Linji

Linji Yixuan was born in Shandong, in northern China, and became a monk as a young man, studying the scriptures and monastic discipline. He then went to the Chan master Huangbo Xiyun. According to the Record, three times he asked Huangbo the meaning of the Buddha’s teaching, and three times was struck; sent to another teacher, Dayu, he suddenly understood, and returned to Huangbo, whose student he remained for years.

He later taught at a small temple by the Hutuo river, near Zhenzhou in Hebei, from which he took his name, “Overlooking the Ford”. He was famous for his abrupt methods, shouting and striking students to cut through their thinking, and for his vigorous, colloquial sermons. He died in 866.

His teaching was collected in the Record of Linji (Linji lu), which in its standard edition dates from 1120. It became one of the most influential texts of Chan and Zen, and the school named for him became the dominant form of Chan in China and, as Rinzai, a major school in Japan.

His style was direct and colloquial, mocking those who sought liberation in books or in special states, and insisting that the ordinary activities of eating, dressing and walking were the place of awakening for one who did not seek anything.