Original Teachings of Ch'an Buddhism: Selected from The Transmission of the Lamp

Description

Ch'an Buddhism is the Chinese name for what we in the West have called Zen Buddhism. It began in seventh-century China, and flourished there until the thirteenth century, when it disappeared. It is still practiced widely in Japan today. This book is partly a translation of the teachings of great Ch'an masters, selected from The Transmission of the Lamp, the earliest Ch'an text, and partly the author's own interpretations derived from nearly twenty years of study and experience in Ch'an, primarily with Dr. Suzuki and other leading Japanese Zen masters. The teachings are made up of kung-an (koan in Japanese), which are expressions of the inner experience and illumination of enlightened men, an inner experience that is transmitted from generation to generation and is the chief characteristic of the teachings of Ch'an. The translation, which brings the texts together in this form for the first time in English, is a masterpiece of style and contemporary command of language. A unique and beautiful collection, this book will also serve as an important text or reference for those interested in the original and authentic teachings of Ch'an. Chang Chung-yuan was born into a family of classical scholars in China and taught philosophy in Chinese universities before he came to the United States. He received a Ph.D. degree from Columbia University and has lectured at Columbia, Rutgers, and other American universities, as well as in Europe. He was a research fellow in Taoism and Ch'an Buddhism for ten years with the Bollingen Foundation of New York. He was sent to Japan from 1960 to 1963 to work on the research and translation of Ch'an scripts. At present, he is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Hawaii. Original Teachings of Ch'an Buddhism Contents Foreword PART 1 INTRODUCTION Metaphysical and Logical Approaches in Early Ch'an Teachings NIU-T'OU FA-YUNUG No-mind Is Not Different from Mind YUNG-CHIA HSÜAN-CHIO Dialectic as a Self-conscious Movement PART II INTRODUCTION Interfusion of Universality and Particularity TUNG-SHAN LIANG-CHIEH "He Is the Same as Me, Yet I Am Not He!" TS'AO-SHAN PÊN-CHI "Purity Is in the Impure" PART III INTRODUCTION Liberation from Subjectivity and Objectivity HUANG-PO HSI-YÜN To Roar Like a Tiger MU-CUOU TAO-TSUNG "Before a Donkey and After a Horse" LIN-CHI I-HSÜAN "Here I Will Bury You Alive" PART IV INTRODUCTION Illogical and Unconventional Approaches to Ch'an KIANGSI TAO-I "The Mind Is the Buddha" NAN-CH'ÜAN P'U-YÜAN "To Be a Buffalo Down the Hill" CHAO-CHOU TS'UNG-SHEN "You See the Logs, But Not the Chao-chou Bridge" P'ANG YÜN Inner Harmony in Daily Activity PART V INTRODUCTION Inner Experience Illustrated in Three-Way Interplay KUEI-SHAN LING-YU Great Action and Great Potentiality YANG-SHAN HUI-CHI "An Excellent Swordsman" HSIANG-YEN CHIH-HSIEN Enlightened by One Stroke PART VI INTRODUCTION The Six Phenomena and the Void FA-YEN WÊN-I "One Got It, the Other Missed" YUNG-MING YEN-SHOU "From the Womb of a Cow an Elephant Is Born" PART VII INTRODUCTION "The Swiftness and Steepness"—a Forceful Means to Enlightenment HSÜEN-FÊNG I-TS'UN "Not To Blind Any Man's Eye" YÜN-MÊN WÊN-YEN "The Mountain Is Steep; the Clouds Are Low" TUNG-SHAN SHOU-CH'U "Living Words and Dead Words" Final Remarks A CHART OF THE EMINENT CH'AN MASTERs (594-990) Selected from The Transmission of the Lamp Bibliography Index