![]() ![]() In twentieth-century Japan, Daiun Sogaku Harada, a priest of the Sōtō school, came to feel that the Sōtō sect placed an insufficient emphasis on the possibility of awakening to our True Nature, and to this effect he pursued koan work with a Rinzai teacher. Several other Chinese schools of Chan either died out or did not take root in Japan. Historically associated with a fierce and dynamic teaching style, the school today emphasises the investigation of koans. The Rinzai school is descended from the Chinese Linji school, founded by ninth-century master Linji Yixuan. Today the sect is associated especially with the practice of shikantaza or ‘just sitting’, a practice taught in China as ‘silent illumination’ by the twelfth-century master Hongzhi as well as by Dōgen’s own teacher, Master Rujing. Master Dōgen travelled to China in the thirteenth century and brought the teachings of this school back to Japan. The Sōtō school is descended from the Chinese Caodong school founded by Dongshan Liangjie the ninth century. Today the Six Realms are often interpreted from a psychological perspective as representing different mind states to which we are all subject, or as states which human beings are capable of creating for themselves here on earth through violence, addictions and so forth. While birth in the blissful Deva realms may seem preferable, the Devas remain attached to their pleasures and comforts which will, however, eventually fade, even if only after many eons. Birth in the human realm is considered precious because it can provide optimal circumstances for attaining enlightenment: sufficient suffering or dissatisfaction to spur us to practice, combined, ideally, with sufficient leisure and opportunity to pursue it. There are traditionally six realms into which those still bound to the Wheel of Birth and Death may be born: the Hell Realms, the Hungry Ghost Realm, the Animal Realm, the realm of the Asuras or jealous gods, the Human Realm and the realm of the Devas or happy gods. The whole wheel is held in the clutches of Yama Raja, the Lord of Death. At the centre of the wheel are three animals representing the Three Poisons which drive the whole system the Three Poisons are encircled by the Six Realms of Unenlightened Existence, and these are encircled in turn by the Twelve Links. The circular presentation helps to emphasise that the links do not (or do not solely) appear in temporal fashion, one after the other, but that they co-arise. The links are very often depicted, each with a traditional illustration, in the form of a wheel (the Wheel of Life). Depending which Sūtta is studied, there may be a different number of links given, but the most popular presentation is of Twelve Links as follows: ignorance, karmic formations, consciousness, name-and-form, sixfold sense bases, contact, feeling, craving, attachment, becoming, birth, suffering. The Twelve Links of Dependent Co-arising is a subtle and complex teaching exploring the origins of our world, our lives and our consciousness, and the ways in which they actually co-arise. ![]() Bodhidharma’s reply of ‘I don’t know’ has been called the most famous response in Zen Zen practice continually throws each of us back on our own not-knowing. The first koan in the Hekiganroku begins as follows: Emperor Wu of Liang asked the Great Master Bodhidharma, ‘What is the first principle of the holy teachings?’ Bodhidharma said, ‘Emptiness without holiness.’ The Emperor said, ‘Who is standing before me?’ Bodhidharma replied, ‘I don’t know.’ The Emperor did not understand. It is said that as the eyelids hit the ground, the first tea plants sprang up. He is famous for his fierce and uncompromising approach to practice and teaching, typified in reports of his initial encounter with the Chinese Emperor Wu (quoted below), of his sitting and facing a wall in a cave at Shaolin without speaking for nine years, and in the legend of his cutting off his eyelids to prevent himself from falling asleep while meditating. Known as the twenty-eighth Indian ancestor, Bodhidharma is said to have brought the practice and teaching of Zen from India to China (see further under Chan below). The legendary founder of the Zen (Chan) School. ![]()
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