Rinzai school

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
"Rinzai" redirects here. For Master Rinzai, see Linji Yixuan.
This article is about a Zen school in Japan. For the same school in China, see Linji school.
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The Rinzai school (

Myōan Eisai (1141 –1215). Contemporary Japanese Rinzai is derived entirely from the Ōtōkan lineage transmitted through Hakuin Ekaku (1686–1769), who is a major figure in the revival of the Rinzai tradition.[1]

History

Japanese painting of Linji Yixuan (Japanese: Rinzai Gigen).

Rinzai is the Japanese line of the Chinese Linji school of Chan Buddhism, which was founded during the Tang dynasty by Linji Yixuan (Japanese: Rinzai Gigen).

Myōan Eisai, founder of the Rinzai school of Zen in Japan, 12th century
Hakuin Ekaku self portrait

Kamakura period (1185–1333)

Though there were several attempts to establish Rinzai lines in Japan, it first took root in a lasting way through the efforts of the monk

Rinzai.[3] Decades later, Nanpo Shōmyō (南浦紹明) (1235–1308), who also studied Linji teachings in China, founded the Japanese Ōtōkan lineage, the most influential and only surviving branch of the Rinzai school of Zen.[citation needed
]

Rinzai Zen was established in Japan as the samurai rose to power. Along with early imperial support, Rinzai came to enjoy the patronage of this newly ascendant warrior class.[citation needed]

Muromachi (or Ashikaga) period (1336–1573)

During the

shōgun. The school may be said to have truly flowered and achieved a distinctly Japanese identity with Shūhō Myōchō (aka Daitō Kokushi 1283–1337) and Musō Soseki (1275–1351), two influential Japanese Zen masters who did not travel to China to study.[citation needed
]

Five Mountain System

Main article: Five Mountain System § The system in Japan

In the beginning of the Muromachi period, the Five Mountain System (Gozan) system was fully worked out. The final version contained five temples of both Kyoto and Kamakura, presided over by Nanzen-ji. A second tier of the system consisted of Ten Temples. This system was extended throughout Japan, effectively giving control to the central government, which administered this system.[4] The monks, often well educated and skilled, were employed by the shōgun for the governing of state affairs.[5]

Gozan system
  Kyoto Kamakura
First Rank Tenryū-ji Kenchō-ji
Second Rank Shōkoku-ji Engaku-ji
Third Rank Kennin-ji Jufuku-ji
Fourth Rank Tōfuku-ji Jōchi-ji
Fifth Rank Manju-ji
Jōmyō-ji

Rinka-monasteries

Not all Rinzai Zen organisations were under such strict state control. The Rinka monasteries, which were primarily located in rural areas rather than cities, had a greater degree of independence.[6] The Ōtōkan lineage, which centered on Daitoku-ji, also had a greater degree of freedom. It was founded by Nanpo Shōmyō, Shūhō Myōchō, and Kanzan Egen.[7] A well-known teacher from Daitoku-ji was Ikkyū.[3]

Another Rinka lineage was the Hotto lineage, of which Bassui Tokushō is the best-known teacher.[8]

Tokugawa (1600–1868) - Hakuin and his heirs

By the 18th century, the Rinzai school was challenged by the newly-imported Obaku-lineage, and by the waning of support from the ruling elites. Hakuin Ekaku (1686–1769), with his vigorous seal for koan-practice and his orientation towards common people, became the hero of a revigorized tradition of koan-study and an outreach to a lay-audience, and most Rinzai lineages claim descent from him, though his engagement with formal Rinzai-institution was minimal. When he was installed as head priest of Shōin-ji in 1718, he had the title of Dai-ichiza, "First Monk":[9]

It was the minimum rank required by government regulation for those installed as temple priests and seems to have been little more than a matter of paying a fee and registering Hakuin as the incumbent of Shōin-ji.[9]

Hakuin considered himself to be an heir of Shōju Rōnin (Dokyō Etan, 1642–1721), but never received formal dharma transmission from him.

