Wabi Sabi & Zen
Wabi Sabi Zen is purely natural Zen.
It is exemplified in the life of the Zen
hermit Ryokan. (1758-1831) Ryokan’s utter simplicity and directness point us
to a Zen practice that is unaffected by exterior forms and disciplines, into a
natural world of direct experience: (quoted from ‘One Robe, One Bowl’
translation by John Stevens)
Standing alone beneath a solitary pine;
Quickly the time passes.
Overhead the endless sky-
Who can I call to join me on this path?
--
Fresh morning snow in front of the shrine.
The trees! Are they white with peach blossoms
Or white with snow?
The children and I joyfully throw snowballs!
--
In my bowl
violets and dandelions are mixed
Together with the Buddhas of the three worlds.
--
Oh that my priests robes were wide enough
To gather up all the suffering people
In this floating world
In our modern world of hyper vigilance and demanding effort, Ryokan points to an
effortlessness and direct simplicity that embraces the wonderment of the present
moment and within this present moment is wabi sabi ...the Enso that is NO Enso.
‘Wabi’ means a languishing forlornness liberated from the material world,
combined with the word ‘sabi’ which is a equivalent of the Buddhist concept of
‘mujo’ or ‘anitya’, the impermanence and transience of all life and things.
‘Wabi Sabi’ holds a paradoxical view of life that deeply draws in the combined
elements of both yearning for a deeply awakened reality, yet simultaneously
facing the presence and beauty of the actual transient world within and around
one. Japanese art has expressed this deep non-dual feeling throughout its
history in ceramics, calligraphy, Zen gardens, flower arranging, as well as
poetry, the ritual of the tea ceremony etc.
Zen life itself in the Japanese monastic setting is a form created to give
expression to the wabi sabi of human life. The spare minimalism of its form is
designed to leave no space for the self-filled ‘I’ to remain. In current modernity,
however, the cultural bias of imitation often enough falls into fabricating a
contrived Zen disguise. It is, as if, shaving one’s head or wearing black robes,
sitting for long periods in a certain posture or poring over the lines of
Buddhist sutras or chanting them are in themselves something ‘Zen’. This
condition at times also arises in other Buddhist traditions as they attempt to
grow in new Western soil lacking their original deeper cultural support and
inner breath. Chanting mantras, bowing repeatedly, counting breaths, scanning
the body, are all potential methods for awakening and ‘mindfulness’ (and ‘mindlessness’).
Yet, all too often lead one astray when perceived and attached to as other than skillful means,
becoming added obstacles and constructs, instead of new avenues through which to know and
go beyond oneself. Shoji Hamada in his book “The Unknown Craftsman” describes clearly:
“What, then, is enlightenment? It is the state of being free from all duality.
Sometimes the term ‘Oneness’ is used, but ‘Non-dual Entirety’ (funi) is a more
satisfactory term because Oneness is likely to be construed as the opposite of
duality and hence understood in relative terms. Buddha is the name applied to a
person who has achieved this Non-duality...The Undifferentiated, the Non-dual,
is assumed to be the inherent nature of man; all Buddhist discipline, therefore,
has as its goal the achievement of this Non-dual Entirety.” (TUC p. 128)
Another way of speaking of this Non-duality is as ‘suchness’ or ‘thusness’,
(Sanskri: tathatha, Japanese: shinnyo) of wabi sabi:
To be alone
It is of a color that
Cannot be named:
This mountain where cedars rise
Into the autumn dusk
-Jakuren 12th century
So, Enso Zen or Wabi Sabi Zen, is a Zen of pure natural wonderment embracing the
world ‘as it is’ with complete abandonment of ‘self’. As the Zen master Takuan
clarifies the inner process in Zen practice:
“first one must seek to control the mind, but ultimately of the mind it is only
to be let go….”
This ‘mind that is let go’ is the Enso Mind, the mind of pure wonderment and
thusness. To embrace and be embraced by this presence-ing, moment after moment, is
the practice of Enso Zen.