the active expression of enlightenment over matters of doctrine
The mind thus "creates" the world in the sense that it invests the
phenomenal world with value.
They have presumably already freed themselves from preoccupations
with the commoner cravings for sensual indulgence, material gain, or
worldly fame, and have entered the path of religious strivings. But
it is precicely this fact that Lin-chi sees as the source of their
problems.
this lone brightness without fixed shape or form.
once and for all, that there is no goal to be striven for because it
has been won already, no place to be journeyed to because one is
there right now.
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People with so few roots of faith
if it's for the sake of the Dharma, don't hesitate to sacrifice your
bodies or give up your lives.
If you approach it with a true and proper understanding, you won't be
affected by considerations of birth and death, you'll be free to go
or stay as you please.
The fault lies in the fact that they don't have faith in themselves!
Student's don't have enough faith in themselves, and so they rush
around looking for something outside themselves.
Those who have fulfilled the ten stages of bodhisattva practice are
no better than hired field hnads; those who have attained the
enlightenment of the fifty-first and fifty-second stages are
prisoners shackled and bound; arhats and pratyekabuddhas are so much
filth in the latrine, bodhi and nirvana are hitching posts for
donkeys. Why do I speak of them like this? Because you followeres of
the Way fail to realize that this journey to enlightenment that takes
three asamkhya kalpas to acomplish is meaningless. So these things
become obstacles in your way.
Fellow believers, time is precious! You rush off frantically on side
roads, studying Ch'an, studying the Way, clinging to words, clinging
to phrases, seeking Buddha, seeking the patriarch, seeking a good
friend, scheming, planning. But make no mistake. Followers of the
Way, you have on set of parents - what more are you looking for? You
should stop and take a good look at yourselves. A man of old tells us
that Yajnadatta thought he had lost his head and went looking for it,
but once he had put a stop to his seeking mind, he found he was
perfectly all right.
The man of value is the one who has nothing to do. Don't try to do
something special, just act ordinary. [The Pao-tsung lun "With
regards to the Way, what is valued in every age is to have nothing to
do. With regards to the Way, when one is mindless, then all things
will proceed smoothly.
Followers of the Way, the Dharma of the buddhas calls for no special
undertakings. Just act ordinary, without trying to do anything
particular. Move you bowels, piss, get dressed, eat your rice, and if
you get tired, then lie down. Fools may laugh at me, but wise men
will know what I mean. A man of old said "People who try to do
something about what is outside themselves are nothing but
blockheads."
If you have doubts in your mind for an instant, that's the Buddha
devil. But if you can understand that the ten thousand phenomena were
never born, that the mind is like a conjurer's trick, then not one
speck of dust, not one phenomenon will exist.
As I see it, there's no Buddha, no living beings, no long ago, no
now. If you want to get it, you've already got it - it's not
something that requires time. There's no religious practice, no
enlightenment, no getting anything, no missing out on anything.
If you want to be free to be born or die, to go or stay as onw would
put on or take off a garment, then you must understand right now that
the person here listening to the Dharma has no form, characteristics,
no root, no beginning, no place he abides, yet he is vibrantly alive.
All the ten thousand kinds of contrived happenings operate in a place
that is in fact no place.
If your mind entertains a moment of doubt, it becomes obstructed by
the element earth. If your mind entertains a moment of craving, it
becomes drowned in the element water. If your mind entertains a
moment of anger, it is seared by the element fire. If your mind
entertains a moment of delight, it is tossed about by the element
air.
The way I see it, onw shouldn't be averse to anything. Suppose you
yearn to be a sage. Sage is just a word, sage.
Those who study the Way these days need to have faith in themselves
and not go looking for something outside.
If you want to be a truly great vessel, you must never be led astray
by others. Wherever you are, play the host and then any place you
stand will be a true one. Whatever confronts you, don't let yourself
be imposed on. If you entertain even a moment of doubt, the devil
will enter your mind.
Just have faith in this thing that is operating in you right now.
Outside of it, nothing else exists.
