Chapter 22 Chapter Twenty Two

"Zen" or "Zhanna" is a transliteration of the Sanskrit word Dhyana, which means contemplation and meditation.The origin of Zen Buddhism, according to traditional sayings, is that Buddhism has "other teachings outside the teaching". Passed down to Bodhidharma, it is said to be the twenty-eighth generation.Bodhidharma came to China around 520-526 when he was Emperor Wu of Liang, and he was the first ancestor of Chinese Zen. Bodhidharma passed on the heart to Huike (486-593), the second ancestor of Chinese Zen.In this way, it was passed down to the fifth patriarch Hongren (605-675). He had two big disciples, which were divided into the northern and southern Songs.Shenxiu (died in 706) founded the Northern School, and Huineng (638-713) founded the Southern School.The Southern Sect soon overtook the Northern Sect, and Huineng was considered the Sixth Patriarch.All later influential schools of Zen say that they were passed down by Huineng's disciples (see Volume 1 of Daoyuan's "Chuan Deng Lu").

It is very doubtful how reliable the early part of this narration is, since there are no documents earlier than the eleventh century to support it.It is not the purpose of this chapter to be an academic examination of this question.Suffice it to say this: no scholar now takes this narration seriously.Because the theoretical background of Chinese Zen Buddhism has already been created by people such as Seng Zhao and Dao Sheng, which has been mentioned in the previous chapter.Against this background, the rise of Zen Buddhism was almost inevitable, without the mythical Bodhidharma as its founder.

However, it is a historical fact that Shenxiu and Huineng split Zen.The difference between the founders of the Northern School and the Southern School, and the difference between the Representative School and the Kong School, as described in the previous chapter.This can be seen from Hui Neng's preface.From this preface, we know that Huineng is a native of Guangdong Province today, and he is a monk under Hongren's sect.According to the preface, one day Hongren knew that he was going to die, so he called his disciples together and said that now he wanted to appoint a successor, and the condition was to write the best "Gatha" to summarize the teachings of Zen.At that moment, Shenxiu wrote a verse:

The body is like a bodhi tree, and the heart is like a mirror stand. Wipe it frequently so as not to get dusty. In response to this verse, Hui Neng wrote a verse: No Bodhi tree, nor stand mirror. There is nothing in the first place, where is the dust. It is said that Hongren admired Huineng's gatha and designated him as the successor, the Sixth Patriarch (see Volume 1 of "The Altar Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch"). Shenxiu's gatha emphasizes the mind of the universe, which is what Daosheng called Buddha-nature.Hui Neng's gatha emphasizes what Seng Zhao said about nothingness.Zen has two sayings that are often said: "The mind is the Buddha". "Non-mind is not Buddha".Shenxiu's gatha expresses the former sentence, and Hui Neng's gatha expresses the latter sentence.

Later, the mainstream of Zen Buddhism developed along the line of Huineng.Among them, the combination of Kongzong and Taoism reached its peak.The so-called third level of truth in Kongzong, Zen calls it "first meaning".As we have seen in the previous chapter, at the third level, literally nothing can be said.Therefore the first righteousness, according to its nature, cannot be said.Zen Master Wenyi (died in 958) said in Quotations: "Ask: 'What is the first meaning?' Master said; 'I told you that it is the second meaning.'" Zen masters teach their disciples the principles only through personal contact.However, there are some people who do not have the opportunity to get in touch with each other personally. For their sake, I recorded the words of the Zen master and called them "Quotes".This approach was later adopted by New Confucianism.In these quotations, we can see that when students ask about the fundamental principles of Buddhism, they are often beaten by the Zen master, or the answers they get are completely irrelevant.For example, he might reply that cabbage is worth three pennies.People who do not understand the purpose of Zen Buddhism think these answers are just nonsense.The purpose is also very simple, that is to let his disciples know that the questions he asks cannot be answered.Once he understands this, he also understands many things.

