Dhyan, Chan, Son and Zen Buddhism: Journey from India to China, Korea and Japan

Key Terms

• Zen Buddhism
• Buddhism
• Chinese Religion And Philosophy
• Japanese Studies 
• Korean Studies 
• Dhyan in India
• Chan in China
• Son in Korea
• Zen in Japan
• Thien in Vietnam
• Soto Zen
• Renzai Zen
• Koans
• Zazen 
• Sesshin
• Platform Sutra
• Bodhidharma
• Lankavatara Sutra
• Meditation

Source: HISTORY OF ZEN BUDDHISM (CHAN = DHYANA)

Precursors

Buddhabhadra (359-429): resided in modern day Xian with the great translator Kumarjiva (d. 413).

Meditation master. Hinayana background, but not sectarian. Known for his siddhi powers.

Sengchao (Seng-Chao) (384-414): greatest disciple of Kumarjiva. Thorough Chinese synthesis of Confucian and Daoist ideas. Wu-wei–Daoist (Logos = Dao) No action = middle way. The Buddha is the Dao. Li is law of nature or Dharma–moral law. Quote p. 59.  Chinese translation of the John 11: “In the beginning was the Dao, the Dao was with God, and the Dao was God.”

“On Prajna not being knowledge” inspired by Nagarjuna

“the illuminating power of non-knowledge” Quote p. 59 Heinrich Dumoulin A History of Zen Buddhism.

Human mind–soul as mirror.

Contribution to Zen–immediate experience and use of paradox. Use of proto-koans.

Daosheng (Tao-sheng) (ca 360-434): father of Zen, but no school is founded. Emphasized sudden enlightenment rejects the four jhanas. All beings have li–the Dharma–so all beings are saved. Rejected the Pure Land teachings. Rejects the gradual enlightenment of the Lotus sutra.

Hui-Kuan (d. 443 or 447): proponent of gradual enlightenment. Great debates on this issue in 436 and 460.

BODHIDHARMA (d. 534). First Patriarch

Huige (Hui-ko), Second Patriarch (484-590)

Sengcan (Seng-ts’an), Third Patriarch (d. 606) not much known of him.

Daoxin (Tao-hsin), Fourth Patriarch (580-651)

Hung-ren (jen), Fifth Patriarch (601-674)

Hui-neng (683-713).  the Sixth Patriarch Platform Sutra.

Soto School: Bodhidharma is the founder. Yogocara and the Laukavatara and sutra. Metaphysical transcendentalism and gradual enlightenment.

Rinzai School: Sudden enlightenment. Madhyamika Nagarjuna and 6th Patriarch are founders and the Vajracchedika (Diamond cutter-sutra). Reconstructed Buddhist philosophy—rather than linguist/conceptual transcendentalism?

Suzuki: with its pragmatism, simplicity and directness Zen transcends Buddhism entirely? Shen-hsu’s gatha stems from the Soto school. Lanka’s view that all concepts are like dirt that obscures the pure mirror of the mind.

An Aside: Zen literary form inspired by Analects of Confucius.

Proto-koans on p. 232.

The fact that the 5th patriarch taught the Diamond Sutra to Hui-neng indicates a return to earlyu “real” Buddhism.

Abandons absolutist metaphysics. Does it? “The Buddhist nature is always clear and pure.” Is this early Buddhism?

Huineng’s innonence and illiteracy represents rejection of metaphysics.

Zen Buddhism

Yunmen in Context

Setting the Stage for Chan

Long before Buddhism arrived in China around the beginning of the Common Era, Chinese thinkers taught ideas whose orientation was of striking similarity to some central tenets of that foreign religion that had yet to arrive. These teachings, ascribed to the ancient sages Laozi (Lao-tzu) and Zhuangzi (Chuangtzu), are often called “philosophical Daoism,” and originated in China between the fourth and second centuries before the Common Era. They not only contain a fundamental expression of the wisdom of the Chinese and their view of humanity— its beauty, its problematic sides, and its ideals—but are also great works of literary art whose imagery and terminology exerted an unmistakable influence on later religious and philosophical teachings.

In particular, the writings of Zhuangzi, the author of parts of a classic of the same name, and of his followers were to play an important role in facilitating the introduction and acculturation of Buddhism in China some centuries later. Many of Zhuangzi’s stories exude a kind of down-to-earth spirituality that is very similar to that found a thousand years later in Chinese Zen (Chan) texts. For example:

Duke Huan was in his hall reading a book. The wheelwright P’ien, who was in the yard below chiseling a wheel, laid down his mallet and chisel, stepped up into the hall, and said to Duke Huan, “This book Your Grace is reading— may I venture to ask whose words are in it?”

“The words of sages,” said the duke.

“Are the sages still alive?”

“Dead long ago,” said the duke.

“In that case, what you are reading there is nothing but the chaff and dregs of the men of old!”

“Since when does a wheelwright have permission to comment on the books I read?” said Duke Huan. “If you have some explanation, well and good. If not, it’s your life!”

Wheelwright P’ien said, “I look at it from the point of view of my own work. When I chisel a wheel, if the blows of the mallet are too gentle, the chisel slides and won’t take hold. But if they’re too hard, it bites in and won’t budge. Not too gentle, not too hard—you can get it in your hand and feel it in your mind. You can’t put it into words, and yet there’s a knack to it somehow. I can’t teach it to my son, and he can’t learn it from me. So I’ve gone along for seventy years and at my age I’m still chiseling wheels. When the men of old died, they took with them the things that couldn’t be handed down. So what you are reading there must be nothing but the chaff and the dregs of the men of old.”

Such currents of thought had already existed in China for several centuries when Buddhism was gradually imported to China by people traveling the Silk Road. As in many other religions, images or icons initially played a much more important role than texts written in foreign languages. However, beginning in the third century an increasing number of Sanskrit Buddhist scriptures were translated into Chinese. These translations made ample use of terms coined by Zhuangzi and Laozi as well as by their heirs and commentators. The translation process, however, was not limited to the words in scriptures. Rather, the whole Indian religion was given a Chinese face, not unlike the Buddha statues whose facial features gradually changed from Indo-European large noses and eyes to their Chinese equivalents. By the sixth century there were already several forms of Buddhism that were unmistakably Chinese in character. Among them grew the movement that will primarily concern us here: Chan Buddhism.

MEDITATION WAS ALSO AN IMPORTANT ASPECT OF CHINESE BUDDHISM FROM AN EARLY PERIOD, AND SEVERAL NOTED TEACHERS AND TEXTS PLACED A STRONG EMPHASIS ON MEDITATIVE CONCENTRATION. THE SANSKRIT TERM FOR SUCH CONCENTRATION WAS DHYĀNA; IMITATING THE SOUND OF THIS WORD, THE CHINESE CALLED IT “CHAN,” USING THE CHINESE CHARACTER THAT THE JAPANESE CAME TO PRONOUNCE AS “ZEN,” THE KOREANS AS “SŎN,” AND THE VIETNAMESE AS “THIỀN.”

Chinese Buddhist Meditation

The Chan movement did not shoot out of the Chinese ground like a bamboo stalk during the rainy season; rather, it grew gradually from soil that had been formed during centuries of extensive adaptation of doctrine and practice to the conditions of China. In the first few centuries, Chinese Buddhist nuns and monks engaged in activities such as building  doctrine and rules of monastic discipline, and performing feats of magic. Meditation was also an important aspect of Chinese Buddhism from an early period, and several noted teachers and texts placed a strong emphasis on meditative concentration. The Sanskrit term for such concentration was dhyāna; imitating the sound of this word, the Chinese called it “Chan,” using the Chinese character that the Japanese came to pronounce as “Zen,” the Koreans as “Sŏn,” and the Vietnamese as “Thiền.” The eminent scholar-monk Daoan (312–385), for instance, outlined in one of his prefaces the meditative process that leads from the counting of breaths to a state of pure awareness. The early popularity of meditation practices was in part due to the belief that through such practices various magical powers could be acquired. Thus centuries before we can discern the movement we now label Chan Buddhism, there were numerous monks with meditative (“Chan”) interests gathering around teachers who appeared to have actualized what the texts explain and who concentrated their efforts on leading their students in the same direction.

RECENT RESEARCH SHOWS THAT THE EARLY PHASE OF CHAN DID NOT PROCEED AS SMOOTHLY AS LATER AUTHORS WOULD MAKE US BELIEVE; RATHER, IT APPEARS AS A PERIOD MARKED BY NUMEROUS CONTROVERSIES OF DOCTRINAL AND PERSONAL NATURE. THE BEST KNOWN OF THESE DISPUTES DIVIDED CHAN ADHERENTS IN THE SO-CALLED NORTHERN (“GRADUAL AWAKENING”) AND SOUTHERN (“IMMEDIATE AWAKENING”) FACTIONS.

Early Chan

After the first adaptation and translation phase of Indian Buddhism in China (second to fifth centuries) and the gradual formation of meditative circles belonging to various schools of Chinese Buddhism, the movement we now call Chan emerges as an identifiable entity around the seventh century of the Common Era. Stories by later authors assert that the Chan tradition had been founded in the fifth or sixth century by the Indian monk Bodhidharma, whose teachings are said to have been handed down through a succession of patriarchs to the sixth and most famous one: Huineng, the purported author of the Platform Sutra. Recent research shows that the early phase of Chan did not proceed as smoothly as later authors would make us believe; rather, it appears as a period marked by numerous controversies of doctrinal and personal nature. The best known of these disputes divided Chan adherents in the so-called Northern (“gradual awakening”) and Southern (“immediate awakening”) factions. Some themes that were discussed gained broader attention; the sudden/gradual controversy, for example, stood also at the center of the “Council of Tibet,” a famous public controversy at the end of the eighth century involving representatives of early Chinese Chan and Indian Buddhism.

Professor Seizan Yanagida, who after World War II almost single-handedly rewrote the history of early Chan, has pointed out that masters in the sixth to eighth centuries still discussed the nature of Buddhist awakening much in the words of the sutras or holy scriptures of Buddhism scriptures that were thought to reproduce the actual words of the historical Buddha. But gradually more and more importance was given to the words of Chinese masters who had actualized the spirit of these scriptures in themselves—people who had themselves become buddhas, or “awakened ones.” These masters used simple words to explain the essence of awakening and responded in like manner to concrete questions about its realization.

Although the Chan movement did not yet have a clearly discernible monastic organization, its teachings and teaching methods with time became remarkably different from those of other sects. The widespread emergence of illustrious and original Chan teachers marks the onset of the “classical” age of Chan (eighth to tenth centuries) toward whose end Yunmen lived.

The Classical Age of Chan

Around the end of the eighth century a number of masters taught what they took to be the essence of Buddhism in a startlingly direct and fresh way. In examining the sources we have from this period, we notice an extraordinary change in the way masters related to their students and vice versa. Few quotes from scriptures appeared in talks by these masters; instead of repeating the words of the historically remote Buddha or commenting on them, these masters themselves spoke, here and now—and they were not beyond whacking and swearing if the need arose. In place of doctrinal hairsplitting, they demonstrate the teachings in action: shouting and joking, telling stories, and handing out abuse or encouragement as they see fit. The unctuous style of Buddhist sermons and learned scholastic exegesis gave way to colloquialisms and slang: the masters of the classic age of Chan talk so bluntly that to some people their talks must at the outset have been hardly identifiable as Buddhist.

THE GREAT MAJORITY OF CHAN’S MOST FAMOUS MASTERS, INCLUDING MAZU, LINJI, AND ZHAOZHOU, LIVED DURING THE TWO CENTURIES BEFORE THE TURN OF THE MILLENNIUM. MASTER YUNMEN IS THE LAST CHAN TEACHER OF THIS CLASSICAL PERIOD WHO ROSE TO GREAT FAME.

Instead of learned discussions about this or that doctrinal problem of the past, the masters and their students aim directly at the one thing they consider essential: being a buddha oneself, right here and now. In the following example from a classical Chan record, we see Master Linji simply repeating a question of a student, whereupon the student resorts to a physical action that seeks to show that the master is not really an awakened teacher. However, the master quickly gets the better of the questioner. Characteristically, he does this not by asking him a complicated question about Buddhist doctrine but rather by a completely unexpected inquiry about the questioner’s well-being:

One day Lin-chi went to Ho-fu. Counselor Wang the Prefectural Governor requested the Master to take the high seat. At that time Ma-yü came forward and asked, “The Great Compassionate One has a thousand hands and a thousand eyes. Which is the true eye?” The Master said: “The Great Compassionate One has a thousand hands and a thousand eyes. Which is the true eye? Speak, speak!” Ma-yü pulled the Master down off the high seat and sat on it himself. Coming up to him, the Master said: “How are you doing?” Ma-yü hesitated. The Master, in his turn, pulled Ma-yü off the high seat and sat upon it himself. Ma-yü went out. The Master stepped down.

Most of what we know about the teachings of this classic age of Chan stems from later compendia containing biographies and samples of teachings and from the collected sayings of various masters. Such sayings were often recorded by the masters’ disciples and went through the hands of a number of compilers and editors. The instructions and dialogues that are translated in this volume come from a typical example of the “recorded sayings” genre, the Record of Yunmen.

The great majority of Chan’s most famous masters, including Mazu, Linji, and Zhaozhou, lived during the two centuries before the turn of the millennium. Master Yunmen is the last Chan teacher of this classical period who rose to great fame. These teachers and their disciples form the classic core of the Chan tradition within the whole of Chinese Buddhism. The records and compendia of this time are also classic in the sense that they functioned as both the main source and the reference point of Chan teaching ever since, even in Korea, Japan, and now the West. Today’s Chan, Sŏn, and Zen masters constantly refer to their Chinese forebears, and much of the writing about Chan consists—like this book—of translations of the sayings of classical masters.

Collections of the words of masters were treated as prize possessions as early as the ninth century. But this very adulation of old writings was criticized by many masters. In the Record of Linji ( Jap. Rinzai, died 866), for example, we find the following words:

Students of today get nowhere because they base their understanding upon the acknowledgment of names. They inscribe the words of some dead old guy in a great big notebook, wrap it up in four or five squares of cloth, and won’t let anyone look at it. “This is the Mysterious Principle,” they aver, and safeguard it with care. That’s all wrong. Blind idiots! What kind of juice are you looking for in such dried-up bones!

