Zen is mystical. This is inevitable, seeing that Zen is the keynote of Oriental culture; it is what makes the West frequently fail to fathom exactly the depths of the Oriental mind. For mysticism in its very nature defies the analysis of logic and logic is the most characteristic feature of Western thought.
The East is synthetic in its method of reasoning, it does not care so much for the elaboration of particulars as for a comprehensive grasp of the whole and this intuitively. Therefore the eastern mind, if we assume its existence, is necessarily vague and indefinite and seems not to have an index which at once reveals the contents to an outsider. The thing is there before our eyes, for it refuses to be ignored; but when we endeavor to grasp it in our own hands in order to examine it more closely or systematically, it eludes and we lose its track. Zen is provokingly evasive. This is not due of course to any conscious or premeditated artifice with which the eastern mind schemes to shun the scrutiny of others. The unfathomableness is in the very constitution, so to speak, of the eastern mind. Therefore, to understand the east we must understand mysticism, that is Zen.
It Is to be remembered, however, that there are various types of mysticism, rational and irrational, speculative and occult, sensible and fantastic. When I say that the East is mystical, I do not mean that the east is fantastic, irrational and altogether impossible to bring within the sphere of intellectual comprehension. What I mean is simply that in the working of the Eastern mind, there is something calm, quiet, silent, undisturbable, which appears as if always looking into eternity. This quietude and silence, however, do not point to mere idleness or inactivity. The silence is not that of the desert shorn of all vegetation, nor is it that of a corpse forever gone to sleep and decay. It is the silence of an “eternal abyss” in which all contrasts and conditions are buried; It is the silence of God who, deeply absorbed in contemplation of his works past, present and future, sits calmly on his throne of absolute oneness and allness.
It is the “Silence of thunder” obtained in the midst of the flash and uproar of opposing electric currents. This sort of silence pervades all things oriental. Woe unto those who take it for decadence and death, for they will be overwhelmed by an overwhelming outburst of activity out of the eternal silence. It is in this sense that I speak of the mysticism of oriental culture. And I can affirm that the cultivation of this kind of mysticism is principally due to the influence of Zen. If Buddhism were to develop in the Far East so as to satisfy the spiritual cravings of its people, it had to grow into Zen. The Indians are mystical, but their mysticism is too speculative, too contemplative, too complicated, and, moreover, it does not seem to have any real, vital relation with the practical world of particulars in which we are living. The Far-Eastern mysticism, on the contrary, is direct, practical and surprisingly simple. This could not develop into anything else but Zen.
All the other Buddhist sects in China as well as in Japan bespeak their Indian Origin in an unmistakable manner. For their metaphysical complexity, their long winded phraseology, their highly abstract reasoning, their penetrating insight into the nature of things, and their comprehensive interpretation of affairs relating to life are most obviously Indian and not at all Chinese or Japanese. This will be recognized at once by all those who are acquainted with Far-Eastern Buddhism. For instance, look at those extremely complex rites as practiced by the Shingon sect, and also at their elaborate systems of “Mandala”, by means of which they try to explain the universe. No Chinese or Japanese mind would have conceived such an intricate network of philosophy without being first influenced by Indian thought. Then observe how highly speculative is the philosophy of the Madhyamika, the Tendai, or Kegon. Their abstraction and logical acumen are truly amazing. These facts plainly show that those sects of Far-Eastern Buddhism are at bottom foreign importations.
But when we come to Zen after a survey of the general field of Buddhism, we are compelled to acknowledge that its simplicity, its directness, its pragmatic tendency, and its close connection with everyday life stand in remarkable contrast to the other Buddhist sects. Undoubtedly the main ideas of Zen are derived from Buddhism, and we cannot but consider it a legitimate development of the latter; but this development has been achieved in order to meet the requirements peculiar characteristics of the psychology of the Far-Eastern people. The spirit of Buddhism has left its highly metaphysical super-structure in order to become a practical discipline of life. In Zen are found a systematized, or rather crystallized, all the philosophy, religion, and life itself of the Far-Eastern people, especially of the Japanese.
[ Excerpts from "An Introduction to Zen Buddhism" published in 1964]
