I. Introduction

A. History and Background
B. The Teaching of Bodhidharma

II. The Teaching of Ch’an

A. Tathagata Ch’an
B. The Cons

III. Conclusion



I. Introduction

A. History and Background

Buddhism came from India to China. Over time, Chinese Buddhism developed into different schools. The Ch’an school is one ten schools and reached the height of its development during the T’ang and Sung Dynasties. Chinese Ch’an was begun by Bodhidharma. Because he is the founder of the Ch’an school, he is called the First Patriarch. Therefore, when people talk about Ch’an, they will immediately mention Bodhidharma. In Chinese history, Bodhidharma is a well-known figure and his thought and teaching of Ch’an influenced the Chines deeply. Without his devotion, Chines Buddhism would not have developed as fully. Although Ch’an in China is now in a period of decline, the original teaching of Bodhidharma is now spreading to Western countries to day.

The birth of Bodhidharma is not recorded by Chinese history. It also has no any record about where he died. In Chinese literature it is only mentioned that he had two main disciples, namely Hui-K’o and Tao-Yu. Hui-J’o studied with him for about five to six years, and Tao-Yu has no any historical record either. Later on Hui-K’o heard Bodhidharma’s teaching, and ha was awakened then to begin to his preach.

B. The Teaching of Bodhidharma

In general, people will ask what is Bodhidharma’s teaching? When Bodhidharma arrived in China, he observed the land-China, for he used “mind to mind transmission” and the Lankavatara Sutra is a main sutra he taught. The sutra describes a kind of Tathagata Ch’an. Bodhidharma used “the Lankavatra transmitted from mind to mind.” Therefore, the sutra that the Buddha’s teaching is a kind of “Mind Teaching.” It leads beings directly into the right path. After one reach the right path, one does not need the tool-teaching. The sutra emphasizes “Mind Only”. It means absolute mind because all that we see and hear and think of as object of the vijnanas are what rise and disappear in and of the mind only. And his absolute mind is also called in the Lankavatara the Dharma of solitude because it stands by itself, according to Suzuki’s statement.

Bodhidharma was very famous in the Ch’an school because his approach to Ch’an was unique. As he says in these sermons, “Seeing your nature is Ch’an…Not thinking about anything is Ch’an…Everything you do is Ch’an.” While others viewed Ch’an as purification of the mind or as a stage on the way to Buddhahood with the mind, the everyday mind. Instead of telling his disciples to purify their minds, he pointed them to rock walls, to the movements of tigers and cranes, to a hollow read floating across the Yangtze, to a single sandal. This is his specific thought and teaching.

II. The Teaching of Ch’an
A. Tathagata Ch’an

There are two stories which may help us to understand the teaching of Ch’an. When Buddha was alive, there was a Brahman whose name was Black-nails, who came to the Buddha and offered him two huge flowering trees which he carried each iin one of his hands through his magical power. The Buddha told the Brahman, Black-nail, “Put them down!” The Brahman put the flowering tree down in his left hand before the Buddha. Buddha called out to him again, “Put them down!” Then Black-nails put the other flowering tree in his right hand. But, Buddha still sekpt demanding, “Put them down!” At this time the Brahman said: “I have nothing in my hands. What do you want me to put down? ” The Buddha said: “I never told you to abandon your flowering trees. What I want you to do is abandon your six objects of sense (eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and mind), six organs of sense (form, sound, smell, taste, touch, dharma-which means those objects that arise in the heart), and your six consciousnesses (sense awareness through the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, mind). When these are abandoned all at once, it is then that you are released from the bondage of birth-and-death”. These are Buddha’s words and Tathagata’s words.

The parable indicates that Buddha’s teaching is very simple and easy. It is a way of conveying the essence of Ch’an. A practitioner should keep this in his or her mind. Why should one gather so many things in one’s mind? One’s mind is like a computer hard disk. The more one stored up, the more burden one has. Therefore, sentient suffer so much because they do not know how to learn to put things down or let them go. For example, one has a house, one still believes he or she needs to buy one or two more. A practitioner should learn that the less things he or she has, the more he or she is free.

A monk came to see the Patriarch Ch’an Master to learn how to deal with this matter. He asked the Master, Chao-Chou: “How is it when a man brings nothing with him?” Chao-Chou immediately responded: “Throw it away!” The monk asked again: “What shall he throw down when he is not burdened at all?” Chao-Chou said: “If so, carry it along!” what shall we carry up if we have nothing? The Ch’an masters delight in paradoxes, and the remark of Chao-Chou is a typical example. The Ch’an masters point directly into the disciple’s mind and these show their uneqivocal manner.

