" Responding, perceiving, arching your brows, blinking your eyes, moving your hands and feet, it’s all your miraculously aware nature. And this nature is the mind. And the mind is the buddha. And the buddha is the path. And the path is zen. But the word zen is one that remains a puzzle to both mortals and sages. Seeing your nature is zen. Unless you see your nature, it’s not zen. "
--Bodhidharma

Zen ancestors' writings on zazen


Photo of Manzan
Manzan Dohaku

   Practice and realization are not nonexistent; you should start right away. Just sitting is called real practice, the freedom and ease of body and mind is called true realization.
   Once practice and realization are actually fulfilled, after that you must attain to the meaning of the completeness, without lack or excess, of this way, this mind. [1]

   Great perfect awareness is the ocean of ultimate peace; still and silent, myriad forms and images reflect therein. Yet suddenly when the wind of objects arises it turns into an ocean of birth and death, with waves of consciousnesses and feelings billowing day and night, where all sentient beings appear and disappear, with no end in sight. Although the two oceans seem different, really they come from the same source, mind. Originally there is no sign of distinction in the mind source; life and death and nirvana all revert to the essential nature of the source.
   Therefore, when you realize the mind-source, the whole universe is a great round perfect ocean. But how to realize the mind source? You must liberate body and mind on the sitting cushion before you can do so. [2]

   Like training, satori must be true. If one holds that there is something to practice and realize, one is a follower of the false religion of entity based on affirmation. If, on the other hand, one asserts that there is nothing to practice or realize, one is still not above the four types of differentiation and the one hundred forms of negation: one is an adherent of the equally false religion of nothingness, founded on negation. And this is the shadowy product of the dichotomous intellect, holding no truth. [3]

   Master Bassui says, “When at wits’ end and unable to think another thought, you are applying yourself properly.” Thus do not look around, but devote yourself utterly to doubting self-examination until you forget where you are or even that you live. This may lead you to feel completely at sea. Yet you must persist in the search for the hearer, sweating, like a dead man, until you are unconscious, a lump of great doubt. But look! That lump will suddenly break up and out of it will leap the angel of the awakening, the great satori consciousness. It is as if one awoke from the deepest dream, literally returned to life. [4]



Keizan

Zazen Yojinki

   Therefore, the enlightened ones have appeared in the world for the one great purpose of having people realize the knowledge and vision of enlightenment. And they had a peaceful, impeccable subtle art, called zazen, which is the state of absorption that is king of all states of concentration. If you once rest in this absorption, then you directly illumine the mind -- so we realize it is the main gate to the way of enlightenment.
   Zazen is not concerned with teaching, practice, or realization, yet it contains these three aspects. That is to say, the criterion of realization depends on enlightenment - this is not the spirit of zazen. Practice is based on genuine application - this is not the spirit of zazen. Teaching is based on eliminating evil and cultivating goodness - this is not the spirit of zazen. Although teaching is established within zen, it is not ordinary teaching; it is direct pointing, simply communicating the way, speaking with the whole body.
   Concentration means undivided contemplation; in zazen we slough off body and mind, abandon confusion and understanding, immutable and imperturbable, not acting, not befudled, like an idiot, like a dunce, like a mountain, like an ocean, no trace of either motion or stillness arises -- concentrated without any sign of concentration, it is called great concentration. [5]




Dogen

Genjokoan

   A person getting realization is like the moon being reflected in water; the moon does not get wet, and the water is not broken. Though the light is wide and great, it is reflected in a foot or an inch of water. The whole moon and the whole sky are reflected in a dew-drop on a blade of grass and are reflected in a single drop of water. Realization does not break the individual, just as the moon does not pierce the water. [6]

Fukanzazengi

Zazenshin

Pivotal essence of every buddha,
Essential pivot of every patriarch.
Beyond thinking, realizing,
Beyond complication, realization.

Beyond thinking, realizing:
The realizing is naturally immediate.
Beyond complication, realization:
The realization is naturally a state of experience.

The realizing is naturally immediate:
There has been no taintedness.
The realization is naturally a state of experience:
There has been no rightness or divergence.

There has been no tainting of the immediacy:
That immediacy is without reliance yet it gets free.
There has been no rightness or divergence in the experience:
That state of experience is without design yet it makes effort.

