Reddit reviews Zen Teaching of Instantaneous Awakening: being the teaching of the Zen Master Hui Hai, known as the Great Pearl

Oh, no need to apologize anyway. There's just a lot of... backstory.

You'll need to couple source material like the below with the above historical scholarship if you want to come to a full understanding.

As for some primary sources:

Tang dynasty teachers who were students of Mazu (one of the most influential Zen teachers ever)

Dazhu (although, relevant)

Huangbo

Baizhang (this text is prohibitively expensive on Amazon, so look in local libraries.)

Song dynasty teachers

Yuanwu (1, 2)

Hongzhi (1, 2) (note, take Taigen dan Leighton's introduction to Cultivating the Empty Field with a grain of salt, as he's a shitty scholar. He basically just misrepresents Hongzhi and Dahui's relationship. See Schlutter's How Zen Became Zen for more details.)

Song dynasty kanhua Chan teachers (kanhua is the main approach to Zen in both Rinzai and Seon)

Dahui (Yuanwu's student)

Wumen

A Japanese Zen teacher

Bankei (1, 2)

A Korean Zen teacher

Daehaeng (1, 2, 3)

___

Note that this leaves out huge swathes of the literature, including all of the literature associated with the East Mountain teaching, the Northern school, the Oxhead school, Soto, most of Rinzai, Obaku, most of Seon, etc. Of course, some people with more fixed and essentialist ideas of what "Zen" is object to the idea that some of these other schools/lineages are actually "Zen". Use your own head. (I'm not saying they're necessarily wrong; I'm just saying that once you feel comfortable with the basics, start to think critically about Zen and your own study of it, including e.g. how you would decide which teachings to follow, and why.)

There's no roster of "Zen masters^TM " anywhere, so the above is a bit of a random mix of my own choosing.

While reading, note what people say and ask yourself questions -- where do they agree? Where do they disagree? If they disagree, should that be reconciled or not, and why?

Some more pointed questions to ask for each book: What can one do to reach awakening? What ways to reach awakening are preferred over others? What practices and doctrines are criticized? Is there any cultivation necessary at any point along the path? If yes, what is to be cultivated? If the teacher is talking about the teachings of earlier masters, are those teachers being represented accurately, or are extrinsic frameworks being laid onto them to fit the later teacher's presentation of Zen? If you had to sum up the teacher's teaching in a slogan, what would it be?

Really, the main thing is that you can think critically about what you're reading, but the above reading list and approach would give you a really solid foundation for the things people tend to talk about on this forum.

The Teachings of Lin-chi

Instantaneous Awakening

Book of Serenity

Hmm yes, the comparison you made is between a collection of discourses from Master Huangbo and a collection of Koans and stories. I can recommend really any more discourse oriented Chan teachings ranging from Master Foyan's "Instant Zen" to the recorded sayings of Master Linji. The Recorded sayings of Master Linji also include some interactions and stories, but also some clear discourses from the Master... the same with the Recorded sayings of Master Zhaozhou, which is mostly interactions and some discourses. Another one that you might find interesting is "Ch’an Master Hui Hai- Zen Teaching of Instantaneous Awakening" or The Letters of Chan Master Dahui Pujue.... but really, reading those discourses and not doing the practice won't be very helpful... hence the 'clear discourses' are rather rare since you should penetrate it yourself directly and not have it chewed out by those old grandmothers

I have this copy - and I'm not aware of the existence of other versions.

Here's the quote:

>Q: By what means is the root-practice to be performed?

>A: Only by sitting in meditation, for it is accomplished by dhyana (ch'an) and samadhi (ting).

Source: Zen teaching of Instantaneous Awakening, Essential Gateway to Truth - page 45.

It's right at the beginning, after the introduction by Blofeld.

>In any case your exception proves the rule.

That inane platitude is a cop-out. Exceptions do not prove rules.

Exceptions weaken, or even destroy rules (depending on the type of rule).


>Why is it that we have to hunt for examples?

Because you asked for them in your previous post, quote:

>>What Zen Master taught sitting meditation?

I think you would enjoy this book: https://www.amazon.com/Zen-Teaching-Instantaneous-Awakening-teaching/dp/0946672032

I appreciate the link to Jinhua Jia's statements regarding the timing and authenticity of Dazhu's works. I will study those statements more carefully.

According to The Tsung Ching Record, both works translated by Blofeld and quoted on Terebess (The Path to Sudden Attainment, Dunwu rudao yaomen lun and The Tsung Ching Record, Zongjing lu) come from his post-Mazu days, or so the story goes...

This (below) is from the first section of The Tsung Ching Record:

> The Master spent the next six years in attendance upon Ma Tsu; but, as his first teacher—the one responsible for his admission to the monastic order—was growing old, he had to return to Yueh Chou to look after him. There he lived a retired life, concealing his abilities and outwardly appearing somewhat mad. It was at this time that he composed his shastra—A Treatise for Setting Forth the Essential Gateway to Truth by Means of Instantaneous Awakening. Later this book was taken by Hsuan Yen, a disciple of his brother in the dharma, who brought it from the Yangtse region and showed it to Ma Tsu.

While the Terebess version of The Tsung Ching Record is not complete, an alternate translation of the The Tsung Ching Record can be found online. I prefer the Blofeld translation, which I purchased from amazon. It contains 43 dialogs in Dunwu rudao yaomen lun and 40 dialogs in Zongjing lu.

http://www.amazon.com/Zen-Teaching-Instantaneous-Awakening-Hui/dp/0946672032