1

Sitting Quietly or Acting in the World?

Quietism and Zen Buddhism

Or

Kill the Buddha: Quietism in Action and Quietism as Action in Zen Buddhist Thought
and Practice
in Common Knowledge, Duke University Journal of Philodsophy, 16:3, 2010

Jacob Raz



Sitting quietly, doing nothing,
Spring comes, and the grass grows by itself

Jingde chuan deng lu, [Record of the Transmission of the Lamp], 26


The very trans-lation [carrying over] of a concept from one culture to the other is problematic.
When one says king, love, silence, or noise one naturally refers to ones personal and
cultural context of the word. Attachment and non-attachment are good examples; they carry
very specific and loaded sense in the West, but they resonate in a quite different psychological
and spiritual space in the Buddhist world. Therefore, both writer and reader should be wary of
carrying over the original cultural and religious sense of Christian Quietism to Zen Buddhism
[both western terms]. This is not a linguistic remark; it has to do with the very essence of the
subject in question here. Do we universally agree upon what quiet is?

All essays in this conference probably open with an attempt to air the definition of Quietism.
As is well known, the term comes from Christianity, more specifically from the teachings of
Miguel de Molinos [17
th
c.]. He preached the ideal of devotional and quiet contemplation,
abandonment of worldly affairs, including ones own will and the very personal self. The term
also implies the religious acceptance of things as they are without trying to resist or change them.
These ideas align with the ideal of silence: silent meditation, the ineffability of mystical and
contemplative experience, the awareness of the misleading power of words, and the silent
communion with God or the Ultimate. No words needed.

This sounds quite Buddhist: The silent sitting, the oneness of all phenomena, the denial of self,
even, in some sects, the unity with the Cosmic Buddha.

I now invite my readers to a mountain monastery of a Zen master of the past who is asked by
one of the monks about Quietism, and reacts immediately, ---ism what?!?! Have you finished
the weeding in the backyard yet???!!!

In this imagined, but authentic, scene I suggest that the master rejects or even expresses
contempt towards any attempt of taking seriously any ism, that is, the reduction of life
experience into formal definitions, sects, organizations, ideologies or any abstraction
whatsoever. Go and do your weeding. You will get all insights and enough Buddhahood there.
2

Still, Buddhism is about meditation, is it not? And meditation is about being quiet, is it not?
Buddhism speaks of Nirvana, quiet being; it is about monasteries, retreats, hermits, and ascetics.
It cherishes noble silence. How do we reconcile the masters harsh remark and these Buddhist
notions and practices?

But do we have to reconcile them? The problem lies in the questions assumptions, our
imagined master would say. In this paper I claim that the practices, insights, and philosophy of
Buddhism, particularly Zen Buddhism, teach the non-duality of quietist and active practice; that
this non-dual nature is rooted in the deepest level of Zen-Buddhist philosophy of life; and that in
spite of continuous, often heated, debates on the issue there has never been in Zen a true rivalry
between quietist and active practices and philosophies. I am aware that my claim is tricky; non-
dual claims pre-suppose duality - in our case, that of quietism and action in the world.
Admittedly, it could be argued that Zen Buddhism masters observed the duality present in former
Buddhist practices but succeeded in bridging these polar directions into one doctrine. But, as I
shall try to show, these seemingly polar directions are no more than variations on a basic
spiritual belief that rejects the very claim for any one true doctrine. It would even reject the
duality between duality and non-duality. These terms exist in the realm of concepts, not in
reality; certainly not in the reality of the Zen practitioner. Spiritually and practically, both
quietism and action are two different words to describe a unified state of being that includes
and transcends these terms, thus denying them altogether.

A Brief Introduction to Zen
Zen Buddhism is a Western term for a variety of Buddhist practices and philosophical attitudes
developed in China from the sixth century A.D.. These were gradually given the name Chan.
The Chan School developed as a process of constant intercourse between certain movements in
Mahayana Buddhism and Chinese philosophical and religious movements, particularly Daoism.
It was later introduced to Japan in late twelfth century, and given the name Zen; it developed in
Japan in continuity to its Chinese origin but also with a great deal of innovation. From the
beginning of the twentieth century it was introduced to the West from Japan as Zen. It has been
flourishing in the West particularly since WWII, first in America and then all over the world. Its
influence may be observed in philosophy, psychotherapy, painting, music, dance, design,
fashion, martial arts, environmentalism, as well as in social and peace activism. These testify, no
doubt, to its non-quietist, or even anti-quietist, nature.

And yet, literally, the word Zen, short for Zazen, means sitting meditation. This form of
meditation is sitting quietly, legs crossed, observing ones breathing and all there is, inside or
outside, rejecting nothing, holding on to nothing, preferring nothing. Until mid-twentieth century
the ideal Zen training meant living in a monastery, often in a mountain forest, under the guidance
of a roshi [master]. Life in a monastery involves two daily meditations; periodically the disciples
practice longer periods of intensive meditations - full days or even weeks, of constant, quiet,
meditation sessions. This approach to Zen training that concentrates on sitting was coined by the
Japanese Zen Mater Dogen [13
th
c.], shikantaza, just sit.

But a close observation of the history of Zen, in both China and Japan, shows that heated
discussions, arguments, even rivalries, between quietists and activists have always been the
reality of Zen. My claim is that both sides always represented both approaches. Differences were
more of emphasis, not essence. Often they were expressions of trends and local differences, as
often happens in spiritual and religious movements.

3
In the following I shall first survey briefly the Western image of Buddhism as a quietist religion,
and then describe both sides of Zen, the quietist and the activist. I shall then claim that these
have always been one and the same. My use of the word activist here is broader than the
common use of the word in the sense of, e.g. social activist; my own use of the word is in the
sense that the ideal of the Zen practitioner is being in the world; helping others; practicing his
Zen through work, martial arts, cooking, weeding, and other everyday activities; being connected
and engaged; all that in addition to his daily sitting. The word quietist in the Zen context will
be used as describing that side of Zen practice that emphasizes quiet sitting, seclusion,
contemplation, observation, serenity, and the idea as well as practice of emptiness.