Master Linji’s harsh criticism of collecting and safeguarding the words of masters points toward the central aim of Chan teaching. Since approximately the year 1000, the following quatrain has been used to characterize Chan:

Transmitted outside of established doctrine,
[Chan] does not institute words. [Rather,]
It points directly to the human being’s heart:
Seeing your nature makes you a buddha.

Because of the role that Chan texts and Buddhist scriptures play at Chan monasteries, the meaning of the first two lines of his quatrain has provoked much discussion. To me, they point to what nineteenth-century Philosopher Søren Kierkegaard once said about the Bible. He said that reading it is like looking at a mirror: some may wonder of what material it is crafted, how much it cost, how it functions, where it comes from, etc. Others, however, look into that mirror to face themselves. It is the latter attitude that is addressed in the quatrain above.

The central concern of Chan is nothing other than the thorough seeing of one’s own nature, and the Buddha and the enlightened masters after him tried to guide and prod their students toward this. Many of these masters point out that with such a goal, sutras as well as Chan scriptures can be no more than a finger pointing at the moon. Yet these very observations were written down and soon collected in records comprising the sayings of individual masters.

In addition to such records, compendia appeared that usually furnished the biographical information and selected teachings of numerous masters. These compendia are another sign of the growing awareness on the part of Chan monks that they were members of a single tradition that could be arranged in various lineages. The first major compendium of this kind is the Collection from the Founder’s Hall (Ch. Zutangji, Kor. Chodang chip, Jap. Sodōshū), completed in 952. It appeared just three years after Master Yunmen’s death and stands at the end of the classical age, just as the second major compendium, the Jingde Era Record of the Transmission of the Lamp (Ch. Jingde chuandenglu, Jap. Keitoku dentōroku), published in 1004, marks the beginning of a new period of great expansion and literary and cultural productivity
during the Song dynasty (960–1279).

Chan in the Second Millennium

Around the turn of the millennium the first rulers of the Song dynasty ushered in a new political age in which Chan flourished. The religion broadened its influence dramatically and grew into a considerable force both religiously and culturally. During the Song dynasty, the Chan Buddhists not only attracted respect (or criticism) as members of a famous movement, they also created much of what we now call Chan monasticism (monastic rules, rituals, etc.), Chan methodology (especially the systematic use of koans), Chan literature (recorded sayings, koan collections, Chan histories, etc.), and Chan art (painting, calligraphy, etc.). This influence radiated internationally, as some talented Japanese monks such as Eisai and Dōgen studied in China and founded Zen traditions upon their return to Japan.

THE YUNMEN LINE FLOURISHED FOR ABOUT TWO CENTURIES AFTER THE DEATH OF THE MASTER. TOWARD THE END OF THE SONG DYNASTY IT WAS GRADUALLY ABSORBED INTO THE LINJI TRADITION, AS WERE ALL THE OTHER CHAN LINES WITH THE EXCEPTION OF CAODONG ( JAP. SŌTŌ).

Although during the classical age lineages were not at all distinct and many monks studied under different masters at different times, the Song editors of compendia and Chan histories made great efforts to reduce the complex historical web to neat linear threads strung from master to successor. Thus they began to speak of five major classical traditions of Chan: those of Guiyang ( Jap. Igyō), Linji ( Jap. Rinzai), Caodong ( Jap. Sōtō), Yunmen ( Jap. Ummon), and Fayan ( Jap. Hōgen). The two most influential traditions during the Song era were the lines of Yunmen and Linji. This is probably due to both the eminence of their progenitors and the presence in these two lines of literarily gifted monks who rewrote Chan history and edited various compendia, chronicles, and records. The best-known representative of the Yunmen line was Xuetou Chongxian (980–1052), the gifted poet and popular Chan teacher who wrote the poetic comments in the Blue Cliff Record. Partly because of monks like him, Yunmen overshadows all other masters with regard to the number of his sayings included in Song-era koan collections. Three major koan collections (the Blue Cliff Record, the Gateless Barrier, and the Record of Serenity) feature Yunmen as protagonist more often than any other master.

A representative of the line of Yunmen who was in many ways typical was Master Qisong (1007–1072), who lived four generations after Yunmen. He was the author of a book entitled Record of the True Tradition of Dharma Transmission, which tried to show that Chan is the most genuine of the traditions of Buddhism. Such texts had considerable influence on the intelligentsia of the time, so much so that the great Neo-Confucianist philosopher Zhuxi (1130–1200) discussed mainly Chan teachings when writing about Buddhism. But this influence went both ways: Master Qisong was also an ardent student of Confucianism and composed a book about one of the four Confucian classics, the Doctrine of the Mean, as well as other works that make an argument for the underlying unity of such different teachings.

The Yunmen line flourished for about two centuries after the death of the master. Toward the end of the Song dynasty it was gradually absorbed into the Linji tradition, as were all the other Chan lines with the exception of Caodong (Jap. Sōtō). During the Yuan dynasty (1260–1367), the Yunmen line vanished altogether. From the Ming dynasty (1368–1644) on, the Linji tradition flourished to such an extent that it became practically synonymous in China with Chan and even Buddhism as a whole. By the beginning of the twentieth century, to be a Linji monk meant little more than to be an ordained Buddhist monk.

The influence of Yunmen’s teaching, however, did not suffer the same fate as his school: it remains omnipresent in Chan to this day.

Related Books

Zen Master Yunmen

By: Urs App

The Blue Cliff Record

By: J. C. Cleary & Thomas Cleary

No-Gate Gateway

By: David Hinton

Bring Me the Rhinoceros

By: John Tarrant

Urs App, PhD, is a Swiss scholar of Buddhism and religious studies, specializing in Zen. See more about the author here. 

Source: The Six Patriarchs of Chan Buddhism

The Six Patriarchs of Chan Buddhism

Pastor David Lai

(By Tsem Rinpoche and Pastor David)

The word ‘Zen’ is derived from the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese word ‘Chan’. This in turn is derived from the Indian Sanskrit word ‘Dhyana’, which means ‘mental absorption’ or ‘meditation’.

The modern Zen tradition of today is based on a school of Mahayana Buddhism that originated in China during the Tang dynasty, and was known as Chan Buddhism. Some scholars say that Chan Buddhism was first influenced by Taoism, which developed into a distinct school of Chinese Buddhism, and then spread northeast into Korea, and later further east into Japan.

The Chan teachings emphasise strict self-discipline, sitting-meditation, completeness, insight into the Buddha-nature of all beings, and incorporating this insight into daily life in order to be of benefit to all beings, and thus attaining the Bodhisattva-ideal. Hence, it places less emphasis on the scholasticism of the sutras in favour of direct realisation attained through sitting-meditation and dialogue with an accomplished master.

Chan teachings comprise of several important philosophical texts on Mahayana thinking and doctrines, including those of the Yogachara School, and the Tathagatagarbha sutras, but especially those of the Huayan School. In addition, the core philosophies of the Prajnaparamita texts and Nagarjuna’s Madhyamaka have also been shaped into the central belief-system of Chan Buddhism.

The Six Patriarchs

The Chan lineage was first introduced during the Tang Dynasty, incorporating the teachings of great masters from Indian Buddhism and the Chinese Mahayana tradition. It was then published, and gained wider acceptance towards the end of the Tang period.

This lineage of Chan patriarchs was first mentioned in the inscription on Faru’s tomb (638–689), a master and former disciple of the 5th patriarch, Daman Hongren (601–674). In The Long Scroll of the Treatise on the Two Entrances and Four Practices, as well as The Continued Biographies of Eminent Monks, Daoyu and Dazu Huike are the only disciples of Bodhidharma that were explicitly mentioned. The inscription traces the lineage to Bodhidharma as the first patriarch.

In the 6th century CE, biographies of great monks were collected and compiled. These biographies of great monks were meant to be non-sectarian in nature. Naturally, the Chan biographical material intended to establish Chan as an authentic school of Buddhism rooted in Indian origins. These biographies are mainly hagiographies, which meant less emphasis was placed on historical accuracy and heavier emphasis on legends and traditional tales. The complete lineage was probably first published by the 9th Century CE.

According to D. T. Suzuki, the popularity of Chan during the 7th and 8th centuries attracted criticism that claimed there were no records showing Chan teachings having been derived from the Buddha. Hence, the earlier Chan masters re-established Bodhidharma as the 28th patriarch after the Buddha, thereby legitimising the Chan lineage. This early line of ancestry, from Bodhidharma down to Huineng, was called The Six Patriarchs.

• Bodhidharma (440 – 528 CE)
• Huike (487–593 CE)
• Sengcan (?–606 CE)
• Daoxin (580–651 CE)
• Hongren (601–674 CE)
• Huineng (638–713 CE)

Bodhidharma

Bodhidharma was an Indian monk who lived between 5th and 6th Century CE, and was credited to have been the founding father of Chan Buddhism in China. That is why he is the first of the Six Patriarchs of Chan Buddhism.

According to Chinese sources, Bodhidharma originated from the Western Regions, which roughly corresponds to what is now Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent. Hence, some sources claim that he was a ‘Persian Central Asian’ or ‘the third son of a great South Indian king’.

Throughout Buddhist art, Bodhidharma is depicted as an unruly, bearded, wide-eyed and dark-skinned Indian. He is referred to as ‘The Blue-Eyed Barbarian’ in an earlier description, and some claims have him hailing from within the region of Peshawar in Pakistan but so far, no claim has been able to conclusively prove their case.

There are two accounts that give different dates of his arrival to China. One earlier account claims that he arrived during the Liu Song dynasty (420-479 CE), while the later states that he arrived during the Liang dynasty (502-557 CE). However, he travelled extensively throughout the territories of the Northern Wei (386 – 534 CE), and so many modern scholars officially place the date of Bodhidharma’s travels in China as being early 5th Century CE. While in China, Bodhidharma’s teachings centered on meditation and specifically on the Lankavatara Sutra.

It is said that Bodhidharma achieved enlightenment, and was instructed by Prajnatara, his guru, that he had to travel to China in order to further the Mahayana doctrine there. He set out on an epic three-year voyage by sea before arriving at the coastal city of Canton. He found his way to the imperial court of the ruling Liang Dynasty in Nanjing and gained an audience with Emperor Wu, who proclaimed himself to be one of China’s greatest patrons of Buddhism.

In a famous anecdote, the emperor asked the Indian master the amount of merit that he had earned for ordaining monks, building monasteries, and accomplishing other good deeds. Bodhidharma replied bluntly that he had accumulated no merit. This puzzled the Emperor, who slowly turned to rage. The Indian master beat a hasty retreat and left northwards towards the Shaolin Temple in the state of Wei that he had heard about. His travels brought him to the mighty Yangtze River that he had to cross. According to legend, he crossed the river while balanced atop a tiny reed, which has since been frequently depicted in Chinese art. While at the Shaolin Temple, he sat down to meditate for nine years while facing a wall in a cave, earning the name ‘Wall-Gazing Brahman’.

Bodhidharma’s austere meditation won over a few students, but one of them, Huike, was most famous. According to legend, Huike was said to have stood outside the cave in the snow and waited on the master for a whole week. Then, in sheer frustration, Huike chopped off his left arm and presented it to the master in order to express his determination to attain enlightenment, a scene that is also popularly represented in Chinese paintings. Huike would eventually become Bodhidharma’s successor, and the next patriarch. There were two attempts to poison Bodhidharma, but on the third attempt, the sage decided to take the poison and passed away at the age of 150.

Three years after his passing, a Chinese emissary by the name of Song Yun was on his way back to China from India when he chanced upon Bodhidharma on the road. The master was on his way back to India and the official observed that he was walking barefoot and carrying one shoe in his hand. It was only upon his return to his homeland that he realised that the master had passed away. The master’s grave was exhumed only to discover that his body was missing, and all that remained was one shoe. The Chinese considered this a sign that Bodhidharma had become an immortal, and had merely feigned his own death. He was thus included in the Taoist pantheon of immortals.

According to tradition, Bodhidharma is attributed to be the founder of martial arts at the Shaolin Temple. As the legend goes, Bodhidharma faced the wall for nine years at the Shaolin Temple, and when he departed, he left behind a great chest. When the monks searched the contents of the chest, they discovered two books on martial arts: Marrow Washing Classic (Xi Sui Jing) and Muscle Change Classic (Yi Jin Jing).

His disciple Huike took the first book and it was eventually lost to time, while the second book was treasured by the monastery and was developed into what is characteristically known as the Shaolin martial arts. However, recent historians assert the claim that the text was actually written by Taoist priest Zining of Mt. Tiantai and thereby allaying centuries-old claims that Bodhidharma founded the Shaolin martial arts.

Huike

Dazu Huike (487–593 CE) was the Second Patriarch of Chan Buddhism, and became Bodhidharma’s successor. He is considered the 29th in the lineage that stemmed from Buddha Shakyamuni. According to the Hsu kao-seng chuan, Huike was born in Henan and was given the name Shen-Guang.

Huike was a scholar in both Buddhist and classical Chinese texts, including those of Taoism. He met his teacher Bodhidharma at the Shaolin Monastery in 528 CE when he was about forty years old, and he studied under Bodhidharma for six years (the duration varies according to sources).

There is little surviving information on the lives of Bodhidharma and Huike, and the few accounts of them are semi-mythical in nature. The most famous account was the meeting of Bodhidharma and Huike that occurred during winter, when Huike stood in the snow waiting outside a cave for the master. As an offering to the master, Huike cut off his arm and made his request, “Master, your disciple’s mind has no peace. Please put it to rest.” Bodhidharma responded, “Bring me your mind, and I will put it to rest.” Huike then replied, “I have searched for my mind but I cannot find it.” Bodhidharma finally replied, “Then I have completely put it to rest for you.”

