Hui-neng

There was a monk named Chih-ch'ang from the town of Kueihsi in Hsinchou prefecture. He left home when he was seven determined to see his nature. As he came to pay his respects one day, the Master [Hui-neng] asked him, "Where are you from? And what are you here for?"

Chih-ch'ang said, "This student recently went to Paifengshan in Hungchou to pay my respects to Master Ta-t'ung and to receive instruction in how to see my nature and become a buddha. But I still had questions. So I have come all this way to throw myself at the Master's feet in hopes of his compassion and instruction."

The Master said, "What exactly did he tell you? See if you can remember."

Chih-ch'ang said, "After I had been there for three months, I still hadn't received any instruction. Because I was hungry for the Dharma, I went by myself to the abbot's room, and I asked him what my original mind and my original nature were like. He said, 'Do you see the space around us or not?' I answered, 'Yes, I see it.' And he said, 'When you see this space, does it have any distinguishing features?' I answered, 'Space doesn't have any form, much less any distinguishing features.' And he said, 'Your original nature is just like space. When there is nothing at all you can see, this is true seeing. And when there is nothing at all you can know, this is true knowing. It isn't blue or yellow, long or short. Just see that your original source is completely pure and the body of your awareness is perfectly clear. This is to see your nature and become a buddha. This is also what a tathagata sees.' Although I heard this explanation, I still didn't fully understand and have come to beg the Master to instruct me."

The Master said, "What he told you still includes views, which is why you don't understand. Let me give you this gatha:

Not seeing a thing but thinking of not seeing

is like when a cloud blocks the sun's face

not knowing a thing but thinking of not knowing

is just like when lightning appears in the sky

as long a such concepts keep suddenly arising

you won't find the means to escape your confusion

but if in one thought you know you're mistaken

your own wondrous light is there shinning through."

When Chih-ch'ang heard this gatha, his mind became suddenly clear, and he offered one of his own:

"I thoughtlessly gave rise to concepts

seeking Buddhahood still attached to form

harboring the thought of enlightenment

hoping to overcome old delusions

the body of my nature and source of awareness

just went along drifting in vain

if I hadn't entered the patriarch's chamber

I'd still be lost at the fork in the road."

From The Platform Sutra - Translated by Red Pine.

Sabbath Poem XIII

By Wendell Berry

Will-lessly the leaves fall,
are blown, coming at last
to the ground and to their rest.
Among them in their coming down
purposely the birds pass,
of all the unnumbered ways
choosing one, until
they like the leaves will
will-lessly fall. Thus freed
by gravity, every one
enters the soil, conformed
to the craft and wisdom, the behest
of God’s appointed vicar,
our mother and judge, who binds
us each to each, the largest
to the least, in the family of all
the creatures: great Nature
by whom all are changed, none
are wasted, none are lost.
Supreme artist of this
our present world, her works
live and move, love
their places and their lives in them.
And this is praise to the highest
knowledge by the most low.

—From the volume, "This Day: New & Collected Sabbath Poems 1979-2012” (2013)

St. John of the Cross compares man to a window through which the light of God is shining. If the windowpane is clean of every stain, it is completely transparent, we do not see it at all: it is “empty” and nothing is seen but the light. But if a man bears in himself the stains of spiritual egotism and preoccupation with his illusory and exterior self, even in “good things,” then the windowpane itself is clearly seen by reason of the stains that are on it. Hence if a man can be rid of the stains and dust produced within him by his fixation upon what is good and bad in reference to himself, he will be transformed in God and will be “one with God." 

~ Thomas Merton from Zen and the Birds of Appetite.

FUKANZAZENGI
Universally Recommended Instructions for Zazen

by Eihei Dogen (1200-1253)

The Way is originally perfect and all-pervading. How could it be contingent on practice and realization? The true vehicle is self-sufficient. What need is there for special effort? Indeed, the whole body is free from dust. Who could believe in a means to brush it clean? It is never apart from this very place; what is the use of traveling around to practice?

