Practice lineage in the Hosso school

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Volan
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Joined: Fri Feb 26, 2021 2:27 am

Practice lineage in the Hosso school

Post by Volan »

I have heard that it has become the school of scholastic studies only and that they don`t practice the Dharma anymore. Is that so?
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FiveSkandhas
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Re: Practice lineage in the Hosso school

Post by FiveSkandhas »

Not at all...they are at least somewhat active. I used to attend rather abstruse lectures on Hosso/Yogacara theory given by a monk at the Yakushiji Tokyo Betsuin...we read and analyzed the Triṃśikā-vijñaptimātratā together.

And at Kofukuji, the other ancient Nara Hosso bastion, this impressive fellow passed a very grueling ritual ordeal a few years ago:

https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20 ... na/015000c

Also remember that to a large degree, scholarship itself was a form of practice for the old Nara schools like Hosso, Sanron, Kusha, and Jojitsu...they call it "analytical Buddhism" for a reason.
"One should cultivate contemplation in one’s foibles. The foibles are like fish, and contemplation is like fishing hooks. If there are no fish, then the fishing hooks have no use. The bigger the fish is, the better the result we will get. As long as the fishing hooks keep at it, all foibles will eventually be contained and controlled at will." -Zhiyi

"Just be kind." -Atisha
Volan
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Joined: Fri Feb 26, 2021 2:27 am

Re: Practice lineage in the Hosso school

Post by Volan »

I will try to formulate the question differently. In Buddhism we have the three higher trainings:
discipline (Skt. adhiśīlaśikṣa),
meditation (Skt. samādhiśikṣa) and
wisdom (Skt. prajñāśikṣa)

What you have mentioned may be categorized as the wisdom training - various analytical stuff.
I am interested in the second category - meditation (Skt. samādhiśikṣa).

In Tibetan Buddhism there is an uninterrupted lineage of Yogachara meditation - nine levels of shamatha according to the Asanga`s Mahayanasutralamkara. One can see this practice in all those classical Tibetan books: Tsonghkapa`s "Lam rim" vol 4, Kagyu`s "Moonbeams"... Tsonghkapa and other Tibetans are also using explanations from the "Shravakabhumi" and "Madhyantavibhanga".

In his "Golden Rosary of Excellent Explanations" (Legs-bshad gser-phreng) Tsongkhapa is quoting "Mahayanasutralamkara" to explain the conditions for developing the four immeasurables.

Shamatha, dhyanas and brahmaviharas - do they practice that?
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FiveSkandhas
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Re: Practice lineage in the Hosso school

Post by FiveSkandhas »

Given your clear and well-set-forth last post, I must plead ignorance about the current state of Hosso-shu beyond its scholarly aspects.

Several years ago on the streets I met a Hosso-shu priest with a begging bowl asking for alms...a practice that is rarer than it used to be among all sects of Japanese Buddhism, but by no means extinct.

Although rather basic, I suppose it still counts as non-scholarly Hosso practice, no?

If you look at the Japanese website for Kofukuji, they also offer a bunch of typical temple-type events and public garden-variety rituals (i.e. 年中行事and the like) for laypeople and the like:
https://www.kohfukuji.com

All of this is "practice" of a sort but hardly advanced Hosso-specific deep monastic work.

興福寺佛教文化講座 (cancelled for COVID) and whatever goes on at the 友の会 would possibly offer more of a "Hosso flavor" but I don't know if it could be classified as "true practice".

Even though it is based on doctrinal mastery, what that German fellow experienced in the link I posted above was highly ritualized and contained an aescetic flavor strongly redolent of strict medieval Japanese 修行。
"One should cultivate contemplation in one’s foibles. The foibles are like fish, and contemplation is like fishing hooks. If there are no fish, then the fishing hooks have no use. The bigger the fish is, the better the result we will get. As long as the fishing hooks keep at it, all foibles will eventually be contained and controlled at will." -Zhiyi

"Just be kind." -Atisha
Volan
Posts: 63
Joined: Fri Feb 26, 2021 2:27 am

Re: Practice lineage in the Hosso school

Post by Volan »

There is a paper "The Yogacarabhumi Meditation Doctrine of the 'Nine Stages of Mental Abiding' in East and Central Asian Buddhism" by Sangyeob Cha. It describes a situation around shamatha practice in East Asian Yogachara.

Yogacharabhumi with all its shamatha methodology was translated by Xuanzang in 648 CE.

In 645 CE Xuanzang translated another text dealing more briefly with shamatha practice and possibly making an allusion to the nine stages of mental abiding, namely a root-text entitled Verses of Acclamation of the Holy Teaching (Tl603). Also he translated the Acclamation of the Holy Teaching (Tl602), a commentary on the Verses of the Acclamation of the Holy Teaching.

Yijing, a Xuanzang's student, translated the Treatise of the Six Gates Showing the Entry to Samadhi (Tl607.775a24-b10), another text that introduces the nine stages of mental abiding.

Next are the commentaries by East Asian masters.

Chinese scholar Ji (632-682 CE), a Xuanzang's student, composed A Concise Compendium of the Yogacarabhumi (T1829). Therein, he provides the summary of the Sharavakabhumi`s teaching on the nine stages of mental abiding.

Korean master Woncheuk (613-696 CE) composed a commentary (HPC Vol.1.123b1-478c5) on Xuanzang's Chinese translation of the Samdhinirmocana sutra. There he explains the nine stages of shamatha in a context where the Samdhinirmocana sutra explains shamatha and vipashyana practices in the chapter called Questions asked by Maitreya.

Korean master Wonhyo (617-686 CE) explains shamatha practice in his Commentary on the Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana (HPC Vol.1.698b1-733C20).

Korean master Doryun (650-730) explains shamatha practice in his Notes on the Yogacarabhumi (T1828).

And finally, there was a Tibetan Yogachara master 'Gos Chos grub from Dunhuang, who translated the Woncheuk's Samdhinirmocana sutra commentary into Tibetan. He was a famous lecturer and three different sets of notes on these lectures were compiled by his students. In one of his lectures he briefly mentioned the nine stages of mental abiding, but did not explain them in detail.

Conclusion by Sangyeob Cha:
In spite of the efforts of a few renowned scholar-monks, such as Xuanzang and others, the practice system of the nine stages of mental abiding was gradually forgotten in East Asian Buddhism with the decline of the Faxiang School. The initial populanty of Xuanzang's school was by the end of the Tang Dynasty (CE 618-907) relegated, to purely textual concern, driven out by the gradual predominance of the Huayan School and the Chan concept of sudden awakening (dunwu). The disappearance of this practice system in East Asian Buddhism can probably be ascribed to the sinification and koreanization of the Indian characteristics of Buddhist practices in general. Perhaps, Chinese and Korean practitioners were no longer attracted to the system of the nine stages due to its high complexity.
Although this practice has been commented by all these important East Asian masters of the Yogachara school, for some reasons this practice doesn't seem to be popular and Chinese authors did not write anything further about it, which is strange because, according to Samdhinirmocana sutra (which is the main sutra of the Yogachara school), the whole path consist of a unified practice of shamatha and vipashyana.
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