zen final 2

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ASIAN 161: Hagiography Project Due Date: December 12, by 7:00pm PDT

(45 Points, 15%) Assignment description and purpose: Recall that hagiography is a type of writing that seeks to highlight the success and triumphs of an individual. As we have seen over the past several weeks, hagiographical aspects are not necessarily confined to biographical works in Zen writing. These aspects do appear outright in biographies, but they also appear in many other types of works, whether it is through the narrativization of kōan dialogues, hagiographical embellishments in doctrinal treatises, or in discourse records. Overall, I think it is fair to say that hagiographical approaches to representing Zen figures has become a major source of the image of the tradition that comes down to us today.

In order to further impress upon you just how easy it is to amplify and embellish the life of a religious figure, this assignment asks that you assume the role of a Zen hagiographer. Drawing from several sources, you will compose a short hagiography of a Zen figure of your choice. This hagiography will be comprised of historical information as you have gathered it, but also of amplified and embellished details as a means of emulating the hagiographical style that we have seen through several Zen writings. A short, reflective aspect is also required, which allows you space to conduct a meta-level evaluation of the process of hagiographical composition and selection and to speculate about issues surrounding readership, consumption, and image-making. Basic Guidelines: Begin by looking through the EZB, which contains roughly 180 entries of Zen figures. Do your best to select a figure for whom a fair amount is written. This will make your selection of details easier. Then, once you’ve made a selection, begin to run a few searches online for that figure. Seek out other biographical sources, images, stories, or primary sources. Skim these to get a sense of the stand-out details and episodes of the individual’s life. Once you’ve made some notes and have pinpointed a basic trajectory for your hagiographical entry, compose about three substantial paragraphs that trace out a few details about the individual’s life. You may concentrate on any number of areas (their birth and initial training, interactions with teachers, written works and their messages, principle practices, and so forth). Since this assignment is more so about the process of selection and embellishment rather than journalistic accuracy (much like hagiographies themselves), do not simply restate the information you have read. Add it to your entry but provide additional details or

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embellishments that help to give a much more positive shape to this figure and their life. In your addition of details, do make sure you are not plagiarizing the author whose biographical works you reference; restate the details in your own words and feel free to extend or elaborate in creative ways. In order to capture the referential nature of hagiographical writing, include several hyperlinks to other websites so that readers can follow and learn more about major figures, places, practices, and ideas mentioned in your entry. If you need help with hyperlinks, please let me know. Spend about an equal amount of space reflecting on this process. Describe why you chose to include the details you did, how you arranged them, what you changed about them, and why. Describe any challenges or experiences of ease with this assignment. Try to contextualize this assignment in light of other readings we have encountered in this class and how your entry reflects some of the themes that we have discussed. Finally, include a short list of sources that you used for this assignment. They need not be footnoted in any official way, but simply listed at the bottom of the document for context. Please feel free to stay in touch with me if you have any questions or concerns as you begin this project. Criteria of Assessment: This project will be assessed in three general areas: 1) Thoroughness (i.e. Is there an apparent effort to have captured the major aspects of hagiographical writing in your entry? How much additional detail was added or embellished compared to the original sources from which the details were derived? Does the self-reflection address several major areas or details within the entry itself?, 2) Creativity (i.e. Did you thoughtfully consider the characteristics of hagiography and think creatively about how to emulate them in your entry? How creative were you in adapting the biographical details you encountered in your survey of your figure to meet the requirements of the assignment?), 3) Connections to the course (i.e. How does your self- reflection on the process relate to the issues of narrative power and hagiographical writing as they have emerged in the course? To what degree have you explored the implications of this assignment in light of the course themes? How is your individual entry reflective of Zen narratives generally?).

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[My own example!]

