit of purity to be an act of attachment. Attachment results from the gap between the objective reality and the subjective self. He thought Zen must be totally independent from any outer and inner circumstances of meditation. He taught his disciples and said:

Good friends, in this teaching from the outset sitting in meditation does not concern the mind nor does it concern purity.

In this teaching 'sitting' [tso in Chinese, za in Japanese] means without any obstruction anywhere, outwardly and under all circumstances, not to activate thoughts. 'Meditation' [ch'an in Chinese, zen in Japanese] is internally to see the original nature and no to become confused.

Hui-neng actually initiated the method of "thinking beyond thinking and non-thinking" in order not only to transcend the gap but also to unify the subjectivity and the objectivity in their ultimate origin, that is, the Buddha-nature. The word "fei-ssu-liang" (非思量), translated by "thinking beyond thinking and non-thinking," means non-discrimi-nation. It is not mere "negation of thinking" (不思量 pu-ssu-liang ) but a way of thinking which transcends normal conceptualization by ceasing it in order to penetrate the dimension of the absolute reality. He asked the Zen students, "Not thinking of good, nor thinking of evil, just at this particular moment, [tell me] what is your original face?" No inclination either to good or to evil is abstention of conscience. Not thinking either of good or of evil is cessation of human conception. And at this very dilemma, a question was issued: "What is your original face, that is, the ultimate essence of your nature?"

"Original face" is a synonym for "original nature, self-nature." It is often used in the formula; "Your original face [which has been with you since] before the birth of your parents," that is to say, the very essence of your nature, or yourself.

If you think of any definite thing to explain yourself, you virtually enslave yourself to the search of definition and fail to see your own original nature. Yet you must find yourself in such a crucial situation which allows you no pretence.

The cardinal concern of Hui-neng was not the conflict of purity and impurity or of serenity and agitation, but the discovery of one's own nature. As he himself was a free man, so he believed in the ultimate freedom of the human nature. His verse says:

Bodhi originally has no tree,

The mirror also has no stand.

Buddha nature is always clean and pure;

Where is there room for dust?

Nothing can enslave the ultimate essence of being, that is, the Buddha-nature, and enlightenment (bodhi) is beyond limited conception. If a person is not free from his own preoccupations, how can he succeed in grasping his own nature? An effort to purify oneself is the same as an effort to contaminate oneself with the desire of purifying oneself. If he is pure, behave in purity! Hui-neng's approach urges us to aufheben the conflict of the self and its desire for becoming Buddha. He commands his students to overthrow all preconceptions in the practice of zazen. Purity is no longer the goal of meditation in the light of Hui-neng's teaching, for the original nature itself is pure. Purity will manifest itself once we sit in zazen without thinking and without attachment.

To Hui-neng, zazen meant emancipation and independence of a person from his own self. The practice of zazen was an instant mani-festation of the absolute reality. He said, "When a person awakes all of a sudden [from delusion and attachment], he regains his own pen-hsin."

Yet how can we attain such sudden awakening? This is a serious problem for a novice. To learn that the original natures is pure is not the same as awakening to it. Coming to this point, Hui-neng drove the traditional antiliteralism home and now introduced the method of wu-nien (no-thought) as a primary means of religious training.

Good friends, in this teaching of mine, from the ancient times up to the present, all have set up no-thought [wu-nien] as the main doctrine, non-form as the substance, and non-abiding as the basis. Non-form is to be separated from form even when associated with form. No-thought is not to think even when involved in thought. No-abiding is the original nature of man.

His words seem to be contradictory to the eyes of the Western logicians. To the Sino-Japanese, "nought" is not always negative. For example, wu-wei (無為 non-acting, being non-productive) is often understood as "non-acting but being as it is" in the sense of appreciation of harmony with nature.

Wu-wei (non-acting) was the primary doctrine of Taoism. Lao-tsu, the Father of Taoism, taught taking no action initiated by one's self. The ideal approach to life is just to let all systems in the universe flow smoothly. A human being can achieve a harmony with everything in the universe by withdrawing his initiative. Thus nihilism was rather encouraged as a positive attitude toward the world.

By the term wu ( 無 non-, nothing, nothingness) they could anticipate something beyond negation as well as negation. According to Taoism, wu (nothing) is the source of yu (being). Nought is understood as our existence which is not limited by any means. Therefore, wu-wei is not only doing nothing or having nothing left to do but also doing something beyond human level, namely, letting nature act. In the same manner, wu-nien (no-thought) suggests to us a possibility of thinking beyond thinking and non-thinking, which will come after an end of ordinary process of thinking.

Since chien-hsing (looking into one's own nature) deals with the knowledge of the ultimate subject in human nature, we cannot apply an ordinary approach to its investigation. By the method of cogito, ergo sum we cannot know beyond the fact that "I exist." Hui-neng introduced the approach of wu-nien (no-thought) in order to handle the investigation of pure experience. In meditation of Zen from Hui-neng up to today, the object to be observed is the very subject, the meditator himself. At this point, Zen meditation differs from the common approach in Indo-European type of meditation, which is theoria (contemplation) of the object independent from the subject who contemplates. In chien-hsing one goes beyond self-contemplation, stripping off everything belonging to oneself and even thinking itself, in order to gain the absolute which stands behind his own being. Dogen expressed the situation of Zen by his motto: Shinjin totsuraku (Dropping off of body and mind, or forgetting oneself). He taught the essence of Zen Buddhism as follows: "Studying Buddhism is studying yourself. Studying yourself means to forget yourself. By forgetting yourself you will be proved by all of being. Proved by all of being, you strip off not only your own body and mind but also others' bodies and minds."

