THE FIRST CHAN DHARMA ADVANCES
The Spirit of Contemplation
禪
The character pronounced "Chan" in Chinese ("Zen" in later Japanese) signifies “Meditation" or "Contemplation" as it is now understood and is a transliteration of the Sanskrit term "dhyana."
Yet Chan is a school that does not accept meditation as it is normally practiced or understood way, for it is not a means to escape suffering, to reach a better life, to attain Awakening, or even to attain a calming relaxation.
It emphasizes and practices contemplation in a Daoist sense as "total absorption" which is identical to the Mahamudra state than can accompany normal living. It is the task of the “awakening” to meld the understanding with the world of illusion in a manner in which the adept can use illusion yet never be trapped by that illusion converting it in the delusive view of duality.
This creates a different perspective with regard to the illusions of this life and generates what we can call a “Pure Land” perception free of mental, emotional or visceral contamination.
It is simply “being” and allowing the natural to occur without cognitive agitation or control. This re-converts the mind to its natural place as a tool and eliminates its delusive power as a master of attitudes, intentions and actions.
Indeed the traditional Dharmayana sitting meditation (zuo chan) is among the normal natural activities, but Chan gives us no particular reason to do that in preference to innumerable others. Awakening/absorption can be achieved at any moment and contemplation is part of the preparation for that moment.
This part of the web page clearly touches history. We are here not interested in the history of Buddha Dharma as such, but wish to simply allow the readers to ascertain which of the Chan Dharma teachers were less corrupted by modern Buddhism, political survival and custom. The masters here mentioned made their contribution to the teachings which brought us today the path of contemplation necessary to approach the Awakening with natural dignity.
The Chan Master Dharma Heirs
Often neglected in the history of Chan, many masters really set the footing for Chan in China, particularly with the development of the Prajnaparamitra ideas, the concept of the Buddha Nature and Sunyata.
Critical debates dominated Chinese Buddhist thought in the sixth century. On one side was a substantialistic nondual metaphysic whose eternalistic ground was variously called Buddha-nature, mind, tathāgatagarbha, Dharma-dhātu and suchness (tathatā; in Chinese, rulai).
We have as an integral part of progress in future Dharma teachings the emphasis on the teachings of Great Perfection of Wisdom, Prajna paramita:
Heart Sutra (Prajñāpāramitā Hṛdaya Sūtra)
Diamond Sutra (Prajñāpāramitā Vajraccedikā Sūtra)
The most antique of the prajnaparamita texts known is the Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra or Perfección of Wisdom in 8.000 línes, which was written about the year 100. It is one of the oldest of the Mahayana Sutras.
The contemplations of tathāgatagarbha then are actually directed without the reduced presence of the cognitive mind as the "last conceptualization of awareness, the awareness of awareness itself."
On the other side was metaphysical practice, emphasizing emptiness as the absence of permanent self-hood or independent essence in anything.
To the anti-substantialist the tathāgatagarbha position sounded dangerously close to the notion of eternalist, ratification of self-hood that Buddha had rejected.
"What exists does not coincide with paramarthasatya or shunyata, and what does not exist is not merely the negation of images. So even though 'existing' and 'non-existing' differ in respect to name, they are identical in reference. Things are like phantoms, men who exist but not as actual men."
The major thrust then is after the establishment of the basic concepts is to contemplate the last conceptualization of Empiness, namely, the emptiness of emptiness
The early Masters who set the base for all that followed in what was to become known as Chan, and examined, understood, and developed the subtleties of advanced theory which was used to build later direct contemplations are listed in the following sections.
The Masters of Chan in China
Compiled by Shan-jiàn
山见 大禅 师
Sources:
THE BLUE CLIFF RECORD (碧岩录)
The Blue Cliff Records (Chin. Pa-yan-lu; Jap. Heki-gan-roku) were compiled by Hsueh Tou Ch'ung Hsien (980-1152) and developed by Yuan-wu K'o-ch'in (1063-1135), a master belonging to the Yang-ch'i branch of the Lin-chi School – Abbot of a great monastery, the T'ien-ning Wan-shou-ssu in the northern Sung capital of Pien-liang.
It is based on a collection of ‘conceptually complex' Chan stories compiled around 1000 A.D. in the Sung dynasty. It is one of the two best known and most frequently studied collections of koans, or mind problems that can only be solved when the mind has exhausted cognition.
