A closer look at Hakuin's religious fraud and the end of any "Rinzai" lineage

Some people still haven't read Sound of One Hand, the book kept secret by Hakuin Buddhists until the beginning of the 1900's, when it was leaked to the press. The book details specific "pass" answers to Hakuin's test questions and illustrates how far some Buddhist churches will go to imitate the Zen tradition.

1. Hakuin's "Answers to Test Questions" is antithetical to Zen

• No Cases/koans about enlightenments which are certified by demonstrating memorization

• Zen Masters repeatedly warn against "dead words", which are written or spoken regurgitations of what somebody else meant at some other time.

• In Zen traditional, comments upon enlightenment are characterized by the unique, personal, and contextually revolutionary

2. Hakuin's "One Hand Clapping" is not a Case/koan at all

• Cases/koans starting with questions generally always contain a solicitation for information on a basic level; traditional examples include:

  • Why did Bodhidharma come from the West?
  • What do they teach where you come from?
  • What happened at place ABC or during event XYZ?
  • Cases/koans with opening question are never paradoxical on a basic level, "one hand clapping" is obviously a basic paradox.
  • Cases/koans traditionally solicit a conversation, and often obviously demand a unique contextual answer.

3. Explicit warnings against memorization in Zen texts (much like the explicit warnings against sitting meditation)

• Sutra study ridiculed, Case/koan memorization referred as eating/drinking piss/vomit of other people.

• Zen Masters rarely repeat what others have said as a final answer, and when this does happen it is often shocking and ambiguous.

• When quotes are used as answers, Zen Masters often become more aggressive and ask more questions.

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The Hakuin priest who writes the forward to the modern translation starts this way:

"When the Japanese edition of this book, Gendai Sōjizen Hyōron ("A Critique of Present-day Pseudo-Zen"), was first published in 1916, it caused a great sensation. The reason for this lay in the fact that the koans and their answers had been secretly transmitted from master to pupil in the Rinzai sect since the origination of the koan-teaching system in Japan by Zen Master Hakuin (1686-1769). This publication of the "secrets" of Zen seems to have, embarrassed many masters at that time. Furthermore, I have heard that the recent appearance of photocopies of this 1916 edition has caused alarm among Zen masters of today...

There really isn't any more to say. People who are more invested in status than in Zen study are obviously not interested in Zen.

Submitted June 04, 2019 at 02:56AM by ewk http://bit.ly/2HT4FRp