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The audio for this lesson is online for the first time: 2017-07-26
General History of Buddhism - Idlers know no end
Nanyue and Qingyuan were the new Zen sects that quietly emerged in Hunan and Jiangxi at a time when the two sects of Zen Buddhism were fiercely fighting each other, which was later said to be the other two lineages of Huineng's inheritance- Nanyue Huairang and Qingyuan Xingsi.
According to legend, Huai Rang was a native of Ankang, Shaanxi, who first studied in Songyue Lao'an, and later was taught by Huineng of Caoxi, practicing Zen in Hengshan, Hunan, and his lifelong obscurity. What really made Huai Rang famous to his descendants was his disciples and grandchildren, who promoted the Dharma Gate in the capital and obtained the imperial court's edict during the Bao Calendar year (of Tang Jingzong), and the one who really made the Nanyue Zen Law sensationalize the officials and the people was: Matsu Daoyi.
Daoyi, born in 709 AD, was a native of Guanghan, Sichuan (Shifang Matsu Town), commonly known as Ma, and later known as Matsu, and Emperor Xianzong posthumously honored him as the Great Silent Zen Master.
Matsu's power spread throughout Jiangxi, known as: Jiangxi Zen, also known as: Hongzhou Zen. What led to the lasting development of Hongzhou Zen was actually another disciple of Dao Yi, Huai Hai, also known as Baizhang Huaihai, who was very famous in the history of Buddhism. His greatest contribution was: the precepts.
According to the traditional precepts, most of the Great Virtue Zen masters live in the Vinaya Temple, and the restrictions are very strict. However, you must know that Zen Buddhism is based on the agricultural Zen economy, so since Daoxin and Hongnin, the leaders of these Zen monks have not lived in the Vinaya Temple, nor are they subject to these precepts, and they often live away from the temple.
We look at it today, for example, in many Tibetan Buddhist monasteries, where these monks still live around the temple, and this kind of retreat will lead to the disappearance of the precepts. When he arrived at Baizhang Huaihai, he decided to set up another Zen residence, no matter how high or low he entered the monastery. He standardized the daily sitting, lying down, walking, and living, for example, there was a long bed in the hall, and the bed lips were slept with a knife; the daily diet was appropriate, showing frugality; the practice of the universal request, showing the equal strength of the upper and lower levels; the elders lived in the abbot; the Buddha hall was not established, and the only tree dharma hall was established...
These regulations show that this scattered agricultural Zen model has gradually developed and has begun to form a stable monastic economy, so the Zen congregation, this long-term equal way of life of eating, living and working together, needs to be standardized and institutionalized. Correspondingly, the religious conception of zazen, as well as order and discipline, will be strengthened as a result.
This kind of Zen precept established by Hyakujō Huaihai, please note that this is not the traditional precepts set by the monks, but the precepts of the Zen monks, once formulated, immediately prevail in zen buddhism under the heavens, such as the wind flooding grass. In the Yuan Dynasty, it was rebuilt as the "Baizhang QingGui", also known as the Baizhang Mountain Precepts. Become an official imperative.
At this point, the three generations - Huai Rang, Dao Yi, Huai Hai, to Huai Hai, Hongzhou Zen has completely matured.
Qingyuan Xingsi, a native of Jizhou, is today's Ji'an, Jiangxi, who was born in Honshu and also practiced meditation in The Qingyuan Mountains in Honshu. The life of Xingsi is the same as the life of Huai Rang - unknown. He is also famous because of his disciples, and his disciples are the famous stone monks, Xi Qian. Xi Qian, born in 700 AD, practiced Zen at Hengshan Nan (Tai) Temple and was enshrined as the Lord of Hunan.
You find that there is a very interesting contradiction between these two sects, what is it? Nanyue Huairang was practicing in Hunan, but his power spread throughout Jiangxi; while Qingyuan Xingsi was practicing meditation in Qingyuan Mountain, Jiangxi, but his influence spread throughout Hunan. It was that they invaded each other's territory, but neither of them preached locally. Theoretically, we think that Nanyue Huairang should be preaching in Hunan and Qingyuan Xingsi should be preaching in Jiangxi, but they are exactly the opposite. Nanyue Huairang's disciples, Dao Yi, and then disciples, Huai Hai were preaching in Jiangxi; Qingyuan Xingsi and Shi Xiqian, who were in Ji'an, Jiangxi, were preaching in Hunan, and his missionary power in Hunan was very large, and he was revered as the lord of Hunan. Therefore, the Disciples of Dao Yi and Xing Si in Jiangxi, Xi Qian, were once called: The Second Master. His essay "Sam Tong Qi" written by him (the stone Zen master) had a great influence on the development of Zen thought.
