The question in old dialogues is often posed, “What is Buddha?” Some answers have been “Dried shite on a stick,” or, “The Cypress tree in the courtyard.” These are both fine answers, if you happen to be in a Tang Dynasty latrine, or actually have a Cypress tree and you have a courtyard. Neither of these statements are appropriate for me, as I don’t have that tree, and I’m not in the latrine, and I don’t use a stick. We also say in our Zennie way to “Go drink tea,” or, “Go wash your bowls.” Again, unless I have a kettle on, or just had a bowl of Weetabix, not appropriate (and somewhat passive-aggressive when you get down to it). What does “Go drink tea” mean, when is appropriate, and why sink into using a cliche when more accurate and appropriate words are available?
Bodhidharma said Zen is “Directly pointing to the human mind; seeing one's nature and become a Buddha; do not establish words and letters.” Words are all we have—what Bodhidharma had, Mazu, Huangbo, Seung Sahn, and myself. The Buddha had 45 years worth of teaching, and they went well beyond the words of Four Truths, and beyond the Flower Sermon for the wordless.
When we attach to words we get in trouble, either by taking them literally in some cases, disregarding the ones we don’t like, and not knowing the meaning of them. When we have an aversion to them, using Bodhidharma’s statement about “Not establishing words & letters” as an excuse not to read a Sutra or quotations from the old Masters or not to listen to our teachers and others, we miss literally Millenia of teachings.
Huineng and Jinul are both said to have had awakening experiences by reading, so it can’t be al bad. So it’s not the words that are the problem or the hindrance, it’s missing the other lines from Bodhidharma about seeing our True Buddha Nature and becoming buddhas by way of investigating mind.
So again the question pops up, “What is Buddha?” Mazu said “Mind is Buddha.” Huangbo taught, “All Buddhas and all sentient beings are nothing but One Mind, beside which nothing exists….It is that which you see before you—begin to reason about it (create conceptual thinking), and at once you fall into error.” Bodhidharma taught “Everything that appears in the three realms comes from mind.”
Zen Master Seung Sahn said, “If you sincerely ask, ‘What am I,’ you will run into a wall where all thinking is cut off. We call this ‘Don’t Know.’” Zen is keeping this ‘Don’t Know’ always and everywhere….’What is this?’ One Mind is infinite kalpas.”
One Mind, Zen, Buddha, all are what is in front of you. Right here, right now, what is it? When the concepts are gone, and even the words that led to their erasure, just this is it—Mind, Buddha, Zen, everything is it, nothing excluded, nothing rejected.
Tell me to go drink tea or to wash my bowls, I’ll hit you with a stick 30 times…wait. No I won’t, but I probably would roll my eyes, mutter to myself under my breath, and sigh. That’s what’s here, right now.
