|
9. Zen Meditation in Ordinary Life
If you arouse every bit of mind, Tens of thousands of minds exist. If you calm them down, Tens of thousands of minds vanish. Mind is the host Of tens of thousands of truths.
If you rule the mind, if you know where the mind is, you are free to do what you want to do and you are not restrained by anything; but if you don't rule your mind, you're ruled by every kind of human anguish which results from mumyŏng ŏpsik (無明業識), which means ill-conceived notion. Therefore, the purpose of Zen meditation is to clarify the whereabouts of the mind and to make everybody the host of his or her mind.
In olden times, the T'ang Dynasty Zen Buddhist Patriarch of Kuei-shan (潙山) mounted the platform and preached a discourse on the mind, saying, "There's a formless true self which makes an unrestrained entry and exit in front of oneself. Do you see it?" An upasika, (ch'ŏngsinnyŏ 淸信女), or laywoman, hearing this sermon, thought to herself, "Everybody is said to have a formless self; why can't I see it or know it?" Doubting, yet unforgetful, she sought the answer ceaselessly. She led a hard life, living off the income from baking bread in a small corner of the market and selling it. However, she dad not give up her pursuit of 'the precept of a true self. Seeking the truth thoroughly and intensely, deep into the bone marrow, ceaselessly for years, the woman believer finally broke the barrier of the hwadu and discovered the formless true self. Dispensing with her basket of bread, she then called on Patriarch Kuei-shan, who, having already figured her motive out, asked her, "What is the formless true self?" The posal answered in a hymn:
三頭六臂大力將 一拳擊破泰和山 分破和山千萬重 萬年流水不知春
A titan of three heads and six arms Struck down Mount Taehwa with a fist, Dismembering the mountain ten thousand times. The water flowing for ten thousand years Never knows that spring has come!
Hearing the woman's verse of enlightenment, Patriarch Kuei-shan said, "You said it!" and endorsed her enlightenment. The woman believer was named Yu Tao-p'o (有道婆). That she who lived on subsistence level in a small corner of the noisy marketplace, was able to penetrate the barrier of the hwadu, and to reach the state of prescience, vividly illustrates that the practice of Zen meditation is accomplished wholly through the working of mind. It also shows that the study of Zen hwadu, or koan (Japanese), or kongan (Korean) knows no distinction between the monastery and the mundane world, man and woman, or social status. The existence of these woman Zen masters eloquently emphasizes that sex is no barrier to the road to the dharma. Compared with these prominent Zen masters, Ling-hsing-p'o, T'ai-shan P'o-zhu, Ling-chao, and Yu Tao-p'o, who were sharp and thorough in their degree of Buddhist enlightenment, and who passed the gate of the hwadu as laywomen, it's a pity that today's male priests are loitering here and there under the guise of study. They're surely on the periphery of enlightenment yet they have been studying ten or more years and have still not succeeded. The exploration of the hwadu or kongan knows no distinction between tranquility and noise. The supreme masters of the past said that when you study in noisy places it enhances, in a certain sense, the degree of intensity. The study of hwadu is very useful, especially when you are in a very dangerous situation, when, euphemistically speaking, your limbs are extended and the p'alp'ung (八風), the eight winds, are blowing. You must maintain your composure in very dangerous situations as well as in tranquil circumstances. This kind of mental acuteness is possible only when you have solved your hwadu in the most unfavorable circumstances. Therefore, no established chamsŏnbang, (參禪房), or meditation room is necessary. If you do not drop the hwadu, and make use of the right discourse and the right guide, and ceaselessly search for the answer, any place, whether it be the kitchen, the office, the living room, or a crowded bus, can be your meditation room. Departing from these methods of hwadu study, if when you are sitting, there seems to be the hwadu, yet when you are about to stand up, it disappears, then no matter how many years you have studied, even if you have lived one hundred lives, you will not be able to open your eyes of truth. But if you have explored the hwadu, thoroughly and intensely, in any place, at any time, whether you are sitting or standing, and felt it in your internal organs, when you have met the right guidance at the right time, then you will find the truth, the way, the right eye and the right law. I want you to do your best. I wish you good luck! [On the 15th of September,1988]
>>> Return Home |