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The Zen Teaching of Huang Po
On the Transmission of Mind
The Chung-Ling Record & The Wan-Ling Record
Translated by John Blofeld
Wan Ling Record The Anecdotes (cont.)
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Paragraphs 38 – 55 (of 56)
38
38. Q: Pray instruct me concerning the passage in the Sūtras denying the existence of a Sword of Thusness in the Royal Treasury. [38a]
A: The Royal Treasury is the nature of the Void. Though all the vast world-systems of the universe are contained therein, none of them have existence outside your Mind. Another name for it is the Bodhisattva Treasury of the Great Void. If you speak of it as existing or not existing, or as neither the one nor the other, in every case it becomes a mere ram's horn! [38b] It is a ram's horn in the sense that you have made it an object of your useless search.
39
39. Q: But is there not a Sword of Truth within the Royal Treasury?
A: Another ram's horn!
Q: Yet if there is no Sword of Truth why is it written: "The Prince seized the Sword of Truth from the Royal Treasury and set out upon his conquests"? Why do you tell us nothing of it beyond denying its objective existence?
A: The prince who took the sword connotes a true spiritual son of the Tathāgata; but, if you say that he carried it off, you imply that he DEPRIVED the Treasury of something. What nonsense it is to speak of carrying off a piece of that Void Nature which is the Source of all things! It would appear that, if you have got hold of anything at all, it may be called a collection of rams' horns!
40
40. Q: When Kāsyapa received the seal of Buddhahood from Gautama Buddha, did he make use of words during its further transmission?
A: Yes.
Q: Then, since he attempted its transmission in words, even he should be included among the people with rams' horns.
A: Kāṡyapa obtained a direct self-realization of original Mind, so he is not one of those with horns. Whosoever obtains this direct realization of the Tathāgata Mind, thereby understanding the true identity of the Tathāgata and perceiving his real appearance and real form, can speak to others with the authority of the Buddha's true spiritual son. But Ānanda, [40a] though he served his Master for twenty years, was unable to perceive more than his outward appearance and form, and was therefore admonished by the Buddha in these words: "Those who concentrate entirely upon helping the world cannot escape from among the horned ones." [40b]
41
41. Q: What is the meaning of the passage: "Mañjuśrī stood before Gautama with a drawn sword"?
A: The "Five Hundred Bodhisattvas" attained knowledge of their previous lives and discovered how their previous karma had been constructed. This a fable in which the "Five Hundred" really refers to your five senses. On account of their knowledge of their previous karma, they SOUGHT the Buddha, Bodhisattvahood and Nirvāna objectively. [41a] It was for this reason that Mañjuśrī took up the Sword of Bodhi and used it to destroy the concept of a tangible Buddha; [41b] and it is for this that he is known as the destroyer of human virtues!
Q: What does the Sword really signify?
A: It signifies the apprehension of Mind.
Q: So the Sword used to destroy the concept of a tangible Buddha [41c] is the apprehension of Mind. Well, then, if we are able to put an end to such concepts by this means, how is their destruction actually accomplished?
A: You must use that wisdom which comes from non-dualism to destroy your concept-forming, dualistic mentality.
Q: Assuming that the concepts of something perceptible and of Enlightenment as something to be sought can be destroyed by drawing the Sword of Non-Discriminatory Wisdom, where precisely is such a sword to be found?
