A Bird in Flight Leaves No Trace
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Still, after finishing their retreats, his retreatants are often eager for instruction on what to do next. What about starting another practice like insight meditation, or mindfulness training, or visualization? Subul Sunim chides them for wanting to sample this or that technique, comparing this desire to a kid in a candy store eager to try this and that morsel. The pursuit of more practice and spiritual experiences is just another sort of attachment, which can become a hindrance in its own right.
So what, his students then ask, should we do after having this “experience” in ganhwa Seon? Master Subul Sunim’s answer is cryptic: “Live well.” The usual reaction: what do you mean by “living well”? This is where Master Subul turns to Huangbo’s Essentials of Transmitting the Mind-Dharma. As Huangbo reiterates time and again throughout his text, we are already enlightened. We don’t need to do anything in order to develop our enlightenment, whether that is making merit, mastering the six perfections of the bodhisattva, or practicing different styles of meditation. There is, Huangbo says in his opening section, “not the slightest dharma that you need to attain, for this mind is in fact a genuine buddha” (part I, chap. 1).
Master Subul draws on Huangbo’s message to help wean his more advanced students in particular from their attachment to their “experience” and even to meditation itself: just stop thinking there is something more you need to do, and all will be perfectly clear in and of itself. Subul Sunim therefore recommends the Essentials as offering an ideal guide on how to “live well.” As Master Subul says, “The Way is already fully revealed. There is nothing that needs to be eliminated or sought. After having an ‘experience’ through your meditation practice, there is nothing you need to do but pass the time by going along with the flow of causes and conditions” (part I, chap. 8). Commenting on Huangbo’s statement, “This mind is in fact the buddha. There is no other buddha and no other mind” (part I, chap. 1), Subul Sunim also notes,
Once you have a breakthrough in your training, you will be able to believe these words and leave things just as they are. Whether things go your way or not, if you let things take their natural course, one day everything will be revealed accordingly. As time passes, things mature and naturally reveal themselves. If you have already recognized the original quiescence inherent in your mind, what more is there for you to be concerned about?
Pei Xiu 裴休 (787/797–870), the eminent Buddhist layman and senior government official who serves as the interlocutor throughout the Essentials of Transmitting the Mind-Dharma, was himself a devout Buddhist and experienced practitioner, much like the laypeople Master Subul himself is teaching. Subul Sunim notes at several points in his commentary how fortunate we are to have a record of Pei Xiu’s questions, because the kinds of questions he asked twelve centuries ago are exactly the kind of questions practitioners today often ask him. This relevance for contemporary lay Buddhists is another reason the Essentials has figured prominently in Subul Sunim’s lectures. After working through the text multiple times with his advanced disciples, Subul Sunim eventually developed a comprehensive Seon commentary to every passage in the text. He delivered an extended set of lectures on the Essentials of Transmitting the Mind-Dharma in 2010 at the Anguk Seonwon branch in Seoul and subsequently compiled these lectures in the book Heunjeok eopsi naneun sae.7 It is this book that we translate here. Subul Sunim embeds in his commentary the original Chinese text of Huangbo’s records along with a modern Korean translation. Our English translation of the Essentials of Transmitting the Mind-Dharma is made from this same Chinese text, which we reproduce in the main body of the book.8
