~ as requested by AEN
What is Ch'an (Zen)?
Comments by AEN: the following article states the three stages
of experience the practitioner goes through during his practice (1:
relaxing mind and body, 2: the Great Self, 3: No Self). It also
distinguishes the I AM and One Mind stage (stage one to four) from
the experience of No Mind (stage five) as described by
Thusness/PasserBy in Thusness's Seven Stages of Experience
An few important excerpts by Master Sheng Yen:
...By the practise of Ch’an one
can eliminate the ‘I’; not only the selfish, small ‘I’, but also
the large ‘I’, which in philosophy is called ‘Truth’ or ‘the
Essence’. Only then is there absolute freedom...
...When you are in the second stage, although you feel that
the ‘I’ does not exist, the basic substance of the universe, or the
Supreme Truth, still exists. Although you recognise that all the
different phenomena are the extension of this basic substance or
Supreme Truth, yet there still exists the opposition of basic
substance versus external phenomena...
... One who has entered Ch’an does not see basic substance
and phenomena as two things standing in opposition to each other.
They cannot even be illustrated as being the back and palm of a
hand. This is because phenomena themselves are basic substance, and
apart from phenomena there is no basic substance to be found. The
reality of basic substance exists right in the unreality of
phenomena, which change ceaselessly and have no constant form. This
is the Truth...
----------------------------
Full article:
http://www.abuddhistlibrary.com/Buddhism/C%20-%20Zen/Modern%20Teachers/Sheng%20Yen/What%20is%20Ch%27an/What%20is%20Ch%27an%20-%20Master%20Sheng-yen.htm
In 1977 Shi-fu was at the very beginning of his teaching
career in America. He was invited to give talks in various places
and these were admirably translated. In this talk the crisp vision
of Ch’an that Shi-fu was bringing from China and from the Japan of
his final training is clear for all to see. As we set about
creating a Ch’an suitable for Europe this lecture has striking and
helpful cogency. It was published in a small pamphlet of which
probably only a few remain. Tim Paine was rummaging through the
library at Maenllwyd when he came across it and spotted its
excellence. It was in fact one of the inspirations for John’s first
visits to the New York Ch’an Centre. We are glad Tim uncovered it
again and we trust our readers will find it equally inspiring.
Shi-fu permits us to reproduce it here. Eds.
I wish to start by telling you that Ch’an is not the same as
knowledge, yet knowledge is not completely apart from Ch’an. Ch’an
is not just religion, yet the achievements of religion can be
reached through Ch’an. Ch’an is not philosophy, yet philosophy can
in no way exceed the scope of Ch’an. Ch’an is not science, yet the
spirit of emphasising reality and experience is also required in
Ch’an. Therefore, please do not try to explore the content of Ch’an
motivated by mere curiosity, for Ch’an is not something new brought
here [to the USA] by Orientals; Ch’an is present everywhere, in
space without limit and time without end. However before the
Buddhism of the East was propagated in the western world, the
people of the West never knew of the existence of Ch’an. The Ch’an
taught by Orientals in the West is not, in fact, the real Ch’an. It
is the method to realise Ch’an. Ch’an was first discovered by a
prince named Siddhartha Gautama (called Shakyamuni after his
enlightenment), who was born in India about 2500 years ago. After
he became enlightened and was called a Buddha, he taught us the
method to know Ch’an. This method was transmitted from India to
China, and then to Japan. In India it was called dhyana, which is
pronounced ‘Ch’an’ in Chinese, and ‘Zen’ in Japanese. Actually, all
three are identical.
Ch’an has universal and eternal existence. It has no need of any
teacher to transmit it; what is transmitted by teachers is just the
method by which one can personally experience this Ch’an.
Some people mistakenly understand Ch’an to be some kind of
mysterious experience; others think that one can attain
supernatural powers through the experience of Ch’an. Of course, the
process of practising Ch’an meditation may cause various kinds of
strange occurrences on the level of mental and physical sensation;
and also, through the practice of unifying body and mind, one may
be able to attain the mental power to control or alter external
things. But such phenomena, which are looked upon as mysteries of
religion, are not the aim of Ch’an practice, because they can only
satisfy one’s curiosity or megalomania, and cannot solve the actual
problems of peoples lives.