Bodhidharma built the Zhuoxi Spring or Four Springs, situated in front of the Second Ancestor’s Temple at the Shaolin Temple so it would be easier for Huike to fetch water with his remaining arm. Then, Huike travelled to Yedu (modern day Henan) around 534 CE and lived there. When political turmoil engulfed China and Buddhist persecution was rampant in 574 CE, he hid in the area of Yedu and Wei (modern Hebei).

It was during this turbulent period that Huike sought refuge in the mountains near the Yangtze River and this was where he met Sengcan, who would become his successor and the Third Chinese Patriarch of Chan. In 579, Huike returned to Yedu and gave teachings which drew huge crowds. This attracted the envy and hostility of other Buddhist teachers, one of whom, Tao-heng, hired an assassin to have Huike killed, but in a dramatic turn of events, the master converted the would-be assailant.

The Compendium of Five Lamps (Wudeng Huiyan) compiled by Dachuan Lingyin Puji (1179–1253) wrote that Huike lived up to the age of one hundred seven. He was entombed about forty kilometres northeast of Anyang City in the Hebei Province. After his passing, the Tang Dynasty emperor De Zong bestowed on Huike the honorific title Dazu or ‘Great Ancestor’. Some accounts claim that influential Buddhist priests had Huike executed due to complaints about his teachings being heretical. These accounts say that blood did not flow from his decapitated body, but rather, a white milky substance flowed from his neck, astonishing everybody.

One of the most important aspects of the early Chan teachings by Bodhidharma and Huike was that of attaining sudden enlightenment rather than the gradual approach to enlightenment characteristic of the Indian tradition. Huike and Bodhidharma attributed their teachings to the Lankavatara Sutra, which stresses self-realisation and transcending words and thoughts. In his teachings, Huike stressed on meditation as a tool towards understanding the true intent of the Buddha, and that meditation should also be free of dualism or attachment.

Sengcan

Jianzhi Sengcan (6th Century CE) was the Third Chinese Patriarch of Chan following Huike and Bodhidharma, and is considered the thirtieth Patriarch after Buddha Shakyamuni. He is the sole successor of the second Chinese Patriarch, Dazu Huike.

It is said that Sengcan was over forty years old when he first chanced upon Huike in 536 CE, and he remained with his teacher for six years while receiving teachings. It was Huike who gave him the name Sengcan or ‘Gem Monk’. The Transmission of the Lamp gives this exchange between Huike and Sengcan, where Sengcan says, “I am riddled with sickness. Please absolve me of my sins.” Huike responded by saying, “Bring your sins here and I will absolve them for you.” After a long pause, Sengcan finally answered, “When I am looking for my sins, I cannot find them.” Huike then replied, “I have absolved them for you. You should live by the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha.” Huike appointed him as his successor by passing down to him the robes of Bodhidharma and Bodhidharma’s Dharma (which is widely believed to be a copy of the Lankavatara Sutra) and thus, Sengcan became The Third Patriarch of Chan.

According to historians, Sengcan fled with Huike up to the mountains due to Buddhist persecution. However, the Lamp Records claim that after giving a Dharma transmission, Huike told Sengcan to live up in the mountains and wait for the time when he could transmit the Dharma to someone else. This instruction was based on an earlier prophecy by Prajnatara that was passed down to Bodhidharma, and this in turn was passed down to Sengcan. Due to the prophecy, Sengcan lived in hiding on Wangong Mountain in Yixian, and then on Sikong Mountain in southwestern Anhui. Thereafter, he wandered with no fixed abode for another ten years.

Sengcan met Daoxin (580-651 CE), a novice monk of just fourteen years old. Daoxin served Sengcan for nine years and received the Dharma transmission when he was just in his early twenties. Subsequently, Sengcan spent two years at Mount Luofu (northeast of Guangtung) before returning to Wangong Mountain. Sengcan is attributed to be the author of the popular Chan poem, Verses on Faith-Mind (Xinxin Ming). This poem has been popular with Chan practitioners for over a thousand years. The poem is said to reveal Taoist influences on Chan Buddhism, as it deals with non-duality and the metaphysical concept of emptiness or Shunyata, which is a central to the doctrine that Nagarjuna (150-250 C.E.) taught.

Sengcan passed away sitting under a tree while giving a Dharma discourse in 606 CE, and he was bestowed with the honorary title Jianzhi or ‘Mirrorlike Wisdom’ by Xuan Zong, the Emperor of the Tang dynasty.

Daoxin

Dayi Daoxin (580–651 CE) came to be regarded as the fourth Patriarch of Chan Buddhism following Jianzhi Sengcan (died 606 CE), and his successor was Daman Hongren (601–674 CE).

Daoxin was first mentioned in the Further Biographies of Eminent Monks (Hsu Kao Seng Chuan) published in 645 CE. Later, he was also mentioned in the Annals of the Transmission of the Dharma-Treasure (Chuan Fa Pao Chi) published around 712 CE, which provided a detailed account of Daoxin’s life. The accounts of these early Chan masters were not particularly accurate and at times, details in one account would contradict another.

However, the following biography is the traditional tale of Daoxin that was brought together from various sources, including the Compendium of Five Lamps (Wudeng Huiyuan) compiled in the early 13th century by the monk Dachuan Lingyin Puji (1179–1253).

Daoxin was born to a family with the surname ‘Si-ma’ in the Yongning County of Qizhou, today known as Wuxue City of the Hubei Province. Daoxin began studying Buddhism at the tender age of seven, and although his first teacher had impure moral conduct, Daoxin was not adversely influenced, secretly maintaining his vows for the next five to six years.

According to the Compendium of Five Lamps , Daoxin encountered Sengcan when he was only fourteen years old. Daoxin made his request at the feet of his master, “I ask for the Master’s compassion. Please instruct me on how to achieve release.” Sengcan asked, “Is there someone who binds you?” Daoxin thought awhile, and answered, “There is no such person.” Sengcan then asked, “Why then seek release when no one restrains you?” It was said that upon hearing these words, Daoxin was said to have become enlightened.

The young Daoxin followed and served Sengcan for the next nine years. When Sengcan decided to travel to Mount Loufu, he forbade Daoxin to follow him. In an account taken from the Chuan Fa Pao Chi, the master said, “The Dharma has been transmitted from Patriarch Bodhidharma to me. I am going to the South and will leave you here to spread and protect the Dharma.”

For the next ten years, Daoxin studied at the feet of the master Zhikai at the Great Woods Temple on Mount Lu. Zhikai was an adept of the Taintai and Sanlun schools, and also chanted the Buddha’s name as part of his practice. These other schools heavily influenced Daoxin’s practice, and he finally received full ordination as a monk in 607 CE.

In 617 CE, Daoxin along with his disciples travelled to the Ji Province and entered a town that was under attack by bandits. In an unprecedented move, Daoxin expounded on the Perfection of Wisdom Sutra so well that the bandits laid down their weapons and abandoned their plans to attack the town. Daoxin continued on his travels and eventually settled at East Mountain Temple on Shuangfeng (Twin Peaks). He continued to teach Chan Buddhism for the next thirty years and attracted a large number of practitioners. According to records, he had five hundred students comprising of lay and ordained monks.

In 643 CE, the Emperor Tai Zong officially invited Daoxin to the capital but Daoxin turned the invitation down. The Emperor sent emissaries on three occasions and each time, Daoxin refused the imperial decree. On the third time, the Emperor, out of frustration, instructed for either Daoxin or his head to be brought to the capital. When the emissary arrived at the monastery, he related this instruction to Daoxin. In response, Daoxin stretched out his neck to allow the emissary to decapitate him. The emissary-official was so shocked that he left and he reported what transpired to the Emperor, who went on to honour Daoxin as an exemplary Buddhist master.

In 651 CE, Daoxin gave instructions for his students to build his funerary stupa in preparation for his death. According to the Further Biographies of Eminent Monks , his disciples requested for the aging master to name a successor. Daoxin replied, “I have made many deputations during my life.” He then passed away and the Emperor Tai Zong honored the late Daoxin with the posthumous title of ‘Dayi’, meaning ‘The Great Healer’.

The Five Gates of Daoxin is a compilation of his teachings, but as this text did not appear until the second decade of the eighth century, after Hongren’s record, its historical accuracy is in doubt. The Chronicle of the Lankavatara Masters , which appeared in the early eighth century, has Daoxin quoting from the Prajnaparamita (Perfection of Wisdom) and Pure Land Sutras but some scholars do not consider the study of these sutras to be part of Daoxin’s teachings. However, Daoxin was said to have taught extensively on meditation.

The teachings of Daoxin along with his successor, Hongren are known as the East Mountain Teachings, which became the basis of the vein of Chan Buddhism that flourished all over China in the mid of 8th Century CE. A major contributing factor was the fact that Daoxin was the first Chan master to settle at one spot for an extended period of time, and thus developed a stable monastic community that influenced the flourishing of other monastic communities throughout China.

Hongren

Daman Hongren (601 – 674 CE) became the fifth Patriarch of Chan Buddhism. He was said to have received transmission from Daoxin, and he in turn bestowed the bowl and robe to mark the transmission upon Huineng, the sixth and last of the Chan patriarchs.

As with all the early Chan patriarchs, much of Hongren’s life, which was compiled long after his passing, was largely shrouded by time and myth. Hongren was born in Huangmei into the Chou household. According to The Records of the Teachers and Disciples of the Lankavatara (Leng-ch’ieh shih-tzu chih), his father abandoned his family, but Hongren supported his mother thereafter, displaying admirable filial duty in. However, at the age of twelve, Hongren left home to be ordained as a monk and came to study at the feet of Daoxin, the fourth patriarch of Chan.

The meeting between Daoxin and Hongren is recorded in the Japanese text, Transmission of Light (Denkoroku) by Keizan Jokin Zenji (1268-1325 CE), which is a collection of 53 enlightened tales based on the traditional accounts of the Chan or Zen transmissions between successive masters and disciples in the Soto Zen Buddhist lineage. Daoxin initially met Hongren on a road in Huangmei. When Daoxin asked his name, Hongren replied, “I have essence but it is not a common name.” The master then asked, “What is its name?” To which Hongren replied, “It is the essence of Buddhahood.” Daoxin added, “Have you no name?” Hongren then said, “None, because essence is empty.” It is said that Daoxin would pass on the teachings and the robe down to Hongren, thus appointing Hongren as the next Patriarch of Chan Buddhism.

It was said that Hongren remained with Daoxin until his master’s death in 651 CE. It was also said that he was with Daoxin when the master was at Ta-lin Su on Mount Loufu and accompanied him to Mount Shuangfeng, one of the twin peaks of Huangmei. According to a later account, after Daoxin’s death, Hongren decided to move the community of monks towards Dong Shan or the eastern summit of the Twin Peaks. The lineage teachings of Daoxin and especially Hongren became known after this location as East Mountain Teachings (Dong Shan Fa Men).

Daman Hongren

According to the Annals of the Transmission of the Dharma-Treasure (Chuan Fa Pao Chi of 712 CE), Hongren was described as quiet, withdrawn, diligent with his menial tasks, and sat in meditation throughout the night. He was said to have never looked at the Buddhist scriptures, but understood everything that he learned. After ten years of teaching, the record claims that eight or nine of every ten ordained and lay Buddhist practitioners in the country had studied under him.

A Chan scholar asserts that Hongren was probably from a wealthy and prominent family despite an earlier mention that his father abandoned the family. This conclusion was based on some stories that his residence was eventually converted into a monastery, which meant that it was of considerable size. In addition to that, the mention of Hongren performing menial labor in his biography would only be significant if Hongren was from an upper-class family.

In his teachings, Hongren emphasised meditation and extensively taught that the Pure Mind was obscured by discriminating thought pattern, wrong views, and projections. He taught that Nirvana naturally arose when false thoughts were eliminated, and a constant awareness of one’s natural enlightenment can be maintained through that. The Treatise on the Essentials of Cultivating the Mind is a compilation of his teachings, and is the earliest collection of teachings from a Chan master. After Hongren, Chan Buddhism split into two schools, each led by one of his students. Yuquan Shenxiu (606-706) founded the Northern School and Dajian Huineng (638–713 CE) founded the Southern School. Each of these schools regards their elder as the legitimate sixth patriarch of Chan Buddhism.

Huineng

Dajian Huineng is the legendary sixth and final Patriarch of Chan Buddhism and successor of Daman Hongren, the fifth Chan patriarch. Huineng’s life seems to reflect the changing fortunes of Chan Buddhism, from a Chinese provincial form of Buddhism to a major cultural and religious force throughout China and East Asia.

According to various sources, Huineng was uneducated and a ‘barbaric’ youth, but because of his deep insight, he surpassed his fellow senior monks who were great scholars to become Hongren’s successor by receiving special transmission of Chan Buddhism.

Huineng’s story began as an illiterate peasant boy from Xinzhou of the Guangdong province, born to the Lu family. His father was a minor official who had been banished and passed away when he was very young. His mother brought him to southern China and they lived in poverty. When he was old enough, he began chopping and selling firewood to make a living to support his family.

One day, while delivering firewood to a shop, he overheard a man reciting a verse from the Diamond Sutra, “Depending upon nothing, you must find your own mind.” Upon hearing this verse, Huineng was said to have gained realisation. The man who recited this line recommended Huineng to meet the Fifth Chan Patriarch, Hongren, at the Tung Chian Monastery in the Huang Mei District of Xinzhou. He spoke to his mother, and gained her permission to leave home in order to enter a religious life.

From then on, Huineng spent the next few years wandering before ending up with a Buddhist nun who was devoted towards the study, recitation and contemplation of the Nirvana Sutra. She would recite passages from the Sutra every day, and one day, she asked him to recite a passage aloud only to discover that he was illiterate. This surprised the nun and she asked how was he going to learn the Buddha’s teachings if he was unable to read the scriptures. The youth replied that the Buddha nature within all beings does not depend on words, so there was actually no need to read texts. This amazed the nun and she suggested that he take up ordination. Huineng declined and went to a meditation master instead.

