Linji School Principles (臨濟宗旨)

Linji's Teaching

Preface by the Renowned Monk Huihong, Dwelling in the Hut of Clarity

Zen Master Fenyang Zhao addressed the assembly, saying: "The ancient sages said, 'One phrase must contain the Three Mysteries, and within each Mystery must be contained the Three Essentials.' What is this phrase that contains the Three Mysteries and Three Essentials? Understand it quickly! Each of you should reflect—have you reached certainty?

In olden days, when practitioners traveled in search of masters, if they heard a teaching they did not fully grasp, they would lose all appetite for food and drink, and find no rest in sleep. They would urgently seek resolution. How could they treat such matters lightly? That is why the Great Awakened One appeared in the world for the Great Matter of birth and death. Consider—those ancients traveled not to enjoy scenic mountains and rivers, nor to admire the splendor of cities. Their simple robes and modest meals were all in service of an unawakened mind. That is why they journeyed tirelessly, seeking to penetrate life's profound depths, transmitting and expounding the Dharma, consulting those who knew beforehand, and drawing near to teachers of high virtue. All this was to continue the lamp of the Buddha-mind, to uphold the Buddha-seed and the lineage of patriarchs, to flourish the sacred tradition, and to guide those of lesser capacity. Benefiting themselves and others, they never forgot the footprints of those who came before.

Is there anyone here who can discuss this? If so, step forward and let us all deliberate together."

A monk asked: "What is the phrase that guides those of initial capacity?" Fenyang replied: "You are a monk on pilgrimage."

The monk asked: "What is the phrase that discerns true monks?" Fenyang replied: "In the West, the sun rises at the hour of the Rabbit."

The monk asked: "What is the phrase of the true command in action?" Fenyang replied: "From a thousand miles, one brings an old face to present."

The monk asked: "What is the phrase that establishes heaven and earth?" Fenyang replied: "In Uttarakuru, the long-grain rice grows. Those who eat it feel neither hatred nor joy."

The Master then said: "With these four turning phrases alone, I test all monks under heaven. The moment I see you step forward, I have already tested you."

A monk asked: "What is the place where a student exerts effort?" Fenyang replied: "Carving the great Buddha image in Jiazhou."

The monk asked: "What is the place where a student turns around?" Fenyang replied: "Pouring iron for the iron ox in Shaanfu."

The monk asked: "What is the place most intimate to a student?" Fenyang replied: "Playing with the lion in Xihe."

The Master said: "If one understands these three phrases, one has already discerned the Three Mysteries. There remain additional words on the Three Essentials—be sure to grasp them. This is no trivial matter."

Then he offered a verse for the assembly:

"The Three Mysteries and Three Essentials are hard to separate. Once meaning is grasped, words are forgotten, and the Path draws near. One phrase illuminates all phenomena clearly— On the ninth day of the ninth month, chrysanthemums bloom anew."

"Do you understand? If you understand this way, you are not yet a true monk of direct realization. How should it be understood?"

He then raised the matter of the Three Mysteries, saying: "Do you understand the time of the Three Mysteries? You must grasp the ancient ones' essential meaning. Then your own mind will illuminate, and you will attain transformation and adaptability. You will enjoy inexhaustible functioning—this is called the body of self-enjoyment. Not depending on another's teaching, you will recognize your own livelihood. Thus Nanquan said, 'The old teacher Wang understood livelihood from the age of eighteen.'"

A monk then asked: "The ancients understood livelihood at eighteen—what sort of livelihood was this?"

Fenyang replied: "Two water buffaloes, with horns but no halter ring."

Then he added: "If you wish to understand this clearly, you must penetrate the essential purport of the Three Mysteries. Only then will you function without obstruction, rejoice in yourself, and fulfill your entire life's aspiration. A true man must not betray himself. If you remain blocked in all encounters, you benefit no one at all.

