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Samsara and Satori in the Woman in the Dunes

            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 many times; the question will exist in his every thought and action. The student may try to force the answer, he begins to distrust his own understanding and yet he goes on thinking. The student must learn to wait and not to force the solution. The solution will come if the student is patient. The student's life depends on finding the solution to the question. Suddenly the solution will appear to the pupil for a brief moment. He will begin to sweat and shake and for a brief moment he will know the answer. The student will go to the teacher with the answer, questioningly, unsure of himself and the master will then know that the student understands the question. The information given to the student hasn't changed only the student's perception of the information has changed.


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