Introduction to Buddhism
Comparative Introduction to PhilosophyPage
Introduction to Buddhism
Introduction to India
In this chapter you will learn:
· Buddhism was very different from classical Chinese thought
· A split in Buddhism produced Mahayana which was more
acceptable in China.
· The Mahayana Boddhisattva ideal was the beginning of the
development of Chan (Zen) Buddhism in China.
· Chan (Zen) is a form of Daoist Buddhism.
· The “doctrine” of Chan (Zen) Buddhism is usually expressed in
enigmatic stories.
A comprehensive text on world philosophy should include a lot
more about Indian philosophy, but that is impractical here.
However, a look at Buddhism is a good compromise since it
originated in India and had is greatest success in China, Japan,
Korea and South-East Asia.
Indian Philosophy, like Greek and Western European thought,
structures itself around a the familiar metaphysical contrasts.
One-many, permanent-changing, knowledge-belief, reason-experience,
and reality-appearance. The world is divided into the elevated
intellectual, etherial, mental, realm and the more mundane
physical, emotional, feeling realm. Both Indo-European systems are
unlike Classical Chinese philosophy in this respect. These idealist
concepts were introduced into China in the second century A.D.
during the philosophical "dark ages" that following the repressive
Qin and the superstitiously orthodox Han dynasties.
Buddhism first spread into China sometime around the end of the
Han (200-400 AD). In the meantime, all that survived of China's
rich philosophical traditions were 'religious' versions which
treated the ancient texts as venerated scripture and did
"philosophy" mainly in the sense of reading and trying to
understand them. They seldom engaged in "creative" philosophical
thinking (the most famous exception being Wang Cong (27-100)).
Daoism had become a cluster of religious, proto-scientific, or
politically rebellious movements. Confucianism was verging on
deifying Confucius and lapsing back to its priestly form. The
decline of the Han coincided with a widespread boredom with the
insipid and arcane scholasticism surrounding the Chinese teachings.
Intellectuals were looking for something new. They found
Buddhism.
When it was introduced, it had a massive problem making itself
intelligible. Buddhist missionaries found it most useful to borrow
forms of discourse from Daoism. In doing so, of course, it
transformed itself gradually into a uniquely Chinese form. Buddhism
began to look more and more like Daoism--particularly the most
Chinese and most successful school of Buddhism: Chan (pronounced
Zen in Japanese). This transformation will be the focus of our
study here.
First, to understand why it was necessary, let us look at the
stories surrounding the origins of Buddhism in India. We will focus
on the possible conflicts with traditional Chinese moral attitudes
and conceptual structures. These are what require transformation
before it can be acceptable in Chinese intellectual circles. We
will see that in good Daoist fashion (or Nietzschean fashion)
Buddhism turned it into its own antithesis. We shall be looking at
both thesis and antithesis in this chapter. Buddhism the religious
thesis, Chan the Daoist inspired rejection-from-within.
Buddhism is considered a heterodox school from the perspective
of the dominant Hindu tradition because it did not accept the
authority of the Hindu scripture. It is clearly linked to the Hindu
and the underlying Upanishadic traditions, however. The major
themes of this tradition are the familiar Greek issues surrounding
the identity, reality, and eternality of the self--the soul or the
ego. Buddhism shares orthodox assumptions about karma (moral cause
and effect), transmigration (reincarnation of souls, which
presupposes their eternality and thus a fundamental mind-body
distinction), and the incommunicability of certain experiences or
realizations of mystical union with some absolute being or ultimate
reality.
As Greek philosophy did, the founders of the Indic religions
assumed that reality was permanent—that anything impermanent was
unreal. They also explained this in terms of how words can "attach"
to things. The shared Indo-European view is that words have to
refer to real, i.e., unchanging, things. However, everything
available to common sense-knowledge is changing. Hence, language is
inherently misleading and inadequate since it refers to the unreal.
(No Indian counterpart of Plato invented a realm of forms to
preserve linguistic integrity.)
They also concluded, therefore, that the world of common sense
was a mere "appearance." Those who reasoned more deeply (or had a
mystical experience of some Parmenidean Being) know that "this
world" is merely an illusion. Without a substitute Parmenidean or
Platonic reality, the Indian view tended toward what Nietzsche
called nihilism--though always presented in obscure, equivocal and
esoteric terms. As Nietzsche correctly observes, Buddhism and
Western "Idols" have a good deal in common. Further, as we can
already appreciate, a much wider intellectual and moral gulf looms
between the Indian and Chinese belief systems.
The Story of Buddhism
This conceptual distance is complicated further by deep ethical
disagreements. Indian morality rationalized the Caste system of
unequal moral worth and the intellectual "virtues" of the Brahman
class. We can illustrate the moral conflict by telling the story of
the Buddha—with an appropriate emphasis. There are many versions of
the story and I have collected here elements that highlight the
kinds of things that would shock a Chinese moralist. The founder of
Buddhism was called Gautama Sakyamuni--the silent sage of the sakya
clan. His given name, Siddharta, meant "He who will accomplish"
because it was predicted at his miraculous "virgin" birth (his
mother was impregnated by a white elephant) that he would be the
one to achieve . . . . The question was, "achieve what?"
Two answers were entertained by Gautama's worried father: he
might be the one to achieve Nirvana or achieve being a great ruler.
His father set out to make sure the prophecy came true in the
political sense. He attempted to prevent his son from pursuing
Nirvana by shielding him from all deprivation--the classic "little
emperor." As part of this strategy, Gautama was presented with
hordes of dancing girls for his sexual pleasure on his 16th
birthday. Otherwise, he was shielded from the world so he would not
know about suffering and never seek relief from it.
Gautama married and had a child and was prepared to carry out
his political destiny when a mysterious charioteer appeared took
him on a series of rides outside the castle. These introduced him
to sickness, old age and death! That night he sneaked away from his
his wife, his son, his family, and his political obligations to go
in search of liberation from life and its suffering. (Remember that
Nirvana is not everlasting life, but successful death. Samsara--the
wheel of everlasting rebirths --was the normal cruel fate of all
souls.) Gautama tried various strategies including abusing his body
before finally discovering the "middle way" while sitting in
meditation under the Bodhi (enlightenment) tree. The next morning
he was Buddha.
As he prepared to enter Nirvana, a more altruistic divinity
appeared to plead with him to put off his descent into Nirvana
(Nothingness) long enough to teach "a few others" how to achieve
the same thing. Buddha looked round, sniffed contemptuously and
replied that this filth could never grasp his secret. The divinity
urged him repeatedly and finally Buddha recalled some of those he
had encountered on his search for enlightenment. Some of those
might learn something. Buddha thus reluctantly agreed to put off
his entry into Nirvana and returned to the world to found
monasteries and teach those select souls pure enough to have some
slight chance of realizing his esoteric insight. He took disciples
and formed communities of celibate monks and nuns and Buddhism was
born.
Contemplating this skewed story of Sakyamuni should illustrate
how alien this religion could have appeared to Chinese culture with
its Confucian and Daoist egalitarian attitudes. Popular Buddhism
(like Christianity) is acutely selfish! Its preoccupation with the
self, the soul and liberation is the parallel to the Christian's
concern with his/her own salvation and eternal life. Buddhism's
goals are defined in negative, but still calculated,
individualistic terms--a release from suffering.
Further, Buddhism came to China laden with mentalist
assumptions--the skeptical distinction between appearance and
reality--suffuses most Buddhist discussion of 'enlightenment'. The
unenlightened person is the one who believes the world is out
there. It is radically elitist in its assumption that only a select
"caste" can achieve Nirvana in this present life—although others
can achieve it in the long after sufficient reincarnations which
move it up the value ladder to a Brahman. To top it all, Buddhism
advocated celibacy--an unnatural elimination of family oriented
"natural" desires. (A popular Chinese anti-Buddhist story suggested
that Laozi traveled to India after he left China. There he taught
them Daoism, except that he added celibacy to his doctrine hoping
thereby to lead these beings to breed themselves out of
existence!)
Basic Buddhist Doctrine
In the context of the traditional focus on the soul, the self,
the mentalism, and the doctrine of Karma and rebirth characteristic
of the other Indian religions, Buddhism taught Four Noble
Truths:
1.Life is suffering.
2.Suffering comes from desire.
3. Suffering can be ended by ending desire.
4. The eightfold path is the way to eliminate desire.
Nietzsche liked the directness of the first noble truth. Where
Christianity disguised its hatred of life behind moral concepts
such as "sin," Buddhism formulated its pessimism in stark,
positivist terms. Nietzsche saw the second as the "nihilistic"
attitude they shared with Christians. This opposition to one's
natural desires signals a "decadance" morality.
The eightfold path includes right views. right aspirations,
right speech, right conduct, right livelihood, right effort, right
mindfulness, and right contemplation. The goal of doing everything
right is Nirvana. The opposite of Nirvana is Samsara--the cycle of
life and death--the belief in reincarnation was hardly a source of
comfort to Buddhists. It doomed us to endless cycles of lives of
suffering. Suicide is no help! Only Nirvana is escape.
The Split: Mahayana and Theravada (Hinayana)
The historical development of Buddhism in India resembled that
of Christianity in Europe. At first it struggled with little
success until it was adopted by an emperor. What the emporer liked
was how the religion helps him motivate people to die for him.
Then, with state sponsorship, it grew into the dominant religion in
India for a time. During that time it was transferred to China,
Japan, Korea, and South-East Asia. Then it declined in its home and
survived mainly in its adopted homes.
