Bibliography
Ahn, Juhn. Y. Trans. Gong'An Ji 公案集. Gongan Collections 1: Collected Works of Korean Buddhism. Vol. 7-1. Ed. John Jorgensen. Compilation Committee of Korean Buddhist Thought, Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism. Korea. 2012.
Broughton, Jeffrey L., and Elise Yoko Watanabe. Trans. The Letters of Chan Master Dahui Pujue. Oxford University Press. 2017.
Buswell, Robert E., and David S. Lopez Jr. Editors. The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism. Princeton University Press. Online. 2017.
Cleary, Thomas. Trans. Zen Lessons:The Art of Leadership. Shamabala. Boston & London. 1989.
Hsieh, Evelyn Ding-hwa. "A Study of the Evolution of K'an-Hua Ch 'an in Sung China: Yuan-Wu K'o-Ch 'in and the Function of Kung-an in Ch 'an Pedagogy and Praxis'." Dissertation. University of California, Los Angeles. 1993.
Jingshan. 禪林寶訓: 宋 淨善重集. From the Taishö Tripitaka. Volume 48. No. 2022. Scroll 4. Accessed: Aug. 21, 2021. http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/en/T48n2022_004
Kabanoff, Alexander. "Ikkyu and Koans." In The Koan: Texts and Contexts in Zen Buddhism. Eds. Steven Heine and Dale S. Wright. Oxford University Press. New York. 2000.
Levering, Miriam. "Ch'an Enlightenment for Laymen: Ta-Hui and the New Religious Culture of the Sung." Dissertation. Harvard University. Cambridge, Massachusetts. April, 1978.
Sasaki, Ruth Fuller. Trans. The Record of Linji. Ed. Thomas Yūhō Kirchner. University of Hawai'i Press. Honolulu. 2009.
Schlütter, Morten. How Zen Became Zen: The Dispute over Enlightenment and the Formation of Chan Buddhism in Song-Dynasty China. University of Hawai'i Press. Honolulu. 2008.
Shina, Koyu. "A Bibliographical Geneology of the Chanlin-baoxun". In *Journal of Indian and Buddhist Studies. Vol. 44. Issue 1. 1995. Pgs. 82-87. Accessed: Aug. 21, 2021. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4259/ibk.44.82
Suzuki, D.T. . An Introduction to Zen Buddhism. Grove Press, Inc. New York. 1964.
.
Dahui's Original Works
Dahui Pujue's collection of Sayings (Dahui Pujue chanshi yulu 大慧普覺禪師語錄), located in the Taisho Tripitaka at [T47n1998A]: http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/T47n1998A
Chronological Biography of Chan Master Dahui Pujue (Dahui Pujue chanshi nianpu 大慧普覺禪師年譜) at [J01nA042]: http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/J01nA042_001
Dahui Pujue's Armoury (Dahui Pujue chanshi zongmen wuku 大慧普覺禪師宗門武庫) at [T47n1998B]: http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/T47n1998B_001
Treasury of the Eye of True Teaching (Zengfa yan ceng 正法眼藏) at [X67n1309]: http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/X67n1309
.
Quotes from the Letters
The quotes are divided up by Vol. Letter Collection #.Quote #. Each collection also has the corresponding pages included, referencing Broughton's translation.
Volume One
1.Vice Minister Ceng (pg. 52-86)
1.1.1. ...if you can turn your mind toward the gate of this, taking the wisdom-water of prajñā to wash away the filth of defilement, making yourself spontaneously refreshed, in the present moment severing at the single stroke of the sword, no longer producing the mind of continuity [and thereby blocking future “faults”]: this will be enough...even when constantly in the midst of [engaging in the practice of sitting]—you absolutely must never lose track of the words from the two [old] standards, Mt. Sumeru and put it down. All you have to do is just keep doing this. There is no need to fear things that have already happened and no need to engage in mental reflection. Mental reflection and fear constitute obstacles to the Way.
1.1.2. “The essential directive of Chan is that you must be on familiar terms with the phrase. What is phrase? When you are thinking of nothing at all, that’s called correct phrase. It’s also called residing at the pinnacle...abiding...clear....wide-awake...in-that-way moment. By means of that in-that-way moment, one uniformly annihilates all affirmation/negation. But as soon as [you become fixated upon] in that way, [no longer is it thinking of nothing at all, and so] it’s immediately not in that way. Any affirmation of the phrase or negation of the phrase is to be shaved off.
