The way
26-905: The "goal" Background Chinese texts Classical Post-classical Contemporary Zen in Japan Seon in Korea Thiền in Vietnam Western Zen Denkōroku ( 伝光録 , Record of the Transmission of the Light ) is a kōan collection written in 1300 by Keizan Jokin Zenji, the Great Patriarch of Sōtō Zen Buddhism , based on approximately a year of his Dharma talks . The book includes 53 enlightenment stories covering 1600 or more years based on
52-541: A monk, receive the Dharma transmission, and become one of the Sōtō Zen Ancestors. His mother had become abbess of a Sōtō monastery, Jōju-ji ( 成就寺 ) and was a teacher in her own right. It seems that his mother had a huge influence on him, both as an example of someone who encouraged the teaching of Buddhism to women and through her emphasis on the power of Kannon, the bodhisattva of compassion. Keizan first became
78-516: A more popular religion that appealed to all levels of Japanese society. Keizan founded several temples during his lifetime, most notably Yōkō-ji and Daihonzan Sōji-ji (founded on the Noto Peninsula and moved to Tsurumi-ku, Yokohama in 1911). Today Sōji-ji and Eihei-ji stand together as the two principal Sōtō Zen training centers in Japan. Keizan spent the first eight years growing up under
104-409: A novice, at the age of eight, at Eihei-ji, under the tutelage of Gikai, and he was formally ordained at age thirteen by Koun Ejō . He reached the stage of "non-backsliding" while training with Jakuen , and received dharma transmission from Tettsū Gikai at the age of thirty-two. All of this was recorded in his autobiography; he was the first Japanese Zen monk to describe his own life. While Keizan
130-448: A nunnery constructed near Yōkō-ji (eventually making Sonin the abbess) and ensured that funds were allocated for its continuing survival (Faure 2000: 42). It is believed that five monasteries for female monks (nuns) were established by Keizan (Matsuo 2010: 143). He also named Sonin, the wife of the original donor of Yōkō-ji, as a Dharma Heir (Faure 2000: 44); Keizan claimed that Sonin was the reincarnation of Myōchi, his grandmother. Keizan
156-402: A personal character like that of Great Master Keizan in order to carry out this mission. To regard all people with warm affection, to become the friend of the common people, to enter the realm of the ideal together with them and to share one's joy with others – these are the characteristics of the true man of religion. The Sōtō School believes that it is able to fulfill its basic mission because of
182-606: A truce, acknowledged in the characterization that the Sōtō school followed “the maxims of the founding Ancestor, Dōgen, and the aspirations of the late teacher, Keizan.” Keizan died at Yōkō-ji on the twenty-ninth day of the ninth month of 1325, at the age of fifty-eight years. Meihō Sotetsu (1277–1350) became abbot of Yōkō-ji, and Gasan Jōseki abbot of Sōji-ji; both of those lines of Dharma Transmission remain important in Japanese Sōtō Zen. (Jiyu-Kennett 2002: 97) Apart from extending
208-482: Is considered to be the second great founder of the Sōtō school of Zen in Japan. While Dōgen , as founder of Japanese Sōtō , is known as Highest Ancestor ( 高祖 , kōso ) , Keizan is often referred to as Great Ancestor ( 太祖 , taiso ) . Keizan and his disciples are credited with beginning the spread of Sōtō Zen throughout Japan, away from the cloistered monastic practice characteristic of Dōgen's Eihei-ji and towards
234-512: Is often spoken of as the fourth-generation Dharma heir of Dōgen, many English sources erroneously assume that Keizan held the abbacy of Eihei-ji—but he never did so: the fourth-generation abbot of Eihei-ji was Giun, who replaced Gikai after the latter was forced out of Eihei-ji in what is known as the sandai sōron . Keizan did succeed Gikai as the second abbot of Daijō-ji, in present-day Kanazawa. However, Keizan's major accomplishment, which gave rise to his status as "second ancestor" of Sōtō Zen,