In both the Christian and Buddhist cases, the fusion of
political power with religion made an unstable mixture, prone to
schisms as the adherents struggled for control of the politically
potent doctrine. In Christianity this produced first the
Catholic/Eastern Orthodox and then the Catholic/Protestant split.
In Buddhism, the major schism was between the Mahayana (Great
Vehicle) and the Theravada or Hinayana (Small Vehicle). The Great
Vehicle schools dominated China and the Small Vehicle One issue
between them was altruism vs. egoism. The ideal of the Theravada
was the Arhat who, like the historical Buddha, achieved Nirvana and
"drops out." The Mahayana ideal, by contrast was the historical
Buddha after being persuaded to remain in life. The Boddhisattva,
on the brink of achieving Nirvana, voluntarily returns to cycle
through Samsara and wait/work until all sentient creatures are
enlightened simultaneously. The Mahayana tended to view Sakyamuni
as merely one historical manifestation of a universal Buddha-nature
shared by all. There were many Buddhas before him, many after and
many around at this very moment. Every Boddhisattva who achieved is
still with us--maybe one is sitting next to you.
Philosophical Developments
Clearly, this Mahayana reformation helped make Buddhism morally
acceptable in China where selfishness virtually defined evil. The
"Great vehicle" claim that everyone could achieve Nirvana coincided
with Daoist egalitarian views as well as the orthodox Confucian
doctrine that all could become a Yao or a Shun (Sage). It is no
accident that the most successful schools of Buddhism in China were
Mahayana sects. The more egalitarian they were the more successful
over time. Many elaborations of Mahayana Buddhism revoved around
the distinction between Nirvana and Samsara. They analyzed many
metaphysical and epistemological doctrines in terms of the status
and nature of Nirvana.
One of the more recognizably philosophical schools of Buddhism
was the Yogacara, the idealist school. According to Yogacara,
Samsara, the world of appearance, was an illusion created by the
mind. The elements of existence (Dharma) to which we cling when we
have desires are the impermanent, unreal illusions generated by six
or seven layers of consciousness. The cosmic sum of all
consciousness was the Buddha-mind. Yogacara denied the downplayed
the individual/whole distinction but emphasized a temporal
distinction. The world of experience is a sequence of infinitesimal
time-slices of consciousness. Each slice creates its successor by
"perfuming" (Karma). That we desire the illusion to continue keeps
the succession of conscious states alive and accounts for the
continuity of objects and the coherence of objects of
consciousness.
Our belief in the objects of consciousness are a kind of
"clinging" that gives them permanence. If we can fully realize
(real-ize or make real) or appreciate this illusory nature of the
world, then it will cease. We will have escaped the grip of desire
that stimulates consciousness and end any further illusions.
No future illusions means no consciousness—individual or cosmic.
When conscious illusions cease, that is Mahayana Nirvana. One of
the illusion is of individuality in minds. So enlightenment is
enlightenment of the universal, Buddha-mind. Enlightenment of one
is not enlightenment since it maintains the illusion of an
individual.
Yogacara is an intellectual version of Buddhism because Nirvana
consists in a kind of awareness: a philosophical insight or
"enlightenment." The Yogacara school survived in China under the
name "Consciousness Only School" -- still the purest example of a
mentalist idealism in the Chinese tradition.
Madhyamika Buddhism is similarly intellectual and totalistic,
but it in neither so mentalist nor phenomenalist. Its focus is more
on logic and endless argument. It teaches that while the dharma,
the elements of existence, are impermanent and unreal, they are the
production of something real and unchanging. This something cannot
be captured in language and anything we try to say about it can be
rebutted. Even saying "it is" can be rebutted by argument that "it
is not" and "it neither is nor is not" by "it both is and is not."
We continue this pattern of "refutation" until we give up and lapse
into silence—then we are enlightened.
Everything is a manifestation of this ultimate, incommunicable
one. Sakyamuni himself was a historical manifestation of this
Buddha-nature. Having no word for it, we may call it tathagata
('thus-come -- and instantly gone). Enlightenment comes from
realizing or apprehending this reality without clinging to any of
the inherently contradictory beliefs about it. In the Buddha
nature, all individual being dissolves, the individual soul merges
with the absolute and egoistic consciousness ends--Nirvana!
The History of Buddhism in Asia
The first historical evidence of Buddhism in China was near the
end of the Han Dynasty--about 200 A.D. Colonies of Buddhist
traders, travelers and missionaries introduced it into the "Central
Kingdom." The Han, after 400 years of rule, was beginning to break
down. After it had collapsed and in the "period of disorder" that
followed, Confucianism was implicitly discredited. Daoism, with its
more contemplative, detached and ironic character, rose again.
Intellectuals found the tedious moralistic rhetoric of Confucianism
disingenuous and increasingly took refuge in speculative
metaphysical discussions and mystical paradox. This development was
called "dark learning" ¥È ¾Ç and the discourse style was called
"pure conversation" ²M ½Í . Daoists "pure conversation" mixed both
stupor and euphoria from abstruse metaphysical discussion with that
from good wine, poetry, women and other intoxicants. The most
popular topic was the puzzle of ¦³ µL (being/non-being) which would
prove to fit neatly with Buddhist speculation about the nature of
Nirvana.
Buddhists took advantage of this institutionalized form of
discussion and joined with Daoists in their exploration of the
mysteries. The Madhymika doctrine particularly suited this style
and had the further advantage of being neither as mentalist nor
inherently elitist. If the Buddha nature is in everything, then
everything has/is Buddha nature. Buddha-nature is both perfectly
real and also identical with Nirvana (nothing). The Buddha nature
became a handy counterpart to the metaphysical Dao—which some
though was µL and others ¦³ . And, like popular Daoism, Madhymika
had a tendency to reject language--although on quite different
grounds.
The Yogacara or Consciousness-Only school introduced the
exciting notions of 'consciousness', 'sense data', 'experience' and
the psychology of inner mental contents, ideas, beliefs, and
desires. These became part of Buddhist terminology in all the later
schools, but the Consciousness-Only school itself did not last long
or achieve great influence. The strongest schools over time in
China were those which emphasized the Mahayana doctrine of
universal salvation and metaphysical holism--Tien Tai ¤Ñ ¥x , Hua
Yan µØ ÄY , Pure Land ²M ¤g , and Chan/Zen ÁI .
Let us pause for a quick word about the place of Japan in the
history of East Asian Buddhism. Japanese intellectuals had long
since adopted Chinese characters as their written language,
although spoken Japanese is as distant from Chinese dialects as
from German. They had already imported Chinese Confucianism and
Daoism but the greatest period of borrowing from China came at the
height of the Buddhist influence in China. They eventually sent
missionaries all the way into India for Buddhist training. However,
in Japan's more more controlled and stratified social system, the
schools took on a quite different character. The most notable
contrast is Chan (Zen) which in China was the most egalitarian,
most "free" of the Buddhist schools. In Japan it became the
"property" of the ruling Samurai class and shared its disciplined,
esoteric, and authoritarian character.
In China, the dominant schools tended to be those which stressed
a natural, practical approach to religious life and downplayed the
metaphysical skepticism and idealism. The mystical attitude toward
religiousity dominated both ritual and doctrinal features. In
Tibet, the ritual form was much stronger, and in the West, the
focus (as it is in Christianity) tends to be on doctrine.
All these schools nominally accepted a collection of Buddhist
scriptures (sutras) known as the Tripitika. However, rival schools
"ordered" them differently and disagreed on other sutras. The most
important sutras in Chinese Buddhism included the Prajnaparamitra,
the Lotus and the Diamond Sutras.
The Development of Chan (Zen) in China
The character pronounced "Chan" in Chinese ("Zen" in Japanese)
was originally a transliteration of the Sanskrit term "dyana"
meaning meditation. Chan is a school that does not "believe in"
meditation, yet emphasizes and practices meditation. People sit in
meditation pondering the claim that meditation cannot lead to
enlightenment.
A story is told of Hui-neng's famous disciple, Huai-rang
(677-744), in the record of the latter's sayings: "Ma-zu lived in
the Quan-fa Monastery on the Southern Peak. There he occupied a
solitary hut in which all alone he practiced meditation (chan)
paving no attention to those who came to visit him. . . One day
(Huai-rang) kept grinding a brick in front of the hut, but Ma-zu
still paid no attention. This having continued for a long time,
(Ma-zu) finally asked: 'What are you doing?' The Teacher
(Huai-rang) replied that he was grinding to make a mirror. 'How can
a mirror be made by grinding bricks? asked Ma-zu. Replied the
Teacher: 'If a mirror cannot be made by grinding bricks, how can a
Buddha be made by practicing meditation?"
Fung History p. 391
Chan comes to understand meditation in a Daoist sense: an
attitude of "total absorption" than can accompany any normal living
activity. Sitting meditation is among the normal activities, but
Chan gives us no particular reason to do that in preference to
innumerable others. Enlightenment/meditation can be achieved in any
of them. How do the Chanists arrive at this focus on
'practice.'
Zen Twist on the Paradox of Desire
First, let us draw attention to Buddhism's famous "paradox of
desires." Its logic explains the move to the Boddhisattva ideal of
Mahayana Buddhism. According to the four noble truths, desire leads
to suffering and overcoming desire is the way to achieve Nirvana.
Suppose an individual seeker gets close to Nirvana--he overcomes
his desire for wealth, status, sex, and then eventually even his
desire for food, drink, and finally his desire to breath and live.
