So, as some of you have already gathered, I have been down the rabbit hole of huatou for a little while now. This post covers the wiki article on the subject in detail, without going too much into other sources of information. That is more than enough for one Reddit post.
(I focus on the wiki article because it is what is given to me most often when someone discusses huatou.)
The wiki article makes a lot of assertions about what huatou is, how it was promulgated, and by whom. I will be discussing the points made, whether they are sourced properly, and the quality of the sources. I will largely be ignoring sources that discuss Korean Seon, focusing rather on when the article discusses Zen, and Dahui in particular.
The second most cited reference is:
Yen, Sheng (2009), Shattering the Great Doubt: The Chan Practice of Huatou, Translated by, Dharma Drum publications
Shengyen is a 20th century Zen Monk who claims lineage to Linji and Caodong, and who focuses on moral teachings, and updating Zen with modernizing influences such as, they claim, Daoism and Confucianism did for Zen. Sheng's lineage is hard to track; the wiki article sites a dictionary on Buddhism which merely says in it that they did receive transmission; Sheng's Soto lineage traces through Harada Roshi (who was the one who sent Hakuun west, who refused Philip Kapleau transmission and then disowned him). Given that my interest is in the Tang and Song Zen Masters, I will set this aside.
The second source that takes up only a few small points about Dahui's connection to huatou is:
Schlütter, Morten (2008), How Zen became Zen. The Dispute over Enlightenment and the Formation of Chan Buddhism in Song-Dynasty China, Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, ISBN 978-0-8248-3508-8
Not a terrible scholarly source. If you wish to know Schlütter's view of what a koan is, written in the Encyclopedia of Buddhism, it can be found here.
Schlütter said that Dahui felt “All the myriad doubts are just one doubt. If you can shatter the doubt you have on the hua-t’ou, then all the myriad doubts will at once be shattered [too],” and that huatou was meant for the layman. u/Temicco also pointed me to this.
What is the most interesting and will be the main focus of this post is the reference that gets used the most in the wiki article, being the source that covers most of the citations:
Lachs, Stuart (2012), Hua-t’ou : A Method of Zen Meditation (PDF)
This essay is deplorable. I do not know who Lachs wrote it for, but it mainly offers up 3 references; Schlütter once; a biography of Seon Master Chinul used a couple of times (which seems besides the point when I am searching for Dahui's own words); and the author's 30 years of Zen practice at a Shengyen Meditation Center in NYC.
Here is a list of points the author makes without giving any source:
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"A hua-t’ou is a short phrase (sometimes a part of a koan) that can be taken as a subject of meditation and introspection to focus the mind in a particular way, which is conducive to enlightenment."
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It is different from other koans; "...a stand alone, always short phrase or a part of a koan that can be taken as a subject of meditation and introspection."
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"In China the practice [of huatou] began before the 11th century."
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Huatou "does not require a group or regular meetings with a teacher and besides being practiced in formal seated meditation, it can or really should be practiced throughout the day, even while at work."
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"...hua-t’ou is a way of exhausting and silencing rational thinking,"
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"According to Ta-Hui, the belief in the need for a moment of awakening is essential, if one is to engage hua-t’ou practice."
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"According to Ta-Hui, Zen wisdom can be gained in an instant if the rational mind is cut-off. Focusing on the hua-t’ou can bring the practitioner to a point where the rationalizing and conceptualizing mind is stopped, enabling a person to realize Zen awakening."
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All opinions on why huatou is useful, what counts as an example of an huatou, how to practice huatou, and the idea that determination, doubt, and faith are needed to attain enlightenment through huatou practice.
If I was Lachs'professor, I would fail them. It is poorly written, poorly sourced, with no primary sources whatsoever. That being said, there is one source that does get brought up periodically in the essay that is much more interesting.
Miriam Levering , PhD. Dissertation, Ch’an Enlightenment For Laymen: Ta-Hui And The New Religious Culture Of The Sung, Harvard University, 1978.
Here is the PDF I found. Levering's dissertation is brought up in many places where Dahui is discussed. The points Lachs brings up from Levering are:
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Dahui didn't invent huatou, but popularized and taught its importance.
