Linji Yixuan Quotes on Mind
Linji Yixuan's recorded sayings present the most uncompromising Tang-dynasty Chan teaching on the nature of mind. The famous true person of no rank — the formless, dynamic, ever-present awareness that is at once the buddha-nature and the ordinary mind of every human being — is to be encountered directly, in this very moment, rather than approached through scriptural study, devotional practice, or progressive cultivation. The pedagogical violence of Linji's teaching style — the shouts (ho!), the blows of the staff, the abrupt non-answers to philosophical questions — is designed to dislodge the student's clinging to any conceptual or experiential support and to provoke the direct insight that nothing other than the student's present awareness is the buddha-mind being sought. The framework defined the koan-driven training of Linji and Rinzai Chan-Zen for the subsequent millennium.
Quotes
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Attributed to Linji Yixuan:
“If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him.”
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Attributed to Linji Yixuan:
“Followers of the Way, there is no Buddha to seek, no Dharma to attain.”
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Attributed to Linji Yixuan:
“The true person of no rank stands in your face and speaks.”
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Attributed to Linji Yixuan:
“Wherever you stand, that is the very place; rest there.”
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“Someone asked: “What are enlightenment and delusion?” Linji said: “A moment when your mind is in doubt is delusion. If you can comprehend that the myriad phenomena are unborn, that [deluded] mind is like an illusory transformation, so that you are everywhere pure, this is enlightenment. So enlightenment and delusion are the two objects, defilement and purity.”
p. 21 -
“Outside of mind there is nothing, and what is within mind is also unattainable. What are you looking for? All of you people everywhere talk of having cultivation and having realization, but don’t make this mistake. Even if you gain something from cultivation, it is just the karma of birth and death.”
pp. 26-7 -
“Everywhere there are those who say that there is a Path that can be cultivated and a truth that can be realized. You tell me, what path, what truth? What is lacking in your present functioning? Where will you cultivate and repair it? The younger generation of would-be Zen people do not understand this, so they believe in these wild fox spirits. When they explain things, they tie people down. They say that enlightenment can be attained only when truth and conduct are in accord and you guard yourself from misdeeds of thought, speech, and action. This kind of talk is like springtime drizzle.”
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