Exegesis as Spiritual Practice: The Cathartic Commentary and the Visualizing Mode

Jrg Plassen5
Abstract
There is a growing tendency in contemporary Western scholarship on Buddhism to dismiss commentarial literature as elitist philosophical scholasticism. This trend, however, might be better understood as a reaction to 19th century philosophical modes of reception than on basis of the source texts, which again and again emphasize the provisionality of language and the soteriological intent of teachings as mere situational means. Thus, already Chinese San-lun commentaries not only provide basic orientation for ensuing spiritual practice, but directly aim at providing the audience with a cathartic experience, leveling all distinctions in a move towards non-differentiation. As to be demonstrated in this article, the Kmgang sammaegyng non employs a somewhat more quietistic visualizing approach, inscribing the emerging Hwam perspective into text structures marked by mutual interpenetration and mirroring. Key words: Wnhyo, Chi-tsang, Hwam, Soteriology, Commentarial literature, Carthatic and visual mode.

Jrg Plassen is a Professor of East Asian Religions, CERES, Ruhr-Universitt Bochum, Germany. (joerg.plassen@mail.ruhr-uni-bochum.de) International Journal of Buddhist Thought & Culture Febuary 2010, vol. 14, pp. 71-90. 2010 International Association for Buddhist Thought & Culture
The day of submission: 2009.12.2 / Completion of review: 2009.12.10 / Final decision for acceptance: 2009.12.16

72

Jrg Plassen: Exegesis as Spiritual Practice

I. Introduction
In recent years, there has been a tendency in contemporary Western scholarship on Buddhism to discard commentarial literature as elitist and unrelated to the arguably more important question of how Buddhism was practiced on the ground level.Needless to say, one could bring forward ample reason for studying both elite thought and popular practices.1 Even more importantly, however, it should be noted that this approach has been informed by a generalizing understanding of commentary literature as scholastic philosophy. It may be doubted, however, that this approach can do full justice to the soteriological concerns underlying the production of most East Asian Buddhist texts: Thus, abundant references to the provisional character of language strongly suggest that what might be considered central philosophical concepts in fact are to be viewed as mere expedients on the adepts path to awakening. This in turn raises the question whether the commentaries merely lay the intellectual groundwork for the application of these expedients during subsequent meditation practice, or whether writing, reading and hearing as such are meditation practices in themselves, in some traditions possibly even forming the core of spiritual training.2 Rather than merely conveying knowledge, the texts would also aim at transforming the writers, readers or listeners perception.If the basic assumption of this performative dimension3 is true, it must relate directly to the reading (or listening) process and conversely become apparent when looking at the overall textual organization of pertaining texts.

1 Or even question the division as such, as has been done for the Korean case in Richard McBride (2007). 2 Bold as the latter assumption may sound, it might not be unfounded. Thus, among the works ascribed to Wnhyo in ichons Sinpyn chejong kyojang chongnok a Chojang (cf. T. 55, 1178b11) is listed. This first paragraph appears to refer to a fundamental exegetical formula employed by the San-lun fraction opposed to conventional forms of meditation. Its name derives from the fact that it was used as the basis for the beginners training. Cf. Plassen (2002, 58-60). 3 Cf. Plassen (2004).

