The Zen Teachings of Huang Po

Translator’S Introduction The Text

towards Enlightenment, i.e. the practice of turning the mind towards and striving to pierce the veils of sensory perception and conceptual thought in order to arrive at an intuitive perception of reality.

The single aim of the true Zen follower is so to train his mind that all thought-processes based on the dualism inseparable from ‘ordinary’ life are transcended, their place being taken by that Intuitive Knowledge which, for the first time, reveals to a man what he really is. If All is One, then knowledge of a being’s true self-nature—his original Self—is equally a knowledge of all-nature, the nature of everything in the universe.

To affirm or deny is to limit; to limit is to shut out the light of truth; but, as words of some sort must be used in order to set disciples on to the right path, there naturally arises a series of paradoxes—sometimes of paradox within paradox within paradox.

the Enlightened man is capable of perceiving both unity and multiplicity without the least contradiction between them!

To those who have realized the nature of Reality, there is nothing old or new, and conceptions of shallowness and depth are meaningless. Those who speak of it do not attempt to explain it, establish no sects and open no doors or windows.

PART ONE—THE CHÜN CHOU RECORD OF THE ZEN MASTER HUANG PO (TUAN CHI) A collection of sermons and dialogues recorded: by P’ei Hsiu while in the city of Chün Chou

1. The Master said to me: All the Buddhas and all sentient beings are nothing but the One Mind, beside which nothing exists. This Mind, which is without beginning, is unborn{5} and indestructible. It is not green nor yellow, and has neither form nor appearance. It does not belong to the categories of things which exist or do not exist, nor can it be thought of in terms of new or old.

They do not know that, if they put a stop to conceptual thought and forget their anxiety, the Buddha will appear before them, for this Mind is the Buddha and the Buddha is all living beings.

3. Mind is like the void in which there is no confusion or evil, as when the sun wheels through it shining upon the four corners of the world. For, when the sun rises and illuminates the whole earth, the void gains not in brilliance; and, when the sun sets, the void does not darken. The phenomena of light and dark alternate with each other, but the nature of the void remains unchanged.

4. This Mind is no mind of conceptual thought and it is completely detached from form. So Buddhas and sentient beings do not differ at all. If you can only rid yourselves of conceptual thought, you will have accomplished everything.

5. Our original Buddha-Nature is, in highest truth, devoid of any atom of objectivity. It is void, omnipresent, silent, pure; it is glorious and mysterious peaceful joy—and that is all. Enter deeply into it by awaking to it yourself. That which is before you is it, in all its fullness, utterly complete. There is naught beside. Even if you go through all the stages of a Bodhisattva’s progress towards Buddhahood, one by one; when at last, in a single flash, you attain to full realization, you will only be realizing the Buddha-Nature which has been with you all the time; and by all the foregoing stages you will have added to it nothing at all.{15}

6. This pure Mind, the source of everything, shines forever and on all with the brilliance of its own perfection. But the people of the world do not awake to it, regarding only that which sees, hears, feels and knows as mind. Blinded by their own sight, hearing, feeling and knowing, they do not perceive the spiritual brilliance of the source-substance. If they would only eliminate all conceptual thought in a flash, that source-substance would manifest itself like the sun ascending through the void and illuminating the whole universe without hindrance or bounds.

Do not keep them nor abandon them nor dwell in them nor cleave to them. Above, below and around you, all is spontaneously existing, for there is nowhere which is outside the Buddha-Mind.

is only to be feared that you students of the Way, by the coming into existence of a single thought, may raise a barrier between yourselves and the Way. From thought-instant to thought-instant, no FORM; from thought-instant to thought-instant, no ACTIVITY—that is to be a Buddha! If you students of the Way wish to become Buddhas, you need study no doctrines whatever, but learn only how to avoid seeking for and attaching yourselves to anything. Where nothing is sought this implies Mind unborn; where no attachment exists, this implies Mind not destroyed; and that which is neither born nor destroyed is the Buddha.

There is only the one reality, neither to be realized nor attained. To say ‘I am able to realize something’ or ‘I am able to attain something’ is to place yourself among the arrogant.

Moreover, the Way is not something specially existing; it is called the Mahāyāna Mind—Mind which is not to be found inside, outside or in the middle. Truly it is not located anywhere. The first step is to refrain from knowledge-based concepts. This implies that if you were to follow the empirical method to the utmost limit, on reaching that limit you would still be unable to locate Mind. The way is spiritual Truth and was originally without name or title. It was only because people ignorantly sought for it empirically that the Buddhas appeared and taught them to eradicate this method of approach. Fearing that nobody would understand, they selected the name ‘Way’. You must not allow this name to lead you into forming a mental concept of a road. So it is said ‘When the fish is caught we pay no more attention to the trap.’ When body and mind achieve spontaneity, the Way is reached and Mind is understood. A śramana{45} is so called because he has penetrated to the original source of all things. The fruit of attaining the śramana stage is gained by putting an end to all anxiety; it does not come from book-learning.{46}

Merely acquiring a lot of knowledge makes you like a child who gives himself indigestion by gobbling too much curds.

