Chinul's Systematization of Chinese Meditative Techniques in Korean Son Buddhism

Chinul's Systematization of Chinese Meditative Techniques in Korean Son Buddhism

Robert E. Buswell, Jr.

In any attempt to assess the Chinese contributions to Buddhist meditative culture, we must not forget that what was "Chinese" about Chinese Buddhism was not restricted to the Han national, cultural, or racial group. To the contrary, there was in fact a remarkable homogeneity between the Buddhist tradition of China and those that developed in neighboring countries, in particular Korea, and to a somewhat lesser extent, Japan and even Vietnam. Because of these congruities, it .is more valuable to refer to a comprehensive "East Asian" Buddhism than to separate national traditions. T his is not to deny that distinct regional traits did develop in the Buddhism of East Asia; nevertheless, we should not allow this admission to obscure the overall continuity of concern to be found in all of these traditions. Hence, by treating Chinese Buddhism as the pan-East Asian tradition it truly was, we will gain a much more comprehensive and accurate view of it than we would by limiting our investigation arbitrarily to national boundaries.'

In the case of the Korean branch of the East Asian Buddhist tradition, which is the focus of this chapter, examples of this homogeneity abound. We know, for instance, that Korean exegetes working in their native country made significant contributions to the development of such seminal "Chinese" schools as Hua-y en and Ch'an. By the same token, Korea had numerous organic links with the Buddhism of the Chinese mainland, which makes it virtually impossible to treat Korean Buddhism without making constant reference to Chinese developments. Korea was also a crucible in which many of the Chinese insights into Buddhist theology were fused into new forms, unknown as such in China, but no less

"Chinese" than other mainland developments. Hence, Korean Buddhism serves as a simulacrum of the greater Chinese tradition, within which the problematics of the Chinese church may be profitably evaluated and analyzed. Perhaps the monk who best represents this tendency among the Koreans to assimilate representative themes of the Chinese tradition is Chinul (1158-1210), the charismatic reformer of the Buddhist church during the Koryo Dynasty (918-1392) and the systematizer of the native Korean Son (Ch. Ch'an) tradition. Since the Unified Silla (668-935) period, Korea had experienced a series of often hostile interactions among the different traditions of Buddhism introduced from Chinaespecially between the Hwaom (Ch. Hua-yen) School and the Nine Mountains Son School, which came to represent, respectively, the scholastic (kyo) and meditative (son) concerns of Buddhism. Some years before Chinul, Oich'on (1055-1101) attempted to unite both branches of the tradition into a rejuvenated Ch'ont'ae (Ch. T'ien-t'ai) School, but his efforts simply added one more school to what was already a crowded sectarian scene.' Chinul was able to see the value and utility in each of the two major aspects of Buddhist spiritual endeavor-doctrinal study and meditation practice-and to develop an approach to religious cultivation that drew upon both.

Chinul's fusion of the Hua-yen philosophy of Li T'ung-hsiian (635-730) with the Ch'an teachings of Kuei-feng Tsung-mi (780-841) placed Korean Buddhism on a firm ontological and soteriological foundation that restored the vitality of the decadent mid-Koryo tradition and sustained the church through the difficult centuries of Confucian persecution during the Yi Dynasty (1392-1910). The system of doctrinal training combined with Son practice championed by Chinul-and the approach of sudden awakening/gradual cultivation that epitomized this systemoutlined for Koreans an approach to spiritual training that would remain the hallmark of its tradition down to the present. Indeed, it is with Chinul that we can first speak of a truly native Korean Son tradition that developed in ways influenced by, but nevertheless independent of, the Ch'an schools of China. Finally, the emphasis in Chinul's later thought on hwadu (Ch. hua-t'ou) meditation was to augur the subsequent eclipse of Tsung-mi's influence over the formal practices of the Korean Son School by the "shortcut" meditative approach of Ta-hui Tsung-kao (1089-1163). This shift adumbrates the ultimate fusion of Tsung-mi's soteriology and Ta-hui's praxis that characterizes the later Son tradition. Hence, an examination of the synthesis Chinul forged in Korea between different trends within Chinese Buddhism should provide insights into the doctrinal perspectives of the Chinese church itself, as well as into ways in which those outlooks could be adapted in a different culture with novel, and sometimes decisive, results.

I. Chinul's Rapprochement Between Son and Hwaom: Biographical Considerations

As a Son adept, Chinul is rightly renowned for his accommodating attitude toward the scholastic schools; indeed, his attempts to demonstrate the correspondences between Son and kyo constitute one of his most important contributions to Korean Buddhist thought and certainly helped to restore the credibility of both of the tradition's two major branches. At the same time, however, his eclecticism should not obscure the fact that Chinul considered himself to be ultimately an adherent of Son, and, especially in his later works, his sympathies are clearly with that school rather than with kyo. He was ordained into the Nine Mountains Son School of Sagul-san, which was reputed to have derived from the Nan-ytieh lineage of Southern Ch'an, and passed his Sangha entrance examinations in the Son sector.' Hence, it could be expected that Chi nul would take a tack to the problem of ecclesiastical reconciliation opposite from that of Oich'on, who had attempted to merge Son into kyo. Despite his penchant for Son, however, Chinul's funerary stele tells us that he did not train for an extended period under any Son master, and there is no evidence that he ever received formal transmission from an orthodox successor in the Nine Mountains lineages. • As one of the few important Korean teachers who also never made the requisite pilgrimage to China, Chinul was compelled to look for his information from the

sources readily available to him: Indian siitras, East Asian commentaries, and the records of earlier Ch'an and Son masters. For this reason, Chinul was fervently eclectic from early on in his vocation, never hesitating to draw upon the scholastic teachings when he found their instruction to be of benefit. Throughout his life, all of his spiritual progress and each of his three enlightenment experiences were catalyzed by insights gleaned from passages in the canon, not through the direct instruction of Son masters.' Hence, despite the classic Ch'an adage that the school "does not establish words and letters,"6 it is hardly conceivable that Chinul, despite his strong Son allegiance, would have denied the efficacy of the written teachings in religious cultivation. Based on his readings and practice, Chinul developed a vision of the basic unity of Son and the siitras. In the preface to his Excerpts from the Exposition of the New [Translation of the] Avatarilsaka Sutra (Hwa6mnon ch6ryo), he notes his confusion over Hwaom's rejection of the efficacy of Son and its claim that the only valid meditation technique was contemplation of the Dharmadhatu.' Chinul, who was then following orthodox Son techniques, decided to return to his ultimate refuge in all cases of doubt-the texts of the Tripitaka-to see whether the sutras

would substantiate the claims of the Son School that Buddhahood could be achieved by simply contemplating the mind. After three years of reading, he discovered passages first in the Ju-lai ch'u-hsien p'in ("Appearance of the Tathagatas" chapter) of the Avatarizsaka Si1tra8 and later in the Exposition of the New [Translation of the] Avatarizsaka Sutra (Hsin Hua-yen ching fun) by Li T'ung-hsiian9 that confirmed for him the veracity of the Son teachings and outlined an approach to Buddhist practice that he felt would be appropriate for the majority of his fellow-cultivators. Setting the texts aside, Chinul concluded:

What the World Honored Ones said with their mouths are the teachings (kyo). What the patriarchs transmitted with their minds is Son. The mouths of the Buddhas and the minds of the patriarchs certainly cannot be contradictory. How can [students of both Son and kyo] not plumb the fundamental source but, instead, complacent in their own training, wrongly foment disputes and waste their time? 10

Based on this inspiration, Chinul developed an approach to Buddhism in which the ontological speculations of the scholastic doctrineespecially as presented in Li T'ung-hsiian's interpretation of Hua-yen philosophy-could be used to support Son soteriological techniques, initially as outlined by Tsung-mi for the Ho-tse School of Ch'an and, later in his life, as taught by Ta-hui Tsung-kao for the Lin-chi lineage. Both of these aspects came to function symbiotically in Chinul's system. As Chinul declares: I say to men who are cultivating the mind that first, through the path of the patriarchs, they should know the original sublimity of their own minds and should not be bound by words and letters. Next, through the text of [Li T'ung-hsiian's] Exposition, they should ascertain that the essence (ch 'e) and functions (yong) of the mind are [[[identical]] to] the nature (song) and characteristics (sang) of the Dharmadhatu. Then, the quality of the unimpeded interpenetration between all phenomena and the merit of the wisdom and compassion that has the same essence [as that of all the Buddhas] will not be beyond their capacity. This combination of two seemingly disparate approaches to Buddhist doctrine and practice constitutes one of the most distinctively Korean contributions to East Asian Buddhist thought.

II. Chinul's Methods of Meditation: General Outline

Three primary types of meditation practice are taught in Chinul's works, each of which reflects the direct influence of one of Chinul's Chinese Meditative Techniques in Son Buddhism

enlightenment experiences: (l) the simultaneous cultivation of samadhi and prajiia, deriving ultimately from Chinul's reading of the Platform Siitra of the Sixth Patriarch; (2) faith and understanding (sinhae; Skt. sraddhadhimuktil' according to the Complete and Sudden teachings of the Hwa6m School, from Li T'ung-hsiian's Exposition; and (3) the shortcut approach of hwadu (Ch. hua-t'ou) investigation, from the Records of Ta-hui (Ta-hui yii-lu). 14 These techniques were intended respectively for adepts of inferior, average, and superior spiritual capacities and were supplemented by two additional types of meditation, for people of highest and lowest capacity respectively: (4) the approach of no-mind or no-thought (mu'ny6m; Ch. wu-nien) and (5) recollection of the Buddha's name (y6mbu/; Ch. nien-fo). ' ' Each of these techniques was a characteristic practice of independent schools in China, and Chinul's presentation of the methods themselves is heavily dependent on earlier interpretations; some of it, in fact, harkens back to Hlnayana sources. However, Chinul did not view any one of these methods as an orthodox technique. Instead, he saw them all as expedient instructions adapted to the different needs and capacities of unique individuals according to their level of spiritual development; and, despite popular judgements about the relative ease or difficulty of the various practices, he insisted that any one of them would lead to the same result for the adept who cultivated the one suitable to him with sincerity and vigor. Further demonstrating his flexibility concerning meditation methods, Chinul also allowed the student to follow a progressive approach from simpler techniques to the more advanced, should the student find such an approach beneficial. Hence, Chinul's attitude toward meditation was quite pragmatic, and one of his major accomplishments was to demon­ strate how all these divergent practices could function together to guide Buddhist students toward the same goal of liberation (mok$a).

III. Sudden Awakening/Gradual Cultivation:

The Process of Spiritual Development

Chinul was greatly influenced in many areas by Tsung-mi, traditionally considered to be the Fifth Patriarch in both the Ho-tse lineage of Middle Ch'an and the Hua-yen scholastic tradition.'• Chinul's outline of spiritual development was based on Tsung-mi's own proposal concerning the processes governing praxis and gnosis-the approach of sudden awakening/gradual cultivation (tono chomsu; Ch. tun-wu chien-hsiu)which was subsequently adopted by Yung-ming Yen-shou (904-975), another Chinese Ch'an master frequently cited by Chinul. According to the analyses of Tsung-mi and Chinul, the teachings of the Ho-tse School offered a uniquely balanced approach toward Dharma (pop; Ch. fa) and . person (in; Ch. )en). Dharma refers to the nature of reality: the ontological factors of immutability (pulby6n; Ch. pu-pien) and adaptability (suy6n; Ch. sui-yuan). Person refers to the soteriological process followed in the spiritual development of the individual: the two ventures of sudden awakening and gradual cultivation. 18 In this approach, the sudden awakening to the mind-essence-the absolute, immutable aspect of Dharma-lays a firm foundation for the refinement of the phenomenal qualities innate in that essence. This refinement takes place through the gradual cultivation of all the myriads of practices incumbent upon the bodhisattva. In such an approach, both the absolute and phenomenal aspects of reality and the ultimate and conventional approaches to practice are kept in harmony, and relatively consistent progress in spiritual development can be expected. Through these two aspects of Dharma, they will be able to understand the doctrine to which all the siitras and sastras of the entire Tripiaka return: the nature and characteristics of their own mind. Through the two approaches concerning person they will be able to see the tracks of all the sages and saints-which are the beginning and end of their own practice. This clear assessment of the process of practice will help them to free themselves from delusion, move from the provisional toward the real, and realize bodhi quickly. '9 The quality of other types of Buddhist practice was weighed according to how well they emulated this ideal approach. As Chinul notes, this focus on the Ho-tse approach was intended

primarily so that people who are practicing meditation will be able to awaken first to the fact that, whether deluded or awakened, their own minds are numinous, aware, and never obscured and that their nature is unchanging. If, at the beginning, [you students] do not get to the source of all these different approaches [i.e., the numinous awareness], you will be lured by the traces of the words used in the teachings of those schools and wrongly give rise to thoughts of either acceptance or rejection. Then how would it be possible for you to develop a syncretic understanding (yunghoe) [that recognizes the value in all teachings] and take refuge in your own minds?'0 Chinul covers the approach of sudden awakening/gradual cultivation in several of his works, including an extremely detailed treatment of all the possible combinations of sudden and gradual practice and enlightenment in his Excerpts from the Dharma Collection and Special Practice Record with Personal Notes (P6pchip py6rhaeng nok ch6ryo py6ngip sagi)." Perhaps Chinul's most accessible and inspiring treatment of the theory, however, appears in one of his best-known works, Secrets on Cultivating the Mind (Susim kyo/). 22 There he explains that sudden

awakening is the vision that one's own original nature is no different from that of all the Buddhas. The person realizes the noumenal wisdom (i chi) that exposes the essential voidness of all dharmas and the individual's own lack of ego. 23 But this awakening is not simply intellectual awareness engendered through study or learning; it is, instead, an experience that makes use of doctrinal explanations concerning the void, calm, and numinous awareness (kongj6k y6ngji) to develop the student's own practice of introspection (panjo). 24 This is the understanding-awakening (haeo; Ch. chieh-wu) in which one gains the initial comprehension of one's own true nature; because this awakening is not achieved through gradual progress in practice, it is called sudden. 25 Even after a person has awakened to the fact of his incipient Buddhahood, however, his forces of habit (siipki; Skt. vlisanli), which have been acquired over a "beginningless" (musi) period of time, are not so easily removed. Hence, even after this initial experience, the student must continue on to develop all of the various meritorious qualities of mind required of the bodhisattva. This is called gradual cultivation. Nevertheless, because this cultivation is based on an initial sudden awakening, it is completely different from the inferior gradual practices that East Asian adepts of Ch'an have traditionally attributed to the Northern School of Ch'an or the Hlnayana teachings. 26 Since the student has already awakened to the fact that deluded thoughts are originally void and the mind-nature is originally pure, he continues to eliminate negative states of mind while recognizing that there is actually nothing real that needs to be eliminated; by the same token, he continues to develop wholesome states of mind while realizing that there is nothing that truly needs development. Hence, the gradual cultivation that follows sudden awakening is true cultivation and true purification. 27 Chiou! uses several similes, many of which are adopted from Tsungmi, to describe the process of initial enlightenment followed by subsequent cultivation. For example, he says that it is like the maturation of an infant who, at the moment of birth (sudden awakening), is endowed with all of the potential of an adult but will not be able to achieve that potential until after many years of growth (gradual cultivation). 28 It is also like the sun rising in the morning (sudden awakening), which only gradually evaporates the morning dew or frost (gradual cultivation). 29 As these similes make clear, cultivation does not even become possible until the initial sudden awakening catalyzes those processes. Indeed, Chiou! explicitly states that it would be virtually impossible for a bodhisattva to continue on through the three incalculable kalpas of cultivation necessary to consummate the path toward Buddhahood without an initial sudden awakening: It is clear that if at first a person does not awaken to the mind-nature, does not attain the [[[noumenal]]] wisdom that knows the voidness of dharmas, and

does not leave behind any sign of self or person, then how would it be possible, on this sea of immeasurable, incalculable kalpas, to maintain in this way the practice of the difficult to practice and the endurance of the difficult to endure? Deluded and ignorant people of today are not aware of this idea and, from the beginning, are depressed that they have to face the difficulties of the manifold supplementary practices (manhaeng) of the bodhi­sattva. 30