International Journal of Buddhist Thought & Culture

73

II. The Cathartic Commentary

Already in Chinese Buddhism, we can identify texts which, visualizing and enacting, rather than explaining or theoretically justifying, in a quite literal sense aim at leading the reader/listener towards awakening and to perfect the authoring Dharma masters skill-in-means.4 The Lun-chi (T. 45, 68a-76b), composed by the reputed San-lun exegete Chi-tsang (549-623), provides an extreme instance for what might be labeled the cathartic mode. A hsan type (cf. below) introduction to the Chung-lun , the text is highly elusive to any philosophical-minded approach: After certain premises have been raised, from another point of view these premises will be substituted by conflicting statements, often only to be established again for other reasons. Thus, large portions of the commentary are structured by discussions of opposite conceptual pairs. The elucidations of these pairs often begin by contrasting two noun phrases, e.g., Buddha and Bodhisattvas, sutra or treatise, scattering and notifying. The opposing terms then each are related to likewise opposing predicates or meanings (i ). Initially, the view is taken that both predicates can be attributed to both nouns. Then the differences concerning their applicability to these nouns are highlighted. In the sections emphasizing the differences, one predicate then at first may be attributed to one term, while the other predicate is attributed to another term. Then, however, the perspective would be slightly altered, and the opposite will be suggested. Due to the pervasive use of this and other techniques, terms become deconstructed, and in the end virtually no philosophical insightsexcept for the pointlessness of the doctrines held by the opponent, and eventually all doctrinescan be learned from the text. The careful composition of the text and certain meta-statements leave no doubt that these puzzling and seemingly redundant contradictions are consciously employed devices designed to lead away from an intinsically essentialistic grasping at fixed concepts (hsing-chih ), and increase the awareness of the relativity of all determinations.5 As the commentary leaves
4 The Bodhisattva-training focuses mainly on the refinement of his skills-in-means, training on behalf of oneself and practice for others effectively becoming one.

74

Jrg Plassen: Exegesis as Spiritual Practice

hardly any statement uncontested, its major purpose is not to convey meanings, but rather to train the audience in threading the middle way between having (yu ) and lacking (wu ) characteristics (and thus differentiations). Only towards the end of the text, this concerns and the method employed are revealed straightforwardly. Discussing the full title Chung-kuan lun , Chi-tsang writes:
...Therefore, the treatise does not only exhaust the words, also it exhausts (chin , here to be understood both as to devour and thus bring to a halt and as to take the last out of something) the contemplation. Contemplation does not only exhaust the conditions, also it exhausts the treatise. The middle does not only exhaust contemplation, also it exhausts contemplation. [If I] Illustrate the name Treatise of the Middle Contemplation (Chung-kuan lun ), I only want to exhaust and cleanse (chin-ching ) the dharmas.[This] does not come equal to the explanations by others, who take the treatise and want to explain the meaning of middle contemplation. Only [if one] wants to exhaust and cleanse the dharmas, it is feasible [to do] so. For this reason: [If] I now point out the One middle, [then] not only the middle is the middle. I set apart that the dharmas all are [in the state of the] middle. After having said that all dharmas are [in the state of the] middle, which dharma would be [left], which [still] would have [distinctions]? Therefore, pointing out the middle, one exhausts and cleanses the dharmas. (T. 45, 76b28ff.)

The main point of this in fact somewhat ironic passage is that the method to cleanse the dharmas (both teachings and phenomena) lies in affirming every single one as [an aspect of] the middleto the effect that none survives as a self-differentiating entity. By revealing this strategy, a new light is shed on the host of seemingly conflicting statements presented
5 The most striking feature of this technique of undermining fixed positions by juxtaposing and alternating opposites employed in this commentary is its kataphatic nature, which almost seems to run counter against the prasaga, or reduction ad adsurdum, dominating most passages of the Chung-lun itself.

International Journal of Buddhist Thought & Culture

75

beforehand: In the end, the reader suddenly is made aware that the manifold provisional propositions have always been nothing less than the middle itself. As we have seen, Chi-tsangs carthatic method is more or less based on self-contradictions and paradoxes: premises are denied under one aspect, and then reaffirmed with reference to another. At the same time it is highly formulaic, being centered around training in the use of formulae with deconstructive thought patterns for analyzing/dissolving terms, and tends to be climactic, as seen in the reaffirmation of previously discarded conventional positions as expressions of the middle.

III. The Visualizing Mode of the Kmgang sammaegyng non A. Analytic Approach
A similar, yet more quietist approach can be found in the opening sections of the Kmgang sammaegyng non , a text written by the outstanding Silla exegete Wnhyo (617-686). Modern scholars have prepared painstakingly detailed graphical outlines (kwamun ) of this and other works,6 listing the headings of (or, where not available, at least representative keywords for) deeply nested sections and subsections, and combining them into concise graphical images of the textual tectonics. Despite their obvious benefits, these graphically oriented approaches tend to reproduce statical images of the texts: Resembling a graphically arranged table of contents, the outlines merely depict the distribution and arrangement of contents in juxtapositions of subsections and fail to account for the dialectical structures in the texts. On the other hand, important initial research on the style of highly formalized undertaken.7 passages reoccurring passim in Wnhyos works has been This research on reoccurring textual formulae, however, focuses

on the internal structure of rather short passages.

