The Unruly Emptiness: Regulating and Utilizing Emptiness in Mahāyāna Buddhist Repentance

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1 Please do not circulate out of the conference without permission. The Unruly Emptiness: Regulating and Utilizing Emptiness in Mahāyāna Buddhist Repentance Lang CHEN (Ph.D) National University of Singapore Emptiness is one of the most important concepts for Mahāyāna Buddhism. Whereas Buddhists consider it the Perfection of Wisdom (prajñāpāramitā), their opponents regard it the cause of all the problems, regardless all the sophisticated philosophical arguments Buddhism offers about this concept. For example, Zhu Xi comments At its very beginning when Śākyamuni was a prince, he went for an outing and saw the suffering of birth, aging, illness, and death. He detested it and went into the snowy mountains for religious practice. Based on this view, he considered everything empty ( ), trying to abandon them as thoroughly and immediately as possible The Buddha says that all principles are empty ( ), but we Confucians say that all principles are real ( ). Out of this difference emerge our differences between community and ego, between rightiousness and self-interest. 1 He wrote elsewhere Buddhists in fact did not fail to grasp the true Nature [of the world], but when they apply [this knowledge], they claim that there is nothing that cannot be done. Because the Nature [they found] and its application do not take responsibility for each other ( (, they betray their emperor and ancestors and do whatever they want. 2 Such criticism against Mahāyāna Buddhism continued into our contemporary time and even became global, currently focusing on Japanese Buddhism. After D. T. Suzuki and his followers rendered Zen Buddhism fashionable in the West in the 1960s, criticism appeared since the late 1990s, when Brian Victoria published his controversial book Zen at War (1997), exposing how Buddhism cooperated with Jingoism during the World War II. We can hear the echoes of Zhu Xi s words in recently published article/ebook The Zen Predator of the Upper East Side, which discloses sexual scandals involving Japanese Zen priests in America: The true dharma knowledge is that there is no good and evil, that all is one; but true dharma knowledge isn t 1

2 very helpful to a woman being pressured to have sex. And those who seem to possess the greatest wisdom may be uniquely incapable of telling right from wrong. 3 Although intricate Buddhist doctrines such as the Twofold Truth, ālaya and other layers of consciousness, and the permanence of the Tathāgatagarbha were all invented more or less in order to address and ease the tension between emptiness and ethics, they does not seem to have been able to convince the outsiders, even secular scholars of Buddhism. For example, Bernard Faure points out that in Chan Buddhism the Twofold Truth was in fact reduced to two contradictory truths, in which only the ultimate level the level of Emptiness was emphasized. 4 It is quite understandable that Liang Qichao, who praised Buddhism as embodying the highest wisdom of human beings, lamented that it is difficult to be universalized, that is, to be correctly grasped by all. 5 Most of the apologists and critics both consider Emptiness the essence of Buddhist teachings, either as the ultimate truth or as the fatal flaw. As a result, glorification and criticism are like two parallel lines rarely engaging with each other. When confronted with criticism, contemporary Buddhists usually defend the religion by denouncing the perpetrators as not real Buddhists. But on the other hand, many Western scholars pointed out in recent years that modern readers have had a false expectation for Buddhists to be unconditionally non-violent, which is a myth produced to serve the Enlightenment Movement in Europe and anti-war mentality in North America. 