BUDDHISM IN CHINA AND JAPAN
Pure Land and Chan Buddhism in China
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Buddhism comes to China sometime in the second century C.E. during the time of the
Han dynasty and it comes via one of the most famous of ancient trade routes – the Silk
Road –
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One of the main features of the transfer of Buddhism to China was the translation of
sacred texts. By the time Buddhism comes to China the corpus of work that constitutes
Buddhist sacred texts – Theravada and Mahayana was vast – it took over a thousand
years for all the texts to be translated.
One of the great translators of Indian Buddhist texts into Chinese language was an Indian
monk called Kumarajiva who oversaw the translation of the PP sutras and nagarjunas
writings.
The Chinese translators were not familiar with the previous history of Indian Buddhism
and regarded all the scriptures as the Buddha’s words recorded by his disciples.
It becomes really difficult for Chinese converts to reconcile the many different sectarian
interpretations and eventually this leads to the creation of a very distinct form of
Buddhism with which the Chinese were comfortable.
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One Chinese response to the sectarian differences, inconsistencies and contradictions was
to harmonize them all—this is the approach of both the Tiantai and Hua-yen schools. The
differences in Buddhist doctrine were explained as differences in the level of
understanding.
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One of the features that distinguished Indian Buddhism from East Asian forms was that
in places like China and Japan, Buddhist schools developed around the study of various
sutras – the text becomes an object of veneration.
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In China and Japan, the most prominent of the Mahayana Buddhas came to be Amitabha
whose name means ‘infinite light’ and whose paradise or pure land is called the Happy
Land. The Pure Lands or paradises of the buddhas are associated with the cardinal
directions so each direction is connected with a different Buddha and his paradise – the
most popular is the western paradise of Amitabha – Omitofo in china and Amida in
Japan. The pure land is the perfect place, the perfect conditions for attaining nirvana.
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In Mahayana Buddhism the pure lands or paradises of the buddhas are the result of their
vows or intentions – as a bodhisattva Amitabha vows to establish a heaven or a place
where the absolute worst sinner can be reborn simply by calling on him with faith. This is
the Buddhist version of salvation by grace. By simply having faith – i.e trust in the saving
power of Amitabha Buddha one can be reborn in the Pure Land.
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This approach requires nothing more than pure devotion and faith in the saving power of
the Buddha. And in Pure land Buddhism, that faith is demonstrated by chanting the name
of Amitabha – in Japanese – namu amida butsu – praise to Amida Buddha.
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Along with Pure Land Buddhism and the worship of Amitabha Buddha the other most
important form of Buddhism to arise in China was called Chan – both of these forms
remained living expressions of Chinese Buddhism and spread outside of china to develop
further in Korea and Japan.
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Chan is the Chinese transliteration of the Sanskrit word dhyana – meditation – the
discipline of calming the mind and turning completely inward.
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Chan claims to be a direct teaching of the Buddha and their connection with the historical
Buddha – Shakyamuni— is represented in a story in which the Buddha is giving a
sermon surrounding by a large crowd of gods and humans, the Buddha uses no words, he
simply holds up a lotus flower. The crowd waits for him to speak but his disciple
Kashyapa understands – the Buddha smiles at him and hands him the flower. This
wordless transmission of knowledge of the true nature of existence is the foundation of
Chan/Zen.
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In the early 6th century an Indian teacher/meditator by the name of Bodhidharma was said
to come to china –his teaching is summed up in the words:
A special transmission outside of scriptures (doctrines)
No dependence on words or letters – not setting up the written word as authority
Direct pointing at the mind of man (human heart)
Seeing one’s nature and becoming a Buddha
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With regard to the direct transmission of knowledge, in Chan Buddhism the successors of
the Buddha are called patriarchs. Kashyapa was the first patriarch and bodhidharma the
28th counting from the Buddha, but the 1st patriarch of the Chan school.
The second most famous name in Chan history is Huineng – the 6th patriarch.
As the story goes, Huineng was a kitchen boy in the monastery assistant to a senior
monk. The 5th patriarch announced a poetry competition to choose his successor. The
verse that the senior monk writes on the wall emphasizes the need for discipline and
meditation and practice as a preparation for enlightenment.
