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Chán is a school of Mahāyāna Buddhism. The word Chán is derived from the Sanskrit word dhyāna, which can be approximately translated as "meditation" or "meditative state."
Chán developed from a loose group of dhyana practitioners in the 6th century CE into the dominant Buddhist school of China at the Song period. The picture of Chán which was developed during the Song is still prevalent in the popular imagination. From China, Chán spread south to Vietnam, and east to Korea and Japan.
The historical records required for a complete, accurate account of early Chán history no longer exist.[1] Theories about the influence of other schools in the evolution of Chán are widely variable and rely heavily on speculative correlation rather than on written records or histories. Some scholars have argued that Chán developed from the interaction between Mahāyāna Buddhism and Taoism, while others insist that Chán has roots in yogic practices, specifically kammaṭṭhāna, the consideration of objects, and kasiṇa, total fixation of the mind.[4] A number of other conflicting theories exist.
When Buddhism came to China, there were three divisions of training:
- The training in virtue and discipline in the precepts (Skt. śīla),
- The training in mind through meditation (Skt. dhyāna) to attain deep states of meditation (Skt. samādhi), and
- The training in the recorded teachings (Skt. Dharma).
It was in this context that Buddhism entered into Chinese culture. Three types of teachers with expertise in each training practice developed:
- Vinaya masters specialized in all the rules of discipline for monks and nuns,
- Dhyāna masters specialized in the practice of meditation, and
- Dharma masters specialized in mastery of the Buddhist texts.
Monasteries and practice centers were created that tended to focus on either the Vinaya and training of monks or the teachings focused on one scripture or a small group of texts. Dhyāna (Ch. Chán) masters tended to practice in solitary hermitages, or to be associated with vinaya training monasteries or the dharma teaching centers. The later naming of the Zen school has its origins in this view of the threefold division of training.
McRae goes so far as to say:
...one important feature must not be overlooked: Chan was not nearly as separate from these other types of Buddhist activities as one might think [...] [T]he monasteries of which Chan monks became abbots were comprehensive institutions, "public monasteries" that supported various types of Buddhist activities other than Chan-style meditation. The reader should bear this point in mind: In contrast to the independent denominations of Soto and Rinzai that emerged (largely by government fiat) in seventeenth-century Japan,
there was never any such thing as an institutionally separate Chan "school" at any time in Chinese Buddhist history (emphasis McRae)
[5]
The Chán tradition ascribes the origins of Chán in India to the Flower Sermon, the earliest source for which comes from the 14th century.[6] It is said that Gautama Buddha gathered his disciples one day for a Dharma talk. When they gathered together, the Buddha was completely silent and some speculated that perhaps the Buddha was tired or ill. The Buddha silently held up and twirled a flower and his eyes twinkled; several of his disciples tried to interpret what this meant, though none of them were correct. One of the Buddha's disciples, Mahākāśyapa, silently gazed at the flower and broke into a broad smile. The Buddha then acknowledged Mahākāśyapa's insight by saying the following[4]:
I possess the true Dharma eye, the marvelous mind of Nirvāṇa, the true form of the formless, the subtle Dharma gate that does not rest on words or letters but is a special transmission outside of the scriptures. This I entrust to Mahākāśyapa.
Traditionally the origin of Chán in China is credited to the Indian monk Bodhidharma. Only scarce historical information is available about him, but his hagiography developed when the Chan tradition grew stronger and gained prominence in the early 8th century. By this time a lineage of the six ancestral founders of Chán in China was developed.[7] In the late 8th century, under the influence of Huineng's student Shenhui, the traditional form of this lineage had been established[7]:
- Bodhidharma (達摩) ca. 440 – ca. 528
- Huike (慧可) 487–593
- Sengcan (僧燦) ?–606
- Daoxin (道信) 580–651
- Hongren (弘忍) 601–674
- Huineng (慧能) 638–713
In later writings this lineage was extended to include 28 Indian patriarchs. In the Song of Enlightenment (證道歌 Zhèngdào gē) of Yongjia Xuanjue (永嘉玄覺, 665–713), one of the chief disciples of Huìnéng, it is written that Bodhidharma was the 28th patriarch in a line of descent from Mahākāśyapa, a disciple of Śākyamuni Buddha, and the first patriarch of Chán Buddhism.
<poem>
Mahākāśyapa was the first, leading the line of transmission; Twenty-eight Fathers followed him in the West; The Lamp was then brought over the sea to this country; And Bodhidharma became the First Father here: His mantle, as we all know, passed over six Fathers,
And by them many minds came to see the Light.</poem>
In its beginnings in China, Chán primarily referred to the Mahāyāna sūtras and especially to the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra.[10] As a result, early masters of the Chán tradition were referred to as "Laṅkāvatāra masters". As the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra teaches the doctrine of the "One Vehicle" (Skt. Ekayāna), the early Chán school was sometimes referred to as the "One Vehicle School". In other early texts, the school that would later become known as Chán is sometimes even referred to as simply the "Laṅkāvatāra school" (Ch. 楞伽宗, Léngqié Zōng).[12] Accounts recording the history of this early period are to be found in Records of the Laṅkāvatāra Masters (Ch. 楞伽師資記, Léngqié Shīzī Jì).
Main article:
Bodhidharma
Bodhidharma with Huike. Painting by
Sesshū Tōyō, 15th century.
