Definition of Zen
Zen is translated from the Sanskrit word Zen. In today's words, "Zen" is actually a foreign word, meaning "thinking cultivation" or "meditation", which belongs to one of the six degrees of Bodhisattva and refers to a method of practice. The Buddha founded religion, and established "abstinence, determination and wisdom" as the basic three studies, which is the fundamental method that every Buddhist must practice. The "Zen" mentioned here is the Zen spread by Zen, which has both the same side and different side from the "meditation" in the six degrees. In India, "meditation" can be said to be the oldest practice method, which was popular long before the establishment of Buddhism. After Buddhism was introduced into China, all the ancestors and sects in the past dynasties took "meditation" or "Zen view" as the basis for practicing. Associated with "Zen" are Zen ideas, meditation, Zen mind, Zen meaning, Zen taste, Zen style, Zen machine and other Zen words derived from Zen, which are really colorful and charming.
After the rise of Zen, the "Zen" advocated by Zen has the same side as the original "Zen view" or "meditation", but it has its own different side. So what's the difference?
First, Zen's Zen is an understanding. It is not so much the "meditation degree" in the six degrees as the "wisdom degree" in the six degrees.
Secondly, Zen pays attention to the direct dialogue between scholars and their teachers to inspire the wisdom of scholars.
Thirdly, the first step of Zen is enlightenment, and it is believed that only by "practicing after enlightenment" can we get twice the result with half the effort.
Fourth, the practice of Zen Buddhism is to closely combine daily life with purifying people's hearts, thinking that "a normal heart is the Tao" and "Buddhism is inseparable from the world", thus following God into the WTO.
Types of Zen
There are four kinds of Zen in the Shurangama Sutra. One is the Zen of fools' practice, that is, the Zen of practicing when the law is not empty. The second is the concept of righteousness Zen, that is, the definition of Zen in meditation. Third, climbing is like Zen, that is, the secular Zen of "liking the next" as Master Guifeng Zongmi said. Fourth, the Tathagata Zen is the Zen that proves the sage's wisdom realm.
In his Preface to the Complete Interpretation of Zen Source, Guifeng Zongmi divided Zen into five types: it is said that ordinary Zen is the one who takes different measures to excite himself and doesn't like the next one. It is ordinary Zen that believes in cause and effect and hates practice. Realizing the truth of my emptiness and practicing it is Hinayana Zen. Realizing the truth revealed by our law and putting it into practice is Mahayana Zen. When you have an epiphany from the heart, you will be clean and worry-free, and you will be intellectually self-sufficient. This heart is Buddha. After all, it's no different. According to this, the yogi is the best Zen, also known as Tathagata pure Zen, with a line of samadhi and a name like samadhi. This is the root of all samadhi. If you can study hard, you will naturally get a hundred samadhi. Under the Dharma, it is this kind of Zen handed down from generation to generation.
The division of clan secrets is a theoretical classification. In practice, these five kinds of Zen can be regarded as five stages step by step. Under the guidance of a truly practicing Zen master, every time you upgrade to a higher level, you will have some enlightenment and surpass yourself in understanding, which is the "Zen" advocated by Zen.
How to define the "Zen" advocated by Zen is both difficult and redundant. Why do you say that? Because Zen advocates participating in "living judgment", Zen masters in past dynasties always responded with illness and medicine when receiving scholars, and never died.
Zen snow
The tenets/teachings of Zen Buddhism
Zen Buddhism theory is an important theory of Buddhism in China. Zen, the full name of Zen, comes from Sanskrit, which translates as "meditation" and "ideological cultivation", meaning to meditate, concentrate on one's own mind and think deeply about Buddhist principles. "Zen", that is, stop watching, "stop" is inner peace, and "watch" is thinking about something. Zen was originally a common practice method of various sects in ancient India, but it has special significance in Buddhist life and philosophy. Zen is a kind of meditation. Buddhism in China often refers to Zen and meditation as "meditation", which has a wide meaning.
As a Buddhist practice, Zen is different from Mahayana. Its same purpose is to calm the body, concentrate, eliminate inner interference and external temptation, focus on certain observation objects, and think according to the position and principles of Buddhism, so as to obtain spiritual liberation.
The development of Zen in China has different contents and characteristics due to different times, regions and factions. In the Tang Dynasty, Huineng Zen was further China-oriented, which was significantly different from the previous Zen.
