________________
ZEN TECHNIQUE
143 earth, I asked myself, as I sat at the side and watched it all, has this to do with Zen? The answer, I think, is psychological. The collective formality of these services, while cleansing the mind for the day's work on Zen, provides an effective contrast to the intensely individual and informal nature of Zen technique. The very binding of the mind so tightly gives it the impetus to be free, and if this is of use in any country it is doubly so in Japan, where the formal life of the family and the power of tradition is a factor which cannot be ignored. There is no congregation at that hour of the day, and although in the afternoon service there is often a handful of public to listen to a sermon attuned to the popular need, there is no idea in Zen of a sacrament for the commonweal, for in the absence of a God to save or a soul to be saved how could there be? Meanwhile, the service over, the individual monk, by the use of this device or that, turns the whole strength of his will on the solving of that which cannot be solved, on the understanding of that which lies beyond understanding, in the pursuit of a truth that can never be found, for when was it lost?
