title: Gun politics in the United States

text: Such research is also subject to a more fundamental difficulty affecting all research in this field: the effectiveness of the Criminal Law in preventing crime in general or in specific cases is inherently and notoriously difficult to prove and measure, and thus issues in establishing a causal link between gun control or particular gun control policies and violent crime must be understood to be an aspect of a more general empirical difficulty, which pervades the fields of Criminology and Law at large. It is not simple, for example, to prove a causal connection between the laws against murder and the prevailing murder rates, either. Consequently, this general background must be appreciated when discussing the causal and empirical issues here.


title: Gun politics in the United States

text: A study published in "The American Journal of Economics and Sociology" in 1997 concluded that the amount of gun-related crime and deaths is affected more by the state of the area in terms of unemployment, alcohol problems and drug problems instead of the laws and regulations. This study analyzed statistics gathered on the amount of gun crime in states with strict and lenient gun policies and determined that the amount of gun crime is related to how impoverished an area is.


title: Gun politics in the United States

text: A 2003 CDC study determined "The Task Force found insufficient evidence to determine the effectiveness of any of the firearms laws or combinations of laws reviewed on violent outcomes." They go on to state "a finding of insufficient evidence to determine effectiveness should not be interpreted as evidence of ineffectiveness but rather as an indicator that additional research is needed before an intervention can be evaluated for its effectiveness."


title: Gun politics in the United States

text: In 2009, the Public Health Law Research program, an independent organization, published several evidence briefs summarizing the research assessing the effect of a specific law or policy on public health, that concern the effectiveness of various laws related to gun safety. Among their findings:


title: Gun politics in the United States

text: With 5% of the world's population, U.S. residents own roughly 50% of the world's civilian-owned firearms. In addition, up to 48% of households within America have guns. According to the UNODC, 60% of U.S. homicides in 2009 were perpetrated using a firearm. U.S. homicide rates vary widely from state to state. In 2014, the lowest homicide rates were in New Hampshire, North Dakota, and Vermont (each 0.0 per 100,000 people), and the highest were in Louisiana (11.7) and Mississippi (11.4).


title: Gun politics in the United States

text: Gary Kleck, a criminologist at Florida State University, and his colleague Marc Gertz, published a study in 1995 estimating that approximately 2.5 million American adults used their gun in self-defense annually. The incidents that Kleck extrapolated based on his questionnaire results generally did not involve the firing of the gun, and he estimates that as many as 1.9 million of those instances involved a handgun. These studies have been subject to criticism on a number of methodological and logical grounds and Kleck has responded with a rebuttal.


title: Gun politics in the United States

text: Another study from the same period, the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), estimated 65,000 DGUs (Defensive gun use) annually. The NCVS survey differed from Kleck's study in that it only interviewed those who reported a threatened, attempted, or completed victimization for one of six crimes: rape, robbery, assault, burglary, non-business larceny, and motor vehicle theft. The NCVS, however, does not actually directly ask about defensive gun use, so estimates of this set of events are not very meaningful. A National Research Council report said that Kleck's estimates appeared to be exaggerated and that it was almost certain that "some of what respondents designate[d] as their own self-defense would be construed as aggression by others".


title: Gun politics in the United States

text: In a review of research of the effects of gun rates on crime rates, Kleck determined that of studies addressing homicide rate, half of them found a connection between gun ownership and homicide, but these were usually the least rigorous studies. Only six studies controlled at least six statistically significant confound variables, and none of them showed a significant positive effect. Eleven macro-level studies showed that crime rates increase gun levels (not vice versa). The reason that there is no opposite effect may be that most owners are noncriminals and that they may use guns to prevent violence.


title: Gun politics in the United States

text: Commenting on the external validity of Kleck's report, David Hemenway, director of the Harvard Injury Control Research Center, said: "Given the number of victims allegedly being saved with guns, it would seem natural to conclude that owning a gun substantially reduces your chances of being murdered. Yet a careful case-control study of homicide in the home found that a gun in the home was associated with an increased rather than a reduced risk of homicide. Virtually all of this risk involved homicide by a family member or intimate acquaintance." Kleck however pointed out that most of the firearms used in the Kellermann study were not the same ones kept in the household by the victim. Similarly in 2007 when the Permit-To-Purchase law was repealed in Missouri,2008 saw a 34% increase in the rate of firearm homicides in that year alone, and the figure continues to be higher than the figure pre-2007.


title: Gun politics in the United States

text: One study found that homicide rates as a whole, especially those as a result of firearms use, are not always significantly lower in many other developed countries. Kleck wrote, "...cross-national comparisons do not provide a sound basis for assessing the impact of gun ownership levels on crime rates." One study published in the "International Journal of Epidemiology" found that for the year of 1998: "During the one-year study period (1998), 88,649 firearm deaths were reported. Overall firearm mortality rates are five to six times higher in high-income (HI) and upper-middle-income (UMI) countries in the Americas (12.72) than in Europe (2.17) or Oceania (2.57) and 95 times higher than in Asia (0.13). The rate of firearm deaths in the United States (14.24 per 100,000) exceeds that of its economic counterparts (1.76) eightfold and that of UMI countries (9.69) by a factor of 1.5. Suicide and homicide contribute equally to total firearm deaths in the U.S., but most firearm deaths are suicides (71%) in HI countries and homicides (72%) in UMI countries."


title: Gun politics in the United States

text: Firearms accounted for 51.5% of U.S. suicides in 2013, and suicides account for 63% of all firearm-related deaths. A 2012 review by researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health found that in the United States, the percent of suicide attempts that prove fatal is "strongly related to the availability of household firearms." Prior to this, one book written by criminologist Gary Kleck in the 1990s stated that they found no relationship between gun availability and suicide rates.


title: Gun politics in the United States

text: The number of federal and state gun laws is unknown. A 2005 "American Journal of Preventive Medicine" study says 300, and the NRA says 20,000, though the "Washington Post" fact checker says of that decades-old figure: "This 20,000 figure appears to be an ancient guesstimate that has hardened over the decades into a constantly repeated, never-questioned talking point. It could be lower, or higher, depending on who's counting what."


title: Gun politics in the United States

text: Federal gun laws are enforced by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). Most federal gun laws were enacted through:


title: Gun politics in the United States

text: In addition to federal gun laws, all U.S. states and some local jurisdictions have imposed their own firearms restrictions. Each of the fifty states has its own laws regarding guns.


title: Gun politics in the United States

text: Provisions in State constitutions vary. For example, Hawaii's constitution simply copies the text of the Second Amendment verbatim, while North Carolina and South Carolina begin with the same but continue with an injunction against maintaining standing armies. Alaska also begins with the full text of the Second Amendment, but adds that the right "shall not be denied or infringed by the State or a political subdivision of the State". Rhode Island subtracts the first half of the Second Amendment, leaving only, "[t]he right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed".


title: Gun politics in the United States

text: The majority of the remaining states' constitutions differ from the text of the U.S. Constitution primarily in their clarification of exactly to whom the right belongs or by the inclusion of additional, specific protections or restrictions. Seventeen states refer to the right to keep and bear arms as being an individual right, with Utah and Alaska referring to it explicitly as "[t]he individual right to keep and bear arms", while the other fifteen refer to the right as belonging to "every citizen", "all individuals", "all persons", or another, very similar phrase. In contrast are four states which make no mention whatever of an individual right or of defense of one's self as a valid basis for the right to arms. Arkansas, Massachusetts, and Tennessee all state that the right is "for the common defense", while Virginia's constitution explicitly indicates that the right is derived from the need for a militia to defend the state.


title: Gun politics in the United States

text: Most state constitutions enumerate one or more reasons for the keeping of arms. Twenty-four states include self-defense as a valid, protected use of arms; twenty-eight cite defense of the state as a proper purpose. Ten states extend the right to defense of home and/or property, five include the defense of family, and six add hunting and recreation. Idaho is uniquely specific in its provision that "[n]o law shall impose licensure, registration, or special taxation on the ownership or possession of firearms or ammunition. Nor shall any law permit the confiscation of firearms, except those actually used in the commission of a felony". Fifteen state constitutions include specific restrictions on the right to keep and bear arms. Florida's constitution calls for a three-day waiting period for all modern cartridge handgun purchases, with exceptions for handgun purchases by those holding a CCW license, or for anyone who purchases a black-powder handgun. Illinois prefaces the right by indicating that it is "[s]ubject ... to the police power". Florida and the remaining thirteen states with specific restrictions all carry a provision to the effect that the state legislature may enact laws regulating the carrying, concealing, and/or wearing of arms. Forty states preempt some or all local gun laws, due in part to campaigning by the NRA for such legislation.


title: Chan Buddhism

text: Chan (; of ), from Sanskrit "dhyāna" (meaning "meditation" or "meditative state"), is a Chinese school of Mahāyāna Buddhism. It developed in China from the 6th century CE onwards, becoming especially popular during the Tang and Song dynasties.


title: Chan Buddhism

text: Chan is the originating tradition of Zen Buddhism (the Japanese pronunciation of the same character, which is the most commonly used English name for the school). Chan Buddhism spread from China south to Vietnam as Thiền and north to Korea as Seon, and, in the 13th century, east to Japan as Japanese Zen.


title: Chan Buddhism

text: The historical records required for a complete, accurate account of early Chan history no longer exist.


title: Chan Buddhism

text: The history of Chan in China can be divided into several periods. Zen, as we know it today, is the result of a long history, with many changes and contingent factors. Each period had different types of Zen, some of which remained influential while others vanished.


title: Chan Buddhism

text: Although McRae has reservations about the division of Chan history in phases or periods, he nevertheless distinguishes four phases in the history of Chan:


title: Chan Buddhism

text: Neither Ferguson nor McRae gives a periodisation for Chinese Chan following the Song-dynasty, though McRae mentions


title: Chan Buddhism

text: When Buddhism came to China, it was adapted to the Chinese culture and understanding. Theories about the influence of other schools in the evolution of Chan vary widely and are heavily reliant upon speculative correlation rather than on written records or histories. Some scholars have argued that Chan developed from the interaction between Mahāyāna Buddhism and Taoism, while one believes that Chan has roots in yogic practices, specifically ', the consideration of objects, and ', total fixation of the mind.


title: Chan Buddhism

text: Buddhist meditation was practiced in China centuries before the rise of Chan, by people such as An Shigao (c. 148–180 CE) and his school, who translated various Dhyāna sutras (Chán-jing, 禪経, "meditation treatises"), which were influential early meditation texts mostly based on the Yogacara meditation teachings of the Sarvāstivāda school of Kashmir circa 1st-4th centuries CE. The five main types of meditation in the Dhyana sutras are anapanasati (mindfulness of breathing); paṭikūlamanasikāra meditation, mindfulness of the impurities of the body; loving-kindness maitrī meditation; the contemplation on the twelve links of pratītyasamutpāda; and the contemplation on the Buddha's thirty-two Characteristics. Other important translators of meditation texts were Kumārajīva (334–413 CE), who translated "The Sutra on the Concentration of Sitting Meditation", amongst many other texts; and Buddhabhadra. These Chinese translations of mostly Indian Sarvāstivāda Yogacara meditation manuals were the basis for the meditation techniques of Chinese Chan.