Now is he able to enter Nirvana? Not yet. He still has one desire
left--the desire to enter Nirvana. Only when he overcomes that one
can he achieve it. He does! Standing on the brink of extinction, he
no longer wants to go there, so he turns around and re-enters the
cycle of Samsara--he is the Boddhisattva who voluntarily
returns.
Similar paradoxes lurk behind the Yogacara and Madyamika
systems. In the Yogacara system of illusions, the theory seems to
say the minds and their illusions are all that exists. If they
exist, they are real—real ideas. As such, they are not illusions.
The world of appearances is identical with the Buddha-mind—it is
what there is.
In the Madyamika system, we learn that the Buddha-nature is the
only reality. If I is the only reality, then there is nothing that
is not Buddha nature. Since there is nothing but Buddha nature
everywhere Buddha nature is pure--there is nothing to be mixed with
it. Hence you and I are pure Buddha nature. We have nothing to do
or achieve.
Chan Buddhism can be viewed as pushing the implicit logic of
Buddhism to reject the original goal of Buddhism--the quest for
Nirvana. Chan is Buddhist atheism. The gradual development of this
perspective, however, is a complex one in China and is made even
more challenging by a pedagogical practice among Chan
masters—"never tell to plainly." Each person should come to her own
realization.
The Inner Story of Zen
There are two stories of the development of Chan in China—an
internal (pious) and an external (historical) story. According to
the internal story, in the context of a particularly profound
lecture, the Buddha stopped and sitting in silence, merely twirled
a flower. A wordless doctrine was thus immediately apprehended by
one Kashyapa, who smiled. This began a line of direct mind-to-mind
transmission of some doctrine incommensurate with language. The
transmission went through 28 "teacher-student generations" to the
famous Boddhidharma who came to China.
In China it went through 5 more generations still emphasizing
orthodox meditation and the search for enlightenment, when the 5th
patriarch announced a competition for who would be the 6th.
Everyone assumed Shen Xiu, acknowledged as the most brilliant
student, would win the competition. But Hui Neng, an illiterate
peasant from Guangdong province proved to have spontaneous and
immediate insight and received the coveted transmission. The
internal story is contained in the famous Platform Sutra of the 6th
Patriarch.
"My stern father was originally from Fa Yang. He was banished to
Xinzhou in Ling Nan (Guangdong), where we lived as peasants. My
father soon died and my aging mother was left alone. We moved to
Nan Hai, poor and in bitter straits, I sold wood in the market
place."
Once a customer bought firewood and ordered it delivered to his
shop. When the delivery was made, and I had received the money, I
went outside the gate, where I noticed a customer reciting a Sutra.
Upon once hearing the words of this Sutra: "One should produce that
thought which is nowhere supported," my mind immediately
opened.
Thereupon I asked the customer what Sutra he was reciting. The
customer replied, "The Diamond Sutra."
Then I asked, "Where do you come from, and why do you recite
this Sutra?"
The customer said, "I come from Tong Chan Monastery in Qi Zhou,
Huang Mei Province. There the Fifth Patriarch, the Great Master
Hong Ren dwells, teaching over one thousand disciples. I went there
to bow and heard and received this Sutra. The Great Master always
tells the Sangha and laity only to uphold The Diamond Sutra. Then,
they can see their own nature and straightaway achieve
Buddhahood."
I heard this and desired to go and seek the Dharma, but recalled
that my mother had no support. From past lives there were karmic
conditions which led another man to give me a pound of silver, so
that I could provide food and clothing for my aging mother. The man
instructed me further to go to Huang Mei to call upon and bow to
the Fifth Patriarch.
After I had made arrangements for my mother's welfare, I took my
leave. In less than thirty days I arrived at Huang Mei and made
obeisance to the Fifth Patriarch, who asked me,"Where are you from
and what do you seek?"
I replied, "Your disciple is a commoner from Xin Zhou in Ling
Nan and comes from afar to bow to the Master, seeking only to be a
Buddha, and nothing else."
The Patriarch said, "You are from Ling Nan and are therefore a
barbarian, so how can you become a Buddha?"
I said, "Although people are from north south, there is no north
or south in the Buddha nature. The body of the barbarian and that
of your holiness are not the same, but what distinction is there in
Buddha nature?"
The Fifth Patriarch intended to argue further, but seeing people
gathering around, he ordered me to go off with them to work. I
withdrew to the back courtyard where an attended ordered me to
split firewood and pound rice.
More than eight months had passed when the Patriarch one day
suddenly saw Hui Neng and said, "I think these views of yours can
be of use but fear that evil people may harm you. For that reason I
have not spoken to you. Did you understand the situation?"
I replied, "Your disciple knew the High master's intention and
has stayed out of the front hall, so the others might not notice
him."
One day the Patriarch summoned his disciples together and said,
"I say to you: for worldly people, life and death are serious
matters. All day you make offerings seeking fields of blessings;
you do not try escape the bitter sea of life and death. If you are
confused about your self-nature, how can blessings save you? Each
of you return, look to your own thoughts and use your mind's
original wisdom to compose a verse. Give it to me. After I see it,
I will give the robe and Dharma to you if you understand the grand
idea and will designate you as the sixth patriarch. Hurry off! Do
not delay!
The serious students (from the North) heard this and withdrew,
whispering to one another, "we normal students hardly need to tap
our minds and burden our intellect to compose a verse to submit.
What use could this be? Shen Xiu is our advanced instructor and
transmitter of the teaching. Certainly he will be the one to obtain
it. It would both be wrong of us to write a verse and a waste of
effort."
Shen Xiu thought, "The others are not submitting verses because
I an their teacher. I must compose a verse and give it to the High
Master. If I do not, how will he know whether my mind's views and
knowledge are sound or silly? If I decide to submit a verse to seek
the Dharma, that is good. However, if I do it to get the
recognition as patriarch, that is bad. How would my mind then be
different from that of a commoner seeking a high position? Still,
if I fail to submit a verse, in the end I will not obtain the
Dharma. This is a mess!"
After composing his verse, Shen Xiu tried several times to turn
it in but whenever he got to the front hall, his mind became
agitated and distraught, and his entire body broke into a sweat. He
tried thirteen times and finally dare not submit it. Then he
thought, "It would be better to write it on the wall so the High
Master will see it suddenly. If he says it is good, I will come
forward, bow, and say, 'Xiu did it.' If not, then I have wasted my
time on this mountain receiving honor from others. And as to
further cultivation--what can I say?"
At midnight, holding a candle, he wrote the verse on the wall of
the South corridor without anyone knowing. This was the verse:
The body is a Bodhi tree,
The mind a bright mirror stand.
Time and again wipe it clean,
And let no dust alight.
After writing this, Shen Xiu returned to his room. . . .
The Patriarch ordered his disciples to light incense and bow
before the verse, and to recite it. They did and said,
"Excellent!"
At the third watch, the Patriarch called Shen Xiu into the hall
and asked him, "Did you write this verse?"
Shen Xiu said, "yes, in fact, Xiu did it. . . .
The Patriarch said, "The verse which you wrote shows that you
are close but have still not seen your original nature. You are at
the front gate. . . . "Go ponder for a day or two then write
another poem and show it to me. If you have entered the gate, I
will transfer the robe and Dharma to you."
Shen Xiu bowed and left. Several days passed, but he was unable
to compose another poem. His mind was agitated and confused and his
thoughts and mood were uneasy. He was as if in a dream; whether
walking or sitting down, he could not be happy.
Two days later, a young boy was chanting the poem and passed by
the threshing room. Hearing it only once, I realized the writer had
not yet penetrated to his original nature. Although I had received
no teaching, I already understood the poem. I asked, "What poem is
that?"
"You wouldn't know, Barbarian," replied the boy. "The Master has
declared that birth and death are serious matters for people. He
wants to transmit the robe and Dharma and ordered his students to
compose poems for him to examine. Whoever has awakened to the deep
insight will inherit the robe and Dharma and title of Sixth
Patriarch. Our senior teacher, Shen Xiu, wrote this 'verse without
marks' on the wall of the south corridor. The Great Master ordered
us to recite it. cultivating in accord with that verse, one avoids
falling into the evil and that is the poem's great merit."
I replied, "I would like to recite it and be like it, Oh great
one. I have been pounding rice for eight months or more and have
never even been to the front hall. I hope that you, great one, will
take lead me to the verse to bow." The boy did.
I said, "Hui Neng cannot read. Please, Superior One, read it to
me." Then an official from Jiang Zhou, named Zhang Riyong, read it
out loud. After hearing it, I said, "I, too, have a verse. will the
official please write it for me?"
The official replied, "You, too, can write a verse? That is
strange!"
I said to the official, "If you wish to study the supreme Bodhi,
do not slight the beginner. The lowest people may have the highest
wisdom; the highest people may have the least wisdom. If you slight
other, you create limitless,unbounded offenses."
The official said, "Recite your verse and I will write it our
for you. If you obtain the Dharma you must take me across first. Do
not forget these words."
Hui Neng's verse reads :
Originally Bodhi has no tree,
Nor the mirror any stand.
Basically nothing can be;
Where can dust land?
When they finished writing this verse, people were surprised.
They all exlaimed, "Strange indeed! We shouldn't judge someone by
appearance. How is it that so quickly he has become a living
Bodhisattva?"
The Fifth Patriarch saw the astonished crowd and worried that
they might start a riot. So he erased the verse with his shoe and
said, "This one,too, doesn't understand perfectly."
The crowd then agreed.
The next day the patriarch secretly came to the threshing floor
where he saw me treading rice carrying a stone tied to my body. He
said, "A seeker of dao would give up his life for the Dharma,
wouldn't he?" Then he asked, "Is the rice ready?"
