ZenNow

On the Teaching of the Sudden Way

After attaining enlightenment as a young man through transmission from the fifth patriarch Hung-jen, Hui-neng was pursued relentlessly by jealous monks who would have killed him to take the robe and bowl handed down to him by Hung-jen. He lived with a party of hunters for fifteen years, until the day when he realized it was time for him to begin teaching. So he went to a temple in the city of Canton (Guangzhou), where he was recognized by his words as the successor of the fifth patriarch.

The next day the Prefect of Canton invited Hui-neng to deliver a public lecture. Government officials and Confucian scholars, about thirty each, and about one thousand monks, Taoists, and laymen assembled to hear him speak. He began with these words:

Learned Audience, our essence of mind, which is the seed or kernel of enlightenment, is pure by nature, and by making use of this mind alone we can reach buddhahood directly. Now let me tell you something about my own life and how I came into possession of the esoteric teaching of the Dhyana school.

During this talk, Hui-neng offered the following "formless stanza," which he encouraged the laity and monks to put into practice:

A master of the Buddhist canons as well as of the teaching of the Dhyana school
May be likened unto the blazing sun sitting high in his meridian tower.
Such a man would teach nothing but the dharma for realizing the essence of mind,
And his object in coming to this world would be to vanquish heretical sects.
We can hardly classify the dharmas into "sudden" and "gradual"
But some men will attain enlightenment much quicker than others.
For example, this system for realizing the essence of mind
Is above the comprehension of the ignorant.
We may explain it in ten thousand ways,
But all those explanations may be traced back to one principle.
To illumine our gloomy tabernacle, which is stained by defilement,
We should constantly set up the light of wisdom.
Erroneous views keep us in defilement
While right views remove us from it,
But when we are in a position to discard both of them
We are then absolutely pure.
Bodhi is immanent in our essence of mind,
An attempt to look for it elsewhere is erroneous.
Within our impure mind the pure one is to be found,
And once our mind is set right, we are free from the three kinds of beclouding [hatred, lust, and illusion].
If we are treading the path of enlightenment
We need not be worried about stumbling blocks.
Provided we keep a constant eye on our own faults
We cannot go astray from the right path.
Since every species of life has its own way of salvation
They will not interfere with or be antagonistic to one another.
But if we leave our own path and seek some other way of salvation
We shall not find it,
And though we plod on till death overtakes us
We shall find only penitence in the end.
If you wish to find the true way
Right action will lead you to it directly;
But if you do not strive for buddhahood
You will grope in the dark and never find it.
He who treads the path in earnest
Sees not the mistakes of the world;
If we find fault with others
We ourselves are also in the wrong.
When other people are in the wrong, we should ignore it,
For it is wrong for us to find fault.
By getting rid of the habit of faultfinding
We cut off a source of defilement.
When neither hatred nor love disturbs our mind
Serenely we sleep.
Those who intend to be the teachers of others
Should themselves be skilled in the various expedients which lead others to enlightenment.
When the disciple is free from all doubts
It indicates that his essence of mind has been found.
The kingdom of buddha is in this world,
Within which enlightenment is to be sought.
To seek enlightenment by separating from this world
Is as absurd as to search for a rabbit's horn.
Right views are called transcendental;
Erroneous views are called worldly.
When all views, right or erroneous, are discarded
Then the essence of bodhi appears.
This stanza is for the Sudden school.
It is also called the Great Ship of Dharma [for sailing across the ocean of existence].
Kalpa after kalpa a man may be under delusion,
But once enlightened it takes him only a moment to attain buddhahood.

Hui-neng concluded by saying: Now, in this Ta-fan temple, I have addressed you on the teaching of the Sudden school. May all sentient beings of the dharmadhatu [manifestation of the Absolute] instantly understand the law and attain buddhahood.

From The Sutra of Hui-neng (also known as The Platform Sutra), translated by AF Price and Wong Mou-lam, which is published in one volume together with The Diamond Sutra. The Sutra of Hui-neng, with Hui-neng's Commentary on the Diamond Sutra, translated by Thomas Cleary, is back in print by Shambhala.

The Vajra Prajna Paramita Sutra- also known as the Diamond Sutra

The Diamond Sutra is known as the zen principal Buddhists' best representative sutra. This page contains the translated full version of the sutra.

THE REASONS FOR THE DHARMA ASSEMBLY, ONE
Thus I have heard, at one time the Buddha dwelt at Shravasti in the Jeta Grove in the Garden of the Benefactor of Orphans and the Forlorn, together with a gathering of great Bhikshus, twelve hundred fifty in all. At meal time the World Honored One put on his robe, took up his bowl and entered the great city of Shravasti to collect alms. After he had finished his sequential alms-round, he returned to his dwelling. When his meal was completed, he put his robe and bowl away. After he washed his feet, he arranged his seat and sat down.

SUBHUTI'S REQUEST, TWO
At that time the Elder Subhuti arose from his seat in the great assembly, uncovered his right shoulder, placed his right knee on the ground, joined his palms together respectfully and addressed the Buddha, "How rare, World Honored One, is the Thus Come One who protects and cares well for all Bodhisattvas and well favors all Bodhisattvas. World Honored One, if a good man or good woman resolves his mind on Anuttarasamyaksambodhi, on what should he rely? How should he subdue his mind?" The Buddha said, "Very good, very good Subhuti. It is as you say. The Thus Come One protects and cares well for all Bodhisattvas and well favors all Bodhisattvas. Now listen attentively; I shall tell you. A good man or good woman who resolves his mind on Anuttarasamyaksambodhi should thus rely and thus subdue his mind." "Yes indeed, World Honored One. I am delighted and wish to listen."

THE ORTHODOX DOCTRINE OF THE GREAT VEHICLE, THREE
The Buddha told Subhuti, "All Bodhisattvas, Mahasattvas, should subdue their minds thus: 'I must cause all living beings- -those born from eggs, wombs, moisture, by transformation; those with form, those without form, those with thought, those without thought, those not totally endowed with thought, and those not totally without thought- -to enter Nirvana without residue and be taken across to Cessation. Yet of the immeasurable, numberless, boundless numbers of living beings thus taken across to Cessation, there is actually no living being taken across to Cessation.' Why? Subhuti, if a Bodhisattva has an appearance of self, others, living beings, or a life, he is not a Bodhisattva."

WONDERFUL PRACTICE IS TO NOT RELY ON ANYTHING, FOUR
" Moreover, Subhuti, as to dharmas, a Bodhisattva should not rely on anything when giving. That is to say, when giving, he should neither rely on forms, nor sounds, smells, tastes, tangible objects or dharmas. Subhuti, a Bodhisattva should give thus: he should not rely on appearances. Why? If a Bodhisattva does not rely on appearances when giving, his blessings and virtues are inconceivable and immeasurable. "Subhuti, what do you think, is space in the east conceivable or measurable?" "No World Honored One." "Subhuti, is space in the south, west, north, or in the intermediate directions, above or below conceivable or measurable?" "No, World Honored One." "Subhuti, the blessings and virtues of a Bodhisattva who does not rely on appearances when giving, are just as inconceivable and immeasurable. Subhuti, a Bodhisattva should rely only on the teachings."

GENUINE DISCERNMENT OF THE PRINCIPLE OF SUCHNESS, FIVE
" Subhuti, what do you think, is it possible to see the Thus Come One in his physical appearances?" "No World Honored One, it is not possible to see Thus Come One in his physical appearances. Why? Because the physical appearances mentioned by the Thus Come One are not physical appearances." The Buddha said to Subhuti, "All appearances are empty and false. If one sees all appearances as no appearances, then one sees the Thus Come One."

PROPER FAITH IS RARE, SIX
Subhuti addressed the Buddha, "World Honored One, in the future will there be living beings who truly believe upon hearing such phrases?" The Buddha told Subhuti, "Do not say that! In the last five hundred years after the Thus Come One's Cessation, there will be those who, holding the moral precepts and cultivating blessings, will believe such phrases and accept them as true. You should know that such people have not planted good roots with just one Buddha, two Buddhas, three Buddhas, four, or five Buddhas, but they have planted good roots at the places of immeasurable tens of millions of Buddhas. The Thus Come One knows and sees all people who hear these phrases, Subhuti, and have even a single thought of pure faith. Such living beings will thus obtain immeasurable blessings and virtues. Why? Because those living beings no longer cling to the appearances of self, others, living beings, or a life, nor to the appearances of dharmas or non-dharmas. Why? If those living beings' minds cling to appearances, that would be attachment to a self, others, living beings and a life. If they cling to appearances of dharmas, that would be attachment to a self, others, living beings and a life. Why? If they cling to the appearances of non-dharmas, that would be attachment to a self, others, living beings and a life. Therefore, you should not cling to dharmas; you should not cling to non-dharmas. Because of this principle the Thus Come One always says, 'Bhikshus, you should all know that the Dharma I speak is like a raft. You must let go of dharmas. Even more so let go of non-dharmas.'"

NOTHING ATTAINED, NOTHING SPOKEN, SEVEN
" Subhuti, what do you think, did the Thus Come One attain Anuttarasamyaksambodhi? Did the Thus Come One speak any Dharma?" Subhuti answered, "As I understand what the Buddha has said, there is no predetermined Dharma called Anuttarasamyaksambodhi, and there are not any predetermined Dharmas which the Thus Come One could speak. Why? All the Dharma which the Thus Come One has spoken can neither be clung to nor spoken of. It is neither Dharma nor non-dharma. Why is that so? All Worthy Ones and Sages are different because of Unconditioned Dharmas."

THEY ARISE FROM DHARMA, EIGHT
" Subhuti, what do you think, if a person gave as a gift the seven kinds of precious gems in quantity enough to fill up a Threefold Great Thousand World System, would such a person obtain many blessings and virtues?" Subhuti said, "Very many World Honored One. Why? These blessings and virtues do not refer to the essential nature of blessings and virtues. Therefore, the Thus Come One says they are many blessings and virtues." "If on the other hand, a person were to accept and uphold even so few as four lines of verse from this Sutra and speak them for others, this person's blessings would surpass the blessings of the individual mentioned above. Why? Subhuti, all Buddhas and their Dharma of Anuttarasamyaksambodhi come from this Sutra. Subhuti, by this I mean the Buddha and the Dharma are not the Buddha and the Dharma."

THE ONE APPEARANCE IS BEYOND APPEARANCES, NINE
" Subhuti, what do you think, can a Shrotaapana have the thought, 'Have I attained the Fruition of Shrotaapana'?" Subhuti said, "No World Honored One. Why? Shrotaapana means 'one who has entered the flow.' And yet, he has not entered anything. He has not entered forms, sounds, smells, tastes, tangible objects or dharmas. Therefore he is called a Shrotaapana." "Subhuti, what do you think, can a Sakrdagamin have the thought, 'Have I attained the Fruition of Sakrdagamin'?" Subhuti said, "No World Honored One. Why? Sakrdagamin means 'one who returns once more,' but actually he does not return. Therefore he is called a Sakrdagamin." "Subhuti, what do you think, can an Anagamin have the thought, 'Have I attained the Fruition of Anagamin?'" Subhuti said, "No World Honored One. Why? Anagamin means 'one who does not return,' but actually he is without not returning. Therefore he is called an Anagamin." "Subhuti, what do you think, can an Arhat have the thought, 'Have I attained the Way of the Arhat?'" Subhuti said, "No World Honored One. Why? Actually there is no dharma called 'Arhat.' World Honored One, if an Arhat had the thought, 'I have attained the Way of the Arhat,' that would be an attachment to self, others, living beings and to a life. World Honored One, the Buddha has said that I am foremost in the attainment of the No Strife Samadhi, and I am the foremost Arhat free from desire. Yet, World Honored One, I do not have the thought, 'I am an Arhat free from desire.' If I had the thought, 'I have attained the Way of the Arhat,' then the World Honored One would not say, 'Subhuti is foremost of those who delight in practicing Aranya.' Since Subhuti actually does not practice anything, he is called, 'Subhuti who delights in practicing Aranya.'"

ADORNING PURE LANDS, TEN
The Buddha said to Subhuti, "What do you think? Did the Thus Come One obtain any Dharma when he was with Burning Lamp Buddha in the past?" "No World Honored One, the Thus Come One did not actually obtain any Dharma when he was with Burning Lamp Buddha." "Subhuti what do you think? Does a Bodhisattva adorn Buddhalands?" "No World Honored One. Why? One who adorns Buddhalands does not adorn anything. Therefore it is called adorning." "Therefore Subhuti, all Bodhisattvas Mahasattvas should thus produce a pure mind which does not rely on forms, sounds, smells, tastes, tangible objects or dharmas. He should produce a mind which does not rely on anything. Subhuti, suppose a person had a body like Sumeru, king of mountains. What do you think? Would that body be big?" Subhuti addressed the Buddha, "Very big World Honored One. Why? The Buddha says it is not a body. Therefore it is called a big body."

THE SUPREMACY OF UNCONDITIONED BLESSINGS, ELEVEN
" Subhuti, suppose there were as many Ganges Rivers as there are grains of sand in the Ganges River. What do you think, would the grains of sand in all those Ganges Rivers be many?" Subhuti said, "Very many World Honored One. That many Ganges rivers alone would be uncountable, how much the more so the grains of sands contained in them. "Subhuti, I am speaking truthfully. Suppose a good man or good woman had filled with the Seven Kinds of Precious Gems as many Threefold Great Thousand World Systems as there are grains of sand in all those Ganges Rivers and gave them as an offering. Would that person obtain many blessings?" Subhuti said, "Very many World Honored One." The Buddha told Subhuti, "If a good man or good woman were to accept and uphold even so few as four lines of verse from this Sutra and speak them for others, those blessings and virtues would surpass the previous blessings and virtues."

REVERING THE PROPER TEACHING, TWELVE
" Moreover, Subhuti, know that all the gods, humans and asuras of the world should make offerings to any place where even as few as four lines of verse from this Sutra have been spoken, just as they would make offerings to a Buddha, a stupa or a temple. How much the more should they make offerings to any place where there are people who can completely accept, uphold, read and recite this Sutra. Subhuti you should know that such people accomplish the supreme, foremost and most rare of dharmas. Wherever this Sutra is found, there is a Buddha or reverent disciple."

ACCEPTING AND UPHOLDING THE DHARMA OF "THUSNESS", THIRTEEN
Then Subhuti addressed the Buddha, "World Honored One, what name should we give this Sutra, and how should we uphold it?" The Buddha told Subhuti, "The name of this Sutra is Vajra Prajna Paramita. You should uphold it by that name. Why? The Buddha said that Prajna Paramita is not Prajna Paramita. Therefore it is called Prajna Paramita. "Subhuti, what do you think, has the Thus Come One spoken any Dharma?" Subhuti addressed the Buddha, "The Thus Come One has not spoken any Dharma." "Subhuti, what do you think, are there many particles of dust in a Threefold Great Thousand World System?" Subhuti said, "Very many World Honored One." "Subhuti, the Thus Come One says that particles of dust are not particles of dust. Therefore they are called particles of dust. The Thus Come One says that world systems are not world systems. Therefore they are called world systems. "Subhuti, what do you think, is it possible to see the Thus Come One in his Thirty-two Physical Appearances?" "No World Honored One, it is not possible see the Thus Come One in his Thirty-two Physical Appearances. Why? The Thus Come One says that the Thirty-two Physical Appearances are not physical appearances. Therefore they are called the Thirty-two Physical Appearances." "Subhuti, a good man or good woman might give away his body as many times as there are grains of sand in the Ganges River, but if another person were to accept and uphold even as few as four lines of verse of this Sutra and explain them for others, that person's blessings would be greater."

LEAVING APPEARANCES AND STILL CESSATION, FOURTEEN
At that time, upon hearing this sutra and deeply understanding its purport, Subhuti wept and felt remorse, and addressed the Buddha, "How rare, World Honored One, is this Sutra so profoundly explained by the Buddha. From the time I attained the eye of wisdom until the present, I have never heard such a Sutra. World Honored One, if someone listens to this Sutra with a mind of pure faith and can bring forth the Appearance of Reality, know that such a person has accomplished foremost and rare merit and virtue. "World Honored One, the Appearance of Reality is without appearance. Therefore the Thus Come One calls it the Appearance of Reality. "World Honored One, now as I listen to this Sutra, I believe, understand, accept and uphold it without difficulty. In the future, in the last five hundred years, if there are living beings who when they hear this Sutra, believe, understand, accept and uphold it, they will be outstanding and most rare. Why? Such people will be without the appearance of a self, the appearance of others, the appearance of living beings, and the appearance of a life. Why? The appearance of self is actually no appearance. The appearance of others, the appearance of living beings and the appearance of a life are actually not appearances. Why? All those who are called Buddhas have relinquished all appearances." The Buddha told Subhuti, "So it is, so it is. If someone hears this Sutra and is not frightened, alarmed, or terrified, you should know such a person is most rare. Why? Subhuti, the foremost Paramita spoken of by the Thus Come One is not the foremost Paramita. Therefore it is called the foremost Paramita. "Subhuti, the Paramita of patience spoken of by the Thus Come One is not the Paramita of patience. Therefore it is called the Paramita of patience. Why? Subhuti, in the past when the King of Kalinga dismembered my body, I had no appearance of a self, of others, of living beings or of a life. Why? When I was cut limb from limb, if I had an appearance of a self, an appearance of others, an appearance of living beings or an appearance of a life, I would have been outraged. "Moreover Subhuti, I recall that in the past, for five hundred lives, I was the Patient Immortal. During all those lives I was without the appearance of a self, others, living beings or a life. For that reason, Subhuti, a Bodhisattva should relinquish all appearances and bring forth the mind of Anuttarasamyaksambodhi. He should bring forth thoughts which do not rely on forms or which do not rely on sounds, smells, tastes, tangible objects, or dharmas. He should bring forth thoughts which do not rely on anything. Any relying of the mind is not relying. Therefore the Buddha says, 'The Bodhisattva's mind should not rely on forms when he gives.' Subhuti, because the Bodhisattva wishes to benefit all living beings, he should give in this way. "The Thus Come One says that all appearances are actually not appearances, and that all living beings are actually not living beings. Subhuti, the Thus Come One speaks the truth. He speaks factually. He speaks of things as they really are. He never deceives nor are his words peculiar. Subhuti, the Dharma the Thus Come One obtained is neither true nor false. "Subhuti, a Bodhisattva who gives with a mind relying on dharmas is like a person in the dark who sees nothing at all. A Bodhisattva who gives with a mind that does not rely on dharmas is like a person with eyes who can see all kinds of things in the bright sunlight. "Subhuti, if in the future there is a good man or good woman who can accept, uphold, read or recite this Sutra, then the Thus Come One using his Buddha-wisdom will thoroughly know and thoroughly see such a person. That person will obtain immeasurable and boundless merit and virtue."

THE MERIT AND VIRTUE GAINED FROM UPHOLDING THIS SUTRA, FIFTEEN
" Subhuti, a good man or good woman might in the morning give away as many bodies as there are grains of sand in the Ganges River, and again at noon give away as many bodies as there are grains of sand in the Ganges River, and again in the evening give away as many bodies as there are grains of sand in the Ganges River, giving away bodies like that throughout immeasurable hundreds of thousands of billions of kalpas. But if someone else were to hear this Sutra and believe it without reservation, his blessings would surpass the blessings of the former person. How much greater the blessings would be if one could write out, accept, uphold, read, recite and explain this Sutra for others. "Subhuti, to sum it up, the merit and virtue of this Sutra is inconceivable, incalculable and boundless. The Thus Come One spoke it for those intent on the Great Vehicle, for those intent on the foremost vehicle. The Thus Come One knows and sees all people who can accept, uphold, read, recite and extensively explain this Sutra for others. Such people perfect immeasurable, incalculable, boundless and inconceivable merit and virtue and sustain the Thus Come One's Anuttarasamyaksambodhi. Why? Subhuti, one who delights in lesser dharmas is attached to a view of a self, a view of others, a view of living beings and a view of a life. This person cannot hear, accept, uphold, read or recite this Sutra or explain it for others. "Subhuti, the gods, humans, and asuras of the world should make offerings wherever this Sutra is found. Know that this place is a Stupa. All beings should pay respect, worship, circumambulate and decorate it with incense and flowers."

KARMIC OBSTRUCTIONS CAN BE PURIFIED, SIXTEEN
" Moreover Subhuti, if a good man or good woman who accepts, upholds, reads or recites this Sutra, is ridiculed, that is because that person has karmic offenses from past lives which destine him for the evil paths. But as a result of the ridicule he receives from others in his present life, his previous karmic offenses are destroyed and he will attain Anuttarasamyaksambodhi. "Subhuti, I recall that in the past, for immeasurable asamkhyeya kalpas, prior to Dipankara Buddha, I encountered eighty-four trillion nayutas of Buddhas. I made offerings to and served them all without exception. If there are others in the Final Period who can accept, uphold, read or recite this Sutra, the merit and virtue they obtain is a hundred times more, a thousand times more, ten thousand times more, or a million times more than the merit and virtue I gained from making offerings to all those Buddhas. It is so great that it exceeds all calculations and comparisons. "Subhuti, if I were to explain in detail the merit and virtue of a good man or good woman, who in the Final Period, accepts, upholds, reads or recites this Sutra, then those who hear might go insane or disbelieve. Subhuti, you should know that the principles in this Sutra are inconceivable. So too are the rewards it generates."

ULTIMATELY THERE IS NO SELF, SEVENTEEN
Then Subhuti addressed the Buddha, "World Honored One, if a good man or good woman resolves his mind on Anuttarasamyaksambodhi, on what should he rely? How should he subdue his mind?" The Buddha told Subhuti, "A good man or good woman who resolves his mind on Anuttarasamyaksambodhi should think thus: 'I should take all living beings across to Cessation. Yet when all living beings have been taken across to Cessation, actually not one living being has been taken across to Cessation.' Why? Subhuti, if a Bodhisattva has an appearance of self, others, living beings or a life, he is not a Bodhisattva. For what reason? Subhuti, actually there is no such dharma as resolving one's mind on Anuttarasamyaksambodhi. "Subhuti, what do you think, when the Thus Come One was with Burning Lamp Buddha, did he attain the dharma of Anuttarasamyaksambodhi?" "No World Honored One. As I understand what the Buddha has said, when the Buddha was with Burning Lamp Buddha, he did not attain the dharma of Anuttarasamyaksambodhi." The Buddha said, "So it is, so it is Subhuti. The Thus Come One did not actually attain the dharma of Anuttarasamyaksambodhi. Subhuti, if the Thus Come One had actually attained the dharma of Anuttarasamyaksambodhi, then Burning Lamp Buddha would not have given me the prediction: 'You will in the future become a Buddha with the name Shakyamuni.' Since I did not actually attain the dharma of Anuttarasamyaksambodhi, Burning Lamp Buddha gave me the prediction saying these words, 'You will in the future become a Buddha with the name Shakyamuni.' Why? 'Thus Come One' means 'all dharmas are "thus".' Someone might say the Thus Come One attained Anuttarasamyaksambodhi, Subhuti, but actually the Buddha did not attain the dharma of Anuttarasamyaksambodhi. Subhuti, there is nothing true nor false in the Anuttarasamyaksambodhi the Thus Come One attains. Therefore, the Thus Come One says that all dharmas are Buddhadharma. Subhuti, what are spoken of as 'all dharmas', are not all dharmas. Therefore they are called 'all dharmas.' "Subhuti, suppose there is a person with a big body." Subhuti said, "World Honored One, the Thus Come One speaks of a big body as not being a big body. Therefore it is called a big body." "Subhuti, a Bodhisattva is also like this. If he said, 'I should take across immeasurable living beings to Cessation,' then he could not be called a Bodhisattva. Why? Subhuti, there is really no dharma called a Bodhisattva. Therefore the Buddha says that all dharmas are without self, others, living beings or a life. "Subhuti, if a Bodhisattva said, 'I should adorn Buddhalands,' he could not be called a Bodhisattva. Why? What the Thus Come One speaks of as adorning Buddhalands is not adorning Buddhalands. Therefore it is called adorning Buddhalands. Subhuti, if a Bodhisattva comprehends the dharma of no self, the Thus Come One calls him a true Bodhisattva."

