The Eight Gates of Zen is an introductory tool for initiates of the Mountains and Rivers order of Zen Buddhism. While The Eight Gates started this way, it has had mass appeal and has been influential to Zen practitioners alike. John Daido Loori Roshi is the current Abbot of this order and this book serves as a framework for the practice. The Eight Gates of Zen contains information about the Mountains and Rivers Order, and information about Zen practice in the Mountains and Rivers Order. Daido uses the classic ten Ox-herding pictures as a tool to elucidate the progress of Zen training from an Initiate to a fully realized Master. While Daido talks about this sequence of "steps" he only uses this as a tool for westerners who hold a compulsion to know where they are in a learning sequence. There are no clear "stages," as the stages seamlessly flow from one to the next as a continuum.
Next Daido discusses what he and the Mountains and Rivers Order call "The Eight Gates" of Zen training. The Eight Gates are:
1. Zazen, the traditional style of Zen meditation.
Zazen, has always been the cornerstone of Zen practice. This conserves the path of extensive meditation practiced by Sakyamuni, who realized himself while in Zazen.
2. Zen Study, face to face teachings between Teacher and Student.
Zen has always been about the "special transmission outside the scriptures, words or letters." Zen holds that this "mind to mind" transmission takes place over the course of training, and to the degree that a fully realized Master holds the same Buddha mind as Sakyamuni himself. This transmission can be traced back from current Zen Masters, through to Sakyamuni.
3. Academic Study, of the Sutras related to Zen training, other schools of Buddhism, Buddhist history, psychology and philosophy.
While realizing the Buddha Mind is not dependent upon the Scriptures, this does not mean they are not important for training. It simply means that they cannot be relied upon at the expense of the other areas of practice. Zen came to be a separate school of Buddhism at a time when Buddhist practice had decayed to being mere academic study. In response, Zen emphasized Zazen. While the emphasis of Zen is Zazen, the Scriptures are an integral part of practice.
4. Liturgy, learning the Zen rites, rituals, and their meaning.
Liturgy includes recitation of Sutras, Mantras, and Gathas at various points of the day, as well as specific rites and rituals. Liturgy helps to remind practitioners of why things are important, and why they are done.
5. Right Action, the moral end ethical teachings set in the Buddhist precepts.
Cultivating Compassion, Wisdom, and Enlightenment, and enacting them in ones every act. This is learning to practice the way of a Bodhisattva.
6. Art Practice, as an extension of Zen practice.
Art practice has extensive history in Zen. In China, and Japan, Painting, Calligraphy, Poetry, Flower Arrangement, and others have been an integral part of Zen training. Especially because Zen is about "special transmission outside the scriptures, words, or letters," art practice has frequently been a method of communicating from the Student to the teacher, that which cannot otherwise be communicated.
7. Body Practice, as an extension of Zen practice.
Body practice is largely inspired by Master Dogen. He emphasized that there is no distinction between the spiritual and the mundane. For Dogen, even showering, and the use of the lavatory were part of Zen practice. In the Eight Gates body practice is everything from use of the lavatory, to brushing ones teeth, to doing yoga, archery, running, or any number of physical practices. Body practice is time to just be in the body, it is moving Zazen.
8. Work Practice, as an active function of Zazen.
Work practice is about realizing the "one-pointedness" of mind in our daily work activities. Work practice traces back to Zen monks who on a daily basis, worked out in the rice field, or some other practice necessary for support of the Monastery. Work Practice is about realizing one's true self in everything we do.
None of the Eight Gates are new. They have been practiced by Zen monks, and lay practitioners for over one thousand years. However, specifically outlining these eight areas of practice, using them to create a formal practice both Monastic, and lay, is new, revolutionary and a uniquely American Zen. Wherever Zen is cultivated, it adapts to the present time, and circumstances, as it did in China, as it did in Japan, and as it is now doing in America. For those who find The Eight Gates to "not be Zen," I highly recommend taking more time to learn about the history of Zen Buddhism.
While Zen practice has always been about the individual's experience (you can't force someone to do Zazen or think FOR them), it has also always been about the special mind to mind transmission from Teacher to Student, carrying the Buddha mind into the future.
Also included in The Eight Gates of Zen are descriptions of the Path of the Monastic, and of the Lay student, and appendices containing Recommended Reading, some of the Daily Liturgy, the Mountains and Rivers Sutra, Zazen Checklist, an introduction to the Zendo, the Precepts, and a Glossary.