There are different editions of Essentials in varying lengths. The order, numbering, and titles of the chapters of the text also vary slightly among the different editions. The shortest version of the text, but by far the best known, is titled Essentials of Transmitting the Mind-Dharma (Chuanxinfayao), which comprises part I of our translation here. This part was compiled in 842 and purports to offer Pei Xiu’s own transcript of his exchanges with Huangbo on the meaning of Chan. Longer editions of the text add to this eponymous part I a second part, the Wanling Record (Wanling lu). The Wanling Record was compiled in 848 and is named after Wanling, the capital of Anhui province; it includes additional exchanges between Huangbo and Pei Xiu. Since this Wanling Record designates Pei Xiu by his honorific government title of Grand Councilor, it is sometimes presumed that much of it may have been recorded and compiled not by Pei Xiu himself but by Huangbo’s disciples who were in attendance during the discussions between the two men. The longest edition of the text appends to the Wanling Record a so-called “Account of Activities” (Xingzhuang), a traditional biographical genre that is often compiled soon after an eminent teacher’s death by his closest disciples. Here, this “Account” consists almost entirely of additional exchanges between Huangbo and his students, exchanges that are in the emblematic encounter-dialogue format of the classical Chan tradition. Therefore the Essentials of Transmitting the Mind-Dharma designates part I of the collection, but it also lends its name to the entire collection.9
THE TRANSLATION
Huangbo’s text has received several renderings into English. In 1958, the pioneering scholar of Buddhism and Chinese religions John Blofeld published the first complete rendering of the Essentials of Transmitting the Mind-Dharma.10 His rendering offers some brilliantly intuitive readings of the Chinese, which are always creative and often insightful. For someone working during the incipiency of Zen studies in the West, his rendering is genuinely inspired, which is why it has stood the test of time and remains in print still today. But at too many places, Blofeld’s renderings are obsolete, especially in the second half of the Wanling Record, the “Account of Activities,” where his translation of Huangbo’s Seon encounter dialogues did not have the benefit of more recent advances in our understanding of medieval colloquial Chinese, a central feature of this encounter-dialogue genre of Buddhist literature. His approach to the text is also heavily beholden to D. T. Suzuki’s account of Zen, which is now long outmoded.
In 2005, John McRae published in the Bukkyō Dendō Kyōkai English Tripiṭaka series a much more accurate and literal rendering of the text, which follows closely Iriya Yoshitaka’s Japanese translation and study.11 McRae’s rendering is a major improvement over Blofeld’s; but McRae translates only the first part of the text, the eponymous Chuanxinfayao. (Iriya Yoshitaka’s Japanese translation team also does not translate the “Account of Activities” section of the Wanling Record.) Additionally, because of the restrictions of the series in which his translation appeared, McRae was not able to include any annotation to the text. Our new version is therefore the first complete English translation in fifty years of the full Chinese text of Huangbo’s Essentials of Transmitting the Mind-Dharma, and the first one ever to include extensive annotation to Huangbo’s sources. Subul Sunim’s Seon commentary to the entire text, translated from the Korean, also enhances the significance of Huangbo’s work for modern readers.
Blofeld translated the title of Huangbo’s Chuanxinfayao quite freely as The Zen Teaching of Huang Po on the Transmission of Mind; McRae’s rendering is Essentials of the Transmission of Mind. We have chosen to translate the title more strictly, as “Essentials (yao) of Transmitting (chuan) the Mind-Dharma (xinfa).” Our rendering follows Huangbo’s own guidance on how to parse the title:
When people of this world hear it said that all the buddhas transmit the mind-dharma, they assume that there is a discrete dharma that can be realized and acquired with reference to the mind. They thereupon seek that dharma with the mind, not knowing that the mind is nothing but that dharma and that dharma is nothing but the mind. You cannot seek the mind with the mind. . . . Therefore, it is said that, once there are neither dharmas nor the original mind, you will understand the mind that is the “mind-dharma” (part I, chap. 3, and part II, chap. 29).
We have also attempted in this translation to trace the many quotations and allusions that Huangbo employs in his text. These are i
mportant to show the range and breadth of influences on Huangbo’s presentation of Seon Buddhism. Master Subul Sunim’s commentary refers to some of these sources, though without precise citations. We have consulted the Japanese translation of Professor Iriya Yoshitaka and his team for additional leads on sources and have used the tools of modern digital Buddhist studies to track still more. We believe we have succeeded in ferreting out many of the sources Huangbo used in his teachings that were previously unidentified.