Huineng spent three years meditating in a mountain cave before travelling to East Mountain (Dongshan) monastery in Hubei, where he met Master Hongren, the Fifth Chan Patriarch. The master glared at the supplicant and asked where he was from and why did he come. Huineng answered that he was from the south and had come to learn the dharma from him. Hongren was quick to retort that Huineng was a mere barbarian as he was from the south. The master then added, “How could you become a Buddha?” Unfazed by the insult, Huineng responded, “Although my barbarian body and yours differ, what difference is there in our Buddha nature?”

Hongren realised that this was a promising student, although he was a diamond in the rough, and decided to test him further. He finally took Huineng in, but assigned him to the chore of threshing grains. Huineng labored for nine months treading the mill in order to separate rice grains from their husks.

However, the most famous story of Huineng’s life came with a contest. One day, the master Hongren decided to put his monks to the test by getting them to compose a verse that distilled their realisation of their original nature. The master said that he would read each verse and would award Bodhidharma’s robes, begging bowl and the title ‘Sixth Patriarch’ to the student who demonstrated true realisation.

Everybody turned towards the head monk, Shenxiu, who was expected to be the Master’s likeliest successor. However, it was said that he was full of doubt and spent a laborious night composing his verse. Finally, he crept out and wrote his verse anonymously on the wall of the new dharma hall as was required by Hongren’s challenge.

Shenxiu’s verse was as follows: –

The body is a Bodhi tree,
The mind a standing mirror bright.
At all times polish it diligently,
And let no dust alight.

This verse was a direct assertion of the necessity for diligent practice and Shenxiu had hoped that this verse would demonstrate to the Master that he had some realisation. Early the next morning, Hongren walked towards the wall and read out the verse and praised it before the jubilant monks. He offered incense before the verse and ordered the monks to recite it before calling Shenxiu for an audience. In private, he praised Shenxiu for his insight but he said that the verse revealed that he had arrived at the gates of wisdom, but he had yet to place his foot in. He then suggested Shenxiu take a few more days to ponder on another verse that would be worthy to be awarded with his robes.

Meanwhile, Huineng was diligently threshing rice grains when he overheard a novice reciting Shenxiu’s verse. Immediately, Huineng realised that the author of the verse lacked deeper insight. Later, he snuck out to the dharma hall and requested a monk to write his verse on the wall next to Shenxiu’s verse.

Bodhi is originally without any tree;
The bright mirror is also not a stand.
Originally there is not a single thing-
Where could any dust be attracted?

Word spread like wildfire throughout the monastery of the new verse and the news eventually reached Hongren’s ears. The Master himself came out to read the verse and immediately he recognised it to be Huineng’s words and recognised his deep insight. The master pondered and knew that passing his robe to a peasant monk would upset the monastic hierarchy. Thereafter, he was quick to dismiss the verse for lacking understanding and left. That night and under the cover of darkness, Hongren secretly summoned Huineng for an audience in which he bestowed upon him further teachings and transmissions. Passing on his robe, the Master told him to flee for his life and predicted that he would eventually transmit the teachings.

Huineng made hasty preparations and fled south. After several months of pursuit, a band of assassins tracked Huineng to a mountain and with the intent of killing him in order to retrieve the robe. Most of the pursuers turned back after climbing halfway except Huiming, who managed to reach the summit. Somehow, instead of killing the master, he was subdued by the master’s incredible wit and wisdom. After receiving his teachings, the assassin became realised. In fulfilment of his master’s prophecy, Huineng dispatched his new disciple to the north in order to spread the Dharma there.

The famous Chan treatise, Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch or Liuzu Tanjing is attributed to Huineng. Scholars analysing the text say that it was constructed over a long period of time, as it contains many layers of writing. It constitutes some of the earliest Chan teachings, and a great collection of essential teachings that form the backbone of the entire tradition stemming up to the second half of the 8th century CE. The central theme of the treatise is the recognition and realisation of one’s Buddha-nature that is similar to texts attributed to Bodhidharma and Hongren, including the idea that our primordial Buddha-nature is made invisible due to our illusions and delusions.

The Platform Sutra cites and expounds on a wide range of Buddhist scriptures like Lankavatara Sutra, Mahaparinirvana Sutra, Mahaprajnaparamita Sutra, Brahmajala Sutra, Vimalakirti Sutra, Lotus Sutra, Surangama Sutra and Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana. The Platform Sutra became wildly popular in China that some attribute to its paradoxical Taoist’ influence and numerous copies circulated.

Towards the end of 8th century, the ‘Northern’ and ‘Southern’ schools of Chan Buddhism dominated China. Shenhui (684-758) claimed to having studied under Huineng, and he criticised the legitimacy of ‘Northern’ Chan, which had received imperial patronage during the Tang dynasty (618-907) under the leadership of Shenxiu (ca. 606-706) and his heir, Puji (651-739). Shenhui claimed that his teacher Huineng was the true recipient of transmission from Hongren, and he ridiculed Shenxiu’s ‘gradualist’ approach to awakening. Shenhui insisted that Huineng was the true Sixth Patriarch, and thus claimed the title of Seventh Patriarch for himself.

In the ninth century, the ‘Southern’ school with its ‘sudden awakening’ doctrine was finally accepted as the official line. Ironically, both the ‘Northern’ and ‘Southern’ schools died out due to political turmoil of the time. It was only later, after Chan Buddhism had survived the imperial persecutions of 841-845 CE, that other Chan schools reasserted their connection to Huineng and propagated his teachings.

This is the mummified remains of Huineng that is enshrined in Nanhua Temple in Shaoguan of Northern Guangdong Province of China.

Huineng’s legacy continues to impact Chan Buddhism till this day. His teachings span the major themes within Chan Buddhism, and stories of his life continue to provide the archetype of an ideal Chan master.

Source: Approaches to Chan, Sŏn, and Zen Studies

Source: Development of Chan (Zen) in China

Source: Buddhism, Chan / Chánzōng Fójiào 禅​ 宗 佛 教

Source: Thien/Chan/Zen

Thien/Chan/Zen

Zen is a school of Mahāyāna Buddhism, referred to in Chinese as Chán. Chán is itself derived from the Sanskrit Dhyāna, which means “meditation” (see etymology below). Zen emphasises dharma practice and experiential wisdom—particularly as realized in the form of meditation known as zazen—in the attainment of awakening, often simply called the path of enlightenment. As such, it de-emphasizes both theoretical knowledge and the study of religious texts in favor of direct, experiential realization through meditation and dharma practice. The establishment of Zen is traditionally credited to the South Indian Pallava prince-turned-monk Bodhidharma, who is recorded as having come to China to teach a “special transmission outside scriptures” which “did not stand upon words”. The emergence of Zen as a distinct school of Buddhism was first documented in China in the 7th century CE. It is thought to have developed as an amalgam of various currents in Mahāyāna Buddhist thought—among them the Yogācāra and Madhyamaka philosophies and the Prajñāpāramitā literature—and of local traditions in China, particularly Taoism and Huáyán Buddhism. From China, Zen subsequently spread southwards to Vietnam and eastwards to Korea and Japan.

Early history

As noted above, much of Zen history is combined with mythology. The historical records required for a complete, accurate account of early Zen history no longer exist. Chan, as it is generally called when referencing Zen Buddhism in early China, developed from the interaction between Mahāyāna Buddhism and Taoism. Some scholars also argue that Chan has roots in yogic practices, specifically kammaṭṭhāna, the consideration of objects, and kasiṇa, total fixation of the mind. The entry of Buddhism into China was marked by interaction and syncretism with Taoic faiths, Taoism in particular. Buddhist scriptures were translated into Chinese with Taoist vocabulary, because it was originally seen as a kind of foreign Taoism. In the Tang period, Taoism incorporated such Buddhist elements as monasteries, vegetarianism, prohibition of alcohol, the doctrine of emptiness, and collecting scripture into tripartite organisation. During the same time, Chan Buddhism grew to become the largest sect in Chinese Buddhism. The establishment of Chan is traditionally credited to the Indian prince turned monk Bodhidharma (formerly dated ca 500 CE, but now ca early fifth century), who is recorded as having come to China to teach a “special transmission outside scriptures” which “did not stand upon words”. Bodhidharma settled in the kingdom of Wei where he took among his disciples Daoyu and Huike. Early on in China Bodhidharma’s teaching was referred to as the “One Vehicle sect of India”. The One Vehicle (Sanskrit Ekayāna), also known as the Supreme Vehicle or the Buddha Vehicle, was taught in the Lankavatara Sutra which was closely associated with Bodhidharma. However, the label “One Vehicle sect” did not become widely used, and Bodhidharma’s teaching became known as the Chan sect for its primary focus on chan training and practice. Shortly before his death, Bodhidharma appointed Huike to succeed him, making Huike the first Chinese born patriarch and the second patriarch of Chan 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 Lankavatara Sutra. The transmission then passed to the second patriarch (Huike), the third (Sengcan), the fourth patriarch (Dao Xin) and the fifth patriarch (Hongren). The sixth and last patriarch, Huineng (638–713), was one of the giants of Chan history, and all surviving schools regard him as their ancestor. However, 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 patriarch, Huineng had to flee by night to Nanhua Temple in the south to avoid the wrath of Hongren’s jealous senior disciples. Later, in the middle of the 8th century, monks claiming to be among the successors to Huineng, calling themselves the Southern school, cast themselves in opposition to those claiming to succeed Hongren’s then publicly recognized student Shenxiu. It is commonly held that it is at this point—the debates between these rival factions—that Chan enters the realm of fully documented history. Aside from disagreements over the valid lineage, 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. The Southern school eventually became predominant and their Northern school rivals died out. Modern scholarship, however, has questioned this narrative, since the only surviving records of this account were authored by members of the Southern school. The following are the six Patriarchs of Chan in China as listed in traditional sources: Bodhidharma (बोधिधर्म) about 440 – about 528 Huike 487 – 593 Sengcan ? – 606 Daoxin 580 – 651 Hongren 601 – 674 Huineng 638 – 713

The Five Houses of Zen

Developing primarily in the Tang dynasty in China, Classic Zen is traditionally divided historically into the Five Houses of Zen 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 Zen are: Guiyang (Japn.,Igyo), named after masters Guishan Lingyou (Japn., Isan Reiy, 771-854) and Yangshan Huiji (Japn., Kyozan Ejaku, 813-890) Linji (Japn., Rinzai), named after master Linji Yixuan (Japn., Rinzai Gigen, died 866) Caodong (Japn., Soto), named after masters Dongshan Liangjie (Japn., Tozan Ryokai, 807-869) and Caoshan Benji (Japn., Sozan Honjaku, 840-901) Yunmen (Japn., Unmon), named after master Yunmen Wenyan (Japn., Unmon Bun’en, died 949) Fayan (Japn., Hogen, named after master Fayan Wenyi (also Fa-yen Wen-i) (Japn., Hogen Mon’eki, 885-958) Most Zen lineages throughout Asia and the rest of the world originally grew from or were heavily influenced by the original five houses of Zen.

Zen teachings and practices

Basis

Zen asserts, as do other schools in Mahayana Buddhism, that all sentient beings have Buddha-nature, the universal nature of inherent wisdom (Sanskrit prajna) and virtue, and emphasizes that Buddha-nature is nothing other than the nature of the mind itself. The aim of Zen practice is to discover this Buddha-nature within each person, through meditation and mindfulness of daily experiences. Zen practitioners believe that this provides new perspectives and insights on existence, which ultimately lead to enlightenment. In distinction to many other Buddhist sects, Zen de-emphasizes reliance on religious texts and verbal discourse on metaphysical questions. Zen holds that these things lead the practitioner to seek external answers, rather than searching within themselves for the direct intuitive apperception of Buddha-nature. This search within goes under various terms such as “introspection,” “a backward step,” “turning-about,” or “turning the eye inward.” In this sense, Zen, as a means to deepen the practice and in contrast to many other religions, could be seen as fiercely anti-philosophical, iconoclastic, anti-prescriptive and anti-theoretical. The importance of Zen’s non-reliance on written words is often misunderstood as being against the use of words. However, Zen is deeply rooted in both the scriptural teachings of the Buddha Siddhārtha Gautama and in Mahāyāna Buddhist thought and philosophy. What Zen emphasizes is that the awakening taught by the Buddha came through his meditation practice, not from any words that he read or discovered, and so it is primarily through meditation that others too may awaken to the same insights as the Buddha. The teachings on the technique and practice of turning the eye inward are found in many suttas and sutras of Buddhist canons, but in its beginnings in China, Zen primarily referred to the Mahayana Sutras and especially to the Lankavatara Sutra. Since Bodhidharma taught the turning-about techniques of dhyana with reference to the Lankavatara Sutra, the Zen school was initially identified with that sutra. It was in part through reaction to such limiting identification with one text that Chinese Zen cultivated its famous non-reliance on written words and independence of any one scripture. However, a review of the teachings of the early Zen masters clearly reveals that they were all well versed in various scriptures. For example, in The Platform Sutra of the Sixth ancestor and founder Huineng, this famously “illiterate” Zen master cites and explains the Diamond Sutra, the Lotus Sutra, the Vimalakirti Sutra, the Shurangama Sutra, and the Lankavatara Sutra. When Buddhism came to China the doctrine of the three core practices or trainings, the training in virtue and discipline in the precepts (Sanskrit Śīla), the training in mind through meditation (dhyana or jhana) sometimes called concentration (samadhi), and the training in discernment and wisdom (prajna), was already established in the Pali canon. In this context, as Buddhism became adapted to Chinese culture, three types of teachers with expertise in each training practice developed. Vinaya masters were versed in all the rules of discipline for monks and nuns. Dhyana masters were versed in the practice of meditation. And Dharma, the teaching or sutra, masters were versed in 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. Dhyana or Chan masters tended to practice in solitary hermitages or to be associated with the Vinaya training monasteries or sutra teaching centers. After Bodhidharma’s arrival in the late fifth century, the subsequent dhyana-chan masters who were associated with his teaching line consolidated around the practice of meditation and the feeling that mere observance of the rules of discipline or the intellectual teachings of the scriptures did not emphasize enough the actual practice and personal experience of the Buddha’s meditation that led to the Buddha’s awakening. Awakening like the Buddha, and not merely following rules or memorizing texts became the watchword of the dhyana-chan practitioners. Within 200 years after Bodhidharma at the beginning of the Tang Dynasty, by the time of the fifth generation Chan ancestor and founder Daman Hongren (601-674), the Zen of Bodhidharma’s successors had become well established as a separate school of Buddhism and the true Zen school. The core of Zen practice is seated meditation, widely known by its Japanese name zazen, and recalls both the posture in which the Buddha is said to have achieved enlightenment under the Bodhi tree at Bodh Gaya, and the elements of mindfulness and concentration which are part of the Eightfold Path as taught by the Buddha. All of the Buddha’s fundamental teachings—among them the Eightfold Path, the Four Noble Truths, the idea of dependent origination, the five precepts, the five aggregates, and the three marks of existence—also make up important elements of the perspective that Zen takes for its practice. While Buddhists generally revere certain places as a Bodhimandala (circle or place of enlightenment) in Zen wherever one sits in true meditation is said to be a Bodhimandala. Additionally, as a development of Mahāyāna Buddhism, Zen draws many of its basic driving concepts, particularly the bodhisattva ideal, from that school. Uniquely Mahāyāna figures such as Guānyīn, Mañjuśrī, Samantabhadra, and Amitābha are venerated alongside the historical Buddha. Despite Zen’s emphasis on transmission independent of scriptures, it has drawn heavily on the Mahāyāna sūtras, particularly the Heart of Perfect Wisdom Sūtra, Hredaya Pranyaparamita the Sūtra of the Perfection of Wisdom of the Diamond that Cuts through Illusion, The Vajrachedika Pranyaparamita the Lankavatara Sūtra, and the “Samantamukha Parivarta” section of the Lotus Sūtra. Zen has also itself paradoxically 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 Zen texts, dating back to at least the 9th century CE, is the Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch, sometimes attributed to Huìnéng. Others include the various collections of kōans and the Shōbōgenzō of Dōgen Zenji. Zen training emphasizes daily practice, along with intensive periods of meditation. Practicing with others is considered an important part of Zen practice. 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 Chan 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.”

