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FOLLOWING TRACES: THE TEN OX-HERDING PICTURES AND RINZAI ZEN IN NORTH AMERICA EDWARD A. S. ROSS UNIVERSITY OF READING [email protected] tudents find themselves following a winding cultures which it met. When Zen Buddhism S gravel road through the dense Catskills reached North America, it was no exception to forest. They do not know what they are looking this phenomenon. In the case of DBZ, North for, but there is a sense that coming to this Americans have taken a particular interest in the mountain will help them find an answer. Slowly philosophical, direct experience of meditative the student rises up the mountain, past streams practice. Their understanding of the meditative and signs. Buddha statues begin to appear on the path of Buddhist practice differs slightly from sides of the road, and the student knows that that of their Japanese counterparts. By something is coming up very soon. Suddenly, the examining a common Buddhist allegory for forest bursts open into a lake. By looking closely meditative practice, the Ten Ox-Herding through the surrounding trees, the student can Pictures, from a North American perspective, it glimpse the roof of a Japanese-style temple, is possible to see the subtle changes that have International Dai Bosatsu Zendo Kongo-ji taken place in how Buddhist meditative practice (DBZ), one of the only Rinzai Zen Buddhist is understood during its adoption in America. temples in North America. This temple is a Scholarship of Buddhism in North America syncretic blend of western culture and over two is largely fixated on the specific teachings of the thousand years of Buddhist practice, different established masters. This essay aims to transmission, and transformation. focus on the location of Dai Bosatsu Zendo, The practices of the temple are strict, but for rather than any particular master. DBZ will act as anyone who is willing to devote themselves a case study for the development of American fully, the doors are open. As much as the Rinzai Zen Buddhism, and the Ten Ox-Herding practitioners are alive and working, the paintings Pictures will be used to demonstrate the on the walls are living teachings, waiting for a developing understanding of Rinzai Zen viewer. One of those paintings, depicting an ox, Buddhist practice. Looking at the historical represents a Chinese allegory comparing Zen sources for Rinzai Zen practice will indicate how practice to taming an ox. When the student Buddhism has evolved as it has been adopted by investigates this story further, they discover that practitioners from Western cultures. there are more pictures of this ox in the temple This essay will discuss the Ten Ox-Herding which have aided previous practitioners in their Pictures through the lens of Rinzai Zen meditative journeys. A set of ten pictures exists Buddhism, and specifically that of DBZ, by today, known as the Ten Ox-Herding Pictures, drawing on commentaries and interviews from and it is an artistic representation of the process several teachers from the lineage. The pictures of Rinzai Zen enlightenment practice. The will be examined individually, and then student stands before the ox and realizes that overarching themes will be discussed. Prior to there is a long journey ahead before they can discussing the Ten Ox-Herding Pictures, it is grasp it. important to understand the history of Zen art and the development of the Ox-Herding Pictures As Buddhism spread from the homeland of into its present-day form. It is also important to the Buddha, the practices and knowledge of understand the development of Rinzai Zen koan Buddhist teachings evolved to fit into the Symposia 10 (2019): 20-42. © The Author 2019. Published by University of Toronto. All rights reserved. 21 SYMPOSIA practice, and this will be examined through lineage of dharma transmission directly through DBZ’s dharma lineage. the Chinese Patriarchs and Indian Patriarchs to Sakyamuni Buddha.4 In line with this Tracing the Ox preoccupation with creating legitimacy, Chan monks began painting pictures of the dharma When a viewer observes a work of Zen art, it transmissions of the Chinese Patriarchs. is clear that the artist intended for the ink on the page to come alive. The artist drew flowing lines [T]hey intended to have scenes from the and colours across the page to denote a meaning Laṅkāvatrāra Sūtra painted as an act of that is just out of reach. Just as the philosophy devotion. They also wanted paintings of the and practice of Zen Buddhism has changed over Five Patriarchs Transmitting the Robe [of time, however, Zen art has developed, even Bodhidharma] and the Law in order to spread knowledge about them and as a record for later while presenting the same general themes: 5 displaying lineage and demonstrating generations (Platform Sutra 5). enlightenment. This section will discuss the development of these themes in Zen art and The paintings of the five patriarchs calligraphy through the Chinese and Japanese mentioned in the Platform Sutra were never periods, with a primary focus on the completed due to events in Huineng’s life, but development of Ox-Herding Pictures. Long the sutra’s intent of creating art about previous masters places the theme of lineage in Chan art before the first stroke of any of the Ox-Herding 6 Pictures, Chan1 monks were painting calligraphy as early as the seventh century. Guànxiū (832– 912) was one of the first notable artists who in temples and on the walls of the patriarchs. 