Note: Hereafter the word Chan will be used for the beginning of the School in China, and Zen
for its Japanese and Western developments.

Western Images of Buddhism as Quietist
Here are two recent Christian descriptions of Buddhism as quietist:

Like Quietism, many eastern religions [Hinduism and Buddhism, for instance] aim at a state of
detachment or indifference, whether it be Nirvana for Buddhists, tranquil oneness with the
pantheist all-god, or the Tao.
1


Both Pantheistic Brahmanism and Buddhism aim at a sort of self-annihilation, a state of
indifference in which the soul enjoys an imperturbable tranquility. And the means of bringing
this about is the recognition of one's identity with Brahma, the all-god, or, for the Buddhist, the
quenching of desire and the consequent attainment of Nirvana, incompletely in the present life,
but completely after death.
2


Going back to earlier encounters between Christian missionaries and Buddhism, Chan/Zen and
other Buddhist sects during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

Early Christian missionaries to East Asia and Christian commentators created a quietist image
of Buddhism. These were based on observation of monastic life and from references to Daoist,
Buddhist, and Zen Buddhist scripts. Bernard Faure [1993] has studied several Christian texts of
the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries regarding their views on Buddhism and Zen Buddhism.
He begins with the writings of the Jesuit historian Jean-Baptiste du Halde [17
th
-18
th
c.]. In one of
his works du Halde writes,
The inner doctrine advocated by the Chinese monks [esp. chan] taught that a vacuum or
Nothing is the Principle of all Things, that from this our first Parents had their Origin, and to this
they returned after their Death
3
. In another work he says, apparently in an attempt to speak from
the mouths of Buddhist monks,
To live happily we must continually strive by Meditation. . . and to this end accustom ourselves
to do nothing, to desire nothing, to perceive nothing, to think on nothing; . . . all Holiness
consists in ceasing to be, and to be swallowed up by Nothing. [Man] has nothing to fear for the

1
The Original Catholic Encyclopedia, Online,
http://www.catholic.com/thisrock/1994/9402hotm.asp] Catholic answers. (July 9, 2009)
2
BELIEVE Website, Online, http://mb-soft.com/believe/txn/quietism.htm (July 9, 2009)
3
du Halde, Jean-Baptiste , Descriptions geographique, 1735, p. 51. Quoted in Faure,
Bernard, Chan Insights and Oversights: An Epistemological Critique of the Chan Tradition,
(New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1993), p. 30.
4
future, because properly speaking he is Nothing.
4
This he accompanies with harsh words: Who
would take of cultivating fields, and make the useful products of the loom?
5


As Faure shows, often these characterizations of Chan Buddhism as Quietism or a form of
ataraxy were used to support inner Christian debates about the pros and cons of Quietism,
according to the writers stand. In most cases the criticism of Buddhism was actually aimed at
enemies back home
6
. The French Protestant philosopher Pierre Bayle is quoted by Faure as
saying, If we did not know the folly of our quietists, we would believe that the writers who tell
us about these speculative Chinese have neither understood things nor related them very well;
but considering what happens among Christians, it would be out of place to be incredulous
concerning the folly of the Foe Kiao [fojiao] or Vu guei Kiao [wuwei jiao] sect.
7
. By wuwei,
non-action, the writer refers to one of the main ideas of Daoism, to which I will return later.
Comparing Buddhism to Quietists served, then, not the interest in or the scholarship of Chinese
Buddhism, but to fight Christian enemies. Of special interest is Pierre Bayles description of
Japanese Zen monks: [they] neglect the externals, apply themselves exclusively to meditation,
reject any discipline that has to do with words, and apply themselves only to the exercise
Soquxin Soqueut [J: sokushin sokubutsu, This very mind is the Buddha], that is to say, the
heart.
8


The debate on the quietist, or non-quietist nature, of Zen continued well into the twentieth
century. D.T. Suzuki, a Japanese scholar of Zen Buddhism, and a Zen practitioner, is considered
responsible for introducing Zen to the West, acted and lived mainly in America in the latter part
of his life. Being both a Zen-man and, in many ways, a Western scholar, he served as an
intermediate of sorts. Discussing the debate on quietism, he often accused several Zen sects [e.g.,
the Northern School see below - and Soto Zen] as being quietist. As Faure rightly suggests,
Suzuki, at the early stage of his scholarly life, seemed to have been ambivalent about the quietist
or non-quietist nature of Zen, and about his own attitude towards the issue. Later on, however,
especially when facing some Western perceptions of Zen as a spiritual movement where
everything goes, he seems to be warning against any quietist interpretation of Zen. His
comment about the legendary nine-year wall contemplation of Bodhidharma, the founder of Zen
[6
th
c.], is that such means are something unapproachable for the ordinary practitioner.
9
In the
same line, he warns against the interpretation of sunyata, emptiness, as negation. Sunyata is, for
him, what makes the existence of everything possible. For Suzuki, Zen practice, for example the
koan practice, is a hard work of spiritual inquiry and is anything but quiet quest. Moreover, it is
precisely the koan practice that keeps Zen from degenerating into quietism or intellectualism.
For Suzuki, everydays experience is the highest goal of Buddhism. By this stand he follows
many masters of the past.

But is Zens position clear about this? And is there any Zen position about this, or any other,
issue? Suzukis ambivalent position towards the question of Zen and quietism may well reflect
the ambivalence of Zen itself over its long history. In order to understand the complexity of the

4
du Halde, Jean-Baptiste ,The General History of China, quoted in Faure, ibid., 30.
5
Ibid., p. 277. Quoted in Faure, ibid., p. 31.
6
Faure., pp. 31-32.
7
Bayle, Pierre, Ecrit sur Spinoza, (Paris: LAutre Rive, 1983), p. 41. Quoted in Faure, p. 33.
8
Quoted ibid. p. 33.
9
Suzuki, D.T., Essays in Zen Buddhism, 3 vols. (London: Rider and Company, 1949-1953),
vol. 2, pp. 125.
5
Chan/Zen attitude towards quietism it is necessary now to look into some of the earlier non-
Buddhist influences on Zen Buddhism in both India and China.