The disciples of Xi Qian's retransmission are: Natural. His life is unknown, but he later consulted The tiantai in Jiangxi, Funiu (Zen master of self-reliance) and other Zen methods, and was known as a "monk without trouble". We found that in both sects, there have been three generations of famous monks. Nanyue Huai gave way to three generations - Huaihai, and Qingyuan Xingsi to three generations - natural.
Throughout the tang Dynasty before Emperor Wuzong destroyed Buddhism, China's famous mountains have been occupied by Zen Buddhism, and many large and small Zen missionary centers have emerged, and these Zen sects basically follow the same law - first obscure, the master is unknown, traveling around and gathering people, and then choosing a good place, settling in one place, preaching the Fa in this place, supported by local officials, and among his later disciples, there are famous monks, and finally the influence is getting bigger and bigger, and they are posthumously sealed by the imperial court, and the state recognizes it. And these recognized denominations are different from each other, attacking each other, why? It's all about competing for the concept of who is authentic.
The so-called south can be shown in the north, and the suspicion of water and fire is a trend that can be said to be getting worse and worse after the Anshi chaos. It rose at the same time as tantra and constituted two prominent features of Middle and Tang Buddhism. Regarding the difference in the thinking between the Nanyue and Qingyuan systems, there are some legends in later generations, and in fact, this lesson has to be specially divided into the history of Zen Buddhism and the intellectual history of Zen Buddhism, because this is a general history, which can be briefly talked about.
Zongmi, as mentioned in the previous lesson, is the biggest Zen master in China in the late Middle and Tang Dynasties, who succeeded Jiangxi Zen, what is its dharma eye? It is "touching the class is the way and the heart is at will". This sentence can be used as the Zen essence of the Nanyue lineage - touching is the Tao and letting the heart go.
The so-called "touch is the Tao" means that the heartbeat, the cough of the fingers, the raising of the eyebrows, and the movement of the eyes can all be regarded as the whole use of Buddha-nature, that is, the embodiment of Rulai Tibet. It is all your daily activities and actions, which are All Buddha-nature, all of which are Like Tibet. If you ask for it accordingly, then in practice, you cannot create evil with your heart. You can only do good deeds, and you should not be bound by the goals of practicing, studying the Dharma, and becoming a Buddha, you must be willful, which is called renunciation, that is, liberation. Therefore, the masters and apprentices under Matsu's disciples often cry and laugh, punch and kick, what is the purpose? The purpose is to enlighten the disciples of the truth that everything is true.
Everyone may not realize the deep meaning of this point in Nanyue. This point of Nanyue actually tore open the earliest banner of Chinese Zen and mind science. Let's look at "touching the class is the Tao and letting the mind go" - "willfulness is liberation", is this not the later Confucian Wang Yangming's mental science?
The thought of the Qingyuan lineage, the sect secret is classified as the extinction of the non-sending sect, that is, the pranayama nature voidness. Shi Xiqian and the Minotaur Sect Dao rong belong to the same category, according to the Minotaur Sect "Zen Essentials" is to say that "there is nothing to do and forget the feelings, and to forget the feelings is to overcome the suffering". We know that there is a saying in the Heart Sutra called: "Overcome all suffering." This sutra has the first half of the sentence, which is the Dharma Eye of minotaur Zen, that is, to forget is to overcome suffering.
A monk once asked Xi Qian: What is liberation? Answer: Who can bind You? - If you are not liberated, then who binds you? He also asked Xi Qian: What is pure land? Answer: Who can dirty Ru? Xi Qian asked him, what makes you dirty? This set of questions and answers, or these two opposing questions and answers, contains the element of forgetting emotion and the meaning of forgetting feelings.
