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  [This version: 9 June 1994]
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          HEART TO HEART: ZEN AND RELIGION: THE ROOTS AND THE SHAPE.

  An un-dated teisho, most likely delivered to an Enlish speaking, Christian 
  audience in the mid- or late 1980s, made available to Sydney Zen Center in 
  a xeroxed form.

  This text addresses some of the most fundamental and delicate religious 
  issues. Therefore, it should be read, quoted and analysed in a mindful 
  way.

  All copyrights to this document belong to Father Ama Genunken SAMY S.J., 
  Bodhi Zen Centre, Madras, India

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                               Heart to Heart:
                  Zen and religion: the roots and the shape.

                            by Ama SAMY S.J. Roshi
                       Bodhi Zen Centre, Madras, India

  Zen originally comes from the religion of Mahayana Buddhism. But the  
  spirit and practise of Zen go beyond institutional religion. The heart of 
  Zen, is indeed religious, and the heart of religion is Zen. What 
  relationship is there between Buddhism and Zen, between Christianity and 
  Zen, and between religion and Zen?

  The roots of Zen are in ancient India. Indian Mahayana sutras and 
  philosophy being at the source and origin. Particularly the 'indwelling of 
  everything in everything else', of the Avatamsara Sutra (Hua Yen 
  Buddhism), and the Heart Sutra's 'form is no other than emptiness, and 
  emptiness no other than form', are the very heart of Zen. The 'heart to 
  heart' transmission of Zen can be traced back to Indian origins, as can be 
  seen in Kukai's response to Saicho's request for Kukai's Indian 
  manuscripts. The straight-backed lotus sitting of zazen is yogic in origin 
  as well. Chinese Taoism gave to Zen an appreciation of, and identification 
  with, nature.

  The Japanese contribution was the systematization of the Zen practice and 
  the addition to it of discipline and aesthetics via the Zen arts. As 
  regards the koan practice, 'who am I?' Is the well known inquiry of Ramana 
  Maharishi which goes back to the Upanishads. Who am i? What is the real? 
  Where do I go? Such is the quest of the ancient Indian seekers for 
  salvation-enlightenment. It was, however, the heart-response of East Asia 
  which formed the heart of Zen, Zen is sometimes identified with the 
  discipline, or the rituals, or the aesthetics, all of which is distortion 
  of authentic Zen. Zen is primarily and fundamentally a way of salvation, 
  or of enlightenment-compassion which bursts forth in Linchi's realisation 
  of the concrete human individual as the "absolute" subject & master, or 
  better, the true person of the way, and which is actualised in the great 
  compassion of the bodhisattva "Four Great Vows". Zen as is known today by 
  most, has a 'Japanese-made' body and form. There are also Chinese, Korean 
  and Vietmanese forms of Zen and these cannot be ignored in the  
  understanding and transmission of Zen. Being rooted in these traditions 
  and discipline is vital, but these are not without ambiguity and darkness. 
  The letter kills, the spirit gives life. Spirit, even Zen spirit, cannot 
  live apart from the letter. It is above all in the truly enlightened, 
  authentic person that the letter becomes spirit, and the spirit becomes 
  life-giving word. He or she is the 'ferryman' between the worlds.

  The main point made in the essays is -- that Zen must be practised simply 
  as Zen, which means, zazen and koan practice, and that Christians can 
  practice Zen wholeheartedly, can lose themselves into Zen and find new 
  life. Standing in the in-between of Buddhism and Christianity, one can 
  come to quite a new perspective and depth. In this journey, a Christian is 
  not a Christian, a Buddhist not a Buddhist: then, the Buddhist is truly a 
  Buddhist and the Christian truly a Christian. As one Christian 
  practitioner put it nicely, -- "when I am a Buddhist, my mother hates me: 
  when I am a Buddha, she adores me". 'Putting on'the mind of Christ ; 
  'putting-on' the heart-mind of Buddha. From heart to heart.

  Heart: hsin or shin, can mean mind, heart, self, soul. Yamada Ko-un Roshi 
  used to translate it as heart-mind: in Zen literature it was usually 
  translated as mind, and Zen in the West tended towards the philosophical, 
  intuitive, wilful, mindless, a-personal, freedom aspects. Zen, as Mahayana 
  Buddhism, is the heart-mind of wisdom -- compassion: suffering heart, 
  seeking heart, discerning heart, heart liberated, transformed, 
  enlightened, compassionate. This 'heart' is the unity of the human and 
  cosmos and god. Heart is presence and mystery: knowing as well as 
  unknowing: grace and freedom: time and eternity: beauty, truth and 
  goodness: joy, peace, sorrow and compassion. The journey is from heart to 
  heart. From heart-mind to heart-mind is the transmission. Mu_shin to mu- 
  shin: empty heart to empty heart of no-heart.

  How many heart-minds are there? Standing nowhere how do you let your 
  heart-mind come forth ? Middle of the night, the moon is laughing -- do 
  you hear?
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