First, the original text and main meaning of "Zen"
It is generally believed that the Sanskrit word for Zen was originally "dhy⑥na". From the pronunciation point of view, this word should mainly come from ancient Indian proverbs, which is obviously a transliteration word and an abbreviation of transliteration. The original translation should be "Zen". "Zen" is the result of omitting a vowel "a" after the original text. Please refer to the Chinese translation of A Brief History of Buddhism in China by Mao Xionglian Tian and Zheng Pengnian, Shanghai Translation Publishing House, 1986, page 243. . The word "Zen" is often used with "meditation" in Chinese, which is called "meditation". "Ding" is sometimes a free translation of the original Zen, but in most cases "Ding" has another Sanskrit original "Sam ⑥ Ji". "Zen" and "Ding" were sometimes used separately in ancient and modern times, or there were some differences. But in general, the two are mixed. Some Buddhist classics talk about their differences or connections, but their views are not completely consistent.
Volume 28 of Great Wisdom says: "All meditation is also called Samadhi. Four Zen is also called Zen, also called Ding, also called Samadhi. Except for the four Zen Buddhism, the rest are also names, also called Samadhi, not Zen. " From this perspective, Zen can be called meditation, but meditation is not necessarily called Zen.
"Tanjing Meditation Product" said: "What is meditation? Leaving the outside world is Zen, and civil strife is fixed. Looking at the outside, the heart will be very chaotic. If the outside is out of phase, the heart is not chaotic. -External meditation is internal, for meditation. " Cao Yuanwen (the following quotations about Tanjing are all in this book). It can be seen from this passage that "Zen" and "Ding" are closely related although they have different emphases, so it is difficult to distinguish them strictly. In fact, whether in ancient or modern times, "Zen" and "Ding" are used alternately, and there are cases where one word is connected with another. In this paper, for the convenience of description, the two are usually not strictly distinguished. So, what is the main meaning of Zen? In order to grasp it more easily, let's take a look at some statements in Indian and China Buddhist documents.
In the eighth volume of Chang 'a Gamma Book, when discussing the four Zen, he said, "The four dharmas are called the four Zen. Therefore, in addition to being evil and not good at Buddhism, monks also have a sense and a view, and they get happiness from life and enter the early Zen. Destroy the concept of consciousness, believe in one heart, be unconscious and have no view, settle down in happiness and enter the second Zen. Leave happiness and practice, enter self-knowledge and happiness, all saints seek, remember happiness and happiness, and enter the third Zen. Leave bitterness and joy, first get rid of sadness and joy, not be bitter and unhappy, give up purity and enter the fourth meditation. " Here, Zen mainly controls or suppresses people's emotions and thoughts.
For example, as stated in Volume 4 of the Lotus Sutra of the Wonderful Method, "Manjusri Shi Liyan: There is a daughter of King Luolong, starting at the age of eight. She is wise and rooted, and is good at knowing the career of all beings. She won the Dalagni, and Buddhism said that she was hidden, could stand it, meditated deeply, and learned various dharmas. " From this passage, Zen or meditation is a necessary condition for understanding various laws.
Hui Yuan of Sui Dynasty said in Volume XIII of Mahayana Righteousness Chapter: "Zen is what China said. This is called ideological practice, and it is also a jungle. A thinker is called thinking because he has a foothold, a state and an intention. Thinking gradually, it is called practice, named from grams, thinking and practicing quietness. In other words, when the body is named, the meditative mind is what it is, which is called thinking. To cultivate one's mind is to practice. Those who have merit in the jungle, those who have fame, those who have wisdom and magical powers, and those who are boundless are their merits. If they are called jungles, they will be born. Because of its own fruit, it is called the jungle of merit. " Before explaining Zen, Hui Yuan also mentioned several other names of Zen, namely, Ding, Samadhi, Zhengshou, Samoti, Luxury Mota, Emancipation and so on. He also briefly explained the origin of these names. Judging from this passage, Zen is mainly a method of thinking and practice, which can produce wisdom, supernatural power, merit and liberation.