Such difficult practices have been consummated in the past only because of the efficacy of this approach of sudden awakening/gradual cultivation; for this reason, it is the approach that has been followed by all the sages and saints of past and present. The principal challenge to sudden awakening/gradual cultivation came from an approach to practice advocated by teachers in the Hungchou lineage of Middle Ch'an, which became the standard of the Lin-chi branch of the mature Ch'an School: sudden awakening/sudden cultivation (tono tonsu; Ch. tun-wu tun-hsiu). Chinul admitted the validity of such an approach to Ch'an meditation, in which a sudden realization of the mind-nature was assumed to bring about the instant consummation of all the myriad wholesome qualities inherent in that mind-nature, thereby obviating the need for any subsequent cultivation. 31 Chinul, however, also recognized the limitations of the Son adepts of his time and apparently considered this approach to be inappropriate for the great majority of Son practitioners. There were two reasons for this. First, cultivators could become attached to an insouciant attitude. Because all things are innately perfect and completely indistinguishable from the noumenal Buddha-nature, such adepts might wrongly assume that no wholesome practices need be cultivated and no defilements need be eradicated. In addition, since all practices will be perfected and all defilements overcome immediately upon enlightenment, only awakening need be stressed. Second, students might end up grasping at the mere verbal description of the innate perfection of the Buddha-nature, thereby hindering their own capacity to awaken personally to that nature. Hence, while the Hung-chou/Lin-chi doctrine of sudden awakening/sudden cultivation might contain useful expedients, "[it] is the practice engaged in by those whose faculties are mature; it does not apply to the majority of ordinary men."32

Indeed, Chinul goes so far as to say that, if one examines the practice of even those superior cultivators who seem to have a sudden awakening requiring no further cultivation, one will find that they too in fact have had an initial awakening in a previous life that sustained their present sudden cultivation: Although sudden awakening/sudden cultivation has been advocated, this is the entrance for people of the highest faculties. If you were to probe their pasts, you would see that their cultivation has been based for many lives on the insights gained in a previous awakening. Now, in this life, after gradual permeation, these people hear the Dharma and awaken: in one instant their practice is brought to a sudden conclusion. But if we try to explain this according to the facts, then sudden awakening/sudden cultivation is also the result of an initial awakening and its subsequent cultivation. Consequently, this twofold approach of sudden awakening and gradual cultiva­ tion is the track followed by thousands of saints. Hence, of all the saints of old, there were none who did not first have an awakening, subsequently cultivate it, and finally, because of their cultivation, gain realization."

Thus, in Chinul's comprehensive outline of Buddhist soteriology, there is always first an initial understanding-awakening (haeo; Ch. chiehwu), followed by gradual cultivation of that awakening, which ultimately concludes with a final realization-awakening (chiingo; Ch. cheng-wu).

IV. The First Approach to Meditation:

The Cultivation of Samadhi and Prajiia

The method of meditation taught by Chinul that is most closely associated with the Ho-tse School and its sudden awakening/gradual cultivation approach is the balanced development of samadhi and prajfia. Chinul's use of this method can be directly traced to his first enlightenment experience, catalyzed through his reading of the Platform Siitra. 35 Chinul's principal instructions on this approach appear in such earlier works as An Encouragement to Practice: The Compact of the Samlidhi and Pra)nli Community (Kwonsu Chonghye kyo/sa mun) and Secrets on Cultivating the Mind, where he focuses on the need to "cultivate samadhi and prajfia as a pair" (chonghye ssangsu) and to "maintain alertness and calmness equally" (songjok tiingji). 36 These are both common dictums that can be found in everything from the Pali Canon" to Yogacara38 materials. They also epitomize the approach of the syncretic San-lun/Ch'an masters, such as the Koguryo monk Siingnang (ca. 494) and his later successor Fa-lang (507-581), who attempted to integrate philosophical and meditative practices.

Samadhi and prajiia, as they figure in Chinul's thought, are closely related to the term son (Ch. ch'an, J. zen), which was eventually taken as the name of the meditation school in East Asia. Son is the Chinese transliteration of the Indian term "dhyana" (absorption), which is virtually equatable, for our purposes, with the word "samadhi" (concentration). 40 Its use as a designation for the Ch'an and Son schools, however, carries a somewhat different connotation. As Tsung-mi explains, Ch'an is a comprehensive term for both samadhi and prajfia (wisdom), and Ch'an practice is intended to lead to the rediscovery of the original enlightened

source of all sentient beings: the Buddha-nature (jo-hsing; K. puls6ng) or mind-ground (hsin-ti; K. simji). The awakening to this source is called prajii.a; the cultivation of this awakening is called samadhi.4 1 Chinul himself, expanding on this explanation, declares instead that samadhi and prajii.a are themselves the abbreviation of the threefold training in §ria (morality), samadhi, and prajii.a, the basic constituents of the Buddhist path of practice. 42 Consequently, Ch'an and Son training is intended to involve the full range of Buddhist spiritual endeavor, from the beginning stages of morality to the highest stages of wisdom.

According to Chinul, the simultaneous cultivation of samadhi and prajii.a can be interpreted from both relative and absolute standpoints. The relative types of samadhi and prajii.a involve the more conventional approach to their cultivation and attempt to deal with objects in the conditioned realm in order to remove impurities gradually. Samadhi, in its guise of calmness, is used to counter the inveterate tendency of the mind toward distraction. Prajii.a, in its guise of alertness, is employed to stimulate the mind from the occasional dullness that obscures its natural, incisive quality. In their relative form, samadhi and prajii.a are instruments for counteracting ignorance and defilements; they are to be used until enlightenment is finally achieved and, consequently, represent a gradual­ istic approach to realization.

In the sudden awakening/gradual cultivation approach followed by Chinul, in which awakening precedes cultivation, the interpretation of samadhi and prajii.a changes dramatically. This absolute form, which involves the cultivation of samadhi and prajii.a as inherent in the selfnature, was first propounded in the Ch'an School by Shen-hui (684758)43 and is, of course, a major focus of the Platform Sutra, the text so influential in Chinul's own spiritual development. In this approach, samadhi and prajii.a are viewed as two aspects of the same self-nature; although each might have its own specific characteristics, they cannot be absolutely differentiated. While still characterized as calmness, samadhi is now considered to be the essence (ch 'e) of the self-nature; while still characterized as alertness, prajii.a is now the function (yong) of the selfnature. Although the ways in which they manifest may be distinguishable, both are ultimately based upon the nondual self-nature; hence, samadhi is actually the essence of prajii.a, and prajii.a is the functioning of samadhi. Because of this mutual identification, samadhi no longer implies detached absorption removed from ordinary sense experience; it is, rather, that same absorption during contact with sense-objects-i.e., a dynamic samadhi. Prajii.a is not simply a discriminative faculty that critically investigates phenomena and exposes their essential voidness; it carries, rather, a more passive sense, in that it operates as the calm essence of phenomena and manifests as radiance44 or bare awareness. In this conception, both samadhi and prajii.a are centered in the unmoving self-

nature and are, consequently, always identified with this absolute, nondual state. Even when the two faculties are operating as calmness and alertness in the conditioned sphere-activities that would seem to parallel those of the relative samadhi and prajfia-they never leave their unity in the unconditioned mind-nature. Even after the initial sudden awakening to the self-nature reveals the identity of samadhi and prajfia, however, residual habits (viisanii) will continue to lead the student into defiled activities. These defilements could disturb the original harmony of the self-nature in such a way that one of its aspects, either essence or function, could become distorted. If essence were to predominate, dullness might result from excessive calmness; if function were to be exaggerated, distraction might develop from excessive alertness. In such an instance, "he should borrow the relative samadhi and prajfia that adapt to signs and not forget the counteractive measures (taech 'i; Skt. pratipak$a) that control both dullness and agitation. Thereby he will enter the unconditioned."45 Because samadhi and prajfia remain centered in the self-nature throughout the application of such conventional techniques, however, they eventually become implicit in all of one's conduct, which is their true perfection: When both activity and stillness disappear, the act of counteraction is no longer necessary. Then, even though there is contact with sense-objects, thought after thought returns to the source; regardless of the conditions he meets, every mental state is in conformity with the path. Naturally samadhi and prajfia are cultivated as a pair in all situations until finally the student becomes a person with no concerns (musain). When this is so, one is truly maintaining samadhi and prajfia equally. One has clearly seen the Buddhanature.<• Chinul, however, is quick to point out that samadhi and prajfia are actually integral parts of a person's spiritual cultivation at all stages of his development. Although samadhi and prajfia might be distinguished as separate practices, they are, in fact, the qualities that vivify all types of meditative endeavor. As Chinul quotes Tsung-mi with approval: From the initial activation of the bodhicitta until the attainment of Buddhahood, there is only calmness and only awareness, unchanging and uninterrupted. It is only according to their respective positions [on the bodhisattva path] that their designations and attributes differ slightly. At the moment of awakening they are called noumenon and wisdom. (Noumenon is calmness; wisdom is awareness.) When one first activates the bodhicitta and begins to cultivate, they are called samatha-vipasyana. (Samatha brings external conditioning to rest and hence conforms with calmness; vipasyana illuminates nature and characteristics and hence corresponds to awareness.) When the practice continues naturally in all situations, they are called samadhi and

prajfia. (Because of its effect of stopping all conditioning and fusing the mind in concentration, sa madh i is calm and immutable. Because of its effect of illuminating and giving rise to wisdom, prajfia is aware and undiscriminative.) When the defilements are completely extinguished and the consummation of meritorious practices has led to the attainment of Bud­ dhahood, they are called bodhi and nirval)a. ("Bodhi" is a Sanskrit word meaning enlightenment; it is awareness. "Nirval)a" is a Sanskrit word meaning calm-extinction; it is calmness.) Hence it should be known that from the time of the first activation of the bodhicitta until the final achievement of Buddhahood, there is only calmness and only awareness. (Here "only calmness and only awareness" is equivalent to alertness and calmness.)47 Hence, regardless of the technique the student might be cultivating, he must always stay attentive to the equilibrium between these two elements if that technique is to be successful. And it is precisely because of the equilibrium that samadhi and prajfia bring to any practice that Chinul regards their balanced cultivation as being so well suited to a sudden awakening/gradual cultivation approach to Buddhist soteriology.

V. The Second Approach to Meditation: Faith and Understanding According to the Complete and Sudden School The types of correspondences that Chinul attempted to draw between Son and Hwaom were, of course, by no means unique to him. Both Ch'eng-kuan (738-839) and Tsung-mi before him had explored points of convergence between the two schools, but their analyses had little long-term effect on the subsequent development of Ch'an in China. Ultimately, it was the reclusive Li T'ung-hstian who had the greatest effect of any Hua-yen exegete on the Ch'an tradition in East Asia. A contemporary of Fa-tsang (643-712), the eminent third patriarch of the Chinese Hua-yen school, Li T'ung-hstian was perhaps better known during his lifetime for his thaumaturgic talents than for his exegetical skills.

Li's major work was his Exposition of the New [Translation of the] Avatarizsaka Sutra, a forty-fascicle commentary to Sikananda's eightyfascicle translation of the siitra, which had been completed in 699.48 Although Li's Exposition achieved some measure of renown following its appearance, it seems to have soon dropped from circulation and exerted little formal influence on the evolution of orthodox Hua-yen philosophy. Centuries later, however, after Hua-yen scholasticism had ossified, Li's thought enjoyed a resurgence of interest throughout East Asia. Ta-hui Tsung-kao, the renowned Sung Dynasty systematizer of the hua-t'ou (K. hwadu) method of meditation, was an avid student of Li's writings and Chinese Meditative Techniques in Son Buddhism

played an important role in rediscovering his works and popularizing them among a new generation of East Asian Buddhists. Chinul himself was profoundly affected by his own reading of Li's commentary-so much so, in fact, that the text is said to have catalyzed his second major awakening in 1188.49 Chinul found considerable merit in Li's outline of Hua-yen doctrine and practice, using Li's thought as one of the cornerstones of his own system of meditation. '0 This influence can be seen in Chinul's second major meditative approach: "faith and understanding according to the Complete and Sudden Teaching" (wondon sinhae mun), the practice Chinul considered to be appropriate for the average capacity of the majority of practitioners.

In contrast to the metaphysical orientation of Fa-tsang's interpretation of Hua-yen, Li T'ung-hsiian presented an approach to Hua-yen more explicitly oriented toward practice.' 1 Unlike Fa-tsang's, which had concentrated on a description of the state of enlightenment, Li's interpretation of Hua-yen centered on Sudhana's personal realization of the Dharmadhatu"-i.e., his pilgrimage in search of instruction, which would enable him to enter directly into the Dharmadhatu, as detailed in the Ju fa-chieh p'in ("Entering the Dharmadhatu" chapter, or Gwu;lavyuha) of the Avatamsaka. '3 Even more radically, Li proposed that Buddhahood could be achieved immediately in this very life'4 at the preliminary level of the bodhisattva path, that of the ten faiths (shih-hsin; K. sipsin)." Li justified this proposal by abandoning Fa-tsang's focus on the unimpeded conditioned origination of the Dharmadhatu (fa-chieh wu-ai yiian-ch 'i; K. popkye muae yon 'gi) in favor of the theory of nature origination (hsing-ch 'i; K. songgi). 56 In The Complete and Sudden Attainment of Buddhahood (W6ndon songbullon), his synopsis of Li T'unghsiian's Hua-yen thought, Chinul carefully compares the two theories, coming out in support of Li 's theory of nature origination because "nature origination is more appropriate for contemplation and attaining the path."" As Chinul interprets Li's thought, nature origination provides the conceptual justification for the realization that

Buddhas and sentient beings manifest illusorily from the nature-sea of the fundamental wisdom of universal brightness (po 'gwangmyong chi). Although the forms and functioning of sentient beings and Buddhas seem to be different, they are entirely the form and functioning of the fundamental wisdom of universal brightness. Therefore, while they are originally of one essence, they still can give rise to functioning at many different levels." To bring about this understanding of the fundamental identity of ignorant sentient beings and fully enlightened Buddhas, Chinul taught the approach of faith and understanding. As Chinul interpreted Li's

thought, the unmoving wisdom of Buddhahood (pudong chi), which is based on the wisdom of universal brightness (po'gwangmyong chi), 59 is the source of all dualistic phenomena, including both Buddhas and sentient beings. 60 Through faith in and understanding of the premise that this unmoving wisdom is identical to the discriminative thoughts of sentient beings, ordinary men of great aspiration (taesim pombur are able "to look back on the radiance of the one true Dharmadhatu, which is their own mind's fundamental wisdom of universal brightness .... As the measure of their own wisdom of universal brightness is as great as space or all of the Dharmadhatu, there is neither a single Buddha who does not arise from this original wisdom nor a single sentient being who is not born from the fundamental wisdom."62 Hence, the internal reflection initially induced by faith and understanding helps to ensure that the student's own faith and understanding remain genuine.63 The under­standing-awakening (haeo) engendered through that internal reflection clarifies that your own physical, verbal, and mental states and all your different impulses arise from the Tathagatas' physical, verbal, and mental states and from all their different impulses. They are all without essence or nature, without self or person. Since they all arise from the nonproductive conditions of the own-nature of the Dharmadhatu, you cannot find a place where their roots were originally planted. Their nature itself is the Dharmadhatu.

