Portrait of Deshan Xuanjian, whose dialogue with an old woman is the subject of much of the essay ''Shin fukatoku'' (), also known in English translation as ''The Mind Cannot Be Grasped'', is a book of the

Shōbōgenzō is the title most commonly used to refer to the collection of works written in Japan by the 13th-century Buddhist monk and founder of the Sōtō Zen school, Eihei Dōgen. Several other works exist with the same title (see above), and it is som ...

by the 13th century

Sōtō Sōtō Zen or is the largest of the three traditional sects of Zen in Japanese Buddhism (the others being Rinzai school, Rinzai and Ōbaku). It is the Japanese line of the Chinese Caodong school, Cáodòng school, which was founded during the ...

Zen Zen (; from Chinese: ''Chán''; in Korean: ''Sŏn'', and Vietnamese: ''Thiền'') is a Mahayana Buddhist tradition that developed in China during the Tang dynasty by blending Indian Mahayana Buddhism, particularly Yogacara and Madhyamaka phil ...

monk Eihei Dōgen. It was presented to his students in 1241 during the summer

ango An , or , is a Japanese language, Japanese term for a three-month period of intense training for students of Zen Buddhism, lasting anywhere from 90 to 100 days. The practice during ango consists of meditation (zazen), study, and work (Samu (Ze ...

at his first monastery,

Kōshōhōrin-ji ''Kōshōhōrin-ji'' (), more commonly known by its abbreviated name ''Kōshō-ji'' () and sometimes by its full formal name ''Kannondori Kōshōhōrin-ji'' (), was the first independent zen temple in Japan. While Kennin-ji was established in 1202 ...

, in

Kyoto Kyoto ( or ; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan's largest and most populous island of Honshu. , the city had a population of 1.46 million, making it t ...

. The book appears eighth in the 75 fascicle version of the

, and it is ordered eighteenth in the later chronological 95 fascicle "''Honzan'' edition". It was also included as the third book of the 28 fascicle "''Eiheiji'' manuscript" Shōbōgenzō, and a variant of it was fourth in that version as well. The title is an excerpt from the line from the

Diamond Sutra The ''Diamond Sutra'' (Sanskrit: ) is a Mahayana, Mahāyāna Buddhism, Buddhist sutra from the genre of ('perfection of wisdom') sutras. Translated into a variety of languages over a broad geographic range, the ''Diamond Sūtra'' is one of th ...

"Past mind cannot be grasped, present mind cannot be grasped, and future mind cannot be grasped". Gudō Nishijima, a modern Zen priest, contrasts the subject of this book with the line of

René Descartes René Descartes ( , ; ; 31 March 1596 – 11 February 1650) was a French philosopher, scientist, and mathematician, widely considered a seminal figure in the emergence of modern philosophy and Modern science, science. Mathematics was paramou ...

"I think, therefore I am", which suggests the intellect can grasp the mind. Nishijima states that Buddhism is instead only a "philosophy of the here and now" and that Dōgen is telling us the opposite of Descartes: the mind fundamentally lacks substance, cannot exist independently of the outside world, and therefore cannot be grasped. In order to illustrate this point, Dōgen examines a

kōan A ( ; ; zh, c=公案, p=gōng'àn ; ; ) is a narrative, story, dialogue, question, or statement from Chan Buddhism, Chinese Chan Buddhist lore, supplemented with commentaries, that is used in Zen Buddhism, Buddhist practice in different way ...

story about

Deshan Xuanjian Deshan Xuanjian (; Pinyin: Déshān Xuānjiàn; ), was a Chinese Zen Buddhist monk during the Tang dynasty. He was born in Jiannan in what is now Sichuan Province. He is remembered for hitting his students with a cane to express awakening. Through ...

, a Buddhist scholar of the Diamond Sutra, who attempts to purchase rice cakes from an old woman to "refresh his mind". The woman asks him what mind he intends to refresh if the mind cannot be grasped, leaving him speechless. Dōgen provides suggestions for how Deshan should have responded, and also for what the woman should have said after Deshan failed to say anything.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shin fukatoku Soto Zen Zen texts