Kuiji

Kuiji 窺基 , an exponent of Yogācāra, was a Chinese monk and a prominent disciple of Xuanzang.

Kuiji's commentaries on the ''Cheng weishi lun'' and his original treatise on Yogācāra, the ''Fayuan yilin chang'' 大乘法苑義林章 ("Essays on the Forest of Meanings in the Mahāyāna Dharma Garden" became foundations of the Weishi or Faxiang School.

The Faxiang School consider Kuiji to be their first patriarch.

Works

Commentaries

*Amitābha and Maitreya Sūtras
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*Vimalakīrtinirde?a-sūtra

Buddhist logic

*Buddhist logic

Commentaries specific to Yogacara

*Madhyāntavibhāga
*Sthiramati's Commentary on Asa?ga's Abhidharmasamuccaya
*Vasubandhu's Twenty Verses
*Vasubandhu's One Hundred Dharmas Treatise
*Yogācārabhūmi

Juzhi Yizhi

Jùzhī Yīzhǐ was a 9th-century Chinese Chán, or Zen, . After , he was the eleventh successor in the line of Nányuè Huáiràng and , as well as—according to some sources— . He was the student of Hángzhōu Tiānlóng .

Enlightenment

Gutei spent his time alone in the mountains, and chanting the ''Kannongyō'', the of the Lotus Sutra. One day, he was visited by a young nun who lived nearby. The nun challenged Gutei to utter a word of Zen, but—when he proved unable to do so—she left. Having spent so much time in meditation and study, Gutei became dismayed at his inability to say a single word of Zen to the nun.

Shortly afterwards, Tenryū paid Gutei a visit. Gutei realized that his inability to answer the nun was due to his lack of understanding, and asked Tenryū to teach him. Tenryū held up his finger, and at that moment Gutei was .

Versions of this story are told by Taisen Deshimaru and Susan Ji-on Postal.

Gutei's Finger

Gutei is famous for the following story, which appears as a in various collections. The version here is from the ''Mumonkan'', in the translation by Nyogen Senzaki and Paul Reps .

Gutei raised his finger whenever he was asked a question about Zen. A boy attendant began to imitate him in this way. When anyone asked the boy what his master had preached about, the boy would raise his finger.

Gutei heard about the boy's mischief. He seized him and cut off his finger. The boy cried and ran away. Gutei called and stopped him. When the boy turned his head to Gutei, Gutei raised up his own finger. In that instant the boy was enlightened.

When Gutei was about to pass from this world he gathered his monks around him. "I attained my finger-Zen," he said, "from my teacher Tenryu, and in my whole life I could not exhaust it." Then he passed away.

''Mumon's comment:'' Enlightenment, which Gutei and the boy attained, has nothing to do with a finger. If anyone clings to a finger, Tenryu will be so disappointed that he will annihilate Gutei, the boy and the clinger all together.

::''Gutei cheapens the teaching of Tenyru,''
::''Emancipating the boy with a knife.''
::''Compared to the Chinese god who pushed aside a mountain with one hand''
::''Old Gutei is a poor imitator.''

It is due to this story that Gutei has commonly become known as Gutei Isshi, meaning "Gutei One-finger".

Jianzhen

Jianzhen or Ganjin was a Chinese monk who helped to propagate Buddhism in Japan. In the eleven years from 743 to 754, Jianzhen attempted to visit Japan some six times.

Life

Jianzhen was born in Jiangyin county in Guangling with the surname of Chunyu . At the age of fourteen, he entered the Buddhist church as a disciple of Daming Temple . At twenty he travelled to Chang'an for study and returned six years later, eventually becoming abbot of Daming Temple. Besides his learning in the Tripitaka, Jianzhen is also said to have been expert in medicine. He opened the Buddhist church as a place of healing, creating the Beitian Court —a hospital within Daming Temple.

In autumn 742, an emissary from Japan invited Jianzhen to lecture in his home country. Despite protests from his disciples, Jianzhen made preparations and in spring 743 was ready for the long voyage across the East China Sea to Japan. The crossing failed and in the following years, Jianzhen made three more attempts but was thwarted by unfavourable conditions or government intervention.

In summer 748, Jianzhen made his fifth attempt to reach Japan. Leaving from Yangzhou, he made it to the Zhoushan Archipelago off the coast of modern Zhejiang. But the ship was blown off course and ended up in the Yande commandery on . Jianzhen was then forced to make his way back to Yangzhou by land, lecturing at a number of monasteries on the way. Jianzhen travelled along the Gan River to Jiujiang, and then down the Yangtze River. The entire failed enterprise took him close to three years. By the time Jianzhen returned to Yangzhou, he was blind from an infection.




