Here's a little something I've been working on. For those of you are who are serious about studying Zen, and serious about endeavoring to understand what it is about, I highly recommend Ruth Fuller Sasaski's version of LinJi's record as it is absolutely chock full of helpful notes and annotations ... in addition to being a very good translation, IMO.
Another recommendation would be to do an OP like this. Take a section of a text that you find personally engaging or meaningful, and take the time to break it down and pick it apart.
Sasaki's book makes that very easy, since you just have to digest the text as normal, then her notes, and then fill out any remaining gaps with your own research. It's very engaging and very fulfilling.
For those of you who aren't serious about studying Zen, you can just fuck right off faster than you can say "TL;DR"!
XD
For everyone else: I hope you enjoy the ride!
Someone asked LinJi:
- “What is the karma of the five heinous crimes?”
The master said:
Killing the father, slaying the mother, shedding the blood of a buddha, destroying the harmony of the sangha, and burning the scriptures and images—this is the karma of the five heinous crimes.
- “What is meant by ‘father’?”
The master said:
Avidyā is the father. When the place of arising or extinguishing of a single thought in your mind is not to be found, as with a sound reverberating throughout space, and there is nothing anywhere for you to do—this is called ‘killing the father’.
- “What is meant by ‘mother’?”
The master said:
Covetousness is the mother. When a single thought in your mind enters the world of desire and seeks covetousness, but sees that all dharmas are only empty forms, and [thus] has no attachment anywhere—this is called ‘slaying the mother’.
- “What is meant by ‘shedding the blood of a buddha’?”
The master said:
When in the midst of the pure dharma realm you haven’t in your mind a single reasoning thought, and [thus] pitch blackness pervades everywhere—this is called ‘shedding the blood of a buddha’.
- “What is meant by ‘destroying the harmony of the sangha’?”
The master said:
When a single thought in your mind truly realizes that the bonds and enticements of the passions are like space with nothing upon which to depend—this is called ‘destroying the harmony of the sangha’.
- “What is meant by ‘burning the scriptures and images’?”
The master said:
When you see that causal relations are empty, that mind is empty, and that dharmas are empty, and [thus] your single thought is decisively cut off and, transcendent, you’ve nothing to do—this is called ‘burning the scriptures and images.’
VIRTUOUS MONKS, reach such understanding as this, and you’ll be free from the hindrances of names [like] ‘secular’ and ‘sacred’.
Yet a single thought in your mind is doing nothing but
'Conceiving an empty fist or a [pointing] finger to be real;
Senselessly conjuring up apparitions from among the dharmas of the sense-fields.'
(YongJia; Song of Enlightenment; s.47)
You belittle yourselves and modestly withdraw, saying, ‘We are but commoners; he is a sage.’
Bald idiots!
What’s the frantic hurry to wrap yourselves in lions’ skins while you’re yapping like jackals!
Resolute fellows [though you are], you do not draw the breath of the resolute. Unwilling to believe in what you have in your own house, you do nothing but seek outside, go clambering after the worthless sayings of the men of old, rely upon yin and depend upon yang and are unable to achieve [by yourselves].
On meeting [outer] circumstances, you establish relationship with them; on meeting [sense-]dusts you cling to them; wherever you are doubts arise, and you yourselves have no standard of judgment.
FOLLOWERS OF THE WAY, don’t accept what I state. Why? Statements have no proof. They are pictures temporarily drawn in the empty sky, as in the metaphor of the painted figures.
FOLLOWERS OF THE WAY, don’t take the Buddha to be the ultimate. As I see it, he is just like a privy hole. Both bodhisattvahood and arhatship are cangues and chains that bind one. This is why Mañjuśrī tried to kill Gautama with his sword, and why Aṅgulimāla attempted to slay Śākyamuni with his dagger.
FOLLOWERS OF THE WAY, there is no buddha to be obtained. Even the doctrines [including those] of the Three Vehicles, the five natures, and complete and immediate enlightenment—all these are but provisional medicines for the treatment of symptoms. In no sense do any real dharmas exist. Even if they were to exist, they would all be nothing but imitations, publicly displayed proclamations, arrangements of letters stated that way just for the time being.
FOLLOWERS OF THE WAY, there’re a bunch of shavepates who try to seek a transcendental dharma by directing their efforts inward.
A great mistake!
If you seek buddha you lose buddha, if you seek the Way you lose the Way, if you seek the patriarchs you lose the patriarchs.
VIRTUOUS MONKS, make no mistake. I don’t care whether you understand the sutras and śāstras, whether you’re a king or a high minister, whether you’re as eloquent as a rushing torrent, or whether you’re clever or wise. I only want you to have true insight.
