The Individuality and Uniqueness of the Zen School in the Kamakura Period, Examining the Kakushōron in the Shōmyōji Collection

Abstract

The Zen text Kakushōron 覺性論 in the Shōmyōji Collection is incomplete as the latter part has been lost. The author of the Kakushōron starts by criticizing persons who become attached to words without understanding true awakening. He states that the purpose of Zazen, seated meditation, is to achieve awakening, then to live in the awakened condition, which is the dharma nature. Although the targets of his criticism are not identified, two commentaries, the Kenshōjōbutsuron 見性成佛論 and the Jōtōshōkakuron 成等正覺論 written in the same period and kept in the same place as the Kakushōron, are possible candidates. As one piece of evidence, the word xinxing 心性,strongly criticized by the author, is often used both in the Kenshōjōbutsuron and the Jōtōshōkakuron. He also criticizes attachment to the patriarchs’ activities in the biography of Zen schools, which we again find in both the Kenshōjōbutsuron and the Jōtōshōkakuron.

Furthermore, the author of the Kakushōron announces his own Zen teaching without consulting other Zen teachings like the Linji school 臨済宗 or the Caodong school 曹洞宗.