260-408: Is thought to have been copied during the late to mid-15th century. Komazawa University published a catalog in 1962, which listed 11 copies. By 1976, 19 copies were known—some of them verified and some not. Some of these copies were known to no longer exist. Okubo Doshu, a noted Dogen scholar, doubted the work's author for a number of reasons, including discrepancies in the last two chapters, along with
286-687: The Platform Sutra . Instead Denkōroku may be read as true in the sense that great novels like Moby-Dick or The Great Gatsby are true. Keizan included fantastical or magical details from the lives of some ancestors, especially those in India, which audiences in times past may have appreciated but which today might be met with skepticism. The following summary is taken from the Cook translation table of contents, with names according to Thomas Cleary in parentheses. Keizan begins with Shakyamuni ,
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#1732791533560312-691: The bodhisattva Guanyin (Kannon, in Japanese)—who is customarily represented as female in East Asian Buddhism—stemmed from or was enhanced by his mother's devotion to her. Around 1323 or 1324, Keizan named Myōshō, his cousin (his mother's niece), abbess of Hōō-ji. Following his mother's example of teaching Buddhism to women, Keizan gave the first dharma transmission to a Sōtō nun to his student, Ekyū; Keizan had helped Ekyū by giving her copies of Dōgen's writings translated into Japanese, making them easier for her to follow than Chinese. Keizan had
338-457: The 1960s, wrote in Sōtō Zen : In religions, on the one hand, we must go forward ever deepening our religious experiences, while, on the other hand, recognizing our mission to guide other people to the depths of our own experience. We must enable them to know the joy that comes from the knowledge of the Dharma and the bliss that comes from the practice of meditation. It is absolutely essential to have
364-402: The 54th ancestor, omitted himself and Tettsu Gikai , one of his teachers who was a student of Ejō and was still alive in 1300. Each chapter is a few pages, except in a couple cases where the author wants to explain a point. The format for each koan account is in four parts: (1) the main koan case that is the enlightenment encounter between master and disciple, (2) a brief biographical account on
390-659: The absence of a historical record attributing what is a major work to Keizan. But neither he nor any other scholar has ever come out to say that Keizan is not the author, so the consensus remains to attribute the work to Keizan. While Dōgen is held to be the school's founder, Keizan was in large part responsible for the flourishing of Sōtō Zen. He resisted the purist approach taken by Dōgen who preferred to teach and write; he took care to serve his congregation who might have dead or dying relatives; he founded new monasteries and temples; and he attracted followers like Gashau and Meiho who became his successors. Today Sōtō Zen remains one of
416-474: The appeal of Sōtō Zen to the rural population, Keizan made efforts to encourage the training of women in Buddhism. Keizan, in his autobiography, gave much credit to his grandmother and mother; he regarded their support as vital to his own training, and this must have influenced him. His mother, Ekan, founded two temples, Hōō-ji and Jōju-ji, the latter as a convent of which she was abbess. Keizan's veneration of
442-468: The care of his grandmother, Myōchi, who was one of Great Master Dōgen's first supporters on his return from China. Keizan always acknowledged a great debt to this grandmother by dedicating the Kannon shrine at the temple of Yōkō-ji to her memory. Keizan also praised his mother very highly in his autobiography, and even said that his mother's wishes and her constant prayers to Kannon had enabled him to become
468-574: The historical Buddha, followed by his disciple Mahākāśhyapa (Kasyapa), and then Ananda , both of whom knew Buddha before he died. Following are Shanavasa , Upagupta , Dhritaka (Dhrtaka), Micchaka, Vasumitra , Buddhanandi, Buddhamitra (Punyamitra), Parshva , Punyayashas, Ashvaghosa (Ashvaghosha), and Kapimala. Then comes Nagarjuna , Kanadeva , Rahulata, Sanghanandi, Gayashata (Jayashata), Kumarata, Jayata, Vasubandhu , Manorhita (Manora), Haklenayashas (Haklena), Aryasimha (Sinha), Basiasita (Vashashita), Punyamitra, and Prajnatara . Finally, Bodhidharma