1.1.3. At the present time, there is a type of shaven-headed heterodox monk who, even though his own eye is not yet clarified, single-mindedly teaches people to stop-to-rest in the very way the [mythic] gedan-beast plays dead. If you practice this sort of stopping-to-rest, by the time a thousand buddhas have appeared in this world, you still won’t have been able to stop or take a rest! You will just have made your mind more susceptible to delusive worrying. They also teach people, in the course of encountering sense objects, to “engird mind”; and to quell delusive thought [in] “silence-as-illumination.” “Silence-as-illumination” over and over, “engirding mind” over and over—these just increase delusive worries interminably.
1.1.4. It’s not that I don’t usually teach people to do gongfu by engaging in sitting in a still place. Sitting is simply one instance of providing medicine in accordance with their illnesses. In fact, my [practice of sitting] has nothing to do with that sort of [“engirding-mind” or “stopping-to-rest”] formulation.
1.1.5. [The 5 Chan illnesses] 1. “engird mind," [which]...simply maintains a mirror-like reflection of what is in front of one.; 2. forcibly “stopping-to-rest” [“silence-as-illumination”]...[which] maintains the empty quiescence of quelling delusive thought.; 3. “By means of stopping, to reach a state of non-awareness and non-knowing, wherein one is like earth, wood, tile, and stone; at such a moment, it’s not a dark non-knowing [but a bright and luminous state of awakening],”...[which] mistakenly attributes reality to upāyas, which are no more than linguistic convention used to loosen bondage.; 4. accept all conditions and do a backwards illumination [ie.] “Don’t allow the emergence of bad awareness.”...[which] mistakenly attributes reality to the delusion of the weather-beaten skull.; 5. to be bold and unconstrained, to give free rein to the self, [ie.] “Don’t pay any attention whatsoever to the movement of thoughts. Thoughts arise and thoughts disappear, without ever having substantiality. If you grasp them as real, then the mind of samsara will arise.”...[which] maintains naturalness as the ultimate dharma.
1.1.6. If you just maintain mind on a single point, there’s no way that you won’t be able to attain awakening. When the time and conditions arrive, spontaneously it will “click.” With a “snort” you will awaken!
1.1.7. Right in the midst of noisiness you must not forget the matter of [the stillness of] the bamboo chair and the sitting cushion. In the past [when you were] keeping your mind in the state of stillness [by practicing sitting, it should have been] precisely for the purpose of use in the midst of noisiness...[in a similar manner] when you like stillness and dislike noisiness, it’s just right for applying [gongfu] energy. Suddenly in noisiness you’ll collide with and overturn the stillness-time state of being.
1.1.8. I gather [from your letter] that you’ve internalized Old Pang’s two phrases [vow to empty the existent and don’t reify the non-existent] as an admonitory inscription, for all walking, standing, sitting, and lying down. Good! Nothing could be added. [Now,] should you, right at the moment you’re in noisiness, generate a loathing for it, you’ll just be throwing your own mind into disarray. Should you, right at the moment you’re in the midst of activated thoughts [i.e., noisiness], just rally Old Pang’s two phrases to awareness, then it will be a dose of [the medical prescription called] “coolness-dispersal” that is taken when one has a fever.
1.1.9. Countless are those who consider the ultimate to be “by means of [samādhi subduing] the deep-and-still [consciousness] to enter into fusion with the deep-and-still [thusness].”
...
2.Participant in Determining Governmental Matters Li (pg. 86-98, 117-8)
1.2.1. I just believe that this matter can’t be transmitted and can’t be learned. You must realize on your own, awaken on your own, affirm on your own, stop-to-rest on your own, and then you will for the first time get to the end of things.
1.2.2.[Assigns "As to principle, one all-at-once awakens; one rides this awakening, and there is a complete melting away. But phenomena are not all-at-once removed; [only] by a graduated sequence are they exhausted” from the Surangama sutra.]
1.2.3. Just worry about becoming a buddha—don’t worry about not being able to speak dharma like a buddha. From ancient times people who have attained the Way, once they themselves have enough, take their own surplus to respond to karmic abilities and lead beings.