6 Whereas the not-real-buddhists argument could not explain many shockingly antinomian contents written in canonical Buddhist texts, the orientalist myth argument neglects the sincere effort in Buddhism to promote non-violence even before its encounter of the modern West. Instead of offering another overarching view or argument for this debate, this paper turns to a group of texts to examine the specific relationship between ethics and doctrine of Emptiness in the theory and praxis of Chinese Buddhist repentance that is, how, in Zhu Xi s words, the true Nature (Emptiness) and its application in human world (moral laws and compassion) take responsibility for each other ( I hope that the critical historical approach of religious studies may enable us to discuss the criticism of Emptiness seriously and productively without stigmatizing and essentializing this religion (an example of such essentialization is blaming the Islamic religion for terrorism) and at the same time to appreciate the wisdom of Buddhism without accepting it unconditionally or out of context. My research will show that such a wellaccepted outstanding status of Emptiness in Chinese Buddhism, either as wisdom or as the trouble-maker, was constructed in history through a series of negotiations and adaptions with their intended and unintended consequences. I make this point by examining the role that Emptiness plays in the practice of repentance, arguing that the contemplation on Emptiness has not always been the highest stage or the goal of repentance as it is considered now, but a means though perhaps the most fundamental means to generate Bodhicitta. Repentance and Emptiness seem to be mutually contradictory. Repentance requires a person to take responsibility of what she has done, whereas according to the idea of Emptiness, there is no 2

3 self, and some buddhist texts even claim that there is neither perpetrator nor victim. However incompatible they seem to be, repentance and the idea of Emptiness are in fact closely linked in Mahāyāna Buddhism, especially in Chinese Buddhism. The classic theory of repentance in Chinese Buddhism distinguishes two kinds of repentance: the phenomenal ( )and the noumenal ( ). While phenomenal repentance refers to practices such as fasting, worshiping the Buddha images, reciting spells or names of the Buddhas, noumenal repentance as defined by James Robson in an essay written not long ago calls on the practitioner to realize the fundamental emptiness of the concepts of sin and merit. 7 These two concepts have been defined in the similar manner by many Asian and Western authors 8, indicating a hierarchy in which the noumenal one, which centers on the idea of Emptiness, is the superior and ultimate. Once you realize the Emptiness of yourself and others, of sin and merit, your sin or suffering is completely removed and you may go in peace. This idea is radical and suggests a very dangerous interpretation that the ultimate way to repent is to realize that there is no need to repent, which many have criticized. My paper will trace how this classic theory of repentance came into being, and argue that the idea of Emptiness was not always so supreme. First, I will show that in the majority of the Indian Mahāyāna texts, realizing the Emptiness is not the goal that people hope to achieve through repentance, rather it is a means to generate bodhicitta (usually translated as the aspiration to become a Buddha ); however, this relation between the means and the goal was reversed in China. Secondly, in China, the noumenal repentance originally contains several other things in addition to realizing Emptiness. In sum, I argue that it is through a gradual, contingent process of interpretation and adaption, with their intended and unintended results, that the realization of Emptiness became the highest stage or supreme way of repentance. In fact, the realization of Emptiness had either been used to serve ethical relations and to generate compassion and altruism, or had to have such compassion and altruism as a prerequisite. It is rather reductive since it is historically inaccurate to consider it a free-floating, omnipotent idea that is able to solve all human problems by itself. Repentance in Indian Mahāyāna Texts Emptiness is important in repentance according to Mahāyāna texts composed in India. For example, the Ajātaśatrukaukṛtyavinodanā Sūtra (Ajātaśatru Sūtra hereafter, T626 and 627, respectively translated by Lokakṣema and Dharmarakṣa) tells the following story: a prince named Ajātaśatru, who killed his father and usurped the throne, feels very remorseful for what he did and goes to ask Mañjuśrī)about how to assuage his anguish. To his surprise, Mañjuśrī said: even the innumerable buddhas are not capable of doing that. Why? Because nothing really comes into existence and the mind just like any other things is empty. So it cannot be contaminated by lust, anger, or ignorance, and thus is intrinsically pure. Therefore, there is neither perpetrator nor victim of the crime. 9 Through Mañjuśrī s sermon, the king grasps the profound teaching of 3

