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A Bit More on Zen Ordinations and Zen Transmission

A Bit More on Zen Ordinations and Zen Transmission

Last updated on: November 1, 2011 at 3:09 pm by James Ford

A Bit More on Zen Ordinations and Zen Transmission 2011-11-01T15:09:25-07:00 James Ford

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Every now and again I get questions about what the words monk and nun, priest and teacher might actually mean in Zen.

I’ve attempted to address these questions in various places. In my book, Zen Master Who? And at spots around the web. For instance:

http://monkeymindonline.blogspot.com/2008/07/authority-in-zen.html

http://monkeymindonline.blogspot.com/2009/02/teaching-credentials-in-zen.html

http://boundlesswayzen.org/lineage.htm

http://monkeymindonline.blogspot.com/2009/02/lay-dharma-transmission-in-north.htm

I’ve just responded to another query at my Facebook account. And I thought my attempt at distillation might be worth sharing with a broader audience. So, here’s what I most recently wrote on the subject of ordinations and transmission in Zen, slightly edited and expanded from that note…

First.

No doubt the magical assertions of lineage in Zen transmission are frequently not congruent with little things like say the documents of history. (The shadows of these magical assertions have been addressed at length by a number of writers. Stuart Lachs comes immediately to mind as a particularly thoughtful if some times especially harsh critic. A good place to find Stuart’s work and others is the Zen Site.)

Second.

There are two separate but overlapping issues around authority as they relate to the Zen tradition.

Ordination is one thing.

Transmission is another.

Except, of course, where they overlap.

So, first ordination. Normative ordination in Buddhism is Vinaya monasticism. For long and complicated reasons ordination in Japan uses a different model, what I call “Bodhisattva ordination.” This ordination model also uses formulas that are pretty much the same as a “higher” lay initiation on the continent, which further complicates matters. One more critical complication is the general setting aside of celibacy in the Japanese ordination model. Although they retain monastic terminology they have created a form of ministry and their clerics are most generally now called at least in the West “priests.”

But, and this is very important. The Japanese model claims its ordinations, unlike the higher initiations on the continent, have the same efficacy as Vinaya ordination. That “efficacy” is the belief that when they receive gifts from the laity, those who’ve taken Vinaya ordination, monks or nuns, the merit the laity gets for that giving is much better than the merit they’d earn giving the same thing to another lay person. Japanese priests say what is true for Vinaya monastics is exactly the same for their (I actually have to say here “our”) priests.

Vinaya monastics deny this.

While this may seem small potatoes to the casual observer, this is in fact terribly important. It has to do with the “business” of institutional Buddhism. And most important it is the great symbol of authority in Buddhism.

(Now, as relates to Zen, there is also a “married monk” system in Korea, which makes the same assertions, although their ordination model is the same as the Vinaya although they understand the celibacy requirements as metaphorical…)

In recent years some Chinese monks have instituted forms of lay ordinations using terms like minister and priest for those who receive these permissions. However, as best I can tell, the Chinese consider these “second class” ordinations, absolutely subordinate to the Vinaya monastics, and absolutely not generating the magic gift thing. As such I’m really not at all sure what the usefulness of these ad hoc ordinations will prove to be. But they’re definitely in the mix…

So, all that is swirling around…

And then there’s Dharma transmission.

This is a Zen thing. The foundational myth is found in the Platform Sutra, where young Huineng’s realization is confirmed by Hongren. The sign of the transmission in the story is the gift of a bowl and a robe – the very robe and bowl owned by the Buddha. (I have a friend who tells of seeing the robe on display in a monastery in China. He noted that it turns out the Buddha wore a robe cut in the traditional Chinese manner…)

These monastic marks obscure the fact that Huineng was not being ordained, and would not be ordained for another decade more, or less. But rather these symbols were meant to acknowledge Huineng’s gnostic insight – having achieved the mind of the Buddha.

This authorization, permission, transmission has always been something that both monastic and lay may receive, although in practice until the twentieth century and mostly in North America and Europe, Transmission has been reserved pretty much exclusively to clerics, and there certainly have been no independent lay lineages – although some of the liveliest Zen today is in fact going on within lay institutions.

And here’s an additional complication.

In Japan Dharma transmission and a second and higher ordination have been collapsed into a single ceremony. It also means that many thousands of people in Japan functioning as parish priests are asserted to have received the mind seal of the buddhas and ancestors. A reality I have trouble believing…

And, keeping it sweet, the Japanese Soto lineage is by far and away the largest lineage family in the West…

Indeed all of this confusion and more has made its way to North America.

Some further specifics about how the myth of Zen transmission and its reality have been encountered here in the West. Rubber hitting the road stuff…

Within North American Zen there have been examples of partial or broken lineages being restored through a process similar to the Christian Orthodox concept of Economy. Specifically, Philip Kapleau, one of the early Zen pioneers in the West, while he had formal permission to teach, did not possess actual Dharma transmission, and had a major breakup with his teacher which meant he never received that permission. He, however, went ahead and established a lineage, transmitting to a half dozen people. Over time those people have been accepted by the large majority of officially acknowledged Zen teachers, for the most part without additional ceremonies – in effect they possess a “lateral” transmission rather than a “vertical” one. As proof of their pudding they are admitted to the American Zen Teachers Association, a sort of “professional organization”* for Zen teachers.

And at the same time the heirs of a completely legitimate Soto priest Soyu Matsuoka are not at least at this time accepted into the AZTA. The reason is that Matsuoka in at least several known instances gave transmission to people without training them. The lack of an actual context of practice is generally held among actual Zen people to suggest the transmission is meaningless…

And in real life things continue to get further complicated. Some teachers in the Kapleau line have gone on to receive more “orthodox” transmissions in addition to their authorizations through Kapleau. And at least one teacher in the Matsuoka lineage has done the same and who is now considered “mainstream” by the mainstream…

Plus there are teachers with wonderful credentials whom I would never in a million million years recommend anyone study with. And there are people with highly suspect credentials who I think are worth studying with…

And this doesn’t even begin to explore the rise of what might best be called “Christian Zen lineages,” several teachers who stand in one or another of these lines are fully accepted into the AZTA.

And that’s not even getting into the ethics thing…

Okay…

And…

But…

(Don’t forget what they say about everything before the “but”)

In the eleventh case of the Blue Cliff Record, the great Huangbo explains it all.

Huangbo said to his monks, “You’re all wolfing down brewer’s dregs. If you’re always wandering off on pilgrimage, where will you find today? Don’t you know that in all of China, there is no Zen teacher?

A monk stepped forward and asked, “But there are people all over the country who guide their followers and lead communities of practice. What about them?

Huangbo replied, “I didn’t say there is no Zen, only that there are no Zen teachers.”

The real deal is about the mind of the buddha.

The real deal is the deep assertion that each of us has been awakened from before the creation of the heavens and the earth.

And that all we need do is notice.

The rest, including institutions and teachers and priests and monks and nuns, it is all upaya…

So, as regards these various clerics and teachers, sorting out who is actually helpful is the real question.

Ordinations and transmissions are important in this, but not absolute…

At bottom it’s all about waking up.

So, however you need to do it, set the alarm clock…

My two cents.

* I need to acknowledge the AZTA does not claim to be nor does it wish to be a credentialing body. But the fact they now count the larger majority of Zen lineages extant in the West among their membership implies a lot about those who or who are not members…

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