Bankei Zen

[Hoko]

Hi all,

Not sure if this belongs here or in the Book Club but I am currently reading Bankei Zen by Peter Haskel and I'm rather enjoying it so far.

I hadn't heard much about Bankei as a historical Zen figure and I'm wondering if any of our more learned colleagues have anything to offer in regards to Bankei Roshi.
So far I like the guy.

According to the preface DT Suzuki ranked him right up there with Dogen and Hakuin but I'm not sure where others place him in the constellation of luminaries.

Anything I really ought to know about Bankei as I move forward?

Gassho,
Hoko
#SatToday abiding in the Unborn Mind (sort of Bankei's "thing")

[Jundo]

A great teacher, from the Rinzai sideless side of the roadless road (although perhaps not a big Koan Zazen fan, as discussed below). From the Introduction to the book you are reading ...

Bankei's entire teaching can be reduced to the single
admonition "Abide in the Unborn!" This was Bankei's
constant refrain. The term "Unborn" itself is a common
one in classical Buddhism, where it generally signifies that
which is intrinsic, original, uncreated. Bankei, however,
was the first to use this term as the crux of his teaching.
Rather than obtaining or practicing the Unborn, he says,
one should simply abide in it, because the Unborn is
not a state that has to be created, but is already there,
perfect and complete, the mind just as it is. There isn't any special
method for realizing the Unborn other than to be yourself,
to be totally natural and spontaneous in everything you do.
This means "letting thoughts arise or cease just as they
will," and doing the same in regard to physical sensations,
as Bankei indicates in his advice on illness (pp. 61-63) and
in his instructions on the art of the lance (pp. 138-39).
The mind, as Bankei describes it, is a dynamic mechanism,
reflecting, recording and recalling our impressions
of the world, a kind of living mirror that is always in
motion, never the same from one instant to the next. Within
this mirror mind, thoughts and feelings come and go,
appearing, vanishing and reappearing in response to circumstances,
neither good nor bad in themselves. Unlike
the man of the Unborn, however, the impulsive person
suffers from attachment. He is never natural because he is
a slave to his responses, which he fails to realize are only
passing reflections. As a result, he is continually "hung
up," entangled in particular thoughts and sensations, obstructing
the free flow of the mind. Everything will operate
smoothly, Bankei insists, if we only step aside and let it do
so. He illustrates this to the members of his audience by
pointing out that, even while engrossed in listening to his
talk, they automatically register and identify everything
else around them—the calls of crows and sparrows, the
various colors and aromas, the different sorts of people in
the room. No one is deliberately trying to do this; it simply
happens. That, Bankei says, is how the Unborn functions.
For Bankei, the important thing is letting go, breaking
the mold of our self-centeredness (mi no hiiki) and bad
habits (kiguse). These are familiar Japanese terms that Bankei
used to describe the chief components of delusion. Selfcenteredness
is the basis of the false self. It is "ego" in the
pejorative sense, the reflex that leads us to judge everything
from a narrowly selfish viewpoint. What fuels and informs
this attitude is bad habits, character flaws that, like self-
centeredness, are the result of conditioning. We grow up
imitating the people around us, Bankei says, and in the
process acquire certain failings which finally become so
ingrained that we mistake them for our real selves. Unlike
the Unborn Buddha Mind, however, neither bad habits
nor self-centeredness is innate; both are assimilated from
outside after birth. When we become deluded, we temporarily
forfeit the Buddha Mind we started out with, exchanging
it for these learned responses. The moment this
occurs, duality intervenes and we leave the original oneness
of the Unborn to be "born" into particular states of
being—as hungry ghosts, fighting demons, beasts or helldwellers—passing
fitfully from one to the next, trapped in
incessant transmigration. The only way out of this dilemma,
Bankei maintains, is to go back the way we came,
to return to the unconditioned, the uncreated, the unborn.
"What we have from our parents innately is the Unborn
Buddha Mind and nothing else"; "The Buddha Mind
is unborn and marvelously illuminating, and with the Unborn
everything is perfectly managed"; "Abide in the Unborn
Buddha Mind!" These are the basics of Bankei s Zen,
his catechism of the Unborn. He explained them over and
over in different ways, because he believed the truth of the
Unborn was so simple, so straightforward, that anyone
could grasp it. In this sense, Bankei s Zen was truly popular.
Other Japanese masters had taught lay audiences. But,
in most cases, Zen as such was considered far too difficult
for ordinary people, and Zen masters' popular teachings,
especially those directed to women, scarcely touched on
Zen at all. Instead, teachers spoke in general terms, urging
the merits of pious activity and discussing concepts from
the Buddhist scriptures. Study of the "inner teachings" was
generally confined to qualified monks and members of the
upper classes and intelligentsia who could follow to some
extent the difficult Chinese of the imported Zen texts.

