A01821 - Huang-po (Huangbo Xiyun), Ninth Century Master of Zen Buddhism

  Huang-po (Huangbo Xiyun)

"Consider the sunlight.  You may say that it is near, yet if you pursue it from world to world you will never catch it.  You may say that it is far, yet it is right before your eyes.  Chase it and it always eludes you; run from it and it is always there.  From this example you can understand how it is with true nature of all things."

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Huangbo Xiyùn
Title	Ch'an master
Personal
Born	unknown China
Died	850 Mount Huangbo
Religion	Buddhism
Nationality	Chinese
School	Ch'an
Lineage	Hung-chou school
Senior posting
Predecessor	Baizhang Huaihai

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Huángbò Xīyùn (simplified Chinese: 黄檗希运; traditional Chinese: 黄檗希運; Wade–Giles: Huang-po Hsi-yün; lit. 'Xiyun of Mt. Huangbo', Japanese: Ōbaku Kiun) (died 850^[a]) was an influential master of Zen Buddhism during the Tang dynasty. He was part of the Hongzhou school of Chan founded by Mazu.

Huángbò was a student of Baizhang Huaihai (720–814), and the teacher of Linji Yixuan (J. Rinzai) (died 866) (Wade–Giles: Lin-chi I-hsüan; Japanese: Rinzai Gigen).

Biography

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Sources

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Very little about Huángbò's life is known for certain as, unlike other Transmission of the Lamp literature, there is no biographical information included with Huángbò's collection of sayings and sermons, the Ch’uan-hsin Fa-yao (Essentials of Mind Transmission) and the Wan-ling Lu (Record of Wan-ling: Japanese: Enryōroku).

He was born in Fuzhou, China. The records indicated that Huángbò was extraordinarily tall.^[b]

Monastic life

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Huángbò began his monastic life on Mt. Huangbo in Fujian province, receiving the Buddhist name Xiyun (Hsi-yun). As was the custom of the times, he traveled around seeking instructions from various Chan masters. He visited Mt. Tiantai and sought teachings from the National Teacher Nanyang Huizhong (Wade–Giles: Nan-yang Hui-chung; Japanese: Nan’yō Echū). At some point he may also have studied under Nanquan Puyuan (748–835) (Wade–Giles: Nan-ch’üan P’u-yüan; Japanese: Nansen Fugan), a student of Mazu Daoyi (Wade–Giles: Ma-tsu Tao-i; Japanese: Baso Dōitsu) (709–788)^[1]

However, Huángbò's main teacher was Baizhang Huaihai (Wade–Giles: Pai-chang Huai-hai; Japanese: Hyakujo Ekai), another Mazu student, and it was from Baizhang that Huángbò received Dharma transmission. According to Yuanwu Keqin's commentary in The Blue Cliff Record, when Huángbò first met Baizhang, Baizhang exclaimed, “Magnificent! Imposing! Where have you come from?” Huángbò replied, “Magnificent and imposing, I’ve come from the mountains.” ^[2]

Lung-hsing Monastery

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In 842, a prominent government official in Kiangsi province, Pei Xiu (Wade–Giles: P’ei Hsiu) (787 or 797–860), invited Huángbò to take up residence at Lung-hsing Monastery.^[3] Pei was an ardent student of Chan and received teachings from Huángbò, eventually building a monastery for Huángbò around 846, which the master named Huang-po after the mountain where he had been a novice monk.^[c]

Death

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Before Huángbò died, he named thirteen successors, the most prominent of which was Linji Yixuan. He was given the posthumous title (probably under the urging of Pei Xiu who became chief minister of the central government in 853) of “Chan Master Without Limits” (Tuan Chi Ch’an Shih).

