Zen and the Ways

Expression of Zen inspiration in everyday activities such as writing or serving tea, and in knightly arts such as fencing, came to be highly regarded in Japanese tradition. In the end, some of them were practiced as spiritual training in themselves; they were then called " Ways." This book includes translations of some rare texts on Zen and the Ways. One is a sixteenth century Zen text compiled from Kamakura temple records of the previous three centuries, giving accounts of the very first Zen interviews in Japan . It gives the actual koan "test questions" which disciples had to answer. In the koan called Sermon, " for instance, among the tests are: How would you give a sermon to a one-month-old child? To someone screaming with pain in hell? To a foreign pirate who cannot speak your language? To Maitreya in the Tushita heaven? Extracts are translated from the "secret scrolls" of fencing, archery, judo, and so on. These scrolls were given in feudal days to pupils when they graduated from the academy, and some of them contain profound psychological and spiritual hints, but in deliberately cryptic form. They cannot be understood without long experience as a student of a Way, and the author draws on over forty years' experience as a student and later as a teacher of the Way called judo. The text is accompanied by exquisite line drawings and plates.