IN CONSTRUCTION
The Leng-ch'ieh shih-tzu chi a text recovered from Tun-huang and associated with the "Northern-school" of Ch'an, is attributed to Ching-chueh ïäÊÆ (683-ca. 750), and is believed to date from the early part of the Kai-yuan period (713-742). The Chüeh-kuan lun ï¾ÎºÖå, or "Treatise on the Extinction of Contemplation," is a short text associated with the Ox-head lineage (Niu-t'ou tsung éÚÔéðó), six manuscript copies of which were recovered from Tun-huang. While the text has been attributed to Bodhidharma, Ho-tse Shen-hui ùÃ÷Êãêüå (684-758), and Niu-t'ou Fa-jung éÚÔéÛöë× (594-657), among others, it was likely composed by a later Ox-head teacher sometime during the third quarter of the eighth century, i.e., just around the time that Chan-jan was formulating his own position on BNI.31)
The text takes the form of a conversation between a teacher, named "Attainment" (ju-li ìý×â), and his disciple "Gateway" (yüan-men æÞÚ¦). About a third of the way into the text we find the following exchange:
Gateway asks, "Is the Way found only in embodied spiritual entities, or does it reside in grass and trees as well?" Attainment says, "There is no place the Way does not pervade." [Gateway] asks, "If the Way is pervasive, why is it a crime to kill a man, whereas it is not a crime to kill grass and trees?" [Attainment] answered, "Talk of whether it is a crime or not is a matter related to sentience, and is thus not the true Way. It is only because worldly people have not attained the truth of the Way, and falsely believe in a personal self, that their murder entails mental [intent]. This intent bears karmic fruit, and thus we speak of it as a crime. Grass and trees have no sentience, and are thus originally in accord with the Way. As they are free of a self, there is no calculation involved in killing them, and thus we do not argue over whether it is a crime or not.
Now one who is free of a self and is in accord with the Way looks at his own body as he would at grass or at trees. He bears the cutting of his own body as do trees in a forest. Therefore, when Manjusri held a sword toward Gautama [Buddha], or when Angulimalya held out a knife at Saakyamuni, they were both in accord with the Way.32) Both realized non-origination, and completely comprehended the emptiness and nonexistence of illusory transformations. That is why we do not argue about whether it was a crime or not."
[Gateway] asks, "If grass and trees have long been in accord with the Way, why do the sutras not record instances of grass or trees becoming buddhas, but only of persons [becoming buddhas]?"
[Attainment] answers, "They do not only record persons, but record grass and trees [becoming buddhas] as well.
A sutra says, 'A single mote of dust contains all dharmas.'
Another says, 'All dharmas are suchness; all sentient beings are also suchness.')
Suchness is devoid of any duality or discrimination."
On the one hand, the Chüeh-kuan lun accepts that, from a worldly perspective, grass and trees are indeed insentient. But precisely because they lack mind and sentience, and thus have no thought of "me" or "mine," grass and trees are "in accord with the Way."
The treatise goes so far as to claim scriptural support for the view that insentient things actually become buddhas (ch'eng fo). The way to buddhahood is the way of insentience: one must put an end to discernment (chüeh-kuan ï¾Îº) and become mindless (wu-hsin Ùíãý). Then, like the grass and trees, you will be one with the Way, and utterly unconcerned with death.
The BNI doctrine also finds support in the Pao-tsang lun ÛöíúÖå, a text traditionally attributed to Seng-chao ã¬ðÜ (374-414), but which is believed to date to the late eighth century.35) This text is loosely associated with early Ch'an in general, and the Ox-head line in particular, a finding that is consistent with the brief passage on BNI in chapter three:
The scripture says: "Buddha-nature is uniform, expansive, and difficult to fathom." There is no duality between an ordinary person and a sage: [buddha-nature] fills everything, wholly suffusing the grass and trees, fully pervading the ants, reaching even to the tiniest mote of dust, and the very tip of a strand of hair--there is nothing that exists and yet does not embody the One. ùàÝáõ®ÙÊñ²ø¼äÝëü Ò¬ò¸Ú°òÈپۥذÝÕùßìéì»êó.36)
The rare mention of "ants" in conjunction with the BNI thesis is significant, as it likely alludes to a passage from the Chuang-tzu that may have been influential in the development of this doctrine (see below).
