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Doctrine edit

 
A Dharma talk by Seon nun Daehaeng Kun Sunim, Hanmaum Seon Center, South Korea
Main article: Doctrinal background of Zen

Zen is grounded in the rich doctrinal background of East Asian Mahayana Buddhism.[1][2] Zen doctrinal teaching is thoroughly influenced by the Mahayana Buddhist teachings on the bodhisattva path, Chinese Madhyamaka (Sānlùn), Yogacara (Wéishí), the Prajñaparamita literature, and Buddha nature texts like the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra and the Nirvana sutra.[3][4][5]

Some Zen traditions (especially Linji / Rinzai focused traditions) stress a narrative which sees Zen as a "special transmission outside scriptures", which does not "stand upon words".[1][6] Nevertheless, Mahayana Buddhist doctrine and East Asian Buddhist teachings remain an essential part of Zen Buddhism. Various Zen masters throughout the history of Zen, like Guifeng Zongmi, Jinul, and Yongming Yanshou, have instead promoted the "correspondence of the teachings and Zen", which argues for the unity of Zen and the Buddhist teachings.[7][8]

In Zen, doctrinal teaching is often compared to "the finger pointing at the moon".[9] While Zen Buddhist teachings point to the moon (awakening, the Dharma-realm, the originally enlightened mind), one should not mistake fixating on the finger (the teachings) to be Zen, instead one must look at the moon (reality).[10][11][12][13][14] As such, doctrinal teachings are just another skillful means (upaya) which can help one attain awakening.[15] They are not the goal of Zen, nor are they held as fixed dogmas to be attached to (since ultimate reality transcends all concepts), but are nevertheless seen as useful (as long as one does not reify them or cling to them).[16]

Buddha-nature and Innate enlightenment edit

 
Korean woodblock print of "The Sixth Patriarch's Dharma Jewel Platform Sutra" (c. 1310), a key Zen text which contains the basic doctrines of Zen. Bibliothèque Nationale de France.

The complex Mahayana Buddhist notion of Buddha-nature (Sanskrit: buddhadhātu, Chinese: 佛性 fóxìng) was a key idea in the doctrinal development of Zen and remains central to Zen Buddhism. In China, this doctrine developed to encompass the related teaching of original enlightenment (本覺, běnjué), which held that the awakened mind of a Buddha is already present in each sentient being and that enlightenment is "inherent from the outset and as accessible in the present."[17][18][19]

Drawing on sources like the Lankavatara sutra, the buddha-nature sutras, the Awakening of Faith, and the Sutra of Perfect Enlightenment, Chan masters championed the view that the innately awakened buddha-mind was immanently present within all beings.[20][21][22]

Thus, the spiritual path is one of recognizing the inherent enlightenment that is already here. Indeed, the Zen insight and the Zen path are based on that very innate awakening.[23] By the time of the codification of the Platform Sutra (c. 8th to 13th century), the Zen scripture par excellence, original enlightenment had become a central teaching of the Zen tradition.[24]

Historically influential Chan schools like East Mountain and Hongzhou drew on the Awakening of Faith in its teachings on the buddha-mind, "the true mind as Suchness", which Hongzhou compared to a clear mirror.[25][26] Similarly, the Tang master Guifeng Zongmi draws on the Sutra of Perfect Enlightenment when he writes that "all sentient beings without exception have the intrinsically enlightened true mind", which is a "clear and bright ever-present awareness" that gets covered over by deluded thoughts.[27] The importance of the concept of the innately awakened mind for Zen is such that it even became an alternative name for Zen, the "Buddha-mind school".[28]

Emptiness, and negative dialectic edit

 
Calligraphy of no-mind 無心

The influence of Madhyamaka and Prajñaparamita on Zen can be discerned in the Zen stress on emptiness (空 kōng), non-conceptual wisdom (Skt: nirvikalpa-jñana), the teaching of no-mind, and the apophatic and sometimes paradoxical language of Zen literature.[29][3][30][31][note 1]