The establishment of Chán in China is traditionally credited to the Buddhist monk Bodhidharma, who is recorded as having come to China during the time of Southern and Northern Dynasties to teach a "special transmission outside scriptures" which "did not stand upon words".
Little contemporary biographical information on Bodhidharma is extant, and subsequent accounts became layered with legend.[7] There are three principal sources for Bodhidharma's biography[13]: Yáng Xuànzhī's (Yang Hsüan-chih) The Record of the Buddhist Monasteries of Luoyang (547), Tánlín's preface to the Two Entrances and Four Acts (6th century CE), and Dàoxuān's (Tao-hsuan) Further Biographies of Eminent Monks (7th century CE).
These sources vary in their account of Bodhidharma being either "from Persia" (547 CE), "a Brahman monk from South India" (645 CE), "the third son of a Brahman king of South India" (ca. 715 CE).[7] Some traditions specifically describe Bodhidharma to be the third son of a Pallava king from Kanchipuram.[web 1]
The short text Two Entrances and Four Acts, written by T'an-lín (曇林; 506–574), contains teachings which are attributed to Bodhidharma. The text is known from the Dunhuang-manuscripts. The two entrances (to enlightenment) are the entrance of principle and the entrance of practice:
The entrance of principle is to become enlightened to the Truth on the basis of the teaching. One must have a profound faith in the fact that one and the same True Nature is possessed by all sentient beings, both ordinary and enlightened, and that this True Nature is only covered up and made imperceptible [in the case of ordinary people] by
false sense impressions".
[15]
The entrance of practice includes the following four increments:
- Practice of the retribution of enmity: to accept all suffering as the fruition of past transgressions, without enmity or complaint
- Practice of the acceptance of circumstances: to remain unmoved even by good fortune, recognizing it as evanescent
- Practice of the absence of craving: to be without craving, which is the source of all suffering
- Practice of accordance with the Dharma: to eradicate wrong thoughts and practice the six perfections, without having any "practice"[16]
This text was used and studied by Huike and his students. The True Nature refers to the Buddha-nature.[15]
Bodhidharma settled in the kingdom of Wei. Shortly before his death, Bodhidharma appointed a disciple named Huike to succeed him, making Huike the first Chinese-born ancestral founder and the second ancestral founder of Chán in China. Bodhidharma is said to have passed three items to Huike as a sign of transmission of the Dharma: a robe, a bowl, and a copy of the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra. The transmission then passed to the second ancestral founder Huike, the third Sengcan, the fourth ancestral founder Daoxin, and the fifth ancestral founder Hongren.
The period of Daoxin (道信 580–651) and Hongren (弘忍 601–674) came to be called the East Mountain Teaching, due to the location of the residence of Hongren at Huamgmei. The term was used by Shenxiu, the most important successor to Hongren.[17] The East Mountain community was a specialized meditation training centre. Hongren was a plain meditation teacher, who taught students of "various religious interests", including "practitioners of the Lotus Sutra, students of Madhyamaka philosophy, or specialists in the monastic regulations of Buddhist Vinaya".[18] The establishment of a community in one location was a change from the wandering lives of Bodhiharma and Huike and their followers.[18] It fitted better into the Chinese society, which highly valued community-oriented behaviour, instead of solitary practice[19]
Shenxiu (神秀 606?-706) was the most important successor to Hongren. In 701 he was invited to the Imperial Court by Empress Wu, who paid him due imperial reverence. The first lineage documents were produced in this period:
...the genealogical presentation of the Chan transmission was first recorded on paper in the early years of metropolitan Chan activity. The earliest recorded instance of this was in the epitaph for a certain Faru, a student of Hongren's who died in 689, and by the second decade of the 8th century, the later followers of Hongren had produced two separate texts describing the transmission from Bodhidharma to Shenxiu".
[20]
The transition from the East Mountain to the two capitals changed the character of Chan:
...it was only when Hongren's successors moved into the environment of the two capitals, with its literate society and incomparably larger urban scale, that well-written texts were required for disseminating the teaching".
[21]
According to tradition, the sixth and last ancestral founder, Huineng (惠能; 638–713), was one of the giants of Chán history, and all surviving schools regard him as their ancestor. The dramatic story of Huineng's life tells that there was a controversy over his claim to the title of patriarch. After being chosen by Hongren, the fifth ancestral founder, Huineng had to flee by night to Nanhua Temple in the south to avoid the wrath of Hongren's jealous senior disciples.
Modern scholarship, however, has questioned this narrative. Historic research reveals that this story was created around the middle of the 8th century, beginning in 731 by Shenhui, a successor to Huineng, to win influence at the Imperial Court. He claimed Huineng to be the successor of Hongren's, instead of the then publicly recognized successor Shenxiu.[7] In 745 Shen-hui was invited to take up residence in the Ho-tse temple in Lo-yang. In 753 he fell out of grace, and had to leave the capital to go into exile. The most prominent of the successors of his lineage was Guifeng Zongmi[22] According to Tsung-mi, Shen-hui's approach was officially sanctioned in 796, when "an imperial commission dtermined that the Southern line of Ch'an represented the orthodox transmission and established Shen-hui as the seventh patriarch, placing an inscription to that effect in the shen-lung temple".