4 Emptiness. The message conveyed by this story seems to be the supreme wisdom of emptiness. Yet, by bringing this story to its context, one would find that the philosophical argumentation here should not be regarded as neutral, objective, or purely ontological; rather, it serves a very polemical and apologetic goal. Right before Ajātaśatru s debut, the text evaluates the Mahāyāna and Hīnayāna paths of Buddhism and claims that compared with those Hīnayāna people, even those who have committed heinous sins are more likely to gain enlightenment, for their sins can still be removed and bodhicitta generated, whereas the Hīnayānists are simply on the wrong track. 10 It is at this moment that the story of Ajātaśatru s repentance begins. Therefore, Ajātaśatru s story here is used to illustrate that the Mahāyāna path is superior to the Hīnayāna path: The Mahāyāna teaching of emptiness could even render a patricide to generate bodhicitta. Here, the goal of the repentant practice is to generate bodhicitta. But why is bodhicitta important? Literally it means mind toward Enlightenment and is usually translated in English as the aspiration to become a buddha. This text, however, does not tell us much about its connotation. This is more clearly expressed in the other Mahāyāna version of Ajātaśatru s repentance, which also involves Emptiness. In this version of the story, found in the Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra, the Buddha tells the patricide king that killing is illusory and unreal: it is like illusions conjured up by a magician, echoes in a valley, images in a mirror, pleasures in a dream, and so forth; only the wise and the buddhas know that they are not real; and whereas in fact, to kill is merely to stop inhalation and exhalation, the Buddha uses the word to kill just in order to follow the convention. 11 These words are very disturbing. But once bringing these ideas to the story, I found first of all, this apparently disturbing sermon is not delivered until the remorseful king indicates that the karma theory no longer facilitates but impedes his reinstatement. The first teachings that the Buddha gives to him when they meet are some very basic moral teachings, including karma and its inescapable retribution. 12 Yet Ajātaśatru comments with despair that he wishes he had known these earlier; but given the crime he has already committed, he believes that he will fall into hell no matter how hard he contemplates these doctrines. 13 It is at this point that the Buddha gives his final sermon, which involves the idea of Emptiness. 14 Secondly, this disturbing sermon about Emptiness, in fact, liberates the king from his fear of his own karmic retribution and gives him courage to be compassionate to others. Having listened to the teachings of emptiness, He vowed that he would not consider his suffering in hell to be onerous, if his suffering could transform the evil minds of other sentient beings. 15 This vow leads numerous beings to generate bodhicitta, his sin is reduced and he himself also generates bodhicitta. 16 4

5 Here, bodhicitta is explicitly related to altruistic courage and compassion. It is essentially linked with taking altruistic vows, such as the vow to suffer for other beings or to transfer one s own merits to others. With the help of the notion of Emptiness, Ajātaśatru looses his attachment to the karma theory and focuses his mind on helping others instead of the fear of his own karmic retribution. Emptiness is the means to achieve this to conquer his concerns about himself and to transform the fear into courageous compassion toward other beings. This is shockingly opposite to the accusation Zhu Xi suggests that the idea of Emptiness motivates people to pursue selfish interest. On the contrary, the doctrine of Emptiness targets at correcting the selfish tendency that is entailed by a mechanical understanding of the karma theory. At the end of the story, the only advice that Buddha gives the king to take away is to cultivate bodhicitta diligently from now on. 17 The emphasis on bodhicitta for the penitent recurs elsewhere in this narrative. In order to persuade the king to repent in front of the Buddha, Ajātaśatru s Buddhist friend tells him several stories of the forgiven penitents. Nearly all of these stories end with the penitents generating bodhicitta, while none of them includes any teaching about emptiness. 