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Dahui "insisted on the necessity of an actual moment of awakening [and] that hua-t’ou practice was an effective means to attaining that moment of awakening.
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Huatou "can be carried out by laymen in the midst of their daily activities.”
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Dahui believed huatou "would allow students to bring their minds to a condition of readiness for the moment of awakening to their true Nature, while avoiding the pitfalls of being free of thought.
In Levering's dissertation, I focused on pages 240-303, the same pages as Lachs, since this is a PhD research paper on Song Dynasty economics, religion, history, politics etc. while Chapters 7 and 8 focus specifically on Dahui's ideas about huatou, silent illumination, and how Zen should be studied.
The is outline here (p.16):
In these chapters the distinctions Ta-hui draws between true and false and helpful and harmful forms of teaching and practice are explored, showing that [huatou] is precisely the form of Ch'an practice which is the most profound, the most effective, and the most theoretically defensible,...[as well as] exploration of Ta-hui's teaching about hua-t'ou practice, his teachings about false or ineffective practice will be explored, and the theoretical underpinning of hua-t' ou, the theory of doubt...[Dahui's view that huatou is the most appropriate for scholarly minded individuals ] will also be explored as evidence...
I feel these need to be established using Dahui's own words, so I will be focused on when Levering cites Dahui, rather than too much into what they themselves say without a reference.
Besides establishing Dahui's belief in the enlightening power of Daoism and Neo-Confucianism, Levering hopes to establish (p.13):
That Ta-hui's insistence on the efficacy of hua-t'ou practice and denunciation of silent illumination practice, and his affinity for the universal version of the Hua-yen [Avatamsaka] sutra, are related to his desire to reach out to laymen.
(It should be noted that according to Levering, unlike modern Rinzai schools, Dahui taught that there is a moment of enlightenment that any huatou can reach and then can be abandoned, rather than gradual stages of koan study.) (p.304)
Other points Levering makes:
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Refers to huatou as Dahui's preferred Upaya for achieving satori. (p.240)
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Levering establishes in the Dahui's words that Dahui was concerned that educated officials were approaching Zen to fill in gaps in their knowledge for the purposes of prestige. Also, that these people were hopelessly attached to all kinds of things that went along with their professions. (p.250-1, 257)
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As Dahui says in their letters, "when they see a teacher open his mouth, before the words are out they have already understood what he will say." Dahui says the consequences of this is the inability to access Prajna [wisdom], to see themselves before birth and death [enlightenment] and to become entangled. Possibly worse, these literati appeared to be mainly interested in what Dahui called "Chan jousting". (p.255-7)
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Huatou (according to Levering's interpretation of Sasaki, who you may know as the translator of Linji) was a method started in the early Linji school for groups of monks who couldn't see a Master to immediately receive a koan more specific to their situation. (p.241)
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Rather than Dahui's own words, huatou appears to be Levering's interpretation of how GG 21 (A monk asked Ummon: "What is Buddha?" Ummon says "Dried shit.") ought to be approached. (p.302-4)
Based on what I've written up until now, I think that those who have been following can see why my confusion on the matter is so thick. I have not made up my mind, but what I will do is leave here, at length, an excerpt from Dahui's letters, which I believe has been translated by Levering. Huatou is translated multiple times, but what word it is being translated from is not clear. The context seems pretty unambiguous though. It is obvious that Levering is an academic, not a Zen Master. All in all, I have no real means to evaluate what is being said here. I will leave it up to the reader to form their own opinions as well.
Just raise this hua-t' ou before you. When suddenly all your techniques are exhausted, you will be enlightened ....Only move your deluded mind onto the [hua-t'ouj "dry dung stick" and fix it there. The mind-that fears life and death, the deluded mind, the mind of rational thought and distinctions, the mind that wants to be smart, naturally won't be able to function. When you become aware that [these other aspects of mind] won't do, don't be afraid of "falling into emptiness." Suddenly, facing the place where your attention is fixed, cut off all "news," and the unsurpassed joy and peace will appear. When you succeed in the cutting off of "news," you won't be hindered any more by giving rise to views about the Buddha, the Dharma, or sentient beings, by thought and distinctions, by being intelligent, by explaining the truth rationally.