The quick spread of Hui-neng's teaching raised a further dispute between the southern and the northern schools: whether zazen is the absolute condition to become Buddha or not. The Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch does not tell us that Hui-neng experienced awakening through practicing zazen. During eight months in the monastery of Hung-jen he was not allowed to be a member of the regular audience but worked treading the pestle. One story indicates that Hui-neng had already reached inner maturity before this: He met a monk who was on the way back from Hung-jen's monastery, and whose recitation of the Diamond Sutra inspired Hui-neng to go to the monastery of Mt. Feng-mu in Huang-mei-hsien, a distance of more than six hundred miles from his home in Hsin-chou in Ling-nan. When Hui-neng arrived at the monastery of Mt. Feng-mu, he had an audience with the Fifth Patriarch. Hui-neng said, "Although people from the south and people from the north differ, there is no north and south in Buddha-nature. Although my barbarian's body and your [civilized] body are not the same, what difference is there in our Buddha-nature?" The Fifth Patriarch had nothing to comment about these words, showing his apparent satisfaction with Hui-neng's understanding.

The main point of Hui-neng's teaching focuses on chien-hsing (looking into one's nature　見性) rather than zazen. He elsewhere criticized the method of guarding purity in zazen, which is characteristic of the school of Shen-hsiu. A tale probably created by the southern school reports the dialogue of Hui-neng and Hsueh-chien, the Grand Chamberlain of Emperor Chung-tsung.

Hsueh-chien said: "All the Zen Masters in the capital say that if one wants to gain an understanding of the Way one must practice sitting in meditation. Without zazen there is as yet no one who has gained emancipation. I wonder what your opinion of this is?" The Master answered: "The Way is realized through the mind. What should it have to do with a sitting posture!"

Obviously, Hui-neng's harsh words were aimed not against the significance of practicing zazen but against the excessive attachment to zazen which was common to the northern school. For instance, Ching-chueh, a student of Shen-hsiu, said: "It would be an utter impossibility that even one of all the Buddhas of the ten directions should have gained enlightenment without sitting in meditation!"　

Although the northern school had virtually ceased to exist by the end of the T'ang dynasty, the quietistic emphasis of sitting appeared repeatedly in following generations, which were totally dominated by the southern school. For instance, Ma-tsu (709 - 788), one of the greatest masters in the southern school, at first used to practice zazen every day with assiduity. Being impressed by his indefatigable self-discipline, his teacher, Huai-jang (677 - 744), once asked him:

"Friend, what is your intention in practicing zazen?"

Ma-tsu said: "I wish to attain Buddhahood."

Thereupon Hui-jang took a brick and began to polish it.

Ma-tsu asked: "What are you engaged in?"

The master replied: "I want to make a mirror of it."

Ma-tsu rebutted: "No amount of polishing makes a mirror out of brick."

Huai-jang at once retorted; "No amount of practicing zazen will makeyou attain Buddhahood."

Another time Huai-jang said: "Do you intend to be master of zazen, or do you intend to attain Buddhahood? If you wish to study Zen, Zen is neither in sitting cross-legged nor in lying down. If you wish to attain Buddhahood by sitting cross-legged in meditation, the Buddha has no specified form. When the Dharma has no fixed abode, you cannot make any choice in it. If you attempt to attain Buddhahood by sitting cross-legged in meditation, this is murdering the Buddha. As long as you cling to this sitting posture you can never reach the Mind."

The lesson is clear: the important thing is not the practice of zazen but the enlightenment which enables a human to become a Buddha, which is attained by zazen.

The northern school declined rapidly after the death of P'u-chi (651 - 739), the heir of Shen-hsiu. Its manner of meditation was preserved in the Tendai School of Japan founded by Saicho (d. 822). He learned it from his teacher, Gyohyo, who was a student of Tao-hsuan, a disciple of P'u-chi.

Five centuries later, this statement of Hui-jang was interpreted by Dogen in the opposite sense. To Dogen, the practice of zazen was the way of becoming the Buddha. He developed a special dialectics to strengthen his view. Namely, since Zen in the pure sense is neither sitting nor lying down (it is free from all form of attachment), "zazen infinito is [the manifestation of] the real self." Since the Buddha has no specified form, it is impossible to omit the sitting posture of the Buddha. And at the very moment when you practice the sitting posture of the Buddha, you even transcend Buddhahood, because zazen is emancipation itself. Therefore, to maintain the sitting posture enables us to transcend the sitting while we still remain sitting. Dogen said, "The transmission of Buddhism is available only through the practice of zazen." His followers have kept the advice of the Master Dogen, and the practice of zazen is much more emphasized by his Soto school.

Compared with the Soto school, the combination of zazen and koan is emphasized in the Japanese Rinzai school. The desirable manner for exploring the realm of Zen is to experience the balance between practice and wisdom. The Sixth Patriarch called the attention of his students to this:

Good friends, my teaching of the Dharma takes meditation and wisdom as its basis. Never under any circumstances say mistakenly that meditation and wisdom are different; they are a unity, not two things.Meditation itself is the substance of wisdom; itself is the function of meditation.... Students, be careful not to say that meditation gives rise to wisdom, or that wisdom gives rise to meditation, or that meditation and wisdom are different from each other.

