Hassu D Jap., lit. “dharma successor”; a Zen student who has reached at least the same degree of enlightenment as his master and who has been empowered by the latter to carry on his dharma teaching and in his turn to transmit the Zen tradition to an appropriate dharma successor. Only a student who has received inka shōmei from his master can be a hassu.
The great masters of Zen repeatedly empha size that Zen is basically not teachable and cannot be conveyed; for this reason such notions as teaching, tradition, transmission, and so on must be regarded as makeshift expressions referring to a process that cannot be grasped conceptually. The function of a master can be roughly compared to that of a catalyst that instigates a chemical reaction without contributing in substance to the outcome of it; that is to say, in the presence of, and through the training given by, an enlightened master, the student can himself come to an enlightenment experience without the master actually “transmitting” any thing or the student “receiving” anything. This is the process that is called “transmission.” (Also Denkō-roku.)
In the early Ch’an (Zen) tradition the student received from the master the latter’s monastic robe and his begging bowl as confirmation of dharma-successorship. The expression “robe and bowl” thus became a metaphor in Zen literature for “transmission without the scriptures”; this kind of transmission is one of the chief features of Zen. (Also den’e.)
Source: The Encyclopedia of Eastern Philosophy and Religion: Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, Zen. Shambhala Publications, Inc.
Hassu documents
Books on Hassu
External links