Dharma Master Shi Jiuneng's Essential Instructions on Chan Meditation

The Chan method of investigating Chan (canchan) all requires us to use the faculties rather than the consciousness. Chan does not care whether you have wandering thoughts or not—it does not concern itself with so many of your trivial affairs; it only wants you to see the manas. In Chan there is a practice called investigating the huatou (critical phrase), which can be used by people of middle-to-superior spiritual faculties (indriya); those of inferior faculties cannot raise it. Why? Look at this huatou investigation. The huatou—we say, investigate "Who is reciting the Buddha's name?" Investigate "What is our original face before our parents were born?" Many people investigate the huatou, "Who is reciting the Buddha's name? Who is reciting the Buddha's name?" searching everywhere—that is not investigating the huatou; that is reciting the huatou. What is investigating the huatou? Investigating the huatou means investigating what is before the words. What is before the words? Do you want to speak or not? When you recite "Namo Amitābha," that is already speaking. The huatou, then, is what exists before reciting "Namo Amitābha."

So the practice of investigating the huatou is like this—you want to recite "Amitābha," but you deliberately do not let it be recited out; once it is recited out, that is the tail of the words, and once recited out, it runs away. So what you investigate is what is before the words. You want to recite "Amitābha," but you deliberately do not let it be recited out, and then you look at what the state is at that moment. You want to recite, but you must not let "Amitābha" pop up in your head—if it pops up, that is the tail of the words. Can you do it? If you can do this, this is investigating the huatou. Moreover, in this huatou investigation, the effort must be extremely continuous and dense. How dense? In the past, the Chan school told us that the method of applying effort in investigating the huatou is like this: the words—the phrase "reciting Amitābha"—are not allowed to be recited out, and yet you must still watch what is before the words. This is quite difficult.

When investigating the huatou becomes urgent, it is like swallowing a hot dumpling—a very hot tangyuan held in the mouth; swallowing it would scald you to death, yet spitting it out you cannot bear, because it tastes so good, so it gets stuck in your throat. There is a metaphor: like a cat stalking a mouse. A cat catches a mouse—watch the cat catching the mouse; it chases, chases, chases, chases, and suddenly the mouse runs into its hole. Then the cat presses its four paws to the ground, raises its tail, and concentrates all its attention staring at the mouth of the hole. Why? To keep the mouse from coming out—the moment it comes out, the cat will pounce. This is precisely watching over the inside of one's own mind. This phrase of the Buddha's name must not be allowed to pop up, yet you must keep thinking of it. The cat, on the one hand, does not let the mouse come out; on the other hand, it wants the mouse to come out so it can catch it. Ah, but the moment it comes out, it runs away, so you cannot let it come out. Yet if it does not come out, you wait in vain, so you also want it to come out.

Like a cat stalking a mouse—this is how the Chan investigator, the one investigating the huatou, must be. It must be like this: you want to recite the Buddha's name but do not let it be recited out, and then you watch to see what this state is. Can you think of it? If you can, you are certainly a person of middle or superior faculties. If you cannot, then honestly, first remove the wandering thoughts. After your wandering thoughts are gradually eliminated and your Buddha-recollection practice gradually deepens, the mind will slowly calm down; after it calms down, you will gradually see the manas. So investigating the huatou is actually making effort right on the manas. When your wandering thoughts have not arisen, yet your head is still clear and lucid—that is the manas.

Assessment: Master Shi Jiuneng describes the situation of applying effort in Chan investigation very accurately and precisely, and clearly points out that when investigating Chan, it is precisely the manas that is single-mindedly engaged in the investigation—that effort is a Chan-investigation effort centered on the manas. When you cultivate to the point of being able to use the manas to deliberate (manasikāra) and investigate the huatou, you will feel that investigating the huatou truly has great flavor and meaning, and is indeed fascinating and hard to let go of. That is why Chan investigators can go without sleep or rest, diligently applying effort day and night, with the practice continuing unbroken and steadily intensifying. Investigating Chan is like a cat lying in wait for a mouse—watching the mouse scurrying about at the mouth of the hole, the chance of catching it is very high, success is imminent, so the cat stays alert, carefully and cautiously keeping watch, neither leaving nor abandoning, waiting for the moment to seize it in one stroke.

Why is it said that at the moment when a sentence, or the four characters "Amituofo," is about to emerge but has not yet emerged—that is the huatou, that is the investigative state of the manas? Because the mindfulness of the manas has no marks of language, words, or sound. When the huatou is about to emerge but has not yet emerged, language, words, and sound have not yet formed; at that moment it is the mindfulness and thinking of the manas. At the next step, when language, words, and sound appear and it falls into the mind consciousness, it is no longer the state of investigating the huatou but reciting the tail of the words—the state of the mind consciousness's emotional sentiments and intellectual understanding. Therefore, among all dharmas, the mindfulness and thinking of the manas always come first, and the mindfulness and thinking of the mind consciousness come after; the mindfulness and thinking of the mind consciousness can also be converted back into the mindfulness and thinking of the manas—it is just that the mindfulness and thinking of the manas are extremely difficult to observe and grasp.

In all states while awake, there is the knowing and mindfulness of both the mind consciousness and the manas; it is merely that in various states, whichever of the manas and the mind consciousness has the stronger and more prominent function of knowing and mindfulness differs. The functions of the two consciousnesses are very hard to distinguish clearly. Suppose the manas is A and the mind consciousness is B; our knowing is B's knowing, and when we try to discern the manas, it is B discerning A. How can B know whether A knows or does not know? How can B know what mental states A has, what feelings, what thoughts? How can B understand and comprehend A's mental state? How can B's judgments about A be true, correct, and without error? When B does not know A's psychological state, it shows that B does not yet possess the wisdom to judge A. When can the mind consciousness have wisdom? When can it directly and truly observe, in direct perception, the operation of the manas? Only after attaining realization and possessing the wisdom of the varieties of paths is this possible.

For now, let us not concern ourselves with whether the mind consciousness can truly observe the psychological state of the manas. We should first establish the correct views of Chan investigation, and, comparing against the effort and states of practice described above, cultivate the correct Chan-investigation practice—this is what most urgently needs to be done at present. As long as you cultivate this Chan-investigation practice, even if you do not attain enlightenment in this life, in future lives you will still know how to apply effort, will cultivate this Chan-investigation practice again, will not stray onto wrong paths, and realization will only be a matter of time.