THE CONTEMPLATIONS OF PATRIARCH CHAN

Guṇabhadra (求那跋陀羅), the First patriarch of Chan (394-468)

Guṇabhadra (求那跋陀羅, 394–468) means "merit-worthy" (功德賢). He was from central India. Being in the Brahmin caste, he studied astrology, literature, medicine, and mantra practices.

After studying the Heart Treatise on the Abhidharma, he renounced family life, and became a fully ordained monk, studying the Tripiṭaka of the Theravadins, then Mahāyāna teachings. With profound understanding of the Mahā-Prajñā-Pāramitā Sūtra and the Mahāvaipulya Sūtra of Buddha Adornment, he began to teach.

An important translator of central Indian origin who travelled to Sri Lanka and in 435, the twelfth year of the Yuanjia (元嘉) years of the Liu Song Dynasty (劉宋, 420–79), Guṇabhadra went to China by sea. Emperor Wen (文帝) sent an emissary to welcome him and led him to the Qihuan Temple (祇洹寺) in Jiankang (建康)(Nanjing).

With the help of Huiyan (慧嚴), Huiguan (慧觀), and student monks, he translated the Saṁyukta Āgama (T02n0099) in 50 fascicles.

Because of his contribution to the Mahāyāna teachings, people actually called him Mahāyāna. He translated, from Sanskrit into Chinese, fifty-two sūtras in 134 fascicles, including the Sūtra of the Great Dharma Drum, the Śrīmālādevi Sūtra, the 4-fascicle version of the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra, and the mantra for rebirth in Amitābha Buddha’s Pure Land. Guṇabhadra died in 468, at the age of seventy-five.

The Later patriarch

菩提達摩 Bodhidharma : बोधिधमृ;

Bodhidharma is really a complete mystery, for truth cannot be discerned from legend. In his case, even though his life and works have been manipulated, there is the benefit of numerous available excellent works attributed to him. The damage which has been done is the drawing away of attention of the valid contemplations and teachings of almost two generations of masters that have dissapeared from history.

The earliest records of Bodhidharma appear in the Luoyang SaṃgharāmaRecords edited in 547 (Records of the Buddhist Monasteries at Luoyang) (洛陽伽藍記) and the Xu Biographies of High Saṃghins (Continuation of the Biographies of Eminent Monks) (續高僧傳) written by Daoxin 道宣 (596–667).

The Saṃgharāma Records and Xu Biographies provide details of his life, including the fact that his teachings on Contemplation were criticized by others, but little is known with regard to his actual teachings. A later text, the Records of the Laṅkā Masters and Disciples (楞伽師資記), from which the Contemplation of Four Practices was redacted, remains also suspect.

The important texts attributed to Bodhidharma are:

Refuting Signs Treatise (破相論), the Breakthrough Sermon (also known as the Contemplation of Mind Treatise, 觀心論)

Treatise on Realizing the Nature (悟性論), the Wakeup Sermon

Treatise on the Blood Pulse (血脈論), the Bloodstream Sermon

Two Types of Entrance (二種入), the Outline of (Mahayana) Practice

Teaching of Pacifying the Mind (安心法門), the Gateless Barrier Case 41

Treatise of Two Entrances and Four Practices (二入四行論), also known as the Six Aspects of [Mount] Shaoshi (少室六門)

This Treatise of Two entrances and Four Practices has its six teachings on Verses on the Hṛdaya Sūtra (心經頌). Most scholars are in consensus that there is sufficient evidence to conclude that several of these are the work of later authors, and only the part concerning the Two Types of Entrance appears to be originally by Bodhidharma.

Entrance by Principle concerns essentials of the Laṅkā Masters, appears in the Supreme Vehicle Treatise (最上乘) by Hongren, together with the separate appearance of another text, the Contemplation Method of the South Indian Dhyāna Master Bodhidharma (南天竺國菩提達摩禪師觀門) which seems if not to attest to his authorship, and at least attests to his presence as an important master.

However he is referred to here as a Dhyana Master, which is a Master of Buddhadharma Jhana meditation. This suggests that the type of Chan contemplation which he is credited with did not come from India, but was developed by him or at the least attributed to him.

Two texts actually known now to have been written by Farong (法融) of the later Niutou model were previously attributed to Bodhidharma... They are The Treatise on No-mind (無心論) and The Treatise on Ending Observation (絕觀論).

Reading these texts is useful as far as understanding and practicing Dharma are concerned and we can see that both the meaning and goal of practice, e.g., paramārtha or "highest goal," combines the idea of “realizing the goal of Buddha-mind” (明佛心宗).

That all beings have the same nature is a central understanding of Tathāgata-garbha or Buddha-nature potential.

The notion generally asumed is that the Buddha-nature is covered by the adventitious defilements of unreal conceptualizations, and that the mind is originally pure (citta-prakṛti pariśuddha) or luminous (prabhāsvara) and that defilements are merely adventitious (āgantuka-kleśa). In other words, the Alaya mind can be flooded with the stained consciousness.

The Lankavatara sutra changes that a little because it only once mentions the idea of these soiled elements.

An interesting quotation is, “As to this Tathāgata-garbha is ālaya-vijñāna, it is seen by the minds of the śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas as impure due to their obscurations of adventitious defilements, when it is actually pure by own-nature, (thus) they are not Tathāgatas.” Now what the Lankavatara is pointing to, though never stating so, is close to the conceptualization of an unstained pure Buddha-mind, with Alaya being actually just a receptive consciouness for stains or purity, which is basically pure.

The text has several points with connotations of two of the own-natures –that unreal conceptualization is to be abandoned indicates the parikalpita, and subsequent realization of the real indicates the pariniṣpanna, which is pacified and unconditioned.

But while we can glean a great deal about Bodhidharma's base we learn nothing about the tecnique of "Wall contemplation".

We must reject any idea that this is vipassana or insight meditation.

We might consider that it is contemplation upon the non-self of phenomena, thus the abandonment of the unreal and realization of the accomplished nature.

That would make it a Contemplation upon Emptiness, but there is nothing in his teachings to support this. Rather there is an emphasis upon the Buddha-mind itself, and we may conclude it was indeed a direct contemplation of the Buddha mind.

While this is commendable and certainly the final experience may be an awakening to the nature of th Buddha-mind, contemplation shows that it is distant from the Direct contemplations later developed and certainly short of the direct (natural form) contemplations of Huineng.

What is the realization accompanying the Contemplation of the Buddha mind? IT DOES BRING A COMPLETE TRANQUILITY. It appears to be then actually access to the Alaya mind free from impediments, and this induces when transformed in the daily "presence" of that state in complete tranquility and a life free from defilements.

Since the Lankavatara never extends knowledge beyond the eigth consciousness, this is not surprising.

The later developed contemplations however are directed at and accomplish entry to the state of Ninth Consciousness being. We can then refer to these contemplations of Bodhidharma as Contemplation of the "Ultimate conceptualization of the Buddha mind", and differentiate that from the "Ultimate conceptualiztion of Freedom from the Stains of the Buddha-mind."