Quote from The Gateless Gate in a part 2 of the book, Zen Flesh, Zen Bones….
If you like sweets and easy living, skip this book. It is about men tremendously intent on being reborn, on satori, enlightenment.
After studying a number of spiritual disciplines, I have found that Zen is one of the most powerful ways to transform the quality of daily life that I have ever come across, and I found that reading this little book has been a great support to me in my life as a Zen practitioner. If however, Zen doesn’t float your boat, it will not make the slightest bit of sense and chances are you will soon close its covers.
Unlike other philosophies Zen is like climbing a huge mountain in which the climb is more important than the destination. This is where a great paradox comes into action… What is the point of making such a climb if to achieve your goal and reach the top is of the least importance? Exactly! The answer is in the question itself and comes to the practitioner experientially - so experientially that words are inadequate to explain the profundity of it. Climbers of great Mountains like Everest come closer to spirit of Zen when they answer the question, ‘why do you do it?’ by simply stating, ‘because it’s there!’ To me, my well-thumbed copy of this little book, is such a mountain, every time I read it!
I first purchased this book many years ago after doing a Zen weekend workshop that opened my mind to this irrational philosophy – if indeed it is a philosophy as most Zen masters say that Zen is not a philosophy. Philosophies get discussed and debated about, Zen is a living energy that is applied to day-to-day life.
Zen Flesh, Zen Bones is really a very apt title, because it really does get down to the flesh and bones of Zen from page one. Reading it elicits what I can best describe as a very subtle experience of expanded consciousness that seemed to grow as I grappled to find meaning in its words. But Zen Flesh, Zen Bones does not give a meaning, only more questions like, what does is it all mean?
There are four parts to the book the first part containing Zen Stories, which are stories of the exploits of Zen masters and their students first written in Japan some time in the 13th Century. Whilst some of these stories seem to make sense, there are others that when I first read them, left me confused, and wondering what point was being made. Now years later, I realize that Zen points to awareness by making the student think about what’s being said and drawing his/her own reality and conclusions from it.
The second part of the book is called the Gateless Gate, and getting into this, if one has “survived” the first part, really starts to take rationality apart. It consists of 49 koans – koans were devised to stop a Zen students rational mind blocking his path to enlightenment. They make little sense and the answer is in the koan itself. When I first read this Gateless Gate, I remember thinking that I might as will give up. That I was never going to get it! So I just read on from one to the other, and suddenly it felt as if my mind just stopped, as if I’d blown all the fuses. As I think back, I think this was my first experience of what the Zen masters call, no mind. I have since learned that in Zen practice, whilst we are seeking, we are blocking that which we seek, and when we give up, it simply comes to us. But we have to seek first!
The third part of the book, is called The 10 Bulls that describe by text and ink block drawings, the progressive path to enlightenment. Although enlightenment can happen in any instance at any time, the Ten Bulls is a compromise and recognizes that in our day-to-life there is a progression of events from a concept to it its realization. We first search for the bull (the path) and find what we are looking for. We then have to capture and master the techniques (taming and riding the bull). Then letting go (transcending) the bull and then any sense of self, to realize enlightenment and then come back into everyday life but this time we can apply the spirit of Zen.
After all this “mind scrambling” in the first three parts of the book, we need to become centred. Centering is recognizing that we are the same person that we have always been, yet somehow different in our awareness and perception of life.
I have read many Zen books and participated in many workshops over the last 30+ years but I still refer to my well-worn copy of Zen Flesh, Zen Bones very often and get something from it.
Zen Flesh, Zen Bones (UK link)
Zen Flesh, Zen Bones (USA Link)