THE KOAN
"to maintain". Dhyana thus means to hold one's thought
collected, nottolet thoughtwanderaway fromitslegitimate
path; that is, it means tohave themind concentrated on a
singlesubject ofthought.Therefore,whenZen orDhyana is
practised,all theouter details are tobe so controlled as tobringthemindintothemostfavourableconditioninwhichit
will gradually riseabovethe turbulenceofpassionsand sen-
sualities.Forinstance,eatinganddrinkinghavetobeproperly
regulated;sleepisnottobetoomuchindulgedin;thebody
istobekeptinaneasyandcomfortableposition,butstraight
anderect;<mdzistothecontrolofbreathing,theIndiansare,
asiswellknown, consummateartists.Next,thechoice ofthe
placewheretheDhyana-practiseristositisanotherimportant
consideration, and naturally such places as the market, the
factory, orthe business office maybetter beavoided. There
arcmanymorerulesorsuggestionsrelatingtothecontrolof
thebodyandthe mind, which arefullytreated in Chi-sha's
workonDhyana-Paramita}
AsisevidentevenfromthisbriefaccountofDhyana,^o^^nasispractisedbyZendevoteeshasnotthesameobjectinmind
asis the case with Buddhists generally. In Zen, Dhyana or
Z<Kenisusedasthemeansofreachingthesolutionofthekoan.ZendoesnotmakeDhyanaanendinitself,forapartfromthe
koanexercise,thepractisingofzazenisasecondaryconsideration.
Itis nodoubta necessaryaccompanimentto themasteryofZen;evenwhen thekoanisunderstood,itsdeepspiritualtruth
willnotbedrivenhometothemindoftheZenstudentifheis
notthoroughly trainedin lazm.Koan and zazenare thetwohandmaidsofZen;thefirstistheeyeandthesecondisthefoot.
IntheearlydaysofBuddhisminChina,philosophicaldis-
cussionfirstattracted theattentionoftheearnest studentsof
BuddhismandsuchsutrasastheAvatamsaka,Pundarika,Prajna-paramita,Nirvana,etc.,wereearlytranslatedintoChinese.The
deep metaphysical thoughts contained in these sacred texts
interestedChinese scholars morethan did othermattersthat
werealsotobefoundinthem,anditwasprobablychieflydue
totheincomparableKumarajivathatagreatimpetuswasgiven'AsregardsthepraxrticeofiOifninJapan,lecmy^mEuofs,II,pp.
884-7.