He is regarded in a sense as the founder of the great Lin Chi sect. Therefore the Buddha said: ‘I truly attained nothing from complete, unexcelled Enlightenment.' 3 These people THOUGHT they had understood and were smugly self-satisfied. There is no this and no that. A: The Thirty-Two Signs are signs, 2 and whatever has form is illusory. Ordinary people all indulge in conceptual thought based on environmental phenomena, hence they feel desire and hatred. Accordingly they are chained to entities and fail to achieve a tacit understanding of original Mind. 2 Is the One Mind then no longer present in me? As a child, I used to climb a hill near my West Virginia home and sit on a flat rock, about half-way up the hill. Then, even in this life, your minds and bodies become those of a being completely liberated. Since no bodies possess real form, we speak of phenomena as void; and, since Mind is formless, we speak of the nature of all things as void. Presently I noticed a wall-painting and, by questioning the monk in charge of the monastery's administration, learnt that it portrayed a certain famous monk. As to performing the six pāramitās 1 and vast numbers of similar practices, or gaining merits as countless as the sands of the Ganges, since you are fundamentally complete in every respect, you should not try to supplement that perfection by such meaningless practices. So just discard all you have acquired as being no better than a bed spread for you when you were sick. This leads to further paradoxes, unless the use of words is abandoned altogether. 1, 14. 1 From which he takes his posthumous name. Noticing him there, Nan Ch‘üan stepped down to receive him and asked: ‘How long has Your Reverence been following the Way? Put no faith in such ceremonies. The Northern Branch, which taught that the process of Enlightenment is gradual, flourished for a while under imperial patronage, but did not long survive. 0000001335 00000 n The first three steps are easy Beginning Zen practices. Sentient beings do not ENTER the Dharmadh ā tu, 1 nor do the Buddhas ISSUE FROM it. An hour from now, we’ll be a Beginning Zen practitioner! 1, Phenomena do not arise independently but rely upon environment. This introduction is entitled Zen Overview but here we are at the end and the promised overview hasn’t shown up yet. But if someone who knew what was wrong were to point it out to him, the warrior would immediately realize that the pearl had been there all the time. But if Eihei Dogen were alive today and able to reach billions, he would teach Buddhism in all its fullness. Zen Masters hold that an individual's full understanding of Zen is often precipitated by the hearing of a single phrase exactly calculated to destroy his particular demon of ignorance; so they have always favoured the brief paradoxical dialogue as a means of instruction, finding it of great value in giving a sudden jolt to a pupil's mind which may propel him towards or over the brink of Enlightenment. 53. They do not know that, if they put a stop to conceptual thought and forget their anxiety, the Buddha will appear before them, for this Mind is the Buddha and the Buddha is all living beings. 0000002530 00000 n If, as I prefer to think, there was really such a person, he probably came to China from South India by way of Canton and visited the rulers of two Chinese states—for China was then divided, as so often in her long history. 1. The two lines just quoted are from Hui Nêng's reply, in which the duality is confuted. Q: You say that our original nature and the act of seeing into it are one and the same' This can only be so if that nature is totally undifferentiated. Because the belief that the Dharmakāya can be obtained belongs to the doctrines of those sects which do not understand the truth. Yet it is clear that this is not paradox for the sake of entertainment, for there are several million people who regard Zen as the most serious thing in life. He would just be himself, oblivious of conceptual thought and one with the Absolute. Dr. Hu Shih accepts neither the historical reality of Bodhidharma nor the authenticity of the earlier Zen works, regarding even the famous Sūtra of Hui Nêng (Wei Lang), the Sixth Patriarch, as a forgery of later date. ', Our Master replied: ‘It means that, from morning till night, we should never rely on a single thing.'. They cannot possibly be separated. 3 That which is called the Place of Precious Things is the real Mind, the original Buddha-Essence, the treasure of our own real Nature. And if YOU could only achieve this comprehension of your own Mind, thereby discovering your real nature, there would assuredly be nothing for you to seek, either. A: When he came from India, he transmitted only Mind-Buddha. Dwelt for ten years by the river in Szech‘uan. Q: What is implied by ‘seeing into the real Nature'? What bearing has this on the affair that brought you to me? The Buddha spoke of relative means. Since Bodhi is not a state, it is nothing for you to attain. ‘I see, I see!' There is no reason to flow outward because the kingdom is already within us – how stupid to look elsewhere, to flow out! A: That which asked the question is your own Mind; but if you were to remain quiescent and to refrain from the smallest mental activity, its substance would be seen as a void—you would find it formless, occupying no point in space and falling neither into the category of existence nor into that of non-existence. What bones do you expect to find there? Getting started as a beginner is easy. The four grades of Theravādin adepts who are able to enter Nirvāņa do not perceive, nor are they perceived by Nirvāna. Why? Only avoid conceptual thoughts, which lead to becoming and cessation, to the afflictions of the sentient world and all the rest; then you will have no need of methods of Enlightenment and suchlike. However, various critics objected to this, and I have come to see that my term is liable to a different sort of misunderstanding; it is therefore no improvement on ‘the One Mind', which at least has the merit of being a literal translation. Relinquishment of everything is the Dharma, and he who understands this is a Buddha, but the relinquishment of ALL delusions leaves no Dharma on which to lay hold. Hui-neng’s instruction still matters—the 7th-century school of Sudden Awakening that he founded survives today, continuing to influence the Rinzai and Soto schools of contemporary Zen. “What is the deepest wisdom of Buddhism?” Answer: “The cypress tree in the courtyard!”. Thus, the ninth practice lifts us from the second dharma realm to the first and there are no higher dharma realms than the first so there is no tenth practice to lift us any further. 0000004750 00000 n But phooey on using Buddhism to become a better artist, a better athlete, or whatever. He lived below the Vulture Peak on Mount Huang Po, in the district of Kao An. Therefore is it also written: ‘The Samboghkāya 2 is not a real Buddha, nor a real teacher of the Dharma. People are often hindered by environmental phenomena from perceiving Mind, and by individual events from perceiving underlying principles; so they often try to escape from environmental phenomena in order to still their minds, or to obscure events in order to retain their grasp of principles. Instead of observing those who tell you to open wide both your hands like one who has nothing to lose, you waste your strength bragging about all sorts of things. But people would not have believed him and, by scoffing at him, would have become immersed in the sea of sorrow (samsara). I assure you that one who comprehends the truth of ‘nothing to be attained' is already seated in the sanctuary where he will gain his Enlightenment.

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