Zong Mi explained Zen in one of the volumes, Preface to the Collection of Zen Sources: "Zen is the language of Tianzhu, and there is a cloud of Zen. China is also called meditation, also known as wisdom." When discussing the types of Zen, he said: "Zen is shallow and deep, with different classes." It is said that the next person who is tired of having different plans is heterodox Zen; It is ordinary Zen that believes in cause and effect and hates practice; Realizing the truth of my emptiness and practicing it is Hinayana Zen; Realizing the truth revealed by our law and putting it into practice is Mahayana Zen. Insight from the heart is purity, worry-free, wisdom and self-sufficiency. This heart is Buddha, after all, it is no different. According to this, the yogi is the best Zen, also known as Tathagata pure Zen, with a line of samadhi and a name like samadhi. This is the root of all samadhi. If you can study hard, you will naturally get a hundred samadhi. Under the Dharma, it is this kind of Zen handed down from generation to generation. Before the arrival of Buddhism, all ancient scholars explained that it was the first four Zen and eight decisions. It is useful for all the eminent monks to practice it. " This passage systematically divides the types of Zen and puts forward the concepts of Taoist Zen, ordinary Zen, Hinayana Zen, Mahayana Zen and Supreme Zen.
But there are different views on the division of Zen. For example, Tiantai Zongzhiyi said in Volume IV of the Mysterious Lotus Sutra: "Bro'dee Walker is divided into three parts: one is Zen on earth, the other is Zen, and the third is Zen." Here, there are three main types of Zen Buddhism, and Zen Buddhism is called "Bro'dee Walker".
There are many explanations or classifications of Zen in Indo-Chinese Buddhist scriptures. According to the narrative of the main parts of these Buddhist scriptures, combined with the actual situation of Zen thought in India and China, the main meaning of Zen can be roughly summarized or summarized as follows:
Zen is mainly a spiritual practice method for people, a way for believers to realize the Tao or the highest reality, a way for believers to get rid of external interference and keep their inner peace, a way for believers to see their own hearts clearly, a way for believers to practice their thinking, and a way for believers to gain magical powers, merits, wisdom and liberation. Zen has different levels or grades. Zen is mainly internal to Buddhism and also external to Buddhism.
I'm afraid it's abstract to summarize or generalize like this. Let's make a concrete investigation based on the actual situation in India and China.
Second, the formation and main characteristics of Indian Zen thought
Zen is very popular in Buddhism and develops very rapidly in China. But as a method of spiritual practice, it was originally produced in India. Its ideological origin should be traced back to other religions in India before Buddhism came into being. As mentioned above, an important aspect of Zen is to get rid of external interference and keep inner peace. This has a lot to do with yoga practice in Indian history. Yoga practice has existed in India for a long time before Buddhism came into being. There are many religious sects in India that practice yoga, and Buddhism is just one of them. Because much of the content of yoga practice is the same as that of Zen practice, and because the original content of yoga practice came into being in India before Buddhism, many components in ancient Indian yoga are actually the original form of Zen in Buddhism. In this way, the ideological source of Zen in Buddhism should be found in yoga.
According to archaeological excavations, yoga existed during the Indus civilization. In the archaeological excavation of the Indus civilization site, there are some seal statues that mention the method of yoga sitting posture: History of Indian Philosophy, heirakuji Bookstore, 1963, 1 17 pages. . Yoga is mentioned in many ancient Indian documents, such as Upanishads and the epic Mahabharata. In earlier Upanishads, "dhy⑥na" was mentioned as an important content of yoga. For example, in ch σ ndogyup. "Meditation" is used to describe the static state of the world and mountains and rivers. It is also mentioned that meditation is greater than mind and less than knowledge. See Chσndo gya Up. 7,6, 1 ~ 2.。 The word "yoga" is explicitly mentioned in Taittir Yaup. In this Upanishads, yoga is compared to faith and truth. See the Upanishads of Zhegu 2, 4, 1. . In kata's Upanishads. ), poor cognitive function of sensory organs, peaceful consciousness and other mental States are all regarded as yoga. See Upanishads Kata 2, 6. . Cishi Upanishads (Maitr)Up. ) Call it yoga: unify the breathing, heart and sensory organs, and ignore all existing phenomena. See cishi 6, 25 in Upanishads. . Cishi Upanishads also made a specific classification of yoga, and thought that there are six kinds of yoga, namely pranayama, awareness, meditation, persistence, wisdom and samadhi. See cishi Upanishads 6, 18. . In addition, the understanding of the supreme Brahma mentioned in a large number of Upanishads can also be regarded as a kind of meditation or meditation, which belongs to yoga. The content of yoga practice in Upanishads mainly reflects the Brahmanism's religious practice theory which came into being earlier than Buddhism. It is mainly about keeping people's inner peace, controlling the activities of people's sensory organs, not being interfered by the outside world, and even reaching a wise and calm state. These are consistent with Zen or meditation in Buddhism. The material about yoga in the epic Mahabharata is also very rich, including meditation, persistence, wisdom, samadhi and other spiritual practices, as well as the magical power produced by yoga practice, such as subtlety, lightness, fullness, remoteness, arbitrariness, domination, respect for victory and coherence. See Taixianmu Village: Six Schools of Indian Philosophy, Bingwu Publishing House, 19 19, pp. 243-247. All these can be found in the development of Zen Buddhism.
