One of the lineages of Zen

Zen master Kuei-feng Tsung-mi (780–841) of the T’ang dynasty describes the different Zen lineages in one of his works (ten to be exact).  Surprisingly, one of the lineages he names is T’ien-t’ai, a name derived from the fact that Chih-i, the founder of T’ein-t’ai, lived on Mount T’ien-t’ai.  The Zen lineages that teach the direct realization of Mind-nature are, according to Tsung-mi, the highest level teaching.  One such lineage was T’ien-t’ai. 

According to Chih-i, the perfect and sudden meditation begins after the initial attainment of ultimate reality, or we could say, Buddhahood.  Buddhahood, itself, obtains when, according to Chih-i, "Mind sees itself." In fact, this is what Buddha really means: mind awakening to itself.  Mind, thus awakened, is the whole of the Buddha's teaching.  Mind is also the dharmadhatu or ultimate reality which is the nature of the Buddha. 

The importance of Chih-i (538-597) as far has his contributions to Zen should not be underestimated.  He was truly a genius in every since of the word.

“The noted Ch'an historian Yanagida Seizan has argued that the history of the Ch'an movement really begins when, at the time of the fourth and fifth patriarchs, Tao-hsin (580-651) and Hung-jen ( 610-675), an effort was made to find in Bodhidharma a source of authority older than Chih-i that could be used to establish Ch'an as a tradition in its own right, separate from T'ien-t'ai. Traces of Chih-i's thought are evident in the Platform sutra, and it seems that when Tsung-mi (780)-841) bent his efforts toward strengthening a rather deteriorated tradition of sitting meditation in the Ch'an school, he found it necessary virtually to copy a minor, but popular meditation text by Chih-i, the Hsiao-chih-kuan (Lesser Calming and Contemplation)” (Neal Donner, "Sudden and Gradual Intimately Conjoined: Chih-i's T'ien-T'’ai View," in Sudden and Gradual: Approaches to Enlightenment in Chinese Thought, ed. Peter N. Gregory (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1987), 202).

It doesn’t take too much detective work to conclude that given the antiquity of T'ien-t'ai and its comprehensiveness even with regard to understanding the Sutras, Zen didn’t become Zen without being significantly influenced by Chih-i’s thought. This even includes Chih-i’s notion of emptiness which, in some respects, eclipses Nagarjuna’s understanding.  For Chih-i, middle-way Buddha-nature(chung-tao fo-hsing) is non-empty.  This tallies with the Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra in which “emancipation is the ‘not-empty'” rather than emptiness.  

Comments

[n. yeti]

Methexis,

I am curious what you hope to gain by tearing down the creeds of others. You may or may not be right (I believe you have misunderstood what siddhis are in fact, though clearly there are also charlatans who exploit the credulousness of some). For those with acutely developed psychic faculties, there is nothing particularly strange or weird about such things; it is an intuitive form of knowing, and may not be subject to the kinds of mental manipulation of ordinary mind required to do objective tests and so on that would satisfy the career skeptics. But just as you have your views, I gain nothing by trying to convince you otherwise. I simply don't understand why it would be so important to you to lead others to abandon Zen. If there are cults in Zen, there cults of material wealth, sex, and corporate power, all quite a bit more dangerous than any religious cult, in my opinion. After all, whether people have religion or not, they will and do believe in something, even if it is the rational-material universe of anti-religious skepticism. So again, what do you gain by this, spiritually or materially or in any way whatsoever? Please don't jump to any conclusions about why I am asking: I merely am curious why it is so important to you to manifest in this way. I have seen a side of deep spiritual reflection to your character that does not cohere with this latest enterprise of devout skepticism.

[Methexis]

Lineages are pseudo-history; hagiography is ancient photoshop.

The only reason why we have Buddha miracles and superpowers (siddhis) and Christ walking on water and creating fish BUT no L. Ron Hubbard walking on water or making 7 steps and saying "I am the World Honored One" upon birth is that during L.Ron Hubbard's lifetime cameras were already invented, so it's hard to levitate or do miracles now!

My favourite part of your Blog is that you teach people to question spiritual teachers. I exchanged E-mails with Lachs and he personally told me that super popular Zen teacher, Sheng Yen, told his students he can "read their minds!"

I'm sure that, if pressed and tested, and proven that he can't read shit, he would resort to saying it was "upaya"

But what are the limits of "upaya"? Can encouraging your students to spread HIV and indulge in sexual depravity like that Tibetan guy, I forget his name now ("Crazy Wisdom") - is that still good "upaya"?

This is not a coincidence ... The philosopher Slavoj Žižek was right when he said that Buddhism's main weakness is the concept of the "Bodhisattva".

"Saving all beings" is megalomaniac violence.

But how is one - say, a student - to know whether the antics of his so called master are "upaya" or just douchebaggery?

A Soto Zen guy, I think Deshimaru (sp?) said: "You have to be for 10 years with a master before knowing if he's a douchebag or his crazy antics are just upaya."

Oh yeah? Well, fuck you! I'm not gonna give you 10 years of my life just to find out whether you're a troll.

Most Zen communities are basically relatively harmless cults. Whenever there's a "Master" and dissent is looked down upon, it's time to use the word "cult". Not all cults are equally harmful. Some New Age cults are relatively harmless.

To understand cults, I recommend the excellent book "Going Clear", on Scientology and L. Ron Hubbard. Studying cults produces tremendous insights into human psychology!