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Mud and Water: The Collected Teachings of Zen Master Bassui
The fourteenth-century Zen master Bassui was recognized as one of the most important Zen teachers of his time. Accessible and eloquent, these teachings cut to the heart of the great matter of Zen, pointing directly to the importance of seeing our own original nature and recognizing it as Buddhahood itself. Bassui is taking familiar concepts in Buddhism and recasting them in an essential Zen light.
Though he lived centuries ago in a culture vastly different from our own, Zen Master Bassui speaks with a voice that spans time and space to address our own modern challenges - in our lives and spiritual practice.
Like the revered Master Dogen several generations before him, Bassui was dissatisfied with what passed for Zen training, and taught a radically reenergized form of Zen, emphasizing deep and direct penetration into one's own true nature. And also like Dogen, Bassui uses powerful and often poetic language to take familiar Buddhist concepts recast them in a radically non-dual Zen light, making ancient doctrines vividly relevant.
This edition of Mud and Water contains several teachings never before translated.
Though he lived centuries ago in a culture vastly different from our own, Zen Master Bassui speaks with a voice that spans time and space to address our own modern challenges - in our lives and spiritual practice.
Like the revered Master Dogen several generations before him, Bassui was dissatisfied with what passed for Zen training, and taught a radically reenergized form of Zen, emphasizing deep and direct penetration into one's own true nature. And also like Dogen, Bassui uses powerful and often poetic language to take familiar Buddhist concepts recast them in a radically non-dual Zen light, making ancient doctrines vividly relevant.
This edition of Mud and Water contains several teachings never before translated.
256 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1989
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
March 1, 2025
Today, in this Springtime of my mid-Seventies I saw what Saint Bassui meant: for I am no longer afraid of taking mud baths in my modernistic choice of books.
In fact, The More the Merrier!
Aren’t YOU?
Look, for example, at my recent choice of books. Ripley Under Ground. French Exit. Gnomon. Slacker. Good, Black, Oozing Thick MUCK, every one.
To bowlderize the Bard these are "the stuff Nightmares are made on!"
Dark, ugly as sin, gobbledy-gooey nightmares.
Dad used to say to me,"these books you read are abject drivel! Why, in Heaven's name, Fergus? "
Why!?
Simple, Dad. I'm autistic.
Previously I'd gild even my lilies, given half the chance.
Rose-coloured glasses? Got BOXES of 'em. Wanna try one on for size? Here you go...
You see, at 74 I'm blind as a bat - to Evil and to Small Print. I only read Large Print books (easy as pie with Kindle.) I see no evil and hear no evil in my faulty memories.
So now I read MORE THAN EVER! I’m learning other folks’ inner, hidden, secret tropes.
(Gotta Death Wish, son?)
Heh. Heh. No, Dad.
You see, I want to go to Heaven, Eyes Wide Open, and See it all Clear and Bright…
So I don't miss a thing.
Don't laugh!
I'm very, very serious -
For I'll be just like Proust, on the 'trottoirs merdeux d'un Paris ensoleillé briallamment' at the end of his long indoor exile -
For by sheer, stark contrast it will then be easy!
In fact, The More the Merrier!
Aren’t YOU?
Look, for example, at my recent choice of books. Ripley Under Ground. French Exit. Gnomon. Slacker. Good, Black, Oozing Thick MUCK, every one.
To bowlderize the Bard these are "the stuff Nightmares are made on!"
Dark, ugly as sin, gobbledy-gooey nightmares.
Dad used to say to me,"these books you read are abject drivel! Why, in Heaven's name, Fergus? "
Why!?
Simple, Dad. I'm autistic.
Previously I'd gild even my lilies, given half the chance.
Rose-coloured glasses? Got BOXES of 'em. Wanna try one on for size? Here you go...
You see, at 74 I'm blind as a bat - to Evil and to Small Print. I only read Large Print books (easy as pie with Kindle.) I see no evil and hear no evil in my faulty memories.
So now I read MORE THAN EVER! I’m learning other folks’ inner, hidden, secret tropes.
(Gotta Death Wish, son?)
Heh. Heh. No, Dad.
You see, I want to go to Heaven, Eyes Wide Open, and See it all Clear and Bright…
So I don't miss a thing.
Don't laugh!
I'm very, very serious -
For I'll be just like Proust, on the 'trottoirs merdeux d'un Paris ensoleillé briallamment' at the end of his long indoor exile -
For by sheer, stark contrast it will then be easy!
March 11, 2020
REACH THE ROOTS AND THERE IS NO LAMENTING THE BRANCHES.
He was someone who, for every sound he heard, contemplated the mind of the hearer, thereby realising his true nature.
Bassui Tokusho is a 14th century Zen master.
Bassui realised there was nothing one could grasp to call the soul. With this new view of the emptiness of all things, Bassui no longer felt the burden of body and mind.
He is asking us to question so completely that the inquiry frees us from any particular answer, allowing us to stay with the question, and hence to be with ourselves every moment.
All views are delusion.
