Dhyana practice of the Ch'an school

Hey /r/zen, this is a post about the Zen practice of dhyana. It's commonly translated as meditation, but there are people who propose that to be wrong. I've done some investigation and found some quotes about it, but nothing that makes it clear what dhyana really is.

Huang Po

First we have a Huang Po quote that seems to say, that dhyana is not really a practice he likes at all:

It is because you are not that sort of man that you feel obliged to employ your mind 'studying dhyana' and 'studying the Way'. What has all that got to do with Buddhism?

Then we have another excerpt from Huang Po, which indicates that dhyana was only taught to attract people and should not be taken too seriously:

Q: What instructions have the Masters everywhere given for dhyana-practice and the study of the Dharma?

A: Words used to attract the dull of wit are not to be relied on.

But Huang Po really doesn't mention Dhyana much.

Huineng

Better look at what Huineng has to say. I think his definition of "sitting meditation" is pretty interesting:

Good friends, what does the term sitting meditation mean? In this teaching there is no obstacle and no obstruction.: when mind and thought are not aroused over any good or bad objects or situations in the external world, this is called sitting. When you see the immutability of your own essential nature, this is called meditation.

His definition of sitting isn't really a posture and his definition of meditation doesn't sound like a practice.

Good friends, what does the term meditation concentration mean? Being detached from external appearances is called meditation; being free from inward disturbances is called concentration.

This also doesn't sound like a practice to me.

Pai Chang

In Pai Changs shastra he says this:

Q: By what means is the root practice to be performed?

A: Only by sitting in meditation, for it is accomplished by dhyana and samadhi. [...]

Q: Please explain dhyana and samadhi.

A: When wrong thinking ceases, that is dhyana. When you sit contemplating your original nature, that is samadhi. [...]

Also:

'Wisdom' means to distinguish any sort of good and evil. 'Dhyana' means that though making these distinctions, you remain wholly unaffected by love or aversion for them.

Discussion

It is really hard to find out, what this dhyana practice really is, if it is a practice at all. That it's probably often just translated as meditation doesn't really make it easier either. If you guys have some more quotes about dhyana and/or meditation, I'd be interested in seeing them. Also, users that proclaim that dhyana is not meditation (/u/ewk), could you try to explain what dhyana actually is and what textual support you have for that claim?

Submitted August 08, 2016 at 10:04PM by kloudspiller http://ift.tt/2bewz8M