1.2.4. “Just exhaust ‘common’ delusive thought—there is no separate ‘noble’ understanding.”
1.2.5. [In the second set of letters on page 117, Li is concerned another person, whose letters with Dahui he has seen, is working with "perverse" silent-illumination teachers.]
.
3.Supervising Secretary Jiang (pg. 98-101)
1.3.1. You should not take the sayings passed down by the ancients and casually poke and pry into them.
.
4.Administrator of the Bureau of Military Affairs Fu (pg. 102-17)
1.4.1. [Dahui warns Fu, though he believes he is "blocked by knowledge", to avoid going "down into the ghost-cave" with the "perverse teachers" who "although they can temporarily restrain this smelly skin bag of a body, they then [go on to] consider this to be the ultimate: but their minds are still swirling about like wild horses. Even if their minds are temporarily “parked,” it’s like grass with a stone pressing down on it—before you know it it’s growing again."]
1.4.2. [Instead, focus on Wu 無, and bear these things in mind:] You must not produce an understanding [of wu 無 as the wu of the polarity] there is [you 有]/there is not [wu 無]...[nor] an understanding based on reasoning. You must not, during the operation of the mind sense-organ, engage in reflection and conjecture [concerning wu 無]...[nor] during [actions such as] raising eyebrows or winking eyes, allow the mind of calculation to stop on a single point [such as wu 無]...[or] make a “lifestyle” out of the word. Also, you must not remain confined to the tiny hidden-away closet of nothing-to-do... [or] while raising [wu 無], understand and “own” it...[or] quote texts as proof [of wu 無].
1.4.3. Just twenty-four hours a day, in all four postures [i.e., walking, standing, sitting, and lying down] constantly rally the huatou to awareness, constantly lift the huatou to awareness: Does even a dog have buddha-nature? “No [wu 無].” Without leaving your round of daily activities, try to do gongfu in this way. In short order you will understand for yourself.
1.4.4. ...you absolutely must not keep on getting submerged in empty quiescence. An ancient called this the “lifestyle” of the “ghost-home of Black Mountain.” [If you do thus, then] for eternal aeons into the future, there will never come a time when you will attain liberation. The other day I received your letter, and I was worried for sure you were already addicted to [wallowing in the practice of sitting]...[Men of worldy affairs enjoy the peace of stillness when they find it, but] little do they imagine that it is like using a stone to press down grass. Though they are temporarily aware of cutting off the [common] state of being, what about the root that remains? How could there ever come to be a time that they realize [true] quietude?
1.4.5. If you want true quietude to manifest, you must, in the midst of blazing arising-extinguishing, abruptly—in one bound—jump clear...Even without doing gongfu—if the mind of samsara is smashed—stillness will come of its own accord.
1.4.6. [When holding wu 無 to attention]. Without getting into any discussion of awakening versus non-awakening, just when your mind is in a hubbub, merely try to rally [the huatou] to awareness, lift [the huatou] to awareness. Are you aware of stillness [in noisiness]? Are you aware of gaining [awakening] energy? If you are aware of gaining [awakening] energy, you must not let go [of the huatou].
1.4.7. When you want to do stillness-sitting, simply light a stick of incense and do stillness-sitting. When sitting, permit neither torpor nor restlessness. Torpor and restlessness are things that the earlier noble ones severely warned against. When you are doing stillness-sitting, the moment you become aware of the appearance of these two illnesses, merely lift to awareness the huatou of “dog has no buddha-nature.”
.
5.Vice Minister Chen (pg. 119-29)
1.5.1. The reason most of today’s members of the scholar-official class are incapable of comprehending this matter and decisively attaining release is simply because their disposition is too intellectually sharp and their knowledge excessive. As soon as they see the Chan master open his mouth and begin to move his tongue, they immediately come to a snap understanding. Therefore, if anything, this is inferior to the dull-witted person who, free of lot of perverse knowledge and perverse awareness, in a headlong fashion without expectations dashes against each skillful method and each gesture, each word and each phrase...People of sharp faculties, on the contrary, who are obstructed by their sharp faculties, are incapable of: “BANG!—smashed!” Even though they imitate on the basis of cleverness and intellectual prowess, in the matter of self and the original allotment, on the contrary, they fail to gain [awakening] energy.