Non-Buddhist Ideas and Practices of a Quietist Nature in India

At the time of its emergence in the 6
th
-5
th
BCE, Buddhism was a growing movement within the
spiritual and philosophical arena in India. In some significant ways it rebelled against these
traditions. In other ways, though, Buddhism was influenced by them and absorbed ideas from
contemporary religious and philosophical movements prevalent in India, although it altered them
to suit its own intention and practice. It also influenced these movements. Examining some of
these ideas, one finds a strong quietist factor in some of these movements, particularly Yoga and
the Upanishads. We shall briefly examine a sample of these ideas.

A famous passage in the Mundaka Upanishad [III,i.] offers the simile of the two birds on the
life-tree: one, on a lower branch, eats both bitter and sweet fruits. The other, seated on top of the
tree eats neither the sweet not the bitter fruit. It just sits calmly and serenely. This bird is the
Ultimate, the Cosmic and Transcendental Self, while the lower bird is the individual self. The
Upanishadic ideal was, no doubt, the calm and serene state of being, which is one with Being.

The Bhagavad Gita, one of the most important and influential philosophical discourses in the
Hindu tradition, states [5:27-28], When the sage of silence, the Muni, closes the doors of his
soul and, resting his inner gaze between the eyebrows, keeps peaceful and even the ebbing and
flowing of breath; and with life and mind and reason in harmony, and with desire and fear and
wrath gone, keeps silent his soul before final freedom, he in truth has attained final freedom.
10


The famous opening of the Patanjalis Yoga Sutra, the most important text of the Yoga
philosophy, says, yogash chitnirodhata vritti nirodha [Yoga is the cessation of mental activity].
Patanjali teaches here, and later, the ideal of the silent, lone yogi: He is sitting calmly, gaining
ultimate knowledge, and that implies cessation, elimination, abnegation, and total disintegration.
Silence is the ultimate truth.

These three examples represent several dominant voices in Indian thought and practice around
the emergence and early development of the Buddhist movement in India. The Buddha and his
followers were familiar with these religious/philosophical trends, and one can find their deep
traces in Buddhist thought and practice; after all, the Buddha experienced his great awakening
while sitting silently in meditation under a tree. Basic notions and practices of emptiness, the
Third Noble Truth of nirodha [fading out, cessation of craving], the life in the monastery, the
notion and practice of anatta [non-selfhood], and other ideas and practices in Buddhism support
the observation that it adopted quietist directions. Let us turn now to China and look into one of
the most dominant Chinese influences on Chan/Zen Buddhism, the philosophy and practice of
Daoism.

Doaism and Quietism
Daoism [Taoism], an ancient complex of religious rituals and intriguing philosophies, emerged,
according to tradition during the sixth century BCE, with the teachings of the legendary sage
Laozi. When Buddhism was introduced to China from India from the first century [AD] on, it
naturally interacted with Daoism, and by the sixth century, it had a tremendous influence on the
beginning of the Chan School of Buddhism, mainly because many of its ideas corresponded or

10
Mascaro, Juan, trans., Bhagavad Gita, (Harmondsworth: Penguin Classic, 1962), p. 29.
6
echoed basic Buddhist ideas such as emptiness and suchness. It is therefore worth looking briefly
at these Daoist ideas.

In Daoism, and particularly in the first Daoist work, the Laozi [or Daodejing], the ancient term
dao takes on for the first time in the meaning of Ultimate Truth, one and transcendent, invisible
(yi), inaudible (xi), and imperceptible (wei; chap. 14), not usable and not namable. These
characteristics of the dao were retained in all schools of Daoism.

These features seem to refer to an inner experience resulting from meditation techniques [which
are not clarified in the text] aiming at quiescence. Two terms first come to mind as pointing to a
quietist tendency in Daoism, and through its influence, in Chan: wuwei and qingjing. The notion
of wuwei [non-action, not-doing, non-intervention], means a state of being of letting matters and
events go in their natural course, without intervention, and without disrupting the world from its
ziran [self-so, so-of-itself, natural] state. This can be interpreted, no doubt, as a recommendation
for sitting quietly and doing nothing. However, numerous classical and modern commentators
point that the idea suggests non-intervention in the natural course of things rather than literal
non-action.

The term qingjing is also central to Daoism. It means clarity and quiescence [Daodejing, chap.
45]. Daoism consistently attached importance to qingjing as the ideal state of body and mind,
where the mind is constantly quiet and calm, thereby becoming clear, desires disappear, and the
practitioner can attain the dao. In the Shiji [Records of the Historian; J. 130] Laozi, the founder
sage of Daoism, is described as man who transformed himself through wuwei and established
himself as correct through qingjing.
11
Miura Kunio, in his article on qingjing, observes that,
This compound [qingjing. J.R.] cannot but call to mind Buddhist terminology. The idea of
qingjing already existed in early Buddhism, since terms equivalent to the Chinese compound
qingjing can be found in both Sanskrit and Pali [parisuddhi, visuddhi: clear and pure, free from
defilement], and was later developed within Mahayana [Great Vehicle] Buddhism into the idea
of the innately pure mind [meaning that the mind of sentient beings is inherently pure and free
from defilement]. Whereas Chinese Buddhism always uses the compound qingjing (clarity
and purity) rather than qingjing (clarity and quiescence), Taoism uses both
interchangeably. When qingjing [clarity and purity] is used, however, there is ample room
for considering a Buddhist influence.
12


In the Tang period [CT 620] there appears another Daoist scripture, the Qingjingjing [Scripture
of Clarity and Quiescence]. The text combines the thought and phrasing of the Daodejing with
the structure of the Pranjaparamita Hrdaya Sutra [Heart Sutra of Perfect Wisdom], famous for
the centrality of the idea of emptiness. The Sutra is so central in Zen that monks all over the Zen
world chant the full text every morning. The practitioner who followed the Qingjingjing, was
supposed to achieve the observation of emptiness and quiescence.
13


As mentioned above, Christian missionaries were quick to identify the central Daoist notion of
wuwei in the Chan School, and thereby pointed to its quietist nature. In fact, the idea of wuwei is