Zen masters and texts took great pains to avoid the reification of doctrinal concepts and terms, including important terms like buddha-nature and enlightenment. This is because Zen affirms the Mahayana view of emptiness, which states that all phenomena lack a fixed and independent essence (svabhava).[29] To avoid the reification which grasps at essences, Zen sources often make use of a negative dialectic influenced by Madhyamaka philosophy.[32][29] As such, Zen teachings often include a seemingly paradoxical use of both negation and affirmation.[33][note 2] For example, the teachings of the influential Tang dynasty master Mazu Daoyi, founder of the Hongzhou school, could include affirmative phrases like "Mind is Buddha" as well as negative ones like "it is neither mind nor Buddha".[34][33]

The importance of negation is also seen in the key Zen teaching of no-mind (無心, wuxin), which is considered to be a state of meditative clarity, free of concepts, defilements, and clinging, which is also associated with wisdom and a direct experience of the ultimate truth.[35][36]

Non-duality edit

 
Ensō calligraphy by Thích Nhất Hạnh. Hạnh's teaching of interbeing is one modern attempt to describe Zen non-duality.

Zen texts also stress the concept of non-duality (Skt: advaya, Ch: 不二), which is an important theme in Zen literature and is explained in various different ways.[37] One set of themes is the non-dual unity of the absolute and the relative truths (which derives from the classic Buddhist theme of the the two truths). This can be found in Zen sources like the Five Ranks of Tozan, Faith in Mind, and the Harmony of Difference and Sameness. It is also an important theme in Mahayana sutras which are important to Zen, like the Vimalakīrtinirdeśa and the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra.[38][39]

A related explanation of non-duality which is influential in Zen makes use of the Chinese Buddhist discourse of essence-function (Ch: tiyong), which is most famously taught in the influential Awakening of Faith. In this type of discourse, the essence refers to the inner nature of things, the absolute reality, while the functions refer to the more external, relative and secondary characteristics of things.[40][41] The Platform Sutra compares the essence to a lamp, while the function is its light.[42]

Another application of non-duality in Zen discourse is the idea that mundane reality (which includes the natural world) i.e. samsara (the world of suffering) and nirvana (the ultimate, enlightened reality) are not separate. This is a view found in Indian Mahayana sources like Nagarjuna Root Verses on Madhyamaka.[43] As such, Buddhas and sentient beings as well as Buddhahood and the natural world, are also considered to be non-dual in Zen. This idea influenced Zen attitudes on social harmony and harmony (he, 和) with nature.[44]

A further meaning of non-duality in Zen is as the absence of a duality between the perceiving subject and the perceived object.[45][46][47] This understanding of non-duality is derived from the Indian Yogachara school.[48] The philosophy of the Huayan school also had an influence on Chinese Chan's conception of the non-dual ultimate truth and its understanding of essence-function. One example is the Huayan doctrine of the interpenetration of phenomena or "perfect interfusion" (yuanrong, 圓融), which also makes use of native Chinese philosophical concepts such as principle (li) and phenomena (shi).[49] The influence of the related Huayan theory of the Fourfold Dharmadhatu can be seen in the Five Ranks of Dongshan Liangjie (806–869), the founder of the Caodong lineage of Chan.[50]

Sudden enlightenment and seeing the nature edit

 
Seeing the ox, a metaphor for an initial stage in the practice of Zen. Ox-herding picture on an outdoor wall in Bongeunsa, South Korea.

The idea of the immanent character of Buddha-nature influenced Zen's characteristic emphasis on a direct insight.[51][52] As such, a central topic of discussion in Zen is "seeing the nature" (見性, pinyin: jiànxìng, Jp: kenshō).[53] Zen teachings use this term to refer to an insight which can occur to a Zen practitioner suddenly, and often equate it with a kind of enlightenment.[53][54] The "nature" here is the buddha-nature, the originally enlightened mind. As such, this experience provides one with a glimpse of the ultimate truth. The term jiànxìng occurs in the classic Zen phrase "seeing one's nature, becoming Buddha", which encapsulates the meaning of Zen.[55] Zen schools have disagreed with each other on how to achieve "seeing nature" (Linji's huatou practice vs Caodong's silent illumination) as well as how to relate to, cultivate, express, and deepen one's relationship with the experience.[44] This remains a major topic of debate and discussion among contemporary Zen traditions.