The water is clean, right down to the ground,
Fishes are swimming like fishes.
The sky is wide, clear through to the heavens,
And birds are flying like birds.


   “Nangaku says, ‘Polishing to make a mirror.’ We should clarify the meaning of these words. In polishing to make a mirror Buddhist truths are always present and the realied Universe is present: it is never an empty pretense. Though tiles are tiles and mirrors are mirrors, we should know that when we are striving to master the art of polishing, [polishing] possesses a limitless abundance of distinguishing features. It may be that even the eternal mirror and the clear mirror are made into mirrors by polishing a tile. If we do not know that mirrors derive from polishing a tile, we are without a Buddhist patriarch’s expression of the truth. [7]




Hongzhi

Turning the Pearl

   The original source empties out, without representation. When moved it can respond. Then you must peer right through it. Standing solitary like a steep cliff, wide open and accessible, spirited and independent, clear and bright, all this does not even slightly involve external conditions. Such activity is called the single bright occasion, which arrives right along with the ten thousand forms that emerge and are extinguished. The realm where the Samadhi of all dusts arises, [enterning all samadhis through one Samadhi], is clear like the ocean seal. Turn it around as if turning a pearl. Let everything entirely fall away, and put it all together without any extraneous conditions. This is referred to as the occasion of solitary, glorious unselfishness. At night the moon rises and the waters glisten, the spring wind blows and the flowers blossom. With no need for meritorious activity, all is naturally perfect. Causes, conditions, fruits, and retributions, none is discerned as external. Furthermore, you must know that both the light and the circumstances have altogether vanished. Again, what is it? [8]

The Practice of True Reality

   The practice of true reality is simply to sit serenely in silent introspection. When you have fathomed this you cannot be turned around by external causes and conditions. This empty, wide open mind is subtly and correctly illuminating. Spacious and content, without confusion from inner thoughts of grasping, effectively overcome habitual behavior and realize the self that is not possessed by emotions. You must be broad-minded, whole without relying on others. Such upright independent spirit can begin not to pursue degrading situations. Here you can rest and become clean, pure, and lucid. Bright and penetrating, you can immediately return, accord, and respond to deal with events. Everything is unhindered, clouds gracefully floating up to the peaks, the moonlight glitteringly flowing down mountain streams. The entire place is brightly illumined and spiritually transformed, totally unobstructed and clearly manifesting responsive interaction like box and lid or arrowpoints [meeting]. Continuing, cultivate and nourish yourself to enact maturity and achieve stability. If you accord everywhere with thorough clarity and cut off sharp corners without dependence on doctrines, like the white bull or wildcat [helping to arouse wonder], you can be called a complete person. So we hear that this is how one on the way of non-mind acts, but before realizing non-mind we still have great hardship. [9]

Performing the Buddha Work

   [The empty field] cannot be cultivate or proven. From the beginning it is altogether complete, undefiled and clear down to the bottom. Where everything is correct and totally sufficient, attain the pure eye that illuminates thoroughly, fulfilling liberation. Enlightenment involves enacting this; stability develops from practicing it. Birth and death originally have no root or stem, appearing and disappearing originally have no defining signs or traces. The primal light, empty and effective, illumines the headtop. The primal wisdom, silent but also glorious, responds to conditions. When you reach the truth without middle or edge, cutting off before and after, then you realize one wholeness. Everywhere sense faculties and objects both just happen. The one who sticks out his broad long tongue transmits the inexhaustible lamp, radiates the great light, and performs the great Buddha work, from the first not borrowing from others one atom from outside the dharma. Clearly this affair occurs within your own house. [10]

The Original Dwelling

   A person practicing the Way subtly goes beyond words and thoughts. Instantly authentic, one is on the affirmed path and does not attach to reasoning. Extensively intermingled, the moon flows in all the waters, the wind blows through the supreme emptiness, naturally without touching or obstructing things. Transcedent illumination and function are only illuminating without stains and functioning without leaving traces. Then you can enter Samadhi in every sense-dust and gather the ten thousand forms in the single seal. Discontinue leaks and do not act upon them. This is called understanding the affaira of patch-robed monks. Moreover, you must remember and return to the homeward path. The clouds evaporate in the cold sky. The autumn has departed and the mountain is barren. This is where we originally dwell. [11]




