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    The Zen Teaching of Huang Po PDF

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    Attila Korom

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    The Zen Teaching of Huang Po ON THE TRANSMISSION OF MIND Being th Teaching ofthe Zen Maser ‘Haat, Po as record by th scolar Pret Hoi ofthe Tang Dynasty Randal in Bagh by JOHN BLOFELD (Cla Ch'en) ¥ GROVE WEIDENFELD, NEW YORK Copyright © 1958 by John Blfeld Allright reserved, [No partof tis book may be reprodiced, sored in retrieval system, or transmitted in acy for, by any mea, inlaing mechanical, eleceoni, photocopying, recording, or others, without rir writen permion of he pubs Published by Grove Weidenld ‘A division of Wheatland Corporation B41 Broadway [New York, NY 10008-4795, ISBN 0.0021.5092-6 Library of Congress Catalog Card Nomber 5912215, ‘Manufactured in the United Snes of America Printed on aci-re paper First Bvergreen Elton 1959 mR uo CONTENTS ‘Translator’ Introduction rei Hein’ Preface ‘The Chun Chou Record (Sermons and Dislogues) ‘The Wan Ling Record (Dialogues, Sermons ‘and Anecdotes) Index Eo 133 TRANSLATOR’S INTRODUCTION ‘Tue Text “The present volume is a complete translation of the Hang Po Chinan Fin Fa Yeo, 2 ninth-century Chinese Buddhist text, much of which now appears in English for the fist time, Te contains a concise account ofthe sublime teachings ‘of a great Master of the Dhydna Sect, to which, in accord- lance with current Western practice, I shall henceforth refer by its Japanese name of Zen. Zen is often regarded as a ‘uniquely Far Eastern development of Buddhism, but Zen their Doctrine stems directly from Gautaina Bulli Miowelt. This text, which is one of the principle Zen works, follows closely the teachings pro- laimed in the Diamond Sitve or Jewel of Transcendental Wisdom, which has been ably translated by Arnold Price and published by the Buddhist Society, London. It is alo lose in sprit to The Sitra of Wei Lang (Flat Neng) another of the Buddhist Society's publications. But T have been ‘deeply struck by the astonishing similarity to our text in spirit and terminology of the not-so-Far Eastern cighth= ‘century Tibstan Bok of the Great Liberation, edited by Evanse ‘Wentz and published by the Oxford University Pres. Tn. sy opinion, thee four books are among the most briliant expositions of the highest Wisdom which have so far ap- peared in our language; and, of them all, the present text 7 and the Tibstan Book of the Great Liberation present the Doctrine in a form best suited to the needs of Western reader. ‘Tun Piace or Tuts Texr 1» Buponise Zen is a branch ofthe great Mahiyina Sehol prea Jn Ghina andthe more northerly countries of Eatery Ae sits teachings arent accepted as onder Buses by flowers of Hinayina or the Southern School However, Wester scholars are no longer unaimows in requ Hinayina as being the sale guardian of the wut pee, dla’ by Buddhism’ ‘latious Founder, deapte the cary date of Finayia's principal texts, The dvison inte ‘vo schoo took place some two thousand year ago in Norte Ini slace when Mabtydaias hare stp the teachings of the ater school as rant of the te Deatrne; though the ater, with les tclerney repos whatever doctrines are specially Mahia Zen, which appeared in the open mich ltr, submits that whe all Duds sects present the tit in varying degree, Zen alone preserves the very highest teachings ofall teachings bused on a mysterious transmision of Mind which tock lace between Gautama Buddha and Maikgyaps the ‘only one of hs dicper capable of receiving thi wanes sion, Opinions as tothe eth f this story satura sary but Masters ke Huang Po obvious speak fom sre gs liner experenee. He and his follower were concesed solely witha direct pereption of truth and anno! have heen even ily intersted in anguments about the Norcal onthodory oftheir belch. The great myn of @ the world, such as Plotinus and Ehart, who have plumbed the depths of consciousnes and come face to fuce with the Inner Light, the alt pervading Silence, ae 90 close to being ‘unanimous concerning their experience of Reality that T, personally, am left in no doubt at to the truth of their Accounts, Huang Po, in his more nearly everyday lan- guage, is clearly describing the same