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安俊泳 Juhn Y. Ahn
안준영 Ahn, Juhn-young / An Jun-yeong
Juhn Y. Ahn
Malady of Meditation: A Prolegomenon to the Study of Illness and Zen
PhD dissertation, University of California at Berkeley, ProQuest, 2007, 400 pages
I study death, illness, and Buddhism in East Asia. In my doctoral thesis I examined something called the “malady of meditation.” This is a “malady” or “defect” that continued to trouble Buddhist meditators in East Asia for centuries. I was particularly interested in the transformation of this malady or defect over time. In a number of different publications I tried to explain this transformation by situating the changing views of the malady of meditation in their proper historical contexts. I focused specifically on two Buddhist monks who spoke extensively about the malady of meditation: the Chinese Buddhist monk Dahui Zonggao (1089-1163) and the Japanese Buddhist monk Hakuin Ekaku (1686-1769). What drew me to these two towering figures of Chan and Zen is not only the critical role that they played in shaping the discourse about the malady of meditation but also their efforts to use the malady to make sense of problems associated with changing habits of reading among students of Chan and Zen.
This dissertation explores the relation between illness and Zen by focusing on the topic of the malady of meditation (zenbyo). Reconstruction of this relation will proceed in rough chronological order. Chapter One of this dissertation, for instance, shows how the oft-used metaphors of medicine and illness in early Buddhist scriptures were turned on their heads for the purpose of addressing a problem inherent to the notion of the emptiness of emptiness. Chapter Two offers a close examination of key metaphors for emptiness and no mind---the great death, rest, relaxation, cold ashes, withered trees, and silent illumination---and shows that these metaphors had come to be met with suspicion sometime between the late Tang (755--907) and early Song (960--1127). This shift in understanding was, I argue, accompanied by the emergence of a new Buddhist genre known as the encounter dialogue and the appearance of a more general, hermeneutic predicament that early Song exegetes took to be the defining characteristic of the encounter dialogue genre as a whole. These same exegetes argued that one could overcome this predicament by taking the words and deeds that the ancient masters used to distance themselves from, say, the great death and make them one's own.
Contents
Chapter One Getting Sick Over Nothing
Chapter Two To Death and Back Again
Chapter Three On Knowing the Way for Oneself
Chapter Four Beating the Poisonous Drum
Chapter Five Zen and the Art of Nourishing Life
EpiloguePDF: Meditation Sickness
by Juhn Y. Ahn
The Oxford Handbook of Meditation, 2018
PDF: Zen and the Art of Nourishing Life Labor, Exhaustion, and the Malady of Meditation
Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 35/2: 177–229 © 2008 Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture
by
Juhn Y. Ahn
PDF: Who Has the Last Word in Chan? Transmission, Secrecy and Reading During the Northern Song Dynasty
by Juhn Y. Ahn
Journal of Chinese Religions, 37 (2009), pp. 1-71.
PDF: Hakuin
by Juhn Y. Ahn
In: Dao Companions to Chinese Philosophy, Volume 8. 2019, Pages 511-535
PDF: Buddhas and ancestors : religion and wealth in fourteenth-century Korea
by Juhn Y. Ahn
Seattle : University of Washington Press, 2018.
PDF: Ch. 8. Pure Rules and Public Monasteries in Korea
by Juhn Y. Ahn
In: Approaches to Chan, Sŏn, and Zen studies: Chinese Chan Buddhism and its spread throughout East Asia
Edited by Albert Welter, Steven Heine, and Jin Y. Park
Albany: State University of New York Press, 2022. pp. 215ff
Juhn Ahn 安俊泳 (University of Michigan):
“The Chigong hwasang sŏnyorok 指空和尚禪要錄 and the Question of Authenticity in Fourteenth-Century Sŏn Buddhism”
https://frogbear.org/from-the-caoxi-creek-to-mogao-cave-abstracts/
Naong Hyegŭn 懶翁慧勤 (1320-1376), a renowned Sŏn master who was active in Koryŏ Korea during the Yuan-Ming transition, has been the subject of recent scholarly debate. Shortly after his awakening in 1347, Naong left for Dadu where he studied under the Indian monk 指空 Zhikong (K. Chigong; S. Śūnyādiśya) for two years. In 1350, Naong left Dadu and headed south to go on pilgrimage. During this pilgrimage, he encountered and received tokens of transmission from Chan master Pingshan Chulin 平山處林 (1279-1361). Although Naong’s awakening was recognized by both Zhikong and Chulin, transmission records produced later in Korea consistently record Naong as the latter’s dharma heir. In his study of Zhikong, Korean buddhologist Hŏ Hŭng-sik raises the possibility of using the Yuan-Ming and Koryŏ-Chosŏn transition to make sense of this effort to paint Naong as Chulin’s heir. In this paper, I hope to develop Hŏ’s thesis further and explore the historical implications of Naong’s dual North-South or Indian-Chinese lineage by taking another close look at the Chigong hwasang sŏnyorok 指空和尚禪要錄 (Record of Sŏn Essentials by the Venerable Chigong), which only survives in Korea in manuscript form.
