The zuochan of "Inner Paths", 内道禪
Liusu t'an ching, 六祖壇經
The Platform Sutra, attributed to Huineng, 惠能
The Imperturbability of the Pure Mind
"Learned Audience, what is sitting for meditation? In our School, to sit means to gain absolute freedom and to be mentally unperturbed in all outward circumstances, be they good or otherwise. To meditate means to realize inwardly the imperturbability of the Essence of Mind."
Dhyana and Samadhi
"Learned audience, what are dhyana and samadhi? Dhyana means being free from attachment to all outer objects, and samadhi means ataining inner peace.
"Learned Audience, what are Dhyana and Samadhi? Dhyana means to be free from attachment to all outer objects, and Samadhi means to attain inner peace.
"If we are attached to outer objects, our inner mind will be perturbed. When we are free from attachment to all outer objects, the mind will be in peace.
"Our Essence of Mind is intrinsically pure, and the reason why we are perturbed is because we allow ourselves to be carried away by the circumstances we are in. He who is able to keep his mind unperturbed, irrespective of circumstances, has attained Samadhi.
"To be free from attachment to all outer objects is Dhyana, and to attain inner peace is Samadhi. When we are in a position to deal with Dhyana and to keep our inner mind in Samadhi, then we are said to have attained Dhyana and Samadhi.
"The Bodhisattva Sila Sutra says, 'Our Essence of Mind is intrinsically pure.' Learned Audience, let us realize this for ourselves at all times. Let us train ourselves, practice it by ourselves, and attain Buddhahood by our own effort."
Here, "sitting", is not referring to physical sitting position, but the "non-movement of the mind".
The objective is to perceive through the barriers of the Pure Sensations of Bare Attention. The object is to encounter, not experience, the pure nature of mind.
That is easy to say, but not really easy to understand unless it has been experienced. One cannot attain Chan; it is the path, and zuochan is the method. When the Awakening is encountered it is neither preceded by zuochan nor is it simultaneous, for zuochan is mind and the Primordial State, the pure mind, cannot be experienced by mind.
Huineng was critical of certain attitudes in practice which did not conform to his criteria of the true zuochan. These practices are referred to as "outer path" zuochan because they are also found in other practices outside Chan groups. Look at the following example:
Nan-Yueh Huai-jang, 南嶽懷懷讓 (677-744), was the master of Ma-Tsu.
Ma-Tsu had been shown that simply sitting went nowhere, and after seeking out Nan-Yeuh Huai-jang, he asked, "'What must I do then?"
Huai-jang replied, "Take the case of an ox-cart. If the cart does not move, do you whip the cart, or do you whip the ox?"
Ma-tsu remained silent. and Huai-jang continued, "In learning sitting-in-meditation, do you aspire to learn the sitting Chan or do you aspire to imitate the sitting Buddha?"
"If the former, Chan does not consist in sitting or in lying down. If the latter, the Buddha has no fixed postures.
The Dharma goes on forever, and never abides in anything. You must not therefore be attached to nor abandon any particular phase of it. To sit yourself like Buddha is to kill the Buddha. To be attached to the sitting posture is to fail to comprehend the essential principle."
When Ma-tsu heard these instructions, he felt as though he were drinking the most exquisite nectar. After doing obeisance to the master according to the rites, he further asked,
"How must one apply one's mind to be attuned to the formless Samadhi?"
The Ground of the Mind contains many seeds.
Which will all sprout when heavenly showers come?
The flower of Samadhi is beyond color and form.
The mesage is clear, is it not? Do not imitate the "sitting" Buddha no matter how tranquil that state may be.
This does not mean that one should never practice zuochan, but it is certain that most did not make it their principal practice. Those who did not just sit in the correct state of physical sitting Chan contemplation were critical of those who did so continually, calling it "Chan sickness."
Perhaps this is because the practice of continual physically sitting zuochan could easily lead to the deadheaded meditations of those outside of Chan.
But these were just preferences and the correct zuochan can be accomplished even while sitting if the mind is directed correctly.
Here we have an example:
In the Biography of Eminent Monks, 高僧傳, it says that Master Pai-chang Huai-hai, 百丈懷海 (720-814), himself established the design for the living quarters. In the meditation hall he designed long, connected sleeping platforms. They were for people who had been performing meditation extensively in the physical form of Sitting Chan, to permit them to rest.
Monks spent most of their time in this form of zuochan, and slept little. Pai-chang was a disciple of Ma-tsu, who as a master advocated non-sitting methods. Yet Master Pai-chang's disciples, who did use this discipline, in future generations developed the non-physical sitting contemplation schools known as Kuei-yang and Lin-chi.
You can see then that the zuochan of Chan refers to any type of Chan Contemplation based upon mental "sitting" to encounter the Buddha Nature, wu, 無, the Primordial State of the pure mind.