RELG 253 Lecture Notes - Lecture 31: Ten Bulls, Rinzai School, Mazu Daoyi

• School: McGill University
• Department: Religious Studies
• Course: RELG 253
• Professor: Lisa M.Blake, Jingjing Li

Document Summary

First patriarch: bodhidharma; chan as a practice, very indian. Fifth patriarch: hongren; chan as chanting buddhist texts and guarding the mind, less practical. Sixth patriarch: huineng; chan as seeing one"s own nature, experiential, a mental state. Was the student of zen master shaku soen. Studied several years with the american scholar paul carus. Education background was unite international; not just japanese. Was able to write about zen in english and translate buddhist texts. This language ability facilitated his promoting and bringing zen buddhism to the world. Taught at otani and columbia university in late 50s. Inspired later zen promoters such as alan watts. Tries to debunk the idea of zen as something mystical. Does not ground itself in intellectualization or conceptualization. In 20th century, philosophy was divided into two traditions: analytical and continental philosophy. Analytical tradition: doing philosophy is like doing math; language, consciousness, mind