Doctrinally the Southern School is associated with the teaching that enlightenment is sudden, while the Northern School is associated with the teaching that enlightenment is gradual. This was a polemical exaggeration, since both schools were derived from the same tradition, and the so-called Southern School incorporated many teachings of the more influential Northern School.[7] Eventually both schools died out, but the influence of Shenhui was so immense that all later Chan schools traced their origin to Huineng, and "sudden enlightenment" became a standard doctrine of Chan.[7]
Shen-hui's campaign against Shenxiu also marked a doctrinal shift to the Diamond Sūtra (Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra). Thereafter, the essential texts of the Chán school were often considered to be both the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra and the Diamond Sūtra. The Diamond Sutra plays a significant role in the Platform Sutra of Huineng which was subsequently produced to lend credibility to this newly created story of Chán origins.[7]
Daoxin, Hongren, Shenxiu, Huineng and Shenhui all lived during the early Tang. The period of the Tang Dynasty is traditionally regarded as the "golden age" of Chan. This proliferation is described in a famous saying:
Look at the territory of the house of Tang —
The whole of it is the realm of the Chán school.
The An Lu-shan Rebellion (755-763) led to a loss of control by the Tang dynasty, and changed the Chan scene again. Metropolitan Chan began to lose its status, while
...other schools were arising in outlying areas controlled by warlords. These are the forerunnersof the Chan we know today. Their origins are obscure; the power of Shen-hui's preaching is shown by the fact that they all trace themselves to Hui-neng.
[26]
The most important of these schools is the Hongzhou school (洪州宗) of Mazu, to which also belong Shitou, Baizhang, Huangbo and Linji (Rinzai). Linji is also regarded as the founder of one of the Five Houses.
This school developed "shock techniques such as shouting, beating, and using irrational retorts to startle their students into realization". Some of these are common today, while others are found mostly in anecdotes. It is common in many Chán traditions today for Chán teachers to have a stick with them during formal ceremonies which is a symbol of authority and which can be also used to strike on the table during a talk.
These shock techniques became part of the traditional and still popular image of Chan masters displaying irrational and strange behaviour to aid their students.[7][28] Part of this image was due to later misinterpretations and translation errors, such as the loud belly shout known as katsu. In Chinese "katsu" means "to shout", which has traditionally been translated as "yelled 'katsu'" - which should mean "yelled a yell"[web 2]
Traditionally Shítóu Xīqiān (Ch. 石頭希遷, ca.700 - ca.790) is seen as the other great figure of this period. In the Chán lineages he is regarded as the predecessor of the Caodong (Soto) school. He is also regarded as the author of the Sandokai, a poem which formed the basis for the Song of the Precious Mirror Samadhi of Dongshan Liangjie (Jp. Tōzan Ryōkan) and the teaching of the Five Ranks.
During 845-846 Emperor Wu-tsung persecuted the Buddhist schools in China:
It was a desperate attempt on the part of the hard-pressed central government, which had been in disarray since the An Lu-shan rebellion of 756, to gain some measure of political, economic, and military relief by preying on the Buddhist temples with their immense wealth and extensive lands.
[32]
This persecution was devastating for metropolitan Chan, but the Chan school of Ma-tsu and his likes survived, and took a leading role in the Chan of the later Tang.[32]
This surviving rural Chan developed into the Five Houses (Ch. 五家) of Chán, or five "schools". These were not originally regarded as "schools" or "sects", but historically, they have come to be understood that way. In their early history, the schools were not institutionalized, they were without dogma, and the teachers who founded them were not idolized.
The Five Houses of Chán are[1]:
Most Chán lineages throughout Asia and the rest of the world originally grew from or were heavily influenced by the original five houses of Chán.
After the fall of the Tang dynasty China was in turmoil during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period. It was followed by the Song Dynasty, which established a strong central government. During the Song Dynasty, Chán (禪) was used by the government to strengthen its control over the country, and Chán grew to become the largest sect in Chinese Buddhism. An ideal picture of the Chán of the Tang period was produced, which served the legacy of this newly acquired status:
In the Song dynasty (960-1279), Chinese Chan Buddhism reached something of a climax paradigm. By "climax paradigm", I mean a conceptual configuration by which Chan was described in written texts, practiced by its adherents, and by extension understood as a religious entity by the Chinese population as a whole [...] Previous events in Chan were interpreted through the lens of the Song dynasty configuration, and subsequent developments in China, Korea, Japan, and Vietnam were evaluated, even as they occurred, against what was known of the standards established during the Song. Thus the romanticized image of the great Tang dynasty masters - Mazu and his students, Caoshan, Dongshan, and their students, and of course Linji - was generated by Song dynasty authors and functioned within Song dynasty texts. Similarly, even where subsequent figures throughout East Asia - Hakuin Ekaku (1685-1769), the famous reviver of Japanese Rinzai, is the best example - evoke the examples of Bodhidharma, the Sixth Patriarch Huineng, Mazu, and the others, they do so through the conceptual filter of Song-dynasty Chan.
[33]
Over the course of Song Dynasty (960–1279), the Guiyang, Fayan, and Yunmen schools were gradually absorbed into the Linji. Song Chán was dominated by the Linji school of Dahui Zonggao, which in turn became strongly affiliated to the Imperial Court:
...the Ta-hui school of Sung Chán had become closely associated with the Sung court, high officials, and the literati [...] With the establishment of the
Wu-shan (Gozan) system during the Southern Sung the school of Ta-hui took precedence. The Chinese bureaucratic system entered into Chán temples throughout the country, and a highly organized system of temple rank and administration developed.
