This dissertation explores the relation between illness and Zen by focusing on the topic of the malady of meditation (zenbyō). Reconstruction of this relation will proceed in rough chronological order. Chapter One of this dissertation, for instance, shows how the oft-used metaphors of medicine and illness in early Buddhist scriptures were turned on their heads for the purpose of addressing a problem inherent to the notion of the emptiness of emptiness. Chapter Two offers a close examination of key metaphors for emptiness and no mind—the great death, rest, relaxation, cold ashes, withered trees, and silent illumination—and shows that these metaphors had come to be met with suspicion sometime between the late Tang (755–907) and early Song (960–1127). This shift in understanding was, I argue, accompanied by the emergence of a new Buddhist genre known as the encounter dialogue and the appearance of a more general, hermeneutic predicament that early Song exegetes took to be the defining characteristic of the encounter dialogue genre as a whole. These same exegetes argued that one could overcome this predicament by taking the words and deeds that the ancient masters used to distance themselves from, say, the great death and make them one's own.
Chapter Three turns to the Chan master Dahui Zonggao (1089–1163), his autobiography, and the remedy that he recommended to those suffering from the malady of meditation, namely “observing the phrase meditation” (kanhua chan). Challenging the prevailing scholarly consensus, this dissertation will attempt to show that Dahui's condemnation of silent illumination and his advocacy of observing the most critical phrase ( huatou) from each encounter dialogue have less to do with internecine polemics and struggle for support than with the question of what it means to personally witness (qinzheng) the ineffable Way and know it for oneself (zizhi).
Chapter Four turns to the Japanese Zen master Hakuin Ekaku (1686–1769) and his illness. Hakuin's profound interest in the physical aspect of the malady of meditation, I argue, is in part an extension of the growing emphasis on the body that one can witness in the Buddhist revitalization efforts during the late Ming dynasty (1570–1644). Chapter Five also explores the relation between Hakuin's account of his illness, the art of nourishing life ( yōjō), and the anxiety of stagnation that swept through the Edo populace. Although the accumulation of vital energy (ki) had reigned as the ideal of nourishing life for centuries, labor and hard work emerged in its stead as the new ideal of nourishing life. Chapter Five, however, will show that Hakuin's illness has as much to do with anxieties about labor (rō) and exhaustion (rō) as with anxieties about stagnation.