The truth [Dharma] cannot be mastered by seeing, hearing and thinking. If it is, it is no more than seeing, hearing and thinking--it is not seeking after the truth itself. For the truth is not what you hear from others or learn through understanding. Now keep yourself away from all that you have seen, heard and thought, and see what you have within yourself--emptiness only, nothingness, which eludes your grasp and to which you cannot fix your thought. Why? Because this is the place to which the senses can never reach. If this place were within their reach, it would be something you could think of and glimpse; it would then be something subject to the law of birth and death.
The main thing is to shut off all your sense-organs and make your consciousness like a block of wood. When this block of wood suddenly stirs and makes a noise, that is the moment when you feel like a lion roaring in the wilds, or an elephant crossing a stream regardless of its swift current. At that moment there is no fidgeting, no doing, just this and no more ....
You should know that you enter the path by seeing, hearing and thinking, and that by seeing, hearing and thinking you are also prevented from entering.
Why? If you wield the double-bladed sword that destroys and resusciates life in your seeing, hearing and thinking, you will be able to make good use of your eyes, ears and mind. But if the sword that cuts both ways, that destroys as well as resusciates, is missing, your seeing, hearing and thinking will be a great stumbling block, which will cause you to fall again and again to the ground. Your truth-eye will be completely blinded; You will be walking in complete darkness, not knowing how to be free and independent. If you want, however, to be the free master of yourself by doing away with your seeing, hearing and thinking, stop your hankering monkey-like mind from doing mischief; keep it quietly under control; keep it firmly collected regardless of what you are doing--sitting or lying, standing or walking, remaining silent or talking; keep your mind stretched taut like a line; do not let it slip out of your hand. Just as soon as it slips out of your control, you will find it in the service of seeing, hearing and thinking. In such a case, is there any remedy, and if so, what is it? A monk asked Yun-men, "Who is the Buddha?" "The dried dung-stick." This is the remedy.
If you want to understand completely, you must breakthrough in this one thought. Then you will bring samsara to an end and for the first time be able to speak of "awakening and entering". But you must not preserve your mind and wait for enlightenment. If you concentrate your mind on the idea of breaking through, then you will never break through. You must all at once put down the mind of delusion, the mind of thought and distinctions, the mind that loves life and hates death, the mind that enjoys quiet and hates noise, and then only at that place of putting down look into a hua-t'ou. The monk asked Chao-chou, "Does the dog have the Buddha-Nature or not?" Chao-chou replied, "No." This one word is a weapon to conquer many evil thoughts and opinions. You mustn't understand it as the "non-being" of "being and non-being," nor as being a "truth" [you can reason about] ...Only at all times throughout the twenty-four hours, whatever you are doing, raise it and work on it. "Does a dog have the Buddha-Nature?" Answer: "No." Without leaving your daily activities, try making this kind of effort and see. In a month or even ten days, you will see for yourself. The official duty of a prefecture of a thousand li won't be a hindrance to you.
There are numerous quotes from Dahui's letters over the next 20-30 pages of the dissertation that seem to outline huatou. They are all very beautiful. Here are some highlights:
Just be at ease 24 hours a day. If an old habit- impediment arises, don't use your mind to expel it. Just look into a hua-t'ou: "Does the dog have Buddha-Nature or not?" At this instant, the impediment will disappear like a flake of snow hitting a flame.
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Don't interrupt your practice for a moment. All the time, when you are walking or standing or sitting or lying, look into your hua-t'ou. When you are studying, or reading histories, or cultivating benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom and trustworthiness, when you are serving your superiors or criticising students or eating or drinking, struggle with [your hua-t' ou].
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The time will come when your mind will suddenly come to a stop like an old rat in a cul-de-sac. Then there will be a plunging into the unknown with the cry, "Ah, this!" When this cry is uttered, you have discovered yourself. You find at the same time that all the teachings of the ancient worthies expounded in the Buddhist Tripitaka, the Taoist scriptures and the Confucian classics, are no more than commentaries upon your own sudden cry, "Ah this!"
Submitted September 09, 2020 at 08:39AM by surupamaerl https://ift.tt/3m24fKL
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