Dharma-transmission
According to one “certified” master of the official Soto Zen school (which claims Dogen as their founder):
The term “Lineage” refers to an unbroken chain of “masters” having received “Dharma-transmission”,
going all the way back to the historic Shakyamuni Buddha. This
authentic lineage is said to insure that the Buddha’s original teaching (Dharma) is preserved and transmitted in its original.
Ryofu Pussel, Dharma-transmission in Dogen's Zen-buddhism
This definition generally agrees with the common understanding of the term as it is used in contemporary Zen communities.
As
with most Buddhist teachings the tradition of Dharma-transmission
should not be hastily understood; it is one expression of truth
concerning the significance of the transmission of enlightened wisdom (prajna). Whenever sacred literature is reduced to biographical or historical fact it becomes susceptible to dogmatism and legalism. To regard such as the
formulation of absolutes, rather than expressions of truth is to bring
it down to mere idolatry.
While
the evidence incontrovertibly refutes the historical possibility of “an
unbroken chain of masters” going all the way back to the historic
Shakyamuni Buddha, the Zen masters have never been overly concerned with
historical facts; their business concerns the great matter of life and
death. Master Yuanwu (1063-1135), compiler of the classic Zen text, The Blue Cliff Record,
demonstrates one example of how Zen masters handle discrepancies
between “matters of fact” and “expressions of truth.” Noticing just such
a discrepancy in the first case of the Blue Cliff Record, Yuanwu commented:
According
to tradition, Master Chih died in the year 514, while Bodhidharma came
to Liang in 520; since there is a seven year discrepancy, why is it said
that the two met? This must be a mistake in the tradition. As to what
is recorded in tradition, I will not discuss the matter now. All that’s
important is to understand the gist of the matter.
Blue Cliff Record, Thomas Cleary & J.C. Cleary
About
a century later, Dogen came to a similar conclusion in relation to an
issue concerning the Zen tradition of Dharma-transmission. Noting
certain discrepancies among the variety of the lineage charts he saw
while he was in China, Dogen questioned a senior monk about it:
The
veteran monk Shugetsu, while he was assigned to the post of head monk
on Tendo, showed to Dogen a certificate of succession of Unmon’s
lineage… Mahakasyapa, Ananda, and so on, were aligned as if [they
belonged to] separate lineages. At that time, Dogen asked Head Monk
Shugetsu, “Master, nowadays
there are slight differences among the five sects in their alignment [of
names]. What is the reason? If the succession from the Western Heavens
has passed from rightful successor to rightful successor, how could
there be differences?” Shugetsu said, “Even
if the difference were great, we should just study that the buddhas of
Unmon-zan mountain are like this. Why is Old Master Sakyamuni honored
by others? He is
an honored one because he realized the truth. Why is Great Master Unmon
honored by others? He is an honored one because he realized the truth.” Dogen, hearing these words, had a little [clearer] understanding.
Shobogenzo, Shisho, Gudo Nishijima & Mike Cross
This
monk’s comments were later supported by Dogen’s Chinese master and
finally led Dogen to accept “for the first time, the existence of
Buddhist patriarchs’ succession of the Dharma.”
My late Master, the eternal Buddha, the great Master and Abbot of Tendo, preached the following: “The
buddhas, without exception, have experienced the succession of the
Dharma. That is to say, Sakyamuni Buddha received the Dharma from
Kasyapa Buddha, Kasyapa Buddha received the Dharma from Kanakamuni
Buddha, and Kanakamuni Buddha received the Dharma from Krakucchanda
Buddha. We should believe that the succession has passed like this from
buddha to buddha until the present. This is the way of learning
Buddhism.” Then Dogen said, “It
was after Kasyapa Buddha had entered nirvana that Sakyamuni Buddha
first appeared in the world and realized the truth. Furthermore, how
could the buddhas of the Kalpa of Wisdom receive the Dharma from the
buddhas of the Kalpa of Resplendence? What [do you think] of this
principle?” My late Master said, “What
you have just expressed is understanding [based on] listening to
theories. It is the way of [bodhisattvas at] the ten sacred stages or
the three clever stages. It is not the way [transmitted by] the Buddhist
patriarchs from rightful successor to rightful successor. Our way,
transmitted from buddha to buddha, is not like that. We have learned
that Sakyamuni Buddha definitely received the Dharma from Kasyapa
Buddha. We learn in practice that Kasyapa Buddha entered nirvana after
Sakyamuni Buddha succeeded to the Dharma. If Sakyamuni Buddha did not
receive the Dharma from Kasyapa Buddha, he might be the same as a
naturalistic non-Buddhist. Who then could believe in Sakyamuni Buddha?
