First, everyone should be familiar by now with www.reddit.com/r/zen/wiki/dhyana. With that in mind, here is a bit from the short booklet I'm writing up on the Four Statements of Zen...
Now, prepare yourself for The Big Reveal, because this is how shockingly consistent Zen Masters are: The name Zen comes from the word dhyana, which I would translate as "Reigning Awareness"; but dhyana is also known in Huineng's text as the lamp of the light of wisdom (prajna), aka... self nature. Huineng's much maligned student Shenhui took up this theme in his own teaching, as D.T. Suzuki establishes by quoting from Huineng and then providing this translation of Shenhui's record:
"Where this (mystery) takes place, we say that Dhyana, taken up by itself, is the Body of Prajna, and is not distinct from Prajna, and is Prajna itself; and further, that Prajna, taken up by itself, is the Use of Dhyana. and is not distinct from Dhyana, and is Dhyana itself. (Indeed) when Dhyana is taken up by itself, there is no Dhyana; when Prajna is to be up by itself, here is no Prajna. Why? Became (Self-)nature is suchness [being itself], and this is what is meant by the oneness of Dhyana and Prajna.” (Suzuki, 1991, p.47)
Dhyana, Zen, is the very being of the self nature. The name Zen is thus a direct reference to what is "seen" in the Zen school.
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Welcome! ewk comment: Consider how far this argument takes away from Japanese Buddhist claims that dhyana means "sitting meditation". Aside from the fact that this claim is never supported by a single textual reference from the 1,000 years of the Zen historical record in China, it's a blatantly self serving bit of propaganda from a meditation worshipping religion.
However, if we consider what Shenhui is saying and we consider that Huineng's "self nature" is what is "seen" when one "turns the light around and shines it backwards", then suddenly the name Zen makes way more sense than it ever did before... right?
Submitted June 04, 2022 at 11:25AM by ewk https://ift.tt/pUjgJV8
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