Wumen guan
(Redirected from The Gateless Barrier)
Wumen guan. (J. Mumonkan; K. Mumun kwan 無門關). A collection of gong'an (J. kōan) compiled by the Chan master Wumen Huikai. Known in English as “Gateless Checkpoint,” “Wumen’s Checkpoint,”[1] "Gateless Barrier," "Gateless Gate," etc. Also known as the Chanzong Wumen guan (“Gateless Checkpoint of the Chan Tradition”).[1]
Along with the Biyan lu (“Blue Cliff Record”), the Wumen guan is considered one of the two most important gong'an collections of the Chan tradition.[1][2]
The Princeton Dictionary states:
- In the summer of 1228, at the request of the resident monks at the monastery of Longxiangsi, Wumen lectured on a series of forty-eight cases (gong’an) that he culled from various “transmission of the lamplight” (chuandeng lu) histories and the recorded sayings (yulu) of previous Chan masters. His lectures were recorded and compiled that same year and published with a preface by Wumen in the following year (1229). Another case (case 49), composed by the layman Zheng Qingzhi, was added to the Wumen guan in 1246.[1]
One of the most famous gong'an is the first case of the Wumen guan, known as Zhaozhou gouzi ("Zhaozhouʼs Dog").
Translations
- The (incomplete) Gateless Gate at ibiblio (archived from the original[1] on 2020-12-27)
- The Gateless Gate at sacred-texts.com, including Chinese original
- The Gateless Checkpoint of the Zen Lineage a complete translation of the 1246 CE manuscript including fore and after appended sections.
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Buswell & Lopez 2014, s.v. Wumen guan.
- ↑ Harvey 2013, Chapter 7.
Sources
Buswell, Robert E.; Lopez, Donald S. (2014), The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, Princeton University
Harvey, Peter (2013), An Introduction to Buddhism (Second ed.), Cambridge University Press
External links
- The Gateless Gate in original Chinese at the Chinese Buddhist Electronic Text Association (CBeta), in traditional Chinese characters, as recorded in the Buddhist canon.
- An Analysis Of The Koans In The Mu Mon Kwan by John F. Fisher, Northwestern University, Numen, Vol. 25, Fasc. 1. (Apr., 1978), pp. 65–76.
- About the Wu-Men Kuan koans edited by Dr. T. Matthes Ciolek; includes links to English-language commentaries on some of the koans, and a bibliography of print materials
The Gateless Barrier, Wikipedia
