then, as he would throughout his life, that Zen was nothing “new,” that, in fact, Saicho, the founder of the Tendai tradition, had practiced and taught meditation (zen). His adversaries were unswayed and remained opposed to his efforts.
Eisai found a sponsor, however, in Shogun Yoritomo and with his protection was able to found the first Zen temple in Japan, Sho fukuji, at Hakata. Even in this remote region he had to defend the practice of Zen from the attacks of other schools. The basis of their objection was found in the traditional description of Zen attributed to Bodhidharma: Zen presented itself as a teaching “outside” the traditional scriptures, and Eisai described Zen as the “school of the Buddha mind.” His opponents interpreted this as a specious claim to be a superior teaching without scriptural basis.
From Shofukuji, Eisai moved to the new capital at Kamakura. Yoritomo’s son, the ShogunYoriie, shared his father’s admiration for Zen. They both found the spare and practical discipline of Eisai’s teaching more appealing than the abstraction of other schools, and Yoriie continued his father’s patronage of the new sect. At the request of both the Emperor and the Shogun, Eisai established a Zen temple, Kenninji, in Kyoto. The Shingon and Tendai schools of Buddhism resented the intrusion of the new meditation school in what was still the spiritual, if not currently the political, capital of Japan, and they retained enough influence to ensure that the new temple was obliged to serve their schools as well as the Zen tradition.
In spite of what others may have believed about him, Eisai had not rejected the Tendai tradition, and he continued to function within it as a priest. He maintained that Zen was a vehicle for renewing and strengthening Tendai Buddhism, which, to his mind, had become overly ritualistic. But he was also aware that he was a Dharma heir in the Rinzai lineage—the 53rd in a lineage he traced back beyond Bodhidharma to the Buddha himself. As a Rinzai master, he put an emphasis on awakening (kensho) which was not part of the Tendai tradition. For a time, at least, he would assert that Rinzai Zen was the fullest flowering of the Dharma.
In contrast to the luxury of other Buddhists temples in Japan, Eisai’s temples were relatively poor. At one point, his monks had had nothing to eat for several days. Then a Buddhist devotee came to the temple and asked Eisai to have the monks chant sutras on his behalf (a common devotional practice). In payment for this service, he presented Eisai with two rolls of silk. The monks were elated, confident that the silk would be sold and the money used to resupply their larder. However, when a beggar came to Eisai seeking alms, Eisai gave him the rolls of silk. The monks were disappointed but, seeing that the master was eating no better than they were, kept their anger in check.
Then a second beggar came to the monastery. Because there was nothing else to offer, Eisai had the gold leaf stripped from the Buddha image and presented to the man. This time the monks, already irritable from hunger, protested what they considered amounted to a sacrilege. Eisai countered by telling them, “You’re familiar with the stories told of the Buddha’s prior lives before being born as Gautama Siddhartha. And you remember how time and again he gave up his life in order to help others. If he was so willing to do that, how can you imagine that he would object to giving up his halo for this man?”
After 1200, Eisai divided his time between the temples he had established in Kamakura and Kyoto. But he appears gradually to have returned to the Tendai tradition, remarking that it was not yet time for Zen to flourish in Japan. In his later years, he dedicated himself to Tendai ritualism. He died in 1215 at the age of 75.
Eisai was a synchronist. Whether it was by conviction or as a result of the times in which he lived, he presented Zen as supplemental to the more ceremonial and ritualistic forms of Buddhism popular among the upper classes of Japanese society. It was left to his disciples to begin the process of establishing Zen as a separate and autonomous school.
RYONEN MYOZEN
The most important of Eisai’s Dharma heirs was Ryonen Myozen. When orphaned at the age of eight, he was placed in a Tendai temple on Mount Hiei where he studied under a monk named Myoyu. When Myozen was sixteen, he took the precepts in the Tendai tradition. He then sought to deepen his understanding of Buddhism by training with Eisai. Eventually he was recognized as Eisai’s successor, and, after that teacher’s death, Myozen continued to promote the Rinzai tradition and began to acquire his own disciples.
In 1223, Myozen planned to travel to China with several of his students. Before they left however, Myozen received word that his Tendai teacher, Myoyu, was dying and had requested his former student come to see him one last time. Uncertain of where his obligation lay, Myozen called his monks together and put the situation to them. Should he proceed to China to deepen his Zen practice, or should he honor the debt he owed his teacher and go to his bedside? The majority of Myozen’s students felt that the master’s obligation to his teacher took priority and urged him to delay his trip to China and go to Myoyu. Only one student dissented, but his argument convinced Myozen to proceed with the trip. Myozen explained that the most effective way to discharge his debt to Myoyu would be to achieve awakening for the benefit of others. He stated that if he acquired:
—even a trace of enlightenment, it will serve to awaken many people, even though it means opposing the deluded wishes of one person. If the virtue gained were exceptional, it would serve to repay the kindness of my teacher. (4)
Accompanied by the young monk who had encouraged him, Myozen set off for China. Once there the two parted company. Myozen proceeded to Mount Tientung, where Eisai had trained, and there he studied with two Chinese masters for three years. His health was not strong, however, and in May 1225, he died while seated in meditation.
The disciple who had encouraged Myozen to make the journey to China had pursued his own path while in the country, but before he returned to Japan he collected Myozen’s ashes and brought them back with him. That’s disciple’s name was Dogen Kigen, and the other thing he brought to Japan from his visit to China was the Soto Zen tradition.
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| Portrait of Dogen |
Dogen Kigen was born in the year 1200. His ancestry was noble. His mother, Lady Motofusa, was a descendant of the powerful Fujiwara clan and was the concubine of Lord Minamoto Michichika, who served in the imperial household. Their son spent his earliest years in the rarefied atmosphere of the court. He was recognized as a precocious child who was able to read Chinese characters by the age of four. He had access to the best tutors available, and these provided the training considered suitable to one of his social standing.
Both of his parents died while Dogen was still a child. His father died when Dogen was two years old, and his mother became ill a few years later. She was a devout woman, and, during her final illness, she encouraged her son to spend his life wisely, to become a monk and seek a way to relieve the sufferings of humankind. Dogen was only eight years old when she died. As he sat beside her corpse during the official mourning period, he watched the smoke from a burning stick of incense rise into the air and dissipate. Observing it, he thought about his mother’s words and was struck by the impermanence of all things.
An uncle adopted Dogen and took charge of his education. It was the uncle’s intention that the boy would be his heir and serve in the imperial court. But at the age of thirteen, young Dogen ran away from the court to a member of his mother’s family who was a student of Buddhism and magic. With the aid of this relative, Dogen was received as a