CONTEMPLATING THE ONENESS OF EVERYTHING, EIGHTEEN
" Subhuti, what do you think, does the Thus Come One have the Flesh Eye?" "So it is World Honored One. The Thus Come One has the Flesh Eye." "Subhuti, what do you think, does the Thus Come One have the Heavenly Eye?" "So it is World Honored One. The Thus Come One has the Heavenly Eye." "Subhuti, what do you think, does the Thus Come One have the Wisdom Eye?" "So it is World Honored One. The Thus Come One has the Wisdom Eye." "Subhuti, what do you think, does the Thus Come One have the Dharma Eye?" "So it is World Honored One. The Thus Come One has the Dharma Eye." "Subhuti, what do you think, does the Thus Come One have the Buddha Eye?" "So it is World Honored One. The Thus Come One has the Buddha Eye." "Subhuti, what do you think, has the Thus Come One said that all the sand of the Ganges River is sand?" "So it is World Honored One. The Thus Come One has said that all that sand is sand." "Subhuti, what do you think, if there were as many Ganges rivers as there are grains of sand in one Ganges River, and there were as many Buddhalands as there were grains of sand in all those Ganges rivers, would that be many Buddhalands?" "Very many, World Honored One." The Buddha told Subhuti, "The Thus Come One thoroughly knows all the various thoughts that occur to every living being in each of those Buddhalands. Why? The Thus Come One says that all thoughts are not thoughts. Therefore they are called thoughts. For what reason? Subhuti, you cannot recover past thoughts, you cannot hold on to present thoughts, and you cannot obtain future thoughts."

UNDERSTANDING AND TRANSFORMING THE DHARMA REALM, NINETEEN
" Subhuti, what do you think, would a person because of the causes and conditions of filling a threefold great thousand world system with the seven kinds of precious gems and giving them as an offering, obtain many blessings?" "So it is World Honored One. That person on account of his giving would obtain very many blessings." "Subhuti, if these blessings and virtues are real, the Thus Come One would not speak about obtaining many blessings. But because these blessings and virtues do not exist, the Thus Come One speaks of obtaining many blessings."

LEAVING BOTH FORM AND APPEARANCES, TWENTY
" Subhuti, what do you think, should one look for Buddha in his perfect physical body?" "No, World Honored One, one should not look for Thus Come One in his perfect physical body. Why? The Thus Come One has said that the perfect physical body is not the perfect physical body. Therefore it is called the perfect physical body." "Subhuti, what do you think, should one look for Thus Come One in all his perfect appearances?" "No World Honored One, one should not look for Thus Come One in all his perfect appearances. Why? The Thus Come One has said perfect appearances are not perfect appearances. Therefore they are called perfect appearances."

WHAT IS SPOKEN IS NOT SPOKEN, TWENTY-ONE
" Subhuti, do not maintain that the Thus Come One has this thought: 'I have spoken Dharma.' Do not think that way. Why? If someone says the Thus Come One has spoken Dharma, he slanders the Buddha due to his inability to understand what I teach. Subhuti, as to speaking Dharma, no Dharma can be spoken. Therefore it is called 'speaking Dharma'." At that time Subhuti, the wise elder, addressed the Buddha, "World Honored One, will there be living beings in the future who believe in this Sutra when they hear it?" The Buddha said, "The living beings to whom you refer are neither living beings nor not living beings. Why? Subhuti, all the different kinds of living beings the Thus Come One speaks of are not living beings. Therefore they are called living beings."

NO DHARMA CAN BE OBTAINED, TWENTY-TWO
Subhuti addressed the Buddha, "World Honored One, is it true that the Thus Come One, in attaining Anuttarasamyaksambodhi, did not attain anything?" The Buddha said, "So it is, so it is, Subhuti. As to Anuttarasamyaksambodhi, there is not the slightest dharma which I could attain. Therefore it is called Anuttarasamyaksambodhi."

A PURE MIND DOES WHOLESOME DEEDS, TWENTY-THREE
" Moreover, Subhuti, this Dharma is the common denominator; nothing is higher or lower. Therefore it is called Anuttarasamyaksambodhi. A person free of self, others, living beings and a life, who cultivates all wholesome dharmas, attains Anuttarasamyaksambodhi. Subhuti, what are called wholesome dharmas, the Thus Come One says are not wholesome dharmas. Therefore they are called wholesome dharmas."

BLESSINGS AND WISDOM BEYOND COMPARE, TWENTY-FOUR
" Subhuti, suppose someone were to take mounds of the seven precious gems piled as high as all the Sumerus, kings of mountains, in a threefold great thousand world system and give them as an offering. And further suppose someone else were to accept, uphold, read or recite and speak for others as few as four lines of verse from this Prajna Paramita Sutra . The former person's blessings and virtues would not equal one percent of the other person's blessings and virtues, neither one tenth of a percent, nor one hundredth of a percent, nor one thousandth of a percent, nor any fraction that could be calculated or expressed by analogy."

TRANSFORMING WITHOUT THERE BEING ANYONE TRANSFORMED, TWENTY-FIVE
" Subhuti, what do you think? None of you should maintain that the Thus Come One has this thought: 'I shall save living beings.' Subhuti, do not think that way. Why? In fact the Thus Come One does not save any living beings. If the Thus Come One saved living beings, then the Thus Come One would have a sense of a self, others, living beings, and a life. "Subhuti, although the Thus Come One speaks of the existence of a self, there is really no self that exists. However, common people think they have a self. Subhuti, the common people that the Thus Come One speaks of are not common people. Therefore they are called common people."

THE DHARMA BODY IS NOT APPEARANCES, TWENTY-SIX
" Subhuti, what do you think, is it possible to contemplate the Thus Come One in his Thirty-two Physical Appearances?" Subhuti said, "So it is, so it is. It is possible to contemplate the Thus Come One in his Thirty-two Physical Appearances." The Buddha said, "Subhuti, if one could contemplate the Thus Come One in his Thirty-two Physical Appearances, then a Wheel Turning Sage King would be the Thus Come One." Subhuti addressed the Buddha, "World Honored One, as I understand what the Buddha has said, one should not contemplate the Thus Come One in his Thirty-two Physical Appearances." At that time the World Honored One spoke a verse saying, One who looks for me in forms, Or seeks me in sounds, Practices a deviant path And will never see the Thus Come One.

NOT DESTROYED NOR ANNIHILATED, TWENTY-SEVEN
" Subhuti, you might have the thought, 'It was not because he perfected his Physical Appearances that the Thus Come One attained Anuttarasamyaksambodhi.' Subhuti, do not think, 'It was not because he perfected his Physical Appearances that the Thus Come One attained Anuttarasamyaksambodhi.' Subhuti, if you think in that way, then those who have resolved their minds on Anuttarasamyaksambodhi would affirm the destruction of all dharmas. Do not think like that. Why? Those who have resolved their minds on Anuttarasamyaksambodhi do not affirm the destruction of the appearances of all dharmas."

NO GREED AND NOTHING ACQUIRED, TWENTY EIGHT
" Subhuti, a Bodhisattva might fill up world systems equal in number to the grains of sand in the Ganges River with the seven kinds of precious gems and give them as gift. But if another person were to realize that all dharmas are devoid of self and attain patience, that Bodhisattva's merit and virtues would surpass the merit and virtues of the previous Bodhisattva. Why, Subhuti? Because Bodhisattvas do not acquire blessings and virtues." Subhuti addressed the Buddha, "World Honored One, how is it that Bodhisattvas do not acquire blessings and virtues?" "Subhuti, Bodhisattvas should neither be greedy for, nor be attached to the blessings and virtues which they foster. Therefore I say they do not acquire blessings and virtues."

THE QUIESCENCE OF HIS AWESOME DEMEANOR, TWENTY-NINE
" Subhuti, if someone says that it seems as if the Thus Come One comes and goes, sits or lies down, such a person does not understand the meaning of my teaching. Why? The Thus Come One does not come from anywhere nor does he go anywhere. Therefore he is called the Thus Come One."

THE PRINCIPLE OF A UNITY OF APPEARANCES, THIRTY
" Subhuti, suppose a good man or good woman were to pulverize a threefold great thousand world system into fine particles of dust. What do you think, would those fine particles of dust be many?" Subhuti said, "Very many World Honored One. Why? If those fine particles of dust did exist, the Buddha would not have called them fine particles of dust. Why is this? What the Buddha speaks of as fine particles of dust are not fine particles of dust. Therefore they are called fine particles of dust. "World Honored One, what the Buddha spoke of as a threefold great thousand world system is not a world system. Therefore it is called a world system. Why? If world systems actually existed, that would constitute a unity of appearances. What the Thus Come One speaks of as a unity of appearances is not a unity of appearances. Therefore it is called a unity of appearances." "Subhuti, a unity of appearances cannot really be expressed, but common people become greedily attached to such things."

KNOWLEDGE AND VIEWS ARE NOT PRODUCED, THIRTY-ONE
" Subhuti, suppose someone were to say that the Buddha spoke of the view of self, the view of others, the view of living beings and the view of a life. Subhuti, what do you think, does that person understand the meaning of my teachings?" "No, World Honored One, that person does not understand the meaning of the Thus Come One's teachings. Why? What the World Honored One spoke of as the view of self, view of others, view of living beings and view of a life is not the view of self, view of others, view of living beings and view of a life. Therefore they are called the view of self, view of others, view of living beings and the view of a life." "Subhuti, th those who have resolved their minds on Anuttarasamyaksambodhi should, in regards to all dharmas, thus know, thus perceive, and thus believe and understand and not set up appearances of dharmas. Subhuti, what the Thus Come One speaks of as appearances of dharmas are not appearances of dharmas. Therefore they are called appearances of dharmas."

RESPONSES AND TRANSFORMATIONS ARE UNREAL, THIRTY-TWO
" Subhuti, suppose someone were to fill measureless asamkhyeyas of world systems with the seven precious jewels and give them as an offering. Further, if a good man or good woman who has resolved his mind on Bodhi were to receive, uphold, read or recite and extensively explain for others as little as four lines of verse from this Sutra, the latter person's blessings would surpass those of the former person. "How should this Sutra be explained for others? By not grasping at appearances and being in unmoving thusness. Why? All conditioned dharmas Are like a dream, an illusion, a bubble or a shadow, Like dew or like a lightning flash. Contemplate them thus." After the Buddha spoke this Sutra, the Elder Subhuti, all the Bhikshus, Bhikshunis, upasakas and upasikas, and all the gods, humans, and asuras, and others from all the worlds, having heard what the Buddha had said, were extremely happy, faithfully accepted it, and put it into practice.

End of the Vajra Prajna Paramita Sutra

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As explained above, enlightenment, or discovery of the real mind is achieved through cleaning up all the mental blockages created by the illusory mind. The illusory mind is our consciousness. It has two sides, the knowing and the not-knowing. The knowing side is cognition, memorization and thinking. The not-knowing side is the absence of these functions.

In order to clean up both sides, first, we use the not-knowing to clean up the knowing. When all the knowing (i.e. cognition, memorization, thinking) is cleaned up, the not-knowing will suddenly rid itself by itself. This could happen at any moment. When it does, it is sudden enlightenment.

Patriarch Zen calls this method asking and looking into the hua-tou. Hua-tou (*) is a Chinese term which means "word's head", or "thought's beginning". It refers to the origin of consciousness where no thought has yet arisen. This origin is the realm which separates the illusory mind from the real mind. It is also the last bit of not-knowing of the brain after all three kinds of knowing, or awareness, are cleaned up.

To reach the hua-tou where all thoughts have not yet arisen, we need to use the not-knowing, or the unawared side of the brain. To evoke this "not-knowing" state we need to use a zen koan (an unanswerable question). This "not-knowing" state has no place and no target. We keep asking and looking into the "not-knowing", but still we cannot see or know anything. This "can't know anything" state is the most important in zen meditation. Such continuous contemplation over time will automatically take us to the hua-tou, the origin of consciousness.

Having arrived at the hou-tou, we are at the end of the road of consciousness, which is also the end of relative, subject-object thinking. Here, venturing one step further is instant departure from consciousness. From relative consciousness we venture into absolute awareness. Enlightenment or realization of Buddhahood are other names for the moment of mind transformation. Our real mind will manifest itself at this point throughout space and time. All becomes known. We will understand everything completely, correctly, and eternally.

Technique of practice

The method of practicing Patriarch Zen is as follow:

1) Choose from the list below a question which is most incomprehensible to you. They are koans, or unanswerable questions, designed to lead the mind into the not-knowing state.

Here are five sample questions:

* Before heaven and earth were created, what was I?
* All things return to the One, where does the One return?
* Before my parents were not born, what was my original face?
* From where does birth come, to where does death return?
* It is not Mind, not Buddha, not things, what is it?

Having chosen a koan, stay with it throughout the practice, do not shift from question to question.

2) Silently ask the question in the mind. Since the question is unanswerable, the mind is forced into a state of "don't know" or "not-knowing". This "not-knowing" state in zen is called "doubt". Doubt is necessary in zen meditation. It acts as an automatic broom sweeping away the illusory knowledge (cognition, thinking, memorization) which blocks our real mind. Without doubt there is no enlightenment. Doubt is the seed, enlightenment is the fruit. So doubt, or state of not-knowing, is the essence of zen meditation.

3) Maintain this state of doubt by re-asking the question and looking at the "don't-know" state steadily and incessantly. Asking and looking must be done simultaneously to raise and keep the state of doubt. Otherwise, the asking will be mere repetition without doubt. Keep the doubt going lightly and continuously like running a long fine thread. Also, don't try to answer the question because the purpose of asking a koan is to evoke doubt.

4) The goal is to maintain the state of doubt continuously day and night. The hua-tou will be reached when doubt runs uninterrupted for 24 hours through sleep and while awake. Therefore, the meditation should be practiced during all activities. It does not require a sitting down position. However, for beginners, do not practice while driving or doing mental work. The state of not-knowing in zen differs from the lack of knowledge associated with stupidity, mental disease, lethargy or unconsciousness. Therefore, it does not hinder the practitioner from functioning normally in daily life.

Note:

* Hua-tou is the same as : -- the origin of consciousness

-- the border between doubt and enlightenment

-- the head of a 100 feet pole (a term sometimes used in other translations)

Rev. Wei Li Thich Duy Luc

Grandmaster Hsu Yun’s Meditation Instructions to His Monks.

The following are some of the Grandmaster’s teachings on meditation as given during various retreats at monasteries throughout China. These instructions were intended for experienced meditator's i.e. his monks. It should also be pointed out that where as the Grandmaster taught and practiced Chan he also taught and practiced Pure Land Buddhism. The two are not incompatible!

Grandmaster Hsu Yun often referred to the Hua Tou, so a few words of explanation are in order:

The literal meaning of Hua-Tou in Chinese Chan is ‘word head or sentence head’. It is the state of mind before the mind is disturbed by thought. This is a clear state of mind while highly concentrated and focused. Hsu Yun called it "that moment that is neither disturbed nor dull." He further stated; "The moment before a thought arises is called the unborn." The Grandmaster said "it is the unremitting turning of the light inwards on oneself, instant after instant and exclusive of all other things." At another time he said "it is the turning of the light inward on that which is not born and does not die."

With that as a background lets look at some of the Hsu Yun’s teachings on meditation.

"A beginner will not find it easy to hold the Hua Tou well in his mind, but should not worry about it, he should neither hope for awakening nor seek wisdom. Sitting in meditation this Chan week is already the attainment of awakening and wisdom"

The Grandmaster went on to emphasize the importance of doubt:

"When one looks into the Hua Tou the most important thing is to give rise to doubt." Doubt is the crutch of hua tou i.e. it is indispensable to hua tou as crutches are to cripples. This doubt is manifested by questioning - Who is it, that sits in meditation? Who is repeating the Buddha’s name? Who is wearing this robe and eating this rice? Consequently the word ‘Who’ of the hua tou is a wonderful technique in Chan training. However, one should not repeat the word ‘Who’ or the sentence ‘Who is repeating the Buddha’s name?’. Neither should one set one’s discrimination mind on searching for him who repeats the Buddha’s name.

"When real doubt rises of itself, this can be called true training." This is the moment when one reaches a ‘strategic gateway’ where it is easy to go out of one’s way.

Usually beginners give rise to a doubt which is very coarse; it is apt to stop abruptly and to continue again, and seems suddenly familiar and suddenly unfamiliar. This is certainly not doubt and can only be their own thinking process. When the mad wandering mind has gradually been brought under control, one will be able to apply the brake on the thinking process and only then can this be called ‘looking into the hua tou.’ Little by little, one will gain experience in training and then doubt will arise on it’s own. At the beginning there is no effective training at all, as there is only an effort to put an end to false thinking.

The Grand Master cautioned; "in our meditation if we lose sight of the hua tou, while dwelling in stillness, there results an indistinct void ness where-in there is nothing. Clinging to this state of stillness is a Chan illness which we should never contract while undergoing our training. This is the unrecordable dead emptiness." On another occasion he said; "awareness without contemplation will lead to confusion and instability, and contemplation without awareness will result in immersion in stagnant water." This unrecordable dead emptiness is a state where there is little activity of mind - no thoughts. It is a state where cognition is lost or diminished and the meditator has entered a trance. It is important that a highly focused state of mind be maintained at all times. This is the mind that dwells on and in the hua tou it is a union with that which is "the unborn, undying."

"In the Chan training, one should be earnest in one’s desire to leave the realm of Samsara (birth & death) and develop a long enduring mind (in one’s training). If the mind is not earnest it will be impossible to give rise to the doubt and the training will be ineffective. Lack of a long enduring mind will result in laziness and the training will not be continuous. Just develop a long enduring mind and the doubt will rise of itself. As the ripe moment comes (it will be like) running water which forms a channel."

Master's Poem at the gate to Pao Lin Monastery

Here clearly is the road to Tsao Chi:

Wide open is the Gate of Precious Wood

Where students of the Sect from the ten quarters

Come and go on their long journeys.

When this place of Transcendental Bliss is reached,

The Pure Void is free from dust.

The Dharma realm has nor center nor circumference;

this One Door holds the wonder (of all schools).

PRAJNA PARAMITA HRIDAYA


The Bodhisattva of Compassion from the depths of prajna wisdom
saw the emptiness of all five skandhas and sundered the bonds
that create suff’ring.

Know then:
Form here is only emptiness, emptiness only form.
Form is no other than emptiness, emptiness no other than form.
Feeling, thought and choice consciousness itself
are the same as this.

Dharmas here are empty, all are the primal void.
None are born or die. Nor are they stained or pure,
nor do they wax or wane.

So in emptiness no form, no feeling, thought or choice,
nor is there consciousness. No eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mind;
no color, sound, smell, taste, touch or what the mind takes hold of,
nor even act of sensing.

No ignorance or end of it, nor all that comes of ignorance:
no withering, no death, no end of them.
Nor is there pain or cause of pain or cease in pain or noble path
to lead from pain, not even wisdom to attain, attainment too is emptiness.

So know that the Bodhisattva, holding to nothing whatever
but dwelling in prajna wisdom, is freed of delusive hindrance,
rid of the fear bred by it, and reaches clearest nirvana.

All buddhas of past and present, buddhas of future time
through faith in prajna wisdom come to full enlightenment.

Know then the great dharani, the radiant, peerless mantra,
the supreme, unfailing mantra, the Prajna Paramita,
whose words allay all pain. This is highest wisdom,
true beyond all doubt, know and proclaim its truth:

Gate, gate
paragate
parasamgate
bodhi, svaha!

Dhyana-Practice (From Blofeld’s introduction to his rendering of The Zen Teaching of Huang Po on the Transmission of Mind):

The book tells us very little about the practice of what, for want of a better translation, is often called meditation or contemplation. Unfortunately both these words are misleading as they imply some object of meditation or of contemplation; and, if objectlessness be stipulated, then they may well be taken to lead to a blank or sleeplike trance, which is not at all the goal of Zen. Huang Po seems to have assumed that his audience knew something about the practice - as most keen Buddhists do, of course. He gives few instructions as to how to "meditate," but he does tell us what to avoid. If, conceiving of the phenomenal world as illusion, we try to shut it out, we make a false distinction between the "real" and the "unreal." So we must not shut anything out, but try to reach the point where all distinctions are seen to be void, where nothing is seen as desirable or undesirable, existing or not existing. Yet this does not mean that we should make our minds blank, for then we should be no better than blocks of wood or lumps of stone; moreover, if we remained in this state, we should not be able to deal with the circumstances of daily life or be capable of observing the Zen precept" "When hungry, eat." Rather, we must cultivate dispassion, realizing that none of the attractive or unattractive attributes of things have any absolute existence.

Enlightenment, when it comes, will come in a flash. There can be no gradual, no partial, Enlightenment. The highly trained and zealous adept may be said to have prepared himself for Enlightenment, but by no means can he be regarded as partially Enlightened - just as a drop of water may get hotter and hotter and then, suddenly, boil; at no stage is it partly boiling, and, until the very moment of boiling, no qualitative change has occurred. In effect, however, we may go through three stages - two of non-Enlightenment and one of Enlightenment. To the great majority of people, the moon is the moon and the trees are the trees. The next stage (not really higher than the first) is to perceive that moon and trees are not at all what they seem to be, since "all is the One Mind." When this stage is achieved, we have the concept of a vast uniformity in which all distinctions are void; and, to some adepts, this concept may come as an actual perception, as "real" to them as the moon and the trees before. It is said that, when Enlightenment really comes, the moon is again very much the moon and the trees exactly trees; but with a difference, for the Enlightened man is capable of perceiving both unity and multiplicity without the least contradiction between them!

Conceptual Thinking:

To make use of your minds to think conceptually is to leave the substance [of Mind, Buddha] and attach yourselves to form.

The Mind is no mind of conceptual thought, and it is completely detached from form.... There are those who, upon hearing this teaching, rid themselves of conceptual thought in a flash.... But whether they transcend conceptual thought by a longer or shorter way, the result is a state of BEING: there is no practicing and no action of realizing. That there is nothing which can be attained is not idle talk; it is the truth.

If you would spend all your time - walking, standing, sitting or lying down - learning to halt the concept-forming activities of your own mind, you could be sure of ultimately attaining the goal.

Perception:

...If you students of the Way seek to progress through seeing, hearing, feeling and knowing, when you are deprived of your perceptions, your ways to Mind will be cut off and you will find nowhere to enter.

Do not keep them nor abandon them nor dwell in them nor cleave to them. Above, below and around you, all is spontaneously existing, for there is nowhere which is outside Buddha-Mind.

One Mind:

Only awake to the One Mind and there is nothing whatever to be attained.

This pure Mind, the source of everything, shines forever and on all with the brilliance of its own perfection. But the people of the world do not awake to it, regarding only that which sees, hears, feels and knows as mind.... If they would only eliminate all conceptual thought in a flash, that source-substance would manifest itself like a sun....

Fear:

Ordinary people look to their surroundings, while followers of the Way look to Mind, but the true Dharma is to forget them both. The former is easy enough, the latter very difficult. Men are afraid to forget their minds, fearing to fall through the Void with nothing to stay their fall. They do not know that the Void is not really void, but the realm of the real Dharma.

