RICHARD HUNN'S LETTER TO JOHN SNELLING
Oct 4, 2004 11:34:15 GMT 1
Post by Shi Da Dao on Oct 4, 2004 11:34:15 GMT 1
'From all the Chinese Ch'an records, it is easy to determine that at least 80% of the "awakening experiences" in fact took place during apparently mundane activities.....working in the fields, cooking rice, hearing one's name called, slap, a kick! and there is good reason for this. Continued introspection or 'turning back' of the mind arouses an "inner potentiality" (nei chih), which eventually breaks through into "ordinary" consciousness. One then sees that seemingly conditioned events....one's own self...all surroundings...arise in this marvellous emptiness....
Thus of old the teaching was simple and consisted in "direct pointing". To remove obstructions, the old masters "probed" their disciples to see what their troubles were. If they clung to the "worldly", they stripped their attachment away; if they clung to the "saintly", on the other hand, the master would shout or give them a slap to snap them out of it.
Fa-yung lived in seclusion on Niu-t'ou Mountain. When Tao-hsin went there, Fa-yung offered to put him up in a spot behind his cave. On the way there, they spotted wild animals, whereupon Tao-hsin feigned fear. Fa-yung said; "I see that this is still with you" - meaning the klesha (defilements), in this case fear. Later, Tao-hsin approached the rock where Fa-yung spent all his time sitting in meditation. He motioned as if writing the character fo (Buddha) on the rock, saying; "I see that this is still with you' - meaning deep attachment to the very idea of the saintly Buddha-state. Fa-yung got the message, changed his practice, opened a temple and freely interacted with the world.
Initially, however, most disciples withdraw their attention from the play of events in the "world" in order to disentangle themselves from false thinking. But once sure about the underlying (birthless and deathless) nature, they were obliged to harmonise this with their everyday activities. Thus the Ch'an masters used the terms "host" and "guest" for the "numenal" and the "phenomenal", and the terms ti and yung (principle and activity) in order to make clear both sides of the business....Another term coined within the Ch'an was yeh shih or the "initial consciousness" i.e. the primordial mind that underlies all actions and which mirrors the surface play of phenomena.'
Letter to the author dated 11.6.87
Extracted from: The Buddhist Handbook - By John Snelling.
Thus of old the teaching was simple and consisted in "direct pointing". To remove obstructions, the old masters "probed" their disciples to see what their troubles were. If they clung to the "worldly", they stripped their attachment away; if they clung to the "saintly", on the other hand, the master would shout or give them a slap to snap them out of it.
Fa-yung lived in seclusion on Niu-t'ou Mountain. When Tao-hsin went there, Fa-yung offered to put him up in a spot behind his cave. On the way there, they spotted wild animals, whereupon Tao-hsin feigned fear. Fa-yung said; "I see that this is still with you" - meaning the klesha (defilements), in this case fear. Later, Tao-hsin approached the rock where Fa-yung spent all his time sitting in meditation. He motioned as if writing the character fo (Buddha) on the rock, saying; "I see that this is still with you' - meaning deep attachment to the very idea of the saintly Buddha-state. Fa-yung got the message, changed his practice, opened a temple and freely interacted with the world.
Initially, however, most disciples withdraw their attention from the play of events in the "world" in order to disentangle themselves from false thinking. But once sure about the underlying (birthless and deathless) nature, they were obliged to harmonise this with their everyday activities. Thus the Ch'an masters used the terms "host" and "guest" for the "numenal" and the "phenomenal", and the terms ti and yung (principle and activity) in order to make clear both sides of the business....Another term coined within the Ch'an was yeh shih or the "initial consciousness" i.e. the primordial mind that underlies all actions and which mirrors the surface play of phenomena.'
Letter to the author dated 11.6.87
Extracted from: The Buddhist Handbook - By John Snelling.