6 Cf., e.g., the chart attached to n, Chng-hi (2000). 7 Cf. Ko, Ikchin (1975), and esp. Kim, Ha-u (1982).

76

Jrg Plassen: Exegesis as Spiritual Practice In an analysis of the opening sections of the Kmgang sammaegyng

non , we will attempt to complement these approaches by having a closer look at the soteriological dimensions implied in the overall textual progression and the organization of contents into an organic whole.

B. The Textual Genre

Despite differing naming schemes, virtually all of Wnhyos texts fall into the categories of shu (Kor. so, altern. i-shu , Kor. iso) or the related hsan (Kor. hyn, altern. hsan-i , Kor. hyni), commentarial forms which originally were intimately related to lecturing and thus usually stood on the borderline of orality and literacy. Appearing first in the 4th century, the shu commentary enjoyed increasing popularity during the Northern and Southern Dynasties (420-589) and developed into the most important commentarial form until the end of the Tang dynasty (618-906). An ideal shu type commentary actually sets off with the already mentioned hsan , an introduction on the dark [meaning] of the text, which outlines certain points to be kept in mind when reading the texts.8 Only then follows the shu in the narrower sense, i.e. the paragraph-by-paragraph exposition of the text. While the latter is also highly structured in deeply nested subsections and of course accounts for the bulk of the commentary, it is the hsan type sections which are of particular interest when it comes to the soteriological dimension of the commentary. The contents of the hsan are arranged under a variable set of generic sections with normally decreasing degree of abstractness, often labeled as men (Kor. mun, gates). Thus, along with the overall intention (ta-i , Kor. taei), the ancestor-and-drift (tsung-chih , Kor. chongji), i.e. the particular point of departure or reference and the purport, the title (ming-ti
8 Alternatively, at times also in addition to the hsan , a (rather short) preface (hs , Kor. s) may be added. In fact, both hsan and shu also circulated independently, and there is textual evidence that they were considered more-less independent genres. Internal references to time and place of composition of other texts provide evidence that at least part of the authors did not view their commentaries merely as the basis of their teaching efforts but as self-contained literary works. Cf. Plassen (2002, 12-20).

International Journal of Buddhist Thought & Culture

77

, Kor. myngje), or the causes and conditions (yin-yan , Kor. inyn), i.e. the conditions of text production, may be highlighted. The extant texts ascribed to Wnhyo which are labeled as essentials, or chongyo (Pphwa chongyo , Ylban chongyo , Muryangsugyng chongyo , Mirk sangsaenggyng chongyo , Taehyedogyng chongyo ), by structure and content clearly fall into the category of hsan .9 Judging from the fact that some of the s (prefaces) contained in the Tongmunsn are identical with tae-i sections of the above works, it may be assumed that most, if not all of Wnhyos so commentaries originally also comprised a chongyo section.

C. The Opening Sections

1. The Outline It is rather well-known that, according to the Sung kao-seng chuan , the work originally bore the title Kmgang sammaegyng so and only later was to be elevated to the status of a lun or non.10 In fact, at the beginning of the text we find an outline corresponding to that found at the beginning of an introductory hyn . However, the outline deviates from the standard scheme in as far as that the actual so part itself is integrated:
This stra is explained by opening four gates (mun ) in abbreviation. First, I confer the overall intention (taei ). Next I differentiate the ancestor (chongji , i.e. the specific point of departure and purport) of the stra. Third, I analyze the title (myngje ). Fourth, I dissect the text (so mun , lit.: melt, dissolve the text). (T. 34, 961a3-4)

9 Even though doubts may be raised concerning their original status as self-contained works. Thus, the texts might have been integrated with shu type commentaries. 10 Cf. T. 50, 730b23f.

