The way
99-605: The "goal" Background Chinese texts Classical Post-classical Contemporary Zen in Japan Seon in Korea Thiền in Vietnam Western Zen In Chan and Zen Buddhism, dharma transmission is a custom in which a person is established as a "successor in an unbroken lineage of teachers and disciples, a spiritual 'bloodline' ( kechimyaku ) theoretically traced back to
198-405: A constant practice of cleaning the mirror [...] [H]is basic message was that of the constant and perfect teaching, the endless personal manifestation of the bodhisattva ideal. Huineng's verse does not stand alone, but forms a pair with Shenxiu's verse: Huineng's verse(s) apply the rhetoric of emptiness to undercut the substantiality of the terms of that formulation. However, the basic meaning of
297-587: A Brahman king of South India" (c. 715 CE). Some traditions specifically describe Bodhidharma to be the third son of a Pallava king from Kanchipuram . The Long Scroll of the Treatise on the Two Entrances and Four Practices written by Tan Lin (曇林; 506–574), contains teachings that are attributed to Bodhidharma. The text is known from the Dunhuang manuscripts . The two entrances to enlightenment are
396-475: A chance to submit another poem to demonstrate that he had entered the "gate of enlightenment," so that he could transmit his robe and the Dharma to Shenxiu, but the student's mind was agitated and could not write one more stanza. Two days later, the illiterate Huineng heard Shenxiu's stanza being chanted by a young attendant at the monastery and inquired about the context of the poem. The attendant explained to him
495-471: A clear understanding of Hongren's purpose in doing so, and demonstrated that he could ferry to "the other shore" with the Dharma that had been transmitted to him. The Sixth Patriarch reached the Tayu Mountains within two months, and realized that hundreds of men were following him, attempting to rob him of the robe and bowl. However, the robe and bowl could not be moved by Huiming, who then asked for
594-483: A historical person of "merely regional significance," of whom very little is known. This legendary narrative reflects historical and religious developments which took place in the century after his life and death. The Platform Sūtra of the Sixth Patriarch is attributed to a disciple of Huineng named Fahai and purports to be a record of Huineng's life, lectures and interactions with disciples. However,
693-530: A sign of transmission of the Dharma: a robe, a bowl, and a copy of the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra . The transmission then passed to the second ancestral founder Dazu Huike, the third Sengcan, the fourth ancestral founder Dayi Daoxin, and the fifth ancestral founder Daman Hongren . With the fourth patriarch, Daoxin ( 道信 580–651), Chan began to take shape as a distinct school. The link between Huike and Sengcan, and
792-440: A smile. The Buddha then said, I have the right Dharma Eye Treasury, the wondrous mind of nirvana, the reality beyond appearance. The Dharma-door of mind to mind transmission has been entrusted to Kāśyapa. Epstein comments, "Thus Mahākāśyapa received the transmission of Dharma and became the first Buddhist patriarch." Though dharma transmission implies the acknowledgement of insight into the teachings of Buddhism as understood by
891-422: A specific place and time, identifiable individuals, and specific words and actions. At the same time, though, Zen texts also assert that true transmission consists of no transmission. In other words, it occurs only mind-to-mind. This feature gives dharma transmission a great flexibility: [W]hen the historical evidence is in one's favor, one can demonstrate the validity of dharma transmission by citing any number of
990-497: A standard doctrine of Chan. In later writings this lineage was extended to include twenty-eight Indian patriarchs. In the Song of Enlightenment (證道歌 Zhèngdào gē ) of Yongjia Xuanjue (永嘉玄覺, 665–713), one of the chief disciples of Huìnéng , it is written that Bodhidharma was the 28th patriarch in a line of descent from Mahākāśyapa, a disciple of Śākyamuni Buddha , and the first patriarch of Chán Buddhism. Keizan 's Transmission of
1089-400: A teacher is most essential. People of old who arrived at the source of seeing nature , passed through many barriers clearly and completely without a dot of doubt, and traveled freely through the world opening big mouths in discussion, only came to know the transcendental message of Zen after they finally ran into Zen masters of great vision. Then they sincerely sought certainty and wound up with
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#17327869475801188-527: A unified movement or group, such as a "Chan school," nor did they have any sense of sharing any continuity with the later tradition. He says even the name "proto-Chan" is not really reflective of their activities. By the late eighth century, a lineage of the six ancestral founders of Chan in China had developed. Due to the influence of Huineng's student Shenhui , the traditional form of this lineage had been established: However, certain questions remain. Regarding
1287-463: A young age. Huineng and his mother were left in poverty and moved to Nanhai, where Huineng sold firewood to support his family. One day, Huineng delivered firewood to a customer's shop, where he saw a man reciting the Diamond Sutra: "On my way out of the gate I saw someone reciting a sutra, and as soon as I heard the words of the sutra my mind opened forth in enlightenment ." He inquired about