FOLLOWERS OF THE WAY, even if you should master a hundred sutras and śāstras, you’re not as good as a teacher with nothing to do.
If you do master them, you’ll regard others with contempt. Asura-like conflict and egotistical ignorance increase the karma that leads to hell.
Such was the case of Sunakṣātra bhikku—though he understood the twelve divisions of the teachings, he fell alive into hell. The great earth had no place for him.
It’s better to do nothing and take it easy.
When hunger comes I eat my rice;
When sleep comes I close my eyes.
Fools laugh at me, but
The wise man understands.
This is pretty interesting! LinJi has taken "the five heinous crimes" and made them sound ... positive?
Sasaki's Notes:
The five heinous crimes. For an earlier usage of this term, see page 186. Linji’s interpretation of the true meaning of these crimes later in the present passage seems presaged, not only by the words of Vimalakīrti quoted in the comment on page 187, but also by the following passage from the Shisong lü 十誦律 (The tensection vinaya):
Someone asked, “Could there be a case in which a bhikku kills the mother and gains great blessing, not retribution?” “Yes, there is. Desire is called the mother. He who kills it gains great blessings, not retribution.” “Could there be a case in which a bhikku kills the father and gains great blessing, not retribution?” “Yes, there is. The outflow of the passions 漏 is called the father. He who kills it gains great blessings, not retribution.” (t 23: 381b)
Two generations earlier than Linji, Baizhang Huaihai, of the same teaching line, had said,
The bodhisattva commits the five crimes that bring on uninterrupted punishment, but does not enter the Hell of Uninterrupted Punishment. His is the uninterruptedness of complete penetration 圓通無間. [This uninterruptedness] is not the same as the uninterruptedness 無間 [resulting from] the five grave sins of sentient beings. [All the states,] from that of māra straight through to that of buddha, are loathsome to him. He hasn’t the slightest speck [of such things].” (x 68: 11b)
Baizhang is here punning on “uninterrupted” 無間; 無間 means, literally, “no gaps.”
Though Linji has here described what he terms the “five heinous crimes,” his list does not entirely conform to the classical list. He has omitted the third of the five crimes, the prohibition against the slaying of an arhat, and added, as the fifth on his list, the first of what are known as the “five most grave sins” 五重罪. These are enumerated in the Dasazhe Niqianzi suoshuo jing 大薩遮尼乾子所說經 (Sutra expounded by Mahasatya Nirgrantha), a late Mahayana work translated into Chinese by the North Indian Buddhist monk and esoteric master Bodhiruci, who worked in Luoyang from 508 until somewhere between 534 and 537.
According to a long passage in the Dasazhe Niqianzi suoshuo jing, the “five most grave sins” are, briefly:
1) to destroy temples, to burn sutras and images, to steal a buddha’s or a monk’s belongings, to induce others to do likewise, and similar such offenses;
2) to slander or abuse the teachings of a śrāvaka, pratyekabuddha, or bodhisattva;
3) to ill-treat or kill a monk;
4) to commit any one of the “five heinous crimes”;
5) to deny the karmic consequences of ill deeds and to act or teach others accordingly, and to live unceasingly in evil (t 9:336b).See also the Mochizuki Bukkyō daijiten entry “Gogyaku” 五逆 (2:1124c–1126b).
So it's not something unique to LinJi afterall. However, what does seem to be unique is his "modification" of the list.
LinJi's record has several of similar such "modifications" which really look like ... "mistakes", lol.
IMO, LinJi--whoever he really was, if he was a person--would riff on the sutras and doctrines and would occasionally screw them up. However, since he completely understood Buddhism and Zen, it didn't matter; whatever he came up with ended up kicking ass anyway, so what he said was recorded as-is, without "fixing" the content.
Which would really, really emphasize the fact that Zen is a "teaching not found in words".
To wit, Sasaki's notes also further elucidates the history of "Sunakṣātra bhikku":
Sunakṣātra bhikku (Shanxing biqiu 善星比丘) is the name of a monk who appears in the “Jiashe pusa pin” 迦葉菩薩品 (Chapter on Kāśyapa Bodhisattva) in the Northern Nirvana Sutra (t 12: 560b). According to the Fahua xuanzan 法華玄贊 (Praising the profundity of the LotusSutra), “the sutra says” that Gautama had three sons while still a prince, the eldest being Sunakṣātra, the second Upamana, and the third Rāhula (t 34: 671c).
