(Record of HuangBo; J. Blofeld translation)
Recently a troll asked me what the dharma of HuangBo was, and after I gathered the quotes to respond, I thought that it might make a nice OP.
So here you go :)
The fundamental doctrine of the dharma is that there are no dharmas, yet that this doctrine of no-dharma is in itself a dharma; and now that the no-dharma doctrine has been transmitted, how can the doctrine of the dharma be a dharma?
Whoever understands the meaning of this deserves to be called a monk, one skilled at "Dharma-practice".
If you do not believe this, you must explain the following story:
The Elder Wei Ming climbed to the summit of the Ta Yü Mountain to visit the Sixth Patriarch. The latter asked him why he had come. Was it for the robe or for the Dharma? The Elder Wei Ming answered that he had not come for the robe, but only for the Dharma; whereupon the Sixth Patriarch said: "Perhaps you will concentrate your thoughts for a moment and avoid thinking in terms of good and evil."
Ming did as he was told, and the Sixth Patriarch continued: "While you are not thinking of good and not thinking of evil, just at this very moment, return to what you were before your father and mother were born."
Even as the words were spoken, Ming arrived at a sudden tacit understanding.
Accordingly he bowed to the ground and said: "I am like a man drinking water who knows in himself how cool it is. I have lived with the Fifth Patriarch and his disciples for thirty years, but it is only today that I am able to banish the mistakes in my former way of thinking."
The Sixth Patriarch replied: "Just so. Now at last you understand why, when the First Patriarch arrived from India, he just pointed directly at men's Minds, by which they could perceive their real Nature and become Buddhas, and why he never spoke of anything besides."
Have we not seen how, when Ānanda asked Kāsyapa what the World Honoured had transmitted to him in addition to the golden robe, the latter exclaimed, "Ānanda!" and, upon Ānanda's respectfully answering "Yes?", continued: "Throw down the flagpole at the monastery gate."
Such was the sign which the First (Indian) Patriarch gave him.
For thirty years the wise Ānanda ministered to the Buddha's personal needs; but, because he was too fond of acquiring knowledge, the Buddha admonished him, saying: "If you pursue knowledge for a thousand days, that will avail you less than one day's proper study of the Way. If you do not study it, you will be unable to digest even a single drop of water!"
Q: How, then, does a person accomplish this comprehension of their own Mind?
A: That which asked the question is your own Mind; but if you were to remain quiescent and to refrain from the smallest mental activity, its substance would be seen as a void—you would find it formless, occupying no point in space and falling neither into the category of existence nor into that of non-existence.
Because it is imperceptible, Bodhidharma said: "Mind, which is our real nature, is the unbegotten and indestructible Womb; in response to circumstances, it transforms itself into phenomena. For the sake of convenience, we speak of Mind as the intelligence; but when it does not respond to circumstances, it cannot be spoken of in such dualistic terms as existence or nonexistence. Besides, even when engaged in creating objects in response to causality, it is still imperceptible. If you know this and rest tranquilly in nothingness—then you are indeed following the Way of the Buddhas. Therefore does the Sūtra say: 'Develop a mind which rests on no thing whatever.'"
...
Most students of Zen cling to all sorts of sounds and forms.
Why do they not copy me by letting each thought go as though it were nothing, or as though it were a piece of rotten wood, a stone, or the cold ashes of a dead fire? Or else, by just making whatever slight response is suited to each occasion?
If you do not act thus, when you reach the end of your days here, you will be tortured by Yama. You must get away from the doctrines of existence and non-existence, for Mind is like the sun, forever in the void, shining spontaneously, shining without intending to shine.
This is not something which you can accomplish without effort, but when you reach the point of clinging to nothing whatever, you will be acting as the Buddhas act. This will indeed be acting in accordance with the saying: "Develop a mind which rests on no thing whatever." For this is your pure Dharmakāya, which is called supreme perfect Enlightenment.
If you cannot understand this, though you gain profound knowledge from your studies, though you make the most painful efforts and practice the most stringent austerities, you will still fail to know your own mind.
...
Nevertheless, with the merest desire to attach yourselves to this or that, a mental symbol is soon formed, such symbols in turn giving rise to all those "sacred writings" which lead you back to undergo the various kinds of rebirth.
So let your symbolic conception be that of a void, for then the wordless teaching of Zen will make itself apparent to you.
Know only that you must decide to eschew all symbolizing whatever, for by this eschewal is "symbolized" the Great Void in which there is neither unity nor multiplicity—that Void which is not really void, that Symbol which is no symbol. Then will the Buddhas of all the vast world-systems manifest themselves to you in a flash; you will recognize the hosts of squirming, wriggling sentient beings as no more than shadows!
Continents as innumerable as grains of dust will seem no more to you than a single drop in the great ocean.
To you, the profoundest doctrines ever heard will seem but dreams and illusions.
You will recognize all minds as One and behold all things as One—including those thousands of sacred books and myriads of pious commentaries!
All of them are just your One Mind.
Could you but cease your groping after forms, all these true perceptions would be yours!
Therefore is it written: "Within the Thusness of the One Mind, the various means to Enlightenment are no more than showy ornaments."
Submitted September 26, 2020 at 05:08PM by GuruHunter https://ift.tt/3jhZLO4
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