「頓」中開出次第化漸修—聖嚴法師禪法的革新與調和=Methodical and Gradual Path Stemmed from “Sudden Teaching”—Renovation and Concord of Master Sheng-Yen’s Teaching of Meditation
From the practical and training perspective, Master Sheng-Yen’s teaching of meditation is characterized by methodical and gradual approaches and thus reforms the stereotypical identification of “sudden approach” in Chan tradition. However, his fundamental meditation theory is actually stemmed from the “sudden teaching” of ChanSchool, i.e. the teaching of “emptiness’’. By situating Master Sheng-Yen’s teaching of meditation within the practical context on the path to enlightenment and taking a hermeneutical shift from philological to “systematical”, historical and objective interpretations, this research argues that although Master Sheng-Yen’s gradual training style is methodologically distinct form the “direct” and “sudden” Chan tradition, its essence is the very concept of “emptiness’’ in Zu-Shi Chan(祖師禪). Based on the concept of “emptiness” and “the dependent origination”, the diverse application of “sudden”, “direct”, “gradual” and “stepwise” approaches in his teaching is practically for purpose of guiding different students; it is neither a “method-free”“sudden” approach, nor a rigid “following-through” of a gradual step-by-step instruction. Master Sheng- Yen’s teaching renovates the Chan School by harmonizing different approaches of meditation and presents the essence of “no-attachment”, “liberating-insight” and “emptiness” in Chan.
