What does "not relying on words" mean in Chan Buddhism?

The Chan school is also called the "gate of the source" (zongmen). The source of the Buddhadharma is the true mind, the tathāgatagarbha, and the Chan school is the dharma gate of investigating Chan to realize and awaken to the true mind, the tathāgatagarbha. Although the tathāgatagarbha has no language, writing, or sound, the entire process of investigating Chan likewise makes no use of language, writing, or sound. Whatever is conveyed through language and writing is not the true mind. Therefore, when investigating Chan, the language, writing, and sounds of both the one transmitting the Dharma and the one receiving it become useless; all books and theories become useless; the Chan investigator no longer needs to mutter to himself, ramble on, or hum and haw—all external reference points for comparison are stripped away.

In this way, there is no longer any room to roam freely through vast imaginings, emotional thoughts, and intellectual interpretations, to give full rein to inference and non-valid cognition. The mind consciousness has no room to perform, and one must honestly and entirely rely on the manas's direct perception (pratyakṣa) to deliberate and investigate. Although this is arduous and keeps one sleepless through the night, the results are abundant: it can excavate the potential and wisdom hidden within the inner manas. Once you dig out your own family treasure, from then on you will live a free and prosperous life, no longer wandering homeless, begging your way through bitter days.

At this point, the written words outside and the words in the mind are of no use and cannot exert any force. One can only rely on one's own inherent wisdom; only thus can one develop the great wisdom within oneself. All reasoning, all analysis, all organizing, all summarizing, all dissecting, all integrating, all conjecturing, all imagining, all comparing, all scriptural authority, all theories, all knowledge, all learning—none of it can be used anymore. The mind consciousness rests and no longer needs to toil. At this point, a responsible Chan master will tell you to put the Buddhist sutras away, forbidding you to read sutras or books; violators will face the disciplinary ruler. Once the investigation reaches a critical moment, getting struck is absolutely a good thing. Although language and writing can no longer be used, one can still be struck. When being struck, there is still no language, writing, or thinking, yet it can touch off the inspiration of the manas.

When the master delivers the stick, if the mind consciousness is very active, it will immediately think and analyze: "This might be it!" But the result is: Wrong! The mind consciousness then analyzes and infers: "The true and the false are combined—this is not wrong." But the result is still: Wrong! You further use the process of elimination to deduce and conjecture: "This is not the eye consciousness, not the ear, nose, or body consciousnesses, nor is it the mind consciousness or the manas—it must be the eighth consciousness!" But in the end the result is still: Wrong! If you dare to move the mind consciousness, no matter how, the answer is one word: Wrong! After three wrongs, if you still fail to awaken, the Chan master will push you out of the Chan hall, or even push you out of the Chan monastery or temple, refusing to keep you—because you are not yet a suitable vessel for the Path and have no qualification to investigate Chan. Of course, a fully qualified Chan master will not strike the stick indiscriminately; he will surely observe the psychological state of the investigator clearly and deliver the stick at the most opportune moment. This is called "the stick that meets the moment"—casting off all defiled objects and sentimental attachments, directly recognizing, through direct perception, that which is neither a defiled object nor a sentimental attachment.

The patriarchs and masters of the past always said: if the thieving mind does not die, one cannot awaken to the Way; if the bandit mind does not die, one cannot awaken to the Way. What mind does the thieving mind refer to? What bandit mind? What is being stolen that prevents awakening to the Way? Who is the thief? What has been stolen? When investigating Chan, how does one remove the thieving mind? The thieving mind during Chan investigation can also be called the mind of opportunism and trickery, the mind that seeks shortcuts—the mind that directly takes knowledge and theories from elsewhere and treats them as realization, as personal verification. Because it is not personally verified by the manas itself, whatever the mind consciousness opportunistically brings in from elsewhere is called "stealing." In the past, a phrase was often used to describe the Dharma teachings of patriarchs with genuine realization: it was said that their teachings were all dug out from the depths of their own hearts. This means that the Dharma the patriarchs taught was all realized through their own practice, the crystallization of their own wisdom—not ready-made theoretical knowledge that the mind consciousness had hauled in from elsewhere, nor theories learned from others that were merely organized, summarized, processed, and given a facelift to pass off as one's own. Such things do not count as awakening to the Way, and they also hinder awakening to the Way.

What is called "immediate manifestation from one's own mind (manas) (sva-citta-pratyakṣa)"? Only what is dug out from one's own bosom is called immediate manifestation from one's own mind. "Bosom" and "the depths of the heart" both refer to the deep abode of the manas, the master. The opposite of this is what the mind consciousness effortlessly interprets, what is worked out without cultivating precepts, meditative concentration (samādhi), and wisdom, or the thirty-seven factors of enlightenment, or what is deduced by comparing and referencing learned theories and the views of others—this is pretty much taking it for free. When the mind consciousness acts this way, it is pretty much stealing. If the thieving mind does not die, the manas cannot deliberate (manasikāra/manana) and investigate, and one cannot realize the Way. Whatever Dharma the mind consciousness has learned in great quantity is, in substance, all stolen—because it is not from the bosom, not one's own; it is all Dharma from elsewhere, Dharma that goes in one ear and out the mouth, Dharma learned and immediately resold. None of it is one's own family treasure.