title: Chan Buddhism

text: Buddhism was exposed to Confucian and Taoist influences when it came to China. Goddard quotes D.T. Suzuki, calling Chan a "natural evolution of Buddhism under Taoist conditions". Buddhism was first identified to be "a barbarian variant of Taoism", and Taoist terminology was used to express Buddhist doctrines in the oldest translations of Buddhist texts, a practice termed "ko-i", "matching the concepts".


title: Chan Buddhism

text: The first Buddhist recruits in China were Taoists. They developed high esteem for the newly introduced Buddhist meditational techniques, and blended them with Taoist meditation. Representatives of early Chinese Buddhism like Sengzhao and Tao Sheng were deeply influenced by the Taoist keystone works of Laozi and Zhuangzi. Against this background, especially the Taoist concept of "naturalness" was inherited by the early Chan disciples: they equated – to some extent – the ineffable Tao and Buddha-nature, and thus, rather than feeling bound to the abstract "wisdom of the sūtras", emphasized Buddha-nature to be found in "everyday" human life, just as the Tao.


title: Chan Buddhism

text: Chinese Buddhism absorbed Neo-Daoist concepts as well. Concepts such as "T'i-yung" (體用 Essence and Function) and "Li-shih" (理事 Noumenon and Phenomenon, or Principle and Practice) first appeared in Hua-yen Buddhism, which consequently influenced Chan deeply. On the other hand, Taoists at first misunderstood sunyata to be akin to the Taoist non-being.


title: Chan Buddhism

text: One point of confusion for this new emerging Chinese Buddhism was the two truths doctrine. Chinese thinking took this to refer to two "ontological truths": reality exists on two levels, a relative level and an absolute level. Taoists at first misunderstood sunyata to be akin to the Taoist non-being. In Indian Madhyamaka philosophy the two truths are two "epistemological truths": two different ways to look at reality. Based on their understanding of the "Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra" the Chinese supposed that the teaching of Buddha-nature was, as stated by that sutra, the final Buddhist teaching, and that there is an essential truth above sunyata and the two truths.


title: Chan Buddhism

text: It was in this context that Buddhism entered into Chinese culture. Three types of teachers with expertise in each training practice developed:


title: Chan Buddhism

text: Monasteries and practice centers were created that tended to focus on either the Vinaya and training of monks or the teachings focused on one scripture or a small group of texts. Dhyāna ("Chan") masters tended to practice in solitary hermitages, or to be associated with Vinaya training monasteries or the dharma teaching centers. The later naming of the Zen school has its origins in this view of the threefold division of training.


title: Chan Buddhism

text: The Chan tradition ascribes the origins of Chan in India to the Flower Sermon, the earliest source for which comes from the 14th century. It is said that Gautama Buddha gathered his disciples one day for a Dharma talk. When they gathered together, the Buddha was completely silent and some speculated that perhaps the Buddha was tired or ill. The Buddha silently held up and twirled a flower and his eyes twinkled; several of his disciples tried to interpret what this meant, though none of them were correct. One of the Buddha's disciples, Mahākāśyapa, gazed at the flower and smiled. The Buddha then acknowledged Mahākāśyapa's insight by saying the following:


title: Chan Buddhism

text: Traditionally the origin of Chan in China is credited to Bodhidharma, an Iranian-language speaking Central Asian monk or an Indian monk. The story of his life, and of the Six Patriarchs, was constructed during the Tang dynasty to lend credibility to the growing Chan-school. Only scarce historical information is available about him, but his hagiography developed when the Chan tradition grew stronger and gained prominence in the early 8th century. By this time a lineage of the six ancestral founders of Chan in China was developed.


title: Chan Buddhism

text: The actual origins of Chan may lie in ascetic practitioners of Buddhism, who found refuge in forests and mountains. Huike, "a dhuta (extreme ascetic) who schooled others" and used the Srimala Sutra, one of the Tathāgatagarbha sūtras , figures in the stories about Bodhidharma. Huike is regarded as the second Chan patriarch, appointed by Bodhidharma to succeed him. One of Huike's students, Sengcan, to whom is ascribed the Xinxin Ming, is regarded as the third patriarch.


title: Chan Buddhism

text: By the late 8th century, under the influence of Huineng's student Shenhui, the traditional list of patriarchs of the Chan lineage had been established:


title: Chan Buddhism

text: In later writings, this lineage was extended to include 28 Indian patriarchs. In the "Song of Enlightenment" (證道歌 "Zhèngdào gē") of Yongjia Xuanjue (永嘉玄覺, 665–713), one of the chief disciples of Huìnéng, it is written that Bodhidharma was the 28th patriarch in a line of descent from Mahākāśyapa, a disciple of Śākyamuni Buddha, and the first patriarch of Chan Buddhism.


title: Chan Buddhism

text: In its beginnings in China, Chan primarily referred to the Mahāyāna sūtras and especially to the "Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra". As a result, early masters of the Chan tradition were referred to as "Laṅkāvatāra masters". As the "Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra" teaches the doctrine of the Ekayāna "One Vehicle", the early Chan school was sometimes referred to as the "One Vehicle School". In other early texts, the school that would later become known as Chan is sometimes even referred to as simply the "Laṅkāvatāra school" (Ch. 楞伽宗, "Léngqié Zōng"). Accounts recording the history of this early period are to be found in the "Records of the Laṅkāvatāra Masters" (").


title: Chan Buddhism

text: Bodhidharma is recorded as having come into China during the time of Southern and Northern Dynasties to teach a "special transmission outside scriptures" which "did not stand upon words". Throughout Buddhist art, Bodhidharma is depicted as a rather ill-tempered, profusely bearded and wide-eyed barbarian. He is referred to as "The Blue-Eyed Barbarian" (碧眼胡:Bìyǎn hú) in Chinese Chan texts. Only scarce historical information is available about him but his hagiography developed when the Chan tradition grew stronger and gained prominence in the early 8th century. By this time a lineage of the six ancestral founders of Chan in China was developed.


title: Chan Buddhism

text: Little contemporary biographical information on Bodhidharma is extant, and subsequent accounts became layered with legend. There are three principal sources for Bodhidharma's biography: "The Record of the Buddhist Monasteries of Luoyang" by Yáng Xuànzhī's (楊衒之, 547), Tan Lin's preface to the "Long Scroll of the Treatise on the Two Entrances and Four Practices" (6th century CE), and Dayi Daoxin's "Further Biographies of Eminent Monks" (7th century CE).


title: Chan Buddhism

text: These sources vary in their account of Bodhidharma being either "from Persia" (547 CE), "a Brahman monk from South India" (645 CE), "the third son of a Brahman king of South India" (c. 715 CE). Some traditions specifically describe Bodhidharma to be the third son of a Pallava king from Kanchipuram.


title: Chan Buddhism

text: The "Long Scroll of the Treatise on the Two Entrances and Four Practices" written by Tan Lin (曇林; 506–574), contains teachings that are attributed to Bodhidharma. The text is known from the Dunhuang manuscripts. The two entrances to enlightenment are the entrance of principle and the entrance of practice:


title: Chan Buddhism

text: This text was used and studied by Huike and his students. The True Nature refers to the Buddha-nature.


title: Chan Buddhism

text: Bodhidharma settled in Northern Wei China. Shortly before his death, Bodhidharma appointed his disciple Dazu Huike to succeed him, making Huike the first Chinese-born ancestral founder and the second ancestral founder of Chan in China. Bodhidharma is said to have passed three items to Huike as a sign of transmission of the Dharma: a robe, a bowl, and a copy of the "Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra". The transmission then passed to the second ancestral founder Dazu Huike, the third Sengcan, the fourth ancestral founder Dayi Daoxin, and the fifth ancestral founder Daman Hongren.


title: Chan Buddhism

text: With the fourth patriarch, Daoxin ( 580–651), Chan began to take shape as a distinct school. The link between Huike and Sengcan, and the fourth patriarch Daoxin "is far from clear and remains tenuous". With Daoxin and his successor, the fifth patriarch Hongren ( 601–674), there emerged a new style of teaching, which was inspired by the Chinese text Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana. According to John R. McRae the "first explicit statement of the sudden and direct approach that was to become the hallmark of Ch'an religious practice" is associated with the East Mountain School. It is a method named "Maintaining the one without wavering" ("shou-i pu i," 守一不移), "the one" being the nature of mind, which is equated with Buddha-nature. In this practice, one turns the attention from the objects of experience, to the perceiving subject itself. According to McRae, this type of meditation resembles the methods of "virtually all schools of Mahayana Buddhism," but differs in that "no preparatory requirements, no moral prerequisites or preliminary exercises are given," and is "without steps or gradations. One concentrates, understands, and is enlightened, all in one undifferentiated practice." Sharf notes that the notion of "Mind" came to be criticised by radical subitists, and was replaced by "No Mind," to avoid any reifications.


title: Chan Buddhism

text: A large group of students gathered at a permanent residence, and extreme asceticism became outdated. The period of Daoxin and Hongren came to be called the East Mountain Teaching, due to the location of the residence of Hongren at Huangmei. The term was used by Yuquan Shenxiu (神秀 606?–706), the most important successor to Hongren. By this time the group had grown into a matured congregation that became significant enough to be reckoned with by the ruling forces. The East Mountain community was a specialized meditation training centre. Hongren was a plain meditation teacher, who taught students of "various religious interests", including "practitioners of the Lotus Sutra, students of Madhyamaka philosophy, or specialists in the monastic regulations of Buddhist Vinaya". The school was typified by a "loose practice," aiming to make meditation accessible to a larger audience. Shenxiu used short formulas extracted from various sutras to package the teachings, a style which is also used in the Platform Sutra. The establishment of a community in one location was a change from the wandering lives of Bodhidharma and Huike and their followers. It fitted better into the Chinese society, which highly valued community-oriented behaviour, instead of solitary practice.


title: Chan Buddhism

text: In 701 Shenxiu was invited to the Imperial Court by Zhou Empress Wu Zetian, who paid him due to imperial reverence. The first lineage documents were produced in this period:


title: Chan Buddhism

text: Members of the "East Mountain Teaching" shifted the alleged scriptural basis, realizing that the "Awakening of Faith" is not a sutra but a "sastra", commentary, and fabricated a lineage of Lankavatara Sutra masters, as being the sutra that preluded the "Awakening of Faith".