 
Oxherding picture depicting the insight into the ultimate truth, Bongeunsa.

Traditionally, Zen considers that its practice is one which works towards a sudden insight into the true nature of things. This idea of sudden enlightenment or instant awakening (頓悟; dùnwù), which is closely related to "seeing the nature", is another important theme in Zen. Zen sources often argue that its "sudden" method is more direct and superior to the "gradual" paths, which take place in a step by step fashion.[56][57][58][59] Such methods can be found in some of the earliest Zen traditions, like the East Mountain school's teaching of "maintaining the one," a direct contemplation on buddha-nature that was not dependent on preliminary practices or step by step instructions.[60]

The sudden teaching was further emphasized by patriarch Shenhui and it became canonized as a key Zen teaching in the Platform Sutra.[61] In spite of the rhetorical emphasis on sudden awakening and the critique of "gradual" methods found in various Zen sources, Zen traditions do not reject gradual practices (such as taking precepts, scriptural study, ritual practice and the six paramitas). Instead, Zen schools incorporate these practices within a schema grounded in sudden enlightenment thought.[62][33][63][note 3] As such, most Zen sources which emphasize sudden awakening, like the Platform Sutra, also incorporate traditional Mahayana practices.[51][63][note 4]

This means that the Zen path does not end at "seeing the nature", since further practice and cultivation is considered necessary to deepen one's insight, remove the traces of the defilements (attachments, aversions, etc), and to learn to express buddha-nature in daily life.[65][66][67] Zen masters like Zongmi described this method as "sudden enlightenment followed by gradual cultivation", holding that the sudden and gradual teachings point to the same truth.[68] Zongmi argued that even though sudden awakening reveals the truth directly and instantly, the Zen practitioner still has deeply rooted defilements (Skt: kleśa, Ch: fánnǎo) which cloud the mind and can only be removed through further training.[69]

This sudden-gradual schema became a standard view of Zen practice in China after the time of Zongmi.[6] It is found in sources like Linji's Three Mysterious Gates, the Four Ways of Knowing of Hakuin,[70] the Five Ranks, and the Ten Ox-Herding Pictures which depict a gradual set of steps on the Zen path while also including the idea of a sudden awakening to an immanent innate pure nature.[71]

Zen Transmission edit

According to Borup the emphasis on 'mind to mind transmission' is a form of esoteric transmission, in which "the tradition and the enlightened mind is transmitted face to face".[72] Metaphorically this can be described as the transmission from a flame from one candle to another candle,[72] or the transmission from one vein to another.[73] In exoteric transmission requires "direct access to the teaching through a personal discovery of one's self. This type of transmission and identification is symbolized by the discovery of a shining lantern, or a mirror."[72]


Sources edit

Printed sources edit

Web sources edit

Śrīmālādevīsiṃhanādasūtra edit

https://buddhanature.tsadra.org/index.php/Texts/%C5%9Ar%C4%ABm%C4%81l%C4%81dev%C4%ABs%C5%ABtra

file:///C:/Users/javier.fernandez/Downloads/Jonathan%20A.%20Silk%20-%20Brill's%20Encyclopedia%20of%20Buddhism.%201-Brill%20(2015).pdf

https://terebess.hu/english/vim2.pdf

https://www.jstor.org/stable/602656

https://www.jstor.org/stable/3270277

file:///C:/Users/javier.fernandez/Downloads/(Buddhist%20Traditions)%20Alex%20Wayman,%20Hideko%20Wayman%20-%20The%20Lion's%20Roar%20of%20Queen%20%C5%9Ar%C4%ABm%C4%81l%C4%81_%20A%20Buddhist%20Scripture%20on%20the%20Tath%C4%81gatagarbha%20Theory%20(1990).pdf

