The Study Of Adaptability Between Zen And Lingnan Culture

Buddhism, as a kind of foreign culture, was introduced to China from India. It was overwhelmingly significant for Buddhism to adapt to the local culture. Zen was the product of the sinicization of Buddhism, and its process of production and propagation was inseparable from the land of Lingnan(South of the Five Ridges). The internal factors that can let two sides adapt to each other were the character of the true self in Lingnan culture and the intentionality in the Zen thought. From the thought of using loving heart to liberate common people, which was from Kang Senghui, a great monk lived in the period of three kingdoms; the thought of regarding peaceful mind as a principle, that is from Gunabhadra who was a famous Zen master in Song dynasty; the thought that conscious mind was deep meditation was from Bodhidharma, who was one of the patriarch of Buddhism; to the thought of Huineng who was a great Zen master lived in Tang dynasty,his thought included that we need the quiet environment to aware of our disposition, namely, the Confucianism and Taoism were a entirety; the pure of our nature, namely, if our nature was pure, man’s world was pure; following our disposition, namely, religion depends on our heart. All this was the development between the religion’s essence of heart and the adaptation of disposition which was as the Zen, namely, the development was center on the discussion of heart and disposition. Combination of the intentional thinking model in Zen and the peculiarity of knowing people’s heart and understanding spekulation in Lingnan culture, facilitate the flourish of Zen. Huineng, as a person of Lingnan, must have taken in many peculiarities of Lingnan in the process of initiating “Dunjiao”. The core of Zen thought was that they only did missionary work within the religion, and there was no constraint of words. When you motivated your buddhata through epiphany, you became a Buddha. This Buddha way with high-level utility color didn’t pursue fussy religious rites, practice for generations and financial alms, and chant prayer, but it advocated to grasping the Buddhist principles especially by the spirit of understanding, therefore, it advocated the parlance of becoming a Buddha through epiphany. The traditional argument of loyalty and gains in Confucinism brought less impact on Lingnan culture, and the guidance of advantages over righteousness made it outstanding of mercantilism in Lingnan. Geographically, Lingnan connects Jingchu, namely, the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, and is far from the central plains, namely, political center in the north. Therefore, the ethos of yearning nature and pursuing freedom in Taoist brings great effects to Lingnan culture. Lingnan area is the compatibility of agricultural culture and marine culture, and also the platform of dialogue between Chinese and western culture in modern times. The very compatibility of culture is crucial to Zen’s prosperity, because Zen not only needs to let us become a Buddha through epiphany, but also others. The blending mode of mutual adaptation contributes to Lingnanize of Zen and the Zenize of Lingnan. It also makes the religious color of Zen no longer strong and forms the theory that everyone can become a Buddha or the religious form that the whole material world has consciousness.