7 Zen calligraphy and art have their roots in painted in this Chan style. His paintings Chinese Chan culture. The earliest sources abandoned the orthodox styles of realism and stretch back to the time of Huineng (638–713 painting with colour, and instead employed CE).2 At this time, Chan was a relatively new monochromatic ink lines painted with a single sect and competed with other forms of brush. His style was representative of a new and Buddhism, such as Tiantai, which drew its growing style of painting known as yipin, as 3 exhibited in Figure 1, which did not conform to legitimacy from a direct lineage to Nāgārjuna. 8 As a way to compete, Chan monks drew their the standard methods of painting of the time. 1 Zen is the Japanese form of Chan Buddhism in China Sutra, Huineng, the Sixth Patriarch of Chan Buddhism, that emerged in the 12th century CE following the is credited as the promulgator of the tradition of sudden travels of Myoan Eisai (1141–1215). This essay will enlightenment in Southern Chan Buddhism. After he use Chan when referring to developments in China, and obtained the title of Sixth Patriarch, Huineng was Zen when referring to developments in Japan and forced to flee from his home temple and seek new North America. places to teach and practice. His school of practice is 2 Jan Fontein and Money Hickman, Zen: Painting & the only surviving school of Chan which has survived Calligraphy (Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1970), xvi; to the present day. Huineng’s doctrines were For the purposes of this essay, Chinese and Japanese transmitted through the use of the Diamond Sutra and names will be written using English stylistic Platform Sutra. conventions. 7 Fontein, Painting & Calligraphy, xix. 3 Heinrich Dumoulin, Zen Buddhism: A History: India 8 Fontein, Painting & Calligraphy, xix; this painting and China (New York: Macmillan Publishing has been graciously provided by the Tokyo National Company, 1988), 102. Museum for publication with this academic project. 4 Fontein, Painting & Calligraphy, xvii. The image has been cropped to present the painting 5 Huineng, The Platform Scripture, trans. Wing-tsit inside its framing. The image source may be found at Chan (New York: St. John’s University Press, 1963). https://webarchives.tnm.jp/imgsearch/show/C0094185. 6 Huineng, The Platform Scripture, 29-43; Dumoulin, India and China, 137-138; According to the Platform ROSS / FOLLOWING TRACES 22 During his period, Chan Buddhism had The Song Period also saw the beginning of koan established itself as a strong sect of Buddhism collections in Chan Buddhism. These with many temples. This temple system, known paradoxical sayings were rendered in Chan as the “Five Mountains and Ten Temples,” calligraphy and art.10 This literary culture created allowed Chan monks to devote themselves to a form of living Chan calligraphy known as moji their practice, and Chan art to flourish in the (Japanese: bokuseki), in which the sayings and literary culture of the Song Period (960–1279).9 koans themselves were written in a decorative form.11 One of the most famous forms of moji is the ensō, a particularly popular practice in China and Japan (Figure 2).12 An ensō is created by a singular brushstroke in the form of a circle. It was supposed to signify enlightenment, power, and the universe itself.13 Ensō embody the living art form of moji, and would translate into other forms of Zen art, such as zenkiga.14 Figure 2: Soen Nakagawa Roshi, Enso, 1907-1984, ink on paper, International Dai Bosatsu Zendo Kongo-ji, Livingston Manor, New York. Figure 1: Hakuin Ekaku, Tadashi Daishi, 18th c., ink on paper, Tokyo National Museum, Tokyo, Japan. 9 Fontein, Painting & Calligraphy, xlv. 12 This painting has been graciously provided by the 10 Dumoulin, India and China, 179. Zen Studies Society from their collection at Dai 11 Christopher J. Earnshaw, Sho: Japanese Bosatsu Zendo Kongo-ji for this academic project. Calligraphy (Boston: Tuttle Publishing, 1988), 98. 13 Audrey Seo, Enso: Zen Circles of Enlightenment (Boston: Weatherhill, 2007), xi. 14 Fontein, Painting & Calligraphy, xxvi. 23 SYMPOSIA Figure 3: Gempo Yamamoto Roshi, Pure Wind, Bright Moon, c. 1866-1961, ink on paper, International Dai Bosatsu Zendo Kongo-ji, Livingston Manor, New York.
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