B. THE MASTERS OF THE LANKAVATARA DECEPTION

In construction

如來禪

祖師禪

Historical Duality

THE LANKAVATARA HERITAGE

Two Truths

 Patriarchal Chan and Tathagata Chan

When we discover that history has been manipulated we cannot always tell whether there has been a genuine mistake made by historians or a convenient deviation prompted by expediency, a fraud or a surplus of identity zeal.

However in the case of the history of Chan there appears to be a clear mixture of fraud and the wrong sort of expedient means. In Buddha Dharma discipline, expedient means must only be used when there is clear benefit for correct Dharma teaching and no vested interest in the outcome.

 Here that is not the case.

In the case of the manipulations in Chan history we must examine who the victims might be, for we know when and why these manipulations took place.

While the great masters Bodhidharma, Huike, Sengcan, Daoxin, and Hongren are neither victims nor deceivers, they were the tools used to generate the first art of the great deception, which was to gain authority for the prevalent teachings by linking the Chinese new understanding of Buddha Dharma with the Indian masters and thus to Buddha himself.

Who were the victims? Unfortunately the victims were and still are every interested human creature that is upon the path of the Dharma. The crime is that they no longer have available the practices and contemplations which were lost in the great deception.

It was fortunate for the deceivers that there was little really known about these early masters, and thatwhich made the deception easier. And while the deception continues in place, generating sectarian folly and Dharma Identity, generated when the blind lead the blind through ignorance and the double-edged tool of communication, Dharma will be strangled internally while appearing vigorous externally.

What clearly developed however was different emphasis in two alternative directions.

The Patriarchal (The Nature of Buddha) Teaching

The Lankavatara Sutra is crucial to this teaching, in which Emptiness is central. On setting aside or passing through emptiness one encounters the Mind of Buddha.

The Realization of this mind brings the tranquil and serene mind freedom from impediments. It is not declaring that every man has a Buddha nature which can be reached, but rather the Nature of Buddha can be revealed to transform man.

The Tathagatagarbha (The Buddha Nature) Teaching

The tathagatagarbha teaching can be found in such texts as the Srimala, the Tathagatagarbha, the Surangama, and the Perfect Enlightenment Sutras, and particularly in “Appearance of the Tathagata” chapter, and in the Ratnagotravibhaga of the Garland or Avatamsaka Sutra.

It is true that the tathagatagarbha ideas are also found in the Lankavatara Sutra and the Trust-Mind Inscription, but in these two texts it is combined with the doctrine of alayavijnana mind-only doctrine.

The tathagatagarbha is conceived of as an indestructible essence present in all sentient beings which is the cause for both the ultimate reality and the realm of phenomenal appearances. It is the Alaya base.

It is the Suchness of things. It is not Emptiness itself, but an expression of their emptiness, their true nature.

The tathagatagarbha doctrine alleges that all living beings are endowed with the Alaya True Mind, which is fundamentally awakened and pure by nature, and is only covered with defilements through the action of the seventh consciousness.

Zongmi explains the tathagatagarbha doctrine in the following manner:

This teaching says that all sentient beings possess the true mind of emptiness and quiescence, whose nature is without inception fundamentally pure. Bright, unobscured, astute, and constantly aware, it constantly abides to the end of time.

It is called Buddha-nature; it is also called tathagatagarbha and mind-ground.

From time without beginning it has been concealed by false thoughts, [sentient beings] cannot realize it, and thereby experience birth and death.

The Supremely Enlightened, feeling pity for them, manifests in the world to proclaim that all dharmas characterized by birth and death are empty, and to reveal the complete identity of this mind with all the Buddhas.

What we actually discover is that there were three distinct contemplations developed which were direct, athough not the naturally direct form of Huineng that he generated.

They are:

The Lankavatara Contemplation of the Nature of Buddha

 (not the Tathagata-Suchness) 

GUNAPABADRHA 求那跋陀羅

BODHIDHARMA 菩提達摩

DAZU HUIKE 大祖慧可

The Contemplation of Emptiness through Chanting the Name of Buddha

and thus Tathagata-Suchness 

     JIANZHI SENGCAN 鑑智僧璨

    VINITARUCI 毘尼多流支

The Contemplation of the Two-pronged practice of Single Samadhi

 of constant Tathagata-Suchness. Contemplation of the Buddha nature

DAOYI DAOXIN 道一道信

DAMAN HONGREN 大滿弘忍