By understanding this fact right at the very inception of practice-at the first of the ten levels of faith-the student comes to be endowed with the wisdom and compassion of Buddhahood in potential form: One who relies on the complete and sudden approach of the one vehicle attains the fruition-sea of the fundamental wisdom at the first level of the ten faiths; it is clearly not achieved upon completion of the ten levels of faith after ten thousand kalpas of constant cultivation [as the Yogacarins had advocated]. The Exposition [of Li T'ung-hsi.ian] explains only that the work is finished after one life; there is no mention whatsoever of ten thousand kalpas. 6'

By knowing this fundamental wisdom, the student establishes nonretrogressive faith, which assures his continued progress on the bodhisattva path and naturally brings about the perfection of the expedient techniques of samatha-vipasyana and the other constituent practices of the ten stages of faith.T hrough these expedients, samadhi and prajiia are correspondingly perfected, and one enters the initial abiding stage (vihiira) of the arousing of the thought of enlightenment (bodhicittotpada). 66 Through the direct experiential validation of the knowledge that one is a Buddha, the bodhisattva gains the tremendous potential inherent

in the state of Buddhahood, and the subsequent stages of the bodhisattva path are automatically perfected: If one enters the first stage of the ten faiths, one naturally arrives at the first level of the ten abidings. If one enters the first level of the ten abidings, one naturally arrives at the ultimate stage (ku 'gy6ng chi). In this wise, it is most essential for the bound ordinary man (kubak p6mbu) to arouse the initial thought of right faith." Consequently, from the beginning of one's vocation until its consummation in the full enlightenment of Buddhahood, one actually never strays from the fundamental wisdom of universal brightness.

The utility of correct faith and understanding in consummating samadhi and prajiia and many of the other constituents of practice also helps to clarify how this approach can be integrated with Chinul's system of sudden awakening/ gradual cultivation: A sentient being of great aspiration who relies on the supreme vehicle approach to Dharma has firm faith and understanding that the four great elements are like a bubble or a mirage, that the six sense-objects are like flowers in the sky, that his own mind is the Buddha-mind, and that his own nature is the Dharma-nature.S ince the beginning, he has left behind the nature of defilements. His alertness is instantly alert; his clarity is instantly clear.A lthough a man who cultivates while relying on this understanding still has beginningless habit-energies (viisanii), if he controls them with the unabiding wisdom they become the original wisdom; they need be neither suppressed nor removed.A lthough he knows how to use expedient samadhi to expel the influences of dullness and scatteredness, since he recognizes that mental projections and discrimination arise according to conditions from the true nature, he utilizes the purity of that nature while remaining free from any form of attachment.. .. Hence, despite all the hardships of the world, there is no danger that he will backslide. •• VI. Tracing Back the Radiance: The Fundamental Constituent of Meditation Practice Passing mention has already been made of the idea of tracing the radiance emanating from the mind back to its essence (hoe'gwang panjo). This concept is an essential element of the processes governing all types of meditation practice as Chinul interprets them; because of its particular importance in the consummation of the faith and understanding approach, however, it is most appropriate to treat it here. Chinul employs a variety of complementary designations for this aspect of contemplation: "trace the radiance back to one's own mind" (panjo cha- Robert Buswell , sim); "trace the radiance back to one's own nature" (panjo chas6ng); "in one thought-moment, trace the light back and see one's own original nature" (ill y6m hoe,gwang ky6n chabons6ng); "trace back and observe the qualities and functions of your own mind" (pan ,gwan chasim chi tog'yong); "to observe and reflect on your own mind" (kwanjo chasim); "reflect on and view your own mind" (cho,gy6n chasim); "mirror your own mind" (ky6ng chasim); or simply "trace back the radiance" (panjo) "contemplative reflection" (kwanjo) or "introspection" (naejo). Al­though the term hoe,gwang panjo can be interpreted as "reflection," "introspection," or even "meditation," the more dynamic renderings given here better convey a sense of the actual process this aspect of contemplation involves. Chinul's Yi Dynasty commentator, Y6ndam Yuil (1720-1799), has given perhaps the most succinct and precise definition of the term: To trace the radiance back [to one's own mind] means to trace the radiance back to the numinous awareness (y6ngji) of one's own mind; for this reason, it is called "trace back the radiance." It is like seeing the radiance of the sun's rays and following it back until you see the orb of the sun itself. 70 The justification for this practice harkens back to the celebrated

Aizguttara-nikaya passage where the Buddha declares that the mind is inherently luminous but dimmed by adventitious defilements." This luminous quality of mind is called by Chinul either "numinous awareness" or "void and calm, numinous awareness" (kongj6k y6ngji). Adopted by Chinul from Tsung-mi, "numinous awareness" refers to the fundamental quality of sentience, which, perhaps not so figuratively,

"shines" on sense-objects, illuminating them and allowing them to be cognized." This view that the mind illuminates the sense-realms is found frequently in the writings of more orthodox Ch'an masters also; witness, for instance, the comments of Lin-chi 1-hsiian (d. 866): "You, followers of the Way, right now vividly illumining all things and taking the measure of the world, you give the names to the three realms."" This inherent radiance of the mind does not merely illuminate the world of sense-phenomena, however; as the mind's natural brightness is restored through meditation practice, it comes virtually to shine through objects, exposing their inherent voidness (silnya). 74 Hence, numinous awareness is the quality, common to all "sentient" beings, that constitutes their ultimate capacity to attain enlightenment; 75 it serves both as the inherent faculty that allows meditation to develop and the quality of mind consummated and brought to perfection through that meditation.

"Awareness" (chi; Ch. chih) in this term refers to the capacity of the void and calm mind-essence to remain "aware" of all sensory stimuli. Chinul provides various descriptions of this capacity: it is "that mind of

outstanding purity and brilliance, . . . t hat enlightened nature that is the original source of all sentient beings;"7 6 "the mind that has been transmitted successively from the Buddha through the patriarchs;"" or, simply, "your original face."78 Other scholars have interpreted the term as "knowledge" or "prajii.a-intuition," but neither translation properly conveys the sense that "awareness" is that fundamental quality through which all mental qualities, be they "knowledge" or otherwise, are able to manifest. 79 This property of awareness is itself formless and free of thoughts (mu'ny6m; Ch. wu-nien) and, consequently, is able to adapt without limitation to the various inclinations of sentient beings, whether toward greed and hatred or toward wisdom and compassion. In all such cases, the noumenal source itself is forever unaffected and remains simply "aware."80 To describe the adaptability of this faculty, Chiou! uses a phrase that ultimately derives from the Lao Tzu: "This one word 'awareness' is the source [or gateway] of all wonders."8' As the foundation of sentience, this awareness is fundamentally nondual but remains dynamic enough to manifest its "wonders" in any dualistic form. In looking back on the radiance of the mind, one is starting at the level of these "wonders" -the phenomenal manifestations of the nondual mind-essenceand then tracing back those manifestations to their perceptual source: sentience itself, or "bare awareness."

For Chiou!, regardless of the specific meditation technique being developed, tracing the radiance back to the mind is the function that illuminates the path through which the discriminative mind can rediscover its original, nondual source, which is free of thought. 82 In discussing Li's treatment of Hua-yen practice, for example, Chiou! determines that his purpose is solely to induce students "to look back on the radiance of the one true Dharmadhatu, which is their own mind's fundamental wisdom of universal brightness."83 In this context, to reflect or look back on one's own mind refers to the immediate realization that one is originally a Buddha and that ignorance and its concomitants are all the products of the Tathagatas' wisdom of universal brightness:

If [ordinary men of great aspiration] can trace back the light and look back on the mind, then the defilements that have abided on the ground of ignorance for vast numbers of kalpas become the wisdom of universal brightness of all the Buddhas. Since the defilements, ignorance, and the illusory guises of sentient beings have all arisen from the Tathagatas' wisdom of universal brightness, if they look back on the mind today they will find that these are all entirely their own essence and not external things. They are like waves that arise on still water: the waves are the water. They are like phantom flowers that appear in the sky: the flowers are only the sky. •• Tracing the radiance back to the mind's source plays a vital role in Chinul's Son thought as well. In his treatment of sudden awakening/

gradual cultivation, for example, it is tracing the radiance back to the mind-nature that functions as the sudden awakening constituent of the path and that opens the individual to a vision of his own enlightened nature: "If in one thought he then follows back the light [of his mind to its source] and sees his own original nature, he will discover that the ground of this nature is innately free of defilement and that he himself is originally endowed with the non-outflow wisdom-nature, which is not a hair's breadth different from that of all the Buddhas."" After the re-cognition of that nondiscriminating awareness, which is uninterrupted throughout all conscious moments, the student then must continue on to discipline his mind through gradual cultivation so that only salutary and beneficial manifestations of that awareness will appear. It is this process that all specific meditation techniques are intended to catalyze.

VII. The Third Approach to Meditation: Hwadu Meditation

If meditation practice were to be brought to consummation, Chinul assumed, the average student would require the doctrinal teachings of Buddhism to outline for him the course and goal of practice and to encourage him along that path. For these reasons, in most of his writings Chinul stressed the need for following the approach, outlined by Tsungmi, in which the student develops understanding of the two aspects of Dharma (immutability and adaptability) and the two approaches concerning person (sudden awakening and gradual cultivation) while continuing to rely on the teachings. Because of the clarity and comprehensiveness of this approach, it was appropriate for the majority of people of average ability. •• Nevertheless, Chinul remained concerned lest the conceptualization inherent in this sort of approach eventually hinder the student's progress toward bodhi. Particularly in his later writings, Chinul seems to have moved away from the doctrinally based approach of Tsung-mi to a more exclusive focus on uniquely Son practices. Based ultimately on his final enlightenment experience, which was engendered through his reading of the Records of Ta-hui, Chinul's third major meditative technique, the "shortcut" approach (kyongjol mun) of observing the hwadu (K. kanhwa son; Ch. k 'an-hua ch 'an), eschewed all scriptural explanations in favor of a radical disentanglement of the mind from its conceptual processes.

Hwadu (Ch. hua-t'ou) practice was the product of a long process of development in the Ch'an schools of the later T'ang period in China. After the mid 800s, Ch'an masters such as Nan-yuan Hui-yung (d. 930), Fen-yang Shan-chao (947-1024), and Yiian-wu K'o-ch'in (1063-1135) had begun to use stories concerning earlier Ch'an teachers as a systematic

way of instructing their students and had begun to collect these anecdotes in large anthologies." T hese stories came to be called kung-an (K. kongan; J. koan), or "public test-cases," because they put an end to private understanding (kung) and were guaranteed to accord with what the Buddhas and patriarchs would say (an)." In the word's earliest usages in Ch'an and Son texts, hwadu (lit. , "head of speech") meant simply "topic," being virtually synonymous with such terms as hwaje ("theme of speech"), hwabyong ("handle, or topic, of speech"), and hwach'i1k ("rule of speech").89 In this non-technical sense, hwadu can be considered the primary topic or critical phrase of the entire situation set out in the complete kung-an, or test case. We may take, for example, the popular kung-an attributed to Chao-chou T s'ung-shen (778-897): "Does a dog have Buddha-nature or not?" "No! (Ch. wu; K. mu)."•" T he entire exchange is the kung-an; the hwadu is "dog has no Buddha-nature" or simply "no."

An account found in the Leng-ch' ieh shih-tzu chi ("Record of the Masters and Disciples of the Lankavatara"), by the Northern Ch'an adept Ching-chiieh, suggests that practices similar to the kung-ans of later centuries may have been first employed by Hung-jen (601-674), traditionally considered to be the Fifth Patriarch of the Ch'an School. While we cannot assume that Ching-chiieh presents a verbatim account of Hung-jen's teachings, his statements could very well refer to teachings that might have ultimately derived from Hung-jen's time. At any rate, Hung-jen is presumed to have told his disciples: "Within the mind, observe the one word" (or, "the word 'one' ") (hsiang hsin-chung k'an itzur-a phrase that resonates with the k 'an-hua ch 'an of the later Ch'an and Son schools. It is, however, to Ta-hui T sung-kao, a disciple of Yiian-wu K'o-ch'in in the lineage of the Lin-chi School, that credit must be given for popularizing the hua-t' ou technique throughout East Asia. Chinul was the first Korean Son teacher to be influenced by Ta-hui's approach, and Chinul's adoption of the hwadu technique brought him into the mainstream of Ch'an's development on the mainland. T hat Ta-hui and Chinul were only one generation apart indicates that Chinul may have heard about Ta-hui early in his vocation, during his stay (ca. 1183-1185) at Ch'ongwon-sa (a monastery in the southwest of the peninsula near ports catering to trade with the Chinese mainland), when he may well have contracted with Sung or Kory6 traders to import the first copy of the Records of Ta-hui to Korea. 92 Chinul was profoundly affected by Tahui's approach and, after his third and final awakening, which was induced through a reading of his Records, 93 hwadu practice came to play a major, and later an overriding, role in the ensemble of his thought. Chinul's adoption of the hwadu technique augured the stronger Imje (Ch. Lin-chi) orientation of later Korean Son teachers like his disciple

Chin'gak Hyesim (1178-1234), who in 1226 compiled the first Korean collection of kongan stories, the S6nmun y6msong chip ("Collection of the Son School's Verses of Critique").•• This posture of Korean Son became more striking as the centuries passed; it was particularly pronounced after the return from China of T'aego Pou (1301-1382), who brought the orthodox Lin-chi lineage to Korea; other of his contemporaries, such as Naong Hyegun (1320-1376), also stressed the efficacy of the hwadu. 95 Today in Korea the hwadu continues to be the primary technique employed in meditation halls, and virtually all masters advocate its use for students at any level of spiritual development. Chinul's earlier works, such as An Encouragement to Practice,

Secrets of Cultivating the Mind, and Straight Talk on the True Mind

(Chinsim chiks), had not even mentioned hwadu practice; indeed, only in his most comprehensive treatise, Excerpts from the Dharma Collection and Special Practice Record with Personal Notes (completed in 1209, one year before his death), does he recognize hwadu as a separate system and give it extensive coverage. Even there, however, Chinul remains markedly hesitant to prescribe the hwadu to any except the most exceptional of meditators. Even after penetrating the hwadu, Chinul notes, such adepts might still give rise to defilements when in contact with sense-objects because of their lack of correct understanding of the nature and characteristics of the mind. "For such a person," he declares,

it is better to rely on the words and teachings of Master Tsung- mi, which accord with reality, and put all one's effort into investigation. This will enable one to subdue the thoughts of liking and disliking, anger and joy, others and self, success and failure. Since it is only through this sort of knowledge and vision of the Buddha Dharma, which accords with reality, that one will find a way out of samsara, the mystery in the mystery [i.e., nondual comprehension] . . . will naturally come to exist within that conceptual knowledge and vision.

