There is a saying among monks, "If you live for a long time, you will have a destiny, if you sit for a long time, you will have Zen." It means that if a person lives in a temple for a long time, he will naturally have a connection with the temple; if he meditates for a long time, he will have Zen. of benefit. This of course also means that it is not easy to experience it when you first start sitting.

Walking and sitting in the meditation hall like this every day, as long as we insist on sitting down and not lacking incense, it is not easy. During this process, we may experience leg pain, backache, chest tightness, irritability, anger, and even various physical and mental obstacles. Slowly, these obstacles will quietly fall to the ground like dust in the air. When the dust of these obstacles falls to the ground, we can sit down on the meditation bench and gain some benefits of sitting meditation.

Of course, this process will be repeated many times, and floating dust in various states will rise again. If we can penetrate one level, we will be able to benefit from it at a deeper level, so I hope that everyone will persevere in this treasure-digging work on the Zen bench.

This treasure-digging work is to dig out our hearts. We have the same merits and priceless treasures as the Buddha in our hearts. Now we have to dig out this priceless treasure. We must have firm confidence in the guidance given to us by Shakyamuni Buddha.

Maybe we haven’t found the treasure now. What we have dug are bricks, tiles, thorns and weeds. Don’t give up, and don’t draw the conclusion that this is what I am, it’s all these things, nothing. precious. That would be wrong.

Yesterday I talked about the methods of practicing in the Chinese Buddhist meditation hall. Judging from the records of Zen lantern records, as early as the Tang Dynasty, our Zen jungle temples had Zen halls. Zen Hall, Dharma Hall, this is the main hall. The Zen bench in the Zen hall is called a Changlian bed. Why is it called Changlian Bed? I think it should be that it is both for meditating and sleeping. We later called it Guangdan.

The Zen Hall is sometimes also called the Monk Hall in the Denglu, so the Zen Hall and the Monk Hall should be the same place. In the autobiography of monk Zhaozhou, there is a mention of the monk hall - "the monk hall has no front or rear frame". This monk hall is a place where monks sit in meditation during the day and rest at night. At that time, there are no detailed records of how Zen and Zi practiced in the Zen hall.

Since there were many Zen masters with great wisdom and good hands and eyes in the sect at that time, the people who lived in the Zen hall mainly wanted to get close to the great masters with great wisdom and good hands and eyes. These great patriarchs and great sages lead students in a completely unconventional way. They have no fixed routines and no way to die. In their daily lives, they can ask and answer questions to the students, or raise their fists and palms, or drink with a stick. Sometimes, unexpectedly, the student may have doubts in his heart, or he may immediately cut off his thoughts and make breakthroughs and discoveries in his own mind.

Of course, there is one teacher, but there are many students. Teachers should have different methods for different students. Therefore, I think that when these students were meditating in the Zen hall, they should all be practicing according to their own experience, according to the instructions given by the teacher, according to their doubts and thoughts with the teacher, what they discovered in their hearts and minds, and according to this, they were practicing. . Some may be in the study before the mind is revealed, and some may be in the study after the mind is discovered. It is the same.

It is mentioned in the quotations of Zen Master Linji: One day Zen Master Huangbo came to the monks' hall and saw the leader meditating there. Zen Master Linji Yixuan - who had not yet come to Hebei at that time - was sitting on Changlian's bed. Sleep lying down. I think they should have different learning realms. Don't think that sleeping means you haven't worked hard. People who sleep are just letting their fortunes arise and cultivating themselves, instead of working hard.

This was in the Tang Dynasty. Zen in this period of the Tang Dynasty was called "pure Zen" by later generations. Pure Zen was also called "ancestral Zen". One of its core and most critical elements is the teacher. At that time, the word "teacher" was also used to refer to those Zen masters who had great hands and eyes and had skillful means to guide students to enlightenment. For example, monk Zhaozhou's master was named Nanquan Puyuan, and his lay surname was Wang, so people called him "Teacher Wang" - it seems that the Tang Dynasty was not too shy about monks and lay surnames.

In that era, this teacher was so important. This teacher must not only have a clear understanding of his nature and benefit from it, but also be able to turn his own benefit into benefit for others and share it with students. That is no joke, there must be means to train students.

Therefore, there is another word for Zen Hall called "Daye Honglu", which is like a steel-making furnace. The teacher is the steel-making worker, and the disciple is the steel, iron, and stone. He makes us Steel is refined in this furnace.

Why is this teacher important? It is not enough for him to just benefit from his own experience. He must also use his own benefit to help the students in front of him join in. And his teaching cannot completely follow a dead routine. It must be flexible and respond to the situation. There cannot be any preparation in advance, no thinking and reasoning, and no time to escape. Therefore, the ancients likened this work to "Shanwu Tai'a".

Tai'a is an ancient sword. It is very sharp and can be used to make mistakes. These Zen masters are like masters holding Tai'a sword dancing there. Of course, if you dance well, you will be good. If you dance poorly, you may not be able to use it. Cut yourself and cut others.

Why? Because when he was introducing students, Zen Master Linji said, "Sometimes we seize the person but not the state, sometimes we seize the state but not the person, sometimes we seize both the person and the state, and sometimes the whole effect works." He has no fixed routine at all. He could see through a person's nature at a glance and attack at the same time. How could he have time to prepare?

