A Brush with Samadhi

Huang Tingjian: "In the center of a character is the brush, like the point of a Chan master's phrase."

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In a conversation with another user here on /r/zen, we were recently talking of poetry being expression of the intuition, feelings, and non-intellectual-laden mind, an expression of our Samadhi. The Blue Cliff Record says that once we know ourselves, in Samadhi it is a practice of communing freely with others. Zen Masters in this Samadhi speak truthful words (the BCR says the Zen Master takes place of Vairocana and speaks his words, Vairocana being the Space element; pure emptiness, and Vairocana is the "truth Body"). Bankei says not to repeat others dead words, and to speak live words, if we provide living words to the situations we face, we commune freely with others.

In the Mumonkan Mumon famously advises us,

路逢劍客須呈 Present a sword if you meet a swordsman;

不遇詩人莫獻 Don't offer a poem unless you meet a poet.

逢人且説三分 When talking, tell one-third of it;

未可全施一片 Don't divulge the whole at once.

If one is trapped in the intellect, defeat them with the sword of the intellect. If you meet a poet, offer them poetry and you will share a heart. If you wish to speak freely with others, throw out a fishing line and let them bite, when they resist, reel them in gently and slowly, releasing and returning, until they are pulled into the boat and meet the whole.

Though, to speak in a unique way that expresses one's spirit, is poetry always blatantly obvious poetry? Must it follow an accepted poem structure, or is there an experimental style of speaking which in its beauty and honesty is poetry? Is this what Mumon tells us of not offering a poem?

Recently I had been mulling over Hakuin's first experience of Samadhi at hearing another's (poetic) words. Found in Hakuin on Kensho: The Four Ways of Knowing by Albert Low:

"One day Hakuin read a passage from the verse given by Kido Chigu to his disciple Nampo as they were parting: "As we go to part, a tall bamboo stands by the gate; its leaves stir the clear breeze for you in farewell." He was overcome with a great joy, as though a dark path had suddenly been illumined. Unconsciously he cried aloud, "Today for the first time I have entered the samadhi of words." He arose and bowed in reverence."

That was certainly not something that would be formally recognized as a poem, but it struck to the heart of a master poet.

I found this rather interesting in The Chinese Aesthetic Tradition by Zehou Li, it said of old sayings on Chan literature and art which were, "To be Chan without being Chan results in poetry; In a poem that is not a poem, Chan is evident", as well as saying, "To try to write a Chan poem does not make sense; what results is neither Chan nor poetry."

There's a kind of intuitive, inspiration which merges the "spiritual" with the mundane, usually through the appreciation of nature or using nature as the base of the writing. When writing in Understanding, in Samadhi, we express our inherent Buddha-nature and enlightened mind.

Arthur Waley in Zen Buddhism and its Relation to Art:

"Hence the connection of Zen with the passionate love of Nature which is so evident in Far Eastern poetry and art.

Personally I believe that this passion for Nature worked more favourably on literature than on painting. The typical Zen picture, dashed off in a moment of exaltation—perhaps a moonlit river expressed in three blurs and a flourish—belongs rather to the art of calligraphy than to that of painting.

In his more elaborate depictions of nature the Zen artist is led by his love of nature into that common pitfall of lovers—sentimentality. The forms of Nature tend with him to function not as forms but as symbols.

Something resembling the mystic belief which Zen embraces is found in many countries and under many names. But Zen differs from other religions of the same kind in that it admits only one means by which the perception of Truth can be attained. Prayer, fasting, asceticism—all are dismissed as useless, giving place to one single resource, the method of self-hypnosis which I have here described."

This self-hypnosis absorption and "loss of self" is apparent in Samadhi, which in Zen, the art of writing to induce Samadhi has been called Hitsuzendō. From Wikipedia:

Hitsuzendō (筆禅道 "way of Zen through brush") is believed by Zen Buddhists to be a method of achieving samādhi (Japanese: 三昧 sanmai), which is a unification with the highest reality. Hitsuzendo refers specifically to a school of Japanese Zen calligraphy to which the rating system of modern calligraphy (well-proportioned and pleasing to the eye) is foreign. Instead, the calligraphy of Hitsuzendo must breathe with the vitality of eternal experience.

This natural flowing of the brush, and development of ones own unique style in writing is encouraged in writing of old, and in the newer Zen concepts such as Hitsuzendo. While the keyboard is hard to romanticize and disallows fluid motions as are capable with a brush, we develop our own typing styles and patterns through the keys become sub-conscious actions, we undeniably can achieve similar Samadhi at a keyboard and present a unique way of writing just the same.

I'll end this post like a new age nutbunker just for /u/ewk. Speaking of hypnosis and the brush, I'm reminded of this poem from Aleister Crowley:

"You weary me with proof enough

That all this meditation stuff

Is self-hypnosis. Be it so !

Do you suppose I did not know?

Still, to be accurate, I fear

The symptoms are entirely strange.

If I were hard, I'd make it clear

That criticism must arrange

An explanation different

For this particular event.

Surely, your best work always finds

Itself sole object of the mind's

In vain you ply the brush, distracted

By something you have heard or acted.

Expect some tedious visitor --

Your eye runs furtive to the door;

Your hand refuses to obey ;

You throw the useless brush away,

I think I hear the Word you say!"

• Aleister Crowley

What words will you say? Have you brought a sword to this post?

In the minds of great men, is the pen not mightier? What poems will you write?

Submitted December 31, 2017 at 07:28AM by Dillon123 http://ift.tt/2zRF8B1