Intuition:

So you students of the Way should immediately refrain from all conceptual thought. Let a tacit understanding be all! Any mental processes must lead to error. There is just a transmission of Mind with Mind.

The Place of Precious Things:

That which is called the Place of Precious Things is the real Mind, the original Buddha-Essence, the treasure of our own real Nature.... Where is the Place of Precious Things? It is a place to which no directions can be given.... All we can say is that it is close by.

The Ignorant Seeker:

Many people are afraid to empty their minds lest they may plunge into the Void. They do not know that their own Mind is the void. The ignorant [seekers] eschew phenomena but not thought; the wise [seekers] eschew thought but not phenomena.

The World-Transcendor:

If an ordinary man, when he is about to die, could only see the five elements of his consciousness as void; the four physical elements as not constituting an 'I'; the real Mind as formless and neither coming nor going; his nature as something neither commencing at his birth nor perishing at his death, but as whole and motionless in its very depths; his Mind and environmental objects as one - if he could really accomplish this, he would receive Enlightenment in a flash. He would no longer be entangled by the Triple World; he would be a World-Transcendor.

The Supreme Way:

...To awaken suddenly to the fact that your own Mind is the Buddha, that there is nothing to be attained or a single action to be performed - this is the Supreme Way....

lotus scroll "...his words were simple, his reasoning direct, his way of life exalted and his habits unlike the habits of other men. Disciples hastened to him from all quarters, looking up to him as to a lofty mountain, and through their contact with him awoke to Reality. Of the crowds which flocked to see him, there were always more than a thousand with him at a time."

Thus P'ei Hsiu (pronounced pay shoo), a scholar-official of great learning according to Blofeld, described Huang Po (hwong bo; Japanese: Obaku), whose teachings he recorded for posterity. Blofeld also tells us that P'ei Hsiu was devoted to Huang Po, so we can forgive him if he may have used a little puffery in describing the size of the crowds always in attendance, but his description of the man rings with honest conviction.

Lest you get the impression that Huang Po was mild-mannered, though, you might be interested to know that his teacher, Pai-chang (whose teacher was Ma-tsu), compared him to a tiger in his ferociousness.

Similarity to the Tibetan Book of the Great Liberation, from Blofeld’s introductory comments:

The present volume is a complete translation of the Huang Po Ch’uan Hsin Fa Yao, a ninth-century Chinese Buddhist text, much of which now appears in English for the first time. It contains a concise account of the sublime teachings of a great Master of the Dhyana Sect, to which, in accordance with current Western practice, I shall henceforth refer to by its Japanese name of Zen. Zen is often regarded as a uniquely Far Eastern development of Buddhism, but Zen followers claim that their Doctrine stems directly from Gautama Buddha himself. This text, which is one of the principle Zen works, follows closely the teachings proclaimed in the Diamond Sutra or Jewel of Transcendental Wisdom, which has been ably translated by Arnold Price and published by the Buddhist Society, London. It is also close in spirit to The Sutra of Wei Lang (Hui Nêng), another of the Buddhist Society’s publications. But I have been deeply struck by the astonishing similarity to our text in spirit and terminology of the not-so-Far Eastern, eighth-century Tibetan Book of the Great Liberation, edited by Evens-Wentz and published by the Oxford University Press. In my opinion, these four books are among the most brilliant expositions of the highest Wisdom which have so far appeared in our language; and, of them all, the present text and the Tibetan Book of the Great Liberation present the Doctrine in a form best suited to the needs of Western readers.

Transmission:

When the people of the world hear it said that the Buddhas transmit the Doctrine of the Mind, they suppose that there is something to be attained or realized apart from Mind, and thereupon they use Mind to seek the Dharma [the Way], not knowing that Mind and the object of their search are one. Mind cannot be used to search for something from Mind....

... Mind is transmitted with Mind and those Minds do not differ. Transmitting and receiving transmission are both a most difficult kind of mysterious understanding, so that few indeed have been able to receive it. In fact, however, Mind is not Mind and transmission is not really transmission. [That is, all terms are merely makeshifts. Richard Rose, in Psychology of the Observer, describes the six kinds of perception, two of which encompass transmission and reception of Mind.]

Put a Stop to Conceptual Thought and Forget Your Anxiety (from the Chun Chou Record of the Zen Master Huang Po (Tuan Chi), a collection of sermons and dialogues recorded by P’ei Hsiu while in the city of Chun Chou):

The Master said to me: All the Buddhas and all sentient beings are nothing but the One Mind, beside which nothing exists. This Mind, which is without beginning, is unborn and indestructible. It is not green nor yellow, and has neither form nor appearance. It does not belong to the categories of things which exist or do not exist, nor can it be thought of in terms of new or old. It is neither long nor short, big nor small, for it transcends all limits, measure, names, traces and comparisons. It is that which you see before you - begin to reason about it and you at once fall into error. It is like the boundless void which cannot be fathomed or measured. The One Mind alone is the Buddha, and there is no distinction between the Buddha and sentient things, but that sentient beings are attached to forms and so seek externally for Buddhahood. By their very seeking they lose it, for that is using the Buddha to seek for the Buddha and using mind to grasp Mind. Even though they do their utmost for a full aeon, they will not be able to attain it. 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. It is not the less for being manifested in ordinary beings, nor is it greater for being manifest in the Buddhas.

What is the Way?

Q: What is the Way and how must it be followed?
A: What sort of THING do you suppose the Way to be, that you should wish to FOLLOW it?
Q: What instructions have the Masters everywhere given for dhyana-practice and the study of the Dharma?
A: Words used to attract the dull of wit are not to be relied on.
Q: If those teachings were meant for the dull-witted, I have yet to hear what Dharma has been taught to those of really high capacity.
A: If they are really men of high capacity, where could they find people to follow? If they seek from within themselves, they will find nothing tangible; how much less can they find a Dharma worthy of their attention elsewhere! Do not look to what is called the Dharma by preachers, for what sort of Dharma could that be?
Q: If that is so, should we not seek for anything at all?
A: By conceding this, you would save yourself a lot of mental effort.
Q: But in this way everything would be eliminated. There cannot just be nothing.
A: Who called it nothing? Who was this fellow? But you wanted to SEEK for something.
Q: Since there is no need to seek, why do you also say that not everything is eliminated?
A: Not to seek is to rest tranquil. Who told you to eliminate anything? Look at the void in front of your eyes. How can you produce it or eliminate it?
Q: If I could reach this Dharma, would it be like the void?
A: Morning and night I have explained to you that the Void is both One and Manifold. I said this as a temporary expedient, but you are building up concepts from it.
Q: Do you mean that we should not form concepts as human beings normally do?
A: I have not prevented you; but concepts are related to the senses; and, when feeling takes place, wisdom is shut out.
Q: Then should we avoid any feeling in relation to the Dharma?
A: Where no feeling arises, who can say that you are right?
Q: Why do you speak as though I was mistaken in all the questions I have asked Your Reverence?
A: You are a man who doesn't understand what is said to him. What is all this about being mistaken?

The Way is not something which can be studied. Study leads to the retention of concepts and so the Way is entirely misunderstood. Moreover, the Way is not something specially existing; it is called the Mahayana Mind - Mind which is not to be found inside, outside, or in the middle. Truly it is not located anywhere. The first step is to refrain from knowledge-based concepts.

The Way is spiritual Truth and was originally without name or title. It was only because people ignorantly sought for it empirically that the Buddhas appeared and taught them to eradicate this method of approach. Fearing that nobody would understand, they selected the name 'Way.'

... The Way of the Buddhas and the Way of devils are equally wide of the mark.

The Absolute:

The substance of the Absolute is inwardly like wood or stone, in that it is motionless, and outwardly like the void, in that it is without bounds or obstructions.... Those who hasten towards it dare not enter, fearing to hurtle down through the void with nothing to cling to or to stay their fall. So they look to the brink and retreat. This refers to all who seek such a goal through cognition. Thus, those who seek the goal through cognition are like the fur (many), while those who obtain to intuitive knowledge of the Way are like the horns (few).

Ch'an Masters Home Page

Interview with Ma Tsu

Hui Hai as a young man traveled to the monastery of the renowned Ch'an Master Ma Tsu (d. 788) and had the following first interview:

Ma Tsu: What do you hope to gain by coming here?
Hui Hai: I have come seeking the Buddha-Dharma [the way to Truth].
Ma Tsu: Instead of looking to the treasure house which is your very own, you have left home and gone wandering far away. What for?....
Hui Hai: Please tell me to what you alluded when you spoke of a treasure house of my own.
Ma Tsu: That which asked the question is your treasure house. It contains absolutely everything you need and lacks nothing at all. It is there for you to use freely, so why this vain search for something outside yourself?

From Blofeld's commentary on the Hui Hai Treatise:

"An important technique aimed at that perfect mind-control by which the achievementless achievement is achieved is that of dhyana (here meaning ch'an-ting or sazen [sitting meditation]), whereby the mind is turned inward upon itself and the innermost recesses of our being are so well explored that we at last come face to face with that unsullied Mind which is neither yours nor mine, nor anybody else's, and yet discoverable in all of us."

The Hound of Heaven

The Buddha does not flee from men, it is men who flee the Buddha.

The Diamond Sutra

The Diamond Sutra says: "If their minds grasp the Dharma, they will still cling to the notion of an ego (a being and a life); if their minds grasp the Non-Dharma, they will still cling to the notion of an ego. Therefore we should not grasp at and hold onto the notions either of Dharma or Non-Dharma." This is holding the true Dharma. If you understand this doctrine, that is true deliverance. That, indeed, is reaching the gate of nonduality. [Hui Hai's treatise is packed with quotes. In addition to being named the Great Pearl, he could be called the Great Quoter - another similarity to Yours Truly!]

What is Awakening to the Way?

The nature of the Absolute is void and yet not void.... A sutra says: "Understand that one point and a thousand others will accordingly grow clear; misunderstand that one and ten thousand delusions will encompass you. He who holds to that one has no more problems to solve." This is the great marvelous awakening to the Way (Truth).

Can a Despised Man Find Enlightenment?

Bodhi is attainable at the very moment we make up our minds to achieve it....

Q: Do Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism really amount to one doctrine or to three?

A: Employed by men of great capacity, they are the same.... all of them spring forth from the functioning of the one self-nature.... Whether a man remains deluded or gains Illumination depends upon himself, not upon differences or similarity of doctrine.

Once a commentator on the Vimalakirti Sutra said, It is written in our sutra: "You should regard the six heretics as your teachers. After you have joined the Order, you should be misled by them and take part in their fall.... You should vilify the Buddha and destroy the Dharma. You should not belong to the Sangha and you should not attain deliverance. If you can behave like this, you may take my food."

When Subhuti, one of Buddha's disciples, knocked at Vimalakirti's door and asked for food, the Upasaka [meditator] spoke the above words. The development of a universal mind, which alone can enable them to reach their goal, is above such dualities as avoiding heretics, revering the Buddha, protecting the Dharma, joining the Order, and so forth. The six heretics are the six senses; though they constantly mislead us, we cannot get away from them to find the Absolute elsewhere. In other words, we should realize the Absolute from the very midst of relativities and contraries.

Q: Please tell us how to achieve deliverance.

A: Never having been bound, you have no need to seek deliverance. Straightforward functioning and straightforward conduct cannot be surpassed.

Q: Does this apply even to those who have yet to perceive their own nature?

A: Your not having perceived your own nature does not imply that you lack that nature. Why so? Because perception itself IS that nature....

John Blofeld, the translator of The Zen Teaching of Hui Hai: On Sudden Illumination, tells us that Hui Hai (pronounced wee hi) entered a monastery in his home town as a child. Later he journeyed to the monastery of Ma Tsu, a disciple of the sixth patriarch Hui-neng. Hui Hai recorded his initial interview with Ma Tsu (see left column), which shows the humor, confrontational style and ability to go directly to the heart of the problem typical of the enlightened man who is also a teacher.

Hui Hai said that during the interview he realized his mind, becoming enlightened. He stayed with Ma Tsu for six years then returned to his home monastery to care for its aging master. There he composed his famous sastra [scripture], A Treatise on the Essential Gateway to Truth by Means of Instantaneous Awakening.

The manuscript was taken by another monk to Ma Tsu, who read it and declared, "In Yuëh Chou there is now a great pearl; its lustre penetrates everywhere and freely without obstruction." Hui Hai thus became known as the Great Pearl - pearl also being a play on words with his lay surname (Chu), which has the same sound as the Chinese word for pearl.

Several items of the story don't add up for me. One is that after his supposed enlightenment upon his first interview with Ma Tsu he stayed there for six years. Having had an enlightened teacher, I can't see that happening. I think he would have felt the need to go out on his own and find others to help, which seems to be part of the awakening to our true nature. Another is that he didn't compose his treatise until six years later, and this before he had any pupils. A third is that Ma Tsu supposedly gave his seal of approval after reading the treatise but not while Hui Hai was with him. I had the feeling that Hui Hai's mentality was much like my own, and I (therefore?) found myself suspicious of his reliability when I first read his treatise! There are obvious parallels with Hui-neng's autobiography, which I assume was well-known to Ma Tsu and his disciples, so the idea of instant enlightenment upon first contact with a teacher or his words, followed later by a full realization of one's essential nature and then a long hiatus before beginning to teach, may have been copied by Hui Hai or his biographer - or it may represent the repetition of an actual pattern.

In any case, upon review I find his treatise impressive and inspiring, and Blofeld was a serious seeker and student of "the way" who respected Hui Hai's teaching (see left column for his specific comment), so let's take a look at some of the items in the treatise, which was done in question and answer form.

What is the Middle Way?

A: It signifies the extremes.
Q: I inquired about the middle way; why do you say it signifies the extremes?
A: Extremes are only valid in contradistinction to the middle way. If at first you do not postulate extremes, from what can you derive the concept of a middle way? This middle you are talking about was first used in relation to extremes. Hence we should realize that the middle and extremes owe their existence to their mutual dependence and that all of them are transient.

Q: A little while ago you spoke of refraining from thinking (nien), but you did not finish your explanation.

A: It means not fixing your mind upon anything, anywhere, but totally withdrawing it from the phenomena surrounding you, so that even the thought (szu) of seeking for something does not remain; it means that your mind, confronted by all the forms composing your environment, remains placid and motionless. This abstaining from all thought whatever is called REAL thought.... If you do not employ the method of Sudden Illumination, you will be like a jackal following and imitating a lion but unable to become a lion even after hundreds and thousands of aeons.

colorful plumage

Envy

Do not vaunt your own virtues nor envy the ability of others. Examine your own actions; do not hold up the faults of others. Thus nowhere will you encounter obstruction, and you will naturally enjoy happiness. I will summarize all this in the form of a gatha:

Forbearance is the best of ways;
But first dismiss both 'self' and 'other.'
When things occur, make no response -
And thus achieve true Bodhikaya.

Q: What are the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha? What are the Three Jewels in One Substance? We beg you, Master, to explain.

A: Mind is the Buddha, and it is needless to use this Buddha to seek the Buddha. Mind is the Dharma, and it is needless to use this Dharma to seek the Dharma. Buddha and Dharma are not separate entities, and their togetherness forms the Sangha. Such is the meaning of the Three Jewels in One Substance.... Our Nature, which is intrinsically pure, does not rely on any practice in order to achieve its own state. Only the arrogant claim that there are practice and realization. The real world is without obstruction and its function is, under all circumstances, inexhaustible. It is without beginning or end. A man of high spirituality is capable of sudden Illumination....

A monk, doubting the existence of Mind [Absolute], demanded that, if Hui Hai maintained its existence, then bring it forth and show him.

Do you believe there will be a morrow? Hui Hai asked.

Yes, certainly.

Bring it forth and show it to me!.... You personally do not perceive your own nature, but this does not mean that your nature does not exist.... Yours is a case of not seeing the sun, not of there being no sun.

Q: I am always hearing talk of The Way (Tao), but I do not know who can perceive it.
A: Those possessing the Wisdom Eye can perceive it.
Q: I am very fond of the Mahayana, but how shall I study it with success?
A: He who awakens (to Mind) can achieve success; he who is not awakened to it cannot.
Q: What shall I do to be awakened to it?
A: It comes only by true intuition.
Q: What is it like?
A: It resembles nothing.
Q: If so, it should be ultimately non-existent.
A: That which is non-existent is not ultimate.
Q: Then it must exist.
A: It does exist, but it is formless.
Q: If I do not awaken to it, what shall I do?
A: It is of your own accord that Your Reverence [a visiting Dharma Master] fails to awaken to it; nobody is preventing you.

Effectual Answers

Sutras are made of paper covered with words printed in ink, but printed words, paper and ink are without self-nature; so from whence will those divine responses capable of fulfilling your wishes come? Effectual answers come from proper use of the mind by the person who reads the sutras; and this explains how the divine power works in response to an appeal from a living being.

Q: How much time do we need to attain deliverance by setting our minds on the practice of the Dharma?

A: Using the mind for practices is like washing dirty things in sticky mud. Prajna is mysterious and wonderful. Itself unbegotten, its mighty functioning is at our service regardless of times and seasons.

Not Letting the Mind Dwell on Anything

You must avoid letting your minds dwell upon anything whatsoever, which implies (being unconcerned with) either deeds or no deeds....

What I mean... is keeping your minds free from hatred and love. This means that you must be able to see attractive things without love for them arising in your minds... and also you must be able to see repulsive things without hatred for them arising in your minds.... You must examine this thoroughly.... Once you have lost a human body, you will not obtain another for millions of aeons. Strive on! Strive on! It is absolutely vital that you come to understand this.

Hui-neng cutting bamboo, by Liang K'ai The term sutra is reserved for a sermon of Gautama Buddha or one of the great Bodhisattvas, and the canon of the Ch'an school, the Tripitaka, contains only one Chinese work bearing that title: The Sutra Spoken by the Sixth Patriarch on the High Seat of the Treasure of the Law, otherwise known as The Platform Sutra of Hui-neng. Thus it's reasonable to conclude that Hui-neng (638-713 AD; pronounced wee neng or nong; sometimes written as Wei Lang, which would be pronounced way long; Japanese: Yeno or Eno) was considered by succeeding generations of his countrymen as the greatest of the Ch'an Masters.

There are two translations of The Platform Sutra of Hui-Neng, one by Price and Wong that includes the Diamond Sutra, and another by Cleary that includes Hui-Neng's commentary on the Diamond Sutra. Hui-neng's life-story was fortunately preserved for us in the sutra text, in the record of his first public talk, which he began as follows:

Learned Audience, our essence of mind [literally, self-nature], which is the seed or kernel of enlightenment [bodhi], is pure by nature, and by making use of this mind alone, we can reach buddhahood directly. Now let me tell you something about my own life and how I came into possession of the esoteric teaching of the Dhyana school.

His story is fascinating reading, starting with a brief reference to his father's dismissal from an official post and early death, which left Hui-neng and his mother in dire poverty. Selling firewood to survive, he one day heard a man reciting a sutra, whereupon his mind at once became enlightened. This may seem far-fetched, but the twentieth century Hindu sage Ramana Maharshi said that there are two kinds of ignorance: forgetfulness of the Self, and obstruction to the knowledge of the Self. The first kind only needs to hear the Truth one time in order to be dispelled, while the more common kind needs to have the Truth repeated over and over until doubt and wrong identity are dispelled.

He asked the man what he was reciting, and the man told him it was the Diamond Sutra (Vajrachchedika, or Diamond Cutter) and that he had come from a visit to the monastery of Hung-jen, the fifth patriarch of the dhyana school, where there were about one thousand disciples. Hui-neng attributed his having heard the man to good karma, which further led to his receiving a gift for the maintenance of his mother by a man who recommended that he pay a visit to the patriarch.

In his first interview with Hung-jen, the master apparently recognized his condition and assigned him to keep a low profile to avoid coming to harm at the hands of jealous followers. So Hui-neng spent the next eight months chopping firewood and pounding rice. Then one day the master stopped by the kitchen and told him in a roundabout way to meet him that night, at which time Hung-jen expounded the Diamond Sutra to him. Hui-neng said that when he heard the sentence "One should use one's mind in such a way that it will be free from any attachment," he "at once became thoroughly enlightened and realized that all things in the universe are the essence of mind itself."

His description seems to contradict his statement of becoming enlightened upon first hearing the Diamond Sutra, but in any case he said that "the dharma [Truth in its aspect of the way, teaching, or law] was transmitted" to him that night and that consequently he "became the inheritor of the teaching of the Sudden school," being named the sixth patriarch by Hung-jen. This occurred in 661, when Hui-neng was barely twenty-three. Hung-jen also told him that his life was now in danger and advised him to leave that part of the country. He did so and spent the next fifteen years living with a group of hunters. In 676 he decided it was time for him to begin teaching, so he went to a temple in Canton where he was asked to speak.

"It was in the hands of Hui-neng," John Wu tells us in The Golden Age of Zen, "that the school of Zen took form." He describes Buddhism as the father and Taoism as the mother, saying that the child looked more like the mother. Wu also attributes the Four pillars of Zen to Hui-neng, saying that it didn't appear until the time of Hui-neng's students and that it reflects Hui-neng's teaching more so than that of Bodhidharma, who emphasized the Lankavatara Sutra almost exclusively. (See the Bodhidharma page for his only known discourse.)

The entire Platform Sutra is less than a hundred pages long and is tremendously inspiring, so I hope the inclusion of some of my favorite passages below (from the translation by A.F. Price and Wong Mou-lam; see Sources & Links page) won't spoil the treat.

On Self-practice

The wisdom of enlightenment [bodhiprajna] is inherent in every one of us. It is because of the delusion under which our mind works that we fail to realize it ourselves, and that we have to seek the advice and guidance of enlightened ones before we can know our own essence of mind.... Those who recite the word prajna the whole day long do not seem to know that prajna is inherent in their own nature. But mere talking about food will not appease hunger, and this is exactly the case with these people.... Talking alone will not enable us to realize the essence of mind, and it serves no purpose in the end.... What we have to do is to put it into practice with our mind.

Hui-neng's mummified body in the Nan-hua Monastery
Hui-neng's mummified body
in the Nan-hua Monastery
What I can tell you is not esoteric. If you turn your light inwardly, you will find what is esoteric within.

To meditate means to realize inwardly the imperturbability of the essence of mind.

Those who train themselves for imperturbability should, in their contacts with all types of men, ignore the faults of others.

As to the dharma, [teaching, path] this is transmitted from heart to heart, and the recipient must realize it by his own efforts. [Told to him by Hung-jen, the fifth patriarch. This is consistent with what my teacher, Richard Rose, had to say about transmission, also. He recommended a practice of "sitting in rapport" with other seekers in order to develop the mental sensitivity that would facilitate getting in touch with the mind of the teacher at the propitious moment when the teacher might be able to "push the student over the edge" via a transmission of mind.]

All depends on self-practice....

The dharma doesn't wait for you.

Vehicle [yana; implies motion] means practice; it is nothing that can be discussed but is something that you yourself must do.

[Compare the above to Richard Rose's remark in Chapter 6 of The Albigen Papers: Man must develop a system of work, and work with persevering dynamism.]

Exert yourself in order to see face-to-face the essence of mind, and relax not, for death may come suddenly and put an abrupt end to your earthly existence.

The Diamond Sutra

Buddha delivered the Diamond Sutra for the very wise and quick-witted.

