The path in essence.

Does anything more need be said?

www.dailyzen.com/zen/zen_reading22.asp

Secrets of Cultivating the Mind

- Son Master Chinul

If you want to avoid going around in circles, nothing compares to seeking Buddhahood. If you want to seek Buddhahood, Buddha is mind. Need mind be sought afar? It is not apart from the body.

The material body is temporal, having birth and death. The real mind is like space, unending and unchanging. Thus it is said, "When the physical body decays and dissolves back into fire and air, one thing remains aware, encompassing the universe."

Unfortunately, people today have been confused for a long time. They do not know that their own mind is the real Buddha. They do not know that their own essence is the real Dharma. Wishing to seek Dharma, they attribute it to remote sages; wishing to seek Buddhahood, they do not observe their own mind.

If you say that there is Buddha outside the mind, and there is Dharma outside of essence, and want to seek the Way of Buddhahood while clinging tightly to these feelings, even if you spend ages burning your body, branding your arms, breaking your bones and taking out the marrow, wounding yourself and copying scriptures in your own blood, standing for long periods of time without sitting down, eating only once a day, reading the whole canon and cultivating various austere practices, it will be like steaming sand to produce cooked rice; it will only increase your own fatigue.

Just know your own mind and you will grasp countless teachings and infinite subtle meanings without even seeking. That is why the World Honored One said, "Observing all sentient beings, I see they are fully endowed with the knowledge and virtues of Buddhas." He also said, "All living beings, and all sorts of illusory events, are all born in the completely awake subtle mind of those who realize suchness."

(cont.)

(cont.)

So we know that there is no Buddhahood to attain apart from this mind. The Realized Ones of the past were just people who understood the mind, and the saints and sages of the present are people who cultivate the mind; students of the future should rely on this principle.

People who practice the Way should not seek externally. The essence of mind has no defilement; it is originally complete and perfect of itself. Just detach from illusory objects, and it is enlightened to suchness as is.Question: If Buddha-nature is presently in our bodies, it is not apart from ordinary people. Then why do we not perceive Buddha-nature now?

Answer: It is in your body, but you do not perceive it yourself. At all times you know when you are hungry, you know when you are thirsty, you know when you are cold, you know when you are hot; sometimes you get angry, sometimes you are joyful-ultimately, what is it that does all this?

Now then, the material body is a compound of four elements: earth, water, fire, and air. Their substance is insentient; how can they perceive or cognize? That which can perceive and cognize has to be your Buddha- nature.

This is why Linji said, "The four gross elements cannot expound the Teaching or listen to the Teaching. Space cannot expound the Teaching or listen to the Teaching. Only the solitary light clearly before you, that which has no form, can expound the Teaching or listen to the Teaching."

What he called that which has no form is the stamp of the truth of all Buddhas, and it is your original mind. So the Buddha-nature is presently in your body; what need is there to seek outside?

(cont.)

Question: You say that the two categories of sudden enlightenment and gradual practice are guidelines followed by all sages. If enlightenment is sudden enlightenment, what is the need for gradual practice? If practice is gradual practice, why speak of sudden enlightenment? Please explain the meanings of sudden and gradual further, to eliminate doubts.

Answer: As for sudden enlightenment, as long as ordinary people are deluded, they think their bodies are material conglomerates and their minds are random thoughts. They do not know that inherent essence is the true body of reality. They do not know that their own open awareness is the real Buddha. Seeking Buddha outside of mind, they run randomly from one impulse to another.

If a real teacher points out a way of entry for you, and for a single instant you turn your attention around, you see your own original essence. This essence originally has no afflictions; uncontaminated wisdom is inherently complete in it. Then you are no different from the buddhas; thus it is called sudden enlightenment.

As for gradual practice, having suddenly realized fundamental essence, no different from Buddha, beginningless mental habits are hard to get rid of all at once. Therefore one cultivates practice based on enlightenment, gradually cultivating the attainment to perfection, nurturing the embryo of sagehood to maturity. Eventually, after a long time, once becomes a sage; therefore it is called gradual practice. It is like an infant, which has all the normal faculties at birth, but as yet undeveloped; only with the passage of years does it become an adult.

(cont.)

Question: By what expedient means can we turn our minds around instantly to realize our inherent essence?