Sekito Kisen (Shitou Xiquan)


Song of the Grass Roof Hermitage

I’ve built a grass hut where there’s nothing of value.
After eating, I relax and enjoy a nap.
When the hut was completed, fresh weeds appeared.
Now it’s been lived in -- covered by weeds.
The person in the hut lives here calmly,
not stuck to inside, outside, or in-between.
Places worldly people live, he doesn’t live.
Realms worldly people love, she doesn’t love.
Though the hut is small, it includes the entire world.
In ten feet square, an old man illumines forms and their nature.
A Mahayana bodhisattva trusts without doubt.
The middling or lowly can’t help wondering:
Will this hut perish or not?
Perishable or not, the original master is present,
not dwelling south or north, east or west.
Firmly based on steadiness, it can’t be surpassed.
A shining window below the green pines --
jade palaces or vermilion towers can’t compare with it.
ust sitting with head covered all things are at rest.
Thus, this mountain monk doesn’t understand at all.
Living here he no longer works to get free.
Who would proudly arrange seats, trying to entice guests?
Turn around the light to shine within, then just return.
The vast inconceivable source can’t be faced or turned away from.
Meet the ancestral teachers, be familiar with their instruction,
bind grasses to build a hut and don’t give up.
Let go hundreds of years and relax completely.
Open your hands and walk, innocent.
Thousands or words, myriad interpretations
are only to free you from obstructions.
If you want to know the undying person in the hut,
Don’t separate from this skin bag here and now. [12]




Daikan Eno (Hui-Neng)


Platform Sutra

Buddhism’s being in the world
Is not separate from the awareness of the world.
To seek bodhi apart from the world
Is like searching for the horn of a hare.

Correct seeing (or views) is called to escape the world.
False seeing is [to be in] the world. When false and correct are completely destroyed,
The nature of bodhi is just so. [13]

   “Good friends, how is it that meditation and wisdom are equivalent? It is like the light of a lamp. When the lamp exists, there is light; when there is no lamp there is darkness. The lamp is the essence of the light, and the light is the function of the lamp. Although the names are different, in essence they are fundamentally identical. The Dharma of meditation and wisdom is just like this.”
   The master addressed the assembly, “Good friends, the samadhi of the single practice is to always practice the single direct mind in all one’s actions, whether walking, standing still, sitting or lying down. The Vimalakirti [Sutra] sys, ‘the straightforward mind is the place of enlightenment, the straight forward mind is the Pure Land.’ Don’t allow your mental practices to become twisted while merely speaking of straightforwardness with your mouth! If you speak of the samadhi of the single practice with your mouth, you will not practice the straightforward mind. Just practice the straightforward mind, and be without attachment within all the dharmas.
   “The deluded person is attached to the characteristics of dharmas and grasps onto the samadhi of the single practice, merely saying that he always sits without moving and without falsely activating the mind and that this is the samadhi of the single practice. To have an interpretation such as this is to be the same as an insentient object! This is rather to impede the causes and conditions of enlightenment!
   “Good friends, one’s enlightenment (one’s Way) must flow freely. How could it be stagnated? When the mind does not reside in the dharmas, one’s enlightenment flows freely. For the mind to reside in the dharmas is called ‘fettering oneself.’ If you say that always sitting without moving is it, then you’re just like Sariputra meditating in the forest, for which he was scolded by Vimalakirti!” [14]

   “Good friends, what is ‘Zazen?’ In this teaching, there is no impediment and no hindrance. Externally, for the mind to refrain from activating thoughts with regard to all the good and bad realms is called ‘Za.’ Internally, to see the motionlessness of the self-nature is called ‘Zen.’
   “Good friends, what is it that is called meditative concentration? Externally, to transcend characteristics is ‘meditation., Internally, to be undisturbed is ‘concentration.’ If one concentrates on characteristics externally, internally the mind is disturbed. If one transcends characteristics externally, the mind will not be disturbed. The fundamental nature is naturally pure and naturally concentrated; it is only by seeing the realms and thinking of the realm
s that one is disturbed. If one can see the various realms without the mind being disturbed, this is true concentration.” [15]

Make an effort to see for yourself, don’t be despondent!
Later, in a single moment, you will suddenly cut off [your thoughts], thus ending them forever.
If you would be enlightened to the Mahayan and see the nature,
Reverentially hold your palms together and seek it in utter sincerity. [16]

Be without thought and one’s thoughts are correct;
Be with thought and one’s thoughts become false.
If one considers neither with nor without,
One will always ride the cart of the white bull. [17]

All things are without any truth.
Do not see them as true.
If you see the true,
This is for what you see to be completely untrue.

