Author affiliation: Center for Buddhist Studies, University of California , Los Angeles, CA, USA
摘要
The technique of ‘examining meditative topics’ (Chinese kanhua Chan) is one of the emblematic practices of the ‘Zen’ traditions of East Asia. (We in the West know this technique better as kōan practice, after its later Japanese analogues.) An emblematic feature of this technique is the generation of a sense of inquiry, or more literally a ‘feeling’ or ‘sensation of doubt’. This inquiry creates an intense introspective focus that, in some strands of the practice, may be accompanied by palpable physical sensations; these sensations seem to be analogous to the experience of ‘excitation’ or ‘rapture’ (P. pīti, Skt. prīti) described in contemporary samatha/śamatha and vipassanā/vipaśyanā practice. I explore the treatment of prīti in Abhidharma theory and suggest that, where prīti is not classified as a discrete dharma, it might best be classified as a type of otherworldly vedanā that is ‘free from carnality’ (nirāmisa-vedanā/nirāmiṣa-vedanā). I conclude with a discussion of an explicit questioning dimension in commentarial discussions of satipaṭṭhāna practice in the Pāli tradition, where inquiring ‘Who goes? Whose is this going?’ helps to transform the act of walking into an act of mindfulness. This questioning dimension suggests possible parallels with the Zen notion of ‘doubt’.