When Mahayanists [followers of the teaching Bodhidharma brought to China] hear about the Diamond Sutra their minds become enlightened; they know that prajna is immanent in their essence of mind and that they need not rely on scriptural authority, since they can make use of their own wisdom by constant practice of contemplation [dhyana].

[It occurs to me that this idea of the mind becoming enlightened upon hearing the Diamond Sutra, as Hui-neng said happened in his case, is different from realizing the essence of mind. When I first heard Richard Rose speak, a bell went off inside me - like a big, brass gong - whose existence I had never before felt. The words that subsequently formed in my mind were, "This man is telling the Truth; I've never heard it before, but something in me recognizes it." In retrospect, I realized that the message that had gotten through was that "All answers lie within." This experience enlightened my mind in the sense that a whole new world opened to me, and I left the room that night knowing that "walking on air" was also an actual experience.]

Hui-neng Hui-neng Frees the Fish

I found this picture on Bob's Asian Art Gallery and wrote to Bob inquiring about it. He responded as follows: "We are an affiliate of the Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine. For fifteen years we have taken interns to work in the hospital in Guangzhou. As you know Hui Neng was abbot of a large monastery in this same city [formerly known as Canton]. The monastery is still there and has recently been restored and new, young monks ordained. There are large murals of Hui Neng's life story on a number of walls. The temple has a Buddhist arts and crafts workshop where both small and very large Buddhas and other religious icons are carved for temples around the world. They also have scroll paintings done by artists who support the temple. The picture of Hui Neng... is a scroll I bought at the temple a number of years ago. I feel certain that it is a good representation of Hui Neng because the scroll was done by an older painter with a long affiliation with the temple. The title 'Hui Neng frees the fish' is when monks would go to small ponds that would dry during a drought, scoop up fish, bring them to the river and let them out...."

Many thanks to Bob for his generosity and friendship to a stranger. Since Bob's explanation, I've read that the abbey in Shrewsbury, England, on the bank of the Severn River, in medieval times had fish ponds formed by diverting a stream through their property. So I'm guessing that scooping fish out during droughts and dumping them in the nearby river may not have been unique to the Nan-hua monastery.

Intuition & Sudden Awakening

If there were no human beings, there would be no dharmas; hence we know that all dharmas are made for men, and all the sutras owe their existence to the preachers.... Through this the ignorant may attain sudden enlightenment, and their minds thereby become illuminated. Then they are no longer different from the wise men.... Without enlightenment there would be no difference between a buddha and other living beings.... Since all dharmas are immanent in our mind there is no reason why we should not realize intuitively the real nature of tathata [suchness, essence of mind].

Should we introspect our mind with real prajna, all erroneous views would be vanquished in a moment, and as soon as we know the essence of mind we arrive immediately at the buddha stage.

We can hardly classify the dharmas into "sudden" and "gradual"; but some men will attain enlightenment much quicker than others.

[Commenting on discernment, one of the four prajnas mentioned in the Lankavatara sutra:] The all-discerning wisdom sees things intuitively, without going through the process of reasoning.

Being infatuated by sense objects, and thereby shutting themselves off from their own light, all sentient beings, tormented by outer circumstances and inner vexations, act voluntarily as slaves to their own desires.

Delusion & The Right Path

It is because of the delusion under which our minds work that we fail to realize [the wisdom of enlightenment] ourselves.

Within our impure mind the pure one is to be found, and once our mind is set right, we are free from the three kinds of beclouding [hatred, lust and illusion].

If we are treading on the path of enlightenment we need not be worried by stumbling blocks. Provided we keep a constant eye on our own faults we cannot go astray from the right path.

Nan-hua Monastery
The Nan-hua Monastery
Erroneous views keep us in defilement while right views remove us from it, but when we are in a position to discard both of them we are then absolutely pure.

Our physical body may be likened to an inn [that is, a temporary abode], so we cannot take refuge there.

Because the mind of an ordinary man labors under delusions, he knows not his own inner nature.

Should we free our mind of attachment to all things, the path becomes clear....

He who wishes to attain the all-knowing knowledge of a buddha should know the samadhi [our natural state] of specific object and the samadhi of specific mode.

The samadhi of specific object: In all circumstances we should free ourselves from attachment to objects, and our attitude toward them should be neutral and indifferent. Let neither success nor failure, neither profit nor loss, worry us. Let us be calm and serene, modest and accommodating, simple and dispassionate.

The samadhi of specific mode: On all occasions, whether we are standing, walking, sitting or reclining, let us be absolutely straightforward.

All wisdom [prajna] comes from the essence of mind and not from an exterior source. Have no mistaken notion about this. This is called self-use of the true nature. Once the tathata is known, one will be free from delusion forever.

Parting Words

Whenever a man puts a question to you, answer him in antonyms, so that a pair of opposites will be formed, such as coming and going. When the independence of the two is entirely done away with there would be, in the absolute sense, neither coming nor going.

Whenever a question is put to you, answer it in the negative, if it is an affirmative one, and vice versa. If you are asked about an ordinary man, tell the inquirer something about a sage, and vice versa. From the correlation or interdependence of the two opposites the doctrine of the mean may be grasped. [See also Hubert Benoit's explanation of the conciliation of opposites on the Benoit recap page.]

Within our mind there is a buddha, and that buddha within is the real Buddha.

What you should do is to know your own mind and realize your own buddha-nature, which neither rests nor moves, neither becomes nor ceases to be, neither comes nor goes, neither affirms nor denies, neither stays nor departs.

The dharma is nondual, and so is the mind. The path is pure and above all forms. I warn you not to use those exercises for meditation on quietude or for keeping the mind a blank. The mind is by nature pure, so there is nothing for us to crave for or give up. Do your best, each of you, and go wherever circumstances lead.

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(This discourse was intended for his senior monks)
1. Introduction:

Many people come to ask me for guidance. This makes me feel ashamed. Everyone works so hard - splitting firewood, hoeing the fields, carrying soil, moving bricks - and yet from morning to night not putting down the thought of practicing the Path. Such determination for the Path is touching. I, Hsu-Yun, repent my inadequacy on the Path and my lack of virtue. I am unable to instruct you and can use only a few sayings from the ancients in response to your questions. There are four prerequisites concerning methods of practice:

(1) Deep faith in the law of cause and consequence; (2) Strict observance of precepts; (3) Immovable faith: (4) Choosing a Dharma door method of practice.
2. The Essentials of Chan Practice:

Our everyday activities are executed within the Path itself Is there anywhere that is not a place for practicing the Path? A Chan Hall should not even be necessary. Furthermore, Chan practice is not just sitting meditation. The Chan Hall and Chan sitting meditation are for sentient beings with deep karmic obstructions and shallow wisdom.

When one sits in meditation, one must first know how to regulate the body and mind. If they are not well regulated, then a small harm will turn into an illness and a great harm will lead to demonic entanglements. This would be most pitiable. Walking and sitting meditation in the Chan Hall are for the regulation of body and mind. There are other ways to regulate the body and mind, but I will talk about these two fundamental methods.

When you sit in the lotus position, you should sit naturally straight. Do not push the waist forward purposely. Doing so will raise your inner heat, which later on could result in having sand in the comer of your eyes, bad breath, uneasy breathing, loss of appetite, and in the worst case, vomiting blood. If dullness or sleepiness occur, open your eyes wide, straighten your back and gently move your buttocks from side to side. Dullness will naturally vanish. If you practice with an anxious attitude, you will have a sense of annoyance. At that time you should put everything down, including your efforts to practice. Rest for a few minutes. Gradually, after you recuperate, continue to practice. If you don't do this, as time goes on you will develop a hot- tempered character, or, in the worst case, you could go insane or fall into demonic entanglements.

There are many experiences you will encounter when sitting Chan, too many to speak of. However, if you do not attach to them, they will not interfere with you. This is why the proverb says: "See the extraordinary yet do not think of it as being extraordinary, and the extraordinary will retreat." If you encounter or perceive an unpleasant experience, take no notice of it and have no fear. If you experience something pleasant, take no notice of it and don't give rise to fondness. The "Surangama Sutra" says: "If one does not think he has attained a supramundane experience, then this is good. On the other hand, if one thinks he has attained something supramundane, then he will attract demons."
3. How to Start the Practice: Distinction between Host and Guest

How should one begin to practice? In the Surangama assembly, Kaundinya the Honored One mentioned the two words "guest" and "dust". This is where beginners should begin their practice. He said, "A traveler who stops at an inn may stay overnight or get something to eat. When he is finished or rested, he packs and continues his journey, for he does not have time to stay longer. If he were the host, he would have no place to go. Thus I reason: he who does not stay is called a guest because not staying is the essence of being a guest. He who stays is called a host. Again, on a clear day, when the sun rises and the sunlight enters a dark room through an opening, one can see dust in empty space. The dust is moving but the space is still. That which is clear and still is called space; that which is moving is called dust because moving is the essence of being dust." Guest and dust refer to illusory thoughts, whereas host and space refer to self-nature. That the permanent host does not follow the guest in his comings and goings illustrates that permanent self-nature does not follow illusory thoughts in their fleeting rise and fall. Therefore it was said, "If one is unaffected by all things, then there will be no obstructions even when one is constantly surrounded by things." The moving dust does not block the clear, still empty space; illusory thoughts which rise and fall by themselves do not hinder the self-nature of Suchness. Thus it was said, "If my mind does not arise, all things are blameless." In such a state of mind, even the guest does not drift with illusory thoughts. If he understands space and dust, illusory thoughts will no longer be hindrances. It is said that when one recognizes an enemy, there will be no more enemy in your mind. if one can investigate and understand all this before starting to practice, it is unlikely that one will make serious mistakes.
4. Hua-t'ou and Doubt:

Grandmaster Hsu Yun often referred to the Hua Tou, so a few words of explanation are in order:

With that as a background lets look at some of the Hsu Yun’s teachings on meditation.

The ancient patriarchs pointed directly at Mind. When one sees self- nature, one attains Buddhahood. This was the case when Bodhidharma helped his disciple to calm his mind and when the Sixth Patriarch spoke only about seeing self-nature. All that was necessary was the direct understanding and acceptance of Mind and nothing else. There was no such thing as investigating hua-t'ou. More recent patriarchs, however, saw that practitioners could not throw themselves into practice with total dedication and could not instantaneously see their self-nature. Instead, these people played games and imitated words of wisdom, showing off other people's treasure and patriarchs were compelled to set up schools and devise specific ways to help practitioners, hence the method of investigating hua-t'ou.

There are many hua-t'ous, such as "All dharmas return to one, where does this one return to?" "What was my original face before I was born?" and so on. The most common one, however, is "Who is reciting the Buddha's name?".

What is meant by hua-t'ou? Hua means the spoken word; t'ou means the head or beginning, so hua-t'ou means that which is before the spoken word. For example, reciting Amitabha Buddha is a hua, and hua-t'ou is that which precedes one's reciting the Buddha's name. The hua-t'ou is that moment before the thought arises. Once the thought arises, it is already the tail of the hua. The moment before that thought has arisen is called non-arising. When one's mind is not distracted, is not dull, is not attached to quiescence, or has not fallen into a state of nothingness, it is called non-perishing. Singlemindedly and uninterruptedly, turning inward and illuminating the state of non- arising and non-perishing is called investigating the hua-t'ou or taking care of the hua-t'ou.

To investigate the hua-t'ou, one must first generate doubt. Doubt is like a walking cane for the method of investigating hua-t'ou. What is meant by doubt? For example, one may ask, "Who is reciting the Buddha's name?" Everyone knows that it is he himself who is reciting the name, but is he using his mouth or mind? If it is his mouth, then after the person dies and the mouth still exists, how come the dead person is unable to recite Buddha's name? If it is the mind, then what is the mind like? It cannot be known. Thus there is something one does not understand, and this gives rise to a slight doubt regarding the question of "who".

This doubt should never be coarse. The finer it is the better one should singlemindedly watch and keep this doubt, and keep it going like a fine stream of water. Do not get distracted by any other thought. When the doubt is there, do not disturb it. When the doubt is no longer there, gently give rise to it again. Beginners will find that it is more effective to use this method when stationary rather than when moving; but you should not have a discriminating attitude. Regardless of whether your practice is effective or not or whether you are stationary or moving, just singlemindedly use the method and practice.

In the hua-t'ou, "Who is reciting the Buddha's name?" The emphasis should be on the word "who". The other words serve to provide a general idea, just like in asking, "Who is dressing?", "Who is eating?", "Who is moving their bowels?'', ''Who is urinating?'', ''Who is ignorantly fighting for an ego?'', ''Who is being aware?". Regardless of whether one is walking, standing, sitting or reclining, the word "who" is direct and immediate. Not having to rely on repetitive thinking, conjecture, or attention, it is easy to give rise to a sense of doubt.

Hence, hua-t'ou's involving the word "who" are wonderful methods for practising Ch'an. But the idea is not to repeat, "Who is reciting Buddha's name?" like one might repeat the Buddha's name itself; nor is it right to use reasoning to come up with an answer to the question, thinking that this is what is meant by having doubt. There are people who uninterruptedly repeat the phrase, "Who is reciting the Buddha's name?" They would accumulate more merit and virtue if they repeatedly recited Amitabha Buddha's name instead. There are others who let their minds wander, thinking that is the meaning of having doubt, and they end up more involved in illusory thoughts. This is like trying to ascend but descending instead. Be aware of this.

The doubt that is generated by a beginning practitioner tends to be coarse, intermittent and irregular. This does not truly qualify as a state of doubt. It can only be called thoughts. Gradually, after the wild thoughts settle and one has more control, the process can be called "ts'an" (ts'an means to investigate or look into). As one's cultivation gets smoother, the doubt naturally arises without one's actively inducing it to. At this point one is not aware of where one is sitting. One is not aware of the existence of a body or mind or environment. Only the doubt is there. This is a true state of doubt.

Realistically speaking, the initial stage cannot be considered cultivation. One is merely engaging in illusory thoughts. Only when true doubt arises by itself can it be called true cultivation. This moment is a crucial juncture, and it is easy for the practitioner to deviate from the right path:

(1) At this moment it is clear and pure and there is an unlimited sense of lightness and peace. However, if one fails to fully maintain one's awareness and illumination (awareness is wisdom, not delusion; illumination is samadhi, not disorder), one will fall into a light state of mental dullness. If there is an open-eyed person around, he will be able to tell right away that the practitioner is in this mental state and hit him with the incense stick, dispersing all clouds and fog. Many people become enlightened this way.

(2) At this moment it is clear and pure, empty and vacuous. If it isn't, then the doubt is lost. Then it is "no content", meaning one is not making an effort to practice any more. This is what is meant by "the cliff with dry wood" or "the rock soaking in cold water". In this situation the practitioner has to "bring up". "Bring up" means to develop awareness and illumination. It is different from earlier times when the doubt was coarse. Now it has to be fine - one thought, uninterrupted and extremely subtle. With utter clarity, it is illuminating and quiescent, unmoving yet fully aware. Like the smoke from a fire that is about to go out, it is a narrow stream without interruption. When one's practice reaches this point, it is necessary to have a diamond eye in the sense that one should not try to "bring up" any more. To "bring up" at this point would be like putting a head on top of one's head.

Once a monk, asked Ch'an master Chao-chou, "What should one do when not one thing comes?" Chao-chou replied, "Put it down". The monk, asked, "If not one thing comes, what does one put down?" Chao-chou replied, "If it cannot be put down, take it up". This dialogue refers precisely to this kind of situation. The true flavour of this state cannot be described. Like someone drinking water, only he knows how cool or warm it is. If a person reaches this state, he will naturally understand. If he is not at this state, no explanation will be adequate. To a sword master you should offer a sword; do not bother showing your poetry to someone who is not a poet.
5. Taking Care of Hua-t'ou and Turning Inward to Hear One's Self-Nature:

Someone might ask, "How is Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara's method of turning inward to hear self-nature considered investigating Ch'an?". I have previously explained that taking care of hua-t'ou is being, moment after moment, with only one thought, singlemindedly shining the light inward on "that which is not born and not destroyed". Inward illumination is reflection. Self-nature is that which is not born and not destroyed. When "hearing" and "illuminating" follow sound and form in the worldly stream, hearing does not go beyond sound and seeing does not go beyond form. However, when one turns inward and contemplates self-nature against the worldly steam, and does not pursue sound and form, then he becomes pure and transparent. At that time, "hearing" and "illuminating" are not two different things.

Thus we should know that taking care of the hua-t'ou and turning inward to hear self-nature does not mean using our eyes to see and our ears to hear. If we use our ears to hear or our eyes to see, then we are chasing sound and form. As a result we will be affected by them. This is called submission to the worldly stream. If one practices with one thought only, singlemindedly abiding in that which is not born and not destroyed, not chasing after sound and form, with no wandering thoughts, then one is going against the stream. This is also called taking care of the hua-t'ou or turning inward to hear one's self- nature. This is not to say you should close your eyes tightly or cover your ears. Just do not generate a mind of seeking after sound and form.
6. Determined to Leave Samsara and Generating a Persevering Mind:

In Ch'an training the most important thing is to have an earnestness to leave birth and death and to generate a persevering mind. If there is no earnestness to leave birth and death, then one cannot generate the "great doubt" and practice will not be effective. if there is no perseverance in one's mind, the result will be laziness, like a man who practices for one day and rests for ten. The practice will be incomplete and fragmented. Just develop a persevering mind and when great doubt arises, vexations will come to an end by themselves. When the time comes, the melon will naturally depart from the vine.

I will tell you a story. During the Ch'ing dynasty in the year of K'eng Tse (1900) when the eight world powers sent their armies to Peking, the Emperor Kuang-hsu fled westward from Peking to Shen Hsi province. Everyday he walked tens of miles. For several days he had no food to eat. On the road, a peasant offered him sweet potato stems. After he had eaten them, he asked the peasant what they were because they tasted so good. Think about the Emperor's usual awe- inspiring demeanor and his arrogance! How long do you think he could continue to maintain his imperial attitude after so long a journey on foot? Do you think he had ever gone hungry? Do you think he ever had to eat sweet potato stems? At that time he gave up all of his airs. After all, he had walked quite a distance and had eaten stems to keep from starving. Why was he able to put down everything at that time? Because the allied armies wanted his life and his only thought was to save himself But when peace prevailed and he returned to Peking, once again he became proud and arrogant. He didn't have to run any more. He no longer had to eat any food that might displease him. Why was he unable to put down everything at that time? Because the allied armies no longer wanted his life. If the Emperor always had an attitude of running for his life and if he could turn such an attitude toward the path of practice, there would be nothing he could not accomplish. It's a pity he did not have a persevering mind. When favorable circumstances returned, so did his former habits.

Fellow practitioners! Time is passing, never to return. It is constantly looking for our lives. It is more frightening than the allied armies. Time will never compromise or make peace with us. Let us generate a mind of perseverance immediately in order to escape from birth and death! Master Kao-fung (1238-1295) once said, "Concerning the practice, one should act like a stone dropping into the deepest part of the pool - ten thousand feet deep - continuously and persistently dropping without interruption toward the bottom. If one can practice like this without stopping, continuously for seven days, and still be unable to cut off one's wandering, illusory thoughts and vexations, I, Kao-fung, will have my tongue pulled out for cows to plough on forever". He continued by saying, "When one practices Ch'an, one should set out a certain time for success, like a man who has fallen into a pit a thousand feet deep. All his tens of thousands of thoughts are reduced to one - escape from the pit. If one can really practice from morning to dusk and from night to day without a second thought, and if he does not attain complete enlightenment within three, five or seven days, I shall be committing a great lie for which I shall have my tongue pulled out for cows to plough on forever". This old master had great compassion.

Bitter Rain

Bitter rain soaks the pile of kindling twigs.

The night so cold and still the lamp flame hardly moves.

Clouds condense and drench our stone walled hut.

Broken rushes clog the reed gate's way.

The stream gurgles, a torrent in its bed.

That's all we hear. Only rarely, comes a human voice...

But oh, how priceless is this peace of mind that fills us

As we sit on our heels and put on another Chan monk's

robe!

 

 
The Barking Dog

We went up across the ridge for the fun of it.

Didn't need to pack any more wine.

On the precipice, flowers opened, smiling.

By the river, willows grew bright.

In the drizzling rain the village smoke congealed, concealed.

The wind was slight and the grass was cool.

There in the woods' underbrush, startled,

We suddenly heard a dog bark.

It wanted us to know the Master was aware.

 

 
The Exquisite Truth

This is an exquisite truth:

Saints and ordinary folks are the same from the start.

Inquiring about a difference

Is like asking to borrow string

when you've got a good strong rope.

Every Dharma is known in the heart.

After a rain, the mountain colors intensify.

Once you become familiar with the design of fate's illusions

Your ink-well will contain all of life and death.

 
Searching for the Dharma

You've traveled up ten thousand steps in search of the Dharma.

So many long days in the archives, copying, copying.

The gravity of the Tang and the profundity of the Sung

make heavy baggage.

Here! I've picked you a bunch of wildflowers.

Their meaning is the same

but they're much easier to carry.

 
The Heart of Buddha

No need to chase back and forth like the waves.

The same water which ebbs is the same water that flows.

No point turning back to get water

When it's flowing around you in all directions

The heart of the Buddha and the people of the world...

Where is there any difference?

 
Going Beyond Desire

Striving to leave the wilderness

You become part of what's wild.

Striving to cease grasping

Is, itself, grasping.

So how do you gain control and get beyond desire?

Open those eyes... the ones that were born in your own skull.

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(From the Hsu Yun, Ho Shang Fa Hui)

The object of Ch'an training is to realize the mind for the perception of self- nature, that is to wipe out the impurities which soil the mind so that the fundamental face of self-nature can really be perceived. Impurities are our false thinking and clinging (to things as real). Self-nature is the meritorious characteristic of the Tathagata wisdom which is the same in both Buddhas and living beings. If one's false thinking and grasping are cast aside, one will bear witness to the meritorious characteristic of one's Tathagata wisdom and will become a Buddha, otherwise one will remain a living being. For since countless eons, our own delusion has immersed us in the (sea of) birth and death. Since our defilement has (already) lasted so long, we are unable instantly to free ourselves from false thinking in order to perceive our self-nature. This is why we must undergo Ch'an training. The prerequisite of this training is the eradication of false thinking. As to how to wipe it out, we have already many sayings of Shakyamuni Buddha and nothing is simpler than the word 'Halt' in His saying: 'If it halts, it is Enlightenment (Bodhi). [1]

The Ch'an sect from its introduction by Bodhidharma after his arrival in the East until after the passing of the Sixth Patriarch, spread widely all over the country and enjoyed great prosperity, unknown before and after that period. However, the most important thing taught by Bodhidharma and the Sixth Patriarch was only this: 'Expel all concurrent causes; do not give rise to a single thought.' To expel all concurrent causes is to lay them down. [2] Therefore, these two sentences: 'Expel all concurrent causes. Do not give rise to a single thought', are the prerequisites of Ch'an training. If these two sentences are not put into actual practice, not only will the training be ineffective, but also it will be impossible to start it, for in the midst of causes which rise and fall, thought after thought, how can you talk about Ch'an training?

