Chapter 39 Section 5 Essentials of Learning Zen

Zen has two different stages: Tathagata Zen and Patriarch Zen.Tathagata Zen is based on the principles of Zen in the Buddhist scriptures, that is, the French spoken by the Buddha when he imparted Zhengfayanzang and the mantle and bowl to the golden head Tuduo Mahakassapa after holding up flowers to show the public at the Lingshan Meeting.Patriarch Zen is the first ancestor of Bodhidharma. He sailed eastward and went to Shaolin Temple in Songshan for nine years to face the wall.Whether it is Tathagata Zen or Patriarch Zen, it is all for the purpose of enlightening and enlightening all living beings to have the knowledge and view of Buddha.How to learn Zen?Now it is as follows:

(1) Tune five things Adjusting the five things, as for the method of practicing meditation at the beginning, I will introduce it according to the French taught by Master Yuanying.Meditation and meditation should begin with the practice of tranquility and insight. When the practice of tranquility and insight is used deeply, you will gain concentration and wisdom.Stopping and contemplating must pay equal attention, not one side.When working hard, if the meditation is too much, you will fall into drowsiness and sleep; if you make the meditation too much, you will tend to be restless and scattered.Drowsiness and restlessness are both faults of Zen practitioners, so we must pay special attention to them.When you are meditating, you should be balanced and even. If you feel drowsy when you are sitting in meditation, you should use contemplation to treat it.If restlessness is found, stop it with stillness.To practice tranquility and vipassana, you must first find a quiet place, so that it is easy to gather your mind.The second is to adjust the body. You must sit upright and sit in lotus position. You can sit cross-legged or cross-legged.When sitting, you should neither lean down nor lean up, nor lean to the east or west.Stand upright, lean your head against the collar, and open your eyes to a third of the way to see the tip of your nose.Just like the eyes of a Buddha statue, look down with compassion, so that sleep and distraction are not easy to occur.The third is to adjust the breath.Slowly exhale the turbid air in the body, and gradually inhale the fresh air outside.The fourth is to adjust the breath.Adjust the breath in and out of your nose to be pure, neither too fast nor too slow.Adjust our body and breath breathing all the way.These are all the reasons and conditions for practicing meditation.The conditions for helping the Dao are met, which can enable us to better practice Zen and read Huatou.The fifth is to start to adjust your mind and work hard.How to adjust your mind?It is to prevent our sixth consciousness from thinking about it all day long, so as not to make it think differently.Don't think about the good state, don't let it generate the evil state, don't climb the external state of sight, sound, smell, touch the five dusts, and don't make it climb the inner state of dharma dust.Up to this point, all predestined relationships have been let go, and no delusional thoughts have arisen. This state is called the effort of cessation.

It is very good to use kung fu to keep the mind and body quiet and not to generate a single thought, but one must not sit in vain. If you just sit in meditation without using wisdom to observe, it is like a silent world at night without the universal illumination of the moon, so It must be viewed from the beginning.Guanzi should be read in Qusheng.It is definitely not the concept of seeing things with the eyes, but the concept of observing with wisdom.If you want to raise the beginning of a sentence away from your mind, you must go straight to it. (2) Participating in Huatou and raising doubts

When researching, the most important thing is to use one's original awareness to generate a kind of light of wisdom and wisdom, which is the so-called spirituality.What is Huatou?For example, see "What was my original face before my parents were born?" "All dharmas return to one, where does one return?"You can use whatever Huatou you like.It is necessary to bring up this sentence and study it over and over again.I kept my heart on this topic.Doubts: "How can I be my original face?" "All dharmas return to one, where does one return to?" "Proposal and consideration, Baiyun thousands of miles". "Shake your lips and drum your tongue, open your mouth two or three times."

People who practice Zen should pay more attention to practicing Zen with a piece of mind-light wisdom, not with consciousness.There is no distinction between wisdom and consciousness, which are two fundamentally different principles of distinction and non-distinction.If you have a discriminating mind, delusional thoughts will flood your mind, and you will not be able to stop it. Therefore, you must use wisdom to contemplate when you practice Zen, and you must look at the beginning of a sentence.Looking at Huatou is to use a convenient method to stop delusional thoughts and illuminate the true nature.If we can see this sentence well, we must be able to raise doubts.If doubts can be brought up, then the delusional mind can be cut off.Using doubts to subdue delusions is to block the sixth consciousness and prevent it from acting rashly.Just as the "Diamond Sutra" says to subdue one's heart.Doubt and delusion cannot stand side by side. If there is doubt, there will be no delusion. Naturally, there will be delusion and there will be no doubt.Just like the reason why light and darkness cannot exist at the same time.

