A Bird in Flight Leaves No Trace

by Seon Master Subul

  3Hereafter, we will separate the Chinese and Korean transcriptions of Sinographs with a virgule or slash: e.g., gong’an/gongan, with the Chinese appearing first, the Korean second.

  4For a brief, but compelling, overview of Subul Sunim’s approach to ganwha Seon practice, see Ryan Bongseok Joo (Haemin Sunim), “Gradual Experiences of Sudden Enlightenment: The Varieties of Ganhwa Seon Teachings in Contemporary Korea,” in Ganhwa Seon, Segye-reul bichuda, Proceedings of the First International Conference on Ganhwa Seon (Seoul: Dongguk Daehakgyo Bulgyo Haksulwon, 2010), 2: 231–39. For this “what is it?” hwadu, see the account in Buswell and Lopez, Princeton Dictionary, 372, s.v. “imwŏtko.”

  5Subul Sunim adopts both these metaphors from the Essentials of Chan (Chanyao / Seonyo 禪要), by the Yuan-dynasty master Gaofeng Yuanmiao 高峰原妙 (1238–95). For “silver mountain and iron wall” (yinshan tiebi / eunsan cheolpyeok 銀山鐵壁), see Gaofeng Chanyao 高峰禪要, Xuzangjing 1401:70.705a17, 707c10; for the “spiky burr of a chestnut” (li jipeng / yul geukbong 栗棘蓬), see 704c18, 707c19. Gaofeng also uses in this same context the metaphor of being trapped inside an “adamantine cage” (jingang juan / geumgang gwon 金剛圈), 704c18, 707c19. The Essentials of Chan is used in Korean Buddhism as a primer on ganhwa Seon practice and is included in the Fourfold Collection (Sajip 四集), the Seon strand of the traditional seminary curriculum. For a discussion of this text and its place in the Korean monastic curriculum, see Robert E. Buswell, Jr., Numinous Awareness Is Never Dark: The Korean Master Chinul’s “Excerpts” on Zen Practice, Korean Classics Library: Philosophy and Religion (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2016), 83–91. Robert Buswell is currently preparing a complete, annotated translation of the Essentials of Chan.

  6From Subul Seunim, Hwanggeumbit bonghwang-i (Seoul: Yeose-A-Mun, 2005), 301; quoted in Joo, “Gradual Experiences of Sudden Enlightenment,” 16.

  7Subul Seunim, Heunjeok eopsi naneun sae: Jeonsimbeopyo, Subul Seonsa Seonhae (Seoul: Gimm-Young Publishers, 2014).

  8Subul Sunim’s Chinese text of Huangbo’s Chuanxinfayao reproduces an edition included in the Discourse Records of Four Houses of Chan (Sijia yulu 四家語錄; Xuzangjing 1320:69), which was compiled in 1085 (the eighth year of the Yuanfeng 元豊 reign-era) during the Song dynasty and reprinted in 1589 (Wanli 萬曆 reign-era, year 17) during the Ming dynasty; the Huangbo Duanji chanshi Chuanxinfayao 黃檗斷際禪師傳心法要 is the fourth fascicle of that collection (Xuzangjing 1324:69), and the Huangbo Duanji chanshi Wanling lu 黃檗斷際禪師宛陵錄 is the fifth fascicle (Xuzangjing 1325:69). Subul Sunim’s Korean rendering of the text is indebted to a modern Korean translation by Baengnyeon Seonseo Ganhaenghoe, Seollim bojeon, in Seollim gogyeong chongseo, vol. 1 (Seoul: Janggyeonggak Chulpansa, 1988).

  9In the longer editions of the Chuanxinfayao, part I is sometimes given the title Zhunzhou Record in distinction to the Wanling Record (part II) in order to distinguish it from the title of the complete collection. For an exhaustive account of the various editions of the Chuanxinfayao, done by a very young Albert Welter, see his “Huang-po’s Notion of Mind” (MA Thesis, McMaster University, 1978), 1–9 (http://digitalcommons.mcmaster.ca/opendissertations/2815). For a valuable overview of the text and its content, see Dale S. Wright, “The Huang-po Literature,” in Dale S. Wright and Steven Heine, eds., The Zen Canon: Understanding the Classic Zen Texts (London and New York: Oxford University Press, 2004), 107–35.

