The Path of Learning
John Blofeld
Routledge eBooks October 9, 2023 DOI: 10.4324/9781003442615-5 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Historical analysis Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Key points | Argues that although learning and mystical intuition are commonly treated as incompatible, some Chinese Buddhist monks and laymen held that profound knowledge of Mahayana principles, though not an end in itself, is a valuable preparation for mystical experience. Such scholar-mystics were found mainly among adherents of the T'ien T'ai, Hua Yen, and Wei Shih sects, whose doctrines were studied even though the sects barely existed as separate entities. |
Abstract
It is widely accepted that learning and the cultivation of mystical intuition do not go well together. Pietists who hold that scriptural study is the foundation of all goodness and scholars who maintain that learning is the road to wisdom, like those who expect salvation from good works, are generally not mystically inclined. Nevertheless, in China there have been Buddhist monks and laymen who set much store by scholarship, cherishing the belief that profound knowledge of Mahayana principles, though not an end in itself, is a valuable preparation for mystical experience. Scholar-mystics were to be found principally among the adherents of three sects – T‘ien T‘ai (called after a mountain of that name), Hua Yen (a name taken from that of an important sutra) and Wei Shih (meaning ‘Nothing But Consciousness’, hence ‘Pure Consciousness’). These sects only barely existed as separate entities, but their doctrines were still studied by individual monks belonging to other sects and also by learned laymen.