On the whole, Nanyue and Qingyuan and the Zen masters who followed them did not have any profound theoretical system, and their theories or some of the views they put forward were mixed and even contradictory, and rarely had a special personality. Because at that time, there were many Zen participants, one after another, you came and went, and there were many questions and answers between the master and the disciple, the guest and the host, so there were many clever words, and many words with unclear meanings appeared. This makes the boundary principle of Buddhist philosophy or philosophical systems more and more blurred.
The "Jingde Chuan Lantern Record" records a large number of dialogues and stories received by teachers and apprentices, rooted in these dialogues and stories, and even has a special type of book in Buddhism. Call: Light record. The Lantern Book is a record of this kind, and it is a very interesting book, just like "365 Nights", a story of dialogue in groups. Each set of dialogues and stories seems very meaningful at first glance, but when you think about it carefully, you feel that it is nothing. Their theoretical source and theoretical weapon is the Mahayana Void Sect. Mahayana Buddhism believes that one cannot grasp the truth through words, and that you can understand as much as you say in your daily life.
Another weapon of the Mahayana Sect is "only broken, not standing." For example, a monk asked Zhi Yu, what is the precept of Dinghui? Zhi Yu replied, saying that the poor monks did not have such idle furniture here. You say this Q&A, buckled up? You say buckle, it can also buckle, you say not buckle, you don't know what he answered. However, it seems that there are some philosophies in it, and this is the change of the light record.
Someone asked Shi Xiqian, what is Jie Dinghui? Xi Qian said that Jie Dinghui was a slave girl in my family. I still don't understand what this means. A monk asked Huai Rang, what are the Three Jewels of Buddhism? Wai Rang answered, he wheat bean. This thing seems to have meaning, but it seems to have no meaning. The large number of questions and answers recorded in these lantern records reflect the interesting scene of Zen masters and ordinary people in the jungle of agricultural Zen in parallel, and the zen master and the common people are in the working life.
The Five Schools and Seven Sects of Zen Buddhism, starting from the Huichang Fa Difficulty, is probably from 841 to 846; later suffered wang Xianzhi's Huangchao Rebellion, which was attacked in the south; and the north was the kind of warlord scuffle of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, and the society of the north and the south was very turbulent. As a result, the study philosophy of the Guansi Manor Economy and the scholastic sects that studied Buddhism were in a slump, a large number of monks were lost, and the Mountain Forest Zen congregation was also constantly spreading and shifting.
On the other hand, this external and internal strife has led to a great weakening of the state's control over Buddhism, and it is impossible to control it. As a result, the number of ordinary people flowing into the mountains and forests has become more and more numerous, and Zen Buddhism has not only survived in the cracks between various forces, but has also achieved greater development. So the five schools of Zen Buddhism that arose in the five dynasties at the end of the Tang Dynasty are the products of this specific social condition.
As I just said, there are seven schools of Zen Buddhism, and in the end they converge into five schools—that is, the seven theoretical sects finally converge into five. These five companies will briefly describe to you:
The first one was handed down from Huaihai, Jiangxi. There are many people in Huaihaimen, Jiangxi, among which Lingyou, who is based in The Mountain of Putanzhou, is today's Ningxiang County, Hunan Province, after the destruction of the Buddha in Huichang, because of the protection of Xiangguo Cui Shen (You), it was revived in the early middle school of (Tang Xuanzong), and Lingyou's disciple Hui Ning went to Dayang Mountain in Jiangxi to open up the missionary - that is, Lingyou preached in Dayang Mountain, and his disciples went to DayangShan to preach, and the master and apprentice merged, and the Zen path gathered, and later became the first of the five schools of Zen Buddhism- the Yang Family.
Another disciple of Xi Yun, another disciple of Xi Yun, in Gao'an, Juhong Prefecture, had more than a thousand monks, and after Huichang destroyed the Buddha, he was protected by another great bureaucrat, Pei Xiu, and reunited in the second year of junior high school. The Yang family was protected by Xiangguo Cui Shen (由) and was revived in the early years of middle school; the Xiyun branch was reunited in the second year of middle school.