In the way you now respond and utilize it, what do you lack? In the
space of an instant you enter purity or enter defilement, enter the
halls of Maitreya or enter the lands of the three eyes. You wander at
ease everywhere, for you see that these are all empty names.
The buddhas and patriarchs are people who don't have anything to do
or are without defilements and doings, their karma is clean and pure.
The Patriarch Shen-hui said: "If you try to arrest the mind and stare
at silence, summon the mind and focus it on externals, control the
mind and make it clear within, concentrate the mind and enter into
meditation, all practices of this sort creates karma."
So for the past twelve years, though I've looked for this thing
called karma, I've never found so much as a particle of it the size
of a mustard seed.
from times past the real teachers, wherever they went, were never
listened to and were always driven out.
The various phenomena in this world and other worlds are in all cases
devoid of intrisic nature. Even if something did exist, it would in
all cases be no more than an environment that changes with what it
depends on. You live in a land of changing dependent conditions -
what is it you are looking for? And things like the Three Vehicles
and the twelve divisions of the scriptural teachings - they're all so
much old toilet paper to wipe away filth. The Buddha is a phantom
body, the patriarch are nothing but old monks. You were born from
women, weren't you? I you seek the Buddha, you'll be seized by the
Buddha devil. As long as you seek something it can only lead to
suffering. Better to do nothing.
A true student of the Way never concerns himself with the Buddha. Far
removed, alone and free, he is never entangled in things. Heaven and
earth could turn upside down and he would not be perturbed. All the
buddhas of the ten directions could appear before him and his mind
would not feel an instant fo joy, the three realms of hell could
suddenly confront him and his mind would not feel an instant of
alarm. Why is he like this? Because he knows that all things in the
phenomenal world are empty of characteristics. WHEN CONDITIONS
CHANGE, THEY COME INTO EXISTENCE; WHEN THERE IS NO CHANGE, THEY DO
NOT EXIST.
Followers of the Way, when students come here from various regions
and we have finished greeting one another as host and guest, the
student will make som remark to test the teacher. The student comes
out with these tricky words and thrusts them into the teacher's face.
If you were the teacher and realized that this was just an
'environment', and you grabbed it and threw it down a hole, then the
student would act normal again and after that would ask for the
teacher's instruction. The teacher would then snatch that up too and
treat it as he did the earlier remark. The student then says, "Very
wise! A truly great teacher!" The teacher says, "You certainly can't
tell good from bad!"
Again, suppose the teacher comes out with a certain chunk of
environment and dangles it in front of the student's face. The
student sees through this and at every step acts the master, refusing
to be misled by the environment. The teacher then reveals half of his
body, whereupon the student gives a shout. The teacher now enters the
place where there are all kinds of differences and distinctions,
battering the student around with words. The student says, "This old
baldhead who can't tell good from bad!" The teacher exclaims in
admiration, "A true and proper follower of the Way!"
There are some teachers around who can't distinguish crooked from
straight. When a student comes and asks about bodhi or nirvana, about
the threefold body or about environment and wisdom, those blind old
teachers start explaining to the student. When the student curses at
them, they pick up their stick and hit him, saying "Such rude
language!" If you have a teacher like that, he lacks eyes to begin
with.
Then there is that bunch of baldheads who can't tell good from bad
but point to the east, gesture to the west, love clear weather, love
it when it rains, love this lamp or that pillar. Look and see how
many hairs they have left in their eyebrows - and with good reason.
Teachers like that are nothing but wild fox spirits, goblins. Good
students will just give a little snicker and say, "Blind old
baldheads trying to confuse and lead everybody in the world astray!"
Followers of the Way, if you want to get the kind of understanding
that accords with the Dharma, never be misled by others. Whether
you're facing inward or facing outward, whatever you meet up with,
just kill it! If you meet a buddha, kill the buddha. If you meet your
parents, kill your parents.