If he makes a mistake in making a move, he may destroy the person in front of him, teach him something bad, call him "blind", or even make the person obsessed with him, go crazy, or get sick. It's possible, no. Just kidding. That drink and that stick are not random. If you come to the wrong place, the other party may be possessed, insane, or even dead.

There was an example in the Song Dynasty. In the Song Dynasty, a good teacher picked up a Zen monk and shouted loudly, which knocked him unconscious. Later, he thought about it for several days and nights and found a rope to hang himself. You see, this is the responsibility that a true Zen master has to take on people. Therefore, the ancients compared it to "Tai'a who is good at dancing".

There is also a metaphor that calls such a teacher "Yingjiang". Yingjiang is an allusion from Zhuangzi. It is said that a person had a little chalk on the tip of his nose. It is a white mineral, equivalent to the white lime we have today. It cannot be washed off if it gets on the nose. What should I do if I can’t wash it off?

There was a man in Ying who was particularly good at using an axe - Ying is from Jiangling County, Hubei Province. The ancient city in the northwest of Jiangling County is now called Ying. It used to be the capital of Chu State - he came over and swung the ax in the air. He got up, whistling in the wind, and struck with an axe, chipping off the chalk on the tip of his nose, but his nose was not injured at all. This is the story in "Zhuangzi".

Just imagine, you can use an ax to peel off such a thin layer of white ash without injuring the skin or even hair on the other person’s nose. This is a very difficult task.

There is also a metaphor in medicine called "Golden Turtle". This is a device used to treat eye diseases in ancient China. Its head is pointed and very sharp. What disease does it cure? A membrane grew inside the eyes, covering them. When the doctor stabs the patient with the golden thorn, he must pierce the membrane just right. But if he stabs further, he will blind the person's eyes. If you pierce it shallowly, this membrane will pierce ***. This is the teaching of the great Zen masters of the Tang Dynasty.

In fact, there were many great Zen masters in the Tang Dynasty. They believed that even in the prosperous Tang Dynasty, when Zen Buddhism was at its most prosperous, there were not many good teachers with such qualifications. Therefore, Zen Master Huangbo has a famous saying: , called "There is no Zen master in the Tang Dynasty". Another Zen master commented that Mazu's disciples were all good and excellent, but not many could truly achieve perfection in their own use and that of others.

This is the most classic teaching of Zen. This kind of teaching is called heart-to-heart communication, heart-to-heart imprinting, directly pointing to the human heart, and becoming a Buddha by seeing one's nature. The most critical thing here is what I mentioned earlier, this teacher. Because teachers and virtuous advisors have sufficient conditions for improvement, they can enable students to see the true nature of their own minds when they ask questions, answer questions, and raise their hands. Even if you don't see it, you will also get suspicious. If you get suspicious, you don't need to tell the teacher, he will just sit there and practice it in the meditation hall. This was the situation during the most prosperous era of Zen.

But at the same time, in the teachings of the ancestors of the Tang Dynasty, we have also seen some methods and starting points that can be called hard work - if you don't understand it, you can use this method.

We saw in the quotations of Zen Master Huangbo Xiyun that he said, you can refer to Zhaozhou's "nothing". Let’s see, monk Zhaozhou’s “nothing” that “dogs have no Buddha nature” was actually first proposed in the time of Zen Master Huang Bo. Just focus on this "nothing" and pay attention.

Later, there were various huatou similar to "nothing", such as "All things are unified, where can one go", "What are the original faces of parents before they were alive", "What is dragging the dead body?" "Who", and later "Who is chanting the Buddha's name", as well as many koans and Ji Feng Zhuanyu of the great patriarch as objects of study by scholars. This is called "Hua Touzhen".

For Zen students, we should choose a huatou and ponder and study it in our hearts all day long when we are meditating and walking incense. In fact, the current system of playing seven in the meditation hall is most suitable for this kind of huatou method. After the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the most popular person was "who". We know that the old monk Xuyun asked "Who is dragging the dead body". Nowadays, many Zen monasteries in China advocate asking "Who is chanting the Buddha's name".

In fact, these huatou may be different, but their functions are the same. We, Zen Master Zhaozhou, have "wu". Our Zen hall is called Wumenguan, so refer to "wu". Its function is the same as "who". In particular, students from Buddhist colleges may wish to work hard. Maybe some of you are just counting breaths, but give it a try and refer to Hua Tou, refer to "who", or refer to "nothing".

In the beginning, you have a lot of thoughts on your mind. Slowly, "sitting for a long time and meditating", for a long time, without stopping every day, without giving up, when I mention that huatou, my thoughts will gradually change from complex to simple, from many to one, and finally return to this huatou. This learning method is also based on the dual cultivation of tranquility and insight:

You don’t look at anything else, just focus on training; at the same time, there are doubts that draw you and you want to explore. This is a kind of observation, inward observation. , on the other hand. In fact, this method, in my personal opinion, is a very direct and effective method, and it is also the easiest to experience. I hope that more masters will be motivated to at least go all out to use this skill in these two sevens.