For you, I offer this verse on all of it:

The First Mystery: The Dharma-realm is vast, without bounds. All the teeming multitude and myriad forms Gather perfectly within the mirror.

The Second Mystery: Shakyamuni asked Ananda. With vast learning, one answers according to conditions— The bowl measures according to its container's dimensions.

The Third Mystery: It issues directly, before the ancient emperors. Beyond the four propositions and hundred negations— Old Lü asks Fenggan."

The Master then said: "This is the verse on the Three Mysteries. What is their essential purport? You must discern it absolutely clearly. Do not merely gaze into empty space and fabricate interpretations, saying, 'I once drew near a Master, and he explained it to me.' Such deceptions and false talk to frighten others—the day will come when you taste the iron staff. Don't say you were not warned.

Later, while picking chrysanthemums, he said to the assembly: "Golden flowers spread across the ground, jade pistils touch the sky. The brilliant sun hangs in the void, and heaven and earth shine radiantly. Clouds rise and bring rain; dew gathers and becomes frost. Without violating the essence of things, offer me one phrase. Is there anyone who can speak it? If no one can answer, there is a speck of dust in your eye—you must remove it before you can see clearly.

Thus Fengxue said: 'If one sets up a single speck of dust, the nation flourishes, yet the old villager furrows his brow. If one sets up not a single speck, the nation perishes, and the old villager finds peace.' If you understand this point, the acolyte has no share in it— it is wholly the old monk. If you do not understand this, then the old monk is the acolyte. The acolyte and the old monk together can awaken everyone under heaven, and together can blind everyone under heaven. Do you wish to know the old monk and the acolyte?"

He patted his knee and said: "Here is the acolyte. Here is the old monk."

Then he asked: "Honored ones, are the old monk and the acolyte the same or different? If you say they are the same, then you are you, and the old monk is the old monk. If you say they are different, then it is said that the old monk is precisely the acolyte. If you can understand this clearly, then within one phrase are the Three Mysteries and Three Essentials—host and guest stand out distinctly. Your life's work is done; your search is complete.

Thus Yongjia said: 'Even grinding bones to powder and smashing the body to bits is not enough to repay [this teaching]—one phrase understood clearly surpasses a hundred million eons.'"

He also said: "One day, the two head monks of Linji's two halls met each other, and both shouted simultaneously. A monk asked Linji, 'Is there host and guest in this?' Linji answered, 'Host and guest are distinctly manifest.'"

The Master then composed this verse:

"The two head monks were both masters in their own right, Yet within the principle, there is distinction to discern. Host and guest stand clear as a mirror— The ancestral teacher points out the flower in your eye."

The Layman Wujin (Zhang Shangying) said to me: "Fenyang was the legitimate dharma descendant of Linji in the fifth generation, revered by scholars throughout the world. Observing his guiding instructions, he speaks only of the Three Mysteries and Three Essentials. Yet today his own dharma heirs all say that the Three Mysteries and Three Essentials were provocative devices of a single era, of no benefit to the Path. They maintain that simply not giving rise to any idiosyncratic views toward all dharmas, being ordinary in all things, is the eternal meaning of the ancestral intention. Is this view correct?"

I replied: "Layman, if you have heard this view and been completely convinced by it, then how can you doubt Fenyang's guiding instructions?"

He said: "I have indeed been doubtful and unresolved."

I said: "This is precisely why the Three Mysteries and Three Essentials were established. The saying, 'In one phrase are contained the Three Mysteries; in each Mystery are contained the Three Essentials'—this is the banner of cool clarity and nirvana erected in the burning sea of affliction for all sentient beings. When this banner is raised, it is like striking a poison-coated drum: those who hear it die. Only those who hear it from a distance die later. But those who would not die a premature death—even hearing it, they do not die.

