從「虛空粉碎」論聖嚴禪法與泰國森林傳統的「開悟經驗」=A Discussion on the Enlightened Experience of Sheng-Yen’s Chan and Thai Forest Meditation Tradition, in Term of “The Space Shattering” (虛空粉碎)
虛空粉碎=The Space Shattering; 聖嚴禪法=Sheng-Yen’s Chan Teaching; 泰國森林傳統=Thai Forest Meditation Tradition; 開悟=Enlightenment; 明心見性=Understand the Mind and See the Nature
另外，在當代泰國森林傳統中，亦有採用類似於「虛空粉碎」之語來描述自己的開悟體驗者，如Ajahn Maha Boowa（1913–2011）所言：「感覺上就像整個宇宙與它一起掉下毀滅，大地、虛空同一刻粉碎。」漢傳佛教的聖嚴禪法（注重頓悟），與上座部佛教的泰國森林禪修傳統（注重禪定），何以對「開悟」有一致的用語？難道說「殊途同歸」？為此，本文將兩者作一比較探討，以確定其異同處。
The purposes of this thesis are: 1. to investigate how Venerable Sheng-yen, under thecontext of emphasizing both “Chan” (禪) and “doctrine” (教), chooses the context of chan to establish and interpret the enlightenment experience in term of “the space shattering” (虛空粉碎); 2.To clarify the meaning represented by the term; 3. distinguish it with similar concepts used in contemporary Thai forest traditions.
Venerable Sheng-yen (1931-2009) founded the Chinese Dharma Drum school of Chan (中華禪法鼓宗) in 2006. Since it has become a sect (宗) of Buddhism, it naturally needs to have a complete set of interpretations of “doctrine” and “Chan”. Thus, Chan and Tiantai schools play an important role in this case. As Venerable Sheng-yen said: “if the wisdom of Chinese Buddhism is concerned with its immense influence of practice, Chan should be deemed as the prime; but if we look at the profound influence of doctrines, there’s no second school without Tiantai. Accordingly, Prof. Teng Wei-jen pointed out that Venerable Sheng Yen took the ideology of Tiantai school as the foundation of “Chinese Chan Buddhism”. However, in terms of “Enlightenment” (開悟) pursued by Chan practitioners, Venerable Sheng-yen did not use too many concepts of Tiantai school to explain it. Prof. Chen Yingshan pointed out in her thesis “The discussion on the Chan teachings of Sheng-yen and Tiantai Zhi-Guan (止觀) from the perspective of understand the mind and see the nature (明心見性)” that the definition of “understand the mind and see the nature” (明心見性) given by Venerable Sheng-yen was very little, and she thought that it was necessary to discuss the Tiantai’s doctrines and theory to make it clear and comprehensive.
This leads me to the question: since venerable Sheng-yen emphasizes equal importance to “Chan” and “doctrine” and understands well Tiantai doctrine, why not he use it to elucidate “understand the mind and see the nature” (明心見性)? This is the first issue researched in this paper. I would like to examine the reasons and explain that venerable Sheng-yen, based on the difference between Chan school which emphasizes on enlightening state (悟境) and Tiantai School which emphasizes on elimination of confusion (斷惑), coupled with his personal enlightening experience, often use the term “the space shattering” (虛空粉碎) to explain the “enlightening state” (悟境).
The next question is, what does “the space shattering” (虛空粉碎) refer to? In this article, I would examine further its origins and found that “the space shattering” (虛空粉碎) is a special term for Chan, which was popular in the quotations of Chan school during Ming and Qing dynasties, and the term could not be found in the writings of Tiantai School. However, these quotations do not specify this term in detail. Only Master Sheng-yen has clear explanations in his books, which are closely related to the concepts of “smashed mind”(破心), “mindless” (無心), “shattering a knotty question” (破疑團), and “explosion” (爆炸). Therefore, this paper clarifies the state and significance represented by “the space shattering” (虛空粉碎), based on Master Shen
