HUINENG AND OBJECTIVE EVIDENCE OF HIS PATH

玉泉神秀 Yuquan Shenxiu (Shen-hsiu) 605-706

大鑒惠能 Dajian Huìnéng (Hui-neng) 638-713

HUINENG, THE INNOCENT VICTIM

What do we know of the illiterate monk Huineng,

called the Sixth Patriarch by Modern BUDDHISM?

All that we really know about Huineng comes from the well known 壇經, T'anjing, the Platform Sutra. It came about when Shenhui selected the poet Wang Wei 王維 (d. 759) to be the biographer of his teacher.

Hui-neng of Shaochou and in this doubted biography states that the Chan master Hongren regarded his Southern "barbarian" lay laborer (Huineng) as having alone understood his teaching and, when he was dying, gave him "the robe of the Patriarchs" and told him to go away.

What little we know of Huineng informs us that he was born of a lowly family in an area in Lingnan where aborigines lived in peace with Chinese people. In Shen-hui's brief account and in the T'anjing 壇經 (the Sutra of Huineng) he was called a "Keliáo" 獦獠, one of the aboriginal peoples of the Southwest.

We are told that he was a manual laborer and one day, while he was delivering firewood to an inn, he heard a guest reciting the Diamond Sutra, a short Mahayana sutra of the Perfection of Wisdom genre, which teaches the practice of the avoidance of abiding in extremes of mental attachment.

Moving northward he found work at the monastery where the master Hongren presided. He had a good inquisitive mind and probably did absorb what was taught and practiced there.

We are told at one point that one night Hongren received Huineng in his abode, and expounded the Diamond Sutra. It is said that when he came to the passage, "to use the mind yet be free from any attachment," Huineng came to great enlightenment—that all dharmas are inseparable from the self-nature.

He exclaimed, "How amazing that the self-nature is originally pure! How amazing that the self-nature is unborn and undying! How amazing that the self-nature is inherently complete! How amazing that the self-nature neither moves nor stays! How amazing that all dharmas come from this self-nature!"

It is rather strange that he had already encountered this Diamond sutra that had prompted him to make the journey northward, and also that that was precisely the theme we find in the next stage, when he actually left the monastery he returned to the South, where for sixteen years he lived among the poor and the lowly, the farmers and the small tradesmen. Then he was discovered by a teacher of the Parinirvana Sutra, who ordained him and started him on his own teaching career.

The inclusion of this meeting with Hongren may well have been added to maintain Hongren as the prime source of his inspiration.

It is also to be noted that it has also been stated that in his first meeting with Hongren the following dialogue is reported:

"I then went to pay homage to the Patriarch, and was asked where I came from and what I expected to get from him.

I replied, "I am a commoner from Hsin Chou of Kwangtung. I have travelled far to pay you respect and I ask for nothing but Buddhahood."

"You are a native of Kwangtung, a barbarian? How can you expect to be a Buddha?" asked the Patriarch.

I replied, "Although there are Northern men and Southern men, North and South make no difference to their Buddha Nature.

"A barbarian is different from Your Holiness physically, but there is no difference in our Buddha-nature."

How strange then that after the alleged awakening with Hongren he stated,

"How amazing that the self nature is originally pure! How amazing that the self nature is unborn and undying! How amazing that the self nature is inherently complete! How amazing that the self nature neither moves nor stays! How amazing that all dharmas come from this self nature!"

Was he really inspired by Hongren or not?

What really was his Doctrine?

Wang Wei said that he taught forbearance, saying that "he who forbears (jen 忍) denies his own life and is therefore selfless." This formed his first vow and his principal teaching.

"He often said with a sigh: 'To give even all the Seven Treasures as alms, or to practice conduct for even myriads of years, or to write with all the ink in the universe —none of these can compare with a life of non-activity (wu-wei 無為 ) and infinite love'."

Liu Tsung-yuan wrote a text in 816, and declared "his teaching began with the goodness of human nature and ended with the goodness of human nature. There is no need of plowing or weeding: it was originally pure."

