Biguan

biguan (J. hekikan; K. pyŏkkwan 壁觀). Translated as, “wall contemplation” or “wall gazing”. A type of meditative practice said to be practiced by Bodhidharma, the putative founder of the Chinese Chan school.

According to legend, Bodhidharma spent nine years in wall contemplation in a small cave near the Shaolin Monastery.

This practice is explained as a meditation that entails “pacifying the mind” (anxin) and is the putative origin of contemplative practice in the Chan school. Despite the prestige the term carries within the Chan tradition because of its association with Bodhidharma, precisely what “wall contemplation” means has remained fraught with controversy since early in the school’s history.

According to the Princeton Dictionary, two common explanations are:

• the practitioner renders his or her mind and body silent and still like a wall, or
• the mind is “walled in” and kept isolated from sensory disturbance.

According to Michel Mohr (in the Digital Dictionary of Buddhism):

The Treatise on the Two Entrances and Four Practices (Ch. Erru sixing lun chang 二入四行論) includes the following passage (from Shaoshi liumen 少室六門 T 2009.48.0369c22–c23):

"When giving up delusions 捨妄 and returning to the real 歸眞, [one] concentrates steadily 凝住 by contemplating [like a] wall 壁觀, without [imagining] oneself or others 無自無他, [and one perceives] the equality 等一 between ordinary and holy [individuals] 凡聖." [Michel Mohr; source(s): T2009, Broughton]

Sources

• Buswell, Robert E.; Lopez, Donald S. (2014), The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, Princeton University 

Further reading

• Bodhidharma#Wall-gazing, Wikipedia