Answer: It is just your own mind; what further expedient means would you apply? If you apply expedient means to go on to seek intellectual understanding, this is like wanting to see your own eyes because you think you have no eyes if you cannot see them. As long as you have not lost them, that is called seeing eyes. If you have no more desire to see, does that mean you imagine you are not seeing? So it is also with one's own open awareness. Since it is one's own mind, how can one yet seek to see it? If you seek understanding, then you do not understand it. Just know that which does not understand; this is seeing essence.

Question: In terms of my present state, what is the mind of open awareness of silence and emptiness?

Answer: What enables you to ask me this question is your mind of open awareness of emptiness and silence; why do you still seek outside instead of looking within? I will now point directly to the original mind in you, to enable you to awaken; you should clear your mind to listen to what I say.

Throughout the twenty-four hours of the day, you operate and act in all sorts of ways, seeing and hearing, laughing and talking, raging and rejoicing, affirming and denying: now tell me, ultimately who is it that can operate and act in this way?

(cont.)

If you say it is the physical body operating, then why is it that when people's lives have just ended and their bodies have not yet decomposed at all, their eyes cannot see, their ears cannot hear, their noses cannot smell, their tongues cannot talk, their bodies do not move, their hands do not grip, their feet do not step? So we know that what can see, hear, and act must be your basic mind, not your physical body.

Indeed, the gross elements of this physical body are inherently empty, like images in a mirror, like the moon reflected in water; how can they be capable of perfectly clear and constant awareness, thoroughly lucid, sensitive and effective, with countless subtle functions? Thus it is said, "Spiritual powers and subtle functions - drawing water and hauling wood."

But there are many ways of access to the principle. I will point out one entryway, by which you can return to the source. Do you hear the cawing of the crows and the chattering of the jays?

Student: I hear them.

Now turn around and listen to your hearing essence; are there still so many sounds in it?

Student: When I get here, all sounds and all discriminations are ungraspable.

Marvelous, marvelous! This is the Sound Seer's gateway into the principle. Now let me ask you further: You say then when you get here all sounds and all discriminations are totally ungraspable. Since they cannot be grasped, does that not mean that there is empty space at such as time?

(cont.)

Student: Originally not empty, it is clearly not obscure.

What is the substance that is not empty?

Student: It has not form; there is no way to express it in words.

This is the life of the Buddhas and Zen masters; do not doubt anymore. Since it has no form, could it have size? Since it has no size, could it have bounds? Because it has no bounds, it has no inside or outside. Having no inside or outside, it has no far or near. With no far or near, there is no there or here. Since there is no there or here, there is no coming or going. Because there is no going or coming, there is no birth or death. Having no birth or death, it has no past or present. With no past or present, there is no delusion or enlightenment....

Those who realize this and keep to it sit in one suchness and are immutably liberated. Those who stray from this and turn away from it traverse the six courses and go round and round for eternity. Therefore it is said that straying from the One Mind to traverse the six courses is "departure," or "disturbance," while awakening to the realm of reality and returning to the One Mind is "arrival," or "tranquility." * Secrets of Cultivating the Mind was composed by Chinul (1158 - 1210). Ordained as a monk at eight, Chinul had no teacher. His first awakening occurred as he read a Chan Buddhist classic when he was 25 years old. After that Chinul went into seclusion in the mountains. Eventually Chinul began to instruct others and this manual of meditation clearly defines and contrasts the principles and methods of sudden and gradual enlightenment.

Son Master Chinul

- taken from Minding Mind - A Course in Basic Meditation, edited and translated by Thomas Cleary (1995)

Yes.

Lol.. mine was a very loaded statement!

So what is Chinul missing?

Adam.

"If you say it is the physical body operating, then why is it that when people's lives have just ended and their bodies have not yet decomposed at all, their eyes cannot see, their ears cannot hear, their noses cannot smell, their tongues cannot talk, their bodies do not move, their hands do not grip, their feet do not step? So we know that what can see, hear, and act must be your basic mind, not your physical body."

I'd say because oxygen is not going to the brain and the brain cells have died actually...

"Now turn around and listen to your hearing essence; are there still so many sounds in it?"

Great pointing out instructions - I wasn't even trying to recognize awareness on that one and it just happened.

