seventh world of chan buddhism - Zen Buddhist Order of Hsu Yun

To complicate matters even further, it was the copying scribes' practice to enter any
text in order to amend it for clarification. Thus, the great rule of Buddhist scripture: the
older the text, the shorter the text, and the more authentic.
With so much of such varying quality being written by so many, schism had to result.
It took only a few hundred years after the Buddha's death for Buddhism to split into
two rival systems, the conservative Theravadin, called pejoratively Hinayana (little raft) and
Mahayana (great raft), each with its own canon and each containing many different schools.
Yanas are actually means to accomplish something or vehicles here considered to be rafts
used for crossing the troubled waters that separate the ordinary, egodefiled consciousness of
Samsara from the pure consciousness of Nirvana. "Getting to the other shore" is the
traditional way Buddhists describe the event of salvation.
It is not in the beginner's Seventh World or in the adept's concluding Tenth World
(the Void) that we find any major differences between these two rafts.
While a detailed discussion of the intervening Eighth and Ninth Worlds is beyond the
scope of this work, it may be sufficient to note that Buddhist theology embraces a Trinity of
Divine Persons: Buddha; Bodhisattva; and Future Buddha. When that androgyny-inspiring
Savior- figure, the Bodhisattva, is seen as a celestial entity, the salvation raft is said to be in
Mahayana waters. When, however, one's Guru or Perfect Master is seen to embody the
Savior, the raft is navigating the Hinayana. Thus, a single, celestial Avalokitesvara-Guan Yin
may deliver multitudes; while a relatively unknown Master can deliver only those few
disciples who actually gain access to him. Theravadins therefore require that many masters
attain perfection.
In either case, the devotee delivers the Immortal Foetus or Divine Child, the prototype
of which is Maitreya (Mithras), the Future Buddha.
A third vessel, the Vajrayana (lightning raft) was added to the fleet when tantric
Buddhism melted into the Bon religion of Tibet between the Seventh and Ninth centuries -
subsequent to the Muslim invasions of India. The Vajrayana raft supports the entire range of
Buddhist belief; from "right-hand" sexually conservative methodologies to "left-hand"
libertine forms; from primitive superstition to ultra- sophisticated theology; and, of course,
from the devotion to a Perfect Master to the devotion to Avalokitesvara, of whom the Dalai
Lama is said to be an Avatar.
In order for Chan to become the sleek "salvation" vessel that it eventually proved to
be, it had to jettison a thousand years of confused literature. But its boat did not bob about
unballasted in salvation's treacherous waters. Chan retained a few Mahayana scriptures (from
the Prajna Paramita Sutras) and the Sixth Patriarch's Platform Sutra. In addition, it weighted
itself nicely with the elegant literature of Classical Daoism and with the numerous instruction
manuals through which Dao masters publicized esoteric lore.
CHAPTER 3 CHAN SCRIPTURES
S EVENTH W ORLD O F C HAN B UDDHISM
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