The Yoga Sutra, the basic classic of yoga school in Indian Brahmanism philosophy, is the first classic dedicated to yoga practice in Indian history. It collects and sorts out the scattered yoga practice contents in the past, and makes a systematic summary and induction in theory. Yoga Sutra defines "yoga" and holds that "yoga is the inhibition of heart function". See Yoga Sutra 1, 2. The Yoga Sutra also classifies Samadhi (thinking Samadhi, not thinking Samadhi, having Samadhi, having Samadhi, having Samadhi, having Samadhi, etc.). ). See Yoga Sutra 1, 17 ~ 5 1. Some of these categories overlap in content. Put forward eight methods of yoga (prohibition, persuasion, sitting, pranayama, restraint, persistence, meditation and equal persistence). See Yoga Sutra 2, 29 ~ 55; 3, 1~8。 This paper introduces the main types of yoga supernatural power, and points out the ways to realize liberation through yoga practice and wisdom. Many contents of Yoga Sutra are strikingly similar to Buddhist Zen or meditation.
The contents of Zen or meditation in the Upanishads, Epics and Yoga Scriptures mentioned above are closely related to the formation and development of Buddhist Zen thought.
As far as the formation of Zen Buddhism is concerned, Upanishads are the most influential. Some existing Upanishads appeared before Buddhism appeared. For example, the main contents of the Upanishads of Singh and Zhegu were all formed before the emergence of Buddhism. With reference to Kokura's round photos from 800 to 500 BC (quoted above), there are 25 to 26 pages. Therefore, it can be said that meditation or other elements of yoga practice will have an impact on the formation of early Buddhist Zen thought. As for the age of epic, it is difficult to give a specific time because of its long time span in the early and late stages, but the possibility of influencing the early Buddhist Zen thought is not ruled out in the early stage.
As far as the development of Zen Buddhism is concerned, the later Upanishads, epics and yogis all played an important role. Because from the time point of view, Buddhism, Upanishads and later published epics can learn from each other and absorb each other in Zen thought. It's hard to say which one must be just the source or just the flow. The original part of the Yoga Sutra may have been formed around 150 BC, while the existing Yoga Sutra was finalized between 300 and 500 AD. See Yao: Indian Philosophy, Peking University Publishing House, 1992, p. 53. . Therefore, it and Buddhism should also learn from each other in Zen thought. In fact, the fourth volume of Yoga Sutra draws on and absorbs a lot of Buddhist contents, and some contents about Saman and yoga practice methods in the first three volumes of Yoga Sutra may also be absorbed by Buddhism. See Yao Zhu: Bo Dian and Yoga Sutra, South Asian Studies No.4, 199 1. .
As far as Indian Buddhism itself is concerned, Zen thought has become an important part of this religion since its birth. In the original teachings of primitive Buddhism, there is the so-called "eight right paths" theory, and the "positive definite" of one of these eight right paths is the content in this respect. "Zhengding" is a necessary mentality of Buddhist disciples in the process of learning the basic teachings of Buddhism and pursuing liberation. The yogi should stop his mental role, "Don't be confused." When discussing the meditation of early Buddhism, the so-called "four Zen" and the so-called "four Zen and eight meditation" are usually quoted. That is, the "four Zen" that belongs to the color world plus the "four colorless definitions" that belong to the achromatic world (there is no boundary in emptiness, no boundary in knowledge, no place for everything to think). . As for "Four Zen", according to the explanation in Volume 17 of Za Agama, it refers to gradually controlling people's feelings, emotions and thoughts. , that is, to control human heart function. In fact, this has reached the state of "no chaos and no dispersion" as stated by the Eighth Route Army. This is similar to the concept of yoga practice in Upanishads and Yoga Scriptures.