Nanpo Jomyo, who received his dharma transmission in China in 1265.[web 2]

Tōrei Enji (1721–1792), who had studied with Kogetsu Zenzai, was a major student of Hakuin and an influential author, painter and calligrapher.[11][12] He is the author of the influential The Undying Lamp of Zen (Shūmon mujintō ron), which presents a comprehensive system of Rinzai training.[13][12][14]

Through Torei's student

Myoshin-ji, one of the main Rinzai temples in Japan, where he served for a short time,[web 3] while Takujū Kosen was appointed as head abbott of Myoshin-ji in 1813.[web 4] All contemporary Japanese Rinzai-lineages, and their methods and styles of koan-study, stem from these two teachers,[17][18] though at the end of the Tokugawa-periond his line was at the brink of extinction.[19]

Meiji Restoration (1868–1912) and Imperial Expansionism (1912–1945)

During the

Meiji period (1868–1912), after a coup in 1868, Japan abandoned its feudal system and opened up to Western modernism. Shinto became the state religion, and Buddhism adapted to the new regime. Within the Buddhist establishment the Western world was seen as a threat, but also as a challenge to stand up to.[20][21]

A Rinzai university was founded in 1872, Hanazono University, initially as a seminary for those entering the priesthood. Hanazono University has grown to become the major Rinzai higher education institution in Japan.

Post-war (1945–present)

Modern Rinzai Zen is made up of 15 sects or branches, the largest being the Myoshin-ji line.

Some influential modern Rinzai figures include Ōmori Sōgen (大森 曹玄, 1904–1994), Sōkō Morinaga (盛永 宗興, 1925–1995), Shodo Harada (原田 正道), Eshin Nishimura (西村 惠信; born 1933), Keidō Fukushima (福島 慶道, 1933 – 2011) and D.T. Suzuki (鈴木 大拙 貞太郎, 1870–1966).

Literary Sources

Tōrei Enji

Rinzai is a

Transmission of the Lamp
, and the Línjì yǔlù (臨濟語錄; Jp: Rinzai-goroku, the Record of Linji).

Important Japanese sources of the Rinzai school include the works of Hakuin Ekaku and his student Tōrei Enji. Torei's Undying Lamp of Zen (Shūmon mujintō ron) offers a comprehensive overview of Hakuin's Zen and is a major source for Rinzai Zen practice.[22] A more modern overview of Japanese Rinzai praxis is Omori Sogen's Sanzen Nyumon (An Introduction to Zen Training).[23]

Japanese Rinzai practice

Zazen meditation at the European Center of Rinzai Zen
Fumio Toyoda, at Chozen-ji temple, Hawaii. Toyoda was a Rinzai Zen teacher and a master of Aikido.
Painting and Calligraphy by Hakuin (depicting Bodhidharma). The text states: "Direct pointing at the mind of man, seeing one's nature and becoming Buddha."

Contemporary Japanese Rinzai Zen is marked by its emphasis on

Buddhist practice.[24] Rinzai also stresses the importance of post-kensho spiritual training that actualizes awakening for the benefit of all beings.[24]

The student's relationship with a Zen teacher is another central element of Rinzai Zen practice. This includes the formal practice of sanzen, a private interview between student and master and various methods of "direct pointing" that are used by Rinzai masters to guide the student to the experience of kensho.[25]

Formal Rinzai training focuses on

kōan introspection, wato, and mantra practice (such as using the mantric syllable Ah) are used in zazen.[26][web 5][web 6] Other practices include walking meditation (Jp. kinhin), ōryōki (a meditative meal practice), and samu (physical work done with mindfulness). Chanting (okyo) Buddhist sutras or dharanis is also a major element of Rinzai practice.[27]

Kōans are a common object of meditation when engaged in formal zazen. Shikantaza ("just sitting") is less emphasized in Rinzai, but still used. This contrasts with Sōtō practice, which has de-emphasized kōans since Gentō Sokuchū (circa 1800), and instead emphasizes shikantaza.[citation needed]

The Rinzai school developed its own formalized style of

kinhin (walking meditation), and throughout all daily activities.[29][30]

In general, the Rinzai school is known for the rigor and severity of its training methods. The Rinzai style may be characterized as somewhat martial or sharp (following in the spirit of

Shōgun, Sōtō for the peasants" (臨済将軍、曹洞土民, Rinzai Shōgun, Sōtō Domin).[citation needed
]

The Rinzai school also adopted certain Taoist energy cultivation practices. They were introduced by Hakuin (1686–1769) who learned them from a hermit named Hakuyu.[33] These energetic practices are called naikan. They are mainly based on focusing the mind and one's vital energy (ki) on the tanden (a spot slightly below the navel).[34][35]