 And yet, if there is a hairsbreadth deviation, it is like the gap between heaven and earth. If the least like or dislike arises, the mind is lost in confusion. Suppose you are confident in your understanding and rich in enlightenment, gaining the wisdom that glimpses the ground of Buddhahood, attaining the Way and clarifying the mind, arousing an aspiration to reach for the heavens. You are playing in the entranceway, but you are still short of the vital path of emancipation.

Consider Shakyamuni, at Jetniva, although he was wise at birth, the traces of his six years of upright sitting can yet be seen. As for Bodhidharma, at Shaolin, although he had transmitted the mind seal, his nine years of facing a wall is celebrated still. If even the ancient sages were like this, how can we today dispense with wholehearted practice? Therefore, put aside the intellectual practice of investigating words and chasing phrases, and learn to take the backward step that turns the light and shines it inward. Body and mind of themselves will drop away, and your original face will manifest.

If you want to attain suchness, practice suchness immediately. For practicing Zen, a quiet room is suitable. Eat and drink moderately. Put aside all involvements and suspend all affairs. Do not think in terms of "good" or "bad." Do not judge true or false. Give up the operations of mind, intellect, and consciousness; stop measuring with thoughts, ideas, and views. Have no designs on becoming a buddha. How could that be limited to sitting or lying down? At your sitting place, spread out a thick mat and put a cushion on it. Sit either in the full-lotus or half-lotus position. In the full-lotus position, first place your right foot on your left thigh, then your left foot on your right thigh. In the half-lotus, simply place your left foot on your right thigh. Tie your robes loosely and arrange them neatly. Then place your right hand on your left leg and your left hand on your right palm, thumb-tips lightly touching. Straighten your body and sit upright, leaning neither left nor right, neither forward nor backward. Align your ears with your shoulders and your nose with your navel. Rest the tip of your tongue against the front of the roof of your mouth, with teeth and lips together. Always keep your eyes open, and breathe softly through your nose.

Once you have adjusted your posture, take a breath and exhale fully, rock your body right and left, and settle into steady, immovable sitting. Think of not thinking. How do you think of not thinking? Beyond-thinking. This is the essential art of zazen. 

The zazen I speak of is not meditation practice. It is simply the Dharma gate of peace and bliss, the practice-realization of totally culminated awakening. It is the koan realized, traps and snares can never reach it. If you grasp the point, you are like a dragon gaining the water, like a tiger taking to the mountains. For you must know that the true Dharma appears of itself, so that from the start dullness and distraction are struck aside. When you arise from sitting, move slowly and quietly, calmly and deliberately. Do not rise suddenly or abruptly.

In surveying the past, we find that transcendence of both mundane and sacred, and dying while either sitting or standing, have all depended entirely on the power of zazen. In addition, using the opportunity provided by a finger, a banner, a needle, or a mallet, and meeting realization with a whisk, a fist, a staff, or a shout-these cannot be understood by discriminative thinking, much less can they be known through the practice of supernatural power. They must represent dignified conduct beyond seeing and hearing. Are they not a standard prior to knowledge and views? This being the case, intelligence or lack of it is not an issue; make no distinction between the dull and the sharp-witted. If you concentrate your effort single-mindedly, that in itself is wholeheartedly engaging the way. Practice-realization is naturally undefiled. Going forward is, after all, an everyday affair.

In general, in our world and others, in both India and China, all equally hold the buddha-seal. While each lineage expresses its own style, they are all simply devoted to sitting, fully blocked in the resolute stability of zazen. Although they say that there are ten thousand distinctions and a thousand variations, they just wholeheartedly engage the way in zazen. Why leave behind the seat in your own home to wander in vain through the dusty realms of other lands? If you make one misstep you stumble past what is directly in front of you.

You have gained the pivotal opportunity of human form. Do not pass your days and nights in vain. You are taking care of the essential workings of the buddha way. Who would take wasteful delight in the spark from a flint-stone? Besides, form and substance are like the dew on the grass, the fortunes of life like a dart of lightning - emptied in an instant, vanished in a flash. Please, honoured followers of Zen, long accustomed to groping for the elephant, do not be suspicious of the true dragon. Devote your energies to the way that points directly to the real thing. Revere the one who has gone beyond learning and is free from effort. Accord with the enlightenment of all the buddhas; succeed to the samadhi of all the ancestors. Continue in such a way for a long time, and you will be such a person. The treasure store will open of itself, and you may use it freely.

