25. See Dàhuì Pŭjué Chánshī yŭlù, 927, b5–6; Araki, Daie sho, 102. Cited in Buswell, “‘Short-cut’ Approach,” 367n78.
26. Silent illumination is now used by some modern-day Chinese Buddhist masters in a positive sense; see, for example, Sheng Yen, Method of No-Method.
27. This seems to be a reference to Duǎnpéng Yuǎn (d.u.), who was a third-generation descendant of Hóngzhì Zhèngjué. See the Kūyá mànlù, 35, c24.
28. Xuěyán Zŭqīn Chánshī yŭlù, 606, b06–13. My translation is based on Wu, Confucian’s Progress, 77, with numerous changes.
29. See the recorded sayings of Tiāntóng Rújìng in Kagamishima, Tendō Nyojō, 282.
30. Wéilín Dàopèi Chánshī huánshān lù, 653, a17–23 // Z 2:30, 469, c17–d5 // R125, 938, a17–b5.
31. Xuěyán Zŭqīn Chánshī yŭlù, 606, b22–23 // Z 2:27, 257, a7–8 // R122, 513, a7–8. See also Wu, Confucian’s Progress, 78.
32. Chánzōng juéyí jí, 1015, c22–24.
33. Chánzōng juéyí jí, 1011, c7–13, cited in Shì Yìnqiān, “Chánzōng.”
34. Niànfó is a translation of the Sanskrit term buddhānusmṛti that can mean “Buddha recollection,” “Buddha contemplation,” “recitation of the name(s) of the Buddha(s),” or “Buddha invocation.” The term niànfó holds all of these meanings, but in China the most important aspect of niànfó was Buddha invocation, that is, chanting homage to a Buddha. The following section is based on Schlütter, “Reciting the Name.”
35. There are considerable issues associated with the notion of distinct “schools” in Chinese Buddhism. See Stanley Weinstein, “Buddhism, Schools of.” See also the newer entry by John R. McRae, “Buddhism, Schools of.”
36. See Sharf, “On Pure Land Buddhism.”
37. See Schlütter, How Zen Became Zen, 123–129.
38. Jìngtŭ jiǎnyào lù, 419, b11–15 // Z 2:13, 107, c15–d1 // R108, 214, a15–b1.
39. Jìngtŭ huòwèn, 296, b10–14.
40. Jìngtŭ shíyào, 695, a14–17 // Z 2:13, 379, a4–7 // R108, 757, a4–7, cited in Shì Yìnqiān, “Chánzōng.”
41. On Pŭdù and the White Lotus movement, see ter Haar, White Lotus Teachings, especially 72–76.
42. Redirecting attention to the mind’s activity back to its source. Robert Buswell has discussed this concept in several places; see, for example, “Chinul’s Systematization.”
43. Lúshān liánzōng bǎojiàn, 311, c26–312, a3; cited in Shì Yìnqiān, “Chánzōng.”
44. Chánguān cèjìn, 1102, b18–22.
45. Tiānzhēn Dúfēng Shàn Chánshī yàoyŭ, 138, a13–16.
46. The story is sometimes used to argue that the kànhuà technique has a long history, but it doesn’t appear until after the Sòng dynasty. See Schlütter, How Zen Became Zen, 114.
47. For “guarding the one,” see Sharf, Coming to Terms, 182–184. Cited in Muller, Digital Dictionary of Buddhism.
48. Chánguān cèjìn, 1098, b6–9.
49. Tiānzhēn Dúfēng Shàn Chánshī yàoyŭ, 138, b4–5.
50. Hānshān lǎorén mèngyóu jí, 495, a1–3 // Z 2:32, 138, b16–18 // R127, 275, b16–18. Cf. Eifring, “Meditative Pluralism,” 122.
