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Dharma transmission

Spiritual teacher-disciple lineage in Zen-Buddhism

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Thousand-armed Kannon (木造千手観音坐像, mokuzō senjū kannon zazō) at Sanjūsangen-dō , Kyoto , Japan . The statue is the central image of the hall, about 335cm tall and has been designated as National Treasur
Bamse · CC BY-SA 3.0

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In Rinzai-Zen, inka shōmei (印可証明) is ideally "the formal recognition of Zen's deepest realisation", but practically it is being used for the transmission of the "true lineage" of the masters (shike) of the training halls. There are only about fifty to eighty of such inka shōmei-bearers in Japan.

In Sōtō-Zen, dharma transmission is referred to as shiho, and further training is required to become an oshō.

History

The notion and practice of Dharma transmission developed early in Chan history as a way to gain credibility and foster institutional ties among members of the Chan community. Charts of dharma lineages were developed to represent the continuity of the Buddhist dharma. Originally, these lineages included only the Chinese Patriarchs, but they were later extended to twenty-eight Indian Patriarchs and seven Buddhas.

Chan lineage

The Chan tradition developed from the established tradition of "Canonical Buddhism", which "remained normative for all later Chinese Buddhism". It was established by the end of the sixth century, as a result of the Chinese developing understanding of Buddhism in the previous centuries.

One of the inventions of this Canonical Buddhism was the transmission list, a literary device used to establish a lineage. Both Tiantai and Chan took over this literary device to lend authority to those developing traditions, and guarantee their authenticity:

Chan texts present the school as Buddhism itself, or as the central teaching of Buddhism, which has been transmitted from the seven Buddhas of the past to the twenty-eight patriarchs, and all the generations of Chinese and Japanese Chan and Zen masters that follow.

The concept of dharma transmission took shape during the Tang period, when establishing the right teachings became important to safeguard the authority of specific schools. The emerging Zen tradition developed the Transmission of the Lamp genre, in which lineages from Shakyamuni Buddha up to their own times were described.

Another literary device for establishing these traditions was the Kao-seng-chuan (Biographies of Eminent Monks), compiled around 530. The Chan tradition developed its own corpus in this genre, with works such as Anthology of the Patriarchal Hall (952) and the Jingde Records of the Transmission of the Lamp (published 1004). McRae considers Dumoulin's A History of Zen to be a modern example of this genre, disguised as scientific history.

Chinese patriarchs

The Chan lineages picture the semi-legendary monk Bodhidharma as the patriarch who brought Chan to China. Only scarce historical information remains about him, but his hagiography developed as the Chan tradition grew stronger and gained prominence in the early 8th century.

According to McRae, it is unclear whether the practitioners around Bodhidharma and his disciple Huike considered themselves part of a unified movement or group, such as a "Chan school," or felt any continuity with the later tradition. He says even the name "proto-Chan" does not really reflect their activities. McRae also points out that no known lineage theory existed in Proto-Chan, and the connection between it and the Early Chan tradition (consisting of the Northern, Southern, and Oxhead factions) is unclear.

Six Chinese patriarchs

By the late eighth century, a lineage of Chan's six ancestral founders in China had developed. Due to the influence of Huineng's student Shenhui, the traditional form of this lineage had been established:

  1. Bodhidharma (達摩) ca. 440 – ca. 528
  2. Huike (慧可) 487–593
  3. Sengcan (僧燦) ?–606
  4. Daoxin (道信) 580–651
  5. Hongren (弘忍) 601–674
  6. Huineng (慧能) 638–713

However, certain questions remain. Regarding the connection between the second and third patriarchs, on the one hand, and the fourth patriarch, on the other, Whalen Lai points out that "Huike was a dhuta (extreme ascetic) who schooled others, and one of his disciples was Sengzan (d. 606). However, the link between this pair and Daoxin (580–651, now deemed the fourth Chan patriarch) is far from clear and remains tenuous."

According to Wendi Adamek:

There was no 'Chan school' in existence during the time of the six Chinese patriarchs—it cannot even be said to have begun with Shenhui, the one who yoked six names to a powerfully generative idea. However, once the imaginary line had been drawn in the sands of the past, it began to sprout real branches. It continues to put forth new shoots even today.

Shenhui and Huineng

According to tradition, the sixth and last ancestral founder, Huineng (惠能; 638–713), was one of the giants of Chan history, and all surviving schools regard him as their ancestor. The dramatic story of Huineng's life recounts a controversy over his claim to the title of patriarch. After being chosen by Hongren, the fifth ancestral founder, Huineng had to flee by night to Nanhua Temple in the south to avoid the wrath of Hongren's jealous senior disciples.

Modern scholarship, however, has questioned this narrative. Historical research shows that this story was created around the middle of the 8th century, beginning in 731, by Shenhui, a successor to Huineng, to gain influence at the Imperial Court. He claimed Huineng as his predecessor rather than the then publicly recognized successor, Shenxiu. In 745, Shenhui was invited to take up residence in the Ho-tse temple in Luoyang. In 753, he fell out of grace and had to leave the capital to go into exile. The most prominent successor in his lineage was Guifeng Zongmi. According to Zongmi, Shenhui's approach was officially sanctioned in 796, when "an imperial commission determined that the Southern line of Chan represented the orthodox transmission and established Shen-hui as the seventh patriarch, placing an inscription to that effect in the Shen-lung temple".

Doctrinally, the Southern School is associated with the teaching that enlightenment is sudden, while the Northern School is associated with the teaching that enlightenment is gradual. This was a polemical exaggeration, since both schools were derived from the same tradition, and the so-called Southern School incorporated many teachings of the more influential Northern School. Eventually both schools died out, but Shenhui's influence was so immense that all later Chan schools traced their origin to Huineng, and "sudden enlightenment" became a standard Chan doctrine.

Indian patriarchs

Later writings extended this lineage to include twenty-eight Indian patriarchs. In the Song of Enlightenment (證道歌 Zhèngdào gē) of Yongjia Xuanjue (永嘉玄覺, 665–713), one of the chief disciples of Huìnéng, it is written that Bodhidharma was the 28th patriarch in a line of descent from Mahākāśyapa, a disciple of Śākyamuni Buddha, and the first patriarch of Chán Buddhism.

Twenty-eight Indian patriarchs

Keizan's Transmission of the Light gives twenty-eight patriarchs up to and including Bodhidharma in this transmission:

Mahākāśyapa

According to the traditional Chan accounts, the first Dharma transmission occurred as described in the Flower Sermon. The Buddha held up a golden lotus flower before an assembly of "gods and men". None who were in attendance showed any sign of understanding except his disciple Mahākāśyapa, who offered only a smile. The Buddha then said,

I have the right Dharma Eye Treasury, the wondrous mind of nirvana, the reality beyond appearance. The Dharma-door of mind-to-mind transmission has been entrusted to Kāśyapa.

Epstein comments, "Thus Mahākāśyapa received the transmission of Dharma and became the first Buddhist patriarch." This traditional account linking Chan's founding to the Flower Sermon first appeared during the Song dynasty, in 1036 CE.

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