1386-405: Is "a highly attentive yet unentangled way of being [...] an open, non-conceptual state of mind that allows one to experience reality directly, as it truly is." Regarding non-thought, Huineng says: Thoughtlessness is to see and to know all dharmas [things] with a mind free from attachment. When in use it pervades everywhere, and yet it sticks nowhere. What we have to do is to purify our mind so that
1485-421: Is "without steps or gradations. One concentrates, understands, and is enlightened, all in one undifferentiated practice." Sharf notes that the notion of "Mind" came to be criticised by radical subitists, and was replaced by "No Mind," to avoid any reifications. A large group of students gathered at a permanent residence, and extreme asceticism became outdated. The period of Daoxin and Hongren came to be called
1584-601: Is a Chinese school of Mahāyāna Buddhism . It developed in China from the 6th century CE onwards, becoming especially popular during the Tang and Song dynasties . Chan is the originating tradition of Zen Buddhism (the Japanese pronunciation of the same character , which is the most commonly used English name for the school). Chan Buddhism spread from China south to Vietnam as Thiền and north to Korea as Seon , and, in
1683-616: Is associated with the East Mountain School . It is a method named "Maintaining the one without wavering" ( shou-i pu i, 守一不移), the one being the nature of mind , which is equated with Buddha-nature. In this practice, one turns the attention from the objects of experience, to the perceiving subject itself. According to McRae, this type of meditation resembles the methods of "virtually all schools of Mahayana Buddhism," but differs in that "no preparatory requirements, no moral prerequisites or preliminary exercises are given," and
1782-683: Is extant, and subsequent accounts became layered with legend. There are three principal sources for Bodhidharma's biography: The Record of the Buddhist Monasteries of Luoyang by Yáng Xuànzhī's (楊衒之, 547), Tan Lin's preface to the Long Scroll of the Treatise on the Two Entrances and Four Practices (6th century CE), and Dayi Daoxin 's Further Biographies of Eminent Monks (7th century CE). These sources vary in their account of Bodhidharma being either "from Persia" (547 CE), "a Brahman monk from South India" (645 CE), "the third son of
1881-420: Is not a world-denying negation of the attributes of sensory experience, the vast array of things and characteristics which make up the basic features of life in the world. Rather, for Huineng, non-attribute has a this-worldly orientation which affirms human experience and the world of characteristics. It does not mean literally to be without any attributes at all, but rather to be free of attributes while right in
1980-525: Is referred to as "The Blue-Eyed Barbarian " ( 碧眼胡 ; Bìyǎn hú ) in Chinese Chan texts. Only scarce historical information is available about him but his hagiography developed when the Chan tradition grew stronger and gained prominence in the early 8th century. By this time a lineage of the six ancestral founders of Chan in China was developed. Little contemporary biographical information on Bodhidharma
2079-654: Is said to be a record of his teachings, is a highly influential text in the East Asian Buddhist tradition. The two primary sources for Huineng's life are the preface to the Platform Sutra and the Transmission of the Lamp . Most modern scholars doubt the historicity of traditional biographies and works written about Huineng, considering his extended biography to be a legendary narrative based on
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#17327869475802178-403: Is the bright mirror's stand. The bright mirror is originally clear and pure. Where could there be any dust? Dunhuang text: Bodhi originally has no tree. The bright mirror also has no stand. Fundamentally there is not a single thing. Where could dust arise? The followers who were present were astonished by the work of a southern barbarian. Being cautious of Huineng's status,
2277-404: Is to be dharma-ridden, and this is an erroneous view. As Gregory points out, for Huineng, no-thought does not refer to a blanking out of the mind. Rather, Huineng says, "Freedom from thought means having no thought in the midst of thoughts." He says that such things as "sitting without moving, getting rid of falsehood, and not giving rise to thoughts" just lead to insentiency. This is to obstruct
2376-567: The Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra . As a result, early masters of the Chan tradition were referred to as "Laṅkāvatāra masters". As the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra teaches the doctrine of the Ekayāna "One Vehicle", the early Chan school was sometimes referred to as the "One Vehicle School". In other early texts, the school that would later become known as Chan is sometimes even referred to as simply the "Laṅkāvatāra school" (Ch. 楞伽宗, Léngqié Zōng ). Accounts recording
2475-658: The Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra the Chinese supposed that the teaching of Buddha-nature was, as stated by that sutra, the final Buddhist teaching, and that there is an essential truth above sunyata and the two truths. When Buddhism came to China, there were three divisions of training: It was in this context that Buddhism entered into Chinese culture. Three types of teachers with expertise in each training practice developed: Monasteries and practice centers were created that tended to focus on either
