Transcript Buddhism in China - The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Buddhism in China
25.07.2006
Outline





1. The Ten Principal Buddhist Schools in
China
2. The Lotus School
3. The Flower Garland School
4. The Pure School
5. The Meditation School
1. The Ten Principal Buddhist Schools
in China



These schools can be divided into:
schools of Being, schools of Nonbeing.
Such distinction depends on whether they
affirmed or denied the self-nature of
dharmas/ “elements of existence” and the
ego.
1.1 Buddhist Schools in China for a
Short Time

Hinayana (Lesser Vehicle) schools:
–
–
–
1. The Cheng-shih/ “Establishment of Truth”: both dharmas
and the ego are unreal. It is not certain whether the school
ever existed in India. It was popular in the 5th-6th centuries
and was absorbed into the Middle Doctrine School by the
8th century.
2. The Chu-she: both dharmas and the ego exist. It was
active in the 6th-7th centuries.
3. The Disciplinary: hardly existed as an independent sect in
China. The discipline included 250 “prohibitive precepts” for
monks and 348 for nuns.
1.1 Buddhist Schools in China for a
Short Time





Mahayana schools:
1. The Three-Treatise school: reducing everything to
Emptiness
2. The Conscious-Only school: reducing everything
to Consciousness
The Three-Treatise school, the Conscious-Only
school, the Cheng-shih, and the Chu-she taught
one-sided philosophies.
Representing such extreme positions, they did not
suit the temper of the Chinese.
1.2 Important Buddhist Schools in
China

All belonged to Mahayana (Greater Vehicle)
schools:
–
–
–
–
1. The Lotus/ Tian-tai school 天台宗
2. The Flower Garland/ Hua-yan school 華嚴宗
3. The Pure Land school 淨土宗
4. The Meditation school 禪宗
1.3 The Remaining School (also
Mahayana schools):


Chen-yan/ “True Word”: the universe consists of the “three
mysteries” of action, speech, and thought.
All such phenomena are manifestations of the Great Sun
Buddha, which is the universe itself.

Through secret language, e.g. “mystical verse,” “true words,”
the truth of the Buddha can be communicated to human beings.

Popular in the 8th century and rapidly declined in China.
Its influence: Tibet, Japan.

2. The Lotus School/ Tian-tai
Syncretism




From the philosophical standpoint, and in terms of its
influence on other schools in China, Japan, this
school is of major importance.
Distinctively Chinese.
Basic scripture: Lotus of the Wonderful Law, from
North India/ Central Asia.
The school is founded upon the interpretation given
this text by a great Chinese monk (Chih-kai, 538597 A.D.)
2. The Lotus School/ Tian-tai
Syncretism

Its name indicates the place of geographical origin,
the Tian-tai (“Heavenly Terrace”) Mountain of
Chekiang Province, where Chih-kai taught.

From this Grand Master of the Tian-tai, the Lotus,
one of the most popular of Mahayana sutras, was
not merely a theological document but also a guide
to religious salvation through practice.
2. The Lotus School/ Tian-tai
Syncretism


Chih-kai lectured for years on its written text,
minutely examining every detail of language and
subtlety of meaning, and giving special attention to
the methods of religious practice embodied in the
Lotus.
His works:
–
–
–
1. “The Words and Phrases of the Lotus”/ Fa-hua wen-chu
2. Profound Meaning of the Lotus/ Fa-hua hsuan-I
3. Great Concentration and Insight/ Mo-ho chih-kuan
2. The Lotus School/ Tian-tai
Syncretism





At Chih-kai’s time, Buddhist thought in South China
was distinctly intellectual in character; in the north
Buddhists were developing a religion of faith and
discipline.
Himself a product of the South.
His teacher, Hui-ssu, a northerner.
Chih-kai: the contemplative and intellectual
approaches were both important.
Tian-tai school: a strong philosophical content
and a strong emphasis on mediatative practice.
2. The Lotus School/ Tian-tai
Syncretism

The Perfectly Harmonious Threefold Truth:
–
–
–
1. all things or dharmas are empty because they
are produce through causation and therefore
have no self-nature.
2. they do have temporary existence
3. being both Empty and Temporary is the nature
of dharmas and is the Mean
2. The Lotus School/ Tian-tai
Syncretism

Emptiness, Temporariness, the Mean
involve one another, i.e., one is three and
three is one, the relative thus being identified
with the absolute.
2. The Lotus School/ Tian-tai
Syncretism




In the world of Temporariness, 10 realms of
existence:
Buddhas, bodhisattvas, buddhas-for-themselves,
direct disciples of the Buddha, heavenly beings,
spirits, human beings, departed beings, beasts, and
depraved men.
Each shares the characteristics of the other, making
one hundred realms.
Each of the 100 realms is characterized by ten
thusnesses or such-likeness through which the true
nature is manifested in phenomena.
2. The Lotus School/ Tian-tai
Syncretism



E.g. such-like character, such-like nature,
such-like substance, such-like power, suchlike retributions, such-like beginning-andend-ultimate.
This makes 1000 realms of existence.
In turn, each realm consists of the three
divisions of living beings, of space, and of the
aggregates which constitute dharmas,
making 3000 realms of aspects of reality.
2. The Lotus School/ Tian-tai
Syncretism

These realms are so interwoven and
interpenetrated: they may be considered
“immanent in a single instant of thought.”