Hence throughout most of his career, Chinul clearly favored an approach in which hwadu practice remained closely associated with doctrinal understanding as prescribed by Tsung-mi.

Late in his life, however, Chinul's views rapidly began to crystalize around Ta-hui's interpretation of hwadu practice, and this interpretation eventually eclipsed even Tsung-mi's influence over Chinul. This tendency to exalt Ta-hui is particularly prominent in Resolving Doubts About Observing the Hwadu (Kanhwa ky6rui ron), a treatise found among Chinul's effects and published posthumously by his successor, Hyesim, in 1215.97 As Chinul notes, most students of his time were still bound by the passions and so had first to purify their views and conduct through correct understanding of the doctrinal teachings before they could enter

into realization. But the Ch'an approach of Ta-hui "transcends all standards. Consequently, it is not only students of the scholastic teachings who will find it difficult to have faith and enter into it; even those of lesser faculties and shallow comprehension in the Son School are perplexed and cannot understand it."98 Quoting with approval an anonymous Ch'an master, Chinul remarks, "The separate transmission outside the teachings far excels the teaching vehicle (kyosung). It is not something with which those of shallow intelligence can cope."99 But he is equally adamant himself about the ultimate superiority of Son: "The separate transmission [of Son], which is outside the teachings, is not sub­ject to the same limitations [as the Complete and Sudden Teaching]." 100 In such statements, the liberal attitude toward the scholastic sects and the restrained discussion of Son, which characterized much of his earlier writing, are not as prominent. No longer does he act as the Son apologist, attempting to vindicate the Son outlook by demonstrating its parallelisms with the doctrinal descriptions of the canonical texts. Rather, he has accepted with few qualifications the preeminence of Ta-hui's interpretation of Ch'an, pointing out that in matters of spiritual technique,

speed of consummation, and purity of view, the "shortcut" hwadu approach is clearly superior to the sudden awakening/gradual cultivation approach advocated by Tsung-mi. Although in Excerpts from the Dharma Collection and Special Practice Record with Personal Notes, Chinul had called the shortcut approach the "one living road that leads to salvation," 101 this exclusivity was considerably vitiated by Chinul's concluding remarks in that text, which placed hwadu practice clearly within the soteriological scheme originally outlined by T sung-mi.102 In Resolving Doubts About Observing the Hwadu there is little such vacillation, and unadulterated Ta-hui Ch'an is stressed. This trend in Chinul's thought probably accounts for the pervasive influence of Ta-hui in the writings of Chinul's successor, Hyesim, surpassing even that of T sungmi. Hence, the focus on the Lin-chi interpretation of Ch'an that is prevalent in late Koryo Son was in fact probably initiated late in life by Chinul -one more instance of the debt the Korean tradition owes him.

Hwadu, which means "head of speech," is best taken metaphorically as the "apex of speech" or the "point at which (or beyond which) speech exhausts itself." Since speech is initiated by thought, speech in this context includes all the discriminative tendencies of the mind itself, in accordance with the Indian Abhidharma formula that speech (vlicisaf!l­ sklira) is fundamentally intellection and imagination (vitarkaviclira). 101 By leading one to the very limit of speech-or, more accurately, thought -the hwadu acts as a purification device that sweeps the mind of all its conceptualizing activities, leaving it clear, attentive, and calm. As Chinul says, quoting Ta-hui, in true hwadu practice "you need only lay down, all at once, the mind full of deluded thoughts and inverted thinking (viparylisa), the mind of logical discrimination, the mind that loves life and hates death, the mind of knowledge and views, interpretation and comprehension."' 04 Cessation of the discriminative processes of thought strips the mind of its interest in the sense-experiences of the ordinary world and renders it receptive to the influence of the unconditioned. Hence, as Chinul explains at length in Resolving Doubts About Observing the Hwadu and Excerpts from the Dharma Collection and Special Practice Record with Personal Notes, the hwadu produces a "cleansing knowledge and vision (jiilinadarsana)" that "removes the defects of conceptual understanding so that you can find the living road that leads to salvation." 105 As this approach allows none of the conventional supports for practice, it was intended principally either for "those patched-robed monks in the Son lineage today who have the capacity to enter the path after leaving behind words" '06 or for those who have first matured themselves through another technique. I. Two TYPES OF HWADU INVESTIGATION While accepting the unique features of hwadu practice, however, Chinul was able to turn it into a comprehensive meditative approach appropriate for students at all levels of advancement. This is accomplished by differentiating between two distinct types of hwadu investigation: investigation of the idea or meaning of the hwadu (ch 'amili) and investigation of the word itself (ch 'amgu). '07 Going back to Chao-chou's mu hwadu, investigating the idea means to look into the question: "With what intent in mind did Chao-chou make the statement mu?" Since this investigation involves more "taste" (mi)-that is, intellectual interest-it is comparatively easy for beginners in hwadu practice to undertake. Although such investigation may be of provisional value in prompting the student toward a more intense inquiry into the question, it will not permit him to abandon theoretical understanding or the discriminative processes of thought. Students who remain at this level

are the same as those following the complete and sudden approach who have been enlightened through right understanding [i.e., they have achieved the understanding-awakening]. They still retain views and learning, understanding and conduct. They are no better than those scholar-monks of today who are attached to words and letters and, in their contemplation practice, speculate that internally the mind exists but still search externally for truth.

If the student is to progress, he must eventually abandon his concern with Chao-chou's motives in making this statement and look directly into the word mu itself. At that point he is investigating the word, which is Chinese Meditative Techniques in Son Buddhism said to provide no conceptual support for the investigation. As this sort of investigation is thus free from the obstacle of understanding (jiieyavarana), it results in the realization-awakening (chiingo), which is the consummation of the gradual cultivation that follows the initial sudden experience of the understanding-awakening (haeo). 109

These two types of investigation are described respectively by Chinul -following a distinction traditionally attributed to Yiin-men's disciple Tung-shan Shou-ch'u (?-990)-as "live words" (hwalgu; Ch. huo-chii) and "dead words" (sagu; Ch. ssu-chii). 110 The hwadu investigated via its meaning is the dead word, for it can only clarify one's understanding, never bring true realization: "In the Son approach, all these true teachings deriving from the faith and understanding of the Complete and Sudden School, which are as numerous as the sands of the Ganges, are called dead words because they induce people to create the obstacle of understanding." 111 The "tasteless" hwadu investigated via the word is the live word, for it guides one to the "living road that leads to salvation." 112 The live word allows no understanding through concepts and offers nothing at which the deluded mind may grasp. As it has been described by Ta-hui and Chinul, "this one word is the weapon that smashes all types of wrong knowledge and wrong conceptualization." 11' This live word is the true shortcut approach because it helps to free the mind from the fundamental activating-consciousness (6psik; Skt. karmajiiti [lak,s-aa] vijiiiina), as Chinul's successor, Hyesim, had intimated. 114 As the Awakening of Faith (Ta-sheng ch' i-hsin tun) explains, the activating-consciousness represents the point at which subject and object are bifurcated and dualistic patterns of thought are generated. 115 As the origin of the deluded mind, it ultimately provides the impetus that drives the hapless individual toward ignorance and craving. Only through continued attention to the live word, engendered through investigation of the word itself, can the activating-consciousness be shattered and true realization achieved.

These two types of investigation are also associated with two distinct functions served by hwadu investigation: that of an expression that removes the defects of conceptual understanding (p'aby6ng) and that of a complete expression in itself (ch6nje). 11 7 In investigation of the meaning, the hwadu is used as a palliative to counteract the discriminative tendencies of mind by focusing the intellect on one logically indefensible question. By removing the obstacle of understanding, it ultimately leads to the sort of acquired-understanding that allows the student to enter onto the first stage of faith (ch 'osinji) via the understanding-awakening (haeo)-Chinul's "sudden awakening." Investigation of the word is the hwadu as a complete expression (ch6nje)-that is, the ultimate state of realization summing up all aspects of the great matter (laesa) of awakening. It engenders the state of no-thought (mu' nyom), which allows the

access to realization (chiingip) at the first stage of the ten abidings (sipchu). 118 The distinctive feature in Ta-hui's "shortcut" approach to hwadu practice is that it is supposed to enable the practitioner to dispense with the initial investigation of the meaning and enter directly into the investigation of the "tasteless" (mumi) hwadu-that is, investigation of the word. "Straight off ;• says Chinul, "[the followers of the shortcut approach] take up a tasteless hwadu and are concerned only with raising it to their attention and focusing on it. For this reason, they remain free of ratiocination . . . . Unexpectedly, in an instant they activate one moment of realization concerning the hwadu and, as discussed previously, the Dharmadhatu of the One Mind becomes perfectly full and clear."1 19 The motive force that impels the mind toward this realization is "doubt" (iiisim; iiijong), which may be better rendered "puzzlement," "wonder," or simply "questioning." Chinul, following Ta-hui, defines doubt as a state of mental perplexity "where the intellect cannot operate and thought cannot reach; it is the road through which discrimination is excised and theorizing is ended." 120 It makes the mind "puzzled, frustrated, and 'tasteless'-just as if you were gnawing on an iron rod."121 Continued attention to the tasteless hwadu creates a sense of doubt that allows neither thought nor conceptual understanding to arise in the mind. Through this state of no-thought, the student is then primed for access to realization, the previously mentioned realization-awakening. Once the doubt "disintegrates" (p'a), 122 the student comes into direct conformity with the Dharmadhatu of the One Mind.123 Thus, through investigation of the hwadu, the student can forgo all the gradual stages of spiritual development and get to the very root of the problem of samsara: the inveterate conceptualizing tendency of the mind.

Doubt itself has various degrees of intensity, which are related to whether investigation of the hwadu is done via the meaning or via the word. Doubt developed through investigation of the meaning can only lead to the understanding-awakening of the first level of the ten faiths, for it does not free the mind from its acquired-understanding. Doubt achieved via investigation of the word, however, produces the realiza­ tion-wisdom, allowing one to display prajfia and engage in dissemination of the teachings of Buddhism to all types of people. 124 Drawing upon Chinul's ideas, Sung-bae Park has recently given a provocative accounting of the soteriological underpinnings of Son practice, which helps to clarify the role of doubt in Korean Son thought. As Park explains in his Buddhist Faith and Sudden Enlightenment, hwadu practice engenders an existential conflict in the adept's psyche between acquired knowledge in the truth of one's ultimate Buddhahood (faith)

and the obvious fact of one's present delusion (doubt). The dialectical tension between doubt ("I am an ignorant sentient being" ) and faith ("I Chinese Meditative Techniques in Son Buddhism am a Buddha") ultimately results in the experience of "brokenness" (kkaech 'im)-that is, the annihilation of the dualistic intellectual framework and all sense of personal ego-which, in turn, results in the rediscovery of the "ground of absolute nothingness."125 The symbiotic relationship between faith and doubt in Son thought helps to clarify why Chinul focused both on Hwaom "faith and understanding" and Son investigation, as well as why these need not be antithetical.

2. THE THREE MYSTERIOUS GATES

Chinul seems ultimately to have despaired about the prospects of ordinary men in his time succeeding in their contemplation of the hwadu via investigation of the word. Even at the end of his Resolving Doubts About Observing the Hwadu, which is strongly supportive of Ta-hui's "shortcut" approach, he says: "Those who have manifested such realization-wisdom [through the investigation of the word] are seldom seen and seldom heard of nowadays. Consequently, these days we should value the approach that investigates the meaning of the hwadu and thereby produces right knowledge and vision." 126 Hence, while Chinul may have emphasized the importance of hwadu practice later in his life, it would be an exaggeration to say that it ever completely supplanted the role of Tsung-mi's gnoseology in his own synthesis of Son thought. This conclusion is especially borne out by the fact that Chinul provided a scheme for incorporating hwadu practice into his more conventional outline of meditative development based on Tsung-mi. This scheme employed the three mysterious gates (samhy6n-mun; Ch. san­hsiian men), adopted from Lin-chi 1-hsiian and other predecessors in the Ch'an School.127

The Ch'an and Son schools are well known for their innovations in all areas of Buddhist exploration, from epistemology to praxis. Such doctrinal experimentation was especially prominent in the period of Middle Ch'an: the period after the six orthodox patriarchs of the school, but before the emergence of the five schools of the mature tradition, dating roughly from the early eighth to middle ninth centuries.128 Although there is a paucity of extant literature concerning these schools, summaries of some of the sects appearing in later accounts indicate a truly remarkable variety of views and practices. 129 Later Ch'an theoreticians attempted to ascertain the general features of the various schools of the tradition and to delineate a comprehensive outline of the types of descriptions used in Ch'an. Chiou! assumes that there are various levels of description used in the Son teachings, each of which is correlated with a particular style of doctrinal description and spiritual capacity. He refers to these levels as three mysterious gates: the mystery in the essence (ch 'ejung-hy6n), the mystery in the word (kujung-hyon), and the mystery in

the mystery (hy6njung-hy6n). In addition to outlining Chinul's general attitude toward Son practice, a description of these three stages will help to clarify the differences Chinul saw between more conventional Son approaches and the "shortcut" approach of Ta-hui. Basically, these three stages involve (1) conceptual descriptions of doctrinal tenets, which are intended to engender correct understanding in the student; (2) the conventional use of the hwadu, a terse phrase relatively devoid of conceptual content, which is a more direct expression of the philosophical and metaphysical truths expressed on the first stage; and (3) gestures, pauses, and other nonverbal forms of expression, which were considered to come as close as possible to absolute truth itself, for they are in no way vitiated by conceptualization. 130