18 From these narratives, I have two observations: First, the teaching regarding Emptiness was taught in different contexts for various, specific practical reasons. In the Ajātaśatru Sūtra, it is taught to show the superiority of the Mahāyāna path; and in the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra, it is offered to help the penitent who is too attached to the karma theory. Secondly but more importantly, despite the crucial role that emptiness plays in both narratives, the goal of conducting repentance is to generate bodhicitta, which is linked to altruistic courage and compassion. These two features also appear in many other texts. For example, one of the most influential Buddhist passages in China about repentance, from which commentators quoted the following words again and again The offense by its nature does not exist either inside them, or outside, or in between 19 to show the illusoriness and emptiness of sin. Originally, the story was told in the Vimalakīrti Sūtra to illustrate how superior Vimalakīrti s wisdom is to that of Upāli, the Hīnayāna disciple who is said to be a master of precepts. Vimalakīrti interrupts Upāli s sermon to two remorseful monks, denounces his teaching as useless, and instead proffers the wisdom of Emptiness. As a result, both the repentant monks and Upāli praise Vimalakīrti s superiority to voice hearers like Upāli. While the competitive nature of this passage is very clear, it is more crucial for our topic to notice that the narrative ends with the two penitents generating bodhicitta and making a wish for every being to gain eloquence like Vimalakīrti s. 20 Here again, in this narrative of repentance, the teaching about Emptiness is the means to achieve the generation of bodhicitta. No matter whether there is the teaching of Emptiness or not, generating bodhicitta, taking a vow to become a Buddha through one s compassion toward other people, or transferring one s merits to other sentient beings is considered the final step or steps of repentance practice in many texts. This is clearly embodied in the well-known pattern of five-limbed puja ( ), which appears in a great number of translated Buddhist texts. It is a procedure, which, in its most standardized 5

6 form, consists the following five steps: confession, requesting the Buddha to teach (or stay in this world), rejoicing in the merits of others, transferring merits, and professing vows. Although in texts we do not always read this standardized form but many variations, transferring merits and/ or professing vows always herald the completion of the repentance ritual, indicating the altruistic stance of Mahāyāna repentance. However, there is another group of texts, arguably smaller in number but available in Chinese around the same time, which, not following the five-limbed format, seems to emphasize meditation and emptiness so much that it overshadows compassion and bodhicitta. The most famous and influential among these is the Sūtra of Meditating on Samantabhadra Bodhisattva (Guan Puxian Pusa xingfa jing, T277). This short but rich text claims to answer how people should practice after the death of the Buddha. The central practice that it advocates is an alternation of repentance and visualization: Seeing the buddhas and bodhisattvas manifest in mediation or dream is both the practitioner s motivation to repent and the sign indicating the cleansing of her/his bad karma. As long as this practice is concerned, it seems the goal of the repentance is not to generate bodhicitta but to obtain the vision as clear and vivid as possible. Moreover, when the practitioner acquires the clearest, most elaborate vision, the buddhas teach him the wisdom of Emptiness, which Chinese authors would quote numerous times: What is sin/suffering ( )? What is bliss? My mind is itself empty so that there is no possessor of sin (or suffering) or bliss. 21 Such a view is called the buddhas continue great repentance, the splendidly adorned repentance, the repentance that is free of the mark of sin ( ). 22 The idea of Emptiness is referred to as the foremost teaching ( ) 23 to be contemplated, and the practice of doing it the foremost repentance conducted by ksatriya lay Buddhists ( ). 