The Original Faee of Chan
“Isn’t it you, just as you are right now?” (59) is a rhetorical question that Linji posed to one of his disciples which caused sudden enlightenment. Hisamatsu Shin’ichi was a Buddhist scholar born in 1889, who studied at Kyoto University and most famously taught at Harvard’s Divinity School in 1957, interprets Linji’s teachings in Critical Sermons of the Zen Tradition: Hisamatsu's Talks on Linji. Hisamatsu makes strong positive statements on Linji, saying that his “words and actions are not expedient means” (5) but the immediately present truth and as a scholar who placed significant value on Linji’s teachings, the text is a distillation of Linji that carries the original meaning into modern understanding with eloquence …show more content…
Each of these terms defines characteristics, practices and principles of the enlightened. The idea of the Original Face addresses that beings have always been aware of sunyata (emptiness) and anatman (lack of a soul), but have had their conscious awareness clouded by societal conceptions which causes suffering. According to Linji, enlightenment seems to be buried underneath the weight of daily existence, something that the conscious needs to be shocked into realizing. “Linji declares that the Original Face is not outside of us: it is right beneath your feet. Zen speaks of shedding light on what is under one’s legs, and this simply indicates that the Original Face is the fundamental place right where you are” (140), and his radical affirmation of Buddha nature shifts the focus of Buddhism entirely. This development in Chan Buddhism creates an individualistic, meditation centered practice, as every individual is simply attempting to access a deeper level of their self that acknowledges its own lack of self. The conscious mind simply needs to be opened to itself, in order to manifest this higher aspect of …show more content…
The Original Face is being content with being a state of existence, “To be neither at home nor on the way … they are usually placing emphasis on one of the two and getting caught by it.” (134), and identification of “ “root-source” from which subject and object, the active and the passive, emerge.” (106). The Original Face is a middling state, that is focusing on the journey and it’s experiences rather than the destination or what has been left behind. The Original Face discards the filter of the mind’s perception and labeling and discards the root-source of subject and object differentiation, embracing sunyata and practicing tathagatha (suchness). Identifying the Original Face as an internal enlightened core is the central goal of Chan Buddhism, while the Formless Self and the True Person of No Rank are expressions for the Original
“Isn’t it you, just as you are right now?” (59) is a rhetorical question that Linji posed to one of his disciples which caused sudden enlightenment. Hisamatsu Shin’ichi was a Buddhist scholar born in 1889, who studied at Kyoto University and most famously taught at Harvard’s Divinity School in 1957, interprets Linji’s teachings in Critical Sermons of the Zen Tradition: Hisamatsu's Talks on Linji. Hisamatsu makes strong positive statements on Linji, saying that his “words and actions are not expedient means” (5) but the immediately present truth and as a scholar who placed significant value on Linji’s teachings, the text is a distillation of Linji that carries the original meaning into modern understanding with eloquence …show more content…
Each of these terms defines characteristics, practices and principles of the enlightened. The idea of the Original Face addresses that beings have always been aware of sunyata (emptiness) and anatman (lack of a soul), but have had their conscious awareness clouded by societal conceptions which causes suffering. According to Linji, enlightenment seems to be buried underneath the weight of daily existence, something that the conscious needs to be shocked into realizing. “Linji declares that the Original Face is not outside of us: it is right beneath your feet. Zen speaks of shedding light on what is under one’s legs, and this simply indicates that the Original Face is the fundamental place right where you are” (140), and his radical affirmation of Buddha nature shifts the focus of Buddhism entirely. This development in Chan Buddhism creates an individualistic, meditation centered practice, as every individual is simply attempting to access a deeper level of their self that acknowledges its own lack of self. The conscious mind simply needs to be opened to itself, in order to manifest this higher aspect of …show more content…
The Original Face is being content with being a state of existence, “To be neither at home nor on the way … they are usually placing emphasis on one of the two and getting caught by it.” (134), and identification of “ “root-source” from which subject and object, the active and the passive, emerge.” (106). The Original Face is a middling state, that is focusing on the journey and it’s experiences rather than the destination or what has been left behind. The Original Face discards the filter of the mind’s perception and labeling and discards the root-source of subject and object differentiation, embracing sunyata and practicing tathagatha (suchness). Identifying the Original Face as an internal enlightened core is the central goal of Chan Buddhism, while the Formless Self and the True Person of No Rank are expressions for the Original