A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy

by Wing-Tsit Chan

  (5) Understanding the pure and the mixed

  It means that inasmuch as the dust does not come into existence, all dharmas do not come into existence. This is purity. Nevertheless, in the idea itself that the dust does not come into existence, both principle and fact are fully contained. It is both Emptiness and matter, and both perfect wisdom and Nirvāṇa. This is a case of what is mixed. Principle never obstructs fact, for what is pure is always mixed. Fact always fulfills principle, for the mixed is always pure. Because both principle and fact are free and at ease, they do not obstruct each other.

  (6) Comprehending the instant and the infinitely long period

  For example, when the dust is perceived, it is a manifestation of the mind for an instant. This manifestation of the mind for an instant is entirely the same as hundreds and thousands of infinitely long periods. Why? Because all these periods are originally formed from an instant. Since they establish each other, both lack substance or nature. Because an instant has no substance, it penetrates the infinitely long periods, and because these periods have no substance, they are fully contained in a single instant. Since both the instant and the long periods have no substance, the characters of length and shortness are naturally harmonized. All worlds, whether far or near, the Buddhas, living beings, and all things in the three ages (past, present, and future) are manifested in one instant. Why? Because all things and dharmas are manifested in accordance with the mind. As there is no obstruction to the instant [of thought], all dharmas are consequently harmonized. Therefore in an instant [of thought] all facts and things in the three ages are clearly seen. The scripture says, “Any instant is the same as hundreds and thousands of infinitely long periods, and hundreds and thousands of infinitely long periods are the same as a single instant.”38

  Comment. One cannot help recalling the T’ien-t’ai doctrine of three thousand worlds immanent in one single instant of thought. In fact, the ideas of the two schools are so close that they have formed a common foundation for Chinese Buddhist teachings. As the saying goes, “The Hua-yen and T’ien-t’ai Schools for doctrines, and the Zen and Pure Land Schools for practice.”

  (7) Discriminating the one and the many

  For example, the dust’s own character is one. It is because its own oneness is quiescent and calm that it can universally respond to become many. If its own oneness is perturbed, it will lose its universal correspondence [to others] and the many [to which it universally responds] cannot be formed. The same is true of the two, the three, and so forth.

  Furthermore, the one and the many established each other. Only when the one is completely the many can it be called the one, and only when the many is completely the one can it be called the many. There is not a separate one outside the many, for we clearly know that it is one within [coincides with] the many. There are not the many outside of the one, for we clearly know they are the many within the one. The reason is that they are not many [separately] and yet they can be many [coinciding with] the one, and that it is not [independently] the one and yet it can be one [coinciding with] the many. Only when we understand that [dharmas] have no nature [of their own] can we have the wisdom about the one and the many. The scripture says, “It is like calculation. From one gradually to ten down to infinity, all comes from the basic number. When viewed with wisdom, there is no difference.”39

  (8) Appreciating the unrestricted and the restricted

  It means that the dust has the character of smallness; that is restriction. But the very character has no substance; this is non-restriction. Now, an infinite number of lands and seas are always manifested in the dust. This means the unrestricted is always restricted. But one particle of dust universally pervades all lands and seas. This means the restricted is always unrestricted. Furthermore, the small need not be destroyed to contain the large, which means that the mysterious particle of dust extensively contains the lands [and seas] of the Buddha. The large need not be destroyed in order to dwell in the small, which means that the mysterious lands and seas of the Buddha are always manifested in the dust. This is the non-obstruction between the unrestricted and the restricted.

  (9) Understanding expansion and contraction

  It means that the dust has no nature [of its own]. When substance comes to the fore and completely permeates the ten cardinal directions, that is expansion. The ten directions have no substance and are entirely manifested in the dust through causation—that is contraction. The scripture says, “One land of the Buddha fills the ten directions, and the ten directions enter into the one [land] without residue.”40 When contracted, all things are manifested in one particle of dust. When expanded, one particle of dust will universally permeate everything. Expanding is the same as ever contracting, for a particle of dust involves everything. Contracting is the same as ever expanding, for everything involves the one particle of dust. This is what is meant by saying that expansion and contraction are free and at ease.

  (10) Grasping perfect harmony

  It means that as the character of the dust has already ceased to be, deluded consciousness also perishes. Because fact has no substance, it follows principle and becomes perfectly harmonized with it. Because substance involves facts, therefore principle follows fact and is in complete accord with it. Thus they always exist but are at the same time ever empty, for Emptiness does not destroy existence. They are always empty but at the same time ever existent, for existence does not obstruct Emptiness. The Emptiness that does not obstruct existence can harmonize all phenomena, and the existence that does not destroy Emptiness can complete everything. Therefore all phenomena clearly exist before us and one does not obstruct the other.