While Linji was still alive, Xinghua, Sansheng, Baoshou, and Elder Ding heard it and 'died.' More than a hundred years later, still there are those who awaken to its meaning—these are the ones who 'die later.' As for the various dharma lineages that claim it is of no benefit to the Path—these are the ones who 'do not die prematurely.'

The ancestral gate-style stood like a sheer cliff ten thousand fathoms high. But descendants feared it, preferring to walk easy, level paths. This is what is called the decline of the Dharma. It is like someone wearing scholar's robes and calling himself a disciple of Confucius, yet attacking the commentaries on the Book of Changes—even a child would laugh at him.

Linji merely said: 'In one phrase are three Mysteries; in each Mystery are three Essentials. With Mystery and Essential, that is all.' He never explicitly labeled them the 'Mystery in the Phrase,' 'Mystery in the Mind,' or 'Mystery in the Essence.' The old pagoda master (Shishuang Chuyuan?/Fenyang?) mistakenly identified Xuansha's three phrases as the Three Mysteries, thereby only distinguishing three Mysteries while losing the Three Essentials altogether. The community accepted this without objection—this is deeply regrettable.

Xuansha said: 'True constancy flowing forth is the equal Dharma. But using words to dispel words and reason to chase reason is called understanding the former but not the latter—it merely measures the realization of the Dharmakaya without yet having a phrase that transcends the ordinary pattern, remaining dead under the phrase. If one knows the measure that transcends the pattern's frame, one is no longer driven by the mind-demon. What one receives readily transforms freely, and speech penetrates the Great Way, not lingering in conventional views—this is the first phrase.' The ancients called this 'Mystery within the Phrase.'

'Turning the function around, reversing the position; birth and death at will; granting and seizing according to circumstances; entering birth and entering death to broadly benefit all—completely liberated from realms of desire, form, and views—this is the second phrase.' The ancients called this 'Mystery within the Mind.'

'Illuminating the dark, penetrating the light; vast, pervading realms as numerous as sands of the Ganges; the one true essence manifesting in great function—responding and transforming without fixed direction; all function and no function; all birth and no birth—provisionally called the gate of compassionate absorption—this is the third phrase.' The ancients called this 'Mystery within the Essence.'

Even Master Fu of Fushan said: 'The Mystery within the Mind is not the mind of discriminating consciousness.' The ancients were not even worth discussing—Yuan (Fushan) was also deluded and inverted. I cannot refrain from clarifying this."

Wujin nodded in agreement.

Then he said: "I recently heard Xie Shizhi praise a certain monk named Jiancheng from Wu, saying he had great insight and had personally met Ciming. He is said to be a true 'pointing-to-chest' successor, of the caliber of Yangqi and Daowu in his teaching style. He often raises Fenyang's 'Ten Wisdoms, Same Truth.' I would like to hear your explanation of this."

I replied: "The Ten Wisdoms, Same Truth and the Three Mysteries, Three Essentials pass through the same gate."

Fenyang said: "One who expounds the Dharma must possess the Ten Wisdoms, Same Truth. Without them, one cannot distinguish the erroneous from the upright, cannot separate the white from the black, cannot serve as eyes and light for humans and devas to decide right and wrong. It is like a bird that breaks its wing in mid-flight, or an arrow-archer whose bowstring snaps on release. When the string breaks, the arrow cannot reach its target; when the wing snaps, the bird cannot move through the sky. When the string is strong and the wing sturdy, both target and void are penetrated completely.

What are the Ten Wisdoms, Same Truth? Let me point them out for you all:

One: Same Substance. Two: Same Great Matter. Three: Same Total Participation. Four: Same True Wisdom. Five: Same All-Pervasion. Six: Same Full Completion. Seven: Same Gain and Loss. Eight: Same Birth and Death-power. Nine: Same Sound and Roar. Ten: Same Entrance and Attainment.

