Zen Chanting and Jazz at a Public Arts Festival

This article explores ritual change and innovation based on my participation as a saxophone player in two rituals featuring traditional Buddhist chant and jazz, which were performed at the Sōtō Zen temple Tōkōji in Ōmiya (Saitama prefecture) during the Yume Arts Festival. In designing these ceremonies, the monks selected elements from traditional rituals and put them together in new ways, while adding new entertaining elements, such as jazz and yōkai. I suggest that the modularity of rituals made it possible to easily create new ceremonies and perform them without extensive rehearsals. Moreover, I show that the monks aimed to offer an entertaining performance in order to reach out to the local community. This article further illuminates that Sōtō Zen has a rich sonic dimension, which our crossover ceremonies showcased.

Laitan: The Making of a Chan Cave Temple Site in Sichuan

Laitan 淶灘 is a monumental site in Sichuan, built during the Song Dynasty (960–1279), located approximately 69 km northwest of present day Chongqing. It is the only site in China whose sculpture derives from a comprehensive records of Chan developments. A crowded gathering of famous Chan prelates and anonymous personages of all sizes animate the cave’s walls; they were inspired both by the early Chan phase in Sichuan and the subsequent Song outside Sichuan.

The Tangut Text of Suiyuan ji and the History of Chan Buddhism in Xixia

The paper discusses some problems pertaining to the spread of Sinitic Buddhism, especially of the Huayan Chan tradition in Xixia. These include issues of the transmission of the teaching as well as codicological and conceptual problems of the dissemination of the publications of Huayan Chan texts in Xixia. The paper presents evidence that the Chan Buddhist content available to the Tanguts was not limited to Huayan Chan, but included some knowledge of the Song-period Chan Buddhism. The paper introduces the previously unknown Tangut composition Suiyuan ji and discusses its structure as well as aspects of its contents.

Pei Xiu (791–864) and Lay Buddhism in Tang Chan

Pei Xiu 裴休 (791–864) was a literati follower of Buddhist teachers, among whom the two most eminent were Zongmi 宗密 (780–841) and Huangbo Xiyun 黃檗希運 (?–850). These two teachers had notably different spiritual orientations: one was the synthesizer of Chan and Huayan teachings, the other a member of the more radical Hongzhou 洪州 school. Rather than passively patronizing Buddhist teachers, Pei Xiu served as an active agent of his own religiosity and influenced Buddhist communities broadly. Through examining Pei Xiu’s Quanfa putixin wen 勸發菩提心文 [Essay Exhorting the Generation of Bodhicitta], Chuanxin fayao 傳心法要 [Essentials of The Transmission of Mind], which he prefaced and edited, and his various prefaces and epitaphs written for Zongmi and other monks, this study scrutinizes the transformation of early Chinese Chan communities before they were reimagined as ‘mature’ and ‘classical’ in later times.

“When Mountains Can No Longer Be Seen”: A Critical History of Interpretations of an Ambiguous Shōbōgenzō Sentence

This paper critically examines the various ways a particularly puzzling line in Dōgen’s 道元 “Genjōkōan” 現成公案 fascicle has been interpreted by premodern sources, especially the Goshō commentary by Senne 詮慧 and Kyōgō 經豪, as well as modern commentators, including sectarian figures such as Nishiari Bokusan 西有穆山 and Kurebayashi Kōdō 榑林皓堂 seen in relation to non-sectarian philosophers such as Watsurji Tetsurō 和辻哲郎. The key passage on “riding a boat out to sea, where mountains can no longer be seen (yamanaki kaichū 山なき海中),” raises crucial issues concerning Dōgen’s approach to multi-perspectivism that have been generally been construed in terms of absolutist and relativist standpoints. My analysis of the scholastic debates also sheds light on the full history of commentaries on Dōgen’s Shōbōgenzō 正法眼蔵 encompassing the late medieval and early modern periods.

Repositioning Xinxing 信行 (540–594) in the Chinese Meditation Tradition

This paper aims to bring out an alternative perspective on the life and work of the alleged founder of the Sanjiejiao 三階教 school, Xinxing. The current study discusses a different aspect of Xinxing’s influence, namely, his impact as a chan master. As the prominent Chan School went through different phases of development, the influence of Xinxing’s meditational teaching waxed and waned in the Chan cycle. Focusing on the texts titled Duigen qixingfa 對根起行法 and Zhizhongshi zhufa 制眾事諸法, I will explore the connotation of sanmei 三昧 (samādhi) in his teaching. In particular, I will explore the term “formless samādhi” (wuxiang sanmei 無相三昧) in Xinxing’s work and in other contemporary texts on meditation by meditation masters, such as Huisi 慧思 (515–577). In this way, this study situates Xinxing in the larger context of meditation teachings which emerged during the sixth century.

Yulu Formation in Chinese Chan: The Records of Qingyuan Xingsi and Nanyue Huairang

In recent decades, the study of Chan Buddhism has emerged from the haze of mythologically tinged orthodoxy. This study focuses on the yulu (Dialogue Record) formation process of two of Chan’s most important masters, Qingyuan Xingsi and Nanyue Huairang, linchpins for a flourishing Chan tradition allegedly descended from them. Viewed through four seminal texts – Zutang ji, Zongjing lu, Jingde chuandenglu and Tiansheng guangdenglu – Qingyuan Xingsi and Nanyue Huairang represent two very different cases in the development of Chan. While Xingsi remains a relatively obscure figure, Huairang emerges with a full-fledged Chan persona. The study emphasizes the role of textual compilations in shaping the Chan imaginaire of these two masters.

The Prevalence of Huayan-Chan 華嚴禪 Buddhism in the Regions of Northern China during the 11th Century

In the 11th century, the dissemination of Buddhism in the territories of Northern Song 北宋 dynasty (960–1127) China, Khitan 契丹 Liao 遼 (907/916–1125), and Xixia 西夏 (Tangut 党項, 1038–1227) kingdoms each reached a peak. What united the learned peoples of these three kingdoms in terms of religious and intellectual development was the comparatively widespread study and adoption of the teachings of Huayan Buddhism, or studies of and commentaries to the translations of the Avataṃsaka-sūtra into Chinese in 60-, 80-, and 40-rolls (Huayan jing 華嚴經, esp. T nos. 278, 279, 293). In this article I address some of my earlier research concerning two treatises composed by Bensong 本嵩 (active ca. 1083–1085), the Huayan guan tongxuan ji 華嚴觀通玄記 (Record of the Profundities of Total Meditative Insight [or Contemplation] of the Gaṇḍavyūha chapter of the Avataṃsaka-sūtra Flower Garland Sūtra) and Fajie guan sanshimen song 法界觀三十門頌 (Verses Praising the Thirty Contemplative Approaches or Gates presented in the Gaṇḍavyūha Chapter on Entry into the Realm of Reality), among other examples from the period, to illustrate how these Huayan teachings were actually the product of Huayan and Chan Buddhist ideological frameworks, which fruitfully can be called Huayan-Chan. In order to demonstrate why the rubric ‘Huayan-Chan’ can be productive, I examine a range of commentarial Buddhist texts in Chinese to show who the patriarchs of Huayan-Chan were considered to be during the 11th century across the ethnically and linguistically diverse region of Northern China, and bring to the fore what some of these key teachings were. My main goal is to present the specific circumstances within which Huayan-Chan developed within the three kingdoms of Northern Song China, the Khitan Liao, and the Tangut Xixia.