A: Since non-discriminatory wisdom is the destroyer both of perception and of its opposite, it must also belong to the Non-perceptible. [41d]
Q: Knowledge cannot be used to destroy knowledge, nor a sword to destroy a sword. [41e]
A: Sword DOES destroy sword – they destroy each other – and the no sword remains for you to grasp. Knowledge DOES destroy knowledge – this knowledge invalidates that knowledge – and then no knowledge remains for you to grasp. It is as though mother and son perished together. [41f]
42
42. Q: What is implied by "seeing into the real Nature"?
A: That Nature and your perception of it are one. You cannot use it to see something over and above itself. That Nature and your hearing of it are one. You cannot use it to hear something over and above itself. If you form a concept of the true nature of anything as being visible or audible, you allow a dharma of distinction to arise. Let me repeat that the perceived cannot perceive. Can there, I ask you, be a head attached to the crown of your head? I will give you an example to make my meaning clearer. Imagine some loose pearls in a bowl, some large globules and some small. Each one is completely unaware of the others and none causes the least obstruction to the rest. During their formation, they did not say: "Now I am coming into being": and when they begin to decay, they will not say: "Now I am decaying." None of the beings born into the six forms of life through the four kinds of birth are exceptions to this rule. Buddhas and sentient creatures have no mutual perception of each other. The four grades of Theravādin adepts who are able to enter Nirvāna do not perceive, nor are they perceived by Nirvāna. Those Theravādins who have reached the "three stages of holiness" and who possess the "ten excellent characteristics" neither perceive nor are perceived by Enlightenment. So it is with everything else, down to fire and water, or earth and sky. These pairs of elements have no mutual perception of each other. Sentient beings do not ENTER the Dharmadhātu, [42a] nor do the Buddhas ISSUE FROM it. There is no coming and going within the Dharmatā, [42b] nor anything perceptible (etc.). This being so, why this talk of "I see", "I hear", "I receive an intuition through Enlightenment", "I hear the Dharma from the lips of an Enlightened One", or of "Buddhas appearing in the world to preach the Dharma"? Kātyāyana was rebuked by Vimalakīrti [42c] for using that transitory mentality which belongs to the ephemeral state to transmit the doctrine of the real existence of matter.
I assure you that all things have been free from bondage since the very beginning. [42d] So why attempt to EXPLAIN them? Why attempt to purify what has never been defiled? [42e] Therefore it is written: "The Absolute is THUSNESS – how can it be discussed? You people still conceive of Mind as existing or not existing, as pure or defiled, as something to be studied in the way that one studies a piece of categorical knowledge, or as a concept – any of these definitions is sufficient to throw you back into the endless round of birth and death. The man who PERCEIVES things always wants to identify them, to get a hold on them. Those who use their minds like eyes in this way are sure to suppose that progress is a matter of stages. If you are that kind of person, you are as far from the truth as earth is far from heaven. Why this talk of "seeing into your own nature"?
43
43. Q: You say that our original nature and the act of seeing into it are one and the same. This can only be so if that nature is totally undifferentiated. Pray explain how it is that, even allowing that there are no real objects for us to perceive, nevertheless we do in fact see what is near to us and are unable to see what is far away.
A: This is due to a misunderstanding arising from your own delusions. You cannot argue that the Universal Nature does in fact contain real objects on the grounds that "no real objects to be perceived" would only be true if there were nothing of the kind we CALL perceptible. The nature of the Absolute is neither perceptible nor imperceptible; and with phenomena it is just the same. But to one who has discovered his real nature, how can there be anywhere or anything separate from it? Thus, the six forms of life arising from the four kinds of birth, together with the great world-systems of the universe with their rivers and mountains, are ALL of one pure substance with our own nature. Therefore is it said: "The perception of a phenomenon is the perception of the Universal Nature, since phenomena and Mind are one and the same." It is only because you cling to outward forms that you come to "see", "hear", "feel" and "know" things as individual entities. True perception is beyond your powers so long as you indulge in these. [43]
By such means you will fall among the followers of the usual Mahāyāna and Theravādin doctrines who rely upon deep PERCEPTION to arrive at a true understanding. Therefore they see what is near and fail to see what is far away, but no one on the right path thinks thus. I assure you there is no "inner" or "outer", or "near" or "far". The fundamental nature of all phenomena is close beside you, but you do not SEE even that; yet you still go on talking of your inability to see what is far away. What meaning can this sort of talk possibly have?
