The Essentials of Chan Practice

by Venerable Hsu Yun

PREREQUISITES FOR BEGINNING CHAN PRACTICE

THE PURPOSE OF INVESTIGATING CHAN

The purpose of investigating Chan is to illuminate the mind and see your self-nature. You must eradicate the mind’s impurities so as to personally perceive the true face of your self-nature. The mind’s impurities are wandering thoughts and attachments; self-nature is the wisdom and virtue of the Tathagata. Sentient beings are replete with the wisdom and virtue of Buddhas; they are not-two and not separated from one another. If you can leave behind wandering thoughts and attachments, then you will attain this wisdom and virtue that is within you. This is Buddhahood. Otherwise, you remain an ordinary sentient being.

It is because you and I have been, for limitless kalpas, wallowing in birth and death, defiled for a long time, and unable to immediately cast off wandering thoughts that we cannot perceive our intrinsic nature. For these reasons, the first prerequisite of investigating Chan is to eradicate wandering thought.

How do we eradicate wandering thoughts? Shakyamuni Buddha had taught much on this subject. His simplest and most direct teaching is the word “stop” from the expression “Stopping is bodhi.” From the time when Bodhidharma transmitted Chan teachings to our eastern land, after the sixth patriarch [Huineng], the winds of Chan have blown far and wide, shaking and illuminating the world. Among the many things that Bodhidharma and the Sixth Patriarch taught to those who came to study with them, none is more valuable than the saying, “Put down the myriad entangling conditions; let not one thought arise.” Putting down the myriad entangling conditions simply means to put down all conditions. So this phrase “Put down all conditions and let not one thought arise” is actually the foremost prerequisite of a Chan practitioner. If you cannot fulfil this requirement, then not only will you fail to attain the ultimate goal of Chan practice, but you will not even be able to enter the gate of Chan. How can you speak of practising Chan if you are entangled by worldly phenomena, wallowing in the arising and passing of your thoughts?

PUT DOWN THE MYRIAD ENTANGLING CONDITIONS

“Put down all conditions and let not one thought arise” is a prerequisite for the practice of investigating Chan. Now that we know this, how do we accomplish it? The best practitioner, one of superior abilities, can in an instant put to rest all deluded thoughts forever, arrive directly at the realisation of the unborn, and instantly experience bodhi, without being entangled by anything.

The next best kind of practitioner uses principle to rid oneself of phenomenal appearance and realises that self-nature is originally pure; vexation and bodhi, samsara and nirvana – all are false names which have nothing to do with self-nature; all affairs and things are dreams and illusions, like bubbles or reflections.

My physical body that is composed of the four elements, the mountains, rivers, and all that exists on this great earth are all contained within my self nature, like bubbles on the surface of the ocean, arising and disappearing, yet never obstructing the ocean’s fundamental essence. Do not be captivated by the arising, abiding, changing, and passing away of illusory phenomena and give rise to pleasure and aversion, grasping and rejecting. Give up your whole body as if you were dead, and the six sense faculties, sense objects, and sense consciousness will naturally disperse. Greed, hatred, ignorance, and craving for affection will be destroyed. All the physical sensations of pain, itchiness, agony, and pleasure – hunger, cold, satiation warmth, glory, insult, birth and death, calamity, prosperity, good and bad luck, praise, blame, gain and loss, safety and danger – will no longer be your concern. Only this can be considered true “putting down all conditions.” When you put everything down forever, this is what is meant by “Put down all conditions.”

When the myriad conditions are renounced, wandering thoughts will disappear by their own accord, discrimination will not arise, and attachment is left far behind. In this instance of nothing arising in mind, the brightness and clarity of your self-nature manifests completely. Only at this time, you will have fulfilled the necessary conditions for investigating Chan. Then, further hard work and sincere practice will enable you to illuminate the mind and see into your true nature.

EVERYONE INSTANTLY BECOMES A BUDDHA

Many Chan practitioners ask questions about the Dharma. The Dharma that is spoken is originally not the true Dharma. As soon as you try to explain things, the true meaning is lost. If you realise that this mind is originally the Buddha, then at that very instance there is nothing more to do. Everything manifests its perfected state. All talk about practice or attainment is demonic deception.

