|
An excerpt from a book by Mark Epstein called Thoughts without a Thinker :
In the early days of my interest in Buddhism and psychology,I was given a
particularly vivid demonstation of how difficult it was going to be to forge an
integration between the two. Some friends of mine had arranged for an encounter
between two prominent visiting Buddhist teachers at the house of a Harvard
University psychology professor. These were teachers from two distinctly
different Buddhist traditions who had never met and whose traditions had in fact
had very little contact over the past thousand years. Before the worlds of
Buddhism and Western psychology could come together, the various strands of
Buddhism would have to encounter one another. We were to witness the first such
dialogue.
The teachers, seventy-year-old Kalu Rinpoche of Tibet, a veteran of years of
solitary retreat, and the Zen master Seung Sahn, the first Korean Zen master to
teach in the United States, were to test each other's understanding of the
Buddha's teachings for the benefit of the onlooking Western students. This was
to be a high form of what was being called dharma combat (the clashing of
great minds sharpened by years of study and meditation), and we were waiting
with all the anticipation that such a historic encounter deserved. The two
monks entered with swirling robes -- maroon and yellow for the Tibetan, austere
grey and black for the Korean -- and were followed by retinues of younger monks
and translators with shaven heads. They settled onto cushions in the familiar
cross-legged positions, and the host made it clear that the younger Zen master
was to begin. The Tibetan lama sat very still, fingering a wooden rosary
(mala) with one hand while murmuring "Om mani padme hum" continuously under
his breath.
|
|
The Mumonkan, also known as "The Gateless Gate", is a classic Zen text consisting of 48 koans with commentaries and verses collected by Wumen Hui-k'ai (Mumon Ekai), a Chinese Zen master who lived in the 13th century Song period.
The Great Way has no gate,
A thousand roads enter it.
When one passes through this gateless gate,
He freely walks between heaven and earth.
|
|