The senior monk writes:
The body is the bodhi tree
The mind is like a clear mirror
At all times we must strive to polish it
And must not let the dust collect.
Huineng gets someone to write his own verse on the wall for him in the night.
Originally there is no tree of enlightenment
Nor is there a stand with a clear mirror
From the beginning not one thing exists
Where, then, is a grain of dust to cling?
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Huineng’s insight and realization is recognized by the 5th patriarch who appoints him to
be the 6th patriarch. However, his appointment is disputed by the others and Chan
develops into many sects and schools with different emphasis on method and techniques.
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The difference between the two verses represents a major difference in chan schools,
those that consider enlightenment to be the fruit of gradual development and those that
consider enlightenment to be a state that simply arises suddenly and immediately. The
difference between sudden and gradual enlightenment.
After Huineng, two subsects of chan prospered – one was Caodao and Linji – better
known by their Japanese names soto and rinzai. The soto sect emphasized silent sitting
meditation known as zazen aimed at experiencing the enlightened mind – mind in its pure
shining state – state of inner illumination. The rinzai sect objected that emphasis on this
practice would simply bring the mind to a state of peaceful tranquillity but not to
enlightenment. The rinzai methods were strikingly different – literally – the founder of
this sect would strike his students hard with his staff, slap their faces, pull their noses
really hard and shout –– so loud that one student said he couldn’t hear anything but
ringing in his ears for 3 days.
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The reason behind these methods - the goal of the zen master is to bring the student to the
state of no-mind or without-thinking. The purpose of the shouting and the hitting is to
bring the student to a realization of now – not the now that is between past and future, but
the now that obliterates the three times.
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An even more popular method to bring the student to satori or enlightenment moment is
the koan – a kind of riddle or question that the zen master puts to the student and that the
student is to use as the focus for meditation until he realizes the meaning of the koan. The
koan can sound very nonsensical and impossible to answer – such as show me your
original face before you were born – what is the sound of one hand clapping. Or simply
the zen master might hold up something very simple like an orange or a rice cake and ask
what is this?
The master is looking for an expression of the student’s understanding, a demonstration
of insight. The purpose is to bring about a no-mind response by closing off normal
intellectual routes. The content is not important - there are books of koans with the
answers. The importance of the koan is the source of the response - the no-mind.
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ZEN IN JAPAN
 In the 6th century, Buddhism was welcomed in Japan, welcomed and protected by the
ruling class as another aspect of civilization drawn from their contact with China.
 In its early development in Japan Buddhism was a religion of the elite, the scholars and
the ruling class. It only really began to become popular during the 12th century and
between the 12 and 13th centuries 3 schools of Japanese Buddhism became firmly
established—Pure Land Buddhism, Nichiren Buddhism, and Zen.
 Pure land, called Jodo, was popularised by the monk Honen – and as we remember this
was a path of faith – salvation through repeating the name of amida Buddha – namu
amida butsu. One of the more famous names in the Pure land tradition of Japan was
Shinran (1173-1262) – his doctrine was one of pure grace – for shinran there was nothing
that anyone could do to attain salvation. Salvation was entirely dependent on the grace of
Amida Buddha. His school was called Jodo Shin – the True Pure land.
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Nichiren Buddhism was another sect devoted to the idea of salvation by faith. It was a
school founded by a monk called Nichiren who was a charismatic reformer. He believed
that he was a reincarnation of one of the bodhisattvas in the Lotus sutra and therefore he
alone could impart the true meaning of the sutra. He felt that all other schools of
Buddhism were completely evil and heretical and that the only true way was the worship
of the lotus sutra as he expounded it. Nichiren’s followers repeated the name of the Lotus
sutra – namu myoho renge kyo – homage to the lotus sutra with a belief in its
effectiveness in assuring material prosperity, earthly happiness and eventually salvation
for all. His aim was to transform all of Japan into a Pure land on earth. These ideals are
taken up in the more modern sect of the Soka Gakkai (value-creation society) which is
also known for the chanting of the name of the lotus sutra as a means of attaining
happiness and prosperity in this life.