These students of the Way who come from all over - there's never been
one of them who didn't appear before me depending on something. So I
starrt out by hitting them there. If they come with a raised hand, I
hit the raised hand, if they come mouthing something, I hit them in
the mouth, if they come making motions with their eyes, I hit them in
the eye. I have yet to find one who comes alone and free - they're
all caught up in the idle devices of the men of old.
I don't have a particle of Dharma to give to anyone. All I have is
cure for sickness, freedom from bondage. You followers of the Way
from here and there, try coming to me without depending on anything.
All I get are things stuck to stems, clinging to leaves, wraiths that
inhabit bamboo or trees, wild fox spirits! They chew frantically at
every lump of shit they happen upon. Blind fools!
I tell you, there's no Buddha, no Dharma, no practice, no
enlightenment. Yet you go off like this on side roads, trying to find
something. Blind fools! Will you put another head on top of the one
you have? What is it you lack?
The way I see it, there's no call for anything special. Just act
ordinary, put on your clothes, eat your rice, pass the time doing
nothing. You who come here from here and there, you all have a mind
to do something. You search for the Buddha, search for the Dharma,
search for emancipation, search for a way to get out of the threefold
world. Idiots, trying to get out of the threefold world! Where will
you go?
Fellow believers, this body made up of the four major elements has no
permanence. Things like spleen and stomach, liver and gall, hairs,
nails, teeth are simply evidence that all phenomenal things are empty
of fixed characteristics. As long as your mind is unable to cease its
moment-by-moment activity, then you are up in the tree of ignorance.
But if you can learn to cease, then you'll be in the world of the
clean pure body.
If a student truly knows what he is doing, he will give a shout and
then first of all hold out a try of lacquer. The teacher, failing to
recognize this as a mere 'environment', proceeds to climb up on the
environment and begin striking poses or donning attitudes. The
student gives a shout, but the teacher refuses to abandon his
approach. This is called the guest seeing through the host.
Or perhaps the teacher will not come out with any object of his own,
but will wait for a question from the student and then snatch it
away. The student, seeing his question snatched away, won't let go
but holds on for dear life. This is a case of the host seeing through
the guest.
Perhaps there is a student who, responding with a clean pure
environment, presents himself before the teacher. The teacher can
tell this is just an environment and grabs it and throws it down a
hole. The student says, "A truly great teacher!" Instantly the
teacher says, "Hopeless - can't tell good from bad!" The student
gives a low bow. This is called the host meeting up with a host.
Or there may be a student who puts a cangue [wooden collar] on his
neck, binds himself in chains, and then comes before the teacher. The
teacher proceeds to shackle him with another set of cangues and
chains. The student is delighted, unaware of what has happened. This
is called the guest meeting up with a guest.
But students don't have faith enough, and instead base their
understanding on words and phrases. Their years pile up to half a
hundred, and all they do is go off on side roads, carrying their dead
corpses on their backs, racing all over the world with their load of
baggage.
If you look toward the area of motion and try to grasp the truth
there, it will take up its stand in the area of nonmotion, and if you
look towards nonmotion and try to grasp it there, it will take up its
stand in motion. It is like a fish hidden in a pond who now and then
slaps the surface and leaps up.
When students come from here and thee, I classify them into three
categories according to their ability. In such cases, if a student of
less then middling ability comes to me, I snatch away the environment
but leave him his existence. I a student of better than middling
ability comes to me, I snatch away both environment and existence. If
a student of truly superior ability comes to me, I do not snatch away
anything, neither environment, nor existence, nor person. If a
student appears whose understanding surpasses all these categories,
then I deal with him with my whole body and take no account of his
ability.
Reverend Tao-i's way of doing things was simple, direct, nothing
mixed in. Reverend Lu-shan was utterly free, true and correct, but
whether he came at them with compliance or opposition, his students
could never fathom what was going on. Ma-ÿu's way of doing things was
as bitter as the bark of the Chinese cork tree; no one could get near
him. The way Shih-kung went about it was to look for students by
pointing an arrow at them; all who came to him were terrified. [Shih-
kung had been a deer hunter. When students came to him, he would fit
an arrow to his bow, point it at them and say, "Look at the arrow!"