  10The Zen Teaching of Huang Po on the Transmission of Mind (New York: Grove Press, 1958); Blofeld’s translation has been frequently reprinted. There are also two other early English translations of portions of the text. D. T. Suzuki translated excerpts from part I; D. T. Suzuki, Manual of Zen Buddhism (New York: Grove Press, 1994 [orig. pub. 1935]), 112–19. Charles Luk (Lu K’uan Yu) translated sections of the Wanling lu in The Transmission of the Mind: Outside the Teaching (London: Rider, 1974), 1: 139–83.

  11Essentials of the Transmission of Mind, in Zen Texts, BDK English Tripiṭaka 73-III (Berkeley: Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research, 2005), 1–42. Iriya Yoshitaka, ed. and trans., Denshin hōyō — Enryōroku, Zen no goroku 8 (Tokyo: Chikuma Shobō, 1969).

  12The Recorded Sayings of the Four Houses, Sijia yulu 四家語錄, in Yanagida Seizan, ed., Shike goroku, Goke goroku (Kyoto: Chūbun Shuppansha, 1983). The text is attributed to Huanglong Huinan 黃龍慧南 (1002–69). The current edition dates from 1607 with a preface dated to 1085.

  13Jiangxi Mazu Daoyi chanshi yulu 江西馬祖道一禪師語錄, Xuzangjing 1321:69.3c2–4.

  14“Silver mountain and iron wall” (yinshan tiebi / eunsan cheolpyeok 銀山鐵壁) are metaphors Subul Sunim adopts from Gaofeng Yuanmiao’s Essentials of Chan, Chanyao 高峰禪要, Xuzangjing 1401:70.705a17, 707c10. See note 5 above.

  15心佛及衆生 是三無差別. See the Flower Garland Sūtra (Buddhāvataṃsakasūtra), Dafangguang fo huayan jing 大方廣佛華嚴經, Taishō 278:9.465c29.

  16Although this precise line does not appear in the Diamond Sūtra, both Huangbo and Subul Sunim are alluding here to that scripture’s frequent reference to making offerings to myriad buddhas: e.g., “I encountered 84 trillion nayutas of buddhas to whom I made offerings” (得値八百四千萬億那由他諸佛 悉皆供養). However, the usual comparison is that such offerings pale next to the merit that derives from learning the Diamond Sūtra: “If there were a person in the subsequent degenerate age [of the dharma] who is able to accept, keep, read, and recite this sūtra, the merit he will gain will be a hundred, thousand, ten-thousand, or a million times greater than the merit I gained from making offerings to all those buddhas; it is so much greater that it exceeds any possible analogy for its computation” (若復有人於後末世 能受持讀誦此經 所得功德 於我所供養 諸佛功德 百分不及一 千萬億分乃至算數譬喩所不能及). See Diamond Sūtra (Vajracchedikāsūtra), Jingang bore boluomi jing 金剛般若波羅蜜經, Taishō 235:8.750c28–751a4.

  17Pingchangxin shi dao / pyeongsangsim si do 平常心是道. Mazu’s Recorded Sayings, Mazu yulu 馬祖語錄, Xuzangjing 1321:69.3a13.

  18Huangbo alludes here to two renowned lines from the Heart Sūtra, “There is nothing to be attained. . . . This is true, not false” (以無所得故…眞實不虛); Heart Sūtra (Prajñāpāramitāhṛdayasūtra) Bore boluomiduo xin jing 般若波羅蜜多心經, Taishō 251:8.848c13–14, 19.

  19This passage appears widely throughout a whole panoply of primarily Buddhist commentarial literature. Perhaps the locus classicus is the Treatise on the Great Perfection of Wisdom, Dazhidu lun 大智度論, Taishō 1509:25.71c07–8.

  20The prophecy of Śākyamuni’s future attainment of buddhahood. This passage is adapted from the Diamond Sūtra, Jingang bore boluomi jing 金剛般若波羅蜜經, Taishō 237:8.764c24–25. See also Taishō 236:8.753c26–27; Taishō 236:8.753c26–27; and cf. Taishō 239:8.774a27.

  21Adapted from the Diamond Sūtra, Jingang bore boluomi jing 金剛般若波羅蜜經, Taishō 235:8.751c24–25.

