Dialogues · Poems · Sources
Hear Bankei answer living people.
Bankei did not write a self-help system. He answered monks, women, farmers, officials, proud people, grieving people, angry people, and people who wanted the truth without ornament. The record is plain, sharp, compassionate, and often funny.
Reading order
Do not start everywhere at once.
If Bankei is new to you, follow this track first. It gives the Temple a doorway now and leaves room for deeper courses as the library grows.
From the recorded dialogues
People came with real trouble.
These are concise renderings of exchanges preserved in English translations. Consult the listed books for the complete texts and translators’ wording.
On painful practice
A monk
The masters of old reached enlightenment through difficult practice. How can someone like me realize the Unborn without doing the same?
Bankei
A traveler may cross mountains to find water, while companions drink what he brings back and satisfy the same thirst. I struggled because I did not meet a clear-eyed teacher. You do not have to repeat the search once the water has been brought.
On whether the teaching is too easy
A lay woman
If all we do is remain effortlessly in Buddha-mind, is that not too lightweight?
Bankei
You turn Buddha-mind into anger, craving, and foolishness, and call my teaching lightweight. Nothing carries more weight than living without exchanging Buddha-mind for those states.
On spent thoughts
A layman
By force of habit, second thoughts keep arising and I find it difficult to accord with the Unborn.
Bankei
A recollection is a thought already spent. If you take it up again, you go around in circles. Do not bother with spent thoughts, whether they appear or not.
On the monk who stole
The assembly
This monk is a thief. He should be expelled from the retreat.
Bankei
If he is sent away, where will he learn? He needs the teaching more than those who already know how to behave.
On death
A monk
How should I prepare for death?
Bankei
Find out who it is that is born. If the Unborn is never born, it cannot die. Seeing this is seeing into your nature.
Song of the Original Mind
Read the real poem from the source.
Bankei's Honshin no uta is a nearly fifty-verse song composed in Yoshino in 1653. The complete English translation most often cited is Peter Haskel's in Bankei Zen, pages 125-132.
"Unborn and imperishableis the original mind."
That is the actual opening of Haskel's translation. The Temple quotes only this brief opening and points you to the translation itself instead of reproducing the whole modern text without permission.
Sources & further reading
Read the complete records.
The wider Buddhist library
Read the roots. Do not live on summaries.
Books are not awakening, but they keep a temple from becoming lazy. Read Bankei with the sutras, the ancestors, and good guides beside him.
Foundational Buddhism
Begin with early discourses on the path, mind, breathing, and not-self.
Early Buddhist canon
Dhammapada
Compact verses on mind, conduct, craving, hatred, and release.SN 56.11
Setting the Dhamma Wheel in Motion
The Middle Way, Four Noble Truths, and first teaching.MN 10
Foundations of Mindfulness
Mindfulness of body, feeling, mind, and phenomena.MN 118
Mindfulness of Breathing
A complete early Buddhist breathing practice.SN 22.59
The Discourse on Not-Self
The five aggregates examined as not self.Mahayana & Chan
Emptiness, compassion, Buddha-nature, and the literature from which Zen formed.
Prajnaparamita tradition
The Heart Sutra
The concise teaching that form and emptiness are inseparable.Prajnaparamita tradition
The Diamond Sutra
Non-abiding, generosity, and the emptiness of fixed views.Huineng tradition
The Platform Sutra
Sudden awakening, original nature, and foundational Chan identity.Wumen Huikai
The Gateless Barrier
A central collection of Zen cases and commentary.Yuanwu Keqin
The Blue Cliff Record
A demanding classic of cases, verse, and layered commentary.Japanese Zen
Practice, koan, just sitting, awakening, and the arguments around method.
Eihei Dogen
Treasury of the True Dharma Eye
Dogen's major writings on practice-realization and Zen life.Eihei Dogen
Fukanzazengi
A concise universal recommendation for zazen.Hakuin Ekaku
Wild Ivy
Hakuin's autobiography and a sharp contrast with Bankei's method.Shunryu Suzuki
Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind
A modern Soto classic on posture, practice, and beginner's mind.Philip Kapleau
The Three Pillars of Zen
Influential accounts of practice and kensho in the West.Thich Nhat Hanh & Plum Village
Accessible, rigorous teaching on interbeing, peace, sitting, and engaged Buddhism.
Thich Nhat Hanh
The Other Shore
A new Heart Sutra translation with commentary on interbeing.Thich Nhat Hanh
The Miracle of Mindfulness
Mindfulness rooted in ordinary actions and compassionate presence.Thich Nhat Hanh
Old Path White Clouds
A spacious narrative account of the Buddha's life and teaching.Thich Nhat Hanh
How to Sit
Short, humane instruction for optional seated practice.Thich Nhat Hanh
Peace Is Every Step
Peace practiced in body, speech, relationship, and daily life.Orientation & history
Accessible maps of Zen, best read alongside primary texts and communities.
Alan Watts
The Way of Zen
Influential and accessible on Indian, Chinese, and Japanese contexts; an orientation, not a substitute for practice or scholarship.Walpola Rahula
What the Buddha Taught
A concise introduction to foundational Buddhist doctrine.Rupert Gethin
The Foundations of Buddhism
A careful scholarly overview of Buddhist history and thought.John McRae