Based on the Chan teaching of Bodhidharma and Huike, and with reference to the Lankavatara Sutra, this thesis tries to explore Bodhidharma’s Chan method as transmitted by Huike as well as his doctrine for pacifying the mind that take the “Dharma approach for pacifying the mind” as its theme. The main points of this thesis are as follows: 1. Receiving retribution after creating karma is the common sense in Buddhism. However, as the evil karma that brings about bitter retribution is intrinsically empty and unobtainable, the Chan approach that Huike taught his disciples to practice still lays emphasis on the contemplation and thinking of the emptiness of all phenomena. 2. Karmic retribution is illusory and unreal, and all suffering and pleasure come from dependent origination. Therefore, the Chan practitioners’ path for pacifying the mind does not consist in seeking externally a certain ideal realm that is uniquely true, but rather consists in contemplating internally that the mind—the agent that creates karma and receives retribution—is also an illusory and unreal phenomenon of dependent origination, and thereby cultivating a spirit that neither renounces nor aspires after anything, so as to carry out Bodhidharma’s Chan teaching of “abandoning illusion and returning to true reality.” 3. The viewpoint of “abandoning illusion and returning to true reality” is based on the thought that all dharmas are the “direct experience of one’s own mind”, as well as on the purport of the tenet of the right view of non-dual middle way that requires the practice of “transcending the direct experience of one’s own mind”, as taught in the 4-fascicle Lankavatara Sutra. 4. The doctrine for pacifying the mind as found in Bodhidharma’s teaching is based fundamentally on the thought of the “emptiness of dharmas” and “unobtainability” taught in the prajna sutras. This is not substantially different from the consciousness-only doctrine of nonconditional basis that takes the tathagatagarbha as its core concept, as far as the purport or aim—the self-awakening and self-realization of “transcending the mind-only manifestation”—is concerned. Therefore, the Chan teaching of Bodhidharma as inherited by Huike, which turns from the “view of emptiness” of consciousness-only to the “view of middle way” that transcends consciousness-only, accords fully with the essential approaches for practicing the Buddhardharma as taught in the prajna sutras. In other words, it takes as its principle the activities of implementing the Chan contemplation of “non-abiding” and “nonobtainment”.