The first level of explication is the mystery in the essence. This description of the process of awakening, appropriate for those of average capacity, involves expedient accounts of the ultimate goal of practice and the approach to be followed in consummating that goal. For the majority of Son students, some grounding in doctrinal understanding is necessary if they are to avoid the inevitable pitfalls on the path of practice. As Chinul remarks, "Since the acquired-understanding of meditators in the present day is still involved with the passions, they must first develop views and learning and then develop understanding and conduct; afterward, they can enter into realization. At the moment of entering into realization, they slough off their former acquired-understanding and, through absence of thought, come into conformity [with the Dharmadhatu] ." 131 This first mysterious gate is accordingly designed to instill correct view in beginning cultivators and to overcome the obstacles to understanding in the more advanced. Descriptions closely resembling those used in the scholastic schools are employed to demonstrate the essential identity of ignorant sentient beings and enlightened Buddhas. These would include such statements as: "One word is bright and clear and contains all the myriad images" 13' or "Throughout boundless world systems, oneself and others are not separated by as much as the tip of a hair; the ten time periods, from beginning to end, are not separate from the present thought-moment."133 Such statements, of course, recall the Hwaom theory of the unimpeded interpenetration of all phenomena

(shih-shih wu-ai) and help to break down the adept's attachment to his or her own individuality (iitman) by inducing an awareness of the pure nature of the mind and the relationship inherent therein between its immutable and adaptable qualities. Nevertheless, although such statements may seem similar to the outlook of the complete teachings, they are actually made with completely different purposes in mind. Whereas such descriptions in the doctrinal schools are designed to provide the conceptual understanding that will enable the Buddhist religion to surChinese vive unchallenged, parallel Son descriptions are intended solely to prompt the student to direct, personal awakening. As Chinul notes: [[[Tsung-mi]] says:] "The teachings of the Buddha are intended to support tens of thousands of generations; hence their principles have been demonstrated in detail.T he admonitions of the patriarchs involve an immediate crossingover to liberation; they aim at producing mysterious penetration." 134 [This statement means that] since mysterious penetration is predicated upon the elimination of words, the student should not dwell on the traces of a master's words.W hen these traces are eliminated from the ground of the mind­

consciousness, the noumenon manifests in the fountainhead of the mind. For this reason, the instructions given by the masters of the school according to the capacities of their listeners about the doctrine of the unimpeded interpenetration of all phenomena are extremely terse.T hey are intended,

above all else, to produce an access to awakening through a direct shortcut; they do not sanction knowledge through descriptive explanations. 135 This sort of treatment is beneficial in instructing beginners of less than superlative spiritual capacity-that is, people who would have difficulty in grasping the purpose of practice if they were to start out directly with investigation of the hwadu, which has less intellectual content.

In the Son school as well there are those who find it difficult to cope with the secret transmission and need to rely on the doctrine in order to awaken to the Son school's teachings; for such people, the school has also explained the teaching of the unimpeded interpenetration of all phenomena, ...a nd, with complete descriptions which accord with the nature, they instruct beginning students who are not yet able to investigate the live word of the shortcut approach and help to ensure that they have nonretrogressive faith and understanding .... [In the absence of such explanations,] how can the student expect to understand that principle unless he has superior faculties and great wisdom? How else can he expect to penetrate it? 136

Accordingly, the majority of students must have a strong foundation in doctrinal understanding before they can proceed to investigate the hwadu, the second mysterious gate: You must know that men who are cultivating the path in this present degenerate age of the Dharma should first, via conceptual understanding that accords with reality, discern clearly the mind's true and false aspects, its arising and ceasing, and its essential and secondary features.N ext, through a word that splits nails and cuts through iron, you should probe closely and carefully. 137 This word that "splits nails and cuts through iron" (K. ch 'amjong ch6lch'61; Ch. chan-ting chieh-t'ieh)'38 is the hwadu. With the maturation of the student's understanding through the expedient descriptions

employed on the first mysterious gate, a further step must be taken to ensure that he does not stagnate at a purely intellectual level of understanding. This proclivity toward conceptualization is an inveterate tendency of the mind, which vitiates the unique experiential content of sensory experience.1 39 The first stages of this tyranny of concepts are eliminated through the mystery in the word, as discussed earlier. That technique provides a "cleansing knowledge and vision" that helps to purify the mind from attachment to, or identification with, conceptual descriptions that might have developed through the use of doctrinal expedients at the first stage of the three mysterious gates. Even though its very formulation involves some condescension to linguistic convention, the hwadu offers the practitioner further help in becoming free from the limitations of the conditioned realm. As the hwadu is "terser" (saengnyak)140 and, hence, less dependent on conceptual delineation than the doctrinal descriptions that characterized the first mysterious gate, it is closer to being an authentic description of the unconditioned, which is beyond concepts. Nevertheless, even its "cleansing knowledge and vision" ultimately must be transcended if dualistic modes of thought are to be overcome. This transcendence is achieved through the mystery in the mystery, which includes such techniques employed in the Son school as pregnant pauses, beatings, shouting, and other non-conceptual modes of expression, which provide no substratum upon which even cleansing knowledge and vision can subsist. Such catalysts shock the student out of the complacency engendered by the mind's normal conceptual processes, inducing a sudden realization of the full glory of the Dharmadhi'Hu. 141 Hence this third mystery comes as close as any relative expression to conveying a sense of the unconditioned realm.

Chinul, then, envisions Son instruction as progressing from kataphatic statements about the innate purity of the mind in the first gate, to more apophatic descriptions designed to free the mind from conceptualization in the second gate, and finally to nonverbal expressions in the third gate.142 Hence, despite the Son School's claim that it is a "separate transmission outside the teachings," Chinul compels it to accept expedient instructions that are virtually parallel to the types of descriptions generally considered characteristic of the doctrinal schools. Through these three gates, therefore, Chinul effects both an incorporation of hwadu meditation into Tsung-mi's Ch'an soteriology and an accommodation between Son and kyo.

VIII. The Fourth Approach to Meditation: No-thought

As noted earlier in connection with hwadu meditation, access to realization (chiingip)-that is, direct experiential validation of the stu dent's innate Buddhahood-is achieved through investigation of the word. Chinul, in turn, defines this access to realization as a state of nothought, which he also refers to as "no-mind" (musim). 143 No-thought has considerably wider ramifications than its role in hwadu meditation, however. Regardless of whether one's realization is achieved via the "faith and understanding" of the Hwaom teachings, the "shortcut" approach of Son, or the recollection practices of Pure Land, the thought processes and the conceptual apparatus that sustains those approaches are finally annihilated only in that moment of realization engendered by no-thought. 144 Even adherents of the complete teachings of the kyo schools, Chinul states, "must first pass through their views and learning, their understanding and conduct; only then can they enter into realization. At the time of the access of realization, their experience will correspond to the no-thought of the Son approach."1 45 Indeed, for all practices, no-thought is their consummation and serves as the factor that initiates the student into direct realization.

The cultivation of no-thought constitutes the primary element of practice following the initial sudden awakening. After the cultivator has achieved incipient understanding of his innate Buddhahood, he continues on to develop all the manifold practices of the bodhisattva (manhaeng), which will help to mature his comprehension. However, because of his initial awakening, the student is able to continue with this gradual cultivation without retaining any sense that there is something wholesome that he must cultivate or something unwholesome that he must eliminate; rather, he cultivates all of these practices in a state of nothought.146 Chinul often quotes Tsung-mi in this regard: "Although one prepares to cultivate the manifold supplementary practices [of the bodhisattva], no-thought is the origin of them all."147 Hence, a central feature of any true cultivation is the element of no-thought. In most of his works, Chinul accepted no-thought as an integral part of all types of meditation practice and did not give it any particular emphasis. In Straight Talk on the True Mind, however, Chinul does attempt to outline a method whereby no-thought could be practiced as a meditative method in its own right. This is Chinul's approach of "nomind that conforms with the path" (musim hapto mun), 148 a method of practice intended for only the most spiritually adept cultivators. In that treatise, ten methods of practicing "no-mind" are outlined, which involve various combinations of overcoming one's identification with external sense-objects and with the internal activities of thought.149 Once all one's mistaken conceptions of both internal and external are annihilated, the world is seen as it truly is (yathiibhiita) and delusion can never arise again. Hence, the cultivation of no-thought is not to be construed as an absence of conscious activity. Rather, it refers to the cultivation of a state of mind that restores the original objectivity of sense-perception by

bringing an end to the impulsion of the defilements (klesa) during that perception; ultimately it enables the mind to interact spontaneously with the world by freeing it from its conceptual presumptions about the objects in that world. IX. The Fifth Approach to Meditation: Recollection of the Buddha's Name The importance of no-thought as the catalyst of realization is indicated quite explicitly in Chinul's discussion of a meditative technique that received little overall attention in his works: the recollection of the Buddha's name (yombul; Ch. nien-fo). This technique, the hallmark of the Pure Land schools of East Asia, received little sympathy from Chinul in his earlier works, such as An Encouragement to Practice, where he condemned the practice for instilling complacency in the meditator. In that text, Chinul criticizes those Pure Land adepts who, convinced of their own inability to cultivate such presumably difficult practices as samadhi and prajiia, decide simply to recite Amitabha's name in the hopes of gaining admission to his Pure Land. By copious quotations from several siitras and sastras, Chinul attempts to convince such adherents that the process of seeking rebirth in the Pure Land "is never separate from one's own mind. Apart from the source of one's own mind, where else would one be able to enter?"150 After citing a passage from the Ta-jang-kuang jo ju-lai pu-ssu-i ching-chieh ching ("The Expanded Scripture on the Inscrutable State of the Buddhas, the Tathagatas") declaring that a bodhisattva who understands the teaching of mind-only is instantly reborn into the Pure Land, 151 Chinul concludes: "Even though a person does not recollect the Buddha in order to seek rebirth [in the Pure Land], if he understands that everything is only mind and investigates accordingly, he is naturally reborn there." 152 Hence, Chinul follows his predecessors in the Son School in interpreting the Pure Land as being, in fact, the purified mind. 153 Chinul accepts that such recollection is valid for those people who are least talented in spiritual matters. However, he insists the technique, if it is to be brought to consummation, must be performed with as much care as is necessary for developing more sophisticated meditative techniques such as balancing samadhi and prajiia, understanding that everything in the Pure Land is grounded in the suchness of the mind, and remaining centered in the calm and and radiant nature. When that recollection is performed with such careful attention to one's mental state, "the inspiration of the adept and the response of the Buddha are then merged: it is like the moon that appears when the water is purified or the images reflected when a mirror is polished." 154 The importance of developing appropriate meditative qualities even Chinese Meditative Techniques in Son Buddhism in Pure Land practice is made quite explicit in Chinul's own outline of recollection of the Buddha's name given in his Essential Approaches to Recollecting the Buddha (Y6mbul yomun). "5 In this scheme, which is heavily indebted to the Pure Land interpretations of Ch'eng-kuan and Tsung-mi, '56 Chinul outlines ten stages of that recollection, from recollection performed while restraining the defiling tendencies of one's body, speech, and mind, through recollection maintained during all of one's daily activities. The process culminates in recollection of the Buddha in a state of no-thought, during which time the recollection is involuntarily sustained during all conscious moments. Once this mode of recollection is perfected, the adept then passes to the final stage, the recollection of the Buddha in suchness, wherein the practitioner understands the one true Dharmadhatu. '5' Although Chi nul obviously intended this practice of recollection for the lay cultivator who still must continue with everyday activities, his interpretation of that practice brings it explicitly into line with his own interpretation of meditation practice in general. Hence, although Chinul might accept that there are relative degrees of sophistication in the particular methods of Buddhist meditation practice, he insists that they all must develop according to general criteria and, if cultivated correctly, will ultimately culminate in identical experiences.

X. Chinul's Synthesis of The Meditative Techniques of Son and Kyo

From Chinul's analysis, it should now be clear that, despite the unique propensities of Son and kyo, he does not consider their fundamental attitudes, goals, and practices to be ultimately opposed. Indeed, Chinul states repeatedly that the adherent of either school who practices sincerely and diligently can be assured of enlightenment: Thus we know that, whether Son adepts or scholastics, all men past or present whose contemplation practice is satisfactory have penetrated to their own minds, where false thoughts and mental disturbances never originate. In the functioning of their noumenal wisdom and phenomenal wisdom there is never an interruption, and they realize the Dharmadhatu. ... Consequently, we know the teachings are established according to the differences in individual capacities; in their broad details the teachings might differ slightly, but their source is one .... The thousands of different ways of explaining the holy teachings are adaptations made according to people's faculties and none of them fails to point the way to return to the Dharmadhatu of your own mind.'"

His focus on introspection provides Chinul with a practical tool for effecting his vision of the unity of Son and kyo. By advocating doctrinal reconciliation rather than simply another conceptual position from which to deal with the problem, Chinul effectively raises the conflict to an entirely different level. Theological descriptions intended to provide consistent theoretical interpretations of truth are inherently incapable of expressing an all-embracing position that could accommodate all viewpoints. The restrictions implicit in doctrinal perspectives, and the grasping at those teachings that ignorance and craving engender, inevitably involve the proponent in contention instead of leading him to realization. As Chinul remarks, "When those of lesser faculties grasp at words, everything becomes different. When those who are accomplished understand properly, everything becomes the same." '59 Hence, one of the primary results of speculative views is that they involve the advocate in conflict with people of differing beliefs. '6° Chinul, affirming this, says that even if one were to debate all day long, it would only increase pride and a sense of competitiveness, until the person would end up passing his whole life in vain. Hence, the mind that revels in argumentativeness must be conquered forever.'

Only by abandoning the conceptualization inherent in the scholastic teachings can one bring introspection into play: If you can suddenly forget the differences in the theoretical interpretation of the established verbal teachings and, while sitting quietly in a private room, empty your heart and cleanse your thoughts, trace back the radiance of your own mind, and return to its source, ... the myriad images [will] then appear together. 162 This type of reflection turns the mind, which is usually propelled outward into the sense-spheres, back in upon itself, until its fundamental source is seen. Accordingly, Chinul proposed a new criterion for the assessment of doctrinal points, one that demanded direct experiential confirmation rather than mere intellectual speculation. Finally, it was direct, personal realization of the unitary mind-essence through introspection that effected a true syncretic vision. In Chinul 's systematization of meditation practice as well, a combination of the theoretical and practical stances characterizing these two branches of Buddhism are considered to provide the most effective means of promoting spiritual development in the majority of practitioners. '63 In this formulation, both Son and Hwaom meditation are completely synthesized into a single, unified system, as is readily apparent in the unusual fusion of Son and Hwaom techniques found in Chinul's Excerpts from the Dharma Collection and Special Practice Record with Personal Notes. '64 Citing the explanations on the four Dharmadhatus given in the Hua-yen chin-kuan ("Embroidered Cap of the Avatamsaka"), a lost work by Ch'uan-ao ta-shih (d.u.),'65 a disciple of

Tsung-mi, Chinul notes that these different Dharmadhatus, which are the subjects of separate contemplations in standard Hwaom practice, are in reality only the one true Dharmadhatu (ilchin p6pkye). Although the four Dharmadhatus might be valuable heuristically for explaining the attributes and functions of the mind, Chinul feels that meditation will come to naught if a person attempts to perform each of the four contemplations independently, as he explained in his Excerpts from the Exposition of the New (Translation of the] Avatamsaka Stura. 166 In fact, says Chinul, the "capital" (tu) of this one true Dharmadhatu is the mind of each and every sentient being. One who wishes to rediscover this "capi­tal" need only trace the radiance emanating from the mind back to the numinous awareness, its very source, until conceptualization is finally exhausted; then that Dharmadhatu will appear in all its fullness. This synthesis of formal Son and Hwaom practices is thus considered to consummate both Hwaom Dharmadhatu meditation and the contemplative techniques of Son.