It is said that Sunakṣātra joined the sangha, memorized the entire twelve divisions of the sutras (see pages 122–124), freed himself from the passions, and attained the four dhyānas (the four successive stages of meditation and absorption). But despite his memorization of the teachings he could not understand the meaning of even a single word. He began associating with evil friends, thereby losing everything that he had accomplished toward the attainment of emancipation. Subsequently he espoused heretical views, including that of denying the law of causeand-effect. When he revealed his evil mind to the Buddha, he fell alive into the Avīci Hell, the Hell of Uninterrupted Torment. Because of this he is called an “icchantika bhikku,” a bhikku who has severed the roots of goodness and destroyed his chance of attaining buddhahood. He is sometimes also referred to as the “Four-Dhyāna Bhikku.”
Sunakṣātra is mentioned in the Śūraṅgama Sutra (t 19: 143a) and also in Yongjia’s Song of Enlightenment (t 48: 396c), in both cases as an example of a bhikku whose wrong views had caused him to fall into hell.
Finally, here are some more notes from Sasaki to further clarify the OP:
Covetousness is the mother ... only empty forms. A similar view of covetousness is seen already in the following passage from the Dunhuang manuscript Erru sixing lun 二入四行論 (Discourse on the two entrances and the four practices):
The sutra says, “Not extinguishing the delusion of covetousness.” This means that covetousness from the very first was never born and cannot now be extinguished. Though one seek covetousness inside, outside, or in the middle, it can neither be found nor obtained. Though it be sought throughout the ten directions, not the slightest trace of it can be found. Thus there is no need to extinguish it in order to seek emancipation. (Suzuki 1935, 17)
The sutra referred to in the passage is the Vimalakīrti Sutra (t 14: 540b). The Northern Nirvana Sutra contains an earlier statement of a point of view similar to that of Linji regarding the “father” and “mother”:
At that time Mañjuśrī recited this gāthā: Why, by reverencing the father and the mother / Obeying and honoring them, Why, by observing this practice / Does one fall into the Hell of Uninterrupted Torment?
The Tathāgata answered with this gāthā: If, taking coveteousness as the mother/ And avidyā as the father, You obey and honor them / You will fall into the Hell of Uninterrupted Torment. (t 12: 427a–b)
Baizhang Huaihai also speaks of avidyā as the father and covetousness as the mother in the following passage from one of his sermons:
Avidyā is the father, covetousness the mother. Self is the sword that kills the self ’s avidyā and covetousness, the father and the mother. Therefore it is said, “Kill the father, slay the mother. One word destroys all dharmas.” (x 68: 12b)
This is why Mañjuśrī … with his dagger. Linji is referring to two attacks on the Buddha’s life—one by Mañjuśrī and one by a bandit named Aṅgulimāla—that are mentioned in the sutras.
Mañjuśrī’s attack on the Buddha is described in the Da baoji jing 大寶積經 (Sutra of the great treasure collection), a voluminous collection of Chinese translations of sutras that is primarily the work of Bodhiruci, although the above-mentioned text was translated by Dharmagupta, who worked in Luoyang ca. 590–616.
The text tells us that the five hundred bodhisattvas under the Buddha, having attained knowledge of their previous existences, saw their past evil deeds, including patricide and matricide. Filled with constant anguish, they were unable to enter the profound depths of the dharma. Desiring to rid the bodhisattvas of their differentiating minds and help them attain anutpattikadharma-kṣānti 無生法忍 (“the firm conviction that the dharmas are uncreated”), the Buddha used his supernatural powers to induce Mañjuśrī to attack him with his sword of wisdom. Then, stopping Mañjuśrī, he preached to the assembly that “from the beginning there has been no ego, no person, no being. It is merely that the mind within perceives an ego and a person.” When the bodhisattvas heard the Buddha’s words, they thought thus: “All dharmas everywhere are like illusory transformations. Within these there is no ego, no person, no sentient being, no individual, no disciple, no entity, no youth, no father, no mother, no arhat, no buddha, no dharma, no sangha. Thus there is no murder and no murderer; how, then, could murder be committed?” They were thus relieved of their anguish and, filled with joy, leapt “the height of seven tāla trees” (t 11: 590b–c).
Aṅgulimāla was a notorious mass murderer who encountered Śākyamuni in a forest and attempted to slay him. In the Yangjuemoluo jing 央掘魔羅經 (Aṅgulimāla Sutra) (t 2: no. 120), translated by Guṇabhadra, Aṅgulimāla is described as a good man whose teacher had ordered him to kill one thousand people and bring the little fingers of their right hands. When Aṅgulimāla met the Buddha he had already killed 999 victims. He ran after Śākyamuni with dagger drawn, but was unable to overtake him, even though Śākyamuni appeared to be walking at his usual leisurely pace. Astonished, he asked Śākyamuni about his unusual powers, and in the end abandoned violence and became a śramaṇa. The story is the subject of several sutras, primarily the above-mentioned Yangjuemoluo jing, the Foshuo Yangjuemo jing 佛說鴦崛摩經 (Aṅgulimāla Sutra preached by Buddha; t 2: no. 118), and the Foshuo Yangjueji jing 佛說鴦崛髻經 (Aṅgulimāla Sutra preached by Buddha; t 2: no. 119). For English translations see Chalmers 1926–1927, 2:50–56 and Bhikkhu 1995, 710–717.