1.5.2. [“Silence-as-illumination” Chan] teach people: twenty-four hours a day, pay no attention to any matter [mundane or supramundane], and go on stopping-to-rest. They do not permit students to voice even a sound. They fear “falling into the present epoch” [as opposed to before a single thought arose]. [Dahui goes on to talk about how busy people, when they find calm here, stop, rather then go on to experience genuine awaken].
1.5.3. [Dahui goes on to prescribe wu 無 with these gongfu instructions]: In your daily activities twenty-four hours a day you must not grasp samsara or the Buddha Way as really existent. You must not deny samsara or the Buddha Way, reverting to the non-existence of annihilationism. Just keep an eye on "Does even a dog have buddha-nature? Zhaozhou said: “Wu 無! [Without engaging in conjecture about it, feel you've attained it suddenly like a "lightning bolt", make a "lifestyle" of it, foster the idea that you understand or "own" it, or accept calmness as the ultimate.]
1.5.4. ...every time you encountered inescapable [work routines] in the midst of noisiness, you always “conducted a careful self-monitoring,” but you “did not yet have gongfu charged with energy.” Just these inescapable situations were already gongfu! If you, on top of that, apply energy towards “careful self-monitoring,” then, on the contrary, you’ll end up even more distant [ from awakening]...[He goes on to say that "careful self-monitering" is not what the Buddha taught, quoting Sengcan:] “Discrimination does not arise, and an empty brightness spontaneously illuminates.”
1.5.5. When in the midst of inescapable [work routines], you must never, on top of that, turn [the spotlight of] mind onto anything. When you don’t turn [the spotlight of] mind onto anything, everything is “ready-made.”...this matter of stillness/distraction has absolutely nothing to do with him...As to this matter, if you deploy even the slightest amount of gongfu to seize realization, it’s like someone’s “caressing the sky with his hands”—you’ll only tire yourself out more and more....When it is time to deal with things, just deal with them. When you feel the need to do stillness-sitting, just do stillness-sitting. When sitting, you must not grasp at sitting as an ultimate. [Dahui goes on to criticize silent-illumination Chan.]
.
6.Edict Attendant Zhao (pg. 129-4)
1.6.1. As soon as you notice that you are reflecting upon defilement-matters [such as “deep”/“shallow”], without applying energy to shove them away, merely—while in the state of reflecting—do a smooth-flowing “pivot” to the huatou. You will save on the expenditure of limitless [gongfu] energy and also gain limitless [awakening] energy.
.
7.Administrator for Public Order Xu (pg. 134-9)
1.7.1. At the present time, there is a type of fellow [i.e., teachers of perverse Chan] who talks hogwash. They themselves don’t have a stable footing, yet they just teach people: “unify mind in stillness-sitting.” While sitting [students] are taught not to voice even a sound. This faction can only be called “truly pathetic.”
.
8.Auxiliary Academician of the Hall for Treasuring Culture Liu (pg. 139-50)
1.8.1. During the four postures of your daily activities, are you a single thusness with the huatou “dog has no buddha-nature” [i.e., the wu 無 huatou]?
1.8.2. I take it that, in the midst of daily activities, you’re not involved in [such perverse teachings as] “rouse yourself to engird mind” and “in a dried-up mind quell delusive thought.”
1.8.3. [Dahui suggests "luring" the recipients brother away from perverse Chan into the correct Dharma with what he prefers, "purity and indifference to worldly desires".]
1.8.4. [Before Yama], the ability to discuss [texts] with unobstructed ease will be of no use. A “mind like wood or stone” will also be of no use. [When standing before Yama] you must be a person whose mind of samsara is smashed. If your mind of samsara is smashed, what further need is there to talk about “clarifying the spirit and settling the thoughts”? What further need is there to talk about “unrestrained ease”? What further need is there to talk about Buddhist and non-Buddhist texts? One comprehension will be all comprehensions, one awakening all awakenings, one realization all realizations. It is like cutting a bundle of silk threads—with one cut all-at-once severed.
.