This does not mean that they are produced
by the thought of man or Buddha (as taught
as some Mahayana schools), but that in
every thought-moment, all the possible
worlds are involved.
2. The Lotus School/ Tian-tai
Syncretism





The great emphasis: on concentration and insight as
a means of perceiving the ultimate truth embodied in
such a thought-moment.
This is a philosophy of One-in-All and All-in-One.
Every dharma is thus an embodiment of the real
essence of the Ultimate Emptiness/ True Thusness.
The great message of the Locus:
*“All beings have the Buddha-nature in them and
can be saved.”*
2. The Lotus School/ Tian-tai
Syncretism

The school claims that the Lotus is the most
complete doctrine among all Buddhist teachings.

Buddhism is classified into 5 periods/Vehicles:
1-4. : represented by the literature of various schools,
are regarded as exploratory/ temporary
5.: The Lotus is final.


2. The Lotus School/ Tian-tai
Syncretism




Thus a measure of truth is seen in the teachings of
other schools, which in certain respects are mutually
contradictory.
Yet, the Lotus is seen as fulfilling and reconciling
them in a final synthesis.
It is an attempt to replace the Three Vehicles by One
Vehicle.
In its all-inclusiveness the Tian-tai points again to the
doctrine of universal salvation, the outstanding
movement of Mahayana movement.
3. The Flower Garland/ The Hua-yen
School



In Chinese, the name is rendered “Hua-yan”/
“Hua-yen.”
This school never existed in India.
Hsien-shou (643-712 A.D.) was considered
the real founder.
3. The Flower Garland/ The Hua-yen
School




The main tenet of the school: the Universal
causation of the Realm of Law (Dharmadhatu).
Meaning that the entire universe arises
simultaneously.
All dharmas have the characteristics of universality,
speciality, similarity, diversity, integration,
differentiation.
All dharmas are in the state of Thusness.
3. The Flower Garland/ The Hua-yen
School




In its static aspect, Thusness is the Void, the realm
of Principle.
In its dynamic aspect, Thusness is manifestation, the
phenomenon, the realm of facts.
The 2 realms are so interpenetrated and
interdependent that the entire universe arises
through reciprocal causation.
This concept resembles the Tian-tai’s idea of “all
3000 realms immanent in an instant of thought,”
so much that sometimes, two schools are
indistinguishable.
3. The Flower Garland School: 5
Vehicles

Similar to Tian-tai, the Hue-yan school
classifies Buddhist sects into 5 Vehicles:
–
–
1. the Small Vehicle/Hinayana: includes the Chushe school and advocates individual salvation.
2. the Elementary Great Vehicle: embracing the
Three Treatise and Conscious-Only schools,
teach universal salvation.
3. The Flower Garland School: 5
Vehicles



2. the Elementary Great Vehicle: …It assures
humans with some exceptions, all will cross the sea
of suffering in a Great Vehicle to the Other Store.
3. the Final Great Vehicle, that of Tian-tai, which
teaches that without any exception all beings,
including the depraved, will be saved.
4. the Abrupt Doctrine of the Great Vehicle, identifies
with the Meditative school, which teaches that
salvation can be achieved through abrupt
enlightenment.
3. The Flower Garland School: 5
Vehicles

5. the Perfect Doctrine of the Great Vehicle, that of
the Hua-yen, which combines all the other vehicles.

The underlying spirit, as in the case of the Tian-tai, is
syncretic.
Because of this, the two schools have been able to
serve as the philosophical foundation of Chinese
Buddhism in general.

