Ikkyu - 1 - Teacher and Pursuit of the Way - 3 - Kaso

◎Jade Tablet - 05 - 29

◎Horizontal Path of Youth - 28

◎Showing the Embers by Stirring the Cold Ashes

 

Ikkyu, whose heartbreak from his suicide attempt had not yet healed, found his desire to pursue the Way unwavering. At the age of 22, he knocked on the door of Kaso Sodon's Shozui-an, another poor temple in Katata. Kaso, having "not spoken of the two characters of Buddhism for 20 years since receiving proof of enlightenment," never returned from Omi Katata to Daitoku Temple to preach, despite being a disciple of Daitoku Temple. Kaso was reluctant to allow Ikkyu's entry, and Ikkyu stayed at the gate for four or five days. One morning, Kaso noticed him and ordered his disciples, "Immediately splash water on him, hit him with a stick, and drive him away," but in the evening, he allowed Ikkyu's entry.

Kaso Sodon was a master in the lineage of National Teacher Daito of Daitoku Temple. Ikkyu continued his zazen through the night, sometimes between the reeds on the shore of Katata or in a borrowed hut from an acquaintance fisherman. He seemed to have survived on food given by the fisherman, as he couldn't afford two meals a day. The fisherman's wife would also disturb his evening meditation by banging pots and pans.

When Kaso fell ill, Ikkyu, in dire straits, made incense pouches and doll costumes to sell in Kyoto to earn money for medicine.

One day, Ikkyu was chopping medicinal herbs as ordered by Kaso when blood from his finger stained the workbench red. Kaso glared at this and said, "Your body is sturdy, but your fingers are weak." Hearing this, Ikkyu's fingers trembled even more, but Kaso smiled.

Ikkyu, at 25, had a minor enlightenment from the "Gio's Fall from Grace" section of the Tale of the Heike.

On a summer night when Ikkyu was 27, he had an enlightenment experience upon hearing the crow's cry and immediately presented his view to Master Kaso. Kaso said, "That is the realm of an Arhat (enlightenment of the Hinayana), not a Zen practitioner (writer's disciple) with excellent function." Ikkyu replied, "An Arhat is fine with me. I don't want to be a writer." Then Kaso said, "You are the true writer," acknowledged his enlightenment, and told him to present a gatha.

The gist of the gatha is as follows:

"I have now realized the discriminating mind of ordinary and holy before enlightenment, and where anger and arrogance arise. The crows laugh at me, such an Arhat.

Ban Jieyu of the Former Han Dynasty lived in Zhaoyang Palace and was favored by Emperor Cheng, but lost favor due to the Zhao Feiyan sisters. At that time, her beautiful face was lamented as not even reaching the crows in the cold (which is the same as an Arhat)."

Later, Kaso tried to give Ikkyu inka (proof of enlightenment), but Ikkyu refused to accept it. So, in his presence, he gave it to Ikkyu's relative, Mrs. Tachibana.

Kaso had severe lower back pain and couldn't even use a chamber pot himself, so the disciples took turns taking care of him. The disciples used bamboo spatulas to clean him, but Ikkyu used his bare hands.

Ikkyu, perhaps following the example of National Teacher Daito, lived a life of wandering eccentricity (nurturing the holy embryo). Kaso passed away when Ikkyu was 35.

Kaso's death verse:

"Dropping water, dropping frozen / Seventy-seven years / One machine glances and turns / Drawing water from the fire"

(For seventy-seven years, it was a world without time (a world without a hair's breadth), like water dripping and immediately freezing. Here, changing the perspective, drawing water from a spring that springs from the fire.)

The first half refers to a world without time or movement. The latter half speaks of the esoteric scenery where all phenomena arise from the absolute.

Furthermore, in Ikkyu's self-praise in his portrait,

"Misty for thirty years / Calm for thirty years.

Misty and calm for sixty years.

At the end, exposing dung and offering it to Brahma"

Although it lacks delicacy, Ikkyu's exposure of dung lies in his deliberate push of the undelicate as reality. However, this is Zen-like and also reminiscent of his teacher Kaso.