Have a Korean Lineage and Transmit a Chinese One Too: Lineage Practices in Seon Buddhism
by Juhn Y. Ahn
Journal of Chan Buddhism, Volume 1: Issue 1-2, Pages: 178–209.
Today, Korean dharma lineages all trace themselves back to Seosan Hyujeong 西山休靜 (1520–1604). Although some claim that Hyujeong’s own lineage should be traced back to Taego Bou 太古普愚 (1301–1382), others claim that it should be traced back to Naong Hyegeun 懶翁慧勤 (1320–1376) instead. The present article will demonstrate that both claims are flawed. They fail to take an important fact into account: the assumptions that guided lineage practices in the fourteenth century were no longer guiding lineage practices in the seventeenth century, which is when both claims were first made. Attempts to trace Hyujeong’s lineage to either Taego or Naong mistakenly accept the veracity of seventeenth-century lineage claims and assumptions. In pre-seventeenth century Korea Seon masters who received dharma transmission in China officially recognized not only their Chinese Chan lineage but also their Korean Seon lineage(s). As shown in this article, there was nothing wrong with having two or more dharma lineages in Korea. Hyegeun is a good example. He claimed to have inherited two different dharma lineages and may have even had a third. Hyegeun’s lineage began to lose favor, this article argues, because it did not accord with the new assumptions that began to guide lineage practices in seventeenth-century Korea.
The Collected Works of Korean Buddhism
© 2012 by Compilation Committee of Korean Buddhist Thought, Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism
7. VOLUME 7-1: 公案集 GONGAN COLLECTIONS I
One hundred gongan (koan) have been selected from the 1463 gongan of the Seonmun yeomsong seolhwa.
The first fifty gongan and associated explanations have been translated by Professor Juhn Y. Ahn, the second fifty by Dr. John Jorgensen.
http://www.international.ucla.edu/media/files/07-1_Gongan_I_web-py-zjw.pdf
POPULAR CONCEPTIONS OF ZEN
by Juhn Ahn
Encyclopedia of Buddhism
edited by Robert E. Buswell, Jr. (2003), pp. 923-925.
Zen is the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese char-
acter chan, itself a truncated transliteration of the San-
skrit term DHYANA (TRANCE STATE). In contemporary
Japan, three monastic traditions, the Rinzai, Soto, and
Obaku, now use the term to identify themselves as
belonging to the common heritage of the CHAN
SCHOOL, which they call Zen (zenshu). The word Zen,
however, has also become part of the secular lexicon.
Often appearing in the form of “the Zen of x” or “Zen
and the art of x,” the idea of Zen is pervasive in pop-
ular culture. In this context, Zen often denotes a
sense of liberation, spontaneity, and oneness with the
world that can be sought not only in highly techni-
cal forms of meditative practice but also in archery,
gardening, tea ceremonies, and even the most mun-
dane matters, such as motorcycle maintenance. No
longer referring in a more technical sense to any spe-
cific Buddhist tradition in Asia, Zen is, as Alan Watts
(1915–1973) puts it, “an ultimate standpoint from
which ‘anything goes.’
”This highly romanticized vision of Zen owes much
to the writings of D.T. Suzuki (1870–1966) and Beat
generation authors, such as Watts, Gary Snyder
(1930– ), Jack Kerouac (1922–1969), and Allen Gins-
berg (1926–1997). In his now classic novel, The
Dharma Bums, Kerouac, for instance, sings of a “ruck-
sack revolution” led by young American “Zen lu-
natics” armed with nothing but poetry and “visions
of eternal freedom.” Above all else, those who pro-
moted this ideal of Zen as an alternative lifestyle
vehemently opposed the rampant consumerism, ma-
terialism, and positivism of mid- to late-twentieth-
century America and bemoaned the growing sense of
alienation from nature and spirituality. Beatniks, hip-
pies, and countercultural intellectuals celebrated a
new “Zen” spirituality that ostensibly relied less on
rational thought and more on the immediate, “mys-
tical” experience of being.
