Linji Yixuan

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Linji Yixuan bigraphy, stories - Chinese philosopher

Linji Yixuan : biography

– 866

Linji Yixuan ( died 866 CE) was the founder of the Linji school of Chán Buddhism during Tang Dynasty China.

Linji’s teaching style

A statue of Linji Yixuan under the southern gate of [[Zhengding Hebei, China]]

Iconoclasm

Linji is reputed for being iconoclastic, leading students to awakening by hitting and shouting.

The methods ascribed to Linji in the Linji yü lu included shouting and striking, most often using the fly-whisk that was considered a symbol of a Chán master’s authority:

Examples of Linji’s iconoclasm include the following:

The buddhist teachings are assaulted in fierce comments:

Three Mysterious Gates

Chán faced the challenge of expressing its teachings of "suchness" without getting stuck into words or concepts. The alleged use of shouting and beating was instrumental in this non-conceptual expression – after the students were well-educated in the Buddhist tradition.

Linji is described as using The Three Mysterious Gates to maintain the Chán emphasis on the nonconceptual nature of reality, while employing sutras and teachings to instruct his students:

  1. The First Gate is the "mystery in the essence", the use of Buddhist philosophy, such as Yogacara to explain the interpenetration of all phenomena.
  2. The Second Gate is the "mystery in the word", using the Hua Tou for "the process of gradually disentangling the students from the conceptual workings of the mind".
  3. The Third Gate is the "mystery in the mystery", "involving completely nonconceptual expressions such as striking or shouting, which are intended to remove all of the defects implicit in conceptual understanding".

Sources

  • Keown, Damien. A Dictionary of Buddhism. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003. ISBN 0-19-860560-9
  • Kazuo Koike and Goseki Kojima. "Lone Wolf and Cub 2: The Gateless Barrier". Dark Horse, 2000. ISBN 1-56971-503-3, ISBN 978-1-56971-503-1
  • Lowenstein, Tom. The Vision of the Buddha: Buddhism – The Path to Spiritual Enlightenment. ISBN 1-903296-91-9
  • Schloegl, Irmgard. The Zen Teaching of Rinzai. Shambhala Publications, Inc., Berkeley, 1976. ISBN 0-87773-087-3

Linji yu lu

Information on Linji is based on the Línjì yü lu (臨済錄; Japanese: Rinzai-roku) the record of Linji. The standard form of these sayings was not completed until 250 years after Linji’s death and likely reflect the teaching of Chán in the linji-school at the beginning of the Song Dynasty rather than those of Linji’s in particular.

The contains stories of his interactions with teachers, contemporaries, and students. The recorded lectures are a mixture of the conventional and the iconoclastic. Despite the iconoclasm, the Linji yü lu reflects a thorough knowledge of the sutras. Linji’s teaching-style, as recorded in the Linji yü lu, was exemplary of the development Chán took in the Hongzhou school (洪州宗) of Mazu and his successors, such as Huangbo, Linji’s teacher.

The Línjì yü lu is an example of the encounter-dialogue genre which emerged during the Tang Dynasty. Together with the lineage charts and the koan-collections it became a central part of the literary genres sustaining the Traditional Zen Narrative, portraying eccentric shouting teachers beating their students, uttering incomprehensible koans. Though this image appeals to the modern western reader, its development was part of the position Chán held during the Song Dynasty as dominant, and state-controlled form of religion. It was instrumental in upholding the claim of being the true Buddhist teaching, but also functional in ‘expressing the inexpressible’.

Biography

According to the Línjì yü lu, Linji was born into a family named Xing (邢) in Caozhou (modern Heze in Shandong), which he left at a young age to study Buddhism in many places.

Also according to the Línjì yü lu, Linji was trained by the Chan master Huángbò Xīyùn (黃蘗希運), but attained kensho while discussing Huángbò’s teaching during a conversation with the reclusive monk Dàyú (大愚). Linji then returned to Huángbò to continue his training after awakening. In 851 CE, Linji moved to the Linji temple in Hebei, where he took his name, which also became the name for the lineage of his form of Chán Buddhism.

Notes

References in popular culture

The titular story of Volume 2 of Kazuo Koike & Goseki Kojima’s manga comic Lone Wolf and Cub revolves around Linji’s saying "if you meet a buddha, kill the buddha," in which the protagonist must overcome his self to assassinate a living buddha.