9.Controller-General Liu (pg. 150-7)
1.9.1. [Praises Yanchong's older brother (previous letters) for not engaging in “engirding mind” and “quelling delusive thought”, criticizing teachers who teach it, and admonishing the younger Liu for following that, instead recommending:] Merely, in the state where the habit-energy arises, keep your eye on the huatou: “Does even a dog have buddha-nature? No.” At just that moment [wu 無] will be “like a single snowflake atop a red-hot stove.” [Later, he also recommends the phrase "What the hell is it?", as well as wu 無 again in the second letter between them.]
1.9.2. Over long years you have been doing [stillness-sitting] gongfu. By the way, when you open your eyes and respond to things, is your mind-ground peaceful and carefree? If you haven’t yet gained a peaceful and care-free mind-ground, then this [sitting practice] hasn’t gained you any [awakening] energy.
.
10.Judicial Commissioner Zhang (pg. 162-73)
1.10.1. ...when I contemplate your conduct, in things big and small you are judicious—there is nothing that is excessive and nothing that does not measure up. This is precisely the state of fusion with the Way. Once you’ve arrived here, there is no need to produce any notion of “defilements,” nor is there a need to produce any notion of “buddhadharma.” “Buddhadharma” and “defilements” are both matters of no concern. However, you also must not produce a notion of “matters of no concern.” Merely turn the radiance backwards and do a reverse-illumination: The one who produces the notion of in that way—what place does he come from? At the time of action and behavior—what form does he take? Once you know [the form that he takes in daily] action, do as you wish—nothing won’t be dealt with, nothing will be left over. At just that in-that-way time, to whose protective power could he be indebted? If you do gongfu in this way over days and month, as with someone training in archery, you’ll naturally hit the bullseye.
1.10.2. When members of the scholar-official class study the Way, most don’t really comprehend. Unless there is oral discussion and mental reflection, they are blank, with “nowhere to put their hands and feet.” They don’t believe that the state of not having anywhere to put your hands and feet is precisely the good state. They single-mindedly want to engage in mental reflection until they succeed in obtaining something, to pursue oral discussion until they achieve understanding. Little do they imagine that they’ve made a mistake.
1.10.3.[Dahui goes on to talk about Inconceivability and not setting that up as a measuring stick for reality, offering after that these koans as phrases to "keep an eye on": cypress tree in the garden; three pounds of linen thread; dried turd; dog has no buddha-nature [i.e., wu 無]; in one gulp suck up the water of West River; and East Mountain walks on water.]
1.10.4. Most scholar-officials studying the Way are unwilling to empty out their minds and listen to the instruction of the good teacher. As soon as the good teacher opens his mouth, he, before even a word is uttered, “suddenly understands.” But when you make him cough it up completely he has “suddenly misunderstood”! What he understood just before uttering a word was also stagnation in verbalization.
.
11.Palace Writer Zhu (pg. 173-85)
1.11.1. I have heard that you have shut your gate [in seclusion] and are doing “wall-contemplation”. This is good medicine for stopping the mind. If beyond that you “bore into old paper”, you will surely bring up roots and shoots of samsara that have been in your storehouse consciousness from time without beginning, create impediments for good roots, and create impediments that block the Way—of this there is no doubt. If you can stop mind, then stop it for a little while...
1.11.2. Please just switch the mind of useless mental reflection backwards onto the word wu 無; and, as an experiment, just try to mentally reflect [on wu 無]. Suddenly, in a state immune to mental reflection, you’ll attain the smashing of this single thought...[which] is incompatible with “arranging,” incompatible with “calculating,” incompatible with “textual citation.” No matter how much you quote texts, calculate, and arrange, it will have nothing to do with comprehension. Just make yourself “composed” and don’t reflect on “good and bad” at all. Don’t engage in [such perverse Chan teachings as] “[effortfully] concentrating mind” and “quelling delusive thought.”
1.11.3.[Recommends several more times to "keep an eye on the word wu 無", not paying "any attention to whether you have awakened or not," and asking oneself, "Who is doing it?...who is that?" Dahui calls this, "...a reverse reflection upon the one who is rallying."]
...
Volume 2
1.Chief Transport Commissioner Xia (pg. 186-8)
2.1.1. If you are able to control your own defilements and not get turned by “gate-pivots” that go against you or go in your direction, then you are the person of great liberation. This person is capable of turning every single “gate-pivot.”
.
