Download Chan Buddhism

Sinification of Buddhism
Pure Land and Chan (or Ch’an) are two
schools of Buddhism that best represent
the sinification/sinicization of Buddhism
 The sinification finds its expression in
scriptures and practices
 Scriptures:
 Pure Land: the Pure Land sutras
 Chan (Ch’an): The Platform Sutra of

the Six Patriarch
Practices: Both are called devotional/practicing
Buddhism
– Devotion and practice take different forms
– Pure Land:
calling name of Amitabha;
taking vows and following Amitabha’s instruction,
putting trust and faith in Him;
be mindful of Him;
cultivate three merits and undertake 16 forms of
meditation,
repentance
– Chan: meditation
On Gong’an (or Kōan)
On master’s words
Formation of Chan
History and Tradition

Chan scholars and historians in the 10th-11th
centuries claimed:
A special transmission outside the teachings/scriptures
 With no dependence upon words and letters
 A direct pointing into the mind
 Seeing there one’s own nature, and attaining
Buddhahood

Special transmission:
Chan, Flower, and
Mahakashapa’s
smile
The First Patriarch
Bodhidharma
The Second Patriarch
Huike
The Third Patriarch
Sengcan
The Fourth Patriarch
Daoxin
The Fifth Patriarch
The Sixth Patriarch
Three Learnings in Buddhism
Three learnings:
Wisdom, Morality, Mediation
• Right view, right resolve; right speech, right action, right livelihood;
right effort, right mindfulness, right meditation
Traditional ideal Buddhists practiced three learnings
Chan Buddhists were taught to stress meditation
Three baskets: (Tripitaka)
Vinaya pitaka (basket of discipline)
Sutra pitaka (basket of discourses)
Abidharma pitaka (basket of higher philosophy)
Traditional ideal Buddhists mastered three baskets
Chan Buddhists were taught to forsake three baskets
Buddhist Hagiographies
Biographies and hagiographies
 Characteristics of hagiographies

 Based
on writings of disciples/followers of
the saints
 Glorify the saints
 Shrouded with legends
 Mythical, inflated, eulogizing
 Pseudo-history or non-history
In the Pure Land
Tradition
The First Patriarch Huiyuan
The Second Patriarch
Shandao
Special Transmission
Chan’s patriarchate tradition:
– (Mahā)kaśyapa designated as the 1st patriarch of the
Chan tradition
– In India, from Mahakasyapa to Bodhidharma, a history of
unbroken lineage
Bodhidharma came to China (ca.516-526) and became the 1st
Chan patriarch
– in China, an unbroken Chan lineage continued
Fifth patriarch—Hongren (Hung Jen)
Sixth patriarch—Huineng (Hui-neng, 638-713) [Shenxiu, Shenhsiu (606-706)
Huineng’s tradition: Southern Chan school
Shenxiu’s tradition: Northern Chan school
Other lesser Chan traditions
– The Southern Chan
tradition expanded,
branched out, and
spread to Vietnam,
Korea, Japan and Tibet
Huineng’s mummified body
Hagiographical Accounts of the Sixth
Patriarch of the Chan Buddhism
The Platform Sutra
A hagiography of Huineng
Family background
A reader of the Diamond Sutra
Searched for the truth in Mt. Huang-mei
Began first sermon in south China
Ordained and began to preach
Baolin temple, Caoxi, Canton
Monastery of extraordinary quality
Capable of subduing monstrous dragon
Earlier Portrayals of Huineng
Taught “serenity”
 Was the source of the Southern Chan
tradition
 Chan teaching spread all over the empire 106
years after Huineng’s death
 Transmission of teaching not followed
Bodhidharma’s example

– Robe (and gatha, bowl) ceased with Huineng
– The Platform Sutra was used.

Huineng’s stupa was violated, his embalmed
body almost stolen
Huineng’ Sermon

Expounding Maha-prajna-
paramita
Wisdom
 Mind has tremendous
power
 Sudden enlightenment
 Non-thought: the
samadhi of prajna
 Correct meaning of
effort/merit
 Pure land and purified
mind

Guangxiao Temple, Guangzhou
Where Huineng was ordained
Chan and Pure Land

Huineng’s view on Amitayu’s Pure Land
– The text of the scripture is very clear [in saying that the Western
paradise] “is not far from here” (remember: Huineng was illiterate)

Exactly what do Pure Land texts say?
– Larger/longer sutra (p.40): “a hundred thousand koţis of lands away
from here” (Buddha to Anada)
– Shorter/smaller sutra (p.121): “if you travel westward from here,
passing a hundred thousand kotis of Buddha lands, you will come to
the land called Utmost Bliss where there is a Buddha named
Amitayus (Buddha to Sariputra)
– Contemplation sutra: (p. 96) “Do you know that Amitayu is not far
away?” (Buddha to Vaidehi)
One Dharma/two types of people
Distance in physical terms, “ten-thousands and eight
thousands of li [from here to the Pure Land] are the ten evils
and eight heterodoxies within the body.”
 Two types of people:

– Those with inferior capacities, the Pure Land is distant; Those of
superior capacities, the Pure Land is close
– Deluded person recites the Buddha’s name; enlightened person
purifies his mind
– “As the mind is purified so is the Buddha land purified.”

The Western Paradise will not be far off only when
– Keep your mind-ground purified, not harboring which is not good
Scriptures, Words, and Letters
• A separate/special transmission outside scriptures/With no
dependence upon words and letters”?
• No textual, scriptural studies or philosophical discussion
• Only intuitive approach to enlightenment
• Huineng: “meditation and wisdom are of one essence”
• “meditation (lamp) is the essence of wisdom (light), and wisdom
(light) is the function of meditation (lamp)
• Meditation to wisdom is like the lamp to the light; wisdom to
meditation is like the light to the lamp
• Quoted Vimalakirti sutra regarding “the straightforward mind”
• Don’t slander scriptures!