Shítóu Xīqiān once said something that many people doubt and disagree with. He said:
"Practice is not about meditative concentration (chándìng); it is solely about opening the Buddha's knowledge and vision."
- Shítóu Xīqiān
I do not discuss diligent meditative concentration. I do not talk about those things like needing meditative concentration or needing to be diligent; I do not speak such nonsense. It is only about opening your Buddha's knowledge and vision.
What is this Buddha's knowledge and vision? It is the Buddha's knowledge and vision we often encounter—the Buddha's knowledge and vision. The zhī of knowing, the jiàn of opinion or view—the Buddha's knowledge and vision. He said one must open the Buddha's knowledge and vision. As for those other things, like how sitting meditation is done, how to apply effort, how to be diligent—I do not talk about these. I only look at whether you have opened the Buddha's knowledge and vision.
So, may I ask you all, what do you think he means by the Buddha's knowledge and vision? If you see this statement by Shítóu Xīqiān, where he says to open the Buddha's knowledge and vision, what do you think Shítóu is referring to? Does it refer to the Buddha's kind of opinion, the Buddha's thoughts, or perhaps the Buddha's understanding of this universe and life, his right view? The Buddha's correct perspective and opinion—is it like that? If it is like that, then the Buddha becomes just like us! He too has views on the mysteries of human life and the secrets of the universe, and his views are just like our views, only his are more brilliant because he is a Buddha! Does he still have knowledge and vision in that sense?
When he talks about opening the Buddha's knowledge and vision, it does not mean you need to have correct views just like the Buddha; it is not like that. Let me explain to everyone now: the Buddha's knowledge and vision is a fact; it is not that the Buddha has some brilliant views. No. What he refers to as the Buddha's knowledge and vision is a true fact that can be seen everywhere.
What kind of fact? Is everyone down there hearing me speak? I say "Āmítuófó," and over there, "Āmítuófó" moves just like that for you. I say "Ah" here, and do you have an "Ah" over there? Yes! So, this "Ah" sound that you hear. Let me ask you, where did you manufacture this sound from? Is there a place, is there a factory? Is the ear the factory? Then the brain is not needed? The air is not needed? Then my lips are not needed? Which one is the factory, ultimately? I am asking about the "Ah" sound that you hear.
These things might seem very trivial, but what is extremely important lies right here. Ordinarily, we do not consider them problems. Śākyamuni Buddha was the first one to take what we usually do not consider problems and say, "Hey? This is a problem!" We are born, and we see, hear, smell tastes, taste this saltiness or spiciness. Or our bodies make contact, feeling comfort or pain, and we just assume this is natural. There is nothing to discuss, right? Where is the problem here? I look up at the stars in the sky; I look up and see them, and seeing is just seeing. The wind blows over, I feel cool and refreshed, and that is all there is to it. No one has ever thought much about this issue, about this matter, about this fact. People do not treat it as a problem, but he was the first to treat it as a problem. Then, he applied effort to this, and it became his ready-made kōan, constantly paying attention to it. Only later did he discover exactly where we are deluded, and where the fundamental cause of our delusion lies. This is how he approached it. So, what is this Buddha's knowledge and vision? It is not that he has opinions or views; it is not like that.
The Buddha's knowledge and vision means this: I say "Ah" here, and each of you over there has an "Ah." But for this "Ah," a factory cannot be found. If there is no factory, are there any workers? Is there a boss? Is there any machinery that manufactures your "Ah"? You must manufacture an "Ah" to hear an "Ah," right? Is this "Ah" manufactured by our lips? Well, if you close your ears and remove your auditory nerves, is there still an "Ah"? Your ears participate in the manufacturing of this "Ah," but they are not entirely responsible for it! Right? Start from here. The factory cannot be found. If the factory does not exist, there are no workers, the manufacturing machinery cannot be found, and the boss is unknown. What about capital? None, no capital is needed either. After the "Ah" is manufactured and has passed, this thing needs to be discarded. The sound you just manufactured—now that I have spoken it, you need to listen to something else. If it is left there, it will overlap! It will get mixed up! It disappears in an instant; where do you throw it away? The source of manufacturing, the factory, cannot be found; capital, workers, technology, boss—none of them can be found. And when it is not in use, when it has passed, you do not need to touch it; it clears away by itself, it is gone. Where did you throw it? Where did you throw that sound? You do not know either. Where did it disappear to? Unknown. What do we call this fact? We have always assumed, "You say 'Ah' over there, and 'I' hear it!" This is a self-righteous assumption that does not accord with the facts. He discovered this, that this is not the fact. Because if "I" were to hear it, it must be that "I" manufactured this sound, and only then could "I" hear it! Merely your lips moving like that, two flaps of skin moving, does not necessarily mean a sound will resonate here with me. So, the question is: who manufactured this sound? It cannot be found. It is not manufactured by me, not by you, not by empty space, not by a god, not by a Buddha—but it simply is. This is called: cannot find the factory, cannot find the capital, cannot find the engineers, cannot find the workers; "bang," arising from nothingness into being. When conditions are present, it is present; its origin is unknown. This is called "comes from nowhere," as spoken of in the Buddhist scriptures. When it is gone, disappeared, you do not need to look for a garbage dump; it clears itself away, and also goes nowhere, nor arrives anywhere. Coming, it comes from nowhere; going, it also goes nowhere. Where is it thrown away? Where is the garbage dump? How is it cremated? What medicine is used to eliminate it? None are needed; it is simply gone. This is sound.