78

Jrg Plassen: Exegesis as Spiritual Practice As the reason for this approach should become clear further on, at this

place it should suffice to note that the first section fills little more than half a register in the Taish edition, the second one slightly more than one register, the third more than one page (i.e., three pages of app. 1,300 chars.), and the so itself more than 45 pages. 2. The Overall Intention For obvious reasons, the sections on the overall intention and on the ancestor are of special relevance for determining the basic intention of the text commented on, and the intention of the commentator.The text begins as follows:
First: Explication of the overall intention: Now: The source of One Mind is seperate from having and not-having [characteristics] and is independent and clear; The sea of triple emptiness11 fuses true and vulgar, and yet is profound. Profound, [the sea of triple emptiness] fuses the two and yet is not one; independent and clear, [the source of One Mind] is separate from the extremes and yet is not the Middle. Because of [the source of One Mind] not being the Middle and yet being seperate from the extremes, the dharmas which do not have (or, which deny having) do not immediately dwell in not-having, and the characteristics which do not lack, do not dwell in having. Because of [the sea of triple emptiness] not being one and yet fusing the two, the affairs, which are not truth, never yet function as the vulgar, the pattern, which is not the vulgar, never functions as truth.
11 This triple emptiness is mentioned in the 5th chapter of the stra in the context of surpassing a statical view of emptiness. After five forms of emptiness have been introduced, the following warning is given: Bodhisattva! In these [forms of] emptiness, what is empty does not reside in emptiness, what is empty does not have the mark of emptiness. [Concerning] the dharmas lacking marks, how could there be [any] selecting or dropping [of certain marks]? To enter into the stage of the absence of selecting or dropping equals entering into the threefold emptiness. Cf. T. 34, 983b15-17. A follow-up definition still remains rather cryptical: [Concerning] the threefold emptiness: The mark of emptiness is also empty; the emptiness of the empty (or, possibly rather: The emptying of the empty) is also empty; what is made empty is also empty.The explanation in the commentary amounts to the notion that first the emptiness and ultimate irrelevance of the empty or undifferentiated truth is expressed, then the emptiness of the multitude of the provisional (reborn in the negation of emtiness), and finally the emptiness of both kinds of emptiness. Cf. T. 34, 983c6-84a2.

International Journal of Buddhist Thought & Culture

79

Because of [the sea of triple emptiness] fusing the two and yet not being one, [for] the nature of true and vulgar there is nothing it would not establish, for the characteristics of dirt and cleanness there is nothing, which would not be provided in them. Because of [the source of One Mind] being separate from the extremes and yet not being the middle, for the dharmas of having and not-having there is nothing they do not create, for the statements [in terms] of right and wrong there is nothing which is not completed in them. Thus, there consequently is no scattering, and yet there is nothing which is not scattered, there is no establishing, and yet there is nothing which is not established. One may call this the utmost pattern, which [itself] does not have a pattern, the great such, which [itself] is not such.This is called the overall intention of that stra. (T. 34, 961a4-14)

Up to this point, the elucidations on the overall intention appear only to refer to the state of One Mind and its way of dealing with the tension between unity and diversity, between the world of appearances and the Absolute. Then, however, the focus is diverted:
Just because of the great such, which is not such, the speech of the one, who speaks, wonderfully tallies with the middle of the circle. Because of the utmost pattern, which has no pattern, the principle, for which testimony is given, leaps out of the square. As there is nothing it does not scatter, it is called diamond samdhi. As there is nothing it does not establish, it is called the Stra comprising the Great Vehicle. In the principle of all statements there is nothing, which would exceed these two. Therefore, it is also called the Ancestor of measureless meanings. Moreover, as one takes up one aspect to set a title at its head, one says: Diamond samdhi stra. (T. 34, 961a14-18)12

Drawing the attention to a speech act, and relating what has been stated hitherto to the various designations of the work commented upon, Wnhyo leaves no doubt that in fact the method by which the One Mind expresses itself in the stra has been described.The overall intention thus refers to the (intrinsically exegetical13) method of the text commented upon.
12 The two designations mentioned in addition to the actual title also derive from the stra itself. Cf. T. 34, 1006c16-17.