24 However, despite the acclaim of Emptiness, when this practice of repentance is integrated into the ritual of bodhisattva ordination ( ), the ordination culminates in generating bodhicitta: In front of the buddhas and bodhisattvas who are made visible through his/her earnest repentance, the practitioner confesses and repents again, invites the buddhas and bodhisattvas to be his/her ordainers and witnesses, takes refuges in the Three Jewels, vows to follow bodhisattva rules, generates mind of compassion, and worshiping buddhas, bodhisattvas, and Mahāyāna texts with incense and flowers. After all these, the practitioner announces, Today I generate bodhicitta, the merits gained from which I transfer to all other beings. 25 Here again, even in a text that had a huge impact on Chinese Buddhism for its seemingly unconditional accolade of Emptiness, a close reading reveals that repentance through contemplating on Emptiness serves the goal of generating bodhicitta. Chinese theories of Buddhist repentance These texts discussed above were translated into Chinese during the formational period of 6

7 Chinese Buddhism, which means that the Chinese authors to be analyzed in this section had access to and revered these texts. Nonetheless, out of various concerns, they made their creative adaptions. The idea of Emptiness does not seem to occupy a prominent position in the early Buddhist repentance manual composed in China dated to the late 5 th and early 6 th century, such as Jingzhuzi jingxing famen (T2013, fascicle 27) and Cibei daochang chanfa (T1909). These manuals of repentance mostly focus on what was later called phenomenal repentance, such as cleansing one s six sensual organs and worshiping the Buddha. Although the Cibei daochang chanfa does mention knowing that all dharmas are empty, it is considered to be one of the two principles which one should hold unto at the same time, the other one being refusing to abandon any sentient beings. 26 After the penitent announces her faith in this twofold principle, he or she prays to the buddhas for arousing his/her bodhicitta. 27 This paragraph itself belongs to the Section of Generating Bodhicitta. 28 In the second half of the 6 th century, the realization of emptiness officially became the final step of repentance POSTERIOR to the step of the generating bodhicitta through Zhiyi s theory of Ten Negative Minds and Ten Positive Minds ( )). 29 Zhiyi considers these Twenty Minds to be the foundation of all repentance. When practicing any of the Four Kinds of Samādhi as a way to repent, one must examine whether one s mind and deeds belong to the Ten Negatives, and then follow the Ten Positives to correct these negatives and achieve Liberation. From the table below, we see the ten Negative Minds are listed in the order that begins with the most fundamental problem in human mind, the ultimate causes of all sufferings and ends with the violation of the most basic moral principle: cause and effect. Each of the ten Positive Minds targets at each of the negative ones, e.g. the 1st Positive Mind is supposed to correct the 10 th Negative Mind, the 2 nd at the 9 th, and so forth. Among the Positive Mind, generating bodhicitta is listed as the 6 th, and realizing the Emptiness the 10 th. Negative)(T46n1911p39c26;p40a7) Positive)(T46n1911p40a11;b29) 1. Ignorance,)greed)and)hatred))))))))))))))))) 10.)Realizing)the)Emptiness)of)sin 2. Having)evil)friends 9.)Thinking)about)all)buddhas)of)ten) directions 3. Not)doing)good)things))))))))))))))))))))))))))))) 8.)Guarding)the)true)dharma 4. Doing)evil)things))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))) 7.)Doing)good)deeds)as)compensation) 5. Having)evil)mind 6.Generating)bodhicitta) 6. Continuously)having)evil)mind) 5.)No)longer)committing)sins)after) repentance 7. Covering)up)wrongdoings 4.)Confession 8. No)fear)of)bad)rebirth 3.)Fear)of)bad)rebirth 9. Not)feeling)ashamed 2.)Feeling)ashamed)and)criticizing)oneself 7

8 10. Not)believing)in)the)cause/effect)of) karma)and)becoming)icchantika 1.Truly)believing)in)the)cause/effect)of) karma The provenance of these lists of Minds is not clear. It shows a great similarity to a list called Seven Kinds of Mind (.)), on which generating bodhicitta is listed on the fourth, and the emptiness on the 7th. 30 This list appears in the Sūtra of the Buddhas Names (Foshuo foming jing, T14n441p188b19-21) as well as in a nearly identical passage from the Compassionate Water Repentance (Cibei daochang shuichan, T45no1910p969a29 ff), a text attributed to Zhixuan, a Chinese bhiksu of the 9 th century. Although the former in its current or another version has been identified as an apocrypha since the 8 th century, 31 we cannot deny the possibility that it may contain some Indian ideas originated in a very early