ABOUT SEON MASTER SUBUL SUNIM
Subul Sunim (b. 1953) is the Seon master at the Anguk Seonwon in Korea. (Sunim 스님 is the Korean honorific used to refer to ordained monks and nuns; it is also seen transcribed as Seunim or Sŭnim.) The Anguk Seonwon has its main center in the city of Busan but also has branches in Seoul and, more recently, the United States. Subul Sunim was ordained under Jiyu Sunim 知有 (1931–), the Seon master at Beomeosa 梵魚寺, as a novice monk, or śramaṇera, in 1975, and as a fully ordained monk, or bhikṣu, two years later, under Goam Sunim 高庵 (1899–1988). After completing seminary study at Beomeosa in 1978, he “relinquished doctrine and entered Seon” (shejiao ruchan / sagyo ipseon 捨教入禪), as the Koreans say, and spent three years in intensive ganhwa Seon practice in meditation halls around the country. In 1981, during a conversation with Jiyu Sunim, he had an awakening experience that was sanctioned by his teacher. Jiyu Sunim then gave him the dharma name Subul 修弗, which means literally “cultivating ‘not,’ ” implying that Jiyu Sunim considered his student had nothing further he needed to practice.
Subul Sunim remained in seclusion for the next several years before deciding to dedicate himself to popularizing ganhwa Seon among the laity. This aspiration led in 1989 to the founding of the Anguk Seonwon in Busan and the Seoul branch in 1996. Over three thousand lay Buddhists regularly attend events held at his two centers in Korea. Subul Sunim has also led over three hundred week-long ganhwa Seon retreats in Korea and throughout the world, including the United States, China, India, and New Zealand. Over twenty-five thousand monks and laypeople over the years have gained experience in ganhwa Seon through these retreats. As the Anguk Seonwon organization grew, Subul Sunim simultaneously held numerous administrative positions in the Jogye Order and the Korean Buddhist ecclesia. In the last few years, Subul Sunim has served as the abbot of Beomeosa and the Seon master at the International Meditation Center at Dongguk University, and was one of the two finalists for the position of administrative head of the Jogye Order in the most recent ecclesiastical balloting.
We are honored to have this opportunity to offer to a new generation of readers a translation of the complete text of Huangbo’s Essentials of Transmitting the Mind-Dharma, together with an illuminating commentary by one of the most influential Seon masters in contemporary Korean Buddhism.
Preface by Seon Master Subul Sunim
WITH THE DEVELOPMENT of information technologies, exchanges of intellectual culture between the East and the West are taking place today at a rapid pace. Accordingly, the universal intellect of humankind has awakened throughout the world. As that awakening expands, we may expect that the human intellect, including the fields of science and technology, will experience revolutionary changes. It is evident to me that the cross-cultural exchanges are moving humanity in a direction that accords with more objective and universal values. As the collective intellect of the human race comes to be awakened just like the shining of the sun, we therefore have reason to hope that obsolete mental values that are blind and materialistic will inevitably die out.
Seon, which the Chinese know as Chan and the Japanese as Zen, is one of humankind’s most noble mental and cultural heritages. Its goal is to reveal the ultimate truth of existence exactly as it is. Even though this primordial truth clearly manifests itself right in front of our eyes, it is hard for ordinary people to recognize it. Seon directly points to absolute truth, which it calls an “open secret.” However, most people today, entangled in the complexities of daily life and myriad stereotypical ideas, cannot see this reality.
The veracity of Seon Buddhism has been verified by luminaries as numerous as the stars in the sky. Throughout its history, people in both East and West have taken an interest in Seon. Furthermore, more than a few have tasted the truth of Seon directly for themselves through meditation. Such people attest that Seon is the fastest, most exact, and the easiest teaching by which to ward off the mind’s darkness and restore its brightness. Fortunately, this precious approach is in fact very close to us all.
Seon training to restore the mind’s intrinsic brightness is a task we would all do well to undertake. Ordinary people have accustomed themselves to wandering around in the dark, running in circles with their busy routines, not realizing that this truth is there to be rediscovered. This is all the more reason why it is so urgent to share the insights of Seon with the people of the world.
Two pioneers zealously tackled this very issue in a series of dialogues about twelve hundred years ago. The questioner was Grand Councilor Pei Xiu (791–870) of the Tang dynasty, who was a renowned literatus and public intellectual. His counterpart was Huangbo Xiyun (d. 850), a pioneering Seon master who had personally realized the truth. The Essentials of Transmitting the Mind-Dharma (Chuanxinfayao) records their exchanges, with Huangbo answering questions posed by Pei Xiu regarding the true nature of reality.