Certain Japanese

tea ceremony are also often used as methods of Zen cultivation in Rinzai. Hakuin is famously known for his sumi-e (ink and wash) paintings as well as for his calligraphy.[36] Myōan Eisai is said to have popularized green tea in Japan and the famed master of Japanese tea, Sen no Rikyū (1522–1591), was also trained in Rinzai.[37]

Contemporary Rinzai schools

Tenryū-ji
Myōshin-ji

Rinzai Zen in Japan today is not a single organized body. Rather, it is divided into 15 branches (or 16, if Ōbaku is included), referred to by the names of their head temples, of which half are based in

Enni Ben'en, 1202–1280). These branches are purely organizational divisions arising from temple history and teacher-student lineage, and do not represent sectarian divides or fundamental differences in practice. There are nevertheless small differences in the way kōans are handled.[citation needed
]

These head temples preside over various networks, comprising a total of approximately six thousand temples, forty monasteries, and one nunnery. The Myōshin-ji branch is by far the largest, approximately as big as the other branches combined: it contains within it about three thousand five hundred temples and nineteen monasteries.[citation needed]

Japanese Rinzai schools

The 15 branches of Rinzai, by head temple, are:[web 7][web 6]

Western Rinzai

Dai Bosatsu Zendo Kongo-ji, located in the Catskill Mountains of upstate New York

A number of Rinzai lines have been transplanted from Japan to Europe, the Americas, and Australia, and non-Japanese practitioners have been certified as teachers and successors of those lineages. Rinzai temples, as well as practice groups led by lay practitioners, may now be found in many nations.

North American Rinzai centers include

Dharma Heir
of Eido Shimano, Egmund Sommer (Denko Mortensen).

Related Japanese Zen schools

See also: Japanese Zen

Obaku

Main article: Ōbaku

Aside from Rinzai and Sōtō, there is a third tradition of Zen present in Japan, the

Pure Land
school. This reflects the syncretistic tendencies that developed in Chinese Buddhism in the centuries after the earlier Rinzai lines had been transmitted to Japan.

Ōbaku is also descended from the Chinese Linji school, and so technically may be considered a part of the Japanese Rinzai movement; further, its abbots are now part of the same Ōtōkan lineage as Rinzai branches, though they were not so originally (instead following a more recent Chinese lineage). While Manpuku-ji, the Ōbaku headquarters temple, is considered one of the 15 Rinzai branches mentioned above, Ōbaku Zen is administratively separate from the other 14 branches and continues to maintain its own distinct identity.[citation needed]

Fuke

A final Japanese Zen sect that self-identified as descending from the Linji school was the

Fuke sect; Fuke Zen was suppressed with the Meiji Restoration in the 19th century and no longer exists. Its influence on the development of music for the shakuhachi (bamboo flute), however, has been great.[citation needed
]

Ichibata Yakushi Kyodan

Main article: Ichibata Yakushi Kyodan

Yakushi (Medicine Buddha), and is known as a destination for healing.[citation needed
]

Cultural influence

Remarkable results of the early relationship between Rinzai Zen and the ruling classes were a strong Rinzai influence on education and government, and Rinzai contributions to a great flowering of Japanese cultural arts such as

tea ceremony, Japanese garden design, architecture and even martial arts. A perhaps unanticipated result is that Soto Zen temples, with their connection and appeal to commoners, eventually came to outnumber Rinzai temples.[citation needed
]