Part of a series on
Mahāyāna Buddhism
 
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Buddhas and Bodhisattvas
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The Śrīmālādevī Siṃhanāda Sūtra[74] (traditional Chinese: 勝鬘師子吼一乘大方便方廣經, Lion’s Roar [zh] of Queen Śrīmālā) is one of the main early Mahāyāna Buddhist texts belonging to the Tathāgatagarbha sūtras that teaches the doctrines of Buddha-nature and "One Vehicle" through the words of the Indian queen Śrīmālā.[75] After its composition, this text became the primary scriptural advocate in India for the universal potentiality of Buddhahood.[76]

History edit

 
Relief image of the Great Stupa at Amaravati in Andhra Pradesh, India

Brian Edward Brown, a specialist in Buddha-nature doctrines, writes that the composition of the Śrīmālādevī Siṃhanāda Sūtra occurred during the Īkṣvāku Dynasty in the 3rd century CE as a product of the Caitika schools of the Mahāsāṃghikas.[76] Alex Wayman has outlined eleven points of complete agreement between the Mahāsāṃghikas and the Śrīmālā, along with four major arguments for this association.[77] Anthony Barber also associates the earlier development of the Tathāgatagarbha Sūtra with the Mahāsāṃghikas, and concludes that the Mahāsāṃghikas of the Āndhra region were responsible for the inception of the Buddha-nature doctrine.[78] In the 6th century CE, Paramārtha wrote that the Mahāsāṃghikas revere the sūtras that teach the Buddha-nature doctrine.[79]

Translations edit

The Śrīmālādevī Siṃhanāda Sūtra was translated to Chinese in 436 CE by Guṇabhadra (394-468) and later by Bodhiruci (672-727).[75] A complete Sanskrit original is no longer extant,[80] but extensive quotations are found in the Sanskrit text of the Ratnagotravibhāga as well as some recently discovered fragments conserved in the Schøyen Collection. It was later translated into English by Alex and Hideko Wayman as The Lion's Roar of Queen Srimala.

Content edit

The Śrīmālādevī Siṃhanāda Sūtra teaches the reality of an ultimate, immaculate consciousness within each living being, which is the Buddhic "Dharmakāya" (essence of Truth), which is yet temporarily sheathed in obscuring defilement. This Dharmakāya, when viewed as intrinsically free from spiritual ignorance, is said to constitute eternity, bliss, the self, and purity in their perfect state. The use of the word "self" in this sutra is in a way unique to this class of sutra. The great Queen Śrīmālā, who according to this text is empowered by the Buddha to teach the Dharma, affirms:[81]

[T]he Dharmakāya of the Buddha has the perfection of permanence, the perfection of pleasure, the perfection of self, the perfection of purity. Whatever sentient beings see the Dharmakāya of the Tathagāta that way, see correctly. Whoever see correctly are called the sons of the Lord born from his heart, born from his mouth, born from the Dharma, who behave as manifestation of Dharma and as heirs of Dharma.

The scripture, which was extremely influential by way of clarification of the Tathagātagarbha view of Śūnyatā, insists that the ultimately correct understanding of emptiness is that the Tathāgatagarbha is empty of all knowledge that is not liberation, whereas, in contrast, the qualities which characterise a Buddha are not empty of inconceivable virtues. An alternative title offered by the Buddha for this sutra expresses this idea of an ultimate meaning to the emptiness doctrine: "The True Revelation of the Buddha's Intention when Teaching Emptiness."

The sūtra has, furthermore, significantly contributed to the Mahāyāna notion of the permanent, steadfast and eternal Tathagātagarbha, which is nothing less than the perfect Dharmakāya temporarily concealed by (ultimately unreal) mental contaminants:

“The tathāgatagarbha is without any prior limit, is nonarising, and is indestructible, accepting suffering, having revulsion toward suffering, and aspiring to nirvana. O Lord, the tathāgatagarbha is not a substantial self, nor a living being, nor ‘fate,’ nor a person. The tathāgatagarbha is not a realm for living beings who have degenerated into the belief of a substantially existent body or for those who have contrary views, or who have minds bewildered by emptiness.[82]