4. The Pure Land School/ Ching-tu



The Pure land is the sphere believed by Mahayana
Buddhists to be ruled over by the Buddha Amitabha/
Amita/ Amytayus.
Indian Mahayana conceived of the universe as
consisting of an infinite number of spheres and s
going through an infinite number of cosmic periods.
Among its advantages is that it is free of the
temptations and defilements which characterize the
world inhabited by mortals (e.g., the presence of
women).
4. The Pure Land School


In the Pure Land Sutra, one of the principal scripture bases of
Pure Land salvationism, Amita, while yet a bodhisattva under
the name of Dharmakara, took 48 vows which were
instrumental in his attainment of buddha-hood.
The 18th of these is the most important:
–
“If, O Blessed One, when I have attained enlightenment, whatever
beings in other worlds, having conceived a desire for right, perfect
enlightenment, and having heard my name, with favorable intent
think upon me, if when the time and moment of death are upon
them, I surrounded by and at the head of my community of
mendicants, do not stand before them to keep them from
frustration, may I not, on that account, attain to unexcelled, right,
perfect enlightenment.”
4. The Pure Land School



Since, according to believers in this scripture, the
bodhisattva Dharmakara did in fact become a
Buddha (Amita), the efficacy of his vows is proved,
and anyone who mediates or calls upon his name in
good faith will be reborn in his Buddha-world.
Hence the simple invocation of Amita’s name (Ami-to-fu in Chinese) became the most common of
all religious practices in China.
Nor was it simply a sectarian devotion.
4. The Pure Land School


The meditation upon Amita and his Pure
Land became a widespread practice in the
temples and monasteries of other sects as
well.
In religious painting and sculpture too, Amita,
seated on a lotus throne in his Western
paradise, and flanked by his attendant
bodhisattvas (e.g. Kian-yin, the so-called
“Godess of Mercy”) was a favorite theme.
5. The Meditation School/ Chan




The Meditation school, called Chan in Chinese, is
better known to the west by the Japanese
pronunciation Zen.
As a religious practice, meditation was not peculiar
to Chan, for it is a standing fixture in all forms of
Buddhism from earliest time.
Yet no other school attached the exclusive
importance Chan did to meditation.
Mediatation is not only as a mean/method for
intuiting Ultimate Truth, but as an end of itself, as
the Truth realized in action.
5. The Meditation School



Nor was any other school prepared to dispense as
freely as Chan with scriptural studies or
philosophical discussion in favor of a purely intuitive
approach to enlightenment.
From its distaste for book-learning Chan became
known as the doctrine “not found on words or
scriptures.”
It was a teaching “transmitted from mind to mind,”
i.e., from one master directly to his disciples, without
any rational arguments.
5. The Meditation School



In some ways, Chan tends to be strongly
individualistic and irreverent with respect to tradition.
It is also highly authoritative and insistent upon the
finest discipline.
Chan is above all a religious discipline, and one
requires complete submission to the will of the
Master, who alone can guide with authority and
insure the correct transmission of the Truth.
5. The Meditation School



Chan teaches “directly pointing to the human
mind” and “becoming a Buddha just as you are.”
Believing Buddha-nature is inherent in all human
beings and that through meditative introspection this
nature can readily be seen.
By the Buddha-nature is meant the Buddha-mind in
its highest attributes and true essence, which
transcends all distinctions of any specific character.
5. The Meditation School



To penetrate the Buddha-mind, the
meditation-masters advocated “absence of
thought,” in the sense that the mind should
be freed from the influence of the external
world.
They taught “ignoring one’s feelings” so as to
eliminate all attachments.
They also taught “letting the mind take its
course” unhindered among phenomena.
5. The Meditation School






The fundamental method: meditation
1. Tathagata Meditation, involves deliberations of the
intellect.
2. Patriarchal Meditation, requires no intellectual
effort but direct intuition of the Buddha-mind.
The result of meditation: enlightenment
Major tradition: “sudden enlightenment preceding
gradual cultivation,” cultivation of the religious life
must be gradual and guided by Perfect Wisdom.
The Truth/Wisdom: everywhere
5. The Meditation School




To intuit Wisdom: the mind must be emancipated
from old habits, prejudices, restrictive thought
processes and even ordinary thought.
Horizon: uplifted; Perspective: broadened; Aim:
directed toward Ultimate Truth
There are special methods to throw off intellection
and imagination, and allow the pure mind to make its
own discovery.
Methods: travel (to offer new experience), manual
labor, working with nature, etc.
5. The Meditation School


The most common method: “public case,” i.e.,
question-and-answer, answers to a
disciple’s question include scolding,
beating, strange and illogical utterance.
Purpose: to wake up, shock, sensitize the
questioner’s mind.
5. The Meditation School




Chan attributes its mystic beginning to the Buddha
himself, who according to tradition, transmitted the
doctrine to his pupil Kashyapa by merely holding up
a flower and smiling.
Its founding in China has been attributed to
Bodhidharma, the First Patriarch. (such a person
was believed to be in China during 420-479)
By the time, the meditation doctrine had been widely
accepted and practiced.
The doctrine of sudden enlightenment was advanced
earlier and had aroused considerable controversy.