Hui-neng's Enlightenment—Here and Now
by George Pracy Pugh
George Pracy Pugh is a committee member of
the Buddhist Society of N.S.W., Australia
Few traditions in
the history of religious mysticism have been as successful as Zen in locating
the link between mystical experience and daily life. If Zen can be said to bite
to the very bone of the Buddhist tradition, then the Zen of Hui-neng (A.D.
638-713, the sixth patriarch of Chinese Zen Buddhism) may be considered its
pith. Hui-neng was China's
great innovator in adapting esoteric Indian Buddhist ideas to the pragmatic
Chinese mentality, and in doing so brought
the flightier speculations of Indian Buddhist thought soundly to earth.
Early India's philosophical
nihilism, meditational passivity, and social pessimism were checked in their
tracks when Buddhist doctrine moved across Asia from the first century A.D. as
the Chinese genius for practicality devised the Ch'an (Zen in Japanese) school of Buddhism.
Indian Buddhism
had accentuated the interminable round of births and deaths, the wheel of
samsara, and the eons of suffering and self-cultivation necessary to achieve
the discipline to free each of us from history's painful cycles. It was not a
pretty picture of the human predicament, and at times quite an exaggerated view of the Buddha's original teaching. Yet it
grew across Asia, blending in both its Theravada and Mahayana forms, and
secured a devoted following of aspirants eager for escape from this fearful
cyclical torment via devotions, rituals, scriptural scholarship, arduous
meditation, strict adherence to puritanical moral teachings, and the ascetic
practices of a monastic life secluded from the world of daily affairs. After
several hundred years exposure to the Chinese environment, this world-denying philosophy met a formidable opponent in Hui-neng,
who, grasping Buddhism at the intuitive instead of the philosophical level,
rejected this pessimism and redirected Buddhist practice in China to more
satisfying conclusions. In doing so he created a view of Buddhism with valuable
applications for modern society.
Buddhists believe
that, by the nature of things, true reality is hidden from man, and the senses
and ordinary understanding lead him astray and entangle him in distressing
confusion (dukkha). The Theravada
Buddhist reaches "the other shore," beyond the psyche's pain, when he
sees through the causal chain of unjustified desires in our confused existence
and so erases primal ignorance. To achieve freedom from dukkha is to defuse the
detonator of desire, the concept of "self." However, in Mahayana Buddhism, the insubstantiality of both the causal
chain and human turmoil is to be perceived through mystical transcendent
knowledge (prajna), whose comprehension leads to escape from the confusion of
dukkha. Mere philosophical insight is
not sufficient; the realization of the true nature of reality occurs through an
intuitive vision, erasing the primal ignorance—exactly as the Buddha himself
did under the bo tree in northern India around 500 B.C. [530 B.C. according
to most scholars] For all Buddhists, knowledge of absolute reality is prepared
for by an ethical life, polished with meditation, and eventually comprehended
by direct mystical experience. Neither devotion, nor study, nor logical
arguments, nor asceticism can carry us to this "other shore," though
they might certainly help us on our way.
Zen is a
steep path to this view of fundamental reality and enlightenment, so perhaps
for many of us there may be less demanding ways to arrive at the Buddha's
knowledge. Yet Zen, by dismissing all the paraphernalia of ritualized or
scholastic Buddhism, offers an approach highly suited to the skeptical modern
mind. For example, Hui-neng was a simple wood-cutter when he came for
instruction from Master Hung-jen at the Yellow Plum
Temple in Chinchou, yet
after being with the fifth patriarch of Zen for only eight months felt
qualified to compete for the patriarchal succession by composing a poem to
display his understanding of Buddhism. Shen-hsiu, Hung-jen's most senior monk,
wrote his submission:
This body is a
Bodhi-tree,
The soul is like a mirror bright;
Take heed to keep it always clean,
And let no dust collect on it.
Shen-hsiu's verse was a classic statement of
deep meditational introspection with its accent on the gradual purification of
mind processes to achieve enlightenment. Hui-neng's verse took a more
radical stance:
There is no
Bodhi-tree,
Nor a mirror bright;
Since all is void,
Where can dust alight?
This stanza
dismisses all discriminative concepts of the mental processes, dismisses the
concept of soul (in keeping with the Buddhist doctrine of anatman) and implies there is no need for a gradual purification
because all is void in the first place. Though this simple verse finds its
origins in a thousand years' development of Buddhist philosophy of the
Madhyamika and Yogacara schools, it was
clear rejection of the "gradual enlightenment" emphasis of Indian
Buddhism with its oppressive round of births-and-deaths. Hung-jen awarded
Hui-neng the patriarchal insignia, and the new sixth patriarch of Zen in China
spent the remainder of his life articulating his Zen of "sudden," not
"gradual," enlightenment.
