Cases Range Study

Zen Buddhism is a Chinese Buddhist sect of the most unique Chinese Buddhism, it influenced Chinese culture mostly and greatly, modern its affects also reach to the western countries. Zen Buddhism advocate "directly pointing to the heart, recognizing the nature and becoming a Buddha," together with the Pure Land Buddhism are known as the two Buddhist sects that fast become a Buddha. Although the Zen Buddhism advocated "do not rely upon textuality", in fact it left voluminous writings. Zen Buddhism has declined in the Qing Dynasty, but there were still two important works:"Teaching of Zen Buddhism" of Jie Xian and "The Paradigm of Zen Buddhism" which was edited by lay Buddhist Qian Yi'an.'The Paradigm of Zen Buddhism" was known as the boutique work of the Zen Buddhism works in the Qing Dynasty, then why did he edit this book? What did he want to express, what had he expressed, what does this expression show and what is its impact? These are problems what this study aims to solve.Though deep interpretation and analysis of "The Paradigm of Zen Buddhism", the achievements of this paper appear as follow:First, the edition motivation of "The Paradigm of Zen Buddhism" is to correct the ills of Zen Buddhism and establish "paradigm" for it.In the Qing Dynasty Zen Buddhism had been declined in many aspects, there had been many ills, Yi'an had been thought it was the right time must to correct it. For the problems of Zen Buddhist students do not practice, do not know the theory of Buddhist scriptures, muddleheaded, careless and general, he had proposed that must correct it with truly practicing, strictly holding on the Buddhist Commandment. "The Paradigm of Zen Buddhism" book reveals a right way which leading to the Zen practice, it had communicated the scriptures and Zen Sects, proposed that practice both Zen Buddhism and the Pure Land, settled in the Pure Land, this is treatment medicine that lay Buddhist Qian Yi'an had provided.Second, the "wonderful heart" is the editing clue of "The Paradigm of Zen Buddhism", is also the soul of the book.Zen Buddhism claimed "directly pointing to the heart, recognizing the nature and becoming a Buddha", own heart, own nature, Buddhist nature, are synonymous with wonderful heart. "The Paradigm of Zen Buddhism" take "wonderful heart" as " the soul" "the source "of Zen Buddhism, each chapter expand around recognizing the wonderful heart, practicing wonderful heart, enlightenment wonderful heart, delivering wonderful heart. Moreover, Yi'an communicated the scriptures and Sects, Zen Buddhism on the basis of wonderful heart.Third, an important contribution of''The Paradigm of Zen Buddhism" is that it summarize, analyze practice sequence, teaching methods of the Zen Buddhism.In my opinion, the Zen Buddhist cultivation in "The Paradigm of Zen Buddhism"is to recognize, practice and enlightenment the wonderful heart. According to this, lay Buddhist Qian Yi'an Buddhist thought "thoroughly practicing and reaching the real enlightmengt","adjusting and adapting habit energies", "reaching to the holy state" as the Zen Buddhist cultivation sequence, recruited a large number of information on the instructions of heart and nature, practices of heart and nature from many the Zen Buddhist works and made comments, these comments are the precious crystals of lay Buddhist Qian Yi'an in the terms of Zen thoughts and practices. Lay Buddhist Qian Yi'an praise highly HuaTou "where is the heart when no dreams no thoughts", he thought that man explore this HuaTou, practice hardly, fight to bad habits, it will enlightenment certainly and thoroughly, get the real benefit of Zen. He reveals the mistakes in practicing Zen which has an important reference value for religion, psychology.The teaching methods of Zen in "The Paradigm of Zen Buddhism", Yi'an arrange in the chapter "Benefit people", "Obvious Analogy ", "Function and Utility", in the chapter "Benefit people" Yi'an expressed concentrated Zen Buddhist teaching methods of his own, he analyzed the qualifications of Zen Buddhist teacher, endowment of the Zen Buddhist students, he thought should do not be restricted, should educate different object with different methods. He especially interested in government officials, ordinary lay Buddhist, low talent