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The sudden enlightenment school - rinzai - was introduced to japan by the monk Eisai
(1141-1215) and zen becomes the favoured tradition of the samurai, the warrior nobility.
The way of the warrior was called bushido – this code of conduct defined a samurai
fighter. The teachings of zen that emphasize simplicity, modesty, self-discipline, selfreliance were very much admired by the samurai and the practices of zen such as the
strenuous meditative practices and mental training leading to a state of complete focus
and concentration were practices that could benefit the warrior in his art. The rinzai
monasteries, then, as your text points out, became the training grounds for the samurai
warriors and were therefore generously supported by the ruling class. Zen became the
religion of the elite and Pure Land the religion of the masses.
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One of the most famous names in zen history is Dogen (b. 1200 C.E.), He established the
second most prominent zen school in Japan, the Soto school.
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For Dogen the emphasis on zazen resolved a great doubt and difficulty that he had. Zen
teaching is that everyone is inherently Buddha, all beings possess Buddha nature. His
question was: if I am already a Buddha, then why do I have to train so hard to become a
Buddha? How can zazen be said to lead to the state of being a Buddha when Buddha is
already who I am. His answer to this is that practicing zazen does not lead to
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Buddhahood, practicing zazen is being Buddha, is fulfilling one’s buddhanature. Just as
one does not become a doctor by practicing medicine – being a doctor means practicing
medicine. One’s own ordinary nature is Buddha-nature – there is nothing to be acquired
in meditation. For Dogen one did not practice zen to become enlightened, practicing zen
was the process of enlightenment.
Dogen also came to have a deeper understanding of zen from an old cook who taught him
that zen can be practiced through any of the ordinary things we do in life, like chopping
wood and carrying water. Dogen returned to Japan and established his school there,
which was known for its rigorous meditation discipline, where practitioners would sit for
hours on end with mind focused on awareness of the moment - devoid of thoughts. This
practice is called shikan-taza – just sitting. Exceptionally long periods of meditation were
called sesshin.
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Because of Dogen’s understanding that zen was to be practiced also in the ordinary
activities of life, his school was much more welcoming to the common people and
Dogen’s monks were active in the community helping out with all the various manual
labour jobs required in a farming or peasant society. Soto zen continues to be a more
popular movement than rinzai zen which was always more associated with the elite.
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Hakuin ( b. 1685) was another great name in zen history. He was a rinzai zen master who
was a nature mystic. For Hakuin, the sound of rain, the sight of newfallen snow, the song
of a bird – all these constitute gateways to kensho – a moment of seeing into one’s true
nature. Sometimes kensho and satori are used as synonyms for awakening but kensho
more often means a brief moment of awakening, whereas satori has a more complete
sense to it. The difference between when you glimpse something and when you have a
good look at it.
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As a rinzai master, Hakuin refined and promoted the use of the koan that cuts off all the
ordinary paths of the mind leaving nowhere for the person to stand no identity for them to
claim – you become a no-person – in zen thought this can be a fearful state, one in which
a person can be overwhelmed by feelings of anxiety and depression – this is called zen
sickness or the great doubt.
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The mind eventually reaches a state of complete impasse – there is no resolution to be
found – the mind is as it were in a completely frozen state, the ego cannot move and then
it shatters. This is called the great dying or the great death. In the words of Hakuin. “If
you wish to know the true self beyond ego, you must be prepared to let go your hold as if
hanging from a sheer precipice, to die and to return to life again”
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This shattering death of the ego is however recognized by an experience of great joy – the
joy of freedom from the shackles of the self.
From Hakuin’s Chant in praise of zazen:
From the beginning all beings are Buddha
Like water and ice
Without water no ice.
True self is no-self
Our own self is no-self
We go beyond ego and past clever words
Our thought now being no-thought
Our dancing and songs are the voice of the dharma
What is there outside us
What is there we lack
Nirvana is openly shown to our eyes
This earth where we stand is the pure lotus land
This very body the body of Buddha