experience as theirs, and T assume that Gautarsa Buddha's mystical Enlighten: iment beneath the Bo Tree did not dlifer from theirs, tunles:paRHAPS in intensity and in its utter completenes. Gould one suppose otherwise, one would have to accept several forms of absolute truth! Or else one would be driven to believe that some oF all of these Masters were lost in clouds of self-deception. So, however slender the evidence for Zen's claim to have been founded by Gautama Buddha himself, T do not for one moment doube that Huang Po was expressing in his own way the same experience of Eternal Truth which Gautama Buddba and others, Bud- hist and non-Buddhist, have expressed in theirs, Moreover, since fest embarking on the translation ofthis text, T have been astonished by is very close similarity to the teaching contained in the Tibetan Book of the Great Liberation which is attibuted to the Lotus-Born Padma Sambhava, Since both are approximately of the same date, T suppose they ‘coven have derived from the same literary or oral source, Dbutitscems much mare probable thatthe two texts embody two different people’ intimate perceptions of eternal truth However, there are many who regard things otherwise and, in any ease, it is proper for me to give some account of the traditional ‘origin of Zen and of the modern theories concerning it. ‘Tun Oniorx, Grows axp Expansion or Zen (Duyaxa) Buopnisa Traditional Origin Gautama Buddha is said to have modified the exposition ‘of his Doctrine to suit the different capacities of his various disciples and of those others who listened to his discourses, Once, at the end ofa sermon, he picked a flower and held it up for the assembled monks to see. Mahikagyapa, who alone understood the profound meaning of this gesture, responded with a smile. Later the Buddha called this dis ciple to him in private and myrtially transmitted to him the wordless doctrine, o ‘with Mind transmitted Mind’, Mabakisyaps, in his torn, mystically transmitted the Doctrine to Ananda, who thas became second in the line of twentyseight Indian Patriarch. The last of these was Bodhidharms, who travelled to China in the sixth century A. Here he became the Fist of the Chinese Patriarch, Who continued the transmission doven to Hui Neng (We Lang), the Sixth and lst. Divisions within the sect followed, ‘and no more Patrarchs were created. ‘Treores Concerning th Origin and Declopment of the Sect Buddhism, offically introduced into China in a.p. 6 probably reached the coast of Shantung at early as the first or second century 3.¢. Hinayana did not survive there for long, but Mabiyana flourished exceedingly; various sects of Indian origin were developed and new sects created. ‘One of the latest sects to appear was Zen, which rapidly attained great influence, Though an Tndian origin was aimed for it, many people have doubted the truth of thiss ‘and some have gone s0 far as to doubt the existence of Bodhidharma himself. I, as T prefer to think, there was really such a person, he probably came to China from South India by way of Canton and visited the rulers of two (Chinese states—for China was then divided, asso often in hae long history. Professor Daietz Suzuki accepts the existence of Bod- hidharma, but suggest that his teachings were derived fiom the Laikivatira Sutra, which appears to contain the germs ofthe wordless doctrine. Dr. Hu Shih accepts neither the historical reality of Bodhidharma nor the authenticity of the earlier Zen works, regarding even the famous Sitra ‘of Hui Néng (Wei Lang), the Sixth Patriarch, as forgery ‘oflater date. To support his contentions, he adduces several cighth-century manuscripts discovered fairly recently in the ‘Tan Huang caver, which difer both in name and sub- stance fiom the traditionally accepted works of the Zen Masters, Dr, Hu Shih even describes Zen as @ Chinese revolt against Buddhism—regarded as an alien doctrine fiom India. do not see that Zen ses itself up in opposition to other forms of Buddhism, including those whose Indian origin is ‘more certain; forall sects regard dhyina-practie as an {important means towards Enlightenment, ie. the practice ‘of turning the mind towards and striving to pierce the veils ‘of sensory perception and conceptual thought in order to arrive