11
Miura, Kunio, Clarity and Quiescence, The Online Encyclopedia of Taoism, Online,
http://www.stanford.edu/~predagio/eot.html (August 10, 2009)
12
Ibid.
13
Kohn, Livia, Scripture of Clarity and Quiescence, in The Online Encyclopedia of Taoism,
Online, http://www.stanford.edu/~predagio/eot.html (August 10, 2009)

7
important but is just one among many ideas that can support the quietist image of Daoism. The
Daodejing, the first Daoist scripture, offers rich metaphors of a quietist nature: the character of
the Dao as invisible, silent, empty, unnamable, inaudible, intangible, ineffable, an empty vessel;
its features of quietude, nothingness, serenity; its mysterious, formless nature, and so on. [for
example, chapters 1, 16, 25, 40, 42, 43, 48 in the Daodejing]. Lets look at chapter 16, for a full
example:

I do my utmost to attain emptiness;
I hold firmly to stillness.
The myriad creatures all rise together
And I watch their return.
The teaming creatures
All return to their separate roots.
Returning to one's roots is known as stillness
14


or

In the pursuit of learning one knows more every day;
In the pursuit of the way one does less every day.
One does less and less until one does nothing at all,
And when one does nothing at all there is nothing that is undone.
15


Let us turn now to Chan/Zen Buddhism itself to examine how these ideas were introduced,
influenced, or rejected by the new spiritual movement.

Unity and Complexity in Buddhism and Chan/Zen Buddhism

Buddhism, particularly within the first millennium of its existence, expanded from India to most
of the Asian continent, and underwent significant transformations into a great variety of
directions, sects, and practices, at times seemingly contradictory to one another. For example,
from the second century AD on, Mahayana Buddhism simultaneously developed both mystical
transcendental and earthly branches of thought and practice. These at first sight may these may
even seem to belong to completely different religious and spiritual traditions.

The path that led to Chan/Zen was already present during the first centuries AD in several
Mahayanic texts; these predict the seemingly double nature of Zen: quietist and non-quietist. I
shall present here briefly several samples from these texts. The first is The Heart Sutra, in which
the most famous lines declare that,

Form is emptiness, emptiness is form, emptiness does not differ from form, form does not differ
from emptiness; whatever is form, that is emptiness, whatever is emptiness, that is form.
16


The term sunyata, emptiness, has been repeatedly interpreted as a concept and practice leading to
mystical silence. Understanding the ultimate reality lies, according to this interpretation, beyond

14
Lau, D.C., trans., The Tao Te Ching, chap 16, Online,
http://www.terebess.hu/english/tao/lau.html (August 16, 2009)
15
Ibid., chap. 48.
16
Conze, Edward, trans., The Heart Sutra, in Buddhist Scriptures, (Harmondsworth:
Penguin Classics, 1962), p. 162
8
philosophical reasoning; the ultimate is ineffable. So the way to experience it is itself stillness of
body and mind. Yet another possible interpretation of emptiness is the absurdity of the concept
of ultimate reality itself, when wrongly conceived as separate from the relative and conventional.
The idea of ultimate reality, stripped from concepts and the observer, is just another delusion of
the mind. So the practice of the Zen disciple leads him back to the conventional, to the
marketplace, as we shall see later; to realizing that the conventional is one and the same as the
ultimate. It is the dualism of the ultimate and the conventional that is erased through the practice
of emptiness, along with the delusion that the independent mind can experience ultimate truth.
This last delusion in itself reveals a hidden belief in self, that is contrary to the basic observation
of Buddhism of non-selfhood. As suggested before, a Zen master will send his deluded disciple
to go back to his daily work, and experience ultimate truth through weeding the backyard or
cutting vegetables for dinner.

The other text worth mentioning in this context is the Mahayana-sraddhotpada shastra [The
Awakening of Faith in Mahayana; around 5
th
c. AD]. Its opening lines say,

the principle of the One Mind has two aspects. One is the aspect of Mind in term of the
Absolute [tathata; suchness] and the other is the aspect of Mind in term of phenomena [samsara;
birth and death; the world of phenomena]. Each of these two aspects embraces all states of
existence. Why? Because these two aspects are mutually inclusive.
17


The anonymous writer equates here the relative world of phenomena [samsara] and the ultimate
[tathata: suchness, thisness]. Note that the Utimate, which hitherto had been named nirvana
[blowing out, fading out, cessation], is replaced by suchness, or thisness, that is, things as they
are. This was a brave, revolutionary turn in Buddhist thought and practice. The highest goal of
the practitioner was, then, not cessation, but observing and living with phenomena as they are, in
their suchness. Nirvana is there, thisness is here; nirvana is a goal, thisness is presence. Nirvana,
as a goal, negates the present, while thisness affirms the present, whatever it is. One starts from
approving the here, not by craving for something that is there.


The Huayan sect of Buddhism, which provides the philosophical basis for the Chan School,
preached, through the teachings of its founder, Dushun [7
th
c.], the doctrine of the Four
Dharmadhatu [The Four Dharma Realms]. These are:
1. The realm of shi [phenomena, matter]
2. The realm of li [ultimate reality, emptiness]
3. The realm of lishi wuai [non-obstruction between the ultimate and phenomena]
4. The realm of shishi wuai [non-obstruction between phenomena]

This doctrine clearly declares the absence of a gap between emptiness and form, absolute and
relative. It makes clear that there is no recommendation for the practitioner to separate himself
from the world, since the principle of interpenetration of all phenomena and thought denies the
very concept of dual existence of Ultimate and Relative.

