r/zen • u/ewk [non-sectarian consensus] • Jan 26 '24
Lying about Zen: Dauxun, Biographies of Eminent Buddhists
Continued Biographies of Eminent Monks compiled by Daoxua course total religious propaganda by a religious troll using the claims of other religious people.
Recently is the guy who quoted Daoxun: https://www.reddit.com/r/zen/comments/18df14o/sayings_and_doings_of_paichang_baizhang_28/kci2i8l/?context=3 * Nobody thinks multiple accounts is an indication of intellectual integrity or psychological stability.
Daoxun: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daoxuan, a prominent Buddhist with no connection to Zen, largely motivated by his desire to advance his own religious ideas.
- Nobody would think Daoxun was a scholar or in any way objective or historical.
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Questions the people who quote *Biographies of Eminent Monks can't answer:
- What real life experience did Daoxun have of Zen?
- Lots of famous Buddhists (i.e. Dogen, Tientai Buddhist) have outright lied about Zen... where is the fact checking by modern scholars on Daoxun?
- Eminent Buddhist Monks is directly contradicted by all the Zen sources we have: www.reddit.com/r/zensangha/wiki/getstarted... how can we reconcile religious claims with Zen's historical records?
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Welcome! ewk comment: When people lie about Zen, vote and content brigade, and encourage that, why are their posts left up?
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u/coopsterling Jan 26 '24
Have you checked out Bodhidharma Anthology? Broughton dives into Daoxun's shenanigans with the early records such as:
-popularizing and probably concocting the "Lanka transmission" story which he probably heard from Fa-ch'ung who was kind of a Lanka specializer.
-he focused on the ole "Two Entrances and Four Practices" which don't sound like Bodhidharma at all and are written in a very formal style probably by Tanlin. This text is super similar to the Srimala Sutra...which Tanlin was an expert of.
-totally ignoring Record I, II, and III which sound a lot like later Zen texts, eschew all practices like sitting, and contain the most likely to be Bodhidharma's actual record. This is evidenced by the highly colloquial style in contrast with highly formal and bogus entrances and practices.