2.Secretariat Drafter Lü (pg. 188-9, 202-7)
2.2.1.[Dahui says to focus on the huatou, Wu 無, rather than the "uncertainty" of all the other Zen and Buddhist readings; ultimately, "just concentrate mind upon reflecting on the state that cannot be reflected upon."]
2.2.2.[Says in a later letter to "rotate the mind that reflects on mundane defilements onto dried turd [ganshijue 乾屎橛] and make deluded consciousness non-operational like that of a human figure sculpted from clay or wood." Later he adds that, after using this dried turd every which way, "When your tricky maneuvers are suddenly exhausted, you will spontaneously awaken. ]
2.2.3. The buddhas and patriarchs have not a single teaching to give to people. All that is necessary is for the person on duty to have confidence on his own, give assent on his own, see on his own, awaken on his own. If you just latch onto what other people have to say [and don’t bother to see on your own], I fear [it will be taken that the buddhas and patriarchs] have deceived people.
.
3.Director Lü (pg. 190-202)
2.3.1.[Dahui recommends to "always rally dried turd [ganshijue 乾屎橛] to awareness.", specifically when finding that when turning the light around and reflecting on where the self goes after death and the mind becomes "stupefied"]
2.3.2. Bookworms spend their whole lives boring into old paper—they want to be informed concerning these [learned] matters. They broadly peruse a ton of books and engage in high-falutin’ talk and far-flung discussions. “And what about Confucius?” “And what about Mencius?” “And what about Zhuangzi?” [etc.]...They are pursued relentlessly by these words and phrases—until they are topsy-turvy. When they hear someone raise a single word from the philosophers of the ancient hundred schools, they immediately recite on and on from innumerable volumes and consider it an embarrassment if there is even a single matter that they don’t know about. But when it comes to asking them about their own original allotment there isn’t a single one of them that knows anything! This could be called “to the end of one’s days counting the treasure of others, but never having even a half-cent oneself.”...that’s because from the time they learned to write their first character they have been making a mistake—all they wanted was to score wealth and status.
2.3.3. By all means avoid investigating the written word in order to cite quotations and haphazardly making surmises and exegeses. Even if your exegesis attains perfect clarity and your discourse settles the matter, it’s all the “lifestyle” of a “ghost-home [in Black Mountain].”
.
4.Principal Graduate Zhu (pg. 207-18)
2.4.1. Concerning Zhaozhou’s no-buddha-nature huatou [wu 無], you, [Principal Graduate Zhu,] are like someone who is arresting a thief and already knows the location of his hideout—you simply haven’t caught him yet. Please quickly apply energy. Don’t break off even for a little bit. At all times, whether in the midst of walking, standing, sitting, or lying down, keep your eye on [wu 無]. In situations where you are reading classics, philosophers, histories, and collections, where you are cultivating [the Confucian constant virtues of] benevolence, righteousness, ritual, wisdom, and faith, where you are following ritual in serving elders and superiors, where you are exhorting students, where you are eating your meals, keep pressing hard with [wu 無]! Suddenly you’ll “lose your hemp sack”!
.
5.Auxiliary in the Hall [of the Dragon Diagram] Zong (pg. 218-225)
2.5.1.[Dahui gives Zong a lot of the same instructions for Wu 無 as he gives others, while further admonishing him for using it "to brush away the sense fields", which he argues is logically impossible, not the way it's done, quotes Xuefeng as saying this action is essentially nihilism.]
2.5.2. [Dahui uses almost the same words here as he does in 2.16.1.]
2.5.3. In the midst of the four postures of daily activities, as you are “wading through differentiated sense objects,” you will become aware that an instance of saving on the expenditure of [gongfu] energy is none other than the state of gaining [awakening] energy. And the state of gaining [awakening] energy is the maximization of saving on expenditure of [gongfu] energy. If you resort to even a hairsbreadth of willpower to prop up [the huatou], that will certainly be a perverse dharma, not the buddhadharma!
2.5.4. [In discussing Wu 無:] The buddhas of the three times are just people with nothing-to-do. The patriarchal masters down through the generations are also just people with nothing-to-do. An ancient venerable said: “Just be in things—but comprehend nothing-to-do. In seeing forms and hearing sounds you mustn’t become [blind and] deaf.”
