Zen Masters Of China. Richard Bryan McDaniel
be called, in Buddhism, sunyata or “emptiness.”
The newly awakened Buddha remained beneath the Bodhi Tree for forty-nine days after his enlightenment, during which time he contemplated his experience and reflected on the laws of causality to which humankind is subject. On the forty-ninth day, the Buddha reflected that, although he had found the Path of Liberation he had sought so diligently, he was uncertain whether he would be able to communicate what he had discovered to others. The next morning, as he went to the river to bathe, he paused to observe the lotus flowers growing there. The flowers were at different stages of development. Some were little more than roots buried in the mud; others had stems that still had not risen to the surface of the water; still others had emerged but their leaves remained curled shut; the buds of yet others were just opening; and finally there were flowers in full bloom. In like manner, he reflected, people were at various stages of development, but in each person there existed the seed of enlightenment—their inherent Buddha-nature. With proper cultivation, all persons are capable of realization and enlightenment. So the Buddha decided to share the dharma (the teaching) with others.
Spiritual teachers were common in that era. The Buddha became one teacher among many. He was known by many names. One of his most common titles was Shakyamuni, or “sage of the Shakya clan.” The clarity and simplicity of what he taught quickly attracted followers, and, within a short time, he had a large following. Because the Buddha was recognized as an enlightened being, many people came to him hoping he would be able to help them with their problems. While a few may have wanted to achieve their own awakening, most considered that beyond their capacities and simply sought the assistance of one who had attained that height. They brought to him the type of concerns that humankind has always turned to religion to address. They wanted explanations for why things were the way they were. Others sought guidance on how they should live their lives. Some, no doubt, were looking for that companionship which is found in being a member of a community with shared beliefs. And, of course, there were those who wanted magic, who came in hopes of miracles.
He responded to those questions that came from the heart, which needed to be answered if the individual were to attain peace, but he ignored questions that were purely theoretical—such as those posed by the monk Malunkyaputta, who asked whether the world was eternal or finite, whether the soul and body were one or separate, whether or not there was an existence after death, and so on. To be concerned about such things, the Buddha told Malunkyaputta, was to be like a man wounded by an arrow who refused to have the arrow withdrawn until he knew who had crafted it, what type of wood was used, or what feathers were used in the fletching. Malunkyaputta’s questions were about issues that do not matter and are probably unanswerable, so the Buddha refused to offer an opinion on them.
But to those who sought answers to basic questions such as why there was so much suffering in the world, the Buddha provided teachings such as the Four Noble Truths, which explain that suffering is inherent in the human condition because of desire and that only by letting go of desire can one overcome suffering. To those seeking guidance about how they should live their lives, he offered the Eightfold Path, the last two steps of which are “correct mindfulness” and “correct meditation.” And to those seeking miracles—such as the woman Kisagotami whose infant son had died from a snakebite—he responded with compassion and kindness. In Kisagotami’s case he told her that if she could find a household that would give her a single mustard seed, he would cure her child; but, he added, the household must be one wherein no one had ever died. Through this gentle method, he led her to recognize the reality of suffering, the Four Noble Truths, and the Eightfold Path.
The wisdom the Buddha demonstrated in his teachings was the result of his enlightenment, but the achievement of that wisdom was not the content of his enlightenment. He was not enlightened because he understood the laws of causation or realized the formula of the Four Noble Truths. The enlightenment experience, which led him to understand these things, was beyond verbal formulae and logical structures; it could not be expressed in words. The Buddha’s insights, which were the result of his enlightenment, were recorded—and no doubt elaborated upon by others—in the scriptures called sutras. What the Buddha transmitted to Mahakasyapa was not dependent upon words and letters but something outside the scriptures. What he transmitted to Mahakasyapa was the experience of awakening itself. Mahakasyapa’s realization was the same as the Buddha’s. And when the Buddha recognized Mahakasyapa’s awakening, it was not as a result of anything the disciple had said but by how he behaved, the way in which he reacted.
In the centuries after the Buddha’s death, several schools based on his teachings arose. There was a very strict brotherhood of monks focused on personal liberation and salvation. But over time there also developed schools that focused upon specific sutras and composed elaborate commentaries on them. This resulted in an intellectual Buddhism that was, perhaps, more philosophical than religious. Eventually a popular devotional Buddhism also evolved, in which the Buddha came to be seen as a celestial being and in which devotees recited sutras, made offerings, and undertook good deeds in order to acquire merit that would lead to future auspicious rebirths.
These schools transmitted the Buddha’s instructions and teachings. But parallel to them, according to the Zen tradition, a school of meditation descended from Mahakasyapa in which the enlightenment experience was transmitted.
No doubt thousands of individuals attained awakening, but in each generation there was one individual whose experience was so deep that he was identified as a patriarch of the meditation, or dhyana, school. The names of twenty-eight individuals are recorded, spanning a thousand years, beginning with the Buddha and Mahakasyapa and continuing until Bodhidharma, the man credited with bringing the school to China. There the term dhyana was translated as chan. Some six hundred years later when the school proceeded on to Japan, the Japanese read the Chinese character for Chan as “Zen.”
CHAPTER ONE
BODHIDHARMA
The traditional list of Zen patriarchs is probably as accurate as the list of early popes in Christian lore. After the Buddha and Mahakasyapa, third in succession was the Buddha’s cousin and attendant, Ananda, who did not achieve awakening until after the Buddha’s death. Others in the list include historical figures such as Asvaghosha, the reputed author of The Awakening of the Faith in the Mahayana (twelfth patriarch) and Nagarjuna, the founder of the Madhyamaka school of Buddhism (fourteenth patriarch). The twenty-eighth in this lineage was Bodhidharma—a man whose name consists of the terms for wisdom/enlightenment (Bodhi) and teaching (dharma). Bodhidharma is credited with bringing the meditation school to China and is also considered the first patriarch of Chinese Zen.
Bodhidharma is a favorite subject of Zen painting, in which he is portrayed with exaggerated features emphasizing that to the sixth-century Chinese he would have been considered a barbarian. He is shown bearded, with prominent shaggy eyebrows, large, round eyes, and often a stern expression.
It is said that he was the third son in a prominent Brahmin family from southern India. The Brahmin were the priestly caste in the Hindu tradition, the caste that studied the various scriptures and were responsible for carrying out the intricate religious rituals associated with them. But rather than assuming the role of his caste, Bodhidharma was drawn to the practice of Buddhism and eventually became a master in the meditation school under the twenty-seventh patriarch, Prajnatara.
Whereas the Hindu faith was grounded in written texts such as the Vedas and even the Buddhism of the day was transmitted through the recorded sutras, or sermons attributed to the Buddha, Bodhidharma would describe Zen in a four-line poem as:
A special transmission outside the scriptures;
Not dependent on words or letters;
By direct pointing to the mind of man,
Seeing