If you are able to possess the true yourself,
Transcend the provisional and your mind will be true.
If you do not transcend the provisional in your own mind,
You will be without the true, for where could the true be located?
….
If you are able to discriminate will characteristics,
The cardinal meaning of Buddhism is motionlessness
Just to have such a view
Is to have functioning that is suchlike.

I am telling you students,
Make an effort! And be careful!
Do not in this gateway of the Mahayana
Grasp onto the wisdom of birth and death! [18]




Bodaidaruma (Bodhidharma)


Bloodstream sermon

   Using the mind to look for reality is delusion. Not using the mind to look for reality is awareness. [19]

Breakthrough sermon

   The mind is the root from which all things grow. If you can understand the mind, everything else is included. It’s like the root of a tree. All a tree’s fruit and flowers, brances and leaves depend on its root. If you nourish its root, a tree multiplies. If you cut its root, it dies. Those who understand the mind reach enlightenment with minimal effort. Those who don’t understand the mind practice in vain. Everything good and bad comes from your own mind. To find something beyond the mind is impossible. [20]


[1]Manzan Dohaku, pg 168, in Timeless Spring A Soto Zen Anthology, trans. by T. Cleary (1980) Wheelwright Press, Tokyo.
[2]Ibid., pg 169.
[3]Manzan Dohaku, Letter to Zissan, pg 373, in World of the Buddha, ed. by L., Stryk. (1968) Grove Press, NY.
[4]Ibid., pg 374.
[5]Keizan, pg 114-119, in Timeless Spring A Soto Zen Anthology, trans. by T., Cleary (1980) Wheelwright Press, Tokyo.
[6] Eihei Dogen, Genjokoan, pg 36, in Shobogenzo Vol I, Trans. by G., Nishijima & C., Cross. (1996) Windbell Publishers, London.
[7] Eihei Dogen, Zazenshin, pg 106, in Shobogenzo Vol II, Trans. by G., Nishijima & C., Cross. (1996) Windbell Publishers, London.
[8] Hong-Zhi, Turning the Wheel, pg 50, in Cultivating the Empty Field: The Silent Illumination of Zen Master Hongzhi, trans. T.D., Leighton. (2000) Tuttle Press, Boston.
[9] Hong-Zhi, The Practice of True Reality, pg 30, in Cultivating the Empty Field: The Silent Illumination of Zen Master Hongzhi, trans. T.D., Leighton. (2000) Tuttle Press, Boston.
[10] Hong-Zhi, Performing the Buddha Work, pg 32, in Cultivating the Empty Field: The Silent Illumination of Zen Master Hongzhi, trans. T.D., Leighton. (2000) Tuttle Press, Boston.
[11] Hong-Zhi, The Original Dwelling, pg 48, in Cultivating the Empty Field: The Silent Illumination of Zen Master Hongzhi, trans. T.D., Leighton. (2000) Tuttle Press, Boston.
[12] Sekito Kisen, Song of the Grass Roof Hermitage, pg 72, in Cultivating the Empty Field: The Silent Illumination of Zen Master Hongzhi, trans. T.D., Leighton. (2000) Tuttle Press, Boston.
[13] Hui-Neng, pgs 49 in The Platform Sutra of the Sixth Chinese Patriarch, trans. by J., McRae. (2000) Numata Center, Berkeley CA.
[14] Ibid., pgs 56-7.
[15] Ibid., pg 60.
[16] Ibid., pg 69.
[17] Ibid., pg 75.
[18] Ibid., pg 107.
[19] Bodhidharma, pg 49, in The Zen Teachings of Bodhidharma, trans. by Red Pine. (1987) North Point Press, NY.
[20] Ibid., pg 77.