Scratch your hand, touch the back of your hand. This tactile sensation—it is there when you touch. Where is this tactile sensation manufactured? Is it manufactured by the skin? The skin cannot manufacture it; if the skin could manufacture it, I would not need to touch it. It could just say, "Hey, you create it," and it could create it. If my right hand manufactured it, then I would not need my left hand's back for me to feel the touch; the right hand going to manufacture it would be enough. This means, to put it simply, that forms, sounds, smells, tastes, tactile objects, and mental phenomena—all of them come from nowhere; their place of arising cannot be found. And when they go, you also cannot find where they have gone to. This is a fact! This, first, know this fact.
Therefore, when I say "Ah," an "Ah" appears over there for each of you, right? At this moment, the true, actual situation is not that each of you has a "you" there, hearing the sound I made here, each person hearing this sound in your own place. It is not like that! So, how is it then? Since this sound cannot be found to be manufactured anywhere. Actually, one has deceived oneself. Why deceived by oneself? We have always believed that in hearing, seeing, thinking, and feeling, there is an "I"—there is an "I" that hears, an "I" that sees, an "I" that feels, an "I" that is thinking this way, an "I" that makes decisions. There is always that "I"—this kind of deluded thinking from beginningless time.
They give an example: cooking noodles in a pot of oil. When you take out the noodles, the oil has soaked right into them. How do you remove it? You cannot, can you? It is very difficult to remove the oil from within the noodles. Our thought of "I," that deluded thinking, that erroneous idea, is just like this—extremely difficult to remove. Apart from the method of just sitting that Śākyamuni Buddha taught us, there is almost no way to remove it. It seems like such a simple thing, to remove the oil from the oily noodles, but it is not easy to take out. Because of the deluded thought of "I," we believe there is an "I" that hears, an "I" that sees, an "I" that feels, an "I" that thinks, and even more critically, an "I" that decides. "Do I want to come here to attend the Chan retreat? Yes," so I came. People who have learned well all think it was "I" who decided. If there is no-self, yet decisions are still made by "you," then this Buddhist Dharma does not need to be discussed. It is not you who decides! But if it is not my decision, not your decision, not my mother's decision, not my child's decision, it was clearly "I" who decided, right? It is exactly like this; it is very difficult to eradicate this deluded thinking.
So back to the sound we were just discussing. I say "Ah" here and you have "Ah" there; it is not you hearing, not your ears hearing, nor your brain hearing, because the place where this sound arises, the factory, cannot be found. So how do you hear it? The question comes: how then do you hear it? The origin of the sound is unknown, and no one manipulates it, yet it is present! Clearly, there is the sound "Ah"; it is there! Sometimes, the Chan patriarchs would simply say, "non-existent and yet present," they put it that simply. Does it exist? Where does it come from? Who manufactured it? No one, it cannot be found; "present and yet non-existent." Everything is like this. How can this thing be expressed even better? "Present and yet non-existent, non-existent and yet present" also means, when you hear, they use this kind of language, which is very good: "hearing with the whole body"; when seeing, "seeing with the whole body." What does "whole" mean? The entire body, the entire mind, the entire body-mind, the whole thing. It is not just your ears, your hair, your skin, your pores, your toenails, your intestines, stomach, lungs, heart within your belly—all of them, hearing with the whole body, they are all the hearing itself! It is not that your skin, your teeth, your eyes, your ears, your hair, your pores all collectively hear this "Ah"—it is not like that! The entirety becomes "Ah." This is called hearing with the whole body; it is just that we do not know.
