Ghostly Artifice and the Awakening of Mind-Ground Penetration

A Zen patriarch once said: "What is attained through thinking and speculation is ghostly routine." Ghosts belong to yin, lacking brightness, implying furtive peeping—not an upright and honorable attainment. Here, "ghost" metaphorically represents the conscious mind. The conscious mind delights in reasoning, guessing, conjecture, prying, and emotional reasoning and intellectual interpretation, rather than the bright-hearted realization, not the inner awakening that permeates from within.

Therefore, the Zen master said that true enlightenment cannot be attained through the thinking of the conscious mind, nor can it be obtained through the analytical thinking of consciousness. The thinking activities of consciousness cannot achieve true enlightenment; it is not the upright and luminous enlightenment. The Zen master teaches us that in Zen practice, we should not exert effort on the level of consciousness. Instead, we must delve deeper, sever emotional entanglements, cut off conjecture and interpretation, enter into meditation, deeply investigate while carrying "persistent doubt," diligently and steadfastly apply ourselves to the practice of the Way, and only then can we attain realization openly and honorably, entering the true path. This is the heavenly ladder leading to the Great Way, the cloud ladder to pluck the treasured gem.