The method of Ch’an teaching is very simple. All Ch’an masters combine doctrines with actual practice to teach their disciples. After that, they apply “transmission from mind to mind” for their teaching. The Ch’an school begins with the first patriarch, Bodhidharma, until the Fifth Master, Hung-Jen. After that most Ch’an masters do teach doctrines and practice both together. This is the practice of the doctrine and Ch’an contemplation of Tathagata Ch’an. Later on the Ch’an teachings of the patriarch was more developed, especially after the Sixth Patriarch, Ch’an Master. Hui-Neng, who emphasized the method of teaching of the “mind to Mind” transmission.” Therefore, beginning the sixth patriarch, Chinese Ch’an’s emphasis changes from gradual to sudden, from the Lankavatara Sutra to Parjnaparamita Sutras, and from Tathagata Ch’an to patriarch Ch’an. This developed a typical Chinese Ch’an teachings.

Therefore, after the Six Patriarch, the slogan of Ch’an is to transmit the Dharma outside the formal written teachings of the Tripitika, most Ch’an masters do not relying on too many oral for teaching. Sometimes they just use a few words to point out the disciples’ mind directly, as it actually existed right here now is to realize our true human nature and become a Buddha.

B. The Koans

A koan is a kind of problem solving which is given by the master to his disciple to solve any doubt. “Problem” is not a good term. According to Suzuki, and Martiono state that “ko” literally means “public” and “an” is “a document.” But “ a public document” has nothing to do with Ch’an. The Ch’an “document” is the one each of use beings doing to this world at this birth and tries to decipher before he passes away.

One of the famous methods of teaching for Ch’an is the koan. This practice requires a supreme mental effort and permits no lazy daydreaming. Here are some interesting example of koan:

“Show me your original face before you were born.”
“If you meet someone in the street who has attained to the truth, you must pass him neither speaking nor in silence. How would you meet him?
“The priest Shusan held his staff before the eyes of the assembled monks and said: If you call this a stick, it is disgusting. If you don’t call it a stick, it is wrong. What will you call it?”

Hui-ko asked Bodhidharma, “How can one get into Tao (Path)? Bodhidharma replied:
Qutwardly, all activities cease;
Inwardly, the mind stops its panting.
When one’s mind has become a wall,
Then he may begin to enter into the Tao.

These highly significant words are onenof the esoteric type of koans that the Ch’an masters are disinclined to discuss or elaborate. Despite its apparent “mystic” flavor and profound significance, it is very explicit and straightforward. It describes plainly the actual experience of the before enlightenment state. This koan, therefore, illustrates Ch’an-truth through plain and direct statements. For example, the “explicit-affirmative” type.

Ch’an master Shen-Tsan gained his enlightenment while studying under pai-Chang. He then returned to the monastery in which ha had been ordained by his “First teacher, ” the monk who had brought him up from childhood and who, at that time, was a very old man. One day Shen-Tsan was helping his old teacher to bathe. While washing the old man’s bacl, he said to him, “This is such a fine temple, but the Buddha in it is not at all holy!” His old teacher then turned around and looked at him, whereupon Shen-Tsan commented, “though the Buddha is not holy, he can still radiate the light.” Again, one day while the old man was reading a sutra near a paper-covered window, a bee tried desperately, with all its strength, to fly out of the room through the paper but was unable to get through. Shen-Tsan, seeing this, said, “The world is so vast and wide that you may easily set yourself free in it. Why, then do you foolishly bore into old, rotten paper?

While the empty door is widely open
How foolish it is try to get out
By thrusting against the window!
Alas! How can you (master) Raise your head above the slough
For a hundred years?

Hearing this remark, the old man laid down his book and said to Shen-Tsan, “For quitw a few times now, you have made unusual remarks. From whom did you gain your knowdege while your were away from home? Shen-Tsan replied, “I have reached the state of peaceful rest through the grace of master Pai-Chang. How I have come back home to pay my debt of gratitude to you.” The old teacher then prepared a great festival in his disciple’s honor, summoned the monks in the monastery to the assembly hall, and besought Shen-Tsan to preach the Dharma to all. Whereupon Shen-Tsan ascended to the high seat and, following the tradition of Pai-Chang, preached as follows:

Singularly radiating is the wondrous light;
Free is it from the bondage of matter and the senses,
Not binding by words and letters,
The essence is nakedly exposed in its pure eternity.
Never defied is the Mind-nature;
It existed in perfection from the very beginning.
By merely casting away your delusion
The suchness of Buddhahood is realized.

As soon as th old teacher heard this stanza, he was immediately awakened.