51. Chánguān cèjìn, 1105, a11–15.
52. For more discussion of the niànfó gōng’àn, see Schlütter, “Reciting the Name.”
Glossary
Amitābha (Ēmítuófó 阿彌陀佛)
Cáodòng 曹洞
Chán 禪
Dàhuì Zōnggǎo 大慧宗杲
Dàoqiān 道謙
dǎ shífāng 打十方
Dōgen 道元
Duǎnpéng Yuǎn 短篷遠
Dúfēng Běnshàn 毒峰本善
gōng’àn 公案 (Jap. kōan)
Hānshān Déqīng 憨山德清
Hóngzhì Zhèngjué 宏智正覺
Huángbó Xīyùn 黄檗希運
huàtóu 話頭
Huìnéng 惠能
jŭ 舉
kàn 看
kànhuà (Jap. kanna) 看話
kànhuà Chán 看話禪
kien mondō 機緣問答
Línjì 臨濟
Míng 明 (dynasty)
mòzhào 默照
namo Ēmítuófó 南無阿彌陀佛
niànfó 念佛
niànfó [zhě] shì shuí 念佛[者]是誰
pŭshuō 普說
Qīng 清 (dynasty)
Qínguó Tàifūrén 秦國太夫人
shìdàfū 士大夫
Sòng 宋 (dynasty)
Sōtō Zen 曹洞禪
Tiāntóng Rújìng 天童如浄
Tiějué Yuǎn of Shuānglín 雙林鐵橛遠
Tiānrú Wéizé 天如惟則
Wéilín Dàopèi 為霖道霈
wú 無
Xiàoyán (Yuèxīn) Débǎo 笑巖 (月心) 德寶
Xuěyán Zŭqīn 雪巖祖欽
Yōután Pŭdù 優曇普度
Yuán 元 (dynasty)
Yuánwù Kèqín 圜悟克勤
Yúnmén Wényǎn 雲門文偃
Yúnqī Zhūhóng 雲棲株宏
Zhāng Jùn 張浚
Zhàozhōu Cóngshěn 趙州從諗
Zhēnxiē Qīngliǎo 真歇清了
Zhìchè Duànyún 智徹斷雲
zuòchán 坐禪
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10 HAROLD D. ROTH
Meditation in the Classical Daoist Tradition
Meditation in classical China is most often and most readily found in an early tradition of practice, thought, and literature that was later associated with the label “Daoism.” Whether or not this label was present before the Hàn dynasty (202 BCE–220 CE), the evidence for the distinct tradition of practice and thought to which it came to refer is contained in a body of extant texts that include works often regarded as the classics of the entire Daoist tradition, such as the Lǎozǐ and the Zhuāngzǐ, as well as a set of others that have been often overlooked, such as the four “Techniques of the Mind” (Xīnshù) works within the Guǎnzǐ, the Lǚshì chūnqiū, and some recently excavated works, such as the Silk Manuscripts of Huáng-Lǎo (Huáng Lǎo bóshū). These works contain a distinctive series of intellectual categories, philosophical concerns, and literary genres that are simply not found in the same interrelationships or internal structures in other early philosophical works.1 Hence whether or not the authors of these texts considered themselves “Daoist,” they did recognize that they were part of a distinct intellectual lineage that was neither Confucian nor Mohist nor any other lineage. Because their practices and ideas were identified as “Daoist” by Hàn dynasty historian Sīmǎ Tán (ca. 120 BCE), we will be using this label when discussing their unique meditation practices.
While there is only meager information of a precise nature about the social organization of this lineage, it can be said that until the middle of the third century BCE, when the figure of Lǎozǐ and the Lǎozǐ text were promoted as lineage founder and canon, it was constituted of very loosely organized collections of teachers and students, all of whom shared a common set of meditation practices and ideas that were set down in writing in a series of texts. Indeed, the very existence and survival of these texts implies that there must have been some sort of social organization to create, copy, and transmit them. Indeed, Mark Lewis posits the existence of groups like these that were outside the “ambit of the state” that “were formed by master-disciple traditions that relied on writing both to transmit doctrine or information and to establish group loyalties.”2 The early Daoist tradition is one such intellectual tradition, and this chapter will present an overview of its distinctive meditative practices. Because the methodologies of the comparative study of religious and mystical experience have only recently been applied to the study of classical Chinese Daoism, and because of the now outdated division of the Daoist tradition into an earlier pure “philosophical” foundation and a later corrupted “religious” institution, some have doubted that there is any evidence of a meditative practice in the early materials we present in this chapter.3 However, not only does the textual evidence provide a solid basis for the existence of meditation in classical Daoism, but the archaeological record does as well, as we shall see.
