Lin-chi, Rinzai Zen
Huang-po was a teacher of Lin-chi (d. 866), who became one of the most influential Zen masters of all time and the founder of the Rinzai School of Zen. Lin-chi, called Rinzai in Japanese, could be considered a humanist. He believed that people are perfect just as they are. He called this “the man of no rank” because he felt that nothing is missing. Why pursue external titles, positions, and learnings? He advised his disciples, “Just be ordinary. Don’t put on airs” (Watson 1993, 192). Ultimately, Zen enlightenment comes from within, naturally.
Lin-chi told his disciples, “Since you students lack faith in yourself, you run around seeking something outside” (Dumoulin 1990, 191). He believed that people should turn the light of awareness inward to find the true Way.
Seeking outside for something
This hardly becomes you!
lf you wish to know your original mind,
don’t try to join with it, don’t try to depart from it! (Watson 1993, 62)
Lin-chi spoke to his disciples in everyday language, but, like many masters of the T’ang period, he also used sudden, dramatic actions—such as shouting, kicking, or even a blow with a stick—to help students shake off their inhibiting, rigid sense of reality.
A monk once asked Lin-chi, “Tell me what is the essence of Buddhism?” Lin-chi held up his fly wisk. The monk shouted. And then, suddenly, Lin-chi struck him. There was no room for intellectualizing. The student found enlightenment in that instantaneous experience.
Although Lin-chi taught in a small rural monastery, his lectures were later recorded by a lay disciple of the Rinzai school, Li Tsun-hsu (d. 1038), as a discourse, called the Lin-chi Lu, which later expanded into the Rinzairoku in Japanese. Lin-chi’s school of Zen flourished, in part, because his wise teachings were transcribed and passed along. In realizing that the everyday, sincere, ordinary human being lacks nothing, Lin-chi helped generations of Zen practitioners discover that the Way of Zen meant being true to their nature.
THE SUNG DYNASTY IN CHINA (960-1279): ZEN SPREADS
Zen’s most creative masters lived and taught during the T’ang dynasty, but more people practiced Zen than ever before during the Sung dynasty, when Zen became institutionalized as a nationally recognized and practiced religion. Zen monks taught at the imperial court for the first time, and the government funded a state system of temples, called the Five Mountains and Ten Temples. Two major schools became dominant: Lin-chi’s Rinzai and Ts’ao-tung, later to be known as Soto in Japan.
In order to accommodate the large number of students who wanted to learn Zen, the masters devised new ways to teach. Even though they could no longer attend to each person individually, they still wanted to remain true to the spirit of Zen by bringing about direct transmission, mind to mind, the foundation for learning Zen. To solve this problem, the enigmatic stories and riddles that were used by the T’ang masters were written down into what became known as kung-ans (koans in Japanese), which translates as “public record.” Students were given a Zen master’s koan to think about in meditation to help them evolve. Koans were often paradoxically mysterious and puzzling. Only when conscious thinking was set aside could the koan be truly “penetrated,” thereby stimulating enlightenment. With time, koans were collected into books, such as the Mumonkan (Gateless Gate) and the Hekiganroku (Blue Cliff Record).
Bodhidharma’s encounter with Emperor Wu became the first koan in the Hekiganroku. These books were brought to Japan and helped to keep the spirit of the early Zen masters alive. Later, the renowned Japanese Zen monk Hakuin systematized koan practice, creating a method that is still used today in Rinzai Zen. Koans force the individual to discover a new way of thinking. We will work with koans later in this book.
Rinzai and Soto differed in how they taught Zen. Rinzai practitioners believed koans required active searching and intense involvement, to bring about enlightenment in a flash. Koans were a dynamic teaching aid to open and develop enlightenment,(satori in Japanese) for Rinzai students.
One of the most prominent Rinzai masters of the Sung period, Ta-hui (1089-1163), believed so strongly in the value of the inner struggle that he burned every copy of the Hekiganroku, written by a member of his teacher’s school, because he thought it was too explicit. Fortunately, a copy was discovered two hundred years later and the book was reissued. Ta-hui developed a method of koan practice called hua-t’ou, in which the essence of the koan becomes the focus of meditation, with very powerful results.
Early Soto practitioners criticized this application of koan practice, claiming that koan study can point students’ attention away from meditation, the true source of enlightenment. They drew from the original message of Bodhidharma and believed that sudden enlightenment was not the goal. It was better to practice daily meditation and foster a deep, continuous awareness, calm and clear.
LATER PERIOD
The Sung period was the apex of Zen’s popularity in China. By the time of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) in China, Zen began to merge with other Buddhist sects.
Early Buddhism Leads to Korean Son (Zen)
Korea learned of Zen directly from China, before it went to Japan, and Zen played a prominent role in its history. Korea was introduced to Buddhism from China during the Three Kingdom period (37 B.C.-A.D. 668) of its history. The royal houses of all three kingdoms welcomed Buddhism in the hopes that it would help to bring greater peace and unity. Buddhism was woven into the fabric of Korean life as the Korean peninsula continued its close interactions with China.
Won Hyo (617-686) popularized Buddhism in Korea. This uninhibited and free-spirited monk wrote extensively on Buddhism, especially topics concerning faith, interacting with nobles and commoners alike. His writings are still being translated today. He is revered by Korean Zen masters as well as Korean Buddhists as a great teacher even though he was unconventional. After enlightenment, he did not withdraw into a monastery. Instead, he spent his time helping people in bars and places that lacked social approval. After all, those were the people who needed help, not the virtuous! He taught followers how to meditate deeply to be happy and enlightened, whatever their circumstance. He encouraged a syncretic trend in Korean Buddhism, inspiring the common person to harmony and self-acceptance. Enlightenment should be for everyone, he believed, not just the elite.
KOREAN SON DEVELOPS THROUGH DYNAMIC MASTERS/span>
Koreans traveled to China and studied Zen under Ma-tsu’s students during the T’ang dynasty period. Upon their return to Korea with their Zen enlightenment, these monks founded remote Zen monasteries in the sparsely populated mountain regions. These monasteries became known as the Nine Mountain Schools, the foundational structure for Zen in Korea. Toui (d. 825) was the founder of Porim-sa temple on Mount Kaji, the first of the Korean mountain schools of Zen.
KOREA’S GREATEST ZEN MASTER: CHINUL
Chinul (1158-1210) was recognized not only in Korea but also in China as one of Korea’s greatest Zen monks. He taught that there is a sentient intelligence within each person, the principle behind seeing and hearing: the individual mind, the buddha-nature. This principle is what makes it possible for human beings to become enlightened. In Chinul’s system, human beings are capable of using all aspects of their intelligence for enlightened living. Each has its place in the grand scheme of buddha nature.
Chinul carefully expounded the need for both gradual and sudden approaches to enlightenment. Sudden enlightenment, first explained by Hui-neng, happens in an instant of direct, intense realization. But learning does not stop with the first light of insight. Gradually, over time the student develops, deepening the enlightenment.