The first meaning cannot be said, because nothing can be said about nothing.To call it "mind" or something else is to immediately give it a definition and thus a limitation.As Zen and Taoism say, this falls into the "word trap".Mazu (died in 788) was Huineng's second disciple. The monk asked Mazu: "Why did the monk say that the heart is the Buddha? He said: 'Stop the cry of a child.' He said: 'What will happen when the cry stops?' Said: 'It is not the heart, not the other Buddha." (Volume 1 of "Gu Zunsu Quotations") Also, Layman Pang asked Mazu: "Who is a person who does not become a companion of all dharmas?" Mazu said: "When you suck up the water of the West River in one gulp, I will tell you " (Ibid.) It is obviously impossible to suck up the water of the West River in one gulp, and Mazu implied that the question he asked was unanswerable.In fact, his question is also truly unanswerable.For one who is not a companion of all things is one who transcends all things.If it really transcends all things, how can you ask him "who is he?"

Some Zen masters use silence to mean nothing, which is the first meaning.For example, Huizhong Guoshi (died in 775) "discussed with Ziphos (no such word: ocr) enshrined. After ascending to the seat, the enshrined said: 'Please establish righteousness, a certain armor is broken.' The teacher said: 'Li Yi is actually The priest said: "What's the righteousness?" Said: "Sure enough, I don't see it, it's not in the public realm." Then I will sit down.He has no words to say, no expression, but establishes righteousness, and what he establishes is the first righteousness.Nothing can be said about the first meaning, or "nothing," so the best way to express the first meaning is to remain silent.

From this point of view, none of the sutras has any real connection with the first meaning.Therefore, Zen Master Yixuan (died in 866) who established the Linji sect said: "If you want to gain insights into the Dharma, don't teach others to be confused. Look inside and out, and kill whenever you meet. Kill the Buddha when you meet the Buddha, and kill the ancestor when you meet the ancestors. ,...you will be liberated." (Volume 4 of "Gu Zunsu Quotations") The first kind of knowledge is the knowledge of not knowing; therefore the method of practice is also the practice of non-cultivation.It is said that Matsu lived on Mount Heng (in present-day Hunan Province) before becoming a disciple of Huairang (died in 744). "Lonely in a nunnery, only practice sitting meditation, and ignore all visitors."Huairang said, "One day, Mazu didn't care about grinding bricks in front of the nunnery. After a long time, he asked, "What are you doing?" Master said, "Grinding bricks to make a mirror." Ma Zu said, "How can grinding bricks make a mirror?" Master Yun: 'If you grind a brick and you cannot make a mirror, how can you become a Buddha by sitting in meditation?'" (Vol.

Therefore, according to Zen Buddhism, in order to become a Buddha, the best practice method is not to do any practice, that is, practice without practice.Cultivation with self-cultivation is deliberate action, that is, action.Of course, being promising can also produce some kind of good effect, but it cannot last for a long time.Zen master Huangbo (Xiyun) (died in 847) said: "If you make Hengsha kalpas, go through six perfections and ten thousand lines, and attain Buddha Bodhi, it is not the ultimate. Why? It is caused by karma. If karma is exhausted, it will return to impermanence. .” (Volume Three of Quotations of Gu Zunsu)

He also said: "All actions come back to impermanence. All powers have their end. It's like an arrow shot in the air, and it falls back when it exhausts its strength. It all returns to the cycle of life and death. If you practice like this, you don't understand the Buddha's meaning, and you suffer hard work in vain. Isn't it a big mistake? "(ibid.) He also said: "If you don't know Wuxin, all appearances belong to the magic karma. ... Therefore, Bodhi and other dharmas do not exist. What the Tathagata said is all about transforming people. It is like yellow leaves turning into money, which stops children from crying... But eliminate old karma according to circumstances, and don’t create new disasters.” (Ibid.)