(Translation by Taigen Dan Leighton & Shohaku Okumura)

Shidō Bunan [or Munan] (1603–1676)

Although our school considers enlightenment [satori] in particular to be fundamental, that doesn't necessarily mean that once you're enlightened you stop there. It is necessary only to practice according to reality and complete the way.

According to reality means knowing the fundamental mind as it really is; practice means getting rid of obstructions caused by habitual actions by means of true insight and knowledge. Awakening to the way is comparatively easy; accomplishment of practical application is what is considered most difficult. That is why the great teacher Bodhidharma said that those who know the way are many, whereas those who carry out the way are few.

You simply must wield the jewel sword of the adamantine sovereignty of wisdom and kill this self. When this self is destroyed, you cannot fail to reach the realm of great liberation and great freedom naturally.

If you can really get to see your fundamental mind, you must treat it as though you were raising an infant. Walking, standing, sitting, lying down, illuminate everything everywhere with awareness, not letting him be dirtied by the seven consciousness. If you can keep him clear and distinct, it is like the baby's gradually growing up until he's equal to his father - calmness and wisdom clear and penetrating, your function will be equal to that of the buddhas and patriarchs. How can such a great matter be considered idle?

Now the reason that we consider human life best is for no other reason than being a means to realize true liberation in this lifetime. However, if you seek profit and support, considering these the ultimate truth, then in every moment of thought used by delusive ideas, vainly ending your life, at the time of death nothing you can do will be any use. The Buddha came into the world to guide those on the paths of illusion, directly pointed to the fundamental mind, letting them leave behind birth, death, and myriad things. While this body clearly exists, clearly realizing this body doesn't exist; while there are clearly seeing, hearing, discernment and knowledge, clearly realizing there are no seeing hearing discernment or knowledge - this is called the effect of true investigation; how could it be easy?

When you go near fire, you are warm; when you go near water, you are cool; and when you go near people imbued with the way, they naturally make your mind die and conceptions dissolve, causing all wrong thoughts to cease. This is called the spiritual effect of complete virtue. You all call yourselves people of the way as soon as you enter the gate. Really, you should be ashamed.

The moon’s the same old moon,

The flowers exactly as they were,

Yet I’ve become the thingness

Of all the things I see!

When you’re both alive and dead,

Thoroughly dead to yourself,

How superb

The smallest pleasure!

There are names,

Such as Buddha, God, or Heavenly Way:

But they all point to the mind

Which is nothingness.

Live always

With the mind of total nothingness,

And the evils that come to you

Will dissipate completely.

Not doing zazen,

Is no other than zazen itself;

When you truly know this,

You are not separate

From the way of Buddha. 

To acquiesce to the teaching of enlightenment, as it
is, directly abandon all things, merge with the body of   
thusness and experience peerless peace and bliss, is no  
more than a matter of whether or not you think of the   
body. Although there are people who think this teaching 
is true, it's hard to find someone who strives to make it his own.

There are no mountains to enter outside of mind,
making the unknown your hiding place.

Fire is something that burns; water is something that
wets; a buddha is someone who practices compassion.
Teaching people to be kind and compassionate to
others means imitating the Buddha. If you just practice
compassion, you will certainly become good. The basis
of compassion is purity of the mind. Purity of the mind
is "not a single thing." "Not a single thing" means
nothing at all; it is beyond the reach of speech, beyond
affirmation and negation. If there is any affirmation or
negation in your heart, it will be obstructed by that
affirmation and negation; if there is no affirmation or
negation, then heaven and earth are one. If there is
something, it separates you from heaven-this you
should well understand.

The mind which knows nothing is a Buddha
By a different name.

When the heart is pure and compassionate, there is
no Buddha outside of this.