I replied, "The rice has long been ready. It awaits now only the
sieve."
The Patriarch rapped the pestle three times with his staff and
left. I knew his intention, and at midnight went to the Patriarch's
room.
The Patriarch covered the text with his sash explained The
Diamond Sutra for me down to the line, "One should produce a
thought that is nowhere supported." The moment I heard that, I had
a sudden enlightenment and knew that all entire law was nothing but
our self-nature. I said to the Patriarch:
How strange!The self-nature is originally pure in itself.
How strange!The self-nature neither comes nor goes.
How strange!The self-nature is originally complete in
itself.
How strange!The self-nature is originally without movement.
How strange!The self-nature can generate the myriad dharmas.
The Fifth Patriarch knew I was enlightened about my original
nature and said to me, "Studying Dharma without knowing your
original mind is useless. If you recognize your original mind and
see your nature, then we call you a great hero, a teacher of gods
and humans, a Buddha."
I received the Dharma at midnight but no one knew about it. The
Fifth Patriarch also transmitted the Sudden enlightenment doctrine
with the robe and bowl saying, "Your are the Sixth Patriarch."
. . . .
After Hui Neng took leave of the Patriarch, he set out on foot
for the South. In two months he reach the Ta Yu Mountains.
The External Story of Zen
The historian's story treats the Platform Sutra as an important
piece of fiction. Its publication crystallizes a split in the Chan
school between Northern (Gradual enlightenment) and Southern
(Sudden enlightenment) trends. The key issue dividing them was
whether there was a path to enlightenment so we could be understood
as getting closer or was enlightenment something that happened
totally or not at all. The Southern school represented the view
that enlightenment did not require study. Notice Hui Neng was
illiterate and did nothing in the temple but carry wood pound rice.
The villian, by contrast, was a learned Northerner. Hui Neng's
enlightenment came all at once in a flash of insight.
Buddhism had spread in China during the period of cultural
disunity following the decline of the Han. During the long periods
of disunity following the Han Dynasty, the North had often been
ruled by "barbarian" dynasties and the south had become the refuge
of China's intellectual culture. The more structured and
disciplined Northern schools stressed gradual enlightenment
requiring continual supervision and guidance (more like Japanese
Zen). So Buddhism was more "orthodox" and authoritarian in the
North, while in the South it was almost entirely spread by popular
conversion rather than official patronage. Naturally, Southern Chan
had a much more egalitarian outlook.
Now, with the ascendancy of the powerful T'ang dynasty, cultural
self-confidence was returning. Buddhism, with its fondness for
accumulating distinctions, endless lists, rules, and other tedious
intellectualizing was beginning to tire intellectuals. The rituals,
thousands of sutras, levels of truth, categories, lists,
distinction etc. went on ad nauseam. The antipathy to this
theoretical overkill explains the rise Sudden Enlightenment
Chan--the Chinese revenge on Buddhism.
Historians argue that the story of Hui Neng was actually written
by a Daoist poet, who was inspired by the fabulous story-telling of
his close friend, a popular Southern monk named Shen Hui. Shen Hui
had traveled North to the domain of the powerful and famous monk,
Shen Xiu, the villain of the Platform Sutra story. At the time, the
Tang officially recognized Shen Xiu as the 6th Chan Patriarch. Shen
Hui was an extremely popular public speaker. He weaved spellbinding
tales and avoided tedious theorizing. He had a large popular
following but was in official trouble because of his attacks on
Shen Xiu. Unsuccessful in his attempts to have Hui Neng recognized
as the true successor, he was banished briefly to the hinterland—in
Jiangxi province and subsequently kept on the move so he could not
attract a large following.
Over the years, fortunate political events intervened. The Tang
government had a serious budget deficit because of heavy defense
expenditures following a six-year war putting down a military
rebellion. One of the ways the Tang had of raising money was to
require all those becoming Buddhist priests or nuns to buy a
license—on the theory they were removing themselves from productive
life (since they lived on donations and by begging). They decided
they needed a "license salesman" and someone remembered that Shen
Hui was the best one around, so they sent for him. He was, of
course, successful, and bailed out the treasury and in gratitude
the Tang officially declared him the 7th Patriarch—which by
implication made Hui Neng the 6th as the Platform Sutra
claimed.
The other thing that was important about Shen Hui's story was
that in it, Hui Neng simply disappeared into the Southern
mountains. That made it tempting and easy for other Southern monks
to claim that they had encountered Hui Neng or his equally
reclusive disciples as they wandered in the mountains and received
the instantaneous transmission of the Dharma of Sudden
enlightement. So the school's influence spread quickly throughout
China and it became the dominant school during most of the long
Tang dynasty—the Southern dynasty. (Cantonese speakers still refer
to themselves "People of Tang" where Mandarin speakers call
themselves "People of Han.")
The Southern school's position represented an indigenous Chinese
cultural rebellion against the intellectualized, elitist and
esoteric elements of this foreign religion. Traces of this Chinese
egalitarianism and naturalism had been evident even during the
first transmission of Buddhism to China. Chinese translators
frequently argued that everyone was capable of enlightement and
preferred Buddhist scriptures that endorsed that view. Other
popular schools (Tiantai and Huayan) drew the positive conclusion
from the Madyamika paradox—everything must already be Buddha.
However, as we noted, Chan masters never said this too plainly and
mainly stressed practice. Hence, the popular slogan has it "Tiantai
and Huayan for theory and Chan for practice."
As the Chan attitude spread, it became a cultural movement
against the hierarchy of Buddhism. Schools sprang up all over
China. There was little "top-down" organization but a fairly
consistent set of shared attitudes toward Buddhist theory.
Chan Doctrine of No-Doctrine
The Southern school implicitly carried the paradoxes in Buddhism
to their logical conclusion. We looked earlier at how Buddhism's
paradox of desire entialed the Boddhisattva ideal. The Boddhisattva
is one who at the last moment gives up the desire for Nirvana that
has motivated all the earlier steps—giving up the desire for sex,
money, prestige, food, etc. The Chan twist is this. Why make the
desire for Nirvana the last desire you give up? Why not make it the
first and avoid the search at the outset?
The Daoist Twist
Then with classic Daoist logic, they note that to give up the
desire for Nirvana is to give up the distinction between Nirvana
and Samsara. To give up that distinction is to accept that we are
already in Nirvana. There is nothing to realize except that we are
already enlightened. Nirvana/samsara is Buddhism's counterpart of
Nietzsche's real-world/apparent-world distinction. When we give it
up, we just turn our minds to practical everyday things and to our
natural or ordinary activities.
The logic leading to Chan is implicit in other aspects of
Buddhist doctrine, too. Consider another feature of the goal of
Nirvana. If it consists in the realization that in fact the ego or
soul is an illusion and there is no continuing self, then the
Boddhisattva ideal is necessary. Since there is no individual,
there is no individual salvation. Salvation must be total--all
consciousness must be obliterated at once or none is. The
individual consciousness in an illusion so its obliteration is not
an accomplishment.
However when we focus on "all" consciousness we talk about all
there is. All there is, is Buddha-nature. Once we are aware that
the sum of illusions is Buddha-nature, we see that there is nothing
to change. We have an awareness that is synonymous with
enlightenment. We no longer see illusions; we see only the Buddha
nature—which is identical with our self-nature. This leaves us in
ordinary activity, which we do with the fulfilling and tranquil
attitude that Zhuangzi's Butcher Ding exemplified—a total
absorption in our "art" where the distinction between ego and
activity disappears.
A New Definition of Medition
The meditation school had always conceived of enlightenment as a
kind of emptiness in which all learning and concepts were set
aside. This ideal was close to that of Laozi who taught that in
pursuit of Dao one "subtracts" every day. In principle,
enlightenment relied on no scriptural learning. Even the gradual
enlightenment school saw the attainment of prajna-wisdom as an
uncommunicable insight--but saw it as requiring long preparation
via sitting in silent meditation. The Sudden Enlightenment school,
in Daoist fashion, expressed its doctrine by also denying the
distinction between praja-wisdom (or satori, enlightenment, or any
other term for the goal of meditation) and ordinary consciousness.
Since there was nothing to achieve, meditation could not be a means
to it. Thus they reinterpreted meditation to be the practical
attitudes one takes when one has abandoned the distinction.
Meditation became the ongoing awareness that one is already Buddha,
not as a step toward getting there. Where Mahayana had first made
us imagine that our neighbor might be Buddha, Chan teaches that we
ourselves are.
Hu Shi cites an ancient summary of Chan doctrines which includes
all the following sayings:
There is neither Truth [Dharma] to bind us, nor Buddhahood to
attain.
Even if there be a life better than Nirvana, I say that that too
is as unreal as a dream.
There is neither cultivation, nor no‑cultivation; there is
neither Buddha, nor no‑Buddha.
The Tao is everywhere and in everything. Every idea, every
movement of the body‑‑a cough, a sigh, a snapping of the fingers,
or raising of the eyebrows is the functioning of the Buddha‑nature
in man. Even love, anger, covetousness and hate are all
functionings of the Buddha‑nature.
Let the mind be free. Never seek to do good, nor seek to do
evil, nor seek to cultivate the Tao. Follow the course of Nature,
and move freely. Forbid nothing, and do nothing. That is the way of
the 'free man,' who is also called the 'super‑man.'
Hu Shi: "Chan Buddhism in China: Its History and Method."
You are Already Buddha!
