The Correct Chan Practice in Accordance with Principle Before Enlightenment

Ven. Shi Ruyuan's Chan meditation experience: I am grateful to the Grandmaster for the blessings He has bestowed upon me, His disciple, these past days—my merit has brought me such great benefit! The responses I have experienced as a disciple have been immense!

On the first evening after returning, I sat in meditation, and during meditative concentration inconceivable responses and feelings arose. Now, whether walking, standing, or lying down, I am always in meditative concentration. That day, the moment I sat down on the cushion, my head instantly went "boom," as if a large mass of air current were expelled, and my mind felt empty and hollow, as if something had struck my head fiercely—I was shaken out of concentration. On the second and third days, my body remained in concentration and could not move; I could not come out of concentration. On the third night, I was too excited to sleep all night, and I began to worry: if the following days were all like this, what would I become? These past few days, my thighs have also become sore and swollen, my eyes cannot open, and when I want to get up and walk, I simply cannot move; when I stand up, I feel unsteady and floaty, afraid of falling, as if my cerebellum had lost its sense of balance.

On the fourth day, I was slightly better and could move about; my legs were no longer sore and swollen. Around eleven o'clock at night, while in concentration, a powerful stream of air rushed out from my nostrils and shook me out of concentration. At the time, I sat there to compose myself, recalling the Grandmaster's teaching to me: do not just sit there; move about appropriately, practice walking meditation, and investigate the tathāgatagarbha amid the states you encounter. So I got up and practiced walking meditation, while contemplating that all dharmas born of the tathāgatagarbha are illusory dharmas. In an instant, I felt the dharma meanings churning back and forth in my mind; I could not control body and mind to come out of concentration, could not perceive the six sense objects outside the mind, and only the sound of the Buddha's name kept spinning and playing in my mind. Such great responses and experiences truly cannot be expressed in words; they can only be enjoyed or understood within meditative concentration—those with shallow concentration cannot feel them at all.

The above are the responses and experiences of those few days. Now I have recovered; body and mind are relaxed and at ease, and I can normally engage in contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) on the dharma meanings. Now the questioning doubts or answers that arise in my mind are becoming clearer and clearer. Even going to the toilet, I can sustain questioning doubt without interruption—doubting who it is whose power drags this wooden-like five aggregates (pañca-skandha) body of mine to the toilet; doubting how this power exercises its wondrous functions on the sentient being's shell of form. When eating and drinking, I cannot help asking: in these activities of my five aggregates—raising hands and lifting feet, dressing, eating and drinking, holding the bowl and picking up the chopsticks—who is it that upholds them all?

Assessment: Ven. Shi Ruyuan's skill in Chan investigation is in no way inferior to the many Chan masters of the Tang and Song dynasties, nor in any way inferior to the Mahāyāna bodhisattvas who investigated Chan in the Buddha's time, because the skill of Chan investigation before enlightenment is the same in every era—there is no updating, no change, and the standard and level cannot be lowered. The only difference is that Ven. Shi Ruyuan cultivates under me and has learned too much of the tathāgatagarbha dharma, and it has been taught too directly, so she no longer needs to expend much effort organizing and systematizing it; she relies more on external help, and her self-reliant effort appears insufficient. The ancient Chan masters, by contrast, learned the prajñā doctrine only roughly, far less extensively and meticulously, and so they had no choice but to apply themselves diligently in investigation, relying more on their own effort, and thus their wisdom was developed deeply. Teaching too directly is not conducive to disciples' Chan investigation; it easily leads to intellectual understanding, which affects the disciple's progress on the Path and the arising of wisdom.

But why did Ven. Shi Ruyuan not arrive at intellectual understanding? Looking at the questioning doubt she raised, it is like a layer of window paper—one poke and it breaks—pointing directly at the central point, pointing at the target of enlightenment, pointing at that moon that never fades away. The reason is that Ven. Shi Ruyuan's meditative concentration is very deep and very continuous—it cannot be pulled apart, demons cannot disturb it, and no one can interrupt it. Therefore she did not use the mind consciousness to resolve the questioning doubt; she did not use the mind consciousness to reason, guess, speculate, or analyze. If her concentration had been somewhat shallower and she had put the mind consciousness to use, she might have resolved the result without effort, breaking the mind consciousness's questioning doubt—but the manas's questioning doubt could not be broken.

Precisely because Ven. Shi Ruyuan did not use the mind consciousness to resolve the questioning doubt, did not take shortcuts, and only used the manas to investigate honestly and earnestly, even though someone enlightened can see that her questioning doubt is like window paper, she herself could not see through it—only because she is too sincere and does not cut corners. In such deep and continuous skill, one cannot cut corners; when the manas's own questioning doubt is heavy, it simply will not give the mind consciousness a chance to resolve it.

Therefore, as long as the skill is deep and the manas's questioning doubt is heavy, even if the dharma meaning is taught as directly as possible, intellectual understanding can be avoided. Even if the hidden meaning is explicitly told, because of the questioning doubt, the manas will still investigate and verify it, will practice and realize it, and will not allow the mind consciousness to accept it through belief and understanding. In this way, as long as the skill is in place and the manas has doubt, those with prior intellectual understanding can transform it into realization—turning the plainly stated Buddha-dharma into a proof problem: knowing the answer yet requiring the process of solving it. In the genuine process of investigation, the bodhisattva's disposition matures, and thereby the merit and wisdom of seeing the Path arise.

Hasn't Ven. Shi Ruyuan explained the method and process of applying effort in Chan investigation quite clearly? Hasn't she also pointed out the target of Chan investigation plainly and unmistakably—only falling short of stating it outright? Isn't the finger pointing at the moon shining brightly as it points at the moon? Yet even so, for many people it is still of no use—they cannot get a handle on it. What is the reason? They have no skill at all; even guessing with the mind consciousness is difficult for them, and even if they guess it out, it is not accurate enough, has no effect on their own body and mind, and their afflictions remain afflictions as before.

Most importantly, they lack the Small Vehicle's mind of renunciation, and the Great Vehicle's bodhi mind cannot be aroused either. For such people, Buddhist practice and realization are only one part of the content of their lives; many affairs of the secular world still occupy an important position, and the manas cannot regard cultivation as important—so how could such skill be developed? Each person cultivates and each person enjoys the benefit; no one can substitute for another. Therefore, explicitly stating the final result of Chan investigation is of no help to others. It is not that if someone else states it explicitly, you can then arrive at intellectual understanding—realization is even more impossible.