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Monday, November 30, 2015

Report on a talk on “Chan in Everyday Life” given by Zarko Andricevic

On Saturday, November 21st, there was a Dharma talk at DDVC on “Chan in Everyday Life”, presented by Zarko Andricevic from Croatia, who is a direct Dharma heir of Master Sheng Yen. He explained the cultural differences between China and India that led Chinese monks to abandon the practice of begging and become self-sufficient. The Chinese monastic system left less time for sitting meditation, so meditation began to be incorporated into working, farming and other chores.

In modern times, people tend to do everything in a rush. This creates tension, leading to superficial actions and alienation from our activities. Everything becomes one big chore. He emphasized the importance of bringing Chan practice from the insulated world of the Chan Hall into the chaotic realm of everyday life, this being a key goal of The Path.

Tso-ch'an of the Patriarchs

When pre-Ch'an masters practiced, they mostly used the methods given in the translated Hinayana sutras. For them, tso-ch'an referred to methods of sitting to attain samadhi. But among the later masters of Ch'an, the term was reserved for methods of attaining enlightenment without samadhi as an intermediate or final stage.

Roots of Tso-ch'an in India

In most spiritual traditions of India, the yogis practice dhyana to attain samadhi at its various levels. After years of austere practice as a yogi, the self-exiled Indian prince Siddhartha recognized that his realization was incomplete. He sat under the bodhi tree vowing not to rise until he had resolved the question of death and rebirth. Only when he became enlightened one evening, after seeing a bright star, did he rise. He had become the Buddha, the primal transmitter of Buddhism in our epoch. The Buddha's experience became the paradigm of tso-ch'an practice.

Tso-ch'an and Samadhi

The references above show that several centuries before the coming of the Ch'an school, tso-ch'an already reached a high state of development in China, both as a practice and a scriptural topic. These references also show the close association between tso-ch'an and samadhi in Chinese Buddhist practice prior to Ch'an.

Origins of the Term Tso-ch'an

The Chinese term tso-ch'an 坐禪(zazen) was in use among Buddhist practitioners even before the appearance of the Ch'an (Zen) School. Embedded in the term is the word ch'an, a derivative of the Indian dhyana, which is the yogic practice of attaining samadhi in meditation. Literally translated, tso-ch'an means "sitting ch'an" and has a comprehensive and a specific meaning. The comprehensive meaning refers to any type of meditation practice based on taking the sitting posture. The specific meaning refers to the methods of practice that characterize Ch'an Buddhism.

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