Soto and inka shomei - Bokusan zenji case

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Matylda
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Soto and inka shomei - Bokusan zenji case

Post by Matylda »

Many claim that inka shomei is given in rinzai tradition as a confirmation of satori or dharma transmission. In soto zen there is no inka shomei and it is something strange, since shikan taza or dropping of body and mind is just perfectly enough. Fact – today there is no inka shomei in soto, but it used to be.

The seal of confirmation or inka shomei in Japanese, was also given in soto regardless of so called shiho or dharma transmission. Who gave inka shomei in soto zen? It was always a teacher under whose guidance and strict supervision a disciple attained satori or daigo – great satori. Actually it was daigo which triggered writting the poem of inka shomei, since mostly inka was in the form of a poem.

I would like to give one example of how inka shomei was given in soto. Nishiari Bokusan, 1821-1910, who was one of the most influantial masters of soto school in the beginning of he 20th century. I have chosen this master, since many soto lineages in the West could be traced to him.

Bokusan zenji was a very strong soto hardliner. A strict critic of rinzai way of acknowledgment of kensho. He made good points about the weakness which happened at least with some roshis who confirmed kensho in rinzai. Bokusan writtings are very intresting to have some insigt how satori, kensho etc. was viewed in soto.

Those who follow him today wether aware of him or not, and who are repeating constantly Dogen's words of dropping of body and mind, probably know nothing of the source of i.e. Teachings of Bokusan zenji himself.

Here one may read how Bokusan received inka shomei from Gettan Rojin after he experienced daigo, and there is exact description how suddenly he had experienced it, when hearing scorching and looking at snowflakes disappearing in hot water:

https://daijiji.han-be.com/N/N-6/N-6.html

At that point lets look 2 years earlier in his life when practicing very hard on koan no 29 of Hekiganroku „Daizui's fire at the end of the kalpa” he penetrated its meaning to the very roots.
There is also his view on the practice of koan

https://daijiji.han-be.com/N/N-5/N-5.html

As text says in the end that Kinei [Bokusan] when completely understood the koan „Daizui's fire at the end of the kalpa” he grasped in deepest way entire buddhist philosophy/teaching.

In English there are some short translations of his biography here:
http://www.shoresofzen.com/jiryu/wp-con ... s_2014.pdf

However some inferences by the author are pretty astonishing if not wrong. Moreover this text says nothing of Bokusan practice wih koan and his great struggle. Though the text is good since English reader may get some knowledge, at the same time it may somehow change perspective if we campare with Japanese sources.
Lillian
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Re: Soto and inka shomei - Bokusan zenji case

Post by Lillian »

This is very interesting history, dear. Fascinating It is little known in America.

Did Master Dogen mention Inka Shomei anywhere in Shobogenzo, Koroku or his other writings? He wrote so extensively on seeing the Shisho and its important, but I just don't recall any mention of this. I don't think that he mentions Inka from Rujing in the Hokyoki.

https://www.thezensite.com/ZenTeachings ... shisho.pdf

Might it have developed later? There is even good reason to think that even the Kechimyaku and Shisho are part of the transmission documents in Dogen's time because he mentions those so much, but that the Daiji is a later addition too. Anyway, Manzan thought so.

It is wonderful that some Soto lines bestow Inka Shomei. There are many good ways in Soto.
Matylda
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Re: Soto and inka shomei - Bokusan zenji case

Post by Matylda »

Lillian wrote: Wed Jun 03, 2020 3:29 pm This is very interesting history, dear. Fascinating It is little known in America.

Did Master Dogen mention Inka Shomei anywhere in Shobogenzo, Koroku or his other writings? He wrote so extensively on seeing the Shisho and its important, but I just don't recall any mention of this. I don't think that he mentions Inka from Rujing in the Hokyoki.

https://www.thezensite.com/ZenTeachings ... shisho.pdf

Might it have developed later? There is even good reason to think that even the Kechimyaku and Shisho are part of the transmission documents in Dogen's time because he mentions those so much, but that the Daiji is a later addition too. Anyway, Manzan thought so.

