Zen Master Tekisui’s Letter to the young Nishida
Dear Nishida,
An old man of virtue says: I have no word, no phrase, none of dharma to give others. Nothing other than
Nothing
can be expected from such an old monk as me. Do not ask any more questions in your letter.
February 4th
Tekisui
Note that the extremely strong power of “Nothing”. It is not a negative abstract concept at all, but is full of transcending Power. “Nothing” is a very powerful word which seems to have awakened Nishida to Something Very Important. I pointed out the similarity between “Koan” training of Rinzai Zen and the spiritual exercise and catechisms of Roman Catholics. But there is also a great difference between them. Christian Catechisms require a definite answer, “yes” or “no” to each important article of faith. To the contrary, the purpose of Koan training seems to liberate, or deconstruct any kind of dogmatic thinking. Wumen (無門) says in the concluding poem of the Gateless Gate: Has a dog the Buddha nature? This is a matter of life and death. If you wonder whether a dog has it or not, You certainly lose your body and life. The Koan is a matter of life and death: it also asks the novice, “Do you also have the Buddha Nature?” One of the dogmas in Mahayana Buddhism before Zen is the immanence of Buddha Nature, i.e. “All sentient beings have the Buddha Nature.”(Nirvana Sutra) . The Koan is about one of the most important problems of Mahayana Buddhism: i.e. the immanence of the Buddha Nature. But the simple logical answer “yes”, resulting from the Nirvana Sutra is unsatisfactory, because it seems to neglect our real experience of so many unintelligible things in this world which contradict the immanence of the Buddha Nature. On the contrary, if we answer “No”, then we will contradict the spirit and authority of Nirvana Sutra, because there should be no discrimination among humans and other sentient beings. Neither simple “yes” nor simple “no” being satisfactory, how do you yourself respond to this fundamental question on the Buddha Nature? –This is the background of the Koan of Nothingness. “Nothingness” has nothing to do with a relative “yes”, nor with relative “no”. It is Absolute Nothingness. The question of the Gateless Gate had a precursor in the Daoist Zhuangzi (荘子about 350 B.C)、which I will cite later, in his dialogue with Dongguozi(東郭子) concerning the immanence of the Way (Dao). The influence of Zhuanzi on Wumen may be found in the introductory poem of the Gateless Gate. The Great Way(Dao) has no gate A thousand roads enter it . When one passes through this gateless gate He freely walks between heaven and earth The Gateless Gate is open to the Great Way to Zen. The young Nishida wrote several reminders on the back cover of his dairy. One of them reads: By Zen I inquire into the Great Way, By scholarship, I clarify the truth. I take the Way as my body, and scholarship as my four limbs. The Development of Nishida’s philosophy of Nothingness, the Great Way, and the Truth, may be summarized as the following 6 stages.