[34]
The Gozan system was a system of state-controlled temples, which were established by the Song government in all provinces.[35]
The teaching styles and words of the classical masters were recorded in the so-called "encounter dialogues".[36] Snippets of these encounter dialogues were collected in texts as the Blue Cliff Record (1125) of Yuanwu, The Gateless Gate (1228) of Wumen, both of the Linji lineage, and the Book of Equanimity (1223) of Wansong, of the Caodong lineage.
These texts became classic gōng'àn cases, together with verse and prose commentaries, which crystallized into the systematized gōng'àn (koan) practice. According to Miura and Sasaki, "[I]t was during the lifetime of Yüan-wu's successor, Dahui Zonggao (大慧宗杲; 1089–1163) that Koan Chán entered its determinative stage."[37] Gōng'àn practice was prevalent in the Linji school, to which Yuanwu and Dahui belonged, but it was also employed on a more limited basis by the Caodong school.
The recorded encounter dialogues, and the koan collections which derived from this genre, mark a shift from solitary practice to interaction between master and student:
The essence of enlightenment came to be identified with the interaction between masters and students. Whatever insight dhyana might bring, its verification was always interpersonal. In effect, enlightenment came to be understood not so much as an insight, but as a way of acting in the world with other people
[38]
This mutual enquiry of the meaning of the encounters of masters and students of the past gave students a role model: {{quote|One looked at the enlightened activities of one's lineal forebears in order to understand one's own identity [...] taking the role of the participants and engaging in their dialogues instead[a] Koan practice was a literary practice, styling snippets of encounter-dialogue into well-edited stories. It arose in interaction with "educated literati".[40] There were dangers involved in such a literary approach, such as fixing specific meanings to the cases.[40] Dahui Zonggao is even said to have burned the woodblocks of the Blue Cliff Record, for the hindrance it had become to study of Chán by his students[41]
The Caodong was the other school to survive into the Song period. It's main protagonist was Hung-chih Cheng-chueh, a contemporary of Dahui Zonggao. It put emphasis on "silent illumination", or "just sitting". This approach was attacked by Dahui as being mere passivity, and lacking emphasis on gaining insight into one's true nature. Cheng-chueh in his turn critizised the emphasis on koan study.[42]
Chán Buddhism enjoyed something of a revival in the Ming Dynasty with teachers such as Hanshan Deqing (憨山德清), who wrote and taught extensively on both Chán and Pure Land Buddhism; Miyun Yuanwu (密雲圓悟), who came to be seen posthumously as the first patriarch of the Ōbaku Zen school; as well as Yunqi Zhuhong (雲棲祩宏) and Ouyi Zhixu (蕅益智旭).
While traditionally distinct, Chán was taught alongside Pure Land Buddhism in many Chinese Buddhist monasteries. In time much of the distinction between them was lost, and many masters taught both Chán and Pure Land.[43]
Traditional Chán Buddhist Grand Master Wei Chueh in
Taiwan, sitting in meditation.
After further centuries of decline during the Qing Dynasty (1644–1912), Chán was revived again in the early 20th century by Hsu Yun (虛雲), a well-known figure of 20th century Chinese Buddhism. Many Chán teachers today trace their lineage back to Hsu Yun, including Sheng-yen (聖嚴) and Hsuan Hua (宣化), who have propagated Chán in the West where it has grown steadily through the 20th and 21st century.
Chán was repressed in China during the recent modern era in the early periods of the People's Republic, but has more recently been re-asserting itself on the mainland, and has a significant following in Taiwan and Hong Kong as well as among Overseas Chinese.
- See also: Spread of Chán Buddhism in Asia
According to traditional accounts of Vietnam, in 580 an Indian monk named Vinitaruci (Vietnamese: Tì-ni-đa-lưu-chi) travelled to Vietnam after completing his studies with Sengcan, the third patriarch of Chinese Chán. This, then, would be the first appearance of Vietnamese Thiền Buddhism. Other early Vietnamese Chán schools included the Vô Ngôn Thông, which was associated with the teaching of Mazu, and the Thảo Đường, which incorporated nianfo chanting techniques; both were founded by Chinese monks.
Seon was gradually transmitted into Korea during the late Silla period (7th through 9th centuries) as Korean monks of predominantly Hwaeom (華嚴) and Consciousness-only (唯識) background began to travel to China to learn the newly developing tradition. Seon received its most significant impetus and consolidation from the Goryeo monk Jinul (知訥) (1158–1210), who established a reform movement and introduced koan practice to Korea. Jinul established the Songgwangsa (松廣寺) as a new center of pure practice.
Zen was not introduced as a separate school until the 12th century, when Myōan Eisai traveled to China and returned to establish a Linji lineage, which is known in Japan as Rinzai. In 1215, Dōgen, a younger contemporary of Eisai's, journeyed to China himself, where he became a disciple of the Caodong master Tiantong Rujing. After his return, Dōgen established the Sōtō school, the Japanese branch of Caodong. The schools of Zen that currently exist in Japan are the Sōtō (曹洞), Rinzai (臨済), and Ōbaku (黃檗). Of these, Sōtō is the largest and Ōbaku the smallest. Rinzai is itself divided into several subschools based on temple affiliation, including Myoshin-ji, Nanzen-ji, Tenryū-ji, Daitoku-ji, and Tofuku-ji.
Though Zen-narrative states that it is a "special transmission outside scriptures" which "did not stand upon words", Zen does have a rich doctrinal background.