period. But a search in the digitalized Chinese canon 32 shows that the Seven Kinds of Mind not only does not appear in any text composed in India, but also was not quoted by any Chinese commentators prior to the Tang Dynasty, which means that it was not very likely for Zhiyi to have any knowledge of it. Thus we can almost ascertain that Zhiyi s Twenty Minds system is NOT an adaption of the Seven Kinds of Mind. On the contrary, it might be the other way around. Even if the idea of the Twenty Minds could be traced back to some Indian source, it does not seem to belong to a major tradition in India, especially when compared with the prevalence of generating bodhicitta as the final step of repentance. Although we can only speculate, Zhiyi s intention for creating or at least, promoting the theory of the Twenty Mind must be manifold. First, since he deems that heinous sins can only be removed by Mahāyāna meditation, 33 he may consider all other practices merely preparation for meditation. Second, it is known that Zhiyi is very cautious about moral nihilism in the name of Emptiness. He condemns those who regard all as empty but their own lives and properties, denouncing such a view as horrid evil mind of Emptiness 34 and such people as absolutely irredeemable. 35 It is perhaps for this reason that the theory of the Ten Positive Minds renders generating bodhicitta a mental preparation for meditation, which leads to the realization of the Emptiness. In other words, those who has no bodhicitta yet are not supposed to meditate on Emptiness. The risky teaching is now kept at the very top of the hierarchy of the 10 positive minds, only to be grasped after one has almost completed the repentance and purified him/ herself. This theory could be considered as Zhiyi s effort to limit the accessibility of this very advanced practice only to the qualified practitioners, which seems particularly necessary for the Fourth Samādhi Neither Walking Nor Sitting Samādhi. Among the Four Kinds of Samādhi, the fourth one is distinguished from the first three in that, according to Zhiyi, [it is] only in the first three kinds of Samādhi that explicit procedures ( ) are employed, but the contemplation of the principle ( ) runs through all four. 36 For example, when practicing the first Samādhi Constantly Sitting Samādhi, one should remain 8

9 constantly seated; while usually keeping silent, the practitioner should recite the name of a Buddha when his/her mind is weak; his/her mind should focus on the dharmadhātu alone as the object. Zhiyi also gives detailed instructions about the procedures for the second and third kinds of Samādhi. However, the fourth is comparatively meager in the use of such procedures. 37 Not only does the fourth Samādhi not explicitly require any specific procedure or activity, it also contains a sub-category called contemplation amidst evil dharmas. This samādhi is reserved for those who have a keen capacity for attaining the Dao but suffer heavy hindrances due to an accumulation of sins, 38 such as Ajātaśatru, Devaddata, and Aṅgulimāla. To practice this samādhi, when a desire arises, for instance, one should contemplate it in terms of its four phases: not-yet-desiring, about-to-desire, the act of desiring-proper, and desiringcompleted. 39 Contemplating how each of these phases is generated and is transformed into the next, one would realize that it is impossible for desire to rise from non-desire; thus, desire itself in all the four forms is empty. If anger arises, one should ask oneself who is angry and at whom, 40 and in this way realize that both the subject and object of anger are empty. Through the experience of anger, one attains the way (dao) of the Buddha. 41 According to Zhiyi, this is why some sūtras read lustful desire is the Dao ( ) and lustful desire is Bodhi ( ). 