Tibetan Zen: Discovering a Lost Tradition by Sam van Schaik

Author:Sam van Schaik [Schaik, Sam van]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, pdf
ISBN: 9781559394468
Google: m7xvDwAAQBAJ
Amazon: B015P5BEYA
Barnesnoble: B015P5BEYA
Goodreads: 26839516
Publisher: Shambhala Publications
Published: 2015-08-24T14:00:00+00:00

6

DEBATE

MOHEYAN AND THE DEBATE

Though the image of Zen in the later Tibetan tradition is inseparable from a historical narrative about a debate between the Chinese monk Moheyan and the Indian monk Kamalaśīla, there is no reason to view this narrative as a historically accurate documentary account; in fact, it would be highly unwise to do so. As discussed in the introduction, the earliest version of the Tibetan debate story comes from the Testimony of Ba, the earliest surviving copies of which were probably written in the twelfth century. The debate story here seems to be associated with a rivalry between two Tibetan clans. As its title suggests, this narrative puts members of the Ba clan at the forefront of developments in the establishment of Buddhism in Tibet. Clan rivalries were endemic in Tibetan society, and during the Tibetan imperial period, there are several examples of rivalry between the Ba and Dro clans.

In Testimony of Ba, members of the Ba clan play a large role in the defeat of Moheyan, who is said to have been supported by the queen from the Dro clan. And we know from other sources (see chapter 9), that members of the Dro clan were patrons of Zen teachers.1 From the perspective of these clan rivalries, the debate story in the Testimony of Ba can be viewed as providing a precedent dating back to the time of the Tibetan empire for the rejection of Moheyan’s lineage and those of the Dro clan who supported it. Subsequent versions of the debate story in later Tibetan histories change the emphasis so that it is Chinese Buddhism as a whole, represented as the embodiment of the instantaneous approach, that is rejected. In these later works, the function of the story was no longer to establish the superiority of a particular clan’s claims to inherit the imperial Buddhist agenda but to give an imperial precedent for arguments that only Buddhist lineages that could be shown to come from India were authentic.

The earlier Chinese version of the debate story is quite different, which is not surprising, as its context and function differ from those of the Testimony of Ba and later Tibetan histories. The full title of the Chinese text is in the Ratification of the True Principle of Instantaneous Awakening in the Greater Vehicle. It comprises several groups of questions and answers collected together by a Chinese official called Wangxi, who was once assistant to the Hexi Inspectorate, the local government body whose remit would have included Dunhuang. Attached to these questions and answers, Wangxi wrote a preface in which he explained how they came to be written down. The preface tells of the Tibetan emperor’s bringing Buddhism to Tibet by inviting to Lhasa teachers from India and China, including Moheyan. At the Tibetan court, Moheyan gave initiations into Zen practice and had some success in converting members of the Tibetan nobility. However, he also attracted the ire of the Indian teachers, who attempted to have him banned from teaching:

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