If we examine the Nirvana Sutra we find a constant repetition of the great compassion that flowed from all at the impending death of Buddha for all sentient beings and there is no doubt at all that the sensitive Huineng would have been lifted by that same compassion.

We cannot tell from the Platform Sutra what is truth and what is fiction, but if we take out the politically motivated ramifications we still behold some of Huineng's belief system and this will lead us to an understanding of his unique Contemplations.

Contemplation and Wisdom

Traditionally many Buddhists had argued that the objective of Contemplation was merely a means to obtain Wisdom.

Huineng argued for the inseparability of Contemplation and Wisdom (ti), using perhaps the analytic device introduced by the Daoist Wang Bi 王弼 (226-249), the tiyong 體用 model. He claimed that all Contemplation is the ESSENCE (ti) of wisdom and that Wisdom is the FUNCTION (庸, yong) of Contemplation.

Furthermore, Wisdom does not produce Contemplation, nor does Contemplation produce Wisdom, and neither the Contemplation nor the Wisdom are different from each other.

It is my belief that the unfortunate politics of Shenhui, who no doubt realized the greatness of Huineng, actually served to mask the true path of the Contemplations that Huineng pursued.

Huineng alone generated the completely DIRECT Contemplation leading to Awakening. The Contemplation was indeed Awakening in and of itself when performed. It required no pre-preparation except a simplicity, the absence of Identity and a natural compassion. It requires the favorable circumstances of birth that make the direct approach possible, and there is no doubt at all that the other great masters who followed outside his own students must be considered as gradual in the same sense that Shenxiu was excluded.

His students were:

南嶽懐譲 Nanyue Huairang, 677-744

永嘉玄覺 Yǒngjiā Xuánjué, 665–713

南陽慧忠 Nanyang Huizhong

青原行思 Qingyuan Xingsi, 660–740

荷澤神會 Hézé Shénhuǐ, 670–762

Of his students, Hézé Shénhuǐ (荷澤神會, 670–762), although recognizing the direct contemplation of Awakening, failed in any way to really understand or capture either the practice or the teachings of Huineng.

本届

Arriving at the Origin

Although the roots of this idea return to the Indian teachings of Tathagata-garbha it also is related to the Dharma view of sunyata. This means that although all beings tread in stained Samsara their true nature is alway pure and luminous (like the moon) yet often obscured. Arrival at this Original Nature occurs when one pierces the last conceptualization of the cognitive mind.

One can obstruct this inherent tendency through Identity and Duality of the mind or open into a more free and responsive way of engagement with a Pure Samsara, understanding that all is illusion.

As we have seen this Buddha-nature was a foremost concern of Huineng before he encountered Hongren.

Nearly everything Huineng says is predicated on the “Buddha-nature.” We see this clearly in his youthful exchanges with both the nameless Buddhist nun and Master Hongren.

Huineng proclaims, “Since Buddha is made by your own nature, do not look for him outside your body. If you are deluded in your own nature, Buddha is then a sentient being; if you are awakened in your own natures, sentient beings are then Buddhas.”

无为意

No-Actions and Thought

In common with most other masters, his ideas on actions and thoughts were identical. To awaken to this Truth, Huineng agreed that there must be a “non-clinging” to any verbal teachings.

He states, “No-thought is not to think even when involved in thought. . . To be unstained in all environments is called no-thought. If on the basis of your own thoughts you separate from environment, then, in regard to things, thoughts are not produced. If you stop thinking of the myriad things, and cast aside all thoughts, as soon as one instant of thought is cut off, you will be reborn in another realm.”

Not thinking is not a lack of mind, but it allows natural processes beyond cognitive thought to generate all that is natural and allows conscious thought only as a tool.

“No-thought” is not a state of insentiency, nor is it a way of valuing irrational, “thoughtless” behavior. Rather, “no-thought” is a highly attentive yet untangled way of being —seemingly the only genuine freedom available.

