A Life of Bankei by John M Evans. Part of the Zen Masters Series.

In her famous book, Mysticism, Evelyn Underhill wrote : “Mysticism is seen to be a highly specialized form of that search for reality, for heightened and completed life, which we have found to be a constant characteristic of human consciousness. It is largely prosecuted by that ’spiritual spark’, that transcendental faculty which, though the life of our life, remains below the threshold in ordinary men. Emerging from its hiddenness in the mystic, it gradually becomes the dominant factor in his life…Under [its spur] the whole personality rises in the acts of contemplation…to a level of consciousness at which it becomes aware of a new field of perception.”

So what is the Path of Nirvanoception? How does it differ from other paths?

It is essentially the path of the Jnani (as Vedantists would say); the path of analytical meditation, or the wisdom stream (as the Dalai Lama puts it); the path of Discrimination (Merrell-Wolff); the path of Knowledge (Gnosis), and the path of Direct Seeing. All these “names” could apply equally as well.

Put bluntly, if you want twenty years of psychotherapy, see a Freudian analyst. If you want arthritic knees, try the usual paths of meditation. If you want “nice feelings”, try charismatic Christianity.

The Path of Nirvanoception is a direct assault on the summit of Nirvana by attempting to break through to a higher mode of being, thus releasing the clear light of Nirvanoception.

Bankei knew all this very well …

It has not always been like this, Bankei contemplates as he heads towards his quarters. When he had first started to explain the Unborn to small audiences in the old days, he was accused of preaching heresy, even of being a Christian — whatever next!. So different was his message from that of the rather distant Zen masters of the day, who insisted on speaking Chinese to a Japanese assembly, that people were afraid to come near him. When they realised at last that he was declaring the true Dharma, his life changed dramatically.

Nowadays he was often besieged by supplicants and followers. He never had a moment to himself. As many as six thousand souls could turn up at one of his meetings, and each would want a personal interview.

Yet even now, at the height of his popularity, when he preached the Unborn, many folk thought he was making the whole thing up. It was necessary to direct them to the sutras where the Unborn is mentioned as part of a description of the Buddha-nature: “unborn, undying”, or “unborn, unconditioned, unoriginated”. These were only words, however, despite falling from the golden lips of the Buddha himself.

Bankei tried to do it differently. He pointed directly to the Unborn as a living reality in the consciousness of every person, enlightened or unenlightened. Here it is, he said, again and again. Look at it, feel it, accept it, and use it in your life NOW.

But Bankei was getting old, and his much-abused physical frame was nearing its final dispersal. Not that he minded, he lived constantly in the Unborn, beyond birth and death. His one hope is that the people who listen to him and hang on his words, understand what he is trying to say and incorporate it into their day-to-day lives.

So what constitutes the teaching of Bankei and makes it different from other “brands” of Zen? The quintessence of his Zen is that our self-partiality, the tendency to favour ourselves above others or the common weal, causes a distortion of the unborn Buddha-mind, which thereby loses its illuminative wisdom by being “born” as thoughts into the realm of birth and death. It is as if we hijack the Buddha-mind for our own selfish purposes and distort it in the process. The result is the overweaning ego-I, our personality.

It is only by de-self-partialising, or reversing the process, that we can realise the Buddha-mind we were born with, and become a man (or woman) of the Unborn. It is as simple, and as profound, as that.

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A Life of Bankei by John M Evans. Part of the Zen Masters Series.

What I call “nirvanoception” is the third, usually latent, mode of knowledge. I say “usually latent” because we’re mostly unaware of it. We freely use body-mind modes of “perception” (senses) and “conception” (mind) to navigate around our world, while remaining completely in the dark about “space consciousness”, which is working in the background.

Normal consciousness is narrowly focused in our heads. Nirvanoception is wide, space consciousness, which takes no heed of trivial daily concerns. It clarifies during nirvanic experiences because perception and conception are “left behind” with the body-mind.

The aim of any spiritual path is to clean up the doors of perception and conception so that nirvanoception shines brightly in our consciousness. To be precise, it’s how Nirvana experiences itself.

Seventeenth-century Japanese Zen Master, Bankei, made nirvanoception the whole basis of his method. The following is a serialization of his life:

A layman approached Bankei and said: “Master, it is said that you can read people’s minds. If this is the case what am I thinking right now?”

Bankei replied: “You are thinking that.”

Like most Zen masters, Bankei had a droll sense of humour which he often displayed in a self-effacing manner. At other times he would use it remorselessly against an arrogant interlocutor, or as a sharp pointer to the truth when he judged that an intellectual bubble had to be burst. Humour is a natural accompaniment to Zen because it feeds on hubris and paradoxical situations. The following mondo (Zen conversation) is typical:

A monk asked T’ou Tzu, a Chinese master of the T’ang period: “I have heard that all sounds are the voice of the Buddha.”

“Yes, you are right,” said T’ou Tzu.

“Am I also right that all assertions, no matter how derogatory, are reflections of absolute truth?”

“Yes, you are right,” replied the master.

“May I then call you a donkey?”

In many ways Bankei (1622-1693) resembled the old Zen masters of the T’ang Dynasty, whose teachings were vibrant with austere insights expressed in a direct and simple style. Though he lived more than a thousand years after the time of Bodhidharma, and over eight hundred since Hui Neng, Huang Po and Rinzai, Bankei was out of Zen’s top drawer. He was also a highly original interpreter of Buddhism.

Dr. D.T. Suzuki, who rescued his work from obscurity, said of him: “His ‘Unborn Zen’ espoused a fresh departure for the first time since…Bodhidharma. Unborn Zen is truly one of the most original developments in the entire history of Zen thought. Bankei, indeed, must be considered one of the greatest masters that Japan has ever produced.”

The scene is the Winter Retreat of 1690 at the Ryumon-ji temple, which was founded by Bankei himself. In the assembly hall are gathered 1,683 people: priests, masters, novices and laity. They come from all the major Buddhist sects in Japan, Soto and Rinzai Zen, Shingon, Nichiren, Tendai, Jodo and Jodo Shin. The atmosphere, though calm befitting a Buddhist gathering, is expectant, for Bankei is the greatest preacher of his age, likened by his scribe to the Buddha himself.

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