About Zen — A Rinzai Primer
Teachings of Rinzai Gigen
Rinzai Gigen, and his Chinese name of Linji or Lin Chi, was a ninth-century Chan [Zen] teacher in China, for whom we named a current school of Zen practice.
They who have nothing further to seek, do not look for anything outside, the ones here before your very eyes, brilliantly clear and shining. without any form. Ceaselessly they are right here, conspicuously present.
There is nothing that is not profound, nothing that is not deliverance.
There are none who are not of the utmost profundity, none who are not emancipated.
Conforming with circumstances, as they are, they exhaust their past karma; accepting things as they are, they put on clothes; when they want to walk, they walk, when they want to sit, they sit; they never have a single thought of seeking buddhahood.
Just be ordinary. Don’t put on airs.
They who have nothing to do are the noble ones. Simply do not strive — just be ordinary.
Dharma is the dharma of mind. Mind is without form; it pervades the ten directions and is manifesting its activity right before our very eyes.
Grasp and use, but never name — this is called the “mysterious principle.”
As to buddhadharma, no effort is necessary. We have only to be ordinary, with nothing to do — defecating, urinating, wearing clothes, eating food, and lying down when tired.
If we realize that the ten thousand dharmas never come into being, that mind is like a phantom, that not a speck of dust nor a single thing exists, that there is no place that is not clean and pure — this is Buddha.
In my view there is no Buddha, no sentient beings, no past, no present. Anything attained was already attained — no time is needed. There is nothing to practice, nothing to realize, nothing to gain, nothing to lose. Throughout all time, there is no other dharma than this. If one claims there is a dharma surpassing this, I say that it is like a dream, like a phantasm. This is all I have to teach.
Awaken to non-dependence, then there is no buddha to be obtained. Insight such as this is true insight.
Everywhere is pure, light illumines the ten directions, and all dharmas are a single suchness.
If we want to be free to live or to die, to go or to stay as we would put on or take off our clothes, then right now we recognize the ones who have no form, no characteristics, no root, no source, no dwelling place, and yet are bright and vigorous. Of all their various responsive activities, none leaves any trace. The more we chase them, the farther away they go, and the more we seek them, the more they turn away; this is called the “Mystery.”
Value every second.
The we who right now are listening to this discourse are not the four elements; we make use of the four elements.
Our activity right now, never changing, nowhere faltering — this is the living Mañjuśrī. Our single thought is non-differentiating light — this indeed is the true Samantabhadra. Our single thought that frees itself from bondage and brings emancipation everywhere — this is the Avalokiteśvara samādhi. Since these three alternately take the position of master and attendants, when they appear, they appear at one and the same time, one in three, three in one.
Desist from thinking and never seek outside. If something should come, illumine it. We have faith in our activity revealed now — there isn’t a thing to do.
Buddhas and ancestors are people with nothing to do. Therefore, for them, activity and the defiling passions, and also non-activity and no passion, are pure karma.
What is lacking in our present activity? What still needs to be patched up?
Ordinary mind is the Way.
If we engage in any seeking, it will be pain. Much better to do nothing.
All dharmas are empty forms. When transformation takes place, dharmas are existent; when transformation does not take place, they are nonexistent. The three realms are mind-only, the ten thousand dharmas are consciousness-only. Hence, Illusory dreams, flowers in the sky: why try to grasp them!
There are no dharmas to be disliked.
Followers of the Way, if we want insight into dharma as it is, we are not taken in by the deluded views of others. Whatever we encounter, either within or without, we slay it at once. On meeting a buddha, we slay the buddha, on meeting an ancestor, we slay the ancestor, on meeting an arhat, we slay the arhat, on meeting our parents, we slay our parents, on meeting our relatives, we slay our relatives, and we attain emancipation. By not cleaving to things, we freely pass through.
I haven’t a single dharma to give to people. All I can do is to cure illnesses and untie bonds. Try coming before me without being dependent upon things and I will confer with you.
There is no buddha, no dharma, nothing to practice, nothing to enlighten to. What are we seeking in the highways and byways?
What do you yourself lack? Followers of the Way, our own present activities do not differ from those of the ancestor-buddhas. You just don’t believe this and keep on seeking outside. Make no mistake! Outside there is no dharma; inside, there is nothing to be obtained. Better than grasp at the words from my mouth, take it easy and do nothing. Don’t continue thoughts that have already arisen and don’t let those that haven’t yet arisen be aroused. Just this will be worth far more to you than a ten-year pilgrimage.