Notes

I. For further discussion on this point, see Robert E. Buswell, Jr., The Korean Approach to Zen: The Collected Works of Chinul (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1983; hereafter abbreviated as KAZ), Introduction, pp. 1-2; idem, "The Biographies of the Korean Monk Wonhyo (617-686): A Study in Buddhist Hagiography;• in John C. Jamieson and Peter H. Lee, eds., Biography as a Genre in Korean History (Berkeley: Institute of East Asian Studies, forthcoming).
2. This early conflict between Son and kyo in Korea and Oich'on's attempts to combine the two sects are summarized in KAZ, Introduction, pp. 12-17.
3. The successorship of the Sagul-san School is discussed in KAZ, pp. 82-83, n. 104. For an outline of the Korean ecclesiastical examination system as well as extensive references to relevant secondary studies, see KAZ, Intro­
duction, pp. 80-81, n. 88.
4. Sungp'y6ng-bu Chogye-san Susoii-sa Puril Pojo kuksa pimy6ng in Yi Nunghwa, Chason Pulgyo t'ongsa (1918; repr., Seoul: Poryon'gak, 1976; hereafter cited as Pojo pimy6ng), p. 377.12. Chinul's lack of a legitimate transmission from a recognized master as well as the fact that he did not leave the customary enlightenment poem are often mentioned by presentday Son masters, who raise doubts about the validity of Chinul's approach to Son practice. (In Chinul's defense, however, it should be noted that such a poem might well have been included in his P6b6 kasong ["Dharma Talks, Gathas, and Verses"], which is no longer extant.) For this reason some Koreans consider T'aego Pou (1301-1382), whose lmje (Ch. Lin-chi) credentials are impeccable, to be the ancestor of the Korean Son lineage. However, a careful reading of the works of such important later teachers as Taegak Hyesim, T'aego Pou, Naong, and Sosan Hyujong (1520-1604) shows clearly that Korean Son thought-in particular, sudden awakening/ gradual cultivation ideology and hwadu meditation-finds its source in Chi nul.
 
Robert Buswell, Jr.
For a discussion of the problems involved in ascertaining the lineage of the Korean Chogye School, see the study by Sok Songch'ol, Han' guk pulgyo ili p6mmaek (Kyongsang namdo, Korea: Haein ch'ongnim, 1975), which displays the author's wide knowledge of scriptural and epigraphical materials; see also Chang Won'gyu, "Chogye chong iii songnip kwa palchon e taehan koch'al;' Pulgyo hakpo, vol. I (1963), pp. 311-351; Yi Chong'ik, Chogye chonghak kaeron (Seoul: Tongguk University, 1973); Yi Chi'gwan, Chogye chong sa (Seoul: Tongguk University, 1976); Ko Hyonggon, Haedong Chogye-chong ili y6nw6n mit kil choryu: Chinul kwa Hyesim ili sasang ili chungsim ilro (Seoul: Tongguk University, Tongguk yokkyong won, 1970), pp. 6-11; and other references in Yi Kibaek, Han' guk-sa sillon (Seoul: Ilcho'gak, 1967), pp. 179-180.
5. For Chinul's three enlightenment experiences see Pojo pimy6ng, pp. 377338; KAZ, pp. 21-28 and summary on pp. 28-29.
6. T his is the last line of a stanza summing up Ch'an practice that is traditionally attributed to Bodhidharma; the passage has been traced to Ta pan-niehP 'an ching chi-chieh ("A Collection of Commentaries to the Mahaparinirva(la-sutra"), D7. 490c26. See discussion in lsshii Miura and Ruth Fuller Sasaki, Zen Dust: The History of the Koan and Koan Study in Rinzai (Linchi) Zen (New York: Harcourt Brace and Jovanovich, 1966), pp. 228-230.
  Kim Chi'gyon, ed., Hwa6mnon ch6ryo (Tokyo: Seifii gakuen, 1968), pp. 13; the passage is quoted in KAZ, pp. 24-25.
8. Ta-fang-kuang fo hua-yen ching, T10.272c23-25 and 272c7-17. "Ju-lai hsing-ch'i p'in" is an abbreviation for "Pao-wang ju-lai hsing-ch'i p'in," the thirty-second chapter of Buddhabhadra's sixty-fascicle translation of the Avatamsaka Sutra, and is equivalent to the "Ju-lai ch'u-hsien p'in" of Sikananda's later translation. The "Hsing-ch'i p'in" circulated independently before being incorporated into the Avatamsaka compilation and was known as the Tathagatotpattisambhavanirdesa; it was translated into Chinese by Dharmaraka in 292 as the Ju-lai hsing-hsien ching (T#291). For a discussion of the text and its important implications for the development of tathagatagarbha theory, see Takasaki Jikido, A Study on the Ratnagotravibhaga (Uttaratantra): Being a Treatise on the Tathagatagarbha Theory of Mahayana Buddhism, Serie Orientale Roma, vol. 33 (Rome: lstituto Italiano per il medio ed estremo oriente, 1966), p. 35 ff.; Takasaki Jikido,
"Kegon kyogaku to nyoraizo shiso," in Nakamura Hajime and Kawada Kumataro, eds., Keg on shiso (Kyoto: Hozokan, 1968), pp. 275-322; see also discussion in Kim lngsok, Hwa6m-hak kaeron (Seoul: Pomnyunsa,
1974), pp. 214-215, where he demonstrates that Fa-tsang also knew that this chapter was originally an independent siitra.
9. Hsin Hua-yen ching fun, D6.815a3-8; 819a29-b.2; 862a7-8.
10. Hwa6mnon ch6ryo, p. 3. Chinul is here alluding to a statement in Tsungmi's Ch'an-yiian chu-ch'iian-chi tu-hsii (T48.400bl0-ll): "T he siitras are
the Buddha's words. Ch'an is the Buddha's mind."
II. Hwa6mnon ch6ryo, p. 3.
12. See Pak Chonghong, Han 'guk sasang sa: Pulgyo sasang p 'yon, S6mun mun' go, no. II (Seoul: Somun mun'go, 1972), p. 193; Yi Chong'ik, Taehan pulgyo Chogye chong chunghung non (Seoul: Poryon'gak, 1976); KAZ, pp. 89-90, n. 178.
13. I use the dvandva-compound sraddhadhimukti for sinhae (Ch. hsin-chieh), rather than the more common Sanskrit equivalent adhimukti, because it helps to clarify that, in the interpretation of Li T 'ung-hsiian and Chinul,
Chinese Meditative Techniques in Son Buddhism
this quality of mind leads to the "understanding-awakening" through
"faith" in one's fundamental Buddhahood. This dvandva is attested to in Vasubandhu's Abhidharmakosabti$yam, edited by Prahlad Pradhan (Patna, India: K. P. Jayaswal Research Institute, 1967), pp. 372.12, 373, 380.9.
14. Pojo pimyong, p. 339.4-5.
15. Noted by Yi Chong'ik, Chogye chong, p. 89.
16. The last few years have seen the burgeoning of a secondary literature on Tsung-mi. The most comprehensive discussion of his thought is found in
Kamata Shigeo, Shumitsu kyogaku no shisoshi teki kenkyu (Tokyo: Tokyo University Press, 1975); Tsung-mi's important role in the development of Korean and Japanese Buddhism has been covered in Kamata Shigeo, "Chosen oyobi Nihon bukky6 ni oyoboshita Shiimitsu no eiky6," Komazawa daigaku bukkyogakubu ronshu, vol. 7 (1976), pp. 28-37. Yoshizu Yoshihide offers an insightful treatment of Tsung-mi in his reappraisal of the Hua-yen tradition in Kegonzen no shisoshi teki kenkyu (Tokyo: Dait6 shuppansha, 1985). Jan Yiin-hua has contributed a useful series of articles on various aspects of Tsung-mi's life and thought; see "Tsung-mi: His Analysis of Ch'an Buddhism," T'oung Pao, vol. 58 (1972), pp. 1-54; "Conflict and
Harmony in Ch'an and Buddhism:' Journal of Chinese Philosophy, vol. 4
(1977), pp. 287-302; "K'an-Hui or the 'Comparative Investigation': The
Key Concept in Tsung-mi's Thought," in Chai Shin Yu, ed., Korean and
Asian Religious Tradition (Toronto: Korea and Related Studies Press, 1977), pp. 12-24; "Antagonism Among the Religious Sects and the Problem of Buddhist Tolerance," International Buddhist Forum Quarterly, nos. 1-4 ( 1979), pp. 62-69; "Tsung-mi 's Questions Regarding the Confucian Absolute," Philosophy East and West, vol. 30 (1980), pp. 495-504; "Two Problems Concerning Tsung-mi's Compilation of Ch 'an-tsang," Transactions of the International Conference of Orientalists in Japan, vol. 19 (1974), pp. 37-47; "Tsung-mi chu Tao-su ch' ou-t a wen-chi te yen-chiu," Hua-kang fohsiieh hsiieh-pao, vol. 4 (1980), pp. 132-166. For an adequate general survey of Tsung-mi's philosophy, see Li Shih-chien, "Tsung-mi ssu-hsiang te t'e-chih," in Chang Man-t'ao, ed., Hua-yen-hsiieh kai-lun, Hsien-tai fachiao hsiieh-shu ts'ung-k'an, vol. 32 (Taipei: Ta-sheng wen-hua ch'u- panshe, 1978), pp. 359-371. Peter N. Gregory has paid special attention to the important role of Tsung-mi's hermeneutics in the development of the mature Chinese scholastic tradition; see "Tsung-mi's Inquiry into the Origin of Man: A Study of Chinese Buddhist Hermeneutics" (Ph.D. dissertation, Harvard University, 1981); "The Teaching of Men and Gods: The Doctrinal and Social Basis of Lay Buddhist Practice in the Hua-yen Traditon" in Robert M. Gimello and Peter N. Gregory, eds., Studies in Ch 'an and Huayen (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1983), pp. 253-319; "Sudden Enlightenment Followed by Gradual Cultivation: Tsung-mi's Analysis of Mind" in Robert M. Gimello and Peter N. Gregory, eds., T he Sudden/
Gradual Polarity in Chinese Thought (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, forthcoming); "The Place of the Sudden Teaching Within the Hua­
Yen Tradition: An Investigation of the Process of Doctrinal Change," Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies, vol. 6 (1983), pp. 31-60; "Chinese Buddhist Hermeneutics: The Case of Hua-yen," Journal of the American Academy of Religion, vol. 51 (1983), pp. 231-249; "Tsung-mi and the Single Word 'Awareness' (Chih )," Philosophy East and West, vol. 35 (1985), pp. 249-269; "What Happened to the Perfect Teaching? Another Look at Hua-yen Buddhist Hermeneutics" in Donald S. Lopez, Jr., ed.,
Robert Buswell, Jr.
Buddhist Hermeneutics (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, forthcoming). Tsung-mi's Ch 'an-yuan chu-ch' iian-chi tu-hsii, so important in the Korean Buddhist doctrinal scheme, has been translated in Jeffrey L. Broughton, "Kuei-feng Tsung-mi: The Convergence of Ch'an and the Teachings" (Ph.D. dissertation, Columbia University, 1975). Valuable insights on Tsung-mi's syncretic attitudes can also be found in Takamine Ryoshii, Kegon to Zen to no tsuro (Nara: Nanto bukkyo kenkyiikai, 1956), pp. 22-35; Huan-sheng, "Tsung-mi Chiao-Ch'an i-chi ssu-hsiang chih hsing-ch'eng;' in Chang Man-t'ao, ed., Hua-yen-hsiieh kai-lun, pp. 305358. I have attempted to determine the relationship between Tsung-mi's Chung-hua ch' uan-hsin-ti Ch' an-men shih-tzu ch' eng-hsi t 'u ("Chart of the Successorship in the Chinese Ch'an School That Transmits the Mind-ground") and his P6pchip py6rhaeng-nok ("Dharma Collection and Special Practice Record") in my article "The Identity of the P6pchip py6rhaeng-nok (Dharma Collection and Special Practice Record)," Korean Studies (Michael Rogers Festschrift), vol. 6 (1982), pp. 1-16; see also KAZ, pp. 375-384.
17. Tsung-mi' s descriptions of sudden awakening/ gradual cultivation are quoted extensively in KAZ, passim; the theoretical issues have been treated in Peter Gregory, "Sudden Enlightenment Followed by Gradual Cultivation: Tsung-mi's Analysis of Mind." For the treatment by Yung-ming Yenshou (904-975), see Wan-shan t'ung-kuei chi, T48.987b-c (quoted in KAZ, pp. 304-305).
18. These two important concepts are discussed at length by Chinul in KAZ, pp. 312, 334. For Tsung-mi's description, see Chung-hua ch 'uan-hsin ti Ch 'anmen shih-tzu ch'eng-hsi t'u, ZZ2/15/5.436c10-14. Yondam Yuil's descriptions appear in P6pchip py6rhaeng nok ch6ryo kwamok py6ngip sagi (Taehiing-sa xylograph, dated 1916, in the Tongguk University archives; hereafter CYKM), fol. la4-5, and in his S6nw6n chip tos6 so, reprinted in Kamata, Shumitsu, p. 277.