Ikkyu - 1 - Teacher and Pursuit of the Way - 2 - Ken'ō

◎Jade Tablet - 05 - 28

◎Horizontal Path of Youth - 27

◎Attempting to Throw Himself from Seta Bridge

 

Ikkyu studied under two teachers, and his way of serving them makes one wonder if serving a holy master involves such devotion, humility, and affection. It was a dense master-disciple relationship that made the term "absolute obedience" seem comical.

Speaking of Ken'ō, he was the monk whom Ikkyu (Shūken) studied under during his sensitive修行 period from the age of 17 to 21, and he was such a great enlightened one that Ikkyu even attempted suicide at his death. Ken'ō was named so because he humbly declined to receive the certificate of enlightenment (inka) when his master, the third abbot of Myoshinji Temple, Muin Zenji, offered it to him.

Ken'ō closed his doors to everyone, and his monastic style was one of solitary eminence. Therefore, his temple was a dilapidated, crumbling, poor temple.

When Ikkyu was 20, Ken'ō acknowledged Ikkyu's enlightenment, saying, "I have already given you all my Dharma treasures, but I have no inka. Therefore, I will not inka you."

In December of Ikkyu's 21st year, the revered monk Ken'ō passed away, but there was no money for a funeral, and Ikkyu could only mourn in his heart.

Ikkyu left the temple in Mibu and visited Kiyomizu Temple, but it happened to be the period from New Year's Eve to January 15th when the entire temple prohibited people from entering and leaving, fasting, burning incense, and reading sutras. Forced to go to his mother's place, he visited Kiyomizu Temple again and went to Otsu.

Seeing Ikkyu's sense of loss, as if he had entered a cave, a person gave him a few kinako rice cakes, which are often made at the end of the year, and while eating them, he wandered toward Ishiyama Temple.

Praying for seven days in front of the Kannon statue at Ishiyama Temple for the steadfastness of his pursuit of the Way, a Soto Zen monk who saw this invited Ikkyu to his hermitage and treated him warmly. When the monk asked Ikkyu to transcribe the "Hundred Rules of Soto Zen," Ikkyu quickly finished it, and the monk, pleased, gave him money for travel expenses.

Ikkyu then arrived at Seta Bridge over Lake Biwa and was about to throw himself into the river. Whether it was an insect's intuition or not, a messenger from Ikkyu's mother caught up with him and stopped him from entering the water.

This extremely pure episode allows us to glimpse the origin of Ikkyu, the freely enlightened one who, in his later years, while indulging in male and female desires, never deviated from the basic line of "performing all good deeds and avoiding all evils."

Ikkyu - 1 - Teacher and Pursuit of the Way - 1 - From Ayuwang Temple

◎Jade Tablet - 05 - 27

◎Horizontal Path of Youth - 26

 

A venerable old temple facing Hangzhou Bay near Ningbo, China, is Ayuwang Mountain Ayuwang Temple. Ayuwang refers to King Ashoka of ancient India, and as is customary, it houses Buddha's relics.

Taira no Kiyomori and Emperor Go-Shirakawa are said to have possessed Buddha's relics brought from this temple.

For Japanese people in the Heian, Kamakura, and Muromachi periods, this temple was revered as much as Mecca in Islam or Potala Palace in Tibetan Buddhism, and it was the dream of the educated class to make a pilgrimage there at least once in their lifetime.

The Buddhist sculptor Chin Nakei, who cast the head when rebuilding the Great Buddha of Todaiji Temple, was a temple servant at Ayuwang Temple in his previous life. He told that the abbot at that time was the third shogun, Minamoto no Sanetomo, and Sanetomo, accepting this, attempted to build a ship for a pilgrimage to Ayuwang Temple.

Sanetomo was assassinated in 1219, and his wish was not fulfilled, but Sanetomo's poem remains.

"The world knows not, nor do I know, of Tang country

Cutting firewood on Mount Iwakura"

A few years later, Dogen visited this place in the autumn of 1223 (Kajō 16) and 1226 (Hōkyō 1).

Now, the root of Japanese Rinzai Zen, Xutang Zhiyu, was the abbot of Ayuwang Mountain at the age of 74, but in 1256 (Hōyū 3), he was slandered, stripped of his monastic status, and imprisoned for a month.