His re-emergence also caused Yi Xuan, a disciple of Xiyun, to come to Zhenzhou in the eighth year of his middle school, which is today's Zhengding County, Hebei Province, and built the Linji Zen Temple. Today, this Zen temple is still there, and it is also very prosperous, and its influence spreads between the famous Beijing in Hebei Province, forming the second house of Zen Buddhism, Linji Zen.
At the end of the middle school, he began to teach disciples at Xinfengshan (in present-day Taiping Township, Yifeng County, Jiangxi), and later moved to Gao'an Cave in Yuzhang, where he propagated the Dharma; his disciple (Cao Shan) Ben Shan preached in Caoshan, Fuzhou, Jiangxi, and later moved to Yihuang, where the Dharma attacked Dasheng, known in history as Cao Dong Zen. This is the third of the five schools of Zen Buddhism, Cao Dong Zen, in Cao Shan in Fuzhou, Jiangxi.
Under the qingyuan line, another lineage (emperor) Dao Enlightenment, passed on (Longtan) Chongxin to (Xuefeng) Yicun. Yicun is very famous, Xuefeng Yicun, founded a Zen temple in Fuzhou Xiangbone peak Xuefeng (now Minhou Xuefeng), preached in Fuzhou, more than a thousand monks, and Tang Emperor gave him a number. His disciple (Yunmen) Wen Yan( who later went to Yunmen Mountain in Shaozhou was supported by the magistrates of Guangzhou, and later formed the fourth of the five schools of Zen Buddhism, Yunmen Zen.
Another disciple of Xuefeng Yicun, (Xuansha) Shi Bei, passed to Wenyi and first lived in Linchuan, Fuzhou, Jiangxi. As I said just now, there is already one family from Fuzhou, Jiangxi Province—that is, CaoDong. After opening the church in Fuzhou, Jiangxi, Li Jing of the Later Southern Tang Dynasty welcomed him to jinling Qingliang Temple, which is today's Nanjing Qingliang Temple, and was later posthumously named "Dafa Eye Zen Master", and became the "Dharma Eye Zen" in the five families.
So, we know that there were seven schools of Zen Buddhism at the beginning. Later, these seven schools were attributed to the five families at the end of the Tang Dynasty, which were actually two families of Nanyue Huairang and three families of Qingyuan Xingsi.
Among these five Zen schools, The rise of Huan Yang was the earliest, but by the beginning of the Song Dynasty, after five generations and ten kingdoms, it was already gone, and it was very weak; the Dharma Eye, that is, Xuefeng Yicun - in fact, the disciples under Qingyuan Xingsi and Dao Wu, formed the latest, with the death of Wu Yue, and Yunmen Zen was very prosperous in the Northern Song Dynasty; Caodong Zen, especially Linji Zen, spread the most widely for the longest time. Until modern times, the two sects of Caodong and Linji still had famous teachers from time to time.
Cao Dong Zen spread to Tiantong Mountain Rujing in Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, where he received the Japanese disciple Daoyuan and later founded the Japanese Cao Dong Sect.
Cao Dong Zen was the Zen method that had the greatest influence on Confucian science in the Song Dynasty.
And, Linji Zen, which is the Linji Zen of Linji Temple in Shijiazhuang today, has always been very popular until modern times. It spread to Shi Shuang Chu Yuan, received disciple Huinan, and lived in Huanglong Mountain, Nanchang, later known as: Huanglong Zen.
Another disciple of Chu Yuan (Yang Qi) Fang Hui ,zhi prefecture ,on present-day Yang Qishan in Gao'an, Jiangxi, had a large number of disciples, later known as Yang Qizong.
Therefore, the above five schools and the next two sects, the monastic history is collectively called: five families and seven sects.
Motonaka Mong-an under Yang Qi's Zen Sect, a Japanese monk (俊艿), later became the first ancestor of the Japanese Yang Qi Sect. The various schools of Linji have been continuously spread to Japan, and to this day, Linji Zen and the Japanese Linji Sect have a very close exchange.
This is the Five Schools and Seven Schools - in fact, Zen Buddhism originally had seven schools, and these seven schools ended up with five schools and seven schools, but in fact, they have nothing to do with each other, although they are all seven. The first seven schools are all seven schools of Zen Buddhism that are separated from the Five Patriarchs, but the last Five Schools and Seven Schools are actually transmitted from Huai Rang and Xing Si.
