Hongzhi Zhengjue

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Hongzhi Zhengjue (Chinese 宏 智 正覺, hóng zhì zhèng jué, W.-G. Hung-chih Cheng-chüeh; Japanese Wanshi Shōgaku) ​​(* 1091 in Xizhou in the Shanxi province in China ; † November 11, 1157 in Jingde Monastery on Tiantong Mountain in Zhejiang Province in China), was an important Chinese Chan master of the Caodong School (Chinese 曹洞宗, caódòng zōng; Japanese Sōtō-shū ) during the Song Dynasty .

Live and act

Hongzhi was born in 1091 to a family named Li in Xizhou in what is now Shanxi Province in China . Even as a child he was noticed by his great intelligence. His father, Congdao, was a lay student of Desun, a Chan monk of the Linji School. When he was 11, Hongzhi left home to become a Buddhist monk. His monk name was Zhengjue (True Awakening). At the age of 18 he studied with the Chan master of the Caodong School Kumu Faqeng (1071–1128), who was known for his strict meditation practice of immobile sitting. This silent sitting meditation by Kumu Faqeng was also called dry wood . After a few years with Kumu, Hongzhi wandered on to other Buddhist monasteries until, at the age of 23, he reached the monastery of the Chan master Danxia Zichun (1054–1119), who became his main teacher. He then followed Danxia as his chief monk and assistant to a monastery on Daqeng Mountain and later to a monastery on Dehong Mountain. In 1119 he received the seal of transmission from Danxia just before his death .

In the following years, Hongzhi wandered from monastery to monastery again, where he also met the Chan master Yuanwu Keqin , the author of the famous Gong-an collection Biyan-Lu (Japanese Hekiganroku ). In 1129, Hongzhi was appointed abbot at Jingde Monastery on Tiantong Mountain. This monastery was relatively small and dilapidated. Hongzhi was as well acquainted with Chinese culture as he was with the Chan tradition, and so his discourses attracted many monks, lay practitioners, and patrons. Over the years, Hongzhi's disciples were able to renovate and expand the Jingde Monastery, so that it eventually offered space for 1200 monks. Despite numerous invitations, Hongzhi did not leave his mountain monastery for 30 years. Shortly before his death, he took a little trip to thank and say goodbye to his most important sponsors. On November 10th, 1157, Hongzhi returned to his monastery, on November 11th he gave a farewell speech to his monks in the dharma hall of the monastery and then passed away in the meditation posture. Six months later, the emperor awarded him the posthumous honorary title of Hongzhi Chanshi ( Chan master broad wisdom ).

Hongzhi was an eminent Chan writer and poet. His collected works, the Extensive Notes of Chan Master Hongzhi, comprise nine volumes and were edited by his students after his death. From this collection, Hongzhi's best-known work is the large Gong-an collection Cong-rong Lu (Japanese Shôyôroku ). Many of his teachings and poems can be found in the Cultivating the Empty Field collection . A particular concern of Hongzhi's meditation practice and teaching was the meditation of serene reflection (默 照 禪, Chinese mò zhào chán, Japanese moku shō zen, English meditation of serene / silent reflection). A few decades after Hongzhi's death, the Japanese Buddhist monk Dōgen (1200-1253) studied and practiced this meditation in Hongzhi's Jingde Monastery on Tiantong Mountain under the Chan master Tiantong Rujing (天 童 如 浄, Japanese Tendō Nyojō , 1163-1228) of the serene reflection and founded on this basis after his return to Japan, modified by him and called Shikantaza , the Japanese Sōtō school of Zen . The major Chinese Buddhist scholar Prof. Chenji Zhang (Garma CC Chang, 1920-1988) also has a deep inner relationship of Hongzhi serene placid mirroring with the Indo-Tibetan Mahamudra pointed Meditation.

Hongzhi said goodbye to his students with the following death poem:

Dreams of illusions, flowers of fantasy -
Sixty-seven years.
A white bird disappears in the mist
The waters of autumn merge with the sky.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Taigen Dan Leighton: Cultivating the Empty Field. Tuttle Publishing, Boston, 2000.
  2. ↑ Xu Chuan Deng Lu ( The Later Record of the Transmission of the Lamp ) in Taishō Shinshū Daizōkyō , No. 2077, Vol. 51, p. 579, Tokyo, Taishō Issaikyō Kankōkai, 1924–1933.
  3. ↑ Hongzhi Chan Shi Guang Lu ( extensive records by Chan master Hongzhi ) in Taishō Shinshū Daizōkyō , No. 2001, Vol. 48. Tokyo, Taishō Issaikyō Kankōkai, 1924–1933.
  4. ^ Thomas Cleary: Book of Serenity. Shambhala Pub. Inc., Boston, 1988.
  5. ^ Dietrich Roloff: Cong-rong Lu. Notes from the Hermitage of Serenity. Windpferd Verlag, Oberstdorf, 2008.
  6. ↑ Taigen Dan Leighton: Cultivating the Empty Field . Kristkeitz Verlag, Heidelberg, 2009.
  7. ↑ Garma CC Chang: Mahamudra Primer - An Introduction to Tibetan Zen Buddhism. Octopus Verlag, Vienna, 1979.
  8. ↑ Chan Master Hongzhi: Cultivating the Empty Field
personal data
SURNAME Zhengjue, Hongzhi
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Shogaku, Wanshi
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Chinese Chan master of the Song Dynasty
DATE OF BIRTH 1091
PLACE OF BIRTH Xizhou in Shanxi Province , China
DATE OF DEATH November 11, 1157
Place of death Jingde Monastery, Tiantong Mountain, Zhejiang Province , China