44
44. Q: What guidance does Your Reverence offer to those of us who find all this very difficult to understand?
A: I have NO THING to offer. I have never had anything to offer others. It is because you allow certain people to lead you astray that you are forever SEEKING intuition and SEARCHING for understanding. Isn't this a case of disciples and teachers all falling into the same insoluble muddle? All you need to remember are the following injunctions:
FIRST, LEARN HOW TO BE ENTIRELY UNRECEPTTVE TO SENSATIONS ARISING FROM EXTERNAL FORMS, THEREBY PURGING YOUR BODIES OF RECEPTIVITY TO EXTERNALS.
SECOND, LEARN NOT TO PAY ATTENTION TO ANY DISTINCTIONS BETWEEN THIS AND THAT ARISING FROM YOUR SENSATIONS, THEREBY PURGING YOUR BODIES OF USELESS DISCERNMENTS BETWEEN ONE PHENOMENON AND ANOTHER.
THIRD, TAKE GREAT CARE TO AVOID DISCRIMINATING IN TERMS OF PLEASANT AND UNPLEASANT SENSATIONS, THEREBY PURGING YOUR BODIES OF VAIN DISCRIMINATIONS.
FOURTH, AVOID PONDERING THINGS IN YOUR MIND, THEREBY PURGING YOUR BODIES OF DISCRIMINATORY COGNITION. [44a]
A single moment's dualistic thought is sufficient to drag you back to the twelvefold chain of causation. [44b] It is ignorance which turns the wheel of causation, thereby creating an endless chain of karmic causes and results. This is the law which governs our whole lives up to the time of senility and death. [44c]
In this connection, we are told that Sudhana, after vainly seeking Bodhi in a hundred and ten places within the twelvefold causal sphere, at last encountered Maitreya who sent him to Mañjuśrī. Mañjuśrī here represents your primordial ignorance of reality. If, as thought succeeds thought, you go on seeking for wisdom outside yourselves, then there is a continual process of thoughts arising, dying away and being succeeded by others. And that is why all you monks go on experiencing birth, old age, sickness and death – building up karma which produces corresponding effects. For such is the arising and passing away of the "five bubbles" or, in other words, the five skandhas. Ah, could you but restrain each single thought from arising, then would the Eighteen Sense Realms [44d] be made to vanish! How godlike, then, your bodily rewards and how exalted the knowledge that would dawn within your minds! A mind like that could be called the Terrace of the Spirit. But while you remain lost in attachments, you condemn your bodies to be corpses or, as it is sometimes expressed, to be lifeless corpses inhabited by demons!
45
45. Q: "Vimalakīrti dwells in silence. Mañjuśrī offers praise." How can they have really entered the Gateway of Non-Duality?
A: The Gateway of Non-Duality is your original Mind. Speech and silence are relative concepts belonging to the ephemeral sphere. When nothing is said, nothing is manifested. [45a] That is why Mañjuśrī offered praise.
Q: Vimalakīrti did not speak. Does this imply that sound is subject to cessation? [45b]
A: Speech and silence are one! There is no distinction between them. Therefore is it written: "Neither the true nature nor the root of Mañjuśrī's hearing are subject to cessation." Thus, the sound of the Tathāgata's voice is everlasting, nor can there be any such reality as the time before he began to preach or the time after he finished preaching. The preaching of the Tathāgata is identical with the Dharma he taught, for there is no distinction between the preaching and the thing preached; just as there is none between such varied phenomena as the Glorified and Revealed Bodies of a Buddha, the Bodhisattvas, the Śrāvakas, the world-systems with their mountains and rivers, or water, birds, trees, forests and the rest. The preaching of the Dharma is at one and the same time both vocal and silent. Though one talks the day long, no word is spoken. This being so, only silence belongs to the Essential.
46
46. Q: Is it true that the Śrāvakas [46] can only merge their forms into the formless sphere which still belongs to the transitory Triple World, and that they are incapable of losing themselves utterly in Bodhi?