A similar pro-BNI position is also attributed to the Northern Ch'an master Shen-hsiu ãêâ³ (605?-706) in the Tsung-ching lu ðóÌðÖâ, a text compiled by Yen-shou çµÙ¥æÅáø (904-975) and published in 961. Shen-hsiu teaches that "when sentient beings cultivate realization, insentient beings also cultivate realization." ñíêóï×áóñû ãÀÞªï×áóñû. There is ultimately no distinction between self and other, or consciousness and its objects.37) While the Tsung-ching lu is relatively late and thus unreliable as a window on Shen-hsiu's original teachings, it is nevertheless significant that Yen-shou's sources associated this venerable "Northern Ch'an" figure with the BNI doctrine.
This admittedly fragmentary evidence suggests an interest among some early Ch'an teachers in a somewhat radical version of the BNI doctrine. These texts depict the BNI not merely as a universal metaphysical ground, nor do they reduce the argument to the non-duality of the sentient and the insentient. Rather, these Northern Ch'an texts all suggest that insentient objects actually "cultivate realization" and "become buddhas."
However, not all of the early Ch'an leaders agreed: some prominent figures found the BNI position utterly untenable. One of the more strident rejections of the BNI doctrine is found in the record of Shen-hui, in which he debates an Ox-head opponent on the subject:
Ch'an Master Yuan of Ox-Head Mountain asked: "[You say that] buddha-nature permeates all sentient things, and does not permeate all insentient things. I heard a venerable elder say:
Lush groves of emerald bamboos,
Are wholly the dharma-body.
Luxuriant clusters of chrysanthemums,
Nothing is not prajnaa.
Now why do you say that [buddha-nature] only permeates sentient things, and does not permeate insentient things?"
[Shen-hui] answered: "Surely you do not mean that the merit of lush groves of emerald bamboos equals that of the dharma-body, or that the wisdom of luxuriant clusters of chrysanthemums is the same as prajnaa?
If the groves of bamboos and chrysanthemums are equal to the dharma-body and to prajnaa, then in which sutra does the Tathagata record a case of an emerald bamboo or a chrysanthemum attaining bodhi?
The notion that emerald bamboos and chrysanthemums are the same as the dharma-body and prajnaa is a heterodox doctrine. Why so? Because the Nirvaanaa-suutra says: 'That which lacks buddha-nature is deemed an insentient thing.'"39)
Moreover, there is reason to believe that Shen-hui and his followers flagged the BNI thesis as a means to distinguish themselves from their Northern Ch'an rivals: while the Leng-ch'ieh shih-tzu chi depicts the fifth-patriarch Hung-jen as a supporter of BNI, the Platform Sutra has Hung-jen espousing the very opposite. In a list of "transmission verses" near the end of the Tun-huang version of the text, Hung-jen's verse is given as follows:
Sentient beings come and lay down seeds,
And insentient flowers grow.
Without sentiency and without seeds,
The ground of mind produces nothing.
êóï×ÕÎù»ðú, Ùíï×ü£ñíßæ. Ùíï×éÑÙíðú, ãýò¢æ²Ùíßæ.40)
The doctrinal purport of the verse is not as clear as it might be, and it is not surprising that later versions of the verse found in the Tsu-t'ang chi ðÓÓÑó¢,41) the Ching-te ch'uan-teng lu ÌØÓìîîÔóÖâ,42) and the "vulgate" edition of the Platform Sutra published in 1291, 43)modify the wording in such as way as to highlight Hung-jen's opposition to BNI:
Sentient beings come and lay down seeds,
From the earth fruit is produced.
Without sentiency and without seeds,
There is no [buddha-]nature and nothing is produced.
êóï×ÕÎù»ðú, ì×ò¢Íýü½ßæ. Ùíï×ñíÙíðú, Ùíàõæ²Ùíßæ.
Not only is the wording altered, but in the later texts the verse has been incorporated into Hui-neng's autobiographical narrative: the verse figures in the secret transmission ceremony in which Hui-neng receives the dharma. A transmission verse presumably exemplified the very essence of a master's wisdom, as well as his distinctive "teaching style" (feng ù¦). It is thus significant that Hung-jen's verse is a refutation of the BNI thesis. Shen-hui and his followers evidently saw the BNI doctrine as a "wedge issue" with which to distinguish themselves from their Northern rivals; in the process they depicted Hung-jen as espousing precisely the opposite position to that ascribed to him in the Leng-ch'ieh shih-tzu chi.