Emphasis of Devequth

As the new movement launched by the Besht and his followers influenced people of various communities, leading members of the old establishment felt potential danger to the status quo in the teaching and practice of Hasidism. In the spring of 1772, Rabbi Arie Judah Lieb of Brody and the leaders of the congregation of Vilna took the initiative in the fight against Hasidism, though the earliest accusation against Hasidism was reported in the lifetime of the Besht: the congregation of Shklov attempted to ban Hasidism in 1757. Then in 1770, again in Shklov, a Hasid publicly denounced several well-known scholars, including Rabbi Elijah, the Gaon of Vilna (1720 - 1797). As a result, the Jews of Shklov involved the leaders of Vilna in a war against Hasidism. And the congregation of Brody too joined the ban against the new Hasidic movement. The speaker of "Klaus" of Brody, Rabbi Arie Lieb published Zemir 'Aritzim v'Harboth Tzurim, the first anti-Hasidic book, in 1772. The book was burnt by Hasidim soon after publication. Those who were opposed to Hasidism were called the "Mithnaggedim" (opponents). They charged the members of Hasidism with the following violations:

1. the use of the name "Hasidim" (pious men) and wearing white robes;

2. adoption of the prayer book based on the Lurianic version and change of the order in prayer;

3. delay in prayer and peculiar acts such as loud crying and moving the body during prayer;

4. neglecting study of Torah and insulting scholars;

5. organizing their own prayer groups independent from local congregations.

The name Hasid (pl. Hasidim) was traditionally considered a respectful title for scholarly and devoted mystics such as a member of the Klaus or Rabbi Elijah, the Gaon of Vilna, a leading authority of the Talmud and Kabbalah (Jewish mysticism). White robes which symbolize mystical purity were traditionally special costumes for the mystic. Therefore, both the name and white robe were improper for the new movement, most of whose members were unlearned peasants and merchants or young students who were not yet qualified to be called mystics.

The adoption of the Lurianic rite caused confusion in the prayer of synagogue, where the majority followed the Ashkenazic version, the traditional text of prayer book among the Jews in Germany and Poland. The Lurianic version, which was arranged by the school of Rabbi Isaac Luria (d. 1572), one of the distinguished Kabbalist in Palestine, had been privately used among the mystics in Poland until Hasidism made its use public at synagogue worship.

Unusual acts during time of prayer were not only annoying for others but also considered to be a disgrace to prayer itself. However, Rabbi Samuel Shmelke, a Hasidic leader, defended ecstatic motion in Hasidic prayer as resulting from sincere prayer.

Regarding delay in prayer, the opponents said: "They are always accustomed to wait up to two hours before they recite the Eighteen Benedictions; in the meantime, the time for the Invocation of Shema' and the Eighteen Benedictions passes."

Hasidim obviously intended to follow in the wake of "the pious men of old" (hasidim ha-rishonim) mentioned in the Mishnah (Berakhoth 5:1), who "used to wait an hour before they said the Tephillah [i.e., the Eighteen Benedictions], that they might direct their hearts towards God."

The term Hasid was supposed to be used as an honorific title for a devoted and scholastic mystic, for example, "The excellent Rabbani, the Hasid reputed in scholarship and in piety, the honorable, our teacher and master, Rabbi Abraham Gershon, May his lamp shine" (from the salutation of the Besht's letter to Rabbi Abraham Gershon in Shivhei Ha-Besht, 167). It must be noted that no one except Rabbi Elijah, the Gaon, was titled "the Hasid" in the official letters sent by the congregation of Vilna. Even Rabbi Samuel Avigdor, the chief rabbinical judge, was never called ﾒHasidﾓ in the letters. It suggests that the usage of the term was very exclusive and not allowed to the average persons. On the other hand, the opponents viciously called Hasidim Kath he-hashudim ha-mithasidim (the sect of the suspected who make them-selves pious). They apparently suspected Hasidim as possible underground Sabbatian offspring.

Denial of the value of Torah and rabbinical scholarship could mean a revival of antinomianism which prevailed in the Sabbatian heresy as well as a flat rejection of the traditional authority by the new group. There was a widespread view held by the outsiders which described Hasidism as an antinomian and antischolastic movement. Solomon Maimon (1753-1800), a Polish Jew who eventually became a philosopher in Germany, made this comment on Hasidism:

"Moreover, this new doctrine was calculated to make the way to blessedness easier, inasmuch as it declared that fasts and vigils and the constant study of the Talmud are not only useless, but even prejudicial to that cheerfulness of spirit which is essential to genuine piety."

And finally, there was already a substantial spread of Hasidic minyanim (prayer groups) not only in the southern province of Ukraine, Podolia and Galicia, where the movement was launched by the Besht and his followers three decades earlier, but also in the province of Lithuania, home of the Gaon of Vilna, recognized head of the old establishment.

The accusations continued over four decades. The worst and most harmful accusation by the opponents was against Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Lyady, the chief Hasidic leader in the third generation and the founder of Lubavich Hasidism. Some of the accusers presented false charges against Shneur Zalman before the prosecutor general in St. Petersburg and he was imprisoned twice, in 1798 and 1800-1801. After he was cleared of the charges, Hasidism eventually received recognition from the government and prevailed over the opponents.

In 1804, the Russian government issued "the Charter for the Jews," in which the government allowed freedom of religious organization and restricted religious excommunication. In 1824, the Polish government recognized Hasidism as independent sect within Judaism. And in 1827, the government of Austria stated: "The Hasidim are less harmful to the government than the Talmudic Jews."

In general, Hasidim were not militant against their opponents and made every effort to bring issues to reconciliation. Around 1775, Rabbi Menahem Mendel of Vitebsk and Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Lyady made a special mission to Vilna to meet with Rabbi Elijah, the Gaon. But the latter closed the door and did not receive them. Then they went to Shklov and gained no positive result there either. In 1781, Rabbi Levi Yitzhak of Berdichev was chosen to debate in public with Rabbi Abraham Katzenellenbogen in Warsaw. The debate seemed to end without any concrete result. We have only a few comments issued publicly by Hasidim against the charges. Rabbi Elimelekh of Lezajsk comments on the Hasidic position in the letter written by his son as Elimelekh's answer to a Hasid who asked several questions regarding the polemic between Hasidim and the opponents. The letter was published in the end of the book, No'am Elimelekh (1788).

