The Way of Zen - Alan Watts [51]
By their very seeking for it [the Buddha nature] they produce the contrary effect of losing it, for that is using the Buddha to seek for the Buddha, and using mind to grasp mind. Even though they do their utmost for a full kalpa, they will not be able to attain to it. (1)
If those who study the Tao do not awake to this mind substance, they will create a mind over and above mind, seek the Buddha outside themselves and remain attached to forms, practices and performances–all of which is harmful and not the way to supreme knowledge. (3)36
Much of it is devoted to a clarification of what is meant by the Void, and by the terms “no-mind” (wu-hsin) and “no-thought” (wu-nien), all of which are carefully distinguished from literal blankness or nothingness. The use of Taoist language and ideas is found throughout the text:
Fearing that none of you would understand, they [the Buddhas] gave it the name Tao, but you must not base any concept upon that name. So it is said that “when the fish is caught the trap is forgotten.” (From Chuang-tzu.) When body and mind achieve spontaneity, the Tao is reached and universal mind can be understood. (29) … In former times, men’s minds were sharp. Upon hearing a single sentence, they abandoned study and so came to be called “the sages who, abandoning learning, rest in spontaneity.” In these days, people only seek to stuff themselves with knowledge and deductions, placing great reliance on written explanations and calling all this the practice. (30)37
It appears, however, that Huang-po’s personal instruction of his disciples was not always so explanatory. Lin-chi (Japanese, Rinzai, d. 867) could never get a word out of him. Every time he attempted to ask a question Huang-po struck him, until in desperation he left the monastery and sought the advice of another master, Ta-yü, who scolded him for being so ungrateful for Huang-po’s “grandmotherly kindness.” This awakened Lin-chi, who again presented himself before Huang-po. This time, however, it was Lin-chi who did the striking, saying, “There is not much in Huang-po’s Buddhism after all!”38
The record of Lin-chi’s teaching, the Lin-chi Lu (Japanese, Rinzai Roku), shows a character of immense vitality and originality, lecturing his students in informal and often somewhat “racy” language. It is as if Lin-chi were using the whole strength of his personality to force the student into immediate awakening. Again and again he berates them for not having enough faith in themselves, for letting their minds “gallop around” in search of something which they have never lost, and which is “right before you at this very moment.” Awakening for Lin-chi seems primarily a matter of “nerve”–the courage to “let go” without further delay in the unwavering faith that one’s natural, spontaneous functioning is the Buddha mind. His approach to conceptual Buddhism, to the students’ obsession with stages to be reached and goals to be attained, is ruthlessly iconoclastic.
Why do I talk here? Only because you followers of the Tao go galloping around in search of the mind, and are unable to stop it. On the other hand, the ancients acted in a leisurely way, appropriate to circumstances (as they arose). O you followers of the Tao–when you get my point of view you will sit in judgment on top of the … Buddhas’ heads. Those who have completed the ten stages will seem like underlings, and those who have arrived at Supreme Awakening will seem as if they had cangues around their necks. The Arhans and Pratyeka-buddhas are like a dirty privy. Bodhi and nirvana are like hitching-posts for a donkey.39
On the importance of the “natural” or “unaffected” (wu-shih z) life he is especially emphatic:
There is no place in Buddhism for using effort. Just be ordinary and nothing special. Relieve your bowels, pass water, put