Chán Zhōng Shuō Chán: Entanglement Is Not Entanglement, Zen Is Not Zen — A Dead Tree's Dragon Song Illuminates the Great Thousand Worlds (XIII)

2006/2/5 15:08:46

Seeking emptiness within emptiness, seeking liberation within liberation, seeking purity within purity — throughout history, those who pile head upon head have been legion. Karma cannot be eliminated — it is ultimately empty. Mind cannot be sought — it is ultimately empty. Zen is not about the self being absent. Those who deludedly seek no-self — that itself is self. The West has the maxim "Know thyself," but this too is piling head upon head — the knowing is originally the self, so what self is there to know? As for "I think, therefore I am" — if one does not treat "I think" as a mere linguistic or intuitive basis for proving "I am," but rather takes it as "I think, and thus I am," then it has somewhat more merit.

Thinking and being and self; self and being and thinking — one yin and one yang — all karma, ultimately empty. Thinking is not limited to the ordinary function of consciousness. Thinking is the universal activity of mind. Manas and alaya are also thinking — fools cannot fathom this. The six consciousnesses, manas, and alaya are all "thinking and being and self, self and being and thinking."

The self is not the self. People in this world mostly take the six consciousnesses as the self. Those who negate the six consciousnesses as the self still cling to manas and alaya as the self. Clinging to manas and alaya as self is not the operation of consciousness or terminology — it is innate, extremely difficult to recognize across ten thousand kalpas. Most people in this world only know the six consciousnesses. As for manas and alaya, fools mostly regard them as terminological constructs of Consciousness-Only theory, but truly they do not know manas and alaya.

Throughout history, most so-called practitioners of Zen have been spinning around within the six consciousnesses. "Not a single thought arising" — that is the six consciousnesses. "Knowing the Master" — that is the six consciousnesses. "Heaven and earth shattered, the great earth sinks flat" — that is the six consciousnesses. Throughout history, most so-called awakenings have been mere games within the six consciousnesses, unbeknownst to the players. Those who study Consciousness-Only mostly know the names and characteristics of manas and alaya, yet they do not truly know manas and alaya — still games of the six consciousnesses.

To seek manas and alaya outside the six consciousnesses — that is foolishness. To seek manas and alaya within the six consciousnesses — also foolishness. Foolishly seeking, and seeking foolishly — that is the six consciousnesses. Manas and alaya are neither gods nor saints, neither one nor two, not speculative constructs of the kind imagined by consciousness in the manner of God. Zen: without the actual realization of manas and alaya, there is no standing. The actual realization of manas and alaya — this is the common path of the Zen practitioner. "Common path" means: not a path yet a path — it is called the common path.

A verse:

A stone tiger, coiled pines, bathing in sunlight and slumber,
Moss stains, shallow and deep, along the winding trail.
A lone peak wrapped in fog — all is landscape painting,
An empty valley with no wind — strings and pipes play of themselves.
Shattering mountains and rivers — light in ten thousand layers,
Gazing into a world of completion — reflections, three thousand.
Atop Mount Sumeru, submerged — fire within ice,
Waves of the kalpa-sea follow a boat with a leaking hull.