2574-455: The Buddha himself." The dharma lineage reflects the importance of family-structures in ancient China, and forms a symbolic and ritual recreation of this system for the monastical "family". In Rinzai-Zen , inka shōmei (印可証明) is ideally "the formal recognition of Zen's deepest realisation", but practically it is being used for the transmission of the "true lineage" of the masters ( shike ) of
2673-462: The Buddha's thirty-two Characteristics . Other important translators of meditation texts were Kumārajīva (334–413 CE), who translated The Sutra on the Concentration of Sitting Meditation , amongst many other texts; and Buddhabhadra . These Chinese translations of mostly Indian Sarvāstivāda Yogacara meditation manuals were the basis for the meditation techniques of Chinese Chan. Buddhism
2772-532: The Buddha-nature there is neither north nor south. A barbarian differs from Your Holiness physically, but what difference is there in our Buddha-nature? Huineng was told to split firewood and pound rice in the backyard of the monastery and avoid going to the main hall. Eight months later, the Fifth Patriarch summoned all his followers and proposed a poem contest for his followers to demonstrate
2871-478: The East Mountain Teaching , due to the location of the residence of Hongren at Huangmei. The term was used by Yuquan Shenxiu (神秀 606?–706), the most important successor to Hongren. By this time the group had grown into a matured congregation that became significant enough to be reckoned with by the ruling forces. The East Mountain community was a specialized meditation training centre. Hongren
2970-484: The Platform Sutra , for which it is best known, form a set of three key interrelated doctrines: no-thought ( wunian ), nonform, also translated as nonattribute ( wuxiang ), and nonabiding ( wuzhu ). In the Platform Sutra , Huineng taught " no-thought ", the "pure and unattached mind" which "comes and goes freely and functions fluently without any hindrance". It does not mean that one does not think at all, but
3069-599: The Srimala Sutra , one of the Tathāgatagarbha sūtras , figures in the stories about Bodhidharma. Huike is regarded as the second Chan patriarch, appointed by Bodhidharma to succeed him. One of Huike's students, Sengcan , to whom is ascribed the Xinxin Ming , is regarded as the third patriarch. By the late 8th century, under the influence of Huineng's student Shenhui , the traditional list of patriarchs of
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3168-514: The Tang dynasty to lend credibility to the growing Chan-school. Only scarce historical information is available about him, but his hagiography developed when the Chan tradition grew stronger and gained prominence in the early 8th century. By this time a lineage of the six ancestral founders of Chan in China was developed. The actual origins of Chan may lie in ascetic practitioners of Buddhism, who found refuge in forests and mountains. Huike , "a dhuta (extreme ascetic) who schooled others" and used
3267-478: The 13th century, east to Japan as Japanese Zen . The historical records required for a complete, accurate account of early Chan history no longer exist. The history of Chan in China can be divided into several periods. Zen, as we know it today, is the result of a long history, with many changes and contingent factors. Each period had different types of Zen, some of which remained influential, while others vanished. Andy Ferguson distinguishes three periods from
3366-488: The 5th century into the 13th century: Although John R. McRae has reservations about the division of Chan history in phases or periods, he nevertheless distinguishes four phases in the history of Chan: Neither Ferguson nor McRae gives a periodisation for Chinese Chan following the Song-dynasty, though McRae mentions When Buddhism came to China, it was adapted to the Chinese culture and understanding. Theories about
3465-467: The Buddha was tired or ill. The Buddha silently held up and twirled a flower and his eyes twinkled; several of his disciples tried to interpret what this meant, though none of them were correct. One of the Buddha's disciples, Mahākāśyapa , gazed at the flower and smiled. The Buddha then acknowledged Mahākāśyapa's insight by saying the following: I possess the true Dharma eye, the marvelous mind of Nirvāṇa,
3564-435: The Chan lineage had been established: In later writings, this lineage was extended to include 28 Indian patriarchs. In the Song of Enlightenment (證道歌 Zhèngdào gē ) of Yongjia Xuanjue (永嘉玄覺, 665–713), one of the chief disciples of Huìnéng , it is written that Bodhidharma was the 28th patriarch in a line of descent from Mahākāśyapa, a disciple of Śākyamuni Buddha , and the first patriarch of Chan Buddhism. Mahākāśyapa
3663-467: The Christian Era, this barbarian influence was infiltrating China just when it was least politically stable and more vulnerable to sedition. As the philosophy and practice infiltrated society, many traditionalists banded together to stop the foreign influence, not so much out of intolerance (an attitude flatly rejected by both Taoism and Confucianism), but because they felt that the Chinese worldview
3762-524: The Light gives twenty-eight patriarchs up to and including Bodhidharma in this transmission: According to the traditional Chan accounts, the first Dharma transmission occurred as described in the Flower Sermon . The Buddha held up a golden lotus flower before an assembly of "gods and men". None who were in attendance showed any sign of understanding except his disciple Mahākāśyapa , who offered only