In addition to "positive determination" or "four thoughts", early Buddhism also put forward some other concepts related to meditation, such as "three liberation doors" and "four boundless minds". Three solutions refer to emptiness (realizing the emptiness of things), no phase (not clinging to the illusion of things) and no desire (no desire and no demand). The four boundless minds refer to kindness (giving happiness to all beings), sadness (excluding the suffering of all beings), joy (seeing the happiness of all beings) and abandonment (abandoning wrong ideas). In these two groups of concepts, the three liberation doors obviously belong to meditation itself, and the three liberation doors are also called Samadhi. Because emptiness mainly refers to "emptiness" in early Buddhism; No phase is the separation in meditation; No desire is an indifferent attitude. It is difficult to distinguish these three things strictly. The two are closely related and both are within the scope of meditation. Infinite mind is mainly the preparation for entering meditation or the basic condition needed by practitioners. This is somewhat similar to the first two methods of the eight methods in the Yoga Sutra. What it wants to show is that if you want to do yoga or meditation, you must abide by some minimum codes of conduct or moral requirements. If you are full of hatred for all beings and greed or ignorance for things, you can't achieve the purpose of spiritual practice.
The Zen thought of early Buddhism promoted the formation of meditation in the three main parts of Buddhist doctrine (abstinence, determination and wisdom). Later Hinayana Buddhism and Mahayana Buddhism in India both retained this aspect in early Buddhism to varying degrees. However, in the development of Buddhism, a development trend of Zen thought is more and more closely combined with other Buddhist theories, especially focusing on combining meditation with the understanding of the reality or the highest reality of things. Moreover, in Buddhism, the realization of the reality or the highest reality of things is gradually regarded as the highest realm of Zen. This trend is more prominent in Mahayana Buddhism. On the one hand, this trend is related to the theoretical characteristics or development trend of Mahayana Buddhism, on the other hand, it is also related to the influence of Brahmanism philosophy. The mainstream of Brahmanism philosophy also regards the realization of the highest reality as the highest level of meditation. .
Mahayana Buddhism also has its own fixed knowledge, which is mainly reflected in the so-called "Zen paramita" in the so-called "six degrees" emphasized by Mahayana. Zen paramita naturally has the same content as Hinayana, but there are also differences between them. In Hinayana Buddhism, meditation requires practitioners to concentrate their thoughts and get rid of all kinds of distractions and troubles in the world. They believe that practicing this meditation can produce the best religious practice effect, and absolutely affirm the significance of this meditation. However, in Mahayana Buddhism, influenced by the guiding ideology of Mahayana theory, especially by Mahayana Buddhism's concept of "no income" and the early Chinese school's "middle way" thought, Mahayana's view of meditation is somewhat different from Mahayana's. For example, in the Prajna Sutra, Mahayana Buddhism said on Zen: "Mahayana Bodhisattva's meditation on Paramita should be true to Sapo's heart, and it will be tasteless to Zen ... and it will have nothing to do with all laws and Zen life." "Maha Prajna Paramita Sutra" Volume IV, "Da Zhengzang" Volume VIII, 246a. He also said: "Bodhisattva Mahasa is a famous Bodhisattva Mahasa meditation paramita. In response to Sapo's heart, he entered all kinds of meditation, did not live with Zen, and taught him to enter all kinds of meditation, so that he would not gain anything." "Maha Prajna Paramita Sutra" Volume 5, "Da Zhengzang" Volume 250a. Obviously, in the view of Mahayana Buddhism, we can't cling to everything, because everything is "unprofitable", and Zen is no exception. We can't cling to it. We can't absolutize meditation, nor can we demand absolute separation from external things like some Mahayana Buddhism.
Mahayana Buddhism's attitude towards Zen Buddhism is related to its theory about the relationship between the world and nirvana. In the Great Wisdom, Dragon Tree said: "Nirvana exists in all world laws." "Great Wisdom" Volume 32, "Dazhengzang" Volume 298b. In other words, the liberation of Buddhism cannot be achieved through complete isolation from the world. This theory has an influence on the Zen concept of Mahayana Buddhism. Since Buddhism can't be completely liberated from the world, the highest state of Zen can't be achieved through absolute "separation".
When Mahayana Buddhism developed into Yoga, it paid more attention to meditation. The content of this school of Zen has changed greatly, which is richer and more complicated than the previous Buddhist Zen thought. In fact, the theory of yoga school pays equal attention to meditation and meditation, and closely combines its meditation theory with its theory about the nature of various laws. The main work of this school, on the land of yoga teachers, consists of five parts (local division, decision-making division, interpretation division, different division and event division). The local division discusses the realm of yoga meditation, that is, the so-called seventeen places, including the correspondence of the five senses, the intentional place, the search for everywhere, the search for nowhere, the search for nowhere, and the samadhi. The rest further discusses some problems involved in Seventeen Places, and through this discussion, shows the basic views of yoga practitioners on various methods. Therefore, the Zen view of yoga school is a highly speculative theoretical system, which is integrated with other theories of this school.
