12 Facts About Zhongfeng Mingben

Zhongfeng Mingben adhered to the rigorous style of the Linji school and influenced Zen through several Japanese teachers who studied under him.

Zhongfeng Mingben's mother died when he was nine years old.

Zhongfeng Mingben's left hand became mutilated when, in his youth he burned the little finger as a sacrifice to the Buddha.

In 1287 Zhongfeng Mingben received tonsure at Shiziyuan Monastery on Tianmu Mountain.

Zhongfeng Mingben was called "The old Buddha south of the sea", an allusion to Mazu Daoyi, one of the most influential teachers of Chan Buddhism, who lived during the Tang dynasty, the "golden age of Zen".

Zhongfeng Mingben declined a number of titles, appointments and positions, temporarily choosing instead a life of wandering and solitary meditation.

Zhongfeng Mingben turned down an invitation of Ayurbarwada Buyantu Khan to come to the Yuan court.

Zhongfeng Mingben relies on the Sutra of Perfect Enlightenment in his teachings on how to overcome this illusion.

Zhongfeng Mingben lived after the "golden age of Chan" of the Tang and the proliferation of Chan during the Tang.

Zhongfeng Mingben's age was regarded as an age of mofa.

Zhongfeng Mingben was the first to compare the sayings and teachings of the 'masters of the old' with the public cases of the court, the gong-an.

Whereas Zhongfeng Mingben warns against the impossible attempt of totally silencing the mind, Hakuin uses the term in a more positive sense, to denote the workings of koans, which "possess the power to cause sudden death in students, raising the great doubt in their minds that will lead them to the 'great death' and the rebirth of satori and enlightenment".