In these early Daoist texts there are three interlocking categories of ideas linked to meditation: cosmology, self-cultivation, and political thought. Setting aside the last of these categories for the time being as being a somewhat later development in the tradition, within the others there is a distinctive set of ideas that was found in particular relationships in these works and only in these works—not in the Analects, Mencius, or the Mòzǐ, for example.4 These ideas in many ways begin and end with a common understanding of the Way (Dào) as the ultimate source of the cosmos, with potency (dé) as its manifestation in terms of concrete phenomena and experience, nonaction (wúwéi) as its definitive movement, and formlessness (wúxíng) as its characteristic mode. There is also a common meditation or “self-cultivation” vocabulary that includes stillness and silence (jìmò), tranquility (jìng), emptiness (xū), and a variety of apophatic self-negating techniques and qualities of mind that lead to a direct apprehension of the Way.
The Classical Daoist Inner Cultivation Tradition
In previous publications I have hypothesized the existence of an “inner cultivation” tradition of practice and theory that produced a series of texts, some of which the Chinese have associated with the Daoist tradition for over two millennia. This term “inner cultivation” is taken from the text that I have argued is the oldest extant source of that tradition, Guǎnzǐ’s “Inward Training” (Nèiyè). A further general term used by this tradition to refer to its apophatic psychological practices, the “Techniques of the Mind” (Xīnshù), probably derives at least in part from the two texts of the same name that are companion texts to “Inward Training” (Xīnshù shàng, xià). In the philosophical liter
ature, including these Guǎnzǐ works, the Lǎozǐ, the Zhuāngzǐ, and the Lǚshì chūnqiū, we find the most details about the theory and practice of these contemplative methods, although there is also important information about them in the medical literature as well.
I will begin by presenting a summary analysis of the basic methods and results of this tradition of what one might call sitting meditation. Specific techniques for moving meditation were known as well, although they are most often found in the context of health and longevity practices, such as the famous painting of the various positions of the “Guiding and Pulling” (of vital energy, dǎoyǐn tú) that was found at Mǎwángduī.5 The “inner cultivation” tradition, which also referred to its practices as yǎngshén “nourishing the inner spirit” or yǎngxìng “nourishing the innate nature,” while sharing concepts and some practices with these health and longevity practices (often referred to as yǎngshēng, “nourishing vitality,” or yǎngxíng, “nourishing the body”), wished to differentiate itself from them. For example, in Zhuāngzǐ 15 we read,
To huff and puff, exhale and inhale, blow out the old [breath] and take in the new, do the [gymnastic positions of the] “Bear Stride” and the “Bird Stretch,” and to be interested in nothing more than longevity, these are the methods of those who practice the “guiding and pulling” exercises, those who nourish the body and who try to attain the longevity of Ancestor Péng…. But to attain longevity without guiding and pulling, to forget everything and yet possess everything, to be serenely without limit yet have many wonderful things follow you, this is the Way of Heaven and Earth, the Potency of the Sage. Thus it is said that serenity and indifference, stillness and silence, emptiness and nothingness, and Non-Action, these are the even level of Heaven and Earth, the substance of the Way and Potency. Therefore the sage finds rest in them and thereby attains balance and ease.6
In addition to contrasting “inner cultivation” with these more common medically linked practices, this passage emphasizes one of the preeminent dimensions of apophatic practice, that of cultivating the related psychological states of serenity, equilibrium, stillness and silence, and nothingness. Simply put, the basic practice of “inner cultivation” is to unify or focus attention on one thing, often the inhalation and exhalation of the breath, for a sustained period of time. Through this one comes to gradually empty out the thoughts, perceptions, and emotions that normally occupy the mind and to develop an awareness of the presence of the Way that resides at the ground of human consciousness. We can analyze these apophatic practices into a number of basic categories: proper posture, breath cultivation, apophatic psychological techniques, resultant states, and resultant traits.7
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