  22Literally, “vertically and horizontally” (zongheng / jonghoeng 縱橫). For the broader connotation of this compound, cf. Robert E. Buswell, Jr., trans., Cultivating Original Enlightenment: Wŏnhyo’s Exposition of the Vajrasamādhi-Sūtra (Kŭmgang sammaegyŏng Non), The International Association of Wŏnhyo Studies’ Collected Works of Wŏnhyo 1 (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2007), 346n7.

  23Da banniepan jing 大般涅槃經 chap. 7, Taishō 374:12.408a.

  24The perfection of the vow (praṇidhānapāramitā) refers to the perfection of the bodhisattva’s aspiration to save all sentient beings from suffering. It is one of the ten perfections, which include the core six (generosity, morality, forebearance, vigor, meditative absorption, and wisdom), plus an additional four (skillful means, vow/aspiration, powers, and knowledge/omniscience). See Buswell and Lopez, Princeton Dictionary, 1084, s.v. “ten perfections.”

  25Cf. Diamond Sūtra, Jingang bore boluomi jing 金剛般若波羅蜜經, Taishō 235:8.749c17–18: 如來 在然�
�佛所 於法實無所得.

  26For these five types of eyes, see Diamond Sūtra, Jingang bore boluomi jing 金剛般若波羅蜜經. Taishō 235:8.751b13–20; for these five types of speech, see 750b27–28.

  27The “three phrases” here refers to Linji Yixuan’s well-known teaching of the “three mysterious gates” (san xuanmen / sam hyeonmun 三玄門): the mystery in the essence, mystery in the word, and mystery in the mystery. See discussion in Robert E. Buswell, Jr., Chinul: Selected Works, Collected Works of Korean Buddhism 2 (Seoul: Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism 2012), 84–88; see also the treatment of these three mysterious gates in Robert E. Buswell, Jr., “Ch’an Hermeneutics: A Korean View,” in Donald S. Lopez, Jr., ed., Buddhist Hermeneutics, Kuroda Institute Studies in East Asian Buddhism 6 (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1988), 231–56.

  28The most common list of four types of nutriment (āhāra) includes food (which nourishes the physical body), sense contact (which nourishes sensation), intention (which nourishes action), and consciousness (which nourishes materiality-and-mentality, viz., at the moment of rebirth); see Buswell and Lopez, Princeton Dictionary, 21, s.v. “āhāra.”

  29This passage appears in the Great Compilation (Mahāsaṃnipātasūtra), Fangdeng daji jing 方等大集經, Taishō 397:13.95a1, and in the Golden Light Sūtra (Suvarṇaprabhāsottamasūtra), Jinguangming jing 金光明經, Taishō 663:16.344b3–4.

  30This analogy is used in the Śūraṅgama Sūtra, Shoulengyan jing 首楞嚴經, Taishō 945:19.108c21, 147a27.

  31This passage is specifically attributed to the Sixth Patriarch Huineng and first quoted in Guifeng Zongmi’s 圭峰宗密 (780–841) contemporaneous Chan Prolegomenon, Chanyuan zhuquanji duxu 禪源諸詮集都序, Taishō 2015:48.411c8–10. As Jeffrey Broughton notes, this line has no close analog in the Platform Sūtra of the Sixth Patriarch, and is in fact not attributed to the Sixth Patriarch by Huangbo here; see Jeffrey Lyle Broughton, Zongmi on Chan (New York: Columbia University Press, 2009), 174, and discussion at 280–81n329. The verse is subsequently frequently cited in Chan literature, especially that associated with the Linji school. See, as but one of many examples, Yuanwu’s Recorded Sayings, Yuanwu Foguo chanshi yulu 圓悟佛果禪師語録, Taishō 1997:47.757a4–5. The Foshuo zaoxiang liangdu jing jie 佛説造像量度經解 attributes this passage instead to a unnamed sūtra; see Taishō 1419:21.937a7–10.

  32Like soil for plants, the mind ground (xindi/simji 心地) is the field of cultivation, or basis, for all phenomena, both wholesome and unwholesome. This teaching appears throughout the canon, e.g., the Mahāyāna Contemplation of the Mind Ground Sūtra, Dasheng ben xindi guan jing, 大乘本生心地觀經, Taishō 159:3.296c12 et passim.