Rabbi Moses Isserles saw what a great illumination is contained in this version [of Luria], so great that the world is unworthy to use it, so that he established for us the Ashkenazic version which applies to all men of our degree. But he certainly did not intend to prevent the Zaddikim, who have cleansed themselves from filth and who are strict with themselves to a hair's breadth, from praying with this version [of Luria].... And both these and these are the words of the living God. Do you find difficult that there are certain people who are not in this stage [of the Zaddikim], which I mentioned above, and who, nevertheless, pray with this version? Behold, since they associate with the pious ones [Hasidim] of the highest degree, therefore they too can be called by name "Hasidim."

In other words, there is nothing wrong with the people of the new movement. According to Elimelekh, they should be allowed to use the Lurianic version, for they are in communication with "Hasidim of the highest degree" as well as with God because of their deep faith. Elimelekh dared to declare the superiority of Hasidim over the average "Zaddikim" who seek only their own perfection.

The greatness of Hasidism is found in its universal purpose. Rabbi Zechariah Mendel, a disciple of Elimelekh, wrote one of his uncles to justify his choice of being a Hasid: "I follow in the footsteps of the holy Hasidim, the men of reputation, paragons of the generation, by whose virtue we are living in the bitter and impetuous exile." According to him, Hasidism is not separatism. On the contrary, it is a source of Jewish survival without which life of Diaspora would collapse.

But how could it become a source of power for the Jews? Rabbi Samuel Shmelke Horwitz of Nikolsburg (1726-1778), a student of the Great Maggid, sent a letter to the congregation of Brody on behalf of Hasidism:

On the contrary, all these people who came into the community of the Hasidim dedicate themselves to the service of heart, namely, to the prayer. They engage in the study of the Torah whenever they are free, except during emergencies and troubled hours which bring tension to all over the dwelling place of my brethren, the children of Israel, who are in the bitterness of Exile. Some of the Hasidim are contrite, some are completely righteous, and some are extremely in love with the Torah and enjoy studying it. If they truly take longer time for prayer by pouring out their whole strength with leaping and twirling, behold, it is the same as the case of King David, may he rest in peace, who, leading the singers, danced and leaped with all his strength before the Lord. So is it in the case of Rabbi Akiba. When he prayed alone, he used to move from one corner to another, kneeling and bowing. As a matter of fact, in the midst of oppression, in this bitter exile that everyday increases the misery of the Jews..., Oh, may the Merciful One help! surely will they cry out to the Lord loudly. Oh, may He return and have compassion on them!

Shmelke says that the focus of Hasidism lies in the service of heart. People were exhausted by hardships of Exile and tired of routine and dry services at synagogue. What they really sought was a fresh, inspiring moment for their soul which was no longer available in the deadly routines of society. They came to seek a more meaningful way of life in Hasidism.

They found meaning in Hasidic prayer. Indeed, the most distinguishing aspect of Hasidism was its fervent prayer. Many people were shocked to see its ecstatic manner of prayer. Even Rabbi Dov Baer, the future heir of the Besht, felt it unbearable the first time he attended it. But in praying sincerely with all their strength like the Besht, Hasidim discovered a new experience: they too could become a David and a Rabbi Akiba. Prayer has, as Shmelke indicates, two aspects: one is that prayer is the last shelter for a desperate person to ask God for help; the second is communion with God in which he, forgetting all his outer concerns, dances and rejoices in the presence of God. Prayer is the place for refuge and the source of joy. Therefore, in amplification of Shmelke's argument, the creation of Hasidism was necessary to fulfill the spiritual needs of those Jews who had been suffering the bitter lot of Diaspora.

(Note) Samuel Shmelke Horwitz studied under the Great Maggid together with his younger brother, Pinhas, while they were still young. He received the call to serve in the rabbinical court at Nikolsburg in Moravia (1773) after being rabbi of Ryczwol in Poland. He was later appointed the chief rabbi of the province of Moravia in 1775. His brother, Pinhas (1731-1803) was elected rabbi of Frankfurt-on-the-Main in 1771. They remained stout defenders of Hasidism all their lives. Zechariah Mendel was a nephew of Samuel Shmelke.　In Frankfurt-on-the-Main, Pinhas seemed to have a close relation with Mayer Amschel Rothschild, the founder of the Rothschilds.

Prayer is more than the performance of ritual. The Besht was among the initiators of the pattern of fervent prayer: "He used to utter a great cry and pray louder than anyone else." His prayer was not a mere noise but a pouring out of his whole heart. So was the prayer of Rabbi Nahman of Kosov. Rabbi Nahman's prayer was so sweet that everybody was overwhelmed by his voice. Wherever he went, he demonstrated, by his passionate devotion, what prayer was. The Besht and Rabbi Nahman were actually the fathers of this new type of passionate prayer. But the Besht had something that was totally unique with him. "During the voiced Eighteen Benedictions, the Besht trembled greatly as he always did while praying.... His face burned like a torch. The Besht's eyes bulged and were fixed straight ahead like those of someone dying." The Besht was quite often in a trance, during which he exhibited no symptoms of unconscious paroxysm. When he was inspired by the Shekhinah (the Holy Spirit), he appeared to be out of the world. Trance and catalepsy connected with ecstasy are not unusual phenomena in the history of religion and mysticism. Generally speaking, this type of experience happens to the individual sporadically but not regularly. In the case of the Besht, it seems to have happened almost habitually when he prayed. And it was so great that he could not control himself even after prayer. However, soon he learned how to calm down his ecstatic motion.