In the autumn of 753, the blind Jianzhen decided to join a Japanese emissary ship returning to its home country. After an eventful sea journey of several months, the group finally landed at Kagoshima, Kyūshū, on December 20. They reached in the spring of the next year and were welcomed by the Emperor. At Nara, Jianzhen presided over Tōdai-ji, now among the oldest Buddhist establishments in Japan. The Chinese monks who travelled with him introduced Chinese religious sculpture to the Japanese. In 755, the first ordination platform in Japan was constructed at Tōdai-ji, on the place where including former Emperor Shōmu and Empress Kōken received ordination by Jianzhen a year earlier. In 759 he retired to a piece of land granted to him by the imperial court in the western part of Nara. There he founded a school and also set up a private temple, Tōshōdai-ji. In the ten years until his death in Japan, Jianzhen not only propagated the Buddhist faith among the aristocracy, but also served as an important conductor of Chinese culture.

Jianzhen died on the 6th day of the 5th month of 763. A dry-lacquer statue of him made shortly after his death can still be seen at Tōshōdai-ji. Recognised as one of the greatest of its type, the statue was temporarily brought to Jianzhen's original temple in Yangzhou in 1980 as part of a friendship exchange between Japan and China.

Jianzhen is credited with the introduction of the Ritsu school of Buddhism to Japan, which focused on the ''vinaya'', or Buddhist monastic rules.

I Ching (monk)

I Ching or Yi Jing was a Tang Dynasty Buddhist monk, originally named Zhang Wen Ming . The written records of his travels contributed to the world knowledge of the ancient kingdom of Srivijaya, as well as providing information about the other kingdoms lying on the route between China and the Nalanda Buddhist university in India. He was also responsible for the translation of a large numbers of Buddhist scriptures from Sanskrit into Chinese.

Journey to Srivijaya and Nalanda

Zhang Wen Ming became a monk at age 14 and was an admirer of Fa Xian and Xuanzang, both famous monks of his childhood. Provided funding by an otherwise unknown benefactor named Fong, he decided to visit the famous Buddhist university of Nalanda, in Bihar, India, to further study Buddhism. Traveling by a boat out of Guangzhou, he arrived in Srivijaya after 22 days, where he spent the next 6 months learning Sanskrit grammar and Malay language. He went on to record visits to the nations of and Kiteh , and in 673 after ten days additional travel reached the 'naked kingdom' . Yi Jing recorded his impression of the 'Kunlun peoples', using an ancient Chinese word for Malay peoples. "Kunlun people have curly hair, dark bodies, bare feet and wear sarongs." He then arrived at the East coast of India, where he met a senior monk and stayed a year to study Sanskrit. Both later followed a group of merchants and visited 30 other principalities. Halfway to Nalanda, Yi Jing fell sick and was unable to walk; gradually he was left behind by the group. He was looted by bandits and stripped naked. He heard the natives would catch white skins to offer sacrifice to the gods, so he jumped into mud and used leaves to cover his lower body; he walked slowly to Nalanda where he stayed 11 years. Yi Jing praises the high level of Buddhist scholarship in Srivijaya, he advised Chinese monks to study there prior to making the journey to Nalanda India.

Return home

In the year 687, Yi Jing stopped in the kingdom of Srivijaya on his way back to . At that time Palembang was a centre of Buddhism where foreign scholars gathered, and Yi Jing stayed there for two years to translate original Sanskrit Buddhist scriptures to Chinese. In the year 689 he returned to Guangzhou to obtain ink and papers and returned again to Srivijaya the same year. In year 695, he completed all translation works and finally returned back to Tang China at Luoyang, and received a grand welcome back by Empress Wu. His total journey took 25 years. He brought back some 400 Buddhist translated texts. & are two of Yi Jing's best travel diaries, describing his adventurous journey to Srivijaya and India, the society of India, the lifestyles of various local peoples, and more. He translated more than 60 sutras into Chinese, including:
*Saravanabhava Vinaya
*Avadana, i.e. ''stories of great deeds'' in 710.
*Suvarnaprabhascottamaraja-sutra, i.e. Sutra of the Most Honored King in 703.

