Apart from Mind There is No Art of Combat!

Bankei was a Zen Master in the early 1600's. As a son of Ronin, he was also fiercely independent and challenged the overly ceremonial Zen of his time. Bankei was well known for simply telling people to trust in their innate Unborn Buddha Mind.

Today's post I am going to put in a response to a letter he received from a Martial Artist regarding the art of combat. Some of this will make total sense to you...other stuff you might be scratching your head and wondering what he is really saying. This is the stuff you are to explore, meditate upon and hopefully realize in your practice of the arts...and of life.

Here's Bankei:

"In performing a movement, if you act with no-mind, the action will spring forth of itself. When your ki changes your physical form changes along with it. When you are carried away by force, that is relying on "self." To have ulterior thoughts is not in accordance with the natural.

When you act upon deliberation, you are tied to thought. The opponent can then tell the direction of your ki. If you try to steady yourself by deliberate effort, you ki becomes diffuse, and you may grow careless. When you act deliberately, your intuitive response is blocked; and if your intuitive response is blocked, how can the mirror mind appear?

When without thinking and without acting deliberately, you manifest the Unborn (my insert: Unborn can mean Emptiness) you won't have any fixed form. When you are without fixed form, no opponent will exist for you in the whole land. Not holding on to anything, there is no "you" and no "enemy." Whatever comes, you just respond, with no traces left behind.

Heaven and earth are vast, but outside mind there is nothing to seek. Become deluded, however, and instead this mind becomes your opponent. Apart from mind, there is no art of combat."

Hands palm to palm,
Shinzen



translation from 'Bankei Zen' by Peter Haskell

Radical Zen

I am at work today...slow day. We had a big snowstorm last evening so many of my clients hadn't been plowed out yet and aren't coming in. This gives me some time to write about my favorite historical Zen Master, Bankei Yotaku (1622-1693)

Bankei was a radical and a rascal, which is why I like him so much. He challenged the status quo of Zen practice of his day. He called them out on their overly religious and stiff practices with no substance. But what endeared me to him was his use of everyday language. When he spoke to people he did not use esoteric terms or used quotes, sutras or koans from old masters. He used language the lay person could relate to and infused their lives with calmness and a sense of peace.

To him, Zen was fresh and alive and did not require what he considered 'dead words'. He gave them faith by having them simply trust in their own innate 'Unborn Buddha Nature'. This Unborn was present in each and every activity and simply needed to be pointed to and trusted.

When people would come to his temple for retreats he abandoned the strict formality of Rinzai practice....pissing off the conventional Zen community. Even when his enlightenment was acknowledged by the prevailing Zen community he refused their titles and simply preferred to work in the monastery kitchen. During his retreats he allowed people to come and go as they pleased and did not use koans or the 'stick of awakening'. (The stick was used to slap the shoulders of dozing monks.) He emphasized the simple faith of trusting in the Unborn awakened nature we all have.

I encourage you to read about him. Simply do an internet search and read about his life story. He is very interesting....or if any of my students want to borrow a book or two about him I can loan them to you.

I am thinking that this September's Zen retreat will be conducted in my interpretation of Bankei's teachings...of course he would reprimand me for 'stylizing' his teachings...but what the hell!

Hands palm to palm,

Shinzen

A Martial Lesson from Zen Master Bankei

Bankei was a Zen Master in the early 1600's. As a son of Ronin, he was also fiercely independent and challenged the overly ceremonial Zen of his time. Bankei was well known for simply telling people to trust in their innate Unborn Buddha Mind.

Today's post I am going to put in a response to a letter he received from a Martial Artist regarding the art of combat. Some of this will make total sense to you...other stuff you might be scratching your head and wondering what he is really saying. This is the stuff you are to explore.

Here's Bankei:

"In performing a movement, if you act with no-mind, the action will spring forth of itself. When your ki changes your physical form changes along with it. When you are carried away by force, that is relying on "self." To have ulterior thoughts is not in accordance with the natural.

When you act upon deliberation, you are tied to thought. The opponent can then tell the direction of your ki. If you try to steady yourself by deliberate effort, you ki becomes diffuse, and you may grow careless. When you act deliberately, your intuitive response is blocked; and if your intuitive response is blocked, how can the mirror mind appear?

When without thinking and without acting deliberately, you manifest the Unborn (my insert: Unborn can mean Emptiness) you won't have any fixed form. When you are without fixed form, no opponent will exist for you in the whole land. Not holding on to anything, there is no "you" and no "enemy." Whatever comes, you just respond, with no traces left behind.

Heaven and earth are vast, but outside mind there is nothing to seek. Become deluded, however, and instead this mind becomes your opponent. Apart from mind, there is no art of combat."


In Gassho,
Shinzen