A: Yes. Form implies matter. Those saints are only proficient in casting off worldly views and activities, by which means they escape from worldly delusions and afflictions. They cannot lose themselves utterly in Bodhi; thus, there is still the danger that demons may come and pluck them from within the orbit of Bodhi itself. Aloofly seated in their forest dwellings, they perceive the Bodhi-Mind but vaguely. Whereas those who are vowed to become Bodhisattvas and who are already within the Bodhi of the Three Worlds, neither reject nor grasp at anything. Non-grasping, it were vain to seek them upon any plane; non-rejecting, demons will strive in vain to find them.
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 pro-foundest 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."
47
47. Q: But what if in previous lives I have behaved like Kalirāja, slicing the limbs from living men?
A: The holy sages tortured by him represent your own Mind, while Kalirāja symbolizes that part of you which goes out SEEKING. Such unkingly behaviour is called lust for personal advantage. If you students of the Way, without making any attempt to live virtuously, just want to make a study of everything you perceive, then how are you different from him? [47a] By allowing your gaze to linger on a form, you wrench out the eyes of a sage (yourself). And when you linger upon a sound, you slice off the ears of a sage – thus it is with all your senses and with cognition, for their varied perceptions are called slicers.
Q: When we meet all suffering with sagelike patience and avoid all mind-slicing perceptions, that which suffers with resignation surely cannot be the One Mind, for that cannot be subject to the endurance of pain.
A: You are one of those people who force the Unbecoming into conceptual moulds, such as the CONCEPT of patient suffering or the CONCEPT of seeking nothing outside yourself. Thereby you do yourself violence!
Q: When the holy sages were dismembered, were they conscious of pain; and, if among them there were no entities capable of suffering, who or what did suffer?
A: If you are not suffering pain now, what is the point of chiming in like that? [47b]
48
48. Q: Did Dīpamkara Buddha [48] attain his intuition of reality within a single five-hundred-year period or not?
A: There is no attaining it within such a period. You must never forget that this so-called "attaining" of intuition implies neither a withdrawal from daily life nor a SEARCH for Enlightenment. You have just to understand that time-periods have no real existence; hence the attainment of the vital intuition occurs neither within nor without a five-hundred-year period.
Q: Is it not possible to attain the omniscience in which all the events of past, present and future are known to us?
A: There is absolutely NOTHING which can be attained.
Q: How long is a cycle of five hundred yugas?
A: One such period should be ample for you to become a liberated sage. For, when Dīpaṃkara Buddha "attained", his intuitive knowledge of the Dharma, there was not really a grain of anything attainable.
49
49. Q: The Sūtras teach that the fettering of passions and illusions produced during millions of kalpas is a sufficient means of obtaining the Dharmakāya, even without going through the stage of being monks. What does this mean?
A: If you practise MEANS of attaining Enlightenment for three myriad aeons but without losing your belief in something really attainable, you will still be as many aeons from your goal as there are grains of sand in the Ganges. But if, by a direct perception of the Dharmakāya's true nature, you grasp it in a flash, you will have reached the highest goal taught in the Three Vehicles. Why? Because the belief that the Dharmakāya can be obtained belongs to the doctrines of those sects which do not understand the truth.
50
50. Q: If on perceiving a phenomenon I gain a sudden comprehension of it, is that tantamount to understanding Bodhidharma's meaning?
A: Bodhidharma's mind penetrated even beyond the void. [50]
Q: Then individual objects DO exist?
A: The existence of things as separate entities and not as separate entities are both dualistic concepts. As Bodhidharma said: "There are separate entities and there are not, but at the same time they are neither the one nor the other, for relativity is transient." If you disciples cannot get beyond those incorrect orthodox treachings, why do you call yourselves Zen monks? I exhort you to apply yourselves solely to Zen and not to go seeking after wrong methods which only result in a multiplicity of concepts. A man drinking water knows well enough if it is cold or warm. Whether you be walking or sitting, you must restrain all discriminatory thoughts from one moment to the next. If you do not, you will never escape the chain of rebirth.
