Zen Buddhism and Hasidism: A Comparative Study (review)

124 SHOFAR Winter 1997 Vol. 15, No. 2 BOOK REVIEWS Zen Buddhism and Hasidism: A Comparative Study, by Jacob Yurah Teshima. Lanham, MD: University Press ofAmerica, 1995. 189 pp. $48.00. Jacob Teshima writes, "every religion ultimately seeks to provide answers to basic human problems" (p. xii). Indeed, according to Teshima, "[r]eligion is, first of all, a matter of man rather than of God" (p. 107). It is in terms ofreligion's function for man and its imponance for human life that Teshima studies and compares Zen Buddhism and Hasidism. "[R]eligion is not a matter of intellectual knowledge alone," writes Teshima, "but a matter of one's existence" (p. 20). There is an inherent organization and development to Teshima's work. Beginning with a shon historical introduction to both religious movements (chapter 1), Teshima explores the answer each religion offers to the problems of the human condition. In both cases the answer lies in an "inner discipline" (p. 13) which teaches lhe Zen Buddhist or Hasid "how to strive with life" (p. 163), how to "encounter the difficulties of life and overcome them" (p. 163). For Zen, this inner discipline is zazen, or meditation; for Hasidism, it is devequtb. Teshima agrees with Gershom Scholem who defines devequtb as "a perpetual being-with-God, an intimate union and conformity of the human and the divine will" (p. 36). Zazen must be understood fundamentally as cbien-bsing, "looking into one's nature" (p. 25), where one's nature concerns not only one's own selfbut equally "the 'ultimate constitution' of being" (p. 25). Teshima writes, "[a]ccording to Zen, one's own nature includes all of being" (p. 45). To Hui-neng, who brought zazen to its full meaning, the practice of looking into one's nature "was an instant manifestation of the absolute reality" (p. 22). Devequtb, or clinging to God, may be understood as parallel to zazen in that through each the individual re-a~gns himselfwith the Absolute, yet how the Absolute is understood and how· this realignment is achieved are fundamentally different. Teshima sums up the differences as follows: In devequtb, a person cleaves to God, who is an external and independent entity from him and who is the Infinite One embracing all creation. In cbien-bsing a person looks at his own nature, which is, however, identical with the vessel of Dharrila (Reality). (p. 45) Book Reviews 125 Whereas chapter three studies the obstacles to achieving perfection in these practices, chapter four focuses on their perfect attainment. Once more a parallel may be drawn between Hasidism and Zen that at the same time does not deny the differences that ultimately separate them. Bittu!bayesb is the realization of the innermost meaning of devequtb, of clinging to God, whereas satori is the perfect attainment of cbien-bsing, oflooking into one's nature. Teshima mediates between these two practices through the concept of annihilation of selfhood. Teshima quotes a Hasidic text which reads, "[t]he more a person clings to the Lord, blessed be He, the more he feels his meanness and poverty, until he becomes nothing at all" (p. 91). Teshima writes, "[s]o what is bittu! ba-yesb? According to Hasidic understanding, it is the complete domination of the Creator, blessed be He" (p. 92). Bittu! ba-yesb appears to be the complete annihilation of any sense ofself-sufficiency, recognizingone's absolute dependency upon God. Teshima quotes from the Great Maggid. Man is just like a sbopbar. . . . [Ilf the blower leaves it behind, it will not produce sound. Similarly, in the case of God's absence from man, man is unable to speak or think. (p. 89) . Within Hasidism,self-annihilation comes through a radical attachment, a clinging to the life of God. Within Zen, self-annihilation comes through a radical "non-attachment" (p. 97), a "state of freedom despite one's abiding in circumstances" (p. 97). Teshima quotes Takuan, a distinguished Zen master who wrote that the original mind "is always flowing ... and no-where standing still.... If it could find a resting place anywhere, it is not a mind of no-mind" (p. 98), that is. to say, it is a mind not...