If all true existence is Buddha nature, then everything truly
already is Buddha nature. Hence there is nothing to change, nothing
to achieve, nothing to do. Chan is the antithesis of Buddhism set
right within the religion itself. One familiar feature of Buddhism
is its opposition to eating meat and its consequent classification
of butchers as the lowest profession. Chinese Chan is replete with
stories of the enlightenment of Butchers (no doubt reflecting the
popularity of Zhuangzi's story of Cook Ting). A proverb has it "He
puts down his butcher's cleaver and he is Buddha."
It may seem puzzling that Chan, which we think of as a model of
Chinese Buddhist doctrine would be anti-Buddhist, but let us look
at the description given by a contemporary opponent of the Chan
movement in China.
Nowadays, few men have the true faith. Those who travel the path
of Ch'an go so far as to teach the people that there is neither
Buddha, nor Law (dharma) and that neither sin nor goodness has any
significance. When they preach these doctrines to the average men
or men below the average, they are believed by all those who live
their lives of worldly desires. Such ideas are accepted as great
truths which sound so pleasing to the ear. And the people are
attracted by them just as the moths in the night are drawn to their
burning death by the candle light. . . Such doctrines are as
injurious and dangerous as the devil (Mara) and the ancient
heretics.
Liang Su (753-793) quoted by Hu Shi: "Chan Buddhism in China:
Its History and Method."
Of course, the paradoxical location of Chan within Buddhism is
sound. Its fueled its rejection of Buddhist orthodoxy by its
internal contradictions and paradoxes. They are indeed following
Buddhist doctrine in abandoning it.
Feng Yu-lan, a modern historian of Chinese philosophy, agrees
that Chan is not a single school but a widespread social phenomenon
with common "popular" traits. He lists five views shared by nearly
all the various original Chan schools in Tang China:
1.The Highest Truth is inexpressible.
Spiritual cultivation cannot be cultivated.
In the last resort, nothing is gained.
There is nothing much in Buddhist teaching.
In carrying water and chopping wood, therein lies the wonderful
Dao.
These "doctrines" however, are expressed in the numerous stories
that circulated as Chan worked its Daoist revolution on orthodox
Buddhism. Let us look at some:
22. Happy Chinaman
Hotei, the laughing Buddha, is usually portrayed as a fat fellow
carrying a linen sack.
This Hotei lived in the Tang dynasty. He had no desire to call
himself a Zen master or to gather many disciples about him. Instead
he walked the streets with a big sack into which he would put gifts
of candy fruit, or doughnuts. These he would give to children who
gathered around him in play. He established a kindergarten of the
streets.
Whenever he met a Zen devotee he would extend his hand and say:
"Give me one penny." And if anyone asked him to return to a temple
to teach others, again he would reply: "Give me one penny."
Once as he was about his play‑work another Zen master happened
along and inquired: "What is the significance of Zen?"
Hotei immediately plopped his sack down on the ground in silent
answer.
"Then," asked the other, "what is the actualization of Zen?"
At once the Happy Chinaman swung the sack over his shoulder and
continued on his way.
3. Gutei's Finger
Gutei raised his finger whenever he was asked a question about
Zen. A boy attendant began to imitate him in this way. When anyone
asked the boy what his master had preached about, the boy would
raise his finger.
Gutei heard about the boy's mischief. He seized him and cut off
his finger. The boy cried and ran away. Gutei called and stopped
him. When the boy turned his head to Gutei, Gutei raised up his own
finger. In that instant the boy was enlightened.
When Gutei was about to pass from this world he gathered his
monks around him. "I attained my finger‑Zen" he said, "from my
teacher Tenryu, and in my whole life I could not exhaust it"' Then
he passed away.
8. Tozan'sThree Pound.
A monk asked Tozan when he was weighing some flax: "What is
Buddha?"
Tozan said: "This flax weighs three pounds."
22. Kashapa's Preaching Sign
Ananda asked Kashapa: "Buddha gave you the golden‑woven robe of
successorship. What else did he give you?"
Kashapa said:"Ananda."
Arlanda answered: "Yes, brother."
Said Kashapa: "Now you can take down my preaching sign and put
up your own."
24. Without Words, Without Silence
A monk asked Fuketsu: "Without speaking without silence, how can
you express the truth?"
Fuketsu observed: "I always remember springtime in southern
China. The birds sing among innumerable kinds of fragrant
flowers."
Selected from Zen Flesh, Zen Bones, by Paul Reps.
Here in my place, I have not a single truth to give you. My work
is only to free men from their bondage, to heal their illness, and
to beat the ghosts out of them.
Inwardly and outwardly, do try to kill everything that comes in
your way. If the Buddha be in your way, kill the Buddha. If the
Patriarchs be in your way, kill the Patriarchs. If the Arahats be
in your way, kill them. If your father and mother be in your way,
kill them too.... That is the only path to your liberation, your
freedom.
"Be independent, and cling to nothing.... Even though Heaven and
Earth are turned upside down, I doubt not. Even though all the
Buddhas appear before my eyes, I have not the slightest gladness at
heart. Even though the hellfire of all the three underworlds burst
open before me, I have not the slightest fear."
"Recognize yourself! Wherefore do you seek here and seek there
for your Buddhas and your Bodhisattvas? Wherefore do you seek to
get out of the three worlds? O ye fools, where do you want to
go?"
Hu Shi: "Chan Buddhism in China: Its History and Method."
Attributed to Yixuan (died 866).
These stories illustrate the first maxim. When asked for some
content of Chan teaching or the point of Chan, the master instead
gives some perfectly mundane ordinary truth—or says nothing at
all.
The following illustrate the second maxim: Spiritual cultivation
cannot be cultivated.
34. Learning Is Not the Path
Nansen said: "Mind is not Buddha. Learning is not the path."
41. Bodhidharma Pacifies the Mind
Bodhidharma sits facing the wall. His future successor stands in
the snow and presents his severed arm to Bodhidharma. He cries: "My
mind is not pacified. Master, pacify my mind."
Bodhidharma says: "If you bring me that mind, I will pacify it
for you."
The successor says: "When I search my mind I cannot hold
it."
Bodhidharma says: "Then your mind is pacified already."
Mumon's comment: That broken‑toothed old Hindu, Bodhidharma,
came thousands of miles over the sea from India to China as if he
had something wonderful. He is like raising waves without wind.
After he remained years in China he had only one disciple and that
one lost his arrn and was deformed. Alas, ever since he has had
brainless disciples.
Selected from Zen Flesh, Zen Bones.
The key to this second maxim already lay in Hui Neng's poem
expressing his understanding—there cannot be any dust (illusions)
to be wiped away. The mind is already clean and pure. Beyond
accepting our self-nature, there is nothing to do. Of course,
accepting our self nature means doing all kinds of ordinary things.
We do them with focused concentration and calmness we saw
illustrated in the Zhuangzi. In Japan, Zen became integral to a
wide range of cultivated arts, most famously the martial arts,
flower arranging and tea-making. However, any action can be a
theatre for the expression of Chan/Zen meditation.
19. "Now, this being the case, in this method,what is meant by
sitting in meditation? In this method, to sit means to be free from
all obstacles, and externally not to allow thought to rise from the
mind over any sphere of objects. To meditate means to realize the
imperturbability of one's original nature. What is meant by
meditation and calmness? Meditation means to be free from all
characters externally, calmness means to be unpeturbed internally.
If there are characters outside and the inner mind is not
disturbed, one's original nature is naturally pure and calm. It is
only because of the spheres of objects that there is contact, and
contact leads to perturbation. There is calmness when one is free
from characters and is not perturbed. There is meditation when one
is externally free from characters, and there is calmness when one
is internally undisturbed. Meditation and calmness mean that
external meditation is attained and internal calmness is achieved.
The Wei-mo-chieh [so-shuo] ching says, 'Immediately we become
completely clear and recover our original mind.' The P'u-sa chieh
ching (Scripture of Disciplines for Bodhisattvahood) says, 'We are
originally pure in our self-nature.' Good and learned friends,
realize that your self nature is naturally pure. cultivate and
achieve for yourselves the Law-body of your self-nature. Follow the
way of the Buddha yourselves. Act and achieve Buddhahood for
yourselves."
Chan, Sourcebook p. 436
"What is meant by the Pure [Law] of the Buddha? Good and learned
friends, our nature is originally pure. All dharmas lie in this
self-nature. If we think of all kinds of evil deeds, we will
practice evil. If we think of all kinds of good deeds, we will do
good. Thus we know that all dharmas lie in one's self-nature.
Self-nature is always pure, just as the sun and moon are always
shining. It is only when they are obscured by clouds that there is
brightness above but darkness below and the sun, the moon, and the
stars cannot be seen. But when suddenly a gentle wind blows and
scatters all clouds and fog, all phenomena are abundantly spread
out before us, all appearing together.
Chan, Sourcebook p. 437
17. Stingy in Teaching
A young physician in Tokyo named Kusuda me a college friend who
had been studying Zen. The young doctor asked him what Zen was.
"I cannot tell you what it is," the friend replied, abut one
thing is certain. If you understand Zen, you will not be afraid to
die."
That's fine," said Kusuda. "I will try it. Where can I find a
teacher?"
"Go to the master Nan‑in," the friend told him.
So Kusuda went to call on Nan‑in. He carried a dagger nine and a
half inches long to determine whether or not the teacher himself
was afraid to die.
When Nan‑in saw Kusuda he exclaimed: "Hello friend. How are you?
We haven't seen each other for a long time!"
This perplexed Kusuda, who replied: 'We have never met
before."
"That's right," answered Nan‑in. "I mistook you for another
physician who is receiving instruction here."
