I typed up more than I "planned" but… it's a litmus test of sorts. :) The passage below is a quote from Chan Master Sheng Yen. Inside of the passage are quotes from other Chan Masters.
It's from the book "Chan and Enlightenment" which is a collection of talks given by Sheng Yen. This particular passage was from a talk titled "Chan Enlightenment and Sitting Meditation".
I grabbed a section that seemed interesting. Just went in and bolded the sentence that made me decide to share it. It seems obvious to me that one would seek out a "Chan Master/teacher/whatever" at some point. I was surprised to only get one contemporary "Chan Master" in my other inquiry. There are some other interesting bits as well. Anyhow… here ya go! Enjoy! (Or not… lol)
"In the Chan tradition, when one attains enlightenment, it is called "seeing the nature." After seeing the nature, one needs to maintain and enhance it. Thus, after attaining enlightenment, one embarks on the course of cultivation and works on nourishing it. In spite of the Chan School's emphasis that upon attaining enlightenment one's view is identical to the Buddha's, one is nevertheless not yet a buddha. This is similar in the Tibetan school, where one visualizes oneself as one's on yidam, or meditation deity; but even when one accomplishes this, the meditation deity remains the meditation deity, while one remains oneself. Nevertheless, now, one has more compassion than before engaging in the practice.
Therefore, in the Chan tradition, masters had to work hard before getting enlightened, and after attaining it they had to look for a more attained teacher. Only after enlightenment could one know who was a good teacher, and having found one, they had to redouble their efforts. Chan doesn't necessarily require one to sit in meditation so Master Huineng's Platform Sutra says, "the seated meditation we teach does not attach to the mind or purity, nor does it mean sitting still." And it says, "the seated meditation some people teach requires one to observe mind and contemplate purity without moving or getting up, putting their efforts into such practice. As deluded people have no understanding, they attach to sitting and practice wrongly." Huineng claimed: "Concentration is the essence of wisdom and wisdom is the function of concentration. At times of wisdom, concentration exists in that wisdom. At times of concentration, wisdom exists in that concentration." So, we have not seen any records about how Huineng engaged in sitting meditation. After Huineng's passing, his first generation disciple, Chan Master Huairang, on seeing his own disciple Mazu Daoyi meditating, asked him: "If sitting meditation can make one a buddha, wouldn't it be possible to make a mirror by polishing a brick?"
From many Chan records, however, we see that many lineage masters of the Chan School also needed to practice sitting meditation. In the Pure Rules set up by Chan Master Baizhang, a disciple of Mazu, we find reference to "having sat in meditation for a long time." Nevertheless, the lineage masters didn't emphasize sitting; rather, they regarded each and every action in every moment of daily life as spiritual practice. The rules of daily life of Baizhang that we read do not say how long one should practice sitting meditation each day, but has a passage that says, "A day without work, a day without meals." This shows that his major practice was to work in the mountains or in the fields.
The same is true with Master Huineng. Before visiting Fifth Patriarch Hongren, Huineng was a woodcutter. After they met, Hongren did not tell Huineng to go sit, but sent him instead to mill rice in the kitchen. But we should understand that even when he was working, Huineng's mind was always stable and calm, without emotional fluctuations. Only such people will be able to attain true enlightenment.
However, it is also necessary to seek guidance through the concepts of Buddhism. Master Huineng gained true enlightenment when he heard a few words from the Diamond Sutra, which enabled him to realize the sameness and difference between [the concepts of] attachment and non-attachment, and between self and no-self. This shows that concepts are still very important. Although the Chan School claims to be "not dependant on words and language," what it means is that we should not be attached to words or language, though we still need to hear teachings and get correct guidance from them. This is called "using the doctrine to awaken to the principle, [that is to say, from the teachings, one realizes Chan]."
If Huineng had not heard the words of the Diamond Sutra: "Abiding nowhere, gives rise to mind," he would not have gotten enlightenment just then. And if he heard the phrase but only attached to it, he would not have gotten enlightenment either. Therefore, Chan teachers liken the doctrines to a finger pointing to the moon; without the finger pointing, deluded people would not be able to see the moon. If deluded people just stare at the finger and refuse to look at the moon, the pointing finger is of no use. On the other hand, once people see the moon that the finger is pointing at, then the finger would also no longer be useful."
Submitted October 20, 2019 at 10:25PM by CaseyAPayne https://ift.tt/32wPeGp
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