title: Chan Buddhism

text: According to tradition, the sixth and last ancestral founder, Huineng (惠能; 638–713), was one of the giants of Chan history, and all surviving schools regard him as their ancestor. The dramatic story of Huineng's life tells that there was a controversy over his claim to the title of patriarch. After being chosen by Hongren, the fifth ancestral founder, Huineng had to flee by night to Nanhua Temple in the south to avoid the wrath of Hongren's jealous senior disciples.


title: Chan Buddhism

text: Modern scholarship, however, has questioned this narrative. Historic research reveals that this story was created around the middle of the 8th century, as part of a campaign to win influence at the Imperial Court in 731 by a successor to Huineng called Shenhui. He claimed Huineng to be the successor of Hongren instead of Shenxiu, the recognized successor. A dramatic story of Huineng's life was created, as narrated in the Platform Sutra, which tells that there was a contest for the transmission of the title of patriarch. After being chosen by Hongren, the fifth patriarch, Huineng had to flee by night to Nanhua Temple in the south to avoid the wrath of Hongren's jealous senior disciples. Shenhui succeeded in his campaign, and Huineng eventually came to be regarded as the Sixth Patriarch. In 745 Shenhui was invited to take up residence in the Heze Temple in the capital, Dongdu (modern Luoyang) In 753, he fell out of grace and had to leave Dongdu to go into exile.


title: Chan Buddhism

text: The most prominent of the successors of Shenhui's lineage was Guifeng Zongmi. According to Zongmi, Shenhui's approach was officially sanctioned in 796, when "an imperial commission determined that the Southern line of Ch'an represented the orthodox transmission and established Shen-hui as the seventh patriarch, placing an inscription to that effect in the Shen-lung temple".


title: Chan Buddhism

text: Doctrinally, Shenhui's "Southern School" is associated with the teaching that enlightenment is sudden while the "Northern" or East Mountain school is associated with the teaching that enlightenment is gradual. This was a polemical exaggeration since both schools were derived from the same tradition, and the so-called Southern School incorporated many teachings of the more influential Northern School. Eventually both schools died out, but the influence of Shenhui was so immense that all later Chan schools traced their origin to Huineng, and "sudden enlightenment" became a standard doctrine of Chan.


title: Chan Buddhism

text: Shenhui's influence is traceable in the "Platform Sutra", which gives a popular account of the story of Huineng but also reconciles the antagonism created by Shenhui. Salient is that Shenhui himself does not figure in the "Platform Sutra"; he was effectively written out of Chan history. The "Platform Sutra" also reflects the growing popularity of the "Diamond Sūtra" ("Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra") in 8th-century Chinese Buddhism. Thereafter, the essential texts of the Chan school were often considered to be both the "Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra" and the "Diamond Sūtra". The "Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra", which endorses the Buddha-nature, emphasized purity of mind, which can be attained in gradations. The Diamond-sutra emphasizes sunyata, which "must be realized totally or not at all". David Kalupahana associates the later Caodong school (Japanese Sōtō, gradual) and Linji school (Japanese Rinzai school, sudden) schools with the Yogacara and Madhyamaka philosophies respectively. The same comparison has been made by McRae. The Madhyamaka school elaborated on the theme of śūnyatā, which was set forth in the prajnaparamita sutras, to which the "Diamond Sutra" also belongs. The shift from the "Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra" to the "Diamond Sutra" also signifies a tension between Buddha-nature teachings, which imply a transcendental reality, versus śūnyatā, which denies such a transcendental reality.


title: Chan Buddhism

text: Chinese Chan Buddhist teachers such as Moheyan first went to Tibet in the eighth century during the height of the Tibetan Empire. There seems to have been disputes between them and Indian Buddhists, as exemplified by the Samye debate. Many Tibetan Chan texts have been recovered from the caves at Dunhuang, where Chan and Tantric Buddhists lived side by side and this led to religious syncretism in some cases. Chan Buddhism survived in Tibet for several centuries, but had mostly been replaced by the 10th century developments in Tibetan Buddhism. According to Sam Van Schaik:


title: Chan Buddhism

text: After the 'dark period', all visible influences of Chan were eliminated from Tibetan Buddhism, and Mahayoga and Chan were carefully distinguished from each other. This trend


title: Chan Buddhism

text: can already be observed in the tenth-century Lamp for the Eyes in Contemplation by the great central Tibetan scholar Gnubs chen Sangs rgyas ye shes. This influential work represented a crucial step in the codification of Chan, Mahayoga and the Great Perfection as distinct vehicles to enlightenment. In comparison, our group of [Dunhuang] manuscripts exhibits remarkable freedom, blurring the lines between meditation systems that were elsewhere kept quite distinct. The system of practice set out in these manuscripts did not survive into the later Tibetan tradition. Indeed, this creative integration of meditation practices derived from both Indic and Chinese traditions could only have been possible during the earliest years of Tibetan Buddhism, when doctrinal categories were still forming, and in this sense, it represents an important stage in the Tibetan assimilation of Buddhism.


title: Chan Buddhism

text: Daoxin, Hongren, Shenxiu, Huineng and Shenhui all lived during the early Tang. The later period of the Tang dynasty is traditionally regarded as the "golden age" of Chan. This proliferation is described in a famous saying:


title: Chan Buddhism

text: The An Lushan Rebellion (755–763) led to a loss of control by the Tang dynasty, and changed the Chan scene again. Metropolitan Chan began to lose its status, while "other schools were arising in outlying areas controlled by warlords. These are the forerunners of the Chan we know today. Their origins are obscure; the power of Shen-hui's preaching is shown by the fact that they all trace themselves to Hui-neng."


title: Chan Buddhism

text: The most important of these schools is the Hongzhou school (洪州宗) of Mazu, to which also belong Shitou, Baizhang Huaihai, Huangbo and Linji (Rinzai). Linji is also regarded as the founder of one of the Five Houses.


title: Chan Buddhism

text: This school developed "shock techniques such as shouting, beating, and using irrational retorts to startle their students into realization". Some of these are common today, while others are found mostly in anecdotes. It is common in many Chan traditions today for Chan teachers to have a stick with them during formal ceremonies which is a symbol of authority and which can be also used to strike on the table during a talk.


title: Chan Buddhism

text: These shock techniques became part of the traditional and still popular image of Chan masters displaying irrational and strange behaviour to aid their students. Part of this image was due to later misinterpretations and translation errors, such as the loud belly shout known as "katsu". "Katsu" means "to shout", which has traditionally been translated as "yelled 'katsu'" – which should mean "yelled a yell".


title: Chan Buddhism

text: A well-known story depicts Mazu practicing dhyana, but being rebuked by his teacher Nanyue Huairang, comparing seated meditation with polishing a tile. According to Faure, the criticism is not about dhyana as such, but "the idea of "becoming a Buddha" by means of any practice, lowered to the standing of a "means" to achieve an "end"". The criticism of seated dhyana reflects a change in the role and position of monks in Tang society, who "undertook only pious works, reciting sacred texts and remaining seated in "dhyana"". Nevertheless, seated dhyana remained an important part of the Chan tradition, also due to the influence of Guifeng Zongmi, who tried to balance dhyana and insight.


title: Chan Buddhism

text: The Hung-chou school has been criticised for its radical subitism. Guifeng Zongmi (圭峰 宗密) (780–841), an influential teacher-scholar and patriarch of both the Chan and the Huayan school, claimed that the Hongzhou school teaching led to a radical nondualism that denies the need for spiritual cultivation and moral discipline. While Zongmi acknowledged that the essence of Buddha-nature and its functioning in the day-to-day reality are but different aspects of the same reality, he insisted that there is a difference.


title: Chan Buddhism

text: Traditionally Shítóu Xīqiān (Ch. 石頭希遷, c. 700 – c.790) is seen as the other great figure of this period. In the Chan lineages he is regarded as the predecessor of the Caodong (Sōtō) school. He is also regarded as the author of the Sandokai, a poem which formed the basis for the Song of the Precious Mirror Samadhi of Dongshan Liangjie (Jp. Tōzan Ryōkan) and the teaching of the Five Ranks.


title: Chan Buddhism

text: This persecution was devastating for metropolitan Chan, but the Chan school of Ma-tsu and his likes had survived, and took a leading role in the Chan of the later Tang.


title: Chan Buddhism

text: After the fall of the Tang dynasty, China was without effective central control during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period. China was divided into several autonomous regions. Support for Buddhism was limited to a few areas. The Hua-yen and T'ient-tai schools suffered from the changing circumstances, since they had depended on imperial support. The collapse of T'ang society also deprived the aristocratic classes of wealth and influence, which meant a further drawback for Buddhism. Shenxiu's Northern School and Henshui's Southern School didn't survive the changing circumstances. Nevertheless, Chan emerged as the dominant stream within Chinese Buddhism, but with various schools developing various emphasises in their teachings, due to the regional orientation of the period. The Fayan school, named after Fa-yen Wen-i (885–958) became the dominant school in the southern kingdoms of Nan-T'ang (Jiangxi, Chiang-hsi) and Wuyue (Che-chiang).


title: Chan Buddhism

text: The Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period was followed by the Song dynasty, which established a strong central government. During the Song dynasty, Chan (禪) was used by the government to strengthen its control over the country, and Chan grew to become the largest sect in Chinese Buddhism. An ideal picture of the Chan of the Tang period was produced, which served the legacy of this newly acquired status:


title: Chan Buddhism

text: During the Song the "Five Houses (Ch. 五家) of Chan", or five "schools", were recognized. These were not originally regarded as "schools" or "sects", but based on the various Chan-genealogies. Historically they have come to be understood as "schools".


title: Chan Buddhism

text: The Linji-school became the dominant school within Chan, due to support from the literati and the court. Before the Song dynasty, the Linji-school is rather obscure, and very little is known about its early history. The first mention of Linji is in the "Zutang ji", compiled in 952, 86 years after Linji's death. But the "Zutang ji" pictures the Xuefeng Yicun lineage as heir to the legacy of Mazu and the Hongzhou-school.


title: Chan Buddhism

text: According to Welter, the real founder of the Linji-school was Shoushan (or Baoying) Shengnian (首山省念) (926–993), a fourth generation dharma-heir of Linji. The "Tiansheng Guangdeng lu" (天聖廣燈錄), "Tiansheng Era Expanded Lamp Record", compiled by the official Li Zunxu (李遵勗) (988–1038) confirms the status of Shoushan Shengnian, but also pictures Linji as a major Chan patriarch and heir to the Mazu, displacing the prominence of the Fayan-lineage. It also established the slogan of "a special transmission outside the teaching", supporting the Linji-school claim of "Chan as separate from and superior to all other Buddhist teachings".


title: Chan Buddhism

text: Over the course of Song dynasty (960–1279), the Guiyang, Fayan, and Yunmen schools were gradually absorbed into the Linji. Song Chan was dominated by the Linji school of Dahui Zonggao, which in turn became strongly affiliated to the Imperial Court:


title: Chan Buddhism

text: The Wu-shan system was a system of state-controlled temples, which were established by the Song government in all provinces.