Those who act from the perspective of “no-thought” respond compassionately in all situations, untouched by suffering, much the same way the Mahayana scriptures speak of bodhisattvas (enlightened beings who selflessly seek to aid others) who “course in the Perfection of Wisdom.”

顿悟

dùnwù

Sudden Awareness

The character 顿, dun, means "immediately," like the stamping of the foot, while 悟, wu, really means "to become aware". This immediate becoming aware is what we call sudden awakening, but awareness when it is understood after contemplation is not an awakening to any truth at all.

Yet Huineng declares that from the standpoint of the Buddha-nature, ”there is no 'sudden' or 'gradual'.”

He declares further, “The dharma itself is the same, but in seeing it there is a slow way and a fast way. Seen slowly, it is the gradual; seen fast it is the sudden. Dharma is without sudden or gradual, but some people are keen and others dull; hence the names ‘sudden’ and ‘gradual'."

So what can we conclude about this Direct Contemplation that was not practiced as far as we can tell by any other Masters, including those that correctly or incorrectly were taken in as Dharma Heirs much later in Chan development?

It was not precisely a Tathagatagarbha Contemplation upon Awareness nor a Contemplation upon Emptiness.

Huineng repeatedly emphasizes that Chan life, Awakening, is not attained through study or careful deliberation but live action.

He explains seated contemplation, zuochan: “Good friends, see for yourselves the purity of your own natures, practice and accomplish for yourselves."

He declared that all that "sitting with an empty mind" attained was to be physically sitting with an empty mind. The true sitting was "sitting" within the mind.

"Your own nature is the Dharmakaya and self-practice is the practice of Buddha; by self-accomplishment you may achieve the Buddha Way for yourselves.”

What is this Dharmakaya? It is a compound of two words taken to mean "continuance body," or the "body of the Law". As always, a mere correct dictionary-translation often misses the deeper meaning entirely, and here, as it seems to be with most Chinese translations, scholars miss the mark.

The first word comes from the root dhri, meaning "to support," "to sustain," "to carry," "to bear," while the second element, kaya, means "body."

In other words that which sustains the "material" body.

It is a pure higher consciousness, pure intelligence, that requires gradual later cultivation with an aware cognitive mind.

If we then review Huineng's teachings and his life, Tathagatha-garbha teachings never take precedence over practical application.

CONCLUSION

Putting then all the above facts together with the actual practices of Contemplation, we can make a wise deduction about the nature of Huineng's contemplations.

They were in fact "no-contemplations" that arose out of the relation of his life actions of compassion, benevolent affect, gladness and equanimity; namely, praxis and an accrued knowledge.

It was spontaneous awakening to the inner Life Force of the Female Principle through complete absorption to a natural state of Life Force expression of the Male Principle.

It was effectively a spontaneous Awakening through a non-contemplative breaking of the ultimate consciousness of true human FUNCTION. That is the true Awakening, the ultimate awareness of the Buddha Nature.

王陽明

The Teachings of Wang Yangming

Wang Yangming affirmed that phenomena do not exist outside the mind, for it was the mind that gave them form (in the five senses).

With regard to knowledge, Wang explained to one of his greatest disciples, “There have never been people who know but do not act. Those who are supposed to know but do not act simply do not know.”

He developed the idea of an innate knowledge, sustained by each person from the moment of birth consciousness, that knew the difference between the correct and the incorrect. This was intuitive and not rational.

The traditional vision was that once a person obtained knowledge, he had the duty to put it into practice. But this gave two possibilities: One could act or not act. Wang argued that this would lead to two distinct philosophies.

He believed that only by means of "simultaneous action and knowledge" could lead to the correct and natural virtue. Any action made after knowledgeable thinking was false, an illusion.

This reflects Huineng's "Direct Awakening".

Who was Wang Yangming?

He was a Neo-Confucian official (1472–1529)

For those requiring a fuller academic account of Huineng we recommend

Inventing Huineng the South Patriarch