This book provides a detailed biography with a focus on the influential historical writings he composed to defend Chan claims of a “mind-to-mind transmission” tracing back to the historical Buddha.
Chinese Chan
Your own spiritual light will shine forth permanently, by Hui Neng
Bhikkhu Zhi Chang, a native of Gui Xi of Xin Zhou, joined the Order in his childhood, and was very zealous in his efforts to realize the Essence of Mind. One day, he came to pay homage to the Patriarch,… Read More ›
Ten Verses on Oxherding, Zen master Guoan Shiyuan
In Zen, a herdboy’s search for his lost oxen has served as a parable for a practitioner’s pursuit of enlightenment since this Buddhist sect’s early history in China. In the eleventh century, the Song-dynasty Zen master Guoan Shiyuan (active ca. 1150) codified the parable into ten verses (gāthā), recorded and illustrated in this handscroll…
Buddhism: What is So-Called Tathāgata Chan
Chinese Chan masters in the earlier periods did not possess a unified definition of Tathāgata Chan and Patriarchal Chan—instead, they wrote with rather ambiguous meanings and loose definitions…
A Taste of Zen: Mazu Daoyi
A monk asked, “What is the essential meaning of Buddhism?” Mazu said, “What is the meaning of this moment?”
Illusion and truth are not two different things, by Shen Hui
‘All efforts to reach salvation are inadequate, are moves inside samsara’, if only the beings would recognize their own true face as that of the Tathagata whom they so eagerly seek…
A taste of Zen: Heze Shenhui
Shenhui thus founded what became known as the Heze (in Japanese, Kataku) school of Zen. The branch largely died out during the early ninth century and is not remembered as a major school. Nevertheless, the doctrine of sudden enlightenment remained a central characteristic that defined the teaching styles and cultural flavour of later Chinese Zen…
