Ikkyu - 4 - Last Moments - 1 - Conversion to the Nembutsu Sect

◎ Jade Tablet - 05 - 38

◎ The Horizontal Path of Youth - 37

◎ Shinran's Teaching is the Best in the Land

According to "Jikai-shu," on the winter solstice of Choroku 1 (1457), Ikkyu Sojun, indignant at the outrageous behavior of his senior disciple Yoso at Murasakino Daitokuji Temple, clearly stated that he converted to the Hokke Sect (Nembutsu Sect).

Furthermore, this notation is not "Ikkyu Sojun" but "Hokke Sojun," emphasizing his serious conversion. Ikkyu abandoned Zen Buddhism at the age of 63.

(Ikkyu Oshō Zenshū Volume 3, Jikai-shu/Ikkyu Chronology/Shunjusha p. 254)

Around this time, his relationship with Rennyo began, and when Ikkyu was 68, he was invited to Otani Honbyo for the 200th anniversary of Shinran's death. Ikkyu asked Rennyo for a portrait of Saint Shinran and added the following praise:

"A mind suitable for the Latter Day of the Dharma,

A black priest with a seemingly warm scarf,

His teaching is the best in the land."

He gave his seal of approval, stating that Shinran's teaching was the best in the land.

Dantes Daishi explains the reason for this conversion by saying, "If you compare the seated meditation posture of Zen with the posture of Nembutsu, you will understand which posture is easier." He seems to be saying that Nembutsu, which goes by emotion, has a greater impact on human psychology and is easier compared to meditation that pushes through with intellect like Zen, as a meditation method to reach enlightenment.

However, I think it is important to remember that Dantes Daishi also indicates that the effect of mantra recitation such as Nembutsu and Odaimoku is inherently limited in the sense that it does not directly aim for the ultimate.

Furthermore, when Ikkyu was on his deathbed, he left a will to his disciples, "I want Rennyo to perform the Nembutsu Chuin (49th-day memorial service)." According to his will, Ikkyu's disciples asked Rennyo to perform the Nembutsu, but Rennyo refused, saying, "The Dharma is preached to the living, and it has no meaning after death."

Ikkyu's conversion is probably not something that Zen Buddhists today would consider good for their reputation, so it is not widely talked about. I don't think you would find a scene in a manga where Ikkyu is chanting "Namu Amida Butsu, Namu Amida Butsu."

Ikkyu's Buddhist song:

"Becoming a Buddha is the same in foreign lands and Japan,

It depends on the heart, not the sect."

He embodied a meditation without sects, as shown in this song.

Ikkyu lived with the enlightenment he gained through an experience that cannot be called an experience, nirvana. He was like the old man walking through the town with a sake bottle in the 10th picture of the Ten Ox Herding Pictures. He showed a life of an apparently dissolute monk, with male and female homosexuality, but never strayed from being an enlightened one.

This was an extraordinary exception, even though there were many enlightened Zen practitioners in Japan. Modern people of the 21st century Aquarian Age should live in this way.

Ikkyu lived in the age of the Onin War, one of the times when Japan was most distant from the gods. Gods always send avatars in such times, and Ikkyu was one of them. The influence of the Onin War extended to ancient Shinto, and there was a period of over 120 years when Ise Grand Shrine could not be rebuilt.

Ikkyu - 3 - Way of Life - 5 - Ikkyu's Skeleton

◎ Jade Tablet - 05 - 37

◎ The Horizontal Path of Youth - 36

◎ Reality as Maya

Maya is illusion. Everything perishes or dies. Therefore, reality is also Maya. Wondering if anyone truly understands this reality, I secluded myself in a deserted Buddhist hall, unable to sleep through the night, and dozed off at dawn.

In that dream, when I went behind the Buddhist hall, there were many skeletons, each with different behaviors, as if they were alive. As I watched, one skeleton approached and recited:

"There are no memories to recall, if life passes,

It is but a dream, this meaningless body."