Once you have been greatly enlightened, there is no
great enlightenment; when praying, there is no prayer;    
when rejoicing, there is no one to rejoice. Living, there
is nothing living; dying, there is nothing that dies; there   
is nothing existent or nonexistent. Though you have   
physical form, you have no form; beyond being and  
nonbeing, you let existence and nonexistence be, 
beyond affirmation and negation, you let right and wrong be—   

While deluded, 
It is things that are things;  
When enlightened,  
You leave things to their thingness.

The teachings of Buddhism are greatly in error. How much more in error it is to learn them. See directly. Hear directly. In direct seeing there is no seer. In direct hearing there is no hearer. 

A person’s delusion by fame   
Is the greatest folly in the world.   
People should be as those  
Who know not even their own name.

“Die while alive, and be completely dead,
Then do whatever you will, all is good.”

And there is really a person who hates the word Buddha. His name is Shidô Bunan Zenji. As you might know, he was the teacher of Shôju Rôjin, who was the master of Hakuin Zenji. I consider Shidô Bunan Zenji to be a truly outstanding person. Shidô Bunan Zenji was originally the innkeeper of a watering place along the Tokaido Road at that time. He became a student of the Zen master Gudô Oshô. - Yamada Koun

https://terebess.hu/zen/mesterek/bunan.html

_____________________________________________________________

Japanese Zen master Shido Munan was born in 1603 and died in 1676.  Munan was highly venerated by Zen master Hakuin Zenji (1685–1768) who was the teacher of Hakuin’s teacher, Shoju Etan.  Of all the Japanese Zen masters, Munan had an extraordinary grasp of Mind.  It stands to reason because he spent a long time on the path not being merely content following form, or words and letters, but understanding that seeing Mind and cultivating it is of the greatest importance.  Like all of the best Zennists, Munan fully understood the importance of Mind in Buddhism (not to be confused with mind which is in a constant state of disturbance owing to the perturbations of carnal existence).  

For Munan, in a nutshell, Mind is Buddha in which one fully awakens (bodhi) to their fundamental or original Mind (the primordial undisturbed Mind) which verifies itself as only it can.  Thus, one goes from a state of corporeal sleep to awakening to Mind upon which all things are based.

Munan understood that real practice meant getting rid of the obstructions that prevent us from knowing the original Mind in its own natural state, undisturbed.  He also realized that even after we have attained an initial glimpse of Mind (satori), we still have to practice, continually, removing as much of the remaining obstructions as possible. Accordingly, Munan said:

“If you can really get to see your original Mind, you must regard it as if you were raising an infant.  In whatever you do such as walking, standing, sitting, lying down, be aware of Mind so that everything is illuminated by it, so that nothing of the seven consciousnesses (vijnana) soils it.  If you can keep him [the new born Mind] clear and distinct, it is like an infant growing up becoming equal with the father.”

Raising this special infant means paying attention to it more and more—not the desires of the body.  Munan regarded the body as the cause of delusion, and satori as seeing the Mind as being fundamentally free of the body.  We may draw from this that the more we practice, correctly, the more the original Mind should become outshining so that the body becomes less and less of a burden for us.  In this way, we see the truth of birth and death which only affect the body—never the original Mind.  Indeed, the original Mind is empty, unborn, and bodiless.

https://zennist.typepad.com

Master Ejo  (1198-1282)

Absorption in the Treasury of Light

There is a chapter on light in the Shobogenzo; the reason for writing this essay now is just to bring out this essential substance, the fact that the countenance of Buddhism is absorption in the treasury of light.

The so-called treasury of light is the root source of all Buddhas, the inherent being of all living creatures, the total substance of all phenomena, the treasury of the great light of spiritual powers of complete awareness.  The three bodies, four knowledges, and states of absorption numerous as atoms in every aspect of reality, all appear from within this.

This great light of the Lamplike Illuminate pervades the universe, without differentiating between the mundane and the sacred. Because this one light extends throughout all time, if there were any attaining it, then it would have to be twofold.  

The Scripture on the Miraculous Empowerment of Vairochana attaining Buddhahood says, “Oh, Master of the Secret, what is enlightenment?  “It means knowing your mind as it really is.  This is unexcelled complete perfect enlightenment, in which there is nothing at all that can be attained.  Why?  Because enlightenment has no form; it has no knowledge and no understanding.