3861-523: The Patriarch wiped away the stanza and claimed that the author of the stanza had not reached enlightenment. According to the traditional interpretation, which is based on Guifeng Zongmi, the fifth-generation successor of Shenhui, the two verses represent respectively the gradual and the sudden approach. According to McRae, this is an incorrect understanding: [T]he verse attributed to Shenxiu does not in fact refer to gradual or progressive endeavor, but to
3960-654: The Sixth Patriarch or Sixth Ancestor of Chan ( traditional Chinese : 禪宗六祖), is a semi- legendary but central figure in the early history of Chinese Chan Buddhism . According to tradition he was an uneducated layman who suddenly attained awakening (Chinese: 見性, jianxing ) upon hearing the Diamond Sutra . Despite his lack of formal training, he demonstrated his understanding to the fifth patriarch, Daman Hongren , who then supposedly chose Huineng as his true successor instead of his publicly known selection of Yuquan Shenxiu . Twentieth century scholarship revealed that
4059-551: The Vinaya and training of monks or the teachings focused on one scripture or a small group of texts. Dhyāna ( Chan ) masters tended to practice in solitary hermitages, or to be associated with Vinaya training monasteries or the dharma teaching centers. The later naming of the Zen school has its origins in this view of the threefold division of training. McRae goes so far as to say: ... one important feature must not be overlooked: Chan
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4158-478: The Way which should, on the contrary, be allowed to flow freely, without any obstruction. For Huineng, suchness and thought exist together in an essence-function relationship. He says, "Suchness is the essence of thought, thought is the function of suchness." Related to the teaching of non-thought, Huineng also taught "non-attribute." Just as non-thought does not eradicate thoughts, non-attribute for Huineng likewise
4257-570: The Yogacara meditation teachings of the Sarvāstivāda school of Kashmir circa 1st-4th centuries CE. The five main types of meditation in the Dhyana sutras are anapanasati (mindfulness of breathing); paṭikūlamanasikāra meditation, mindfulness of the impurities of the body; loving-kindness maitrī meditation; the contemplation on the twelve links of pratītyasamutpāda ; and the contemplation on
4356-418: The Zen tradition, especially seeing into one's true nature , dharma transmission is also a means to establish a person into the Zen tradition: The procedure establishes the disciple as a transmitting teacher in their own right and successor in an unbroken lineage of teachers and disciples, a spiritual 'bloodline' ( kechimyaku ) theoretically traced back to the Buddha himself. The dharma lineage reflects
4455-474: The Zen-teachings. According to Bodiford, "Zen is the predominant form of Buddhism because of dharma transmission": [I]t has ancestors whom it honors. It honors those ancestors by transmitting their legacy to proper descendants, from generation to generation, who will maintain and carry on their family traditions [...] [I]n Zen this process of transmitting a family legacy is given structural form through
4554-512: The Zongbao edition (c. 1291) from the Yuan era , contain one version of Huineng's stanza, somewhat different from the two verses found in the c. 8th century Dunhuang edition (right): Yuan dynasty text: Bodhi originally has no tree. The mirror has no stand. The Buddha-nature is always clear and pure. Where is there room for dust? Dunhuang text: The mind is the bodhi tree. The body
4653-912: The aforementioned seven dimensions. When the historical evidence is less favorable, then one can shift the argument to the religious realm by arguing that the only facts that really matter are the depths and quality of one's Buddha realization. Within the various Chan and Zen traditions, dharma transmission got various meanings. A difference is made in most schools between Chan Buddhism The way The "goal" Background Chinese texts Classical Post-classical Contemporary Zen in Japan Seon in Korea Thiền in Vietnam Western Zen Chan ( traditional Chinese : 禪 ; simplified Chinese : 禅 ; pinyin : Chán ; abbr. of Chinese : 禪那 ; pinyin : chánnà ), from Sanskrit dhyāna (meaning " meditation " or "meditative state" ),
4752-596: The concepts". Judging from the reception by the Han of the Hinayana works and from the early commentaries, it appears that Buddhism was being perceived and digested through the medium of religious Daoism (Taoism). Buddha was seen as a foreign immortal who had achieved some form of Daoist nondeath. The Buddhists' mindfulness of the breath was regarded as an extension of Daoist breathing exercises. The first Buddhist converts in China were Taoists. They developed high esteem for
4851-416: The connection between the second and third patriarchs, on the one hand, and the fourth patriarch, on the other; Whalen Lai points out, "Huike was a dhuta (extreme ascetic) who schooled others, and one of his disciples was Sengzan (d. 606). However, the link between this pair and Daoxin (580–651, now deemed the fourth Chan patriarch) is far from clear and remains tenuous." According to Wendi Adamek: "There
4950-574: The continuity of the Buddhist dharma. Originally these lineages only included the Chinese Patriarchs, but they were later extended to twenty-eight Indian Patriarchs and seven Buddhas. The Chan tradition developed from the established tradition of "Canonical Buddhism", which "remained normative for all later Chinese Buddhism". It was established by the end of the sixth century, as a result of the Chinese developing understanding of Buddhism in
