THE ONE-WORD AWARENESS OF ZONGMI
IN CONSTRUCTION
One of the first questions normally asked is, "Why there are six great masters and not five?"
We normally hear about the "five" houses of Chan or Zen. Apart from the fact that they are not "houses" but models, the designation as five is very interesting.
The number five coincides with the prediction that in the future, after Huineng, five great masters would come along. Now what do you do if you are part of the traditional system when there are actually six great masters?
You ignore the prediction or you find some way to exclude one Chan Master.
Need more be said?
The task was easy as Zongmi was, as well as an eminent Chan Master, a great Master of Huayan.
The Huayan model concentrates upon the relation between phenomena and not between the relative and the absolute. All the universe is generated from Dao and the root principles of all are essentailly non-dual. This unity is pluralist, that is to say, the one is expressed in the multiple and the multiple is an expression of the one.
Samsara then is an expression of the One, with which Chan is in accord, for the illusions which human creatures experience are natural and correct. The problem is not Samsara, but the stains and distortions that the human mind mounts upon Samsara, and all phenomena are fundamentally in perfect harmony.
THE ARISING OF IGNORANCE
Ignorance is a state of Unenlightenment
from which rise all Stained Thoughts.
The result is the Arising of a Perceiving Subject
and thus a Manifestation of Perceived Objects.
The arises an Attachment to Things
followed by an Attachment to Self.
Clearly then there are Defilements
and Consequential Karma.
One then experiences the Consequences.
THE SUDDEN AWAKENING (Dun-wu)
This Sudden Awakening (Dun-wu) involves meeting with a good friend (in the Tibetan sense) who is a guide, who enables one to gain an insight into the Intrinsic Awakening of the mind, which is the True Nature of the Mind.
This enables the adept who is dilligent to overcome the State of Unawakening. There then arises Confidence in Suchness and the Buddha Dharma Path.
Naturally then arises the Resolve to attain Awakening (Faxin), counteracting Consequences.
There is then the Cultivation of the Five Practices (xiu wu-xing), which includes patience, morality, generosity, striving (with resolution and perseverance, we must suppose) and the
Meditative Insight (Vipassana).
This counteracts Consequential Karma.
Next there is Spiritual Development (gai-fa), which is the development of Compassion and Wisdom.
These gradually, as they develop, eliminate Defilements.
Then there arises the knowing of the Emptiness of Cognitive Self (Fagong), which naturally overcomes gradually the Attachment to Self.
Following from this is the realization of the Emptiness of Things (dharmas).
This overcomes Attachment to Things.
Mastering of Form develops then in which the comprehension that the Perceiving Subject arises from the mind.
This counteracts the believing in the Illusions of Samsara as real.
Freedom from Thought (li-nian) is the consequence and there is a full awareness of the origin of deluded thoughts as the mind, and the clear comprehension that the True Nature of the Mind is eternal.
This overcomes the arising of Stained Thought.
Intrinsic Awakening arises, which is the Attainment of Buddhahood.
For Zongmi, what we generally term Sudden Awakening was the experience in which one sees that one's True Nature is, and always has been, identical with that of Buddha. The natural actual functioning of the mind is the Masculine Expression of the Intrinsically Awakened True Mind, which we here can understand as the Base of the Feminine Principle.
Now the important question, now that we have seen the general model that Zongmi has developed for the available Buddhist path, is where were his own Contemplations directed?
In view of his self-claimed relationship with Huineng we must imagine that his objective was the most direct approach possible and this could only be directed at the Intrinsic Awakening, although it is almost certain, through an examination of his life, that he was not able to reach that Awakening by the identical path as Huineng. His approach then was a direct approach by way of Awareness.
ONE-WORD AWARENESS OF ZONGMI
Although the phrase, "one-word awareness" was coined by Shenhui, it was Zongmi who used it as a central idea for the construction of his theories. While it is true that the Chinese character 知 zhi can be translated as "knowledge," its more correct translation is "awareness."
Furthermore, we can declare Awareness itself to be an "Empty Tranquil Awareness" (gong ji zhi) that is
related to "Ever-present awareness" (zhang zhi).
It is this Ever-Present Awareness, when generated as a Last Conceptualization, that permits the entry into
the ESSENCE OF THE SELF NATURE (tzu-hsing-ti).
EVER-PRESENT AWARENESS
The mind has two natural ways of functioning. The first is the unconscious way of the Feminine Principle, which is a right-hemisphere operation which is an Empty Tranquil Awareness. The second is the way of the Masculine Principle, which is an operation of the Left Hemisphere and the operation of the expression of that Feminine Principle. The related Expression which has contact with cognition is "Functioning in accord with conditions" (sui-yuan ying-yung).