See also edit

Notes edit

  1. ^ a b Dumoulin 2005a, pp. 85–94.
  2. ^ Lai 1985, p. 17-18.
  3. ^ a b Cheng 1981.
  4. ^ Lai 1985.
  5. ^ Newland 2001, p. 137.
  6. ^ a b Broughton 2009, p. 60-61.
  7. ^ Gregory 2002, p. 227.
  8. ^ Broughton 2009, p. 51.
  9. ^ Suzuki 1997, p. 154.
  10. ^ Buswell 1993, p. 245.
  11. ^ Abe & Heine 1996, p. 19.
  12. ^ "Pointing at the moon". Khandro.net. Archived from the original on 3 December 2012. Retrieved 2013-02-04.
  13. ^ "Lankavatara Sutra". Translated by Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki. Lirs.ru. 2008-06-16. chapter LXXXII, p.192, p.223 (224). Archived from the original on 4 February 2012. Retrieved 2013-02-04.
  14. ^ The Surangama Sutra (PDF), translated by Luk, Charles, Buddha Dharma Education Association, pp. 59–60, archived from the original (PDF) on October 23, 2013
  15. ^ Kasulis, Thomas P. "Ch'an Spirituality." In: Buddhist Spirituality. Later China, Korea, Japan and the Modern World. pp. 24-33. Edited by Takeuchi Yoshinori, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass 2003.
  16. ^ Poceski 2007, p. 164-165.
  17. ^ Buswell 1991, p. 324.
  18. ^ Schlütter 2008, p. 3.
  19. ^ Stone, Jacqueline (1 May 1995). "Medieval Tendai hongaku thought and the new Kamakura Buddhism: A reconsideration". Japanese Journal of Religious Studies. 22 (1–2). doi:10.18874/jjrs.22.1-2.1995.17-48.
  20. ^ Broughton 2009, p. 39.
  21. ^ Suzuki 1932, p. 60.
  22. ^ Hsing Yun 1999, p. 152–153.
  23. ^ Gregory 1991, p. 58.
  24. ^ Yampolsky 1967, p. 143.
  25. ^ Poceski 2007, p. 70.
  26. ^ Zeuschner, Robert B. (1978). "The Understanding of Mind in the Northern Line of Ch'an (Zen)." Philosophy East and West, Volume 28, Number 1 (January 1978). Hawaii, USA: University of Hawaii Press, pp. 69-79
  27. ^ Gregory 2002, p. 165.
  28. ^ Buswell & Lopez (2014), p. "foxin zong".
  29. ^ a b c Kasulis 2021, p. 12-17, 26-27.
  30. ^ "Madhyamaka Buddhist Philosophy | Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy". Archived from the original on 19 July 2017. Retrieved 11 July 2021.
  31. ^ a b Kalupahana 1994, p. 228-236.
  32. ^ Poceski 2007, p. 128.
  33. ^ a b c Sharf 2014.
  34. ^ Poceski 2007, p. 177-180.
  35. ^ Muller, Charles. "Innate Enlightenment and No-thought: A Response to the Critical Buddhist Position on Zen". Toyo Gakuen University, A paper delivered to the International Conference on Sôn at Paekyang-sa, Kwangju, Korea, August 22, 1998.
  36. ^ Nishihira Tadashi. The Philosophy of No-Mind - Experience without Self (Bloomsbury Introductions to World Philosophies), pp. 44-45, 61. Bloomsbury Academic (2022).
  37. ^ Hori 2000, pp. 289–290, 310, note 14.
  38. ^ McCagney, Nancy, Nāgārjuna and the Philosophy of Openness, Rowman & Littlefield, 1 January 1997, p. 129.
  39. ^ Watson, Burton, The Vimalakirti Sutra, Columbia University Press, 1997, pp. 104–106.
  40. ^ Muller, Charles. "Innate Enlightenment and No-thought: A Response to the Critical Buddhist Position on Zen". Toyo Gakuen University, A paper delivered to the International Conference on Sôn at Paekyang-sa, Kwangju, Korea, August 22, 1998.
