Huineng’s Chan Buddhist Educational Psychological Path of Seeing Self-nature (jianxing)

Abstract

A significant change of recent times in the field of Western psychology and therapy is introducing Chan Buddhist concept of “seeing self-nature” into psychology and therapy. The aim of “seeing self-nature” is to realize the basic nature of enlightenment in sentient beings through insight into the nature of things. This paper is an integrated study of Huineng’s Chan Buddhist educational psychology: self-cultivation pointing directly at the mind, and the topic of the paper will be carried out from two aspects: 1) the concept of “Buddha nature” and “Prajña” (the perfection of wisdom) in both The Platform Sutra and Another Biography of Master Caoxi (Caoxi dashi biezhuan), and 2) self-cultivation pointing directly at the mind: sudden-enlightenment path of seeing self-nature (jianxing).