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Paper short abstract:

This paper proposes to apprehend the process of identification of medieval Zen vis-à-vis premodern Chinese Chan through the Short Collection of Kūge's Daily Thoughts, a record of daily notes written in classical Chinese by the monk Gidō Shūshin, one of the central figures of Five Mountains Zen.

Paper long abstract:

The practice of keeping private journals emerges as a major literary tradition as early as the Heian period, one of the main forms of which is that known today as kanbun nikki 漢文日記, or “day-to-day notes in classical Chinese,” written mostly by male elites and having a public scope. Like their aristocratic and warrior counterparts, Zen monks from the medieval period onwards also resorted to this foreign language, which was prestigious yet arduous, in order to meticulously record day by day the administrative and religious affairs of the monastery, their personal spiritual practice, and various miscellaneous literary encounters.

Appreciated by modern research for their valuable content relating to the political history of the shogunate and the social history of the Zen school, these sources will be considered here from a new angle. As is well known, the monks who wrote these notes held important positions in the Five Mountains (Gozan 五山), namely the large monasteries under shogunal protection that stood at the top of the religious hierarchy. A homonymous system (Wushan 五山) established in the Chan school in China during the Song and Yuan dynasties being at the origin of these institutions, the Zen kanbun nikki are imbued with the traces of Wushan, its illustrious figures, sacred places, monastic way of life, discourses of orthodoxy, etc. The imaginary of Chinese Chan, as well as the identity-consciousness of the Japanese authors, are thus our focus here, for it was these indigenous interpretations and reinventions that would go on to decide the deployment of later Zen as effectively as the one and only "authentic" Chan.

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Paper short abstract:

This talk will examine the characteristics of what became after the fifteenth century the very foundations of the Rinzai branch. In origin, these are traceable to Shūhō Myōchō, whose innovative doctrinal conceptions would, as I show, serve at length as framework for Japanese Rinzai Zen writ large.

Paper long abstract:

Rinzai Zen presents itself as the Japanese variation of the Linji branch of Chinese Chan, but its teachings have evolved over the course of history and it includes today some aspects fundamentally different from its original continental model. One of the main characteristics of Rinzai Zen can be seen in its reinterpretation of the practice based on kōan (C. kanhua Chan/J. kannna Zen), and in particular in its use of kōan series – as opposed to Chinese single-kōan practice – that follow a pre-established system of progression.

The origin of this characteristic has long been sought in the reforms carried out during the eighteenth century by Hakuin, but closer examination reveals the presence of a quite similar structure in what is called "missan-zen," that is, in the approach to Zen that was current from the end of the fifteenth to the middle of the seventeenth century. Going back even further in time, we find traces of this approach as early as the fourteenth century, with several clues pointing to a probable origin for this turning point in the larger evolution of Japanese Zen towards Shūhō Myōchō, more often referred to by his national master title, Daitō. In this talk I will present the various potential arguments for considering Daitō to be the one who gave a new direction to Zen practice.

The Zen missan is based above all on a way of approaching texts, and more specifically the textual collections of kōan. Commentary, in particular, was no longer to be an exercise in explaining or interpreting the text, but a practice aimed at spiritual progression, an approach found already in Daitō in a different form that I will present. The status given to the collections of kōan certainly constitutes Daitō's greatest innovation, the one concept that fundamentally modified the evolution of Zen in both its Rinzai and Sōtō branches. In this paper, I will examine the major principles of this then still novel approach, as well as the range of its subsequent implications.

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Paper short abstract:

This paper analyzes the practical system of Hakuin, the reviver of Rinzai Zen in Japan. His system was built upon the traditional method of Chinese Chan Buddhism and upon his own experience. It has been passed down through various modifications and is still practiced today.

Paper long abstract:

This paper analyzes how Hakuin Ekaku reinterpreted previous Zen Buddhism and developed his own system of practice, and how this came subsequently to be passed on down.

Zen Buddhism originated in China during the Tang Dynasty, and in the Song Dynasty, Dahui Zonggao developed the so called “kanhua Chan,” a method of attaining enlightenment by contemplating kōan. It is said that kanhua Chan became "Hakuin Zen" through the systematization of kōan by Hakuin. D.T. Suzuki, who introduced Zen to the West in the 20th century, initially himself practiced "Hakuin Zen," which is still practiced by countless monks in the Rinzai and Obaku schools in Japan today. Therefore, it is important to analyze Hakuin's thought in order to understand the flow of Zen as it spread from China through Japan to the West.

Nonetheless, Hakuin's place in the history of Zen Buddhism remains yet to be fully elucidated. His own Zen differs neither from Dahui's kanhua Chan nor from the so-called "Hakuin Zen" practiced in contemporary Japan.

This paper makes the following three points through analysis of the relevant texts:

(1) Hakuin's system of practice consists of three key elements: initial enlightenment, further cultivation of enlightenment, and guiding people through preaching. These correspond to the three great enlightenments Hakuin attained in his own life.

(2) While Hakuin inherited Dahui's method of enlightenment, he emphasized subsequent practice in light of his own failures. This is a characteristic of Hakuin that distinguishes him from Dahui.

(3) Hakuin's practical system later became what would be called "Hakuin Zen" through various modifications. The kōan system characteristic of "Hakuin Zen" is likely to have been organized by his disciples, although its germ can also be found already in his own writings. Hakuin issued three types of certificates for the guidance of his students, but only one of these continues to be issued in the "Hakuin Zen" of today.