An Introduction to Zen Buddhism

by D.T. Suzuki

It goes without saying that this stick thus brought forward can be any one of myriads of things existing in this world of particulars. In this stick we find all possible existences and also all our possible experiences concentrated. When we know it— this homely piece of bamboo—we know the whole story in a most thoroughgoing manner. Holding it in my hand, I hold the whole universe. Whatever statement I make about it is also made of everything else. When one point is gained, all other points go with it. As the Avatamsaka (Kegon) philosophy teaches: “The One embraces All, and All is merged in the One. The One is All, and All is the One. The One pervades All, and All is in the One. This is so with every object, with every existence.” But, mind you, here is no pantheism, nor the theory of identity. For when the stick of bamboo is held out before you it is just the stick, there is no universe epitomized in it, no All, no One; even when it is stated that “I see the stick” or that “Here is a stick,” we all miss the mark. Zen is no more there, much less the philosophy of the Avatamsaka.