John Blofeld says he died on Mount Huangbo during the T'ai Chung reign of the Tang dynasty, or between 847 and 859. Blofeld says his memorial pagoda is "The Tower of Spacious Karma" and that it was Emperor Hsüan Tsung who gave him the title "The Zen Master Who Destroys All Limitations".^[4]

Teachings

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Sources

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What is known of Huángbò's teachings comes from two texts, the Ch’uan-hsin Fa-yao (Essential of Mind Transmission) and the Wan-ling Lu (Record of Wan-ling: Japanese: Enryōroku) written by Huángbò's student, Pei Xiu.^[d] Pei compiled the teachings from his own notes and sent the manuscript to the senior monks on Mount Huangbo for further editing and emendation.

The “official” version of the Huángbò literature was published as part of the Transmission of the Lamp, Compiled during the Ching-te Period, in 1004.^[7] The record of Huángbò is more or less equally split between sermons by the master and question and answer dialogues between the master and his disciples and lay people.

One Mind

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Huángbò's teaching centered on the concept of “mind” (Chinese: hsin), a central issue for Buddhism since its inception. He taught that mind cannot be sought by the mind. One of his most important sayings was “mind is the Buddha”. He said:

All the Buddhas and all sentient beings are nothing but the One Mind, beside which nothing exists. The One Mind alone is the Buddha, and there is no distinction between the Buddha and sentient beings.^[8]

He also said:

To awaken suddenly to the fact that your own Mind is the Buddha, that there is nothing to be attained or a single action to be performed – this is the Supreme Way.^[9]

He also firmly rejected all dualism, especially between the “ordinary” and “enlightened” states:

If you would only rid yourselves of the concepts of ordinary and Enlightened, you would find that there is no other Buddha than the Buddha in your own Mind. The arising and the elimination of illusion are both illusory. Illusion is not something rooted in Reality; it exists because of your dualistic thinking. If you will only cease to indulge in opposed concepts such as ‘ordinary’ and ‘Enlightened’, illusion will cease of itself.^[10]

A single spiritual brilliance

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Huangbo connected the One Mind with the single spiritual brilliance (or one pure radiance) of the Śūraṅgama Sūtra, which divides to become the six sense spheres.^[11] According to Huangbo, if one can recognize that the eighteen realms (the six sense organs, six sense objects, and corresponding six consciousnesses) have no objective existence, then the six sensory capabilities will be just a single spiritual brilliance.^[12][13]

Huangbo also likened mind to the sun which shines spontaneously, "shining without intending to shine."^[14] For Huangbo, when one transcends the dharmas of being and non-being, one's mind is like the sun whose brilliance shines naturally, and this requires no effort.^[15] Similarly, Huangbo said:

Consider the sunlight. You may say it is near, yet if you follow it from world to world you will never catch it in your hands. Then you may describe it as far away and, lo, you will see it just before your eyes. Follow it and, behold, it escapes you; run from it and it follows you close. You can neither possess it nor have done with it. From this example you can understand how it is with the true Nature of all things and, henceforth, there will be no need to grieve or to worry about such things.^[16]

Tathāgatagarbha

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Since all is Buddha-mind, all actions reflect the Buddha, are actions of a Buddha. Huángbò's teaching on this reflected the Indian concept of the tathāgatagarbha, the idea that within all beings is the nature of the Buddha. Therefore, Huángbò taught that seeking the Buddha was futile as the Buddha resided within:

If you know positively that all sentient beings are already one with Bodhi [enlightenment, Supreme Wisdom], you will cease thinking of Bodhi as something to be attained” ^[17]

Huángbò was adamant that any form of “seeking” was not only useless, but obstructed clarity:

Sentient beings are attached to forms and so seek externally for Buddhahood. By their very seeking they lose it.^[18]

Furthermore, he claimed that

'Studying the Way’ is just a figure of speech [...] In fact, the Way is not something which can be studied. You must not allow this name [the Way] to lead you into forming a mental concept of a road.^[19]