Bodhidharma’s “direct pointing at the mind, seeing into one’s nature and attaining Buddhahood” clearly instructs that all sentient beings are buddhas. Once pure self-nature is recognised, you can harmonise with the environment yet remain undefiled. The mind will remain unified throughout the day, whether walking, standing, sitting, or lying down. This is to manifest that already perfected Buddha. At this point, there is no need to put forth effort and be diligent, let along act in a certain way or be pretentious. Nor is there a need to bother with explanations or discursive thinking. Thus, it is said that to become a Buddha is the easiest, most natural task. Moreover, it is something you can control, without seeking help from outside. All sentient beings in this vast land can instantly realise Buddhahood if only they desire to avoid transmigration of four forms of birth and the six realms of existence in this long kalpa; tumbling in the sea of suffering without end. Buddhahood can be attained if you desire the four virtues of nirvana (eternity, joy, self, purity) and wholly believe in the sincere words of the Buddha and the patriarchs, renounce everything, and think neither of good or bad. All Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, and patriarchs have vowed to exhaustively save all beings; this vow is not a boast nor is it groundless, making some sort of grand vow or empty remark.

The Dharma is exactly such. It has been elucidated again and again by the Buddha and the patriarchs. They have exhorted us with the truth, and do not deceive us. Unfortunately, sentient beings are confused and for limitless kalpas they have been wallowing in birth and death in the ocean of suffering, reborn here and reborn there, without any control of their endless transmigration. Confused with inverted views, they turn their backs on awakening and embrace the worldly dust of their senses, like pure gold in a cesspool. Because of the severity of the problem and the degree of their defilement, the Buddha had compassionately, without any choice, expounded eighty-four thousand Dharma doors (methods) to accord with the varying karmic roots of sentient beings, so that sentient beings may use these methods to cure themselves of eighty-four thousand habits and illnesses, which include greed, hatred, ignorance, and craving for affection.

INVESTIGATING CHAN AND CONTEMPLATING MIND

Our sect focuses on investigating Chan. And the purpose of investigating Chan is to illuminate the mind and see one’s own self-nature,” which means to thoroughly investigate and comprehend our original face. This investigation is also called “clearly realising one’s mind and thoroughly perceiving one’s intrinsic nature.”

Our sect focuses on investigating Chan. And the purpose of investigating Chan is to “illuminate the mind and see one’s own self-nature,” which means to thoroughly investigate and comprehend our original face. This investigation is also called “clearly Since the time when the Buddha held up a flower and Mahakasyapa realised awakening, and Bodhidharma came to the East, the methods for entry into this Dharma door have continually evolved. Most Chan adepts before the Tang and Song dynasties became enlightened after hearing a word or phrase of the Dharma, and Dharma transmission from master to disciple was merely a convergence of mind to mind; there was no actual Dharma. Further, questions and answers in daily life were only extemporaneous occasions to untie entanglements, much like prescribing the right medicine for the right illness.

After the Song dynasty, however, people did not have such good karmic capacities as their predecessors. They could not carry out what had been said. For example, practitioners were taught to “put down everything” and “not think about good and evil,” but they could not put down everything; if they weren’t thinking about good, they were thinking about evil. Under these circumstances, the patriarchs had no choice but to use poison against poison and taught practitioners to investigate gong’an and huatou. When you begin observing a huatou, even if you must begin with a lifeless phrase, you must grasp it tightly, without letting go of it even for an instant like a mouse trying to gnaw its way out of a coffin. The mouse must focus on one area and it must not stop until it gnaws through the coffin. In terms of huatou, the objective is to use a single thought to eradicate ten thousand thoughts. This method is really a last resort. Just as if someone had been severely poisoned and there’s no other way to get the poison out and cure the patient except to open up the body. The ancients had numerous gong’ans, but later on practitioners started using huatous. Some huatous are: “Who is observing this corpse?” “What is my original face before my parents gave birth to me?” In recent times, many use “Who is reciting Buddha's name?”