Ch-an, or Zen,
has been described as an intuitive method of spiritual training aimed at the
discovery of a reality in the innermost recesses of the human mind, a reality that is the fundamental unity
pervading all the differences and particulars of the world. This reality is
called in Buddhism "Bodhi," or Mind, or the buddha-nature etc.
[tathata, suchness/dfs], and is present in all sentient and non-sentient
beings. [note: it is correct not to capitalize buddha-nature / dfs] The reality of buddha-nature can only be
apprehended by the individual's intuition directly, by calming all mental
processes, by releasing the personal ego, which distinguishes between subject
and object, and by experiencing the realm of mind and consciousness in its
natural spontaneous state. Ch'an cannot be grasped by the intellect or by
an ideational representation. It is not a process of learning but of
unlearning, a return to the original
source of one's being, where, freed from conditioning factors, one's Original
Mind is revealed. Enlightenment is "acquired" through a unique and sudden turning that takes place
at the very root of consciousness after a dispersing of personal individuality
and a negating of objective phenomena. The core of the mind now comprehends
that the outer world is but a
manifestation of one's own mind, and this understanding becomes a massive
liberation. In enlightenment the eye of wisdom is opened to an intuition of the heart of being, a
perfected vision transcending all dualities, the self-realization of one's real
self.
In the mystical
practice of traditional religions, especially as applied in Buddhism, when in
meditation consciousness is disengaged from its dependence on the physical
senses and emptied of all empirical content, the mind becomes what is often
described as "void," where pure primal consciousness is revealed. All
direct links with the usual perceptions are gone, and "noesis," or
direct intuitive experience (prajna),
becomes the meaningful substratum of all further knowledge and experience. This
substratum becomes the foundation for future ethics and morality, because this
enlightenment vision is said to combine both prajna ("the transcendental insight") with karuna, a primordial compassion. This profound unity is now identified as
one's real inner self, distinct from the collection of shifting sensations,
thoughts, and perceptions we usually identify as "me."
Enlightenment, or Zen's satori, [or being-dfs] is thus a rare inner
perception that takes place in the greatest depth of one's consciousness when
one is in a meditative state. Zen is a systematic series of techniques to
induce satori and weave it into daily consciousness in accordance with each
devotee's temperament.
Historically,
these techniques have sometimes been simple and direct, and at other times
formal or bizarre. Since the time of Hui-neng, the development of Zen across
eastern Asia has seen fourteen hundred years
of complex experimentation with methods to induce satori according to changing
cultural circumstances.
However,
introvertive mysticism—particularly when coupled with India's
traditional pessimism—often leads to a rejection of the value of ordinary
activity in daily life. Christian mystics have condemned it as the "sin of
quietism," where the secluded aspirant retires to a life of prayer and
disinterest in the world's affairs. Hui-neng adamantly dismissed this mystical
escapism and pessimism: in his sudden enlightenment of the here and now,
Hui-neng found in normal daily life the "mirror-nature" of the mind
and the spiritual nature of plain reality. To him, all reality is spirit (or Mind, or Buddha, [or tathata] etc.). Further,
he declared that to behold the inner mind no special or distorted exercises of
concentration are necessary: it is enough to be freed from discriminating
duality so that the mind reveals its primal, clear purity. According to
Hui-neng, "Enlightenment is your
own inner nature." You already
possess it, if you could but see it.
Here in
Buddhism's atheism [or preferably, non-theism /dfs] is the key concept that
separates the dualist faiths of man from this no-nonsense, unsupernatural
belief-system. Mahayana Buddhism sees ALL
existence as supremely sacred; it needs no other-worldly injunction to validate
this sanctity, no God on High; and, most important of all, it sees the plain
and mundane things of daily existence—when viewed from the right perspective—as
sanctified as the loftiest ideals. In short, in this enlightened awareness,
we can all see the marvelous wonder of our universe, blemishes and all, and
find our home and comfort in a cosmos
that is magically a part of us, and us a part of it. This interpenetration of
the individual in the universe is what Buddhism is all about. This is
Buddhism's scope and majesty.
