Zhu Xi: Zen Mastery is just a "unmoving heart"
In order to eliminate the strong influence of the Buddha in the spiritual realm, Song Ming Lixue had to reconstruct the "inner saint" system of Confucianism. The inner sacred system of science is philosophically called the "theory of mental nature." The Zen doctrine of "clear mind" had the greatest impact on Confucianism and was the object of Zhu Xi's criticism.
I. Zhu Xi believes that Zen Buddhism's "clear mind" is unreasonable
Before Zhu Xi, many Confucian scholars were attracted to the Zen mentality. Zhu Xi was very dissatisfied with this. For example, Xu Zirong, who agrees with zen buddhism's theory of clear-mindedness, proposes that stones, plants and trees have human nature. Zhu Xi criticized:
"Sex is only reason, and there is a thing and a reason. The fault of zirong is to recognize the mind as sex, which is similar to the Buddha. ”
Buddhism keeps peeling off the mind, and finally only one "seeing" remains. As everyone knows, the nature of Buddhism is the Confucian mind, and the Buddhist mind is the Confucian mind, and it is not as wonderful as the Confucian "righteousness of the heart."
Zhu Xi believes that "reason" is the highest existence between heaven and earth, and "mind" is only the perceptual activity of man, and as the mind of the subject activity, its ultimate purpose is to recognize "heavenly reason". The saints have a "reason" for all kinds of daily perceptual activities of people, such as seeing, hearing, speaking, moving, thinking, etc., and the audiovisual speech and movement all follow a certain "reason". Buddhism, on the other hand, only follows the senses and does not pay any attention to "reason", which is the same idea as the "nature of life" of the confessional son. That is to say, the Buddhist discourse on sexuality, departing from human sociality, reduces man's thinking to the level of animal instinct and is therefore immoral. Both the Buddhist mind and sex lack moral awareness.
Zen's response to Zhu Xi's criticism
The "mind" mentioned in Zen Buddhism is the ontological "true mind" or "Rulaizang", which is the true and permanent existence of no birth and death, but Zhu Xi does not recognize this mysterious theory of Buddhism. Zhu Xi believes that the crux of the Buddhist theory of mental nature is that "function is sex." This phrase comes from the story of Bodhidharma, the master of the Eastern Lands of Zen Buddhism, who preached the Dharma to King Boroti in South India. This plot was later compiled into the Dharma Eye Collection by Dahui Zonggao, and made a note: "Now dare to ask everyone, which is Buddha-nature?" That's the spirit? In fact, the story of Zen Buddhism has long been circulated, and it was discussed in Linji Yixuan at the end of the Tang Dynasty:
"The Dao Flow, the Invisible Mind, runs through the Ten Directions, sees in the eyes, hears in the ears, smells in the nose, talks in the mouth, grasps in the hands, runs in the foot, is originally a shrewd, divided into six harmonies, one heart is neither, liberated everywhere, what does the mountain monk say, what is the meaning? Just for the sake of the Dao Flow everything chi chi heart can not rest, on his ancient idle situation. ”
Obviously, the Zen saying that "function is sex" is not what Zhu Xi understood. Linji Yixuan's explanation is relatively clear, the so-called "mental law is invisible, through the ten directions", that is, the mind of the body, and the specific role of cognition and perception is the realization of the minds of the people, it is "Chi Seeking The Heart", just because the people have the Chi Seeking Mind, but do not see sex, so they cannot become Buddhas.
Zhu Xi's disciples had noticed this problem, but Zhu Xi ignored this, and he replied: The metaphysical "sex" of the Buddhist family is nothing more than a mysterious reason, and in fact it is all about the metaphysical "mind" that speaks.
Zhu Xi believes that there is a fundamental difference between Confucianism and The Buddhist theory of mentality
Zhu Xi proposed that the difference between Confucianism and The Buddhist theory of mentality is that Buddhism's cleverness is nothing more than a "immovable mind", but after all, it has no right and wrong, no public or private, no right and evil, and finally no "heavenly reason", and ultimately it is a "useless" learning. Buddhism has to be tired (troubled), and Confucianism must be tired, but Confucianism must distinguish between right and wrong, public and private, good and evil, in order to conform to the "heavenly principles." That is to say, the mind that Confucianism says is the moral heart of society, and the sex that Confucianism says is the principle of social moral life, Confucianism will never put the mind outside the ethical life of the world, and must be tired in assuming social responsibility in the world, while Buddhism takes "clear mind and seeing" as the goal, is to go to right and wrong, no public and private, and abandon social responsibility.
Objectively speaking, What Zhu Xi criticizes is the departing practice of Hinayana Buddhism, not the spirit of Mahayana Buddhism's entry into the world, so his judgment is biased. The transcendent spirit proposed by Zen Buddhism greatly expands the space of human spiritual life, but it is not necessarily immoral as Zhu Xi accuses. From the perspective of psychology, Buddhism's "not stained with dust, not giving up one method" is more able to get tired and more able to achieve spiritual freedom than zhu Xi's advocacy of "not moving the heart". After all, spiritual life and ethical life are not exactly the same realm.