The Pacifying the Mind Dialogue 靖心

靖心

Bodhidharma Pacifies the Mind:

Legend used in The Gateless Barrier Case 41

Bodhidharma sat facing the stone wall.

The Second Patriarch of Chinese C'han (Zen), stood long in the thick snow. Finally, he severed his own arm and presented it to Bodhidharma.

He said, "Your student cannot pacify his mind. You, the First Patriarch, please, give me peace of mind!"

The First Patriarch replied, "Bring that mind, I will calm it down!"

The Second Patriarch said, "I search for it everywhere, but I cannot find it!"

Bodhidharma replied, "I have already pacified it for you!"

This was the master we know as Huike of the Northern Ch'i (550-577 A.D.) whose family name was Chi, was formerly Shen Kuang. When he was born, his parents saw Wei T'ou Bodhisattva, the golden armored spiritual being, come to offer protection; thereupon they named their son "Shen Kuang" which means "spiritual light."

Of interest is this textual account from John Mc Rae's essay on "The Antecedents of Encounter Dialogue in Chinese Ch'an Buddhism."

One of the best-known texts of early Ch'an is the Treatise on the 絕觀論, Transcendence of Cognition of the Oxhead school faction, known for literary creativity.

This text describes an imaginary dialogue between two hypothetical characters, Professor Enlightenment and the student Conditionality.

Professor Enlightenment was silent and said nothing.

Conditionality then arose suddenly and asked Professor Enlightenment: "What is the mind? What is it to pacify the mind (anxin)?"

[The master] answered: "You should not posit a mind, nor should you attempt to pacify it-this is called 'pacified.'"

Question: "If there is no mind, how can one cultivate 道, Dao?"

Answer: "Awakening is not a thought of the mind, so how could it occur in the mind?"

Question: "If it is not thought of by the mind, how should it be thought of?"

Answer: "If there are thoughts then there is mind, and for there to be mind is contrary to awakening. If there is no thought (wunian) then there is no mind (wuxin), and for there to be no mind is true awakeningt."...

Question: "What 'things' are there in no-mind?"

Answer: "No-mind is without 'things.' The absence of things is the Naturally True. The Naturally True is the 大道 Great Dao."

Question: "What should I do?"

Answer: "You should do nothing."

Question: "I understand this teaching now even less than before."

Answer: "There truly is no understanding of the Dharma. Do not seek to understand it." ...

Question: "Who teaches these words?"

Answer: "It is as I have been asked."

Question: "What does it mean to say that it is as you have been asked?"

Answer: "If you contemplate [your own] questions, the answers will be understood [thereby] as well."

At this Conditionality was silent and he thought everything through once again. Professor Enlightenment asked: "Why do you not say anything?"

Conditionality answered: "I do not perceive even the most minute bit of anything that can be explained."

At this point Professor Enlightenment said to Conditionality: "You would appear to have now perceived the True Principle."

Conditionality asked: "Why [do you say] 'would appear to have perceived' and not that I 'correctly perceived' [the True Principle]?"

Enlightenment answered: "What you have now perceived is the nonexistence of all dharmas. This is like the non-Buddhists who study how to make themselves invisible, but cannot destroy their shadow and footprints."

Conditionality asked: "How can one destroy both form and shadow?"

Enlightenment answered: "Being fundamentally without mind and its sensory realms, you must not willfully generate the ascriptive view (or, "perception") of impermanence."

[The following is from the end of the text.]

Question: "If one becomes [a Tathagata] without transformation and in one's own body, how could it be called difficult?"

Answer: "Willfully activating (ch'i ÑÃ) the mind is easy; extinguishing the mind is difficult. It is easy to affirm the body, but difficult to negate it. It is easy to act, but difficult to be without action. Therefore, understand that the mysterious achievement is difficult to attain, it is difficult to gain union with the Wondrous Principle. Motionless is the True, which the three [lesser vehicles] only rarely attain."[?]

At this Conditionality gave a long sigh, his voice filling the ten directions. Suddenly, soundlessly, he experienced a great expansive enlightenment. The mysterious brilliance of his pure wisdom [revealed] no doubt in its counter illumination. For the first time he realized the extreme difficulty of spiritual training and that he had been uselessly beset with illusory worries. He then sighed aloud: "Excellent! Just as you have taught without teaching, so have I heard without hearing..." (45)