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Dayi Daoxin

Portrait of Dayi Daoxin

Early Chan

Dayi Daoxin

580 – 651

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Dayi Daoxin, the fourth Chinese Chan patriarch, received transmission from Jianzhi Sengcan and became one of the most important figures in the development of Chan as a distinct Chinese Buddhist school. He was the first patriarch to establish a large settled community of practitioners, moving away from the wandering and hermit-like style of the earlier patriarchs. He founded a community on East Mountain (Dongshan) that numbered in the hundreds, and this represented a new institutional form for the transmission of awakening.

Daoxin's teaching integrated sitting meditation with practical monastic work, a combination that would become central to the Chan tradition. He insisted that awakening was not separate from everyday activity and that the cultivation of mind could occur through any task performed with complete attention. His emphasis on practice within community life rather than solitary wandering laid the groundwork for the great monasteries of the Tang dynasty Chan renaissance. He transmitted to Daman Hongren, who would carry this communal model to even greater development.

Names

dharma · enDayi Daoxin
alias · endaii dôshin
alias · enDaii Dôshin
alias · enta-i tao-hsin
alias · enTa-i Tao-hsin
alias · zh大醫道信
alias · zh道信

Teachers

Students

Teachings

  • sermonOn the Method of Guarding the One

    (traditional attribution)

    Sit with the body erect. Close your eyes and guard the mind. Let all thoughts and concerns fall away. Concentrate on guarding the one—the one mind that is neither moving nor still, neither inside nor outside. This one mind is originally pure. It is not something created through practice, nor is it something that can be destroyed through neglect. By guarding this one, all thoughts settle of themselves, and the original brightness of the mind becomes apparent. This is the essential practice of all the Buddhas.

    Attributed_to: Dayi Daoxin

  • sayingOn the Unity of Practice in Daily Activity

    (traditional attribution)

    The Way is not separate from your daily activities. Walking, standing, sitting, lying down—each of these is the practice ground. When you eat, eat with full awareness. When you work, work with full awareness. Do not divide your life into sacred and profane. The one who chops wood mindfully is no different from the one who sits in meditation. If you can maintain awareness in all your activities, then your entire life becomes practice, and there is no gap between zazen and daily life.

    Attributed_to: Dayi Daoxin

Master Record Sources

Image: Wikimedia Commons: Daoxin.jpg · Public Domain / CC (Wikimedia)