THE GATELESS GATE (無門關)
The Gateless Gate or The Gateless Barrier (Chin. Wu-wen kuan; Jap. Mumonkan). The author was Chinese Ch'an master Wu-men Hui-hai (無門慧開 Mumon Ekai, 1183-1260). It was compiled in the Sung dynasty and is one of the two best known and most frequently studied collections of koans.
THE RECORDS OF SILENCE, CHANYUEN-CHINGKUEI (禅苑清規)
The Dogen Texts (Chin. Chanyuen-chingkuei; Jap. Zennen-shingi) is the oldest extant set of Chan monastic regulations, written during the Northern Sung dynasty in China. In the Southern Sung dynasty, Dogen went to China and compiled the Chiji-shingi (1246) to adjust the Chinese monastic system to Japanese Buddhism.
DENKOROKU: The Record of the Transmission of the Light.
Attributed to the thirteenth-century Chan Master Keizan Jokin (1268-1325). Each chapter in the Denkoroku consists in four parts: the case -or koan- dealing with enlightenment, a brief biographical note on the patriarch, master Keizan's teisho on the case and a concluding poem. In its third and indisputably most important section, Keizan expounds with clarity the essence of Buddhism and Zen and descibes how to access it.
Denkoroku tells of the enlightenment of the fifty-three masters, beginning with Shakyamuni Buddha and concluding with the twelfth-century Chan Master Ejyo, who was Dogen’s student. Tras la muerte de Dogen, acaecida durante la segunda mitad del siglo XIII sus discípulos emprendieron la tarea de custodiar y difundir las enseñanzas del maestro. En Eihei-ji, una pequeña facción de sus discípulos consciente de su punto de vista suscitó considerables desórdenes, antagonismos y disputas. Anteriormente, los discípulos del maestro Dogen habían desempeñado cargos relevantes como monjes de distintas escuelas, como la Tendai o el linaje Daruna de Dainichi Nonin. Tras la muerte del maestro, sin embargo, se abrió una división sectaria acaudillada por el maestro Tettsu Gikai -tercer abad de Eihei-ji- y secundada por el maestro Keizan. After Dogen's death in the second half of the 13th century, his disciples undertook the task of guarding and disseminating the master's teachings. At Eihei-ji, a small faction of his students who were aware of his viewpoint gave rise to considerable disorder, antagonism and dispute. Before that, Dogen's disciples had assumed important positions as monks in different schools, such as Tendai or the Daruna lineage of Dainichi Nonin. After their master's death, however, a sectarian division opened up, led by master Tettsu Gikai -the third abbot at Eihei-ji- and backed by Keizan.
Master Gikai was a favorite of master Ejo's, in whom Dogen had placed his full trust. But the schism eventually led to Gikai's banishment from Eihei-ji when he was already seventy years old, whereas Keizan was only twenty. After a partisan, ideological and emotional dispute with the anti-Gikai faction, Keizan also left Eihei-ji and traveled to Kaga (Ishikawa prefecture), where Gikai had founded the Daijo-ji monastery.
Tras esta división los discípulos se diseminaron, los protectores del monasterio disminuyeron considerablemente, la comunidad perdió su antiguo ímpetu y la importancia de Eihei-ji comenzó a declinar. Keizan, que había sufrido en su propia persona los problemas suscitados por disputa interna de Eihei-ji que siguió a la muerte de Dogen, fue luego designado abad de Daijo-ji por el maestro Gikai y se dedicó a impartir la enseñanza que posteriormente fue recogida y terminó dando forma al Denkoroku. En parte, el Denkoroku fue escrito para rebatir las críticas al maestro Gikai y consolidar su legitimidad y ratificó la enseñanza de que el zazen era la esencia de la iluminación budista -un tópico que había comenzado a debilitarse la disputa de Eihei-ji.
After this split, disciples parted ways, protectors of the monastery fell in number, the community lost its former momentum and Eihei-ji begain to decline in importance. Keizan, who had suffered himself the problems raised by inner disputes at Eihei-ji following Dogen's death, was later appointed abbot of Daijo-ji by master Gikai and devoted himself to imparting the teaching that was later collected and eventually took form as the Denkoroku. The treatise was composed in part to refute criticisms of master Gikai and to consolidate his legitimacy and ratified the teaching that zazen was the essence of Buddhist enlightenment -a topic that had begun to lose power after the disputes at Eihei-ji.
LENGQIE SHIZI JI (楞伽師資記), Record of the Masters and Disciples of the Lankavatara, by Jingjueh (683-750)