  From the above principles, the tendency of harmonious combination becomes unrestricted because it has no nature, and all phenomena which exist spontaneously can be combined because they rise through causation. As the one and the many totally involve each other, we look at one particle of dust and [everything] suddenly becomes manifest. As the “this” takes in the “other,” we look at a tiny hair and all things appear together. The reason is that, when the mind understands, all dharmas can be free and at ease, and because the principle is clear, great wisdom can be achieved. Among seekers after wisdom, who will examine its source? People talking about it seldom investigate its mystery to the limit. What can match the function of spontaneity? (tsd, 45:630-631)

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  THE ZEN (CH’AN) SCHOOL OF SUDDEN ENLIGHTENMENT

  The Ch’an movement, better known as Zen, has been described by Hu Shih (1891-1962) as a “reformation or revolution in Buddhism,”1 and by Suzuki as a movement in which “the Chinese mind completely asserted itself, in a sense, in opposition to the Indian mind. Zen could not rise and flourish in any other land or among any other people.”2 The two outstanding scholars sharply differ in their approaches to Zen: the one, historical; the other, religious and mystical. But they reinforce each other in characterizing Zen’s development in Chinese history, for it was through a revolution that Ch’an came completely into its own.

  Literally, the name of the school should be Meditation, for the Sanskrit dhyāna, pronounced in Chinese “ch’an” and in Japanese “zen,” means that. But meditation changed its character in China almost from the very inception of Buddhism, although the typically Indian form of sitting in meditation and concentrating one’s mind to the point of ignoring the external world has continued in Chinese Buddhist schools. When Buddhism first came to China, it was mixed up with the Yellow Emperor–Lao Tzu cult. As a result, meditation was not understood in the Indian sense of concentration but in the Taoist sense of conserving vital energy, breathing, reducing desire, preserving nature, and so forth. This was the meditation taught by early Buddhist Masters like An Shih-kao (c.a.d. 150), Kumārajīva (344-413), Tao-an (312-385), and Huiyüan (334-416). In the end, meditation meant neither sitting in meditation nor mental concentration, but simply the direct enlightenment of the mind.

  Tradition traces the beginning of th
e school to Bodhidharma (fl. 460-534), whose historicity has been questioned in the West. Most Chinese and Japanese scholars, however, are satisfied that he did come to China.3 But a clear picture of the school did not emerge until Hungjen (601-674).4 With him the history of Zen in China took a radical turn. According to tradition, Bodhidharma handed down the Laṅkāvatāra sūtra (Scripture about [The Buddha] Entering into Laṅka)5 whereas Hung-jen taught the Diamond Scripture.6 The central emphasis of the former is Ultimate Reality or the true nature of dharmas (elements of existence), whereas the emphasis of the latter is on the mind, and it is the mind rather than Ultimate Reality that has become the central focus of Chinese Zen. Hung-jen’s two outstanding disciples, Shen-hsiu (605?–706) in the north7 and Hui-neng (638-713)8 in the south, developed divergent tendencies. Shen-hsiu stressed gradual enlightenment of the mind whereas Hui-neng stressed sudden enlightenment.

  For decades Shen-hsiu had been a celebrated Zen Master in the north. In 700, at the age of ninety, he was invited to the capital by Empress Wu (r. 684–705), who did him the extraordinary honor of curtseying to him. Shen-hsiu’s prestige and influence soared to great heights. He was honored as “the Lord of the Law at the Two National Capitals of Ch’ang-an and Lo-yang, and the Teacher of Three Sovereigns.” His movement, later known as the Northern School of Zen, almost completely dominated the religious and intellectual life of the time.

  Some years before these triumphant events, Hui-neng, originally an illiterate fuel-wood peddler, preached radically new doctrines in Ts’aohsi, about 120 miles north of Canton. In 734, his pupil Shen-hui (670-762)9 who, like Shen-hsiu before him, enjoyed strong support from the aristocrats and had a large following, openly attacked Shen-hsiu’s school in the north. The freshness and the challenging spirit of their teachings became an irresistible attraction. A stampede was soon on, and their school, later known as the Southern School, eventually overshadowed the Northern School and from the ninth century onward, the story of Zen has been that of the Southern School.

  The two schools are usually distinguished by the fact that while the Northern School advocates gradual enlightenment, the Southern School advocates sudden enlightenment. As a matter of emphasis, this is certainly correct. But Shen-hsiu did not rule out sudden enlightenment and neither Hui-neng nor Shen-hui rejected gradual enlightenment altogether. The contrast between the two schools is much deeper. It lies in the different concepts of the mind.

  Both schools started from the major premise that Nirvāṇa is identical with the original substance of the Buddha-mind, which is the same as Buddha-nature, and that Buddha-nature is in all men so that all can become Buddhas. So far both schools remain within the Buddhist traditions of idealism and universal salvation. But while the Northern School teaches that the pure mind arises from absolute quietude and does so only after erroneous thoughts are eliminated, the Southern School insists that the mind cannot be split into parts and that all its activities are functions of Thusness (True Reality).10 Consequently, the mind cannot be divided into the true mind without differentiation, on the one hand, and the false mind with differentiation, on the other. Furthermore, the Northern School considers the mind in its undisturbed state as calmness (samādhi) and the senses in their undisturbed state as wisdom (prajñā), but the Southern School refuses to accept the distinction, regarding both as of one substance and not two. In fact, it affirms the unity not only of the mind but of everything else. The Buddha-mind is everywhere so that anything can be an occasion for its realization at any moment and this realization can take place in any way. It was out of this major concept that the peculiar Zen methods have evolved.

