Samsara and Satori in the Woman in the Dunes

Option 4: Though he is not a willing participant, Niki Jumpei is a student of Zen training. Using Herrigel’s chapter on the traditional approach to Japanese spiritual instruction, explain how the relationship of student and master is fulfilled in progressive stages in the novel.

In The Woman in the Dunes by Kobo Abe, the main character, Niki Jumpei, becomes a student of Zen training when he becomes unexpectedly trapped inside of a large sand pit. As he is lead into the sand pit Niki is a victim of samsara because he can not find the wisdom to escape his meaningless life. Niki must overcome desire, delusion and dark passion, or ego, to break out from this cycle. To overcome samsara Niki must find the answer to the koan that was asked of him which is, “How do you escape the sand pit without the rope ladder?”.

Herrigel states the stages of Zen training through the use of a Koan. The master gives the student a question such as “what is the sound of one hand clapping?” The student must then find an answer to the question. The student will reflect on the question and go to the master with an answer. He will be immediately turned away. The student may come to the Zen master man

to conceal the elation in his heart. He suddenly let out a cry and….fell over on his

Niki creates a last effort of solving the Koan by building “Hope”. This plan is completely irrational and unlike anything Niki has tried before. The plan does not involve Niki’s superior intellect to be understood and is left highly to chance rather than the mathematically planned out ideas he has tried in the past. This plan shows that Niki has given up his ego and in that has given up samsara, the “three unwholesome roots” (Schuhmacher). This plan, involving the capture of a crow fails, however Niki finds that the bucket intended for crow detainment now held water. Niki had learned how to get water on his on and in this action created his satori.

Finally, in an end of his quest for enlightenment, Niki must approach the Zen masters with his solution. This happens in the way of the woman’s pregnancy. Niki has shown the villagers that he has found happiness in the sand pit by getting the woman pregnant. There is a problem with her pregnancy however, and when the villagers take the woman away in an ambulance they leave the rope ladder hanging to show Niki that he has truly reached enlightenment. Niki climbs up the ladder and walks around his sand pit then back into the hole to fix “hope” and to listen to the radio.

Niki realizes that he does not need to hasten his escape because in the sand pit is everything he needs or wants. He has his independence and love as well as contentment in his life. Most importantly the sand pit is his home. Never before has Niki had a place to call home and feel content in. Through the quest for enlightenment Niki realizes that everything he could want in life is found in the sand pit with the woman. The way to escape the sand pit without the rope ladder is to find honest contentment inside the sand pit. Niki has become Herrigel’s ideal Zen pupil. At each step Niki shows the struggles of the student in search of enlightenment. The Woman in the Dunes parallels Herrigel’s chapter on Zen training almost exactly. In every step of the Zen student Niki is there, fraught with the struggle of finding enlightenment.

Here, Niki shows all the characteristics of a student who has reached satori. Momentarily he loses control and laughs out loud. He has seen the solution to the Koan. Finding his own independence inside the hole is the key to Niki’s freedom. Niki shows the loss of ego as well here as he does not judge the woman w

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