Because of his devequth [adhesion to God] the Besht was unable to converse with people [even after prayer] and stammered badly. His well-known teacher taught him to recite everyday the chapter of "Blessed are those whose way is blameless" (Psalms 119:1) and other special chapters of the Book of Psalms.... And owing to its practice the Besht began to talk [normally] with people without losing his devequth. He used to recite those Psalms everyday.

(Note) Rabbi Ya'akov Yoseph, one of the most faithful disciples of the Besht, reported in the book "Toldoth Ya'akov Yoseph" (folio 156a) that the prophet Ahijah the Shilonite was the teacher of the Besht. Maimonides in Mishneh Torah referred to him as the teacher of the prophet Elijah.

What was remarkably unique to the Besht is that he succeeded in maintaining the state of devequth even when he was involved with ordinary social life. But this is impossible to do if devequth is identical with trance in which a man allegedly loses consciousness and voluntary movement. Unconsciousness and physical disorder could result from the intensity of devequth. Yet such phenomena have no significance in the eye of a pious Jew. The Besht obviously was not interested in remaining in a trance, though he was concerned with maintenance of devequth. What then is devequth?

The idea of devequth is very old in Judaism. The Bible says, "If you will be careful to do all this commandment which I command you to do, to love the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways and to cleave to him [u-l'davqah vo]...."(Deuteronomy 11:22). Devequth means "adhesion, cleaving, to God." Gershom Scholem rightly defines it as "a perpetual being-with-God, an intimate union and conformity of the human and the divine will." It was regarded as the supreme goal of the religious life in Mediaeval Jewish mysticism. Enormous concen-tration and devotion are needed to achieve it.

The idea of devequth, however, included a practical possibility also: devequth could be realized in daily community life. Rabbi Moses ben Nahman (1194-c.1270), a celebrated Spanish Talmudist, had already suggested it in his commentary on the phrase from Deuteronomy just quoated:

And it is plausible that the meaning of 'cleaving' is to remember God and his love constantly, not to divert your thought from Him in all your earthly doings. Such a man may be talking to other people, but his heart is not with them since he is in the presence of God. And it is further plausible that those who have attained this rank, do, even in their earthly life, partake of the eternal life, because they have made themselves a dwelling place of the Shekhinah.

* * * * * * * * * * *

[Note: Moses ben Nahman, known as Nahmanides, who was born in Gerona in 1194, studied medicine and rabbinics. He opposed radical rationalism initiated by his contemporary, Maimonides (d. 1204), who introduced Aristotelian philosophy into Judaism. Nahmanides took a moral rather than a literal approach in his commentary on the Bible, the Talmud and the Kabbalah. In 1263, his debate with Pablo Christiani, a Jewish convert to Christianity, over the messiah-ship of Jesus ended in the victory of Nahmanides. He was then forced to leave the country because of the Dominicans' protest. He went to Palestine, where he died about 1270. ]

We have no information as to whether the Besht was aware of this commentary. But the possibility of devequth in social life is evidently alluded by the verse itself, for cleaving to God should be realized through every act of the commandment which virtually covers all aspects of human life. Furthermore, since "there is no place empty of Him," we should achieve it essentially in everyday life. The problem was how to get the awareness of being-with-God to penetrate our minds which are occupied with miscellaneous thoughts of secular life and thus are a basic hindrance to religious life. We are not certain how much the recitation of those Psalms actually helped the Besht. But somehow, after a great effort, he succeeded in maintaining his devequth while engaged in everyday life.

One of the main reasons for the success of Hasidism was the simple method of devequth, which enabled everybody to attain it. According to Rabbi Dov Baer, the Great Maggid, "it is truly a great innovation of Hasidism that a human being becomes capable to cling himself to God." The Besht had launched himself into a public life as a Baal Shem about the age of thirty-five around 1735, after he became accustomed to his devequth. The Shivhei HaBesht tells the following story regarding the revelation of the Baal Shem. When the moment of his revelation came closer, the Besht wondered whether or not to reveal "his customary devequth" to a guest who was at the Shabbath dinner table. He said to himself, "Should I conduct the sanctification of the Shabbath by myself as usual with an excellent devequth [in the face of the guest] and will he see it and understand the truth?" Yet it took at least another ten years until he convinced himself of the significance of his achievement and finally began to teach his method to people. In his letter to Rabbi Abraham Gershon, his brother-in-law, the Besht recounted his visionary "ascent of the soul" to heaven which happened to him on Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year) of 5407 anno mundi (September, 1746):

However, in terms of what I learned during my staying there [in heavenly palace of the Messiah], that is, three incantatory things and three holy names [of God] - it is easy to learn and distinguish them. When I calmed down, I realized that by using them people of my time too will be able to attain a [spiritual] rank and level similar to mine. That means, they, being as they are, can elevate their souls, and study and understand as I do. But permission has never given to me to reveal it. And I especially asked it for your sake to teach you, yet I am not allowed to do so. I hereby swear and prove it.

It was long his desire to reveal his special method of attaining devequth. The disclosure of the secret divine names was first reported at the first meeting of the Besht and Rabbi Nahman of Kosov, though we are not told of any others than the name YHWH.

Rabbi Nahman said: "Israel, is it true you say that you know people's thought?" The Besht said to him: "Yes."

Nahman said: "Do you know what I am thinking now?"