51
51. Q: If the Buddha really dwells in matchless tranquillity beyond the multiplicity of forms, how is it that his body yielded eighty-four pecks of relics? [51a]
A: If you really think like that, you are confusing the transitory relics with the real.
Q: Are there really such things as śarīras, [51b] or are they the Buddha's accumulated merits?
A: There are no such things. They are not merits.
Q: Then, why is it written: "The Buddha-relics are ethereal and subtle; the golden ones are indestructible"? What does Your Reverence say to that?
A: If you harbour such beliefs, why call yourself a student of Zen? Can you imagine bones in the Void? The minds of all the Buddhas are one with the Great Void. What bones do you expect to find there?
Q: But if I had actually seen some of these relics, what then?
A: You would have seen the products of your own wrong thinking.
Q: Does Your Reverence have any of those relics? Please let us see them.
A: A true relic would be hard to see! To find it, you would have to crush mighty Mount Sumeru to fine dust, using only your bare hands!
52
52. The Master said: Only when your minds cease dwelling upon anything whatsoever will you come to an understanding of the true way of Zen. I may express it thus – the way of the Buddhas flourishes in a mind utterly freed from conceptual thought processes, while discrimination between this and that gives birth to a legion of demons! Finally, remember that from first to last not even the smallest grain of anything perceptible [52] has ever existed or ever will exist.
53
53. Q: To whom did the Patriarch silently transmit the Dharma?
A: No Dharma was transmitted to anybody. [53]
Q: Then why did the Second Patriarch ask Bodhidharma for the transmission of Mind?
A: If you hold that something was transmitted, you imply that the Second Patriarch reached Mind by SEEKING, but no amount of seeking can ever lead to Mind; so we TALK of only transmitting Mind to you. If you really GET something, you will find yourself back on the wheel of life and death!
54
54. Q: Did the Buddha pierce right through the primordial darkness of ignorance?
A: Yes. The primordial darkness is the sphere in which every Buddha achieves Enlightenment. Thus, the very sphere in which karma arises may be called a Bodhimandala. [54a] Every grain of matter, every appearance is one with Eternal and Immutable Reality! Wherever your foot may fall, you are still within that Sanctuary for Enlightenment, though it is nothing perceptible. I assure you that one who comprehends the truth of "nothing to be attained" is already seated in the sanctuary where he will gain his Enlightenment.
Q: Is primordial ignorance bright or dark?
A: It is neither. Both terms are dualistic. Primordial ignorance is at once neither bright nor dark; and by "the non-bright" [54b] is just meant that Original Brightness which is above the distinction made between bright and dark. Just this one sentence is enough to give most people a headache! That is why we say the world is full of vexations arising from the transitory phenomena around us. [54c]
Though, like Śāriputra, we were all to strain our minds trying to discover a means of liberation, that would be no way to fathom the wisdom and omniscience by which the Buddhas transcend all space. There can be no argument about it. Once when Gautama had measured out three thousand chiliochosms, [54d] a Bodhisattva suddenly appeared and passed over them in a single stride. Yet even that prodigious stride failed to cover the width of one pore of Samantabhadra's skin! Now, what sort of mental attainments have you that will help you to study the meaning of that?
Q: But if such things are entirely unlearnable, then why is it written: "On returning to our Original Nature, we transcend duality; but the relative means form many gates to the truth"?
A: We return to our Original Nature beyond duality, which in fact is also the real nature of the universe of primordial darkness, [54e] which again is the Buddha-Nature. The "relative means forming many gates" applies to Śrāvakas who hold that our universe is subject to becoming and cessation, and to Pratyeka Buddhas who, though acknowledging the infinity of its past, regard it as subject to future destruction; so they all concentrate entirely on the means of overcoming it. [54f] But the real Buddhas perceived that the becoming and destruction of the sentient world are both one with eternity. [54g] In another sense, there is no becoming or cessation. To perceive all this is to be truly Enlightened. Thus Nirvāna and Enlightenment are one.
