Zen is fundamentally about the method the Buddha-to-be (hereafter the Bodhisattva) used to win enlightenment by which he came to see, directly, the unconditioned which has many different names, the most important one being nirvana. His journey, was from the conditioned world of appearances to it substance or essence which is unconditioned.
Much later, Zen seems to split off into two different, almost opposed directions. One tradition was by way of intuition. Here the Zennist tried to attain kensho, that is, see their true nature. The other way was by mòzhào 默照 or silent illumination. This involved shikantaza 只管打坐 or just sitting. Among other things, the goal, figuratively speaking, was to become like “cold ashes or withered wood.”
Of the two traditions, mòzhào is the most problematic insofar as there is no canonical evidence that the Bodhisattva attained enlightenment by this method—certainly it is not found in the Lalitavistara Sutra. The four dhyanas, by which the Bodhisattva became the Buddha, was the method he used, not 'just sitting'. Judging from the history of Indian philosophy, the four are unique to Buddhism. But so is samadhi which was first found in the Pali canon and not in any pre-Buddhist text. Both these terms are connected with enlightenment whereas mòzhào has no need of them since it is sitting based.
If anything mòzhào reflects the earlier period of the Bodhisattva when he took up the austere practices directed against the carnal body for a period of six years attaining the contemplation known as āsphānaka in which inhalation and exhalation are cut off which is also non-investigative, non-conceptual, unshakable, free from perception and independent of everything according to the Lalitavistara Sutra. It is said that because it is like ākāśa or space it is called āsphānaka. One quick comment, āsphānaka and the Buddha's enlightenment seem to be almost the same, yet they are not. Extended mòzhào could very well lead to āsphānaka.
But enlightenment has to be directed to the mental world. For it is in the mental world that the key to liberation is to be found; not in austerities directed against the carnal body which culminates in a kind of living-death. In particular, enlightenment occurs when thought, which is always being constructed ceases, suddenly, revealing the unconditioned source or essence from which thought and the universe are formed.
The split in Zen can only be resolved when the practice of mòzhào is reduced to a preliminary practice in which the student eventually acquires the proper understanding of Zen which involves the direct intuition of one's Buddha-nature in which the substance of our thoughts is intuited, directly.
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