42 However, since the Twenty Minds are said to be the foundation of all Four Kinds of Samādhi, this abstract and radical approach of repentance becomes moderated: even if a person has the keen capacity for practicing this samādhi, he or she is still supposed to rely on the Twenty Minds, which requires a step-by-step progression toward the ultimate realization. In other words, this Twenty Minds system could function as a relatively tangible and concrete instruction for those meditative approaches that lack of a clear external structure. Because of these concerns, for Zhiyi, generating bodhicitta became a preparatory step for the advanced meditation that transcends the dualism of good and evil, whereas as I have shown, in many Indian texts such as the passage from the Vimalakīrti Sūtra, which Zhiyi cites frequently, grasping emptiness is a means to generate bodhicitta. This sequence of the Minds is also reflected on the actual ritual procedure. For example, in his Repentance Ritual of the Lotus Samādhi (Fahua sanmei chanyi, T1941), Zhiyi treats the five limbed puja as the expedient device prior to meditation. This pattern would be used by the heirs of Tiantai like Zunshi and Zhili of the th century to standardize several other popular repentance rituals such as the Great Compassion, Pure Land, and Golden Light Repentance. Whether bodhicitta should be generated after or before realizing Emptiness one may think for good reasons does not matter substantially. While switching the positions of these two ritual elements (or Minds ) may be a trivial issue itself, but this new sequence by Zhiyi constitutes a critical moment because it in fact paved the way for the separation of realizing Emptiness from all other ritual elements to become the supreme noumenal repentance. Though at the stage, 9

10 such separation has not yet occurred. Despite the fact that the words noumenal (li) and phenomenal (shi) already appear in Zhiyi s theory of repentance, the noumenal in Zhiyi s writings does not merely refer to realization of the fundamental emptiness of the concepts of sin and merit. Zhiyi always considers the Ten Positive Minds as a whole and hardly separates the 10 Mind from other nine. He contrasts the Ten Positive Minds as a whole with the phenomenal when he writes using the Ten Minds, together with shi (the phenomenal; literally meaning activities), to perform repentance 43 and [One should] contemplate the Three Truths while using the Ten Repentance [Minds]; [one could also] add the procedure of shi [and practice it] earnestly without any attachment to one s own body and life, which I call the second warrior. This is called the Twofold Repentance of shi and li, [through which] the sin obstructing the path is removed 44 From these quotations, it is clear that for Zhiyi, the noumenal repentance refers to all the mental efforts for repentance, including the Ten Positive Minds and the contemplation on the Three Truths of Emptiness, Nominal Existence, and the Mean ( ), and the phenomenal repentance to the tangible rituals or other deeds that accompany the mental efforts. The noumenal repentance not only constitutes realizing the Emptiness; rather, it at least contains a package of Ten Minds. Before a practitioner s realization of emptiness, she has to master the first nine Positive Minds, no matter how sharp her intelligence is. In the 7 th century, some new change occurred. In the writing of Daoxuan, from whom we got this classic expression about the two-fold division of repentance, the noumenal repentance only refers to the tenth Positive Mind, that is, to view the empty nature of sin. He even divided the noumenal into three levels of understanding of Emptiness Hīnayāna, small bodhisattva, and great bodhisattva, which one can contemplate according to his or her capability. 45 The realization of Emptiness is now separated from the other nine Minds and claimed to be reserved for the wise, while the phenomenal left for the dull. 46 This is very different from the teaching of Zhiyi. For Zhiyi, the wise ones may be able to practice the contemplation amidst evil dharmas without the phenomenal (shi), but they must go through the Twenty Minds just as the dull and the average do. The ideas of this particular kind of samādhi contemplation amidst evil dharmas and the noumenal repentance become confused and conflated in Daoxuan, so the meaning of the noumenal repentance was changed. Conclusion To sum it up, the order of realizing Emptiness and generating bodhicitta was reversed in second half of the 6 th century, and subsequently, realizing Emptiness was separated from bodhicitta and other mental efforts to be named as the noumenal repentance. In this way, the realization of Emptiness gains the supreme, even independent status in repentance practice. This may have 10

