Paperback. Cream cover with title and portrair on front board.

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Dedicated largely to the teaching of Hui Neng, this volume covers the purpose and technique of Zen training, and goes further into the depths of Zen than any other work of modern times. Here we find no reliance on scripture or a Savior, for the student is shown how to go beyond thought in order to achieve a state of consciousness beyond duality.

Review: I first read this book over fifty years ago, as a student. In those days Zen was a very trendy thing, and there were many writers popularizing various more or less half baked views of Zen. I liked this book because although it was no more comprehensible than the rest, it seemed to have been long enough in the oven, and even had a cherry on top.

The book ostensibly concerns the famous gatha of Hui Neng, by means of which he ascended to the position of the sixth Patriarch of Chinese Zen Buddhism. But I’ve come tot the conclusion that it is actually a not too subtle diatribe against certain tendencies which linger in Zen down to the present day.

If you read this book, you will probably feel that it leaves you no wiser about what “no-mind” really is. In fact the notable thing about Hui Neng’s gatha, and the view of Zen he promulgated, is not so much what it is, but what it isn’t. Suzuki points out time and time again that Hui Neng and his followers were deeply opposed to the “gradual” school of Zen, to the idea that performing ritual meditations for year after year would finally lead one to Buddhahood. Quoting Huangbo Xiyun he says “If you wish to attain Buddhahood by practising the six virtues of perfection and all the ten-thousand deeds of goodness, this is prescribing a course, and since beginningless time there have never been Buddhas graduating from a prescribed course.”

From this standpoint, the view of Hui Neng and his school might easily be compared to the school of protestantism founded by Martin Luther as a reaction to the Catholic teaching that by giving donations to the church salvation might be attained. And just as the Catholic church still thrives in some parts of the world so the “dust-wiping” gradualist tendency still exists in some schools of Zen, and as you can imagine, such cults are a lot easier to get into than to get out of.

What Suzuki actually means by “no-mind” is harder to fathom than what he doesn’t mean. But a glimpse might be found in a quotation from Shen Hui, “Prajna is spoken of when it is seen that this body is unattainable, remaining perfectly quiescent and serene all the time, and yet functioning mysteriously in ways beyond calculation.” This certainly points to a very dynamic view of the unconscious, and something very far from simply a mirror from which impure thoughts have been erased. It reminds me strongly of the famous Einstein quote, “To know that what is impenetrable to us really exists, manifesting itself as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty, which our dull facilities can comprehend only in the most primitive forms–this knowledge, this feeling, is at the center of true religiousness.”

If you are vaguely curious about Zen you might not get a lot from this book, but if you plan to venture into Zen training you should definitely read it, and ponder it well.