As cultural relativism and gnosticism displaced ra-
tionalism and Judeo-Christian values as the reigning
ideology among twentieth-century intellectuals, many
Americans and Europeans increasingly sought a viable
alternative in Zen, oblivious of its nationalistic and
racist overtones. The transcultural, unmediated status
of Zen mysticism, for instance, offered dismayed
Catholics like Kerouac an alternative to their own sti-
fling tradition, yet paradoxically allowed them to re-
main loyal to their original faith. Similarly, large
communities of lay practitioners who had little or no
interest in monasticism flocked to Zen centers estab-
lished by Yasutani Hakuun (1885–1973) and by his
American disciples Philip Kapleau (1912– ) and
Robert Aitken (1917– ), where the rapid attainment
of kensho(seeing one’s true nature) and its certifica-
tion known as inkawere the only priority. This, how-
ever, stood in stark contrast to the disciplined lifestyle
of a traditional Zen monk for whom such a certifica-
tion bears more of an institutional than a personal sig-
nificance. Zen, as we know it in the West, is thus
significantly different from its more traditional coun-
terpart; this difference, as we have seen, emerged from
a cross-cultural dialogue that belongs exclusively nei-
ther to Japan nor to the West.
See also:Critical Buddhism (Hihan Bukkyo); Engaged
Buddhism; Meiji Buddhism Reform; Modernity and
Buddhism; Nationalism and Buddhism
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JUHNAHNZHANRANZhanran (Jingqi Zhanran and Miaole dashi,711–782)
is the ninth patriarch of the TIANTAI SCHOOLof Chi-
nese Buddhism and the sixth patriarch following ZHIYI
(538–597), the de facto architect of the tradition. Au-
thor of the first authoritative commentaries on the ma-
jor works of Zhiyi, Zhanran revitalized and reformed
Tiantai during the Tang dynasty (618–907).
Zhanran trained for twenty years on Mount Zuoji
in Zhejiang under Xuanlang (673–754), who became
the eighth patriarch, and he remained active in the
southeast both in his native Jiangsu and in the envi-
rons of Mount Tiantai in Zhejiang. Avoiding the north-
ern political centers, Zhanran declined several imperial
invitations, but made pilgrimage to Mount Wutai in
Shanxi and instructed the Huayan adept CHENGGUAN
(738–838/840) in Suzhou, returning to Mount Tiantai
in 775 for the last time. The veracity of his travels in
the north has been challenged in the late-twentieth cen-
tury. Included among Zhanran’s disciples are the
literati figures Li Hua (d.u.–ca. 774) and Liang Su
(753–793), who wrote his memorial inscription.
Zhanran’s most influential works are his Zhiguan
fuxing zhuanhong jue(Decisions on Supporting Practice
and Broadly Disseminating[the Teachings of the Great]
Calming and Contemplation) and the Jin’gangbei(Di-
amond Scalpel). The first is a commentary on Zhiyi’s
MOHE ZHIGUAN(Great Treatise on Calming and Con-
templation), which for the first time identifies that
practice-oriented text with the LOTUSSUTRA(SAD-
DHARMAPUNDARIKA-SUTRA) and connects it to Zhiyi’s
two doctrinal commentaries on the Lotusto become
the three quintessential texts of Tiantai. The Jin’gang-
beiis a polemical treatise on insentient TATHAGATA-
GARBHA, an idea not articulated in early Tiantai. Since
the last quarter of the twentieth century, scholars have
also recognized that the famous Tiantai “five periods
and eight teachings” (wushi bajiao) taxonomy attrib-
uted to Zhiyi, which elevates the Lotusas supreme
among scriptures and emphasizes a transmission based
on the received teaching, is not found in the writings
of Zhiyi in the form relied upon by later Tiantai. Rather,ZHANRAN