The philosophical characteristics of the Five Schools and Seven Sects are not many, and they have always maintained this tendency to adapt to the changes of a mixture of learning. Until the beginning of the Song Dynasty, in Zen Buddhism, this system of universal participation in labor, equal strength from top to bottom, and no significant difference between master and disciple - there was no so-called high status of the master, or the low status of the disciple, and the freedom of thought.
There are some very knowledgeable Zen monks who are unique in studying the famous mountains of various families - that is, they go everywhere to study, and go to various famous mountains to study, so that it is a common practice to practice meditation on their feet. The competition between Zen masters is very fierce—that is, these famous monks go to various Zens like a study tour, unable to say exactly whose disciples they are; and then, various styles of study are formed.
The competition between them is very fierce, so the opening of the lecture and random reception of objects have become an important factor in determining the status of Zen masters. Therefore, handling the correspondence between guests, masters and apprentices, and the exchange of remuneration have become an important issue in daily life.
Each of the five houses of Zen Buddhism has its own family style, doorway, and dharma eye. It is mainly manifested in the way of receiving things by chance, and at the same time, it can also reflect a certain content of the thought of this sect. Instead of going into it one by one, let's briefly introduce the Linji family, because this family had a great influence on the later development of Zen Buddhism in China.
The Linji family, which belongs to the epiphany, should use the stick to drink more - the phrase "drink when the head stick" comes from this, that is, to use the stick to beat and rebuke to become an intermediary for communicating the truth.
Yi Xuan, there are two famous sayings - we all know that Yi Xuan founded the Linji Zen Temple. He has two famous passages, called "I sometimes seize people without seizing the territory, sometimes I seize the territory without seizing the territory, sometimes the human situation is seized, sometimes the human situation is not seized", which is the first sentence; the second sentence is called "I sometimes take the first and then use, sometimes use the first and then take the picture, sometimes use the same time, sometimes use the different time". The first paragraph is called: four materials Jane; the latter paragraph is called: four uses.
What is robbery? To rob people, that is, to rebuke self-grasping; to seize the realm, that is, to rebuke the law-enforcement. "Illumination" means silent illumination, which means that the pranayama view of emptiness, that is, I can only break it; "using" the so-called "wonderful use" to admit false existence. As mentioned in the previous lesson, "being" and "emptiness" are a philosophical loophole that Buddhism cannot avoid, so it is to admit false existence. That is to say, his words and sayings are all about temporary play, and when you say there is, I will say empty; when you say empty, I will say that there is; when you say take, I will say no. Take or don't take, have or don't, or empty or not empty, unsatisfactory, no routine. That is, no matter what you say, I am against it, there is no routine, and others always sound between the understandable and the incomprehensible. His words are always between understanding and not understanding, and they do not know whether what he says is right or wrong, so the person does not lose his own sect because of this. The characteristic of this sect is that I oppose whatever you say.
The purpose of Yixuan is to break all shackles. What is the purpose of this, what do you say that I oppose? It is not to oppose for the sake of opposition, it has a purpose, and its purpose is to break all the shackles of your thinking and opinion. He believes that a Buddha is a pure mind, the Dharma is the light of the mind, and the Tao is everywhere unhindered. Therefore, a person who truly learns the Tao should be confident, not seek the Fa from the outside, and be a person who is not deceived by others. You say, can yixuan's plausible vernacular not be appealing? Right, a Buddha is a pure mind, the Dharma is a bright mind, the Tao is everywhere without hindrance; one should be confident that one should seek the Buddha inward... Now if you find a big sister who is practicing Buddhism at random, you can basically tell you how deeply the theory put forward by Yi Xuan is.
He advocated, calling: Great good knowledge, dare to destroy the Buddha and destroy the ancestors, right and wrong, reject the Three Tibetan Religions, insult the children, and seek people in the midst of disobedience. What do you mean? That is to say, you don't have to worship the Buddha at all, you don't have to worship the ancestors, you want to scold whom. He also called for the inside out, killing every time, killing every Buddha, killing the ancestors, and killing the arhats. Later, the Japanese monk Ichigo completely inherited this set of his.
