When I Close My Eyes, Everyone Listens

When I close my eyes, everyone listens. — Master Yuan Jué, circa 918 CE

After his enlightenment when Emperor Xizong of Tang Dynasty passed away , Master Jué traveled to the Shau Wu area of China to establish the Dragon Pool Temple. The local people helped build the temple.

According to legend, it is said he carried a dragon in one of his sleeves.

For over thirty years, the Master spread the Buddha-Dharma and transformed the lives of all sentient beings who heard him preach.

A verse about him describes him:

He was a scion of the royal family,
And then became minister of the Dharma King.
Having obtained Shr Sywang's seal.
He protected a banished dragon.
For thirty winters and summers,
He pointed at the false to discourse on the truth.
Today you should grasp my meaning.
As I close my eyes, everyone falls down to pay homage."

Another verse says:

Because of heavy karma he was born in the royal family.
Due to deep virtue, he was a vegetarian and abstained from killing.
Good and bad admixed, retribution is not the slightest bit off.
Defiled and pure intertwined, true again turns to false.
Master An Shan nodding his head — a teaching without words.
Within the sea of emotions, he grasped the meaning and awakened to the source.
Starting from today, I've heard the song of no self.
Tomorrow, the flower of no death will bloom luxuriantly.

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Notes:

An Shan is a mountain which is sacred to Ch'an Buddhists

"Dharma King" refers to Shakyamuni Buddha.

"The banished dragon" refers to a water dragon near the Dragon Pool Temple. Because Yuan Jué carries the dragon in his sleeve, it could actually mean that when his father died, he was banished to the Shau Wu area. As well, the temple there was built near a water spring.

"No self" refers to the Buddhist principle of non-self, that the original self exists for this life, and all phenomena are impermanent

"No death" refers to Enlightenment, and it is believed that on the death of a Ch'an Buddhist who has achieved sudden Enlightenment, he is reborn in one of the Dhyana heavens

Ōbaku: Who is Reciting?

Perhaps most obvious to the Japanese was Ōbaku followers' use of nembutsu.

Also their use of the "nembutsu kōan" entails the practice of reciting the name of Amitabha while holding in one's mind the kōan, "Who is reciting?"

While foreign to the Japanese (despite this "dual practice" being introduced in Japan as early as the late 13th century), this was very common in Ming period Ch'an, for there was no sectarian divide between Pure Land Buddhists and Ch'an practitioners.

Ōbaku monasteries and temples came to be governed by a doctrine known as Ōbaku shingi, which both imported Chinese practices such as the recitation (dharani) of nembutsu and "sought to preserve the Chinese character of the group."

The Ōbaku also chanted sutras derived from the Pure Land Buddhism sect set to Chinese music.

"The followers of Hakuin Ekaku (1687—1769) tried to purge the elements of Ōbaku Zen they found objectionable. They suppressed the Pure Land practice of reciting Amida Buddha's name, deemphasized the Vinaya, and replaced sutra study with a more narrow focus on traditional koan collections." — T. Griffith Foulk in Kenneth Kraft's book "Zen: Tradition and Transition".

Thus today the sect follows the practice promoted by the Ōtōkan lineage now in charge.

Therefore nobody at the Ōbaku School is reciting the Nembutsu.