80

Jrg Plassen: Exegesis as Spiritual Practice 3. The Ancestor or Specific Point of Departure of the Stra In the following section on the ancestor or specific point of departure

of the text, the common generic term chongyo (ancestor-and-essentials) is introduced, and immediately broken down into its two components:
Second: Differentiating the ancestor of the stra: [Concerning] the ancestor-and-essentials (chongyo ) of this text, there is opening (kae ) and uniting (hap ). Speaking about it in a uniting way, contemplation and practice of the One Taste (ilmi kwanhaeng )14 are the essential (yo ). Speaking about it in an opening way, the dharma-gate in ten layers (sip chung pmmun ) is the ancestor (chong ). (T. 34, 961a19f.)

In the adjacent explanations on the first part of the dichotomy, the explanations on contemplation and practice, the synthethical standpoint of the One Taste is undermined by the introduction of various dichotomies and seemingly discarded in favor of the phenomenal. However, the reader again is cautioned concerning the ostensibility of phenomenal processes:
Speaking of contemplation and practice: Contemplation: this means to treat [matters] horizontally, and is pervasive in relation to object and wisdom. Practice: this means gazing into the vertical (in the sense of a series of steps) and revolves around cause and fruit. Fruit: this means that the five dharmas (o pp )15 are round and full[y developed]. Cause means that the six practices (yukhaeng )16 have been
13 The attribute exegetical may be employed on account of the fact that in the stra Buddha and Bodhisattvas explicate the Buddhas teachings. 14 The term ilmi refers to a metaphor, in which the Buddhas diverse teachings are compared to streams flowing into the sea. Just as the waters of the different stream in the end will have the same taste, the different teachings will result into the realization of the same reality of awakening, beyond all differentiation. 15 The term o pp appears passim in the stra, but is defined only in the commentary. A paraphrase of the definition can be found further on. 16 The expression yukhaeng is explained in the stra as 1. ten practices of faith (sin), 2. ten practices of abiding (chu), 3. ten practices of practicing (haeng) 4. ten practices of conferring merits (hoehyang, lit.

International Journal of Buddhist Thought & Culture

81

prepared completely. Wisdom is immediately identical with the two [kinds of] original and incipient awakening. The object is immediately identical with common and true pairwise being destructed.They are pairwise destructed, and yet do not become extinct. They are both awakenings, and yet are without arising.... (T. 34, 961a21-24)

The phrase are without arising leads over to a chain of interlocking statements:
...[By] practice without arising (musaeng chi haeng ) [one in a state of] profoundness comprehends the absence of characteristics (musang ). The dharmas without characteristics favourably bring about the original profit (polli ). Since the profit is original profit and without attainment, it does not stir the realm of the substantial (silje ). Since [this] realm is the realm of the substantial and separate from [any self-]nature (sng ), the realm of truth is also empty (chinje yk kong ).All Buddhas and Thus-comes herein are stored. All Bodhisattvas into its middle accordingly to enter. Such is designated as Entering the storage of the Thus-come (yraejang ). This is the overall intention of the six chapters (yuk pum chi taei ). (T. 34, 961a24-b2)

As the end of the passage suggests, this somewhat bewildering chain of associations almost verbatim refers to the titles of what later on will be identified the six core chapters of the work (Musang pp pum , Musaeng haeng pum , Pongak li pum , Ip silje pum , Chinsng kong pum , Yraejang pum ).It should not go by unnoticed that the section ends in a statement concerning the overall intention, and not, as should be expected, on the ancestor, or specific part of departure. Subsequently, the six practices and the five dharmas are discussed in more detail: From the incipient stage of belief and understanding until the
diversion), 5. the practice of the ten stages (chi) and 6. the practice of awakening towards equalness (tnggak). Cf. T. 34, 987a12-15. This arrangement of pracices conforms to listings in several apocryphical texts, including the [Pu-sa Ying-lo] pen-yeh ching, which is quoted by Wnhyo in this context, and also in the Jen-wang ching, implicitly referred to in the Sung-kao seng-chuan biography. Cf. T. 34, 987a18; Buswell (1989, 218).

