The Schools of Buddhism in China
Chinese Chan Buddhism:
1. Chan Buddhism is a new idea contributed by Chinese.
¡¯s anti-Buddhism letter:1.1. Why did Chan become popular?
1.1.1. It is very simple. Everyone can practice it
1.1.2. It is a Chinese religion. It fits in Chinese culture well.
Han Yu
Han Yu was a great poet, a Confucianist scholar and an important officer in Tang dynasty. The main point in his anti-Buddhism letter (Chen
¡¯s book p.225) was that Buddhism was a foreign religion.1.1.3. It is practical and romantic. (e.g. Blessing Buddha)
(e.g. Shaoling Tample and Monts:
http://www.shaolin-overseas.org/shaframe.htm
http://russbo.dnsart.com/cgi-bin/photopost/index.pl)
2. What are Chan doctrines?
¡¯s disciple, the second master of Chan.2.1. Emptiness:
Bodhidharma: The first monk who teach the Dhyana or Chan in China.
Hui-ke (She-kuang): Bodhidnarm
Shen-hui:
Hui-neng: The sixth Chan master.
¡¯s poems: (Chen p.335)Shen-hui and Hui neng
2.1.1.
Hui-neng¡¯s new Chan School: It emphasis on complete and instantaneous enlightenment. It iconoclastic attitude toward the Buddhas and bodhisttvas, and its disregard for literature and rituals(Chen, p.357).2.2.2. The method of the new Chan School:
Chan has been described as an intuitive method of spiritual training aimed at the discovery of a reality in the innermost recesses of the soul, a reality that is the fundamental unity which pervades all the differences and particulars of the world. This reality is called the mind or the Buddha-nature that is present in all sentient beings.
2.2.3. This reality is sunya, empty or void.
2.2.4. This empty is inexpressible in words and inconceivable in thought. It can only been apprehended by intuition directly, completely and instantly.
2.2. Chan methods:
¡°Kill Buddha¡±¡°kill everything that stands in your way. If you should meet the Buddha, kill the Buddha.¡±Chan Master I-hsuan said to his disciples to
The shock therapy in the Lin-chi branch is to jolt the student out of his analytical and conceptual way of thinking.
2.2.1.Shouting at students,
2.2.2.Beating students.
2.2.3. The Kung-an answer students
¡¯ questions by unrelated questions. The Kung-an is meant to simulate the student to the realization that logic, reason, and conceptualization are stumbling blocks to his awakening.3.Chan Movement in China
3.1. No longer Indian ideas but Chinese:
3.1.1. The doctrine of instantaneous enlightenment:
3.1.2. The naturalism and freedom:
3.2. Chan and Daoism:
3.2.1. Both emphasized spontaneity and naturalness as against artificiality.
3.2.2. Both argued that the ideal state is one in which man is free to do as he pleases without having to conform
to laws and institutions invented by man.
3.2.3. Both Buddha and Dao can be found in everyone and everything.
3.2.4. Both stress the idea of the wordless doctrine.
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3.3. Chan way of dealing with sufferings:
Having a good laugh!
(the Kung-ans made by Dr. Yuan)