T’ang Ch’an and the Myth of Bodhidharma

FROM A PAPER BY:
Albert Welter

A special transmission outside the
scriptures;
No dependence upon words and letters;
Direct pointing to the soul of man:
Seeing into one’s own nature and
attainment of
Buddhahood
Bodhidharma, First Patriarch of Zen (4-6 Cent. AD)

Ch’an Master Ta-hui Tsung-kao and Kung-an Zen

Ta-hui Tsung-kao and Kung-an Ch’an
By Chun-Fang Yu
Journal of Chinese Philosophy
V. 6 (1979)
pp. 211-235
Copyright 1979 by D. Reidel Publishing Co.

A biography of Chan master Ta-hui and a discussion of the use of koans to achieve enlightenment.
Ta-hui Tsung-kao[a] (1089-1163) was a monk belonging to the Lin-chi school of Ch’an Buddhism. He was the 12th generation heir of [...]

Zen Art as Practice: Painting Spring

From a chapter in The Eight Gates of Zen by John Daido Loori, Roshi
Master Dogen, addressing the assembly, said:
My late master, old Buddha (T’ien-t’ung Ju-ching), said, “The original face has no birth and no death. Spring is in the plum blossoms and enters into a painting.” When you paint Spring, do not paint willows, [...]

Qingjing Jing: A Classic of the Taoist Canon - Purity and Tranquillity

A later though short classic of the Taoist Canon, this scripture is often equated to be the Heart Sutra of Taoism.

About the Qingjing Jing:
The qingjing jing is a very short (391 characters) but popular Taoist text of unknown authorship, dating from the fist half of the Tang dynasty (618 - 906 CE). It is included [...]

Zen Master Dogen’s Enlightenment

Dropping Off Body and Mind
Dharma Discourse by John Daido Loori, Roshi
Koans of the Way of Reality, Case 108
Featured in Mountain Record 21.1, Fall 2002
The Main Case
Dogen studied with Master Rujing. One evening during the intensive summer training, in the first year of Pao-chang, 1225, Rujing shouted at a disciple, “When you study under [...]

Koans and The Non-Logical Character of Zen

Hakuin’s Daruma

Hajime Nakamura,
Journal of Chinese Philosophy V. 12 (1985) pp. 105-115
©1985 by Dialogue Publishing Company.
Zen Dialogues
Zen took the exactly opposite standpoint against formal logic of Buddhist logicians. In Rinzai practice of Zen, meditation on paradoxes (koan) is used to awaken intuitive insight into what transcends logical distinctions. In daily conversation among Japanese, “Zen dialogue [...]