  The standard sayings of the school are: “Point directly to the human mind” and “See one’s nature and become a Buddha.” Everything other than the cultivation of the mind, such as reading scriptures, making offerings to the Buddha, reciting His name, joining the monastic order, are regarded as unnecessary. The total effect is to minimize, if not to wipe out, the whole Buddhist organization, creed, and literature and to reduce Buddhism to a concern with one’s mind alone. The logical conclusions are that everyone can achieve enlightenment and become a Buddha, since everyone possesses the Buddha-nature,11 that he can do so immediately, and that he can do so “in this very body.” No matter how one looks at this movement, it was revolutionary in the true sense of the word.

  Since the chief concern of the school is the Buddha-mind in everything, various methods were developed to realize it. Shen-hui himself taught “the absence of thought” so that the mind will return to its original state of tranquillity. Another Zen Master (though he cannot be said to belong to either the Northern or Southern tradition) emphasized “forgetting our feelings” so as to remove selfish clingings and evil desires. Still another Zen Master advocated “letting the mind take its own course” so it can be at ease and not be disturbed either by its own differentiated characters or by the phenomenal world, for both of these are, after all, manifestations of the Buddha-mind. The influence of Neo-Taoism and early Buddhism on this development is obvious.

  So far these methods are still traditional. From the ninth century to the eleventh, however, novel and unconventional techniques were developed, and vigorously, if only occasionally, applied. One was travel, which was calculated to broaden one’s perspective and deepen one’s insight. When one’s experience is enriched, one day he will suddenly intuit truth at the singing of a bird, the blooming of a flower, or a drop of rain. Another method was “never to tell too plainly,”12 for the obvious reason that the student must discover truth himself.

  The more interesting, more radical, and perhaps most misunderstood technique is the koan.13 Literally koan means an official document on the desk, connoting a sense of important decision and the final determination of truth and falsehood. To this end Zen Masters made use of any story, problem, or situation, the more shocking the better. But more often than not, the method consists of a question and an enigmatic answer. It is often believed that such answers are due to the belief that truth is so mysterious, irrational, or paradoxical that only an illogical answer can reveal it. Nothing is farther from the truth. When a pupil asked, “Whenever there is any question, one’s mind is confused. What is wrong?” and the answer was, “Kill! Kill!” this may sound absurd.14 But when a pupil asked what the Buddha was, and the Master answered, “Three pounds of flax,” it is not as silly as one may think.15 Any alert mind will soon realize that conceptualization can never discover what the Buddha is and that he should return to his spontaneous mental faculty to look for the answer himself.

  But the most puzzling technique is that of shouting and beating. Even these are not madness or dramatics but an unorthodox way of shocking the pupil out of his outmoded mental habits and preconceived opinions so that his mind will be pure, clear, and thoroughly awakened. In short, the whole philosophy of the various methods is to broaden a person’s vision, sharpen his imagination, and sensitize his mind so that he can see and grasp truth instantly any time and anywhere. This type of mental training is utterly Chinese. Nothing like it can be found in the tradition of Indian meditation. In Indian meditation, the mind tries to avoid the external world, ignores outside influence, aims at intellectual understanding, and seeks to unite with the Infinite. Chinese meditation, on the other hand, works with the aid of external influence, operates in this world, emphasizes quick wit and insight, and aims at self-realization.

  It was inevitable that such a philosophy would exercise a profound influence. Its impact on Chinese philosophy was great. The new doctrine of seriousness (ching)16 in Neo-Confucianism was one of its direct products, and the whole idealistic Neo-Confucian movement of several hundred years, initiated by Lu Hsiang-shan (Lu Chiu-yüan, 1139-1193) and culminating in Wang Yang-ming (Wang Shou-jen, 1472-1529), was so much influenced by it that it has often been called Zen in Confucian disguise. Even the Neo-Confucian tradition of compiling and publishing the recorded sayings of philosophers is an imitation of those of Zen.

  The
basic teachings of Zen are recorded in the Liu-tsu t’an-ching (Platform Scripture of the Sixth Patriarch). The following includes selections from it and also some from the Shen-hui yü-lu (Recorded Conversations of Shen-hui). In addition, there are selections from the Lin-chi Hui-chao Ch’an-shih yü-lu (Recorded Conversations of Zen Master I-hsüan, d. 867). He was the founder of the Lin-chi School, one of the seven schools that developed within the Southern School in the ninth century. Each had its peculiar method, but the Lin-chi “lightning” technique was the most radical of all.

  A.--THE PLATFORM SCRIPTURE17

  3. Priest Hung-jen asked me (Hui-neng), “Whence have you come to this mountain to pay reverence to me? What do you wish from me?”