The rise and popularity of Zen in China began with the translation of scriptures by An Shigao and Zhilou Gao Jia in the late Eastern Han Dynasty. Sang Hui of Wu Kang in the Three Kingdoms, Shi and Zhi Daolin in the Jin Dynasty all advocated Zen. Later, Kumarajiva and Sakyamuni successively translated Zen classics, which promoted the rise of Zen. There are probably four popular Zen methods in the Han, Wei and Jin Dynasties: ① An-style Zen. An Shigao was advocated to translate An Shouping's Book of Changes. "Safety" refers to income (absorption), "average" refers to interest (interest), and "safety" refers to "calculating interest". It focuses on pranayama (breathing) to concentrate and enter the state of meditation; In addition, observing the object with "dharma number" (the classification of the doctrine by number) constitutes the form of "Zen number", which belongs to the Zen method of Hinayana Buddhism. It was widely circulated because it was similar to Taoism's breathing regimen of "eating qi" and "guiding qi" at that time.
(2) Buddhism. It is advocated by Bodhisattva Zen Sutra, Prajna Paramita Sutra and Shouleng Paramita Sutra translated by Zhilou Jiagu. "Like a boat" means chanting Buddha: "One is strict", which means hiking and flying; Samadhi is fixed. With the help of wisdom, 10 Buddha can appear in front of us by focusing on 32 kinds of images and 80 kinds of goodness of Buddha. Later, people thought that practicing the first Samadhi in shurangama mantra could increase the strength for becoming a Buddha, and it was easy to achieve the goal of becoming a Buddha.
(3) Five-door Zen compiled three volumes of Zen secret sutras according to disciple Rui Monk's request, advocated five-door Zen views ("five-stop mind"), and paid attention to treating them differently according to specific conditions: greedy cultivation of "unclean" views; Cultivate the concept of "compassion"; Stupid concept of "what goes around comes around"; The concept of "calculating interest" is scattered and heavy; Ordinary people practice "chanting Buddha". The Dharma-Doro Zen Sutra translated by Sakyamuni also talks about five kinds of Zen. Kumarajiva's Zen is different from Buddha's Zen. However, they are all Zen, emphasizing both Zen and wisdom, and taking pictures silently. It had a great influence on the later development of Buddhist thought.
4 Reality Zen means that reality is empty, and reality is empty. The key to the integration of big and small multiplication Zen is to link Zen view with empty view. Kumarajiva's Zen view requires that we should integrate with reality, that is, we should not only see emptiness, but also see the functions of various laws, and we should not neglect both. This had an impact on Tiantai Sect later.
During the Northern and Southern Dynasties, due to the different political situations, justice and reason were emphasized in the south and Zen was emphasized in the north. In the Northern Wei Dynasty, Emperor Xiaowen established Shaolin Temple in Shaoshan, Songshan as a Buddhist temple, as a gathering place for Buddhist monks, and Zen flourished from then on. Bodhidharma, a famous Zen master in the Northern Wei Dynasty, practiced in Shaolin Temple, and his Zen method focused on "managing people" and "pedestrians". "Managing people" means thinking about Buddhist theory, that is, "observing from the wall", drawing a picture on the wall and observing from the wall to fit Buddhism. "Pedestrian" belongs to practice. He emphasized the combination of "reason" and "action", and he did not leave the teaching theory when enlightening faith, so as to teach enlightenment. After the formation of faith, not from culture and education, do not rely on words and deeds. After Dharma, he was regarded as the ancestor of Zen in China.
Huiwen, a Zen master in the Northern Qi Dynasty, pursued the real Zen. According to Zhong Lun's thought that karma is born by law, and I say it is empty, also known as pseudonyms and morality, and the three kinds of wisdom (cutting wisdom with one heart, planting wisdom with Tao and all kinds of wisdom) in The Theory of Great Wisdom, he thinks that emptiness, falsehood and all kinds of wisdom can be observed from the combination of all things. One environment and three views are the reality of all things, and one thought and three views are the reality Zen. Huiwen passed this Zen method on to Huisi, and Huisi passed it on to Wisdom, who spread the true Zen in Jiangdong, which promoted the prevalence of Zen in the south and changed the style of study that emphasized righteousness and reason.
