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

2006/2/1 10:16:25

Without Chan Buddhism, ancient Chinese culture — once dominated by Confucianism and Daoism — would scarcely be worth mentioning. Without Chan Buddhism, ancient Chinese civilization could hardly have reached the heights that remain unattainable to this day. For it was through Chan Buddhism that ancient Chinese civilization and culture ascended to their solitary peak, standing proud before the world. Song-Ming Neo-Confucianism and the School of Mind, having pilfered the cold leftovers of Chan Buddhism, still managed to produce something impressive — how much more so Chan Buddhism itself!

Bodhidharma came east; with a single sandal he returned west. A thousand cliffs stand sheer like walls. The purpose of the flower-holding was revealed between carrying water and chopping wood. The flower bloomed into five petals, and the salvific heart was made manifest through the renowned schools and their doctrinal judgments. Xuansha said: "If we speak of this matter, it is like a piece of farmland whose four boundaries have been surveyed and deeded over to everyone, yet the central tree still belongs to this old monk." Exhaust all profound discourse, deplete the world's pivotal mechanisms — yet it amounts to but a single hair in the great void, a single drop in a vast ravine. Yongming said: "All summer long I've been chattering east and west with you brothers — now check and see if Cuiyan's eyebrows are still there!" Every being, since beginningless time, has been chattering east and west, living and dying — so tell me, are the eyebrows still there?

All learning and knowledge of this world and beyond — whether philosophy, science, art, religion, society, or faith, and every category thereof, the Three Teachings and Nine Schools, Eastern sages and Western philosophers, gods, demons, and ghosts — none of these escape "exhausting all profound discourse, depleting the world's pivotal mechanisms." Those who merely sigh that a single hair is placed in the great void and a single drop falls into a vast ravine are simply moaning without being ill. How could they know that the great void is placed upon a single hair, and the vast ravine pours into a single drop? Entanglement is not entanglement, Zen is not Zen — a dead tree's dragon song illuminates the great thousand worlds!

For over a thousand years, talking about Zen has become entanglement itself. Those who take scholarship and practice as Zen are legion throughout history. How would they know that Zen is neither scholarship yet is scholarship, neither practice yet is practice, neither knowledge yet is knowledge, neither action yet is action, neither mind yet is mind, neither matter yet is matter? All such distinctions — scholarship and practice, knowledge and action, mind and matter — are nothing but needless self-entanglement and self-binding!

Since the time of Yunmen and Fayan, with the great proliferation of gong'an and huatou methods, the Chan school has become increasingly desolate. The so-called patriarchs of various lineages, their own eyes unclear, have blindly transmitted and recklessly practiced. Through this, Zen has become increasingly academicized, practice-oriented, Confucianized, Daoized, politicized, and mystified — its decline is no surprise. If one takes Chan Buddhism to be the textual scholarship of Confucianism and Daoism or the physical-mental cultivation thereof, then such an understanding is both laughable and pitiable. Zen encompasses what heaven and earth cannot cover, what past and present cannot contain. It is neither mind nor matter, yet is mind and matter. How can one draw a circle on the ground as one's prison, trapped futilely in the conjured city?

A world without Zen is like a person without eyes. A person without eyes can still substitute with ears, tongue, nose, body, and mind; but a world without Zen has nothing that can serve as substitute. Yet Zen itself has nothing to gain and nothing to lose. It is not that I worry about the absence of Zen — rather, with the compassionate urgency of an old grandmother, I grieve for a world that has lost its eyes, and thus this book exists. This book, from the most plain and grounded perspective and with the broadest possible scope, restores Chan Buddhism to its original face, presents the deepest confrontation between Chinese and Western culture, and analyzes the most comprehensive questions of philosophy, science, art, religion, and society. Herein, only insight matters, not fame — the renowned philosophers and great masters of all ages can hardly escape scrutiny. Lions and wild foxes shall distinguish themselves without needing to be distinguished.

A verse:

Vast and distant, the far horizon, vast and distant, the autumn,
Rosy clouds and misty waters flow through emptiness on their own.
Who pities the west ridge after the west wind has passed?
The ground is covered with longing, the ground is covered with sorrow!
A city full of wind and rain, a city full of autumn,
A single river spans the sky as heaven and earth flow on.
Alone I climb the solitary peak and pour a hundred measures,
Parting the clouds, I howl away the sorrows of all ages.
One round of wind and rain, one round of autumn,
The same old green mountains pillow the jade stream.
A blood-spattered rainbow pierces heaven and earth,
Xihe whips down the six dragons in sorrow.
Eternal sky, spring and then autumn,
A single dawn's wind and moon, sudden as shooting stars.
Deep among disordered peaks, beneath the slanting sun,
Leaves fall, flowers fly — sorrow sorrows over sorrow.