Transformation of the Linji School’s Perspective on Seated Meditation from Tang to Song Dynasties—From Negation to Returning of Seated Meditation
Jing-Jia Huang
Religions September 3, 2023 DOI: 10.3390/rel14091129 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Historical analysis Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | Chan (Zen) Buddhist masters and textual records of the Linji school during the Tang and Song Dynasties |
| Topics | Meditation |
| Key points | The author argues that while the Tang-dynasty Linji school appeared to disregard or negate physical seated meditation in favor of wisdom dialogues, Song-dynasty Linji masters, including Foyan Qingyuan and Foxin Bencai, advocated seated meditation as the foundation of Buddhist practice and held that enlightenment requires gradual cultivation followed by further training, suggesting a tendency to return to seated meditation. |
Abstract
This study first examines the developmental perspective on seated meditation from Bodhidharma 達摩 to the Linji 臨濟 school of the Tang Dynasty. During this dynasty, the Linji school followed the criticism of physical seated meditation by the Southern school of Huineng 惠能 and mainly used wisdom dialogues to enlighten Buddhist disciples. Furthermore, there are very few lamp records documenting the seated meditation of Chan masters in the Linji school, which has created the impression that this school in the Tang Dynasty disregarded physical seated meditation and even negated it. Second, this study examines the attitude towards seated meditation of Linji Chan masters during the Song Dynasty from two aspects of seated meditation, namely, practice and theory. It is found that their attitude towards it differed from that of the Linji school in the Tang Dynasty because they were usually experienced in seated meditation. Moreover, there were Chan masters in both the Yangqi 楊岐 and Huanglong 黃龍 schools that advocated seated meditation as the foundation of Buddhist practice. For example, both Foyan Qingyuan’s 佛眼清遠 “Seated Meditation Inscription” 坐禪銘 and Foxin Bencai’s 佛心本才 “Seated Meditation Etiquette” 坐禪儀 pay attention to seated meditation and agree that enlightenment can only be achieved through gradual cultivation, and after enlightenment, a period of training is still required to achieve ultimate perfection. The above findings suggest that there was a development tendency of returning to seated meditation in the Linji school during the Song Dynasty.
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on meditation, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mindfulness: A proposed operational definition. | 2004 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Mechanisms of mindfulness | 2005 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| How Does Mindfulness Meditation Work? Proposing Mechanisms of Action From a Conceptual and Neural Perspective | 2011 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for depression | 2006 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Self-awareness, self-regulation, and self-transcendence (S-ART): a framework for understanding the neurobiological mechanisms of mindfulness | 2012 | Theoretical or philosophical paper |