Linji Yixuan

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Linji Yixuan (traditional Chinese: 臨濟義玄; simplified Chinese: 临济义玄; pinyin: Línjì Yìxuán; Wade–Giles: Lin-chi I-hsüan; Japanese: 臨済義玄 Rinzai Gigen; died 866 CE) was the founder of the Linji school of Chán Buddhism during Tang dynasty China.

Biography

Information on Linji is based on the Línjì yǔlù, the recorded sayings of Linji. According to the Línjì yǔlù, Linji was born into a family named Xing (邢) in Caozhou (modern

The Línjì yǔlù (臨濟語錄; Japanese: Rinzai-goroku), the Record of Linji, is a collection of sayings and anecdotes attributed to Linji. The standard form of these sayings was not completed until two hundred fifty years after Linji's death, and likely reflects the teaching of Chán in the Linji school at the beginning of the Song dynasty rather than that of Linji in particular.^[1]

The Línjì yǔlù contains stories of Linji's interactions with teachers, contemporaries, and students. The recorded lectures are a mixture of the conventional and the

Iconoclasm

Linji is reputed to have been iconoclastic, leading students to awakening by hitting and shouting.^[3]

Three Mysterious Gates

Chán faced

Linji is described as using the Three Mysterious Gates to maintain the Chán emphasis on the nonconceptual nature of reality, while employing sūtras and teachings to instruct his students:[4]

1. The First Gate is the "mystery in the essence", the use of Buddhist philosophy, such as Huayan, to explain the interpenetration of all phenomena.
2. The Second Gate is the "mystery in the word", using the Hua Tou^[a] 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".

Lineage

See also

• Buddhism in China
• Dharma Drum Retreat Center
  – Chán Buddhism retreat center
• List of Rinzai Buddhists

Notes

References

Written references

Web-references

1. ^ Stuart Lachs (2012), Hua-t’ou : A Method of Zen Meditation

Works cited

• Buswell, Robert E. Jr. (1992). "Ch'an Hermeneutics: A Korean View". In Lopez, Donald S. Jr. (ed.). Buddhist Hermeneutics. Honolulu: University of Hawaiʻi Press (Kuroda Institute Studies in East Asian Buddhism 6). pp. 231–256.
• McRae, John (2003), Seeing Through Zen. Encounter, Transformation, and Genealogy in Chinese Chan Buddhism, The University Press Group Ltd,
  ISBN 978-0-520-23798-8
• Welter, Albert (n.d.), The Textual History of the Linji lu (Record of Linji): The Earliest Recorded Fragments

Further reading

• Lowenstein, Tom (2002), The Vision of the Buddha: Buddhism: The Path to Spiritual Enlightenment, Duncan Baird,
  ISBN 1-903296-91-9
• McMahan, David L. (2008), The Making of Buddhist Modernism, Oxford University Press,
  ISBN 978-0-19-518327-6
• Schloegl, Irmgard (1976), The Zen Teaching of Rinzai, Berkeley: Shambhala Publications,
  ISBN 0-87773-087-3
• Schlütter, Morten (2008), How Zen became Zen: The Dispute over Enlightenment and the Formation of Chan Buddhism in Song-Dynasty China, Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press,
  ISBN 978-0-8248-3508-8
• Watson, Burton (1999), The Zen Teachings of Master Lin-Chi: A Translation of the Lin-chi lu, New York: Columbia University Press,
  ISBN 0-231-11485-0
• Welter, Albert (2006), Monks, Rulers, and Literati: The Political Ascendancy of Chan Buddhism, Wisdom Books^[ISBN missing]
• Welter, Albert (2008), The Linji Lu and the Creation of Chan Orthodoxy: The Development of Chan's Records of Sayings Literature, Oxford University Press^{[ISBN missing]}
• Welter, Albert (n.d.), "The Textual History of the Linji lu (Record of Linji): The Earliest Recorded Fragments", thezensite
• Yixuan, Linji (1976), The Zen Teaching of Rinzai: The Record of Rinzai, The Clear Light Series, translated by Irmgard Schloegel, Berkeley: Shambhala,
  ISBN 978-0394731766
• Yixuan, Linji (2009), Kirchner, Thomas Yuho (ed.), The Record of Linji, translated by Ruth Fuller Sasaki, Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press,
  ISBN 978-0824833190

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to Linji Yixuan.

• Taisho Tripitaka Vol. 47, No. 1985 The Chinese Buddhist Electronic Text Association online Chinese character text of The Record of Linji (臨濟録 Linji Lu)
• Japanese translation of Linji

Buddhist titles
Preceded by Huangbo Xiyun	Rinzai Zen patriarch	Succeeded by Xinghua Cunjiang

Converts to Buddhism from atheism or agnosticism