Student:  If Buddha-nature is present now within the body, it is not separate from ordinary people. Then why can’t I see it?  Would you please explain this more?  The same scripture says, “Master of the Secret, the practice of the Great Vehicle awakens the mind that transports you to the unconditioned, guided by selflessness.  Why?

“Those who have cultivated this practice in the past have observed the basis of the clusters of mental and physical elements, and know they are like illusions, mirages, shadows, echoes, rings of fire, castles in the air.

“Thus they relinquish the selfish, and the host of the mind autonomously awakens to the fundamental nonarousal of the essential mind.  Why?  Because what is before mind and what is after mind cannot be apprehended.  Thus knowing the nature of the essential mind, you transcend two eons of yoga practice.” 

The Flower Ornament Scripture also says, “The body of Buddha radiates great light of infinite colors perfectly pure, like rainbows covering all lands. All who are illumined by the light rejoice; beings with pains have them all removed.  Everyone is inspired with respect and develops a compassionate heart.  This is the independent function of enlightenment.”

The knowledge of the enlightened is light, a concentration of the light of immutable knowledge beyond the two extremes of ordinary and holy, or absolute and conventional. It is the light of the nonconceptual knowledge of Manjushri, who represents great knowledge.  This becomes manifest in the effortlessness of simply sitting.

“The practice of the Great Vehicle awakens the mind that transports you to the unconditioned, guided by selflessness.”  The Third Patriarch of Zen said, “Do not seek reality, just stop views.”  Obviously there is no ego in the treasury of light, no opinionated interpretation.  Ego and opinions are different names of spirit heads and ghost faces.  This is just the light alone, not setting up any opinions or views, from the idea of self and ego to the ideas of Buddha and Dharma. 

So we should know that this light is the universal illumination of matchless, peerless great light completely filled with infinite meaning.   Sitting meditation is absorption in the treasury of light inherited directly from Shakyamuni.  This is the light that is not two in ordinary people and sages, that is one vehicle in past and present.  It does not let anything inside out and does not let anything outside in:  who would randomly backslide into cramped boredom within the context of discriminatory social and personal relationships?  It cannot be grasped, cannot be abandoned: why suffer because of emotional consciousness grasping and rejecting, hating and loving? 

In The Lotus Sutra Manjushri is told, “Great enlightening beings dwell in a state of forebearance, gentle, docile, and not rough, their minds undisturbed.  And they do not ruminate over things, but see the real character of things, and do not act indiscriminately.”  This is simply sitting: without acting indiscriminately, one thereby  goes along in conformity with great light.

A verse from the same book says:

“Delusion conceives of things as existent or nonexistent,

As being real or unreal, as born or unborn.

In an uncluttered place, concentrate your mind,

Remain steady and unmoving, like a polar mountain.

Observe that all phenomena have no existence,

That they are like space, without solid stability,

Neither being born nor emerging.

Unmoving, unflagging, abide in oneness:

This is called the place of nearness.”

This is a direct indication, “only expounding the unexcelled Way, getting straight to the point, setting aside expedients.”

In China, the great master Bodhidharma replied to the question of an emperor about the ultimate meaning of the holy truths, “Empty, nothing holy.”  This is the great mass of fire of the light of the Zen of the founding teachers: crystal clear on all sides, there is nothing in it at all.  Outside of this light, there is no separate practice, no different principle, much less any knowledge of objects; how could there  be any practice or cultivation, or deliberate effort to effect specific remedies?

The emperor said to Bodhidharma, “Who is it replying to me?”

Bodhidharma said, “Don’t know.”  This is simply the single light that is empty.

The light is everyone:  Shakyamuni and Maitreya are its servants.  What is not more in Buddhas or less in ordinary beings is this spiritual light, so it is existent in all; it is the whole earth as a single mass of fire.

