Zen ranks and hierarchy: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 20:51, 19 November 2018

Revision as of 14:52, 5 September 2019

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{{quote|Tsūgen, Baisan and Jochū each demanded that future generations excommunicate any Zen teacher who failed to fulfill his obligation to serve as abbot of a head temple. Baisan decreed that the obedient Zen successors should seize defiant ones and then burn the offender's succession's certificate (''shisho'') before his eyes. Note the remarkable inversion that has occurred here. Instead of dharma transmission being a qualification for becoming an abbot, successful service as abbot has become a requirement for being allowed to retain one's dharma tranbsmission.{{sfn|Bodiford|2008|p=273}}}}

The ceremony has to be done at both [[Eihei-ji]] and [[Sōji-ji]], the main temples of the Sōtō-shūSōtõ school, within the time span of one month.<ref name=Antaiji4 group=web /> This originates in the rivalry between Eihei-ji and Sōji-ji. Eihei-ji's attempts to gain dominance were met with resistance from Sōji-ji. Several times in history Sōji-ji "has issued proclamations that anyone who received honors at Eihei-ji would never be allowed back at a temple affiliated with Sōji-ji".{{sfn|Bodiford|2008|p=275}} Since Sōji-ji has by far the largest network of temples, this was an effective mean to limit the influence of Eihei-ji.{{sfn|Bodiford|2008|p=275}}

After ''zuise'' one becomes an ''Oshō'', i.e. "priest" or "teacher".