at an intuitive perception of reality. Zen does, how= ever, emphasize this to the exclusion or near-exchsion of such else, and it also differs from most other sects in re- garding Enlightenment as a process which finally occurs in Tess time than it takes to blink an eye. Thus it isa form of, Buddhism suited to those who prefer inward contemplation to the study of scriptures of to the performance of good works, Yet Zen is not unique in giving special emphasis to ‘one particular aspect of the whole doctrine—if no one did ‘that, there would be no sects. Moreover, Right Meditation, (ssonetsanxoa) forms the final step of the Noble Eightfold Path, which is accepted as the very foundation of Buddhism by Mahiyanists and Hinayaniste alike—and dhyéna- practice is aimed precisely at accomplishing that. ‘Hence, though there i very little evidence to prove or disprove the Indian origin of Zen, it does not seem to me specially unlikely that Bodhidharma did in fact arrive in China, bringing with him a doctrine of great antiquity in- hherited from his own teachers, a doctrine which infers that the seven preceding steps of the Noble Eightfold Path are to be regarded as preparation for the Eighth, And, if the Righth is not held to be the outcome ofthe other Seven, 1 is difficult to understand why terms like ‘Path’ and ‘step? ‘were employed. ‘The late Venerable T'ai Hsu, exemplifying a proper Buddhist attitude of broad tolerance, once described the various sects as so many beads strung on a single rosary. ‘Mahdy’na Buddhists are encouraged to think for them= selves and are free to choose whichever path bes suits their individual requirements; th sectarian bitternes ofthe West is unknown in China. As the Chinese, though seldom puritanical, have generally been an abstemious people, sects chiefly emphasizing the strict observance of moral precepts—as does Hinayfna~have seldom appealed to them, which may be one of the main reasons why the Southern Schoo! of Buddhism filed to take permanent root jn China. Furthermore, Chinese intellectuals have since ‘ancient times inclined to mild scepticism; to these people, Zen's austere “simplicity” and virtual lack ofrtualsm must, have made a strong appeal. In another way, too, the ‘ground in China had been well prepared for Zen. On the fone hand, centuries of Confucianism had predisposed scholars against the fine-spun metaphysical speculation in Which Indian Buddhists have indulged with so much en- thusiasm; on the other, the teaching of Lao Tz, Chuang "Tas, the Taoist sages, had to a great extent anticipated Zen quietiem and prepared the Chinese mind for the re- ception of a doctrine in many ways strikingly similar to their own. (For somewhat similar reasons, Zen has begun ‘to appeal to those people in the West who are torn between the modern tradition of scepticism and the need for a pro- ound doctrine which will give meaning to their existence.) So it may be that the historical authenticity of Zen is of relatively litle importance, except to a limted murmber of tcholars Te will certainly not seem of much importance to ‘those who se in the teachings of the Zen Masters abriliant reflection of some valid inner realization of Truth. Zen has Jong flourished in China and Japan and is now beginning ta develop in the West, beeause those who have put is teachings to a prolonged practical test have discovered that they satay certain deep spiritual needs. The Zon Master Huang Po ‘When Hui Néog (Wei Lang), the Sixth Patriarch received the transmission from Mind to Mind, the Zen Sect had already split into two branches. The Northern Branch, ‘which taught chat the process of Enlightenment is gradual, flourished for a while under imperial patronage, but did not long survive, Meanwhile, the Southern Branch, with 3 its doctrine of Sudden Enlightenment, continued to expand and, later, to subdivide. The most important of the Sixth PPatriarch's succestors was Ma Tsu (Tao 1) who died in ‘Ax. 788. Huang Po, variously regarded a8 one or two ‘generations junior to him, seems to have died as late as ‘850, after transmitting the Wordless Doctrine to I Han, the founder of the great Lin Chi (Rinzai) Sect which still continues in China and flourishes widely in Japan. So ‘Huang Po is in some sense regarded as the