The fundamental purpose of these words sounds like a great rebellion, but what is its fundamental purpose? It is to let people pin the hope of liberation on their self-confidence and autonomy; to put the hope of liberation on their own understanding, their own beliefs, and their own propositions. Instead of worshipping the Buddha, not asking for the Buddha, not chanting the sutras. It can be said that this principle of self-confidence, autonomy, and self-realization has been a consistent proposition of Zen Buddhism since its founding. However, to the extent that Yi Xuan developed this blatant insult to the Buddha and did not destroy the buddha, the face of the Buddhist tradition has been completely lost, and what is the next step? This is a step further down in India, and the next step is the demise of Buddhism itself, the triumph of Hinduism. But in China, there is no Hinduism to fill this gap, but Buddhism has also turned from prosperity to decline.
Zen Buddhism's anti-idol and contemptuous dogma reached its peak at the time of Linji Sect's righteous xuan. Just talked about, Linji ZongYixuan advocated drinking with a stick, which is an epiphany. The reason why it is an epiphany mentioned in previous lessons is because truth as a whole cannot grasp a part of it—either it is all grasped, or it is completely unsure, so it is necessary to have an epiphany.
And gradual enlightenment, or gradual enlightenment, is the proposition of cao dongzong, and the meditation advocated by caodongzong is gradual enlightenment. The greatest influence on Chinese Confucianism in Zen Buddhism, or the greatest influence on science, is the Cao Dong Sect in Zen Buddhism. However, its theory is also relatively complex, and it has not formed a system. About the history of Zen Buddhism. Later, I will start to talk about a special topic, and now I am talking about the general history of Buddhism, so I will introduce the history of Zen Buddhism here.
The religious philosophies of Huayan Buddhism and Zen Buddhism actually had a major impact on the later Cheng Zhu Lixue. But by the Song Dynasty, The Huayan Sect had declined, and even its scriptures had escaped. As mentioned in the previous lesson, the later influence of the Zen branch on the study of mind was also very large—that is, the later two schools of Confucianism were influenced by Zen Buddhism and Huayan Buddhism.
The three families of the five Zen families, Linji, Caodong and Yunmen, have always maintained a certain prosperity. Due to the promotion of the integration of Zen Buddhism, the style of zen meditation of scholars and doctors is very popular. But when scholars and doctors meditate, you know, readers are generally interested in knowledge, logic, and philosophy. They are not like ordinary people, just interested in the slogan of Zen Buddhism. Therefore, the scholars generally expressed interest in the teachings of the Huayan Sect, and they studied the teachings of the Huayan Sect. Because Zen Buddhism itself has no teachings, as mentioned in the previous lesson, [Zen Buddhism] is a self-made "altar sutra", and the theoretical level is relatively low. Therefore, the song scholars actually accepted the Huayan doctrine, and although they accepted the Huayan doctrine, they actually carried out it through the Cao Dong Zen of the Five Zens.
Cheng Zhu Lixue's repeated expositions of "body use of one yuan" and "microscopic infinity" are actually intrinsically related to Cao Dongzong's "five kings and subjects". Another school outside the Cheng Zhu school, Lu Xue, that is, the Xiangshan school, directly integrated the essence of Zen Buddhism into its own doctrine. It can be said that the Chinese Confucians, whether it was Cheng Zhu or Lu Wang, lu Xiangshan and Wang Yangming, all drew nourishment from the later five Zen schools and developed each other--their theoretical basis was the Huayan first line, and this theory of the defense jifeng they absorbed, this kind of nutrition, was all a Zen family. However, Zen Buddhism's own theory has completely dried up. We know that the speed of the early creation of sutras in Chinese Buddhism was very fast, but Zen Buddhism did not establish writing, and zen buddhism did not have any theoretical innovation after itself.
At this point in point of view, the general history of Chinese Buddhism, from a historical point of view, has been (can) be said to be over in the Song Dynasty, and in the following hundreds of years, there is history, but there is nothing worth telling. We are very clear that the entire Song dynasty was a Zen lineage, and then Cheng Zhu Lixue rose, which has a lot to do with the subsequent historical development of China. Because in the Yuan Dynasty, it was a foreign race; in the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang himself was a Buddhist, so he knew a lot about Buddhism, and he took a suppressive effect on Buddhism throughout the dynasty. The Qing Dynasty, on the other hand, completely converted to occultism. Therefore, in fact, since the Song Dynasty, Chinese Buddhism, the Song Dynasty as the end of the Tang Dynasty to the Song, (through) five generations (ten kingdoms), this is a node, since then Chinese Buddhism, that is, from prosperity to decline, there is no peak, to the end of the Tang Dynasty is the last peak.