The three bodies of a Buddha

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Regarding the three bodies of a Buddha (the dharmakāya, sambhogakāya, and nirmānakāya), Huangbo taught that the two form bodies, the sambhogakāya and nirmānakāya, were not the true Buddha. This is because the form bodies merely respond to circumstances and phenomena, giving teachings in accordance with the differing capabilities of sentient beings, in various appearances and guises.^[20][21] Moreover, for Huangbo, spoken Dharma that responds to events through the senses is not the real Dharma.^[22] On the other hand, the dharmakāya preaches the Dharma without anything that is preached or realized. Thus, Huangbo says, "The Dharma body’s preaching of the Dharma cannot be sought with word, voice, shape, or [written] character. It is without anything that is preached and without anything that is realized, but is only the transparency of the self-nature."^[23]

Non-attachment to written texts

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According to the accounts, Huángbò avoided clinging to written texts. This is exemplified by the following story:

Pei Xiu presented Huángbò with a text he had written on his understanding of Chan.

Huángbò placed the text down without looking at and after a long pause asked, “Do you understand?”

Pei Xiu replied, “I don’t understand.”

Huángbò said, “If it can be understood in this manner, then it isn’t the true teaching. If it can be seen in paper and ink, then it’s not the essence of our order.” ^[24]

What Huángbò knew was that students of Chan often became attached to “seeking” enlightenment and he constantly warned against this (and all attachment) as an obstruction to enlightenment:

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.^[25]

Although Huángbò often cautioned students against dependence on textual practices, pointing to the necessity of direct experience over sutra study, his record shows that he was familiar with a wide selection of Buddhist doctrines and texts, including the Diamond Sutra, the Vimalakīrti Sutra and the Lotus Sutra.

Hitting and shouting

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Huángbò was also noted for the manner of his teaching, incorporating the hitting and shouting pioneered by Mazu. There are a number of instances in the record of Huángbò slapping students.

The Blue Cliff Record tells the story of the future emperor of China, hiding in the Chan community as a novice monk, receiving slaps from Huángbò for questioning why Huángbò was bowing to an image of the Buddha.^[26]

The most famous instance was when Linji Yixuan was directed by the head monk, Muzhou Daoming, to question Huángbò on the meaning of Buddhism after Linji had been practicing in Huángbò's monastery for three years without an interview. Three times Linji went to Huángbò and three times the only answer he got was a slap.^[27]

His apparent disrespect was extended to his own position:

You people are just like drunkards. I don’t know how you manage to keep on your feet in such a sodden condition. Why everyone will die laughing at you. It all seems so easy, so why do we have to live to see a day like this? Can’t you understand that in the whole Empire of the T’ang there are no "teachers of Zen"?

A monk stepped forth and asked, "How can you say that? At this very moment, as all can see, we are sitting face to face with one who has appeared in the world to be a teacher of monks and a leader of men!"

Please note that I did not say there is no Zen. I merely pointed out that there are no teachers!^[28]

Overcoming fear

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While Huángbò was an uncompromising and somewhat fearsome Chan teacher, he understood the nature of fear in students when they heard the doctrine of emptiness and the Void:

Those who hasten towards it [the Void] dare not enter, fearing to hurtle down through the void with nothing to cling to or to stay their fall. So they look to the brink and retreat.^[29]

He taught that "no activity" was the gateway of his Dharma but that

All who reach this gate fear to enter.^[30] [To overcome this fear, one] must enter it with the suddenness of a knife-thrust.^[31]

Notes

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1. ^ Huángbò‘s birth and death dates are uncertain. Texts traditionally give his death some time between 847 and 859. see Wright, p 131 n 1 The 850 date is from Ferguson p 117
2. ^ The Blue Cliff Record claims he was seven feet tall,(Cleary & Cleary, p 73) and imposing with a small lump on his forehead “shaped like a pearl”, presumed by some writers as a result of his continuous prostrations before the Buddha. (Foster & Shoemaker, p 91)
3. ^ Foster & Shoemaker, p 90 Wright (p 110) gives a different account of the latter years of Huángbò stating that Pei Xiu invited Huángbò after the 841–846 suppression of Buddhism to teach at K’ai-yuan Monastery in 848 and that Huángbò died and was buried on Mount Huángbò.
4. ^ These two texts are unique in early Chan literature as they can be precisely dated by Pei Xiu who wrote the preface on October 8, 857.^[5] They are also the first full-length Zen texts translated in English.^[6]