title: Chan Buddhism

text: The teaching styles and words of the classical masters were recorded in the so-called "encounter dialogues". Snippets of these encounter dialogues were collected in texts as the "Blue Cliff Record" (1125) of Yuanwu, "The Gateless Gate" (1228) of Wumen, both of the Linji lineage, and the "Book of Equanimity" (1223) by Wansong Xingxiu of the Caodong lineage.


title: Chan Buddhism

text: These texts became classic gōng'àn cases, together with verse and prose commentaries, which crystallized into the systematized gōng'àn (koan) practice. According to Miura and Sasaki, "[I]t was during the lifetime of Yüan-wu's successor, Dahui Zonggao (大慧宗杲; 1089–1163) that Koan Chan entered its determinative stage."


title: Chan Buddhism

text: Gōng'àn practice was prevalent in the Linji school, to which Yuanwu and Dahui belonged, but it was also employed on a more limited basis by the Caodong school.


title: Chan Buddhism

text: The recorded encounter dialogues, and the koan collections which derived from this genre, mark a shift from solitary practice to the interaction between master and student:


title: Chan Buddhism

text: This mutual enquiry of the meaning of the encounters of masters and students of the past gave students a role model:


title: Chan Buddhism

text: The Caodong was the other school to survive into the Song period. Its main protagonist was Hung-chih Cheng-chueh, a contemporary of Dahui Zonggao. It put emphasis on "silent illumination", or "just sitting". This approach was attacked by Dahui as being mere passivity, and lacking emphasis on gaining insight into one's true nature. Cheng-chueh in his turn criticized the emphasis on koan study.


title: Chan Buddhism

text: The Yuan dynasty was the empire established by Kublai Khan, the leader of the Borjigin clan, after the Mongol Empire conquered the Jin dynasty (1115–1234) and the Southern Song dynasty. Chan began to be mixed with Pure Land Buddhism as in the teachings of Zhongfeng Mingben (1263–1323). During this period, other Chan lineages, not necessarily connected with the original lineage, began to emerge with the 108th Chan Patriarch, Dhyānabhadra active in both China and Korea.


title: Chan Buddhism

text: Chan Buddhism enjoyed something of a revival in the Ming dynasty, with teachers such as Hanshan Deqing (憨山德清), who wrote and taught extensively on both Chan and Pure Land Buddhism; Miyun Yuanwu (密雲圓悟), who came to be seen posthumously as the first patriarch of the Ōbaku school of Zen; and as Yunqi Zhuhong (雲棲祩宏) and Ouyi Zhixu (蕅益智旭).


title: Chan Buddhism

text: Chan was taught alongside other Buddhist traditions such as Pure Land, Huayan, Tiantai and Chinese Esoteric Buddhism in many monasteries. In continuity with Buddhism in the previous dynasties, Buddhist masters taught integrated teachings from the various traditions as opposed to advocating for any sectarian delineation between the various schools of thought.


title: Chan Buddhism

text: At the beginning of the Qing dynasty, Chan was "reinvented", by the "revival of beating and shouting practices" by Miyun Yuanwu (1566–1642), and the publication of the "Wudeng yantong" ("The strict transmission of the five Chan schools") by Feiyin Tongrong's (1593–1662), a dharma heir of Miyun Yuanwu. The book placed self-proclaimed Chan monks without proper Dharma transmission in the category of "lineage unknown" ("sifa weixiang"), thereby excluding several prominent Caodong monks.


title: Chan Buddhism

text: Around 1900, Buddhists from other Asian countries showed a growing interest in Chinese Buddhism. Anagarika Dharmapala visited Shanghai in 1893, intending "to make a tour of China, to arouse the Chinese Buddhists to send missionaries to India to restore Buddhism there, and then to start a propaganda throughout the whole world", but eventually limiting his stay to Shanghai. Japanese Buddhist missionaries were active in China in the beginning of the 20th century.


title: Chan Buddhism

text: The modernisation of China led to the end of the Chinese Empire, and the installation of the Republic of China, which lasted on the mainland until the Communist Revolution and the installation of the People's Republic of China in 1949.


title: Chan Buddhism

text: After further centuries of decline during the Qing, Chan was revived again in the early 20th century by Hsu Yun (虛雲), a well-known figure of 20th-century Chinese Buddhism. Many Chan teachers today trace their lineage to Hsu Yun, including Sheng Yen (聖嚴) and Hsuan Hua (宣化), who have propagated Chan in the West where it has grown steadily through the 20th and 21st century.


title: Chan Buddhism

text: The Buddhist reformist Taixu propagated a Chan-influenced humanistic Buddhism, which is endorsed by Jing Hui, former abbot of Bailin Monastery.


title: Chan Buddhism

text: Until 1949, monasteries were built in the Southeast Asian countries, for example by monks of Guanghua Monastery, to spread Chinese Buddhism. Presently, Guanghua Monastery has seven branches in the Malay Peninsula and Indonesia.


title: Chan Buddhism

text: Chan was repressed in China during the recent modern era in the early periods of the People's Republic, but subsequently has been re-asserting itself on the mainland, and has a significant following in Taiwan and Hong Kong as well as among Overseas Chinese.


title: Chan Buddhism

text: Since the Chinese economic reform of the 1970s, a new revival of Chinese Buddhism has been ongoing. Ancient Buddhist temples, such as Bailin Monastery and Guanghua Monastery have been refurbished.


title: Chan Buddhism

text: Bailin Monastery was ruined long before 1949. In 1988, Jing Hui was persuaded to take over the Hebei Buddhist Association, and start rebuilding the Monastery. Jing Hui is a student and dharma successor of Hsu Yun, but has also adopted the Humanistic Buddhism of Taixu.


title: Chan Buddhism

text: Guanghua Monastery was restored beginning in 1979, when a six-year restoration program began under the supervision of then 70-year-old Venerable Master Yuanzhou (圆拙老法师). In 1983 the temple became one of the Chinese Buddhism Regional Temples (汉族地区全国重点寺院) whilst 36-year-old Master Yiran (毅然法師) became abbot. The same year, Venerable Master Yuanzhou funded the establishment of the new Fujian Buddhism Academy (福建佛学院) on the site.


title: Chan Buddhism

text: Several Chinese Buddhist teachers left China during the Communist Revolution, and settled in Hong Kong and Taiwan.


title: Chan Buddhism

text: Sheng Yen (1930–2009) was the founder of the Dharma Drum Mountain, a Buddhist organization based in Taiwan. During his time in Taiwan, Sheng Yen was well known as one of the progressive Buddhist teachers who sought to teach Buddhism in a modern and Western-influenced world. As such, Sheng yen published over 30 Chan texts in English.


title: Chan Buddhism

text: Wei Chueh (1928–2016) was born in Sichuan, China, and ordained in Taiwan. In 1982, he founded Lin Quan Temple in Taipei County and became known for his teaching on Ch'an practices by offering many lectures and seven-day Ch'an retreats. His order is called Chung Tai Shan.


title: Chan Buddhism

text: Cheng Yen (born 1937), a Buddhist nun, founded the Tzu Chi Foundation as a charity organization with Buddhist origins on 14 May 1966 in Hualien, Taiwan. She was inspired by her master and mentor, the late Venerable Master Yin Shun (印順導師, Yìn Shùn dǎoshī) a proponent of Humanistic Buddhism, who exhorted her to "work for Buddhism and for all sentient beings". The organisation began with a motto of "instructing the rich and saving the poor" as a group of thirty housewives who donated a small amount of money each day to care for needy families.


title: Chan Buddhism

text: Hsing Yun (born 1927), founded the Fo Guang Shan an international Chinese Buddhist new religious movement based in Taiwan in 1967. The order promotes Humanistic Buddhism. Fo Guang Shan also calls itself the International Buddhist Progress Society. The headquarters of Fo Guang Shan, located in Dashu District, Kaohsiung, is the largest Buddhist monastery in Taiwan. Hsing Yun's stated position within Fo Guang Shan is that it is an "amalgam of all Eight Schools of Chinese Buddhism" (), including Chan. Fo Guang Shan is the most comprehensive of the major Buddhist organizations of Taiwan, focusing extensively on both social works and religious engagement.


title: Chan Buddhism

text: In Taiwan, these four masters are popularly referred to as the "Four Heavenly Kings" of Taiwanese Buddhism, with their respective organizations Dharma Drum Mountain, Chung Tai Shan, Tzu Chi, and Fo Guang Shan being referred to as the "Four Great Mountains".


title: Chan Buddhism

text: According to traditional accounts of Vietnam, in 580 an Indian monk named Vinītaruci () traveled to Vietnam after completing his studies with Sengcan, the third patriarch of Chinese Chan. This, then, would be the first appearance of Thiền Buddhism. Other early Thiền schools included that of Wu Yantong (), which was associated with the teachings of Mazu Daoyi, and the Thảo Đường (Caodong), which incorporated nianfo chanting techniques; both were founded by Chinese monks.


title: Chan Buddhism

text: Seon was gradually transmitted into Korea during the late Silla period (7th through 9th centuries) as Korean monks of predominantly Hwaeom () and East Asian Yogācāra () background began to travel to China to learn the newly developing tradition. Seon received its most significant impetus and consolidation from the Goryeo monk Jinul (知訥) (1158–1210), who established a reform movement and introduced kōan practice to Korea. Jinul established the Songgwangsa (松廣寺) as a new center of pure practice.


title: Chan Buddhism

text: Zen was not introduced as a separate school in Japan until the 12th century when Eisai traveled to China and returned to establish a Linji lineage, which is known in Japan as the Rinzai. In 1215, Dōgen, a younger contemporary of Eisai's, journeyed to China himself, where he became a disciple of the Caodong master Rujing. After his return, Dōgen established the Sōtō school, the Japanese branch of Caodong.


title: Chan Buddhism

text: The schools of Zen that currently exist in Japan are the Sōtō, Rinzai and Ōbaku. Of these, Sōtō is the largest and Ōbaku the smallest. Rinzai is itself divided into several subschools based on temple affiliation, including Myōshin-ji, Nanzen-ji, Tenryū-ji, Daitoku-ji, and Tōfuku-ji.


title: Chan Buddhism

text: In the 20th century, during the First Buddhist revival, missionaries were sent to Indonesia and Malaysia. Ashin Jinarakkhita, who played a central role in the revival of Indonesian Buddhism, received ordination as a Chan śrāmaṇera on July 29, 1953 and received the name Ti Zheng (Te Cheng) from bhikṣu Ben Qing.


title: Chan Buddhism

text: Chan has become especially popular in its Japanese form. Although it is difficult to trace when the West first became aware of Chan as a distinct form of Buddhism, the visit of Soyen Shaku, a Japanese Zen monk, to Chicago during the 1893 Parliament of the World's Religions is often pointed to as an event that enhanced its profile in the Western world. It was during the late 1950s and the early 1960s that the number of Westerners pursuing a serious interest in Zen, other than the descendants of Asian immigrants, reached a significant level.