Furthermore: 'With what person do you attain the same entrance? With whom do you share the same sound and roar? What is the same birth and death-power? What thing shares the same loss and gain? Which one is fully complete? What is it that universally pervades? What person shares the same true wisdom? Who can totally participate together? Which one is the same Great Matter? What thing is the same substance? Is there anyone who can point these out? If you can point them out, do not hoard your compassion. If you cannot, then you have not yet developed the eye of practice. You must resolve this urgently in order to discern right and wrong—your true face is right before you.'

Now, this teaching frightens the contemporary dharma community, and they do not wish to hear it. Why do I say this? Practitioners these days love only 'plain' interpretations and cling to them immovably. They care only about transmitting; they do not believe anyone can awaken. Even if Fenyang rose again and personally dissected it for them, they would still say it is wrong.

Long ago, Ananda was walking at night and heard a boy reciting the Buddha's verse:

'If one lives a hundred years and is not skilled in the nature of waterfowl, it is better to live one day and fully understand and settle it.'

Ananda corrected him, saying: 'It is "not skilled in the essential workings of all Buddhas," not "waterfowl."'

The boy returned and reported to his teacher. The teacher laughed and said: 'Ananda has grown senile. You should take my words as correct.'

Asked about the meaning of the Three Mysteries and Ten Wisdoms in the presence of today's scholars—how different is it from this story?"

At this, Wujin sighed and said: "Yet for its essential purport, is there no expedient means?"

I responded with a verse:

"The Ten Wisdoms, Same Truth—the true face is complete; Within them, one single wisdom is the fundamental root. If you want to see and directly question Master Fenyang, Split open the Three Mysteries into two sides."

He then asked: "Are the Fourfold Host and Guest also a gate established by Linji?"

I replied: "It is the hammer and bellows of the Buddhas of three times and the generations of patriarchs, forged to eliminate the habitual views of ordinary and sacred. It is not only Linji who used it.

For example, Master Longshan Ben, having seen Mazu—and also the case of Master Dongshan Jiao (Liangjie) when he first began his travels. He was walking with senior monk Mi. Passing beneath Longshan in Changsha, they saw vegetable leaves floating in the stream. Jiao looked back at the deep and beautiful peaks and said to Mi: 'There must be a hermit here.' So they followed the stream upward about ten li. There they found an old monk, extremely thin. Raising his hand to his brow, he called out: 'There is no road here—how did you arrive?'

Jiao said: 'Putting aside "no road"—how did you, Master of the hut, enter?'

The old monk said: 'I have never drifted among clouds and waters.'

Jiao asked: 'Master, for how long have you been living in the mountains?'

He replied: 'Springs and autumns do not touch me.'

Jiao asked: 'Did you stay here first, or did this mountain exist first?'

The old monk said: 'I don't know.'

Jiao asked: 'Why don't you know?'

The old monk said: 'I have never come and gone among humans and devas.'

Jiao asked: 'What principle have you realized that you can live on this mountain?'

The old monk said: 'I saw a clay ox fight its way into the sea—and to this very day, no news has come.'

Jiao then shifted respectfully behind Mi, bowed before the old monk, and asked:

'What is Host within Host?' The old monk replied: 'Green mountains covering white clouds.'

'What is Host within Host?' Answer: 'For years, never leaving the gate.'

'How far apart are Host and Guest?' Answer: 'The waves upon the Long River.'

'When Host and Guest meet, what words pass between them?' Answer: 'Clear breeze brushing the white sun.'

Jiao bowed again, requesting to stay and study with him. The old monk smiled and said:

'In a hut of three thatches I have always lived. One ray of spirit-light, and the myriad realms are still. Do not come distinguishing right and wrong about me— Holes poked in this floating life have nothing to do with me.'

With that, he burned his own hut and vanished deeper into the layered peaks."

"Later, when Jiao himself lived on a mountain, he asked a monk: 'What is your host of hosts within yourself?' The monk replied: 'The one who is now responding to you.' Jiao looked up sorrowfully and said: 'This is what is called a matter of "after the horse, before the donkey"—of the scene you get involved with, not the one that acts. How could you mistake this as yourself? The sinking and leveling of Buddhism has begun—you have not yet even clarified what "guest within host" means, let alone "host within host."'