The distinction between }en and fa is one of the four refuges (pratisiira­
f.la) of the bodhisattva: "One should take refuge in the Dharma, not in the person [who teaches it)" (dharmapratisiiraf.!ena bhavitavyam na pudga/apratisliraf.!ena); see Wei-mo-chieh so-shuo ching (VimalakTrtinirdesa-sutra},
T14.556c10, interpreted by Thurman as "relying on reality and not insisting on opinions derived from personal authorities" (Robert A. F. Thurman, trans., T he Holy Teaching of Vima/akTrti: A Mahiiyiina Scripture [[[Wikipedia:University|University]] Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1976], p. 99); P'u-sa shanchieh ching (Bodhisattvabhumi), D0.994b22; and /-chiao ching fun
("Commentary to the Bequeathed Teachings (of the Buddha] Scripture"), T26.283b26-29; Ta-chih-tu-lun, T25 .125a629. The doctrine resonates with the Abhidharmakosabhiiya's distinction between the interpretation of pratTtyasamutpiida as "associated with the person" (sattviikhya), corresponding to our soteriological aspect (}en), and "not associated with the person" (asattviikhya), equivalent to our ontological aspect (fa); P. Pradhan, ed., Abhidharmakosabhiiyam, p. 133.17. Note also the Ratnagotravibhiiga distinction of the adhigamadharma ("the doctrine as realization") into "that which is realized" (i.e., the truth of extinction, corresponding to fa), and "that by which realized" (i.e., the truth of the path, corresponding to }en); see Takasaki, A Study on the Ratnagotravibhiiga, p. 182.
19. KAZ, p. 334. 20. KAZ, p. 264.
21. KAZ, pp. 278-311.
Chinese Meditative Techniques in Son Buddhism
22. KAZ, pp. 143-154.
23. KAZ, p. 300. 24. KAZ, p. 333. 25. KAZ, p. 147.
26. KAZ, p. 266 and passim.
27. KAZ, p. 148.
28. KAZ, p. 145.
29. KAZ, pp. 295, 304, 330.
30. KAZ, p. 300.
31. KAZ, p. 299, following Yen-shou.
32. KAZ, p. 143.
33. The theory of sudden awakening/sudden cultivation is covered in more detail in KAZ, Introduction, pp. 59-60.
34. For Tsung-mi's treatment of the realization-awakening, see KAZ, pp. 353, n. 113.
35. Liu-tsu t 'an ching (T48.353b4-5) for the relevant passage.
36. KAZ, pp. 102-124; 150-155. For general discussion on this need to balance sam ad hi and prajiia, see also Guy Bugault, La notion de "Pra}fiii" ou de sapience selons les perspectives du "Mahiiyiina": Part de Ia connaissance et l'inconnaissance dans l'analogie Bouddhique, Publications de l'Institut de Civilisation lndienne, vol. 32 (Paris: Editions E. de Boccard, 1968), pp. 8993.
37. See, for example, the parallel discussion on the use of samatha (calmness) and vipassanii (insight) in E. Muller, ed., AtthasiilinT (London: Pali Text Society, 1897), i.l31: "And here they are given as forming a well-yoked pair
(yuganaddha)" (Pe Maung Tin, trans., The Expositor [Atthasiilinl] [[[London]]: Pali Text Society, 1958], vol. I, p. 173).
38. See Pralhad Pradhan, ed., Abhidharmasamuccaya of Asaliga, VisvaBharati Studies, no. 12 (Santiniketan: Visva-Bharati, 1950), p. 75.
39. These teachers are being studied by Shotaro !ida. Fa-lang was a disciple of Seng-ch'iian (fl. ca. 512), who was himself one of the ten main disciples of the Koguryo monk Siingnang (fl. ca. 494), who played an important role in the development of the early San-lun School; see Pak Chonghong, Han 'guk sasang-sa, pp. 38-41.
40. For the correlations between samadhi and dhyana see Visuddhimagga, iii.5; Nal)amoli, trans., Path of Purification (Kandy, Sri Lanka: Buddhist Publication Society, 1979), pp. 85-90.
41. Ch'an-yiian chu-ch'iian-chi tu-hsii, T48.399a.
42. KAZ, pp. 104-105.
43. See, for example, excerpts in Hu Shih, ed., Shen-hui ho-shang i-chi (rev. ed., Taipei: Hu Shih chi-nien kuan, 1970), pp. 128-9; partially translated in
Philip Yampolsky, The Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch (New York, Columbia University Press, 1967), p. 33.
44. For the metaphor of prajiia as radiance, see Chao-tun, translated by Walter Liebenthal, Chao Lun: The Treatises of Seng-chao (1948; repr., Hong Kong: Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1968), pp. 64-80, 66 and n. 259, 79 and n. 333, 97 and n. 455. Paul Demieville, "Le miroir spirituel;' Sinologica, vol. 7 (1927) (noted in Liebenthal, Chao tun, p. 26, n. 105) says specifically, "Dans le Bouddhisme chinois, tchao designe techniquement Ia fonction de Ia gnose, pra}fiii." See also Alex Wayman, "The Mirror-like Knowledge in Mahayana Buddhist Literature," Asiatische Studien, vol. 25
(1971), pp. 353-363; idem., "The Mirror as a Pan-Buddhist MetaphorSimile," History of Religions, vol. 13 (1974), pp. 264-265.
Robert Buswell, Jr.
45. KAZ, p. 153.
46. KAZ, p. 151.
47. KAZ, p. Ill.
48. The Avatamsaka Sutra was translated by Sikananda in Lo-yang, under the auspices of empress Wu Chao (r. 684-704); translation was begun in 695, third month, fourteenth day (2 April 695), and completed in the second year of Sheng-li, tenth month, eighth day (5 November 699); K'ai-yiian shihchiao /u, T55.565c!5, cited in Lewis Lancaster and Sung-bae Park, The
Korean Buddhist Canon: A Descriptive Catalogue (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1979), p. 44.
49. Pojo pimy6ng, p. 338.3-4. See also Chinul's own description of his experience in the preface to his Hwa6mnon ch6ryo, pp. 1-3; translated in KAZ, pp. 24-26.
50. For a valuable survey of Li T'ung-hsuan's influence in East Asian Buddhism, see Robert M. Gimello, "Li T'ung-hsuan and the Practical Dimensions of Hua-yen," in Robert M. Gimello and Peter N. Gregory, eds., Studies inCh' an and Hua-yen (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1983), pp.
321-389.
Despite Li T'ung-hsuan's importance in the history of post-T'ang Buddhism throughout East Asia, he has been surprisingly neglected by modern scholarship. For short exegeses of his life and thought, see Kim lngsok, Hwa6m-hak kaeron (Seoul: Pomnyunsa, 1974), pp. 131-146; Takamine Ryoshu, Kegon ronshu (Tokyo: Kokusho kankokai, 1976), pp. 403-426; idem, Kegon shisoshi (Kyoto: Kokyo shoin, 1942), pp. 200-208; idem, "Ri Tstlgen no shis6 to Zen," Ryukoku daigaku ronshu, no. 346 (1953), pp. 121 (reprinted in idem, Kegon to Zen to no tsuro, pp. 131-146), which is the best treatment of his significance for the later development of Ch'an thought; Chang Won'gyu, "Hwaom kyohak wansonggi iii sasang yon'gu;' Pulgyo hakpo, vol. II (1974), pp. 41-43; Yi Chong'ik, "Chinul ui Hwaom sasang," in Sungsan Pak Kilchin paksa hwagap kinyom saop hoe, eds.,
Han' guk Pulgyo sasang sa: Sungsan Pak Kitchin paksa hwagap kiny6m (lri, Korea: Won Pulgyo sasang yon'gu won, 1975), pp. 528-532, for his importance in Chinul's thought. I have discussed Li's interpretation of Hua-yen and his influence on Chinul in KAZ, Introduction, pp. 50-55, and 199-237
passim.
51. This is not to imply that patriarchal Hua-yen never used meditative techniques; rather, as Robert M. Gimello has pointed out (in his "Early Huayen, Meditation, and Early Ch'an: Some Preliminary Considerations," in
W halen W. Lai and Lewis R. Lancaster, eds., Early Ch'an in China and
Tibet [[[Berkeley]]: Asian Humanities Press, 1983] p. 152), the problem instead involves in exactly what sense meditation was practiced in early Hua-yen. While there is some validity to Gimello's contention that early Hua-yen doctrine might be considered a type of "meditative concept" (p. 156), by Chinul's time the point is moot, and whatever meditation might have been practiced in previous times had for all intents and purposes vanished. Given this development, the view of later Ch'an polemicists that Hua-yen is divorced from practice is not overly exaggerated. For accounts of the development and practice of Hua-yen meditation, see Unno Taitetsu, "The
Dimensions of Practice in Hua-yen Thought;' in Bukkyo shisoshi ronshu:
Yuki kyoju shoju ki'nen (Tokyo: Daizo shuppansha, 1964), pp. 51-78; and
Kobayashi Jitsugen, "Kegonshu kangy6 no tenkai ni tsuite," IBK, vol. 15 (1967), pp. 653-655.
Chinese Meditative Techniques in Son Buddhism
52. Kim lngs6k, Hwaom-hak kaeron, p. 133.
53. See discussion in Yi Chong'ik, "Chinul iii Hwa6m sasang," in Pak Kitchin Festschrift, pp. 518-519.
54. Hsin Hua-yen ching tun, D6.761b.13 ff.; Hwaomnon choryo, p. 210.
55. See Hsin Hua-yen ching fun, D6.809b;c ited in KAZ, pp. 222, 280; cf. KAZ, p. 219,f or Tsung-mi's parallel view.
56. For the theory of nature-origination, see especially Kamata Shigeo, "Shoki shiso no seiritsu," IBK, vol. 5 (1957), pp. 195-198; Sakamoto Yukio,
"Shoki shiso to aku ni tsuite," IBK, vol. 5 (1957), pp. 469-477; Endo Kojiro, "Kegon shoki ronko," IBK, vol. 14 (1965), pp. 214-216 and vol. 15
(1966), pp. 523-528. For general discussions, see Kim lngsok, Hwaom-hak kaeron, pp. 230-239 and Whalen Lai, "Chinese Buddhist Causation Theories: An Analysis of the Sinitic Mahayana Understanding of Pratrtyasamutptida," Philosophy East and West, vol. 27 (1977), pp. 249-259.
57. KAZ, p. 206.
58. KAZ, pp. 205-6.
59. KAZ, p. 233,n . 32,c iting Li.
60. See KAZ, p. 203.
61. The "ordinary man of great aspiration " (taesim pombu) is defined by Li (Hsin Hua-yen ching tun, D6. 756c) as a person who "seeks only the inscrutable vehicle of the Tathagatas " and is unsatisfied with only the provisional teachings of the three vehicles. This refers specifically to a person who has achieved the initial understanding-awakening and is engaged in the gradual practices that will eventually lead to the realization-awakening. See KAZ, pp. 117,209,212,218-219. Note also Chinul's comment (KAZ, p. 299) that "the approach of sudden awakening/gradual cultivation . . . h as been established specifically for ordinary men of great aspiration."
62. KAZ, pp. 203,207.
63. KAZ, p. 102.
64. Hsin Hua-yen ching fun, D6. 941b ; quoted in KAZ, p. 204.
65. KAZ, p. 219.
66. KAZ, p. 219. Note the passage from the "Fan-hsing p'in " (Brahmacarya chapter) of the Avatamsaka S£Ura that "at the initial moment of the activation of the bodhicitta, full enlightenment is attained." See Ta-fang-kuang fo hua-yen ching, T9.449c14; Ta-fang-kuang fo hua-yen ching, T10.89a1-2.
67. Hwaomnon choryo, p. 451.
68. KAZ, p. 116-7.
69. For references to "tracing back the radiance," see KAZ, Index, s.v. For comparable uses of panjo, see Liebenthal,t rans., Treatises of Seng-chao, p. 71 and n. 289; Lin-chi lu, T47. 497c 19,w hich Ruth Fuller Sasaki has translated as "turning your own light inward upon yourselves " (T he Recorded Sayings of Ch 'an Master Lin-chi Hui-chao of Chen Prefecture [[[Wikipedia:Kyoto|Kyoto]]: The Institute for Zen Studies, 1975], p. 10); Hsin-hsin ming, T48.376c2; Pochang Huai-hai (720-814), in Chodang chip, in Hyos6ng Cho My6nggi paksa hwagap kiny6m kanhaeng wiw6nhoe,e ds., Pulgyo sahak nonch 'ong:
Hyosong Cho Myonggi paksa hwagap kinyom (Seoul: Hyos6ng Cho My6nggi paksa hwagap kiny6m kanhaeng wiw6nhoe, 1965), Appendix, fasc. 14, p. 92b; Ch 'an-yiian chu-ch 'iian-chi tu-hsii, T48.411c5, 17; Ta-hui yii-lu, T47. 922c. The term ultimately can be traced to religious Taoist origins; cf. the use of the term fan-kuang which Schipper translates as "retourner Ia lumiere (vers l'interieur);" Kristofer Marinus Schipper, L'Empereur Wou des Han dans Ia tegende Taoiste: Han Wou-ti nei-tchouan
 