Zen meditation

Zazen

As the name Zen implies, Zen sitting meditation is the core of Zen practice and is called zazen in Japanese (Chinese tso-chan [Wade-Giles] or zuòchán [Pinyin]). During zazen, practitioners usually assume a sitting position such as the lotus, 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 (Chinese dan tian, Japanese tanden or hara). Often, a square or round cushion (zafu) placed on a padded mat (zabuton) is used to sit on; in some cases, a chair may be used. In Japanese Rinzai Zen tradition practitioners typically sit facing the center of the room; while Japanese Soto practitioners traditionally sit facing a wall. In Soto Zen, shikantaza meditation (“just-sitting”) that is, a meditation with no objects, anchors, or content, is the primary form of practice. The meditator strives to be aware of the stream of thoughts, allowing them to arise and pass away without interference. Considerable textual, philosophical, and phenomenological justification of this practice can be found throughout Dōgen’s Shōbōgenzō, as for example in the “Principles of Zazen” and the “Universally Recommended Instructions for Zazen”. Rinzai Zen, instead, emphasizes attention to the breath and koan practice (q.v.). The amount of time spent daily in zazen by practitioners varies. Dōgen recommends that five minutes or more daily is beneficial for householders. The key is daily regularity, as Zen teaches that the ego will naturally resist, and the discipline of regularity is essential. Practicing Zen monks may perform four to six periods of zazen during a normal day, with each period lasting 30 to 40 minutes. Meditation as a practice can be applied to any posture. Walking meditation is called kinhin. Successive periods of zazen are usually interwoven with brief periods of walking meditation to relieve the legs.

Sesshin

Sesshin, literally “gathering the mind”, is a period of intensive group meditation (zazen) in a Zen monastery. While the daily routine in the monastery requires the monks to meditate several hours a day, during a sesshin they devote themselves almost exclusively to zazen practice. The numerous 30-50 minute long meditation periods are interleaved with short rest breaks, meals, and sometimes, short periods of work (Japanese: samu) all performed with the same mindfulness; nightly sleep is kept to a minimum, 7 hours or less. During the sesshin period, the intense meditation is occasionally interrupted by the master giving public talks (teisho) and individual direction in private meetings (which may be called dokusan, daisan, or sanzen) with a Zen Master. In modern Buddhist practice in Japan and the West, sesshins are often attended by lay students, and are typically 1, 3, 5, or 7 days in length. Seven day sesshins are several times a year at many Zen Centers, especially in commemoration of the Buddha’s awakening to annuttara samyak sambodhi. At this Rohatsu sesshin, the practitioners typically strive to quiet the mind’s chatter to the point of either Stopping thought, samadhi, kensho, or satori. One distinctive aspect of Zen meditation in groups is the use of the keisaku, a flat wooden stick or slat used to keep meditators focused and awake.

The Zen teacher

This Japanese scroll calligraphy of Bodhidharma reads “Zen points directly to the human heart, see into your nature and become Buddha”. It was created by Hakuin Ekaku (1685-1768) Because the Zen tradition emphasizes direct communication over scriptural study, the Zen teacher has traditionally played a central role. Generally speaking, a Zen teacher is a person ordained in any tradition of Zen to teach the Dharma, guide students in meditation, and perform rituals. An important concept for all Zen sects is the notion of dharma transmission: the claim of a line of authority that goes back to Śākyamuni Buddha via the teachings of each successive master to each successive student. This concept relates to the ideas expressed in a description of Zen attributed to Bodhidharma:A special transmission outside the scriptures; No dependence upon words and letters; Direct pointing to the human mind; Seeing into one’s own nature and attaining Buddhahood. 

John McRae’s Seeing Through Zen explores this assertion of lineage as a distinctive and central aspect of Zen Buddhism. He writes of this “genealogical” approach so central to Zen’s self-understanding, that while not without precedent, has unique features. It is:[R]elational (involving interaction between individuals rather than being based solely on individual effort), generational (in that it is organized according to parent-child, or rather teacher-student, generations) and reiterative (i.e., intended for emulation and repetition in the lives of present and future teachers and students.[citation needed]

McRae offers a detailed criticism of lineage, but he also notes it is central to Zen, so much so that it is hard to envision any claim to Zen that discards claims of lineage. Therefore, for example, in Japanese Soto, lineage charts become a central part of the Sanmatsu, the documents of Dharma transmission. And it is common for daily chanting in Zen temples and monasteries to include the lineage of the school. In Japan during the Tokugawa period (1600–1868), some came to question the lineage system and its legitimacy. The Zen master Dokuan Genko (1630–1698), for example, openly questioned the necessity of written acknowledgment from a teacher, which he dismissed as “paper Zen”, Quite a number of teachers in Japan during the Tokugawa period did not adhere to the lineage system; these were termed mushi dokugo (“independently enlightened without a teacher”) or jigo jisho (“self-enlightened and self-certified”). Modern Zen Buddhists also consider questions about the dynamics of the lineage system, inspired in part by academic research into the history of Zen. Honorific titles used when talking to or about a Zen teacher include, in Chinese: Fashi, Chanshi; in Korean: Sŭnim (Seunim), Sŏn Sa (Seon Sa); in Japanese: Oshō, Rōshi, Sensei; in Vietnamese: Thầy.—Note that many of these titles are not specific to Zen but are used generally for Buddhist priests; some, such as sensei are not even specific to Buddhism. The English term Zen master is often used to refer to important teachers, especially ancient and medieval ones. However, there is no specific criterion by which one may be called a Zen master. The term is less common in reference to modern teachers. In the Open Mind Zen School, English terms have been substituted for the Japanese ones to avoid confusion of this issue. “Assistant Zen Teacher” is a person authorized to begin to teach, but still under the supervision of his teacher. “Zen Teacher” applies to one authorized to teach without further direction, and “Zen Master” refers to one who is a Zen Teacher and has founded his or her own teaching center.

Koan practice

Zen Buddhists may practice koan inquiry during sitting meditation (zazen), walking meditation, and throughout all the activities of daily life. Koan practice is particularly emphasized by the Japanese Rinzai school, but it also occurs in other schools or branches of Zen depending on the teaching line. A koan (literally “public case”) is a story or dialogue, generally related to Zen or other Buddhist history; the most typical form is an anecdote involving early Chinese Zen masters. These anecdotes involving famous Zen teachers are a practical demonstration of their wisdom, and can be used to test a student’s progress in Zen practice. Koans often appear to be paradoxical or linguistically meaningless dialogues or questions. But to Zen 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. Koans and their study developed in China within the context of the open questions and answers of teaching sessions conducted by the Chinese Zen masters. Today, the Zen student’s mastery of a given koan is presented to the teacher in a private interview (referred to in Japanese as dokusan, daisan, or sanzen). Zen teachers advise that the problem posed by a koan is to be taken quite seriously, and to be approached as literally a matter of life and death. While there is no unique answer to a koan, practitioners are expected to demonstrate their understanding of the koan and of Zen through their responses. The teacher may approve or disapprove of the answer and guide the student in the right direction. There are also various commentaries on koans, written by experienced teachers, that can serve as a guide. These commentaries are also of great value to modern scholarship on the subject.

Chan in China

In the centuries following the introduction of Buddhism to China, Chan grew to become the largest sect in Chinese Buddhism and, despite its “transmission beyond the scriptures”, produced the largest body of literature in Chinese history of any sect or tradition. The teachers claiming Huineng’s posterity began to branch off into numerous different schools, each with their own special emphasis, but all of which kept the same basic focus on meditational practice, personal instruction and personal experience. During the late Tang and the Song periods, the tradition continued, as a wide number of eminent teachers, such as Mazu (Wade-Giles: Ma-tsu; Japanese: Baso), Shitou (Shih-t’ou; Japanese: Sekito), Baizhang (Pai-chang; Japanese: Hyakujo), Huangbo (Huang-po; Jap.: Obaku), Linji (Lin-chi; Jap.: Rinzai), and Yunmen (Jap.: Ummon) developed specialized teaching methods, which would variously become characteristic of the five houses of Chan. The traditional five houses were Caodong, Linji, Guiyang, Fayan, and Yunmen. This list does not include earlier schools such as the Hongzhou of Mazu. Over the course of Song Dynasty (960–1279), the Guiyang, Fayan, and Yunmen schools were gradually absorbed into the Linji. During the same period, the various developments of Chan teaching methods crystallized into the gong-an (koan) practice which is unique to this school of Buddhism. According to Miura and Sasaki, “[I]t was during the lifetime of Yüan-wu’s successor, Ta-hui Tsung-kao (Daie Sōkō, 1089-1163) that Koan Zen entered its determinative stage.” Gong-an practice was prevalent in the Linji school, to which Yuanwu and Ta-hui (pinyin: Dahui) belonged, but it was also employed on a more limited basis by the Caodong school. The teaching styles and words of the classical masters were collected in such important 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 record classic gong-an cases, together with verse and prose commentaries, which would be studied by later generations of students down to the present. Chan continued to be influential as a religious force in China, and thrived in the post-Song period; with a vast body of texts being produced up and through the modern period. While traditionally distinct, Chan 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 Chan and Pure Land. Chan Buddhism enjoyed something of a revival in the Ming Dynasty with teachers such as Hanshan Deqing, who wrote and taught extensively on both Chan and Pure Land Buddhism; Miyun Yuanwu, who came to be seen posthumously as the first patriarch of the Obaku Zen school; as well as Yunqi Zhuhong and Ouyi Zhixu. After further centuries of decline, Chan was revived again in the early 20th century by Hsu Yun, a well-known figure of 20th century Chinese Buddhism. Many Chan teachers today trace their lineage back to Hsu Yun, including Sheng-yen and Hsuan Hua, who have propagated Chan in the West where it has grown steadily through the 20th and 21st century. It was severely repressed in China during the recent modern era with the appearance 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.

Zen in Japan

The schools of Zen that currently exist in Japan are the Sōtō, Rinzai, and Obaku. Of these, Sōtō is the largest and Obaku 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. In the year 1410 a Zen Buddhist monk from Nanzen-ji, a large temple complex in the Japanese capital of Kyoto, wrote out a landscape poem and had a painting done of the scene described by the poem. Then, following the prevailing custom of his day, he gathered responses to the images by asking prominent fellow monks and government officials to inscribe it, thereby creating a shigajiku poem and painting scroll. Such scrolls emerged as a preeminent form of elite Japanese culture in the last two decades of the fourteenth century, a golden age in the phenomenon now known as Japanese Zen culture Although the Japanese had known Zen-like practices for centuries (Taoism and Shinto), it 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. Decades later, Nanpo Jomyo also studied Linji teachings in China before founding the Japanese Otokan lineage, the most influential branch of 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 Obaku lineage was introduced in the 17th century by Ingen, a Chinese monk. Ingen had been a member of the Linji school, the Chinese equivalent of Rinzai, which had developed separately from the Japanese branch for hundreds of years. Thus, when Ingen journeyed to Japan following the fall of the Ming Dynasty to the Manchus, his teachings were seen as a separate school. The Obaku school was named for Mount Obaku (Chinese: Huangboshan), which had been Ingen’s home in China. Some contemporary Japanese Zen teachers, such as Daiun Harada and Shunryu Suzuki, have criticized Japanese Zen as being a formalized system of empty rituals in which very few Zen practitioners ever actually attain realization. They assert that almost all Japanese temples have become family businesses handed down from father to son, and the Zen priest’s function has largely been reduced to officiating at funerals. The Japanese Zen establishment—including the Sōtō sect, the major branches of Rinzai, and several renowned teachers— has been criticized for its involvement in Japanese militarism and nationalism during World War II and the preceding period. A notable work on this subject was Zen at War (1998) by Brian Victoria, an American-born Sōtō priest. At the same time, however, one must be aware that this involvement was by no means limited to the Zen school: all orthodox Japanese schools of Buddhism supported the militarist state. What may be most striking, though, as Victoria has argued, is that many Zen masters known for their post-war internationalism and promotion of “world peace” were open nationalists in the inter-war years. And some of them, like Haku’un Yasutani, the founder of the Sanbo Kyodan School, even voiced their anti-semitic and nationalistic opinions after World War II. This openness has allowed non-Buddhists to practice Zen, especially outside of Asia, and even for the curious phenomenon of an emerging Christian Zen lineage, as well as one or two lines that call themselves “nonsectarian”. With no official governing body, it’s perhaps impossible to declare any authentic lineage “heretical,” which would allow one to argue that there is no “orthodoxy” – something that most Asian Zen masters would readily dismiss.