It is wonderful that some Soto lines bestow Inka Shomei. There are many good ways in Soto.
I do not know Dogen well. But what he wrote about shisho, it seems that he thought that inka calligraphy did not match to shiho itself. Anyway shiho he wrote about, laer on changed during Keizan zenji time and it became sanmotsu, with daiji etc. just as you mentioned. I guess Dogen was afraid that inka could be misleading and false claims of shiho could be pushed forward. But we have to remember that shiho was given only to enlightened students during Dogen times and later, not like today when anyone gets shiho. Experience is not at the stake anymore.
Inka is not anymore the case in soto, and inka was very private thing, just a master confirmed satori of a student. Today there is no satori in soto, so there is no inka as well, what is natural but very sad. In the case of Bokusan zenji he received inka almost 170 years ago, around 1850. Thus it is really an old story.
Meido
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Re: Soto and inka shomei - Bokusan zenji case

Post by Meido »

Matylda wrote: Wed Jun 03, 2020 6:02 pm But we have to remember that shiho was given only to enlightened students, not like today when anyone gets shiho.
This fact has caused great confusion in the West: Soto priests receiving shiho as kind of a standard certification that anyone can get, and Rinzai priests receiving inka which is extremely rare, but both are sometimes called in English "dharma transmission" (even though those words do not translate inka shomei.)

The end result has been that there are many supposed Soto Zen "teachers" in the West: that is, anyone who has received shiho. But they would not be considered people qualified to take disciples, i presume, by Soto-shu in Japan. It is a big problem. A Westerner can even go to Japan, practice for a few years under a teacher and receive shiho, and then in the West people will say he/she is now a Zen teacher because "dharma transmission" was received. It is as if shiho made one qualified to be shike.

In the West some independent orgs have set up shiho to be something different, like an actual teacher certification, and it is awarded only after many years of practice more like Rinzai inka. So that is a newer development. But even then I cannot see that it is tied to any fruition of practice and clear experience of awakening affirmed by one's master: it is more tied to years of practice, knowledge of ceremonial and other forms, the ability or personality to speak well and lead others, etc.

Rinzai Zen in the West has had many problems too of course. But it's a real shame about Soto Zen here. I have met a number of Soto Zen "teachers" who could not even teach zazen in some basically correct way, giving advice to their students that was actually harmful. One can often see no experience of samadhi, no physical transformation or realization manifest in the body of the practitioner, and no instructions other than "just sit, whatever you experience is fundamentally enlightenment." It is a conceptual, intellectual Zen. As you say, at death the exam will come, and conceptual Zen won't help one at all.
Matylda
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Re: Soto and inka shomei - Bokusan zenji case

Post by Matylda »

Meido wrote: Wed Jun 03, 2020 6:25 pm
Matylda wrote: Wed Jun 03, 2020 6:02 pm But we have to remember that shiho was given only to enlightened students, not like today when anyone gets shiho.
This fact has caused great confusion in the West: Soto priests receiving shiho as kind of a standard certification that anyone can get, and Rinzai priests receiving inka which is extremely rare, but both are sometimes called in English "dharma transmission" (even though those words do not translate inka shomei.)

The end result has been that there are many supposed Soto Zen "teachers" in the West: that is, anyone who has received shiho. But they would not be considered people qualified to take disciples, i presume, by Soto-shu in Japan. It is a big problem. A Westerner can even go to Japan, practice for a few years under a teacher and receive shiho, and then in the West people will say he/she is now a Zen teacher because "dharma transmission" was received. It is as if shiho made one qualified to be shike.

In the West some independent orgs have set up shiho to be something different, like an actual teacher certification, and it is awarded only after many years of practice more like Rinzai inka. So that is a newer development. But even then I cannot see that it is tied to any fruition of practice and clear experience of awakening affirmed by one's master: it is more tied to years of practice, knowledge of ceremonial and other forms, the ability or personality to speak well and lead others, etc.

Rinzai Zen in the West has had many problems too of course. But it's a real shame about Soto Zen here. I have met a number of Soto Zen "teachers" who could not even teach zazen in some basically correct way, giving advice to their students that was actually harmful. One can often see no experience of samadhi, no physical transformation or realization manifest in the body of the practitioner, and no instructions other than "just sit, whatever you experience is fundamentally enlightenment." It is a conceptual, intellectual Zen. As you say, at death the exam will come, and conceptual Zen won't help one at all.
yes it is true.. and it is great misfortune for soto zen.
Lillian
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Re: Soto and inka shomei - Bokusan zenji case

Post by Lillian »

