0

I can recall barely nothing about it, but I do know that it features in Zhiyi's work, Chin Fa-hua-hsüan-i at least. I'm especially interested in how the terms, which I believe are paired, may have a universal meaning.

Improve this question
0

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
1

This is an extremely broad question, I will limit my response to Ch'an/Zen Buddhism.

Starting in the earliest schools of Ch'an in Sung China, we find the practice of a stimulus/response ritual the Japanese call sassho. It usually (but not necessarily) takes the form of a question-answer dialog between master and student and is used to both invoke and verify insight/realization. Some of these dialogs have become (in)famous and were compiled into Kung'An/Koan collections still used today.

The basic philosophy behind sassho is to verify whether the answer to a teacher's question is free-flowing or (pre)conceived. In the latter case, the answer would be rejected and the student would be requested to meditate further on the question.

Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.