Zen's Chinese Heritage: The Masters and Their Teachings (164 page)

Notes

1
Some scholars call these works “eulogistic.” I prefer to not use this term because what is being praised is not the ancient teachers themselves, but their unique teachings and activities.

2
“Zen” is the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese word “Chan.” The two terms are interchangeable. The later term is generally used in discussions within the context of Chinese culture. Because the Zen tradition was made known to Westerners largely through the works of Japanese scholars and religious figures such as Daisetz Suzuki, the term “Zen” is widely recognized in the West. For this reason the word “Zen” is used in this book instead of the Chinese word “Chan.”

3
“Mahayana,” meaning “Great Vehicle,” is the name of the dominant East Asian form of Buddhism. Its doctrines emphasize the salvation of all beings and it is thus regarded as the “great vehicle” for the deliverance of beings to nirvana.

4
At this time, China was divided into regional dynasties. Emperor Wu of the Liang dynasty ruled during the period 502–49. His capital was located in ancient Jiankang, now the city of Nanjing, where the conversation with Bodhidharma is believed to have occurred.

5
“Samadhi” is a high level of meditative concentration.

6
Yogacara, literally “yoga practice,” was a school of Buddhism from which Zen was partially derived that emphasized teachings on the nature of the mind and conscious perception.

7
Taisho Tripitaka vol. T50, no. 2060.
Continued Biographies of Eminent Monks
. See the biography of Bodhidharma’s disciple Seng Fu.

8
Taisho Tripitaka vol. T51, no. 2092.
Record of Luoyang’s Buddhist Temples
. While the story appearing in this text is widely taken to be an account of a meeting between its author, Yang Xuanzhi, and Bodhidharma, I believe that the meeting in question was likely a fabrication created by Yang Xuanzhi for political ends.

9
The
Wudeng Huiyuan
(Eng.,
Compendium of Five Lamps
) is a text compiled by the monk Puji in the late thirteenth century that unified into one volume the essential contents of five earlier lamp records.

10
Akshobhya Buddha (Skt., “Immovable”) is a legendary buddha who presides over the eastern paradise. He accumulated merit and ultimately became a buddha by an ancient vow to never feel aversion nor anger toward any being.

11
The Chinese four elements are earth, water, fire, and wind.

12
The Sanskrit word
skandha
, meaning aggregate, refers to the components of experience. They are 1) form, 2) sensation, 3) perception, 4) mental formations, and 5) consciousness.

13
Taisho Tripitaka vol. T50, no. 2060.
Continued Biographies of Eminent Monks
. Biography of Huike.

14
A disciple of Bodhidharma named Tan Lin is believed to have recorded this teaching. This translation is taken from the
Chanzong Baodian
(
Treasured Classics of Zen
), published by the Hebei Institute for Chan Research, 1993, p. 3.

15
The
Transmission of the Lamp
, a record compiled over four hundred years after Huike’s birth, indicates that he studied under a Zen teacher named Baojing prior to meeting Bodhidharma. This belies the idea that Chinese tradition does not recognize other Zen teachers before Bodhidharma. Rather, it shows that the “First Ancestor” is remembered as the originator of the surviving schools of subsequent ages.

16
Mt. Song, one of the great Buddhist mountains of China, is located southwest of the modern city of Zhengzhou in Henan Province.

17
Dao Xuan wrote the
Continued Biographies of Eminent Monks
, Taisho, vol. 50, p. 425.

18
The “Three Jewels,” or “Three Treasures,” are (1) Buddha, the awakened one, (2) Dharma, Buddha’s truth, and (3) Sangha, the community of followers of Buddha.

19
Located about forty kilometers east-northeast of modern Anyang City in Hebei Province.

20
The poem “Faith in Mind (Xin Xin Ming)” is believed by many scholars to have been written after Sengcan’s lifetime, perhaps by an individual in the Oxhead Zen school.

21
The Sanlun (“Three Treatises”) school of Buddhism based its teaching upon three written works by Nagarjuna and Aryadeva. The Tiantai Buddhist school, founded by Zhiyi (538–97), is based on the teachings of the Lotus Sutra.

22
The Prajnaparamita Sutra (Eng., Great Wisdom Sutra) is a collection of forty smaller sutras, including the well-known Heart Sutra and Diamond Sutra, that are studied and chanted in the Zen tradition. The teachings of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition draw extensively from the teachings of this sutra.

23
This is a play on words. The Chinese words for “name” and “nature” are homonyms. The boy answered Daoxin’s question as if he’d been asked his “nature” rather than his name.