Teaching of the Great Masters

17
Hakeda, Yoshito, trans., The Awakening of Faith in Mahayana, Online
http://zbohy.zatma.org/Dharma/zbohy/Sruti-Smriti/Shastras/awakening-of-faith.html
(August 29, 2009)
9
Reading the teachings of the first Chan Patriarch, Bodhidharma [6
th
c.], we can see already in
early Chan both quietist and activist nature of the spiritual practice. In his Two Entrances he
recommends the real and coagulated state [in which the practitioner] abides in wall-examining
[and] then [realizes that] self and other, common man and sage are identical; firmly abiding
without shifting, in no way following after the written teachings - this is mysteriously tallying
with principle. It is non-discriminative, quiescent, and inactive. We call it entrance to
principle.
18
But in other writings and dialogues we find repeated warnings against quietist
tendencies. The following dialogue is revealing. A disciple asks his teacher, What is the mind?
What is calming the mind? to which the master replies, You need not set up a mind, and you do
not need to exert yourself in quieting it. That is called quieting.
19


Huineng, the sixth Chan Patriarch [7
th
C.], was a remarkable master who gave the Chan School
its Chan/Zen flavor. D.T. Suzuki says that it was due to Huineng that his sect, hitherto
comparatively inactive and rather tending to ascetic quietism, now assumed a more energetic
role, and began to have a growing influence [Studies in Zen, 1955, 16]. We can find Huinengs
attitude towards Buddhist practice in the most famous incident in the Tanjing [Platform Sutra]:
His teacher, Master Hongren, challenged his disciples to write a verse expressing their
understanding of the Buddhist doctrine. The winner was to be nominated as his dharma heir.
Shenxiu, the chief monk, wrote the following:

The body is the Bodhi tree,
20

The mind is like a clear mirror standing.
At all times we must strive to polish it,
And must not let the dust collect.
21


Huineng, an illiterate disciple who worked in the kitchen, heard this and asked someone to write
the following verse for him:

Bodhi originally has no tree,
The mirror also has no stand.
Originally, not one thing exists;
Where is there room for dust?
22


These two verses present two opposing approaches to the basic questions of
Buddhist doctrine as well as the practice of meditation: How do we observe and sense the world?
What is the goal of spiritual practice? What is it we do in meditation? What is the sense and aim
of sitting meditation?


18
Broughton, Jeffrey L., trans., The Bodhidharma Anthology, (Berkeley and Los Angeles:
University of California Press,1999), p. 9.
19
ibid., p.85.
20
The tree of the Buddhas awakening.
21
Yampolsky, Philip B., trans., The Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch, (New York and
London: Columbia University Press, 1967), p. 130. I have made a small correction: I added
standing to the second line. J.R.
22
Ibid., p. 132. I have changed the third line. Yampolsky offer two other versions of the
Huinengs verse. See his notes on p. 132. The line I changed follows later versions of the
verse.
10
D.T. Suzuki, commenting on this incident, says, This dust wiping attitude of Shenxiu and his
followers inevitably leads to the quietistic method of meditation, and it was indeed the method
which they recommended. They taught the entering into a Samadhi [calm abiding. J.R.] by
means of concentration, and the purifying of the mind by making it dwell on one thought.
23
He
further comments that [the disciples] meditation may end in clearing the mirror of
consciousness in which he expects to see the image of his original pure self-being reflected. This
may be called static meditation. But serenely reflecting or contemplating on the purity of the
Mind has a suicidal effect on life, and Huineng vehemently protested against this type of
meditation.
24


Huineng and his disciples proposed the term jianxing [kensho in Japanese], as the goal of
meditation. Jianxing means to look into the nature [of the Mind]. The term replaced kanjing,
to keep an eye on purity, which has a flavor of supervision. As we saw above, this was
Shenxius attitude to meditation, and it was criticized by Huineng, who viewed it as going
against the true understanding of Chan. His proposal of jianxing meant that the practitioner was
looking into the nature of things, not supervising the cleaning of the dust. Another dispute
between the two approaches was around the implied or open demand by the mirror-wipers that
the disciples practice be the negation of all qualities and entering a state of absolute no-ness.
True, one can often find expressions such as cleansing the mind also in Huinengs writings, yet
his condemnation of quietist tendencies is clear: When you sit quietly with an emptied mind,
this is falling into a blank emptiness, or there are some people with the confused notion that the
greatest achievement is to sit quietly with an emptied mind, where no thought is allowed to be
conceived. His clear advice is neither to cling to the notion of a mind, not to cling to the notion
of purity, nor to cherish the thought of immovability; for these are not our meditation. Or
further, when you cherish the notion of purity and cling to it, you turn purity into falsehood . . .
Purity has neither form nor shape, and when you claim an achievement by establishing a form to
be known as purity, you obstruct your own self-nature, you are purity-bound.
25


In section 17 of the Tanjing Huineng says, Good friends, in this teaching of mine, . . . all have
set up to no-thought [wunien often rendered equivalent to wuxin, no-mind] as the main
doctrine, non-form as the substance, and non-abiding as the basis. Non-form is to be separated
from form even when associated with form. No-thought is not to think even when involved in
thought.
26
Note that there is neither affirmation nor denial of thought or form here.

And at his deathbed he says to his disciples

Sentient beings can move,
Non-sentient things are without motion;
If you undertake the practices of non-motion, [i.e. the quietist approach. J.R.]]
You will be identical with the non-motion of the non-sentient.
27


These teachings do not mean, though, that Huineng or his disciples preached against sitting in
meditation. The question was not whether to sit in meditation or not. The question was what the
nature and goals of sitting were. The Southern [Sudden] school of Chan [affiliated with

23
Suzuki, D.T., The Zen Doctrine of No-Mind, (London: Rider and com. 1958), p.18.
24
Ibid., p. 25.
25
Ibid., pp. 26-27.
26
Yampolsky, The Platform Sutra, p. 17.
27
Ibid., p. 48.
11
Huineng] and the Northern [Gradual] School were in disagreement about the question. The
Southern School insisted that the Northern School failed to understand the non-dual nature of
awakening. Their criticism claims that sitting in meditation, purifying and concentrating the
mind, expecting to attain awakening, is a form of senseless passivity. It is a wrong perception of
awakening, conceiving it as separate from sitting itself, or for that matter, from all conventional
reality.