With such a beginning, Kusuda lost his chance to test the
master, so reluctantly he asked if he might receive Zen
instruction.
Nan‑in said: "Zen is not a difficult task. If you are a
physician, treat your patients with kindness. That is Zen."
Kusuda visited Nan‑in three times. Each time Nan‑in told him the
same thing. "A physician should not waste time around here. Go home
and take care of your patients."
It was not yet clear to Kusuda how such teaching could remove
the fear of death. So on his fourth visit he complained: "My friend
told me that when one learns Zen one loses his fear of death. Each
time I come here all you tell me is to take care of my patients. I
know that much. If that is your so‑called Zen, I am not going to
visit you any more."
Nan‑in smiled and patted the doctor. 'I have been too strict
with you. Let me give you a koan." He presented Kusuda with Joshu's
Mu to work over, which is the first mind‑enlightening problem in
the book called The Gateless Gate.
Kusuda pondered this problem of Mu (NoThing) for two years. At
length he thought he had reached certainty of mind. But his teacher
commented: "You are not in yet."
Kusuda continued in concentration for another year and a half.
His mind became placid. Problems dissolved. No‑Thing became the
truth. He served his patients well and, without even knowing it, he
was free from concern over life and death.
Then when he visited Nan‑in, his old teacher just smiled.
35. Every‑Minute Zen
Zen students are with their masters at least ten years before
they presume to teach others. Nan‑in was visited by Tenno, who,
having passed his apprenticeship, had become a teacher. The day
happened to be rainy, so Tenno wore wooden clogs and carried an
umbrella. After greeting him Nan‑in remarked: "'I suppose you left
your wooden clogs in the vestibule. I want to know if your umbrella
is on the right or left side of the clogs."
Tenno, confused, had no instant answer. He realized that he was
unable to carry his Zen every minute. He became Nan‑in's pupil, and
he studied six more years to accomplish his every‑minute Zen.
80. The Real Miracle
When Bankei was preaching at Ryumon temple, a Shinshu priest,
who believed in salvation through the repetition of the name of the
Buddha of Love, was jealous of his large audience and wanted to
debate with him.
Bankei was in the midst of a talk when the priest appeared, but
the fellow made such a disturbance that Bankei stopped his
discourse and asked about the noise.
"The founder of our sect," boasted the priest, "had such
miraculous powers that he held a brush in his hand on one bank of
the river, his attendant held up a paper on the other bank, and the
teacher wrote the holy name of Amida through the air. Can you do
such a wonderful thing?"
Bankei replied lightly: "Perhaps your fox can perform that
trick, but that is not the manner of Zen. My miracle is that when I
feel hungry I eat, and when I feel thirsty I drink."
Selected from Zen Flesh, Zen Bones.
Fung's third precept is most famously expressed by the
quasi-paradoxical Buddhist saying about the transformation of
mountains during enlightenment. Before one hears about Buddhism,
the mountains appear as mountains. When one begins to study
Buddhism (especially the doctrine of illusion) the Mountains seem
to disappear. After enlightenment, the mountains again appear as
mountains. In the last resort, nothing is gained.
"The Teacher said 'formerly . . . there was a certain disciple
who stayed at the Square Pool Chan Monastery at Shi-fang in
Han-zhou There he made a poem which he displayed widely and which
read: "In the square pool there is a turtle-nosed serpent.
Ridiculous indeed when you come to think of it! Who pulled out the
serpent's head?"' . . . . "The Emperor said: 'Another line is
needed.' 'It was only made with three lines,' replied the Teacher.
'Why only three lines?' asked the Emperor. The Teacher replied:
'His idea was to wait (for someone else to finish the poem). For
two hundred years no one was able to add anything, but later an old
monk of the Ta Sui (Monastery), named Yuan-qing after reading over
the first three lines, made a statement of his own which said: "In
the square pool there is a turtle-nosed serpent" ' " (28.663).
Fung p. 401
18. A Parable
Buddha told a parable in a sutra:
A man traveling across a field encountered a tiger. He fled, the
tiger after him. Coming to a precipice, he caught hold of the root
of a wild vine and swung himself down over the edge. The tiger
sniffed at him from above. Trembling, the man looked down to where,
far below, another tiger was waiting to eat him. Only the vine
sustained him.
Two mice, one white and one black, little by little started to
gnaw away the vine. The man saw a luscious strawberry near him.
Grasping the vine with one hand, he plucked the strawberry with the
other. How sweet it tasted!
34. A Smile in His Lifetime
Mokugen was never known to smile until his last day on earth.
When his time came to pass away he said to his faithful ones: "You
have studied under me for more than ten years. Show me your real
interpretation of Zen. whoever expresses this most clearly shall be
my successor and receive my robe and bowl."
Everyone watched Mokugen's severe face, but no one answered.
Encho, a disciple who had been with his teacher for a long time,
moved near the bedside. He pushed forward the. medicine cup a few
inches. This was his answer to the command.
The teacher's face became even more severe. "Is that all you
understand?" he asked.
Encho reached out and moved the cup back again.
A beautiful smile broke over the features of Mokugen. "You
rascal," he told Encho. "You worked with me ten years and have not
yet seen my whole body. Take the robe and bowl. They belong to
you."
70. The Most Valuable Thing in the World
Sozan, a Chinese Zen master, was asked by a student: "What is
the most valuable thing in the world?"
The master replied: "The head of a dead cat."
"Why is the head of a dead cat the most valuable thing in the
world?" inquired the student.
Sozan replied: "Because no one can name its price.
1. Joshu's Dog
A monk asked Joshu, a Chinese Zen master: "Has a dog
Buddha‑nature or not?"
Joshu answered: "µL wulack."
Selections from Zen Flesh, Zen Bones.
As we saw, the Chan "theory" mainly takes Buddhist paradoxes to
their logical conclusion—thus becoming Buddhism's own antithesis.
The effect of eliminating the distinction between Nirvana and
Samsara, between meditation and ordinary consciousness, is to
abandon both the traditional Buddhist goal and the means to that
goal, is that one rejects Buddhism. There is nothing much in
Buddhist teaching. The best place to be is not to take it up at
all! The next best is, having heard it, to ignore it. Chan affirmed
ordinary consciousness in action. This rejection in China included
rejecting a lot of Buddhist morality and deliberately flouting
precepts in ways that would shock pious Buddhists.
More Zen Stories. . . .
The following are from "Recorded conversations of I-Hsüan"
9. When the Master was among Huang‑po's congregation, his
conduct was very pure. The senior monk said with a sigh, Although
he is young, he is different from the rest!" He then asked, "Sir,
how long have you been here?"
The Master said, "Three years."
The senior monk said, "Have you ever gone to the head monk
(Huangpo) and asked him questions?"
The Master said, "I have not. I wouldn't know what to ask."
The senior monk said, "Why don't you go and ask the head monk
what the basic idea of the Law preached by the Buddha clearly
is?"
The Master went and asked the question. But before he finished,
Huang‑po beat him. When he came back, the senior monk asked him how
the conversation went. The Master said, "Before I finished my
question, he already had beaten me. I don't understand The senior
monk told him to go and ask again.
The Master did and Huang‑po beat him again. In this way he asked
three times and got beaten three times.... Huang‑po said, "If you
go to Ta‑yu's place, he will tell you why."
The Master went to Ta‑yu, who asked him, "Where have you come
from?"
The Master said, "I am from Huang‑po's place."
Ta‑yu said, "What did Huang‑po have to say?"
The Master said, "I asked three times about the basic idea of
the Law preached by the Buddha and I was beaten three times. I
don't know if I was mistaken."
Ta‑yu said, "Old kindly Huang‑po has been so earnest with you
and you still came here to ask if you were mistaken!"
As soon as the Master heard this, he understood and said, "After
all, there is not much in Huang‑po's Buddhism." (TSD, 47:504)
6. Question: "What is meant by the mind's not being different at
different times?"
The Master answered, "As you deliberated to ask the question,
your mind has already become different. Therefore the nature and
character of dharmas have become differentiated. Seekers of the
Way, do not make any mistake. All mundane and supramundane dharmas
have no nature of their own. Nor have they the nature to be
produced [by causes]. They have only the name Emptiness, but even
the name is empty. Why do you take this useless name as real? You
are greatly mistaken! . . . If you seek after the Buddha, you will
be taken over by the devil of the Buddha, and if you seek after the
patriarch, you will be taken over by the devil of the patriarch. If
you seek after anything, you will always suffer. It is better not
to do anything. Some unworthy priests tell their disciples that the
Buddha is the ultimate, and that he went through three infinitely
long periods, fulfilled his practice, and then achieved Buddhahood.
Seekers of the Way, if you say that the Buddha is the ultimate, why
did he die lying down sidewise in the forest in Kusinagara after
having lived for eighty years? Where is he now?. . . Those who
truly seek after the Law will have no use for the Buddha. They will
have no use for the bodhisattvas or arhats. And they will have no
use for any excellence in the Three Worlds (of desires, matter, and
pure spirit). They will be distinctly free and not bound by
material things. Heaven and earth may turn upside down but I shall
have no more uncertainty. The Buddhas of the ten cardinal
directions may appear before me and I shall not feel happy for a
single moment. The three paths (of fire, blood, and swords) to hell
may suddenly appear, but I shall not be afraid for a single moment.
Why? Because I know that all dharmas are devoid of characters. They
exist when there is transformation [in the mind] and cease to exist
when there is no transformation. The Three Worlds are but the mind,
and all dharmas are consciousness only. Therefore [they are all]
dreams, illusions, and flowers in the air. What is the use of
grasping and seizing them?. . .