title: Chan Buddhism

text: The first Chinese master to teach Westerners in North America was Hsuan Hua, who taught Chan and other traditions of Chinese Buddhism in San Francisco during the early 1960s. He went on to found the City Of Ten Thousand Buddhas, a monastery and retreat center located on a 237-acre (959,000 m) property near Ukiah, California, and thus founding the Dharma Realm Buddhist Association. Another Chinese Chan teacher with a Western following was Sheng Yen, a master trained in both the Caodong and Linji schools. He first visited the United States in 1978 under the sponsorship of the Buddhist Association of the United States, and subsequently founded the CMC Chan Meditation Center in Queens, New York and the Dharma Drum Retreat Center in Pine Bush, New York.


title: Chan Buddhism

text: Though Zen-narrative states that it is a "special transmission outside scriptures" which "did not stand upon words", Zen does have a rich doctrinal background.


title: Chan Buddhism

text: Classical Chinese Chan is characterised by a set of polarities: absolute-relative, Buddha-nature – sunyata, sudden and gradual enlightenment, esoteric and exoteric transmission.


title: Chan Buddhism

text: The Prajnaparamita sutras and Madhyamaka emphasize the non-duality of form and emptiness: "form is emptiness, emptiness is form", as the "Heart sutra" says. This was understood to mean that ultimate reality is not a transcendental realm, but equal to the daily world of relative reality. This idea fitted into the Chinese culture, which emphasized the mundane world and society. But this does not fully explain how the absolute is present in the relative world. This question is answered in such schemata as the Five Ranks of Tozan, the Ten Bulls ("the Oxherding Pictures"), and Hakuin's Four ways of knowing.


title: Chan Buddhism

text: The Madhyamaka two truths doctrine and the Yogacara three natures and Trikaya doctrines also give depictions of the interplay between the absolute and the relative.


title: Chan Buddhism

text: When Buddhism was introduced in China it was understood in native terms. Various sects struggled to attain an understanding of the Indian texts. The "Tathāgatagarbha sūtras" and the idea of the Buddha-nature were endorsed because of the perceived similarities with the Tao, which was understood as a transcendental reality underlying the world of appearances. Śūnyatā at first was understood as pointing to the Taoist "wu".


title: Chan Buddhism

text: The doctrine of the Buddha-nature asserts that all sentient beings have Buddha-nature (Skt. "Buddhadhātu", "Buddha Element", "Buddha-Principle"), the element from which awakening springs. The "Tathāgatagarbha sutras" state that every living being has the potential to realize awakening. Hence Buddhism offers salvation to everyone, not only to monks or those who have freed themselves almost completely from karma in previous lives. The Yogacara theory of the Eight Consciousnesses explains how sensory input and the mind create the world we experience, and obscure the alaya-jnana, which is equated to the Buddha-nature.


title: Chan Buddhism

text: When this potential is realized, and the defilements have been eliminated, the Buddha-nature manifests as the Dharmakaya, the absolute reality which pervades everything in the world. In this way, it is also the primordial reality from which phenomenal reality springs. When this understanding is idealized, it becomes a transcendental reality beneath the world of appearances.


title: Chan Buddhism

text: Sunyata points to the "emptiness" or no-"thing"-ness of all "things". Though we perceive a world of concrete and discrete objects, designated by names, on close analysis the "thingness" dissolves, leaving them "empty" of inherent existence. The "Heart sutra", a text from the prajñaparamita sutras, articulates this in the following saying in which the five skandhas are said to be "empty":


title: Chan Buddhism

text: Yogacara explains this "emptiness" in an analysis of the way we perceive "things". Everything we conceive of is the result of the working of the five skandhas—results of perception, feeling, volition, and discrimination. The five skandhas together compose consciousness. The "things" we are conscious of are "mere concepts", not noumenon.


title: Chan Buddhism

text: It took Chinese Buddhism several centuries to recognize that śūnyatā is not identical to "wu", nor does Buddhism postulate a permanent soul. The influence of those various doctrinal and textual backgrounds is still discernible in Zen. Zen teachers still refer to Buddha-nature, but the Zen tradition also emphasizes that Buddha-nature "is" śūnyatā, the absence of an independent and substantial self.


title: Chan Buddhism

text: In Zen Buddhism two main views on the way to enlightenment are discernible, namely sudden and gradual enlightenment.


title: Chan Buddhism

text: Early Chan recognized the "transcendence of the body and mind", followed by "non-defilement [of] knowledge and perception", or sudden insight into the true nature ("jiànxìng") followed by gradual purification of intentions.


title: Chan Buddhism

text: In the 8th century Chan history was effectively refashioned by Shenhui, who created a dichotomy between the so-called East Mountain Teaching or "Northern School", led by Yuquan Shenxiu, and his own line of teaching, which he called the "Southern school". Shenhui placed Huineng into prominence as the sixth Chan-patriarch, and emphasized "sudden enlightenment", as opposed to the concurrent Northern School's alleged "gradual enlightenment". According to the "sudden enlightenment" propagated by Shenhui, insight into true nature is sudden; thereafter there can be no misunderstanding anymore about this true nature.


title: Chan Buddhism

text: In the "Platform Sutra", the dichotomy between sudden and gradual is reconciled. Guifeng Zongmi, fifth-generation successor to Shenhui, also softened the edge between sudden and gradual. In his analysis, sudden awakening points to seeing into one's true nature, but is to be followed by a gradual cultivation to attain Buddhahood.


title: Chan Buddhism

text: This gradual cultivation is also recognized by Dongshan Liangjie (Japanese "Tōzan"), who described the five ranks of enlightenment.


title: Chan Buddhism

text: According to Borup the emphasis on 'mind to mind transmission' is a form of esoteric transmission, in which "the tradition and the enlightened mind is transmitted face to face". Metaphorically this can be described as the transmission from a flame from one candle to another candle, or the transmission from one vein to another. In exoteric transmission requires "direct access to the teaching through a personal discovery of one's self. This type of transmission and identification is symbolized by the discovery of a shining lantern, or a mirror."


title: Chan Buddhism

text: Chan is deeply rooted in the teachings and doctrines of Mahāyāna Buddhism. What the Chan tradition emphasizes is that the enlightenment of the Buddha came not through intellectual reasoning, but rather through self-realization in Dharma practice and meditation. Therefore, it is held that it is primarily through Dharma practice and meditation that others may attain enlightenment and become Buddhas as well.


title: Chan Buddhism

text: A review of the early historical documents and literature of early Chan masters clearly reveals that they were all well-versed in numerous Mahāyāna Buddhist sūtras. For example, in the "Platform Sūtra of the Sixth Patriarch", Huineng cites and explains the "Diamond Sūtra", the "Lotus Sūtra" ("Saddharma Puṇḍarīka Sūtra"), the "Vimalakīrti Nirdeśa Sūtra", the "Śūraṅgama Sūtra", and the "Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra".


title: Chan Buddhism

text: The Chan school had to develop a doctrinal tradition of its own to establish its position. Subsequently, the Chan tradition produced a rich corpus of written literature which has become a part of its practice and teaching. Among the earliest and most widely studied of the specifically Chan texts, dating to at least the 9th century CE, is the "Platform Sūtra of the Sixth Patriarch", attributed to Huineng. The most important Chan texts belong to the "encounter dialogue" genre, which developed into various collections of "kōans".


title: Chan Buddhism

text: As a school of Mahāyāna Buddhism, Chan draws many of its basic driving concepts from that tradition, such as the Bodhisattva ideal. Karuṇā is the counterpart of prajna. Avalokiteśvara embodies the striving for Karuna, compassion.


title: Chan Buddhism

text: Central to Chan practice is dhyana or meditation. In the Lin-ji (Rinzai) school this is supplemented with koan study.


title: Chan Buddhism

text: In meditation practice, the Chan tradition holds that the very notions of doctrine and teachings create various other notions and appearances (Skt. "saṃjñā"; Ch. 相, "xiāng") that obscure the transcendent wisdom of each being's Buddha-nature. Thus, Chan encourages its practitioners to distrust the very scripture or text being taught to them. The process of rediscovery goes under various terms such as "introspection", "a backward step", "turning-about" or "turning the eye inward".


title: Chan Buddhism

text: Sitting meditation is called "zuòchán" (坐禅), "zazen" in Japanese, both simply meaning "sitting dhyāna". During this sitting meditation, practitioners usually assume a position such as the lotus position, half-lotus, Burmese, or seiza postures. To regulate the mind, awareness is directed towards counting or watching the breath, or put in the energy center below the navel (see also anapanasati). Often, a square or round cushion placed on a padded mat is used to sit on; in some other cases, a chair may be used.


title: Chan Buddhism

text: At the beginning of the Song dynasty, practice with the koan method became popular, whereas others practiced "silent illumination." This became the source of some differences in practice between the Linji and Caodong traditions.


title: Chan Buddhism

text: A koan (literally "public case") is a story or dialogue, generally related to Chan or other Buddhist histories; the most typical form is an anecdote involving early Chinese Chan masters. These anecdotes involving famous Chan teachers are a practical demonstration of their wisdom, and can be used to test a student's progress in Chan practice. Koans often appear to be paradoxical or linguistically meaningless dialogues or questions. But to Chan Buddhists, the koan is "the place and the time and the event where truth reveals itself" unobstructed by the oppositions and differentiation of language. Answering a koan requires a student to let go of conceptual thinking and of the logical way we order the world, so that, like creativity in art, the appropriate insight and response arises naturally and spontaneously in the mind.


title: Chan Buddhism

text: As the Chan school grew in China, the monastic discipline also became distinct, focusing on practice through all aspects of life. Temples began emphasizing labor and humility, expanding the training of Chan to include the mundane tasks of daily life. The Chinese Chan master Baizhang (720–814 CE) left behind a famous saying which had been the guiding principle of his life, "A day without work is a day without food".


title: Chan Buddhism

text: It was scholar D.T. Suzuki's contention that a spiritual awakening was always the goal of Chan's training, but that part of what distinguished the tradition as it developed through the centuries in China was a way of life radically different from that of Indian Buddhists. In Indian Buddhism, the tradition of the mendicant prevailed, but Suzuki explained that in China social circumstances led to the development of a temple and training-center system in which the abbot and the monks all performed mundane tasks. These included food gardening or farming, carpentry, architecture, housekeeping, administration (or community direction), and the practice of Traditional Chinese medicine. Consequently, the enlightenment sought in Chan had to stand up well to the demands and potential frustrations of everyday life.


title: The Charlatans (English band)

text: The Charlatans are an English rock band formed in West Midlands, England in 1988. The current line-up comprises lead vocalist Tim Burgess, guitarist Mark Collins, bassist Martin Blunt and keyboardist Tony Rogers.


