[Buddha-l] Re: buddha-l Digest, Vol 24, Issue 2

[Elihu Smith]

> 
> See Robert Sharf's paper "Sanbokyodan Zen and the
> Way of New Religions."
> I may have been mistaken in my memory about a dream.
> I don't have time to 
> read the paper now.
> However, Yasutani believed he received transmission
> from a dead man, Dogen.
> Yasutani felt that he had a personal spiritual bond
> with Dogen, and 
> considered himself Dogen's
> direct Dharma heir by virtue of his possession of
> the "true Dharma eye."
> 
> Stuart
> 

This is not true. Yasutani Roshi never claimed to have
Dharma Transmission from Dogen, who was dead for
hundreds of years. He practiced for many years,
including intense and severe sesshin when he was in
his 40's (older than the average monastic) at
Hosshin-ji under Harada Roshi because he felt the
importance of genuine Dharma Transmission. He
previously had had Dharma Transmission from Nishiari
Bokusan, but felt there was something lacking in that.


Though Sharf does say that Yasutani considered himself
"Dogen's direct Dharma heir by virtue of his
possession of the "true Dharma eye," this is NOT a
statement that he received Dharma Transmission from
him but that his (Yasutani's) teaching was the True
Dharma. This is the type of statement authentic Dharma
Heirs in all Ch'an and Zen lineages might make. In the
commentary by Wumen/Mumon in the first case of the
Wumenkuan/Mumonkan/Gateless Gate you will see a
similar statement.  To read it otherwise is incorrect.

One can criticize Yasutani for all sorts of things,
but not on the matter of Dharma Transmission.

> >
> I have Faure's "Visions of Power" at home - but
> every time I try to read 
> it I get a headache. It seems to be claiming that
> the Japanese Soto 
> school has been extremely mystical from its
> beginnings and that Keizan's 
> Zen in particular was highly mystical and
> emphatically "religious". 
> There is a whole chapter devoted to dreams, by the
> way. If this view of 
> Dogen's school is accurate, then receiving
> posthumous transmission from 
> him in a dream would seem to be perfectly
> reasonable.
> 
> - Curt

This is a misunderstanding of a number of important
issues in Ch'an, Soto Zen, Keizen and Faure. Let me
say again, Dharma Transmission in a dream is not in
Dogen's tradition. Rather than tease all of the issues
out, I will emphasize that face-to-face Dharma
Transmission is of major importance in Japanese
Buddhism and particularly in Soto School, though there
are issues and disagreements regarding mutiple
Transmissions. Keizen's incorporation of esoteric
Buddhism, including Shingon, and work with dreams, as
part of his teaching does not include dream Dharma
Transmission, especially given his seminal work
"Denkoroku." Some of these issues are played out in
controversies with the Daruma School, Menzan, Manzan
and Tenkei Denson, and the Indian and early Chinese
Ch'an lineage developed in the late T'ang and early
Sung Dynasty in China. For details on Japan, see the
excellent "Soto Zen in Medieval Japan" By William M.
Bodiford. University of Hawaii Press and "Did Dogen Go
to China?" by Steven Heine, which is just a drop in
the bucket of this literature.

Elihu