Because the succession has passed like this from buddha to buddha, and
has arrived at the present, the individual buddhas are all authentic
successors, and they are neither arranged in a line nor gathered in a
group. We just learn that the succession passes from buddha to buddha
like this. It need not be related to the measurements of kalpas and the
measurements of lifetimes mentioned in the teaching of the Agamas. If we
say that [the succession] was established solely by Sakyamuni Buddha,
it has existed for little over two thousand years, [so] it is not old;
and the successions [number] little more than forty, [so] they might be
called recent. This Buddhist succession is not to be studied like that.
We learn that Sakyamuni Buddha succeeded to the Dharma of Kasyapa
Buddha, and we learn that Kasyapa Buddha succeeded to the Dharma of
Sakyamuni Buddha. When we learn it like this, it is truly the succession
of the Dharma of the buddhas and the patriarchs.” Then Dogen not
only accepted, for the first time, the existence of Buddhist patriarchs’
succession of the Dharma, but also got rid of an old nest.
Shobogenzo, Shisho, Gudo Nishijima & Mike Cross
Having “got rid of an old nest” allowed Dogen to see through the “idol” (i.e. external fact) of Dharma-transmission to the mythological truth of the expression; such truths are never “arranged in a line nor gathered in a group.” In a commentary on the Dharma-transmission between Shakyamuni to Mahakasyapa, Robert Aitken Roshi wrote:
The
story of the Buddha twirling a flower before his assembly, like the
story of the baby Buddha taking seven steps in each of the cardinal
directions , need not be taken literally. The first account of his
transmitting the Dharma to Mahakasyapa is set forth in a sutra of
Chinese origin that is dated A.D. 1036, fourteen hundred years after the
Buddha’s time. This was the Sung period—a peak in the development of
Chinese culture when great anthologies, encyclopedias, and directories
were being produced. Myth, oral tradition, and sectarian justification
all played a role in this codification. The fable of the Buddha twirling
a flower filled a great need for connection with the founder, and it
was picked up immediately and repeated like gospel. The “Four
Principles” attributed to Bodhidharma were also formulated during the
Sung period, some six hundred years after Bodhidharma’s time, using some
of the same language attributed to the Buddha: “A special transmission
outside tradition—not established on words or letters.” The Sung
teachers were making important points with their myths.
During
World War II, I asked a Catholic priest who was interned with us, “What
if it could be proved that Jesus never lived?” He replied, “It would
destroy my faith.” That priest was very young at the time. I wonder what
became of him, and what he might be saying on the subject now.
Something a little different, I would suppose. I too was young at the
time, but I felt there was something wrong with his answer. I still
think so. I don’t believe it is very important whether Jesus and Buddha
and Moses were historical figures. True religious practice is grounded
in the nonhistorical fact of essential nature. “The World-Honored One
Twirls a Flower,” “Pai-chang's Fox,” and all the other fabulous cases of
Zen literature are your stories and mine, intimate accounts of our own
personal nature and experience.
Robert Aitken Roshi, The Gateless Barrier
While
the “literal” fact of formal Dharma-transmission can be used as
guidance for the intermediate student (e.g. a student that has come to
trust a teacher may find some assurance in that teacher’s sanction of
another), a Dharma-transmission certificate, even in a “trusted
lineage,” should not be regarded as guaranteeing a legitimate teacher.