So how is it heard? We call it doing so subtly. How one truly hears, why there is truly this sound, a Buddha does not know; a Buddha also does not know. But when I say "Ah," immediately there is "Ah" over there, so this is called hearing with the whole body. You look up at this flower; at the moment of seeing, it is seeing with the whole body. It is not the eyes seeing, or the brain seeing, none of that; it is not the optic nerve seeing, none of that. Your entire body-mind, the four great elements and five aggregates, completely become this flower! You say it is strange, the four great elements and five aggregates are here; I am not a flower here! My skin, my hair, my heart, so where does this become a flower? The flower is over there; I have not become a flower. This is because you have solidified this body-mind of the four great elements and five aggregates, believing it to be such a fixed thing with self-nature, and this thing cannot be let go of. The four great elements and five aggregates are like clouds, like illusions; in that very instant, they entirely become the flower. You separate the flower from your four great elements and five aggregates, so you say I have not become the flower. This is you being deceived by the obstruction by form, do you know? Obstruction by form, there is a hindrance; you believe this thing is still my hand, how can it become a flower? Do not talk nonsense! Let me tell you, the existence of this physical body, this hindrance you feel when you touch it, this thing is the realm of deluded thinking. Your true self is the Dharmakāya! Your true self is that which is the Dharmakāya, the Dharma-nature in motion. Therefore, that thing and the flower in front, or the "Ah" sound in front, the "Ah" sound and the appearance, the visible form, of a flower—they merge! Like water poured into water. Your Dharmakāya, your Dharma-nature, and the external forms, sounds, smells, tastes, tactile objects, and mental phenomena—the external sense objects are also Dharma-nature, also Dharmakāya, water. Your four great elements and five aggregates here are also exactly this; their true, original face is Dharmakāya, Dharma-nature. Both are Dharmakāya. So water and water communicate very easily! It is not communication; they are originally one thing! Therefore, upon seeing, there is an appearance. Because your four great elements and five aggregates—the four great elements, earth, water, fire, and wind—are the same as my four great elements, earth, water, fire, and wind! Their self-nature is entirely empty nature; they are equally Dharma-nature, so when they meet, just like water poured into that bucket of water, an appearance immediately arises. Do you still need to ask where it is manufactured? If you say this body is this body, and the sound opposite, the sound coming from there is "Ah," and "Ah" is "Ah," and my body has not become "Ah," then you take this obstructive thing as your own deluded thinking and hold it so firmly, desperately holding onto this body-mind, this thing of obstruction by form that I feel, considering it to be my own relation. "I haven't changed! How could I be hearing with the whole body? Sound is sound, and I am I." You are stuck there; you do not understand your true Dharma-nature body. Is this clear?
Once this is clear, you will understand what Shítóu Xīqiān meant by opening the Buddha's knowledge and vision. The Buddha's knowledge and vision is just this: whatever you encounter, you become that encountered thing! Encounter a red flower, your Dharma-nature, the true you, is entirely the flower. Hear "Ah," your entire Dharmakāya, your true existence, the Dharmakāya, is the same thing as that "Ah"! The Dharma-nature body of the "Ah" sound and the Dharma-nature body here that can hear are the same thing, so "Ah" immediately appears. Do not look for a manufacturing factory; do not try to investigate who manufactured it. This simple, this direct fact, no one treats it as a problem. Because from birth, we can hear and see, and it seems very natural, inevitable. This "inevitability" has harmed us. Because we inherently have a deluded thinking; lifetime after lifetime of rebirth, lifetime after lifetime there is an "I," "I" am in saṃsāra, that "I," has always never been let go of. So we roll around in saṃsāra, building up walls and running around inside them, so we must never forget the true Dharma-nature, the true existence of the Dharmakāya, of this physical body, this obstructive body-mind. The existence of the Dharmakāya and Dharma-nature pervades the entire universe! Reaching everywhere, liberated and at ease, a very free and unrestrained function. Due to its functioning relationship, when I encounter you, your appearance immediately arises. You encounter me, my appearance immediately arises; your Dharma-nature body and my Dharma-nature body are one thing. So there is fundamentally no need for manufacturing. It is not "you" who sees, not "you" who hears my voice, is this understood now? This is called the original fact, whatever you encounter, you become that. If the object is large, immediately there is large, it immediately appears. You become large; it is not that you see large, it is that you become large. That "you" is the you of Dharma-nature, not the you of obstruction by form. Do you hear and understand? It is the you of Dharma-nature, so when you encounter a small thing, hey, very small, you become small. Hear a loud sound, you become that loud sound. Hear a small sound, you become that small sound, the you of Dharma-nature becomes that, not this obstructive thing of yours that changes, okay? So, it is inevitable. The interaction between us and the environment, this mutual functioning, interactive functioning, no one can escape it. It is not that a Buddha gave this to you. We call this mutual functioning inevitable; not a single person can escape it. Encountering a wall, it is a wall. Smelling that fragrance, even if you do not want to smell it, there is that fragrance. Why? Your Dharma-nature body, that fragrance is your Dharma-nature body becoming that fragrance! It is not the nose smelling the fragrance, we are mistaken here! Okay? Understand? This is very, very, very important.