The Besht answered: "It is not known that thought is not fixed. It wanders from one point to another and is continually transformed. If you concentrate your thought on one thing, then I will be able to know."

The Rabbi, our teacher and master, Nahman, did so.

The Besht said: "The name of YHWH is in your thought."

Rabbi Nahman said: "You would know this anyway, for I must always keep this thought. As it is written: I have set the Lord [YHVH] always before me (Psalms 16:8). Whenever I remove all thought and concentrate on one thing, the name YHVH is before my eyes."

The Besht said: "But there are several holy names, and you could have concentrated on any that you like."

The rabbi, our teacher and master, admitted that it was as the Besht had said. After that they discussed the secret of the Torah.

The contemplative method of Rabbi Nahman was one of visualization rather than one of cogitation of the four letters "YHVH." Details about his method were reported by Rabbi Ya'akov Yoseph in his magnum opus, Toldoth Ya'akov Yoseph:

Regarding the verse of "I have set the Lord always before me," I have heard from the rabbi, our teacher and master, Nahman, that is not difficult to understand the verse. The name [YHVY] should be exactly visualized in his mind whenever it does not come to appear of itself... so that there the Lord, blessed be He, shall always be in his thoughts. First, once he takes a certain verse and deeply meditate upon it, and next he takes another verse and does the same thing until the name "YHVH becomes visualized by itself before his mind and so on. Thus apparently had he received it from his masters.

I heard in the name of our teacher and master, Rabbi Nahman of Kosov. He used to admonish people from not observing the verse, "I have set the Lord always before me," while engaging in business and commerce. They were surprised to hear this and said, "How can this be?" Rabbi Nahman, while praying in the synagogue, was able to think of every kind of business and commerce. And so in the same manner, the reverse is possible [for him].

The fact that Ya'akov Yoseph, a most faithful disciple of the Besht, gave no report of the revelation of the Besht's method, but of Nahman's visual contemplation, and that the compiler of the Shivhei HaBesht declined to detail the Besht's reference to the other "several names" suggests that the Besht, as he confessed in the letter to his brother-in-law, never revealed his own method to anyone else besides Rabbi Nahman of Kosov. Instead, he approved of Nahman's method, which was essentially the same as his. In the letter to Rabbi Abraham Gershon, instead of the disclosure of the secret divine names, the Besht simply encouraged him: "You should intensively meditate on unification of the Name [tekhavven leyahed shem].... And you should incorporate yourself with them [that is, the letters of the divine name]." This statement seems to be the Besht's maximum effort to allude to the content of his secret to Rabbi Gershon. The Besht's wording of shem (name) instead of shemoth (names) clearly suggests that the primary object of meditation in the Besht's method was the name YHVH.

The Besht-Nahman system of contemplation begins with concentration on the Hebrew alphabet, which according to Jewish Mysticism, is the vessel of the divine vitality. By concentrating one's whole attention on the transcendental aspect of the letters, he will eventually eliminate corporeal thoughts and be absorbed in the holy dimension.

When a person is in a minor stage, it is better for him to pray through the prayer book, for he can pray with more kavvanah [concentration] by the power which he obtains from seeing the letters. However, when he is cleaved to the upper world, then it is better for him to close his eyes in order not to dismiss the vision [of the letters] from being cleaved to the upper world.

Rabbi Moses Hayyim Ephrayim, a grandson of the Besht, reported that the visualization of the Tetragrammaton was a familiar method to Rabbi Menahem Mendel of Peremyshlyany too: "I heard from the Rav, our teacher and master, Menahem Mendel of Peremyshlyany of blessed memory that ... by visualizing the name YHVH, may His Name be blessed, in the mind, a person annihilates bad and strange thoughts."

Thus keeping intensely focused on the figure of the Hebrew letters, particularly the four divine letters (YHWH), was the essence of achieving devequth in Hasidism. An intensive contemplation of any Hebrew letter was already a sort of devequth, because a stream of the divine vitality reflected within the letter emerges in man. He will come close to the realm of the Infinite Light as soon as he looks at the letters. If we concentrate appropriately, even one word is enough to achieve devequth as the Great Maggid commented: "The way of devequth is like this, when you pronounce [even] one word, you should stay with the same word as long as possible. Then, because of the joy of devequth you will not wish to separate yourself from the word. Therefore, you must stay longer with the same word."

But if we lose the awareness of the divine presence from our mind, even an intensive study of the Torah becomes lifeless. As a preventive measure against such failure, students are warned to have a brief intermission every hour during study of the Scriptures in order to reinforce themselves with devequth. The Great Maggid said, "During study [of the Torah], a student must keep himself aware of before Whom he studies. Since sometime he departs himself from the Creator, blessed be He, in the course of study time, therefore, he must keep himself [aware of His presence] all the time and all the hour." A similar statement is found in the so-called Tzvaath HaRibash (the Testament of the Baal Shem Tov): "During study, a student must rest briefly every hour in order to cleave himself to God, blessed be He."

On the other hand, Hasidim were encouraged not to waste their leisure but to devote themselves to the holy dimension. In the first section of the disciplinary code for the disciples, Rabbi Elimelekh of Lezajsk recommended the psychological practice of Kiddush HaShem (martyrdom):

Every time and moment when one is free from studying the Torah, especially when he sits idly by himself in a room, or when he lies on his bed, being unable to sleep, think about the following positive commandment of "And I will be sanctified among the people of Israel" (Leviticus 22:32). Then he should imagine in his heart and visualize in his mind a great and horrible fire burning his corporeality on behalf of the holiness of the Lord, blessed be He, and pull himself down into the fire for the sanctification of the Lord, blessed be He. By doing so, the Holy One, blessed be He, refines him in fact; and on the other hand, he no longer lies on and sits idly but fulfills one of the positive commandments in the Bible.

