Buddhism, Chan

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Chan (Japanese: Zen) Buddhism is one of the Mahayana Buddhist schools that developed in China. The Chinese term chan-(na) is a transliteration of the Sanskrit word dhyana, which means meditation. In origin, Chan refers to a Buddhist form of meditation, a religious discipline aimed at mental absorption or trance. Although meditation has always been an essential part of Indian Buddhism, as a Buddhist school Chan is distinctively Chinese. During the course of its development, Chan was closely associated with Chinese literati culture and thought. In addition, Chan also incorporated such indigenous Taoist philosophy into its teachings as non-dualism, spontaneity, naturalism, and skepticism toward written and spoken language.

Toward the end of the seventh century, certain monks were particularly famous for their engagement in meditation. One monastic community devoted to meditation was the East Mountain School (Dongshan famen) on Mount Shuangfeng (Twin Peaks Mountain) in Huangmei (present-day Hubei province) led by Hongren (601–674 CE), who was later known as the Fifth Patriarch of the Chan School in China.

In the eighth century, as Chan came to establish itself as an independent Buddhist school, legends and histories arose that formed a legitimate link between Chinese Chan and the Indian patriarchs. According to classical accounts of the early Chan lineage, Chan was a teaching that descended directly from the Buddha Sakyamuni, who in a sermon made a wordless mind-to-mind transmission (ixin chuanxin) to his disciple Mahakasyapa by simply holding a flower while smiling. The line of transmission was carried on through twenty-eight Indian patriarchs and eventually to Bodhidharma (d. 532 CE), an Indian monk who traveled to China and became the First Patriarch of the Chinese Chan School.

From Bodhidharma, the Chan patriarchal lineage allegedly continued through Huike (c. 485–574), Sengzan (d. 606), Daoxin (580–651), and Hongren. At Hongren, however, the Chan lineage was said to have been split into two main branches: the Northern School led by Shenxiu (605?–706) associated with the teaching of gradual enlightenment (jianwu) and the Southern School led by Huineng (638–713) associated with the teaching of sudden enlightenment (dunwu). Huineng was later recognized as the legitimate Sixth Patriarch of the Chinese Chan School, and his school continued to flourish after the decline of Shenxiu's school. The Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch (Liuzu Tanjing) written around 780 is an important text that purports to record Huineng's autobiography, sermons, and dialogues with his disciples.

Following Huineng, the Chan lineage was further divided into the so-called Five Houses (wujia). Of these Chan branches, the School of Linji (Japanese: Rinzai) founded by Liji Ixuan (d. 866) and the School of Caodong (Japanese: Soto) founded by Caoshan Benji (840–901) and Dongshan Liangjia (807–869) gained prominence in the Song dynasty (960–1267). Both schools have flourished in Korea and Japan. Although Chan as a Buddhist school declined in China after the Song, Chan meditation was a common form of Buddhist practice; the joint practice of Chan meditation and the Pure Land nianfo (Japanese: nembutsu), reciting the Buddha's name, became very popular in late imperial China.

The vision of Chan as a unique form of Buddhism is epitomized in the following four-part slogan:

A separate transmission apart from the scriptural teachings (jiaowai biechuan);

Not setting up words and letters (buli wenzi);

A direct pointing to the human mind (zhizhi renxin);

Seeing one's self-nature and realizing Buddhahood (jianxing chengfo).

Although individual phrases appeared in the Tang period (618–907 CE), this conception of Chan's identity was formulated during the Song dynasty and attributed retrospectively to Bodhidharma.

Chan's assertion of the universal accessibility of Buddhahood is derived from the ideal of the tathagatagarbha (Chinese: rulai zang). Meaning literally the embryo of the Tathagata, this doctrine asserts that the Buddha-nature, the absolute reality that is both immanent and empty (Chinese: kong; Sanskrit: sunyata), is the basis of human existence and perfectibility. Accordingly, every sentient being is endowed with the Buddha-nature and is inherently enlightened. Enlightenment does not involve a radical transformation of the mind that would entail a long process of cultivation; it is simply the realization of one's innate Buddhahood through one's own effort. Chan rhetorically claims that enlightenment can be attained by anyone regardless of age, gender, and social class.

Many Chan masters of the Tang period were famous for their use of intuitive, iconoclastic devices (shouting, beating, illogical responses, and enigmatic gestures) to enlighten their students. Later in the Song these encounter dialogues (jiyuan wenda) between Chan masters and disciples were recorded and became "public cases" (Chinese: gong'an; familiar to Westerners by the name "koan," the Japanese for gong'an) used in Chan teaching and training. While the Linji school was particularly associated with gong'an meditation, the Caodong school focused on sitting in meditation (Chinese: zuochan; Japanese: zazen), also known as silent-illumination Chan (mozhao chan). Members of Chan monasteries, however, have often practiced both forms of meditation nonexclusively.

The sudden/gradual polarity that characterized the development of Chan became a dominant theme in Chinese poetic criticism, painting theories, and intellectual discourse. Critics and poets frequently discussed poetry in terms of Chan's notion of the relationship between practice and enlightenment. Theorists of painting analyzed artistic expression by analogy to the Northern and Southern Schools. In the realm of Neo-Confucianism, the Chan concept of lineage transmission had significant influence on Zhu Xi's (1130–1200) theory of the orthodox succession of the Dao (daotong). During the Song and Ming (1368–1644) dynasties, Chan's assertion of the inherently enlightened mind also played a crucial role in the Neo-Confucian advocacy of Learning of the Mind (xinxue).

While Chan Buddhism as a school declined in China after the thirteenth century, it continues as an important form of Buddhism in present-day Korea and Japan. In addition, Chan doctrine and practice have also attracted a large number of people in the West since the 1960s. There are many Chan meditation centers in America and Europe, and Chan literature is widely translated and read. Known commonly in the West as Zen, Chan has become a popular form of meditation and an intriguing philosophical teaching in the world.

Buddhism—China; Buddhism—Japan; Buddhism—Korea

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