“活句”：大慧宗杲看話禪的特質

Abstract

Kanhua Zen, flourished due to the advocacy of Master ZongGao, became the main direction of Zen after Song Dynasty. Different from former Songgu(頌古) or Pingchang(評唱), which focused on the understanding of words, Kanhua Zen concentrates on certain “Huatou”(話頭) from a Buddhist case. Upon ZongGao’s requirements, “Huatou” shall be mentioned timely during daily life in an effort to review one’s own performance and make “Yiqing”(疑情, self-perception). “Yi”(疑, query) means one should query everything and see through everything to attain Enlightenment. In theory, the Kanhua Zen of ZongGao paid attention to “firm belief”(決定信) and “timely belief”(信得及), thus querying(including multiple queries) based on belief until reaching the state of having noting to be queried, which means people are enlightened. All of these processes are realized through “Huatou”. The “Huoju”(活句, words that can make people attain Enlightenment) which is taken as “Huatou” either answers question positively or negatively or makes people think or explain the “Huatou” in the Buddhist case. “Huatou” can’t be understood through rational thinking or conscious idea, namely it can’t be explained or understood through rational way or have any actual meaning. Therefore, in the process of “kanhua”(看話), people can’t understand or think in conventional way, but shall query everything and pass into the condition of having no time to discussing or thinking; during then, people would enter the status of “vapidity”(無滋味) and would attain Enlightenment.