Buddhism in Srivijaya

Yi Jing praised the high level of Buddhist scholarship in Srivijaya and advised Chinese monks to study there prior to making the journey to Nalanda, India.

"In the fortified city of Bhoga, Buddhist priests number more than 1,000, whose minds are bent on learning and good practice. They investigate and study all the subjects that exist just as in India; the rules and ceremonies are not at all different. If a Chinese priest wishes to go to the West in order to hear and read the original scriptures, he had better stay here one or two years and practice the proper rules...."

Yi Jing's visits to Srivijaya gave him the opportunity to meet with others who had come from other neighboring islands. According to him, the Javanese kingdom of Ho-ling was due east of the city of Bhoga at a distance that could be spanned by a 4-5 days journey by sea. He also wrote that Buddhism was flourishing throughout the islands of Southeast Asia. "Many of the kings and chieftains in the islands of the Southern Sea admire and believe in Buddhism, and their hearts are set on accumulating good actions."

Huangbo Xiyun

Huángbò Xīyùn was an influential master of Zen Buddhism. He was born in Fujian, China in the Tang Dynasty. Huángbò was a disciple of Baizhang Huaihai and the teacher of Linji Yixuan .

Biography

Very little about Huángbò ‘s life is known for certain as, unlike other ''Transmission of the Lamp'' literature, there is no biographical information included with Huángbò ‘s collection of sayings and sermons, the ''Ch’uan-hsin Fa-yao'' and the ''Wan-ling Lu'' . The records indicated that Huángbò was extraordinarily tall

Huángbò began his monastic life on Mt. Huangbo in Fuzhou province, receiving the Buddhist name Hsi-yun. As was the custom of the times, he traveled around seeking instructions from various Chan masters. He visited Mt. Tiantai and sought teachings from the National Teacher Nanyang Huizhong. At some point he may also have studied under Nanquan Puyuan , a student of Mazu Daoyi

However, Huángbò’s main teacher was Baizhang Huaihai , another Mazu student, and it was from Baizhang that Huángbò received Dharma transmission. According to the Yuanwu Keqin commentary in The Blue Cliff Record when Huángbò first met Baizhang, Baizhang exclaimed, “Magnificent! Imposing! Where have you come from?” Huángbò replied, “Magnificent and imposing, I’ve come from the mountains.”

In 842, a prominent government official in Kiangsi province, Pei Xiangguo , invited Huángbò to take up residence at Lung-hsing Monastery. Pei Xiangguo was an ardent student of Chan and received teachings from Huángbò, eventually building a monastery for Huángbò around 846, which the master named Huang-po after the mountain where he had been a novice monk. Before Huángbò died, he named thirteen successors, the most prominent of which was Linji Yixuan. He was given the posthumous title of “Chan Master Without Limits” .

Teachings

What is known of Huángbò’s teachings comes from two texts, the ''Ch’uan-hsin Fa-yao'' and the ''Wan-ling Lu'' written by Huángbò’s student, Pei Xiangguo. These two texts are unique in early Chan literature as they can be precisely dated by Pei Xiangguo who wrote the preface on October 8, 857. They are also the first full-length Zen texts translated in English. Pei Xiangguo compiled the teachings from his own notes and sent the manuscript to the senior monks on Mount Huangbo for further editing and emendation. The “official” version of the Huángbò literature was published as part of the ''Ching-te ch’üan-teng lu'' in 1004. The record of Huángbò is more or less equally split between sermons by the master and question and answer dialogues between the master and his disciples and lay people.

Although Huángbò often railed against traditional Buddhist textual practices, pointing to the necessity of direct experience over sutra study, his record shows that he was familiar with a wide selection of Buddhist doctrines and texts, including the Diamond Sutra, the Vimalakīrti Sutra and the Lotus Sutra. Huángbò’s disdain for written texts is exemplified by the story of Pei Xiangguo presenting Huángbò with a text he had written on his understanding of Chan. Huángbò placed the text down without looking at and after a long pause asked, “Do you understand?” Pei replied, “I don’t understand.” Huángbò said, “If it can be understood in this manner, then it isn’t the true teaching. If it can be seen in paper and ink, then it’s not the essence of our order.” Huángbò was also noted for the manner of his teaching, incorporating the hitting and shouting pioneered by Mazu. There are a number of instances in the record of Huángbò slapping students. The Blue Cliff Record tells the story of the future emperor of China, hiding in the Chan community as a novice monk, receiving slaps from Huángbò for questioning why Huángbò was bowing to an image of the Buddha. The most famous instance was when Linji was directed by the head monk, Muzhou Daoming, to question Huángbò on the meaning of Buddhism after he had been practicing in Huángbò’s monastery for three years without an interview. Three times Linji went to Huángbò and three times the only answer he got was a slap.