24
The
Discourse on the Highest Vehicle
is a text said to quote Hongren’s teaching. Modern scholars debate how much, if any, of the text can be genuinely attributed to Hongren.

25
The “twelve divisions” was a traditional way of classifying the Buddhist canon in ancient India.

26
The
Record of the Lankavatara Masters
, Taisho, vol. 85, p. 1283.

27
Bodhi
is a Sanskrit term for transcendent wisdom. It is broadly translated as enlightenment or wisdom.

28
This passage is from the
Ancestral Hall Collection
, an early Zen lamp record compiled and edited by the monks Jing and Yun Ershi in the year 952. Reprinted by Hsin Wen Fêng, Taipei, 1988, p. 52.

29
“Expedient words” are words that facilitate the spiritual awakening of those who hear them.

30
In Buddhism, the mind’s disease is its natural belief in “self” and “other.”

31
The Chinese term “woods” also carries the meaning “community of Buddhist practitioners,” or monastery.

32
This temple, which remains a religious and tourist attraction, is now known as Nanhua Temple. It is located east of the city of Shaozhou in Northern Guangdong Province.

33
Samadhi (Skt., “establish, make firm”) is traditionally defined as a nondualistic state of mind where there is no experience of subject and object.

34
The “three poisons” of Buddhism are greed, hatred, and delusion.

35
Mara is the king of the sixth heaven of the realm of desire. Prior to Buddha’s enlightenment, Mara attacked him with seductive visions to prevent him from learning the truth of the cause of suffering.

36
The Buddha.

37
Chanzong Baodian, published by the Hebei Institute for the Study of Chan, 1993.

38
The Vinaya school of Buddhism emphasizes the observance of the rules of conduct for Buddhists believers and the Buddhist clergy. These rules are set forth in a collection known as the Vinayapitaka.

39
Zen master Hui An of Mt. Song was a prominent disciple of the Fifth Ancestor, Daman Hongren. He lived to the age of 128.

40
This refers to Nanyue’s student, Zen master Mazu Daoyi. Mazu’s name includes the Chinese word for “horse.”

41
Qi
, commonly written as “chi” in English, is sometimes translated as “spiritual essence” or “breath.”

42
The four noble truths, said to have constituted the Buddha’s enlightenment, are (1) the existence of suffering as an attribute of existence; (2) the cause of suffering, which is desire and attachment; (3) the end of suffering through the final cessation of desire and attachment; and (4) the path for achieving the end of suffering. After his enlightenment Buddha offered these truths as his first teaching in the city of Varanasi.

43
According to tradition, Bodhidharma’s robe and bowl were passed from ancestor to ancestor until their transmission from Hongren to Huineng at Huangmei. Thereafter, competing Zen schools disputed the robe’s possession as a symbol of their legitimacy in the line of succession.

44
Zhuji City is located about forty kilometers south of Hangzhou in Zhejiang Province.

45
The dharmakaya is the Dharma body, the embodiment of truth.

46
Vairochana is a legendary buddha who is regarded as the spiritual essence of Buddhist truth.

47
The
Senika
was a doctrine criticized by Shakyamuni Buddha. It proposes that the mind is eternal but form is subject to decay and annihilation.

48
The “two great attributes” are wisdom (in Chinese,
zhihui
) and virtue (in Chinese,
fude
).

49
The four stances are walking, sitting, standing, and lying down.

50
Beijing: China Publishing House, 1996.

51
The words for “lion” and “teacher” in Chinese are homonyms. Thus, Mazu is metaphorically asking, “Are you a teacher?”

52
Lingnan, literally “south of the mountains,” is equivalent in Zen jargon to the Southern school of Zen, the spiritual descendants of the Sixth Ancestor.

53
Shitou
translates as “stone” or “rock.”

54
The
Zhao Lun (Zhao Treatise)
is a classical text of commentaries on the sutras by the Chinese monk Seng Zhao (384–414), a disciple of the great translator Kumarajiva.

55
This verse is widely known by its Japanese name, the
Sandokai
.

56
The three Buddhist realms are the worlds of (1) desire, (2) form, and (3) nonform (pure spirit). The six Buddhist realms are (1) hell realm, (2) hungry ghost realm, (3) animal realm, (4) spirit realm, (5) human realm, and (6) heavenly realm.

57
Xinwu was located west of the modern city of Nanchang in Jiangxi Province.

58
Baizhang appears to be making a metaphor, comparing Buddhists who simply chant scriptures with Hindus in India before the appearance of Buddha.

59
This passage is from the
Ancestral Hall Collection
.