But the Buddhist
tenet of non-discrimination is subtle indeed. If you try to view the non-dual
state of mind objectively, as separate from itself, you fall into the subtle
error of objective dualizing. If you pursue a separate nirvana, you have erred
into nirvanic dualizing. If you cling to notions of the void, you are trapped
by a dualizing concept of Void. The
absence of all thoughts to cease discriminating indicates the mind adheres to
no "object" but, relaxed in self-expression, appreciates itself in
pure mirror-activity and stilled perception. Here lies the ultimate, subtle,
and elusive truth of all Buddhism: enlightenment occurs in the realization
of one's own inner primal nature, which, as the buddha-nature, is infused with all experience, is absolute and
universal—purest being—the totality of all things, a spontaneous awakening
occurring at the root of consciousness that comprehends the entire manifold
world. Moreover, this primal vision encompasses the opposites of existence,
including the darkness of non-being. So it is ineffable and mysterious. Here,
says Hui-neng, rejoice in your primal nature where samsara is nirvana, and
nirvana is samsara. [Translating samsara and nirvana, we have: Rejoice in your primal nature where becoming
is being, and being is becoming.
/dfs]
This remarkable doctrine of self-salvation
centers on the identity of one's own nature with the Buddha. It is the Buddha
(or the Tathagata) in the minds of the aspirants who save themselves. From this
insight a charity and a morality arise, because the individual and the totality
are one ecological organism, mutually dependent. In the words of the
fifteenth-century Christian mystic Meister Eckhart: "The eye with which I see God is the
same eye with which God sees me."
"Just as
hunger cannot be stilled by talking about food, so mere speaking cannot, in ten
thousand eons, attain to a view of reality." [Pugh doesn't give a source
for this quote. Is it Meister Eckhart?
/dfs]
To Hui-neng's
reformed Buddhism the important thing is not to sit in perpetual meditation
(though it has its place) but to have direct
access to experience. This experience cannot be described or taught, it must
be tasted and felt at the core of one's being. And thus began Zen's long
history of slaps, shouts, silences, tweaks, and cryptic utterances as
generations of Zen teachers tried to arouse their students to Zen realization
and an enlarged humanity. Doctrine, ritual, and devotion might be aids to
imparting the mood of Buddhism, but only direct comprehension of one's
being-processes can induce Buddhist "awakening."
In the Sutra
Spoken by the Sixth Patriarch from the High Seat of the Gem of the Law,
Hui-neng's Platform Sutra, we learn of the point in Chinese history where
Asia's introvertive mysticism blends with its extrovertive mysticism, and a
thousand years of Buddhist practice turns around to reenter the practical world
of daily affairs. From Hui-neng onward, lay persons again find their place in
the special Buddhist life, an approach later to be endorsed by a host of
masters and scholars across Buddhist Asia. From Hui-neng's lineage come the
surviving schools of Zen (Rinzai, Soto, and Obaku), each with their variation
on the theme of sudden enlightenment. Contemporary Japanese Zen derives
directly from Hui-neng, though present practice tends to adhere to the style
formalized under Hakuin (1685-1786), who helped revive Zen Buddhism in Japan. The
Japanese Zen of today is a practice severely dependent on classical Chinese and
Japanese literature and culture, and often the cultural accretions obscure the
underlying Zen dynamic.
The medieval
residue of Zen offered in modern Japan might not be especially
pertinent to this rapidly changing world. A form of Zen suited to contemporary
circumstances and conditions is yet to appear. When it does, it is likely to
account for the ancient Asian tradition with renewed meaning, while also
adjusting for the Western scientific experience of history and its tenacious
technological pragmatism. The hoary Buddhist tradition will now be obliged to
relate to, for example, the value of our century's discovery of the life
sciences and evolution (including biology, biochemistry, and animal psychology)
[to say nothing of Cosmology, the study of the universe's beginning, and
quantum physics! / dfs], just as Hui-neng accounted for the no-nonsense
attitudes of his era. "Desire" and its implications assume a new
perspective in the light of evolution.
Our times sorely
need Zen's wondrous adventure into the core of the human psyche, so we too can
realize our true nature. Zen's appeal might never be a widespread or
world-shattering movement, yet, like its counterparts across Asia,
among sensitive people, it may affect society in a manner far beyond its
numbers. If some of us achieve a glimpse
of our true nature, our original faces before our birth, we might then be
equipped to participate in our day and age with renewed effect. In doing so, we
might assist in reviving vigor and hope in a troubled world.
This was the
Buddha's intention; this is our duty, here and now.
From – Hui-neng's
Enlightenment—Here and Now, by George Pracy Pugh in DHARMA WORLD, July 1982
Vol. 9, published monthly; Copyright – 1982; Kosei Publishing Co., Tokyo.
“abiding nowhere, awakened mind arises” – Hui-neng, from
Tricycle article 2018.
