Gaofeng Yuanmiao
Gaofeng Yuanmiao
1238 – 1295
Gaofeng Yuanmiao (高峰原妙, 1238–1295) was the chief Dharma heir of Xueyan Zuqin and one of the most influential Yangqi-line Linji masters of the late Southern Song and early Yuan. His autobiographical *Gāofēng Héshàng Chánshī Cān Chán Jiào Bīng* ("Admonitions on Investigating Chan") records the extreme regime of his training — he is said to have practised standing on the edge of a cliff to keep himself from falling asleep, and his decisive awakening came when a monk dropped a wooden pillow and the crack of its fall shattered his last knot of doubt[1].
He retired in 1279 to a cave on Mount Tianmu in modern Zhejiang, the *Shīzī Yán* (Lion's Rock), where he taught for the rest of his life under the strict rule of never descending the mountain. The formulation of *huatou* practice he transmitted there — built around the triad of "great faith, great determination, and great doubt" — was codified by his disciple Zhongfeng Mingben and became the standard Yuan-and-after Linji curriculum, carried into Japan through the Daiō-Daitō-Kanzan line and into Korea through the Goryeo-period Seon revival[2].
Names
Disciples of Gaofeng Yuanmiao
Teachers and lineage of Gaofeng Yuanmiao
Teacher / root master:
Teachings
- sayingThe Great Doubt Block
Gaofeng said: "Beneath the great doubt there is great awakening. If you can raise the doubt mass to fill your entire body so that it becomes like a solid block—no gap, no crack, no place for thinking to enter—then suddenly it will shatter of itself. When this happens, you will be like a person who has been dead and comes back to life, or like a person who snatches back what has been stolen. Only then will you know that you yourself have always had it."
Other masters in Yangqi line
Master Record Sources
- datesZen Editorial Overlay - Originals Curation
1238-1295
- nameZen Editorial Overlay - Originals Curation
Gaofeng Yuanmiao
- schoolZen Editorial Overlay - Originals Curation
Yangqi line
- teachersZen Editorial Overlay - Originals Curation
Xueyan Zuqin