Hi,
This weeks convoluted story requires a bit of history ... of how the Soto Lineage almost died out, but was "held in trust" by a Rinzai Lineage master for a generation.
You see, Dayang Jingxuan (942-1027), then the sole holder of the Soto (in Chinese, Caodong) Lineage, had several Dharma Heirs to succeed him, but they all died. When it looked like Dayang was about to die too, thus ending the Soto Lineage, he "entrusted" it to a Rinzai master, his friend Fushan Fayuan, asking him to hold the Soto Lineage "in trust", and find an heir for Dayang after Dayang's death! Fushan found Touzi Yiqing (this week's master in our books) to inherit from the now deceased Dayang. The result is that Touzi Yiqing is listed as a dharma heir of Dayang Jingxuan, the prior holder of the Caodong (Soto) lineage, although the two never met. Instead, the real transmission was said to come from Fushan Fayuan in Dayang's name.
This was a little bit of an embarrassment for later heirs of Touzi, because the Lineage skipped a beat here because Touzi never actually met Dayang! Some people at the time questioned the later heir's legitimacy because of all this.
Is that clear as mud!? :shock:
But as our opening Koan this week suggests ...
"Yuanjian put his hand over his mouth."
... when faced with little family questions, children born out of wedlock and such skeletons in the closet, often it is best just to keep one's mouth shut! 8)
This week's readings also touch on some of the difference/sameness between Rinzai and Soto practice which, back in those days, really was not so different (the "Koan Introspection" method of Zazen was not invented until several centuries after Touzi ... although well before the time of Keizan.)
Cook from 221
Hixon from 207
This weeks convoluted story requires a bit of history ... of how the Soto Lineage almost died out, but was "held in trust" by a Rinzai Lineage master for a generation.
You see, Dayang Jingxuan (942-1027), then the sole holder of the Soto (in Chinese, Caodong) Lineage, had several Dharma Heirs to succeed him, but they all died. When it looked like Dayang was about to die too, thus ending the Soto Lineage, he "entrusted" it to a Rinzai master, his friend Fushan Fayuan, asking him to hold the Soto Lineage "in trust", and find an heir for Dayang after Dayang's death! Fushan found Touzi Yiqing (this week's master in our books) to inherit from the now deceased Dayang. The result is that Touzi Yiqing is listed as a dharma heir of Dayang Jingxuan, the prior holder of the Caodong (Soto) lineage, although the two never met. Instead, the real transmission was said to come from Fushan Fayuan in Dayang's name.
This was a little bit of an embarrassment for later heirs of Touzi, because the Lineage skipped a beat here because Touzi never actually met Dayang! Some people at the time questioned the later heir's legitimacy because of all this.
Is that clear as mud!? :shock:
But as our opening Koan this week suggests ...
"Yuanjian put his hand over his mouth."
... when faced with little family questions, children born out of wedlock and such skeletons in the closet, often it is best just to keep one's mouth shut! 8)
This week's readings also touch on some of the difference/sameness between Rinzai and Soto practice which, back in those days, really was not so different (the "Koan Introspection" method of Zazen was not invented until several centuries after Touzi ... although well before the time of Keizan.)
Cook from 221
Hixon from 207
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