In fact, all huatous follow the same format. There is nothing uncommon, strange, or special about them. If you wanted to, you could observe: “Who is reciting the sutras?” “Who is reciting the mantras?” “Who is prostrating to the Buddha?” “Who is eating?” “Who is wearing these clothes?” “Who is walking?” “Who is sleeping?”

They’re all the same. The answer to the word “who” derives from one’s mind; mind is the source of all words. Thoughts arise from the mind; the mind is the source of all thoughts. Innumerable dharmas are born out of the mind; mind is the source of all dharmas. In fact, huatou literally means, “source of words;” the source of thoughts. And the source of thoughts is the mind. To put it directly, the state of mind before any thought arises is huatou. Hence, we should know that observing huatou is contemplating mind. Your “original face” before your parents gave birth to you is the mind; and observing the huatou, “What is my original face before my parents gave birth to me” is contemplating mind.

Self-nature is mind. When one “turns inward to hear one’s self-nature,” one is turning inward to contemplate mind. In the phrase, “perfectly illuminating pure awareness,” the “pure awareness” is mind and “illumination” is contemplation. Mind is Buddha. When one recites Buddha’s name one contemplates Buddha. And contemplating Buddha is contemplating mind.

Thus, observing the huatou, such as observing “Who is reciting Buddha’s name?” is contemplating mind. That is, “illuminating the pure awareness” of your mind, or illuminating the Buddha of your self-nature. Mind is nature, is pure awareness, and is Buddha. It has no form, no characteristics, no fixed location; it cannot be grasped and as such it intrinsically pure. It pervades all Dharma realms; it does not exist or enter; it does not come or go. The mind is the intrinsically, self-manifested, pure Dharmakaya Buddha.

You practitioners should first shut down all six sense faculties and observe the place where thoughts arise, and take care of this “source of words” or huatou; observe it until you perceive your pure mind separated from all thoughts. Advancing further, your practice must be seamless without any interruption, and your mind must be refined, quiescent, and luminous. Continue until the five skandhas are empty, and your body and mind become quiescent. There will be nothing for you to do. From that point onward, activities of walking, standing, sitting, and lying are all performed in stillness. In time, your practice will deepen and you will see your self-nature and become a Buddha. Suffering will be extinguished. Master Gaofeng (1238–1295) once said: “You must observe the huatou like a sinking roof tile plummeting down into a pond ten thousand feet deep. If in seven days you are not enlightened, you have permission to chop off my head!” Fellow practitioners, these are the words of one who has already reached to the other shore. His words are true; they are not boasting words that deceive us!

Still, why is it that in our modern times although there are many practising huatou but few actually reach enlightenment? This is because practitioners today have inferior karmic capabilities than practitioners of the past. Also, practitioners today are unclear about the principle and path of huatou practice. Some practitioners sojourn from east to west and north to south to practice under different masters until they die, but still haven’t penetrated even one huatou. They don’t know the meaning of huatou, and are unsure what would be considered “observe the huatou.” All their lives, they only attach to the words and labels, exerting their efforts not on the “source” of words but at the tail end of words.

Huatou is precisely the one-mind. This one-mind that is within you and me is not inside, outside, or in the middle. And at the same time it is inside, outside, and in the middle. Like the stillness of empty space, it pervades everywhere.

When using the huatou, you should not raise it upward (i.e., focusing on it in your head region) or suppress it downward (i.e., psychologically forcing the huatou to sink to the lower body). If you raise it upward, you will arouse scattered mind. If you suppress it you will drift into drowsiness. These approaches are contrary to your mind’s original nature and are not in accordance with the middle way.

Practitioners are distressed by wandering thoughts. They believe it is difficult to subdue wandering thoughts. Let me state it clearly: don’t be afraid of wandering thoughts, and do not waste your energy subduing them. All you have to do is recognise them. Don’t attach to them, don’t follow them, and don’t try to get rid of them. As long as you do not continue wallowing in them, wandering thoughts will naturally depart by themselves.