Classical Chinese Chán is characterised by a set of polarities: absolute-relative,[46] Buddha-nature - sunyata, sudden and gradual enlightenment, esoteric and exoteric transmission.
The Prajnaparamita-sutras and Madhyamaka emphasized the non-duality of form and emptiness: "form is emptiness, emptiness is form", as the heart sutra says.[46] This was understood to mean that ultimate reality is not a transcendental realm, but equal to the daily world of relative reality. This idea fitted into the Chinese culture, which emphasized the mundane world and society. But this does not tell how the absolute is present in the relative world:
To deny the duality of samsara and nirvana, as the Perfection of Wisdom does, or to demonstrate logically the error of dichotomizing conceptualization, as Nagarjuna does, is not to address the question of the relationship between samsara and nirvana -or, in more philosophical terms, between phenomenal and ultimate reality [...] What, then, is the relationship between these two realms?
[46]
This question is answered in such schemata as the Five Ranks of Tozan,[50] the Oxherding Pictures, and Hakuin's Four ways of knowing.
The Madhyamaka-scheme of the Two Truths doctrine, and the Yogacara-schemes of the Three Natures and the Trikaya-doctrine, also give depictions of the interplay between the absolute and the relative.
When Buddhism was introduced in China it was understood in terms of its own culture. Various sects struggled to attain an understanding of the Indian texts. The Tathāgatagarbha Sutras and the idea of the Buddha-nature were endorsed, because of the perceived similarities with the Tao, which was understood as a transcendental reality underlying the world of appearances. Sunyata at first was understood as pointing to the Taoist "wu", nothingness.
The doctrine of the Buddha-nature asserts that all sentient beings have Buddha-nature (Skt. Buddhadhātu, "Buddha Element", "Buddha-Principle"), the element from which awakening springs. The Tathāgatagarbha Sutras (literally: the womb of the thus-gone) state that every living being has the potential to realize awakening. Hence Buddhism offers salvation to every-one, not only to monks or those who have freed themselves almost completely from karma in previous lives.[citation needed] The Yogacara theory of the Eight Consciousnesses explains how sensory input and the mind create the world we experience, and obscure the alaya-vijnana, which is equated to the Buddha-nature.
When this potential is realized, and the defilements have been eliminated, the tathagatagarbha manifests as the Dharmakaya, the absolute reality which pervades everything in the world. In this way, it is also the primordial reality from which phenomenal reality springs. When this understanding is idealized, it becomes a transcendental reality beneath the world of appearances.
Sunyata points to the "emptiness" or no-"thing"-ness of all "things". Though we perceive a world of concrete and discrete objects, designated by names, on close analysis the "thingness" dissolves, leaving them "empty" of inherent existence. The Heart sutra, a text from the prajnaparamita-sutras, articulates this in the following saying in which the five skandhas are said to be "empty":
"Oh, Sariputra, Form Does not Differ From the Void,
And the Void Does Not Differ From Form.
Form is Void and Void is Form;
The Same is True For Feelings,
Perceptions, Volitions and Consciousness".
[web 3]
The teachings on the five skandhas belong to the central teachings in the Tripitaka. They form a subdivision of the Samyutta Nikaya. The five skandhas are also mentioned in the Lankavatara-sutra:
The Yogacara explains this "emptiness" in an analysis of the way we perceive "things". Everything we conceive of is the result of the working of the five skandhas—results of perception, feeling, volition, and discrimination.[c] The five skandhas together compose consciousness. The "things" we are conscious of are "mere concepts", not Ding an sich.
It took Chinese Buddhism several centuries to recognize that sunyata does not refer to "wu", nothingness, nor does Buddhism postulate an undying soul. The influence of those various doctrinal and textual backgrounds is still discernible in Zen. Zen teachers still refer to Buddha-nature, but the Zen tradition also emphasizes that Buddha-nature is sunyata, the absence of an independent and substantial self.
In Zen Buddhism two main views on the way to enlightenment are discernible, namely sudden and gradual enlightenment:
There are two different ways of understanding and actually practicing Zen. These two different ways are termed in Chinese pen chueh and shih-chueh respectively. The term pen chueh refers to the belief that one’s mind is from the beginning of time fully enlightened, while shih-chueh refers to the belief that at some point in time we pass from imprisonment in ignorance and delusion to a true vision of Zen realization: “Our enlightenment is timeless, yet our realization of it occurs in time.” According to this belief experiencing a moment of awakening in this life is of central importance.
Early Chán recognized the "transcendence of the body and mind", followed by "non-defilement [of] knowledge and perception", meaning sudden insight into the true nature followed by gradual purification of intentions.
In the 8th-century the Ch'an-history was effectively re-fashioned by Shenhui, who placed Hui-neng into prominence and emphasized sudden enlightenment, as opposed to the concurrent Northern School's alleged gradual enlightenment. According to the sudden enlightenment propagated by Shenhui insight into true nature is sudden; there-after there can be no misunderstanding anymore about this true nature. This emphasis is also maintained by the contemporary Rinzai school. In opposition to this, the Soto-school emphasizes silent illumination and the practice of shikan-taza, just sitting.
Guifeng Zongmi, fifth-generation successor to Shenhui, softened the edge between sudden and gradual. In his analysis, sudden awakening points to seeing into one's true nature, but is to be followed by a gradual cultivation to attain Buddhahood.
