U·1\1·1 University Microfilms International a Bell & Howell Information Company 300 North Zeeb Road
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
INFORMATION TO USERS This manuscript has been reproduced from the microfilm master. UMI films the text directly from the original or copy submitted. Thus, some thesis and dissertation copies are in typewriter face, while others may be from any type of computer printer. The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleedthrough, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send UMI a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyrightmaterial had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Oversize materials (e.g., maps, drawings, charts) are reproduced by sectioning the original, beginning at the upper left-hand corner and continuing from left to right in equal sections with small overlaps. Each original is also photographed in one exposure and is included ill reduced form at the back of the book. Photographs included in the original manuscript have been reproduced xerographically in this copy. Higher quality 6" x 9" black and white photographic prints are available for any photographs or illustrations appearing in this copy for an additional charge. Contact UMI directly to order. U·1\1·1 University Microfilms International A Bell & Howell Information Company 300 North Zeeb Road. Ann Arbor. M148106-1346 USA 313!761-4700 800:521-0600 Order Number 9506210 Liberating intimacy: Communicative virtuosity and the realized sociality of Ch'an enlightenment Hershock, Peter Damian, Ph.D. University of Hawaii, 1994 V·M·I 300 N. ZeebRd. Ann Arbor,MI 48HX) LIBERATING INTIMACY: COMMUNICATIVE VIRTUOSITY AND THE REALIZED SOCIALITY OF CH'AN ENLIGHTENMENT A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE DIVISION OF THE UNIVERSITY OF HAWAI'I IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN PHILOSOPHY AUGUST 1994 By Peter D. Hershock Dissertation Committee: David Kalupahana, Chairperson Roger T. Ames Stephen Odin James Tiles S. I. Shapiro ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank the members ofmy dissertation committee for their guidance in refining the philosophical dimensions of my work and for the many practical lessons provided by their individual and joint conduct over the time we have worked together. Profound thanks are also due to Seung Sahn Dae Soen Sa Nim who first invited me into a truly personal connection with the practice of Ch'an Buddhism and who encouraged my initial interest in pursuing a doctorate at the University of Hawai'i. Most importantly, he introduced me to Ji Kwang Dae Poep Sa Nim to whom I extend the deepest gratitude. Without her constant support and her unerring demonstration ofthe sociality of Buddhist enlightenment, this work would never have reached satisfactory completion. iii ABSTRACT The development of Ch'an Buddhism, especially in the period from Hui-neng to Lin chi, can best be understood as an exemplary articulation of what shall be termed Social Buddhism. The crucial features of such a conception of Ch'an are: first, a movement away from situating the paradigmatic locus of enlightenment in private experience to seeing it as the concrete narrativity of lived interpersonality; and, secondly, a shift away from taking enlightenment to be a state--whether of consciousness, superlative moral integrity or individually initiated activity--to seeing it as virtuosically improvised conduct. That is, Ch'an enlightenment is never the attainment of a single individual, but the dramatic transformation of an entire world. The first half of the dissertation develops the necessary conceptual tools for understanding the above re-orientation. Beginning with a revisioning of suffering and founded on the critical distinction of social and societal orientations of conduct, this section pivots on a re-evaluation of the nature of personhood and the proposal that persons be seen as narration or the dramatically ordered dissolution of both 'self and 'other.' Following a sketch of the implications for change (i.e., the transition from sentient being to buddhahood) that are implied by the inversion of the typical precedence of being over value required by a practical embrace of the emptiness of all things, Part One culminates with a preliminary laying out of the groundwork for a concursive (as opposed to discursive) theory of communication and meaning--a theory needed in order to fully understand the significance of the claim oft repeated by the Buddha and the patriarchs of Ch'an that they have nothing to either teach or transmit. Part Two directly addresses the relation of Buddhist practice and Buddhist enlightenment. Far from being held up as exemplary forms of Ch'an practice, both sitting meditation and the infamous "shock tactics" of masters like Ma-tsu and Lin-chi are held to be energy techniques that are a useful but insufficient adjunct to the realization of Ch'an enlightenment. Instead, it is