See also

References

  1. ^ Moore (2018), p. xiii.
  2. ^ Dumoulin 2005b, pp. 14–15.
  3. ^ a b Snelling 1987
  4. ^ Dumoulin 2005b:151–152
  5. ^ Dumoulin 2005b:153
  6. ^ Dumoulin 2005b:185
  7. ^ Dumoulin 2005b:185–186
  8. ^ Dumoulin 2005b:198
  9. ^ a b Waddell 2010, p. xxix.
  10. ^ Mohr 1999, pp. 311–312.
  11. ^ Tōrei, Taibi Shaku (1996), The Discourse on the Inexhaustible Lamp of the Zen School, C.E. Tuttle Company, p. 5.
  12. ^ a b Joskovich, Erez Hekigan. The Inexhaustible Lamp of Faith: Faith and Awakening in the Japanese Rinzai Tradition. Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 42/2:319-338. Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture.
  13. ^ Cleary, Thomas (2012), The Zen Reader, Shambhala Publications, p. 150.
  14. ^ Cleary, Thomas (2010). The Undying Lamp of Zen: The Testament of Zen Master Torei, Shambhala Publications, p. viii.
  15. ^ a b Besserman & Steger 2011, p. 142.
  16. ^ Dumoulin 2005b, p. 391.
  17. ^ Dumoulin 2005b, p. 392.
  18. ^ Stevens 1999, p. 90.
  19. ^ Michael Mohr, Hakuin. In: Buddhist Spirituality II: Later China, Korea, and Japan
  20. ^ McMahan 2008.
  21. ^ Victoria 2006.
  22. ^ Joskovich, Erez Hekigan. The Inexhaustible Lamp of Faith: Faith and Awakening in the Japanese Rinzai Tradition.Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 42/2:319-338. Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture.
  23. OCLC 47745820
    .
  24. ^ a b Moore (2018), pp. 9-10.
  25. ^ Moore (2018), pp. 145-150
  26. ^ Moore (2018), pp. 106-120.
  27. ^ Moore (2018), pp. 126-132.
  28. ^ Bodiford, William M. (2006). Koan practice. In: "Sitting with Koans". Ed. John Daido Loori. Somerville, MA: Wisdom Publications, p. 94.
  29. ^ Lachs, Stuart (2006), The Zen Master in America: Dressing the Donkey with Bells and Scarves
  30. ^ Low, Albert (2006), Hakuin on Kensho. The Four Ways of Knowing, pp. 36-37. Boston & London: Shambhala
  31. ^ Mann, Jeffrey, When Buddhists Attack: The Curious Relationship Between Zen and the Martial Arts, p. 61.
  32. ^ Takuan Soho, The Unfettered Mind: Writings from a Zen Master to a Master Swordsman, p. xv.
  33. ^ Waddell, Norman (ed. & trans.), Hakuin's Precious Mirror Cave: A Zen Miscellany, 2009, p. 83.
  34. ^ Julian Daizan Skinner (2017), "Practical Zen: Meditation and Beyond," pp. 203–204. Singing Dragon
  35. ^ Hakuin Ekaku (2010), "Wild Ivy: The Spiritual Autobiography of Zen Master Hakuin", p. 150. Shambhala Publications
  36. ^ Stephen Addiss, John Daido Loori, The Zen Art Book: The Art of Enlightenment, p. 15.
  37. ^ Nishibe Bunjo, "Zen priests and Their Concepts of Tea," p. 13, in Chanoyu Quarterly no. 13 (1976).
  38. ^ Houn-an Dharma Cloud Inc. (27 October 2011). "Lineage". Charles River Zen. Archived from the original on 18 December 2021. Retrieved 18 December 2021.
  39. ^ Tarrant, John. "Curriculum and Lineage". pacificzen.org. Archived from the original on 18 December 2021. Retrieved 18 December 2021.

Sources

Printed sources
Web-sources===
  1. ^ "James Ford (2009), Teaching Credentials in Zen". Patheos.com. 2009-02-04. Archived from the original on 2012-03-28. Retrieved 2012-06-29.
  2. ^ "Rinzai–Obaku Zen – What is Zen? – History". Zen.rinnou.net. Archived from the original on 2017-10-08. Retrieved 2012-06-29.
  3. ^ a b terebess.hu, 隱山惟琰 Inzan Ien (1751–1814)
  4. ^ terebess.hu, 卓洲胡僊 Takujū Kosen (1760–1833)
  5. ^ "What is Zen?: What is the Rinzai School?". Zen.rinnou.net. Archived from the original on 2012-02-07. Retrieved 2012-06-29.
  6. ^ a b "Rinzai–Obaku Zen". Zen.rinnou.net. Archived from the original on 2012-07-08. Retrieved 2012-06-29.
  7. ^ "Head Temples". Zen.rinnou.net. Archived from the original on 2015-03-12. Retrieved 2012-06-29.
  8. ^ 興聖寺 (in Japanese)
  9. Keyaki
    ) (in Japanese)

External links

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