When the lotus opened and the universe lay disclosed, there arose the duality of Absolute and sentient world; or, rather, the Absolute appeared in two aspects which, taken together, comprise pure perfection. These aspects are unchanging reality and potential form. For sentient beings, there are such pairs of opposites as becoming and cessation, together with all the others. Therefore, beware of clinging to one half of a pair. Those who, in their singleminded attempt to reach Buddhahood, detest the sentient world, thereby blaspheme all the Buddhas of the universe. The Buddhas, on manifesting themselves in the world, seized dung-shovels to rid themselves of all such rubbish as books containing metaphysics and sophistry. [54h]
My advice to you is to rid yourselves of all your previous ideas about STUDYING Mind or PERCEIVING it. When you are rid of them, you will no longer lose yourselves amid sophistries. Regard the process exactly as you would regard the shovelling of dung.
Yes, my advice is to give up all indulgence in conceptual thought and intellectual processes. When such things no longer trouble you, you will unfailingly reach Supreme Enlightenment. On no account make a distinction between the Absolute and the sentient world. As a real student of Ts'ao Hsi Zen, [54i] you must make no distinctions of any kind. From the earliest times the Sages [54j] have taught that a minimum of activity is the gateway of their Dharma; so let NO activity be the gateway of my Dharma! Such is the Gateway of the One Mind, but all who reach this gate fear to enter. I do NOT teach a doctrine of extinction! Few understand this, but those who do understand are the only ones to become Buddhas. Treasure this gem!
55
55. Q: But how can we prevent ourselves from falling into the error of making distinctions between this and that?
A: By realizing that, though you eat the whole day through, no single grain has passed your lips; and that a day's journey has not taken you a single step forward – also by uniformly abstaining from such notions as "self" and "other", DO NOT PERMIT THE EVENTS OF YOUR DAILY LIVES TO BIND YOU, BUT NEVER WITHDRAW YOURSELVES FROM THEM. Only by acting thus can you earn the title of "A Liberated One".
Never allow yourselves to mistake outward appearance for reality. Avoid the error of thinking in terms of past, present and future. The past has not gone; the present is a fleeting moment; the future is not yet to come. When you practise mind-control, [55a] sit in the proper position, stay perfectly tranquil, and do not permit the least movement of your minds to disturb you. This alone is what is called liberation. [55b]
Ah, be diligent! Be diligent! Of a thousand or ten thousand attempting to enter by this Gate, only three or perhaps five pass through. If you are heedless of my warnings, calamity is sure to follow. Therefore is it written:
Exert your strength in THIS life to attain!
Or else incur long aeons of further pain!
56
56. The Master passed away on this mountain during the T'ai Chung Reign (A.D. 847-859) of the T'ang Dynasty. The Emperor Hsüan Tsung bestowed upon him the posthumous titlee of "The Zen Master Who Destroys All Limitations". The memorial pagoda is known as "The Tower of Spacious Karma".
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Footnotes
Numbered by paragraph.
[38a] The Sword of Thusness is a MEANS to Enlightenment; the Royal Treasury is the Bhūtatathatā – the Absolute regarded as the Source of all things.
[38b] Rams' horns symbolize passions and delusions.
[40a] Gautama Buddha's most loving disciple, whose compassion excelled his wisdom.
[40b] This quotation is certainly not intended to belittle Ānanda's compassion, but to indicate that even the most selfless devotion to others is not an actual means to gain deliverance. If deliverance could be attained merely as a result of good works, Ānanda would have earned it many times over. In some Buddhist sects, the chief emphasis is placed on works of piety and charity; in Zen, nobility of heart and deed are prerequisites for followers of the Path, but they do not form part of the Path to Liberation itself.