Historians generally locate the origins of this par-
ticular understanding of Zen in a Buddhist reform
movement that took place in Meiji (1868–1912) and
post-Meiji Japan. Shortly after the emperor was re-
stored to power in 1868, Buddhism came under heavy
attack as a foreign, corrupt, and superstitious creed. As
a result, numerous temples were abandoned and thou-
sands of monks were returned to lay status under the
slogan of haibutsu kishaku, “exterminate Buddhism
and destroy Sakyamuni.” In response to this threat,
Zen apologists sought to defend their faith by advo-
cating what they called a New Buddhism (shin bukkyo)
that was thoroughly modern, nonsectarian, and so-
cially engaged. In order to demonstrate their support
of the colonial policies and military expansion of the
newfound Japanese empire, adherents of New Bud-
dhism went so far as to portray their new faith as con-
sistent with bushido (the way of the warrior), which
they defined as the essence of Japanese culture.
A leading figure of this movement was the Rinzai
priest Shaku Sōen (1860-1919) who, in 1893, visited
Chicago as a representative of Zen at the World Par-
liament of Religions. In his Sermons of a Buddhist Ab-
bot, the first book on Zen to appear in English, Soen
presented Buddhism as a rational and scientific reli-
gion well-suited to modern sensibilities. As in the case
of all other so-called universal religions, Zen was no
longer a strictly clerical concern but rather a spiritual
insight accessible to all. Like his teacher Imakita Kōsen
(1816–1892) before him, Soen taught lay dis-
ciples at a zazen (seated meditation) society known as
Ryomokyokai in Tokyo and at the monastery En-
gakuji in Kamakura, where he served as abbot. Among
those who found themselves studying meditation un-
der Soen at Engakuji was the young D. T. Suzuki.
With the help of Paul Carus (1852–1919), a strong
proponent of “religion of science,” Suzuki carried on
Soen’s efforts to bring Zen into the modern world.
Drawing upon the notion of “pure experience” (jun-
sui keiken) from the writings of the American philoso-
pher William James (1842–1910) and Nishida Kitarō
(1870–1945), Suzuki moved beyond Carus’s and
Soen’s interest in the unity of rationality and faith and
began to emphasize instead the importance of a mys-
tical experience that underlies all religious truth. As the
unmediated, direct experience of being, or what he
called “isness” (kono mama), Zen experience, accord-
ing to Suzuki, was beyond dualism and intellectual-
ization, and hence was superior to all other forms of
religious experience. Furthermore, by identifying Zen
experience with the uniqueness of Japanese culture
Suzuki was able to firmly establish a nationalistic dis-
course couched in seemingly benign and universalistic
religious terms.
Hisamatsu Shin'ichi (1889-1980), a fellow Zen na-
tionalist, similarly argued that the Japanese mind, un-
like the discursive and logical mind of the West, was
predisposed toward an “intuitive” mode of under-
standing and an innate love for nature and tranquility.
Despite the lack of historical evidence to substantiate
their claims, Suzuki and Hisamatsu described tradi-
tional Japanese art, most notably haiku poetry, stone
gardens, and Noh drama, as quintessential expressions
of Zen awakening (SATORI). For both Suzuki and Hisa-
matsu, Zen, and therefore Japanese culture, are unique
in that they express the experience of awakening di-
rectly and immediately without having recourse to es-
tablished conventions or discursive thought.
As cultural relativism and gnosticism displaced ra-
tionalism and Judeo-Christian values as the reigning
ideology among twentieth-century intellectuals, many
Americans and Europeans increasingly sought a viable
alternative in Zen, oblivious of its nationalistic and
racist overtones. The transcultural, unmediated status
of Zen mysticism, for instance, offered dismayed
Catholics like Kerouac an alternative to their own sti-
fling tradition, yet paradoxically allowed them to re-
main loyal to their original faith. Similarly, large
communities of lay practitioners who had little or no
interest in monasticism flocked to Zen centers estab-
lished by Yasutani Hakuun (1885-1973) and by his
American disciples Philip Kapleau (1912-2004) and
Robert Aitken (1917-2010), where the rapid attainment
of kensho (seeing one’s true nature) and its certifica-
tion known as inka were the only priority. This, how-
ever, stood in stark contrast to the disciplined lifestyle
of a traditional Zen monk for whom such a certifica-
tion bears more of an institutional than a personal sig-
nificance. Zen, as we know it in the West, is thus
significantly different from its more traditional coun-
terpart; this difference, as we have seen, emerged from
a cross-cultural dialogue that belongs exclusively nei-
ther to Japan nor to the West.