Chinul, a 12th-century Koran Seon master, followed Zongmi, and also emphasized that insight into our true nature is sudden, but is to be followed by practice to ripen the insight and attain full Buddhahood. This is also the standpoint of the contemporary Sanbo Kyodan, according to whom kensho is at the start of the path to full enlightenment.
This gradual cultivation is also recognized by Tozan, who described the Five ranks of enlightenment.[web 5] Other example of depiction of stages on the path are the Ten Ox-Herding Pictures which detail the steps on the Path, The Three mysterious Gates of Linji, and the Four Ways of Knowing of Hakuin. This gradual cultivation is described by Chan Master Sheng Yen as follows:
Ch'an expressions refer to enlightenment as "seeing your self-nature". But even this is not enough. After seeing your self-nature, you need to deepen your experience even further and bring it into maturation. You should have enlightenment experience again and again and support them with continuous practice. Even though Ch'an says that at the time of enlightenment, your outlook is the same as of the Buddha, you are not yet a
full Buddha.
When the so-called Southern School placed emphasis on sudden enlightenment, it also marked a shift in doctrinal basis from the Lankavatara-sutra to the prajnaparamita-tradition, especially the Diamond Sutra. The Lankavatara-sutra, which endorses the Buddha-nature, emphasized purity of mind, which can be attained in gradations. The Diamond-sutra emphasizes sunyata, which "must be realized totally or not at all".
Once this dichotomy was in place, it defined its own logic and rhetorics, which are also recognizable in the distinction between Caodong (Soto) and Lin-ji (Rinzai) chán. But it also lead to a "sometimes bitter and always prolix sectarian controversy between later Chán and Hua-yen exegetes". In the Huayan classification of teachings, the sudden approach was regarded inferior to the Perfect Teaching of Hua-yen. Guifeng Zongmi, fifth patriarch of Hua-yen ànd Chán-master, deviced his own classification to counter this subordination. To establish the superiority of the Chán-teachings, Chinul explained the sudden approach as not pointing to mere emptiness, but to suchness or the dharmadhatu.
According to Borup the emphasis on 'mind to mind transmission' is a form of esoteric transmission, in which "the tradition and the enlightened mind is transmitted face to face". Metaphorically this can be described as the transmission from a flame from one candle to another candle,, or the transmission from one vein to another. In exoteric transmission requires "direct access to the teaching through a personal discovery of one's self. This type of transmission and identification is symbolized by the discovery of a shining lantern, or a mirror."
This polarity is recognizable in the emphasis that the Zen-tradition puts on maintaining the correct Dharma transmission, while simultaneously stressing seeing into one's nature:
The matter of learning from a teacher is most essential. People of old who arrived at the source of
seeing nature, passed through many barriers clearly and completely without a dot of doubt, and traveled freely through the world opening big mouths in discussion, only came to know the transcendental message of Zen after they finally ran inti Zen masters of great vision. Then they sincerely sought certainty and wound up with the duty of the teacher's succession, bearing the debt of Dharma, never to forget it for a moment. This is called dharma succession. Since ancient times the designated succession of the ancestral teachers has always been like this.
[d]
Nevertheless, while the Zen tradition has always stressed the importance of formal Dharma transmission, there are well known examples of Mushi dokugo, such as Nōnin, Jinul and Suzuki Shōsan who attained awakening on their own, though all of them were familiair with the Zen-teachings.
Main article:
Zen and SutrasChán is deeply rooted in the teachings and doctrines of Mahāyāna Buddhism. What the Chán tradition emphasizes is that enlightenment of the Buddha came not through intellectual reasoning, but rather through self-realization in Dharma practice and meditation. Therefore, it is held that it is primarily through Dharma practice and meditation that others may attain enlightenment and become Buddhas as well.
A review of the early historical documents and literature of early Chán masters clearly reveals that they were all well versed in numerous Mahāyāna Buddhist sūtras. For example, in the Platform Sūtra of the Sixth Patriarch, Huineng cites and explains the Diamond Sūtra, the Lotus Sūtra (Saddharma Puṇḍarīka Sūtra), the Vimalakīrti Nirdeśa Sūtra, the Śūraṅgama Sūtra, and the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra.
The Chán school had to develop a doctrinal tradition of its own to establish its position.[citation needed] Subsequently, the Chán tradition produced a rich corpus of written literature which has become a part of its practice and teaching. Among the earliest and most widely studied of the specifically Chán texts, dating back to at least the 9th century CE, is the Platform Sūtra of the Sixth Patriarch, attributed to Huineng. The most important Chán texts belong to the "encounter dialogue" genre, which developed into various collections of kōans.
- See alsoZen practice
As a school of Mahāyāna Buddhism, Chán draws many of its basic driving concepts from that tradition, such as the Bodhisattva ideal. Karuṇā is the counterpart of prajna. Avalokiteśvara embodies the striving for Karuna, compassion.[e]
Central to Chán practice is dhyana or meditation. In the Lin-ji (Rinzai) school this is supplemented with koan study.
In meditation practice, the Chán tradition holds that the very notions of doctrine and teachings create various other notions and appearances (Skt. saṃjñā; Ch. 相, xiāng) that obscure the transcendent wisdom of each being's Buddha-nature. The process of rediscovery goes under various terms such as "introspection", "a backward step", "turning-about" or "turning the eye inward".
