Satomi Suzuki biography

As we have already seen, this is a state or what can be called the Zenbuddian experience, comes in connection with the most trivial case in life: when a person raises a finger, screams, pronounces a phrase, waves a cane, beats someone in the face and. Due to the fact that the result, apparently, does not correspond to the case, we naturally should assume the presence of deep psychological prerequisites, which in this situation unexpectedly reach maturity.

What are these prerequisites? Let's explore several classic examples of Satori registered in the annals of Zen. The story about the conversation of the Claim with Bodhidharma, the first Patriarch Zen in China, bears an imprint of some historical inaccuracy and suffers from dramatic overload, but even despite these shortcomings, we still have a rather coherent description of this conversation.

The fact is that historical accuracy is not always a necessary condition for determining an event that really took place. Whatever literary processing the story of the event is subsequently subjected to, it helps us understand the situation. We should well be known that very often the imagination draws the so -called "facts" psychologically more truthfully than historical objective evidence.

According to the "transmission of the lamp", the ECA was a liberal -minded, sincere person who read a lot of Confucian and Taoist literature, but their unsatisfied teachings, since they seemed quite limited to him. When he heard that Bodhidharma came from India, he went to Shao-Lin-Syu, where the teacher stopped. Eka hoped to get the opportunity to talk with him about the subject, which was unclear to him, but he always forced the teacher silently sitting against the wall.

Eka reflected: "History knows many examples of how in ancient times the seekers of truth for the sake of comprehension of enlightenment are ready to go to be broken by the bones so that their blood is saturated with their hair to be wiped the dirt on the road so that they are thrown into the mouth of a hungry tiger. And what is the worse? Can I also sacrifice itself to the altar?

He moved until the morning, while the snow brought him to his knees and Bodhidharma did not take pity on him, saying: “You have been standing in the snow for a long time, what do you want? Then Bodhidharma said: "The incomparable teachings of the Buddha can be comprehended only after a long and severe self -control, when a person transfers the most unbearable and practices the most difficult.

People of limited virtue and wisdom, full of frivolity and self -conceit, are not able to catch even a glimpse of the truth of Buddhism. All the works of such people are completely failed." Eka was deeply excited and, as proved by the seriousness of his desire to recognize the teachings of all the Buddhas, chopped off his left hand with a sword that he carried with him, and held out it calmly reflecting Bodhidharma.

Then the teacher remarked: "You should not look for this truth from others." I ask you, teacher, pacify her. "After some hesitation, the ECA admitted:" For many years I was looking for her and still can’t grab her for her. "Here Daye gives his comment: Eka understood the situation in which he ended up after studying all the books, and did the right thing that he gave the teacher a frank answer.

He knew that this" thing "could not be sought with a goal, it was impossible to achieve either by words or simple Silence, neither to comprehend through logic, nor explain without the help of logic. It could not be found or extracted from anything anywhere: she is neither in five scandhas nor in eighteen dhat. He did well what he answered in this way. Such confirmation from the teacher instantly led the ECU to Satori.

Daye comments again: as if the dragon sank into the water, or the tiger leaned on the rock. At that moment, Eka did not see the teacher in front of him, nor snow, nor the mind who strove for something, nor Satori himself, which covered his mind. Everything disappeared from his consciousness, everything became a void. Therefore, it was said that "loneliness reigns here, there is not a soul in the Shao-Lin monastery." But did Eka continue to stay in this void?

No, a new life suddenly awakened in it. And then he undoubtedly felt the cold of snow in the courtyard of the temple. As before, his nose remained above the upper lip. This "loneliness" is an absolute loneliness in which there are no dualistic contrasts of being and non -being. It was precisely due to the fact that Eka has reached this state that he was able to get out of it when Bodhidharma said: "So your soul packed." If we carefully follow how the events that brought the ECU to Satori developed, we, of course, will have to supplement his biography as proposed here.

Soon it will become clear to you what I want to say. The life of Eno, who is now considered the sixth Patriarch Zen in China, is somewhat different from the life of the EST, since Eno is represented by an uneducated box.Such a description of Eno’s life is interesting in its own way, for it indicates a certain trend among Zen’s followers, ignoring scientific and studying sutr.

However, the fact that Eno opposed his opponent Dinzu, who was famous for his deep knowledge and scholarship, had its historical reasons. In reality, Eno was not such an ignoramus as his followers wanted to show him, since in his sermons, known as the “Sutra of the Prymost”, he often referred to Buddhist literature. History says that for the first time he learned about Zan from Vajrachdiki.

Once, having delivered firewood to one of his regular customers, he heard him read this Sutra. This inspired him, and he decided to study Zen under the leadership of Gunin, the fifth Patriarch Zen. When he saw the teacher, the latter asked: “Where do you need to do here? If you didn’t know about Buddhism before, he couldn’t answer that. He worked with Gunin in a monastery mill. He was not a real monk, but just cleaned the rice.