Huángbò’s teaching centered on the concept of “mind” , a central issue for Buddhism in China for the previous two centuries or more. He taught that mind cannot be sought by the mind and one of his most important sayings was “mind is the Buddha”. He said: “All the Buddhas and all sentient beings are nothing but the One Mind, beside which nothing exists. …The One Mind alone is the Buddha, and there is no distinction between the Buddha and sentient beings…” He also said: “…to awaken suddenly to the fact that your own Mind is the Buddha, that there is nothing to be attained or a single action to be performed---this is the Supreme Way.”

If, as Huángbò taught, all is Buddha-mind, then all actions would reflect the Buddha, be actions of a Buddha. Huángbò’s teaching on this reflected the Indian concept of the tathāgatagarbha, the idea that within all beings is the nature of the Buddha. Therefore, Huángbò taught that seeking the Buddha was futile as the Buddha resided within: “If you know positively that all sentient beings already one with Bodhi , you will cease thinking of Bodhi as something to be attained” Huángbò was adamant that any form of “seeking” was not only useless, but obstructed clarity: “…sentient beings are attached to forms and so seek externally for Buddhahood. By their very seeking they lose it.” Furthermore, he claimed that “’Studying the Way’ is just a figure of speech….In fact, the Way is not something which can be studied. …You must not allow this name to lead you into forming a mental concept of a road.” ”…any search is doomed to failure”

What Huángbò knew was that students of Chan often became attached to “seeking” enlightenment and he constantly warned against this as an obstruction to enlightenment: “If you students of the Way wish to become Buddhas, you need study no doctrines whatever, but learn only how to avoid seeking for and attaching yourselves to anything.”

He also firmly rejected all dualism, especially between the “ordinary” and “enlightened” states: “If you would only rid yourselves of the concepts of ordinary and Enlightened, you would find that there is no other Buddha than the Buddha in your own Mind. …The arising and the elimination of illusion are both illusory. Illusion is not something rooted in Reality; it exists because of your dualistic thinking. If you will only cease to indulge in opposed concepts such as ‘ordinary’ and ‘Enlightened’, illusion will cease of itself.”

While Huángbò was an uncompromising and somewhat fearsome Chan teacher, he understood the nature of fear in students when they heard the doctrine of emptiness and the Void: “Those who hasten towards it dare not enter, fearing to hurtle down through the void with nothing to cling to or to stay their fall. So they look to the brink and retreat.” He taught that ‘no activity’ was the gateway of his Dharma but that “all who reach this gate fear to enter.” To overcome this fear, one “must enter it with the suddenness of a knife-thrust”

References & Further Readings

Blofeld, John, 1958, The Zen Teachings of Huang Po On the Transmission of Mind, Grove Press, New York, ISBN 0-8021-5092-6

Chang Chung-yuan, 1971, Original Teachings of Ch’an Buddhism, Vintage Books, ISBN0-394-71333-8

Cleary, Thomas & Cleary, J.C., 1992, The Blue Cliff Record, translated by, Shambhala Publications, Boston, ISBN 0-87773-622-7

Dumoulin, Heinrich Zen Buddhism: A History, Volume I, India and China, Simon & Schuster and Prentice Hall International ISBN 0 02 897109 4

Foster, Nelson & Shoemaker, Jack , 1996, The Roaring Stream: a new Zen reader, The Ecco Press, Hopewell, ISBN 0-88001-344-3

Wright, Dale S., 2004, The Huang-po Literature, in The Zen Canon: Understanding the Classic Zen Texts, Dale Wright & Steven Heine, eds., Oxford University Press, ISBN-10: 0195150678

Huaiyi

Huaiyi , né Feng Xiaobao , sometimes referred to as Xue Huaiyi , was a Buddhist monk who was known for being the lover of Wu Zetian, the only woman to be commonly recognized as "emperor" in the history of China.