Fellow believers, these sounds, names, words, phrases are all nothing
but changes of robe. The sea of breath in the region below the navel
stirs itself into motion, the teeth batter and mold it, and it comes
out as a statement of an idea. So we know for certain that these are
mere phantoms.
Better to do nothing, "to meet someone but not recognize him, talk
with him but not know his name".
There's a bunch of fellows who can't tell good from bad but poke
around in the scriptural teachings, hazard a guess here and there,
and come up with an idea in words, as though they took a lump of
shit, mushed it around in their mouth, and then spat it out and
passed it on to somebody else. They're like those people who play
pass-the-word parlor games, wasting their whole life like that.
When the great teacher Bodhidharma came from the west, he was simply
looking for a man who would not be misled by others.
I have been addressing you, putting forth a lot of trashy talk. But
make no mistake! In my view, there are in fact no great number of
principles to be grasped.
If bodhisattvas, even those who have completed the ten stages of mind
practice, were all to seek for the traces of such a follower of the
Way, they could never find them. Therefore the heavenly beings
rejoice, the gods of the earth stand guard with their legs, and the
buddhas of the ten directions sing his praise. Why? Because this man
of the Way who is now listening to the Dharma acts in a manner that
leaves no traces.
Neither in this world nor in any other world is there any Buddha or
Dharma. There is nothing to appear before you, and nothing that is
lost.
Fellow believers, only when you have commited the five crimes that
bring on the hell of incessant suffering will you finally gain
emanciation.
Killing your father, injuring your mother, drawing blood from the
Buddha's body, disrupting the harmony of the Monastic Order, burning
the sutras and images - these are the five crimes that bring on the
hell of incessant suffering.
Ignorance is the father. When your mind is without activity wherever
it is, this is called killing the father.
Greed is the mother. When your mind experiences no attachment
anywhere, this is called injuring the mother.
If your mind doesn not even for an instant begin to discriminate but
instead sees complete darkness everywhere, this is drawing blood from
the Buddha's body.
If you properly understand that the bonds and entanglements of
earthly desires are so much emptiness with no place to lean on, this
is disrupting the harmony of the Monastic Order.
When you can see the emptiness of causes and conditions, the
emptiness of all phenomena, when the mind is every instant completely
calm, far removed and doing nothing, this is burning the sutras and
the images.
Your minds instant by instant confront an empty fist, a pointing
finger, and take it for some sort of reality, vainly trashing around
in the realms of senses, environments, phenomena.
Followers of the Way, don't take the Buddha to be some sort of
ultimate goal. In my view he's more like the hole in a privy.
Therefore Manjushri grasped his sword, ready to kill Gautama, and
Angulimala, blade in hand, tried to do injury to Shakyamuni.
Followers of the Way, even if you can understand a hundred sutras and
treatises, you're not as good as one plain monk who does nothing.
Followers of the Way, don't search for anything in written words. The
exertions of your mind will tire it out, you'll gulp cold air and
gain nothing.
Fellow believers, don't dawdle your days away! In the past, before I
had come to see things right, there was nothing but blackness all
around me.
Fellow believers, do not use your minds in a mistaken manner, but be
like the sea that rejects the bodies of the dead.
Wei-shan said, "Well, what do you think?"
Yang-shan said, "Officially not a needle is allowed to pass, but
privately whole carts and horses get through!"
When illumination comes first and action afterwards, then the person
is present. When action comes first, and illumination afterward, then
the Dharma is present. When illumination and action are simultaneous,
it's like driving away the plowman's ox, snatching food from a
starving person, cracking bones and extracting the marrow, giving a
painful poke with a needle or an awl. When illumination and action
are not simultaneous, there are questions and answers, guest and host
are established, water gets mixed with mud, in response to movements
measures are taken. If the person is really outstanding, then even
before a problem arises, he'll rouse himself and be on his way. But
still it needs another little push.
(from "the zen teaching of master lin-chi", isbn 0-87773-891-2)
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isbn://82-92428-05-4 lumber