5049-505: The duty of the teacher's succession, bearing the debt of Dharma, never to forget it for a moment. This is called dharma succession. Since ancient times the designated succession of the ancestral teachers has always been like this. Nevertheless, while the Zen tradition has always stressed the importance of formal Dharma transmission, there are well known examples of Mushi dokugo , such as Nōnin , Jinul and Suzuki Shōsan who attained awakening on their own, though all of them were familiar with
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#17327869475805148-471: The early Platform Sutra was composed within the Oxhead school , not within the so called " Southern School " as was previously believed. The text continued to be edited and expanded until the Yuan dynasty (1271–1368), when Zongbao (宗寶) produced an edition that eventually became part of the standard Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) Chinese Buddhist canon . According to Peter Gregory, the most important ideas in
5247-518: The entrance of principle and the entrance of practice: The entrance of principle is to become enlightened to the Truth on the basis of the teaching. One must have a profound faith in the fact that one and the same True Nature is possessed by all sentient beings, both ordinary and enlightened, and that this True Nature is only covered up and made imperceptible [in the case of ordinary people] by false sense impressions ". The entrance of practice includes
5346-473: The essence of mind is great because it embraces all things, since all things are within our nature. In addition to non-thought and non-attribute, Huineng also taught non-abiding. He says rather than attach to characteristics and obstruct the Way, one should not abide in things. Huineng discusses nonabiding in terms of not dwelling in any experience in the past, present, or future. He says: "Within each moment of experience, not to think of any previous state. For
5445-528: The first proposition still remains. McRae notes a similarity in reasoning with the Oxhead School, which used a threefold structure of "absolute, relative and middle", or "thesis-antithesis-synthesis". According to McRae, the Platform Sutra itself is the synthesis in this threefold structure, giving a balance between the need of constant practice and the insight into the absolute. However, on
5544-505: The following four increments: This text was used and studied by Huike and his students. The True Nature refers to the Buddha-nature . Bodhidharma settled in Northern Wei China. Shortly before his death, Bodhidharma appointed his disciple Dazu Huike to succeed him, making Huike the first Chinese-born ancestral founder and the second ancestral founder of Chan in China. Bodhidharma is said to have passed three items to Huike as
5643-465: The fourth patriarch Daoxin "is far from clear and remains tenuous". With Daoxin and his successor, the fifth patriarch Hongren ( 弘忍 601–674), there emerged a new style of teaching, which was inspired by the Chinese text Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana . According to McRae, the "first explicit statement of the sudden and direct approach that was to become the hallmark of Ch'an religious practice"
5742-463: The future. He also explained to Huineng that the Dharma was transmitted from mind to mind, whereas the robe was passed down physically from one patriarch to the next. Hongren instructed the Sixth Patriarch to leave the monastery before he could be harmed. "You can stop at Huai and then hide yourself at Hui." Hongren showed Huineng the route to leave the monastery, and rowed Huineng across the river to assist his escape. Huineng immediately responded with
5841-553: The history of this early period are to be found in the Records of the Laṅkāvatāra Masters ( Chinese : 楞伽師資記 ). Bodhidharma is recorded as having come into China during the time of Southern and Northern Dynasties to teach a "special transmission outside scriptures" which "did not stand upon words". Throughout Buddhist art , Bodhidharma is depicted as a rather ill-tempered, profusely bearded and wide-eyed barbarian. He
5940-458: The idea that the fundamental Buddha-nature is only made invisible to ordinary humans by their illusions. According to Wong, the Platform Sūtra cites and explains a wide range of Buddhist scriptures listed here in the order of appearance: According to Huineng's autobiography in the Platform Sutra, Huineng's father was from Fanyang, but he was banished from his government position and died at
6039-426: The importance of family-structures in ancient China, and forms a symbolic and ritual recreation of this system for the monastical "family". According to Borup the emphasis on 'mind to mind transmission' is a form of esoteric transmission, in which "the tradition and the enlightened mind is transmitted face to face". Metaphorically this can be described as the transmission of a flame from one candle to another candle, or
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#17327869475806138-583: The ineffable Tao and Buddha-nature , and thus, rather than feeling bound to the abstract "wisdom of the sūtras", emphasized Buddha-nature to be found in "everyday" human life, just as the Tao. Chinese Buddhism absorbed Neo-Daoist concepts as well. Concepts such as T'i-yung (體用 Essence and Function) and Li-shih (理事 Noumenon and Phenomenon, or Principle and Practice) first appeared in Hua-yen Buddhism, which consequently influenced Chan deeply. On