Tantric Buddhism attaches great importance to meditation in its yoga theory. Tantric Buddhism has absorbed many ideas of Mahayana Buddhism such as Yoga School, and thinks that yoga is to make oneself correspond to the highest reality (or the reality of things, or the Buddha's nature, or the Buddha's own respect, etc.). Through traditional methods, such as pranayama, sensory control and thinking capture. Tantric classics such as Mahayana Sutra refer to yoga with images and yoga without images. The former takes the image as the object of meditation or concentration, while the latter takes the image without image (the essence of things or the truth of the soul, etc.). ) as an object of meditation or concentration. Tantric yoga is thought to be profound, and yoga with pictures is said by people with poor wisdom. Volume 7 of the Great Sun Sutra says: "The method of no phase is so deep that bad wisdom can't be tolerated. In order to cope with it, there is also a phase theory. " Zang, Volume XVIII, 188a. However, some documents mentioned that there are two kinds of differences between "phase" and "phase". See Foguang Dictionary edited by Ci Yi, Foguang Culture Enterprise Co., Ltd., 1988, pp. 2436 ~ 2437. .
In a word, Zen thought developed with the development of Buddhism in India. Zen thought exists in primitive Buddhism, Hinayana Buddhism and Mahayana Buddhism, and exists in all major stages of the development of Indian Buddhism. Even in some major religions except Buddhism in India, the religious practice equivalent to Zen thought is quite developed. In Brahmanism or Hinduism, yoga schools have even been formed to promote this aspect. . Only in Indian Buddhism, there has not been a Buddhist school or Sect that mainly promotes Zen thought. But after Buddhism was introduced into China, the situation changed.
Third, the changes and main features of Zen thought in China.
After Zen Buddhism was introduced into China, it did not form an independent Buddhist sect at first. After the formation of Zen Buddhism, China's Zen thought was mainly manifested in the development of Zen Buddhism.
The formation of Zen Buddhism has many ancestors according to the tradition of the Sect's own legal system. The distribution of Zen Buddhism was mainly in Huineng period, but in the new period of Taoism, tribes have been formed. Some of the materials are mainly Liu Yuxi's Story of Master Rong's New Tower (full Tang language, volume 606) and Zong Mi's Zen Master. According to records, Farong, a disciple of Daoxin, founded Niutouzong. The case didn't have much influence later, and it was lost in the late Tang Dynasty. Hongren has many disciples, the most famous of which are Huineng and Shen Xiu. These two men became the representatives of the two schools of Zen-Nanzong and Beizong respectively. The great development of Zen in the later period was mainly in Nanzong. Nanzong later formed three systems, namely, Heze Shenhui system, Nanyue Huaixiang system and Qingyuan Xingshi system. During the Late Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties, Zen was divided into five schools from Nanyue School and Qingyuan School, which were called the "five schools" of Zen, namely Huiyang School, Lin Ji School, Cao Dongzong School, Yunmen School and Fayan School. Huiyang School and Lin Ji School originated from South Vietnam System, while Cao Dongzong School, Yunmen School and Fayan School originated from Qingyuan System. . The five schools of Zen declined in the Song Dynasty, while other schools developed. Among them, Lin Ji is divided into two tribes: one is Huanglong (Sect) and the other is Yang Qizong (Sect). These two situations and the original "five schools" are collectively called "five schools and seven schools" of Zen. If counted from bodhidharma, the founder of Dongtu, Zen was formed in the Southern and Northern Dynasties. But in fact, Zen thought really formed an influential sect in the history of China after the Tang Dynasty (especially after Huineng). Before this, Zen thought still did not form a larger sectarian scale.
At first, the introduction of Zen thought into China was mainly achieved by translating some Buddhist scriptures that discussed this theory. Many major Buddhist scriptures translated into Chinese earlier have not been handed down, but according to the introduction (preface, etc. People who read the scriptures at that time or later can know their main contents. There are Shouyi Sutra translated by An Shigao, Twelve Sutras of Big and Small, Ruzhou Samadhi Sutra translated by Zhilou Jiagu, and The First Cold Words Samadhi Sutra, etc. These classics belong to Hinayana and mainly describe the components of Indian Zen thought, such as restraint, breath regulation and mind control, including "four Zen", "four colorless hearts" and "four boundless hearts". Mahayana mainly talks about the meditation of Buddhism, and the realization of the basic concept of Mahayana Buddhism and the realm of Zen. See General History of Zen in China by Du Jiwen and Wei Daoru, Jiangsu Ancient Books Publishing House, pages 6-65,438+06. . Generally speaking, the imported ideas are mainly the basic contents of some Zen Buddhism in India.
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