(If one spends a lifetime without recalling anything in particular (seeking the path), it is but a dream, this tasteless body.)

"If one separates Buddhism from gods and Buddhas,

How can one enter the true path?"

(If one separates Buddhism, which is originally one, into Shinto and Buddhism, one cannot enter the true path.)

"Even while a single breath passes,

The corpses in the fields seemed distant."

(Even for a short time, while a single breath truly passes (while alive), the corpses exposed in the fields seemed distant.)

Then, venturing into the world of death,

As I became familiar with and played among the skeletons, they seemed to become me. I thought, having abandoned the world, become a monk, studied various scriptures, and visited many wise teachers, I had clarified the source of my heart. Then, I awoke from the dream, with only the sound of the wind in the pines and the moonlight remaining.

This is narrated in the style of the "Dream of Handan," but the theme is shifted from a lifetime spent in competitive success to meditative practice seeking the ultimate. Therefore, what does it mean to awaken from the dream of reality? Ikkyu lives with a dual sense of reality.

Ikkyu - 3 - Way of Life - 4 - Priest Fuke

◎ Jade Tablet - 05 - 36

◎ The Horizontal Path of Youth - 35

 

Ikkyu was familiar with male homosexuality from his boyhood, did not disdain sexual relations with nuns, and even cohabited with a blind, young woman in her thirties in his later years. Considering this, one would expect him to be a handsome man, but the portrait left behind is that of a disheveled middle-aged man, which feels like a koan Ikkyu set up even after his death.

Despite being a senior member of Daitokuji Temple, he skips important Buddhist services to sleep with a woman in a separate room, and during this, the sound of sutra chanting can be heard. This is similar to a delinquent high school student skipping class, as described in his "Kyunshu" (Crazy Cloud Collection).

All of this is possible because he has realized that he is the unfolding of universal consciousness (nirvana) through an experience that cannot be called an experience, where the great death comes first, and the entire universe dies and he dies. Anyone who has not attained enlightenment, even if they imitate him, will only deepen the chaos of the world.

The time of great destruction is near, but the enlightened ones dare to emphasize the subsequent reconstruction.

Fuke is a Zen monk who is more free and uninhibited than Rinzai. Enlightenment, at first glance, does not seem to care about human livelihood, but Priest Fuke, who lived it, rebukes Priest Rinzai, who lived the orthodox tradition of Zen.

Priest Fuke:

Morning and evening, he stirs up the town,

Making people cry, the old man's tricks.

The most notorious madman of all time,

A womanizer who disturbs the Zen gate.

"Arguments, clear head and dark head,

Old Zen's tricks make people sad.

A madman of ancient and modern times,

A unique figure in the history of Zen."

(Quoted from "Japanese Zen Sayings, Ikkyu/Seizan Yanagida/Kodansha, p. 191")

Ikkyu - 3 - Way of Life - 3 - Similarity to the 6th Dalai Lama

◎ Jade Tablet - 05 - 35

◎ The Horizontal Path of Youth - 34

 

In Ikkyu Sojun's "Kyunshu" (Crazy Cloud Collection), there is this poem:

"Love thoughts, love desires, torment my heart,

Forgetting poetry and prose, not a single word remains.

There is only enlightenment, no aspiration for the path,

Today I still lament sinking into the delusions of birth and death."

The first half expresses the reality of himself, blinded by carnal desires, and the second half, though he should have transcended birth and death through nirvana, he does not live a pure life abiding by the precepts, and laments himself still sinking into the delusions that distinguish between birth and death.

Is this perhaps the sentiment that arises when one immerses oneself in a life of carnal desire with a sense of reality as "suchness," where this world is both a dream and reality?

On the other hand, the love poems of the 6th Dalai Lama (1683-1706), unlike those in Ikkyu's "Kyunshu," often simply depict fragments of sweet love affairs, but there are also poems akin to "Kyunshu."