6237-571: The influence of other schools in the evolution of Chan vary widely and are heavily reliant upon speculative correlation rather than on written records or histories. Numerous scholars have argued that Chan developed from the interaction between Mahāyāna Buddhism and Taoism . Buddhist meditation was practiced in China centuries before the rise of Chan, by people such as An Shigao (c. 148–180 CE) and his school, who translated various Dhyāna sutras (Chán-jing, 禪経, "meditation treatises"), which were influential early meditation texts mostly based on
6336-439: The introduction of Huineng to Hongren as follows: The Patriarch asked me, "Who are you and what do you seek?" I replied, "Your disciple is a commoner from Xinzhou of Lingnan. I have travelled far to pay homage to you and seek nothing other than Buddhahood." "So you're from Ling-nan, and a barbarian! How can you expect to become a Buddha?" asked the Patriarch. I replied, "Although people exist as northerners and southerners, in
6435-444: The midst of attributes. To differentiate and distinguish the various phenomena of the world, and yet to regard them all as the same, is to have equanimity ( shě 捨). As Brook Ziporyn observes, for Huineng, our self-nature is free of attributes, not in the sense of excluding them, but in the sense of embracing them all without attaching to them. In this way, our self-nature can be compared to space, while particular attributes are like
6534-456: The newly introduced Buddhist meditational techniques, and blended them with Taoist meditation . Representatives of early Chinese Buddhism like Sengzhao and Tao Sheng were deeply influenced by the Taoist keystone works of Laozi and Zhuangzi . Against this background, especially the Taoist concept of naturalness was inherited by the early Chan disciples: they equated – to some extent –
6633-464: The next day, the Patriarch secretly went to Huineng's room and asked, "Should not a seeker after the Dharma risk his life this way?" Then he asked, "is the rice ready?" Huineng responded that the rice was ready and only waiting to be sieved. The Patriarch secretly explained the Diamond Sutra to Huineng, and when Huineng heard the phrase "one should activate one’s mind so it has no attachment," he
6732-399: The other hand, Taoists at first misunderstood sunyata to be akin to the Taoist non-being . The emerging Chinese Buddhism nevertheless had to compete with Taoism and Confucianism: Because Buddhism was a foreign influence, however, and everything "barbarian" was suspect, certain Chinese critics were jolted out of complacency by the spread of the dharma [...] In the first four centuries of
6831-466: The poem contest and the transmission of the robe and Dharma. Huineng asked to be led to the corridor, where he could also pay homage to the stanza. He asked a low-ranking official named Zhang Riyong from Jiangzhou to read the verse to him, and then immediately asked him to write down a stanza that he composed. According to McRae, "the earliest version of the Platform Sutra contains two versions of Huineng's verse (left and middle). Later versions, such as
6930-405: The previous centuries. One of the inventions of this Canonical Buddhism were transmission lists, a literary device to establish a lineage. Both Tiantai and Chan took over this literary device, to lend authority to those developing traditions, and guarantee its authenticity: Chan texts present the school as Buddhism itself, or as the central teaching of Buddhism, which has been transmitted from
7029-652: The reason that the Diamond Sutra was chanted, and the person stated that he came from the Eastern Meditation Monastery in Huangmei District of the province of Qi, where the Fifth Patriarch of Chan lived and delivered his teachings. Huineng's customer paid his ten silver taels and suggested that he meet the Fifth Patriarch of Chan. Huineng reached Huangmei thirty days later, and expressed to the Fifth Patriarch his specific request of attaining Buddhahood. Since Huineng came from Guangdong and
7128-479: The ritual of dharma transmission. Bodiford distinguishes seven dimensions which are discernible in both family relationships and in dharma lineages: The family-model is easier recognized when East Asian languages are being used, because the same terminology is used to describe both earthly and spiritual family relations. Dharma transmission is both concrete and abstract: Every link in the genealogy of dharma transmission occurs in documented historical circumstances:
7227-402: The semi-legendary monk Bodhidharma as the patriarch who brought Chan to China. Only scarce historical information is available about him, but his hagiography developed when the Chan tradition grew stronger and gained prominence in the early 8th century. According to McRae, it is not clear that the practitioners surrounding Bodhidharma and his disciple Huike considered themselves as belonging to
7326-643: The seven Buddhas of the past to the twenty-eight patriarchs, and all the generations of Chinese and Japanese Chan and Zen masters that follow. The concept of dharma transmission took shape during the Tang period, when establishing the right teachings became important, to safeguard the authority of specific schools. The emerging Zen-tradition developed the Transmission of the Lamp -genre, in which lineages from Shakyamuni Buddha up to their own times were described. Another literary device for establishing those traditions
7425-424: The six vijñānas [aspects of consciousness], in passing through the six gates [sense organs], will neither be defiled by nor attached to the six sense-objects. When our mind works freely without any hindrance, and is at liberty to come or to go, we attain samādhi of prajñā, or liberation. Such a state is called the function of thoughtlessness. But to refrain from thinking of anything, so that all thoughts are suppressed,