"I have no trick to give people. I merely cure disease and set
people free.... My views are few. I merely put on clothing and eat
meals as usual, and pass my time without doing anything. You people
coming from the various directions have all made up your minds to
seek the Buddha, seek the Law, seek emancipation, and seek to leave
the Three Worlds. Crazy people! If you want to leave the Three
Worlds, where can you go? 'Buddha' and 'patriarchs' are terms of
praise and also bondage. Do you want to know where the Three Worlds
are? They are right in your mind which is now listening to the
Law." (TSD, 47:499‑500)
5. The Master told the congregation: "Seekers of the Way. In
Buddhism no effort is necessary. All one has to do is to do
nothing, except to move his bowels, urinate, put on his clothing,
eat his meals, and lie down if he is tired. The stupid will laugh
at him, but the wise one will understand. An ancient person said,
'One who makes effort externally is surely a fool.'" (TSD,
47:498)
2. The Master ascended the hall and said, "Over a lump of
reddish flesh there sits a pure man who transcends and is no longer
attached to any class of Buddhas or sentient beings. He comes in
and out of your sense organs all the time. If you are not yet clear
about it, look, look!"
At that point a monk came forward and asked, "What is a pure man
who does not belong to any class of Buddhas or sentient beings?"
The Master came right down from his chair and, taking hold of the
monk, exclaimed, "Speak! Speak!" As the monk deliberated what to
say, the Master let him go, saying, "What dried human
excrement‑removing stick is the pure man who does not belong to any
class of Buddhas or sentient beings!" Thereupon he returned to his
room. (TSD, 47:496)
Chan Sourcebook
My advice to you is take a rest and have nothing to do. Even if
that little blue‑eyed barbarian, Bodhidharma, should come back here
and now, he could only teach you to do nothing. Put on your
clothes, eat your food, and move your bowels. That's all. No
life‑and‑death [cycle] to fear. No transmigration to dread. No
nirvana to achieve, and no bodhi to acquire. Just try to be an
ordinary human being, having nothing to do.
Here, there is neither Buddha, nor Patriarchs.... The
bodhisattvas are only dung‑heap coolies. Nirvana and bodhi are dead
stumps to tie your donkeys to. The twelve divisions of the Sacred
Teaching are only lists of ghosts, sheets of paper fit only for
wiping the pus from your boils. And all the 'four fruitions' and
'ten stages' are mere ghosts lingering in their decayed graves.
Have these anything to do faith your salvation?"
The wise seek not the Buddha. The Buddha is the great murderer
who has seduced so many people into the pitfalls of the
prostituting Devil." "That old barbarian rascal {Buddha] claimed
that he had survived the destruction of three worlds. Where is he
now? Did he not die after eighty years of life? Was he in any way
different from you?" "O ye wise men, disengage your bodies and your
minds! Free yourselves from all bondages.
Hu Shi: "Chan Buddhism in China: Its History and Method."
(attributed to Xuan‑qien d. 865)
14. Muddy Road
Tanzan and Ekido were once traveling together down a muddy road.
A heavy rain was still falling.
Coming around a bend, they met a lovely girl in a sink kimono
and sash, unable to cross the intersection.
"Come on, girl," said Tanzan at once. Lifting her in his arms,
he carried her over the mud.
Ekido did not speak again until that night when they reached a
lodging temple. Then he no longer could restrain himself. "We monks
don't go near females," he told Tanzan, "especially not young and
lovely ones. It is dangerous. Why did you do that?"
"I left the girl there," said Tanzan. "Are you still carrying
her?'
76. The Stone Mind
Hogen, a Chinese Zen teacher, lived alone in a small temple in
the country. One day four traveling monks appeared and asked if
they might make a fire in his yard to warm themselves.
While they were building the fire, Hogen heard them arguing
about subjectivity and objectivity. He joined them and said: "There
is a big stone. Do you consider it to be inside or outside your
mind?"
One of the monks replied: "From the Buddhist viewpoint
everything is an objectification of mind, so I would say that the
stone is inside my mind."
"Your head must feel very heavy," observed Hogen, "if you are
carrying around a stone like that in your mind."
4. A Beardless Foreigner
Wakuan complained when he saw a picture of bearded Bodhidharma:
"Why hasn't that fellow a beard?'
14. Nansen Cuts the Cat in Two
Nansen saw the monks of the eastern and western halls fighting
over a cat. He seized the cat and told the monks: "If any of you
say a good word, you can save the cat."
No one answered. So Nansen boldly cut the cat in two pieces.
That evening Joshu returned and Nansen told him about this.
Joshu removed his sandals and, placing them on his head, walked
out.
Nansen said: "If you had been there, you could have saved the
cat."
Selections from Zen Flesh, Zen Bones
One of Ma‑tsu's famous disciples, T'ien‑jan (died 824) of
Tanhsia (Tanka in Japanese), was spending a night at a ruined
temple with a few traveling companions. The night was bitterly cold
and there was no firewood. He went to the Hall of Worship, took
down the wooden image of the Buddha, and made a comfortable fire.
When he was reproached by his comrades for this act of sacrilege,
he said: "I was only looking for the sarira (sacred relic) of the
Buddha." "How can you expect to find sarira in a piece of wood?"
said his fellow travelers. "Well," said T'ien‑jan, "then, I am only
burning a piece of wood after all."
Hu Shi: "Chan Buddhism in China: Its History and Method."
The final common precept we have seen scattered through all the
stories. It alludes to Hui Neng's profession and is expressed in
Daoist rather than Buddhist terms. Chan can be be practiced in any
activity. Hui Neng reached his enlightenment chopping and carrying
wood and pounding rice. As we noted above, the Chan meditative
state is a state that accompanies any purposive activity when we
are totally engaged in it for its own sake, and not seeking some
metaphysical goal. In that kind of calm absorption in what we are
doing, even the ego dissolves so that we are, as it were, one with
the activity. While the most famous examples of such action tend to
be arts—martial arts to painting and flower arranging, ritual acts
are natural expressions (as in the Japanese Tea Ceremony or
Confucian rituals). Confucianism frowned on buying and selling,
money handling etc. as occupations so the Chan school supplied the
mercantile class in China.
What’s a Zen Master to Do?
Another occupation a person may have is "Buddhist master." And
Chan masters had no more reason to abandon doing that than Zhuangzi
had to abandon language. People still came to them having heard
about Buddhism and trying to achieve something and the master still
has to find a way to heal their affliction—their desire to achieve
some Buddhist goal. In doing this, they found the best thing was to
force the student to think things through the self-healing
conclusion on their own.
The iconoclastic stories and sayings they used to stimulate the
student's own reflection have become strongly associated with
Chan/Zen. The most famous is the activity of meditating on a Koan
(a riddle with no solution). The point of the iconoclasm and the
koan is to force the student to abandon the attempt to get
"ultimate" answers and get on with life. A Zen "meditation" session
invariably includes a "walking Zen" component. A master would often
"teach" a disciple by throwing him out of the temple and sending
him to walk about in the world. There, in a chance meeting with a
small child by a well who gives him a gift or a farmer behind his
ox, he may get the point that he would never see while in the
Temple.
Chan Buddhism thus developed a characteristic pedagogy (teaching
style). It included, besides shocking statements and Koans,
shouting, spitting, and beating the student when they asked too
persistently for answers to metaphysical of Buddhist questions.
The following are from "Recorded conversations of I-Hsüan"
A monk asked, "What is the basic idea of the Law preached by the
Buddha?" Thereupon the Master shouted at him. The monk paid
reverence.
The Master said, "The Master and the monk can argue all
right."
Question: "Master, whose tune are you singing? Whose tradition
are you perpetuating?"
The Master said, "When I was a disciple of Huang‑po, I asked him
three times and I was beaten three times."
As the monk hesitated about what to say, the Master shouted at
him and then beat him, saying, "Don't nail a stick into empty
space.''
3. The Master ascended the hall. A monk asked, "What is the
basic idea of the Law preached by the Buddha?" The Master lifted up
his swatter. The monk shouted, and the Master beat him.
[The monk asked again], "What is the basic idea of the Law
preached by the Buddha?" The Master again lifted up his swatter.
The monk shouted, and the Master shouted also. As the monk
hesitated about what to say, the Master beat him.
Thereupon the Master said, "Listen, men. Those who pursue after
the Law will not escape from death. I was in my late Master
Huang‑po's place for twenty years. Three times I asked him about
the basic idea of the Law preached by the Buddha and three times he
bestowed upon me the staff. I felt I was struck only by a dried
stalk. Now I wish to have a real beating. Who can do it to me?"
One monk came out of the group and said, "I can do it."
The Master picked up the staff to give him. As he was about to
take it over, the Master beat him. (TSD, 47:496‑497)
7. Ma‑ku came to participate in a session. As he arranged his
seating cushion, he asked, "Which face of the twelve‑face Kuan‑yin
faces the proper direction?"
The Master got down from the rope chair. With one hand he took
away Ma‑ku's cushion and with the other he held Ma‑ku, saying,
Which direction does the twelve‑face Kuan‑yin face?"
Ma‑ku turned around and was about to sit in the rope chair. The
Master picked up the staff and beat him. Ma‑ku having grasped the
staff, the two dragged each other into the room.
8. The Master asked a monk: "Sometimes a shout is like the
sacred sword of the Diamond King. Sometimes a shout is like a
golden‑haired lion squatting on the ground. Sometimes a shout is
like a rod or a piece of grass [used to attract fish]. And
sometimes a shout is like one which does not function as a shout at
all. How do you know which one to use?"