Now we know that (the sentences): 'Expel all concurrent causes. Do not give rise to a single thought' are the prerequisites of Ch'an training; how can we fulfill these prerequisites? Those of high spirituality are able to halt for ever the arising of a single thought until they reach (the state of) birthlessness and will thereby instantaneously realize enlightenment (Bodhi) without any more ado. Those of lower spirituality will deduce the underlying principle [3] from facts [4] and will thoroughly understand that the self-nature is fundamentally pure and clean and that distress (klesha) [5] and enlightenment as well as birth, death and Nirvana are all empty names having no connection whatever with self-nature; that phenomena are like a dream, an illusion, a bubble and a shadow; and that the four basic elements constituting the physical body, as well as mountains, rivers and the great earth which are within self-nature, are just like bubbles in the sea. These phenomena rise and fall following one another in succession without interfering with the essence (of self-nature). Therefore, one should not follow illusion in its creation, stay, change and annihilation and give rise to feelings of joy, sadness, attachment and rejection. One should lay down everything with which one's body is burdened, thus becoming exactly like a dead man. The outcome will be that sense-organs, sense-data and consciousness will vanish and that concupiscence, anger, stupidity and love will be eliminated. When all our feelings of joy and sadness, of the cold of hunger and the warmth of one's fill, of honor and dishonor, of birth and death, of happiness and misery, of blessing and calamity, of praise and censure, of gain and loss, of safety and danger, and of handicap and help, are all cast aside, this is the true laying down (of everything). To lay down a thing is to lay down everything for ever, and this is called the laying down of all concurrent causes. When all concurrent causes have been laid down, false thinking will vanish with the non-arising of differentiation and the elimination of all attachments. When one reaches this state of the non-arising of a single thought, the brightness of self-nature will appear in full.[6] Then only can the prerequisites of Ch'an training be entirely fulfilled. Further efforts in the true training and real introspection will be required if one wishes to be qualified for realizing the mind for the perception of self-nature.

Recently, Ch'an Buddhists often came to inquire (about all this). As to the Dharma, fundamentally there is no such thing, because as soon as it is expressed in words, the meaning will not be true. Just see clearly that mind is Buddha and there will be no more ado. This is self-evident and all talks of practice and realization are the demon's words. Bodhidharma, who came to the East to "directly point at man's mind for the perception of self-nature leading to the attainment of Buddhahood", clearly indicated that all living beings on earth were Buddhas. The outright cognizance of this pure and clean self-nature together with complete harmony with it, without contamination from attachment (to anything) [7] and without the least mental differentiation, while walking, standing, sitting and lying by day or night [8] is nothing but the self-evident Buddha nature. It does not require any application of mind or use of effort. Moreover, there is no place for either action or deed, and no use for words, speech and thought. For this reason, it is said that the attainment of Buddhahood is the most free and easy thing which relies only on oneself and does not depend on others. If all living beings on this earth are not willing to pass long eons through the successive four kinds of birth [9] in the six realms of existence [10] to stay permanently immersed in the sea of suffering, and if they wish to attain Buddhahood with the accompanying enjoyment of true eternity, true bliss, true personality and true purity [11], they should sincerely believe the true words of the Buddha and Patriarchs, and lay down all (attachments) without thinking of either good or evil; all of them will certainly be able to become Buddhas on the spot. All Buddhas, Bodhisattvas and Patriarchs of past generations did not take the vow of liberating all living beings without warrant for so doing; they did not take vain vows and did not tell a deliberate lie.

The (qualification) above referred to, is in the state provided by nature [12]. Moreover, the Buddha and Patriarchs had expounded it again and again, and their injunction in this respect had also been repeated; theirs were true words, words corresponding to reality, which did not contain an atom of falsehood and deception. However, all living beings on this earth have been, for countless eons, deluded and sunk in the bitter ocean of birth and death, rising and falling in their endless transmigrations. Being deluded, confused and upset, they turn their back on enlightenment and unite with impurities. They are just like real gold thrown into a manure pit where it not only falls into disuse but is also deplorably soiled. Because of His great mercy, the Buddha was compelled to set up 84,000 [13] Dharma doors (to enlightenment) so that living beings of different natural capacities could use them to cure the 84,000 ailments caused by their habitual concupiscence, anger, stupidity and love. In the same way you are taught to use a shovel, brush, water and cloth to wash, brush, polish and scrub the dirty piece of gold. Therefore, the Dharma doors expounded by the Buddha are all excellent Dharmas which enable one to see through birth and death and to attain Buddhahood, the only question being the adaptability or otherwise of individual potentialities. These Dharma doors should not be divided arbitrarily into superior or inferior ones. Those introduced into China are: the Ch'an Sect (Tsung), the Discipline School (Lu Tsung), the Teaching School (Chiao Tsung), the Pure Land School (Chin Tsung), and the Yoga School (Mi Tsung). Of these five Dharma doors, it is up to each man to choose the one which is suitable to his natural character and inclination, and he will surely reach his goal if he only sticks to it long enough without change of mind and deeply penetrates it.

Our sect advocates the Ch'an training. This training centers on 'realization of mind (and) perception of self-nature', that is an exhaustive investigation into one's fundamental face. The Dharma door which consists in the 'clear awakening to the self-mind and through perception of the fundamental nature' has been handed down ever since the Buddha held up a flower until after Bodhidharma's coming to the East, with frequent changes in the method of practice. Up to the T'ang (935) and Sung (1278) dynasties, most adherents of the Ch'an sect became enlightened after hearing a word or sentence. The transmission from master to disciple did not exceed the sealing of mind by mind, and there was no fixed Dharma (taught). In their questions and answers (the role played by a master) was only to untie the bonds (fettering his disciple) [14] according to available circumstances, just like the giving of an appropriate medicine for each particular ailment. In and after the Sung dynasty, human potentialities became duller, and the instructions given by the masters were not carried out by their disciples. For instance, when they were taught to 'lay down everything' and 'not to think of either good or evil', practitioners could not lay down anything and could not stop thinking of either good or evil. Under these circumstances, the ancestors and masters were compelled to devise a 'poison-against-poison' method by teaching their followers to inquire into a kung an [15] or look into a hua t'ou. [16] Their disciples were even taught to hold a meaningless hua t'ou as firmly as possible (in their minds), without loosening their grip even for the shortest possible moment, in the same way as a rat will (stubbornly) bite the board of a coffin at a fixed spot until it has made a hole. The aim of this method was to use a single thought to oppose and arrest myriad thoughts because the masters had no alternative. It was like an operation which became imperative when poison had been introduced into the body. There were many koans (devised by the ancients but) later only hua t'ous were taught such as: 'Who is dragging this corpse here? [17] and 'What was my fundamental face before I was born?' In the present day, the masters use the hua t'ou: 'Who is the repeater of Buddha's name?'

All these hua t'ou have only one meaning which is very ordinary and has nothing peculiar about it if you look into him 'Who is reciting a sutra?', 'Who is holding a mantra?', 'Who is worshipping Buddha?', 'Who is taking a meal?', 'Who is wearing a robe?', 'Who is walking on the road?', or 'Who is sleeping?', the reply to 'Who?' will invariably be the same: 'It is Mind.' Word arises from Mind and Mind is head of (i.e. ante-)Word. Thought arises from Mind and Mind is head of Thought. Myriad things come from Mind and Mind is head of myriad things. In reality, a hua t'ou is the head of a thought (i.e. ante-thought). The head of thought is nothing but Mind. To make it plain, before a thought arises, it is a hua t'ou. From the above, we know that to look into a hua t'ou is to look into the Mind. The fundamental face before one's birth is Mind. To look into one's fundamental face before one's birth is to look into one's mind. Self-nature is Mind (and) to 'turn inwards the hearing to hear the self-nature' is to 'turn inward one's contemplation to contemplate the self-mind'.

The sentence: 'The perfect shining on the pure Awareness' means this: 'the pure awareness' is mind and 'to shine on' is to look into. Mind is Buddha and to repeat the Buddha's (name) is to contemplate the Buddha. To contemplate Buddha is to contemplate mind. Therefore, to 'look into a hua t'ou' or 'to look into him who repeats the Buddha's name is to contemplate the mind or to contemplate the pure essence of awareness of the self-mind, or to contemplate the self-natured Buddha. Mind is self-nature, is awareness and is Buddha, having neither form nor location, and being undiscoverable. It is clean and pure by nature, penetrates everywhere in the Dharmadhatu, does not enter or leave, neither comes nor goes, and is fundamentally the self-evident pure Dharmakaya Buddha.

A practitioner should keep under control all his six sense-organs and take good care of this hua t'ou by looking into where a thought usually arises, until he perceives his pure self-nature, free from all thoughts. This continuous, close, quiet and indifferent investigation will lead to a still and shining [18] contemplation (the outcome of which will be) the outright non-existence of the five constituent elements of being (skandhas) [19] and the wiping out of both body and mind, without the least thing being left behind. Thereafter, this absolute immutability (should be maintained) in every state, while walking, standing, sitting and lying by day or night. As time goes on, this achievement will be brought to perfection, resulting in the perception of self-nature and the attainment of Buddhahood, with the elimination of all distress and suffering.

Ancestor Kao Feng [20] said: 'When a student looks into a hua t'ou with the same steadiness with which a broken tile when thrown into a deep pond plunges straight down 10,000 changes [21] to the bottom, if he fails to become awakened in seven days, anyone can chop off my head and take it away.' Dear friends, these are the words of an experienced master, they are true and correspond to reality, they are not deceitful words to cheat people

Then why in the present generation are there not even a few men who attain enlightenment in spite of the great number who hold a hua t'ou (in their minds)? This is because their potentialities are not so sharp as those of the ancients. It is also because students are confused about the correct method of training and of holding a hua t'ou. They go to various places in the four quarters, seeking instruction, and the result is that when they get old, they are still not clear about the meaning of a hua t'ou and how to look into it. They pass their whole lives clinging to words and names, and applying their minds to the tail of the hua t'ou. [22] They inquire into (the sentences): 'Look into him who repeats the Buddha's name' and 'Take care of the hua t'ou', and the more they look and inquire into these sentences, the more they get away from what these sentences stand for. [23] Thus how can they be awakened to the self-evident Wu Wei (transcendental) Supreme Reality, and how can they ascend the undisturbable Royal Throne? When gold powder is thrown into their eyes, they are blinded: how then can they send out the great illuminating ray? What a pity! What a pity! They are all good sons and good daughters who leave their homes in quest of the truth, and their determination is above the average. What a pity if they labor to no purpose! (For this reason) an ancient master said: 'It is better to remain unenlightened for a thousand years than to tread the wrong path for a day.'

Self-cultivation for awakening to the truth is easy and is (also) difficult. For example, when we turn on the electric light, if we know how, in a finger-snap there will be light and the darkness which has lasted for a myriad years will disappear. If one does not know how to turn on the light, the electric wires will be interfered with and the lamp will be damaged, resulting in an increase of passions and ignorance. There are also some people who, while undergoing Ch'an training and looking into the hua t'ou, get entangled with demons and become insane, while others vomit blood and fall sick. [24] Are the fire of ignorance bursting into flame and the deep-rooted view of self and other [25] not the obvious causes of all this? Therefore, practitioner should harmonize body with mind and become calm, free from all impediments and from (the view of) self and other so as to bring about a perfect unison with their latent potentialities. Fundamentally, this method used in Ch'an training is invariably the same, but the training is both difficult and easy to beginners as well as to old hands.

Where does its difficulty lie for a beginner? Although his body and mind are mature for it, he is still confused about the method of undergoing it, and since his practice is ineffective, he will either become impatient or spend his time in dozing with this result: 'A beginner's training in the first year, an old hand's training in the second, and no training in the third year.'

Where does its easiness lie for a beginner? It only requires a believing, a long enduring and a mindless mind. A believing mind is, firstly, belief that this mind of ours is fundamentally Buddha, not differing from all Buddhas and all living beings of the three times in the ten directions of space, and secondly, belief that all Dharmas expounded by Shakyamuni Buddha can enable us to put an end to birth and death and to attain Buddhahood. A long enduring mind consists in the choice of a method to be put into continuous practice in the present lifetime, in the next life, and in the life after next. The Ch'an training should be continued in this manner; the repetition of the Buddha's name should be continued in this manner; the holding of a mantra (mystic incantation) should be continued in this manner and the study of sutras, which consists in putting into practice the teaching heard (i.e. learned from the Scriptures), should be continued in this manner. The practice of any Dharma door (to enlightenment) must be based on Sila [26] and if the training is undergone in this manner, there is no reason why it will not be successful. The old master Kuei Shan [27] said: 'Anybody practicing this Dharma without backsliding in three successive lives can surely expect to attain the Buddha-stage.' The old master Yung Chia said: 'If I utter deceitful words to cheat living beings, I shall be prepared to fall into the tongue-snatching hell for eons as numberless as atoms.'

By mindlessness is meant the laying down of everything [28] so that the practitioner will become like a dead man who, while following others in their normal activities, does not give rise to the least differentiation and attachment, and lives as a mindless religious man.

After a beginner has acquired these three kinds of mind, if he under-goes the Ch'an training and looks into, for instance, the hua t'ou: 'Who is the repeater of Buddha's name?' he should silently repeat a few times: 'Amitabha Buddha' and then look into him who thinks of the Buddha and where this thought arises. He should know that this thought does not arise either from his mouth or body. If it arises from either his mouth or body, why when he dies, cannot his body and mouth, which still exist, give rise to this thought? Therefore, he knows that this thought arises from his mind. Now he should watch (and locate) where his mind gives rise to this thought and keep on looking into it, like a cat ready to pounce on a mouse, with his exclusive attention concentrated upon it, free from a second thought. However, its sharpness and dullness should be in equal proportions. It should never be too sharp for that sharpness may cause illness. if the training is undergone in this manner, in every state, while walking, standing, sitting and lying, it will be effective as time goes on, and when cause comes to fruition, like a ripe melon which automatically falls, anything it may happen to touch or come into contact with, will suddenly cause his supreme awakening. This is the moment when the practitioner will be like one who drinks water and who alone knows whether it is cold or warm, until he becomes free from all doubts about himself and experiences a great happiness similar to that when meeting one's own father at the cross-roads.

Where do both easiness and difficulty lie for an old hand? By old hand is meant one who has called on learned masters for instruction and has undergone the training for many years during which his body and mind were mature for it and he was clear about the method which he could practice comfortably without experiencing any handicap. The difficulty met by a monk who is an old hand lies in this feeling of comfort and clearness in which he stops and stays. Thus, because of his stay in this illusion-city, he does not reach the place of precious things (i.e. the perfect Nirvana). He is fit only for stillness but is unfit for disturbance and his training is, therefore, not completely effective for really full use. In the worst case, the practitioner will, when coming into contact with his surroundings, give rise to feelings of like and dislike and of acceptance and rejection with the result that his false thinking, both coarse and fine, will remain as firm as before. His training will be likened to the soaking of a stone in water and will become ineffective. As time goes on, weariness and laziness will slip into his training which will become fruitless in the end. When such a monk is aware of this, he should immediately give rise to the hua t'ou again and rouse his spirits to take a step forward from the top of a hundred-foot pole (he has reached) [29] until he reaches the top of the highest peak on which he will firmly stand or the bottom of the deepest ocean where he will walk (in every direction). He will cast away (his last link with the unreal) and will walk freely everywhere, meeting face to face (lit. substance to substance, or essence to essence) with Buddhas and Patriarchs. Where is the difficulty? Is this not easy?

Hua t'ou is One-Mind. This One-Mind of yours and mine is neither within nor without nor between the two. It is also within, without and between the two and is like Space which is immutable and is all-embracing. Therefore, the hua t'ou should not be pulled up or pushed down. If it is pulled up, it will cause disturbance, and if it is pushed down, it will cause dullness, and so will be in contradiction with the mind-nature [30] and not in line with the 'mean'. [31] Everybody is afraid of false thinking which he finds difficult to control, but I tell you, dear friends, do not be afraid of false thinking and do not make any effort to control it. You have only to be aware of it but should not cling to it, follow it or push it away. It will suffice to discontinue your thinking and it will leave you alone. Hence, the saying: 'The rise of falsehood should be immediately cognized, and once cognized, it will quit.'

However, in his training, if the practitioner can turn this false thinking to his own advantage, he will look into where it arises and will notice that it has no independent nature of its own. At once, he will realize the non-existence of this very thinking and will recover his fundamental mindless nature, followed immediately by the manifestation of his pure self-natured Dharmakaya Buddha which will appear on the spot.

In reality, the real and the false are the same (in nature); the living and the Buddhas are not a dualism; and birth-death and Nirvana as well as enlightenment (Bodhi) and distress (klesa) all belong to our self-mind and self-nature and should not be differentiated, should not be either liked or disliked and should not be either grasped or rejected. This mind is pure and clean and fundamentally is Buddha. Not a single Dharma is required (in the quest of enlightenment). Why so much complication? Ts'an! [32]

[1] The full sentence is: The mad mind does not halt; if it halts, it is Bodhi, i.e. enlightenment.

[2] In Ch'an terminology, "to lay down causes or thoughts" is to lay down the heavy load of causes or thoughts to free the mind from defilement.

[3] Underlying principle, inner truth, theory, noumenon (phenomena).

[4] Facts: activity, practice, phenomenon.

[5] Klesha: distress, worry, trouble and whatever causes them.

[6] This is the state described in Han Shan's "Song of the Board-bearer".

[7] Even attachment to the self-nature is also an impurity which should be cast aside.

[8] Literally 'during the two six-hour periods of the day'. Each day is divided into two six-hour periods. one for day-time and one for night-time.

[9] Birth from eggs, wombs and humidity, and by transformation.

[10] Worlds of gods (devas), men, spirits (asuras), animals, hungry ghosts and hells.

[11] The four transcendental realities in Nirvana expounded in the Mahaparinirvana Sutra.

[12] i.e. 'self-so'. so of itself, natural, of course, se1f-existing, the self-existent.

[13] The digits 8 and 4 symbolize respectively the eighth Vijnana or Consciousness and the four basic elements of the physical body, and mean the deluded self-nature (8) held in bondage in the illusory body (4), i.e. Space. The three following zeros symbolize Time, and so long as one remains under delusion, it will be immaterial to add 10, 100, or 1,000 zeros at the end of the number. However, when one attains enlightenment in one finger-snap. the digits 8 and 4 or Space will disappear and the line of zeros, or Time, will have no meaning.

[14] i.e. freeing his disciples from restraint caused by delusion.

[15] Kung an, or koan in Japanese = A dossier, or case-record; a cause, public laws, regulations; case-law. Problems set by Ch'an masters upon which thought is concentrated as a means to attain inner unity and illumination. The meaning of a kung an is irrevocable and kung an is as valid as the Law.

[16] Hua t'ou = ante-word, or ante-thought, i.e. the mind before it is stirred by a thought. It is the mind in its undisturbed condition. The holding of a hua t'ou in the mind is the looking into the self-mind until its realization. It is also the turning inward of the faculty of hearing to hear the self-nature, for the disentanglement of mind (subject) from external objects.

[17] i.e. who is dragging here this physical body of yours?

[18] The essence of the mind is still and its function is shining.

[19] The 5 skandhas: form, feeling, ideation, reaction and consciousness.

[20] Kao Feng was the teacher of Chung Feng whose 'Sayings of Chung Feng' (Chung Feng Kuang Lu) were read by Han Shan before the latter began his Ch'an training. (See Han Shan's Autobiography.)

[21] Chang: a measure of ten Chinese feet.

[22] when the sentence 'who repeats the Buddha's name?' is merely repeated by a practitioner who only grasps its meaning, he thinks of the 'tail' of the hua t'ou, instead of its head or ante-word, that is the mind. Thus he wrongly applies his mind to 'tall' instead of 'head'.

[23] The master means that these people fail because they set their discriminating minds on grasping the meaning of these sentences, whereas in the training, their minds should first be disentangled from all discriminations.

[24] If an evil thought is allowed to slip into the concentration of mind while holding a hua t'ou, this thought will replace the hua t'ou and may grow out of proportion and become difficult to subdue. If it be a strong desire which cannot be satisfied, the resultant frustration may cause insanity. One's breath should never be interfered with, and concentration of mind should never be on the chest as it may affect the lungs and cause the vomiting of blood.

[25] View of dualism which should be wiped out.

[26] Sila= precept, command, prohibition, discipline, rule, morality.

[27] Master Kuei Shan (Wei Shan) and his disciple Yang Shan were founders of the Kuei Yang (Wei Yang) Sect (Ikyo in Japanese), one of the five Ch'an Sects in China.

[28] i.e. free from all attachments, which are likened to a burden which one should lay down.

[29] This state of stillness is fully described in Han Shan's 'Song of the Board-bearer' (see Han Shan's Autobiography) and in Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva's 'Complete Enlightenment' when he said: 'Both the hearing and its object came to an end but I did not stay where they ended.'

[30] Mind-nature: immutable mind-body, the existing fundamental pure mind, the all, the Tathagata-garba

[31] Mean: between the two extremes.

[32] Ts'an (Can): to inquire, investigate, look into. Usually at the end of a meeting, a master mutters this word to urge his disciples to inquire into or ponder over the real meaning.

The Mind of Absolute Trust

Seng-Ts'an was a Buddhist layman over forty years of age when he came to the second Patriarch, Hui-k'o, with a request that the master purify him of his sins. The response (see Hui-k'o on the Other Ch'an Masters page) inspired Seng-Ts'an to become a monk under Hui-k'o, leading to his enlightenment and succession as Patriarch. He died in 609, leaving us the priceless stanzas titled Hsin Hsin Ming, which are variously identified in English as Inscribed on the Believing Mind, On Trust in the Heart and The Mind of Absolute Trust. The full text of a translation attributed to Richard B. Clarke appears in the column to the right, with other translations of sections appearing below. You'll see that he's giving directions on living in the Way, or Tao.

Seng-ts'an

On Trust in the Heart

From Zen: a way of life, by Christmas Humphreys

The perfect way knows no difficulties
Except that it refuses to make preferences;
Only when freed from hate and love
It reveals itself fully and without disguise;
A tenth of an inch’s difference,
And heaven and earth are set apart.
If you wish to see it before your own eyes
Have no fixed thoughts either for or against it.

To set up what you like against what you dislike -
That is the disease of the mind:
When the deep meaning (of the Way) is not understood,
Peace of mind is disturbed to no purpose.

The Way is perfect like unto vast space,
It is indeed due to making choice
That its Suchness is lost sight of.

Pursue not the outer entanglements,
Dwell not in the inner Void;
Be serene in the oneness of things,
And dualism vanishes by itself.

When you strive to gain quiescence by stopping motion,
The quiescence thus gained is ever in motion;
As long as you tarry in dualism,
How can you realize oneness?

And when oneness is not thoroughly understood,
In two ways loss is sustained:
The denying of reality is the asserting of it,
And the asserting of emptiness is the denying of it.

Wordliness and intellection -
The more with them, the farther astray we go:
Away, therefore, with wordliness and intellection,
and there is no place where we cannot pass freely.

When we return to the root, we gain the meaning;
When we pursue external objects we lose the reason.
The moment we are enlightened within,
We go beyond the voidness of a world confronting us.

Transformations going on in an empty world which confronts us
Appear real all because of ignorance:
Try not to seek after the true.
Only cease to cherish opinions.

The Mind of Absolute Trust

from a literal translation
by Robert F. Olson

The Great Way isn’t difficult
for those who are unattached to their preferences.
Let go of longing and aversion,
and everything will be perfectly clear.
When you cling to a hairbreadth of distinction, heaven and earth are set apart.
If you want to realize the truth,
don’t be for or against.
The struggle between good and evil
is the primal disease of the mind.
Not grasping the deeper meaning,
you just trouble your mind’s serenity.
As vast as infinite space,
it is perfect and lacks nothing.
But because you select and reject,
you can’t perceive its true nature.
Don’t get entangled in the world;
don’t lose yourself in emptiness.
Be at peace in the oneness of things,
and all errors will disappear by themselves.