There isn’t so much to do. Just be ordinary — put on your clothes, eat your food, and pass the time doing nothing. We who come here from here and there all have a mind to seek buddha, to seek dharma, to seek emancipation, to seek escape from the three realms.
Do we want to know the three realms? They are not separate from the mind-ground of those who right now are listening to this discourse. Our single covetous thought is the realm of desire; our single angry thought is the realm of form; our single delusive thought is the realm of formlessness. These are the furnishings within our own house. Followers of the Way, right now vividly illuminating all things and taking the measure of the world, we give the names to the three realms.
The place where our one thought comes to rest is called the bodhi tree; the place where our one thought cannot come to rest is called the avidyā tree. Avidyā has no dwelling place; avidyā has no beginning and no end. If our successive thoughts cannot come to rest, we go up the avidyā tree; we enter the six paths of existence and the four modes of birth, wear fur on our bodies and horns on our heads. If our successive thoughts can come to rest, then our very body is the pure body.
When not a single thought arises in our mind, then we go up the bodhi tree: we supernaturally transform ourselves in the three realms and change our bodily form at will. We rejoice in the dharma and delight in samādhi, and the radiance of our body shines forth of itself.
Grasp and use, but never name — this is called the “mysterious principle.”
The view of the Chan [Zen] school is that the sequence of death and life is orderly. The student of Chan [Zen] must examine this most carefully.
Motion and motionlessness both are without self-nature. If we try to seize it within motion, it takes a position within motionlessness. If we try to seize it within motionlessness, it takes a position within motion. Like a fish hiding in a pool, smacking the waves as it leaps from the water.
For the people who understand, it’s always right here before their eyes.
With respect to my own activity today — true creation and destruction — I play with miraculous transformations, enter into all kinds of circumstances, yet nowhere have I anything to do. Circumstances cannot change me.
Because of mental activities, thoughts arise, but these are all just robes.
Much better to do nothing.
Virtuous monks, what are you seeking as you go around hither and yon, walking until the soles of your feet are flat? There is no buddha to seek, no Way to complete, no dharma to attain. If you seek outside for a buddha having form, you won’t find him to resemble you; if you know your own original mind, it is neither united with nor apart from him.
With the true person of the Way, from moment-to-moment, mind is not interrupted.
When at these words we turn our own light in upon ourselves and never seek elsewhere, then we will know that our body and mind are not different from those of the ancestors-buddhas and at this instant have nothing to do — this is called “obtaining the dharma.”
It is better to have nothing to do, better to be plain and simple.
The persons of the Way who are now listening to my discourse leaves no trace of their activity.
The Buddha of Supreme Penetration and Surpassing Wisdom sat for ten kalpas in a place of practice, But the buddhadharma did not manifest itself to him, and he did not attain the buddha-way. “I don’t understand the meaning of this. Would the master kindly explain?” The master said, “Supreme Penetration” means that one personally penetrates everywhere into the naturelessness and formlessness of the ten thousand dharmas. “Surpassing Wisdom” means to have no doubts anywhere and to not obtain a single dharma. “Buddha” means pureness of the mind whose radiance pervades the entire dharma realm. “Sat for ten kalpas in a place of practice” refers to the practice of the ten pāramitās. “The buddhadharma did not manifest” means that buddha is in essence birthless and dharmas in essence unextinguished. Why should it manifest itself! “He did not attain the buddha-way;” a buddha can’t become a buddha again. A man of old said, “Buddha is always present in the world, but is not stained by worldly dharmas.” Followers of the Way, if we want to become a buddha, we don’t go along with the ten thousand things. When mind arises, all kinds of dharmas arise; when mind is extinguished, all kinds of dharmas are extinguished.
All dharmas are only empty forms and have no attachment anywhere.
When, in the midst of the pure dharma realm, we haven’t in our mind a single reasoning thought, and pitch blackness pervades everywhere.
When a single thought in our mind truly realizes that the bonds and enticements of the passions are like space with nothing upon which to depend, when we see that causal relations are empty, that mind is empty, and that dharmas are empty, and our single thought is decisively cut off and, transcendent, we’ve nothing to do.
A single thought in our mind is doing nothing but conceiving an empty fist or a pointing finger to be real, senselessly conjuring up apparitions from among the dharmas of the sense-fields.