In the Cāntóngqì, Shítóu Xīqiān simply wants us to open the Buddha's knowledge and vision. The Buddha's knowledge and vision is our fact, interacting with the environment, mutually functioning. During interaction, it is inevitable; not a single person can avoid it. Because everyone is an existence of Dharma-nature, of Dharmakāya. True existence is the Dharma-nature body, the Dharmakāya Buddha. Our existence is so great and sublime. If you take these bones and skin and these things as "I," you have underestimated yourself. Originally it is a great existence, an existence of Dharma-nature, such a boundless, immeasurable, unhindered existence, and you shrink it down to only this, this concrete, obstructive little piece of body and mind. You demean yourself so small, how pitiful! Drunk on alcohol, forgetting oneself.
Once this is clear, you know that the Buddha's knowledge and vision refers to this fact. This fact is called the Buddha's knowledge and vision. So Shítóu Xīqiān is saying, "Ah, just open it, opening is all that's needed." You are originally this fact, you are truly like this, it is the Dharma-nature body that is in motion, it is the Dharmakāya Buddha in motion. Every single one is moving in the form of the Dharmakāya Buddha, interacting together with the environment. The environment is also the Dharmakāya Buddha! So when I attained the Way, I and the sentient beings of the great earth simultaneously attained the Way, it means this. If you separate them, then of course a tree is a tree, a dog is a dog, the people present at that time were the people present at that time. Then why is it that when Śākyamuni Buddha attained Buddhahood over 2500 years ago, he would attain Buddhahood together with them all, and now we should also be descendants of Buddhas; that would not make sense! So some monks on the internet say this was probably misremembered by someone, or someone thought, how great the Buddha is, and added an extra stroke, praising him incorrectly. But actually it is that he does not understand; he does not understand this matter of the Buddha's knowledge and vision just discussed. If the Buddha's knowledge and vision is misunderstood, no matter how you study you will never understand Buddhist Dharma. It is always taking this form of mine, I see, I think, is your reasoning correct? You see, this is called being in the rut of our thoughts, searching for Buddhist Dharma inside that rut, thinking about Buddhist Dharma, resolving Buddhist Dharma. If the Buddha's knowledge and vision is not opened, it is different; no matter how you think, how you see, it is not what the Buddha taught.
This first part is him explaining this. Because I talked about Shítóu Xīqiān, he said it is not about meditative concentration; sitting meditation and meditative concentration are very important, right? One needs to quiet down, how to open the Buddha's wisdom. He says not about that, I do not particularly emphasize this. But I want everyone, because you have studied with me, reading this scripture I have left behind, especially the Cāntóngqì, you need to understand where my true meaning lies, where the meaning beyond the words lies. I want all of you to open your Buddha's knowledge and vision. The Buddha's knowledge and vision is your fact, your true fact. It is not you going to use your intellect to say, my opinions are now the same as the Buddha's opinions, "I have opened the Buddha's knowledge and vision." It is not this meaning. You understand that when you interact with the environment, because your true existence is Dharma-nature, the Dharmakāya Buddha, it is your true, authentic real human body. So, encountering an appearance there is an appearance, encountering a sound, the sound is you, encountering an appearance, the appearance is you. If you say you are you, and I am still I, could it be that when I encounter you, you become me? You are being deceived by this obstruction. You desperately cling to this thing as "I," so if the sign of a self is not removed, you cannot understand Buddhist Dharma. But then sometimes people will say "I have no sign of a self anymore," "I" have no "sign of a self" anymore, what meaning is that? I cannot understand! "I have no sign of a self anymore, now I have practiced to the point of having no sign of a self..." Who has no sign of a self? Because he has not opened the Buddha's knowledge and vision, he is still muddle-headed there. "I practice very well, strange, there is still this problem," "Hmph, you still have this problem?" "Yes!" Then I have no way. A nod of the head, "Alright, forget it, forget it, your Shítóu's road is slippery, you cannot understand this." Is everyone clear on this point? Then this Cāntóngqì need not be expounded.
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