Fasting means looking into your own nature and illumination your consciousness, cutting off deluded feelings arising from analytical thinking, remaining apart from external phenomenon, and unattached to the internal void, completely purifying yourself so that things with no more than a thread of meaning become non-existent in your life.
When analytical thoughts are forgotten, views based on knowledge are also forgotten, leaving no trace of ego. The path where heavenly beings fulfil their desire to offer flowers no longer exists. There is no gate through which demons and heretics can secretly enter.
All people are quipped with the inclination to spiritual awakening, yet without removing the feeling of attachment to all form, they cannot give rise to this awakening.
Those who violate the 4 major prohibitions - murder, stealing, lust and lying - will no doubt fall into the 4 evil realms. Drinking alcohol isn't one of them but all prohibitions are violated as a result of drinking.
The root of life and death is the discriminating mind.
Reach the roots and there is no lamenting the branches.
If you don't attain realisation in this lifetime, if you die while in the middle of your practice, you will easily attain realisation in your next life.
He was someone who, for every sound he heard, contemplated the mind of the hearer, thereby realising his true nature.
Bassui Tokusho is a 14th century Zen master.
Bassui realised there was nothing one could grasp to call the soul. With this new view of the emptiness of all things, Bassui no longer felt the burden of body and mind.
He is asking us to question so completely that the inquiry frees us from any particular answer, allowing us to stay with the question, and hence to be with ourselves every moment.
All views are delusion.
Fasting means looking into your own nature and illumination your consciousness, cutting off deluded feelings arising from analytical thinking, remaining apart from external phenomenon, and unattached to the internal void, completely purifying yourself so that things with no more than a thread of meaning become non-existent in your life.
When analytical thoughts are forgotten, views based on knowledge are also forgotten, leaving no trace of ego. The path where heavenly beings fulfil their desire to offer flowers no longer exists. There is no gate through which demons and heretics can secretly enter.
All people are quipped with the inclination to spiritual awakening, yet without removing the feeling of attachment to all form, they cannot give rise to this awakening.
Those who violate the 4 major prohibitions - murder, stealing, lust and lying - will no doubt fall into the 4 evil realms. Drinking alcohol isn't one of them but all prohibitions are violated as a result of drinking.
The root of life and death is the discriminating mind.
Reach the roots and there is no lamenting the branches.
If you don't attain realisation in this lifetime, if you die while in the middle of your practice, you will easily attain realisation in your next life.
July 13, 2018
The collected teachings of Bassui Tokushō (b.1327).
The main text of the book has four parts. I think these might be separate 'works,' but the translator merely calls them parts I-IV. There is a helpful and robust index for the many references that appear throughout the text. It's not always super fun to flip to endnotes, but it's a cleaner read.
Some pieces of parts I and II left me with a rather poor impression. The questioner asks Bassui some specific question and Bassui often responds with unrelated words. I hate using this example (really... I do...) but a real/contemporary world example was during the presidential debates wherein certain candidates were asked specific questions and instead of answering, just steamrolled the question into an opportunity for a rant of their own. It left the impression that they really just did not know the answer whatsoever.
But I kept reading and parts III and IV are much better. Exponentially so, to be honest. Here is what earns the four+ star ratings for this text.
Some of it is repetitive, but in a vital way. The teachings are direct - even shockingly so.
I like that it's a view of Zen that is not the "marketed" viewpoint usually found in the West.
I also appreciated the urgency; Bassui frequently says: Don't waste time! Time waits for no one!
The main text of the book has four parts. I think these might be separate 'works,' but the translator merely calls them parts I-IV. There is a helpful and robust index for the many references that appear throughout the text. It's not always super fun to flip to endnotes, but it's a cleaner read.
Some pieces of parts I and II left me with a rather poor impression. The questioner asks Bassui some specific question and Bassui often responds with unrelated words. I hate using this example (really... I do...) but a real/contemporary world example was during the presidential debates wherein certain candidates were asked specific questions and instead of answering, just steamrolled the question into an opportunity for a rant of their own. It left the impression that they really just did not know the answer whatsoever.
But I kept reading and parts III and IV are much better. Exponentially so, to be honest. Here is what earns the four+ star ratings for this text.
Some of it is repetitive, but in a vital way. The teachings are direct - even shockingly so.
I like that it's a view of Zen that is not the "marketed" viewpoint usually found in the West.
I also appreciated the urgency; Bassui frequently says: Don't waste time! Time waits for no one!
September 7, 2020
Bassui's style of teaching Buddhism is so clear, so free of obscurantism and so bold. Although I had to look up certain terminology I wasn't previously familiar with as an outsider to Buddhism, I can definitely say this book was worth every piece of paper. I can't think of another sage who showed as great an understanding in his own teachings as he showed concern in the well being of his students. I am halfway done with this book and I've found Bassui both encouraging and intellectually refreshing. Bassui Tokusho definitely embodied Virya.
August 10, 2025
Parts I and II pretty uninteresting and more like 2 stars. Part III is excellent, and more like 4.
February 25, 2013
I have difficulty with translation of dated text. Prefer modern interpretations to historical perspective.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews