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KANHWA SŎN CONCEPTS & KEYWORDS

KANHWA SŎN CONCEPTS & KEYWORDS
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Sŏn or Seon 선. Korean spellings for the Chinese word Chán 禅 (J = Zen). Sŏn/Seon means "meditation" and refers to the meditation practices and teachings that arose from the Chinese Chán tradition, whose patriarch is Bodhidharma (C = Dámó 達磨 , K = Talma 달마, J = Daruma 達磨). Bodhidharma was an Indian sage who lived sometime in the fifth or sixth century CE. He is considered the founder of Chán Buddhism and credited with Chán's introduction to China. Bodhidharma's philosophy developed first in China. It then rose to prominence in Korea around the ninth century (see Korea's Nine Mountain Schools of Seon below) and began to bloom in Japan during the Kamakura period (1185-1333). In Korea it is called Sŏn/Seon, while in Japan it is called Zen. Says Mario Poceski (University of Florida): "Among the key features that came to characterize Chan (Sŏn/Zen) 禪 Buddhism in Song China (960-1279), a period during which the Chan school consolidated its position as the main tradition of elite Buddhism, was the development of distinctive paradigms of contemplative praxis, especially the kànhuà 看話 ("observing the critical phrase") technique of Chan meditation. This distinctive type of meditation practice -- whose emergence was closely related to the creation of unique types of Chan literature, especially the various gōngàn 公案 ("public case") collections -- was originally popularized by major Chan figures such as Dàhuì Zōnggǎo 大慧宗杲 (1089–1163). Before long, Kànhuà Chán or Kanhwa Sŏn 看話禪 was also introduced to Koryŏ Korea 高麗 (918-1392) through the efforts of eminent Korean monks such as Pojo Chinul 普照智 (1158-1210; K = 보조지눌), and to this day it remains one of the central elements of Korean Buddhism. (Note -- similar techniques were introduced into Kamakura Japan (1185-1333), where it became especially identified with the Rinzai 臨濟 sect.) Ever since, this kind of contemplative practice, along with other variations on similar themes, have exerted pervasive impact on Buddhism in Korea (and other parts of East Asia) as a major method of spiritual cultivation." <source: Development of Chan (Sŏn) Approaches to Meditative Praxis during the Tang Era, by Mario Poceski, pp. 62-81, in Volume Two of "Ganhwa Seon in the History of Buddhist Thought, The 3rd International Conference on Ganhwa Seon," held on June 23-24, 2012, at Dongguk University, Seoul, Korea.

Kanhwa Sŏn or Ganhwa Seon 간화선 (C = Kànhuà Chán 看話禪, J = Kanna Zen or Kanwa Zen). Literally "phrase-observing meditation." Says the Digital Dictionary of Buddhism (sign in with user name = guest): "Gongan (J. kōan) contemplation; a Chan/Seon/Zen meditation method that seeks direct attainment of enlightenment through investigation of the 'keyword' (Ch. huàtóu; K. hwadu, 話頭). This Chan approach was first popularized by the Chinese Linji 臨濟 monk Dahui 大慧, who taught this method to be superior to the competing Caódòng 曹洞 approach to meditation, known as 'silent illumination meditation' 默照禪. Throughout the subsequent history of East Asian Buddhism, phrase-observing meditation would be associated with Linji/Imje/Rinzai, while silent illumination became the main method of Caodong/Sōtō. 看 means 'to see' and 話 means a question. Here 'seeing,' means for the practitioner to probe deeply into the doubts in his own mind, as the key word points to the place where thoughts arise. In Korean Seon it is often applied as a synonym for gong-an 公案 , but precisely speaking, the two are different. While gong-an refers to an entire exchange, usually a dialogue between Master and student, hwadu refers to the core issue. Originally in China gong-an meant a precedent in a public case, while in Chan/Seon/Zen training it refers to a realized teaching pointing to the nature of ultimate reality. The gong-an is characterized as a conundrum which cannot be solved by discursive understanding, yet with diligent practice it makes clear the limitations of thought and eventually forces the student to go beyond logical contradictions and dualistic modes of thought. Hwadu is the word or expression into which a gong-an resolves itself through struggle with it as a means of spiritual training. For instance, in the very famous gong-an 'Zhaozhou's Dog,' 趙州狗子 the word mu ('no,' 'is not' 無) is the hwadu. In hwadu practice the practitioner is understood to be directly apprehending his original nature 本性 (or buddha-nature 佛性 ). This is why it is referred to as 'seeing original nature and accomplishing Buddhahood' 見性成佛 . The method is seen as a means of access to sudden enlightenment which is revealed at the moment the practitioner breaks open his or her hwadu, thus 'leaping over thousands of teachings of Buddha and successive Chan masters.' The ganhwa approach has been popular in China and Korea, and in recent times is gaining popularity in Western countries. [O.B. Chun]"

kanhua Chan. (J. kannazen/kanwazen; K. kanhwa Sŏn 看話禪). In Chinese, “Chan of investigating the topic of inquiry,” or more freely, “questioning meditation.” The systematization of this meditative practice is commonly traced back to the writings of the Song-dynasty Chan master Dahui Zonggao. The kanhua Chan technique grew out of the growing interest in the study of “public cases” (gong'an), viz., old stories, and anecdotes of Chan masters, which flourished during the Song dynasty. Dahui's teacher Yuanwu Keqin is also known to have lectured on numerous public cases, and his collection of gong'an, along with his analysis of them, was recorded in the famous collection the Blue Cliff Records (Biyan lu). Dahui further elaborated upon Yuanwu's investigation of public cases and applied this process to the practice of Chan meditation. In his lectures and letters (Dahui Pujue chanshi shu), Dahui urged his students (many of whom were educated literati) to use the gong'an as a “topic of meditative inquiry” (huatou, K. hwadu), rather than interpret it from purely intellectual or conceptual perspectives. Perhaps the most famous huatou is the topic “no” (wu) attributed to the Chan master Zhaozhou Congshen: A monk asked Zhaozhou, “Does a dog have buddha-nature (foxing), or not?” to which Zhaozhou replied “wu” (“no”; lit. “it does not have it”). (See wu gong'an; gouzi wu foxing.) (Because of the popularity of this one-word meditative topic, kanhua Chan is often interpreted to mean the investigation of the “critical phrase” or “keyword,” in which the “keyword” “wu” is presumed to have been extracted from the longer gong'an exchange.) The investigation of this huatou starts by “investigating the meaning” (C. canyi; K. ch'amŭi) of the huatou: what could Zhaozhou have meant by answering “no” to this question, when the right answer should be “yes”? The mainstream of East Asian Buddhist doctrine insists that all sentient beings, including dogs, are inherently enlightened and thus do in fact possess the buddha-nature, so this question promotes inquiry. Examining what Zhaozhou might have meant by saying “no” has what Dahui termed “taste” (C. wei, K. mi), meaning intellectual interest. As one's intellectual inquiry into this question continues, however, the student is ultimately left with “doubt” (yiqing), viz., the inability of the (unenlightened) mind to understand Zhaozhou's motive in giving this response to the student's question. Doubt, Dahui says, renders the mind “puzzled, frustrated, and tasteless (viz., “lacking intellectual interest”), just as if you were gnawing on an iron rod.” Once doubt arises, there is no longer any conceptual support for the meditation, and the student moves on to “investigating the word” (C. canju; K. ch'amgu), viz., just sitting with the huatou wu and no longer trying to understand Zhaozhou's motive in offering this response. At this point, the huatou becomes a “live word” (C. huoju; K. hwalgu) that helps to free the mind from conceptualization and to lead the meditator forward toward liberation. As the sense of doubt becomes more and more intense, it finally “explodes” (C. po; K. p'a) bringing an end to the deluded processes of thought and removing the limiting point of view that is the self. Once the distinctions between self and other disintegrate, the meditator experiences the interconnection between him- or herself and all the phenomena in the universe (shishi wuai). Kanhua Chan, therefore, employs the inevitable doubt that a benighted person would have about the sayings of the enlightened Chan masters of old to create a powerful sense of inquiry that leads the meditator toward the experience of nonconceptualization and finally enlightenment.
Dahui's system of kanhua Chan was first taught in Korea by Pojo Chinul, where it is known as kanhwa Sŏn, and popularized by Chinul's successor, Chin'gak Hyesim. Kanhwa Sŏn continues to be the most popular contemplative technique practiced in Korean Sŏn halls. Korean Sŏn monks typically work on one hwadu—often Zhaozhou's “no”—for much of their career, continually deepening their experience of that topic. In China, after the Ming dynasty, kanhua Chan merged with the recitation of the buddha Amitābha 's name (nianfo), so that Chan meditators would turn the recitation into a huatou by reflecting on the topic: “Who is reciting the Buddha's name?” In Japanese Zen, due in large part to the efforts of Hakuin Ekaku and his disciples, kannazen became widespread within the Rinzai Zen tradition, where it was incorporated into an elaborate system of kōan training, involving the systematic investigation of many different kōans. [The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism]

Hwadu 화두 (C = Huàtóu 話頭, J = Watō). Literally "key phrase, principal theme." Says the Digital Dictionary of Buddhism (sign in with user name = guest): The 'critical phrase,' 'principal theme,' of the larger gōngàn/gong-an/kōan exchange. The classic example is the longer gōngàn. "A monk asked Zhaozhou 趙州 , 'Does a dog have buddha-nature 佛性 , or not?' Zhaozhou answered, 'It doesn't have it (wu/mu/mu 無)' " (more commonly translated as 'no'). 〔無門關 T 2005.48.292c23〕 The gong'an is the whole exchange, the huatou/watō/hwadu is the word wu/mu/mu. The hwadu is the focus of a sustained investigation, via a more discursive examination of the question, "Why did Zhaozhou say a dog doesn't have the buddha-nature when the answer clearly should be that it does?," which is called 'investigation of the meaning;' this investigation helps to generate questioning or 'doubt,' which is the force that drives this type of practice forward. As that investigation matures, it changes into a nondiscursive attention to just the word 'no' itself, which is called 'investigation of the word' 看話 (K. ganhwa) because the meditator's attention is then thoroughly absorbed in this ' sensation of doubt.' This type of investigation is said to be nonconceptual and places the meditation at the 'access to realization,' viz. 'sudden awakening.' The most sustained treatment of the use of hwadu in Chan/Zen/Seon meditation appears in the Korean tradition and 'Keyword Meditation' (ganhwa Seon 看話禪) remains the principal type of meditation practiced in contemporary Korean Buddhism. There is extensive discussion of the Korean monk Jinul's ( 知訥 1158-1210) treatment of ganhwa Seon in R. Buswell, Tracing Back the Radiance; Jinul's extensive treatise "Resolving Doubts about Observing the Hwadu," appears in the earlier unabridged version of that book, The Korean Approach to Zen: The Collected Works of Chinul. Buswell has also published a chapter on the contemporary practice of ganhwa Seon in The Zen Monastic Experience. Note that 'keywords' are to be distinguished from the 'capping phrases' or 'annotations' (J. jakugo, C. zhuoyu/zhuyu, K. chag-eo 著語). These capping phrases abound in several early Chinese gong'an collections, but after the time of Daitō Kokushi (Shūhō Myōchō; 1282-1337 宗峯妙超) they become especially emblematic of the Japanese Rinzai Zen school's approach to kōan training. 'Capping phrases' are brief phrases, often taken from Chinese literature, which are intended to offer an 'annotation' or 'comment' to a specific Zen or kōan, either to express one's own enlightened understanding or to catalyze insight in another; they are not the 'keyword' of that kōan. The Korean tradition doesn't seem to have ever used 'capping phrases.' See also 公案 and 看話禪 .

Gong-an 공안 (C = Gōngàn 公案 , J = Kōan). Literally "public notice," but appropriated as a Buddhist meditation device. Says the Digital Dictionary of Buddhism (sign in with user name = guest): "A public notice, issued by, or dealt with by a Chinese government office. The term was appropriated by Chinese Chan 禪宗 Buddhism, where it was used to refer to a specific Buddhist meditation device, distinguished from the traditional Indian Buddhist forms of meditation such as śamatha/vipaśyanā 止觀. Gong'an meditation (in the West, more commonly known by the name of its Japanese rendering, kōan) usually consists of the presentation of a problem drawn from classical texts, or from teaching records and hagiographies of Tang and Song period Chinese Chan masters. After the case is presented, a question is asked regarding a key phrase (話頭) in the story, which usually presents a position that contradicts accepted Buddhist doctrinal positions or everyday logic. Its purpose is not to elicit a rational answer, but to serve as a focal point for a dynamic form of contemplation, which results in a nondualistic experience. After being developed in China, this practice spread to Korea as gong-an, where it has remained a prominent form of meditation in Korean Seon schools (mainly Jogye 曹溪宗 ) down to the present. In Japan, kōan meditation has been practiced mainly by the Rinzai school 臨濟宗 , although certain Sōtō 曹洞宗 teachers like Dōgen 道元 did acknowledge the practice. Gongans are contained in edited collections, two of the most popular of which are the Wumen guan 無門關 and the Biyan lu 碧巖錄. For a volume study of the historical background of gong'an in China and Japan see Heine and Wright The Kōan: Texts and Contexts in Zen Buddhism (Oxford UP, 2000).

