Buddhist-Meditation-Systematic-and-Practical

entity of the Buddhahood body!
Some people try to make Chan into Tian Tai and others
say it is the same as Mahamudra or the Great Perfection,
but all such ideas are quite wrong. The Sanskrit form of
its name is "dhyana," but we do not use that name, for
Chan has a meaning beyond all dhyanas. All the
patriarchs of the "Offspring Sect" say one thing: Chan is
not a meditation, not a concentration, not a perception.
To clarify this matter, it is necessary to know the
classification of Chan by purport. This has been
partially done by the Venerable Tai Xu, my guru, and in
his book he gives these five groups:
First is the Chan for becoming a Buddha by
understanding the mind.
Second is the Patriarchal Chan, excelling that of the
Buddhas.
Third is the Chan of the Five Lines of the Transmission
of the Lamp, excelling that of the patriarchs;
Fourth is the Chan of masters not belonging to any Chan
school.
Fifth is the Chan in the Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing
Dynasties.
I do not agree with this classification. A system must be
unified, not as above (the first four are according to
purport but the last one refers to times). I have another
way of doing it:
540