It lasted eight months. Once the fifth patriarch, wanting to choose his own, decided to check how his followers were about five hundred. In this case, he demanded that each of them compose a poem expressing his understanding of the teaching. Prajnaparamita, while Dinzu, we can say, has not yet caught the essence of Mahayana Buddhism. In any case, it is clear that he could not compose such a poem without knowing the truth of the "void" in himself.

The first impulse of the inspiration caused in it by the Wajracchedic led him to comprehend the truth, going beyond the limits of this phenomenal world. He came to Gunin, but in order to comprehend the essence of Prajniaparamites, it was necessary to do a great internal work, the developing power of intuition, and even such a genius as Eno, it was not easy to commit it. He probably worked very hard at a time when he was busy cleaning rice, as he achieved such a great success in knowing the secrets of his own mind.

Eight months of physical labor were in no way limited to only one physical labor. Is it not instructive to note that Eno spent his life in the monastery, engaged in the most prosaic and outwardly unrelated work with religion, preparing his mind for Satori? He did not repeat the name of the Buddha, did not worship the Buddha according to the prescribed rules of monastic life; He did not confess in sins and did not ask for forgiveness from the gracious God, did not fall in front of the Buddha and did not offer him ardent prayers for the liberation from the eternal shackles of reincarnation.

He just ground rice, cooking food for the fraternity. This ultrabanal role of Eno in monastic life is the beginning of Zen's practice, which is significantly different from what is practiced in other Buddhist communities. In his mind, a grandiose spiritual coup was made. The poem Eno expresses its inner vision. All that he learned earlier, everything that he comprehended, and everything that he helped to comprehend, finally reached maturity, the culmination of which was his poem, which became a living expression of his inner experience.

His Wajrachdik, thus, came to life in his being. Without really experiencing Prajniaparamites, Eno could not say what he said to Me-Zedze, to one of those people who pursued him after he left Gunin. When Me-Zedza wanted to know the truth from him, Eno said: "Do not think about good or evil, but try to see your pristine face now, which you had even when you have not yet existed." From what we know about Eno, I want to note the following: he was not a very scientist, although he actually knew several sutr of Mahayana well.

Of course, he did not belong to those scientists who could write confusing and lengthy comments on sutras and shasters. Its main goal was to understand the true meaning of the text. The text, which first attracted his attention, was a vajrachdik, who was very likely very popular in those days. This sutra belongs to the prajn paramite group. This is not a philosophical work, but a work containing deep religious truths in the form that the genius of Indian Mahayana gave them.

They are represented so that a simple mind is almost no p. The authors of the sutr Prazhnyaparamites constantly warn the reader that he is not embarrassed by such a large number of daring statements contained in their teaching. Eno came to Gunin in order to study Zen and imbued with the spirit of Prajniaparamites, and not in order to grind rice or chop firewood.

But he undoubtedly thought a lot.Gunin probably noticed this and sometimes gave him instructions both in general and in private, because we cannot assume that the five hundred students were left to ourselves in understanding the deepest significance of Vajrachdiki, Lancavatars or any other Zen literature. He must have often arranged conversations about Zan, which contributed to the maturation of the mind of Eno.

Probably, the poem by Dinzu was given by Eno case to bring to the surface everything that rotated in the depths of his consciousness. He was looking for the highest truth, that is, he wanted to realize the deepest significance of Prajniaparamites. The poem by Dinzu, which did not reflect this meaning, made Eno's opposite effect in the mind and revealed a more direct path to prajnnya -parameter.

Tokusan, who used to swing his cane, also studied Vajrachdik before he became a reflector of Zen. Unlike his predecessor, Eno, he was very familiar with the teachings of this sutra, read a lot of comments on her and believed that he knew Prajnnyaparamite more thoroughly than Eno. He heard that the doctrine of Zen appeared in the south, claiming that a person could become a Buddha, directly comprehending his innermost nature.

He decided that this could not be the teachings of the Buddha himself, that this is the teachings of Satan, and decided to go south. In this regard, his mission is also different from the mission of Eno. The latter wanted to comprehend the essence of Vajrachdiki under the leadership of the fifth Patriarch, while Tokusan's intention was to overthrow Zen, if possible.

They both studied Vajrachdik, but this sutra inspired them in a diametrically opposite way. The psychology of Tokusana is similar to the psychology of St. Paul, who walked on a summer day on the way to Damascus. First, Tokusan went to Lun-Tan, where the Zen teacher was located. On the way to this mountain, he stopped at the tea, where he asked the hostess to give him a little to eat.

Instead of bringing food to a tired monk traveler, the woman asked: "What are you carrying behind your back?