This is the EVER-PRESENT AWARENESS, to which he refers as the ESSENCE of the Self-Nature.
Furthermore, Zongmi explains that if we imagine a bronze mirror, the material substance of the bronze is the essence of the self-nature (tzu-xing ti).
The luminous reflectivity (ming) is the functioning of the self-nature (tzu-xing yung), and is the ever-present REFLECTIVITY of the Self Nature.
The images reflected are the "functioning in accord with conditions (sui-yuan ying-yung).
The natural Buddha Nature is EMPTY TRANQUIL AWARENESS (kung chi zhi)
The Ever-present Tranquility of the Mind is the ESSENCE OF THE SELF-NATURE (tzu-hsing-ti)
The ROOT FUNCTIONING of the Self Nature is the EVER-PRESENT AWARENESS (chang zhi)
The Expression of this is "FUNCTIONING IN ACCORD WITH CONDITIONS." (sui-yuan ying-yung)
The Contemplations of Zongmi are directed at the ESSENCE OF THE SELF-NATURE by way of passing through the Last Conceptualization of the EVER-PRESENT AWARENESS OF THE MIND.
This is the ONE-WORD AWARENESS
What does Zongmi's Contemplative Awareness uncover?
"The mind, the luminously reflective jewel, can be seen in itself when it
does not reflect any colours."
This reflection is caused by Cognitive thinking.
One of the most important indications that we can deduce of Zongmi's Contemplation is his gradual supplanting of the Huayan Phenomenology of Enlightenment with the idea that
indeed there is an Ontonological base of reality, in which the mind is compared to an ocean whose originally tranquil surface is stirred up into waves by the wind of ignorance.
This was a decisive change for him transposing Shi-shi wu-ai (事事無礙) into Li-shi wu-ai (理事無礙), the "Non-obstruction of 'All Things" into the "Non-Obstruction of the Inner Essence of Things."
This inner essence of things is the "ESSENCE OF THE SELF-NATURE (tzu-hsing-ti)."
The non-Obstruction of all things produces only correct "FUNCTIONING IN ACCORD WITH CONDITIONS."
All phenomena, animate and inanimate, are a product of the mind.
As such, the perfect state within a conscious mind that is unstained by Identity is one also of perfect harmony. That harmony which is functional has according to Zongmi six characteristics:
Composition and Decomposition
The rising and falling away in consciousness.
All is formed within consciousness from a uniform base
It is Universal, but the parts all of one kind may yet be Specified.
All is Homogenous with available Clarity of detail (Sharpness).
It is the task then of Contemplation to allow these six characteristics to operate without the contamination of Identity and be free of the Duality which destroys these characteristics. The ideal Last Conceptualization then is one which accomplishes the pure Last Conceptual Experiences for Awareness which are composed of these
six characteristics.
This is accomplished by an Awareness of Reflectivity of the Self-Nature, the Pure Sensory Awareness, in which the information available at that point is simply that Six sense-door sensing is taking place.
Now for the building of the Last Conceptualization for the Contemplation, be it a physical sitting meditation or a constant "sitting" of the mind for the case of Zongmi within the REFLECTION of VITAKKA it begins by reflecting upon the six characteristics of Sensory Awareness, which are
Composition and Decomposition
Universality and Specificity
Homogeneity and Sharpness
It is the universality of Sensing that however becomes the principal focus of the Reflection. This is, as it were, drawn out of the six-point set and as the Reflection falls away there will be an arising of the cognitive experience of this universalness as Vicara... All senses are one sense that extends to the whole word, the cosmos, comprising all undiferentiated particulars.
This, of course, is a guide to that first reflection, which is really particular and individual at the moment of
access to the Contemplation.
Now it is possible to allow the flow from the Reflection to the absorption level of the Last Conceptualization,
but with experience one can enter directly through the arousal of the Cognitive Experience of the Universality of Sensing (without objects of sensing).
The other two Contemplations focus upon different aspects. One upon "Specificity" and the other upon the awareness of common roots or "Homogeneity," but with a "Sharpness" which becomes the base of the sense-door differentiation of Observing without an Observer.
li shih wu ai
The simultaneous presence of inter-subjectivity and individual phenomena.
shih shih wu ai
The state of all-in-one and one-in-all. There is no loss of individuality.
This is because all Dharmas are without individual substance.