Not creating new karma does not mean not doing anything, but doing things with no intention.So the best way to practice is to do things with no mind.This is exactly what Taoism calls "inaction" and "intention".This is the meaning of Huiyuan's theory, and it may also be Daosheng's meaning of "good will not be rewarded".The purpose of this method of practice is not to do things for good results, however good those results may be in themselves.Rather, its purpose is to do things without causing any results.If a person's actions do not cause any results, then after his accumulated karma has been eliminated, he can transcend the cycle of birth and death and reach Nirvana. Doing things with no intention is to do things naturally and live naturally.Yixuan said: "Taoist Buddhism is useless. It's just ordinary things, pissing and peeing, wearing clothes and eating, and lying down when you are sleepy. Fools laugh at me, but wisdom knows it." (Volume 4 of "Quotations of Gu Zunsu") Some people deliberately become a Buddha, but they often fail to follow this natural process because they lack self-confidence.Yixuan said: "Nowadays, scholars are not good enough. Where is the disease? The disease is in the lack of self-confidence. If you are not confident enough, you will turn around in a daze, and you will be changed by it, and you will not be free. If you stop thinking about it If you seek your heart, you will be indistinguishable from the Patriarch Buddha. Do you want to know the Patriarch Buddha? Only the one listening to the Dharma is in front of you." (Ibid.) Therefore, the way of practice is to fully believe in yourself, let go of everything else, and don't have to do anything outside of daily routines.This is hard work without hard work, which is what Zen masters call non-cultivation. Here is a question: If it is true as mentioned above, then what is the difference between those who practice this method and those who do not practice at all?If what the latter does is exactly what the former did, he too should attain Nirvana. In this way, there will always be a time when there will be no cycle of birth and death at all. The answer to this question can be as follows: Although dressing and eating are common daily tasks, they are not necessarily done without any intention, so there is no stagnation.For example, if someone likes beautiful clothes and dislikes ugly ones, he feels happy when others praise his clothes.These are the stagnations born of wearing clothes.What the Zen masters emphasize is that practice does not require special behaviors, such as worship and prayer in the religious system.It should only be done without intention in daily life, without stagnation; and only in daily routines can there be results of practice.At the beginning, effort is needed, and the goal is to not have to work hard; intention is needed, and the goal is to be unintentional; just as in order to forget, one needs to remember first and must forget.But later, when the time comes, we must abandon our efforts to achieve no need of effort; Therefore, cultivation without cultivation is itself a kind of cultivation, just as knowing without knowing is itself a kind of knowledge.Such knowledge.It is different from the original ignorance; the practice of non-cultivation is also different from the original nature.Because the original ignorance and nature are the products of nature; but the knowledge of ignorance and the cultivation of non-cultivation are all spiritual creations. Practice, no matter how long, is itself only a preparation.In order to become a Buddha, this practice must culminate in a culmination, the epiphany, which, as described in the previous chapter, is like a leap.Only after the leap can one become a Buddha. Such a leap is often called "seeing the Tao" by Zen masters.Nanquan Chan Master Pu Yuan (died in 830) told his disciples: "Tao does not belong to knowing or not knowing. Knowing is delusion and not knowing is not remembered. If you really reach the way without doubt, it is as if it is too empty. How can you force right and wrong? "(Volume 13 of "Gu Zunsu Quotations") Dao is the same as Dao.It is not a vacuum as empty as it is; it is just a state in which all distinctions have been eliminated. This state is described by Zen masters as "wisdom and rationality, environment and spirit, just like a person drinking water, knowing whether he is warm or cold" (Volume 32 of "Gu Zunsu Quotations").The last two sentences were first seen in the "Six Patriarchs Altar Sutra" and were later widely quoted by Zen masters. It means that only those who have experienced and experienced are inseparable can truly know what it is. In this state the experiencer has abandoned knowledge in the ordinary sense, which presupposes a distinction between the knower and the known.But he is not ignorant, because his state is different from the Wuji mentioned by Nanquan.This is what is called ignorance. When a person is on the verge of enlightenment, this is the moment when a Zen master can help him most.One is about to make this leap, and at that moment, any help, however small, is a great help.At this time, Zen masters used to use what they called the "stick drink" method to help the leap of enlightenment occur.Zen literature records many such incidents: a certain Zen master asked his disciple to think about a certain problem, and then suddenly hit him with a stick a few times, or shouted at him.If the timing of the stick drinking is just