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 Women and Dōgen: Rituals Actualizing Empowerment and Healing

Paula K. R. Arai

in Zen Ritual: Studies of Zen Theory in Practice

Chapter 6 engages in ethnographic study of rituals practiced by nuns in the contemporary Sōtō sect of Zen. Through surveys and interviews conducted among Sōtō nuns in the Nagoya area of Japan, Arai ... More

Chapter 6 engages in ethnographic study of rituals practiced by nuns in the contemporary Sōtō sect of Zen. Through surveys and interviews conducted among Sōtō nuns in the Nagoya area of Japan, Arai has articulated the ways in which two quite different rituals “shape, stretch, and define” the identity of participants. Both rituals—Anan Kōshiki and Jizō Nagashi—seek to evoke in participants an awareness of their own Buddha nature, and along with that, a strong sense of their own free agency and power. The central themes of these two rituals are gratitude and interrelatedness, and elements in these sacred ceremonies bring these qualities out in the experience of the women who participate in them. In addition, these themes are linked to Dōgen's own Zen teachings as a natural expression of his claims about the Buddha nature in all beings.Less

The Huang-po Literature

Dale S. Wright

Steven Heine and Dale S. Wright (eds)

in The Zen Canon: Understanding the Classic Texts

This chapter carries out a literary, philosophical, and historical study of the 9th century Buddhist texts that provide images of the Chan master Huang-po Hsi-yun, the Ch’uan-hsin Fa-yao, and the ... More

This chapter carries out a literary, philosophical, and historical study of the 9th century Buddhist texts that provide images of the Chan master Huang-po Hsi-yun, the Ch’uan-hsin Fa-yao, and the Wan-ling lu. It explores the relation of these texts to predecessor literature, the question of authorship in Zen, and the evolution of the “recorded sayings” (yulu) genre. The chapter summarizes the teachings of the Huang-po texts, including the ideas of transmission, mind, Buddha-nature, sudden awakening, and non-dualism.Less

Who Do You Think You Are?

Nicolas Bommarito

in Seeing Clearly: A Buddhist Guide to Life

This chapter explores self-knowledge, which is critical for solving the practical problems involved in getting through life. An awareness of your own quirks, character, and preferences is important ... More

This chapter explores self-knowledge, which is critical for solving the practical problems involved in getting through life. An awareness of your own quirks, character, and preferences is important for figuring out what works for you. However, self-knowledge is also tricky because it is especially elusive. People commonly learn about themselves only indirectly; often it is only by reading the reactions of others that people can see how harsh, kind, or annoying they are. It is also because when trying to know the self, the thing the individual is trying to see is the very thing that does the looking. Buddhism offers many evocative images to illustrate this special challenge: Just as a knife cannot cut itself, the mind cannot be directed toward itself. This makes knowing the self, especially in a deep way, an especially difficult task. Knowing the self thus requires special kinds of tools and methods. The chapter then considers the concept of Buddha Nature.Less

The Bodhisattva as Buddha: Immanence and Emptiness

S. Mark Heim

in Crucified Wisdom: Theological Reflection on Christ and the Bodhisattva

Chapter 5 continues comparative Christian theological reflection by focusing on the realized bodhisattva and the teaching of Buddha nature. Christian thought can best engage the teaching of Buddha ... More

Chapter 5 continues comparative Christian theological reflection by focusing on the realized bodhisattva and the teaching of Buddha nature. Christian thought can best engage the teaching of Buddha nature through an understanding of divine immanence. The theology of the Eastern Orthodox churches regarding salvation as theosis, participation in the divine energies, is particularly helpful in this regard. Section four considers some contemporary work in cognitive science and brain research and its relevance for comparative discussionLess

How Do Buddhas Help?: Bodhisattva as Benefactor and Christ as Savior

S. Mark Heim

in Crucified Wisdom: Theological Reflection on Christ and the Bodhisattva

This chapter directly addresses the soteriological question: how do bodhisattvas help other beings and how might this affect how Christians understand the work of Christ and the life of the disciple? ... More

This chapter directly addresses the soteriological question: how do bodhisattvas help other beings and how might this affect how Christians understand the work of Christ and the life of the disciple? Attention is given particularly to the variety of concrete bodhisattva figures in Buddhist tradition and to specific forms of practice. Discussion is focused on a class of Tibetan Buddhist meditation practices related to innate compassion—“benefactor practices”—and their significance for Christian understanding and learning.Less