Ch’an starts from the root of the problem. It does not start
with the idea of conquering the external social and material
environments, but starts with gaining thorough knowledge of one’s
own self. The moment you know what your self is, this ‘I’ that you
now take to be yourself will simultaneously disappear. We call this
new knowledge of the notion of self ‘enlightenment’ or ‘seeing ones
basic nature’. This is the beginning of helping you to thoroughly
solve real problems. In the end, you will discover that you the
individual, together with the whole of existence, are but one
totality which cannot be divided.
Because you yourself have imperfections, you therefore feel the
environment is imperfect. It is like a mirror with an uneven
surface, the images reflected in it are also distorted. Or, it is
like the surface of water disturbed by ripples, the moon reflected
in it is irregular and unsettled. If the surface of the mirror is
clear and smooth, or if the air on the surface of the water is
still and the ripples calmed, then the reflection in the mirror and
the moon in the water will be clear and exact. Therefore, from the
point of view of Ch’an, the major cause of the pain and misfortune
suffered by humanity is not the treacherous environment of the
world in which we live, nor the dreadful society of humankind, but
the fact that we have never been able to recognise our basic
nature. So the method of Ch’an is not to direct us to evade
reality, nor to shut our eyes like the African ostrich when enemies
come, and bury our heads in the sand, thinking all problems are
solved. Ch’an is not a self-hypnotising idealism.
By the practise of Ch’an one can eliminate the ‘I’; not only the
selfish, small ‘I’, but also the large ‘I’, which in philosophy is
called ‘Truth’ or ‘the Essence’. Only then is there absolute
freedom. Thus an accomplished Ch’an practitioner never feels that
any responsibility is a burden, nor does he feel the pressure that
the conditions of life exert on people. He only feels that he is
perpetually bringing the vitality of life into full activity. This
is the expression of absolute freedom. Therefore the life of Ch’an
is inevitably normal and positive, happy and open. The reason for
this is that the practise of Ch’an will continually provide you
with a means to excavate your precious mine of wisdom. The deeper
the excavation, the higher the wisdom that is attained, until
eventually you obtain all the wisdom of the entire universe. At
that time, there is not a single thing in all of time and space
that is not contained within the scope of your wisdom. At that
stage wisdom becomes absolute; and since it is absolute, the term
wisdom serves no further purpose. To be sure, at that stage the ‘I’
that motivated you to pursue such things as fame, wealth and power,
or to escape from suffering and danger, has completely disappeared.
What is more, even the wisdom which eliminated your ‘I’ becomes an
unnecessary concept to you.
Of course, from the viewpoint of sudden enlightenment it is very
easy for a Ch’an practitioner to reach this stage; nevertheless
before reaching the gate of sudden enlightenment one must exert a
great deal of effort on the journey. Otherwise the methods of Ch’an
would be useless.
At present [1977], the methods of meditation that I am teaching
in the United States are divided into three stages.
With regard to the body, we stress the demonstration and
correction of the postures of walking, standing, sitting and
reclining. At the same time we teach various methods of physical
exercise for walking, standing, sitting and reclining. They are
unique exercise methods combining Indian Hatha Yoga and Chinese
Tao-yin, and can bring physical health as well as results in
meditation. Thus, one who practises Ch’an and has obtained good
results will definitely have a strong body capable of enduring
hardship. For the mind we emphasise the elimination of impatience,
suspicion, anxiety, fear and frustration, so as to establish a
state of self-confidence, determination, optimism, peace and
stability.
A good student, after five or ten lessons here, will reach the
first stage and be able to obtain results in the above two areas.
One of our student’s reports stated: “This kind of Ch’an class is
especially good for someone like myself who, by profession or
habit, has been used to having the brain functioning just about
every minute of the day. I often find this Ch’an sitting very
helpful as rest or relief. So even for no greater purpose, this
Ch’an class has been very useful and should be highly recommended.”