Huineng cautioned his followers to avoid quietism by all means, and warned against its dangers.
But most other disciples of his master Hongren were more or less inclined to adopt quietism as
the orthodox method of meditation practice. Huinengs own disciples, though, were not clear
about the issue. One example is Shenhui, one of his main disciples. Shenhuis teachings at times
preach practices of world denying, as part of his doctrine of the calm and purity of awakening, a
state of being opposed to the impure nature of this world. But some writings and stories suggest
the opposite. In a certain dialogue between Maters Shenhui and Cheng they mention Vimalakirti
[in Vimalkirti-nirdesa], a central figure in Zen teaching. In this dialogue Shenhui clearly prefers
a non-quietist approach:

If someone sits [in meditation] and freezes the mind in order to enter concentration, fixes the
mind in order to contemplate purity, arouses the mind in order to illuminate externally and
restrains it in order to experience it internally, this person is hindering enlightenment . . . how is
one going to be able to attain liberation? Not by continuing to sit in meditation . . . If sitting were
the correct approach, then Vimalakirti would not have upbraided Sariputra [one of the Buddhas
main disciples. J.R.] when the latter sat in silence in the forest.
28
Shenhui observes that non-
doing as a conscious effort in meditation is no different from other forms of karmic
construction; it is an action. As Gregory points out in his commentary to his translation of the
passage, even a retired contemplation and observing the mind is a kind of activity. The world-
denying attitude of the Northern school was based on a perception of a gap between what they
perceived as the pure world of the Ultimate and the contaminated realm of the Relative or
conventional, that is, the world of illusion. Shenhui rejects this attempt at purification. He uses
the word samadhi as pointing to a meditation practice that does not deny the world of
phenomena, or its appearance in the meditating mind. Still, both schools have their inner
contradictions, and it seems that the dramatic changes in contemporary Chan are reflected in
their indecision as to the quietist or non-quietist nature of spiritual practice.

Let us look now into a few examples of later masters after Huineng, from both China and Japan.

Mazu [8
th
C.] was an avid Zen practitioner before he met Huairang [7
th
, 8
th
C.], one of Huinengs
greatest disciples. He was a quiet sitter who wanted to gaze at the pure nothingness of self-
nature. But then Huairang told him once, that if you intend to attain Buddhahood by sitting
cross-legged in meditation, this is murdering the Buddha.

Baizhang [8
th
C.] was the Zen Master famous for establishing the Zen monastic rule. He
propagated physical labor and was very insistent on working every day. He is famous for his
saying, A day of no work is a day of no eating. True to his teaching, Baizhang worked until old
age. The monks felt sorry for him so they hid his tools. He then said, I have no virtue. Why
should others work for me? And he refused to eat. Baizhang revolutionized monastic life, and to

28
Quoted in Gregory, Peter N., Sudden and Gradual: Approaches to Enlightenment in
Chinese Thought, (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1987), p. 81.
12
this day the Zen schools are noted for their practice of work as part of the spiritual discipline; a
monks pratice is both sitting and working.

Zhaozhou [9
th
C.], one of the most remarkable of Chan masters, was famous for his repeated
provocations aimed at grounding his students. In a very famous incident, a monk makes a request
of Zhaozhou, I have just entered the monastery, please give me instructions. Zhaozhou says,
Have you had your breakfast? Yes, I have, replies the monk. Then go and wash the bowls,
says Zhaozhou. The monk is awakened.

In a famous case of the Bianlu [Blue Cliff Record], Deshan [10
th
C.], a master famous as an
expert of the Diamond Sutra, wants to buy some refreshments from an old woman selling rice-
cakes. The woman asks, According to the Diamond Sutra, the past mind is non-abiding, the
present mind is non-abiding, and the future mind is non-abiding. So, where is the mind that you
now seek to refresh with rice-cakes? The old woman thus teaches Deshan a lesson about the
non-duality of the Ultimate and rice-cake refreshments, between silence and discourse.

Dahui [12
th
C.] says the awakening is like dead ashes and cold wood, but also harshly criticizes
the heretical Chan of silent illumination.

A work of great significance that appeared in the twelfth century in China exemplifies the
complexity of later Chan attitude. Widely known as Shiniu [Ten Oxherding Pictures], it is a
series of ten pictures showing, symbolically, the path to awakening. It is attributed to Master
Guoan. The series is accompanied by a series of complementary poems that poetically illustrate
the pictorials. The story is simple: an oxherd lost his ox. In the first picture he sets out to look for
it in the mountains. In the second picture he finds its traces in the grass. In the third he sees the
ox. In the fourth he catches the ox, and there is a violent struggle between them. In the fifth
picture the oxherd leads the ox peacefully towards home. The sixth picture presents a more
peaceful scene the oxherd is riding the ox, facing the tail, and playing a flute. The seventh
picture, titled ox forgotten, person remaining, shows the oxherd sitting calmly at home. The
eighth picture, titled person and ox, both forgotten is an empty circle. The ninth picture shows
a natural scene, and is titled going back to the sources. The tenth picture presents the final stage
of awakening: it shows the oxherd returning to the marketplace. This says all.

A close examination of the texts accompanying the pictures shows that the oxherd journey
presents both quietist and activist attitudes. We shall take a look now at the poems
accompanying the seventh, eighth, and tenth pictures. The poem attached to the seventh picture
[ox forgotten, person remaining] says,

You have mounted the ox, and already reached your home in the mountains,
The ox is gone and the person has nothing more to do.
Though the morning sun has already risen three bamboo lengths, he dreams on.
The whip and the halter, no longer of use, are hung up in the stall.

The following is an empty picture titled person and ox, both forgotten. The poem says,

Whip, tether, person and ox all are empty.
The blue sky spreads out far and wide, it cannot be communicated.
On a hot-red oven, how can there be any place for snow?
Having come this far, you understand the intention of the patriarchs.

13
The final poem, accompanying the last picture [entering the market with arms hanging loose],
says,

Shoeless and bare-chested he enters the market place;
He is daubed with earth and ashes, and a smile fills his face.
Making no use of the secrets of gods and wizards,
He causes withered trees to bloom.
29


The oxherds journey presents, then, a gradual shift from the search of the first picture to the
struggle of the fourth. It continues to the state of serenity of the seventh picture, where there is
nothing more to do; then to the eighth, blank picture, where all is empty and there is no place
for snow, or anything, because it melts into nothingness. There is nothing to be communicated.
Finally it leads to the last picture where the oxherd, now turned into a Bodhisattva saint, returns
to the hustle-bustle of the marketplace, daubed with earth and ashes. It is quiescence is within
action.

