A Study on the Phenomenon of “Sweating All Over” and the Process during Chan (Zen) Enlightenment:Historical Examples and the Case of Master Sheng Yen’s Meditation Experience=禪修「通身汗流」現象與禪悟 過程之探討 ── 以禪史文獻及聖嚴法師禪修經驗為例
Author Affiliation: Associate Professor, Dharma Drum Buddhist College＝法鼓佛教學院副教授
關鍵詞
process=過程; Chan (Zen) enlightenment=開悟; doubt sensation=疑情; sweating all over=通身汗流; interdisciplinary=跨領域
摘要
The practice and cultivation of the Traditional Chan (Zen) School emphasizes “Mind-to-Mind Transmission” in which the teaching is passed from a Chan master to their disciples and heirs as an unbroken lineage of teacher and disciple relationship. In the golden age of Chan , practitioners can easily find a Chan master, or even many, to learn and practice Chan to achieve enlightenment. For those without a master, if they can seize and follow through the correct concepts and methods of Chan practice and finally awaken to the truth, they can also find a teacher—one called “the experienced”—to examine and corroborate if they are truly enlightened. In addition, the other important principle of Chinese Chan School is to “pursue seeing the nature, not meditative liberation.” This illustrates that Chan practice focuses much more on seizing the grand principle of the realization of wisdom, than on the reaction to one’s body and mentality during the practice. The Industrial Revolution, which started from the later part of the 18th century, produced the greatest advances in technology and engineering for the modern civilization. Rationalism arose consequentially, asserting that in the field of humanistic studies, including religion, the truth should be explained and determined by scientific methods and factual analysis. In Zen Buddhist practice nowadays, the popularity of the study of topics such as “Zen and the Brain” and “Enlightenment” among international scholars and researchers growing trend attempting to view and explore Zen meditation and its effects on the human body in a scientific way. In the historical literature of the Chinese Chan School,many episodes and cases have been documented regarding the phenomenon of Chan Enlightenment. A conspicuous occurrence noted in this literature is “sweating all over”. Obviously what is being referred to here is the physical and psychological reaction the practitioners experienced while becoming enlightened, not the sweating due to the heat of the weather, which can easily happen during retreat in the summer. So far, we don’t have any counterevidence to show that if a practitioner does not “sweat all over,” he is surely not yet enlightened. On the other hand, we can also assume that not all the practitioners who had the experience of sweating all over” during enlightenment did indeed mention this to others and/or have it documented, in order to become part of the historical record. However, the traditional Chan School uses “mind-sealing-themind”, an intuitive method independent of the spoken or written word, to evaluate and corroborate whether the practitioner is already enlightened. The single physical phenomenon of “sweating all over” during enlightenment can hardly be a criterion for this corroboration. Furthermore, there is no record in the Chan School literature indicating that such a criterion was ever used. But the author shows many exemplary cases documented in the Chan School scriptures and literatures, as well as the case of the Chan meditation experience of Master Sheng Yen himself. It is worthy to explore the mystery with further studies from an interdisciplinary approach, such research based on Chan meditation and Neurophysiology or psychobiology. In addition, from childhood, Master witnessed numerous natural and man-made disasters which inspired him to explore the predicament of life and death. Although there was no one to guide him to practice Koan or Huatou, due to his own good merits, innumerable inner doubts naturally converged to his inner issue—a doubt sensation of life. He broke through the traditional practice formula of Huatou, and could more profoundly grasp the connotation and meaning of Zen Meditation—from “doubt” to “Enlightenment.” This influenced him to employ more flexible kinds of Zen teaching methods in the East and West for decades. In 1957, which is the year prior to his meeting with Master Ling Yuan, Master Sheng Yen wrote many Buddhist articles
目次
1. The Phenomenon of “SweatingAll Over” during Chan (Zen) Enlightenment 274 1.1 Sweating all over: A Body-mind Reaction from Chan Meditation 274 2. The Process during Chan Enlightenment 284 2.1 The Major Meditation Methods and Experiences of Master Sheng Yen 284 2.2 Master Sheng Yen investigated a number of questions 288 2.3 The Process of Enlightenment 294 3. Conclusion 296 中文摘要 301