I think Master Chinul is on to something very important. The mind's pure essence, emptiness, non-dual awareness, and such descriptions of the Absolute are very clearly important to awakening. I see awakening as a multi-faceted jewel that has many aspects, however, of which this is but one, albeit an important one. It's easy to focus on one aspect of awakening and in over-emphasizing and forsaking other facets make that one thing pre-eminent. But that's not the full picture. Just like developing one's perception of not-self is but one facet of awakening and can be over-emphasized, likewise inaccurately, mis-representing awakening.

And awakening is ineffable. It happens differently for everyone, at an individual's pace, in its own time. following rules we don't understand. Any attempt to classify it, to encode it, to define it as this or that, is just bound to be inaccurate as all get out.


Uncertainty

Uncomfortable

Non-conceptual

Unpredictable

Indescribable

Indestructable

Unbelievable

Yeah, he offers a great overview with penetrating insight. I think one of the best examples of clarity on the experience of enlightenment out.

"
So what is Chinul missing?

"


In this text, Chinul is still missing the function, grasping at the ungraspable.
How did the Buddha transmit the treasury of the dharma eye to Kashyapa?
Did he ask him to turn back and listen to the source of hearing?
Did he ask him to listen to the sound of the rafts on the Ganges river?
What did he do?
He remained silent and turned a flower in his hands.
And Kashyapa smiled. Why? This is the Ch'an.

Hey Alex!

Great point! Do you think the difference is around kashyapa's capacity as a student? Do you think a direct pointing to that which knows, was not necessary for Kashyapa, as it might be for most of the rest of us? Chinul makes a good bunch of arguments in his collected works around differences between instant and progressive enlightenment and the variation in the ripening or capacity of different students.

What ya reckon?

edited for spelling.

Hi Adam,

Chinul's student was obviously a novice, while Kashyapa was obviously a very advanced disciple who had already realized the unconditioned and unborn (Pali. ajati) essence of the mind (insight into no-self), but went further to realize tathata (or suchness), namely that when no-self is truly realized, there is no more grasping at any reified essence, unborn, unconditioned, Mind is Buddha, Self, no-self, non-dual awareness, etc.

For Kashyapa there was therefore "no Buddha, no Mind". Just that. A flower turning. The blink of eye. A smile. Pure. Luminous. Empty. Perfect.

In traditional Southern Ch'an, the teaching method was sudden, namely similar to the direct pointing introduction to Mahamudra or Dzogchen. This was more like Ramana Maharishi's direct path. Instead of disembedding from sensations, feelings, perceptions, thoughts, etc. peeling the onion until nothing remains through vipassana, one would go strait to the source of hearing and seeing to eventually realize there "there is hearing, no hearer", "there is seeing, no seer". But it still unfolds into finer and finer insights, from "I cannot find anything there!" to "who could have thought that the mind is the source of the myriad things!" (Huineng, Ming edition of the Liu Zu Tan Jing) - [Not yet Mahakashyapa's realization however].

The sudden teachings are therefore sudden in the sense that there is no gradual step-by-step training where one starts with samatha and switches to vipassana to go through 16 stages of insights, cycles, etc. Instead, one is directly introduced to the heart of the matter. Yet it unfolds from an inditial glimpse to the same sudden enlightenment (MCTB 4th path, catching the ox), which must be followed by gradual cultivation to polish the view and remove the remaining fetters.

Nice! I sent you Chinul a little while ago. Did you end up checking out more of his writings. He is said to be the great reformer of Son, do yo think his view is a correct one?

I actually discovered Chinul some 10 years ago, via Thomas Cleary's "Kensho, the Heart of Zen". Earlier, my Buddhist friend Ardent had introduced me to Tsung-mi, an amazing Chinese Huyen and Zen scholar-practitioner who was Chinul's main source of inspiration. Chinul never really had a living Zen teacher, but studied directly from the the Buddhist sutras and the writings of Tsung-mi and Dahui (the Linji master who promoted the use of koans/huatou/hwadu), had great insights and became the founder of the Chogye school of Korean Buddhism. In this sense he became a reformer since Ch'an/Zen/Sôn already existed in Korea since the time of the 6th patriarch Huineng.

His view is of course correct. What I meant is only that his teaching are not always addressed to the same people at the same level of insight.

Yes, which is important, to mind mind.

Adam.

And we realize that the mind arises within the Mind and "Mind is Buddha". Eventually, we even go beyond the beyond to realize "no Buddha, no Mind".