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南宗禪

Pronunciations

Basic Meaning: Southern School of Chan

Senses:

  • The Southern transmission of Chan, for which Huineng 慧能 has been established as the founder, as distinguished from the Northern school, which the Chan tradition attributes founding to Shenxiu 神秀. The main distinctive aspect of the Southern school was its emphasis, based on the Platform Sutra, on the suddenness of the enlightenment experience, as distinguished from the gradualistic emphasis attributed to the Northern school. This is reflected in the oft-cited phrase 南頓北漸 'southern sudden, northern gradual.' Cf. 北宗禪. [Charles Muller]
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    [Dictionary References]

    Bukkyō jiten (Ui) 802

    Zengaku daijiten (Komazawa U.) 969c

    A Glossary of Zen Terms (Inagaki) 59

    Japanese-English Buddhist Dictionary (Daitō shuppansha) 210a/234

    Bukkyōgo daijiten (Nakamura) 1036a

    Fo Guang Dictionary 3740

    Bukkyō daijiten (Mochizuki) (v.9-10)745c,763a

    Copyright provisions

    The rights to textual segments (nodes) of the DDB are owned by the author indicated in the brackets next to each segment. For rights regarding the compilation as a whole, please contact Charles Muller. Please do not reproduce without permission. And please do not copy into Wikipedia without proper citation!

    Entry created: 2007-01-09

    Updated: 2009-05-25