When we do find an authentic teacher, we can usually trust their ability to recognize others who have the skills and
character needed to teach others. Nevertheless, we still need to check
it out for ourselves; after all, it is the great matter of life and
death.
In
any case, the true significance of Dharma-transmission is not about
lineage charts or certificates; it is about the transmission of wisdom (prajna) by wisdom, to wisdom. In Shobogenzo, Inmo,
Dogen describes the significance of transmission in the context of the
sixth ancestor of Zen, Huineng (Eno Daikan). After reminding us that
Huineng, though never exposed to the “eternal teachings” was “suddenly
illuminated” upon hearing a Buddhist scripture recited, Dogen goes on to
say:
This is just the truth of Those who have wisdom, if they hear [the Dharma]{truth}, Are able to believe and understand at once. This wisdom is neither learned from other people nor established by oneself: wisdom
is able to transmit wisdom, and wisdom directly searches out wisdom ...
It is beyond coming and beyond entering: it is like the spirit of
spring meeting springtime, for example. Wisdom is beyond intention and
wisdom is beyond no intention. Wisdom is beyond consciousness and wisdom
is beyond unconsciousness. How much less could it be related to the
great and the small? How much less could it be discussed in terms of
delusion and realization? The point is that although [the Sixth
Patriarch] does not even know what the Buddha Dharma {Buddhist teaching}
is, never having heard it before and so neither longing for it nor
aspiring to it, when he hears the Dharma, he makes light of his debt of
gratitude and forgets his own body and; such things happen because the
body-and-mind of those who have wisdom is already not their own. This is the state called able to believe and understand at once.
No-one knows how many rounds of life-and-death [people] spend, even
while possessing this wisdom, in futile dusty toil. They are like a
stone enveloping a jewel, the jewel not knowing that it is enveloped by a
stone, and the stone not knowing that it is enveloping a jewel. [When] a
human being recognizes this [jewel], a human being seizes it. This is
neither something that the jewel is expecting nor something that the
stone is awaiting: it does not require knowledge from the stone and it
is beyond thinking by the jewel. In other words, a human being and
wisdom do not know each other, but it seems that the truth is
unfailingly discerned by wisdom.
Shobogenzo, Inmo, Gudo Nishijima & Mike Cross
Dogen’s
words, “wisdom is able to transmit wisdom, and wisdom directly searches
out wisdom”, are a direct expression of Dharma-transmission itself.
Wisdom (prajna) is Buddha-Dharma (Buddhist truth); wisdom transmits wisdom and is received by wisdom. Huineng heard the wisdom transmitted by wisdom (from the Diamond Sutra), his innate wisdom was “able to believe and understand at once.”
The
jewel (wisdom) has been in the rock (body-mind) all along; the “rock”
realizes the “jewel” has been embodied all along. “[When] a human being
recognizes this [jewel], a human being seizes it.” Dharma-transmission
is really the activation of inherent wisdom by expressed wisdom. To “grasp” the truth expressed in a sutra or a koan,
is to actualize the fundamental point (genjokoan). That is
Dharma-transmission. Thus, Dogen says, “a human being and wisdom do not
know each other, but it seems that the truth is unfailingly discerned by
wisdom.”
In
Shobogenzo, Yui-Butsu-Yo-Butsu, he writes:
The
Buddha-Dharma cannot be known by people. For this reason, since ancient
times, no common man has realized the Buddha-Dharma and no-one in the
two vehicles has mastered the Buddha-Dharma. Because it is realized only
by buddhas, we say that buddhas alone, together with buddhas, are directly able perfectly to realize it.”
Shobogenzo, Yui-Butsu-Yo-Butsu, Gudo Nishijima & Mike Cross
This is Dharma-transmission. The Buddha-Dharma (wisdom) is transmitted by Buddha (wisdom) and realized (made real) by Buddha (wisdom). The “common man” is the “rock” (in Dogen’s earlier analogy);
when the jewel is revealed, the “rock” is already a “jewel” – when the
Buddha-Dharma is realized, the “common man” is already “Buddha.”
Peace,
Ted