494-709: The largest Buddhist organizations in Japan. One translator, Cleary, writes: One of the proverbial guidelines for Zen study is: "First awaken on your own, then see someone else." As a handbook of method, Transmission of Light is a classic guide to "awakening on your own." As a collection of criteria, it is a way to "see someone else." Keizan The way The "goal" Background Chinese texts Classical Post-classical Contemporary Zen in Japan Seon in Korea Thiền in Vietnam Western Zen Keizan Jōkin ( Japanese : 瑩山紹瑾 , 1268–1325), also known as Taiso Jōsai Daishi,
520-570: The life of the disciple including context for the encounter, (3) Keizan's teisho or commentary on the koan, and (4) a verse written by Keizan summarizing the point, following the Zen tradition of understanding presented by the master or disciple in poetry . The book is not true in a strictly historical sense: for example, Bodhidharma is probably a mythical figure, the Sixth Patriarch was probably not Huineng , and someone else probably wrote
546-618: The traditional legendary accounts of Dharma transmission in the Sōtō lineage. Successive masters and disciples in the book are Shakyamuni Buddha circa 360 to 440 BCE in India, to Zen master Ejō in about 1230 or 1240 in Japan. While other translations are available as of 2012, this article was developed for the most part from the introduction and translator's note by Francis Dojun Cook. Dharma transmissions covered 28 ancestors from India and 23 from China , followed by Dōgen and Ejō in Japan . Out of modesty and his sense of propriety, Keizan,
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#1732791533560572-507: The work was hidden from the public eye for nearly 600 years. A monk named Sen'ei was the first to publish it, in 1857, or 557 years after it was written. Then in 1886, Yoshida Gizan published an annotated edition in Kyoto. In 1885, Sōji-ji published what is called the Honzan edition, based on a manuscript copy owned by a private collector. The oldest existing manuscript copy was found in 1959. It
598-473: Was Eihei Dogen who traveled from Japan to China and back. The 52nd ancestor was his student, Koun Ejō . Keizan originally gave this series of 53 Dharma talks to the monks of the Daijō-ji monastery during spring and the following winter ango practice periods. Keizan was 36 years old at the time. According to one translator, Francis Cook, there is some controversy and "uneasiness" about authorship. At first,
624-800: Was the 28th ancestor from India. Following Bodhidharma, Dazu Huike (Huike [Shenguang]) was the 29th ancestor, the 2nd in China. Following are Jianzhi Sengcan (Sengcan), Dayi Daoxin (Daoxin), Daman Hongren (Hongren), Dajian Huineng (Huineng), Qingyuan Xingsi (Qingyuan), Shitou Xiqian (Shitou), Yaoshan Weiyan (Yaoshan), Yunyan Tansheng (Yunyan), Dongshan Liangjie (Dongshan), Yunhju Daoying (Yunju), Tongan Daopi (Daopi), Tongan Guanzhi (Tongan), Liangshan Yuanguan (Liangshan), Dayang Jingxuan (Dayang), Touzi Yiqing (Touzi), Furong Daokai (Daokai), Danxia Zichun (Danxia), Zhenxie Qingliao (Wukong), Tiantong Zongjue (Zongjue), Xuedou Zhijian (Zhijian), and Tiantong Rujing (Rujing). The 51st ancestor
650-683: Was the author of a number of works, including "Zazen Yōjinki" and, most famously, the Denkōroku ( Transmission of the Light ), which is a series of fifty-one sermons detailing the Sōtō lineage from Gautama Buddha through the Indian Ancestors from Bodhidharma and the Chinese Ancestors, and finally to the Japanese Ancestors Dōgen and his immediate successor at Eihei-ji, Ejō. Keidō Chisan Kohō Zenji, abbot of Sōji-ji in
676-505: Was the founding of Sōji-ji , which soon overshadowed Eihei-ji as the principal Sōtō temple. Sōji-ji eventually became the institutional head of four regional networks with several thousand temples under them. By 1589, the imperial court recognized Sōji-ji as the head temple of the Sōtō school, above Eihei-ji; the two temples remained rivals for imperial support, but by the time of the Meiji Restoration in 1872, they had arrived at
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