In this case, Elimelekh did not mention the visualization of the Tetragrammaton, but rather an image of fire, because the immediate subject was the readiness for martyrdom. By practicing this imaginary martyrdom, one's mind is again involved in the thought of God. The object of Hasidic contemplation is not necessarily limited to the Tetragrammaton. In fact, everything can be a means by which a Hasid ultimately thinks about God, from whom all being emerges into the world. Even a bad thought emerges from God so that it can lead a Hasid to the thought of God. Every letter of the Hebrew alphabet is a compound of the secret of the Hberew letter� (Aleph), which symbolizes both upper and lower aspects of (Yod), that is, of the Lord. And everything in the world is created and sustained by God's mystical vitality preserved within words. The essence of devequth is "to keep the Holy One, blessed be He, in one's mind all the time." Rabbi Dov Baer, the Great Maggid, had declared that devequth is available wherever he is, because "there is no place empty of Him."

What a great virtue it is that a human always thinks about and contemplates in his mind that he is with the Creator, blessed be He. Since He surrounds him from every direction, if he is cleaved to Him so intensively, it will be no longer necessary to fix himself each time in the notion that he is with Him, blessed be He. It will be enough [for him] just to look at the Creator, blessed be He, with the eyes of his mind.

Theoretically, devequth is possible under any circumstances, because all of being is sustained and surrounded by the divine Presence. However, it is not such an easy task to attain it. Whoever desires to attain devequth is required to invest all his power in intensive concentration and preparation.

Although one cannot pray in devequth in the beginning of prayer, in any case, he should recite the words with great kavvanah (concentration) and strengthen himself gradually until the Lord, blessed be He, will assist him to pray in great devequth.

Think before prayer that you should be ready to die in this prayer because of the kavvanah. Some people concentrate [mekhuvvanim] so intensively that, at times, they could die in earthly nature after two or three words which they recite before Him, blessed be He.

It is characteristic for Hasidism to use the term kavvanah often in the sense of "intensity, concentration" rather than "intention, direction," which is the basic meaning of the term.

In the Kabbalah (Jewish Mysticism), the term kavvanoth (plural of kavvanah ) means that a mystic contemplates various divine attributes in accordance with the words of the prayer book while he simultaneously recites the text of prayer. To pray with kavvanoth is an action of dual consciousness which requires extraordinary training of the mind. It was especially prestigious for a trained mystic to practice kavvanoth in which he performs a spiritual journey of ascending through various mystical stages up to God.

Hasidism had flatly given up such highly elaborated techniques of prayer. Rabbi Meshullam Phoebus of Zbarazh (d. 1795), a student of the Great Maggid, said: "If we contemplate the kavvanoth of the names, we will not be able to contemplate what is necessary.... The real kavvanah in truth is on the Lord, blessed be He." According to him, even the contemplation of the divine names is not essential to practice kavvanah. He urged people to meditate directly on God Himself. By his radical argument, Rabbi Phoebus surpassed the Besht in terms of the significance of the divine names. He was convinced of the truth of the reform element of Hasidic contemplation, which is direct contemplation of God without using mystical techniques. The traditional orthodox method of kavvanoth is ideal for those who have achieved perfection through ascetic training, like Rabbi Isaac Luria, one of the greatest Kabbalists in the history of Jewish Mysticism. But for the average person, Meshullam Phoebus recommended a less complex technique:

And, indeed, you know that I learned some kavvanoth in childhood, but I do not meditate upon them at all, for the real kavvanah is the breaking of the heart as mentioned above, with love and fear, and simplicity.... And were we granted this, we could easily meditate on all the kavvanoth of Rabbi Isaac Luria of blessed memory; for these were indeed not intended but for men of his stature, or of a little lower standing, whose heart was already pure from all dregs.... But we are afflicted from top to toe, and all of our heads are ill and our hearts ailing. Our hearts are not purified from physical desires at all, how much less from refined desires, as we take pleasure and delight in being praised and exalted, and hate being scorned. Because of this we are far from God, blessed be He, and we are not able to meditate the high meditations. Therefore I have chosen to meditate on one kavvanah: to direct the heart as much as possible to God, blessed be He, [and] to the meaning of [the prayer] as far as possible. And in spite of this, if I can meditate in an instant some easy kavvanah, that is to say, a Divine Name which does not give trouble and does not distract from the true kavvanah as mentioned above - that is good.

Hasidic kavvanah was thus completely differentiated from Kabbalistic kavvanoth and became synonym for devequth.

Admitting not only its members' attachment to earthly desires but also their lesser qualification for kavvanoth, Hasidism had voluntarily characterized itself as a popular movement. It was a simplification of the traditional mystical discipline of the elite. Because of this they aroused the opposition of the Mithnaggedim and also attracted more people. Most Hasidim were not successful in terms of worldly life. They were predominantly poor and uneducated. What they could offer to God was literally the broken heart. They were so feeble that they had to ask God to help them to everything, even to kavvanah of prayer. Even Rabbi Dov Baer, the successor of the Besht, acknowledged the lack of strength:

It is impossible to pray with great kavvanah unless through strength. Therefore it is necessary before prayer to beg an aid and help from God.

A prevailing notion in the mind of Hasidim was the sense of the weakness of human beings, who are in need of divine assistance. The Great Maggid too confessed it:

The ancient people used to direct [mekhavvenim] with kavvanah appropriate to everything. But nowadays we have no kavvanah at all, only the breaking of the heart which is the master-key to everything.