Dogen [13thC.], the greatest of Japanese religious masters, expressed his ideas on meditation in a
variety of seemingly contradictory ways. On the one hand he preached silent meditation, as the
ultimate practice where one needs no further action; he called it shikantaza [just sit]. On the
other hand, he repeatedly stressed the everyday, active, aspect of Zen practice. Dogen taught that
one does not sit in meditation in order to become a Buddha; one sits in meditation because he is
Buddha. In other words, in Zen practice one does not deny anything; one affirms ones own
Buddha nature as is. This is exemplified also in his many poems. For example,

Attaining the heart
Of the sutra,
The sounds of the
Bustling marketplace
Preach the dharma
30


Day and night, night and day,
The way of the dharma as everyday life;
In each act our hearts
Resonate with the call of the sutra

The mystical cry of the monkeys
Resounding from the mountain peaks,
Echoing in the valleys below;
The sound of the sutra being preached
31


Colors of the mountains,
Streams of the valleys;
One in all, all in one,
The voice and body of our Buddha
32


29
Kubota, Jiun , Ten Oxherding Pictures with the Verses Composed by Kakuan Zenji, Online,
http://www.sanbo-zen.org/cow_e.html (August 29, 2009)
30
Heine, Steven, The Zen Poetry of Dogen: Verses from the Mountain of Eternal Peace,
(Boston: Tuttle Publishing, 1997), p. 92.
31
Ibid., p. 97.
14

There are two stories told by Dogen about his two different meetings with two tenzo monastery
cooks. In the first story he tells how he met an old cook working in the sun, and asked him, Why
are you working so hard in this scorching sun? The tenzo replied, If I do not do it now, when
else can I do it? In the other story, Dogen asked a tenzo about Zen practice and about the
meaning of the Chinese characters of zazen [sitting Zen]. The tenzo replied, There is nothing in
the world that is hidden; the meaning of the characters is one, two, three, four, five. That is, the
truth of life manifests itself in all places and in all things, as they are. In one of his famous books,
Tenzo kyokun [Instructions for the Cook] he teaches Buddhist practice through cooking. For
Dogen this is no more, no less than any other action, including meditation. Putting the mind of
the Way to work, serve carefully varied meals appropriate to each occasion and thus allow
everyone to practice without hindrance.
33


Ikkyu, the great Japanese master [15
th
C.], was one of the most provocative figures in Japanese
Zen. Calling himself Crazy Cloud and Blind Donkey, his antinomian acts may cause outrage
even in most liberal communities. In his teachings and poetry we find descriptions and
recommendations for a wide variety of spiritual practices. On the one hand, he spent long periods
of time as a hermit in the mountains and wrote poems expressing experiences of deep serenity
and quiescence,

A thatched hut of three rooms surpasses seven great halls.
Crazy Cloud is shut up here far removed from the vulgar world.
The night deepens; I remain within, all alone,
A single light illuminating the long autumn night.
34


I like it best when no one comes,
Preferring fallen leaves and swirling flowers for company.
Just an old Zen monk living like he should,
A withered plum tree suddenly sprouting a hundred blossoms.
35


But in other poems he might present quite another face of spiritual practice,

Ten days in this temple and my mind is reeling!
Between my legs the red thread stretches and stretches.
If you come some other day and ask for me,
Better look in a fish stall, a sake shop, or a brothel.

Or
Monks these days study hard in order to turn
A fine phrase and win fame as talented poets.
At crazy Clouds hut there is no such talent, but he serves up the taste of truth
As he boils rice in a wobbly old cauldron.
36



32
Ibid., p. 98.
33
Yasuda Joshu Daiden and Anzan Hoshin Roshi, trans. Tenzo Kyokun, Online,
http://www.wwzc.org/translations/tenzokyokun.htm#_ftn7 (September 5, 2009)
34
Stevens, John, Wild Ways: Ikkyu Zen Poems, (Buffalo: White Pines Press, 2003), p. 41
35
Ibid., p. 43.
36
Ibid., p. 27.
15
Emerging from the worlds grime, a puritan saint is still nowhere near a Buddha.
Enter a brothel once and Great Wisdom will explode upon you.
Manjusri should have let Ananda enjoy himself in a whorehouse
Now he will never know and joys of elegant love play.
37


Another wild Zen master, Hakuin [18
th
C.], preached vehemently against quietist attitudes in Zen
practice, and pointed to the universality of awakening experience: What is true meditation? It is
to make everything: coughing, swallowing, waving the arms, motion, stillness, action, the evil
and the good, prosperity and shame, gain and loss, right and wrong, into one single koan.
38
He
repeatedly called for dochu no kufu, [meditative] diligence in the midst of activity. Hakuin
walked his talk; in his humble monastery in a small village he welcomed everyone, monk and
layperson, and was fully involved in a variety of personal, social, and political affairs. In his
iconoclastic interpretation of the Heart Sutra, his comments on the famous closing mantra [gate
gate paragate parasamgate bodh isvaha] are the voice of humanistic Zen, He is still at it! Over
and over! What about woodcutters songs? Fishermens chanteys? Where do they come in? What
about warbling thrushes and twittering swallows?
39


Hakuins Zazen Wasan [Praise for Zazen], ends with the following famous lines,

Singing and dancing are the voice of the Law.
Boundless and free is the sky of Samadhi!
Bright the full moon of wisdom!
Truly, is anything missing now?
Nirvana is right here, before our eyes.
This very place is the Lotus Land,
This very body, the Buddha.
40