Sitting meditation is called zuòchán (坐禅), zazen in Japanese, both simply meaning "sitting dhyāna". During this sitting meditation, practitioners usually assume a position such as the lotus position, half-lotus, Burmese, or seiza postures. To regulate the mind, awareness is directed towards counting or watching the breath, or put in the energy center below the navel (see also anapanasati).[web 6] Often, a square or round cushion placed on a padded mat is used to sit on; in some other cases, a chair may be used.
At the beginning of the Song Dynasty, practice with the koan method became popular, whereas others practiced "silent illumination." This became the source of some differences in practice between the Linji and Caodong traditions.
A koan (literally "public case") is a story or dialogue, generally related to Chán or other Buddhist history; the most typical form is an anecdote involving early Chinese Chán masters. These anecdotes involving famous Chán teachers are a practical demonstration of their wisdom, and can be used to test a student's progress in Chán practice. Koans often appear to be paradoxical or linguistically meaningless dialogues or questions. But to Chán Buddhists the koan is "the place and the time and the event where truth reveals itself" unobstructed by the oppositions and differentiations of language. Answering a koan requires a student to let go of conceptual thinking and of the logical way we order the world, so that, like creativity in art, the appropriate insight and response arises naturally and spontaneously in the mind.
Chán developed a distinct monastic system.
As the Chán school grew in China, the monastic discipline also became distinct, focusing on practice through all aspects of life. Temples began emphasizing labor and humility, expanding the training of Chán to include the mundane tasks of daily life. D.T. Suzuki wrote that aspects of this life are: a life of humility; a life of labor; a life of service; a life of prayer and gratitude; and a life of meditation. The Chinese Chán master Baizhang (720–814 CE) left behind a famous saying which had been the guiding principle of his life, "A day without work is a day without food".[web 7]
It was scholar D.T. Suzuki's contention that a spiritual awakening was always the goal of Chán's training, but that part of what distinguished the tradition as it developed through the centuries in China was a way of life radically different from that of Indian Buddhists. In Indian Buddhism, the tradition of the mendicant prevailed, but Suzuki explained that in China social circumstances led to the development of a temple and training-center system in which the abbot and the monks all performed mundane tasks. These included food gardening or farming, carpentry, architecture, housekeeping, administration (or community direction), and the practice of Traditional Chinese medicine. Consequently, the enlightenment sought in Chán had to stand up well to the demands and potential frustrations of everyday life.Template:Sfn=Suzuki
Chán has become especially popular in its Japanese form. Although it is difficult to trace when the West first became aware of Chán/Zen as a distinct form of Buddhism, the visit of Soyen Shaku, a Japanese Zen monk, to Chicago during the World Parliament of Religions in 1893 is often pointed to as an event that enhanced its profile in the Western world. It was during the late 1950s and the early 1960s that the number of Westerners pursuing a serious interest in Zen, other than the descendants of Asian immigrants, reached a significant level.
- See also: Western Zen lineages
The first Chinese master to teach Westerners in North America was Hsuan Hua, who taught Chán and other traditions of Chinese Buddhism in San Francisco during the early 1960s. He went on to found the City Of Ten Thousand Buddhas, a monastery and retreat center located on a 237-acre (959,000 m²) property near Ukiah, California. Another Chinese Chán teacher with a Western following is Sheng-yen, a master trained in both the Caodong and Linji schools. He first visited the United States in 1978 under the sponsorship of the Buddhist Association of the United States, and subsequently founded the CMC Chán Meditation Center in Queens, New York and the Dharma Drum Retreat Center in Pine Bush, New York.[web 8] The Fo Guang Shan organization, which has branches worldwide, also belongs to the Chán school; its founder, the Venerable Master Hsing Yun is a lineage holder in the Linji (Rinzai) tradition.
- ^ This role-taking is described by the Swedish psychologist of religion Hjalmar Sundén, though McRae does not seem to be aware of this
- ^ The influence of these teachings can be seen in the sayings of Mazu:
Master Liang visited Ma-tsu.
Ma-tsu said: I heard that the master is great at explaining the sutras and sastras, is that so?
Liang said: Indeed
Ma-tsu said: With what do you explain?
Liang said: I explain with the mind
Ma-tsu said: The mind is like an artist and consciousness is [like] his helper, how can you explain the teachings with that?
- ^ Translations do differ, which makes a difference. Vijñāna can be translated as "consciousness", but also as "discernemnt".
- ^ The modern framing of Zen as the experience of 'ultimate truth' or reality may influence the institutional shape western Zen is going to take, where individual freedom is highly appraised. See also Bodiford 2008, pp 277-279
- ^ Lathouwers 2000:221 mentions: Blofeld, John (1988), Bodhisattva of compassion - the mystical tradition of kuan Yin. Boston: Shanbhala
- Blyth, R. H. (1966), Zen and Zen Classics, Volume 4, Tokyo: Hokuseido Press
- Borup, Jørn (2008), Japanese Rinzai Zen Buddhism: Myōshinji, a Living Religion, Brill
- Chang, Chung-Yuan (1967). "Ch'an Buddhism: Logical and Illogical". Philosophy East and West 17 (1/4): 37–49. DOI:10.2307/1397043. JSTOR 1397043. http://ccbs.ntu.edu.tw/FULLTEXT/JR-PHIL/ew27057.htm.