7524-420: The stage of their understanding of the essence of mind. He decided to pass down his robe and teachings to the winner of the contest, who would become the Sixth Patriarch. Shenxiu, the leading disciple of the Fifth Patriarch, composed a stanza, but did not have the courage to present it to the master. Instead, he wrote his stanza on the south corridor wall one day at midnight to remain anonymous. The other monks saw
7623-401: The stanza and commended it. Shenxiu's stanza is as follows: The body is the bodhi tree. The mind is like a bright mirror's stand. At all times we must strive to polish it and must not let dust collect. The Patriarch was not satisfied with Shenxiu's stanza, and pointed out that the poem did not show understanding of "[his] own fundamental nature and essence of mind." He gave Shenxiu
7722-423: The story of Huineng's Buddhist career was likely invented by the monk Heze Shenhui , who claimed to be one of Huineng's disciples and was highly critical of Shenxiu's teaching. Huineng is regarded as the founder of the "Sudden Enlightenment" Southern Chan school of Buddhism, which focuses on an immediate and direct attainment of Buddhist enlightenment. The Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch ( 六祖壇經 ), which
7821-581: The successors of his lineage was Guifeng Zongmi According to Zongmi , Shenhui's approach was officially sanctioned in 796, when "an imperial commission determined that the Southern line of Chan represented the orthodox transmission and established Shen-hui as the seventh patriarch, placing an inscription to that effect in the Shen-lung temple". Doctrinally the Southern School is associated with
7920-566: The teaching that enlightenment is sudden , while the Northern School is associated with the teaching that enlightenment is gradual. This was a polemical exaggeration, since both schools were derived from the same tradition, and the so-called Southern School incorporated many teachings of the more influential Northern School. Eventually both schools died out, but the influence of Shenhui was so immense that all later Chan schools traced their origin to Huineng, and "sudden enlightenment" became
8019-907: The teachings, a style which is also used in the Platform Sutra. The establishment of a community in one location was a change from the wandering lives of Bodhidharma and Huike and their followers. It fitted better into the Chinese society, which highly valued community-oriented behaviour, instead of solitary practice. Huineng The way The "goal" Background Chinese texts Classical Post-classical Contemporary Zen in Japan Seon in Korea Thiền in Vietnam Western Zen Dajian Huineng ( traditional Chinese : 大鑒惠能 ; pinyin : Dàjiàn Huìnéng ; Wade–Giles : Ta⁴-chien⁴ Hui⁴-nêng² ; Japanese : Daikan Enō ; Korean : Daegam Hyeneung ; February 27, 638 – August 28, 713), also commonly known as
8118-504: The text shows signs of having been constructed over a longer period of time, and contains different layers of writing. According to John McRae, it is ...a wonderful melange of early Chan teachings, a virtual repository of the entire tradition up to the second half of the eighth century. At the heart of the sermon is the same understanding of the Buddha-nature that we have seen in texts attributed to Bodhidharma and Hongren, including
8217-482: The things appearing in that space. Huineng says: Learned Audience, the illimitable void of the universe is capable of holding myriads of things of various shape and form, such as the sun, the moon, stars, mountains, rivers, men, dharmas pertaining to goodness or badness, deva planes, hells, great oceans, and all the mountains of the Mahāmeru. Space takes in all of these, and so does the voidness of our nature. We say that
8316-520: The training halls. There are only about fifty to eighty of such inka shōmei -bearers in Japan. In Sōtō-Zen , dharma transmission is referred to as shiho , and further training is required to become an oshō . The notion and practice of Dharma Transmission developed early in the history of Chan, as a means to gain credibility and to foster institutional ties among the members of the Chan community. Charts of dharma-lineages were developed, which represented
8415-548: The transmission from one vein to another. In exoteric transmission the requirement is "direct access to the teaching through a personal discovery of one's self. This type of transmission and identification is symbolized by the discovery of a shining lantern, or a mirror." This polarity is recognizable in the emphasis that the Zen-tradition puts on maintaining the correct Dharma transmission, while simultaneously stressing seeing into one's nature: The matter of learning from
8514-517: The transmission of Dharma from Huineng. Huineng helped him reach enlightenment and continued on his journey. The earliest and most important source for the teachings of Huineng is the Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch ( Chinese : 六祖壇經; pinyin : Liùzǔ Tánjīng ). There are various editions of this text, the earliest of which are copies from Dunhuang which date to the 9th century. The original may have been composed in around 780 CE. According to modern scholars like Yanagida Seizan and John McRae,
