Book Title: Zen Buddhism
Author(s): Christmas Humphereys
Publisher: William Heinemann LTD

Previous | Next

Page 140
________________ BUT WHAT IS ZEN? III which produces an intolerable tension. By the way of analogy, think of a swimmer who enters the sea. First, there is the self and the sea. They are distinct, and though I approach the sea I am of the land and air and move quite freely. Then I enter the water, and immediately the way gets harder. It is more and more difficult to walk; I am pushing a vast and shapeless burden of water in front of me. I am of the land and yet of the sea, and whereas the one no longer helps me the other has not yet fully received me. And so I struggle, buffeted with the waves, pushed here and there, yet still unable to use the sea in which I long to submerge myself. I know the worst of both my worlds and the use of neither. Then suddenly I swim, and the sea becomes my carrier; it is the world about me and my friend. There is now no effort, no more tension between two differing conditions, no more fear. I am one with the sea and yet am still the self that walked on the firm sea-shore. To phrase the same idea in the form of a Japanese tanka, “I look at the sea. I enter the rival sea. How hard to walk on! I give myself to the sea. Where now is the sea, am I?” To return to the previous analogy, mountains are once more mountains and trees are once more trees. Things are no more symbols of something else, but adorably or dirtily or joyfully themselves. They are accepted for precisely what they are, and then the perceiving mind walks on. Think again of the story of two monks on a journey who came to a ford. What a fearsome burden

Loading...

Page Navigation
1 ... 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278