References

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1. ^ Foster & Shoemaker, p 90
2. ^ Cleary & Cleary, p 73
3. ^ Wright, p 110
4. ^ Blofeld, p. 132.
5. ^ Wright, p 113,
6. ^ Blofeld (1958)
7. ^ Wright, p 112
8. ^ Blofeld, p 29
9. ^ Blofeld, p 40
10. ^ Blofeld, pp 58–59
11. ^ The Record of Linji, Translation and Commentary by Ruth Fuller Sasaki, edited by Thomas Yūhō Kirchner, page 165, University of Hawai'i Press 2009
12. ^ Essentials of the Transmission of Mind, translated by John R. McRae, in Zen Texts, pages 28-29, Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research 2005
13. ^ The Zen Teaching of Huang Po on the Transmission of the Mind, translated by John Blofeld, page 51, Grove Press 1958
14. ^ The Zen Teaching of Huang Po on the Transmission of the Mind, translated by John Blofeld, pages 61-62, Grove Press 1958
15. ^ Essentials of the Transmission of Mind, translated by John R. McRae, in Zen Texts, page 38, Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research 2005
16. ^ The Zen Teaching of Huang Po on the Transmission of the Mind, translated by John Blofeld, page 107, Grove Press 1958
17. ^ Blofeld, p 83
18. ^ Blofeld, p 29
19. ^ Blofeld, pp 54–55
20. ^ Essentials of the Transmission of Mind, translated by John R. McRae, in Zen Texts, page 28, Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research 2005
21. ^ The Zen Teaching of Huang Po on the Transmission of the Mind, translated by John Blofeld, page 50, Grove Press 1958
22. ^ The Zen Teaching of Huang Po on the Transmission of the Mind, translated by John Blofeld, page 50, Grove Press 1958
23. ^ Essentials of the Transmission of Mind, translated by John R. McRae, in Zen Texts, page 28, Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research 2005
24. ^ Ferguson, p. 121
25. ^ Blofeld, p 29
26. ^ Cleary & Cleary, p 79
27. ^ Ferguson, pp 155–156
28. ^ Blofeld, p 101
29. ^ Blofeld, p 32
30. ^ Blofeld, p 131
31. ^ Blofeld, p 111

Sources

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• Blofeld, John (1958). The Zen Teachings of Huang Po: On the Transmission of Mind. New York: Grove Press. ISBN 0-8021-5092-6.
• Chang Chung-yuan (1971). Original Teachings of Ch'an Buddhism. Vintage Books. ISBN 0-394-71333-8.
• The Blue Cliff Record. Translated by Cleary, Thomas; Cleary, J.C. Boston: Shambhala Publications. 1992. ISBN 0-87773-622-7.
• Dumoulin, Heinrich (1998) [1994]. Zen Buddhism: A History, Volume I, India and China. Simon & Schuster and Prentice Hall International. ISBN 0-02-897109-4.
• Foster, Nelson; Shoemaker, Jack, eds. (1996). The Roaring Stream: a new Zen reader. Hopewell: The Ecco Press. ISBN 0-88001-344-3.
• Wright, Dale S. (2004). "The Huang-po Literature". In Wright, Dale; Heine, Steven (eds.). The Zen Canon: Understanding the Classic Zen Texts. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-515067-8.

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Huangbo Xiyun Quotes

Nothing is born, nothing is destroyed. Away with your dualism, your likes and dislikes. Every single thing is just One Mind. When you have perceived this, you will have mounted the Chariot of the Buddhas.

• Here it is - right now. Start thinking about it and you miss it.

  
  

• People are scared to empty their minds
  fearing that they will be engulfed by the void.
  What they don't realize is that
  their own mind is the void.

  
  

• The foolish reject what they see, not what they think; the wise reject what they think, not what they see.

• Our original nature is...void, omnipresent, silent, pure; it is glorious and mysterious peaceful joy - and that is all. Enter deeply into it by awakening yourself.