  33The Puyan pusa zhang 普眼菩薩章 chapter in the Consummate Enlightenment Sūtra, Yuanjue jing 圓覺經, Taishō 842:17.914c2–4.

  34A similar passage, “I really attained nothing from that bodhi mind” (alt., “that bodhi mind in reality is unascertainable” 彼菩提心實無所得) appears in The Great Saint Mañjuśrī Bodhisattva Adorns the Buddha Land with Merit Sūtra, Dasheng Wenshushili pusa focha gongde zhuangyan jing 大聖文殊師利菩薩佛刹功徳莊嚴經, Taishō 319:11.912a7. There are also evocations of this sentiment in the Diamond Sūtra, as seen below.

  35Devadatta, the Buddha’s cousin, sought to usurp control of the Saṅgha from the Buddha and ended up causing the first schism in the Buddhist order. The Buddha rebuked him, which prompted Devadatta to try unsuccessfully to kill the Buddha and remove his rival. For this “act that brings immediate retribution” (ānataryakarman), Devadatta was swallowed up by the earth and fell into the Interminable Hell (Avīci). For his story, see Buswell and Lopez, Princeton Dictionary, 233–34, s.v. “Devadatta.”

  36See the “Chapter on the Conjured City Simile” (化城喻品第七) of the Miaofa lianhua jing 妙法蓮華經. Taishō 262:9.22a18–27b9; Burton Watson, trans., The Lotus Sutra (New York: Columbia University Press, 1993), 117–42. The story relates that there was a treasure that was located on the other side of a vast wasteland. A group of travelers wanted to cross this wasteland to locate the treasure, but in the middle of their journey, they became so exhausted that they were about to turn back. Then the leader of the group, through his miraculous powers, conjured up a walled city with water and mansions where the travelers could take rest. Once they were rejuvenated, the travelers were able to cross the land and find the treasure.

  37Icchantikas, or “incorrigibles,” were said to have destroyed the seed of buddhahood by disavowing the law of karma or rejecting the Mahāyāna sūtras, and their prospects for enlightenment were debated in Chinese Buddhism. For the famous passage in the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra that makes the then-startling assertion that icchantikas do in fact have the capacity to attain buddhahood, see Da banniepan jing 大般涅槃經, Taishō 374:12:828a9.

  38A quotation attributed to Dazhu Huihai 大珠慧海 (d.u., ca. eighth century), a disciple of Mazu Daoyi; cf. the Jingde Record of Transmitting the Lamplight, Jingde chuandeng lu, 景徳傳燈録 6, Taishō 207:51.247b9.

  39Subul Sunim seems here to be referring to a passage in the “Skillful Means” chapter (方便品) of the Lotus Sūtra, where the Buddha tells Śāriputra that the śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas are unable to fathom the profound wisdom of all the buddhas. See Lotus Sūtra (Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra), Miaofa lianhua jing 妙法蓮華經, Taishō 262:9.5b25–27; Watson, Lotus Sūtra, 23.

  40Nianhua weixiao / yeomhwa miso 拈華微笑. Tiansheng Expanded Lamplight Record, Tiansheng guangdenglu 天聖廣燈錄 2, Xuzangjing 1553:78.428c2–3.

  41Bore boluomiduo xin jing 般若波羅蜜多心經, Taishō 251:8.848c13–14; and see note 18 above.

  42Quoting the Diamond Sūtra, Jingang bore boluomi jing 金剛般若波羅蜜經, Taishō 235:8.751c14–15 et passim.

  43This quotation appears frequently in commentarial and Chan materials; e.g., Annotation to the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra, Zhu Dasheng ru Lenqie jing 注大乘入楞伽經, Taishō 1791:39.437b19; Exposition of the Diamond Sūtra, Jingang bore boluomi jing lun 金剛般若波羅蜜經論, Taishō 1511:25.784b19; the Blue Cliff Record, Biyan lu 碧巖録, Taishō 2003:48.222b24–25. Huangbo cites this same verse in part II, chap. 2.

  44Adapted from the Śūraṅgama Sūtra, Shoulengyan jing 首楞嚴經, Taishō 945:19.131b1, without minor differences.