The most important thing in practicing Zen is to have doubts. Before we practice hard and see the true face, we always have to keep doubting, "What is my true face?" If we can keep doubting, of course, big doubts will lead to great enlightenment, and small doubts will lead to small enlightenment. If you doubt, you don't understand.This rule makes sense.For the beginning of a sentence or a doubt, you must grasp it tightly, and you must not relax at all. You must use the sixth consciousness that you usually use to delusion. To be a Taoist without heart, you don’t know how to walk, you don’t know how to sit, you don’t know how to sit, you don’t see, you don’t hear, all day long, 26 o’clock, it’s all the same.This is where the kung fu is corresponding. If you go to the end of the mountains and rivers, you will naturally turn around.When the doubts are broken and the mind is clear, it will be a matter of course.It is only here that we know that "the sound of the stream is the wide and long tongue, and the scenery of the mountains is nothing but the pure body." Therefore, all the Buddhas of the ten directions and the ancestors of the past dynasties all entered through this door and surpassed the wonderful and solemn road. "The Shurangama Sutra" says: The five shades, the six entrances, the twelve places, and the eighteen realms are all hidden by the Tathagata.In short, the Huazang realm is everywhere, and there is no sea of ​​Pilu.Those who practice Zen should also have great bodhicitta and be patient, and must not rush to achieve the sooner the better, or seek any supernatural powers.Be careful not to go the wrong way, and you must always highlight the diamond eye to see your true self.

(3) Dual cultivation of meditation and meditation Both meditation and meditation, meditation and meditation, the word Zhi is the principle of silence, and the word Guan is the principle of illumination.When we practice meditation, we must stop and observe in two directions, and advance in silence, just like the two wings of a bird and the two wheels of a car.It must be even and equal, not one side.You must not use the sixth consciousness when practicing Zen.Because consciousness is the enemy of Zen practitioners, we must bear in mind a few words from the Shurangama Sutra.Venerable Ananda asked the Buddha about the samadhi he cultivated. Before Sakyamuni Buddha taught the practice of concentration to Venerable Ananda, he first broke the sixth consciousness, not only the evil side of the consciousness, but also the good qualities of the consciousness. On the one hand, it must also be broken.Crush the delusional mind of the sixth consciousness to the point where nothing remains.This fully proves that the sixth consciousness is absolutely unavailable to Zen practitioners.Because it is the root of life and death for all living beings.It is more important to note that the sixth consciousness also has the function of ignorance. This ambiguity is similar to Jizhao Kung Fu, that is: "Lonely is ignorant, no memory is ignorant, ignorant is ignorant, delusional is illogical. . ” Practicing Zen practice should reflect the light and reflect the original source of one’s mind.Stillness and constant illumination, illumination and constant silence, Dinghui is naturally abundant.Zen Master Yongjia said: here is the difference between enlightenment and practice. Enlightenment is just to clarify the mind and see the nature, and it needs to be further cultivated according to enlightenment; practice can be used from the body, and the wonderful use prospers, which is inconceivable.Some are enlightened first and then cultivated, some are cultivated first and then enlightened, some are enlightened and cultivated at the same time, while enlightening and enlightening, while enlightening and cultivating.Therefore, it is said, "Buddha is inherently true and must be cultivated, and confusion is empty and must be broken." Here is a story about Ma Zu and Zen Master Huai Rang to illustrate the truth.

