守一看淨=Seeing the purification by guarding the One; 守本真心=Guarding the original true mind; 頓悟法門=the Teaching of Sudden Awakening; 達摩=Bodhidharma; 二入四行=Two Entrances and Four Practices; 東山法門=Eastern Mountain Teachings; 惠能禪=Huineng Chan
According to the Record of the Transmission of the Lamp , Bodhidharma gave the four fascicles of the Lankavatara Sutra to Huike for mind-to-mind transmission, and even the Third Patriarch, Sengcan, also followed the teaching. They meditated in silence, had no records in their teachings, and did not transmit the Dharma in public. Until the Fourth Patriarch, Daoxin began to “establish the Chan monastery, nurtured monastic, and advocated the Chan practice.” Chan changed from only in the mountain to the public. Chan practice starts from contemplating the mind to see purity, to guard the original true mind. And even even Huineng returned the basis of attaining Buddhahood to the sudden realization of the original pure mind. Chan practice does not emphasize the style of meditating in the mountain, but to actualize it in daily life. The purpose of this thesis is to discuss the evolution of Chan philosophy in the initial period of Chan School in China, starting from the First Patriarch, Bodhidharma to the Sixth Patriarch, Huineng. This thesis will focus on the period from Daoxin to Huineng, which the style of Chan has undergone great changes, in order to understand the succession and transformation of its thoughts. The main content in this thesis is, first, discussing the development of Indian Chan in China before Bodhidharma. Discuss about the connections between Chan of Bodhidharma and characteristics of these Chan, and discover the characteristic of Bodhidharma’s Chan is to combine prajna and Buddha nature in the Chan teaching. Furthermore, discuss the philosophy of the Two Entrances and Four Practices of Bodhidharma, and analyze its thought and connection with the Lankavatara Sutra. Moreover, discuss the transition of Bodhidharma’s Chan, which is the Eastern Mountain Teachings (Dongshan Famen 東山法門) of Daoxin and Hongren. Daoxin and Hongren inherited Bodhidharma’s Chan and converged the philosophy of prajna in it. Based on the one-practice Samadhi in the Saptasatika-prajnaparamita-sutra (Wenshu Bore Jing 文殊說般若經), Daoxin emphasized seeing the purification by guarding the One (shouyi kanjing 守一看淨), while Hongren combined the prajna sutras to stress on guarding the original true mind (shouben zhenxin 守本真心). In the following chapter, the changes of Chan of Huineng will be explored by analyzing the similarities and differences between the Chan philosophy and practices of Southern School of Huineng and Northern School of Shenxiu. The result is that Shenxiu was closer to Hongren’s Chan, which is to realize the mind-nature with gradual cultivation in meditation. Meanwhile, Huineng had a great breakthrough in the practice and philosophy of Chan, as he was against the style of sitting meditation, but advocated seeing the nature with sudden enlightenment. Besides that, even though their methods have the difference of gradual and sudden, they were not as incompatible as the traditional texts of Southern School described. Although they practiced in different ways, they all headed to the realization of Chan. To combine the research of this thesis, from Bodhidharma to Huineng, although there were changes in the philosophy and the style of practice in Chan School, in terms of the realization of Chan’s mind-nature, there should have interrelationship within it.
