Zen koan practice in the future (fictional)
An excerpt from:
The Entranceless Freeway
The Smith Collection (Smitkolek)
Written in 2010
Translated and with a Commentary by
Duk Futbak
(Zen Master Sitting Dragon - Empty Mind - No Fuel)
Author of The Claw that Points at the Moons
INTRODUCTION
By the Tukminian scholar, Yrag Yar
The year is 2751. Zen has totally disappeared from Japan, being replaced by Neo-Capitalism; a mix of Confucianism and the old beliefs of Capitalism. Zen in America is in a state of decline after becoming the predominant religion in the West; replacing Christianity in the 2100's. American Zen was at its height in the 2300's when the Entranceless Freeway was written by Zen Master Smith.
The Entranceless Freeway is a collection of American ko-ans that were distinct to Western culture. Inspired by some of the innovations by the great Zen Patriarchs Aitken Roshi and his opposite, yet equal, Echard Roshi, The Entranceless Freeway was a revolutionary work of the time. In the introduction to the work, Master Smith makes the comment:
A dried shitstick and three pounds of flax mean nothing to my students. I think fax machines and radial tires might be what it takes to get them motivated. If you do not know what something is, how can you exhaust your rational mind thinking about it?
By the 2450's, Zen had become decadent in the United States. Even the automobiles of Smith's ko-ans had long since been done away with, replaced by electric land and hovercars powered by solar generated batteries. The American government, on the upswing following the peaceful revolution of 2398 was spending most of its money on space exploration, and like the 20th Century, science again became the predominant belief system of Americans.
2501 was an eventful year for both American space exploration and the Zen community. Contact was established with a large, very wealthy planet called Ferrinar. The Ferrinarians were a spiritually advanced marine race that had given up material form -- claiming that their bodies were too constrictive, especially their tremendously long flippers. Instead, they existed in a much more efficient form, what modern-day scientists would call "plasmic energy". With the ability to transmute matter into energy and vice versa, the Ferrinarians were clearly the most wealthy race known to man.
In a little known, almost secret phase of American Zen, the more corrupt Zen Masters, smelling a profit, rushed to Ferrinar, vowing to save all sentient beings. Spending billions of dollars sent from home to set up lavish Zen Centers, the American "masters" began their quest of compassion. It took ten days before all sentient beings on Ferrinar realized enlightenment. The devastated Zen Masters, not sure whether it was their teachings or the previous spiritual development of the Ferrinarians, left the planet, vowing to keep the whole matter secret. (Ferrinarian Zen Centers were later turned into time share housing for the elite vacationing Zen masters)
In 2575, our planet (Tukmin) was contacted by Earth. Despite attempts to ignore Earth for over seventy-five years, official relations were established in 2652 after an interplanetary "incident". Within 100 years, Zen became a small but vibrant spiritual practice on our planet.
In any case, this translation of the Entranceless Freeway (Smitkolek) has relevance to the 2700's. Although we do not have roads, chickens or radial tires, this collection can serve as a modern day Tukminian Zen practice of cutting through thought process and realizing one's true nature, or as Zen Master Dertgalib (Closed Road) describes it: "Seeing your tail before you were hatched.". Only then will you be truly free as were the masters of the past. As Smith comments, "...when you do (master the teachings) your car keys will be on the same ring as theirs (the patriarchs)."
NOTE ON THE TRANSLATION
I use English names for English personages and give Begtagqok equivalents in parenthesis. I use certain Japanese terms such as Zen and ko-an, since these remain unchanged throughout the Western history of Zen.
When English words are introduced, such as chicken, radials, freeway, answering machine, and hairdresser, they are left as is. Some of these words have become such a strong part of Zen culture on Tukmin that most people know what they mean and occasionally appear in daily conversation.
When Begtagqok names are given of modern day teachers, their English Zen names are given in parenthesis. It should be noted that as a student advances through their practice, the teacher can add on to or alter existing Zen names, therefore as Master Sitting Dragon - Empty Mind - No Fuel (Duk Futbak) discusses in his book: The Claw that Points at the Moons, his original Zen name was Shrugelfraag (Flat Tire), but was not only changed when he switched teachers, but another name was added, resulting in a new name: Empty Mind - No Fuel. Practitioners are not even allowed to form attachments to their own name.
CASE 142
Taylor's Chicken
THE CASE
A student asked Taylor Master (Tailork), "Why did the chicken cross the road?"
Taylor said, "My Chevy needs new tires."