(4) Grinding bricks cannot become a mirror Matsu named Daoyi (AD 709-788) was born in Guanghan County, Sichuan, and his appearance was very strange.He once learned Zen theory from Master Chu Ji, a monk of the Tang Dynasty, and later traveled to various places to visit Taoism.Most of the people who spread the Dharma and benefit the living are in Jiangxi, so they are called Master Mazu of Jiangxi.He went to Luohan Temple to become a monk when he was young, and later received full precepts from Yuzhou Yuangong lawyer.During the Kaiyuan period, he went to Nanyue Mountain in Hunan again, where he lived and worked hard in a thatched hut, practicing meditation.At that time, Chan Master Huairang of the Banruo Temple in Nanyue Mountain saw that Mazu always closed the door to sit in meditation, and did not come out behind closed doors. He wondered whether his kung fu was correct.One day he knocked on Mazu's door, knocking deafeningly, so Mazu came out and opened the door.When Huairang saw Mazu, he asked, "Master, why do you sit in meditation every day? If you don't practice samatha and vipassanā, you will not be successful." Meditation is by no means just sitting in meditation.Mazu didn't understand the master's teaching, so he closed the door and sat in meditation again.Master Huairang was afraid that Mazu had gone the wrong way while sitting in meditation, so he thought of a convenient way to lure him out and enlighten him further.He took a brick and grinded the brick every day in front of the gate of Mazu's thatched cottage. The sound was very loud.After grinding for many days, Mazu heard the sound of grinding bricks every day, which made him uneasy, so he opened the door of the nunnery again, and came out to see who was grinding bricks here.At first glance, it turned out to be the Zen Master Huairang who knocked on the door a few days ago.Mazu asked, "Zen Master! What are you grinding bricks for?" Huairang replied, "Haha! Don't you know that I'm grinding bricks to make a mirror?" Mazu was amused when he heard that. He said, "Zen Master, how can you make a mirror by grinding bricks?" Huai Rang said, "That's right! I can't make a mirror by grinding bricks, so can you become a Buddha by sitting in a nunnery?" Enlightenment, like drinking nectar, is like drinking nectar, and the mind is happy and full of dharma joy.Feeling the grace of enlightenment, I made up my mind to get close to Zen Master Nanyue.He has been serving the left and right sides for nine years, and he is always influenced and taught by Zen master Huairang, and he can hear the mysterious and profound teachings every day.As a result, Mazu's moral knowledge increased day by day, and his meditation skills improved greatly.Later, I got the seal of Zen Master Huairang, saying: "I have won my heart", so I passed the Zhengfayanzang, the Tathagata Heart Seal, to Master Ma Zu Daoyi.

(5) Mind is Buddha That is to say, the heart is a Buddha. After Ma Zu obtained the Dharma in Nanyue, he lived in Jianyang Foji Temple at first.Later, he went to Fuzhou to go to Dahong Zen Buddhism to save all living beings.Because he is good at random guidance and convenient to benefit students, scholars from all over the world respect and admire Matsu very much.Once, a monk named Fachang came from Dameishan in Mingzhou to pay homage to Mazu and ask for enlightenment.Fachang said: "Excuse me, Zen master, what is a Buddha?" Mazu said: "That is, the heart is a Buddha."As soon as Fachang heard it, he became enlightened.So I went to live in seclusion in the place where Siming Zhengui lived, and built a hut, where I diligently practiced meditation skills and devoted myself to meditation.After a period of time, Mazu knew that the Dharma always lived in a thatched hut to sit in meditation, but he didn't know to what extent he had participated in the Buddha's principle that the mind is the mind, and whether he had fully realized it or not.So he sent a Chan Hezi to Dameishan to visit Fachang, to see how far his kung fu was, and to test it.When the Zen monk saw Fachang, he asked: "Chan Master, I heard that you used to get some insights from Mazu, and you came here to live in the mountains and practice Zen?" Fachang said, "Master Mazu enlightened me, that is, the heart is Buddha. After being taught, I got benefits, so I came to live in Dameishan, and practiced purely and intensively." The Chan monk cried out!Said: "Master Mazu recently taught the Dharma, saying that the heart is not the Buddha, and no longer says that the heart is the Buddha." Master Fachang sighed, and said: "This old man is playing tricks on the world, allowing him to follow his heart. I am not a Buddha, but my heart is still a Buddha here." After Zen and Zi went back, they told Ma Zu about the above situation. Ma Zu was very happy when he heard it, and thought that Fa Chang had indeed broken through the three barriers, completely impoverished, with his feet on the ground, and his enlightenment. Only the Xinzong can speak such a down-to-earth and shocking language.Mazu said one last sentence: "The plums are ripe", which means that his kung fu has reached home.My teacher, Master Yuan Gong, once said when he was meditating in Zen meditation: "When the leaves of the sycamore tree fall, you will know autumn. Don't throw away the world to seek the Dharma. You don't need to look for news anywhere, but you can see the root of it."With this in mind, pass on the news secretly.