• The nature of the Absolute is neither perceptible nor imperceptible; and with phenomena it is just the same. But to one who has discovered his real nature, how can there be anywhere or anything separate from it?... ...Therefore it is said: 'The perception of a phenomenon IS the perception of the Universal Nature, since phenomena and Mind are one and the same.'

• Observe things as they are and don't pay attention to other people.

• Consider the sunlight. You may say that it is near, yet if you pursue it from world to world you will never catch it. You may say it is far, yet it is right before your eyes. Chase it and it always eludes you; run from it and it is always there. From this example you can understand how it is with the true nature of things.

• As soon as the mouth is opened, evils spring forth. People either neglect the root and speak of the branches, or neglect the reality of the 'illusory' world and speak only of Enlightenment. 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.

• 
  

• Not till your thoughts cease all their branching here and there, not till you abandon all thoughts of seeking for something, not till your mind is motionless as wood or stone, will you be on the right road to the Gate.

  'Studying the Way' is just a figure of speech, a method of arousing people's interest in the early stages of their development. In fact, the Way is not something which can be studied. Study leads to the retention of concepts, and so the Way is entirely misunderstood
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• A perception, sudden as blinking, that subject and object are one, will lead to a deeply mysterious understanding; and by this understanding you will awaken to the truth.

  On seeing one thing, you see all things. On perceiving an individual's mind, you perceive all mind. Glimpse one truth, and all truth is present in your vision, for there is nowhere at all that is devoid of the Truth.
• To make use of your mind to think conceptually is to leave substance and attach yourself to form
• When thoughts arise, then do all things arise. When thoughts vanish, then do all things vanish.
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• Throughout this life, you can never be certain of living long enough to take another breath.

• Why seek a doctrine? As soon as you have a doctrine, you fall into dualistic thought.

  All Buddhas and ordinary people are just one mind. This mind is beyond all measurements, names, oppositions: this very being is it; as soon as you stir your mind you turn away from it.
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• There exists just the One mind.

  By the dharma is meant the heart, for there is no dharma apart from the heart.
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• ... concepts are related to the senses; and, when feeling takes place, wisdom is shut out.

  
  

• ... Therefore it is said: 'The perception of a phenomenon IS the perception of the Universal Nature, since phenomena and Mind are one and the same.'

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Huang Po

(Chinese Zen Master, believed to have died around 850A.D.)

 

Huang Po has long been one of my favourite Buddhist sages.   I love the way he expresses his wisdom in very simple prose, without any unnecessary encumbrances.    He goes straight to the heart of existence with the minimum of fuss and never deviates from the core task of stimulating people into enlightenment.    He also keeps his discourse largely free of Buddhist terminology, which is another sign of his mastery.   A class act from beginning to end.

 

***

 

The Zen Teachings of Huang Po

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 and indestructible.   It is not green nor yellow, and has neither form nor appearance.  It does not belong in the categories of things which exist or do not exist, nor can it be thought of in terms of new or old.  It is neither long nor short, big nor small, for it transcends all limits, measures, names, traces and comparisons.  It is that which you see before you - begin to reason about it and you at once fall into error.    It is like the boundless void which cannot be fathomed or measured.

***

If you are not absolutely convinced that the Mind is the Buddha, and if you are attached to forms, practices and meritorious performances, your way of thinking is false and quite incompatible with the Way.   The Mind is the Buddha, nor are there any other Buddhas or any other mind.  It is bright and spotless as the void, having nor form or appearance whatsoever.  To make use of your minds to think conceptually is to leave the substance and attach yourselves to form. Awake only to the One Mind, and there is nothing whatsoever to be attained.   

If you students of the Way do not awaken to this Mind substance, you will overlay Mind with conceptual thought, you will seek the Buddha outside of yourselves, and you will remain attached to forms, pious practices and so on, all of which are harmful and not at all the way to supreme knowledge.

***

The substance of the Absolute is inwardly like wood or stone, in that it is motionless, and outwardly like the void, in that it is without bounds or obstructions.  It is neither subjective nor objective, has no specific location, is formless, and cannot vanish.   Those who hasten towards it dare not enter, fearing to hurtle down through the void with nothing to cling to or stay their fall.    So they look to the brink and retreat.  