founder of this ‘great Branch. Like all Chinese monks, he had several ‘names, being known in his ifetime as Master Hsi Yun and ‘as Master T'uan Chi; his posthumous name is taken from that of Mount Huang Po where he resided for many years {In Japan he is generally known as Oba, which is the Japanese way of pronouncing the Chinese characters for Huang Po. The Doctine f Zen Zen s already a familiar doctrine to many Western people, thanks to the comprehensive and illuminating works of De. Daisetz Tairo Suzuki, and to books by Western scholars, such as Mr. Christmas Humphreys? delightful Zen Budi. At frst sight Zen works must seem so para- doxical as to bewilder the eader. On one page we are told that everything is indivsibly one Mind, on another that, ‘the moon is very much a moon and a tree indubitably a tree. Yet it s clear that this is not paradox for the sake of entertainment, for there are several million people who regard Zen as the most serious thing in life. All Buddhists take Gautama Buddha’s Enlightenment as their starting point and endeavour to attain to that transcen- dental knowledge that will bring them face to face with 4 Realy, thereby delivering them from rebirth into the fpeceine ream forever. en flower go futher. They {re oot content to puue Ealightenment through acont of Saried existences inevitably bound up with ain and gnor- nce, approaching with five slower the Supreme Experience which Chinn yates have deeibed at ‘ln ith te Godhead They eve nthe postly cf ataining Full Enlighienment both here and now through determined flrs tore beyond. conzptual thought and to grayp that Tntive Knowledge which i then fa of Eee Former hy thatthe experience fs both sudden and complete the ving tay require year the reward mans ied ina aah, But to stan tis reward, the practice of virtue and dipasion it illlen. Tei necowary to tie above such relative concept as good and evi Sought and ound, Enlightened and unenlightened, and all terest " “Toma this point ere, tw consider some Chistian ideas of God. God is reared a the Pint Principe, une Cased and unbegat, which logically implies perecton; Sch a being cant be dicovered through the velaty ‘ftime and space, "Then comes the concept “God i good? hich, as Cran mystics have pte out, detract from Fin perfection; for to be good implies not being evil—a ton wich iy dense he ty at wl ne incparable fom perfection hi, of cote i ot {Coded fo imply that “God i ci or that "God is both food and evil To mya He is nne of these thingy, ft He wamscends them all. Again, the idea of God as the Greater of te univere nigga a dull, a diinetion teweea creator and created, This if val, places God on 5 ‘lower lvl than prion for there can be nter unity tor wholeness where A excludes Bor B exudes A Zen llwers (who have rch a eonon with mts ote th) do not use the tet "Got being wary of iy dual and. anthropomorphic impli, ‘They prefer total ofthe Absalon the One Mind, or which they employ many synonyms according tothe apet to be mpi in relaon to orci iit ‘Ths, he word ‘Badal is wed at asynonyn for the Absolute as ell a2 inthesene of Gautama, the Eslghtenet One, or tobe that the two are iden. A Bada’, Talightenment denotes an intuve sealeton of his unity wilh the ‘Anolte fom whieh, after the death of his body, nothing remains to divide him even in appearance. Ofte Abwalte toting whatever can be potted, to ay that eats ‘clades nonexistence; oy tate dow nt ent exces fwtene, Furthermore, Zen flower, hold tat the ‘Awa, oink with the Absolute ot something to be auained; one doesnot rvex Nirvpay for cata to 4 place one has never let imposible: The experience Commonly called "string Niwa’ in acta itaie relation of ha Slenatre which bs the rae Nature of AM ings. The Asal, or Realy i regarded as having for senion beings two aspects: The only apt perepile to the unenlightened ls the one in whic ndvieal pena seta hve sete tough ply wenstory cence within the Knits of spaces. "he other epee space. Tes and tinea; moreover all opps all dsineons and ‘ent of every Kind ate here seen tobe One. Yet lth i hi second apt ane the hight fi of lightenent, at many contemplaives supose; onl when bo aspects ate pereied and recone thatthe 6 beholder may be regarded as tly Enlightened. Yet, from that moment, he ceases