How to Find the Master

Enlightenment is awakening to the original state; the original state is the original face, which is what Chan masters often call the "true master," that is, the self-natured pure mind. In the past, Chan masters liked to ask visiting students: "Is there a master, or is there no master?"—meaning, have you found the true master, or have you not found the true master? From this we can know that the true master must exist and is real; He is not a fabricated, false name, nor an empty concept of nothingness. He has real substance, only without form. Therefore, we need not empty the mind completely in order to accord with the original face, because no matter how empty the aware mind becomes, it is still deluded and can never turn into the true mind.

Every sentient being has his own original face. What it is like and what nature it possesses can only be made clear through investigating Chan. Just as when the Sixth Patriarch awakened, he said: 何期自性本自具足，何期自性能生万法，何期自性本自清净，何期自性本不生灭，何期自性本不动摇—these five "how unforeseen" exclamations. This is what happens after finding the true master: wisdom manifests, and one realizes the true facts of the worldly and world-transcending—a truth.

If we cultivate meditative concentration (samādhi), letting the mind consciousness rest in a peaceful state, or in a state without thoughts, seeing a nothingness, or believing that the present moment is illusory, that the present is all empty, that the present is just it—and take this to be enlightenment—then how do we explain the five "how unforeseen is self-nature" statements spoken by the Sixth Patriarch? How could one know that self-nature produces the myriad dharmas? How could one know that self-nature gives rise to the five aggregates (pañcaskandha) and the eighteen realms? Why would the content of such "enlightenment" differ from what the Sixth Patriarch awakened to?

The Vimalakīrti Sūtra says: 菩萨举足下足皆从道场来. If one has awakened to self-nature, one should understand the meaning of this line; if one does not understand it, one certainly has not awakened. If one has awakened to self-nature, one should understand some of those Chan public cases (gong'an), and one should also be able to read the Prajñā sūtras with some understanding. At that point, one should know that the Buddha has already clearly revealed and shown us our original face in the sūtras. If it is not so, then the direction of our awakening is wrong, and we should promptly change direction and seek anew the target and point of entry for investigating Chan. Only thus will we delay our own progress on the Path.