Baotang Wuzhu

Teachings

Sources for Wuzhu's teachings include the Lidai fabao ji, the main text of his Baotang School; as well as Zongmi's accounts and critiques of various Tang era schools of Chan in his writings.

Antiformalism

According to Wendi Adamek, Wuzhu held that one should not be attached to traditional devotional rituals, including, among other things, bodhisattva vows, visualization techniques, and merit-making. Wuzhu's Baotang School was criticized by Zongmi for its radical rejection of some of the more formal aspects of Buddhist practice, such as taking precepts, performing repentance rituals, reading sutras, and keeping buddha images. This stance is corroborated by the Jingzhong Chan figure, Hui-i Shen-ch'ing, whose criticism of the Baotang also noted their lack of ritual and imagery. Wuzhu rejected the traditional Buddhist practices of chanting and worship, preferring instead a practice of "sitting in idleness" (kongxian zuo). Antiformalism in Wuzhu's Baotang School extended to denial of customary etiquette as well, as demonstrated by their refusal to stand up to greet or welcome visitors, regardless of their status. Wuzhu criticized Vinaya masters who maintained forms of decorum for every occasion, saying:

These days Vinaya Masters preach about [sense] ‘contact’ and preach about ‘purity,’ preach about ‘upholding’ and preach about ‘violating.’ They make forms for receiving the precepts, they make forms for decorum, and even for eating food—everything is made into forms. ‘If one makes forms, then one is the same as non-Buddhist [practitioners of] the five supramundane powers. If one does not make forms, this is precisely the unconditioned. One ought not have views.’

According to Yanagida, the Lidai fabao ji of Wuzhu's Baotang School considers itself as inheriting the spirit of Shenhui's attacks on the gradualistic practices of the Northern School. But while influenced by the teachings of Shenhui, it is also concerned to establish a more radical position. For instance, while Wuzhu adopts Shenhui's teaching of wunian ("no-thought"), which was central to Shenhui's critique of Northern Chan, Wuzhu applies its implications to traditional Buddhist practices as well. For Wuzhu's radical approach to wunian rejects all Buddhist ritual and places no formal restraints on religious life. As an example of his radical application of this doctrine, when Wuzhu accepted new members to the Buddhist order, he refused to perform the traditional ceremony of conferring the Buddhist precepts.

According to Adamek, such antiformalism was not a kind of laissez-faire spontaneity, and was more similar to Zongmi's "sudden awakening-gradual cultivation" model of practice than he was willing to credit. That is, according to Adamek, Baotang antiformalism itself functioned as a type of gradual cultivation. Adamek points out that Wuzhu's practice of sitting in idleness was not spontaneity, but rather "forgetting to eat and shit and piss." Furthermore, Zongmi observes that, "in their [the Baotang School's] dwellings they do not discuss clothing and food, but give free rein to people's sending of offerings. If sent, then they have warm clothing and enough to eat. If not sent, then they give free rein to hunger and give free rein to cold." As Adamek puts it, "Bao Tang inversion of institutional norms did not promote carefree spontaneity or a free lunch. It necessitated the hard, gradual training of relinquishing expectations moment by moment, becoming indifferent to the fluctuations of abundance and privation."

Key features of practice

According to Adamek, Wuzhu's signature teaching was no-thought (wunian), which was a kind of practice of no-practice. For example, Wuzhu said, "No-thought is thus no-practice, no-thought is thus no-contemplation. No-thought is thus no-body, no-thought is thus no-mind. No-thought is thus no-nobility, no-thought is thus no-lowliness. No-thought is thus no-high, no-thought is thus no-low. At the time of true no-thought, no-thought itself is not."

Wuzhu also taught:

‘The Most Honored Greatly Enlightened One expounded the Dharma of producing no-thought. [Regarding] the mind of no-thought and non-production, the mind is constantly producing and never extinguished.’ At all times self-present, do not retreat and do not turn. Not sinking and not floating, not flowing and not fixed, not moving and not shaking, not coming and not going, lively like a fish jumping! Walking and sitting, everything is meditation.

According to Adamek, the Lidai Fabao ji is the first Chan text to use the term huopopo 活鱍鱍 ("lively like a fish jumping"), a term that also occurs in later Chan texts, such as the Linji lu. For Yanagida, this term best captures the flavor of Wuzhu's Chan. It was originally a colloquial phrase pointing to a spirited and vigorous way of being. Yanagida states that when later taken up by Linji, it points to man's original freedom, the fact that he is "vividly, irresistibly alive," thus expressing "the basic activity of man's life, an 'aliveness' which cannot be contained, dispersed or in any way controlled." The Neo-Confucian Ch'eng-tzu also used the term to refer to the Dao which is ever active, pervading heaven and earth. In connection with huopopo, Wuzhu relates a parable of a man standing atop a mound. When some passersby cannot decide what he is doing, the man says to them, "I'm just standing." Wuzhu then comments, "My Ch'an neither sinks nor floats, neither flows nor congeals; yet it truly works. It works, free from birth and death, free from purity and defilement, free from right and wrong; vividly alive (huo-p'o-p'o), it is Ch'an in every single moment."

Another important teaching found in the Lidai fabao ji is its "three phrases," which Wuzhu attributed to Wuxiang, from whom he claimed transmission: no-recollection (wuyi 無憶), no-thought (wunian 無念), and do not be deluded (mowang 莫妄). Wuzhu associates these three phrases with the traditional three trainings of Buddhism. He says, "They are one, not three. No-recollection is śila, no-thought is samādhi, and ‘do not be deluded’ is prajñā." However, there seems to have been some controversy regarding the original wording of the three phrases. Adamek points out, following Zongmi, that Wuxiang's original three phrases were slightly different from Wuzhu's version. Instead of "do not be deluded" (mowang 莫妄) for the final phrase, Wuxiang apparently taught the homophone mowang (莫忘), "do not forget." As for the stance of Wuzhu's Baotang school, Zongmi observes, "The idea is that, since no-remembering and no-thought are the real and remembering-thoughts is the false, then remembering-thoughts is not allowed. Therefore, they say no-falseness [rather than no-forgetting]." Regarding no-recollection, Wuzhu taught that one must neither recollect ordinary, worldly dharmas, nor even the Buddha Dharma itself. He says:

[As for] not-recollecting and not-thinking, [this means] not-recollecting any Dharma at all, not-recollecting either the Buddha-Dharma or worldly dharmas, so much at ease.