Although a rather traditional Rinzai fellow in some respects, actually not a fan of too much obscure Koan dabblings for that reason ...

Bankei's position was just the reverse. He maintained
that the essence of Zen itself was perfectly plain and direct,
and that any person with an open mind could be made to
understand. You didn't need to be widely educated or adept
at classical Chinese. That sort of thing only got in the way.
In fact, the Unborn could best be explained using simple,
everyday language. Any other approach was just deceptive.
To teach Zen, Bankei insisted, one had to go right to the
core, to divest oneself of everything extraneous—all the
gimmicks, the technical jargon, the exotic foreign usages.
This was Bankei's principal objection to the koan

...

The nature of Bankei's own experience of koan study is
uncertain. It seems likely that he had some contact with
koan Zen in his student days, and evidence indicates that
he occasionally used koans for his own disciples. Judging
by Bankei s statements in the Sermons, however, he abandoned
koans altogether in his later years. As Bankei saw it,
the whole approach of koan Zen was hopelessly contrived.
He rejected the need for familiarity with classical Chinese
as an unnecessary encumbrance, and rejected the koan
itself as an artificial technique. The original koans, he
argued, were not "models," but actual living events. The
old masters had simply responded to particular situations
that confronted them, naturally accommodating themselves
to the needs of the students involved. That was the
business of any Zen teacher, to meet each situation on its
own terms. There was no need to make people study the
words of ancient Chinese monks when you could simply
have them look at their own "cases," the way in which the
Unborn was at work here and now in the actual circumstances
of their lives. This was what Bankei called his
"direct" teaching, as opposed to koan practice, which he
referred to disparagingly as "studying old waste paper." The
koan, said Bankei, was merely a device, and teachers who
relied on it, or on any other technique, were practicing
"devices Zen." Why rely on a device, he argued, when you
could have the thing itself?

One of the Greats.

Gassho, J

SatToday

[Tom]

Ah-ha...what I was wondering about the other day:

Bankei's position was just the reverse. He maintained
that the essence of Zen itself was perfectly plain and direct,
and that any person with an open mind could be made to
understand. You didn't need to be widely educated or adept
at classical Chinese. That sort of thing only got in the way.
In fact, the Unborn could best be explained using simple,
everyday language. Any other approach was just deceptive.

Gassho,
Sat,
Tom

[Washin]

Thank you, Jundo, for the great comments on Bankei's Zen.
Very helpful to better understand his approach.

Thank you too, Hoko, for the post. The only book I read
from Bankei a couple of years ago was The Unborn (revised edition)
translated by Norman Waddell.
I did enjoy the book even if some points of Bankei's principle weren't
clear enough to me then.

Gassho,
Washin
st

[Jundo]

I will offer a pair of small criticisms of Bankei, in my personal view. They are triggered by expressions such as this ...

Unlike the man of the Unborn, however, the impulsive person suffers from attachment. He is never natural because he is a slave to his responses, which he fails to realize are only passing reflections. As a result, he is continually "hung up," entangled in particular thoughts and sensations, obstructing the free flow of the mind. Everything will operate smoothly, Bankei insists, if we only step aside and let it do so. He illustrates this to the members of his audience by pointing out that, even while engrossed in listening to his talk, they automatically register and identify everything else around them—the calls of crows and sparrows, the various colors and aromas, the different sorts of people in the room. No one is deliberately trying to do this; it simply happens. That, Bankei says, is how the Unborn functions.

There is the tendency of some old (and modern!) Zen Masters to assert that, should one be in touch with this Suchness one will "naturally always know what to do", will always "do the right thing" and will spontanteously behave correctly when freed from ignorance. It is a bit like those cheap Kung Fu movies, where the hero always somehow knows the right punch to throw.

I just don't believe that is the case.