These two attempts on the Buddha’s life are mentioned in a number of Chan texts, including the gy (x 68: 11b) and tg (x 78: 461c). In the following passage from the wl, Linji’s teacher Huangbo mentions only Mañjuśrī; the similarity of his words to those of the above-mentioned Da baoji jing suggests that Huangbo was quite familiar with this text:
Someone asked, “Why did Mañjuśrī take up his sword against Gautama?”
[The master] said, “The five-hundred Bodhisattvas had gained the knowledge of their previous lives and perceived the hindrances caused by their past karma. These five hundred are just your [body] composed of the five skandhas. Because they had perceived these hindrances from their previous lives, they sought buddhahood, sought bodhisattvahood, and sought nirvana. Therefore Mañjuśrī, with his sword of wisdom, [attempted] to kill these erroneous views regarding buddha. Hence [the World-Honored One] said to him, ‘You are a killer for the good’.” (x68: 21a)
It is clear that in the Da baoji jing text we have a canonical sources of the “iconoclastic” teachings often regarded as original with, and confined to, the Chan school.
A careful reading of this sutra further reveals its close relationship to the entire first part of Linji’s sermon under consideration, beginning with the explanation of the attainment of emancipation through commission of the five heinous crimes. Though Linji, in true Chan style, cuts through the pedagogical trappings characteristic of classical sutra writings, his message and that of the sutra are essentially the same.
The Three Vehicles… immediate enlightenment. Linji seems here to be naming several doctrines held as fundamental in most Buddhist schools, but generally denounced as valueless by Chan masters. For the Three Vehicles 三乘, see pages 122–123; for the Tiantai doctrine of complete and immediate enlightenment 圓頓教迹, see pages 193–194, above.
The doctrine that all beings are born with one of five natures, and that this nature determines the degree of their ultimate spiritual attainment, is found in the Ru Lengqie jing 入楞伽經 (Laṅkāvatāra Sutra; t 16: 526c). It became such a fundamental tenet of the Faxiang 法相 school that the school was sometimes called the Wuxing 五性 (Five-Nature) school. In the Fodijing lun 佛地經論 (Treatise on the Buddha-stage Sutra), a work of this school, the five natures, under names almost identical with those given in the Ru Lengqie jing, are explained as follows:
From beginningless time all sentient beings have been endowed with [one] of five kinds of nature: the śrāvaka nature, the pratyekabuddha nature, the tathāgata nature, the indeterminate nature, and the nature without merit for entering the religious life. The various sutras and śāstras set forth in detail the characteristics and differences of these natures. Those with the first four kinds of nature will attain nirvana within a certain set period of time because of the meritorious skillful means of the buddhas. The fifth type of nature, since it lacks the meritorious causes for entering the spiritual life, does not attain nirvana within any set period of time. The only thing the buddhas can do for those [endowed with this nature] is employ their skillful means to manifest supernatural powers and preach the dharma of leaving the evil gati and being reborn in the good gati. (t 26: 298a)
Since Linji is believed to have studied the Faxiang teachings before taking up Chan, he may have been referring specifically to this list. The Sutra of Perfect Enlightenment refers to a somewhat different group of “five natures”: ordinary people’s nature; śrāvaka and pratyekabuddha nature; bodhisattva nature; indeterminate nature; and heretic nature (t 17: 916b–c). Since this work was much favored in the Chan school, this list too was undoubtedly known to Linji. Another possibility is that he may have been referring to the doctrine of the five natures in general, since various other less important groupings of these exist.
Asura. See comments on pages 144, 180, and 226. Here the asuras, who are constantly at war against Indra, are used as a metaphor for the contentious and belligerent nature of humans.
How can there be any doubt about Zen and its relationship to Buddhism and to Dogen after this?
LinJi clearly understood the sutras. What LinJi talked about was clearly Buddhism. What Dogen and what "Buddhist" pretenders refer to as "Zen" and "Buddhism" is, then, nothing but a farce.
Trust in LinJi.
Trust in yourself.
The original Zen Masters are real true friends.
Even by the words of the sutras themselves "Buddha" is nothing more than a pinyata that you are supposed to bust open.
Don't hit each other! Hit yourself! Hit Buddha!
That is real "hitting".
Submitted May 07, 2021 at 07:41PM by The_Faceless_Face https://ift.tt/3o3yRgf
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