(6) Twirling and squeaking Master Mazu had several old friends before he became a monk.Hearing that Mazu had attained great enlightenment, he preached the Dharma everywhere, answered every question, and everyone was very happy.Everyone felt very strange, and they were only dubious in their hearts.One day these old friends made an appointment to visit Mazu and ask for a lecture, but they couldn't think of what to ask.Everyone was thinking while walking, looking around, and suddenly saw an old scalper by the road, with a rope through its nose, tied to a big tree.The ox was very bored, so he coiled around the tree, turning, turning, and turning from the left direction, making the rope shorter and shorter, and finally touched his nose to the tree.Then turn back and turn to the right, turn, turn, and gradually loosen the rope, then turn it tighter and tighter, and finally touch the nose to the tree again.A farmer in the middle said, let's ask Mazu to explain this matter.Everyone said in unison, this is great.Suddenly a Ticada flew over, its foot was caught by the silk net, and it couldn't fly over.Immediately screamed desperately.When the spider saw the Ticada flying and entangled in the silk web, it immediately came to eat it.At this critical moment of life and death, Qiu Chan used all her strength to rush forward, only heard a snort, and left the silk screen and flew forward.These peasants said it was very good, let's ask Mazu about it.When we went to the Mazu Temple, we saw many good men and women sitting down to listen to the Fa after worshiping.The farmers also sat down to pay respects to Master Mazu. A representative of the peasants asked Mazu, "Excuse me, monk, how is it going round and round?"Everyone felt very strange when they heard this sentence. Could it be that Mazu also saw it?He asked again: "So what if the rope is broken?" The answer was: "Go freely and freely."Everyone is right.This moment will change the previous half-doubtful mood.He pestered him and asked again: "May I ask why the monk is squeaking." Mazu said, "It's just because there are silk under the feet."The peasants were indescribably happy to hear this answer.Ask again: "So what if the thread is broken?" The answer is: "Hulu flew away."All the old friends who came here were completely convinced by Mazu's answer, and they were full of admiration.Matsu's old friends were all discussing the facts, and they really answered well, the answer was correct, not bad at all, so they were very happy and praised.However, Master Mazu's answers are all based on the facts to show the truth, and the facts are combined, and the truth is understood.The first question and answer is to say: We sentient beings are going round and round in the six realms of samsara, mainly because we are tied by the rope of karma, so we cannot be freed.If you set your mind to practice and cut off the rope of good and evil, you will naturally be able to jump out of the three realms and enter Nirvana with ease.The second question and answer is that we sentient beings in the six realms of samsara suffer from the three sufferings and the eight sufferings, where we scream and cry.This is because the thread of thought and emotion in the hearts of sentient beings is tightly entangled and cannot be cut off.If we arouse the mind of Bodhi, practice hard, let go of all ties, see through everything, cut off the thread of love, cut off desire to learn inaction, cut off confusion and realize Nirvana, then we will be greatly liberated, wouldn't we just fly away with a snort?I hope that everyone will have a good understanding of the two koans mentioned above.To put in a lot of hard work here, we must cut off the rope of karma, we must sweep away the threads of emotion in our hearts, so as to gain real benefits and live up to Master Mazu's earnest and compassionate teachings.

The teachings of the first ancestor and the second ancestor, the teaching of the fifth ancestor and the sixth ancestor, and the teaching of Huineng and Huairang introduced above.Many historical stories, such as the seal paid by Nanyue to Matsu, are Zen gongan.On the surface, it is just a few words of French, or casual chatting, asking and answering.But the mysteries and mysteries in it are really indescribable and enlightening.We can not extract it from the words, but know the return from the words.The so-called "Yangchun Bude, the fragrance of flowers leaks from the branches; the moon is shining, and the waves are printed on the bottom of the pool." Every move, a few words, raising eyebrows and blinking, raising arms and fists, everywhere, there is nothing wrong with it. The local scenery, confessed everything.The most important thing is whether we understand it or not, and whether we can shoulder the burden and bear it directly.Those who are fascinated will miss it, but those who are enlightened will have a good time.We should come here, put down the grass hut, and go straight to the treasure house.Only in this way can we see the compassionate hearts of the great patriarchs, and then realize that there is nothing like peace and nothing.Therefore, I hope fellow practitioners will remember the two sayings of the ancients: "Don't make a distinction between them, so this place is the most auspicious."What exactly is this?Please refer to it!Congratulations to get news here, I have lived up to my life of studying Buddhism and practicing for a lifetime.