In the desperate helplessness of their human condition, Hasidim had chosen to escape in God and to cleave to Him. Rabbi Ya'akov Yoseph had formulized the principle of Hasidism already before 1780 as follows: "Faith is the cleaving to God [ha-emunah hu ha-devequth ]."

Comparison

There is a great deal of similarity between Zen Buddhism and Hasidism. First, both originated from sincere reflection on excessive intellectualism: Zen against the literalism of Chinese Buddhism and Hasidism against the routine rabbinical scholarship called mitzvath anashim melummadahﾓ (a precept of men learnt by rote).

　Before Zen Buddhism and Hasidism had finally taken shape as independent movements, there were already groups of people who felt the need of more spiritual discipline, if not reformation. In Buddhism, some of those people had started a school of meditation, zazen, under the initiative of Bodhidharma, a legendary Brahman who came from India to China before 527. They gradually indigenized his doctrine of meditation in accordance with the Chinese culture.

Six generations later, at the time of Shen-hsiu (d. 706), the headmaster of the Fifth Patriarch's school, the reputation of the Zen school reached the imperial court, and Shen-hsiu was invited to sermonize before the Emperor Wu. However, despite its reputation, Zen Buddhism was not accepted by large numbers of people because it was still intellectualist and elitist. InJudaism, spiritually awakened people had organized exclu-sive local societies of mysticism called havurah qaddisha (holy society) or kath he-hasidim (the sect of the pious people), and practiced prayer with kavvanoth (mystical intentions) as well as various ascetic disciplines to perfect themselves. These mystic groups are called "pre-Hasidic Hasidim" by modern scholars in order to distinguish them from the Hasidism founded later by Israel the Baal Shem Tov.

Both the early Zen school and the pre-Hasidic Hasidim attempted to restore the old devotional practice. The Zen school propagated the supreme significance of zazen, sitting in meditation. Zazen was regarded by its followers as the most authentic discipline to attain enlightenment, because through sitting in meditation Shakyamuni the Buddha was suddenly awakened and consequently began to teach Buddhism. The Pre-Hasidic Hasidim devoted themselves to mystical discipline, aiming to attain devequth, adhesion to God, which was traditionally regarded as attainable only by the ancient pious people or the mediaeval Kabbalists who had purged themselves of every dust and impurity. However, to practice zazen or to attain devequth demanded highly dedicated training. And miscellaneous thoughts which emerged from the mind were major hindrances for the novices practicing these contemplative disciplines.

For both movements drastic reformation was finally launched by leaders who did not belong to the dominant intellectual classes. For Zen Buddhism it was Hui-neng, the Sixth Patriarch (d. 713). And for Hasidism it was Israel the Baal Shem Tov (d. 1760). Hui-neng was an illiterate peasant when he decide to learn the teaching of Zen from Hung-jen, the Fifth Patriarch. The Baal Shem Tov was reported to be an indifferent student and despised by the mystic elite. Both lost their fathers while they were still in childhood. They were poor and came from rural, uneducated surroundings. Yet they were men of deep insight and experience. They were able to grasp the point of religious practice instantly.

Hui-neng pointed out that maintaining purity was not essential in Zen practice, because the ultimate nature of reality is pure itself. Purity, according to him, is not the end of practice but a fact which enables man to practice zazen, Instead, he recommended chien-hsing (looking into the ultimate reality of one's nature). No enlightenment could be significant for the individual without achieving the discovery of one's own true nature. This discovery simultaneously enables one to know the world of the absolute reality, because one's true nature is ultimately the same as the essence of the universe called "Buddha-nature."

Similarly, the Besht, who is Israel the Baal Shem Tov, replaced devequth from the end to the starting condition of religious life. He taught that "there is no place empty of Him" and everything is penetrated by the divine essence, that is, the emanation of vitality from the Infinite One. All of being is attached to God; therefore devequth is accessible to everyone in everywhere.

There is substantial difference between Hasidism's devequth and Zen's chien-hsing. In devequth, a person cleaves to God, who is an external and independent entity from him and who is the Infinite One embracing all creation. In chien-hsing, a person looks at his own nature, which is, however, identical with the vessel of Dharma (Reality). This is a contrast to the Hasidic idea of the Infinite One. According to Zen, one's own nature includes all of being and even the Buddhahood is in one's own nature.

Further, Zen requires of a person wu-nien (non-activation of thought) in order to contemplate his own nature. If he activates the process of thinking in the mind, he will be disturbed immediately by his own act and unable to look into his own nature. Therefore in the practice of Zen, especially in zazen, he is required to remain as he is. It could be compared with a ship floating on the ocean without an anchor. Zazen is the practice of letting oneself be free in reality. On the other hand, devequth is to cast anchor into God. The anchor of a Hasid is kavvanah, which is active awareness of the Divine Presence. In comparison to the complexity of Kabbalistic kavvanoth, Hasidic kavvanah greatly reduced the need to activate the thinking process. Once a Hasid has engraved the impression of the Divine Presence or the Tetragrammaton upon his subconsciousness, there is no need for him to reactivate thinking of God in the mind. The notion of God, then, automatically appears in the mind whenever the mind is free from other thoughts. In this point, Hasidism's kavvanah is close to Zen's wu-nien. Yet we recognize the difference between Zen's total with-holding of thought and Hasidism's focusing on just one thought.

1: Introduction

2: Zazen and Devequth

3: Problem of "Strange Thoughts"

4: Annihilating Selfhood and Attaining Ecstasy

5: Concept of Man

6: Insecurity of Life

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