Thiền (Zen) in Vietnam

See also: Buddhism in Vietnam Thiền Buddhism (Thiền Tông) is the Vietnamese name for the school of Zen Buddhism. Thien is ultimately derived from Chan Zong, itself a derivative of the Sanskrit “Dhyāna”. 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 Zen. This, then, would be the first appearance of Vietnamese Zen, or Thien (thiền) Buddhism. The sect that Vinitaruci and his lone Vietnamese disciple founded would become known as the oldest branch of Thien. After a period of obscurity, the Vinitaruci School became one of the most influential Buddhist groups in Vietnam by the 10th century, particularly so under the patriarch Vạn-Hạnh (died 1018). Other early Vietnamese Zen schools included the Vo Ngon Thong (Vô Ngôn Thông), which was associated with the teaching of Mazu, and the Thao Duong (Thảo Đường), which incorporated nianfo chanting techniques; both were founded by Chinese monks. A new school was founded by one of Vietnam’s religious kings; this was the Truc Lam (Trúc Lâm) school, which evinced a deep influence from Confucian and Taoist philosophy. Nevertheless, Truc Lam’s prestige waned over the following centuries as Confucianism became dominant in the royal court. In the 17th century, a group of Chinese monks led by Nguyen Thieu (Nguyên Thiều) established a vigorous new school, the Lam Te (Lâm Tế), which is the Vietnamese pronunciation of Linji. A more domesticated offshoot of Lam Te, the Lieu Quan (Liễu Quán) school, was founded in the 18th century and has since been the predominant branch of Vietnamese Zen. The most famous practitioner of synchronized Thiền Buddhism in the West is Thích Nhất Hạnh who has authored dozens of books and founded Dharma center Plum Village in France together with his colleague -Bhikkhuni and Zen Master- Chan Khong.

Seon (Zen) in Korea

Seon was gradually transmitted into Korea during the late Silla period (7th through 9th centuries) as Korean monks of predominantly Hwaeom and Consciousness-only background began to travel to China to learn the newly developing tradition. During his lifetime, Mazu had begun to attract students from Korea; by tradition, the first Korean to study Seon was named Peomnang. Mazu’s successors had numerous Korean students, some of whom returned to Korea and established the nine mountain schools. This was the beginning of Chan in Korea which is called Seon. Seon received its most significant impetus and consolidation from the Goryeo monk Jinul (1158–1210), who established a reform movement and introduced koan practice to Korea. Jinul established the Songgwangsa as a new center of pure practice. It was during the time of Jinul the Jogye Order, a primarily Seon sect, became the predominant form of Korean Buddhism, a status it still holds. which survives down to the present in basically the same status. Toward the end of the Goryeo and during the Joseon period the Jogye Order would first be combined with the scholarly schools, and then be relegated to lesser influence in ruling class circles by Confucian influenced polity, even as it retained strength outside the cities, among the rural populations and ascetic monks in mountain refuges. Nevertheless, there would be a series of important Seon teachers during the next several centuries, such as Hyegeun, Taego, Gihwa and Hyujeong, who continued to develop the basic mold of Korean meditational Buddhism established by Jinul. Seon continues to be practiced in Korea today at a number of major monastic centers, as well as being taught at Dongguk University, which has a major of studies in this religion. Taego Bou (1301–1382) studied in China with Linji teacher and returned to unite the Nine Mountain Schools. In modern Korea, by far the largest Buddhist denomination is the Jogye Order, which is essentially a Zen sect; the name Jogye is the Korean equivalent of Caoxi, another name for Huineng. Seon is known for its stress on meditation, monasticism, and asceticism. Many Korean monks have few personal possessions and sometimes cut off all relations with the outside world. Several are near mendicants traveling from temple to temple practicing meditation. The hermit-recluse life is prevalent among monks to whom meditation practice is considered of paramount importance. Currently, Korean Buddhism is in a state of slow transition. While the reigning theory behind Korean Buddhism was based on Jinul’s “sudden enlightenment, gradual cultivation”, the modern Korean Seon master, Seongcheol’s revival of Hui Neng’s “sudden enlightenment, sudden cultivation” has had a strong impact on Korean Buddhism. Although there is resistance to change within the ranks of the Jogye order, with the last three Supreme Patriarchs’ stance that is in accordance with Seongcheol, there has been a gradual change in the atmosphere of Korean Buddhism. The Kwan Um School of Zen, one of the largest Zen schools in the West, teaches a form of Seon Buddhism. Soeng Hyang Soen Sa Nim (b. 1948), birth name Barbara Trexler (later Barbara Rhodes), is Guiding Dharma Teacher of the international Kwan Um School of Zen and successor of the late Seung Sahn Soen Sa Nim.

Source: Linji Chan (Rinzai Zen) Buddhism in China

Linji Chan (Rinzai Zen) Buddhism in China

School of Koan Contemplation

Zen Buddhism usually means Japanese Zen, although there is also Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese Zen, called Chan, Seon and Thien, respectively. There are two major schools of Japanese Zen, called Soto and Rinzai, which originated in China. This article is about the Chinese origins of Rinzai Zen. 

Chan is the original Zen, a school of Mahayana Buddhism founded in 6th century China. For a time there were five distinct schools of Chan, but three of those were absorbed into a fourth, Linji, which would be called Rinzai in Japan. The fifth school is Caodong, which is the ancestor of Soto Zen.

Historical Background 

The Linji school emerged during a turbulent time in Chinese history. The founding teacher, Linji Yixuan, probably was born about 810 CE and died in 866, which was near the end of the Tang Dynasty. Linji would have been a monk when a Tang emperor banned Buddhism in 845. Some schools of Buddhism, such as the esoteric Mi-tsung school (related to Japanese Shingon) completely disappeared because of the ban, and Huayan Buddhism nearly so. Pure Land survived because it enjoyed broad popularity, and Chan was largely spared because many of its monasteries were in remote areas, not in the cities.

When the Tang Dynasty fell in 907 China was thrown into chaos. Five ruling dynasties came and went quickly; China splintered into kingdoms. The chaos was subdued after the Song Dynasty was established 960.

During the last days of the Tang Dynasty and through the chaotic Five Dynasties period, five distinct schools of Chan emerged that came to be called the Five Houses. To be sure, some of these Houses were taking shape while the Tang Dynasty was at its peak, but it was at the beginning of the Song Dynasty that they were considered schools in their own right.

Of these Five Houses, Linji probably was best known for its eccentric style of teaching. Following the example of the founder, Master Linji, Linji teachers shouted, grabbed, struck, and otherwise manhandled students as a means to shock them into awakening. This must have been effective, as Linji became the dominant school of Chan during the Song Dynasty.

Koan Contemplation 

The formal, stylized manner of koan contemplation as practiced today in Rinzai developed in Song Dynasty Linji, even though much of the koan literature is much older. Very basically, koans (in Chinese, gongan) are questions asked by Zen teachers that defy rational answers. During the Song period, Linji Chan developed formal protocols for working with koans that would be inherited by the Rinzai school of Japan and are still generally in use today.

In this period the classic koan collections were compiled. The three best-known collections are:

• The Biyan Lu (in Japanese, the Hekiganroku, commonly translated “The Blue Cliff Record”), compiled in its final form by Yuanwu Keqin (1063-1135)
• The Congrong Lu (in Japanese, the Shoyoroku, commonly translated “The Book of Equanimity” or “The Book of Serenity”), compiled by Hongzhi Zhengjue (1091-1157). Note that Master Hongzhi actually was of the Caodong school, not Linji.
• The Wumenguan (in Japanese, the Mumonkan, commonly translated “The Gateless Gate”), compiled by Wumen Hui-k’ai (1183-1260)

To this day the primary distinction between Linji and Caodong, or Rinzai and Soto, is the approach to koans. In Linji/Rinzai, koans are contemplated through a particular meditation practice; students are required to present their understanding to their teachers and may have to present the same koan several times before the “answer” is approved. This method pushes the student into a state of doubt, sometimes intense doubt, that may be resolved through an enlightenment experience called kensho in Japanese.

In Caodong/Soto, practitioners sit silently in a state of alert mindfulness without pushing themselves toward any goal, a practice called shikantaza, or “just sitting.” However, the koan collections listed above are read and studied in Soto, and individual koans are presented to assembled practitioners in talks.

Read More: “Introduction to Koans“

Transmission to Japan 

Myoan Eisai (1141-1215) is thought to be the first Japanese monk to study Chan in China and return to teach it successfully in Japan. Eisai’s was a Linji practice combined with elements of Tendai and esoteric Buddhism. His dharma heir Myozan for a time was the teacher of Dogen, founder of Soto Zen. Eisai’s teaching lineage lasted a few generations but did not survive. However, within a few years a number of other Japanese and Chinese monks also established Rinzai lineages in Japan.

Linji in China After the Song Dynasty 

By the time the Song Dynasty ended in 1279, Buddhism in China already was going into a state of decline. Other Chan schools were absorbed into Linji, while the Caodong school faded away in China entirely. All surviving Chan Buddhism in China is from Linji teaching lineages.

What followed for Linji was a period of mixing with other traditions, primarily Pure Land. With a few notable periods of revival, Linji, for the most part, was a pale copy of what it had been.

Chan was revived in the early 20th century by Hsu Yun (1840-1959). Although repressed during the Cultural Revolution, Linji Chan today has a strong following in Hong Kong and Taiwan and a growing following in the West.

Sheng Yen (1930-2009), a third-generational dharma heir of Hsu Yun and a 57th generational heir of Master Linji, became one of the most prominent Buddhist teachers in our time. Master Sheng Yen founded Dharma Drum Mountain, a worldwide Buddhist organization headquartered in Taiwan.

Source: Zen 101: A Brief Introduction to Zen Buddhism

Zen 101: A Brief Introduction to Zen Buddhism

Rinzai Zen monks of Nanzenji Temple, Kyoto.MShades/Flickr.com/Creative Commons License

You’ve heard of Zen. You may even have had moments of Zen—instances of insight and a feeling of connectedness and understanding that seem to come out of nowhere. But what exactly is Zen?

The scholarly answer to that question is that Zen is a school of Mahayana Buddhism that emerged in China about 15 centuries ago. In China, it is called Ch’an Buddhism. Ch’an is the Chinese rendering of the Sanskrit word dhyana, which refers to a mind absorbed in meditation. “Zen” is the Japanese rendering of Ch’an. Zen is called Thien in Vietnam and Seon in Korea. In any language, the name can be translated as “Meditation Buddhism.”

Some scholars suggest that Zen originally was something like a marriage of Taoism and traditional Mahayana Buddhism, in which the complex meditative practices of Mahayana met the no-nonsense simplicity of Chinese Taoism to produce a new branch of Buddhism that is today known the world over. 

Be aware that Zen is a complicated practice with many traditions. In this discussion, the term “Zen” is used in a general sense, to represent all different schools.

A Very Brief Zen History 

Zen began to emerge as a distinctive school of Mahayana Buddhism when the Indian sage Bodhidharma (ca. 470–543) taught at the Shaolin Monastery of China. (Yes, it’s a real place, and yes, there is a historic connection between kung fu and Zen.) To this day, Bodhidharma is called the First Patriarch of Zen.

Bodhidharma’s teachings tapped into some developments already in progress, such as the confluence of philosophical Taoism with Buddhism. Taoism so profoundly impacted early Zen that some philosophers and texts are claimed by both religions. The early Mahayana philosophies of Madhyamika (ca. third century A.D.) and Yogacara (ca. third century A.D.) also played huge roles in the development of Zen.

Under the Sixth Patriarch, Huineng (638–713 A.D.), Zen shed most of its vestigial Indian trappings, becoming more Chinese and more like the Zen we now think of. Some consider Huineng, not Bodhidharma, to be the true father of Zen since his personality and influence are felt in Zen to this day. Huineng’s tenure was at the beginning of what is still called the Golden Age of Zen. This Golden Age flourished during the same period as China’s Tang Dynasty, 618–907 A.D., and the masters of this Golden Age still speak to the present through koans and stories.

During these years, Zen organized itself into five “houses,” or five schools. Two of these, called in Japanese the Rinzai and the Soto schools, still exist and remain distinctive from each other.

Zen was transmitted to Vietnam very early, possibly as early as the seventh century. A series of teachers brought Zen to Korea during the Golden Age. Eihei Dogen (1200–1253) was not the first Zen teacher in Japan, but he was the first to establish a lineage that lives to this day. The West took an interest in Zen after World War II, and now Zen is well established in North America, Europe, and elsewhere.

How Zen Defines Itself 

Bodhidharma’s definition:

“A special transmission outside the scriptures;
No dependence on words and letters;
Direct pointing to the mind of man;
Seeing into one’s nature and attaining Buddhahood.”

Zen is sometimes said to be “the face-to-face transmission of the dharmaoutside the sutras.” Dharma refers to the teachings, and sutras, in a Buddhist context, are sacred texts or scriptures, many of which are considered to be transcriptions of the oral teachings of the Buddha. Throughout the history of Zen, teachers have transmitted their realization of dharma to students by working with them face-to-face. This makes the lineage of teachers critical. Genuine Zen teachers can trace their lineage of teachers back to Bodhidharma, and before that to the historical Buddha, and even to those Buddhas before the historical Buddha.

Certainly, large parts of the lineage charts have to be taken on faith. But if anything is treated as sacred in Zen, it’s the teachers’ lineages. With very few exceptions, calling oneself a “Zen teacher” without having received a transmission from another teacher is considered a serious defilement of Zen.

Zen has become extremely trendy in recent years, and those who are seriously interested are advised to be wary of anyone proclaiming to be or advertised as a “Zen master.” The phrase “Zen master” is hardly ever heard inside Zen. The title “Zen master” (in Japanese, zenji) is only given posthumously. In Zen, living Zen teachers are called “Zen teachers,” and an especially venerable and beloved teacher is called roshi, which means “old man.”

