After returning from his study-pilgrimage, a disciple drew a circle in front of Zen
Master Hui Neng, the Sixth Ancestor, stood within it, then bowed. The Master
asked, “Do you wish to make of it a Buddha or not?”
The monk answered, “I do not know how to fabricate the eyes.”
The Master smiled and remarked, “I cannot do any better than you.”
Joy, humor and the spontaneity of the moment are evident in this short exchange.
This encounter also reminds me of Bodhidharma’s time honored quote:
“A special transmission outside the scriptures.
Not dependent on words and concepts.
Directly pointing to the essence of this moment
Seeing clearly into one’s nature.”
The founder of Mahayana Buddhism, Nagarjuna stated that “nothing affirmative or
definitive could be said about ultimate reality.” In other words, attempting to label
anything as an entity or concrete in any fashion is a misguided notion. All is just
passing phenomena.
One of my teachers, Zen Master Wu Kwang once when giving a talk said that in
the beginning, zen students often try to be clever and different in their approach to
answering koans often as an attempt to impress their teacher. Sometimes the
opposite occurs, where they steadfastly cling to a definitive intellectual conclusion
as a sign of resolute strength. Wu Kwang emphasized zen is actually quite simple.
Zen is life exactly as it is. What are you doing right now?
I was invited as a special guest for the dedication of the new Kwan Yin Chan Lin
Temple building in Singapore approximately ten years ago. At the time, I was
asked to write a few words for inclusion in a book commemorating this auspicious
event. I recently came across the book and discovered, not surprisingly, that what
I wrote then is very similar to these weekly blogs.
Here is what I wrote at the time:
“Mental clarity and quiescence must be held evenly, samadhi and prajna
cultivated as a pair.
Holding them evenly means first using quiescence to observe thoughts rising from
conditions. Mental clarity is then an opportunity to develop wisdom.
Whatever you see, hear, taste, touch or smell is continually subject to inversion
(changing). Why waste precious time and chi energy attaching to them?
Who would want to celebrate his or her life beholden to these sense realms? Of
what use will our clinging be at the moment of death? Regret will not be an
effective remedy for work left undone.
Ah, but when we discover our true nature, the forms we see and the sounds we
hear are like waves on which an empty boat is riding.
If we can simply follow the highs and the lows, the curves and the straights,
naturally and without either attachment or sanction, how could we then be
anything but happy?”