From the Song dynasty to the Qing Dynasty, all political patterns were unfavorable to the development of Buddhism, and even in the Song Dynasty, because the Song Dynasty was a very economically developed dynasty, it can be said that Buddhism itself had a foundation in the chaotic world, and in the prosperous world, everyone could not take care of it. Why? Because the Buddhist doctrine is that life is suffering. The Song Dynasty was a very commercially developed dynasty, so this kind of suffering was not easy for everyone to feel, and there was no time to feel it.
We know that the root of Buddhism is the care of the human heart, and when the human heart is full of hope to pursue, there is actually not much room for Buddhism to have such compassionate feelings.
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Stone Moves
Shi Xiqian (700~ 790), a Zen monk of the Tang Dynasty, also known as the Infinite Master. Duanzhou Gaoyao (Guangdong Gaoyao) people's clan, commonly known as Chen, was born intelligent. The villagers feared the ghosts and gods and sacrificed, and had to often kill cattle and drink wine, which caused a lot of harm, and the teacher destroyed the shrine and snatched the cattle and returned. Zeng Li Liuzu Huineng and Qingyuan Xingsi were teachers, and they obtained the seal of Qingyuan Xingsi and became the Qingyuan Xingsi Zen Master Dharma Heir (the first life of Qingyuan Xia).
In the early years of Tianbao, after receiving the seal of Qingyuan Xingsi Zen Temple, Xiqian Zen Master left Qingyuan Mountain and went to Nantai Temple of Hengshan Mountain in Nanyue. There is a huge stone on the east side of Nantai Temple, shaped like a lotus platform, on which the Zen master Xiqian knotted the temple, opened the Fa and transformed the people, and promoted the sect style, and everyone was called "stone monk" at that time.
Xiqian Zen master Zen wind is high, clean and sharp, never drag mud and water, for all parties to admire. Zen master Xi Qian once had a passage in French, showing his thorough grasp of the Zen method of the Southern Sect: "My Method, the first Buddha passed on." No matter how diligent you meditate, you can only reach the knowledge of the Buddha. That is, the mind is the Buddha, the mind is the Buddha, the bodhi is disturbed, and the name is one. Ru and others should know that their own soul, body is detached from the ordinary, sexual impurity, pure, perfect, all the saints are the same, the application is square, centrifugal consciousness. The Three Realms and Six Paths, only the self-consciousness appears, the mirror image of the water moon, is there life and death? You can know it and be prepared for everything. ”
The Biography of the High Monk of the Song Dynasty records that "in the first month there were three Zen masters, Gu (Nanyue Jian), Zhan (Nanyue Mingzhang), and Jean (Nanyue Huairang), all under the Caoxi Gate, and they said to be their disciples: 'The roar of the true master of the stone will surely make ru eyes cool.'" 'By the doormen to the mugwort. At that time, there was a saying in the Zen forest that it is conceivable that The Zen master Xiqian was flourishing in the courtyard that day: "The lord of Jiangxi (Matsu), the main stone of Hunan." Longing for each other, not seeing the second master, for ignorance! That is to say, the zen monks of the same era had the greatest influence, namely the Matsu Daoyi of Jiangxi and the Stone of Hunan, and the four apprentices were more than spoken at the gate of the second division. Under the Xiqian Zen master, there are indeed dragons and elephants, and famous disciples include Yaoshan Weiyu, Danxia Natural, Chaozhou Daqiu, Emperor Daowu, etc., all of which are honored by one party.
He died on december 25, the sixth year of Zhen Yuan,000 years old, at the age of 91 and 63 years of monasticism. The gate people built the pagoda in Dongling, and during the Changqing period, the infinite master was known as the infinite master, and the tower was seen. The stone Zen master did not re-write, and there was a "Samsoniki" and a "Grass Anthem" each.