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ILLUSORY VISIONS AND SENSATIONS f 39are makyo even after enlightenment, but we shall not enter into thataspect of the subject in these lectures.In the specific sense the number of makyo which can appear arein fact unlimited, varying according to the personality and temperamentof the sitter. In the Ryogon [Surangama] sutra the Buddhawarns of fifty different kinds, but of course he is referring only to thecommonest. If you attend a sesshin of from five to seven days' durationand apply yourself assiduously, on the third day you are likelyto experience makyo of varying degrees of intensity. Besides those'which involve the vision there are numerous makyo which relate tothe sense of touch, smell, or hearing, or which sometimes cause thebody suddenly to move from side to side or forward and backwardor to lean to one side or to appear to sink or rise. Not infrequentlywords burst fo rth uncontrollably or, more rarely, one imagines he issmelling a particularly fragrant perfume. There are even cases wherewithout conscious awareness one writes down things which tum outto be prophetically true.Very common are visual hallucinations. You are doing zazen withyour eyes open when suddenly the ridges of the straw mattitlg infront of you seem to be heaving up and down like waves. Or withoutwarning everything may go white before your eyes, or black.A knot in the wood of a door may suddenly appear as a beast or demonor angel. One disciple of mine often used to see visions of masks-demons' masks or jesters' masks. I asked him whether he had everhad any particular experience of masks, and it turned out that he hadseen them at a festival in Kyushu1 when he was a child. Another manI knew was extremely troubled in his practice by visions of Buddhaand his disciples walking around him reciting sutras, and was onlyable to dispel the hallucination by jumping into a tank of ice-coldwater fo r two or three minutes.Many makyo involve the hearing. One may hear the sound of apiano or loud noises, such as an explosion (which is heard by no oneelse), and actually jump. One disciple of mine always used to hear thesound of a bamboo flute while doing zazen. He had learned to playthe bamboo flute many years before, but had long since given it up;yet always the sound came to him when he was sitting.1 The southernmost of Japan's main islands.