Prerequisites for Investigating the Huatou

In investigating the huatou, once the investigation is penetrated, one sees one's true mind and awakens, thereby obtaining the great wisdom of prajñā and becoming a true bodhisattva with genuine bodhisattva realization. The attainment of the great wisdom of prajñā is the result of cultivating the bodhisattva's six pāramitās. Therefore, before investigating the huatou, one must have cultivated and fully perfected the bodhisattva's six pāramitās. If the precepts have not been received and upheld, if the merit of a generous bodhisattva has not been perfected, if diligence in practice is insufficient, if tolerance toward worldly conditions is inadequate, if acceptance of the tathāgatagarbha dharma is lacking, if meditative concentration (samādhi) has not been developed, and if the principle of the tathāgatagarbha's prajñā has not been thoroughly understood, then investigating the huatou becomes a torment—one may investigate it for a whole lifetime and still accomplish nothing in vain.

Before becoming a true bodhisattva, examine whether your mental conduct, disposition, and capacity accord with those of a bodhisattva, and whether you can shoulder the great enterprise of a bodhisattva. If meditative concentration is insufficient, so-called huatou investigation is merely reciting the huatou—repeating the words of a single phrase—while the mind cannot rest at the head of the phrase, instead spinning around within the words and their tail. What meaning is there in such practice? If Buddhist practitioners study and cultivate solely for themselves, harboring a selfish and self-serving mentality without the slightest intention to benefit others, such selfishness and narrow-mindedness absolutely cannot accord with the bodhisattva's disposition, and the merit a bodhisattva should possess cannot be accumulated. In that case, one cannot become a bodhisattva in the true sense.