Zen and Action

[Zamurito]

~

A monk, coming out of the monastery that was under the leadership of Rinzai, met a party of three traveling monks belonging to another Buddhist school, and one of the three ventured to question the Zen monk: "How deep is the river of Zen?" The reference to the river arose from their encounter taking place on a bridge. The Zen monk, fresh from his own interview with Rinzai, who was noted for his direct actions, lost no time in replying. "Find out for yourself," he said, and offered to throw the questioner from the bridge. But fortunately his two friends interceded and pleaded for mercy, which saved the situation.

Zen is not necessarily against words, but it is well aware of the fact that they are always liable to detach themselves from realities and turn into conceptions. And this conceptualization is what Zen is against. The Zen monk just cited may be an extreme case, but the Spirit is there. Zen insists on handling the thing itself and not an empty abstraction. It is for this reason that Zen neglects reading or reciting the sutras or engaging in discourse on abstract subjects. And this is a cause of Zen's appeal to men of action in the broadest sense of the term.