2.5.5. But today’s scholar-officials are often impatient in their desire to understand Chan. They ruminate about the sutra teachings and the sayings of the patriarchal masters, wanting to be able to explain them with clear understanding. Little do they imagine that the state of clear understanding, on the contrary, is a matter of not clearly understanding.
.
6.Assistant Director of the Court of the Imperial Clan Zeng (pg. 230-33)
2.6.1.[Dahui recommends doing gongfu without too much tension or slack.]
2.6.2. When you become aware that the huatou has no basis, that the huatou has no taste, that your mind is squirming, then it’s just the right time for applying energy—absolutely avoid leaving it to the course of events.
.
7.Instructor Wang (pg. 233-7)
2.7.1. If you’ve been getting tastiness from [discussions of such topics as] “principle and nature,” ...the sutra teachings, ...the sayings of the Chan patriarchal masters, ...sense objects you see and hear, ...raising your feet and progressing by steps, ...[or from]the functioning of your intellect, you’ve accomplished nothing whatsoever. If you want decisively to stop-to-rest, pay no heed at all to all the states where you have usually gotten tastiness.
2.7.2.[Dahui notes, probably due to excessive cleverness and seeking proofs in writings, that Wang suffers from some of his earlier mentioned "Chan illnesses"; he recommends Wu 無.] .
8.Director Li (pg. 242-5)
2.8.1. Those who hold the most inferior grade [of perverse views] employ the method of “silence-as-illumination,” wordlessness, and [such blather as] “empty! empty! quiescent! quiescent!” to arrive within the “ghost-cave”—all in a search for ultimate peace and joy.
2.8.2. With just this single thought “seeking instruction in the direct-and-quick path,” you’ve already stuck your head onto a plate of glue. [As such, Dahui gives the phrase "before the production of the single thought of seeking the direct-and-quick path."]
.
9.[Academician of the Hall for] Treasuring Culture Li (pg. 245-8)
2.9.1.[Assigns "What the hell is it?"]
.
10.Vice Minister Xiang (pg. 248-54)
2.10.1.[As medicine for questions about the differences between dreaming while awake and asleep, Dahui gives Pangs phrases; "Vow to empty the existent. Don’t reify the non-existent."]
.
11.Supervisor Lin (pg. 255-7)
2.11.1.[Assigns "don’t add knowing" from the Perfect Awakening sutra]
.
12.District Magistrate Huang (pg. 257-60)
2.12.1.[Assigns "birth-death"]
.
13.Instructor Yan (pg. 260-5)
2.13.1. Of old, “when Yaoshan was doing Chan sitting, Shitou asked: ‘What are you doing here?’ Yaoshan said: ‘Not doing a single thing.’ Shitou said: ‘If in that way, then it’s good-for-nothing sitting.’ Yaoshan said: ‘If it’s good-for-nothing sitting, then it’s doing something.’ Shitou assented to that.” Look at those ancients—even a single good-for-nothing sitting wasn’t able to move them at all!
2.13.2. ...you rallied to awareness your usual uncertainty concerning the case [i.e., the huatou wu 無]. Then, for the first time, you saw the “blunder” of the old fellow Zhaozhou [in his answer wu 無 to the question about whether a dog has buddha-nature].
.
14.[Scholar of the Hall of] Clear Stratagems Xu (pg. 270-3)
2.14.1. How much more of a miss is it in the case of “pulling on branches and tendrilled vines” [i.e., kudzu-verbiage], raising quotations from the sutra teachings, speaking of “principle and phenomena,” out of a desire for the “ultimate!”
2.14.2.[Assigns "Dried turd"; ganshijue 乾屎 橛, and "What the hell is it?"]
.
15.Administrator of the Bureau of Military Affairs Lou (pg. 274-82)
2.15.1.[Assigns wu 無]
2.15.2.In your gongfu you shouldn’t be in a rush. If you’re in a rush, then you will be restlessly moving. You shouldn’t be slack either. If you’re slack, you will be gloomy and dark [i.e., in torpor]. [The teachings of the perverse teachers] “quelling delusive thought” [which leads to torpor] and “[effortfully] concentrating mind” [which leads to restlessness] are both mistakes.
.