[from Ch’an Magazine Vol.1; No.1]
In the first lesson of each class, I always ask each of the
students individually his or her purpose in learning Ch’an whether
he or she hoped to benefit the body, or sought help for the mind.
The answers show that the latter were in the majority. This
indicates that people living in American society today, under the
strain and pressure of the present environment, suffer excessive
tension, and many have lost their mental balance. Some are so
severely tense that they have to consult a psychiatrist. Among
those who come to learn Ch’an, I have one woman student, an
outstanding lecturer in a well-known university, who asked me at
the first meeting if I could help to relieve her from tense and
uneasy moods. I told her that for a Ch’an practitioner this is a
very simple matter. After five lessons she felt that Ch’an was a
great blessing to her life.
The method of the first stage is very simple. Mainly it requires
you to relax all the muscles and nerves of your entire body, and
concentrate your attention on the method you have just learned.
Because the tension of your muscles and nerves affects the activity
of the brain, the key is therefore to reduce the burden on your
brain. When your wandering thoughts and illusions decrease, your
brain will gradually get a little rest. As its need of blood is
reduced, more blood will circulate through the entire body.
Meanwhile, because of the relaxation of the brain, all the muscles
also relax; thus your blood vessels expand, you feel comfortable
all over, your spirit feels fresh and alert, and your mental
responses are naturally lighter and more lively.
If one’s object of study is just to acquire physical and mental
balance, and not to study meditation proper, then one will probably
feel that the completion of the first stage is enough; but many
students are not content with this, and indeed, some from the
outset are looking for the goal of the second stage.
The first stage only helps to bring concentration to your
confused mind; but when you practise concentration, other scattered
thoughts continue to appear in your mind - sometimes many,
sometimes a few. The concept of your purpose in practising Ch’an is
for mental and physical benefits. This is a stage where your
concept is purely self-centred. There is no mention of
philosophical ideals or religious experience. When you reach the
second stage, it will enable you to liberate yourself from the
narrow view of the ‘I’. In the second stage you begin to enter the
stage of meditation. When you practise the method of cultivation
taught by your teacher, you will enlarge the sphere of the outlook
of the small ‘I’ until it coincides with time and space. The small
‘I’ merges into the entire universe, forming a unity. When you look
inward, the depth is limitless; when you look outward, the breadth
is limitless. Since you have joined and become one with universe,
the world of your own body and mind no longer exists. What exists
is the universe, which is infinite in depth and breadth. You
yourself are not only a part of the universe, but also the totality
of it.
When you achieve this experience in your Ch’an sitting, you will
then understand what is meant in philosophy by principle or basic
substance, and also what phenomenal existence is. All phenomena are
the floating surface or perceptible layer of basic substance. From
the shallow point of view, the phenomena have innumerable
distinctions and each has different characteristics; in reality,
the differences between the phenomena do not impair the totality of
basic substance. For instance, on the planet on which we live,
there are countless kinds of animals, plants, minerals, vapours,
liquids and solids which incessantly arise, change and perish,
constituting the phenomena of the earth. However, seen from another
planet, the earth is just one body. When we have the opportunity to
free ourselves from the bonds of self or subjective views, to
assume the objective standpoint of the whole and observe all
phenomena together, we can eliminate opposing and contradictory
views. Take a tree as an example. From the standpoint of the
individual leaves and branches, they are all distinct from one
another, and can also be perceived to rub against one another.
However, from the standpoint of the trunk and roots, all parts
without exception are of one unified whole.
In the course of this second stage, you have realised that you
not only have an independent individual existence, but you also
have a universal existence together with this limitlessly deep and
wide cosmos, and therefore the confrontation between you and the
surrounding environment exists no more. Discontent, hatred, love,
desire - in other words dispositions of rejecting and grasping
disappear naturally, and you sense a feeling of peace and
satisfaction. Because you have eliminated the selfish small ‘I’,
you are able to look upon all people and all things as if they were
phenomena produced from your own substance, and so you will love
all people and all things in the same way you loved and watched
over your small ‘I’. This is the mind of a great philosopher.