The Platform Sūtra and Other Conspiracy Theories

Alan Cole

in Patriarchs on Paper: A Critical History of Medieval Chan Literature

This chapter focuses on the Platform Sūtra. Composed sometime in the late eighth century, Platform Sūtra picks up and works over a number of claims regarding the Bodhidharma clan that had been put ... More

This chapter focuses on the Platform Sūtra. Composed sometime in the late eighth century, Platform Sūtra picks up and works over a number of claims regarding the Bodhidharma clan that had been put forth in earlier Chan works. The text opens with an unusually creative “autobiography” of Huineng, one that circles around an involved conspiracy supposedly orchestrated by master Hongren. As the details of the conspiracy come into focus, the reader learns that Hongren's chosen heir was not Shenxiu, but rather Huineng. With that startling “history” newly revealed roughly one hundred years after the events supposedly took place, the narrative turns to show Huineng giving a formal dharma teaching that, in places, appears to negate many of the building blocks of the Buddhist tradition, while also emphasizing the innate presence of perfect tradition within each person in the form of the buddha-nature.Less

Exposition of Orthodoxy (Hyŏnjŏng non): by Kihwa (Hamhŏ Tŭkt’ong)

in Korea's Great Buddhist-Confucian Debate: The Treatises of Chong Tojon (Sambong) and Hamho Tuktong (Kihwa)

This chapter consists of an annotated translation of the Buddhist response by the eminent scholar-monk Kihwa, composed primarily in the form of a refutation of the litany of arguments made against ... More

This chapter consists of an annotated translation of the Buddhist response by the eminent scholar-monk Kihwa, composed primarily in the form of a refutation of the litany of arguments made against Buddhism in Chŏng Tojŏn's Array of Critiques of Buddhism (Pulssi chappyŏn). Taking on the range of arguments against Buddhism employed from the earliest periods up until the 15th century, the main thread of Kihwa's argument is that the three traditions (i.e., including Daoism, as well as Buddhism and Confucianism), are in agreement at the fundamental level (the level of ch'e), in that they all propound an inherent goodness in the human mind, known in Confucianism as in (Ch. ren 仁‎), in Buddhism as Buddha-nature, and the dao in Daoism. However, while Confucians are inconsistent in their paying due regard to this quality, it is the Buddhists whose practices most fully attempt to actualize this inner goodness.Less

Dōgen’s “Truth”

Steve Bein

in Purifying Zen: Watsuji Tetsuro's Shamon Dogen

This chapter examines what Dōgen calls “Buddha's truth.” It considers four chapters in the Shōbōgenzō addressing the notion of truth: “Raihai-tokuzui,” “Busshō,” “Dōtoku,” and “Kattō.” The chapter ... More

This chapter examines what Dōgen calls “Buddha's truth.” It considers four chapters in the Shōbōgenzō addressing the notion of truth: “Raihai-tokuzui,” “Busshō,” “Dōtoku,” and “Kattō.” The chapter also considers what Dōgen says about buddha-nature, “expressing the truth” in relation to the self-development of logos, and how the truth constantly manifests itself in self-cultivation and strenuous zazen.Less

“When All Dharmas Are the Buddha-Dharma”: Dōgen as Comparative Philosopher

Gereon Kopf

in Dōgen and Sōtō Zen

Until the beginning of the twentieth century Dōgen was barely known outside the sectarian literature and rhetoric of Sōtō Zen. Today his philosophical writings, as collected in the Shōbōgenzō, have ... More

Until the beginning of the twentieth century Dōgen was barely known outside the sectarian literature and rhetoric of Sōtō Zen. Today his philosophical writings, as collected in the Shōbōgenzō, have been included in the discourse of and textbooks on comparative and global philosophy. These developments have contributed to the impression that Dōgen scholarship can be divided into two or more categories, in particular the textual or historical study of his life and work, and philosophical reflection that seems to decontextualize and apply his work to comparative thought.Less

More Cats Than Dogs?: A Tale of Two Versions

Steven Heine

in Like Cats and Dogs: Contesting the Mu Koan in Zen Buddhism

This chapter discusses the crucial role played by the case of Zhaozhou's dog, which must be cast in terms of the history of kōans 公案 (Ch. gongan, Kr. kongan) representing the mainstay of the ... More

