Excerpt: March 14, 2019. THE ZEN REBELS: OBSCURE HERMITS AND EXISTENTIAL REFORMERS (PART 16). BANKEI YŌTAKU, (PART 2) (A.Glass 2019)

“Die -- then live Day and night within the world Once you've done this, then you can Hold the world right in your hand!” 

"Bankei Yōtaku, was probably one of the most intriguing of Zen masters, for many reasons.  In his younger days, he was a rebel, who rejected the rigidity of Confucian teachings that ran in tandem with Buddhist teachings throughout Japan in the 16th Century.  Already, in someways, seeing how it will eventually manifest as a political structure under neo- Confuciusim later in the 18th Century.  He was no oracle, just a young man at the time trying to find his way, searching through the religious texts and of course aware of the teaching of Buddha, more so the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra which is the core of all Ch'an and Zen Buddhist teachings.  But, his obsessive longing to connect with his own mind, to feel completed, to know and understand the purpose of the self. The Buddha nature. He ended up wandering as a teenager in and around the Hyōgo prefecture, the place of his birth. Dissatisfied with the Confucianism and Tantric Buddhist teachings, he continued to source the meaning behind the one sentence which was ingrained in his mind from an early age, that ironically came from a Confucius text, it reads “The way of great learning lies in clarifying Bright Virtue.” As a troubled young man, impressionable, yet capable in questioning the religious and political order at the time.  It becomes his mantra, repeating of that single line, more so the meaning behind the phrase from the sentence "Bright Virture", which started him on a quest to find a teacher who would give him that direct answer.  So, it was his request that he become a monk under Umpō Zenjō, a Rinzai Zen teacher, who later ordained Bankei as a Zen monk..."

Full article: https://chiasmusmagazine.blogspot.com/2019/03/the-zen-rebels-obscure-hermits-and_14.htmlarch 14, 2019 (A.Glass 2019)

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