Bodhidharma’s definition also says that Zen is not an intellectual discipline you can learn from books. Instead, it’s a practice of studying the mind and seeing into one’s nature. The main tool of this practice is zazen.

Zazen 

The meditation practice of Zen, called zazen in Japanese, is the heart of Zen. Daily zazen is the foundation of Zen practice.

You can learn the basics of zazen from books, websites, and videos. However, if you’re serious about pursuing a regular zazen practice, it is important to sit zazen with others at least occasionally; most people find that sitting with others deepens the practice. If there’s no monastery or Zen center handy, you might find a “sitting group” of laypeople who sit zazen together at someone’s home.

As with most forms of Buddhist meditation, beginners are taught to work with their breath to learn concentration. Once your ability to concentrate has ripened (expect this to take a few months), you may either sit shikantaza—which means “just sitting”—or do koan study with a Zen teacher.

Why Is Zazen So Important? 

As we find with many aspects of Buddhism, most people have to practice zazen for a while to appreciate zazen. At first you might think of it primarily as mind training, and of course, it is. If you stay with the practice, however, your understanding of why you sit will change. This will be your own personal and intimate journey, and it may not resemble the experience of anyone else. 

One of the most difficult parts of zazen for most people to comprehend is sitting with no goals or expectations, including an expectation of “getting enlightened.” Most people do sit with goals and expectations for months or years before the goals are exhausted and they finally learn to “just sit.” Along the way, people learn a lot about themselves.

You may find “experts” who will tell you zazen is optional in Zen, but such experts are mistaken. This misunderstanding of the role of zazen comes from misreadings of Zen literature, which is common because Zen literature often makes no sense to readers intent on literalness. 

Does Zen Make Sense? 

It isn’t true that Zen makes no sense. Rather, “making sense” of it requires understanding language differently from the way we normally understand it.

Zen literature is full of vexatious exchanges, such as Moshan’s “Its Peak Cannot Be Seen,” that defy literal interpretation. However, these are not random, Dadaist utterings. Something specific is intended. How do you understand it?

Bodhidharma said that Zen is “direct pointing to the mind.” Understanding is gained through intimate experience, not through intellect or expository prose. Words may be used, but they are used in a presentational rather than a literal way.

Zen teacher Robert Aitken wrote in “The Gateless Barrier”:

“The presentational mode of communication is very important in Zen Buddhist teaching. This mode can be clarified by Susanne Langer’s landmark book on symbolic logic called ‘Philosophy in a New Key.’ She distinguishes between two kinds of language: ‘Presentational’ and ‘Discursive.’ The presentational might be in words, but it might also be a laugh, a cry, a blow, or any other kind of communicative action. It is poetical and nonexplanatory—the expression of Zen. The discursive, by contrast, is prosaic and explanatory….The discursive has a place in a Zen discourse like this one, but it tends to dilute direct teaching.”

No secret decoder ring will help you decipher Zenspeak. After you’ve practiced awhile, particularly with a teacher, you may catch on—or not. Be skeptical of explanations of koan study that are found on the internet, which are often peppered with academic explanations that are painfully wrong, because the “scholar” analyzed the koan as if it were discursive prose. Answers will not be found through normal reading and study; they must be lived. 

If you want to understand Zen, you really must go face the dragon in the cave for yourself.

The Dragon in the Cave 

Wherever Zen has established itself, it has rarely been one of the larger or more popular sects of Buddhism. The truth is, it’s a very difficult path, particularly for laypeople. It is not for everybody.

On the other hand, for such a small sect, Zen has had a disproportionate impact on the art and culture of Asia, especially in China and Japan. Beyond kung fu and other martial arts, Zen has influenced painting, poetry, music, flower arranging, and the tea ceremony.

Ultimately, Zen is about coming face-to-face with yourself in a very direct and intimate way. This is not easy. But if you like a challenge, the journey is worthwhile.

Sources 

• Aitken, Robert. The Gateless Barrier. North Point Press, 1991. 

Source: An Introduction to Koan Study in Zen Buddhism

An Introduction to Koan Study in Zen Buddhism

A kakei, or bamboo spout, at Myoshinji, a Rinzai Zen temple in Kyoto.Masahiro Makino/Getty Images

Zen Buddhism has a reputation for being inscrutable, and much of that reputation comes from koans. Koans (pronounced KO-ahns) are cryptic and paradoxical questions asked by Zen teachers that defy rational answers. Teachers often present koans in formal talks, or students may be challenged to “resolve” them in their meditation practice.

What Is the Sound of One Hand Clapping? 

For example, one koan nearly everyone has heard of originated with Master Hakuin Ekaku (1686-1769). “Two hands clap and there is a sound; what is the sound of one hand?” Hakuin asked. The question often is shortened to “What is the sound of one hand clapping?”

By now, most of you probably know that the question is not a riddle. There is no clever answer that glibly puts the question to rest. The question cannot be understood with intellect, much less answered with intellect. Yet there is an answer.

The Rinzai (Or Lin-Chi) School of Zen 

In the Rinzai (or Lin-chi) school of Zen, students sit with koans. They don’t thinkabout them; they don’t try to “figure it out.” Concentrating on the koan in meditation, the student exhausts discriminating thoughts, and a deeper, more intuitive insight arises.

The student then presents his understanding of the koan to the teacher in a private interview called sanzen, or sometimes dokusan. The answer may be in words or shouts or gestures. The teacher may ask more questions to determine if the student truly “sees” the answer. When the teacher is satisfied the student has fully penetrated what the koan presents, he assigns the student another koan.

However, if the student’s presentation is unsatisfactory, the teacher may give the student some instruction. Or, he may abruptly end the interview by ringing a bell or striking a small gong. Then the student must stop whatever he is doing, bow, and return to his place in the zendo.

Formal Koan Study 

This is what is called “formal koan study,” or just “koan study,” or sometimes “koan introspection.” The phrase “koan study” confuses people, because it suggests that the student hauls out a stack of books about koans and studies them the way she might study a chemistry text. But this is not “study” in the normal sense of the word. “Koan introspection” is a more accurate term.

What is realized is not knowledge. It is not visions or supernatural experience. It is a direct insight into the nature of reality, into what we normally perceive in a fragmented way.

From The Book of Mu: Essential Writings on Zen’s Most Important Koan, edited by James Ishmael Ford and Melissa Blacker:

“Contrary to what some might say on the subject, koans are not meaningless phrases meant to break through to a transrational consciousness (whatever we might imagine that phrase refers to). Rather, koans are a direct pointing to reality, an invitation for us to taste water and to know for ourselves whether it is cool or warm.”

The Soto School of Zen 

In the Soto school of Zen, students generally do not engage in koan introspection. However, it is not unheard of for a teacher to combine elements of Soto and Rinzai, assigning koans selectively to students who might particularly benefit from them.

In both Rinzai and Soto Zen, teachers often present koans in formal talks (teisho). But this presentation is more discursive than what one might find in the dokusan room.

Origins of the Word 

The Japanese word koan comes from the Chinese gongan, which means “public case.” The main situation or question in a koan is sometimes called the “main case.”

It is unlikely that koan study began with Bodhidharma, the founder of Zen. Exactly how and when koan study developed is not clear. Some scholars think its origins may be Taoist, or that it might have developed from a Chinese tradition of literary games.

We do know that the Chinese teacher Dahui Zonggao (1089-1163) made koan study a central part of Lin-chi (or Rinzai) Zen practice. Master Dahui and later Master Hakuin were the primary architects of the practice of koans that western Rinzai students encounter today.

Most of the classic koans are taken from bits of dialogue recorded in Tang Dynasty China (618-907 CE) between students and teachers, although some have older sources and some are much more recent. Zen teachers may make a new koan any time, out of just about anything.

Well-Known Collections of Koans 

These are the most well-known collections of koans:

• The Gateless Gate (Japanese, Mumonkan; Chinese, Wumenguan), 48 koans compiled in 1228 by the Chinese monk Wumen (1183-1260).
• The Book of Equanimity (Japanese, Shoyoroku; sometimes called the Book of Serenity), 100 Koans compiled Hongzhi Zhengjue (1091-1157).
• The Blue Cliff Record (Japanese, Hekiganroku; Chinese, Biyan Lu), 100 koans compiled in 1125 by Yuanwu Keqin (1063-1135).
• Mana Shobogenzo, also called the Sambyaku-soku Shobogenzo or the 300-Koan Shobogenzo. Three volumes of 100 koans each compiled by Eihei Dogen(1200-1253).

My Related Posts

You can search for these posts using Search Posts feature in the right sidebar.

• Schools of Buddhist Philosophy
• Hua Yan Buddhism: Reflecting Mirrors of Reality
• What is Yogacara Buddhism (Consciousness Only School) ?
• Meditations on Emptiness and Fullness
• Consciousness of Cosmos: A Fractal, Recursive, Holographic Universe
• Law of Dependent Origination

Key Sources of Research

HISTORY OF ZEN BUDDHISM (CHAN = DHYANA)

https://www.webpages.uidaho.edu/ngier/315/zen.htm

Chan Buddhism

SEP

https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/buddhism-chan/

Chan Buddhism

Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chan_Buddhism

a-brief-history-of-chan-an-excerpt-from-zen-master-yunmen

Shambhala Publications

https://www.shambhala.com/a-brief-history-of-chan-an-excerpt-from-zen-master-yunmen/

Ch’an (Zen) Buddhism in China
Its History and Method

Hu Shih
Philosophy East and West, Vol.. 3, No. 1 (January, 1953), pp. 3-24
© 1953 by University of Hawaii Press, Hawaii, USA

http://www.thezensite.com/ZenEssays/HistoricalZen/Chan_in_China.html

THE SPREAD OF CHAN (ZEN) BUDDHISM

T. Griffith Foulk (Sarah Lawrence College, New York)

Click to access spread.pdf

How Zen Became Chan: Pre-modern and Modern Representations of a Transnational East Asian Buddhist Tradition

Marcel Werbik (Jagiellonian University, Poland)
November 14, 2022

How Zen Became Chan – Conference Report by Marcel Werbik (English)

Approaches to Chan, Sŏn, and Zen Studies

Chinese Chan Buddhism and Its Spread throughout East Asia

Edited by Albert Welter, Steven Heine, and Jin Y. Park
Foreword by Robert E. Buswell Jr.

Series:   SUNY series in Chinese Philosophy and Culture  

Hardcover : 9781438490892, 476 pages, November 2022
Paperback : 9781438490885, 476 pages, May 2023

Click to access 9781438490892_excerpt.pdf

https://sunypress.edu/Books/A/Approaches-to-Chan-Son-and-Zen-Studies

Chinese Zen Buddhism

https://philpapers.org/browse/chinese-zen-buddhism

Demystifying Chan (Japanese: Zen) Buddhism

Prof. Dr. Ann Heirman
Faculty: Arts and Philosophy
Department: Languages and Cultures
Ann.Heirman@UGent.be

Prof. Dr. Christoph Anderl (Languages and Cultures – China)
Prof. Dr. Anna Andreeva (Languages and Cultures – Japan)

Ghent University, July 2022

https://www.ugent.be/doctoralschools/en/doctoraltraining/courses/specialistcourses/ahl/demystifying-chan-buddhism.htm

The Chan tradition emerged in the Tang Dynasty (618-907) and rose to dominance in the Song period (960-1279). Founded on the notion of “mind-to-mind transmission,” it gave rise to new forms of literary expression, notably the genres of “discourse records” (yulu), “records of the transmission of the lamp” (chuandenglu), and “public case collections” (gong’an). This course will look at the Indian and Chinese intellectual background of Chan, the emergence of new ritual and literary forms, and Chan’s distinctive approach to ongoing philosophical debates. While the Chan tradition is often mischaracterized as hostile to critical analysis and as delighting in incoherent mystical utterances, we will find that, on the contrary, Chan writings cogently engage philosophical controversies that lie at the very heart of both Mahāyāna thought and contemporary Western philosophy, including debates over the nature of cognition, the ontological status of the mind-independent world, the epistemic warrants of our truth claims, and the possibility of freedom.

The course is designed for doctoral students with a background in Buddhist studies, East Asian thought, Chinese literature, Chinese religion, and cross-cultural philosophy. The course consists of lectures, text readings, and discussions and there will be ample time for students to interact and present their own dissertation research. The course is interdisciplinary, drawing from philology, history, ritual studies, philosophy, and so on, and will demonstrate the benefits of combining close historical and textual research with broader methodological and critical reflection. Students will also be exposed to cross-cultural philosophy, as we explore parallels between the arcane issues that galvanised medieval exegetes, and issues that continue to perplex philosophers today. We will end on a critical historicist note, as we explore how “Buddhist modernism” has shaped, if not warped, our appreciation of premodern Buddhist history and thought.

Seeing Through Zen: Encounter, Transformation, and Genealogy in Chinese Chan Buddhism.

McRae, John. (2004).

10.1525/9780520937079.

21. Paradoxical Language in Chan Buddhism

Chien-hsing Ho

Institute of Chinese Literature and Philosophy, Academia Sinica, Taiwan

Email: hochg@sinica.edu.tw

In Yiu-Ming Fung (ed.), Dao Companion to Chinese Philosophy of Logic. Dordrecht: Springer. pp. 389-404. 2020

Click to access HOPLI.pdf

https://philarchive.org/rec/HOPLI

“The spread of Chan (Zen) buddhism.”

Foulk, Theodore Griffith.

(2007).

https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/The-spread-of-Chan-(Zen)-buddhism-Foulk/0b70fdef76301ab0d2243f4b7c0169e8e27d2b80

“Where Linji Chan and the Huayan jing meet: on the Huayan jing in the essential points of the Linji [Chan] lineage.” 

Keyworth, George A..