16.Defender-in-Chief Cao (pg. 282-5)
2.16.1. [Its proponents] close their eyes, shut their mouths and fall into silence, and produce false thought—they call this “the inconceivable matter.” They also call it “the matter of [before the appearance of the very first buddha to appear in this world] or “the matter of the aeon of nothingness before the world begins.” The minute anyone opens his mouth, they call it “falling into the present.” They also speak of “the fundamental matter,” also calling it “pure ultimate light-comprehension." They take awakening as falling into the secondary grade; they take awakening as a nonessential, like “branches and leaves.”...Because they themselves have had no entrance into awakening, they don’t believe in the existence of an awakened person. As for this sort, we call them vilifiers of great prajñā and severers of the wisdom-life of the buddhas.
.
17.Vice Minister Rong (pg. 285-93)
2.17.1.[Assigns wu 無, "keeping it in awareness," referring it with the question, "What is the state unreachable by reflection?" and the advice, "The time when you become aware of squirming in your belly and distress in your mind is precisely the good time."]
2.17.2.[Dahui gives standard criticisms of silent illumination; maintaining stillness, belief that awakening is non-essential/secondary.]
.
18.Huang (Jiefu) of the Transit Authorization Bureau (pg. 293-5)
2.18.1. The fact that your “twiddling around” is lively like a fish waving its tail is precisely because you’re one who has attained self-realization. Gratifying! Very gratifying!
.
19.District Magistrate Sun (pg. 295-305)
2.19.1.[Dahui praises Sun for his translation and commentary of the Diamond Sutra, offering criticism, and encouraging him to seek out a good lecture-master to learn about all the divisions of Buddhism if he feels compelled to.]
.
20.Secretariat Drafter Principal Graduate Zhang (pg. 305-10)
2.20.1.[Assigns wu 無 again, this time with instructions:]
Coming [at wu 無] from the left is not correct; coming [at wu 無] from the right is not correct.
Also, you must not have your mind wait for awakening.
Also, you must not, while raising [wu 無], understand and “own” it.
Also, you must not concoct a “sublime” understanding [of wu 無].
Also, you must not haggle over whether [wu 無 is the wu of the polarity] there is [you 有]/there is not [wu 無].
Also, you must not conjecture that [wu 無] is the wu 無 of true non-existence [zhen wu 真無].
Also, you must not sit in the tiny hidden-away closet of nothing-to-do.
Also, you must not understand [wu 無 in the mode of “Chan suddenness” that is] like a spark from two stones or a lightning bolt.
2.20.2.[Dahui's observations on the many recent "divergences" of Chan:]
Some consider getting in one more line at the very end of a question-and-answer exchange to be Chan.
Some consider Chan to be getting into a huddle and debating the stories of the ancients’ entering the Way, saying “this is upāya, that’s real, these words are profound, those words are sublime,” sometimes saying a phrase as a stand-in, sometimes making a separate comment.
Some consider Chan to be harmonizing what you see and hear with the [Yogācara] teachings of “the three realms are mind-only” and “the myriad dharmas are consciousness-only.”
Some consider Chan to be [what follows is almost the exact same wording as 2.16.1.]
2.20.3. “In investigating the ultimate principle take awakening as the standard.”
.
21.Grand Councilor Tang (pg. 310-4)
2.21.1. Just constantly make your mind empty and clear and, as occasion demands, dispose of those things that should be done in your daily activities.
2.21.2.[Dahui advises Tang to keep to the assigned phrase, which is unspecified.]
.
23.Reply to Elder Gushan Dai (pg. 317-23)
2.23.1. Because in recent years there has been a party of peddlers—everywhere they’re studying piles of books, entire shoulder-poles’ worth, of “imitation Chan.” Frequently teaching masters are careless in dispensing [an easy seal of approval to such students]; with the result that [the students,] having reverentially received this “big talk” as the real thing, then go on in turn to confer such a “seal” upon others—this deceives later people and makes the true Chan mind ever more faint. The [authentic Chan] style of solely transmitting [the mind-seal] and directly pointing [at human mind] sweeps the ground free of everything.
2.23.2. What does worry me is that, in the entire Monks Hall of several hundred Chan monks, not one of them has broken through the [wu 無] huatou of a dog’s having no buddha-nature. I simply fear that the buddhadharma is on the point of extinction.”
Submitted September 08, 2021 at 03:12AM by OneoftheUnfettered https://ift.tt/3yU7wAO
No comments:
Post a Comment