82

Jrg Plassen: Exegesis as Spiritual Practice

awakening to equalness (tnggak ) six practices are to be mastered. At the time these are brought to fulfillment, the ninth consciousness (kusik ) emerges, and along with it a consciousness without defilements (mugusik ) become visible, so that the clean dharma-sphere (chng ppkye ) may emerge. The remaining eight stages of consciousness are transformed by it into the four-fold wisdom (sa ji ). After the five dharmas have been brought to roundness, the three bodies of a Buddha are complete.After these detailed clarifications, at last the unifying perspective comes again to the forefront:
Such cause and fruit do not leave [the realm of] object and wisdom. Object and wisdom are without duality; they are merely the One Taste. Such contemplation and practice of the One Taste is to be considered the ancestor of the stra. Therefore, among the characteristics of the dharmas (i.e., teachings) of the Great Vehicle there is nothing [the stra] would not comprise, and [concerning] the Ancestor of the unmeasurable meanings there is nothing [the stra] would not enter into.Does this not mean that the name has not been designated [in an] empty [way]?Treating the One Contemplation [in a] uniting [way] may be described like this. (T. 34, 961b5-8)

The second part of the dichotomy, the opening of ten gates (sip mun ) [corresponding to] the ancestor, is dominated by long enumerations, reminding of the lists found in Abhidharma texts or the Ta-chih tu lun. Thus, the gates one to four are defined by enumerations comprising the One Mind, the one motion of thought, the one substantiality, to be continued with the two shores, two crowds, two-fold I. On the fifth level, the list structure dissolves into a sentence connecting five dark ones (i.e., the aggregates) with a somewhat longer list of terms. On stage six and seven, again only two terms appear, and on stage eight, only one term is mentioned. After stating that the ninth consciousness is clean and [freely] flowing, the text proceeds with the remark that from the [stage] of ten beliefs until the ten abodes [of the Bodhisattva] the one hundred practices have been completed and the ten thousand virtuous powers are round and complete.The conclusion that

International Journal of Buddhist Thought & Culture

83

the described [access] gates constitute the ancestor of the stra is accompanied by the assurance that all these gates are contained in the texts and will be discussed in the commentary upon treating the relevant passages. A tenth gate is not mentioned explicitly. However, the reference to the ten beliefs and the ten abodes, the first and fifth of actually six practices, seems to imply that the highest stage of practice and thus the stage of awakening to equalness itself still have not been accounted for. Thus, one gate actually remains to be opened. Consequently, the section ends with the following statement:
Now, hereafter the nine gates enter into the One Gate. In the One Gate there are nine, and [these] do not leave [the realm of] the One Contemplation. Therefore, one opens and yet does not increase [even] by one. Therefore, one closes and yet does not extinguish the ten. Not to increase and not to extinguish constitutes the ancestor-and-essential (chongyo ). (T. 34, 961b23-26)

Thus, the superordinate section on the ancestor of the stra again ends with a return from diversity to unity, and the decomposed binome chongyo is restituted to its initial wholeness. 4. The Title of the Stra The explanation of the title of the stra serves the clarification of the title words and despite being lengthier follows a quite plain outline. Wnhyo briefly mentions three alternative designations, but at this point explicitly wants to limit himself to the explanation of the title actually prepended to the text. A preliminary remark thus divides the explanations into an analysis (sk) of the designation Kmgang (Diamond) and another one of the designation sammae (Samdhi). The first part of the analysis again is explained to comprise two steps: analyzing (sk ) the term, and sorting out the differences (kan ). The subsequent analysis of Kmgang develops into an explanation of Kmgang sammae , which is followed by a lengthy comparison between concentration (chng ) and wisdom (hye ),