Two hands clap and there is a sound. What is the sound of one hand? (隻⼿声あり、その声を聞け)

— Hakuin Ekaku Hagiographical Entry: Hakuin Ekaku (1685–1768) was one of the greatest reformers of Japanese Zen to have ever lived. The degree of his influence was so great during his lifetime that many simply call his type of Zen “Hakuin Zen.” Hakuin was born at the foot of Mount Fuji and began his course on the Buddhist path at age 15. After a few years, and while on pilgrimage once, his course took a fateful turn when he was staying at Zuiunji in Gifu province. The abbot at Zuiunji held a large collection of texts of the three major teachings present in East Asia (Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism). Once, on a bright day, when the texts were laying out in the sun, Hakuin randomly picked one up and decided that his choice would determine his future. He selected a biography of Chan patriarchs, was inspired by the stories or insight he encountered, and thereafter took up the Zen path toward enlightenment. It is said that the abbot of Zuiunji gave Hakuin the biography he had selected, and that this text was brought with him wherever he went from that day forward. Hakuin’s first experience of enlightenment occurred in 1708 at the temple Eiganji. Even though Hakuin’s experience was indeed genuine and surpassed all others in their first experience of enlightenment, the abbot of Eiganji refused to authenticate his experience. It is said that this abbot was mistaken in his understanding and that his view of the path was skewed. Eventually, he found the necessary authentication in a new teacher, Dōkyō Etan (1642- 1721), who had received his dharma transmission from Munan (1603–1676), who said of the

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Zen breakthrough: “One must die while alive.” In this way, Hakuin fell into a dharma lineage of pristine and unsullied understanding. From that point forward, Hakuin’s successive enlightenment experiences became more and more profound. By the time he arrived at Myōshinji in 1708, his insight was incredibly mature and fully developed. From there, he began to develop a style of kōan meditation that would later be adopted and recognized across the entirety of the Rinzai tradition. He combined both the intellectual study of kōans with the support of zazen as a means of deeper understanding. In this way, he saw the benefits of a combined practice that surpassed previous practices within the tradition. He is perhaps most noted for the development of his own kōans, and principle among them is the famous “Sound of One Hand” kōan. Reflection: This was an interesting assignment that got me thinking about the ease by which hagiographical writers can amplify and embellish the lives of Zen figures. One thing I noticed as I began the assignment was just how difficult it was for me to encounter any negative historical details regarding Hakuin. In other words, even when surveying “academic” entries on this figure, the writing came off to me as slightly hagiographical in nature because nearly every detail captured a positive aspect of Hakuin’s religious life. While academic biographers and historians are meant to be objective and clinical in their representation, I was surprised at just how positively the image of Hakuin was represented even before my own selection process. So, ultimately, this made my selection of details to include about Hakuin’s life even easier. For my selection of details, I focused on things that made him seem superhuman or made his experience seem extraordinary or different from all others. While some of this tone came through in my sources, as I described above, there were times when I embellished to make things appear even more dramatic. For example, while some of my sources mentioned the episode where Hakuin randomly selects a Chan biography that starts him off on his path of Zen practice, I added the detail about him being given the text by the abbot and him carrying the text around wherever he went. This is a subtle and fabricated detail that I think could actually appear quite ordinarily in a hagiography like this. Likewise, another tactic I used was to change any negative details I discovered into positive details. For example, a couple of sources mentioned how Hakuin’s initial enlightenment experience went unrecognized by the first few teachers he encountered. I selected this detail but fabricated the part where the abbot who refused to recognize Hakuin’s experience was underdeveloped or mistaken in his religious understanding. Functionally, this minor addition recasts Hakuin in a positive light, which

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aligns with the overall goal of hagiographic writing. My goal was really to exclude any negative details whatsoever from my entry. If this were writing during or shortly after the death of Hakuin, I suspect that readers would be impressed by an entry like this. Not only is the detail surrounding Hakuin’s life largely positive, but it is extraordinary compared to the common experiences of many. Additionally, my inclusion of several hyperlinks to important figures and practices was meant to reflect the nested or networked references of hagiographical writing generally. As we’ve seen in kōans and in some doctrinal writings, references to other works or individuals only serves to legitimate the text in which those references appear. While hyperlinks would not have been accessible during Hakuin’s time, of course, they are meant here to impress upon the reader a vast and legitimating network of religious knowledge that extends far beyond Hakuin’s hagiography. Sources for Details and Hyperlinks [simply listed, not footnoted]: Encyclopedia of Zen Buddhism, Helen Baroni Wikipedia (https://www.wikipedia.org/) Zen Words for the Heart: Hakuin’s Commentary on the Heart Sūtra, Norman Waddell Oxford Bibliographies (https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/) Terebess (https://terebess.hu/zen/zen.html) Wikimedia Commons