Transformation of the Linji School’s Perspective on Seated Meditation from Tang to Song Dynasties—From Negation to Returning of Seated Meditation

This study first examines the developmental perspective on seated meditation from Bodhidharma 達摩 to the Linji 臨濟 school of the Tang Dynasty. During this dynasty, the Linji school followed the criticism of physical seated meditation by the Southern school of Huineng 惠能 and mainly used wisdom dialogues to enlighten Buddhist disciples. Furthermore, there are very few lamp records documenting the seated meditation of Chan masters in the Linji school, which has created the impression that this school in the Tang Dynasty disregarded physical seated meditation and even negated it. Second, this study examines the attitude towards seated meditation of Linji Chan masters during the Song Dynasty from two aspects of seated meditation, namely, practice and theory. It is found that their attitude towards it differed from that of the Linji school in the Tang Dynasty because they were usually experienced in seated meditation. Moreover, there were Chan masters in both the Yangqi 楊岐 and Huanglong 黃龍 schools that advocated seated meditation as the foundation of Buddhist practice. For example, both Foyan Qingyuan’s 佛眼清遠 “Seated Meditation Inscription” 坐禪銘 and Foxin Bencai’s 佛心本才 “Seated Meditation Etiquette” 坐禪儀 pay attention to seated meditation and agree that enlightenment can only be achieved through gradual cultivation, and after enlightenment, a period of training is still required to achieve ultimate perfection. The above findings suggest that there was a development tendency of returning to seated meditation in the Linji school during the Song Dynasty.