Immediately after that, in 1259, National Teacher Daio, Nampo Shōmyō, met Xutang Zhiyu, succeeded to his Dharma, and returned to Japan. This became the beginning of the prosperity of Daitoku Temple.

Now, Xutang Zhiyu, after being imprisoned, discarded the robe of Dharma transmission passed down from Rinzai like torn straw sandals. Rinzai himself died in anger that he had no disciple to whom to pass on his Dharma.

There is nothing to pass on.

Everything is nothing.

Zen is transmitted one-on-one in the flesh, and Ikkyu claims to be the seventh-generation descendant of Xutang.

Xutang - Daio - Daito - Tetsuō - Gengai - (Ken'ō) Kasō - Ikkyu

It was passed on, but...

Ikkyu attempted suicide at the age of 21. He attained great enlightenment at the age of 27. His meditation method was probably koan Zen and shikantaza, the horizontal path.

His subsequent life was, in the Ten Ox Herding Pictures, the tenth, Entering the Marketplace with Helping Hands, living as a friend with the people in the town, with his enlightenment. He did not distinguish the unenlightened people of the town as different kinds.

He ended his life as a Nembutsu practitioner.

Matsuo Basho - 5 - Basho's Deathbed

◎Jade Tablet - 05 - 26

◎Horizontal Path of Youth - 25

◎Matsuo Basho - 5 - Impermanence, Deathbed - 4

 

Thoughts

"This road / no one travels it / autumn evening" (Basho)

This verse is generally explained as Basho, surrounded by many disciples, singing about his solitude as he walks the path of a pioneer in haikai, but that is an interpretation as a haikai poet.

If we see him as a seeker of the Way, that path of seeking is a path he alone walks, and no one can help him. It seems to be a verse of pure and openheartedness, stating that he has no choice but to walk that autumn road by himself. There are no spiritual possessions, angels, or myriad gods here.

Since this verse was composed about two weeks before Basho's death, his physical condition was not good, the shadow of death was already looming, and it seems to be a verse from a time when he himself was preparing for death. Sadly, there was no one who understood his heart. Most seekers of the Way and enlightened ones live in solitude.

Thoughts on Travel

"This autumn / what age am I / birds in the clouds?" (Basho)

This is also a verse from the same period. This autumn, he feels the decline of his body more than in any other year. The birds in the clouds have a chilling sense of foreboding, as if foreseeing his own imminent departure.

Verses During Illness

"Sick on a journey / dreams wander / over withered fields" (Old Man Basho)

This is a verse from four days before his death. He wrote three wills two days later and passed away two days after that.

This is Basho's last verse. His memories are already wandering like a panoramic view. It seems that when one bids farewell to this world, even for those who have had enlightenment experiences, all attachments float to the surface of consciousness at once.

At this time, Basho also composed "…still wandering dream heart" and showed it to his disciple Shikō, but he couldn't ask what to do with the first five characters, and it remained as it was.

I believe that when bidding farewell to civilization, various intense emotions will be amplified and emerge all at once. If that starts to happen in the arts, such as the music scene, cinema, and television dramas (perhaps it already has?), we will know that it is imminent. Conversely, as long as we see artificiality, there is still time.

Matsuo Basho - 5 - Even Forgetting Passion Itself

◎Jade Tablet - 05 - 25

◎Horizontal Path of Youth - 24

◎Matsuo Basho - 5 - Impermanence, Deathbed - 3

◎Even Forgetting Spontaneous Passion Itself

 

When Basho arrived at Ise Grand Shrine and walked amidst the fresh green trees toward the shrine, a faint fragrance drifted to him.

"Not knowing what tree's flower it is / the fragrance" (Basho)

After all earnest human endeavors, a fragrance remains. Osho Bhagwan said, "This fragrant aroma is not even matter. The fragrance disappears into the universe, becoming one with it," and Dogen said, "Flowers scatter in cherished regret, grasses wither in despised aversion," but even there, a fragrance remains.

Dogen said that attaining enlightenment is like the moon dwelling in water (Genjo Koan chapter of Shobogenzo), and even there, the same scent drifts.

That is why this alone is completely unrelated to intense and noisy propaganda or brainwashing attempts. It is a fragrance that comes from a truly profound and deep place, even forgetting that spontaneous passion itself.