Zen Teacher/Zen Master
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Philip Yampolksy, in his book "The Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch," states that "Once Ch'an began to be organized into an independent sect, it required a history and tradition which could provide it with the respectability already possessed by the longer-established Buddhist schools. In the manufacture of this history, accuracy was not a consideration; a tradition traceable to the Indian Patriarchs was the objective. At the same time that Ch'an was providing itself with a past which accommodated itself to Buddhism as a whole, various competing Ch'an Masters, each with his own disciples and methods of teaching, strove to establish themselves. Throughout the eighth century a two-fold movement took place: the attempt to establish Ch'an as a sect within the Buddhist teaching in general, and the attempt to gain acceptance for a particular school of Ch'an within the Chinese society in which it existed."
Yampolsky goes on from there, but the three most important themes are these: (1) the idea of "lineage" is not something unique to Zen, but is rather a more general principle that operates within many different Buddhist schools, (2) regardless of whether or not it was "manufacture[d]", and regardless of its "accuracy", it was in China during the eighth century that the history of Zen, as this history is understood within the Zen tradition itself, began to take shape, and (3) lineage serves to both legitimize Zen with respect to other Buddhist schools, and also as the primary criterion for legitimacy within Zen itself.
Despite the skeptical attitude expressed in the quotation, Yampolsky (who died in 1996) was not hostile to the Zen tradition or Buddhism in general. Yampolsky has been described [1] as an "active member of a group of Beat generation scholars and writers studying Zen." He worked with such writers as Gary Snyder and Burton Watson.
Another scholarly source that discusses the question of lineage (and, by implication, who is a Zen teacher) is Heinrich Dumoulin's "Zen Buddhism: A History, India and China". Although this book is somewhat dated, it is still by far the most detailed history of Zen available in the English language. A second volume by Dumoulin is entirely devoted to the history of Zen in Japan. Two books cover the history of Zen in Korea and provide information about how the lineage of Zen passed from China to Korea: "Thousand Peaks: Korean Zen: Tradition and Teachers" by Mu Soeng, and "Tracing Back the Radiance: Chinul's Korean Way of Zen" by Robert Buswell. And Steven Heine has edited a volume of essays on "The Koan", which contains a chapter written by Albert Welter on "Mahakasyapa's Smile: Silent Transmission and the Kung-an (Koan) Tradition" that takes one back to "where it all began" - the very first transmission (according to Zen) from Shakyamuni (the first Zen Master) to his student Mahakasyapa (the second Zen Master). The same volume also contains other articles of great relevance to questions concerning lineage, transmission and the question of who is a "real" Zen teacher.
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[edit] Some ancient sources
"Transmission of Light" (Japanese: Denkoroku) by Zen Master Keizan is a series of "transmission stories" that trace the lineage of the Japanese Soto school from Dogen back to Shakyamuni. It is available in at least two English translations. "The Zen Teachings of Bodhidharma" is a modern book (by some guy who calls himself "Red Pine") that contains translations of texts that are attributed to Bodhidharma - the most pivotal figure in the history of Zen "transmission".
[edit] Some terminology
Often two levels of "Teacher" are recognized in Zen. The lower level corresponds to the English phrase "Zen Teacher", while the phrase "Zen Master" is normally reserved for a higher level. The roughly corresponding Japanese terms would be "Sensei" and "Roshi". To make things more confusing different terms are used to describe the process by which someone becomes a Zen Teacher/Master. If someone has "received Dharma Transmission" this usually, but perhaps not always, refers to the higher level of "Master". Sometimes the related term "Inka" (or "inga") is used as a synonym for Dharma Transmission, but sometimes it is used to refer to the lower level of Zen Teacher as distinct from "Master".
A Zen Master will often give transmission to multiple students, who thereby become Zen Masters themselves. Sometimes one of these students is designated as a kind of primary Dharma Heir. Some Masters colloquially refer to such an heir as their "number one son", a somewhat tongue in cheek reference to the practice of primogeniture in which the eldest son inherits all of the father's wealth.
[edit] Women Zen Teachers
If Zen can be said to have begun with Bodhidharma, then there have been women Zen Masters from the beginning of Zen. According to tradition, Bodhidharma gave transmission to a nun named Dharani (although Bodhidharma's primary Dharma Heir was the famous monk Huike). The nun Dharani is also referred to as "the Bhikshuni Tsung-Ch'ih". In addition to the semi-legendary Dharani, there are others. Layman Pang is a famous teacher from the "Golden Age" of Zen during the Tang Dynasty (618-907) - and according to many traditional stories his wife and daughter were both enlightened and can be considered Zen Masters in their own right. Pang's daughter, Ling Zhao, is sometimes credited with teaching her father a thing or two [2].
During the Sung Dynasty (960 - 1279) the famous Zen Master Ta Hui (aka Dahui Zanggao) not only gave transmission to the nun Miao-tao, but he also designated her as his primary Dharma Heir. Ta Hui wasn't just any "famous Zen Master". His teacher had been Yuan Lu, the author of the Blue Cliff Record, one of the most important texts of Zen teaching. According to Zen tradition, Miao-tao is not the first woman Zen Master - but she is the first one that is historically documented. Miriam Levering [3] has done groundbreaking research on Miao-tao and on the role of women in Chinese Zen in general.
Dogen (1200 - 1253), the founder of the Japanese Soto school of Zen was outspoken on the matter of women as Zen teachers. Although he did not give transmissioin to any of his women students, he was clear in his teacing that men and women have equal spiritual capacities - and that women can serve as teachers, and that women teachers can teach both men and women. One of Dogens's successors, Zen Master Keizan (1268 - 1325), put Dogen's ideas into practice and a number of Keizan's women students became fully authorized Zen Masters.[4]
[edit] The Bottom Line
Zen is a tradition that is at least 1300 years old - and which traces its history back to the historical Buddha who lived well over 2,000 years ago (the exact dates for his life and death are actually not at all well established - even to within 200 years.) Anyone who wishes to claim to be a Zen student, let alone a Zen teacher, needs to be able to demonstrate some kind of connection with this very old tradition. Both modern western scholars and the traditional literature of Zen agree that the accepted way for doing this is by way of lineage. While the connections between Chinese Zen teachers and their "ancestors" in India are considered by many scholars to be lacking in historical documentation, to say the least, the traditional understanding within the Zen school is that all Zen teachers can trace their lineage back to Bodhidharma - and that Bodhidharma could trace his lineage back to Shakyamuni.