Robert Buswell,
(Paris: Ecole franr;aise d'extreme-orient, 1965), p. 48, n. I. Schipper notes that "les yeux etant consideres comme des sources de lumiere, des luminaires, qui eclairent Ie monde et nous permettent ainsi de voir." Cf. also the usage in Bhavaviveka, Ta-sheng chang-chen tun (Karatalaratna; "Jewel in Hand Treatise"), D0.277c20.
70. For this quotation see CYKM, fol. 27b9-IO.
71. Anguttara-nikaya, I. 10 ("pabhassaraf!l idaf!l bhikkhave cittaf!l, tafica kho ligantukehi upakkilesehi upakkilif!haf!l"); see F. L. Woodward, trans., The Book of the Gradual Sayings (1932; London: Pali Text Society, 1979), vol.
I, p. 8; this passage is treated with considerable perspicacity by Nal)ananda
Bhikkhu, Concept and Reality in Early Buddhist Thought: An Essay on
"Papafi ca" and "Papafica-Safifia-S01ikhli" (Kandy, Sri Lanka: Buddhist Publication Society, 1971), p. 58; the implications of the mind's inherent luminosity in spiritual cultivation are brought out in a fascinating discussion by Nal)ananda Bhikkhu, The Magic of the Mind: An Exposition of the Kalliklirlima Sutta (Kandy, Sri Lanka: Buddhist Publication Society, 1974), p. 83 ff.
72. See KAZ, p. 341, n. 7, where I trace the term from Shou-leng-yen ching (Suratigama-sutra) (T19. 103a29-bI ) to Ch'eng-kuan, Tsung-mi, and finally into Ch'an materials.
73. Lin-chi lu, T47. 497cl9; translated in Sasaki, Recorded Sayings of Rinzai, p.
26.
74. Cf. Nal)ananda, Concept and Reality, pp. 46-68, on the non-manifestative consciousness (vififili(laf!l anidassanaf!l) of the enlightened person.
75. For valuable comparative discussion, see Nal)ananda, Concept and Reality, pp. 2-22, and Magic of the Mind, pp. 57-67.
76. KAZ, p. 147.
77. KAZ, p. 332. 78. KAZ, p. 145.
79. Further discussion on the meaning of "awareness" is found in KAZ, p. 343,
n. 20; see also Peter N. Gregory, "Tsung-mi and the Single Word 'Awareness' (Chih)."
80. KAZ, p. 312: "The mind of numinous awareness is exactly the self-nature of suchness; it is neither the discriminative consciousness which arises in relation to objects in the conditioned realm nor the wisdom produced by the realization-wisdom."
81. See discussion in KAZ, p. 343, n. 20.
82. KAZ, p. 334. 83. KAZ, p. 207.
84. KAZ, p. 218.
85. KAZ, p. 144. 86. KAZ, p. 334.
87. For the historical background of the development of kung-an practice in Ch'an Buddhism, see lsshu Miura and Ruth Fuller Sasaki, The Zen Koan: Its History and Uses in Rinzai Zen (New York: Harcourt Brace and Javanovich, 1965), pp. 3-16; reprinted in idem, Zen Dust: The History of the Koan and Koan Study in Rinzai (Lin-chi) Zen, pp. 3-16.
88. See Shan-fang ye-hua ("Evening Talks in a Mountain Room") by Chungfeng Ming-pen (1263-1323), in his T'ien-mu Chung-feng ho-shang kwang-lu
("The Expanded Records of Master Chung-feng of T'ien-mu Mountain")
(repr. ed., Pulguk-sa, Korea: Pulguk-sa sonwon, 1977), fasc. Ita., fol. 5455; this text has only been reprinted from the Shanghai P'in-ch' ieh edition
Chinese Meditative Techniques in Son Buddhism
of the Tripiaka, published in 1911. See also Miura and Sasaki, Zen Dust, p. 6.
89. See, for example, Lin-chi lu, T47 .506b8; Ching-fe ch' uan-teng lu, T51.358cl4; Pi-yen /u, case 2, T48.14Ic6, case 49, p. 184cl4, and case 60, p. 192b5.
90. Its best-known occurrence is in Wu-men kuan, T48.292c.
91. Leng-ch'ieh shih-tzu chi, T85.1289b-1290a; the quotation appears at p.
1289c29. See the discussion in Ch'iian An, "Wu-tsu Hung-jen ch'an-shih," Hsien-tai Fo-hsileh, no. 82 (1957), pp. 26-29. Cf. the chapter by Bernard Faure in this volume for a different interpretation of this phrase.
92. Yi Chong'ik (Chogye chong, p. 83) has speculated that Chinul probably contracted with Sung or Koryo traders to bring a copy of Ta-hui yu-lu from China during his stay at Ch'ongwon-sa, a temple located near the seaport of Naju in the southwest of the Korean peninsula (KAZ, p. 83, n. 110).
93. Pojo pimyong, p. 338.6-13.
94. T he Sonmun yomsong chip was an anthology of 1125 kongans in thirty fascicles, compiled by Hyesim in 1226. Beginning with stories concerning Sakyamuni Buddha, the work includes sutra extracts, cases involving the twenty-eight traditional Indian patriarchs and their six Chinese successors, and episodes from the lives of later Ch'an masters. To each case are appended interpretative verses by both Hyesim and other Ch 'an and Son teachers. T he first edition of the text was burned by the Mongols, and the revised editions of 1244 and 1248 added 347 new cases, to make a total of 1472 kongans. For a brief description of the work and its different editions, see Tongguk taehakkyo pulgyo munhwa yon'guso, ed., Han 'guk pulgyo ch 'ansu/ munhon ch 'ongnok (Seoul: Tongguk taehakkyo ch'ulp'anbu, 1976), pp. 123-124. For a discussion of "verses of critique (lit., 'fingering')" (yomsong) and other verse-explanations of Son kongans, see lriya Yoshitaka, Kajitani Sonin, and Yanagida Seizan, trans., Setcho juko, Zen no goroku, vol. 15 (Tokyo: Chi kuma shobO, 1981), pp. 291-304.
T here has as yet been no adequate treatment of Hyesim and his important role in the popularization of the hwadu technique in Koryo Buddhism. Perhaps the best study produced so far has appeared in Ko Hyonggon, Haedang Chagye-chang ui yon won mit ku charyu: Chinul kwa Hyesim ui sasang ui chungsim ura (Seoul: Tongguk University, Tongguk yokkyong won, 1970), pp. 60-84. For general studies of his life and thought, see Nukariya Kaiten, Chason Son'gyo-sa, Chong Ho'gyong, trans. (1930; trans., Seoul: Poryon'gak, 1978), pp. 292-305; Han Kidu, Han'guk Pulgya sasang (lri, Korea: Won'gwang taehakkyo ch'ulp'an'guk, 1973), pp. 217242. T he Chagye Chin'gak kuksa orok is published in Kim Talchin, trans., Chinu/, Hyesim, Kakhun, Han'guk ui sasang taejonjip, vol. 2 (Seoul: Tonghwa ch'ulp'an kongsa, 1977), pp. 205-375; the Chinese text is included in pp. 461-499, but with many misprints. Hyesim's associations with Chinul are discussed, and some excerpts from his memorial stele are translated, in KAZ, pp. 30-32.
95. For T 'aego Pou, Naong Hye'gun, and the latter-Koryo Son tradition, see
Nukariya Kaiten, Chason Son' gyo-sa, pp. 350-357, 360-384 (Naong);
Takahashi Thru, Richo bukkyo (1929; repr., Tokyo: Kokusho kankokai,
1973), pp. 321-344; Han Kidu, "Koryo hogi ui Son sasang," in Pak Kitchin
Festschrift, pp. 598-613, 613-639; idem, Han'guk Pulgya sasang (lri, Korea: Won'gwang taehakkyo ch'ulp'an'guk, 1973), pp. 243-272, 273-310; Yi Nunghwa, Chason Pulgyo t'ongsa, vol. 3, pp. 500-514.
Robert Buswell,
96. KAZ, p. 339.
97. See KAZ, pp. 238-239 for details.
98. KAZ, p. 246-247.
99. KAZ, p. 250. 100. KAZ, p. 296.
101. KAZ, p. 334; cf. p. 264. 102. KAZ, p. 338-340.
103. Visuddhimagga, xxiii.24, Nanamoli, trans., Path of Purification, p. 826; and see discussion in Padmanabh S. Jaini, ed., AbhidharmadTpa with Vibhi1$ilprabhtivrtti (Patna, India: K. P. Jayaswal Research Institute, 1967),p p. 84.
104. KAZ, pp. 337-338. Ta-hui also comments: "Training on this path is not bothered by a lack of intelligence; it is bothered instead by excessive intelligence. It is not bothered by a lack of understanding; it is instead bothered by excessive understanding" ( Ta-hui yii-lu, T47. 935a23-24).
105. KAZ, pp. 244,264.
106. KAZ, p. 334.
107. For these two types of investigation,s ee especially KAZ, pp. 249-253.
108. KAZ, p. 252.
109. KAZ, pp. 252-253. See also discussion in KAZ, pp. 260-261, nn. 54, 56.
I 10. See Chang, Chung-yiian, T he Original Teachings of Ch' an Buddhism (New York: Pantheon, 1969), p. 271. The terms are also used by Ta-hui, from whom Chinul probably adopted them; see, for example, Ta-hui yii-lu, T47.870b and passim.
111. KAZ, p. 240. 112. KAZ, p. 264.
113. KAZ, p. 338; quoting Ta-hui yii-lu, T47.921c. See also the discussion in Hyuj6ng (S6san laesa), Son' ga ku 'gam ("Divining-Speculum on the Son School"), Ch6ng'i1m mun' go, vol. 131, translated by P6pch6ng (Seoul: Ch6ng't1msa, 1976), p. 41; Yondam Yuil (1720-1799), CYKM, fol. 29a1229b6.
114. Chin'gak kuksa 6rok, p. 497 [Kor., p. 367]:" 'Why did Chao-chou reject the claim that all sentient beings had the Buddha-nature?' 'Because they all are subject to the activating-consciousness.' "
115. Ta-sheng ch 'i-hsin tun, T32.577b; Yoshito S. Hakeda, trans., T he Awakening of Faith Attributed to Asvaghosha (New York: Columbia University Press,1 967), pp. 47-48.
116. See the comments by Yiian-wu K'o-ch'in (1063-1135), in Pi-yen lu, case 99,
T48.222c18; translated by Thomas and J. C. Cleary, T he Blue Cliff Record, vol. 3 (Boulder:S hambhala, 1977),p p. 628-635.
117. P'abyong is discussed at KAZ, p. 255, n. 12. For both of these types of expression,s ee KAZ, p. 241.
118. I have attempted to sort out some of the conflicting views of Tsung-mi and Chinul on these two types of awakening in KAZ, pp. 358-359, n. 143. See also KAZ, pp. 241-242:" Hence the first stage of abiding after the levels of faith are fulfilled is called the access to realization." 119. KAZ, p. 250.
120. KAZ, p. 336, quoting Ta-hui yii-lu, T47 .891a.
121. KAZ, p. 336.
122. The termp'a is used at KAZ, p. 252.
123. Summarizing KAZ, p. 246.
124. KAZ, p. 252.
Chinese Meditative Techniques in Son Buddhism
125. Sung-bae Park, Buddhist Faith and Sudden Enlightenment (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1983), p. 8; see also pp. 6-8, 73-77, 123-125. 126. KAZ, p. 253.
127. The "three mysterious gates" were methods of instruction first used by Linchi 1-hsiian and subsequently adopted by Fa-yen Wen-i (885-958), Yiin-men Wen-yen (?862-949), and Fen-yang Shan-chao (947-1024). See Lin-chi fu,
T47.497al9-20; Sasaki, Record of Rinzai, p. 6; and Lin-chi's biographies in
Ching-fe ch' uan-teng fu, T5l.29lal4 and 300b24. For their use by Fen-yang
Shan-chao, see Ching-fe ch' uan-teng fu, T5l.305al7, and Hsu ch' uan-teng fu, T5l.469b20. For Fa-yen and Yiin-men, see KAZ, p. 250.
128. SeeKAZ, p. 90, n. 182.
129. See Tsung-mi's accounts, translated in KAZ, pp. 90-91 nn. 183, 184, 185. 130. Summary of KAZ, pp. 214-215, 244-245.
131. KAZ, p. 246.
132. KAZ, p. 240, quoting Fen-yang Shan-chao, from Fen-yang Wu-te ch 'anshih yu-fu, T47. 603b; see also Jen-t'ien yen-mu, T48.302bl-2.
133. KAZ, pp. 214, 240; the quote is from Li T'ung-hsiian (Hsin Hua-yen ching fun, T36.72la) but is often quoted by Ch'an masters.
134. Ch 'an-yuan chu-ch' uan-chi tu-hsu, T48.400a; quoted in KAZ, pp. 251, 321-322.
135. KAZ, p. 251. 136. KAZ, p. 240.
137. KAZ, p. 338-339.
138. For this term, see Pi-yen fu, case 17, T48.157al6; translated by Thomas and J. C. Cleary, The Blue Cliff Record, vol. I, p. I 10.
139. See Nai:Jananda, Concept and Reality, passim; and for background on the Indian attitude toward conceptualization, see A. K. Warder, "The Concept of a Concept," Journal of Indian Philosophy, vol. I (1970171) , pp. 181-196.
140. The term "terse" (saengnyak) is used at KAZ, p. 251, and passim.
141. KAZ, p. 214.
142. See KAZ, pp. 214-215; pp. 244-245.
143. KAZ, p. 242; see also Hsin Hua-yen ching fun, T36.834b, quoted in KAZ, pp. 242, 250. The most accessible treatment of the Ch'an usage of the term appears in D. T. Suzuki, The Zen Doctrine of No-mind (London: George Allen and Unwin, 1958). For the distinct Indian background to the term, where no-thought (acintya; acittaka) almost always carries a negative connotation, see Edward Conze, Buddhist Thought in India: Three Phases of Buddhist Philosophy (1962; repr., Ann Arbor: University of Michigan
Press, 1973), pp. 113-114. Virtually the only positive use of the term in
Indian texts is when no-thought is taken to be an attribute of the attainment of the cessation of thought (asaf!l}fiinirodhasamlipalli); see Abhidharmakosabhlisya, edited by P. Pradhan, p. 8; Buddhaghosa, Visuddhimagga, xxiii.18; Nai:Iamoli, trans., Path of Purification, p. 824.
144. See discussion in KAZ, pp. 241-250, where Chinul clarifies this for both the Son and kyo schools.
145. KAZ, p. 250; cf. KAZ, p. 246: "At the moment of entering into realization, they slough off their former acquired understanding and, through absence of thought, come into conformity [with the Dharmadhatu]." 146. See discussion in KAZ, pp. 290-291.
147. KAZ, pp. 148-149, quoting Ch 'an-yuan chu-ch 'uan chi tou-hsu, p. 403a; and see KAZ, p. 266. This phrase is the hallmark of the Southern School of
Ch'an and appears in the Tun-huang edition of the Liu-tsu t'an ching,
Robert Buswell,
T48.338c15-16, translated in Yampolsky, Platform Sutra, p. 137; see pp. 137-138, n. 69,f or references to secondary studies on no-thought.
148. T his phrase is first used by Tung-shan Liang-chieh (807-869); see Tung-shan yii-lu, T47 .525a24; noted by Yi Chong'ik, "Chosason e issoso iii musim sasang," Pulgyo hakpo, vol. 10 (1973), p. 241; see also his discussion on pp. 241-243. For references to musim in secondary literature, see Yampolsky, Platform Sutra, pp. 137-138, n. 69. For the Ch'an usage of the term, cf. Suzuki, T he Zen Doctrine of No-mind.
149. See KAZ, pp. 169-173. Numbers three through six are adopted directly from Lin-chi 1-hsiian.
150. KAZ, p. 119; see full discussion at KAZ, pp. 116-124.
151. KAZ, p. 119; T10.9llc.
152. KAZ, p. 119.
153. See VimalakTrtinirdesa-siUra: "One who wants to purify the Buddha-land should purify his mind. To the extent one's mind is purified, the Buddhaland is purified" (Wei-mo-chieh so-shuo ching, T14.538c); Liu-tsu t'an ching: "If there are simply no impurities in the mind-ground, the Western Paradise will be near at hand" (T48.352a26 and b I); KAZ, p. 119.
154. KAZ, p. 120.
155. For problems surrounding the authorship of this text see Ono Gemmyo,
Bukkyo no bijutsu to rekishi (Tokyo: Kanao bun'endo, 1943), pp. 1213 ff.; Minamoto Hiroyuki, "Korai jidai ni okeru Jodokyo no kenkyu: Chitotsu no Nembutu yomon ni tsuite;• Ryukoku daigaku bukkyo bunka kenkyujo kiyo, vol. 9 (1970),p p. 90-94; and KAZ, p. 191.
156. For these schemes, see Mochizuki Shinko, Jodokyo no kigen oyobi hattatsu (Tokyo: Kyoritsusha,1 930), pp. 306-314.
157. KAZ, pp. 193-195, for these stages. T he use of such terminology as "one true DharmadhiHu" to describe the state of realization recalls Chinul's earlier treatment of both Son and Hwaom practices, described previously, and lends credence to the traditional attribution of this work to Chi nul. 158. KAZ, pp. 103,2 16.
159. KAZ, p. 218.
160. See, for example, Sutta-nipata, vv. 796-803; cf. discussion in Na!)ananda, Concept and Reality, pp. 16-18,34-52.
161. KAZ, p. 212.
162. KAZ, pp. 216,217.
163. See KAZ, pp. 338-339.
164. KAZ, p. 294.
165. Hua-yen chin-kuan is listed in Oich'on's catalog, Sinp'yon chejong kyojang ch'ongnok ("New Compilation of a Comprehensive Catalogue of the Repository of the Teachings of All the Schools"), T55.1167b6, as Hua-yen chin-kuan ch 'ao, in four (alt. two) fascicles. Yuil tells us (CYKM, fol. 15a.4) that this was an explanation (perhaps an outline?) of Ch'eng-kuan's massive Hua-yen ching shu (T# 1735).
166. Hwaomnon ch6ryo, p. 3.