argued that the practice of Ch'an is best seen as a systematic relinquishing of all horizons to readiness, responsibility and relevance. Ch'an Buddhist practice is nothing short of the unprecedented birth of the Pure Land, the incomparable opening up of a dramatically new buddha-realm. IV TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgments iii Abstract iv Preface vii PART ONE. THEORETICAL FOUNDATIONS OF CH'AN ENLIGHTENMENT Chapter 1. Suffering: Divergent Conceptions of the Context of Enlightenment 1 A.Universality and Objectivity: The Dilemma ofthe Suffering Individual .4 B. Narration and Personal Conduct: The Communality ofSuffering and its End 15 Chapter 2. Culture and the Limits ofPersonhood: Common Rituals and Uncommon Tales 26 A. Birth and Death: The Primordial Horizons ofNarrativity .31 B. The Narrative Meaning ofDeath: The Disparity ofthe Indian and Chinese 'Person' 36 Chapter 3. Sociality and Societality: The Orientations ofConduct.. .46 A. Non-local Subsistence: The Ontological Mode of Relational Personhood 48 B. Improvisation and Regulation: The Biasing ofConduct. 57 Chapter 4. The 'Ontology' ofLiberation: Narration and the Problem with Causality 65 A. The Prejudices ofInquiry 1. Calculation and Narration: World-Constituting Modes of Envaluation 68 2. Ontological Ambiguity and the Toxic Potential ofConception 80 B. What If Causes are Horizons? 86 C. The Virtue ofKnowing and the Opening ofExplanation 90 Chapter 5. Communication: The Process of Ch'an Enlightenment.. IOO A. The Meaningful Disparity ofCalculative and Narrative Approaches to Communication 106 B. Seeing Musical Concourse and not Verbal Discourse as the Paradigm ofCommunication 115 C. Improvisation and the Concourse ofLived Interpersonality 119 v Chapter 6. Meaning as Movement: The Hermeneutics ofLiberation 131 A. Language and Understanding: The Identity ofthe Circumference and the Center 136 B. Understanding as Relinquishing: The Hermeneutics ofEmptiness 1. Meaning and the Fruit ofPractice 144 2. Emptiness as the Relinquishing ofHorizons for Relevance 150 C. Universality and the Hermeneutics ofRelease 154 PART TWO. PRACTICE: THE EMBODIMENT OF ENLIGHTENMENT Chapter 7. Intimacy and Virtuosity: Entering the Gate of Ch'an Practice 163 A. The Diversions ofExperience 165 B. Intimacy and the Meaning ofa Truly Social Life 170 C. Virtuosity and the Perfection ofOffering and Appreciation .l86 Chapter 8. Opening the Field ofVirtuosity: Relinquishing All Horizons 202 A. Forgetting the 'Self: Ch'an Overtures 204 B. The Modes ofChan Practice 1. Tun-wu: Relinquishing All Horizons to Readiness 208 2. Wei-hsin: Relinquishing All Horizons for Responsibility 210 3. K'ung: Relinquishing All Horizons for Relevance 216 C. The System ofCh'an 222 Chapter 9. The Techniques ofUnmaking: Energy and Awakening in Ch'an , 231 A. Indirection: Meditative Discipline as Energy Work 235 1. Ch'i, Narrative Movement, and the Restraints of,Self' 236 2. Sitting Ch'an as the Atrophy of'Self 244 B. Partnership, Shock Tactics, and One Finger Ch'an 258 Chapter 10. Conclusion 269 Notes 282 Chinese Glossary 314 References Cited 320 vi PREFACE Having been asked to ascend the high seat in the dharma hall and speak about Buddhist enlightenment, the great Ch'an master Lin-chi begins by noting that according to the Ch'an lineage no sooner have you opened your mouth to declare anything about this great matter than you have made a mistake. And yet, he adds, ifnothing at all is said, the assembled monks, nuns, and laypersons will have no place on which to gain a footing and will undoubtedly remain as stuck as they must have been to make their request in the first place. Given this, he wonders out loud, "How, then, can I conceal the unifying thread, the social nexus (kang) of the lineage?" (T 1985.496b)1 How, that is, can he not openly display what both binds all the buddhas, bodhisattvas and patriarchs into a single family and what ultimately allows us to truly realize their understanding as our own? In immediate and energetic answer to his own question, Lin-chi poses a challenge: "Are there any capable persons to enter into contest (chan), straightaway deploying their forces and unfurling their banners? Ifso, come before the assembly and give visible evidence of it!" (T 1985.496C) Crucially for the nature of the conversation on which we are ourselves just embarking, instead of discoursing on the sutras, speaking about his own entry into the status of a master, or sitting down in meditative repose to manifest in turn the deepening phases of a revolution in awareness, Lin-chi asks for a worthy battle partner--someone to engage in the complete unpredictability of combat (chan). What Lin-chi's challenge makes clear and what we shall spend the remainder of our time together here trying to adequately understand is that the key to Ch'an enlightenment--the 'place' from which it is possible to be fully realized and not merely talked or thought about--is direct, vii communicative crisis.