Naturally, all great religious figures must have gone through
the experiences of this second stage, where they free themselves
from the confines of the small ‘I’, and discover that their own
basic substance is none other than the existence of the entire
universe, and that there is no difference between themselves and
everything in the universe. All phenomena are manifestations of
their own nature. They have the duty to love and watch over all
things, and also have the right to manage them; just as we have the
duty to love our own children and the right to manage the property
that belongs to us This is the formation of the relationship
between the deity and the multitude of things he created. Such
people personify the basic substance of the universe which they
experience through meditation, and create the belief in God. They
substantiate this idea of a large ‘I’ the self-love of God and
formulate the mission of being a saviour of the world or an
emissary of God. They unify all phenomena and look upon them as
objects that were created and are to be saved. Consequently, some
religious figures think that the basic nature of their souls is the
same as that of the deity, and that they are human incarnations of
the deity. In this way, they consider themselves to be saviours of
the world. Others think that although the basic nature of their
souls is not identical to and inseparable from that of the deity,
the phenomenon of their incarnation shows that they were sent to
this world by God as messengers to promulgate God’s intention.
Generally, when philosophers or religious figures reach the
height of the second stage, they feel that their wisdom is
unlimited, their power is infinite, and their lives are eternal.
When the scope of the ‘I’ enlarges, self-confidence accordingly
gets stronger, but this stronger self-confidence is in fact merely
the unlimited escalation of a sense of superiority and pride. It is
therefore termed large ‘I’, and does not mean that absolute freedom
from vexations has been achieved.
When one reaches the height of the second stage, he realises
that the concept of the ‘I’ does not exist. But he has only
abandoned the small ‘I’ and has not negated the concept of basic
substance or the existence of God; you may call it Truth, the one
and only God, the Almighty, the Unchanging Principle, or even the
Buddha of Buddhism. If you think that it is real, then you are
still in the realm of the big ‘I’ and have not left the sphere of
philosophy and religion.
I must emphasise that the content of Ch’an does not appear until
the third stage. Ch’an is unimaginable. It is neither a concept nor
a feeling. It is impossible to describe it in any terms abstract or
concrete. Though meditation is ordinarily the proper path leading
to Ch’an, once you have arrived at the door of Ch’an, even the
method of meditation is rendered useless. It is like using various
means of transportation on a long journey. When you reach the final
destination, you find a steep cliff standing right in front of you.
It is so high you cannot see its top, and so wide that its side
cannot be found. At this time a person who has been to the other
side of the cliff comes to tell you that on the other side lies the
world of Ch’an. When you scale it you will enter Ch’an. And yet, he
tells you not to depend on any means of transportation to fly over,
bypass, or penetrate through it, because it is infinity itself, and
there is no way to scale it.
Even an outstanding Ch’an master able to bring his student to
this place will find himself unable to help any more. Although he
has been to the other side, he cannot take you there with him, just
as a mother’s own eating and drinking cannot take the hunger away
from the child who refuses to eat or drink. At that time, the only
help he can give you is to tell you to discard all your
experiences, your knowledge, and all the things and ideas that you
think are the most reliable, most magnificent, and most real, even
including your hope to get to the world of Ch’an. It is as if you
were entering a sacred building. Before you do so, the guard tells
you that you must not carry any weapon, that you must take off all
your clothes, and that not only must you be completely naked you
also have to leave your body and soul behind. Then you can
enter.
Because Ch’an is a world where there is no self, if there is
still any attachment at all in your mind, there is no way you can
harmonise with Ch’an. Therefore, Ch’an is the territory of the
wise, and the territory of the brave. Not being wise, one would not
believe that after he has abandoned all attachments another world
could appear before him. Not being brave, one would find it very
hard to discard everything he has accumulated in this life - ideals
and knowledge, spiritual and material things.
