Volume 1, Track 3
In India, many people have a mantra given to them in an initiation by the family guru. A mantra is not a magic talisman, a sound with magic properties. Rather, it is a sound or group of sounds, originally heard by an Indian sage known as Rishi, after practicing great austerities known as tapas, or tapas in Sanskrit. It is felt that celestial vibrations are revealed to the holy man, and these represent the names of God.
All over India, one can hear people chanting these mantras, a practice known as japa. There are three ways to chant, usually while fingering the 108 beads of the mawa. One way is to do it aloud. Another is to mumble the sounds. And the third and strongest way, known as manasika japa, is to repeat the sounds mentally. When done the latter way with eyes closed, it usually leads to deep meditation.
One time, a wandering sadhu, a holy man following a full-time calling, was walking from place to place, chanting, Ram, Ram, Ram, short for Rama, one of the incarnations of the Lord, an avatar.
This sound was always on his lips, sometimes in rhythm with his breath. When the sadhu arrived at a small temple, he began to relieve himself against the back wall, as was the custom. Meantime, continuing to chant, Ram, Ram, Ram. The priest of the temple, shocked, ran out to tell him he should never use the name of God while performing such an act and tried [to ask] the wondering renunciate to stop speaking the sound. But as soon as he ceased uttering it audibly, every cell in his body shouted, Ram, Ram, Ram. Greatly surprised. The priest bowed his head and said to the sadhu, “Such rules are not for a man like you.”
I once traveled with such a sadhu, and it was a difficult time. He would eat nothing but Prasad, that is food consecrated in a temple, which means we didn’t eat very often.
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In Japan, we come to Hakuin, who was one of the two most influential teachers in Japanese Zen history. The other was Dogen, founder of Soto Zen in Japan. Hakuin thought he had experienced a great enlightenment early in his career, at age 24. But no Zen teacher would put the stamp of approval on his Satori. Disappointed, he wandered widely, writing poetry, until he finally settled down with a very stern teacher named Shōju. And it is said he spent three years under the merciless discipline of the latter. One day, Hakuin was dispatched to the village to beg for food.
This action is usually misunderstood. The monk does not beg in order to get something for nothing, nor to humble himself. Rather, it offers the person giving something to him a chance to accumulate merit. This is an important point. Usually, the monk just repeats a sutra – Kan-Ji-zai Bo-sa gyo jin Han-nya Ha-ra-mi-ta ji – and so forth. And if he’s given something, he bows, continues chanting, and walks away without offering thanks. To give thanks would reduce the merit. He acts the same way if he receives nothing.
Hakuin at the time was deep in koan practice and steeped in concentration on his problem as he knocked on the door of a small house in the village. So intense was his concentration that he did not hear “Go away” from the busy woman inside. Again, he knocked and again she shouted, “Go away.” When he knocked the third time, the old lady grabbed a broom and seeing Hakuin standing outside the door, broke it over his head. At that moment, the bottom dropped out of everything for Hakuin. Later, he said, “After this, seeing the things of the world was like seeing the back of my own hand. I suddenly realized that it is the Buddha I [eye] which sees the Buddha nature.”
To listen to Justin reading Spiritual Stories of the East, click here.