to be the beholder, for he is cone scious of no division between beholding and beheld, This leads to further paradoxes, unless the use of words is abandoned altogether. It is incorrect to employ such ‘mystical terminology as ‘I dwell in the Absolute’, “The “Absolute dwells in me’, or ‘Tam penetrated by the Abso lute’, ete; for, when space is transcended, the concepts of| whole and part are no longer valid; the parts the whole— T auc the Absolute, except that I'am no longer ‘?. What 1 ‘behold then is my real Self, which isthe true nature ofall, things; seeer and seen are one and thesame, yet there is no secing, just as the eye cannot behold itself "The single ita of che true Zen follower is so to train his ‘mind that all thought-processs based on the dualism i separable from ‘ordinary’ life are transcended, their place being taken by that Intuitive Knowledge which, for the first time, reveals to a man what he really i. If Allis One, then knowledge of a being’s true telinature—his original Selfis equally a knowledge of all-nature, the nature of everything inthe universe. Those who have actually achieved this tremendous experience, whether as Chris= ians, Buddhist or members of other faiths, are agreed as to the impossibility of communicating it in words. They ‘may employ words to point the way to others, but, until the latter have achieved the experience for themselves, they fan have but the merest glimmer ofthe truth—a poor in- tellectual concept of something lying infinitely beyond the highest point ever reached by the human intellect. Te will now be clear that Zen Masters do not employ paradoxes from a love of cheap mystfcation, though they ‘do occasionally male humorous use of them when humour 2 7 seems nesled. Usily, i the ter imponiey 0 Scerbing the Supreme Experience whieh Cen te feradonel aro thi op To asm o dey sto Hsin shut et he igh tay ut, ee ef vert ut be in odr ot dcipevon othe gh uy he marly Sis «ei of radon ‘ometins of paradox within prndos win farsdon Te sald perhaps aed that Hoang Fos eget tc of hone Bans wh ll he more one, sonal pay clang knig,good werk nds coms sioner tough sce ape cee oe Tet intenedo cllinte quo the lc to many ot fick exelent races Ae Bai, Huang Po se Cerny have reared the thigh centy i oot proper conti daly ie ner we re tad by Pe FES thar sway of i war xt bt he was one tat concep wich vo sh ead pats Sa i, ‘and Tet they soa ld light tobe freval proce ataiae by ser mea as tee one Bi ft rT Mn text ince that Fan Po ete with his hice fhe word Mind oom the, Frese Realty bond the reach of oncrtltongh Ihe more than ocr ese ta the One Mind rok realy sat all Bat head owe wme tem oe ‘nt had ofen been ned by hb predeccnn Xs Mind comes intangible daub scone thn pod chic, eps ar howe of tb tm pe ae {ear that the pat manta soured as, vidual nity inbtting by iy int nhs property * at all, but common to him and to everybody and every: thing eke. (It must be remembered that, in Chinese, ‘hin’ ‘means not only ‘mind’, but ‘heart’ and, in some senses at Teast, ‘sisi’ of ‘sulin short, the so-called nzat. man, the inhabitant ofthe body-house_) If we prefer to substitute the word ‘Absolute, which Huang Po occasionally uses himself, we must take care not to read into the text any preconceived notions as tothe nature ofthe Absolute. And, ff cours, ‘the One Mind! is no less misleading, unless we ‘abandon all preconceived ideas, as Huang Po intended Tn an earlier trandation of the frst part of this book, T ventured to substitute ‘Universal Mind” fr ‘the One Min’, hoping that the meaning would be clearer. However, various critics objected to this, and Thave come to see that iy tern i liable to a different sort of misunderstanding; itis therefore no improvement on ‘the One Mind’, which atleast has the merit of being a literal translation. Dhyina Practice "The book tells us very litle about the practice of what, for want of a better translation, is often called meditation oF contemplation. Unfortunately both these words are mis- Teading as they imply some object of meditation or of con- templation; and, if objetiessness be stipulated, then they ‘may well be taken to lead to a blank or sleeplike trance, ‘which s not at all the goal of Zen. Huang Po seems to have fssumned that his audience knew