You may ask what benefit we would get after making such great
sacrifices to enter the world of Ch’an. Let me tell you that you
cannot enter the world of Ch’an while this question is still with
you. Looking for benefit, either for self or for others, is in the
‘I’-oriented stage. The sixth patriarch of the Ch’an sect in China
taught people that the way to enter the enlightenment of the realm
of Ch’an is: “Neither think of good, nor think of evil”. That is,
you eliminate such opposing views as self and other, inner and
outer, being and non-being, large and small, good and bad, vexation
and Bodhi, illusion and enlightenment, false and true, or suffering
of birth and death and joy of emancipation. Only then can the realm
of Ch’an or enlightenment appear and bring you a new life.
This new life you have had all along, and yet you have never
discovered it. In the Ch’an sect we call it your original face
before you were born. This is not the small ‘I’ of body and mind,
nor the large ‘I’ of the world and universe. This is absolute
freedom, free from the misery of all vexations and bonds. To enter
Ch’an as described above is not easy. Many people have studied and
meditated for decades, and still have never gained entrance to the
door of Ch’an. It will not be difficult, however, when your causes
and conditions are mature, or if you happen to have a good Ch’an
master who guides you with full attention. This Master may adopt
various attitudes, actions and verbal expressions which may seem
ridiculous to you, as indirect means of assisting you to achieve
your goal speedily. And when the Master tells you that you have now
entered the gate, you will suddenly realise that there is no gate
to Ch’an. Before entering, you cannot see where the gate is, and
after entering you find the gate non-existent. Otherwise there will
be the distinction between inside and outside, the enlightened and
the ignorant; and if there are such distinctions, then it is still
not Ch’an.
When you are in the second stage, although you feel that the ‘I’
does not exist, the basic substance of the universe, or the Supreme
Truth, still exists. Although you recognise that all the different
phenomena are the extension of this basic substance or Supreme
Truth, yet there still exists the opposition of basic substance
versus external phenomena. Not until the distinctions of all
phenomena disappear, and everything goes back to truth or Heaven,
will you have absolute peace and unity. As long as the world of
phenomena is still active, you cannot do away with conflict,
calamity, suffering and crime. Therefore, although philosophers and
religious figures perceive the peace of the original substance,
they still have no way to get rid of the confusion of
phenomena.
One who has entered Ch’an does not see basic substance and
phenomena as two things standing in opposition to each other. They
cannot even be illustrated as being the back and palm of a hand.
This is because phenomena themselves are basic substance, and apart
from phenomena there is no basic substance to be found. The reality
of basic substance exists right in the unreality of phenomena,
which change ceaselessly and have no constant form. This is the
Truth. When you experience that phenomena are unreal, you will then
be free from the concept of self and other, right and wrong, and
free from the vexations of greed, hatred, worry and pride. You will
not need to search for peace and purity, and you will not need to
detest evil vexations and impurity. Although you live in the world
of phenomenal reality, to you, any environment is a Buddha’s Pure
Land. To an unenlightened person, you are but an ordinary person.
To you, all ordinary people are identical with Buddha. You will
feel that your own self-nature is the same as that of all Buddhas,
and the self-nature of Buddhas is universal throughout time and
space. You will spontaneously apply your wisdom and wealth, giving
to all sentient beings everywhere, throughout all time and
space.
What I have said reveals a small part of the feeling of one who
has entered the enlightened realm of Ch’an, and is also the course
which one follows in order to depart from the small ‘I’ and arrive
at the stage of no ‘I’. Nevertheless, a newly enlightened person
who has just entered the realm of Ch’an is still at the starting
section of the entire passage of Ch’an. He is like one who has just
had his first sip of port. He knows its taste now, but the wine
will not remain in his mouth forever. The purpose of Ch’an is not
just to let you take one sip, but to have your entire life merge
with and dissolve in the wine, even, to the point that you forget
the existence of yourself and the wine. After tasting the first sip
of egolessness, how much farther must one travel?
What kinds of things remain to be seen?
I will tell you when I have the chance!
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