The monk asked: 'What then is Host within Host?'

Jiao said: 'Try saying it yourself.'

The monk said: 'What I can say would be Guest within Host. So what is Host within Host?'

Jiao paused for a long time, then said: 'I would not mind telling you, but if the continuity continued even a little longer, it would be a great difficulty.'"

I observe that Old Monk Longshan was like Xiao He recognizing Han Xin—what technique did he use? And Jiao's manner of discussion was like Huo Guang in court—his advance and retreat had their own law and measure. Alas! It is inevitable that later generations will not witness the broadness and completeness of the ancients. Actually, Jiao too confines Host within Host within conceptualization—questionable indeed!"

"I once visited Linchuan and was good friends with Zhu Shiying. Soon, Abbot Shanglan of Shanglan Temple came to call on Zhu Shiying and said to him: 'Huifan (Juefan) is merely a skilled poet. This is shameful— if his teacher made mistakes like this, what then of his disciples?'

Shiying smiled and said: 'Master, can you test him?'

Shanglan said: 'Yes.'

One day later, they traveled together to Shushan, and had a meal at an inn. Shanglan drew on the table with his finger and said to me: 'On the roller-ends of a sutra scroll there are always written a character—what does it mean?'

I also drew a circle with a horizontal line through it and said: 'It is that meaning!'

Shanglan was dumbstruck. I then composed a verse:

"The character cannot be written as such, nor is it the character 'eight'— The Dharmakaya sleeps, no cover and no seam. A monk face-to-face does not know its name; Before a crowd of a hundred, one could not call it forth."

When Shanglan returned and relayed this to Shiying, Shiying clapped his hands and said: 'Who says he is only a poet-monk? He also knows his letters and their meaning!'

We then looked together at a verse Fenyang had made on the water buffalo calf, 'On the Calf':

"Has a head but no horns—truly to be pitied. For a hundred kalpas one will not escape this craftsperson. Ordinary and sage cannot ever fully clarify it— before your eyes, a face with just a hint of appearance."

I said to Shiying: "This verse is also a glossed commentary on my understanding of the 'character'!"

Shiying asked me: "The Flower Garland Sutra says: 'The sage-master Pilamitra took Sudhana's hand, and instantly Sudhana saw himself inhabiting worlds as many as atoms within Buddha-realms, reaching gatherings at the feet of Buddhas as numerous as atoms within worlds. He saw those Buddha-lands and their assemblies—all Buddhas' distinguishing marks and every kind of adornment. He even passed through hundreds of thousands of billions of inexpressible kalpas—yet when the sage-master released Sudhana's hand, Sudhana instantly found himself back in his original place.' How are we to understand this passage?"

I replied: "These are all images. At the very moment his hand was held, he entered the contemplation. He saw that self and others are not separated by the breadth of a hair-tip, and that beginning and end do not move from the single thought instant. And when the hand was released, that was emerging from samadhi. Yongming said: 'Thus one may know: not moving from one's seat, all lands far and near appear clearly; within a single instant, no movement whatsoever, long and short durations manifest completely.' Universal Buddha used the lotus as an analogy, yet no one in the world truly understood it. I happen to understand it. For when the lotus opens its flower, there is already a seed within it, and within that seed is already the potential for a future lotus. Cause contains effect; effect contains cause—the three times are one moment. And when the seeds scatter and spread, they continue in unbroken succession—the ten directions are not separate."

He also asked: "The Lotus Sutra says: 'The World-Honored One, before all living beings, displayed his great spiritual power, putting forth his vast and long tongue that reached up to the Brahma heavens.' This is extremely hard to reconcile. Some commentators say: 'The Buddha's voice is profound and subtle, and thus touches everywhere. Transcending ordinary and holy, his tongue extends up into heaven above the Brahma worlds.' What do you think of this explanation?"