***

All the qualities typified by the great Bodhisattvas are inherent in men and cannot be separated from the One Mind.  Awake to it, and it is there.  You students of the Way who do not awake to this in your own minds, and who are attached to appearances or who seek for something objective outside of your minds, have all turned your backs on the Way.   

This Dharma is Mind, beyond which there is no Dharma.  And this Mind is the Dharma, beyond which there is no mind.  Mind in itself is no mind, yet neither is it no-mind.  To say that Mind is no-mind implies something existent.  Let there be a silent understanding and no more. Away with all thinking and explaining! Then we may say that the Way of Words has been cut off and movements of the mind eliminated.  

***

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 awakening 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 the foregoing stages you will have added nothing to it at all.    You will come to look upon those aeons of work and achievement as no better than unreal actions performed in a dream.

This is why the Tathagata said, "I truly attained nothing from complete, unexcelled enlightenment."  He also said: "This Dharma is absolutely without distinctions, neither high nor low, and its name is Bodhi."  It is pure Mind, which is the source of everything and which, whether appearing as sentient beings or Buddhas, or as the rivers and mountains of the world which has form, or as that which is formless, or penetrating the whole universe, is absolutely without distinctions, there being no such entities as selfness and otherness. 

***

This pure Mind, the source of everything, shines forever and on all with the brilliance of its own perfection.  But the people of this 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.

Therefore, if you students of the way seek to progress through seeing, hearing, feeling and knowing, when you are deprived of your perceptions your way to Mind will be cut off and you will find nowhere to enter.  Only realize that, though real Mind is expressed in these perceptions, it neither forms part of them, nor is separate from them.   You should not start reasoning from these perceptions, nor allow them to give rise to conceptual thought; yet nor should you seek the One Mind apart from them or abandon them in your pursuit of the Dharma.  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.    

***

Suppose a warrior, forgetting he was already wearing his pearl on his forehead, were to seek for it elsewhere, he could travel the whole world without finding it.  But if someone who knew what was wrong were to point it out to him, the warrior would immediately realize that the pearl had been there all the time.

So, if you students of the Way are mistaken about your own real Mind, not recognizing that it is the Buddha, you will consequently look for him elsewhere, indulging in various achievements and practices and expecting to attain realization through such graduated practices.   But even after aeons of diligent searching, you will not be able to attain the Way. These methods cannot be compared to the sudden elimination of conceptual thought, in the certain knowledge that there is nothing at all which has absolute existence, nothing on which to lay hold, nothing on which to rely, nothing in which to abide, nothing subjective or objective.    

***

To awaken suddenly to the fact that your own Mind is the Buddha, that there is nothing to be attained or a single action to be performed - this is the Supreme Way; this really is to be a Buddha.  It 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.

The eighty-four thousand methods for countering the eighty-four thousand forms of delusion are merely figures of speech for drawing people towards the Gate.  In fact, none of them have real existence.  Relinquishment of everything is the Dharma, and he who understands this is a Buddha, but the relinquishment of ALL delusions leaves no Dharma in which to lay hold.

***

Understand the one point, and a thousand others will accordingly grow clear; misunderstand that one and ten thousand delusions will encompass you. He who holds to that one has no more problems to solve.

***

Ordinary people look to their surroundings, while follower of the Way look to Mind, but the true Dharma is to forget them both.  The former is easy enough, the latter very difficult.  Men are afraid to forget their minds, fearing to fall through the Void with nothing to stay their fall.  They do not know that the Void is not really void, but the realm of the real Dharma.    This spiritually enlightening nature is without beginning, as ancient as the Void, subject to neither birth nor destruction, neither existing nor not existing; neither pure nor impure, neither clamorous nor silent, neither old nor young, occupying no space, having neither inside nor outside, size nor form, colour nor sound.   It cannot be looked for or sought, comprehended by wisdom nor knowledge, explained in words, contacted materially or reached by meritorious achievement.  All the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, together with all wriggling things possessed of life, share in this great Nirvanic nature. 