If you don’t live the Tao,
you fall into assertion or denial.
Asserting that the world is real,
you are blind to its deeper reality;
denying that the world is real,
you are blind to the selflessness of all things.
The more you think about these matters,
the farther you are from the truth.
Step aside from all thinking,
and there is nowhere you can’t go.
Returning to the root, you find the meaning; chasing appearances, you lose their source.
At the moment of profound insight,
you transcend both appearance and emptiness.
Don’t keep searching for the truth;
just let go of your opinions.
For the mind in harmony with the Tao,
all selfishness disappears.
With not even a trace of self-doubt,
you can trust the universe completely.
All at once you are free,
with nothing left to hold on to.
All is empty, brilliant,
perfect in its own being.
In the world of things as they are,
there is no self, no non-self.
If you want to describe its essence,
the best you can say is "Not-two."

For the mind in harmony with the Tao,
all selfishness disappears.
With not even a trace of self-doubt,
you can trust the universe completely.

In this "Not-two" nothing is separate,
and nothing in the world is excluded.
The enlightened of all times and places
have entered into this truth.
In it there is no gain or loss;
one instant is ten thousand years.
There is no here, no there;
infinity is right before your eyes.
The tiny is as large as the vast when objective boundaries have vanished;
the vast is as small as the tiny,
when you don’t have external limits.
Being is an aspect of non-being;
non-being is no different from being.
Until you understand this truth,
you won’t see anything clearly.
One is all; all are one. When
you realize this, what reason for holiness or wisdom?
The mind of absolute trust
is beyond all thought, all striving,
is perfectly at peace; for in it
there is no yesterday,
no tomorrow,
no today.

Hsin Hsin Ming
Inscribed on the Believing Mind

The Great Way is not difficult
for those who have no preferences.
When love and hate are both absent
everything becomes clear and undisguised.
Make the smallest distinction, however,
and heaven and earth are set infinitely apart.
If you wish to see the truth
then hold no opinions for or against anything.
To set up what you like against what you dislike
is the disease of the mind.
When the deep meaning of things is not understood
the mind’s essential peace is disturbed to no avail.

The Way is perfect like vast space
where nothing is lacking and nothing is in excess.
Indeed, it is due to our choosing to accept or reject
that we do not see the true nature of things.
Live neither in the entanglements of outer things,
nor in inner feelings of emptiness.
Be serene in the oneness of things
and such erroneous views will disappear by themselves.
When you try to stop activity to achieve passivity
your very effort fills you with activity.
As long as you remain in one extreme or the other
you will never know Oneness.
Those who do not live in the single Way
fail in both activity and passivity,
assertion and denial.
To deny the reality of things
is to miss their reality;
to assert the emptiness of things
is to miss their reality.
The more you talk and think about it,
the further astray you wander from the truth.
Stop talking and thinking,
and there is nothing you will not be able to know.
To return to the root is to find the meaning,
but to pursue appearances is to miss the source.
At the moment of inner enlightenment
there is a going beyond appearance and emptiness.
The changes that appear to occur in the empty world
we call real only because of our ignorance.
Do not search for the truth;
only cease to cherish opinions.

Do not remain in the dualistic state;
avoid such pursuits carefully.
If there is even a trace
of this and that, of right and wrong,
the Mind-essence will be lost in confusion.
Although all dualities come from the One,
do not be attached even to this One.
When the mind exists undisturbed in the Way,
nothing in the world can offend,
and when a thing can no longer offend,
it ceases to exist in the old way.

When no discriminating thoughts arise,
the old mind ceases to exist.
When thought objects vanish,
the thinking-subject vanishes.
Things are objects because of the subject;
the mind is such because of things.
Understand the relativity of these two
and the basic reality: the unity of emptiness.
In this Emptiness the two are indistinguishable
and each contains in itself the whole world.
If you do not discriminate between coarse and fine
you will not be tempted to prejudice and opinion.

To live in the Great Way
is neither easy nor difficult,
but those with limited views
are fearful and irresolute;
the faster they hurry, the slower they go,
and clinging cannot be limited;
even to be attached to the idea of enlightenment
is to go astray.
Just let things be in their own way,
and there will be neither coming nor going.

Obey the nature of things [your own nature],
and you will walk freely and undisturbed.
When thought is in bondage the truth is hidden,
for everything is murky and unclear,
and the burdensome practice of judging
brings annoyance and weariness.
What benefits can be derived
from distinctions and separations?
If you wish to move in the One Way,
do not dislike even the world of senses and ideas.
Indeed, to accept them fully
is identical with true Enlightenment.
The wise man strives to no goals
but the foolish man fetters himself.
There is one Dharma, not many;
distinctions arise
from the clinging needs of the ignorant.
To seek Mind with the mind
is the greatest of all mistakes.

Rest and unrest derive from illusion;
with enlightenment there is no liking and disliking.
All dualities come from ignorant inference.
They are like dreams or flowers in the air:
foolish to try to grasp them.
Gain and loss, right and wrong:
such thoughts must finally be abolished at once.

If the eye never sleeps,
all dreams will naturally cease.
If the mind makes no discriminations,
the ten thousand things
are as they are, of single essence.
To understand the mystery of this One-essence
is to be released from all entanglements.
When all things are seen equally
the timeless Self-essence is reached.
No comparisons or analogies are possible
in this causeless, relationless state.

Consider movement stationary
and the stationary in motion:
both movement and rest disappear.
When such dualities cease to exist
Oneness itself cannot exist.
To this ultimate finality
no law or description applies.

For the unified mind in accord with the Way
all self-centered striving ceases.
Doubts and irresolutions vanish
and life in true faith is possible.
With a single stroke we are freed from bondage;
nothing clings to us and we hold to nothing.
All is empty, clear, self-illuminating,
with no exertion of the mind’s power.
Here thought, feeling, knowledge, and imagination
are of no value.
In this world of Suchness
there is neither self nor other-than-self.

To come directly into harmony with this reality
just simply say when doubt arises, ‘Not two.’
In this ‘not two’ nothing is separate,
nothing is excluded.
No matter when or where,
enlightenment means entering this truth.
And this truth is beyond extension or diminution in time or space;
in it a single thought is ten thousand years.

Emptiness here, Emptiness there,
but the infinite universe stands
always before your eyes.
Infinitely large and infinitely small:
no difference, for definitions have vanished.
and no boundaries are seen.
So too with Being and non-Being.
Don’t waste time in doubts and arguments
that have nothing to do with this.

One thing, all things:
move among and intermingle,
without distinction.
To live in this realization
is to be without anxiety about non-perfection.
To live in this faith is the road to non-duality,
because the non-dual is one with the trusting mind.

Words!
The Way is beyond language,
for in it there is
no yesterday
no tomorrow
no today.

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From the original scroll, dated 868 BC

The following discourse is attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, later called the Buddha Shakyamuni (the holy sage of the Shakya clan), passed on by word of mouth throughout the centuries from around 500 BC until the second century AD, when it was written down by Nagarjuna. Hui-neng, the sixth Patriarch of Ch'an, identified Nagarjuna as being about halfway in the line of dharma-succession from Siddhartha to Bodhidharma, who carried the Great Jewel from India to China.

I first read the Diamond Sutra in the A.F. Price and Wong Mou-Lam translation (see Sources and Links page), and I found that the stylistic conventions interfered with my absorbing the message, so I reworded it into a simplified form that was easier for me to read and consider. I'm including my version here in hopes that it might be a useful introduction if you're not already familiar with the sutra.

1. The Convocation of the Assembly Return to Directory

In Jeta Grove, the park of Anatha-pindika near the once-great city Shravasti, the "city of wonders" in northern India close to the border of Nepal, twelve hundred and fifty wandering mendicants broke their fast then gathered round to hear the words of the Buddha.

2. Subhuti Makes a Request Directory

The disciple Subhuti arose and, raising his hands with palms joined in respect, said: World-Honored One, if good men and women seek enlightenment, how should they then conduct themselves?

3. The Real Teaching of the Great Way Directory

They should discipline their thoughts as follows, Buddha replied. All living creatures are caused by me to attain unbounded liberation. Yet when vast numbers of beings have thus been liberated, in truth no being has been liberated. And why is this? Because no enlightened being cherishes the idea of a separate individuality.

4. Even the Most Beneficent Practices are Relative Directory

Furthermore, the Buddha said, a bodhisattva [aspirant] should practice good acts without regard to appearances, without attachment to sight, sound or any other quality.

Thus is merit gained, as Krishna instructed Arjuna in The Song of the Blessed One [Bhagavad Gita], when action is performed with detachment.

5. Understanding the Ultimate Principle of Reality Directory

Do you think that Reality is to be recognized by some material characteristic? [Is Reality perceivable by the senses?]

No, World-Honored One.

That's right, Subhuti. Wherever there are material characteristics, there is delusion. But whoever perceives that all characteristics are in fact no-characteristics, perceives Reality.

6. Rare is True Faith Directory

Will there always be men who truly believe after hearing this teaching? Subhuti asked.

Twenty-five hundred years after the passing of the Buddha [i.e., circa 2000], men hearing this teaching will have an uprising of pure faith, and the Buddha will recognize them, Siddhartha answered.

Yes, he will clearly perceive all those of pure heart. And why is that? It is because such men will not cherish the idea of individuality, of a separate being. Neither will they cherish the idea that things have intrinsic qualities, which includes the idea of an ego or individuality, nor even that things are devoid of intrinsic qualities. For the latter ideas imply the former.

My teaching of the dharma, the good law, is like a raft that has carried one safely across a flood. One does not continue the journey carrying the raft upon his head. Thus even the buddha-teaching must be relinquished.

7. Great Ones, Perfect beyond Learning, Utter no Words of Teaching Directory

Has the Buddha attained enlightenment, Subhuti? Has he a teaching to enunciate?

As I understand Buddha's meaning there is no formulation of truth called enlightenment, he answered. Moreover there is no teaching to enunciate. The Buddha has said that truth is uncontainable and inexpressible. It neither is nor is not.

This unformulated principle is the foundation of the different systems of all true sages, Subhuti.

8. The Fruits of Meritorious Actions Directory

If anyone filled three thousand galaxies with all the treasures of the universe and gave it all away in alms, would he gain great merit? Buddha asked.

Great indeed World-Honored One.

On the other hand, Buddha said, if anyone received and retained even four lines of this discourse and taught them to others, his merit would be the greater. From this discourse issue forth all the buddhas and the enlightenment teachings of all the buddhas.

[This seems like a device for ensuring that the teaching would be carried on to succeeding generations verbatim, which was probably a major concern before the advent of widespread recording media. On the other hand, Buddha has just said that there is no teaching to enunciate and that truth is inexpressible. Apparently he didn't assume there would be an unbroken chain of enlightened teachers to keep the lamp burning. Although words cannot express Truth, they can be catalysts for the advent of awakening, as Hui-neng describes his first hearing of the Diamond Sutra -- and as two friends and fellow students of Richard Rose found out in 1999, one upon reading something written by Alfred Pulyan, the other when reading something written by Franklin Merrell-Wolff (see the Maximum Systems page).]

9. Real Designation is Undesignate Directory

Does a venerable one who will never more be reborn as a mortal say to himself, "I obtain the fruit of a nonreturner"?

No, World-Honored One. "Nonreturner" is just a name. There is no nonreturning; hence the designation "nonreturner."

Does a holy one say to himself, "I have obtained perfect enlightenment"?

No, World-Honored One, for that would partake of the idea of an ego or individual self. Claiming spiritual superiority is separative and enhances the illusory personality.

10. Setting forth Pure Lands Directory

[The reference is to a bodhisattva who has attained complete enlightenment and who may preside as a king over a world of beings whom he never ceases to help until they are free and perfected.]

Does a buddha set forth any majestic buddha-lands?

No, Subhuti answered, because such "setting forth" is not a majestic setting forth but merely a name.

Therefore, Buddha said, all bodhisattvas should develop a pure, lucid mind that alights upon nothing whatsoever.

11. The Superiority of Unformulated Truth Directory

If a good man or woman filled three thousand galaxies with all the treasures in the universe as many times over as there are grains of sand in all their great rivers and gave all away in gifts to the needy, would he gain great merit?

Great indeed, World-Honored One.

Nevertheless, if a good man or woman studies this discourse only so far as to receive and retain four lines, and teaches and explains them to others, the consequent merit would be far greater.

[Richard Rose felt strongly that a person's path is accelerated by a vow to help others. He remarked that while few have ears to hear Truth, even fewer can act -- pointing out that while Jesus had about seventy disciples, there were only twelve apostles. Following this proportion as a guide, every seeker should be helping six other seekers on the rung of the ladder below his own.]

12. Veneration of the True Doctrine Directory

Furthermore, you should know that wherever this discourse is proclaimed, by even so little as four lines, that place should be venerated by all the realms of sentient beings.

How much more is this so in the case of one who is able to receive and retain the whole. Such a one attains the highest and most wonderful truth.

13. How this Teaching Should Be Received and Retained Directory

By what name should this discourse be known, World-Honored One, and how should we receive and retain it?

It should be known as the Diamond Cutter of Perfect Wisdom. But according to the buddha-teaching, the perfection of transcendental wisdom is not really such, but just the name given to it.

Would there be many molecules in three thousand galaxies, Subhuti?

Many, indeed, Subhuti said.

The Tathagata [another title for Buddha composed in Chinese of the characters for "thus" and "come"] declares that all these molecules are not really such; they are merely called molecules. Furthermore, a world is not really a world; it is merely called such.

If on the one hand a good man or woman sacrifices as many lives as sand grains on the Ganges, and on the other hand anyone receives and retains only four lines of this discourse, and teaches it to others, the merit of the latter will be greater.

14. Perfect Peace Lies in Freedom from Characteristic Distinctions Directory

Upon hearing the discourse Subhuti had an interior realization and was moved to tears. It is a most precious thing, World-Honored One, that you should deliver this supremely profound discourse, he said. Never have I heard such an exposition since my eye of wisdom first opened. If anyone listens to this discourse in faith with a pure, lucid mind, he will thereupon conceive an idea of fundamental reality.

Just as you say, Buddha replied. If anyone listens to this discourse and is filled with neither alarm nor awe nor dread, be it known that such a one is of remarkable achievement.

The first perfection, the perfection of charity, is not, in fact, the first perfection; it is merely a name. Likewise the perfection of patience is not such. Therefore bodhisattvas should leave behind all phenomenal distinctions and awaken the thought of enlightenment by not allowing the mind to depend upon notions evoked by the sensible world.

The mind should be kept independent of any thoughts that arise within it, or it has no sure haven. As bodhisattvas practice charity for the welfare of all living beings, they should do it in this manner. Just as the Tathagata declares that characteristics are not characteristics, so he declares that all living beings are not, in fact, living beings.

The Tathagata is he who declares that which is true, he who declares that which is fundamental, he who declares that which is ultimate. The truth to which the Tathagata has attained is neither real nor unreal.

If there be good men and women in future ages able to receive, read and recite this discourse in its entirety, the Tathagata will clearly perceive and recognize them by means of his buddha-knowledge; and each one of them will bring immeasurable and incalculable merit to fruition.

[The conversion of an ordinary man to a bodhisattva is said to be marked by three events: 1) he awakens the thought of enlightenment; 2) he dedicates himself to the ideal of service for the salvation of all creatures; and 3) he receives a prediction from a buddha of his attainment of the goal.]

15. The Incomparable Value of this Teaching Directory

If on the one hand a good man or woman performs in the morning as many charitable acts of self-denial as the sand grains of the Ganges, and performs as many again in the noonday and as many again in the evening, and continues so doing throughout numberless ages, and, on the other hand, anyone listens to this discourse with heart of faith and without contention, the latter would be the more blessed. But how can any comparison be made with one who writes it down, receives it, retains it, and explains it to others!

The full value of this discourse can be neither conceived nor estimated, nor can any limit be set to it. The Tathagata has declared this teaching for the benefit of the initiates of the great way; he has declared it for the benefit of the initiates of the supreme way.

16. Purgation through Suffering the Retribution for Past Sins Directory

If good men and women who receive and retain this discourse are downtrodden, their evil destiny is the inevitable retributive result of sins committed in their past mortal lives. By virtue of their present misfortunes the reacting effects of their past will be thereby worked out, and they will be in a position to attain the consummation of incomparable enlightenment.

If I fully detailed the merit gained by good men and women coming to receive, retain, study and recite this discourse, my hearers would be filled with doubt and might become disordered in mind, suspicious and unbelieving. You should know, Subhuti, that the significance of this discourse is beyond conception; likewise the fruit of its rewards is beyond conception.

[The above remark is consistent with the teachings of the Ch'an masters, which is that reality cannot be conceived by the intellect but can only be realized through direct experience.]

17. No One Attains Transcendental Wisdom Directory

World-Honored One, if good men and women seek enlightenment, how should they abide and how control their thoughts?

They must create this resolved attitude of mind, Buddha replied: "I must liberate all living beings; yet when all have been liberated, verily not anyone is liberated."

In reality there is no formula that gives rise to the consummation of incomparable enlightenment. Tathagata is a signification implying all formulas. The basis of the Tathagata's attainment of enlightenment is wholly BEYOND; it is neither real nor unreal.

If a bodhisattva announces "I will liberate all living creatures," he is not rightly called a bodhisattva. There is really no such condition as bodhisattvaship, because all things are devoid of separate individuality. Bodhisattvas who are truly devoid of any conception of separate selfhood are truthfully called bodhisattvas.

18. All Modes of Mind Are Really Only Mind Directory

If there were as many Ganges rivers as the sand grains of the Ganges and there was a buddha-land for each sand grain in all those rivers, would those buddha-lands be many?

Many, indeed.

However many living beings there are in all those buddha-lands, though they have manifold modes of mind, the Tathagata understands them all. All these are not mind; they are merely called mind. It is impossible to retain past mind, impossible to hold on to present mind, and impossible to grasp future mind.

19. Absolute Reality Is the Only Foundation Directory

If anyone filled three thousand galaxies with treasure and gave it all away, would he gain great merit?

Indeed, World-Honored One, he would gain great merit.

If such merit were real, the Tathagata would not have declared it to be great, but because it is without a foundation the Tathagata characterized it as "great".

20. The Unreality of Phenomenal Distinctions Directory

Can the Buddha be perceived by his perfectly formed body?

No, World-Honored One. A perfectly formed body is not really such; it is merely called that.

Can the Absolute be perceived by means of any phenomenal characteristics [that is, perceptible by the senses]?

No, Subhuti replied, because phenomenal characteristics are not really such but are merely called so.

21. Words Cannot Express Truth; That which Words Express is not Truth Directory

If anyone says that the Tathagata sets forth a teaching he really slanders Buddha and is unable to explain what I teach. As to any truth-declaring system, truth is undeclarable; so an "enunciation of truth" is just the name give to it.

In future ages, Subhuti asked, will there be men coming to hear a declaration of this teaching who will be inspired with belief?

Those to whom you refer are neither living beings nor not-living beings. "Living beings" are not really such; they are just called that.

22. It Cannot Be Said that Anything Is Attainable Directory

Subhuti asked: In the attainment of enlightenment did the Buddha make no acquisition whatever?

Just so, Buddha replied. Through the consummation of incomparable enlightenment I acquired not the least thing.

23. The Cultivation of Goodness Purifies the Mind Directory

Furthermore, THIS is altogether everywhere, without differentiation or degree. It is straightly attained by freedom from separate selfhood and by cultivating all kinds of goodness. But, though we speak of "goodness," the Tathagata declares that there is no goodness.

24. The Incomparable Merit of this Teaching Directory

If one gives the needy a mass of treasures equal in extent to as many mighty Mount Sumerus as there would be in three thousand galaxies, and if another selects even four lines from this discourse upon the perfection of the transcendental wisdom, receiving and retaining them, and clearly expounding them to others, the merit of the latter will be so far greater than that of the former that no conceivable comparison can be made between them.

25. The Illusion of the Ego Directory

Let no one say the Tathagata cherishes the idea "I must liberate all living beings." In reality there are no living beings to be liberated by the Tathagata. If there were living beings for the Tathagata to liberate, he would partake of the idea of selfhood, personality, ego entity and separate individuality.

26. The Body of Truth Has No Mark Directory

May the Tathagata be perceived by the thirty-two marks of a great man? Buddha asked.

As I understand the meaning of Buddha's words, the Tathagata may not be perceived by the thirty-two marks, Subhuti replied.

Whereupon the World-Honored One uttered this verse:

Who seeks me by form,
Who seeks me in sound,
Perverted are his footsteps upon the way;
For he cannot perceive the Absolute.

27. It Is Erroneous to Affirm that All Things Are Ever Extinguished Directory

The Tathagata's attainment of enlightenment was not by reason of his perfected form [I believe he's referring to the entire organism, physical and mental, as well as its manifested actions]. On the other hand, do not believe that anyone in whom dawns the consummation of incomparable enlightenment would declare that all manifest standards are ended and extinguished. Such a man does not affirm concerning any formula that it is finally extinguished.

28. Attachment to Rewards of Merit Directory

If one bodhisattva bestows in charity sufficient treasures to fill as many worlds as there are sand grains in the Ganges, and another, realizing that all things are egoless, attains perfection through patient forbearance, the merit of the latter will far exceed that of the former.

What is the saying, World-Honored One, that bodhisattvas are insentient as to rewards of merit?

Bodhisattvas who achieve merit should not be fettered with desire for rewards. Thus it is said that the rewards of merit are not received.

[From the Bhagavad-Gita: Thy right is to work, but never to its fruits; let not the fruit of thy work be thy motive, nor take refuge in abstinence from works. Standing in union with the Soul, carry out thy work, putting away attachment, O conqueror of wealth; equal in success and failure, for equalness is called union with the Soul.]

29. Perfect Tranquility Directory

If anyone should say that the Tathagata comes or goes or sits or reclines, he fails to understand my teaching. Why? Because the Tathagata has neither whence or whither.

30. The Integral Principle Directory

If a good man or woman ground an infinite number of worlds to dust, would the resulting minute particles be many, Subhuti?

Many, indeed! Because if such were really minute particles Buddha would not have spoken of them as minute particles. "Minute particles" is just the name given to them. Also, when the Tathagata speaks of worlds, these are not worlds; for if reality could be predicated of a world it would be a self-existent cosmos, and the Tathagata teaches that there is really no such thing.

Words cannot explain the real nature of a cosmos, Buddha agreed. Only common people fettered with desire make use of this arbitrary method.

31. Conventional Truth Should Be Cut Off Directory

If anyone should say that Buddha declares any conception of egoity, would he understand my teaching?

No, Subhuti replied, because the World-Honored One declares that notions of selfhood, personality, entity and separate individuality are erroneous; these terms are merely figures of speech.

Those who aspire to the consummation of incomparable enlightenment should recognize and understand all the varieties of things in the same way and cut off the arising of aspects, Buddha said.

32. The Delusion of Appearances Directory

Someone might fill innumerable worlds with treasure and give all away in gifts of alms, but if any good man or woman awakens the thought of enlightenment and takes even four lines from this discourse, reciting, using, receiving, retaining and spreading them abroad and explaining them for the benefit of others, it will be far more meritorious.

In what manner may he explain them to others? By detachment from appearances - abiding in real truth.

According to science today, all phenomena in the universe are recognized through the relationship of the knower and the known (knower = the brain, known = the brain's knowledge). It is a relative relation between subject and object. The subject is the brain, or the knower. The object is the brain's knowledge, or the known.

All branches of knowledge from abstract concepts such as philosophy, theology, sociology to concrete sciences such as astronomy, physiology, economics etc., all are the objects of knowing -- known by the subject brain.