something about this practice—as most keen Buddhists do, of course. He gives few instructions as to how to ‘meditate’ but he does tell tus what to avoid. If, conceiving of the phenomenal world asillsion, we ty to shut it out, we make a false distinction between the ‘real? and the ‘unreal’. So we must not shut 19 anything ot, yt ach he pit wera iti ioneare seniors oe nt ord ming wl Cae We se te ta eld ae ur le en sha no te tan scone ‘moreover, if we remained in this state, we should ° 2bie to del wi the seus daly es Ee ct olen he Bn prep he ay at Fie ema ct sin, ain ee th anche otra ee chee a any absolute existence, * lightens wc come, wi omen : cone in 8 fas "he en bm pl 0 Pa age Iii in nf ten ebeney one parlor Bagel tay sre a el pry nigh as snny phe a Sosa yrly se du eye of biting, gualatve change has osed. ef, ter we ny go tah ins nob aa Eales ato snipes ag ae tie ope te msn sn nd hee ie The mp aly hes tae Be sei an ean es tis te One Sel We aah Sed wehmetie one oevat non ies ino ew noose cant toy eoms raha pepo cr sen thon tdi te tebe inal atic Ihnen ely caer the moos Saga se theta tnd th osreb Se frie alghencd nine epotog ay ‘and multiplicity without the least contradiction between them! Hvaxo Po’s Arrizupe Towarps Ornen Scttoous ax Sees or Buppnrsu ‘As this book is likely to be read by many Buddhists who belong to the Theravidin (Hinayna School) or to Max biydna sects other than Zen, some explanation is needed here to forestall posible misunderstandings. A. casual lance at our text or at some other Zen works might well igve the impression that non-Zen Buddhism is treated too lightly. It should be remembered that Huang Po was talke ing principally to people who were already firm and seriousminded Buddhists, He tells vs himself that nothing writen dovn should be understood out ofits context or ‘without regard to the eizcumstances under which the re- ‘corded sermon was given. I fel that had he been speaking to non-Buddhists, his references to the ‘Three Vehicles’ would have been couched in diferent language. A carefil study ofthis work has persuaded me that Huang Po felt no desire to belittle the virtuelof those Buddhists who disigreed with his methods, but he did fel strongly trat the Zen rmethad is productive of the fastest results. He was much feoncermed to show that scripture-stady and the performe lance of good works cannot lead to Enlightenment, unles ‘theeoncept-forming processes ofthe finite mind are brought, ‘properly, under contro. As for good works and right living, ‘We learn from P'ei Heiu and others that his own way of life was exalted, but he had constandy to combat the notion that good works in themselves ean bring us nearer to Enlightenment. Moreover, when the time has come for a Buddhist to discipline his mind so as to rise above duality, hhe enters a stage where the notions of both good and evil ‘must be transcended like any other form of dualism The Master was aware that many of the Buddhists he was preaching to had probably fallen into the alltoo-common, ‘error of performing good works with a conscious desire to ‘ore up merit for themselves—a desire which isa form of attachment as inimical to Enlightenment ae any other form of attachment. (The translator knows of several ‘sincere? Buddhists who lead lives very far from noble and who ine lg sometimes in actions destructive of the happiness of ‘others, but who firmly believe that their regular offerings to the Sangha and their periodic attendance at temple services wil build up enough good karma to cancel out the results oftheir folly and their uncharitableness to others!) As to the study of sitras and written works of all Kinds ‘on Buddhism, Huang Po mast surely have assumed that ‘most of the people who had taken the trouble to come to his mountain retreat for instruction were already filly conversant with Buddhist doctrine, and that what they lacked was the knowledge of mind-control It is clear from his own words that he realized the necessity of books and teachings of various kinds for people less advanced. Unless ‘man sist attracted to Mysticiam by the written doctrines delivered by the Lord Buddha or by other great teachers, hhe is most unlikely to see the necessity for mind-

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