The spread of Zen in the Southern and Northern Dynasties; Buddhism in China reached the end of the Southern and Northern Dynasties. With the social and economic development of the North and the South, the teachers' theories of the North and the South gradually showed a comprehensive integration trend and began to form a school. The emergence of Zen Buddhism is the most important event in the history of Zen Buddhism in China. China's Zen thought originated from the "Buddhist chanting method" in Meditation Samadha Sutra and Dharma Sutra. According to legend, Dharma, Hui Ke, Monk Can, Daoxin and Hongren were handed down in turn. After that, Hongren was divided into Shenxiu North Sect and Huineng South Sect, which were collectively called "Southern Neng Bei Xiu". In Shen Xiu's Zen, the movement and the fixation are integrated, that is, the so-called "concentration is like a snake in a bucket", and he advocates "sweeping away the dust and seeing the net, facilitating the right path", that is, the method of gradual enlightenment. Huineng is different from Shen Xiu. His meditation method is meditation. He claimed to be teaching others. Although he was not isolated from the teachings, he emphasized that teaching was not teaching words, but recognizing that all beings had Buddha nature. Advocate going straight to the point, rubbing the source of the heart and seeing the Buddha. This is the biggest change to the previous Zen thought. Tanjing reflects Huineng's Zen thought and becomes the most important work of China's Zen. Thanks to the strong admiration of Huineng's disciple Shen Hui and others, Huineng was designated as the sixth ancestor of Zen Buddhism, and Nanzong became the orthodoxy of Zen Buddhism, becoming the most powerful, lasting and influential Sect in Buddhism.
After the idea of Huineng Nanzong was spread in Huaiyang, Nanyue, and Hangsi, Qingyuan, the Zen masters even integrated Zen into their daily life, thinking that sitting, living, sleeping, carrying firewood and carrying water can embody Zen, forming a fatalistic thought, which is very different from Indian Buddhism and other sects in China.
The popularity of Zen Buddhism has caused contradictions with other sects, and there is a trend of reconciling Zen Buddhism. Zongmi in the middle Tang Dynasty, a Zen master of Heze School, and a master of Hua Yanzong. He put forward and expounded the idea of the unity of Zen and religion in the preface to the collection of Zen sources. During the Five Dynasties and the Northern Song Dynasty, Yan Shouyi, the Zen master of Fa Yanzong, summoned three Buddhist disciples, Wei Zhi, Hua Yan and Tiantai, to question each other. Finally, taking the Zen viewpoint as the evaluation standard, Jing Zong's record is 100. Yanshou unified the different views of Buddhism of all factions, reconciled the contradiction between Zen and Buddhism, and was accepted by all factions. Yanshou reconciled Zen and set Buddhism in Huayan. Therefore, Huayan Zen, a combination of Huayan thought and Zen, had a great influence on Zen masters in the Song Dynasty and Neo-Confucianism in the Song and Ming Dynasties.
Differentiation of Zen Buddhism The schools of Zen Buddhism in the Song Dynasty were all supported by the rulers. Famous Zen masters often interact with elites, and their thoughts more and more fully affirm the reality. As a result, the development of Zen thought has undergone significant changes, and three types of Zen have emerged: ① Character Zen. Although Zen has attached importance to teaching since the beginning of life extension, the real judgment of right and wrong is based on the statements of predecessors. Because the sentences are simple and difficult to understand, the Zen master uses poems to state the general idea, so the general literate Zen master has embarked on the road of pursuing Zen from words. On the one hand, Zen helps to understand, on the other hand, it also produces the phenomenon of dancing and writing. (2) Talk about Zen. In the Song Dynasty, Gao Zong, the Zen master of Lin Jizong, opposed the word "Zen". He advocated that the words of ancestors should not be understood as positive articles, but only as "words", that is, topics. He believes that only in this way can we spontaneously generate wisdom and achieve the goal of since the enlightenment becoming a Buddha. (3) meditation. Cao Dongzong, a Zen master, felt that he had a deep friendship with Gao Zong, but he opposed talking about Zen and put forward a meditation method of meditation. In fact, this is the Zen method of the northern Sect of Zen before. With the appearance of Silent Zen, Southern Zen changed to Northern Zen, which indicated that Southern Zen had come to the end of its own development, and since then, Zen thought has become more and more stagnant.
As the influence of China's ancient philosophy, especially as an important part of the philosophy of Sui and Tang Dynasties, Zen has exerted an important influence on other schools of philosophy. His slogan of not believing in authority and classics was used by some progressive thinkers such as Li Zhi and Tan Sitong to attack feudal orthodoxy. His idealistic theory of mind and nature was absorbed by Cheng Hao, Cheng Yi, Zhu, Lu Jiuyuan and other Song and Ming Neo-Confucians, and became one of the ideological sources of Neo-Confucianism idealism system.