"Not even for a single night have I spent alone.

Beautiful women were always brought to my bed.

But not even for a moment have I strayed from the path (the experience of great bliss where emptiness manifests as joy).

Because I have never lost sight of the 'universal mind' (pure consciousness that accepts the universal responsibility to save all living beings from the cycle of suffering)."

(Quoted from "The 14 Dalai Lamas/Glenn H. Mullin/Shunjusha (Vol. 2) pp. 5-6")

The 6th Dalai Lama, like Ikkyu, was in a position to engage in sexual relations while holding onto nirvana and the path.

Also, looking at Ikkyu's history of sexual love, it does not seem to be kama yoga as a pursuit of the path. The reason is that he keeps changing partners.

Furthermore, considering this, kama yoga is indeed a practice for men, but for women, kama yoga is not positioned as a practice, which makes one feel the difference in the soul's completion process between men and women. There are also circumstances such as living as a man in one life and as a woman in the next.

Ikkyu - 3 - Way of Life - 2 - Jigoku Dayu

◎ Jade Tablet - 05 - 34

◎ The Horizontal Path of Youth - 33

 

The episode of Zen Master Ikkyu meeting Jigoku Dayu.

"When Priest Ikkyu came to the shore of Sakai, there was a beautiful woman in an inn for travelers. Upon realizing it was Ikkyu, she sent him a poem:

'If you are to live in the mountains, away from the dust of the world (as a priest), you should reside deep in the mountains. I hear this place is truly the "Sakai" of this sorrowful world.'

Ikkyu's reply:

'Ikkyu does not think of himself as dust, so the bustling city and the secluded mountain dwelling are equally his abode.'

Upon hearing this, he thought, 'This woman is no ordinary person,' and asked, 'What kind of woman is she?' He was told, 'She is the courtesan named Jigoku, famous in the world.' To which the priest immediately composed a poem:

'More terrifying than I had heard, this Jigoku I see.'

Jigoku Dayu's reply:

'There is no one who dies who does not fall into this Jigoku.'"

(Quoted from "Hannya Shingyo Shozue/Ikkyu Oshō Zenshū Volume 4/Shunjusha")

Jigoku Dayu's first poem expresses a sentiment like, "If you are a monk, you should not be in such a defiled place, like the first ward of this worldly hell, yet you are here."

To this, Ikkyu replies, "A Zen monk has no physical body, so the pleasure quarter (brothel) and the mountain temple are the same abode." If interpreted literally, it is about this level of explanation.

The essence of this exchange, however, lies in Ikkyu's reply to the question, "What is a high priest like Ikkyu doing coming to a brothel for sex?" Ikkyu's reply is, "Enjoying sex is also one of the free and uninhibited ways of a Zen monk."

Sexual intercourse is, of course, forbidden in Zen practice, and Ikkyu's way of life is considered problematic from the perspective of ascetic practice. However, in Ikkyu's world, where he has already seen through everything, Ikkyu enjoying sexual meditation becomes a natural act of a free and uninhibited human being.

Therefore, Ikkyu saw that this woman was no ordinary person.

Jigoku Dayu's final reply also shows understanding. Knowing that Ikkyu is beyond the position of asceticism seeking the path, she composes a poem that stands on the same ground, that humans will all, one day, fully enjoy sex itself in the "flow of life."

Ikkyu has many poems that celebrate sexuality. Some are too explicit to be written on a blog. There is even a Chinese poem that says, "While the sound of sutra chanting for the Dharma service (memorial day) of National Teacher Daito fills the entire temple, Ikkyu enjoys sex with a woman in a room in the temple. This makes one laugh at the earnestness of the Chinese Zen monk Jimei, who pierced his own thigh with an awl to fight sleepiness." However, even if he is considered irreverent for mocking those who seek the path, there is Ikkyu, living in a world beyond that.