This chapter discusses the crucial role played by the case of Zhaozhou's dog, which must be cast in terms of the history of kōans 公案 (Ch. gongan, Kr. kongan) representing the mainstay of the development of Zen literary, arts as well as ritual training. These spiritual riddles or reason-defying enigmas often climaxing with pithy but seemingly nonsensical catchphrases, such as “three pounds of flax,” “a cypress tree stands in the courtyard,” or “being and nonbeing are like vines entangling a tree,” to cite just a view of the hundreds of examples, lie at the heart of theory and practice in nearly all circles of Zen past and present. The chapter shows the difference between two main versions of the case: The Ur Version, which emphasizes Mu (literally, “No”), and the Dual Version, which emphasizes “Yes” and “No”.Less

The Radiant Mind: Zhu Xi and the Chan Doctrine of Tathāgatagarbha

John Jorgensen

in The Buddhist Roots of Zhu Xi's Philosophical Thought

This chapter identifies and highlights aspects of Buddhist thought that Zhu Xi appropriated and adapted to bolster and develop his philosophy of mind. The author argues that even though Zhu Xi ... More

This chapter identifies and highlights aspects of Buddhist thought that Zhu Xi appropriated and adapted to bolster and develop his philosophy of mind. The author argues that even though Zhu Xi repudiated the Buddhism he had been trained in as a youth, he continued to mirror many Buddhist doctrines as he responded to agendas already well-established in Buddhist circles. The chapter’s focus is Zhu Xi’s choice of the term “lucid radiance” (xuming) to describe the nature of the mind. The author argues that Zhu was indebted to the term’s use in seventh and eighth centuries’ Northern Chan Buddhist circles to describe the tathāgatagarbha (the womb of a Buddha) or buddha-nature that exists within all sentient beings. He concludes that Zhu Xi formulated what was in effect a kind of Confucian “Northern Chan.” as evidenced by the common belief in an empty, radiant mind, obscured by habituation and qi.Less

Chan Buddhism

Christopher W. Gowans

in Self-Cultivation Philosophies in Ancient India, Greece, and China

The chapter argues that Chan Buddhism is plausibly interpreted as a self-cultivation philosophy (specifically Bodhidharma, Huineng, and Linji—and texts such as the Platform Sutra). Chan’s ... More

The chapter argues that Chan Buddhism is plausibly interpreted as a self-cultivation philosophy (specifically Bodhidharma, Huineng, and Linji—and texts such as the Platform Sutra). Chan’s self-cultivation philosophy is partly similar to other forms of Buddhism. The existential starting point is suffering rooted in attachment based on ignorance about our true nature. The ideal state of being is freedom from suffering, that is, a life of wisdom (realizing no-self and emptiness), compassion, and tranquility. A distinctive feature is the analysis of our true nature as Buddha-nature. Chan is also noteworthy for its suspicion of rational understanding, its emphasis on distinctive forms of awareness, its stress on living non-dually without attachment, and its use of unusual techniques for cultivating enlightenment such as shouting, beating, and reflecting on strange conundrums known as gong’an (kōan). Chan is a philosophy that understands Buddhist Dharma through the proper development of awareness.Less

Sermon in Jingde chuan deng lu

Mario Poceski

in The Records of Mazu and the Making of Classical Chan Literature

This part of the book provides a translation, with commentary, of Mazu’s sermon in Jingde chuan deng lu (incorporated into fascicle 28). The sermon is full of scriptural quotations and allusions, as ... More

This part of the book provides a translation, with commentary, of Mazu’s sermon in Jingde chuan deng lu (incorporated into fascicle 28). The sermon is full of scriptural quotations and allusions, as well as technical Buddhist vocabulary.Less

But We Are Not the Same: Taking Turns as the Center of the Universe

Bret W. Davis

in Zen Pathways: An Introduction to the Philosophy and Practice of Zen Buddhism

This chapter explains how Zen attends to individuality and uniqueness as well as unity or oneness. The East Asian Buddhist metaphor of “water and waves” is used to explain the relation between the ... More

This chapter explains how Zen attends to individuality and uniqueness as well as unity or oneness. The East Asian Buddhist metaphor of “water and waves” is used to explain the relation between the universal Buddha-nature and interconnected individuals. Among theological conceptions of God, this Zen Buddhist metaphysics best accords with panentheism, that is to say, with the idea that “all is in God.” A kōan from The Blue Cliff Record, in which one Zen master playfully assumes the name of another, is explicated in order to explain what the modern Zen philosopher Ueda Shizuteru means when he says that “the free exchange of the role of host is the very core of dialogue,” and, ultimately, what it means to say that we can take turns being the center of the universe.Less