title: The Charlatans (English band)

text: All the band's thirteen studio albums have charted in the top 40 of the UK Albums Chart, three of them being number ones. They have also had 22 top 40 singles and four top 10 entries in the UK Singles Chart, including the hits "The Only One I Know" and "One to Another".


title: The Charlatans (English band)

text: The band were formed in the West Midlands by bassist Martin Blunt, who recruited fellow West Midlanders Rob Collins (keyboards), Jon Brookes (drums), Jon Day (Jonathan Baker) (guitar) and singer-guitarist Baz Ketley. Ketley left the band and was replaced by singer Tim Burgess, who had supported the Charlatans with his previous band, the Electric Crayons.


title: The Charlatans (English band)

text: Although the Charlatans would later become popularly associated with the Madchester scene, the band's early demos recorded in 1988 in Birmingham and Dudley already evidenced the sound that the band ultimately became famous for, dominated by Collins's Hammond organ but underpinned by the driving rhythm section of Blunt's powerful running bass and Brookes's drumming. With their sound – fusing 1960s soul, R&B and garage rock – inherited from Blunt's earlier 1982 band Makin' Time, the band saw themselves firmly in the West Midlands tradition of hard-edged soul and R&B that included Birmingham bands The Spencer Davis Group and early Dexys Midnight Runners. Blunt has characterised the band's early influences as including the Stranglers, Stax Records, Joy Division and the Doors, but has also credited the band's formation during the explosive growth of the acid house scene as contributing to their sound, so that they "suddenly sounded like the Spencer Davis Group on E".


title: The Charlatans (English band)

text: Although the name The Charlatans was already being used when the original members of the band were still located in the West Midlands, many sources state that they formed in Northwich, Cheshire. This is because the band relocated to the home town of new lead singer Tim Burgess (who was born in Salford, but lived in Northwich from an early age) before the 1990 release of The Charlatans' debut single "Indian Rope", on the band's own Dead Dead Good Records label. Thus based on the definition of hometown used by "Guinness World Records" the band was formed in Northwich, and consequently Northwich is recorded as their home town in such publications as "British Hit Singles & Albums". One of the band's earliest known live performances was supporting The Stone Roses at the London School of Economics on 2 December 1988.


title: The Charlatans (English band)

text: The debut single "Indian Rope" proved to be an indie hit and the group soon found a major label in Beggars Banquet offshoot Situation Two in time for the release of "The Only One I Know", which reached the Top 10 in the UK Singles Chart. A further single "Then" and their debut album "Some Friendly" were released later that year. Around this time The Charlatans were forced to add "UK" to their name for an American tour due to competing claims by an American rock band also known as The Charlatans.


title: The Charlatans (English band)

text: Day left the band after 1991's "Over Rising" single to be replaced by Mark Collins (no relation to Rob). The band brought in producer Flood for their second album "Between 10th and 11th" (named after the address of the New York Marquee, the site of the group's first US concert). Released in early 1992, the album failed to reach the Top 20 in the UK Albums Chart, but the Top 20 success of lead single "Weirdo" and a double weekend of gigs ('Daytripper') in Blackpool and Brighton together with Ride would keep them in the public eye.


title: The Charlatans (English band)

text: The band suffered a major setback later that year, when Rob Collins was charged with armed robbery after a friend had robbed an off licence while he was waiting in the car outside. Collins claimed to have no foreknowledge of the robbery until he heard a gunshot inside the shop and his friend exited, although he later admitted that he should not have picked up his friend after he had realised what he had done. In court he pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of "assisting an offender after an offence" and served four months in prison.


title: The Charlatans (English band)

text: In 1995 the release of the band's self-titled fourth album saw them become major UK stars again, topping the UK albums chart and spawning the Top 20 single "Just When You're Thinkin' Things Over".


title: The Charlatans (English band)

text: Keyboard player Rob Collins was killed in a traffic accident on 22 July 1996, during the recording of the band's fifth album "Tellin' Stories". The Charlatans decided to continue, drafting in the Primal Scream and former Felt keyboardist Martin Duffy until a permanent replacement for Collins could be found, particularly for The Charlatans' support slot at Oasis' Knebworth concerts which were occurring in less than three weeks time on August 10 and 11. "Tellin' Stories" was released in 1997, featuring contributions from both Rob Collins and Duffy. The group had their biggest UK hits to date in the singles "One to Another", "North Country Boy" and "How High".


title: The Charlatans (English band)

text: After the release of the career-spanning compilation "Melting Pot" the band's contract with Beggars Banquet was up, and they signed to Universal Records. Relations with the Beggars label remained strong however, and the band helped put together the B-sides collection "Songs From The Other Side" and the DVD "Just Lookin' 1990–1997", which showcased all their promotional videos and a selection of live recordings from that era.


title: The Charlatans (English band)

text: "Us and Us Only" was the start of a new era for The Charlatans. Their first release for Universal saw new keyboard player Tony Rogers make his Charlatans album debut, having previously toured in support of "Tellin' Stories" and contributing to B-sides "Keep It to Yourself" and "Clean Up Kid" from the "How High" single. The band took on a slightly country sound, heavily influenced by Burgess's love of Bob Dylan.


title: The Charlatans (English band)

text: The soul-influenced "Wonderland" followed in 2001; that year the band performed at V Festival in London.


title: The Charlatans (English band)

text: The band released their ninth full-length album on 10 April 2006, their first for new label Sanctuary Records. Titled "Simpatico", the reggae- and dub-tinged album was produced by Jim Lowe and included fan favourite "NYC (There's No Need to Stop)" and first single "Blackened Blue Eyes". The single charted at number 28, whilst the album reached the top 10 the week it was released before dropping off the charts shortly afterward.


title: The Charlatans (English band)

text: Their follow-up to "Simpatico" was the career-spanning singles compilation entitled "", released on CD and DVD on 13 November 2006. It was preceded by the single "You're So Pretty We're So Pretty", remixed by Youth from its original version on "Wonderland" (2001).


title: The Charlatans (English band)

text: The band played a number of high-profile gigs in mid-2007 supporting The Who and The Rolling Stones at venues including Wembley Stadium and Twickenham Stadium in London, the Bingley Music Live event, Nass Festival 2007, and at Delamere Forest in Cheshire. A recording of "Live at Delamere Forest" was released as a five-part download for a limited time via their official website.


title: The Charlatans (English band)

text: The band contributed the song "Blank Heart, Blank Mind" to a Love Music Hate Racism compilation CD which came free with the October 2007 issue of the "NME". Later that month, new single "You Cross My Path" was released as a free download exclusively through the XFM website. A second single "Oh! Vanity" emerged in March 2008, as The Charlatans teamed up with XFM once again, becoming the first UK band to release an album (their tenth studio album "You Cross My Path") as a free download via a radio station. The album also received a physical CD/LP release on the Cooking Vinyl label on 19 May 2008, which coincided with a full UK tour.


title: The Charlatans (English band)

text: Their eleventh studio album, "Who We Touch", was released on 6 September 2010 on Cooking Vinyl Records and included the single "Love Is Ending". The album charted at No. 21 in the UK Albums Chart. 2010 also saw the twentieth anniversary of the band's debut album "Some Friendly", which they played live at Primavera Sound Festival 2010.


title: The Charlatans (English band)

text: On 15 September 2010, drummer Jon Brookes collapsed during a performance in Philadelphia. The remaining US tour dates were postponed, as Brookes was diagnosed with a brain tumour and was flown back to the UK for an operation and course of radiation and chemotherapy treatment. The Verve's Peter Salisbury acted as a stand-in drummer for the remainder of the Charlatans UK dates. Brookes returned to the stage for the band's Christmas and New Year Eve's gigs in 2010.


title: The Charlatans (English band)

text: On 28 March 2011 Universal Music re-released a deluxe edition of the band's 1999 album Us and Us Only, featuring a collection of bonus tracks including B-sides, live recordings, radio sessions and rare remixes. In March and April 2011 Tim Burgess and Mark Collins played an acoustic tour of the UK, to coincide with which they released an EP "Warm Sounds", which featured six stripped-down and reworked versions of Charlatans tracks including "North Country Boy", "The Only One I Know" and "Smash The System". In December 2011 the band announced they would be performing "Tellin' Stories" in its entirety at London's HMV Hammersmith Apollo, O2 Apollo Manchester and Glasgow's Barrowland Ballroom in June 2012.


title: The Charlatans (English band)

text: The band returned to their Big Mushroom studio to begin working on demos for a new album in 2013. In May the "Mountain Picnic Blues" DVD was released, a documentary about their "Tellin' Stories" album from its creation in 1997 to the 15th anniversary of the album.


title: The Charlatans (English band)

text: On 13 August 2013 the band's 44-year-old drummer Jon Brookes died from a brain tumour having undergone several operations and treatment for the condition since his initial diagnosis in 2010. The band themselves paid him tribute in a special event, with Pete Salisbury playing in his place and bands such as Beady Eye, The Vaccines and Manic Street Preachers also joining the bill. Proceeds from the night went to The Brain Tumour Charity, of which The Charlatans are now patrons; the charity have set up The Jon Brookes Fund as a lasting tribute to the drummer.


title: The Charlatans (English band)

text: Tim Burgess confirmed that Brookes's recordings would appear on the band's next album, originally slated for sometime in 2014.


title: The Charlatans (English band)

text: The Charlatans announced details of their twelfth studio album "Modern Nature", to be released on 26 January 2015 on their new label BMG Rights Management. Featuring eleven new tracks (including the recent limited edition 7" "Talking in Tones"), "Modern Nature" was produced by The Charlatans and Jim Spencer and mixed by Craig Silvey. The album features contributions from the band's temporary drummers Peter Salisbury (of The Verve), Stephen Morris (of New Order) and Gabriel Gurnsey (of Factory Floor), as well as producer Dave Tolan, backing singers Melanie Marshall and Sandra Marvin, strings by Sean O'Hagan and brass courtesy of Jim Paterson from Dexys Midnight Runners.


title: The Charlatans (English band)

text: In July 2021, the group announced the release of "A Head Full of Ideas: The Best of Charlatans", which was released on 15 October 2021.


title: The Charlatans (English band)

text: On 1 June 2022, the group supported Liam Gallagher at his concert at the Etihad Stadium in Manchester.


title: Dino Bravo

text: Adolfo Bresciano (; August 6, 1948 – March 10, 1993) was an Italian-Canadian professional wrestler and promoter, better known by the ring name Dino Bravo ().


title: Dino Bravo

text: After training under Gino Brito, he started his career in Montreal in the 1970s, working for Lutte Internationale. He became one of the top professional wrestling stars of Canada; winning several major titles including the Canadian International Heavyweight Championship six times, the NWA Canadian Heavyweight Championship "(Toronto version)", and the NWA Mid-Atlantic Tag Team Championship. He later signed with the World Wide Wrestling Federation, where as a partner to Dominic DeNucci he won the WWWF World Tag Team Championship. He was also the sole holder of the WWF Canadian Championship before the title was abandoned in 1986.