***

"Studying the Way" is a figure of speech. It is a method of arousing peoples interest is the early stages of their development. In fact, the Way is not something that can be studied. Study leads to the retention of concepts and so the Way is entirely misunderstood. The fruit of Truth is gained by putting an end to all anxiety; it does not come from book-learning.

***

All great men have abandoned learning and have come to rest in spontaneity. They do not think and end in perplexity as do worldly men.

***

If the meaning is not brilliantly clear to you, hasten to ask your questions. Do not allow hours to pass you in vain. If you people put your trust in this teaching and act accordingly, without being delivered, I shall gladly take your places in hell for the whole of my existence. If I have deceived you, may I be reborn in a place where lions, tigers and wolves will devour my flesh! But, if you do not put faith in this teaching, and do not practice it diligently, that will be because you do not understand it. Once you have lost a human body, you will not obtain another for millions of aeons. Strive on! Strive on! It is absolutely vital that you come to understand.

***

Zen Masters grasp at essentials and gain a direct understanding of the Mind Source. Their methods consist of revealing and hiding, of exposing and covering reality in a criss-cross manner which responds adequately to all the different grades of potentiality for enlightenment. They excel in harmonizing facts with the underlying principle, so that people may suddenly perceive the Tathagata; and by pulling up their deep samsaric roots, they cause their pupils to experience samadhi on the spot.

***

That which is called the City of Illusions contains the Two Vehicles, the Ten Stages of a Bodhisattva's Progress, and two forms of Full Enlightenment.  All of them are powerful teachings for arousing people's interest, but they still belong to the City of Illusions.  That which is called the Place of Precious Things is the real Mind, the original Buddha-essence, the treasure of our own real Nature.  These jewels cannot be measured or accumulated.  Yet since there are neither Buddha nor sentient beings, neither subject nor object, where can there be a Place of Precious Things?   If you ask, "Well, so much for the City of Illusions, but where is the Place of Precious Things?", it is a place to which no directions can be given.   For if it could be pointed out, it would be a place existing in space; hence, it would not be the real Place of Precious Things.  All we can say is that it is close by.  It cannot be exactly described, but when you have a tacit understanding of it, it is there. 

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People are often hindered by environmental phenomena from perceiving Mind, and by individual events from perceiving underlying principles; so they often try to escape from environmental phenomena in order to still their minds, or obscure events in order to retain their grasp of principles.  They do not realize that this is merely to obscure phenomena with Mind, events with principles.  Just let your minds become void and environmental phenomena will void themselves; let principles cease to stir and events will cease stirring of themselves.  

Many people are afraid to empty their minds lest they plunge into the Void. They do not know that their own Mind is the void. The ignorant eschew phenomena but not thought; the wise eschew thought but not phenomena. When everything inside and outside, bodily and mental, has been relinquished; when, as in the Void, no attachments are left; when all action is dictated purely by place and circumstance; when subjectivity and objectivity are forgotten - that is the highest form of relinquishment. 

***

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. 

 If you would spend all your time - walking, standing, sitting or lying down - learning to halt the concept-forming activities of your own mind, you could be sure of ultimately attaining your goal. Since your strength is insufficient, you might not be able to transcend samsara in a single leap; but after five or ten years, you would surely have made a good beginning and be able to make further progress spontaneously. It is because you are not that sort of man that you feel obliged to employ your mind studying the Way". What has all that got to do with Buddhism?

So, just discard all you have acquired as being no better than a bedspread for you when you were sick. Only when you have abandoned all perceptions, there being nothing objective to perceive; only when phenomena obstruct you no longer; only when you have rid yourself of the whole gamut of dualistic concepts of the" ignorant" and" Enlightened" category, will you at last earn the title of Transcendental Buddha.

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These excerpts taken from "The Zen Teachings of Huang Po", translated by John Blofeld.     The book is highly recommended, if you can find it.

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