11 contributed to the polarizing tendency regarding Buddhist repentance in China: On the one hand, repentance rituals have been very popular among the commoners, but they seem to be merely ritualistic and phenomenal, mostly done for the dead, and have become the important income source for the monks. Cultural elites have criticized this practice for distracting monks from cultivating their own spirituality and making Buddhism a religion for the dead. On the other hand, despising the ritualistic approach and trying to distinguish themselves from the masses, some followers of Chan discarded any tangible practice for repentance, claiming that repentance could be made just within a single moment in one s mind, which caused criticism for moral nihilism such as that from Zhu Xi quoted at the beginning of this paper. Unsatisfied with both paths and ascribing moral nihilism to the Mahāyāna emphasis on Emptiness, some contemporary East Asian Buddhists turn to the Theravāda tradition for true Buddhism. What I am trying to show in this paper is that even within the Mahāyāna, which is famous or infamous for its radical notion of Emptiness, there were very diverse understandings regarding the role that Emptiness plays in practice. Emptiness, according to Buddhism, could mean that everything is changing and being constructed. With the modern methods of religious studies, I hope I have shown that this notion can also be applied to the idea of Emptiness itself.! 8 accessed June 6, Bernard Faure, The Rhetoric of Immediacy: a Cultural Critique of Chan/Zen Buddhism, (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991), p.59. Liang Qichao, Critical Remarks on Fichte s Theory of the Vocation of Human Life (Feisidi rensheng tianzhilun shuping, 26 7 ), Da Zhonghua 1, no. 4 (April 1915). See Vladimir Tikhonov, Introduction in Tikhonov, V, and Brekke, T. ed. Buddhism and Violence: Militarism and Buddhism in Modern Asia (New York: Routledge, 2012), pp.1-11 and Robert Sharf, Whose Zen? Zen Nationalism Revisited in Heisig, J. W., & Maraldo, J. C. ed. Rude awakenings: Zen, the Kyoto school, & the question of nationalism (Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 1995), pp James Robson, Sin, sinification, sinology: on the notion of sin in Buddhism and Chinese religions (pp.73-92) in Granoff and Shinohara ed. Sins and Sinners: Perspectives from Asian Religions (Leiden: Brill, 2012), p.82. E.g. Kuo Li-ying, Confession et Contrition dans le Bouddhisme Chinois du VE au XE Siecle, Publications de l'école Française d'extrême-orient, Monographies, no Paris, b b

12 9 n b n 2004), Shioiri, Ryōdō, 9 n b (Chūgoku Bukkyō Ni Okeru Senpō No Seiritsu), Tōkyō: Taishō Daigaku Tendaigaku Kenkyūshitsu, T15no626p402c7-9. T15n626p395b15-20; T15n627p414c6-13. T12n374p483b9, ff. T12n374p483a24-6. T12no374p483b4-9. This narrative also includes several non-buddhists offering their understandings of Emptiness to comfort the king. Unlike the Buddha s teaching of Emptiness, they completely reject the karma theory and the fact that the king has sinned. For detailed comparison between the non-buddhists teachers and the Buddha in this story, see 9 p 9 2, n 2016 forthcoming). T12n374p484c17-9. T12n374p484c T12n374p485b T14n475p541b Burton Watson trans. The Vimalakirti Sutra, (New York: Columbia University Press, 1997),p.47. T14n475p541c3-5. Watson, p.48. T9n277p392c T9n277p392c29-p393a1. T9n277p393a4. T9n277p394a T9n277p394a1-2. T45n1909p929a T45n1909p929b6-7. However, we need to be cautious given that these two manuals may have been manipulated by later editors such like Daoxuan ( ) and Miaoxuezhi (13-14 century). The literal translation of this term is the ten minds that follow [the cycle of life and death] and the ten minds that go against [the cycle of life and death]. In order to avoid excessive wordiness, I translate the minds that follow to negative minds, and the minds that go against to positive minds 3 o T To be compared with Zhiyi s Ten Positive Minds: 3 ; ; 12

13 ; ; ; ; ; b ; a a. T14n441p190c18 ff. T46n1911p39c15-6. T46n1911p38c12-25., o, 5, 4. T46no1911p41a14. T46n1911p18c Neal Donner and Daniel B. Stevenson, The Great Calming and Contemplation: A Study and Annotated Translation of the First Chapter of Chih-I s Mo-ho chih-kuan (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1993), p.321. T46n1911p18c The Great Calming and Contemplation, p.321. T46n1911p20a1-4. The Great Calming and Contemplation, p.332 T46n1911p18a1, ff. The Great Calming and Contemplation, p.312. T46n1911p18b18. The Great Calming and Contemplation, p.318. T46n1911p18b The Great Calming and Contemplation, p.318. T46n1911p18a28+b2..The$Great$Calming$and$Contempla2on,.p.316,.with.a.slightly.different. transla=on. a. T46no1911p40c6. T46no1911p41b24-26 T40no1804p96b13-17 T40no1804p96b