Jogye or Chogye 조계종 (C = 曹溪宗 Caóxī zōng, J = Sōkei shū). The Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism 대한불교조계종 (C = 大韓佛敎曹溪宗) is the predominant school of Korean Buddhism. It stresses meditation and sudden enlightenment, but also includes scriptural study. It traces it origins back to Bodhidharma, an Indian sage who lived sometime in the fifth or sixth century AD and is considered the founder of Chán Buddhism 禅. See details above under Sŏn or Seon.

PDF: The Transformation of Doubt (Ŭijŏng 疑情) in Kanhwa Sŏn 看話禪: The Testimony of Gaofeng Yuanmiao 高峰原妙 (1238-1295)
by Prof. Robert E. Buswell , Jr.

PDF: Gradual Experiences of Sudden Enlightenment: The Varieties of Ganhwa Seon Teachings in Contemporary Korea
by Ryan Bongseok Joo
The Teachings of 송담 / 松潭 Songdam (1929-), 성철 / 性徹 Seongcheol (1912-1993), and 수불 / 修弗 Subul (b. 1953); paper delivered at the 2011, AAS conference in Honolulu, Hawaii. The three modern Korean Zen teachers discussed in this paper seem concerned with the state of the student before the awakening moment rather than after, as is common with Japanese and Chinese Zen traditions, where the student is given “checking questions” to determine the depth of their experience.

Western Buddhists, who were introduced to Korean Seon (Jp. Zen, Ch. Chan 禪) Buddhism through Seung Sahn sunim (1927-2004), might find it surprising that gong'an (Jp. kōan 公案 ) meditation practice is taught quite differently in Korea from the way Seung Sahn sunim trained his disciples in the West. For instance, Seon masters in Korea generally do not ask their student to resolve a series of different gong'an gates like the way Seung Sahn sunim did. Instead, meditating on a single gong'an is considered sufficient in itself to bring the student to full awakening. It is also not a common practice to allot one-on-one private interview (Jp. dokusan 独参 ) time with a Seon master as part of the daily training schedule in a Korean monastery; although students can certainly meet with their teacher after having a breakthrough experience or when facing a difficult internal obstacle outside the regular monastic schedule. For native Korean Buddhists, it has been an open secret that Seung Sahn sunim heavily adopted the Japanese Rinzai Zen style in his teaching of gong'an practice, which was familiar to his Western disciples, but foreign to most Korean Buddhists. In this paper, I would like to introduce the other side, the teachings of gong'an practices by contemporary Korean Seon masters in Korea, which would be familiar to Korean Buddhists, but probably new to many Western readers. I choose to focus on the teachings of three masters─Songdam sunim (b. 1929), Seongcheol sunim (1912-1993) and Subul sunim (b. 1953)─not only for their eminence and scope of influence among contemporary Korean Buddhists, but also for their range of different interpretations and approaches to the gong'an practice. Various English verbs have been used to describe the act of “investigating into,” “ruminating upon,” or “concentrating on” the critical phrase of a gong'an, called hwadu (Ch. huatou, Jp. wato 話頭). I am particularly interested in examining the precise meaning of the act of “meditating on” a hwadu according to these Korean masters. In addition, in spite of the ruling orthodoxy of “sudden enlightenment” in the Korean Seon tradition, which disparages any attempt to present the path to enlightenment in a gradual way, Korean masters, nevertheless, have expounded different stages that most practitioners experience prior to sudden awakening. I will discuss their descriptions of the pre-enlightenment experience while arguing that a student's awakening is often tested by their Seon master, not based on what happened after enlightenment, but rather based on the experience leading up to enlightenment. Lastly, I will visit the contemporary discussion of gong'an practice in the West and discuss the pitfalls of imagining a uniformity of gong'an practices largely based on the Japanese Rinzai Zen model.
http://buddhism.lib.ntu.edu.tw/BDLM/toModule.do?prefix=/search&page=/search_detail.jsp?seq=377556