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原坦山 Hara Tanzan (1819-1892)

良作 Ryōsaku; 覚仙 Kakusen (諱); 坦山 Tanzan (字); 鶴巣 Tsurusu (号); 新井, 良作 Arai Ryōsaku (俗名)

 



Tartalom

Contents

PDF: 101 zen történet
Fordította: Bánfalvi András

PDF: Százegy zen történet
Fordította: Szigeti György

101 zen történet
Fordította:
Acsai Roland

Poem & Anecdote
Translated by Lucien Stryk (1924-2013) & Takashi Ikemoto

Appearance in Koan
Transcribed by Nyogen Senzaki and Paul Reps

PDF: Hara Tanzan and the Japanese Buddhist Discovery of “Experience”
by Stephan Kigensan Licha
Journal of Religion in Japan, 2020, pp. 1-30

WERE YOU STILL HOLDING HER?

 

HARA Tanzan (1819-1892), a scholar priest of Soto Zen, was a forerunner of the modernization of Japanese Buddhism. He was the first to absorb natural science, especially physiology of brain and tried to mix it with Zen Buddhism. He claimed both bodily illness and mental suffering were the product of a kind of mucus called Dana which he thought was running up from the hipbone through the spinal column up to the brain. According to his theory, if this flow of mucus were to be shut up by the power of Zen, brain would be cleared away and complete health would be gained. It is true his theory was modeled on the anatomical knowledge, but the flow of Dana could not be detected objectively, so medical scientists ignored his theory. One of his pupils, HARADA Genryu, modified Tanzan's method and invented the method called Nikon Endu Ho. This method had some effects on a few healers of alternative medicine, which prospered in Japan from 1910 to 1930. In this paper I discussed the thought and method of Tanzan's Zen and its influences on those healers.
(Yoshinaga Shinichi http://ci.nii.ac.jp/naid/110007154619)

 

 

Hara Tanzan (原坦山) (December 5, 1819 – July 27, 1892) was a Soto Buddhist monk, head monk at the Saijoji temple in Odawara and a professor of Philosophy at the University of Tokyo during the Bakumatsu and Meiji periods. He was a forerunner of the modernization of Japanese Buddhism and the first (in Japan) to attempt to incorporate concepts from the natural sciences into Zen Buddhism.

Hara was born in Iwakitaira Domain. At the age of 15, Hara enrolled at the Shoheizaka Academy (昌平坂学問所) where he studied both Confucianism and medicine, the latter under Taki Genken. At the age of 20 or 26, he entered Buddhist priesthood, though he would go on to study Western medicine later in life.

Hara became the first lecturer at Tokyo University's Department of Indian Philosophy and Buddhist Studies in 1879. He was later also superintendent of the Soto-shu Daigaku-rin (currently Komazawa University).

Hara figures in several well-known koans. He was well known for his disregard of many of the precepts of everyday Buddhism, such as dietary laws.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hara_Tanzan

 

 

TANZAN (1819-1892, Sōtō)
Translated by Lucien Stryk (1924-2013) & Takashi Ikemoto (池本喬 1906-1980)
In: ZEN: Poems, Prayers, Sermons, Anecdotes, Interviews
Anchor Books, Doubleday & Co., Inc., Garden City, New York, 1963.

Madness, the way they gallop off to foreign shores!
Turning to the One Mind, I find my Buddhahood,
Above self and others, beyond coming and going.
This will remain when all else is gone.

- - -

Tanzan (1819-1892), a rare master, once officiated as indoshi (leader) at a funeral. Facing the coffin, he formally made a great circle in the air with a firebrand. And now all the attendants awaited the customary splendid phrases. But the master's mouth was clamped shut.
Then while the attendants stared in amazement the rays of the setting sun fell directly on the master's bald head, seeming to scorch it. “Hot!” Tanzan said. “Hot! Oh hot!” He then made a slight bow to the coffin and returned to his place.
Needless to say, the attendants remained puzzled long after the coffin had been settled in the earth.

 

 

Appearance in Koan
101 Zen Stories / transcribed by Nyogen Senzaki and Paul Reps, Philadelphia, David McKay Company, 1940.
DOC: 101 Zen Stories
PDF: 101 Zen Stories

 

7.  Annoucement

Tanzan wrote sixty postal cards on the last day of his life, and asked an attendant to mail them. Then he passed away.

The cards read:

I am departing from this world.
This is my last announcement.

          Tanzan
          July 27, 1892

 

13.  A Buddha

In Tokyo in the Meiji era there lived two prominent teachers of opposite characteristics. One, Unsho, an instructor in Shingon, kept Buddha's precepts scrupulously. He never drank intoxicants, nor did he eat after eleven o'clock in the morning. The other teacher, Tanzan, a professor of philosophy at the Imperial University, never observed the precepts. When he felt like eating, he ate, and when he felt like sleeping in the daytime, he slept.

One day Unsho visited Tanzan, who was drinking wine at the time, not even a drop of which is supposed to touch the tongue of a Buddhist.