  45This sentiment is a central theme of the Lotus Sūtra; see, for example, “There is only this dharma of the one vehicle./ There are not two and also not three [vehicles]” (唯有一乘法 無二亦無三); Miaofa lianhua jing 妙法蓮華經, Taishō 262:9.8a17–18. The last line, as cited here, appears later in the same verse summation; see 8a21; there, the text says, “All the buddhas appear in this world,/ only for this one great matter./ Any other is inauthentic.” The first line as cited here appears in Sthiramati’s Nondistinction in the Mahāyāna Dharma Realm, Dasheng fajie wuchabie lun 大乘法界無差別論, Taishō 1626:31.894a18–19.

  46This reference to Mahākāśyapa sharing Śākyamuni’s seat appears in an early avadāna narrative collection, the Zhongbenqi jing 中本起經, Taishō 196:4.161a18–25. Huangbo’s account of this event here is one of the earliest Chan versions of the story and links it with the school’s emblematic attempts to distinguish itself from the mainstream scriptural traditions of Buddhism.

  47Śūraṅgama Sūtra, Shoulengyan jing, Taishō 945:19.117b6.

  48To “catch the fish and forget about the weir” (de yu wang quan / deuk eo mang jeon 得魚忘筌) is a native Chinese analogy widely used in Chan texts and Chinese commentarial literature. It is first found in section 13 of the “What Comes from Without” chapter of the Zhuangzi 莊子 (in the “Miscellaneous Chapters” division). In Chan, the analogy indicates that once practitioners have achieved enlightenment, they no longer need to rely on the conceptual descriptions to convey a sense of what enlightenment is. This follows closely the interpretation in the Zhuangzi: “Words are employed to convey ideas; but having understood the ideas, one may forget t
he words.” The analogy is more commonly used in Chinese literature to refer to ingratitude — that is, now that you’ve caught the fish you forget how you got it. We translate here according to the Chan interpretation.

  49This passage appears in the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra, Da banniepan jing 大般涅槃經, Taishō 374:12.412c24–25. Huangbo uses this same quote later in part II, chap. 30. The passage subsequently comes to be widely quoted in Seon materials.

  50Quoting the Diamond Sūtra, Jingang bore boluomi jing 金剛般若波羅蜜經, Taishō 235:8.749c17–18, with minor changes.

  51A “person without concerns” is wushiren/musain 無事人; see also note 53 below. The original Chinese term 無事 is also adopted in Buddhist texts to translate “forest dweller,” as in the term 無事比丘 (āraṇyaka-bhikṣu), a forest-dwelling monk who is devoted to meditation. See Madhyamāgama, Zhong ahan jing 中阿含經 6, Taishō 26:1.455a4 and 455n1; as noted by Bhikkhu Anālayo in Digital Dictionary of Buddhism (http://www.buddhism-dict.net/ddb/, s.v. 無事比丘). This contemplative denotation of the term is probably suggested in the usage here.

  52Yongjia Zhenjue 永嘉眞覺 (665–713) , Zhengdao ge 證道歌, Taishō 2014:48.395c6.

  53For this “person without concerns” or “person who has nothing to do” (wushiren/musain 無事人), see Record of Linji, Linji lu 臨濟録, Taishō 1985:47.497b14, 497c27 et passim; cf. Ruth Fuller Sasaki, trans., The Record of Linji, ed. by Thomas Yuho Kirchner (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2009), 178.

  54Jingang bore boluomi jing 金剛般若波羅蜜經, Taishō 235:8.749b14–15.

  55Ji/jeuk 即, “is,” the identity Huangbo drew when he said that “mind is the buddha.”

  56As Subul Sunim notes below, this line appears in the Lotus Sūtra’s chapter on “The Previous Acts of the Bodhisattva Medicine King (Bhaiṣajyarāja)”; Miaofa lianhua jing 妙法蓮華經, Taishō 262:9.54a5.

  57Jingde Record of Transmitting the Lamplight, Jingde chuandeng lu 景徳傳燈録, Taishō 2076:51.214b27–28, a transmission verse appearing in the biography of the twenty-third Indian patriarch Haklenayaśas (鶴勒那). Huangbo quotes the first stanza later in part II, chap. 4.