How to Find the Protagonist

Enlightenment is realizing the original — the original is one's original face, which is what Chan masters often call the "true master," that is, the self-natured pure mind (自性清净心). In the past, Chan masters liked to ask visiting students: "Do you have a master, or do you have no master?" — meaning, have you found the true master, or have you not found the true master? From this we know that the true master must exist and is real; He is not a fabricated, false term, not a concept of empty nothingness. He has a real substance, only without marks. Therefore, we need not empty our mind completely in order to accord with our original face, because no matter how empty the perceiving mind becomes, it is still false and can never turn into the true mind.

Every sentient being has his own original face. What He is like and what nature He possesses can only be made clear through investigating Chan. This is just like when the Sixth Patriarch said at his enlightenment: 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 — the five "how unforeseen" (何期) statements. This is what happens after finding the true master: wisdom manifests, and one realizes the true facts of the mundane and supramundane worlds — one truth.

If we cultivate meditative concentration (samādhi), letting the mind consciousness rest in a peaceful state, or 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 taking this to be enlightenment — then how do we explain the Sixth Patriarch's five "how unforeseen is self-nature (svabhāva)" statements? How could one know that self-nature produces the myriad dharmas? How could one know that self-nature gives birth to the five aggregates (pañca-skandha) and the eighteen realms? Why would the content of such "enlightenment" differ from what the Sixth Patriarch realized?

The Vimaṅkīrtinirdeśa Sūtra (维摩诘经) says: 菩萨举足下足皆从道场来 — if one has realized self-nature, one should understand the meaning of this statement; if one does not understand it, one certainly has not realized it. If one has realized self-nature, one should understand a portion of the Chan public cases (gong'an), and one should also be able to understand some of the Prajñāpāramitā sūtras. 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 realization is wrong, and we should promptly change direction and seek anew the target and point of entry for investigating Chan. Only thus will we not delay our own progress on the Path.