All matters go through formation and decay. The nature of the brain is of matter -- it is limited by the process of birth and death. When one (the knower) dies, the brain dies too. It then turns into dust. All the brain's knowledge will vanish upon death. Now, anything that can vanish or die has no real value. In Buddhism, real, or real value means eternal, not subject to change and decay.

Sakyamuni (the Buddha) wants to teach us a way to discover the reality in us that exists forever, which will never vanish -- the real knowing that is complete and eternal.

This real, eternal knowing is without subject (the knower) and object (the known); it is the knowing of the real mind. (1)

On the other hand, the temporal, brain-acquired knowledge based on subject-object relation is the knowing of the illusory mind. (2)

We human beings, in our daily lives, believe only the illusory mind. We cannot see our real mind because it is covered up by all the cluttering knowledge and busy activities of the illusory mind. So, we always take the knowledge of the illusory mind to be real. Yet in reality, such knowledge has no real value to the knower because it will die and vanish in time.

The real mind is eternal. Even though it is concealed by the illusory mind, its functioning and knowing is always at work without interruption. Like the sun, when blocked by the clouds, the moon, or the earth, it still shines without interruption. To see the sunlight again, all we have to do is remove these blocking objects.

Our real mind works the same way. If we clear away all the mental blockages, meaning the illusory knowledge of the brain, the real mind will automatically appear. Like sun light, this real knowing reaches throughout all space and time, infinite and complete.

The Patriarch Zen (3) meditation taught by Sakyamuni aims at cleaning up the mental barriers that keep us from seeing our real mind. When these barriers are gone, the real mind naturally reveals itself, which is a happening called enlightenment (4).

Like waking from a deep dream, the enlightened person finds that all the people and the world he knew of were not real. That life has been an open-eye dream much like our closed-eye dream, it disappears upon waking. Such realization in Buddhism is called "self-proven truth."

Note:

1. Real mind : Also known as buddha-mind, buddha-nature, absolute-mind, one-mind.

2. Illusory mind : All relative, subject-object, dualistic thinking.

3. Patriarch Zen : Patriarchs are grand masters who have awakened from the open-eye dream. Patriarch Zen is a meditation technique which uses the not-knowing side of the brain to clean up the brain’s cognition, thinking, and memorization processes. It is taught by and passed down directly from patriarch to patriarch since the time of Buddha Sakyamuni.

4. Enlightenment : the transformation where our real mind takes control over the functioning of the brain (the illusory mind). The brain still functions the same except that it can no longer control us with its illusory creations; we are our own masters forever. The enlightened mind, or the real mind, cannot be discovered by anyone including the Buddha because it is absolute. If it is discovered it becomes an object of knowing, which falls in the relative field. The real mind knows itself and can be discovered only by itself.

Rev. Wei Li Thich Duy Lu
master

Bodhidharma crossing river with a reed Bodhidharma (Tamo to the Chinese; Daruma to the Japanese) was the third son of a southern Indian rajah, of a warrior-caste family, according to The Transmission of Light ('Denkoroku') attributed to the 13th century Japanese Zen master Keizan (1268-1325). After his father's death, Bodhidharma went to Prajnatara, the 27th Indian patriarch in succession from Buddha, and requested ordination as a monk. After Bodhidharma's eventual awakening, his teacher told him that he should go to northern China, where he would find successors.

Bodhidharma followed Prajnatara's suggestion, crossing the Yangtze River into northern China and arriving at the Shaolin monastery, where he taught for nine years and developed four main disciples, one of whom became enlightened. That was Hui-k'o.

Bodhidharma's Discourse on the Twofold Entrance to the Tao (from The Golden Age of Zen by John C.H. Wu):

Bodhidharma facing to wall There are many roads leading to the Tao, but essentially they can be subsumed under two categories. The one is 'Entrance by way of Reason,' and the other 'Entrance by the way of Conduct.'

By 'Entrance by way of Reason' we mean the understanding of the fundamental doctrines through the study of the scriptures, the realization, upon the basis of a deep-rooted faith, that all sentient beings have in common the one True Nature, which does not manifest itself clearly in all cases only because it is overwrapped by external objects and false thoughts. If a man abandons the false and returns to the true, resting single-heartedly and undistractedly in pure contemplation, he will realize that there is neither self nor other, that the holy and profane are of one essence. If he holds on firmly to this belief and never swerves from it, he will never again be a slave to the letter of the scriptures, being in secret communion with Reason itself and altogether emancipated from conceptual discrimination. In this way, he will enjoy perfect serenity and spontaneity. This is called 'Entrance by way of Reason.'

'Entrance by way of Conduct' refers to the four rules of conduct under which all other rules can be subsumed. They are (1) the rule of requital of hatred, (2) the rule of adaptation to variable conditions and circumstances of life, (3) the rule of non-attachment, and (4) the rule of acting in accord with the Dharma.

1. The Requital of Hatred. When a pursuer of the Tao falls into any kind of suffering and trials, he should think and say to himself thus: 'During the innumerable past kalpas I have abandoned the essential and followed after the accidentals, carried along on the restless waves of the sea of existences, and thereby creating endless occasions for hate, ill-will, and wrong-doing. Although my present suffering is not caused by any offenses committed in this life, yet it is a fruit of my sins in my past existences, which happens to ripen at this moment. It is not something which any men or gods could have given to me. Let me therefore take, patiently and sweetly, this bitter fruit of my own making without resentment or complaint against anyone.' The Scripture teaches us not to be disturbed by painful experiences. Why? Because of a penetrating insight into the real cause of all our sufferings. When this mind is awakened in a man, it responds spontaneously to the dictates of Reason, so that it can even help him to make the best use of other people's hatred and turn it into an occasion of advance toward the Tao. This is called the 'rule of requital of hatred.'

2. The Rule of Adaptation. We should know that all sentient beings are produced by the interplay of karmaic conditions, and as such there can be no real self in them. The mingled yarns of pleasure and pain are all woven of the threads of conditioning causes. If therefore I should be rewarded with fortune, honor and other pleasant things, I must realize that they are the effects of my previous deeds destined to be reaped in this life. But as soon as their conditioning causes are exhausted, they will vanish away. Then why should I be elated over them? Therefore, let gains and loses run their natural courses according to the ever-changing conditions and circumstances of life, for the Mind itself does not increase with the gains nor decrease with the losses. In this way, no gales of self-complacency will arise, and your mind will remain in hidden harmony with the Tao. It is in this sense that we must understand 'the rule of adaptation to the variable conditions and circumstances of life.'

3. The Rule of Non-Attachment. Men of the world remain unawakened for life; everywhere we find them bound by their craving and clinging. This is called 'attachment.' The wise however understand the truth, and their reason tells them to turn from the worldly ways. They enjoy peace of mind and perfect detachment. They adjust their bodily movements to the vicissitudes of fortune, always aware of the emptiness of the phenomenal world, in which they find nothing to delight in. Merit and demerit are ever interpenetrated, like light and darkness. To stay too long in the triple world is to live in a house on fire. Everyone who has a body is an heir to suffering and a stranger to peace. Having comprehended this point, the wise are detached from all things of the phenomenal world, with their minds free of desires and craving. As the Scripture has it, 'All sufferings spring from attachment; true joy arises from detachment.' To know clearly the bliss of detachment is to walk on the path of the Tao. This is 'the rule of non-attachment.'

4. The Rule of acting in accord with the Dharma. Dharma is nothing else than Reason which is pure in its essence. This pure Reason is the formless Form of all Forms; it is free of all defilements and attachments, and it knows of neither 'self' nor 'other.' As the Scripture says, 'In the Dharma there are no sentient beings, that is, it is free from the stain of sentient beings. In the Dharma there is no self, that is, it is free from the stain of the self.' When the wise are convinced of this truth, they should live in harmony with the Dharma.

Bodhidharma, the 'Barbarian from the West' (ink painting from Bokkei, 15th century) As there is no shadow of pusillanimity in the whole body of the Dharma, so the wise are ever ready to put their body, life and property at the service of charity, never ceasing to be generous and gracious. Having thoroughly pierced through the threefold nature of emptiness, they are no longer dependent upon or attached to anything. Even in their work of converting all living beings, their sole motive is to cleanse them of their stains; and while they are among them as of them, they would take care not to be contaminated by a possessive love. In this way, they manage to keep themselves perfect and at the same time to benefit others. Besides, they glorify the true Tao of Enlightenment. As with the virtue of charity, so with the other five of the Prajnaparamita. The wise practice the six virtues of perfection in order to sweep away all confused thoughts, but they feel as though they were doing nothing to speak of. This is indeed acting 'in accord with the Dharma.'

The first part of this selection is taken from John Blofeld’s introduction to his new rendering of this ninth-century Chinese Buddhist classic. [Selections included in Nancy Ross Wilson’s The World of Zen.]

All Buddhists take Gautama Buddha’s Enlightenment as their starting point and endeavor to attain to that transcendental knowledge that will bring them face to face with Reality, thereby delivering them from rebirth into the space-time realm forever. Zen followers go further. They are not content to pursue Enlightenment through aeons of varied existences inevitably bound up with pain and ignorance, approaching with infinite slowness the Supreme Experience which Christian mystics have described as “union with the God-head.” They believe in the possibility of attaining Full Enlightenment both here and now through determined efforts to rise beyond conceptual thought and to grasp that Intuitive Knowledge which is the central fact of Enlightenment. Furthermore, they insist that the experience is both sudden and complete. While the striving may require years, the reward manifests itself in a flash. But to attain this reward, the practice of virtue and dispassion is insufficient. It is necessary to rise above such relative concepts as good and evil, sought and found, Enlightenment and unenlightenment, and all the rest.
To make this point clearer, let us consider some Christian ideas of God. God is regarded as the First Principle, uncaused and unbegat, which logically implies perfection; such a being cannot be discovered through the relativity of time and space. Then comes the concept of “God is good” which, as Christian mystics have pointed out, detracts from His perfection; for to be good implies not being evil -- a limitation which inevitably destroys the unity and wholeness of these things, for He transcends them all. Again, the idea of God as the creator of the universe suggests a dualism, a distinction between creator and created. This, if valid, places God on a lower level than perfection, for there can be neither unity nor wholeness where A excludes B or B excludes A.
Zen followers (who have much in common with mystics of other faiths) do not use the term “God,” being wary of its dualistic and anthropomorphic implications. They prefer to talk of “the Absolute” or “the One Mind,” for which they employ many synonyms according to the aspect to be emphasized in relation to something finite. Thus, the word “Buddha” is used as a synonym for the Absolute as well as in the sense of Gautama, the Enlightened One, for it is held that the two are identical. A Buddha’s Enlightenment denotes an intuitive realization of his unity with the Absolute from which, after the death of his body, nothing remains to divide him even in appearance. Of the Absolute nothing whatever can be postulated; to say that it exists excludes non-existence; to say that it does not exist excludes existence. Furthermore, Zen followers hold that the Absolute, or union with the Absolute, is not something to be attained; one does not ENTER Nirvana, for entrance to a place one has never left is impossible. The experience commonly called “entering Nirvana” is, in fact, an intuitive realization of that Self-nature which is the true Nature of all things. The Absolute, or Reality, is regarded as having for sentient beings two aspects. The only aspect perceptible to the unenlightened is the one in which individual phenomena have a separate though purely transitory existence within the limits of space-time. The other aspect is spaceless and timeless; moreover all opposites, all distinctions and “entities” of every kind, are here seen to be One. Yet neither is this second aspect, alone, the highest fruit of Enlightenment, as many contemplatives suppose. It is only when both aspects are conceived and reconciled that the beholder may be regarded as truly Enlightened. Yet, from that moment, he ceases to be the beholder, for he is conscious of no division between beholding and beheld. This leads to further paradoxes, unless the use of words is abandoned altogether. It is incorrect to employ such mystical terminology as “I dwell in the Absolute,” “The Absolute dwells in me,” or “I am penetrated by the Absolute,” etc.; for, when space is transcended, the concepts of whole and part are no longer valid; the part is the whole -- I AM the Absolute, except that I am no longer “I.” What I behold then is my real Self, which is the true nature of all things; see-er and seen are one and the same, yet there is no seeing, just as the eye cannot behold itself.
The single aim of the true Zen follower is so to train his mind that all thought processes based on the dualism inseparable from “ordinary” life are transcended, their place being taken by that Intuitive Knowledge which, for the first time, reveals to a man what he really is. If All is One, then knowledge of a being’s true self-nature -- his original Self -- is equally a knowledge of all-nature, the nature of everything in the universe. Those who have actually achieved this tremendous experience, whether as Christians, Buddhists or members of other faiths, are agreed as to the impossibility of communicating it in words. They may employ words to point the way to others, but, until the latter have achieved the experience for themselves, they can have but the merest glimmer of the truth -- a poor intellectual concept of something lying infinitely beyond the highest point ever reached by the human intellect.
It will now be clear that Zen Masters do not employ paradoxes from a love of cheap mystification, though they do occasionally make humorous use of them when humor seems needed. Usually, it is the utter impossibility of describing the Supreme Experience which explains the paradoxical nature of their speech. To affirm or deny is to limit; to limit is to shut out the light of truth; but, as words of some sort must be used in order to set disciples on to the right path, there naturally arises a series of paradoxes -- sometimes of paradox within paradox within paradox.
It should perhaps be added that Huang Po’s frequent criticisms of those Buddhists who follow the more conventional path, cultivating knowledge, good works and a compassionate heart through successive stages of existence, are not intended to call into question the value to humanity of such excellent practices. As a Buddhist, Huang Po must certainly have regarded these things as necessary for our proper conduct in daily life; indeed, we are told by P’ei Hsiu [who recorded the teachings] that his way of life was exalted; but he was concerned lest concepts such as virtue should lead people into dualism, and lest they should hold Enlightenment to be a gradual process attainable by other means than intuitive insight.

Huang Po’s Use of the Term “The One Mind”
The text indicates that Huang Po was not entirely satisfied with his choice of the word “Mind” to symbolize the inexpressible Reality beyond the reach of conceptual thought, for he more than once explains that the One Mind is not really MIND at all. But he had to use some term or other, and “Mind” had not often been used by his predecessors. As Mind conveys intangibility, it no doubt seemed to him a good choice, especially as the use of this term helps to make it clear that the part of a man usually regarded as an individual entity inhabiting his body is, in fact, not his property at all, but common to him and to everybody and everything else. (It must be remembered that, in Chinese, “hsin” means not only “mind,” but “heart” and, in some senses at least, “spirit” or “soul” - in short, the so-called REAL man, the inhabitant of the body-house.) If we prefer to substitute the word “Absolute,” which Huang Po occasionally uses himself, we must take care not to read into the text any preconceived notions as to the nature of the Absolute. And, of course, “the One Mind” is no less misleading, unless we abandon all preconceived ideas, as Huang Po intended.
In an earlier translation of the first part of this book, I ventured to substitute “Universal Mind” for “the One Mind,” hoping that the meaning would be clearer. However, various critics objected to this, and I have come to see that my term is liable to a different misunderstanding; it is therefore no improvement on “the One Mind,” which at least has the merit of being a literal translation.

Dhyana-Practice
The book tells us very little about the practice of what, for want of a better translation, is often called meditation or contemplation. Unfortunately both these words are misleading as they imply some object of meditation or of contemplation; and, if objectlessness be stipulated, then they may well be taken to lead to a blank or sleeplike trance, which is not at all the goal of Zen. Huang Po seems to have assumed that his audience knew something about the practice - as most keen Buddhists do, of course. He gives few instructions as to how to “meditate,” but he does tell us what to avoid. If, conceiving of the phenomenal world as illusion, we try to shut it out, we make a false distinction between the “real” and the “unreal.” So we must not shut anything out, but try to reach the point where all distinctions are seen to be void, where nothing is seen as desirable or undesirable, existing or not existing. Yet this does not mean that we should make our minds blank, for then we should be no better than blocks of wood or lumps of stone; moreover, if we remained in this state, we should not be able to deal with the circumstances of daily life or be capable of observing the Zen precept” “When hungry, eat.” Rather, we must cultivate dispassion, realizing that none of the attractive or unattractive attributes of things have any absolute existence.
Enlightenment, when it comes, will come in a flash. There can be no gradual, no partial, Enlightenment. The highly trained and zealous adept may be said to have prepared himself for Enlightenment, but by no means can he be regarded as partially Enlightened - just as a drop of water may get hotter and hotter and then, suddenly, boil; at no stage is it partly boiling, and, until the very moment of boiling, no qualitative change has occurred. In effect, however, we may go through three stages - two of non-Enlightenment and one of Enlightenment. To the great majority of people, the moon is the moon and the trees are the trees. The next stage (not really higher than the first) is to perceive that moon and trees are not at all what they seem to be, since “all is the One Mind.” When this stage is achieved, we have the concept of a vast uniformity in which all distinctions are void; and, to some adepts, this concept may come as an actual perception, as “real” to them as the moon and the trees before. It is said that, when Enlightenment really comes, the moon is again very much the moon and the trees exactly trees; but with a difference, for the Enlightened man is capable of perceiving both unity and multiplicity without the least contradiction between them!

From: The Chun Chou Record of
the Zen Master Huang Po (Tuan Chi)

A collection of sermons and dialogues recorded by P’ei Hsiu while in the city of Chun Chou.

Q: From all you have just said, Mind is the Buddha; but it is not clear as to what sort of mind is meant by this “Mind which is the Buddha.”
A: How many minds have you got?
Q: But is the Buddha the ordinary mind or the Enlightened mind?
A: Where on earth do you keep your “ordinary mind” and your “Enlightened mind?”
Q: In the teaching of the Three Vehicles it is stated that there are both. Why does Your Reverence deny it?
A: In the teaching of the Three Vehicles it is clearly explained that the ordinary and Enlightened minds are illusions. You don’t understand. All this clinging to the idea of things existing is to mistake vacuity for the truth. How can such conceptions not be illusory? Being illusory, they hide Mind from you. If you would only rid yourselves of the concepts of ordinary and Enlightened, you would find that there is no other Buddha than the Buddha in your own Mind. When Bodhidharma came from the West, he just pointed out that the substance of which all men are composed is the Buddha. You people go on misunderstanding; you hold to concepts such as “ordinary” and “Enlightened,” directing your thoughts outwards where they gallop about like horses! All this amounts to beclouding your own minds! So I tell you Mind is the Buddha. As soon as thought or sensation arises, you fall into dualism. Beginningless time and the present moment are the same. There is no this and no that. To understand this truth is called complete and unexcelled Enlightenment.
Q: Upon what Doctrine (Dharma-principles) does Your Reverence base these words?
A: Why seek a doctrine? As soon as you have a doctrine, you fall into dualistic thought.
Q: Just now you said that the beginningless past and the present are the same. What do you mean by that?
A: It is just because of your SEEKING that you make a difference between them. If you were to stop seeking, how could there be any difference between them?
Q: If they are not different, why do you employ separate terms for them?
A: If you hadn’t mentioned ordinary and Enlightened, who would have bothered to say such things? Just as those categories have no real existence, so Mind is not really “mind.” And, as both Mind and those categories are really illusions, wherever can you hope to find anything?

Q: Illusion can hide from us our own mind, but up to now you have not taught us how to get rid of illusion.
A: The arising and the elimination of illusion are both illusory. Illusion is not something rooted in Reality; it exists because of your dualistic thinking. If you will only cease to indulge in opposed concepts such as “ordinary” and “Enlightened,” illusion will cease of itself. And then if you still want to destroy it wherever it may be, you will find that there is not a hairsbreadth left of anything on which to lay hold. This is the meaning of: “I will let go with both hands, for then I shall certainly discover the Buddha in my mind.”
Q: If there is nothing on which to lay hold, how is the Dharma to be transmitted?
A: It is a transmission of Mind with Mind.
Q: If Mind is used for transmission, why do you say that Mind too does not exist?
A: Obtaining no Dharma whatever is called Mind transmission. The understanding of this implies no Mind and no Dharma.
Q: If there is no Mind and no Dharma, what is meant by transmission?
A: You hear people speak of Mind transmission and then you talk of something to be received. So Bodhidharma said:

The nature of the Mind when understood,
No human speech can compass or disclose.
Enlightenment is naught to be attained,
And he that gains it does not say he knows.

If I were to make this clear to you, I doubt if you could stand it.

From: The Wan Ling Record of
the Zen Master Huang Po (Tuan Chi)

A collection of dialogues, sermons and anecdotes recorded by P’ei Hsiu during his tenure of the prefecture of Wan Ling.

Q: If our own Mind is the Buddha, how did Bodhidharma transmit his doctrine when he came from India?
A: When he came from India, he transmitted only Mind-Buddha. He just pointed to the truth that the minds of all of you have from the very first been identical with the Buddha, and in no way separate from each other.... Whoever has an instant understanding of this truth suddenly transcends the whole hierarchy of saints and adepts.... You have always been one with the Buddha, so do not pretend you can ATTAIN to this oneness by various practices.
Q: If that is so, what Dharma do all the Buddhas teach when they manifest themselves in the world?
A: When all the Buddhas manifest themselves in the world, they proclaim nothing but the One Mind. Thus Gautama Buddha silently transmitted to Mahakasyapa the doctrine that the One Mind, which is the substance of all things, is co-extensive with the Void and fills the entire world of phenomena. This is called the Law of All the Buddhas. Discuss it as you may, how can you even hope to approach the truth through words? Nor can it be perceived either subjectively or objectively. So full understanding can come to you only through an inexpressible mystery. The approach to it is called the Gateway of the Stillness beyond all Activity. If you wish to understand, know that a sudden comprehension comes when the mind has been purged of all the clutter of conceptual and discriminatory thought-activity. Those who seek the truth by means of intellect and learning only get further and further away from it. Not till your thoughts cease all their branching here and there, not till you abandon all thoughts of seeking for something, not till your mind is motionless as wood or stone, will you be on the right road to the Gate.

[Translator’s footnote:] These words recall the admonitions of so many mystics - Buddhist, Christian, Hindu or Sufi - who have committed their experiences to words. What Huang Po calls the total abandonment of hsin - mind, thought, perceptions, concepts and the rest - implies the utter surrender of self insisted on by Sufi and Christian mystics. Indeed, in paragraph 28 he used the very words: “Let the self perish utterly.” Such striking unanimity of expression by mystics widely separated in time and space can hardly be attributed to coincidence. No several persons entirely unacquainted with one another could produce such closely similar accounts of purely imaginary journeys. Hence one is led to suppose that what they describe is real. This seems to have been Aldous Huxley’s view when he compiled that valuable work The Perennial Philosophy.