Background

Huaiyi, whose birth name was Feng Xiaobao, was from Hu County . He was making a living by selling medicines on the streets of Tang Dynasty's eastern capital Luoyang, when he was spotted by Princess Qianjin, a daughter of Tang's founder , and in or before 685, she recommended him to , then regent over her son . Empress Dowager Wu favored him greatly, and in order to facilitate his being able to come in and out of the palace, had him undertake tonsure to become a Buddhist monk with the name Huaiyi. Because Huaiyi came from a lowly household, in order to elevate his status, Empress Dowager Wu had him adopted into the clan of her son-in-law Xue Shao and had Xue Shao treat Huaiyi as an uncle.

As Wu Zetian's lover

It was said that when Huaiyi entered and exited the palace, he would ride on an imperial steed and have some 10 eunuchs attend to him. Whenever people saw him, they avoided him -- because he was accustomed to batter those who came near him and toss them aside. He was particularly hateful of Taoist monks, and whenever he encountered them, he would batter them severely, sometimes cutting their hair off. Even the most honored governmental officials, including Empress Dowager Wu's powerful nephews Wu Chengsi and Wu Sansi prostrated themselves before him. He gathered a group of young thugs and had them also undertake tonsure but serve as his followers. When these followers carried out unlawful deeds, few officials dared to speak about this. One exception was the assistant censor Feng Sixu , who punished them according to their deeds, and on one occasion, when Huaiyi encountered Feng Sixu on the road, he had Feng Sixu battered so severely that Feng Sixu nearly died. In or around 686, however, there was an incident when Huaiyi encountered the Su Liangsi. Huaiyi did not greet Su and displayed himself arrogantly. In anger, Su ordered his guards to seize Huaiyi and slap him. When Huaiyi complained to Empress Dowager Wu, she responded semi-jocularly, "Your Eminence should enter through the North Gate . The Southern Palace is where chancellors gather; do not violate it."

In 688, Empress Dowager Wu tore down Qianyuan Hall , and commissioned the construction of the imperial meeting hall over the same location. She commissioned Huaiyi to oversee the project and conscripted several tens of thousands of men to serve as construction workers. After the imperial meeting hall was completed later that year, for his contributions, she gave him a general title and created him the Duke of Liang.

In 689, Empress Dowager Wu commissioned Huaiyi to serve as the commander of an army against Eastern Tujue. He advanced to Zi River but did not encounter Eastern Tujue forces. He erected a monument at Chanyu Tower before withdrawing.

In 690, Empress Dowager Wu changed Huaiyi's title to Duke of E. Later that year, she took the throne from Emperor Ruizong, establishing a new Zhou Dynasty with herself as "emperor."

In 694, Eastern Tujue's khan Ashina Mochuo attacked Ling Prefecture , and Wu Zetian commissioned Huaiyi, assisted by the chancellors Li Zhaode and Su Weidao, to defend against Ashina Mochuo's attack, but before the army could set out, Ashina Mochuo withdrew, and therefore Huaiyi's army never launched.

Death

In late 694, Wu Zetian held a grand Buddhist gathering at the imperial meeting hall, and she commissioned a giant painting of drawn with cattle blood, but claimed that it was miraculous drawn with just the blood from Huaiyi's knee, and she hung the portrait at one of the bridges entering Luoyang, Tianjin Bridge . However, at that time, she had another lover, the imperial physician Shen Nanqiu , and this drew jealousy from Huaiyi. Huaiyi secretly set fire to the Heavenly Hall , north of the imperial meeting hall, and the fire burned both halls to the ground. However, when Wu Zetian subsequently ordered the reconstruction of both halls, she still put Huaiyi in charge of the construction.

After this incident, however, Huaiyi grew increasingly arrogant and unreasonable, and Wu Zetian began to despise him. To guard herself, she selected a group of strong . She then had Wu Youning the Prince of Jianchang lead a group of strong soldiers to set an ambush at Yaoguang Hall , and when Huaiyi went to Yaoguang Hall, Wu Youning and his soldiers overpowered him and battered him to death. Huaiyi's body was taken to White Horse Temple and cremated, and then mixed into mud that was set to be used to construct a pagoda.

Fazang

Fazang was the third of the five patriarchs of the Huayan school. He is said to have authored over a hundred volumes of essays and commentaries. He is famed for his empirical demonstrations in the court of Empress Wu Zetian. His essays "On a Golden Lion" and "On a Mote of Dust" are among the most celebrated ruminations from the Hua-yen school. Huayan school.

Scholars have observed the influence of Taoism on , and Fazang is believed to have drawn on a mode of thought derived from the I Ching.