Kōans
Most people understand too much. This understanding cannot help your life. Descartes said, "I think, therefore I am." So "I" makes "I". If you are not thinking, then what? Even if you have a big experience, if you cannot attain the one pure and clear thing, then all you understanding and experience cannot help your practice. Therefore Zen practice is not about understanding. Zen means only go straight, don't know.
So you must relinquish everything - your opinion, your condition, and your situation. Then your mind is clear like space. Then a correct answer to any Kōan will appear by itself. This is wisdom.
When you try a Kōan, if you don't attain it, don't worry! Don't be attached to the Kōan, and also don't try to understand the Kōan. Only go straight, don't know: try, try, try for then thousand years, nonstop. Then you attain the Way, the Truth, and the Life, which means from moment to moment keeping the correct situation, correct relationship, and correct function. That is already Great Love, Great Compassion, and the Great Bodhisattva Way.
Householder Zen PracticeChán Master Dàhuì Zōnggăo (1089 – 1163), who was the primary disciple of Chán Master Yuanwu Keqin, (the Author of the Bìyán Lù 碧巌録 "Blue Cliff Record"), noticed that his practitioners were beginning to attach to the words of his late Master with blind and superficial understand. Consequently, and without hesitation, he destroyed the Blue Cliff Record printing blocks, such that the book subsequently became out of print. It was certainly an unusual event for a disciple to do such a thing to his master. In the eyes of contemporary people what the disciple did was outrageous. At that time, Master Dàhuì Zōnggăo destroyed all the printing blocks, nevertheless, years later, later disciples cut new ones and the book came into circulation once again.
Master Dàhuì is known as the functional founder of our modern method of practice, mainly the huàtóu and kōan method of insight and transcendence. Dàhuì attained enlightenment at an early age and was assigned as the principle teacher to the Lay Students who were practicing under the tutelage of Chán Master Yuánwù. Because of this, Dàhuì wrote many of his treatises with the Lay Student in mind. It is because this great teacher stepped out of the normal function of a monk and spent his time almost exclusively with Lay Students in his early years of practice, that we today have a methodology that can work within the life of a householder.
Master Dàhuì is known as the functional founder of our modern method of practice, mainly the huàtóu and kōan method of insight and transcendence. Dàhuì attained enlightenment at an early age and was assigned as the principle teacher to the Lay Students who were practicing under the tutelage of Chán Master Yuánwù. Because of this, Dàhuì wrote many of his treatises with the Lay Student in mind. It is because this great teacher stepped out of the normal function of a monk and spent his time almost exclusively with Lay Students in his early years of practice, that we today have a methodology that can work within the life of a householder.
"To attain enlightenment, it is not necessary to abandon family life, quit your job, become a vegetarian, practice asceticism, flee to a quiet mountain top, or enter a ghost cave of dead Zen to entertain your subjective imaginings. If you have been practicing quiet meditation but your mind is still not calm and fee when in the midst of activity, this means your haven't been empowered by your quiet meditation. Furthermore, if you have been practicing quietude just to get rid of agitation, then when your are practicing quietude just to get rid of agitation, then when you are in the midst of agitation, the agitation will disturb your mind just as if you had never done any quiet meditation.When you are studying Zen, as you meet with people and deal with situations, never allow bad thoughts to continue. If a bad thought arises, immediately focus your attention and root the thought out. If, however, you just follow the thought unhindered, this will not only make it impossible to have any insight into your own true nature it will also make you a fool.Good and bad come from you own mind. But what do you call your own mind, apart from your actions and thoughts? Where does your mind come from? If you really know where your own mind comes from, boundless obstacles caused by your own actions will be cleared all at once. After seeing that, all sorts of extraordinary possibilities will come to you without your seeking them."
Chán Master Dàhuì Zōnggăo
