In China the Five Schools of Zen developed during the ninth century and thereafter. Many Zen teachers characterized their teaching as “directly pointing to the human mind, transmission outside the scripture.” Thus the notion of direct experience “here and now,” counter to scriptural studies, was often regarded as the identity of the Zen schools. Dogen criticizes this widespread tendency.
Rujing said, “The great road of buddha ancestors is not concerned with inside or outside. The reason they call it transmission outside the scripture is this: although Kashyapa Matanga58 and others had transmitted the scriptural teaching to China previously, in coming here from India, Bodhidharma brought the teaching to life and showed the craft of the way. This is why they call it transmission outside the teaching. But there aren’t two buddha dharmas. Before Bodhidharma arrived in China, there were practices but no master to enliven them. After Bodhidharma came to China, it was as if an aimless people acquired a strong king who brought the land, people, and property of the kingdom into order.”
Know that the buddha way, which has been transmitted from past buddhas, is not called Zen meditation, so how could there be the name “Zen School”? Clearly understand that it is an extreme mistake to use the name “Zen School.”
Bodhidharma went to China and entrusted dharma to the great master Huike; this was the beginning of dharma transmission in the eastern country. In this way, by direct transmission, it reached Huineng, the Sixth Ancestor, Zen Master Dajian. Then the authentic buddha dharma spread in China and the teaching that is not concerned with concepts and theories took form.
At that time there were two outstanding disciples of Huineng: Nanyue Huairang and Qingyuan Xingsi.59 They both equally received the buddha’s seal as guiding masters of humans and devas. Their two lineages spread, and later the Five Gates opened: the Fayan School,60 the Guiyang School,61 the Caodong School,62 the Yunmen School,63 and the Linji School. At present in Great Song China, only the Linji School prospers throughout the country. But in spite of their different styles, each of the Five Houses holds the one seal of the buddha mind.
When the great master Bodhidharma sat facing the wall at the Shaolin Temple on Mount Song for nine years, neither monks nor laypeople knew the buddha’s true teaching, so they called him the Brahman who concentrated on zazen. Subsequently, all buddha ancestors of every generation always devoted themselves to zazen. Heedless laypeople who saw them, without knowing the truth, informally called them the Zazen School. Later the word za—sitting—was dropped, and nowadays it is called the Zen School.
Rujing said, “In ancient times monasteries did not carry names like the Doctrinal School,64 the Precept School,65 or the Zen School. The use of such names is simply a bad habit of this declining age. Kings’ officials who really do not know buddha dharma mistakenly classify monks as monks of the Doctrinal School, the Precept School, or the Zen School. Imperial tablets use these designations, and their usage has spread so that now we hear of five types of monks: Precept School monks, who are descendants of Nanshan;66 Doctrinal School monks, who are descendants from the Tiantai;67 monks of the Yoga School,68 who are descendants of Amoghavajra;69 monks of monasteries without lineages who are not clear about who their ancestors are; and the Zen monks, who are all descended from Bodhidharma. It is truly pitiful that we have such a confusion of names and groups in this remote country, China, in this declining age.”
Before I formally bowed to Rujing, Old Buddha, I was trying to thoroughly study the profound teaching of the “Five Schools.” But after I formally bowed to Rujing, I understood clearly that the “Five Schools” are groundlessly named.
In this way, when the buddha dharma was flourishing in China, there was no such designation as Five Schools, and there were no teachers of old to expound the teaching using the name of the Five Schools. After the buddha dharma became shallow and declined, the name Five Schools groundlessly appeared. This is because people have been negligent in study and not intimate in the endeavor of the way.