We just know how to put all mental activity to rest and thus achieve tranquillity. We certainly do not begin by thinking things out and end up in perplexity.

‘What is called supreme perfect wisdom implies that there is really nothing whatever to be attained.’ If you are also able to understand this, you will realize that the Way of the Buddhas and the Way of devils are equally wide of the mark. The original pure, glistening universe is neither square nor round, big nor small; it is without any such distinctions as long and short, it is beyond attachment and activity, ignorance and Enlightenment. You must see clearly that there is really nothing at all—no humans and no Buddhas.

Part Two—The Wan Ling Record Of The Zen Master Huang Po (Tuan Chi)

2. Q: What is the Buddha?{57} A: Mind is the Buddha, while the cessation of conceptual thought is the Way. Once you stop arousing concepts and thinking in terms of existence and non-existence, long and short, other and self, active and passive, and suchlike, you will find that your Mind is intrinsically the Buddha, that the Buddha is intrinsically Mind, and that Mind resembles a void.{58}

Bodhidharma firmly believed in being ONE WITH THE REAL ‘SUBSTANCE’ OF THE UNIVERSE IN THIS LIFE! Mind and that ‘substance’ do not differ one jot—that ‘substance’ IS MIND. They cannot possibly be separated.

‘The moment of realizing the unity of Mind and the “substance” which constitutes reality may truly be said to baffle description.’

‘Tathāgata’ means the THUSNESS of all phenomena. Therefore it is written: ‘Maitreya is THUS; saints and sages are THUS.’ THUSNESS consists in not being subject to becoming or to destruction; THUSNESS consists in not being seen and in not being heard.

The ephemeral may be likened to mere emptiness;{76} the Great Void is perfection wherein is neither lack nor superfluity, a uniform quiescence in which all activity is stilled.{77} Do not argue that there may be other regions lying outside the Great Void, for such an argument would inevitably lead to discrimination. Therefore is it written: ‘Perfection{78} is a deep sea of wisdom; saṁsāra{79} is like a whirling chaos.’

Do not deceive yourselves with conceptual thinking, and do not look anywhere for the truth, for all that is needed is to refrain from allowing concepts to arise.

Therefore is it said: ‘When thoughts arise, then do all things arise. When thoughts vanish, then do all things vanish.’

18. Q: Assuming all this is so, what particular state is connoted by the word Bodhi?{103} A: Bodhi is no state. The Buddha did not attain to it. Sentient beings do not lack it. It cannot be reached with the body nor sought with the mind. All sentient beings ARE ALREADY of one form with Bodhi.

Once every sort of mental process has ceased, not a particle of karma is formed. Then, even in this life, your minds and bodies become those of a being completely liberated. Supposing that this does not result in freeing you immediately from further rebirths, at the very least you will be assured of rebirth in accordance with your own wishes. The sūtra declares: ‘Bodhisattvas are re-embodied into whatsoever forms they desire.’ But were they suddenly to lose the power of keeping their minds free from conceptual thought, attachment to form would drag them back into the phenomenal world, and each of those forms would create for them a demon’s karma!

Mind is filled with radiant clarity, so cast away the darkness of your old concepts. Ch’ing Ming says: ‘Rid yourselves of everything.’

Or else they chatter of cosmic activities leading to transformations, while neglecting the Substance from which they spring—indeed, there is NEVER any profit in discussion.

It is an existence which is no existence, a non-existence which is nevertheless existence. So this true Void does in some marvellous way ‘exist’.{149}

When the true nature of all things that ‘exist’ is an identical Thusness, how CAN SUCH distinctions have any reality?

Phenomena are the Seal of Mind, just as the latter is the Seal of phenomena. Whatever Mind is, so also are phenomena—both are equally real and partake equally of the Dharma-Nature, which hangs in the void. He who receives an intuition of this truth has become a Buddha and attained to the Dharma. Let me repeat that Enlightenment cannot be bodily grasped (attained, perceived, etc.), for the body is formless; nor mentally grasped (etc.), for the mind is formless; nor grasped (etc.), through its essential nature, since that nature is the Original Source of all things, the real Nature of all things, permanent Reality, of Buddha!

I assure you that all things have been free from bondage since the very beginning.{165} So why attempt to EXPLAIN them? Why attempt to purify what has never been defiled?{166} 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.

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?

A single moment’s dualistic thought is sufficient to drag you back to the twelvefold chain of causation.{169} 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.{170}

A: It is neither. Both terms are dualistic. Primordial ignorance is at once neither bright nor dark; and by ‘the non-bright’{184} 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.{185}

The Buddhas, on manifesting themselves in the world, seized dung-shovels to rid themselves of all such rubbish as books containing metaphysics and sophistry.{190} 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.

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’.