84

Jrg Plassen: Exegesis as Spiritual Practice

i.e. Kmgang sammae and Kmgang panya , a series of enumerations serving to structure the text. The likewise extensive explanations of the second part of the title resemble those for the first. Thus, the definition of the term is followed by a delineation of several synonyms on basis of their name and designation, and the degree in which these forms of meditation penetrate the various spheres. 5. The Dissection of the Text Dichotomies and other divisions provide a major characteristic also of the fourth on and by far longest section of the text. Slightly deviating from the outline, the section bears the title kwa mun (lit.: Subdividing the text). Accordingly, it begins with a classification of the major parts of the text. Following the traditional pattern brought forward already by Tao-an (312-385), the text is divided into an introduction (s pun , here corresponding to the first chapter), a main discourse (chngsl pun , chapters 2 to 7), and a part dedicated to the propagation of the text (yutong pun , a part of chapter 7). Again following the stock procedure, the introduction then is split into a pervasive or universal (tong ) one and a seperate (pyl ) one. Concerning the first, six aspects referring to the particular context of transmission are mentioned.17 Then the actual so begins, in which the text of the stra is broken down to the level of single questions and answers to be commented upon.18 The length of explanations varies from a single sentence to several pages. The explanations are often based on a dichotomy, and lengthy explanations are further structured by definitions of terms and enumerations of certain aspects. Conversely, frequent references to the numerical position of subsections constantly remind of the place of the explanations at hand in the overall framework of the text.19
17 Cf. T. 34, 962c24-63a3. 18 The quotations are introduced by kyng wal (the stra says), the explanations by non wal (the treatise says), clear evidence for later modifications. 19 As Robert Buswell has argued, the concern behind superimposing this structure on the contents of text is the desire to show the unity of thought pervading the text, and the canon as a whole. Cf. Buswell

International Journal of Buddhist Thought & Culture

85

IV. Conclusions
During the review of the above passages it should have become obvious that the reader is subjected to a constant move back and forth between the perspectives of unity and diversity. In their repetitive redundancy, these textual movements again cannot be interpreted otherwise than as designed to make the reader experience the complementary character. While such therapeutic attempts to provide the reader with a cathartic experience leveling opposites in a move towards non-differentiation are not without precedent, the Kmgang sammaegyng non follows a distinctive, rather quietistic approach in as much as it is mainly concerned with the gradual visualization of the relation between parts among each other and between the parts and the whole. Thus, as we have seen, discussions of different topics are intricately interwoven with each other. Even though a whole section is dedicated to the explanation of the title of the stra, in fact it is discussed also in the other sections. Likewise, in the section dedicated to the ancestor or specific point of departure, a definition of the overall intention is given.The boundaries of the different terms discussed thus begin to be blurred and even the originally statical nature of the analytical scheme is undermined to the effect that it becomes fluid. By resorting to this compositional technique at the same time the interrelatedness of the sections as parts of a whole gradually is visualized.20 Already the reference to the relation of one and ten reminds of Hwam thought, and even more so does the special emphasis on the relationship between the whole and the parts. In fact, as has been shown by this author in another context, the intertwining of diversity and unity and the mirroring of subjects into each other (again reminding of the presence of the whole in the parts) might be seen as embodying the interfusion of i and
(2007). 20 Because of this emphasis on integrity and wholeness, also the usual structural division between hsan and shu is avoided: The outline integrates the hsan and shu parts into a consistent whole. Thus, even though the part corresponding to the shu or so fans out into a multitude of ramifications, the text remains an integrated whole, and the reader may trace even the most minute statement back to the source of One Mind

86

Jrg Plassen: Exegesis as Spiritual Practice

sa as two complementary perspectives.21While the underlying premises thus can be found also in earlier Hwam texts, the outstanding asthetic value of the Kmgang sammaegyng non lies in the intricate congruence of the contents and the oscillating, pulsating arrangements representing it.