SMITH'S (SMITKOLEK'S) COMMENTS
Even if you memorize a road map you will still not know where the chicken is going. Even if you know Master Taylor's wheel size, you will still not know what kind of tires to buy. If you want to know why the chicken crossed the road, then you must follow a street map that has never been published. You must cross the road that all the teachers of the past have walked. When you do, your car keys will be on the same ring as theirs.
SMITH'S VERSE
Rushing in with talk of Radials
as relevant as chickens on highways;
They blabber all day long
As if their words had some meaning
DUK FUTBAK'S EXPLANATION
American culture was centered around roads and automobiles. Yet, with this ko-an, if the student attempts to understand roads, chickens, tires or Chevy's with their intellect, they will be lost. Ko-ans, including this one, are paradoxical, in that they are beyond logical thinking.
The first level of analysis of this ko-an is the obvious question of "Why did Zen Master Taylor say what he did?" Did he blurt out the first thing to came to mind, or does his answer make some sort of logical sense? The answer is yes and no.
Yes, Zen Master Taylor's response was logical and related directly to the student's query. The student asked Taylor a question, expecting a logical answer. Although the question was not profound, such as "What is the meaning of life?", it was still a question stemming from the rational mind. Zen Master Taylor's response was like a knife cutting through that stem. He was saying in his words about his car, to cut off rational thought right now!
The answer is also No. No, Zen Master Taylor's response was beyond the intellect and logical understanding. To grasp hold of Taylor's response is not only to grow new stems (from the mind), but to shield oneself from the original response. The reaction of the student is the difference between "I don't get it" and "Ahh!".
The students with the most trouble dropping logical thinking with this and other ko-ans are the intellectuals. The intellectuals have studied Zen and the history of Zen to no end. They come to the interview room with their minds working frantically, asking if Taylor had a Caprice or a Trans Am, or if he wanted performance or all weather radials. Some students are intensely concerned about whether the chicken is a hen or a rooster. Clearly, at first, these people are at a grave disadvantage.
For the first time, ignorance has its advantages. The "everyday" Zen student's intellectual understanding of radials and chickens is only cursory, allowing them to rid themselves of their entire intellectual process sooner. This lack of familiarity is even greater with terms that are historically or culturally obscure, such as the dried shitstick, flax, or even a fox (for Tukminians). When the intellect is almost completely exhausted from its fruitless effort, a crisis follows. This "experiential crisis" is sometimes referred to as "Great Doubt". In this stage, the student begins to doubt not only the rational answering of the ko-an, but rational thought itself.
In Eugen Herrigel's, Zen In The Art of Archery, Herrigel describes the masters guidance on proper form:
Carefully and with the adroitness of a psychopump he seeks to head the pupil off in time and to detach him from himself. This he does by pointing out, casually and as though it were scarcely worth the mention...that all right doing is accomplished only in a state of true selflessness, in which the doer cannot be present any longer as "himself." Only the spirit is present, a kind of awareness which shows no trace of egohood and for that reason ranges without limit through all distances and depths, with "eyes that hear and with ears that see.
With Taylor's Chicken, much like the ancient Patriarch Wu Men's Oak Tree in the Courtyard, the question to be asked is not what is the message, but what is the meaning. The message, as we have discussed, is the wato (or "punch line"). The wato in Taylor's Chicken is "My Chevy needs new tires". The meaning, however, is a transmission of mind.
As the ancient scholar Heinrich Dumoulin describes it: "In assessing ko-an practice, one should keep in mind that one is dealing with a method that leads to enlightenment, not with enlightenment itself." Dumoulin then goes on to describe the Japanese Buddhist scholar Ui Hakuju who makes a distinction between aids and doctrine on the way to enlightenment. "A ko-an is clearly an aid to enlightenment, that is, it is concerned with the end result of the student, not in making a doctrinal point." According to Ui, however, they are not entirely separate. Dumoulin analyzes Ui's position:
...Ui points out that the two elements are by no means mutually exclusive, but that each actually conditions the other: aids are rooted in Buddhist doctrine and presuppose it, while many doctrinal statements are used as ko-an exercises.
Chevrolets and tires are aids in this case. Although the message is meaningless, there is a meaning to the message. It is a message that invites the student to grasp a reality that is beyond words. The student asked a question and the master showed him his heart. "This is it", is what the master is telling him, "look and experience it for yourself." The student is being invited to grasp reality directly, beyond that of the literal meaning of the ko-an.
This is accomplished by becoming one with the ko-an. Only by taking in the Chevy that needs new tires and completely exhausting the mind can the answer be found. Eventually, after the student is one with the ko-an, the ko-an disappears and even the student disappears. the answer to the ko-an is the experience of what is left. That experience is a reality beyond chickens and tires yet a reality which is intimate and not separate from them. It is this experience that the master is looking for in his student.