[41a] Forming sense-based concepts.
[41b] Absolute.
[41c] Absolute.
[41d] Non-attainable, non-graspable, etc. Hence the question is pointless.
[41e] The questioner seems to have coined a paradox of the kind Huang Po was fond of using, perhaps as an indication of some fancied advancement towards the truth.
[41f] This passage is especially profound. Transcendental knowledge invalidates relative knowledge, but the former is then found to be no knowledge in the ordinary sense, for knower and known are seen to be one.
[42a] Absolute.
[42b] Nature of the Absolute.
[42c] Ch'ing Ming.
[42d] I.e. they have never really lost their identity with the Absolute.
[42e] The then still existent Northern School of Zen taught purification of the mind, but Hui Nêng, followed here by Huang Po, regarded this injunction as implying a dualism of pure and impure.
[43] In this passage it is argued that, though individual entities DO exist in a certain superficial sense, they never lose their fundamental oneness.
[44a] These are four of the five skandhas or components of sentient being, namely: rūpa – form; vedanā – reception of sensation; sa ṃjñā – discernment; sa ṃskāra – discrimination; and vijñāna – cognition.
[44b] The twelve links are: ignorance; consequent entrance into the womb; consciousness; rebirth; development of the sense organs; contact with external phenomena; the resulting sensations; the craving for pleasure to which these give rise, the amassing of pleasure-giving objects, money, property and so on; the growth of further karma; rebirth; and fresh experience of the sorrows of decay and death. See: /buddhism/articles/twelve-links-of-dependent-arising.htm
[44c] Free will is not denied here, for its proper employment can snap the causal chain – a principle accepted by Buddhists of all sects.
[44d] The six sense organs, including the brain, together with their six objects and six types of sensation.
[45a] Cf. St. John: "In the beginning was the WORD."
[45b] This seems to mean: Is sound purely saṁsāric? But I am puzzled.
[46] Theravādin saints who do not accept the doctrine of void, but follow the literal meaning of the Sūtras.
[47a] This passage is sufficient answer to those critics of Zen who affirm that Zen disregards the necessity for virtuous living. It does not disregard it at all, but does deny that Enlightenment may be gained by it – which is quite a different thing.
[47b] This curt reply may also mean: "Why join this assembly to study Zen-liberation, unless the frustration set up by saṁsāric life is painful to you?"
[48] The twenty-fourth predecessor of Gautama Buddha.
[50] It is not enough to see all things as fleeting shadows. Beyond the void is the Great Void, in which flux is and yet is not flux. The moon or a tree must first be perceived as void and then, in a new sense, as moon or tree.
[51a] This rather naive questioner is confusing the Buddha as synonymous with the Absolute with the historical figure of Gautama.
[51b] Buddha-relics.
[52] Graspable, attainable, tangible, etc.
[53] I.e. the Dharma has always existed in our own Mind; it is only the realization of this which is lacking.
[54a] A sanctuary for gaining Enlightenment.
[54b] Avidyā or primordial ignorance.
[54c] In the Chinese, the sentence reads very much as follows, for the word meaning primordial darkness or avidyā is itself composed of two characters meaning "not" and "bright": "Not bright both not bright and not dark not bright just is original bright not bright not dark"! Hence the remark about a headache.
[54d] Each containing a myriad worlds.
[54e] Saṃsāra – THIS world.
[54f] As though it were quite a separate entity from the Nirvāna which they seek.
[54g] I.e. they recognize the identity of "a moment" and "forever".
[54h] Gautama Buddha seems to have held the same view of metaphysics, for he steadily refused to answer metaphysical quesions, regarding them as useless distractions from the work of self-Enlightenment.
[54i] Ts'ao Hsi Zen: The subsect to which Huang Po belonged.
[54j] Taoist.
[55a] Zazen or dhyāna.
[55b] From the burden of ever-renewed transitory existence.
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