I replied: "This is what is called 'giving birth to a view according to the words'—it is not the World-Honored One's true intention. Guishan said: 'When the emotional views of ordinary and sacred are completely eliminated, the essence is revealed, true and constant; when principle and phenomena are non-dual, that is the Tathāgata himself.' But practitioners cannot deeply savor these words; they merely cling to conjecture and mental constructions. This is like a crowd of blind men feeling out an elephant—each grabs what he has touched and thinks he knows the whole. To one it is a tail, to another a leg, another feels the belly, another the tusk. Meanwhile the whole elephant is completely obscured.

The Prajnaparamita Sutra says: 'Not two, no duality, no discrimination, no discontinuity'—that is the truly constant truth. It is not a frozen datum, inert and unchanging. And will the matter of a tongue reaching up into the Brahma worlds be understood by emotional interpretation?

"When the Tang monk Xuanzang went to India and received instruction from the great ācārya Shīlabhadra, this master, Šīlabhadra (Jiexian), was by then 106 years old, the object of the entire community's deference, and hailed as 'the Treasury of True Dharma.' Xuanzang paid formal respects, after which the master bade him sit and asked: 'Where have you come from?' Xuanzang replied: 'I have come from the land of China, wishing to study the Yogācāra śāstras.' At this the Master dissolved in tears and called to a disciple, saying: 'See—does my former dream match what is unfolding?' Then indicating Xuanzang to the acolyte, 'Three years ago,' addressed the great master to Xuanzang, 'I was gravely ill, in such pain that it felt as if a man were cutting my belly open with a knife. I decided to starve myself to end it. In night vision appeared a man of golden complexion, who said why are you trying to harm your own body? In times past, when you were of noble rank, you caused the deaths of many living beings by measures you imposed. What is needed now is to repent and abandon that. Suicide is of no use. A monk from the China-land will come here to take up the Dharma—he has already set out on the road and will arrive within three years. Use the Dharma to rescue him, share with him its waters, and let him carry it onward. Then through the merits of giving, the violations of your prior actions will dissolve with themselves. Ultimately, in your past killing, you were not innocent but at war with them. Now your disease draws him and thereby unknots these effects. Actually—the resolve to serve a great cause, the power to help it as upon a Dharma-treasure, upon the altar of compassion. Both create the vehicle of death life. And—in this you are returning as gold as of the very sun sinking low—those it will carry across the stream of birth and death. Indeed! Face instead the world, renounce killing, for as thousands of turns you laid down misery, so shall since it lift away from that karmic debt—again upon this Golden one's mention—have still any sadness remaining within you?

Thus laying down self-destruction, he gained rest. And on this I realised—since the road at times of previous life and upon your Dharma-treasures carries the rākṣasas across. Having understood all avowals—not to have bound he vows upon this self I but not—. The earlier divinations speak of me with three hundred the deeper yes. The Wound says gather, do not give sorrow into waking.'

This is what that monk is doing here in this foreign land for this Old One to come. What uses a body to escape harm whether continue as was intended?—

The Master's illness had abated within the three years as had been foretold—and indeed a traveling monk appeared. Then the precedent of memory made sense indeed.'"

Xuanzang said: "As you entered into your wanderings with many struggles causing strain and trouble - that and that alone - the vestiges created. Yet now, having listened to the speech of Mañjuśrī - concerning the enlightening of beings by and for Dharma! Bad doings to diminish might reach mature instead. Our friend here did not wander a merely romantic calling, but broad to cut and errands for those above. According as they they as free. Thus I myself, Yijing have sought to compile the essential intent of the ancestral monks. This is how I desire to help lift, that hinderings become lessened. There is no such cause other than aid and passing forward what lives in all.

Linji's Core Teachings(End)