21 Cf. Plassen (2008).

International Journal of Buddhist Thought & Culture

87

Glossary of Chinese Terms (K=Korean, C=Chinese)

Chin (C) Chin-ching (C) Chinje yk kong (K) Chinsng kong pum (K) Chi-tsang (C) (549-623) Chojang (K) Chong (K) Chng (K) Chng ppkye (K) Chongji (K), Tsung-chih (C) Chngsl pun (K) Chongyo (K) Chung-kuan lun (C) Chung-lun (C) Hap (K) Hsing-chih (C) Hwam (K) Hye (K) Hyn (K), Hsan (C) Hyni (K), Hsan-i (C) I (K) I (C) Ilmi (K) Ilmi kwanhaeng (K) Inyn (K), Yin-yan (C) Ip silje pum (K) Kae (K) Kan (K) Kmgang (K)

88

Jrg Plassen: Exegesis as Spiritual Practice Kmgang panya (K) Kmgang sammae (K) Kmgang sammaegyng non (K) Kmgang sammaegyng so (K) Kusik (K) Kwamun (K) Lun (C), Non (K) Lun-chi (C) Mirk sangsaenggyng chongyo (K) Mugusik (K) Mun (K), Men (C) Muryangsugyng chongyo (K) Musaeng chi haeng (K) Musaeng haeng pum (K) Musang (K) Musang pp pum (K) Myngje (K), Ming-ti (C) O pp (K) Polli (K) Pongak li pum (K) Pphwa chongyo (K) Pyl (K) Sa (K) Sa ji (K) Sammae (K) Silje (K) Sinpyn chejong kyojang chongnok (K) Sip chung pmmun (K) So (K), Shu (C) S (K), Hs (C) So mun (K) S pun (K)

International Journal of Buddhist Thought & Culture

89

Sk (K) Sng (K) Sung kao-seng chuan (C) Taehyedogyng chongyo (K) Taei (K), Ta-i (C) Tao-an (C) (312-385) Tong (K) Tnggak (K) Wnhyo (K) (617-686) Wu (C) Yo (K) Ylban chongyo (K) Yraejang (K) Yraejang pum (K) Yu (K) Yuk haeng (K) Yuk pum chi tae-i (K) Yutong pun (K) ichn (K) (1055-1101) iso (K), I-shu (C)

90

Jrg Plassen: Exegesis as Spiritual Practice

References
Buswell, Robert E., Jr. 1989 2007 The Formation of Chan Ideology in China and Korea: The Vajrasamdhi-stra, a Buddhist Apocryphon. Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press. Cultivating Original Enlightenment: Wnhyos Exposition of the Vajrasamdhi-Sutra (Kmgang Sammaegyng Non). Honolulu: Univ. of Hawaii Press. Samnon-gwa Hwamgye (Wnhyo, Pbjanggye)-i Chno Pangsik. Chrhak Yngu: Philosophical Studies; Journal of the Philosophical Society of Korea Univ. 7:5-32. Wnhyo Sasang-i Silchn Wlli. In Hanguk Pulgyo Sasangsa: Sungsan Pak Kilchin paksa Hwagap Kinym, ed. Sungsan Pak Kilchin paksa Hwagap Kinym Saphoe, 225-55. Iri: Wn Pulgyo Sasang Ynguwn. Domesticating the Buddha: Buddhist Cults and the Hwam Synthesis in Silla Korea. Honolulu: Univ. of Hawaii Press. Die Spuren der Abhandlung (Lun-chi): Exegese und bung im San-lun des sechsten Jahrhunderts. PhD diss., Hamburg Univ. Some Random (and Very Preliminar) Notes on Performative Dimensions of Buddhist Commentaries Written in China and Korea. Asian Studies/tudes Asiatiques 58.3:597-611. Hwa in East Asian Buddhism: Once More on the Originality of Wnhyos Works. Cheontaehak Yeongu: Journal of the Research Institute for Cheontae Buddhist Culture 10:85-126. Wnhyo-i Kmgang sammaegyng non. Seoul: Ilchisa.

Kim, Ha-u 1982 Ko, Ikchin 1975

McBride, Richard 2007 Plassen, Jrg [2000] 2002 2004

2008

n, Chng-hi, and Chin-hyn, Song, trans. 2000