Digital Dictionary of Buddhism

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默照禪

Pronunciations

Basic Meaning: silent illumination meditation

Senses:

  • A description of the meditation practice taught by the Chinese Caodong Chan master Hongzhi Zhengjue 宏智正覺 (1091–1157), wherein the complete stillness of the mind would allow for the awakening of enlightened wisdom. This type of meditation became the main practice of the Sōtō Zen school, where Dōgen characterized it by such terms of as 'just sitting'  只管打坐. Dahui Zonggao 大慧宗杲 of the Linji lineage criticized this approach, teaching instead the Chan of phrase-investigation 看話禪, wherein the practitioner was to investigate the key phrase 話頭 of an ancient precedent gong-an. In Japan, this approach was criticized by such masters as Hakuin 白隱. [Charles Muller; source(s): Ui, Nakamura, JEBD, Yokoi, Iwanami]
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    [Dictionary References]

    Chūgoku bukkyōshi jiten (Kamata) 382

    Bukkyō jiten (Ui) 1056

    Zengaku daijiten (Komazawa U.) 1225d

    Iwanami bukkyō jiten 797

    A Glossary of Zen Terms (Inagaki) 238

    Japanese-English Buddhist Dictionary (Daitō shuppansha) 199b/222

    Japanese-English Zen Buddhist Dictionary (Yokoi) 459

    Zen Dust (Sasaki) 165

    Bukkyōgo daijiten (Nakamura) 1366d

    Fo Guang Dictionary 6374

    Bukkyō daijiten (Mochizuki) (v.1-6)4870a,2968c,3096b, (v.9-10)1093c,702b

    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: 2007-01-01

    Updated: 2019-12-22