Master Yüan was an iconoclastic teacher who appears in the Bodhidharma Anthology, which contains the earliest known records of Chan.
According to Jeffrey Broughton, despite being an obscure figure and not appearing in traditional collections of biographies or Chan genealogical charts,[1] Yüan may be the earliest "Zen master.
[3] Similarly, Yanagida Seizan considers Yüan's teaching to anticipate Shenhui's critique of the gradualistic meditation methods of the Northern School.
Faith in Buddhist teachings and teachers, praxis according to the traditional rules, and learning in scripture lead to nothing but self-deception and confusion.
While Yüan criticizes such things as reliance on texts, teachers, and traditional practices, he speaks positively of bodily energy (t'i-ch'i) and spirit (ching-shen).
The latter term can be found in Daoist works such as the Zhuangzi and Liezi, and in Chinese medical texts, where ching-shen refers to vim, vigor, and stamina.
However, as Broughton points out, this does not make Yüan a Daoist, but rather a Buddhist in the Bodhidharma circle who cast his understanding in native Chinese terms.
[11] According to Master Yüan, to give rise to the thought of moving toward the path is to have "crafty artifice," a mind of devices in which "a hundred ingenious schemes arise."
If you produce a mental focus on the path, then ingenious artifice will give rise to knowledge and a complement of events.
"[26] According to Yanagida, Master Yüan may have been the inspiration for the Oxhead School text, the Jueguan lun (Treatise on Cutting Off Contemplation).