Huang Po

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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....

 

 

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....

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).