As the Southern school gained ascendancy in the mid-T'ang other masters would reiterate Shen-hui's opposition to BNI, including Ta-chu Hui-hai ÓÞñÁû´ú (d.u.), a disciple of Ma-tsu Tao-i Ø©ðÓÔ³ìé (709-788). Hui-hai is the purported author of the Tun-wu ju-tao yao-men lun ÔËçöìýÔ³é©Ú¦Öå, a text that addresses the BNI issue at some length.44) The second fascicle of the Tun-wu yao-men contains the following three exchanges on the issue:
Deluded people do not know that the dharma-body has no appearance, but manifests form in response to things. Thus they say that, "Lush groves of emerald bamboos are wholly the dharma-body; luxuriant clusters of chrysanthemums, nothing is not prajnaa." But if chrysanthemums were prajnaa, prajnaa would be the same as the insentient, and if emerald bamboos were the dharma-body, then the dharma-body would be the same as grass and trees. Then when people munch on bamboo shoots, they must be munching on the dharma-body...
Master Chih, a lecturer on the Hua-yen scripture, asked: "Why do you not agree with the aphorism: 'Lush groves of emerald bamboos are wholly the dharma-body; luxuriant clusters of chrysanthemums, nothing is not prajnaa'"? The Master said: "The dharma-body is devoid of appearance, but takes form in response to emerald bamboos. Prajnaa is without knowing, but manifests in response to chrysanthemums. It is not that those chrysanthemums or emerald bamboos themselves possess prajnaa or the dharma-body. Therefore a scripture says: 'The true dharma-body of the buddha is like empty space; it assumes form in response to things, like the moon reflected on water.'"...
A master who lectured on the Hua-yen scripture asked: "Does the Ch'an Master believe that insentient things are the buddha or not?" The Master said: "I don't believe it. For if insentient things were the buddha, then living people would be inferior to the dead. Even dead donkeys and dead dogs would be superior to a living person. A scripture says: 'The buddha-body is precisely the dharma-body; it is born of the precepts, meditation, and wisdom; it is born from the three wisdoms and the six supernormal powers; it is born from all the excellent dharmas.' If you claim that insentient things are the buddha, then were you, venerable one, to die right now, you would make a buddha."45)
Note that Hui-hai is responding to the same aphorism that appears in Shen-hui's work, and advances somewhat similar arguments to dismiss the BNI doctrine as simply absurd.
What of their master's
The issue of the buddha-nature of the insentient is first mentioned in the record of the fourth-patriarch Tao-hsin Ô³ãá (580-651): "The Nirvaanaa-suutra says: 'All beings have buddha-nature.' If you say that walls, fences, tiles, and stones do not have buddha-nature, then how could they preach the dharma?"29) And in the biography of the fifth-patriarch Hung-jen ûðìÛ (601-674) that immediately follows we find the following:
[Hung-jen] said: "The Buddha has thirty-two marks. Do jars also have the thirty-two marks or not? Do pillars have the thirty-two marks or not? Proceeding in the same way we ask if earth, trees, tiles and stones have the thirty-two marks or not?"... He also said: "At the moment when you are in the temple sitting in meditation, is your body also sitting in meditation beneath the trees of the mountain forests or not? Are earth, trees, tiles, and stones also able to sit in meditation or not? Are earth, trees, tiles, and stones able to see forms and hear sounds, wear a robe and carry a bowl, or not? When the Lankaavataara-suutra speaks of the dharma-body of the realm of objects ÌÑÍ£Ûöãó, it [refers to] just this.30)
Both Tao-hsin and Hung-jen allude to the non-duality of the subjective and objective worlds, as well as to the doctrine that "all is mind" that is closely associated with the Lankaavataara. This appears to lead to their inference that even the inanimate objects of our perception possess buddha-nature and "preach the dharma."
It is impossible to know whether this accurately depicts the teachings of either Tao-hsin or Hung-jen, or whether it rather represents the thought of the editor (or editors) of the Leng-ch'ieh shih-tzu chi. As we will see below, other texts, notably the Platform Sutra, depict Hung-jen as rejecting rather than espousing the BNI position. Nonetheless, the passages attest to an interest in the issue among Ch'an teachers in the early part of the eighth century, just as Chan-jan was beginning his career.
The Leng-ch'ieh shih-tzu chi is not an isolated example.