Studies in Chinese Religions 6 (2020): 1 – 30.

https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Where-Linji-Chan-and-the-Huayan-jing-meet%3A-on-the-Keyworth/029196fb1ae7ee1406bb9ae7e1e141cc3b7afae5

The Nature of Chan (Zen) Buddhism

By Chang, Chen-chi

Philosophy East and West

v.6 n.4(1957.01) p333-355

http://www1.wuys.com/news/Article_Show.asp?ArticleID=7581

A Conference On The Shaolin Temple And Buddhism Under The Northern Dynasties 少林寺與北朝佛教學術研討會

Posted on January 15, 2017 by dewei

The Shaolin Monastery, Mount Song, Henan 河南嵩山少林寺

July 31 – August 2, 2017

UBC Buddhist Studies Forum

https://blogs.ubc.ca/dewei/2017/01/15/a-conference-on-the-shaolin-temple-and-buddhism-under-the-northern-dynasties-少林寺與北朝佛教學術研討會/

With support from the imperial courts of the Northern Dynasties, the saṃgha in northern China established a comprehensive system of monastic officials to administer Buddhist affairs and built a constellation of grottoes at various places such as Datong  大同 in Shanxi Province, Luoyang  洛陽  and Xiangzhou  相州 (present-day Anyang  安陽) in Henan Province, and Yedu  鄴都 (present-day Linzhang 臨漳 in Hebei Province). During the same period, the Buddhist intellectual trend, dominated by the Dilun  地論  tradition (i.e. the Chinese Buddhist tradition based on the Daśabhūmika-bhāṣya [Shidi lun 十地論]), started to boom, leaving a profound impact on the development of various Buddhist traditions such as Tiantai  天台, Huayan  華嚴, Chanzong  禪宗, and Lǜzong  律宗. 北朝佛教在朝廷的支持下，不僅建立了系統完備的僧官制度，還在山西大同、河南洛陽和相州(今河南安陽)、鄴都(今河北臨漳)等地大量興建了石窟。同時，以地論學派為中心的北朝佛教思潮蓬勃發展，深刻地影響了後來的天台、華嚴、禪宗和律宗。

Located in the vicinity of the capital, Luoyang, and roosting upon Mount Song 嵩山, the Shaolin Temple enjoyed a close association with metropolitan Buddhism, as well as with Buddhism as a whole in the Northern Dynasties. Allegedly founded by the South Asian meditation master Buddha (Fotuo 佛陀 [active 525–538]), the temple figured heavily in the landscape of Northern Dynasties Buddhism, serving as the cradle for the Buddhist traditions Dilun, Four-Division Vinaya, and Chan. The historical profundity and importance of the Shaolin Temple call for specialized exploration and discussion. To this end, the Shaolin Temple, the Institute for Ethics and Religions Studies of Tsinghua University, the Center for Buddhist Studies of Peking University, the Institute of Buddhist Culture of China, have decided to jointly sponsor a “Conference on the Shaolin Temple and Buddhism under the Northern Dynasties” at the Shaolin Temple on Mount Song, Henan, between July 31 and August 2, 2017. This conference is part of a summer project conducted by an international and interdisciplinary cluster program led by Kai SHENG (Tsing-hua), which, along with fourteen more clusters, constitutes the multi-year project directed by Jinhua Chen (UBC) and funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) (www.frogbear.org). Selected panelists of the conference may also apply to attend other parts of the cluster program (http://frogbear.org/field-trips/cluster-field-trip-plans/clusters-in-phase-1-2017-2019/). 嵩山少林寺與東京洛陽毗鄰相望，少林寺與洛陽佛教甚至整個北朝佛教有著緊密的聯系。少林寺自印度佛陀禪師(活躍於525-535年)開創以來，成為地論學派、四分律宗和禪宗的發祥地，在北朝佛教中具有極其重要的地位。為了充分挖掘少林寺的歷史底蘊，深入研討少林寺在北朝佛教的重要地位，河南嵩山少林寺、清華大學道德與宗教研究院、北京大學佛學研究中心、中國佛教文化研究所決定於2017年7月31日至8月2號在河南嵩山少林寺聯合舉辦“少林寺與北朝佛教學術研討會”。本研討會屬於清華大學的聖凱教授領導的一個交叉學科的國際性項目所展開的本年度暑期研究案（本項目聯同其他14個項目則構成了一個為期多年的國際性的龐大合作項目，由英屬哥倫比亞大學的陳金華教授領導、加拿大社科研究委員會資助）(www.frogbear.org)。參會者可同時申請參加該暑期研究案的其他內容 (http://frogbear.org/field-trips/cluster-field-trip-plans/clusters-in-phase-1-2017-2019/)。

We cordially invite scholarly contribution in the form of an unpublished paper on a topic pertinent to the themes as suggested below. All conference-related costs, including local transportation, meals, and accommodation during the conference period, will be covered by the conference organizers, who——depending on availability of funding——may also provide a travel subsidy to selected panelists who are in need of funding. Interested scholars are encouraged to submit their proposals and C.V. to vicky.baker@ubc.ca by February 28, 2017. A draft paper is expected by July 1, 2017 and may be written either in English or Chinese, the two working languages for this forum. Fully completed papers are due by the end of 2017, to be included in the conference proceedings scheduled to appear by the end of 2018. 誠邀對北朝歷史與宗教文化有興趣的海內外學者撥冗與會，惠賜在“少林寺與北朝佛教學術研討會”領域的最新研究成果，屆時我們將統一結集論文正式出版。與會的相關費用，包括會議期間的食宿費用，將由會議組織方承擔。會議組織方也將視資金的寬裕度，為部分有需要的與會成員提供部分旅費津貼。有興趣的學者請於2017年2月28日前將論文摘要與簡歷電郵至 vicky.baker@ubc.ca；2017年7月1日之前，將論文發到郵箱，以便交流研討。 供正式出版的論文修正稿則可以延及本年底提交；論文集預計2018年前出版。

Topics for this conference include, but are not limited to 本次研討會所涉及的話題包括但不限於以下幾個方面:

1. The relationship between the Shaolin Temple and the royal houses of the Northern Dynasties 少林寺與北朝帝室的關系;
2. The Shaolin Temple and eminent monks under the Northern Dynasties 少林寺北朝高僧派;
3. The Shaolin Temple and the carving out of Buddhist grottoes and the art of Buddhist statues in the Northern Dynasties 少林寺與北朝石窟開鑿、造像藝術;
4. The Shaolin Temple and the “pagoda forests” and stele inscriptions in the Northern Dynasties 少林寺與北朝時期的塔林、碑;
5. The Shaolin Temple and Buddhist translation in the Northern Dynasties 少林寺與北朝譯經事業;
6. The Shaolin Temple and the Dilun tradition in the Northern Dynasties 少林寺與北朝地論學派;   
7. The Shaolin Temple and studies of the Four-Division Vinaya (i.e. Dharmagupta-vinaya) in the Northern Dynasties 少林寺與北朝四分律學;
8. The Shaolin Temple and studies of Buddhist meditation in the Northern Dynasties 少林寺與北朝禪學.

An International Conference: From Xianghuan To Ceylon: The Life And Legacy Of The Chinese Buddhist Monk Faxian (337-422)

Posted on October 20, 2016 by dewei

https://blogs.ubc.ca/dewei/2016/10/20/buddhism-and-business-market-and-merit-intersections-between-buddhism-and-economics-past-and-present-2/

McRae: Rethinks The Early History Of Chan Buddhism

Rethinks the Early History of Chan Buddhism

Professor John McRae

February 4, 2010

https://blogs.ubc.ca/dewei/rethinks-the-early-history-of-chan-buddhism/

Professor John McRae, a well-known scholar of Chinese Chan Buddhism, presented a lecture on early Chan history entitled, “Rethinking Bodhidharma and the Beginnings of Chinese Chan/Zen Buddhism,” at the Asian Centre on February 4, 2010. The lecture drew around 50 students and faculty. Professor McRae kept all on their toes, combining careful text analysis with his characteristic wit. Audience members were taken on a journey through Buddhist translation temples, revolts and banditry, and the multiple meanings of Huike’s lost arm.
As a student of East Asian Buddhism, John R. McRae is especially interested in ideologies of spiritual cultivation and how they interact with their intellectual and cultural environments. His earliest research on the earliest period of Chinese Chan or Zen Buddhism, was conducted under the guidance of Professor Stanley Weinstein (Yale), with direction from Yanagida Seizan in Kyoto. He has published as The Northern School and the Formation of Chinese Ch’an Buddhism (1986), and a companion volume, Evangelical Zen: Shenhui (684-758), Sudden Enlightenment, and the Southern School of Chinese Chan Buddhism, is now in the final stages of preparation. His work, Chinese Chan tradition: Encounter and Transformation: Genealogy, Self-cultivation, and Monastic Tradition in Chinese Zen Buddhism (2003), has changed how scholars think about the Chan tradition.

A New Chan (Zen) School in Taiwan: Dharma Drum Lineage of Chan Buddhism

Jimmy Yu

Oxford Handbook Topics in Religion (online edn, Oxford Academic, 3 Feb. 2014), https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199935420.013.006, accessed 20 July 2023.

https://academic.oup.com/edited-volume/41330/chapter/352330097

Northern and Southern Chan and the Nature of “Mind”

The Storey of Zen

https://dharmanet.org/coursesM/27/zenstory11a.htm

How Zen Became Zen: The Dispute over Enlightenment and the Formation of Chan Buddhism in Song-Dynasty China

April 2010

Author: Morten Schlütter

Publisher: University of Hawai’i Press

https://clas.uiowa.edu/religion/research/publications/how-zen-became-zen-dispute-over-enlightenment-and-formation-chan-buddhism-song

How Zen Became Zen takes a novel approach to understanding one of the most crucial developments in Zen Buddhism: the dispute over the nature of enlightenment that erupted within the Chinese Chan (Zen) school in the twelfth century. The famous Linji (Rinzai) Chan master Dahui Zonggao (1089–1163) railed against “heretical silent illumination Chan” and strongly advocated kanhua (koan) meditation as an antidote. In this fascinating study, Morten Schlütter shows that Dahui’s target was the Caodong (Soto) Chan tradition that had been revived and reinvented in the early twelfth century, and that silent meditation was an approach to practice and enlightenment that originated within this “new” Chan tradition. Schlütter has written a refreshingly accessible account of the intricacies of the dispute, which is still reverberating through modern Zen in both Asia and the West. Dahui and his opponents’ arguments for their respective positions come across in this book in as earnest and relevant a manner as they must have seemed almost nine hundred years ago.

Although much of the book is devoted to illuminating the doctrinal and soteriological issues behind the enlightenment dispute, Schlütter makes the case that the dispute must be understood in the context of government policies toward Buddhism, economic factors, and social changes. He analyzes the remarkable ascent of Chan during the first centuries of the Song dynasty, when it became the dominant form of elite monastic Buddhism, and demonstrates that secular educated elites came to control the critical transmission from master to disciple (“procreation” as Schlütter terms it) in the Chan School.

The Six Patriarchs of Chan Buddhism

BY PASTOR DAVID LAI | FEB 8, 2017 

https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/great-lamas-masters/the-six-patriarchs-of-chan-buddhism.html

Development of Chan (Zen) in China

Minnesota Zen Center

Click to access development_of_chan.pdf

Buddhism, Chan

Chánzōng Fójiào 禅​ 宗 佛 教

Click to access BuddhismChan.pdf

Thien/Chan/Zen

Buddha World

http://www.tamqui.com/buddhaworld/Thien/Chan/Zen

Linji Chan (Rinzai Zen) Buddhism in China

School of Koan Contemplation

https://www.learnreligions.com/linji-chan-rinzai-zen-buddhism-449941

An Introduction to Koan Study in Zen Buddhism

Learn Religions

https://www.learnreligions.com/introduction-to-koans-449928

Zen 101: A Brief Introduction to Zen Buddhism

Learn Religions

https://www.learnreligions.com/introduction-to-zen-buddhism-449933

Huineng: The Sixth Patriarch of Zen Buddhism

The Ideal of a Zen Master

https://www.learnreligions.com/huineng-sixth-patriarch-of-zen-450206

“Essential Chan Buddhism: The Character and Spirit of Chinese Zen,”

Mordaunt, Owen G. (2014)

International Dialogue: Vol. 4, Article 8.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.32873/uno.dc.ID.4.1.1084

Available at: https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/id-journal/vol4/iss1/8

Essential Chan Buddhism: The Character and Spirit of Chinese Zen.

Chan Master Guo Jun.

Rhineback, NY: Monkfish Book Publishing Co., 2013. 175pp.

“Buddhism—Schools: Chan and Zen .” 

Encyclopedia of Philosophy. . Encyclopedia.com. (June 30, 2023).

https://www.encyclopedia.com/humanities/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/buddhism-schools-chan-and-zen

CHAN BUDDHISM IN CHINA

https://www.zen-azi.org/en/book/chan-buddhism-in-china

ZEN IN JAPAN

https://www.zen-azi.org/en/book/zen-in-japan

Philosophy of Religion

Buddhism

https://philosophy.hku.hk/courses/religion/Buddhism.htm

Rinzai Zen

School of Koans and Kensho

https://www.learnreligions.com/rinzai-zen-449854

Zazen: Introduction to Zen Meditation

Still the Body, Still the Mind

https://www.learnreligions.com/zazen-introduction-to-zen-meditation-449938

Samurai Zen

The Role of Zen in Japan’s Samurai Culture

https://www.learnreligions.com/role-of-zen-in-samurai-culture-449944

The Zen Art of Haiku

https://www.learnreligions.com/the-zen-art-of-haiku-449947

Chado: Zen and the Art of Tea

The Japanese Tea Ceremony

https://www.learnreligions.com/chado-zen-and-art-of-tea-449930

Zen and Martial Arts

https://www.learnreligions.com/zen-and-martial-arts-449950

Dazu Huike, the Second Patriarch of Zen

https://www.learnreligions.com/dazu-huike-second-patriarch-of-zen-449936

Chan Buddhism

https://encyclopediaofbuddhism.org/wiki/Chan_Buddhism

Buddhist Studies: Chan and Zen Buddhism

A guide for those beginning Buddhist Studies

https://guides.library.illinois.edu/buddhism/chanandzen