Zen and the Art of Nourishing Life: Labor, Exhaustion, and the Malady of Meditation

Abstract

In his Yasenkanna and other writings Zen master Hakuin Ekaku (1686-1769) relies on two seemingly conflicting analogies to speak of the art of nourishing life (yojo). On the one hand, he maintains that vital energy (ki) must be stored in the cinnabar field (tanden). On the other hand, he maintains that one must circulate vital energy in the body by engaging in labor lest it become stagnant. A similar tension can be observed in Kaibara Ekken's (1630-1714) immensely popular manual of nourishing life, Yojokun. Although Shigehisa Kuriyama points to the industrious revolution and what he calls the anxiety of stagnation that swept through the Tokugawa populace as possible cause for the rise of this tension, the present article will suggest fundamental redefinition of labor (ro) and, more specifically, reading practices that took place during this period as another possible factor behind this development. Labor, be it or reading, had to demonstrate sense of self-mastery for it to be true labor and failure to do so would result in exhaustion (ro) or what Hakuin preferred to call the of (zenbyo). KEYWORDS: Hakuin Ekaku - Kaibara Ekken - labor - Zen - - naikan (ProQuest: ... denotes formulae omitted.) IN HIS LETTER to Nabeshima Naotsune ... (1701-1749)., the ailing governor of Settsu ...,1 Zen master Hakuin Ekaku ... (1686-1769) relies on two seemingly conflicting analogies to speak of what he calls the malady of meditation or zenbyo ... On the one hand, Hakuin likens the treatment of zenbyo to the art of governing country: spirit (shin ...) represents the prince, the essence (sei ...) the ministers, and the vital energy (ki ...) the people. When the people are loved and cared for, then the country is perfected; when the vital energy is guarded, then the body is perfected. When the people are scattered, the nation is destroyed; when the vital energy is exhausted (ki tsukuru ...), the body dies.2 The sagely lord (seishu ...) thus always keeps his mind focused on what is below-the people. Otherwise, the people become resentful. Vital energy must likewise be made to accumulate fully below. On the other hand, Hakuin also likens the stubborn attachment to what he calls meditative-work in the midst of quietude (jochu no kufu ...) to man who tries to guard his gold (that is, his resolve to carry out meditative- work) by shutting himself in room (see YOSHIZAWA 2001a, 200-201; also YAMPOLSKY 1971, 34). Like the sravaka who strives only for his own awakening, this man, says Hakuin, may be able to guard the gold but not his vital energy. He will thus succumb to the of meditation. What, then, constitutes genuine investigation of Zen (shinsho sanzen ...)? According to Hakuin, the bodhisattva approach and hence the genuine approach is to take the gold and march straight through road infested with thieves, that is to say, delusions, desires, and wrong views. Unless one carries out such meditative-work in the midst of (dochu no kufu ...), all vital energy, he claims, will be lost like lotus touched by fire.3 In fact, Hakuin insists that the practitioner who wishes to investigate genuine Zen must strive to be like a lotus that blossoms from the midst of flames.4 Lest inherent awakening (the gold) and desires form duality, the practitioner, in other words, must be able to cultivate mind of purity without abandoning the various desires and the objects of the senses. What we seem to have here in Hakuin's letter to Nabeshima, then, are two potentially conflicting images of vital energy: whereas one takes vital energy to be in need of preservation, protection, and accumulation below, the other regards this defensive attitude as the very cause of the loss of vital energy and the outbreak of the of meditation. To be sure, what Hakuin hoped to eventually accomplish by promoting meditative work in the midst of activity was to rise above this seeming contradiction, but this should not keep us from paying closer attention to the subtle yet unmistakable difference between the two views of vital energy that we find in Hakuin's letter. …