8613-464: The true form of the formless, the subtle Dharma gate that does not rest on words or letters but is a special transmission outside of the scriptures. This I entrust to Mahākāśyapa. Traditionally the origin of Chan in China is credited to Bodhidharma , an Iranian-language speaking Central Asian monk or an Indian monk. The story of his life, and of the Six Patriarchs, was constructed during
8712-420: Was "suddenly and completely enlightened, and understood that all things exist in self-nature." The Dharma was passed to Huineng at night, when the Patriarch transmitted "the doctrine of sudden enlightenment" as well as his robe and bowl to Huineng. He told Huineng, “You are now the Sixth Patriarch. Take care of yourself, save as many sentient beings as you can, and spread the teachings so they will not be lost in
8811-469: Was a plain meditation teacher, who taught students of "various religious interests", including "practitioners of the Lotus Sutra, students of Madhyamaka philosophy, or specialists in the monastic regulations of Buddhist Vinaya ". The school was typified by a "loose practice," aiming to make meditation accessible to a larger audience. Shenxiu used short formulas extracted from various sutras to package
8910-492: Was being turned upside down. One point of confusion for this new emerging Chinese Buddhism was the two truths doctrine . Chinese thinking took this to refer to two ontological truths : reality exists on two levels, a relative level and an absolute level. Taoists at first misunderstood sunyata to be akin to the Taoist non-being. In Indian Madhyamaka philosophy the two truths are two epistemological truths : two different ways to look at reality. Based on their understanding of
9009-604: Was created around the middle of the 8th century, beginning in 731 by Shenhui , a successor to Huineng, to win influence at the Imperial Court. He claimed Huineng to be the successor of Hongren instead of the then publicly recognized successor Shenxiu. In 745 Shenhui was invited to take up residence in the Ho-tse temple in Luoyang . In 753 he fell out of grace and had to leave the capital to go into exile. The most prominent of
9108-419: Was exposed to Confucian , Taoist and local Folk religious influences when it came to China. Goddard quotes D.T. Suzuki , calling Chan a "natural evolution of Buddhism under Taoist conditions". Buddhism was first identified to be "a barbarian variant of Taoism", and Taoist terminology was used to express Buddhist doctrines in the oldest translations of Buddhist texts, a practice termed ko-i , "matching
9207-681: Was given by the Kao-seng-chuan (Biographies of Eminent Monks), compiled around 530. The Chan-tradition developed its own corpus in this genre, with works such as Anthology of the Patriarchal Hall (952) and the Jingde Records of the Transmission of the Lamp (published 1004). McRae considers Dumoulin's A History of Zen to be a modern example of this genre, disguised as scientific history. The Chan lineages picture
9306-570: Was never any such thing as an institutionally separate Chan "school" at any time in Chinese Buddhist history (emphasis McRae). The Chan tradition ascribes the origins of Chan in India to the Flower Sermon , the earliest source for which comes from the 14th century. It is said that Gautama Buddha gathered his disciples one day for a Dharma talk . When they gathered together, the Buddha was completely silent and some speculated that perhaps
9405-437: Was no 'Chan school' in existence during the time of the six Chinese patriarchs—it cannot even be said to have begun with Shenhui, the one who yoked six names to a powerfully generative idea. However, once the imaginary line had been drawn in the sands of the past, it began to sprout real branches. It continues to put forth new shoots even today." According to tradition, the sixth and last ancestral founder, Huineng (惠能; 638–713),
9504-475: Was not nearly as separate from these other types of Buddhist activities as one might think [...] [T]he monasteries of which Chan monks became abbots were comprehensive institutions, "public monasteries" that supported various types of Buddhist activities other than Chan-style meditation. The reader should bear this point in mind: In contrast to the independent denominations of Soto and Rinzai that emerged (largely by government fiat) in seventeenth-century Japan, there
9603-495: Was one of the giants of Chan history, and all surviving schools regard him as their ancestor. The dramatic story of Huineng's life tells that there was a controversy over his claim to the title of patriarch. After being chosen by Hongren , the fifth ancestral founder, Huineng had to flee by night to Nanhua Temple in the south to avoid the wrath of Hongren's jealous senior disciples. Modern scholarship, however, has questioned this narrative . Historic research reveals that this story
9702-538: Was physically distinctive from the local Northern Chinese, the Fifth Patriarch Hongren questioned his origin as a " barbarian from the south ," and doubted his ability to attain enlightenment. Huineng impressed Hongren with a clear understanding of the ubiquitous Buddha nature in everyone, and convinced Hongren to let him stay. The first chapter of the Ming canon version of the Platform Sutra describes
9801-566: Was the first, leading the line of transmission; Twenty-eight Fathers followed him in the West; The Lamp was then brought over the sea to this country; And Bodhidharma became the First Father here: His mantle, as we all know, passed over six Fathers, And by them many minds came to see the Light. In its beginnings in China, Chan primarily referred to the Mahāyāna sūtras and especially to
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