Pei Xiu was a Confucian scholar and high-ranking government official, but he was also well versed in Buddhist doctrine. His mind opened immediately after he met Master Huangbo. In order to perfect his study of the truth, he repeatedly invited Huangbo to visit him so that he could ask questions about the dharma.
Because ultimate truth is absolute, it always transcends the relative. Because discriminative knowledge is generated in the dichotomous realm of the relative, it cannot digest the absolute dharma of nonduality, which transcends all dichotomies. Therefore one can realize the nondual dharma only by attaining true wisdom.
Pei Xiu was a scholar who always sought the truth. Due to his habitual dichotomizing tendencies, he asked about the truth of existence. In response, the master Huangbo revealed the absolute from the transcendent standpoint of the nondual dharma. Pei Xiu kept asking about the dharma from the standpoint of the relative, while his counterpart answered consistently from the standpoint of the absolute. Since people today are used to the dichotomies in the realm of relative truth, they will feel as if Pei Xiu’s questions are their own.
For the most part, Seon masters deflect questions that arise from delusory conceptions. However, Master Huangbo, perhaps foreseeing the future value of this record that Pei Xiu would leave, sincerely and tolerantly answered each and every question, even when a question was foolish. This is the reason why the Essentials of Transmitting the Mind-Dharma is regarded in both East and West as a rare masterpiece that expresses absolute truth by using relative language.
One may know relative knowledge, but one must realize the wisdom of the absolute. When a student earnestly asks an unresolved question about the fundamental truth, a master directly points to the place of the absolute. At that moment, a student with affinities to the master will align with the absolute through the master’s words and will attain awakening.
This Seon principle of “attaining sudden awakening through seeing the nature” was articulated by Bodhidharma (late fourth–early fifth centuries), the First Patriarch of Seon, on the basis of the Buddha’s teachings. It reached greatness thanks to the Sixth Patriarch Huineng 慧能 (638–713). In this way, all the Seon patriarchs and teachers, generation after generation, led their students to obtain the true dharma-eye by revealing directly to them the absolute nature with which all sentient beings are endowed. This special practice is called Patriarchal Seon (zushi Chan / josa Seon 祖師禪).
Korean Seon Buddhism succeeds the Yangqi/Yanggi 楊岐 collateral line of the Linji/Imje 臨濟 school from among the Five Houses and Seven Schools (Wujia Qizong / Oga Chiljong 五家七宗) of the mature Chinese Chan tradition. The mast
er Dahui Zonggao 大慧宗杲 (1089–1163), a successor in the Yangqi lineage, established the kanhua Chan technique, which the Korean tradition knows as ganhwa Seon, the “Seon of examining meditative topics.” This technique is the official practice of the contemporary Korean Jogye Buddhist Order.
The Linji school compiled the Recorded Sayings of the Four Houses in order to promote the lineage of Mazu Daoyi 馬祖道一 (709–88) → Baizhang Huaihai 百丈懷海 (749–814) → Huangbo Xiyun → Linji Yixuan 臨濟義玄 (d. 867). The eleventh century, about the time of the production of that text, can be regarded as the golden age of Patriarchal Seon.12
Among those recorded sayings, the Essentials of Transmitting the Mind-Dharma, which is the recorded sayings of master Huangbo, was well received within the Seon tradition because its straightforward rhetoric logically revealed the principle of Seon. Thanks to the merit Pei Xiu had made in his previous lives, as soon as he heard Huangbo’s words, he understood their profound meaning. Nonetheless, when we examine the questions he posed to the master, Pei Xiu’s queries still seem to be trapped in dualistic thought.
Therefore, rather than being the simple record of questions and answers between a student and his master, the Essentials is also a record of the process through which a bright-eyed master guides his student along the path that leads upward toward enlightenment.
Despite Pei Xiu’s experience of “sudden awakening” (dunwu/dono 頓悟), he still held to the position of “gradual cultivation” (jianxiu/jeomsu 漸修). In this text, we should pay careful attention to the ways in which Huangbo disabuses his student of this position and reveals to him the right path of “sudden cultivation” (dunxiu/donsu 頓修).