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.