The Correct and Reasoned Chan Investigation Practice Before Attaining Realization

Ven. Shi Ruyuan's Chan meditation experience: I am grateful to the Grandmaster for the blessings He has bestowed upon me, his disciple, these past days—my merit has brought me such great benefit! The responses I have received as a disciple have been immense!

On the first night after returning, while sitting in meditation, incredible responses and feelings arose within meditative concentration. Now, whether walking, standing, or lying down, I am always in meditative concentration. That day, the moment I sat down on the cushion, my head went off with a sudden boom, as if a large mass of air current had been expelled, and my mind felt empty and hollow, as if something had struck my head hard with a sudden blow, and I was shaken out of concentration. On the second and third days, my body remained in concentration and could not move—I could not come out of concentration. On the third night, I was too excited to sleep, and I began to worry a little: if the following days were all like this, what would I become? During these days, my thighs also became sore and swollen, my eyes would not open; I wanted to get up and walk but could not move; when I stood up, I felt floaty and unsteady, afraid of falling, as if my cerebellum had lost its sense of balance.

On the fourth day, things were a little better; I could move about, and my legs were no longer sore and swollen. Around eleven o'clock that night, while in concentration, a powerful current of air burst out from my nostrils and shook me out of concentration. At the time I just sat there and slowly recovered my composure, recalling the Grandmaster's teachings to me: do not just sit there; engage in appropriate activity, practice walking meditation, and investigate the tathāgatagarbha in the states you encounter. So I got up and practiced walking meditation, while contemplating that all dharmas produced by the tathāgatagarbha are illusory dharmas. In an instant, I felt the dharma principles turning back and forth in my mind ceaselessly; I could not control body and mind to come out of concentration, and I could not perceive the six sense objects outside the mind—only the sound of the Buddha's name kept spinning and playing in my mind. Such great responses and experiences truly cannot be expressed in words; they can only be enjoyed or understood within meditative concentration—shallow concentration cannot perceive them at all.

The above are the responses and experiences of those few days. Now I have recovered; body and mind are relaxed and at ease, and I can engage in contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) on the dharma principles normally. Now the questioning doubts or answers that emerge in my mind are becoming clearer and clearer. Even going to the toilet, I can sustain questioning doubt without interruption—doubting who it is whose power drags this wooden-like five aggregates (pañcaskandha) of mine to the toilet, doubting how this power exercises its wondrous functions on the sentient being's shell of form. When eating and drinking, I cannot help but ask: in these activities of my five aggregates—raising hands and lifting feet, dressing, eating and drinking, holding the bowl and picking up the chopsticks—who is it that holds and sustains them?

Assessment: Ven. Shi Ruyuan's skill in Chan investigation is in no way inferior to the many Chan masters of the Tang and Song dynasties, nor in any way inferior to the Mahāyāna bodhisattvas who investigated Chan in the Buddha's time, because the skill of Chan investigation before enlightenment is the same in every era—there is no updating, no change, and the standard and level cannot be lowered. The only difference is that Shi Ruyuan cultivates under me and has learned too much about the tathāgatagarbha dharma, and too directly, so she no longer needs to spend much effort organizing and systematizing it; she relies more on external help, and her own effort appears insufficient. The ancient Chan masters, by contrast, learned the prajñā principles only roughly, far less extensively and minutely, and so had no choice but to apply their minds diligently in investigation, relying more on their own effort, and thus their wisdom was developed deeply. Teaching too directly is not conducive to disciples' Chan investigation—it easily leads to intellectual understanding/interpretive awakening, which affects the disciple's progress on the Path and the arising of wisdom.

But why did Shi Ruyuan not arrive at intellectual understanding? Looking at the questioning doubt she raised, it is like a layer of window paper—one poke and it breaks—pointing directly at the central point, at the target of enlightenment, at that moon that never disappears. The reason is that Shi Ruyuan's skill in meditative concentration is very deep and very dense—so dense it cannot be pulled apart; even demons cannot disturb it, and no one can interrupt it. Therefore, she did not use the mind consciousness to resolve the questioning doubt; she did not use the mind consciousness to reason, guess, speculate, or analyze. If her concentration had been a bit shallower and she had put the mind consciousness to use, she might have resolved the result without effort, breaking the mind consciousness's questioning doubt—but the manas's questioning doubt could not be broken.

Precisely because Shi Ruyuan did not use the mind consciousness to resolve the questioning doubt, did not take shortcuts, but only used the manas to investigate honestly and earnestly, even though a person of enlightenment would see her questioning doubt as thin as window paper, she herself could not see through it—simply because she is too sincere and honest, cutting no corners. In skill of such depth and density, one cannot cut corners; when the manas itself carries a heavy questioning doubt, it simply will not give the mind consciousness the opportunity to resolve it.

Therefore, as long as the skill is deep and the manas's questioning doubt is heavy, even if the dharma principles are taught as directly as possible, intellectual understanding can be avoided. Even if the hidden meaning is explicitly told, because of the questioning doubt, the manas will still investigate and verify it, will practice and realize it, and will not allow the mind consciousness to accept it through belief and understanding. In this way, as long as the skill is in place and the manas has doubt, those who previously had intellectual understanding can turn it into direct realization—turning the plainly evident Buddhadharma into a proof problem: knowing the answer but requiring the process of solving it. In the genuine process of investigation, the bodhisattva's disposition matures, and thereby the merit and wisdom of seeing the Path arise.

Hasn't Shi Ruyuan explained the method and process of applying effort in Chan investigation clearly? Hasn't she pointed out the target of Chan investigation plainly and unmistakably? Is she not just short of stating it outright? Isn't the finger pointing at the moon shining brightly, pointing right at the moon? Yet even so, for many people it is still of no use—they cannot get a handle on it. Why is that? They have no skill at all; even guessing with the mind consciousness is difficult for them. And even if they guess it, it is not accurate enough, has no effect on their own body and mind, and their afflictions remain afflictions as before.

Most importantly, they lack the Small Vehicle's mind of renunciation and cannot bring forth the Great Vehicle's bodhi mind. For such people, the cultivation and realization of the Buddhadharma is only one part of their lives, while many affairs of the worldly realm still occupy an important position. If the manas does not value cultivation, how can skill be developed? Each person cultivates and each person enjoys the benefit; no one can substitute for another. Therefore, explicitly stating the final result of Chan investigation is of no help to others either. It is not that if someone else states it explicitly, you can thereby attain intellectual understanding—direct realization is even more impossible.