The Unborn reintroduces to our hearts something beyond and right through all "right and wrong, win and lose", and there is no "wrong answer" or "losing" because no place to fall. Tis kind of a Big R Right that holds everything, including when we have "all the right moves" and also when we fall right on our butt. But alas, in this day to day world, there is right and wrong, and countless places to trip and fall in the mud. Realization will not tell you whether to stay with the bad job or marriage or leave it, whether to go back to school or more to California. Our Way may quiet the heart, and allow one to go beyond our usual excess desires, attachments, anger and frustrations, divided thinking, but it will not and cannot make us always "do the right thing" in the mixed up world of Samsara.

A promise like Bankei makes seems maybe overreaching and extreme, a bit of an over-promise.

Even his example ... that we "naturally" recognize crows and colors because the Unborn naturally knows, is a bit silly. We recognize so, like a cat knows the birdcall ... because it is in our brains and senses. That is not proof of much beyond that.

One final criticism is that some name like "Unborn" can be reified into a thing, a "cosmic spirit", a godhead. That is also a little risky for Buddhists to do, because it turns the "Unborn" into some idea.

Anyway, apart from those little criticisms, Bankei is the Bomb!

Gassho, J

SatToday

[Jishin]

Hi,

Bankei is attached to Bankei.

Gasho, Jishin, _/st\_

[Zenmei]

There is the tendency of some old (and modern!) Zen Masters to assert that, should one be in touch with this Suchness one will "naturally always know what to do", will always "do the right thing" and will spontanteously behave correctly when freed from ignorance. It is a bit like those cheap Kung Fu movies, where the hero always somehow knows the right punch to throw.

I just don't believe that is the case.

Thank you, Jundo! This has been one of my doubts about Zen since I started learning as a teenager. I don't think I would have been able to articulate it, but it just didn't seem to match how I perceived reality.

You just helped another piece of the puzzle click into place for me, thank you.

Gassho, Dudley

[Washin]

The Unborn reintroduces to our hearts something beyond and right through all "right and wrong, win and lose", and there is no "wrong answer" or "losing" because no place to fall. Tis kind of a Big R Right that holds everything, including when we have "all the right moves" and also when we fall right on our butt. But alas, in this day to day world, there is right and wrong, and countless places to trip and fall in the mud. Realization will not tell you whether to stay with the bad job or marriage or leave it, whether to go back to school or more to California. Our Way may quiet the heart, and allow one to go beyond our usual excess desires, attachments, anger and frustrations, divided thinking, but it will not and cannot make us always "do the right thing" in the mixed up world of Samsara.

[Hoko]

Hi Jundo,

I absolutely agree with you. The Unborn comes across as a bit salvific sometimes. (I stole that word from David Loy and now I get to use it. &#128513

But so far I'm really impressed with how Bankei made Zen approachable and applicable to everyone from farmers to samurai. And also, when he was an emo teenager he tried to kill himself by eating a mouthful of poisonous spiders and lying down in a graveyard which is totally badass. 😉

Gassho,
Hōkō
#SatToday

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[M.C. Easton]

But so far I'm really impressed with how Bankei made Zen approachable and applicable to everyone from farmers to samurai. And also, when he was an emo teenager he tried to kill himself by eating a mouthful of poisonous spiders and lying down in a graveyard which is totally badass.

This makes me happy. For so many reasons.

Thanks all for the introduction to Bankei--definitely on my list now!
Gassho
M.C.
SatToday

[Geika]

Thanks for the clarification, Jundo. I had been thinking on the same things after reading that passage. There's nothing wrong with it, but as I have been practicing, I have learned that living well is more about spontenaiety during action than spontenaiety of action. If I just sit waiting for my body to move, it is very unlikely I will do the laundry, but a certain mindset can help me to just get up and do it when it is time to do it, and doesn't mind.

Gassho, sat today

[Jakuden]

Not knowing is most intimate... thankfully for those of us who often don't know stuff.

Thank you for the lesson!

Gassho
Jakuden
SatToday


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[Myogan]

I'll put this in my ever growing list of "to read", but had a different thought at first glance of the topic

Sat today


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[Jakuden]

I'll put this in my ever growing list of "to read", but had a different thought at first glance of the topic

Sat today


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[emoji15]This is one of those times when you google something and still have no clue what it means [emoji23]

Gassho
Jakuden
SatToday


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[Riewe]

Interesting thoughts, this will go on my reading list too. Thank you for the post Hoko.

Don't worry Marc, my mind also went to the same place at first.

Gassho
Steve
SatToday