The founder of our Soto lineage in America, Suzuki Roshi, valued work so highly as to say, “First clean, then zazen.” It’s not just WORKING, it’s JUST working. But Zen training takes work far beyond this narrow point of view. It is pretty conventional notion to see work as merely a means to an end, something that has to be done now in order to do what we really want to do later. These same practices form a core part of Zen training: the practice of zazen (sitting meditation), face-to-face meetings with a teacher, and work-practice. Dōgen was puzzled by the distinguished monk and asked him, “Venerable Tenzo, in your advanced years why don’t you wholeheartedly engage the Way by doing zazen or studying the sutras instead of troubling yourself by being Tenzo and just working? What is that good for?” The Tenzo laughed loudly and said, “Oh good friend from a foreign country, it is clear you have no idea what it means to whole-heartedly engage in the Way!” When Master Dōgen returned to Japan, he brought with him several distinct practices of Chinese Zen training. There he met an old Tenzo (Head Cook) who had walked 12 miles to buy some Japanese mushrooms brought over on Dōgen’s ship. In another famous story from 13th century Japan, Dōgen Zenji (the founder of Sōtō Zen) traveled to China to study Buddhism. This saying became very famous in Zen circles, and to this day the Zen schools are noted for taking up work as an integral part of their practice. Old Abbot Baizhang, after his students hid his tools to spare his aging body the rigors of farm work, refused to eat, shouting, “a day without work is a day without food!” His students quickly returned his tools. Each member was expected to contribute their labor for the support of the community, monastic or otherwise. This was especially true in the Zen tradition. To the Chinese it did not make sense that one group would not work and be supported by others. While for centuries Indian Buddhist monks were prohibited from working and were completely supported by the generosity of their neighborhood lay community, this shifted when Buddhism spread into China, where people were unresponsive to the value of monastic rules against working as a form of renunciation. The search for enlightenment need not extend beyond one’s own mind.In Zen practice, our work itself is an essential avenue for waking up. Fuji could be the catalyst that leads the viewer to realize his or her innate enlightenment. A phrase such as “ordinary mind is the Way,” a lotus pond, or the peak of Mt. Painting, calligraphy, and the tea ceremony all served can be forms of meditation, and can serve as objects of meditation after they are done. The only difference between buddhas and other people is that buddhas have awakened to their innate enlightenment, and other people have not.
Japanese Buddhists embraced Zen in the twelfth century, and it became one of the dominant forms of Buddhism there. Zen art expresses the enlightened mind that, according to Zen doctrine, exists within everyone. Seated meditation, or zazan, is the core practice of Zen. “Zen” is the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese character “Chan,” which is the Chinese rendering of the Sanskrit word dhyana that refers to a mind absorbed in meditation. Buddhists recognize him as an awakened or enlightened teacher who ultimately attained nirvana and shared his insights. The Buddha lived and taught in India sometime between the sixth and fourth centuries BC. Zen is one of many schools of Buddhism, a religion based on the teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, who is commonly known as the Buddha. These works from the Kagetsu An Collection show a wide range of Zen art from Japan’s Edo period (1600–1868) to the twentieth century, as well as Zen tea ceremony objects. With a few brushstrokes, Zen monks create expressions of enlightenment, from a simple circle to an image of Zen’s Indian founder Bodhidharma. Zen art is known for its elegant simplicity, embodied in the many paintings and calligraphies in this exhibit that consist of black ink on white paper or silk. McClung Museum of Natural History & Culture > Visit > Exhibitions > Zen Buddhism and the Arts of Japanĭates: September 15, 2012–December 31, 2012.Laboratory of Environmental Archaeology.
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