Zen’s history tells us that Dōgen around 1227, a former Tendai student, had studied and received transmission in China, in the Caodong tradition 曹洞宗 under Zen master Tiantong Rujing who was a third-generation disciple of Zhenxie Qingliao. Understanding the purport of silent illumination 默照, which was then the main practice of Caodong, Dōgen afterwards returned to Japan in 1227 or 1228 to establish the Sōtō sect曹洞宗.
What popular Zen history leaves out is where Caodong, during the time of Dōgen, actually stood with regard to enlightenment.
Before I look into this question, I should add that Caodong was founded during the Tang dynasty by Dongshān Lianjie eventually finding it way to two notable students of Zen master Danxia Zichun, viz., Hongzhi Zhengjue and Zhenxie Qingliao. It would be Zhenxie Qingliao, and not Hongzhi Zhengjue, that was to be the major target of Zen master Dahui’s attacks against silent illumination which appeared to deny enlightenment. Dahui was 12th generation of Linji/Rinzai school of Zen. Incidentally, Tiantong Rujing, a Caodong master in Qingliao’s lineage, was the teacher of the Japanese Sōtō Zen master Dōgen. One could go as far as to say that Zen master Dahui attacked the whole Caodong tradition for its uncritical reliance on the practice of silent illumination.
Noteworthy also, Zen master Dahui is linked to what is called kanhua Chan which relies on the use of the koan, but more so relies on the huatou which refers to the moment before the true Mind or Mind-ground is stirred by thoughts. Thoughts or mentation, it is important to keep in mind, only serve to obstruct gnosis of Mind which is, naturally, devoid of thoughts/mentation. With the sudden, unexpected cessation of thought comes the sudden revelation of Mind which is Buddhahood. This is also seeing one’s true nature 見性, which makes up the fourth Zen slogan of Bodhidharma.
Zen master Dahui’s overall attack was directed against silent illumination which he considered to be heretical insofar as it amounted to quietism in which one tries to become empty and still, this being taken to be enlightenment. Of this quietism Zen (mozhao xie chan) Dahui said:
“They say that enlightenment is a construct and only tell people to sit like mounds of dirt rigidly assigned in rows, and teach them ‘quietude’ [jing]. They call quietude the roots and enlightenment the branches and leaves” (M. Schlütter , How Zen Became Zen, p. 117).
Zen master Dahui worked tirelessly to try and help those brainwashed by this kind of heretical Zen practice which he likened to sitting like mounds in the ghostly cave under the black mountain. One example Schlütter gives in his book is that of an 83 year-old monk that Dahui eventually brought to great enlightenment. But at first the old monk didn’t believe in enlightenment. Another example was the nun Miaodao Dingguang who also did not believe in enlightenment except as a quietistic practice.
To reiterate, according to Zen master Dahui these people “do not believe there is enlightenment: they call enlightenment madness, or they call it secondary, or an expedient teaching, or an expression to attract [people to Chan teachings]” (M. Schlütter , How Zen Became Zen, p. 119).
It is not surprising to find that Dōgen fell into the trap of silent illumination and no-enlightenment given the fact that his teacher was Zen master Rujing who was a student of Zen master Qingliao. Dōgen also rejected the term kenshō (seeing one’s true nature) which is the fourth Zen slogan of Bodhidharma. According to Kenneth Kraft in his book, Eloquent Zen and Early Japanese Zen:
“Although he acknowledged Hui-neng's sudden enlightenment, he [Dōgen] also attacked the Platform Sutra for its endorsement of kenshō” (p. 92).
Dōgen claimed the phrase, kenshō, was a work of forgery!
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