Turning, finally, to a modern Zen Master, Yasutani Hakuun [20
th
C.], we find in his teachings a
powerful elaboration of the idea that contemplation and action are one. When Yasutani
comments on the famous koan of mu [A monk asks Master Zhaozhou,Does a dog have Buddha-
nature. Zhaozou replies, Wu [Chinese for no, or nothingness; mu in Japanese], he says, Let all
of you become one mass of doubt and questioning. Concentrate and penetrate fully into Mu. To
penetrate into Mu means to achieve absolute unity with it. How can one achieve this unity? By
holding to Mu tenaciously day and night!
41
David Loy rightly comments on this passage,
Notice what is not encouraged here. One should not cultivate blankness of mind, which is

37
Ibid., p. 77.
38
Quoted in Kasulis, T.P. , Zen Person, Zen Action, (Honolulu: The University Press of
Hawaii, 1981), p. 111.
39
Waddell, Norman, trans., Zen Words for the Heart: Hakuins Commentary on the Heart
Sutra, (Boston: Shambhala Publications, 1996), p. 83.
40
Waddell, Norman, trans., Hakuins In Praise of Zazen, Online,
http://www.thezensite.com/ZenTeachings/Translations/Song_of_Zazen.htm (September
3, 2009)
41
Yakutani, Hakuun, Commentary on MU, in Kapleau, Philip , The Three Pillars of Zen:
Teaching, Practice, and Enlightenment, (New York: Anchor Books, Doubleday, 1989), pp.
58.
16
quietism.
42
As w can see, contemplation is presented here as an extremely intensive spiritual
activity.

Is there, then, a single or dominant Zen voice suggesting the highest goal of Zen path? A
unified Zen voice sounds almost self-contradictory. But the following has been repeated so
often that it might seem to represent the one voice of Zen: I sleep when tired, I eat when
hungry or I fill the bucket when it is empty. Similarly, many masters of the past are depicted
in classical Zen stories and paintings as pine-planters [Hongren], bamboo-cutters [Huineng] and
the like; that is, people fully involved in life. These sayings and incidents thus exemplify the full
equation of means and ends, silence and action, contemplation and full involvement in daily
affairs.

So what is the big deal? If Zen practice leads to eating when hungry, and to filling the bucket,
why bother? Why not live simply as an ordinary person without the monastery fuss with
meditations, retreats, koan practice and all that? And how do these ideas accommodate the Zen
Buddhist ideas of nothingness, emptiness, no-mind and so on? And if they do, are these latter
ideas quietist in nature?

The answer is complex. As I hope is clear from the above, Chinese Chan and Japanese Zen were
not molded as a single, rigid doctrine. Chan/Zen masters recommended their followers go to the
source of being. That source is a pre-conceptual state of being, where no conceptions are present
or needed, but from where conceptions and forms do arise. Being in that source of existence is
indeed often viewed as a quiet, calm, non-active state. It also creates an insight into evanescence
and the impermanence of all beings, into the vanity of the idea of self. This sounds quietist.

But is? Is this really a quietist attitude? Is this spiritual state of being compatible with the
Christian ideal of union and absorption into the Divine? How can one be absorbed into god when
god does not exist or does not concern the Buddhist practitioner in the slightest? Or is it
absorption into the Buddha? But how can one be absorbed into the Buddha when the masters
recommend to kill the Buddha when you meet him on the way?

Yet, quietude and silent contemplation were and are part of Zen practice. Most of the insightful
quotations offered above were uttered in a monastery context, where the master took refuge in a
calm surrounding, away from worldly affairs, where he and his disciples practiced daily
meditations, and, periodically, long meditation weeks. What, then, is the purpose of this
meditative aspect of the practice? We may imagine that a Zen masters reply would be pointing
to a rusty pot in the garden, that is, to the inadequacy of the question itself. The question assumes
serenity outside action, and action as separate from quiescence. They are not separate!!, would
roar the master and raise his teacup. This would probably be his answer. The question [What is
the purpose. . . ] assumes duality and dichotomy, where there is none. The question assumes a
purpose and a purpose assumes something to attain, which in turn assumes duality - that between
means and ends. This is a cause for dis-ease. And worse, when one becomes aware of the
delusion of this duality, the very wish to solve the conflict of duality is itself a further conflict,
which implies another duality [of problem and solution]. And so the wheel of samsara endlessly
turns on and on.


42
Loy, David, A Zen Cloud? Comparing Zen Koan Practice with The Cloud of
Unknowing, in Buddhist-Christian Studies, 9 [1989], p. 46.
17
Going to a monastery for a short period or for life; taking upon oneself the monks vows;
working in the monastery fields and cleaning the toilets; going into years of hard-working
inquiry into the nature of the mind through mind/body-breaking koan; and practicing retired
contemplation, all are forms of action. Koan is a strenuous quest, and satori awakening - calls
for serious, active exertion in the spirit of inquiry. The opposite is also true; monastery labor and
hard work in the fields can be imbued with serenity.

This spoils the image of the monastery life as a place for quiet contemplation, as well as the
image of the Zen master as the epitome of serenity. So, is a masters life different from the
ordinary persons? No, except that his life is imbued with full mindfulness and awareness. And
then, the very distinction between master and ordinary, quietism and action in the world,
becomes null and void.

Following most of Zen teachings from the first patriarchs to modern masters, we can end this
paper with the observation that, working in the fields is the absorption into the Ultimate, because
it is the Ultimate.

This, probably, would be the living answer.

My daily activities are not unusual,
Im just naturally in harmony with them.
Grasping nothing, discarding nothing . . .
Marvelous power and marvelous activity --
Drawing water and carrying firewood
43


[Layman Pangyun, 9
th
C. China]

The wind has settled, the blossoms have fallen;
Birds sing, the mountains grow dark - -
This is the wondrous power of Buddhism
44


[Ryokan, 18
th
C. Japan]




43
Sasaki, Ruth F., The Recorded Sayings of Layman Pang: A Ninth Century Classic, (New
York: Weatherhill, 1971) , p. 46.
44
Stevens, John, trans., Dewdrops on a Lotus Leaf: Zen Poems of Ryokan, (Boston:
Shambhala Publications, 1996), Online,
http://civet-cat.buddhistisk-forum.org/poetry-stories/ryokan.htm (September 10, 2009)









18










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19
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