- Cleary, Thomas (2005), Classics of Buddhism and Zen: Volume One, Boston, MA: Shambhala publications, ISBN 1-57062-831-9
- Dumoulin, Heinrich (2005-A), Zen Buddhism: A History. Volume 1: India and China, World Wisdom Books, ISBN 978-0-941532-89-1
- Faure, Bernard (2000), Visions of Power. Imaging Medieval Japanese Buddhism, Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press
- Gregory, Peter N. (1991), Sudden Enlightenment Followed by Gradual Cultivation: Tsung-mi's Analysis of mind. In: Peter N. Gregory (editor)(1991), Sudden and Gradual. Approaches to Enlightenment in Chinese Thought, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Publishers Private Limited
- Grigg, Ray (1999), The Ta of Zen, Edison, NJ: Alva Press
- Heine, Steven (2008), Zen Skin, Zen Marrow
- Isshū, Miura; Sasaki, Ruth F. (1993), The Zen Koan, New York: Harcourt Brace & Company, ISBN 0-15-699981-1
- Huaijin, Nan (1997), Basic Buddhism: exploring Buddhism and Zen, Samuel Weiser
- Kasulis, Thomas P. (2003), Ch'an Spirituality. In: Buddhist Spirituality. Later China, Korea, Japan and the Modern World; edited by Takeuchi Yoshinori, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass
- Lathouwers, Ton (2000), Meer dan een mens kan doen. Zentoespraken, Rotterdam: Asoka
- Leighton, Taigen Daniel (2000), Cultivating the Empty Field: The Silent Illumination of Zen Master Hongzhi, Tuttle Publishing, ISBN 978-0-8048-3240-3
- Liang-Chieh (1986), The Record of Tung-shan, Kuroda Institute
- Maspero, Henri (1981), Taoism and Chinese Religion, University of Massachusetts, ISBN 0-87023-308-4
- McMahan, David L. (2008), The Making of Buddhist Modernism, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-518327-6
- McRae, John (2003), Seeing Through Zen, The University Press Group Ltd
- Sharf, Robert H. (2002), On Pure Land Buddhism and Ch'an/Pure Land Syncretism in Medieaval China, Leiden, Netherlands: Brill, http://buddhiststudies.berkeley.edu/people/faculty/sharf
- Shimano, Eido T. (1991), Points of Departure: Zen Buddhism With a Rinzai View, Livingston Manor, NY: The Zen Studies Society Press, ISBN [[Special:BookSources/0-09-629460-1|0-09-629460-1]]
- Suzuki, D.T. (1935), Manual of Zen Buddhism, http://www.sacred-texts.com/bud/mzb/mzb00.htm
- Suzuki, D.T. (1955), Studies in Zen, New York: Delta
- Suzuki, D.T. (1970), Zen and Japanese Culture, New York: Bollingen/Princeton University Press, ISBN 0-691-09849-2
- Suzuki, D.T. (2004), The Training of the Zen Budhist Monk, Tokyo: Cosimo, inc., ISBN 1-59605-041-1
- Torei (2010), The Undying Lamp of Zen. The Testament of Zen Master Torei, Boston & London: Shambhala
- Wegner, Michael (2001), Introduction to "Branching streams flow in the darkness: Zen talks on the Sandokai"by Shunryū Suzuki, University of California Press, ISBN 978-0-520-23212-9, http://books.google.nl/books?id=Y_5rgHVvHCUC&pg=PA16&dq=suzuki+sandokai+tozan&hl=nl&sa=X&ei=kIQrT5OfA4qBOqqo6ZkO&ved=0CD8Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false
- Yampolski, Philip B. (1967), The Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch. Translated with notes by Philip B. Yampolski, Columbia University Press, ISBN 0-231-08361-0
- Yampolski, Philip (2003-A), Chan. A Historical Sketch. In: Buddhist Spirituality. Later China, Korea, Japan and the Modern World; edited by Takeuchi Yoshinori, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass
- Yampolski, Philip (2003-B), Zen. A Historical Sketch. In: Buddhist Spirituality. Later China, Korea, Japan and the Modern World; edited by Takeuchi Yoshinori, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass
- Zvelebil, K.V. (1987), "The Sound of the One Hand", Journal of the American Oriental Society 107(1)
Modern classics
- Paul Reps & Nyogen Senzaki, Zen Flesh, Zen Bones
- Philip Kapleau, The Three Pillars of Zen
- Shunryu Suzuki, Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind
Classic history
- Dumoulin, Heinrich (2005), Zen Buddhism: A History. Volume 1: India and China. World Wisdom Books. ISBN 978-0-941532-89-1
- Dumoulin, Heinrich (2005), Zen Buddhism: A History. Volume 2: Japan. World Wisdom Books. ISBN 978-0-941532-90-7
Critical Zen-studies
- Mcrae, John (2003), Seeing through Zen. Encounter, Transformation, and Genealogy in Chinese Chan Buddhism. The University Press Group Ltd . ISBN 978-0-520-23798-8
- McMahan, David L. (2008), The Making of Buddhist Modernism. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-518327-6
Oversight
Overview of Chán centers
Specific Chán centers
Texts
History
Critical Chán Research
![[Patrick Chan] 2013-03-13 Worlds SP - Elegie in E-Flat Minor](http://web.archive.org./web/20130411031330im_/http://i.ytimg.com/vi/eF6j7GCF4Kk/default.jpg "[Patrick Chan] 2013-03-13 Worlds SP - Elegie in E-Flat Minor")
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