"Hello, brother," Tanzan greeted him. "Won't you have a drink?"

"I never drink!" exclaimed Unsho solemnly.

"One who does not drink is not even human," said Tanzan.

"Do you mean to call me inhuman just because I do not indulge in intoxicating liquids!" exclaimed Unsho in anger. "Then if I am not human, what am I?"

"A Buddha," answered Tanzan.

 

14.  Muddy Road

Tanzan and Ekido were once travelling together down a muddy road. A heavy rain was still falling.

Coming around a bend, they met a lovely girl in a silk kimono and sash, unable to cross the intersection.

"Come on, girl," said Tanzan at once. Lifting her in his arms, he carried her over the mud.

Ekido did not speak again until that night when they reached a lodging temple. Then he no longer could restrain himself. "We monks don't do near females," he told Tanzan, "especially not young and lovely ones. It is dangerous. Why did you do that?"

"I left the girl there," said Tanzan. "Are you still carrying her?"

 

 

WERE YOU STILL HOLDING HER?
http://global.sotozen-net.or.jp/eng/library/stories/book4.html

Tanzan Hara was a famous Zen monk of the Meiji Period. He was also a Buddhist scholar and became the first lecturer in Indian philosophy at Tokyo University and was elected a member of the Japan Academy. He died in 1892 at the age of seventy-four, and he knew the day before that he was going to die. Twenty minutes before his eyes closed for the last time he wrote postcards to his close friends which said, “I will soon die. At this time I would like to inform you to that effect.” And even though he is famous for having died while sitting in the meditation posture, he had shown unusual qualities from his youth.

As a young pilgrim monk he traveled country roads with a close friend, and one day the two of them came to a shallow and narrow river. But there was no bridge, and they were going to have to wade across. By chance they saw a beautiful young lady who was hesitating to wade through the stream, and Tanzan offered, “Here, I'll carry you across. Hold on to my shoulders tightly. All right?” and lightly holding the girl he carried her across.

The girl blushingly thanked Tanzan, but he, in his haste to catch up with his friend, did not hear her. The two monks walked about a mile in silence, and Tanzan's friend appeared to be displeased. Suddenly the friend could contain himself no longer and bluntly said, “You're a disgrace. Do you think monks should embrace girls?” He looked angry.

Tanzan, pretending not to understand, looked round about him and said, “What? Where is a girl?”

“Don't go on pretending. You held a beautiful girl just a short while ago.”

“Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha ― you mean that girl. I carried her across the river and put her down. Have you been carrying her in your mind all this way?”

Hearing this, the friend was at a loss for words.

In photography, if you snap the shutter, the next step is to wind the film. Otherwise, you will get a double exposure. Neither should we forget to wind the film of our minds as our surroundings change moment by moment.

 

 

 

101 zen történet
in: Hús-vér zen
összeáll. Paul Reps; [ford. Acsai Roland]. Cephalion, Szentendre, 2006.
23, 28-29. oldal

7. BEJELENTÉS

Tanzan hatvan levelezőlapot írt meg halála napján, és egy
szolgájával elküldette mindet, majd elhunyt.

A levelezőlapokon ez állt:

Távozom erről a világról.
Ez az utolsó beielentésem.
Tanzan
1892. július 27
.

 

13. EGY BUDDHA

Tokióban a Meiji-korszakban két ellentétes személyiségű
zen mester élt. Az egyik, akit Unshonak hívtak szigorúan
betartotta a szabályokat: nem ivott alkoholt és nem evett
délelőtt tizenegy után.

A másik mester, Tanzan, aki az egyetemen tanított fi-
lozófiát, fittyet hányt a szabályokra: akkor aludt vagy evett,
amikor kedve tartotta.

Egyik nap Unsho meglátogatta Tanzant. Tanzan épp
bort ivott nem törődve a tilalommal.

- Üdvözöllek, testvér! Igyál egy kicsit!

- Soha nem iszom alkoholt - felelte Unsho kimérten.

- Aki nem iszik, nem is ember.

- Ócsárolsz azért, amiért nem iszom ebből a méregből! -
csattant fel Unsho. - Ha nem vagyok ember, akkor mi va-
gyok?

- Buddha - felelte Tanzan.

 

14. SÁROS ÚT

Tanzan és Ekido együtt utaztak egy sáros úton. Zuhogott az eső.

Egy kanyarhoz értek, ahol egy szép lányt láttak selyem
kirnonóban, selyem övvel, aki nem tudott átkelni az útke-
reszteződésen.

- Gyere, kislány! - vette karjaiba Tanzan, és átvitte a túl-
oldalra a sártengeren keresztül.

Ekido nem szólt egy szót sem egészen addig, amíg el nem
érték a templomot, ott aztán kifakadt:

- Mi szerzetesek nem megyünk egy nő közelébe sem.
Különösen, ha az fiatal és vonzó. Veszélves. Miért tetted?

- Én otthagytam a lányt a kereszteződésnél, de úgy lá-
tom, hogy te még mindig hordozod.