/***
Description: Contains the stuff you need to use Tiddlyspot
Note, you also need UploadPlugin, PasswordOptionPlugin and LoadRemoteFileThroughProxy
from http://tiddlywiki.bidix.info for a complete working Tiddlyspot site.
***/
//{{{

// edit this if you are migrating sites or retrofitting an existing TW
config.tiddlyspotSiteId = 'zennow';

// make it so you can by default see edit controls via http
config.options.chkHttpReadOnly = false;
window.readOnly = false; // make sure of it (for tw 2.2)
window.showBackstage = true; // show backstage too

// disable autosave in d3
if (window.location.protocol != "file:")
	config.options.chkGTDLazyAutoSave = false;

// tweak shadow tiddlers to add upload button, password entry box etc
with (config.shadowTiddlers) {
	SiteUrl = 'http://'+config.tiddlyspotSiteId+'.tiddlyspot.com';
	SideBarOptions = SideBarOptions.replace(/(<<saveChanges>>)/,"$1<<tiddler TspotSidebar>>");
	OptionsPanel = OptionsPanel.replace(/^/,"<<tiddler TspotOptions>>");
	DefaultTiddlers = DefaultTiddlers.replace(/^/,"[[WelcomeToTiddlyspot]] ");
	MainMenu = MainMenu.replace(/^/,"[[WelcomeToTiddlyspot]] ");
}

// create some shadow tiddler content
merge(config.shadowTiddlers,{

'WelcomeToTiddlyspot':[
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 "<<tiddler TspotControls>>",
 "See also GettingStarted.",
 "",
 "@@font-weight:bold;font-size:1.3em;color:#444; //Working online// &nbsp;&nbsp;@@ You can edit this ~TiddlyWiki right now, and save your changes using the \"save to web\" button in the column on the right.",
 "",
 "@@font-weight:bold;font-size:1.3em;color:#444; //Working offline// &nbsp;&nbsp;@@ A fully functioning copy of this ~TiddlyWiki can be saved onto your hard drive or USB stick.  You can make changes and save them locally without being connected to the Internet.  When you're ready to sync up again, just click \"upload\" and your ~TiddlyWiki will be saved back to tiddlyspot.com.",
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 "@@font-weight:bold;font-size:1.3em;color:#444; //Help!// &nbsp;&nbsp;@@ Find out more about ~TiddlyWiki at [[TiddlyWiki.com|http://tiddlywiki.com]].  Also visit [[TiddlyWiki.org|http://tiddlywiki.org]] for documentation on learning and using ~TiddlyWiki. New users are especially welcome on the [[TiddlyWiki mailing list|http://groups.google.com/group/TiddlyWiki]], which is an excellent place to ask questions and get help.  If you have a tiddlyspot related problem email [[tiddlyspot support|mailto:support@tiddlyspot.com]].",
 "",
 "@@font-weight:bold;font-size:1.3em;color:#444; //Enjoy :)// &nbsp;&nbsp;@@ We hope you like using your tiddlyspot.com site.  Please email [[feedback@tiddlyspot.com|mailto:feedback@tiddlyspot.com]] with any comments or suggestions."
].join("\n"),

'TspotControls':[
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 "| site management:|<<upload http://" + config.tiddlyspotSiteId + ".tiddlyspot.com/store.cgi index.html . .  " + config.tiddlyspotSiteId + ">>//(requires tiddlyspot password)//<br>[[control panel|http://" + config.tiddlyspotSiteId + ".tiddlyspot.com/controlpanel]], [[download (go offline)|http://" + config.tiddlyspotSiteId + ".tiddlyspot.com/download]]|",
 "| links:|[[tiddlyspot.com|http://tiddlyspot.com/]], [[FAQs|http://faq.tiddlyspot.com/]], [[blog|http://tiddlyspot.blogspot.com/]], email [[support|mailto:support@tiddlyspot.com]] & [[feedback|mailto:feedback@tiddlyspot.com]], [[donate|http://tiddlyspot.com/?page=donate]]|"
].join("\n"),

'TspotSidebar':[
 "<<upload http://" + config.tiddlyspotSiteId + ".tiddlyspot.com/store.cgi index.html . .  " + config.tiddlyspotSiteId + ">><html><a href='http://" + config.tiddlyspotSiteId + ".tiddlyspot.com/download' class='button'>download</a></html>"
].join("\n"),

'TspotOptions':[
 "tiddlyspot password:",
 "<<option pasUploadPassword>>",
 ""
].join("\n")

});
//}}}

| !date | !user | !location | !storeUrl | !uploadDir | !toFilename | !backupdir | !origin |
| 29/01/2009 22:19:23 | notetaker | [[ZenNow.html|file:///C:/Work/Essentials/TiddlyWiki/TiddlySpot/Religion/ZenNow.html]] | [[store.cgi|http://zennow.tiddlyspot.com/store.cgi]] | . | [[index.html | http://zennow.tiddlyspot.com/index.html]] | . | ok |
| 29/01/2009 22:22:22 | notetaker | [[ZenNow.html|file:///C:/Work/Essentials/TiddlyWiki/TiddlySpot/Religion/ZenNow.html]] | [[store.cgi|http://zennow.tiddlyspot.com/store.cgi]] | . | [[index.html | http://zennow.tiddlyspot.com/index.html]] | . |

/***
|''Name:''|UploadPlugin|
|''Description:''|Save to web a TiddlyWiki|
|''Version:''|4.1.3|
|''Date:''|Feb 24, 2008|
|''Source:''|http://tiddlywiki.bidix.info/#UploadPlugin|
|''Documentation:''|http://tiddlywiki.bidix.info/#UploadPluginDoc|
|''Author:''|BidiX (BidiX (at) bidix (dot) info)|
|''License:''|[[BSD open source license|http://tiddlywiki.bidix.info/#%5B%5BBSD%20open%20source%20license%5D%5D ]]|
|''~CoreVersion:''|2.2.0|
|''Requires:''|PasswordOptionPlugin|
***/
//{{{
version.extensions.UploadPlugin = {
	major: 4, minor: 1, revision: 3,
	date: new Date("Feb 24, 2008"),
	source: 'http://tiddlywiki.bidix.info/#UploadPlugin',
	author: 'BidiX (BidiX (at) bidix (dot) info',
	coreVersion: '2.2.0'
};

//
// Environment
//

if (!window.bidix) window.bidix = {}; // bidix namespace
bidix.debugMode = false;	// true to activate both in Plugin and UploadService
	
//
// Upload Macro
//

config.macros.upload = {
// default values
	defaultBackupDir: '',	//no backup
	defaultStoreScript: "store.php",
	defaultToFilename: "index.html",
	defaultUploadDir: ".",
	authenticateUser: true	// UploadService Authenticate User
};
	
config.macros.upload.label = {
	promptOption: "Save and Upload this TiddlyWiki with UploadOptions",
	promptParamMacro: "Save and Upload this TiddlyWiki in %0",
	saveLabel: "save to web", 
	saveToDisk: "save to disk",
	uploadLabel: "upload"	
};

config.macros.upload.messages = {
	noStoreUrl: "No store URL in parmeters or options",
	usernameOrPasswordMissing: "Username or password missing"
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config.macros.upload.handler = function(place,macroName,params) {
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		prompt = this.label.promptOption;
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	createTiddlyButton(place, label, prompt, function() {config.macros.upload.action(params);}, null, null, this.accessKey);
};

config.macros.upload.action = function(params)
{
		// for missing macro parameter set value from options
		if (!params) params = {};
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		var toFilename = params[1] ? params[1] : config.options.txtUploadFilename;
		var backupDir = params[2] ? params[2] : config.options.txtUploadBackupDir;
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		var username = params[4] ? params[4] : config.options.txtUploadUserName;
		var password = config.options.pasUploadPassword; // for security reason no password as macro parameter	
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			storeUrl = bidix.dirname(document.location.toString())+'/'+config.macros.upload.defaultStoreScript;
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			storeUrl = bidix.dirname(document.location.toString()) +'/'+ storeUrl;
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			toFilename = bidix.basename(window.location.toString());
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			toFilename = config.macros.upload.defaultToFilename;
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			alert(config.macros.upload.messages.noStoreUrl);
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			alert(config.macros.upload.messages.usernameOrPasswordMissing);
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config.macros.upload.destFile = function(storeUrl, toFilename, uploadDir) 
{
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			dest = dest + '/' + uploadDir;
		dest = dest + '/' + toFilename;
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};

//
// uploadOptions Macro
//

config.macros.uploadOptions = {
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		var wizard = new Wizard();
		wizard.createWizard(place,this.wizardTitle);
		wizard.addStep(this.step1Title,this.step1Html);
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		this.refreshOptions(listWrapper,false);
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					onClick: config.macros.upload.action},
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	options: [
		"txtUploadUserName",
		"pasUploadPassword",
		"txtUploadStoreUrl",
		"txtUploadDir",
		"txtUploadFilename",
		"txtUploadBackupDir",
		"chkUploadLog",
		"txtUploadLogMaxLine"		
	],
	refreshOptions: function(listWrapper) {
		var opts = [];
		for(i=0; i<this.options.length; i++) {
			var opt = {};
			opts.push();
			opt.option = "";
			n = this.options[i];
			opt.name = n;
			opt.lowlight = !config.optionsDesc[n];
			opt.description = opt.lowlight ? this.unknownDescription : config.optionsDesc[n];
			opts.push(opt);
		}
		var listview = ListView.create(listWrapper,opts,this.listViewTemplate);
		for(n=0; n<opts.length; n++) {
			var type = opts[n].name.substr(0,3);
			var h = config.macros.option.types[type];
			if (h && h.create) {
				h.create(opts[n].colElements['option'],type,opts[n].name,opts[n].name,"no");
			}
		}
		
	},
	onCancel: function(e)
	{
		backstage.switchTab(null);
		return false;
	},
	
	wizardTitle: "Upload with options",
	step1Title: "These options are saved in cookies in your browser",
	step1Html: "<input type='hidden' name='markList'></input><br>",
	cancelButton: "Cancel",
	cancelButtonPrompt: "Cancel prompt",
	listViewTemplate: {
		columns: [
			{name: 'Description', field: 'description', title: "Description", type: 'WikiText'},
			{name: 'Option', field: 'option', title: "Option", type: 'String'},
			{name: 'Name', field: 'name', title: "Name", type: 'String'}
			],
		rowClasses: [
			{className: 'lowlight', field: 'lowlight'} 
			]}
};

//
// upload functions
//

if (!bidix.upload) bidix.upload = {};

if (!bidix.upload.messages) bidix.upload.messages = {
	//from saving
	invalidFileError: "The original file '%0' does not appear to be a valid TiddlyWiki",
	backupSaved: "Backup saved",
	backupFailed: "Failed to upload backup file",
	rssSaved: "RSS feed uploaded",
	rssFailed: "Failed to upload RSS feed file",
	emptySaved: "Empty template uploaded",
	emptyFailed: "Failed to upload empty template file",
	mainSaved: "Main TiddlyWiki file uploaded",
	mainFailed: "Failed to upload main TiddlyWiki file. Your changes have not been saved",
	//specific upload
	loadOriginalHttpPostError: "Can't get original file",
	aboutToSaveOnHttpPost: 'About to upload on %0 ...',
	storePhpNotFound: "The store script '%0' was not found."
};

bidix.upload.uploadChanges = function(onlyIfDirty,tiddlers,storeUrl,toFilename,uploadDir,backupDir,username,password)
{
	var callback = function(status,uploadParams,original,url,xhr) {
		if (!status) {
			displayMessage(bidix.upload.messages.loadOriginalHttpPostError);
			return;
		}
		if (bidix.debugMode) 
			alert(original.substr(0,500)+"\n...");
		// Locate the storeArea div's 
		var posDiv = locateStoreArea(original);
		if((posDiv[0] == -1) || (posDiv[1] == -1)) {
			alert(config.messages.invalidFileError.format([localPath]));
			return;
		}
		bidix.upload.uploadRss(uploadParams,original,posDiv);
	};
	
	if(onlyIfDirty && !store.isDirty())
		return;
	clearMessage();
	// save on localdisk ?
	if (document.location.toString().substr(0,4) == "file") {
		var path = document.location.toString();
		var localPath = getLocalPath(path);
		saveChanges();
	}
	// get original
	var uploadParams = new Array(storeUrl,toFilename,uploadDir,backupDir,username,password);
	var originalPath = document.location.toString();
	// If url is a directory : add index.html
	if (originalPath.charAt(originalPath.length-1) == "/")
		originalPath = originalPath + "index.html";
	var dest = config.macros.upload.destFile(storeUrl,toFilename,uploadDir);
	var log = new bidix.UploadLog();
	log.startUpload(storeUrl, dest, uploadDir,  backupDir);
	displayMessage(bidix.upload.messages.aboutToSaveOnHttpPost.format([dest]));
	if (bidix.debugMode) 
		alert("about to execute Http - GET on "+originalPath);
	var r = doHttp("GET",originalPath,null,null,username,password,callback,uploadParams,null);
	if (typeof r == "string")
		displayMessage(r);
	return r;
};

bidix.upload.uploadRss = function(uploadParams,original,posDiv) 
{
	var callback = function(status,params,responseText,url,xhr) {
		if(status) {
			var destfile = responseText.substring(responseText.indexOf("destfile:")+9,responseText.indexOf("\n", responseText.indexOf("destfile:")));
			displayMessage(bidix.upload.messages.rssSaved,bidix.dirname(url)+'/'+destfile);
			bidix.upload.uploadMain(params[0],params[1],params[2]);
		} else {
			displayMessage(bidix.upload.messages.rssFailed);			
		}
	};
	// do uploadRss
	if(config.options.chkGenerateAnRssFeed) {
		var rssPath = uploadParams[1].substr(0,uploadParams[1].lastIndexOf(".")) + ".xml";
		var rssUploadParams = new Array(uploadParams[0],rssPath,uploadParams[2],'',uploadParams[4],uploadParams[5]);
		var rssString = generateRss();
		// no UnicodeToUTF8 conversion needed when location is "file" !!!
		if (document.location.toString().substr(0,4) != "file")
			rssString = convertUnicodeToUTF8(rssString);	
		bidix.upload.httpUpload(rssUploadParams,rssString,callback,Array(uploadParams,original,posDiv));
	} else {
		bidix.upload.uploadMain(uploadParams,original,posDiv);
	}
};

bidix.upload.uploadMain = function(uploadParams,original,posDiv) 
{
	var callback = function(status,params,responseText,url,xhr) {
		var log = new bidix.UploadLog();
		if(status) {
			// if backupDir specified
			if ((params[3]) && (responseText.indexOf("backupfile:") > -1))  {
				var backupfile = responseText.substring(responseText.indexOf("backupfile:")+11,responseText.indexOf("\n", responseText.indexOf("backupfile:")));
				displayMessage(bidix.upload.messages.backupSaved,bidix.dirname(url)+'/'+backupfile);
			}
			var destfile = responseText.substring(responseText.indexOf("destfile:")+9,responseText.indexOf("\n", responseText.indexOf("destfile:")));
			displayMessage(bidix.upload.messages.mainSaved,bidix.dirname(url)+'/'+destfile);
			store.setDirty(false);
			log.endUpload("ok");
		} else {
			alert(bidix.upload.messages.mainFailed);
			displayMessage(bidix.upload.messages.mainFailed);
			log.endUpload("failed");			
		}
	};
	// do uploadMain
	var revised = bidix.upload.updateOriginal(original,posDiv);
	bidix.upload.httpUpload(uploadParams,revised,callback,uploadParams);
};

bidix.upload.httpUpload = function(uploadParams,data,callback,params)
{
	var localCallback = function(status,params,responseText,url,xhr) {
		url = (url.indexOf("nocache=") < 0 ? url : url.substring(0,url.indexOf("nocache=")-1));
		if (xhr.status == 404)
			alert(bidix.upload.messages.storePhpNotFound.format([url]));
		if ((bidix.debugMode) || (responseText.indexOf("Debug mode") >= 0 )) {
			alert(responseText);
			if (responseText.indexOf("Debug mode") >= 0 )
				responseText = responseText.substring(responseText.indexOf("\n\n")+2);
		} else if (responseText.charAt(0) != '0') 
			alert(responseText);
		if (responseText.charAt(0) != '0')
			status = null;
		callback(status,params,responseText,url,xhr);
	};
	// do httpUpload
	var boundary = "---------------------------"+"AaB03x";	
	var uploadFormName = "UploadPlugin";
	// compose headers data
	var sheader = "";
	sheader += "--" + boundary + "\r\nContent-disposition: form-data; name=\"";
	sheader += uploadFormName +"\"\r\n\r\n";
	sheader += "backupDir="+uploadParams[3] +
				";user=" + uploadParams[4] +
				";password=" + uploadParams[5] +
				";uploaddir=" + uploadParams[2];
	if (bidix.debugMode)
		sheader += ";debug=1";
	sheader += ";;\r\n"; 
	sheader += "\r\n" + "--" + boundary + "\r\n";
	sheader += "Content-disposition: form-data; name=\"userfile\"; filename=\""+uploadParams[1]+"\"\r\n";
	sheader += "Content-Type: text/html;charset=UTF-8" + "\r\n";
	sheader += "Content-Length: " + data.length + "\r\n\r\n";
	// compose trailer data
	var strailer = new String();
	strailer = "\r\n--" + boundary + "--\r\n";
	data = sheader + data + strailer;
	if (bidix.debugMode) alert("about to execute Http - POST on "+uploadParams[0]+"\n with \n"+data.substr(0,500)+ " ... ");
	var r = doHttp("POST",uploadParams[0],data,"multipart/form-data; ;charset=UTF-8; boundary="+boundary,uploadParams[4],uploadParams[5],localCallback,params,null);
	if (typeof r == "string")
		displayMessage(r);
	return r;
};

// same as Saving's updateOriginal but without convertUnicodeToUTF8 calls
bidix.upload.updateOriginal = function(original, posDiv)
{
	if (!posDiv)
		posDiv = locateStoreArea(original);
	if((posDiv[0] == -1) || (posDiv[1] == -1)) {
		alert(config.messages.invalidFileError.format([localPath]));
		return;
	}
	var revised = original.substr(0,posDiv[0] + startSaveArea.length) + "\n" +
				store.allTiddlersAsHtml() + "\n" +
				original.substr(posDiv[1]);
	var newSiteTitle = getPageTitle().htmlEncode();
	revised = revised.replaceChunk("<title"+">","</title"+">"," " + newSiteTitle + " ");
	revised = updateMarkupBlock(revised,"PRE-HEAD","MarkupPreHead");
	revised = updateMarkupBlock(revised,"POST-HEAD","MarkupPostHead");
	revised = updateMarkupBlock(revised,"PRE-BODY","MarkupPreBody");
	revised = updateMarkupBlock(revised,"POST-SCRIPT","MarkupPostBody");
	return revised;
};

//
// UploadLog
// 
// config.options.chkUploadLog :
//		false : no logging
//		true : logging
// config.options.txtUploadLogMaxLine :
//		-1 : no limit
//      0 :  no Log lines but UploadLog is still in place
//		n :  the last n lines are only kept
//		NaN : no limit (-1)

bidix.UploadLog = function() {
	if (!config.options.chkUploadLog) 
		return; // this.tiddler = null
	this.tiddler = store.getTiddler("UploadLog");
	if (!this.tiddler) {
		this.tiddler = new Tiddler();
		this.tiddler.title = "UploadLog";
		this.tiddler.text = "| !date | !user | !location | !storeUrl | !uploadDir | !toFilename | !backupdir | !origin |";
		this.tiddler.created = new Date();
		this.tiddler.modifier = config.options.txtUserName;
		this.tiddler.modified = new Date();
		store.addTiddler(this.tiddler);
	}
	return this;
};

bidix.UploadLog.prototype.addText = function(text) {
	if (!this.tiddler)
		return;
	// retrieve maxLine when we need it
	var maxLine = parseInt(config.options.txtUploadLogMaxLine,10);
	if (isNaN(maxLine))
		maxLine = -1;
	// add text
	if (maxLine != 0) 
		this.tiddler.text = this.tiddler.text + text;
	// Trunck to maxLine
	if (maxLine >= 0) {
		var textArray = this.tiddler.text.split('\n');
		if (textArray.length > maxLine + 1)
			textArray.splice(1,textArray.length-1-maxLine);
			this.tiddler.text = textArray.join('\n');		
	}
	// update tiddler fields
	this.tiddler.modifier = config.options.txtUserName;
	this.tiddler.modified = new Date();
	store.addTiddler(this.tiddler);
	// refresh and notifiy for immediate update
	story.refreshTiddler(this.tiddler.title);
	store.notify(this.tiddler.title, true);
};

bidix.UploadLog.prototype.startUpload = function(storeUrl, toFilename, uploadDir,  backupDir) {
	if (!this.tiddler)
		return;
	var now = new Date();
	var text = "\n| ";
	var filename = bidix.basename(document.location.toString());
	if (!filename) filename = '/';
	text += now.formatString("0DD/0MM/YYYY 0hh:0mm:0ss") +" | ";
	text += config.options.txtUserName + " | ";
	text += "[["+filename+"|"+location + "]] |";
	text += " [[" + bidix.basename(storeUrl) + "|" + storeUrl + "]] | ";
	text += uploadDir + " | ";
	text += "[[" + bidix.basename(toFilename) + " | " +toFilename + "]] | ";
	text += backupDir + " |";
	this.addText(text);
};

bidix.UploadLog.prototype.endUpload = function(status) {
	if (!this.tiddler)
		return;
	this.addText(" "+status+" |");
};

//
// Utilities
// 

bidix.checkPlugin = function(plugin, major, minor, revision) {
	var ext = version.extensions[plugin];
	if (!
		(ext  && 
			((ext.major > major) || 
			((ext.major == major) && (ext.minor > minor))  ||
			((ext.major == major) && (ext.minor == minor) && (ext.revision >= revision))))) {
			// write error in PluginManager
			if (pluginInfo)
				pluginInfo.log.push("Requires " + plugin + " " + major + "." + minor + "." + revision);
			eval(plugin); // generate an error : "Error: ReferenceError: xxxx is not defined"
	}
};

bidix.dirname = function(filePath) {
	if (!filePath) 
		return;
	var lastpos;
	if ((lastpos = filePath.lastIndexOf("/")) != -1) {
		return filePath.substring(0, lastpos);
	} else {
		return filePath.substring(0, filePath.lastIndexOf("\\"));
	}
};

bidix.basename = function(filePath) {
	if (!filePath) 
		return;
	var lastpos;
	if ((lastpos = filePath.lastIndexOf("#")) != -1) 
		filePath = filePath.substring(0, lastpos);
	if ((lastpos = filePath.lastIndexOf("/")) != -1) {
		return filePath.substring(lastpos + 1);
	} else
		return filePath.substring(filePath.lastIndexOf("\\")+1);
};

bidix.initOption = function(name,value) {
	if (!config.options[name])
		config.options[name] = value;
};

//
// Initializations
//

// require PasswordOptionPlugin 1.0.1 or better
bidix.checkPlugin("PasswordOptionPlugin", 1, 0, 1);

// styleSheet
setStylesheet('.txtUploadStoreUrl, .txtUploadBackupDir, .txtUploadDir {width: 22em;}',"uploadPluginStyles");

//optionsDesc
merge(config.optionsDesc,{
	txtUploadStoreUrl: "Url of the UploadService script (default: store.php)",
	txtUploadFilename: "Filename of the uploaded file (default: in index.html)",
	txtUploadDir: "Relative Directory where to store the file (default: . (downloadService directory))",
	txtUploadBackupDir: "Relative Directory where to backup the file. If empty no backup. (default: ''(empty))",
	txtUploadUserName: "Upload Username",
	pasUploadPassword: "Upload Password",
	chkUploadLog: "do Logging in UploadLog (default: true)",
	txtUploadLogMaxLine: "Maximum of lines in UploadLog (default: 10)"
});

// Options Initializations
bidix.initOption('txtUploadStoreUrl','');
bidix.initOption('txtUploadFilename','');
bidix.initOption('txtUploadDir','');
bidix.initOption('txtUploadBackupDir','');
bidix.initOption('txtUploadUserName','');
bidix.initOption('pasUploadPassword','');
bidix.initOption('chkUploadLog',true);
bidix.initOption('txtUploadLogMaxLine','10');


// Backstage
merge(config.tasks,{
	uploadOptions: {text: "upload", tooltip: "Change UploadOptions and Upload", content: '<<uploadOptions>>'}
});
config.backstageTasks.push("uploadOptions");


//}}}

<!--{{{-->
<div class='toolbar' macro='toolbar [[ToolbarCommands::ViewToolbar]]'></div>
<div class='title' macro='view title'></div>
<div class='viewer' macro='view text wikified'></div>
<!--}}}-->