Treasury of the Eye of True Teaching #160: 607
Meditation master Huang first called on the fifth patriarch; though he sought for certainty, he followed gradual practice. Later he went back to Hebei, built a hut, and sat constantly for twenty years, never evincing any slacking. Later he met a disciple of the sixth patriarch, Chan master Ce, who had come to the area on his travels. He heard that Huang had studied with the fifth patriarch and had been living in a hut for many years, considering himself correctly attuned. Ce knew that Huang’s attainment was not consummate, so he went and asked him, "What are you doing sitting here?" He said, "Entering concentration." Ce said, "You say you are entering concentration—mindful or mindless? If mindful, all creatures would have attained concentration; if mindless, all plants and trees would have attained concentration." Huang said, "When I actually go into concentration, I don’t see the existence of any mind that is there or not." Ce said, "If you don’t see the existence of any mind present or absent, this is constant concentration—how could there be coming out or going in? If there is exit and entry, this is not great concentration."
Huang was at a loss. After a long while he asked, "To whom did you succeed?" Ce said, "My teacher was the sixth patriarch of Caoqi." Huang asked, "What did the sixth patriarch consider meditation concentration?" Ce said, "My teacher says subtle clear mental calm is completely peaceful, essence and function as such; the five clusters are fundamentally empty, the data of the six senses are not existent. Not emerging, not entering, not concentrated, not confused, the essence of meditation has no dwelling—detachment from dwelling is the peace of meditation; the essence of meditation has no production—detachment from production is meditation contemplation. Mind is like space, yet without the idea of space."
When Huang heard the essentials of the teaching, he left his hut and went to call on the sixth patriarch. The patriarch was sympathetic to him having come from affair, and gave him instruction at once. Huang was enlightened at his words. The state of mind he’d attained over the previous twenty years had no more influence at all. That night his patrons in Hebei, gentry and peasantry, heard a voice in the sky say, "Meditation master Huang attained the Way today." After that he returned to Hebei and taught monks, nuns, lay men, and lay women.
Source: zenmarrow.com
In view of some discussions on meditation I recently had, I was searching for relevant passages from the Chan texts. Of course, sitting, mind, heart and meditation are all interesting words that may or may not do justice to the meaning/context of the original, but I was as much at a loss as Huang at reading this.
In his description of his own practice, Huang seems to indicate to Ce some form of what is now often called ‘headless’ awareness: the realization that there is no ‘I’ observing the phenomena.
Ce seems to then equate this practice of Huang with ‘great concentration’ wherein there is no input or output from the mind, but to the confusion of Huang, who asks Ce what the sixth patriarch sees as ‘meditation concentration’.
Ce is described as knowing Huang’s practice is not consummate, so I am sure there is some additional info over what Huang is doing found in the essentials he proceeds to give Huang of his master’s practice:
”My teacher says subtle clear mental calm is completely peaceful, essence and function as such; the five clusters are fundamentally empty, the data of the six senses are not existent. Not emerging, not entering, not concentrated, not confused, the essence of meditation has no dwelling—detachment from dwelling is the peace of meditation; the essence of meditation has no production—detachment from production is meditation contemplation. Mind is like space, yet without the idea of space.”
I feel that the “data of the six senses are non-existent” point to the inherent emptiness and I am just trying to feel beyond that to the practice that the sixth patriarch taught Ce and then Huang to that end.
Food for thought and practice. But what practice?
Submitted June 14, 2020 at 02:06PM by Batavian1 https://ift.tt/30JH1AL
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