 Master Ejo  (1198-1282)

Excerpted from:  Minding Mind – A Course in Basic Meditation. Translated by Thomas Cleary

Hongzhi Zhengjue

(1091 – 1157)

The Backward Step and the Upright Cauldron

With the depths clear, utterly silent, thoroughly illuminate the source, empty and spirited, vast and bright. Even though you have lucidly scrutinized your image and no shadow or echo meets it, searching throughout you see that you still have distinguished between the merits of a hundred undertakings. Then you must take the backward step and directly reach the middle of the circle from where light issues forth. Outstanding and independent, still you must abandon pretexts for merit. Carefully discern that naming engenders beings and that these rise and fall with intricacy. When you can share your self, then you may manage affairs, and you have the pure seal that stamps the ten thousand forms. Traveling the world, meeting conditions, the self joyfully enters samadhi in all delusions and accepts its function, which is to empty out the self so as not to be full of itself. The empty valley receives the clouds. The cold stream cleanses the moon. Not departing and not remaining, far beyond all the changes, you can give teachings without attainment or expectation. Everything everywhere comes back to the olden ground. Not a hair has been shifted, bent, or raised up. Despite a hundred uglinesses or a thousand stupidities, the upright cauldron is naturally beneficent. Zhaozhou's answers "wash out your bowl" and "drink your tea" do not require making arrangements; from the beginning they have always been perfectly apparent. Thoroughly observing each thing with the whole eye is a patch-robed monk's spontaneous conduct.

The Clouds' Fascination and the Moon's Cherishing

A person of the Way fundamentally does not dwell anywhere. The white clouds are fascinated with the green mountain's foundation. The bright moon cherishes being carried along with the flowing water. The clouds part and the mountain appears. The moon sets and the water is cool. Each bit of autumn contains vast interpenetration without bounds. Every dust is whole without reaching me; the ten thousand changes are stilled without shaking me. If you can sit here with stability then you can freely step across and engage the world with energy. There is an excellent saying that the six sense doors are not veiled, the highways in all directions have no footprints. Always arriving everywhere without being confused, gentle without hesitation, the perfected person knows where to go.

The Mind Ground Dharma Field and the Single Seed

The field of bright spirit is an ancient wilderness that does not change.  With boundless eagerness wander around this immaculate wide plain. The drifting clouds embrace the mountain; the family wind is relaxed and simple. The autumn waters display the moon in its pure brightness. Directly arriving here you will be able to recognise the mind ground dharma field that is the root source of the ten thousand forms germinating with unwithered fertility. These flowers and leaves are the whole world. So we are told that a single seed is an uncultivated field. Do not weed out the new shoots and the self will flower.

The Resting of the Streams and Tides

 Just resting is like the great ocean accepting hundreds of streams, all absorbed into one flavor. Freely going ahead is like the great surging tides riding on the wind, all coming onto this shore together. How could they not reach into the genuine source? How could they not realize the great function that appears before us? A patch-robed monk follows movement and responds to changes in total harmony. Moreover, haven't you yourself established the mind that thinks up all the illusory conditions? This insight must be perfectly incorporated.

(Translation by Taigen Daniel Leighton with Yi Wu)

                            Great Barrier Island

Pema Chödrön

So when we say, "I take refuge in the Buddha," that means I take refuge in the courage and the potential of fearlessness, or removing all the armor that covers this awareness of mine. I am awake; I will spend my life taking this armor off. Nobody else can take it off because nobody else knows where all the little locks are, nobody else knows where it's sewed up tight, where it's going to take a lot of work to get that particular iron thread untied. You have to do it alone. The basic instruction is simple: Start taking off that armor. That's all anyone can tell you. No one can tell you how to do it because you're the only one who knows how you locked yourself in there to start.

Bodhichitta is available in moments of caring for things, when we clean our glasses or brush our hair. It’s available in moments of appreciation, when we notice the blue sky or pause and listen to the rain. It’s available in moments of gratitude, when we recall a kindness or recognize another person’s courage. It’s available in music and dance, in art and in poetry. Whenever we let go of holding on to ourselves and look at the world around us, whenever we connect with joy, whenever we drop our resentment and complaint, in those moments bodhichitta is here.

Pema Chödrön, Comfortable with Uncertainty