Thank you, Matylda. I took interest in this when we were developing the documentation for lay Zen teachers, and we were considering what documents to include, and whether there would be a Dharma transmission to the lay teachers.
Meido wrote: Wed Jun 03, 2020 6:25 pm
The end result has been that there are many supposed Soto Zen "teachers" in the West: that is, anyone who has received shiho. But they would not be considered people qualified to take disciples, i presume, by Soto-shu in Japan. It is a big problem. A Westerner can even go to Japan, practice for a few years under a teacher and receive shiho, and then in the West people will say he/she is now a Zen teacher because "dharma transmission" was received. It is as if shiho made one qualified to be shike.
Oh, I think this is a big misunderstanding of what is happening with Soto Zen in America, and maybe in Japan too (I don't know). In America, I think that we have moved to a "proof is in the doing" attitude, something like a black belt in the martial arts. To receive some certification is one thing, and shows some degree of training, understanding and insight as recognized by a teacher who is herself or himself recognized. However, no certification, ceremony or piece of paper means much without the proof of how that person lives, functions as a priest and serves sentient beings afterwards. Even in history, many many people received transmission but did not live up to it.

As well, the crucible of training and certification in western Zen has moved to the wider dokusan room of life. Teachers look to see the total picture of how their student is realizing the "genjokoan" of life before choosing to award shiho. It is not a matter of some set of koans in the traditional way, but how all the koans of life are met. That is the real "fruition of practice" that is never-ending.

At least, that is the attitude of many of the modern Soto teachers I know in the west. Japan is certainly another ball of wax.
Matylda
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Re: Soto and inka shomei - Bokusan zenji case

Post by Matylda »

Lillian wrote: Thu Jun 04, 2020 5:31 am At least, that is the attitude of many of the modern Soto teachers I know in the west.
Indeed. It was also my impression, but unfortunately it has nothing to do with zen practice.
Meido
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Re: Soto and inka shomei - Bokusan zenji case

Post by Meido »

Lillian wrote: Thu Jun 04, 2020 5:31 am As well, the crucible of training and certification in western Zen has moved to the wider dokusan room of life. Teachers look to see the total picture of how their student is realizing the "genjokoan" of life before choosing to award shiho.
It is fine to talk that way. Of course the crux of Zen practice is encompassing all the activities of one's life within seamless samadhi-realization. But without awakening as the basis of that it is just an intellectual, psychological approach, and not Zen at all.

The refinement and integration of awakening is accompanied by identifiable signs in body, breath, eyes, and functioning. It is easily seen when these are absent. If someone has no idea what I am talking about here, then we have to say also that they lack the experiential understanding. Zen people of any sect or lineage talking in a nice-sounding manner about "the koans of life" but lacking obvious penetration themselves - and lacking also the clarity and humility to know this - is just an embarrassing spectacle; we may say they are doing a kind of Buddhist practice, but it is not yet Zen. Unfortunately there are many Western teachers like this.
Lillian wrote: Thu Jun 04, 2020 5:31 am It is not a matter of some set of koans in the traditional way,
This betrays a misunderstanding of the "traditional way." Koan shitsunai are not fixed "sets." That is another topic however.
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Re: Soto and inka shomei - Bokusan zenji case

Post by LastLegend »

Meido wrote: Thu Jun 04, 2020 1:42 pm
Lillian wrote: Thu Jun 04, 2020 5:31 am As well, the crucible of training and certification in western Zen has moved to the wider dokusan room of life. Teachers look to see the total picture of how their student is realizing the "genjokoan" of life before choosing to award shiho.
It is fine to talk that way. Of course the crux of Zen practice is encompassing all the activities of one's life within seamless samadhi-realization. But without awakening as the basis of that it is just an intellectual, psychological approach, and not Zen at all.

The refinement and integration of awakening is accompanied by identifiable signs in body, breath, eyes, and functioning. It is easily seen when these are absent. If someone has no idea what I am talking about here, then we have to say also that they lack the experiential understanding. Zen people of any sect or lineage talking in a nice-sounding manner about "the koans of life" but lacking obvious penetration themselves - and lacking also the clarity and humility to know this - is just an embarrassing spectacle; we may say they are doing a kind of Buddhist practice, but it is not yet Zen. Unfortunately there are many Western teachers like this.
Lillian wrote: Thu Jun 04, 2020 5:31 am It is not a matter of some set of koans in the traditional way,
This betrays a misunderstanding of the "traditional way." Koan shitsunai are not fixed "sets." That is another topic however.
Yes, that’s a deep trap of ignorance if not knowing it’s mimicking samadhi of emptiness. But from this state, one can make one big leap.
It’s eye blinking.
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