As the monk was deliberating what to say, the Master shouted.
(TSD, 47:504)
Chan Sourcebook
Warring Interpretations of Zen Stories
Pious Japanese Zen popularizes, especially those who make their
living writing pretentious books about Zen's irrationalism, treat
all these perfectly clear statements of Buddhist atheism as
evidence of its elevated and incomprehensible character. Here is Hu
Shi's description of the choice facing an adherent of Buddhism.
Thus, when the master Wen‑yen (died 949), founder of the Yunmen
School, was asked "What is the Buddha like?" he answered: "A dried
stick of dung." (This is so profanely iconoclastic that Suzuki
probably deliberately mistranslates it as "A dried‑up
dirt‑cleaner," which, of course, is incorrect and meaningless.)
Such an answer is not nonsensical at all; it harks back to the
iconoclastic teachings of his spiritual grandfather, Hsuan‑chien,
who had actually said: "The Buddha is a dried piece of dung of the
barbarians, and sainthood is only an empty name."
Hu Shi: "Chan Buddhism in China: Its History and Method."
The actions and statements are only incomprehensible mysteries
if you cling religiously to Buddhism. If you believed in God and
someone you accepted as his spokesman, as a religious leader said
"God is a pile of Dung," you would either have to: cease to regard
him as a spokesman, cease to believe in God, or treat his statement
as having some profoundly mysterious meaning.
The final pedagogical technique is the one where the master
kicks the disciple out of the temple. Sends him out into the world
to xing-jiao—learn from walking around. It fits in with the fifth
precept of Chan—Dao can be found in any activity. Here is Hu Shi's
description:
But the novice in all probability would not understand. So, he
retires to the kitchen and washes the dishes. He is puzzled and
feels ashamed of his failure to understand. After some time, he is
told to leave the place and try his luck elsewhere. Here he begins
the third stage of his education— the third and most important
phase of the pedagogical method, which was called hsing‑chiao
"traveling on foot."
Those critics who call the Ch'an method irrational and mystical
and, therefore, "absolutely beyond the ken of human understanding,"
are men who fail to appreciate the great educational value of this
third phase, which consists of sending the learner traveling from
one hill to another, from one school to another, studying under one
master and then another. Many of the famous Ch'an masters spent
fifteen or twenty or thirty years in traveling and studying under
many well‑known masters.
Let me cite what Chu Hsi said in deep appreciation of the value
of "traveling on foot" in the Ch'an schools. The great leader of
the Neo‑Confucianist movement was sick in bed and was approaching
his death, which came only a few months later. One of his favorite
mature disciples, Ch'en Ch'un had come to visit him and spend a few
days at his school. One evening, Chu Hsi in his sickbed said to the
visitor: "Now you must emulate the monk's method of hsing‑chiao
(traveling on foot). That will enable you to meet the best minds of
the empire, to observe the affairs and conditions of the country,
to see the scenery and topography of the mountains and rivers, and
to study the historical traces of the rise and fall, peace and war,
right and wrong, of the past and present governments. Only in that
way may you see the truth in all its varied respects.... There was
never a sage who knew nothing of the affairs of the world. There
was never a sage who could not deal with novel and changing
situations. There was never a sage who sat alone in meditation
behind closed doors...."
Let us return to our traveling novice, who, as a monk, travels
always on foot, carrying only a stick, a bowl, and a pair of straw
sandals. He begs all the way for his food and lodging, often having
to seek shelter in ruined temples, caves, or deserted houses by the
roadside. He suffers the severities of nature and sometimes has to
bear the unkindness of man.
He sees the world and meets all kinds of people. He studies
under the great minds of the age and learns to ask better questions
and have real doubts of his own. He befriends kindred souls with
whom he discusses problems and exchanges views. In this way, his
experience is widened and deepened, and his understanding grows.
Then, one day, he hears a chance remark of a charwoman, or a
frivolous song of a dancing girl, or smells the quiet fragrance of
a nameless flower—and he suddenly understands! How true, "the
Buddha was like a piece of dung"! And how true, "he is also like
three pounds of hemp"! All is so evident now. "The bottom has
dropped out of the bucket": the miracle has happened.
And he travels long distances back to his old master, and, with
tears and with gladness at heart, he gives thanks and worships at
the feet of his good ; teacher, who never made things easy for
him.
Hu Shi: "Chan Buddhism in China: Its History and Method."
The History of Chan and the Decline of Buddhism
Most sects of Buddhism in China survived on lavish imperial
patronage. The cost of their temples and paraphernalia necessary
for elaborate ritual was considerable. When the revival of
Confucianism led to persecutions of Buddhism during the T'ang
dynasty, sutras were destroyed, priests laicized, dwellings
converted to "human" use, slaves freed. Here is Hu Shi's
description of the great persecution.
But this reformation within Buddhism itself, this internal
revolution within a section of Buddhism, had not gone far enough or
long enough to save Buddhism from a catastrophic external
revolution. This external revolution came in August, 845, in the
form of the greatest persecution of Buddhism in the entire history
of its two thousand years in China
The Great Persecution was ordered by Emperor Wu‑tsung (841‑846),
who was undoubtedly under the strong influence of a few leading
Taoist priests. But the persecution of 845‑846, like those of 446,
574, and 955, also represented the deep‑rooted centuries‑long,
Chinese nationalistic resentment against Buddhism as a foreign and
un‑Chinese religion. Early in the ninth century, Han Yu (768‑824),
one of the greatest classical writers of China, published a famous
essay in which he openly denounced Buddhism as un‑Chinese, as a way
of life of the barbarians. He frankly advocated a ruthless
suppression: "Restore its people to human living! Burn its books!
And convert its buildings to human dwellings!" Twenty‑one years
after his death, those savage slogans were carried out in every
detail.
The Great Persecution lasted only two years, but long enough to
destroy 4,600 big temples and monasteries and over 40,000 minor
places of worship and Ch'an retreat, confiscate millions of acres
of landed property of the Church, free 150,000 male and female
slaves or retainers of the temples and monasteries, and force
265,000 monks and nuns to return to secular life. Only two temples
with thirty monks each were permitted to stand in each of the two
capitals, Changan and Loyang. Of the 228 prefectures in the Empire,
only the capital cities of the "first‑grade" prefectures were
permitted to retain one temple each with ten monks. Buddhist
scriptures and images and stone monuments were destroyed wherever
they were found. At the end of one of the persecution decrees,
after enumerating what had already been accomplished in the policy
of Buddhist persecution, the Emperor said: "Henceforth the affairs
of monks and nuns shall be governed by the Bureau of Affairs of
Foreigners, thereby to show clearly that they belong to the
religion of the barbarians."
The persecution, disastrous and barbaric as it was, probably had
the effect of enhancing the prestige of the Ch'an monks, who never
had to rely upon the great wealth or the architectural splendor and
extravagance of the great temples and monasteries. Indeed, they did
not have to rely even upon the scriptures. And at least some of
them had been theoretically or even overtly iconoclastic.
In one of the unusually frank biographical monuments of the
post‑ persecution period, the biographer of the monk Ling‑yu (died
853), a descendant of Ma‑tsu and founder of the Kwei‑shan and
Yang‑shan Schools of Ch'an, tells us that at the time of the Great
Persecution, Ling‑yu simply put on the cap and dress of the layman
when he was ordered to return to secular life. "He did not want to
be in any way different from the people," said the biographer. And
when the persecution was over and the Buddhist religion was
permitted to revive, the Governor of Hunan, who was a Buddhist and
a friend of many leading Ch'an masters including Tsung‑mi, invited
Ling‑yu to come out of his retirement and suggested that he should
shave off his beard and hair. He refused to shave, saying with a
smile: "Do you think that Buddhism has anything to do with my hair
and beard?" But when he was repeatedly urged to shave, he yielded,
again with a smile. That was the way a great Ch'an master looked at
the Great Persecution. He did not seem to have been much
disturbed.
Hu Shi: "Chan Buddhism in China: Its History and Method."
All these actions weakened establishment Buddhism relative to
Chan Buddhism which had no need for temples, rituals, robes,
shaving the head. The Chan masters could continue to perform
rituals when the persecution was over, but were still trying to
convey their iconoclastic, revolutionary views. This strengthened
their interest in indirect pedagogy--shocking the student into an
awareness that nothing needed to be done, that there was no serious
implication of Buddhist teaching.
Chan Buddhism is the spirit of Daoism in revolt against Buddhism
instead of Confucianism. It's language is different, but its thrust
is the same.
Important points to remember:
· The four noble truths generate a paradox—the paradox of
desire.
· The ultimate resolution of the paradox is the Chan (Zen)
conclusion that we are already Buddha.
· This insight is not merely an extreme Mahayana view, but an
expression of Daoism in Buddhist form.
· The Daoist key contributions are the view that we can
eliminate the desire for nirvana by “forgetting” the distinction
and Zhuangzi’s focus on the ecstatic performance of skill.
· Chan (Zen) stories seem to illustrate Fung’s 5 common beliefs
of Chinese Southern Chan Sects.
· Much of the spirit of Chan changed when it was transported to
Japan.
Questions for Review and Discussion
Explain the paradox of desire. How does Chan Buddhism push the
logic of the Mahayana answer further?
Does Chan Buddhism discover contradictions in reason or
rationality or does it discover only contradiction in Buddhism?
How could a Chan Buddhism justify going back into the temple and
working as a Buddhist master?
� Teaching that reality is phenomena, i.e., ideas or mental
realities.