  41. ^ Park, Sung-bae (2009). One Korean's approach to Buddhism: the mom/momjit paradigm. SUNY series in Korean studies: SUNY Press. ISBN 0-7914-7697-9, ISBN 978-0-7914-7697-0. Source: [1] (accessed: Saturday 8 May 2010), p. 11
  42. ^ Lai, Whalen (1979). "Ch'an Metaphors: waves, water, mirror, lamp". Philosophy East & West; Vol. 29, no.3, July, 1979, pp. 245–253. Source: [2] (accessed: Saturday 8 May 2010)
  43. ^ Loy 1988, p. 184.
  44. ^ a b Kasulis 2003.
  45. ^ Hori 1994, pp. 30–31.
  46. ^ Hori 2000, pp. 289–290.
  47. ^ Hori 2000, p. 310, note 14.
  48. ^ Gold, Jonathan C. (27 April 2015). "Vasubandhu". In Zalta, Edward N. (ed.). The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2018 ed.). Retrieved 5 September 2019.
  49. ^ Gregory 2002, p. 7.
  50. ^ Payne, Richard Karl; Leighton, Taigen Dan, eds. (2006). Discourse and Ideology in Medieval Japanese Buddhism. Critical Studies in Buddhism. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-35917-7.
  51. ^ a b McRae 2003, p. [page needed].
  52. ^ Buswell 1991.
  53. ^ a b Hori 2000, p. 287.
  54. ^ Fischer-Schreiber, Ehrhard & Diener 1991, p. 115.
  55. ^ Muller n.d.
  56. ^ McRae 1991.
  57. ^ Stein 1991, p. 43.
  58. ^ McRae 2004, pp. 57, 63.
  59. ^ Lachs 2012, p. 4.
  60. ^ McRae, John R. (1986). The Northern School and the Formation of Early Chʻan Buddhism, University of Hawaii Press, p. 143.
  61. ^ Faure, Bernard (1986), "The Concept of One-Practice Samadhi in Early Ch'an in Traditions of Meditation in Chinese Buddhism", in Gregory, Peter (ed.), Studies in East Asian Buddhism, vol. 4, Honolulu: The Kuroda Institute, University of Hawaii Press
  62. ^ Buswell 1991, p. 328-330 335-336.
  63. ^ a b Cheng Chien Bhikshu 1992, p. 24-25.
  64. ^ a b McRae 2004, p. 60.
  65. ^ Sekida 1996.
  66. ^ Kapleau 1989.
  67. ^ Maezumi & Glassman 2007, pp. 54, 140.
  68. ^ Gregory 2002, p. 149.
  69. ^ Gregory 1995, p. 150.
  70. ^ Low 2006.
  71. ^ Mumon 2004.
  72. ^ a b c Borup 2008, p. 9.
  73. ^ Faure 2000, p. 58.
  74. ^ The Teaching of Queen Śrīmālā of the Lion's Roar (PDF). Translated by Paul, Diana. BDK America. 2017. ISBN 978-1-886439-31-3. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2017-12-09.
  75. ^ a b McRae 2004, p. 5.
  76. ^ a b Brown 2010, p. 3.
  77. ^ Barber 2008, pp. 153–154.
  78. ^ Barber 2008, pp. 155–156.
  79. ^ Hodge 2006.
  80. ^ Tola 2004, p. xiii.
  81. ^ Wayman 1990, p. 102.
  82. ^ McRae 2004, p. 45-46.
  1. ^ According to Kalupahana, the influence of Yogacara is stronger in the ts'ao-tung school and the tradition of silent meditation, while the influence of Madhyamaka is clear in the koan-tradition and its stress on insight and the use of paradoxical language.[31]
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference No-Mind was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ For example, the Platform Sutra attempts to reconcile Shenhui's rhetoric of sudden awakening and rejection of gradualism with actual Buddhist practices and training methods, just like later Chan writers like Zongmi did.[64]
  4. ^ Nevertheless, the Platform Sutra attempts to reconcile Shenhui's rhetorics with the actual Zen practices, just like later Chan writers like Zong-mi did.[64]
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