right, the result is an epiphany in the disciple.These things seem to be explained in this way: performing such physical and physiological actions shocked the disciple and made him have a long-prepared psychological awareness. Zen masters used the metaphor of "like the bottom of a barrel falling off" to describe sudden enlightenment.When the bottom of the barrel is taken off, all the contents in the barrel will come out immediately.In the same way, when a person has an epiphany, he feels that all the various problems in the past are also solved immediately.The solution is not to solve it specifically, but to understand these problems in enlightenment, which are not problems in the first place.Therefore, the way obtained after enlightenment is "the way of no doubt". The result of epiphany is not gaining anything.Shuzhou Zen master Qingyuan (died in 1120) said: "If you can understand it now, where is it that you can't understand it in the future? Therefore, in the Tao, those who are confused forward are those who are enlightened now; those who are enlightened now are those who are confused forward. "(Volume 32 of "Gu Zunsu Quotations") We already know in the previous chapter that, according to Seng Zhao and Dao Sheng, reality is phenomenon.There is a common saying in Zen Buddhism: "Mountains are mountains, and waters are waters." In your fans, mountains are mountains.Water is water.When you are enlightened, mountains are still mountains, and water is still water. There is also a saying often said by Zen masters: "Riding a donkey to find a donkey. It means looking for reality beyond phenomena, and looking for Nirvana outside the cycle of life and death. Shuzhou said: "There are only two diseases. Donkeys, one is that they refuse to get off when riding a donkey.You don't want to ride a donkey, and you look for a donkey, which can be killed, which is a serious illness.The mountain monk said to you, don't look for it.The man of Lingli realized it immediately, he got rid of the disease of looking for donkeys, and his mad heart stopped. "Now that you know a donkey, you won't get off it after riding it. This disease is the most difficult to cure. The mountain monk told you, don't ride. You are a donkey. The mountains and rivers and the earth are just a donkey. Why do you want to ride? If you ride, It doesn’t matter if you get sick. If you don’t ride, the world in the ten directions will fall to the ground. These two diseases go away for a while, and you have nothing to worry about. If you are called a Taoist, what will you do?” The donkey looks for the donkey, but the donkey who rides on the donkey refuses to get off. Huangbo said: "Silent speech, movement and stillness, all sounds and appearances are all about the Buddha. Where can I find the Buddha? You can't put your head on your head, and your mouth on your mouth." Buddhist things, no place, no Buddha.It is said that a Zen monk walked into a Buddhist temple and spit on the Buddha statue.He was criticized, he said: You point me to the place where there is no Buddha! (See "Chuan Deng Lu" Volume 27) So in the view of Zen, the life of a sage.It is no different from the life of ordinary people; what a saint does is also what ordinary people do.He enlightened himself from delusion, from ordinary to holy.After becoming a saint, one must re-enter the ordinary from the saint.Zen masters call this "a hundred feet to the top, a further step forward".The culmination of a hundred feet symbolizes the pinnacle of Wu's achievement.Furthermore, it means that after enlightenment, the sage has other things to do.But what he wants to do is still nothing more than the daily routine.Just like what Nanquan said: "I met over there, but I came here to perform." (Volume 12 of "Gu Zunsu Quotations") Although the saint continued to live here, his knowledge of the other side was not in vain.Although what he did was just what ordinary people do, it had a different meaning to him.As Baizhang Chan Master Huaihai (died in 814) said: "When you are not enlightened and unresolved, it is called greed and hatred (no such word: ocr), and when you are enlightened, it is called Buddha Wisdom. Therefore, it is said: 'It is not different from people in the old days, but it is different from the behavior in the old days. place." (Volume 1 of "Gu Zunsu Quotations"), it seems that there must be a typographical error in the last sentence.What Baizhang wants to say is obviously: "It's only different from the people in the old days, not the same as the places where the old days were performed." People are different, because although what he does is also what other ordinary people do, he is not attached to anything. Zen people often say: eat all day long without biting a grain of rice; wear clothes all day long without ever biting a grain of rice. Then a strand of silk ("Gu Zunsu Quotations" Volume 3, Volume 16).That's what I mean. But there is another saying that is often said: "Carrying water and chopping firewood is nothing but a wonderful way." (Volume 8 of "Chuan Denglu") We can ask: If carrying water and chopping firewood is a wonderful way, why is it so important to "serve the father and the king"? Isn't it Miaodao?If we draw a logical conclusion from the Zen teachings analyzed above, we cannot but give an affirmative answer.But the Zen masters themselves did not make this logical answer.This can only be done by the New Confucianism, and the next four chapters will be devoted to the New Confucianism.