http://www.dharmamind.net/ZTHH1.htm
The Essential Gateway to Truth by Means of Instantaneous
Awakening
[Being a translation of Chan Master Hui Hais own shastra, A
Treatise on the Essential Gateway to Truth by Means of
Instantaneous Awakening]
1. Humbly I prostrate myself before the Buddhas of the ten
quarters and the excellent company of Bodhisattvas. In setting
forth this treatise, I am apprehensive that I may fail correctly to
interpret the sacred mind. If so, may I be given a chance for
repentance and reform. However, if I do succeed in imparting the
sacred truth, I dedicate the resultant merit to all living beings
in the hope that each of them will attain Buddhahood in their next
life.
Q: What method must we practice in order to attain
deliverance?
A: It can be attained only through a sudden illumination.
Q: What is a sudden illumination?
A: Sudden means ridding yourselves of deluded thoughts
instantaneously. Illumination means the realization that
illumination is not something to be attained.
Q: From where do we start this practice?
A: You must start from the very root.
Q: And what is that?
A: Mind is the root.
Q: How can this be known?
A: The Lankavatara Sutra says: When mental processes (hsin) arise,
then do all dharmas (phenomena) spring forth; and when mental
processes cease, then do all dharmas cease likewise. The
Vimalakirti Sutra says:
Those desiring to attain the Pure Land must first purify their
own minds, for the purification of mind is the purity of the Buddha
Land. The Sutra (of the Doctrine Bequeathed by the Buddha) says:
just by mind control, all things become possible to us. In another
sutra it says: Sages seek from mind, not from the Buddha; fools
seek from the Buddha instead of seeking from mind. Wise men
regulate their minds rather than their persons; fools regulate
their persons rather than their minds. The Sutra of the Names of
the Buddha states: Evil springs forth from the mind, and by the
mind is evil overcome. Thus, we may know that all good and evil
proceed from our minds and that mind is therefore the root.
(continued in webpage
Although I am not exactly from the Chan/Zen school, my Master
used this to explain his points during one of his dharma
discourses.
