Fa-yen Wen-i (Jap., Hōgen Bun’eki), 885-958; Chinese Ch’an (Zen) master, a student and dharma successor (hassu) of – Lo-han Kuei-ch’en (Jap., Rakan Keijin) and the master of T’ien-t’ai Te-shao (Jap., Tendai Tokushō). Fa-yen was one of the most outstanding Ch’an masters of his time; he was in the lineage of Hsüan-sha Shih-pei (Jap., Gensha Shibi). The latter’s dharma teaching was widely propagated by Fa-yen and as a result this lineage, which had hitherto been known as the Hsüan-sha school, was thereafter known as the Fa-yen school (Jap., Hōgen school). Fa-yen had sixty-three dharma successors; we encounter him in example 26 of the Wu-men-kuan as well as in example 7 of the Pi-yen-lu.
Only a few of Fa-yen’s voluminous writings are extant, among them a few poems and a treatise, the Tsung-men shih-kuei-lu on Ch’an and the signs already present in his time of the degeneration of the Ch’an schools of China. His sayings and instructions are recorded in the Ch’ing-liang Wen-i-ch’an-shih yü-lu (Record of the Words of the Ch’an Master Wen-i from Ching-hang Monastery [in Ching-ling]), compiled in the first half of the 17th century by the monks Yüan-hsin and Kuo Ning-chih.
Fa-yen became a monk at the age of seven. First he studied the Confucian classics and the Buddhist sūtras, particularly the Buddhāvatamsaka-sūtra, the fundamental work for the Hua-yen school of Chinese Buddhism. Since, however, he was not contented by such philosophical study, he eventually sought instruction in Ch’an. His first Ch’an master was Ch’ang ch’ing Hui-Ieng (Jap., Chōkei Eryō). Although Fa-yen did not experience enlightenment under him either, he was already highly respected in the monastic community surrounding Ch’ang-ch’ing. Later, when he was on a pilgrimage (angya) with some companions, the group was forced by a storm to seek shelter in Ti-ts’ang monastery in Fu-chou. There they met the abbot, Lo-han Kuei-ch’en, who was also called Master Ti-ts’ang (Jap., Jizō), after the name of his monastery.
Here the mondō took place between Ti-ts’ang and Fa-yen that is cited under the rubric of Lo-han Kuei ch’en. As we learn from the Ching-le ch ‘uan-teng lu, Fa-yen came to an enlightenment experience when he heard Ti-ts’ang’s words ignorance is the thickest. Thereafter he and his three companions remained at Ti-ts’ang monastery to train further under Master Lo-han; they all later became important Ch’an masters.
Master Lo-han submitted Fa-yen, who was still strongly under the influence of his early intellectual studies and liked especially to cite and discuss passages from the Buddhāvatamsaka-sūtra, to very strict training, Repeatedly he swept aside Fa-yen’s erudite pronouncements with the words, “That is not the buddha dharma. ” One day when Fa-yen wanted to leave and travel further, Lo-han accompanied him to the monastery gate. There he pointed to a stone and asked Fa-yen, “It is written, ‘The three worlds are nothing but mind, the ten thousand things [all phenomena] are nothing but consciousness.’ Tell me, is this stone in your consciousness or not?” Fa-yen answered, “In consciousness.” Master Lo-han then said, “Why are you dragging such a stone around with you on a pilgrimage?” Fa-yen did not know what to answer and remained with Master Lo-han, who eventually led him to profound enlightenment.
Later when Fa-yen himself became active as a Ch’an master, his reputation spread quickly, and Ch’an monks thronged about him from all parts of the country. The number of monks gathered around him at Ch’iung-shou monastery in Lin-ch’uan is said never to have been less than a thousand. The dharma successors of Fa-yen spread his dharma teaching all over China and as far as Korea. The Ch ‘an school named after him flourished for three generations, however, then degenerated, and died out after the fifth generation.
Source: The Encyclopedia of Eastern Philosophy and Religion: Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, Zen. Shambhala Publications, Inc.
Books on Fa-yen Wen-i
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