monks in internal Zen Buddhism, those who interested in Zen, he understand their difficulties, require Zen Buddhist teacher treat them kindly and differently, and showing the "wife Zen " colors.Obvious analogy and function are the language patterns and non-verbal mode of Zen Buddhist teaching. Although there are diverse forms of Zen teaching, Yi'an appraised highly on the plain and secure way. I think the mode of Zen language teaching that Yi'an mentioned mainly focus on direct instruction and imagery instruction; non-verbal mode of Zen Buddhist teaching have different kinds, such as stick and shout, holding the fist and lifting the whisk, raised eyebrows and angry blink, etc., according to participants, can be divided into two types, host meeting guest and teacher teaching students. For the teaching characteristics and ways of five Branches of Zen Sect, Yi'an also had collected and evaluated, the purpose is to point the right and good way to practice the Zen. Yi'an thought the differences of five Branches were only on the surface, their fundamental ideological were all the same.In addition,I compared The Paradigm of Zen Buddhism with Teaching of Zen Buddhism.The latter is the only work which specially discuss teaching art of Zen.The writer Jie Xian took teaching art of Zen as the art of war, summarized and developed Zen teaching methods of Linji Sanfeng sect. Compared Teaching of Zen Buddhism with The Paradigm of Zen Buddhism, we can find that the former's Zen style is more strict,and the latter is plain;the former just emphasizes masters'art and function in Zen teaching,the latter talks about all respects of Zen;the former shows Zen's uniqueness,and the latter manifests obvious tendency of communicating Zen and the Pure Land.Fourth, "The Paradigm of Zen Buddhism" reflects a history tend that it communicate the scriptures and Zen Sect, practice both Zen Buddhism and the Pure Land, settled in the Pure Land. Zen Sect is the most distinctive Buddhist sects in China, is a product of the exchange of the India culture and Chinese culture, and it also absorbed and combined the thought of Confucianism and Taoism, profoundly impacted the shaping of the cultural psychology of the Chinese nation. In China Confucianism is the official ideology, under this historical pattern, Buddhism move closer to Confucianism is a historical necessity, then the confluence of Zen Sect and other sects within Buddhism also easy to understand. With the strengthening of the feudal monarchy, Zen Sect bounded by it growing, gradually had been losing its own characteristics.The Pure Land Sect advocates saving by other powers, Zen Sect promotes self-salvation, the combination of the two Sects is to recognize the fundamental function of the "wonderful heart ", so the basis of confluence of the Zen and Pure Land is the perforation of the own heart awareness and orientation to Amitabha.Peng Jiqing, Qian Yi'an, Wei Yuan, Yang Wenhui were well-known lay Buddhist in the Qing dynasty who settled their hearts to the Pure Land, they persisted the way that realized oneself and others, benefited oneself and others and take the Pure Land as the ultimate salvation. The impact of Yi'an on future generations showed in two ways, first, through the "The Paradigm of Zen Buddhism " benefited Buddhist directly, second, through the Buddhist thought of Wei Yuan, Gong Zizhen and others benefited earthlings indirectly.There are following innovations in this paper: First, this is the first time to research the famous Zen Buddhist book of "The Paradigm of Zen Buddhism" in the Qing Dynasty specially, have analyzed the background of the book, writing intent, the main content, focused on the relationship and function between the modern Buddhist ideological trends of lay Buddhist and this book. In addition, compared The Paradigm of Zen Buddhism"and Teaching of Zen Buddhism,pointed out their common points and distinctions. It makes a little contribution to Buddhist Studies Zen studies and lay Buddhist studies in the Qing dynasty.Second, methodological innovation, through the use of knowledge of religion and psychology, Review the practice of the Zen Buddhism and examine the disease of Zen in "The Reference", stated the significance of The Paradigm of Zen Buddhismfor Zen scholars.