title: Dino Bravo

text: After leaving professional wrestling, Bravo became involved in organized crime, allegedly working for the Cotroni crime family. He was killed in his home by multiple gunshots in March 1993, and the crime remains unsolved.


title: Dino Bravo

text: Adolfo Bresciano was born in the commune of Campobasso in southern Italy to Mario and Ausilia Bresciano. The family emigrated to Canada when Bresciano was young, settling in the Centre-Sud neighbourhood of the Montreal borough of Ville-Marie. He started training in amateur wrestling from the age of 12.


title: Dino Bravo

text: Bresciano began wrestling in 1970, taking the name "Dino Bravo" from a wrestler from the early 1960s who had teamed with Dominic DeNucci as the Bravo Brothers, Dino and Dominic. He was trained by Gino Brito and often worked in a tag team with his mentor, billed as Brito's cousin. Bravo worked in a number of other tag teams, partnering with, among others, "Mr. Wrestling" Tim Woods and DeNucci. Bravo held the Jim Crockett Promotions version of the NWA World Tag Team Championship with Woods, winning the title from Gene and Ole Anderson and eventually losing the title to the Andersons. Bravo also had a major program with Blackjack Mulligan, pinning Mulligan twice in a televised non-title match to set up a series of matches for Mulligan's United States title. Bravo did not win the U.S. title from Mulligan, but did receive several shots at NWA World Champion Harley Race during his tenure with Crockett.


title: Dino Bravo

text: By the late 1970s, Bravo had become a big enough draw to get a singles push in the Montreal territory. In December 1978, he defeated Gene Kiniski in Toronto to win the new Canadian heavyweight title as recognized in that area. With Dominic DeNucci, Bravo captured the WWWF World Tag Team Title in March 1978 from Professor Tanaka and Mr. Fuji. Three months later in June, The Yukon Lumberjacks defeated Bravo and DeNucci for the title. In the early 1980s, Bravo and King Tonga (later known as Haku) formed a tag team for a brief while.


title: Dino Bravo

text: Bravo returned to the WWF in late 1986 with a new look. He was now noticeably more muscular and almost immediately began bleaching his brown hair blonde and turned on the Rougeau Brothers to become a heel. Began working as part of Luscious Johnny Valiant's stable with Greg "The Hammer" Valentine and Brutus Beefcake. Beefcake was kicked out of the stable at WrestleMania III and Bravo took his place in The Dream Team tag team with Valentine. Bravo returned to singles competition after a few months and began a strongman gimmick. In his days of wrestling mostly in Canada, Bravo was known as more of a technical wrestler, but with his strongman gimmick his technical side was pushed into the background and his style changed to using power (brawling) moves such as bodyslams, clotheslines, punches and kicks, and other power holds such as the bearhug, while his finishing move changed from an airplane spin to a sidewalk slam. At the 1988 Royal Rumble, Bravo (who was legitimately strong and was said to be able to press more than 500 pounds) attempted to bench press what he claimed was 715 pounds, which would have been a world record at that time. Commentator (and former bodybuilder) Jesse "The Body" Ventura helped lift the bar at one point, but Bravo played the lift as a success and began billing himself as the "World's Strongest Man." In this gimmick, Bravo feuded with Don Muraco, Ken Patera, Ron Garvin, and Jim Duggan.


title: Dino Bravo

text: He played up his Québécois identity by wearing the Fleur-de-lis and was managed by Frenchy Martin, who often toted around a sign reading "USA is not OK". In March 1988, Bravo lost in the first round of the WWF Championship tournament at WrestleMania IV against Don Muraco after pulling the referee between himself and Muraco to prevent a hit from the Hawaiian. Before the match to further play on Bravo's "world's strongest man" claim, Jesse Ventura in commentary claimed that during Bravo's "record" lift of 715 pounds, he had only used his "two little pinkies" and had only put two pounds of pressure on the bar. During a rematch at the inaugural SummerSlam at Madison Square Garden in August, Martin distracted Bravo's opponent Muraco to allow Bravo to get the victory (Muraco's usual manager Superstar Billy Graham was doing commentary for the event alongside Gorilla Monsoon, as Ventura was assigned as the guest referee for the main event; thus, Graham, who was not at ringside, could only look on in frustration at Bravo and Martin's illegal tactics). In October at the King of the Ring, Bravo lost to Jim Duggan in a flag match. At the Royal Rumble in January 1989, Bravo, accompanied by Martin, teamed with The Fabulous Rougeau Brothers (Jacques and Raymond) but lost a two out of three falls match against Jim Duggan and The Hart Foundation (Bret Hart and Jim Neidhart). At WrestleMania V Bravo defeated fellow Canadian "Rugged" Ronnie Garvin.


title: Dino Bravo

text: After Frenchy Martin's departure, Bravo joined Jimmy Hart's stable and entered a feud with another power wrestler, The Ultimate Warrior, unsuccessfully challenging Warrior for his WWF Intercontinental Championship. Prior to a WrestleMania VI loss to Duggan, Bravo teamed up with Earthquake. Bravo would often display his strength by doing push ups while the 460 lb. Earthquake sat on his back (although Tenta kept his feet on the floor, so not all of his weight was on his partner). The team of Earthquake and Bravo would go on to have a lengthy feud with Hulk Hogan and Tugboat. Following a WrestleMania VII loss to Kerry Von Erich, he wrestled less frequently, with his next appearance on WWF TV coming in August 1991 as a face (without Jimmy Hart or dyed-blonde hair), now being billed as the "Canadian Strongman, Dino Bravo" in victories over Louie Spicolli and Shane Douglas (who had also defeated Bravo on January 3, 1991, at a house show in Scranton, Pennsylvania). Bravo then began a short run on Montreal house shows as a face, against The Mountie (Jacques Rougeau) and The Barbarian. In his final match, televised on Sky Movies, he and Colonel Mustafa lost to The Legion of Doom in Sheffield, England. Bravo left the WWF and retired from wrestling following a European tour in April 1992. After retiring, he helped train wrestlers in Montreal.


title: Dino Bravo

text: On March 10, 1993, Bresciano was found shot dead at the age of 44. He was hit by 11 bullets in the head and torso at his Vimont, Laval, Quebec home. His alleged role in illegal cigarette smuggling in Canada is popularly believed to have led to his unsolved homicide. According to former opponent Bret Hart, Bresciano confided to friends shortly before his death that he knew his days were numbered. He was a nephew by marriage of Montreal crime boss Vic Cotroni, and was believed by authorities to be involved in his organization for some time. He is entombed at Notre Dame des Neiges Cemetery in Montreal. His death was the subject of the sixth episode in the second season of wrestling documentary series, "Dark Side of the Ring", airing on April 21, 2020.


title: Brands Hatch

text: Brands Hatch is a motor racing circuit in West Kingsdown, Kent, England, United Kingdom. Originally used as a grasstrack motorcycle circuit on farmland, it hosted 12 runnings of the British Grand Prix between 1964 and 1986 and currently hosts many British and International racing events. The venue is owned and operated by Jonathan Palmer's MotorSport Vision organisation.


title: Brands Hatch

text: Brands Hatch offers two layout configurations. The "Indy Circuit" layout is located entirely within a natural amphitheatre offering spectators views of almost all of the shorter configuration from wherever they watch. The "Grand Prix" layout played host to Formula One racing, including events such as Jo Siffert's duel with Chris Amon in and future World Champion Nigel Mansell's first win in . Noise restrictions and the proximity of the Grand Prix loop to local residents mean that the number of race meetings held on the extended circuit are limited to just a few per year (usually for higher-profile series such as the BTCC and the BSB).


title: Brands Hatch

text: The full Grand Prix circuit begins on the Brabham Straight, an off-camber, slightly curved stretch, before plunging into the right-hander at Paddock Hill Bend, with gradients of 8%. Despite the difficulty of the curve, due to the straight that precedes it, it is one of the track's few overtaking spots. The next corner, Druids, is a hairpin bend, negotiated after an uphill braking zone at Hailwood Hill. The track then curves around the south bank spectator area into the downhill, off-camber Graham Hill Bend, and another, slightly bent stretch at the Cooper Straight, which runs parallel to the pit lane. After the straight, the circuit climbs uphill though the decreasing-radius Surtees turn, before moving onto the back straight where the track's top speeds can be reached. The most significant elevation changes on the circuit occur here at Pilgrim's Drop and Hawthorn Hill, which leads into Hawthorn Bend (with some parts approaching 7%). The track then loops around the woodland with a series of mid-speed corners, most notably the dip at Westfield and Dingle Dell and the blind Sheene curve. From there the track then emerges from the left hand and cambered Stirlings Bend onto the short straight to Clearways and rejoins the Indy Circuit for Clark Curve with its uphill off-camber approach to the pit straight and the start/finish line.


title: Brands Hatch

text: The British Rallycross Circuit at Brands Hatch was designed and constructed by four-times British Rallycross Champion Trevor Hopkins. It is approximately long and was completed around 1981. Unlike earlier rallycross courses at Brands Hatch, cars start on the startline then veer right and downhill on the loose at Paddock Hill Bend. Through the left-right Esses at the bottom, the circuit rejoins the Indy Circuit to travel up and round Druids hairpin, before a 90-degree left through Langley's Gap and across the knife-edge, rejoining the Indy Circuit, but travelling anti-clockwise. From Cooper Straight, the cars swoop up the old link road and back to Paddock.


title: Brands Hatch

text: Brands Hatch was originally the name of a natural grassy hollow that was shaped like an amphitheatre.


title: Brands Hatch

text: Although the site was originally used as a military training ground, the fields belonging to Brands Farm were first used as a circuit by a group of Gravesend cyclists led by Ron Argent, with the permission of the local farmer and landowner, Harry White. Using the natural contours of the land, many cyclists from around London practised, raced and ran time trials on the dirt roads carved out by farm machinery. The first actual race on the circuit was held in 1926, over between cyclists and cross-country runners. Within a few years, motorcyclists were using the circuit, laying out a three-quarter-mile anti-clockwise track in the valley. They also saw the advantage of competing in a natural arena just a few hundred yards from the A20, and with the passage of time, a kidney-shaped circuit came into use. The first motorcycle races were "very informal" with much of the organisation being done on the spot. Initially, the racing was on a straight strip approximately where Cooper Straight came to be when the track was tarmacked. Brands Hatch remained in operation during the 1930s, but after being used as a military vehicle park and being subject to many bombing raids during World War II, it needed much work before it could become a professional racing circuit.


title: Brands Hatch

text: In 1932, four local motorcycling clubs joined forces (Bermondsey, Owls, Sidcup and West Kingsdown) and staged their first meeting that March.


title: Brands Hatch

text: Motorcycle racing quickly resumed after World War II and in 1947, Joe Francis (managing director of Brands Hatch Stadium Ltd.) persuaded the BBC to televise a grass track meeting, the first motorcycle event to be televised on British TV.


title: Brands Hatch

text: Following World War II, cinders were laid on the track of what was by then known as "Brands Hatch Stadium" and motorcycle racing continued. That was until 1950 when the 500 Club managed to persuade Joe Francis, that the future for his stadium lay in car and motorcycle road racing. The group behind 500 c.c. single-seater racing cars was the 500 Club and it, together with the owners, invested the sum of £17,000 on a tarmac surface.


title: Brands Hatch

text: Thus Brands Hatch was born as a motor racing venue, and on 16 April 1950, the opening meeting was scheduled for the first purpose-built post-war racing circuit in England, approval having been given by the RAC following a demonstration by a handful of 500s in February. Amongst those giving the demonstration was a very young Stirling Moss. The Half-Litre Car Club for 500 cc Formula 3 organised that first race on 16 April, with 7,000 spectators coming to witness these cars complete in 10 races. The first victory went to a man who was to become a legend in Formula 3, Don Parker. Before the year was out, five meetings had been held, with the events running to a similar programme. The June meeting was a Moss benefit for he won all five races he entered in the Works Cooper and a set a new lap record. The August Bank Holiday meeting saw for the first time, involvement of the national press with the "Daily Telegraph" sponsoring the main event of the day. The old cinder track had been in length, but the tarmac circuit was lengthened to and now ran anticlockwise. The Maidstone & Mid-Kent Motor Club invited a number of sports car drivers to test the circuit on 5 November, this being the first time that any car other than a 500cc had used it, and they ran clockwise.


title: Brands Hatch

text: In 1951, season included seven car meetings, all for Formula 3 and they were again organised the Half-Litre Car Club to which the 500 Club had changed its name since becoming a Limited Company. In February, the Aston Martin Owners Club tested some 1.5-litre sports cars at Brands Hatch preparatory to the full International season starting.


title: Brands Hatch

text: The 1952 season saw the emergence of Stuart Lewis-Evans. Les Leston raised the lap record to (50.6sec) – the first time that had been exceeded.


title: Brands Hatch

text: 1953 saw the introductions of raised spectator protection banks. This was to be Parker's year for he won the "Autosport" Formula 3 Championship taking seven races at Brands on his way the title. Some 50,000 people packed into the "Daily Telegraph International" and as the season came to an end Parker raised the lap record to (48.4secs). During 1953, the Universal Motor Racing Club was established, with a racing school set up at Brands Hatch. The Half Litre Club, later to become the British Racing and Sports Car Club (BRSCC), ran many races throughout the 1950s and firmly established the venue as one of Britain's top racing circuits.


title: Brands Hatch

text: The track continued to expand during 1953 and 1954, with the addition of Druids Bend by lengthening the circuit, a pit lane and spectator banks and reversing the racing direction to clockwise. While Formula III racing was unquestionably close and exciting, it did have its limitations and now the paying public wanted some variety and more powerful cars to watch. The change in direction of racing traffic resulted in the creation of "Paddock Hill Bend" a fast sweeping downhill right-hander. At the bottom the Paddock Hill, a quarter-mile extension to the circuit was added which took the competitors up the other side of the valley to a right-hand hairpin, which is called "Druids Hill Bend". This new section re-joined the old track at another tricky corner, "Bottom Bend", and the result was a circuit lengthened to .


title: Brands Hatch

text: The first race winner on the revised track was Stuart Lewis-Evans, at the wheel of a Cooper-Norton Mk.8, with a new name at the inaugural meeting. That name was N. G. Hill who was a 'graduate' of the racing school.


title: Brands Hatch

text: As the season progressed larger engine machines began to appear starting with small and medium capacity sport cars, then Formula Libre machines. However, most races were still run for Formula 3 and 1954 saw the first of what was to become the traditional Boxing Day meeting down in Kent. A total of 15,000 spectators arrived at the Christmas meeting to watch a programme of seven races with the added attraction of ox-roasting and Stirling Moss.


title: Brands Hatch

text: It was Jim Russell's year, for he dominated the Formula 3, winning the "Autosport" National Championship, as well as four of the meeting. Cooper T39s and Lotus Mk.9s dominated sports car racing while Archie Scott Brown had a stranglehold on the over 1,900 cc class, driving either the works Lister-Bristol or Louis Manduca's Jaguar C-Type.


title: Brands Hatch

text: At the August Bank Holiday meeting spectators could avail themselves of the only permanent grandstand at a British motor sport circuit; it had been purchased second-hand from the defunct Northolt pony-trotting stadium and for the 1956 season, a telephone system was installed linking race control, the grandstand and the marshals' posts, while a modern hospital was opened at the circuit, complete with operating theatre.


title: Brands Hatch

text: As larger-capacity cars become more common, 500 cc racing began to decline, but the formula still gave close, exciting racing. The first year that public car race meetings were organised by other than the BRSCC was 1956 – in June, the 750 Motor Club joined forces with the Club Lotus to offer a mixture of races, including, for the first time at Brands, saloon cars. This was also the year the Brands grew up, running Formula One cars for the first time on 14 October. Initially, a long-distance race was planned, but in the end a 15-lap race was run which attracted four work entries from Connaught (B-Types for Archie Scott Brown, Les Leston, Jack Fairman and Stuart Lewis-Evans) opposed by privately entered Maserati 250Fs driven by Roy Salvadori and Bruce Halford and a selection of independents. Archie won from Lewis-Evans, setting a new lap record in the process at a speed of . Politics caused the cancellation of the Boxing Day meeting that year due to the Suez Crisis.


title: Brands Hatch

text: As a result of Suez affair, forecasts for 1957 season were gloomy, but the programme ran as planned, the two feature meeting of the year being run for the new Formula Two on Whit Sunday and August Bank Holiday. The year saw a continued diversification at BRSCC meetings with fewer 500cc events and more sport-racing machinery. The "Kentish 100" was the biggest event yet run at the circuit for Formula Two with two 42-lap heats and attracted a truly International field. Formula Two featured at other meetings but at the August Bank Holiday meeting, Formula 3 proved that it was not yet dead as it was run as the feature event for the "Daily Telegraph Trophy".


title: Brands Hatch

text: Jim Clark made his Brands Hatch debut at the Boxing Day event, when he drove the Border Reivers-entered Lotus Elite into second place behind Colin Chapman. At the August Bank Holiday meeting in 1958, an 1,100cc sports car became the first to lap Brands Hatch in under a minute. Its creator had been unable to afford to purchase a Lotus, so had designed his own car; the car was called a Lola and its creator was Eric Broadley.


title: Brands Hatch

text: The highlight of the 1959 season was again the "Kentish 100", with no less than 40 drivers (including 10 Grand Prix names) fighting for just 16 grid positions. Jack Brabham won both 42-lap heats driving the works Cooper-Climax. The feature race at the Boxing Day meeting was for Formula Junior, a new International Formula for single-seater racing cars using production engines up to 1,100 cc; works entries were received from Elva, Gemini, Lola, Cooper and Lotus. This new formula was to prove the death-knell of 500 cc racing.


title: Brands Hatch

text: In January 1960, Kent County Council gave planning permission for the extension of Brands Hatch – an extension which would double the length of the track offering a choice of long or short circuits. The new track used, all of this existing one with the extension of Kidney Bend; South Bank became a long, uphill 160° sweep out into the country and making the approach to Clearways very much faster. From South Bank there followed a long straight dipping into and out of the next valley to the right-hand Hawthorn Bend followed by Portobello Straight to Westfield Bend leading to the dip to Dingle Dell, Dingle Dell Corner and the difficult left-hand Stirling's Bend. A short straight then brought the circuit back to Clearways at much higher speed than hitherto. John Hall said, "For the first time ever, Britain will have a Grand Prix track within 20 miles of London.'"


title: Brands Hatch

text: The new track was planned to be completed in time for the August Bank Holiday meeting and was ready for testing in June. The debut of the new track came in August as planned, with works entries from BRM, Cooper, Ferrari, and Lotus together with independents such Yeoman Credit Racing, Scuderia Eugenio Castellotti and Scuderia Centro Sud. Record traffic jams were reported on the A20, and the huge crowd saw the non-championship "Silver City Trophy" Formula One race won by Jack Brabham in the works Cooper-Climax by just 4.4 seconds from Graham Hill in the BRM P48, after the gearbox of Jim Clark's Lotus expired after leading 22 of the 50-lap race. The fastest lap was set jointly by Clark and Brabham, in 1min 40.6sec, at a speed of .


title: Brands Hatch

text: Clark had his revenge a few weeks later when the circuit saw Formula Two cars performing in the "Kentish 100" with a hard-fought win over Dan Gurney; both were driving Lotus-Climaxes, Clark's was a works car and Gurney's a private entry.


title: Brands Hatch

text: Soon after, the track was sold to Grovewood Securities Ltd., and John Webb put in charge of Motor Circuit Developments to manage the circuit.


title: Brands Hatch

text: This was the year of the new 1.5-litre Formula One and on 3 June 1961, the "Silver City Trophy", was contested over 76 laps of the GP Circuit by Grand Prix cars. Entries were received from Cooper, Lotus, BRM, UDT-Laystall and Yeoman Credit. Victory went to Stirling Moss driving the pale green UDT-Laystall Lotus 18/21 Climax from Jim Clark abroad the works Lotus 21 Climax and Tony Brooks driving the BRM P57 Climax. The 7 August meeting saw the Guards International Trophy for Intercontinental Formula cars. In effect the redundant 2.5-litre F1 cars from pre-1961. The race was a 76-lap affair over the GP Circuit; Jack Brabham won in the works Cooper T53-Climax from Jim Clark (works Lotus 18-Climax) and Graham Hill (BRM P57).


title: Brands Hatch

text: The following year 1962 did not see any major meetings at Brands, but on 1 October, the longest race staged so far took place. This was the "Motor"-sponsored Six-Hour Saloon race. The field of 35 entries included some foreign entrants and victory went to Mike Parkes and Jimmy Blumer driving a 3.8-litre Jaguar Mk II; the German pairing of Peter Lindner and Peter Nöcker in another Jaguar from a Mini-Cooper driven by John Alvy and Denny Hulme, a New Zealand mechanic employed by Jack Brabham.


title: Brands Hatch

text: The Club Circuit had six meeting during 1962, and witnessed the coming of Formula Junior. At the Easter Monday meeting, a Formula Junior race saw the lap record tumble to 55.6secs and the first-ever 80 mph lap (actual speed was ) by John Fenning, abroad a Lotus 20-Ford. The 'Trio' meeting in July saw the end of an era when a 500 took the chequered flag for the last time with Mike Ledbrook, driving a Cooper-Norton Mark 8 in the 500 and 250cc race. At the Boxing Day meeting, Hulme won the Formula Junior race driving the prototype Brabham BT6-Ford, setting a new outright lap record at 54.8secs by having speed of .