Chinul (1158-1210)

If you want to avoid going around in circles, nothing compares to seeking Buddhahood. If you want to seek Buddhahood, Buddha is mind. Need mind be sought afar? It is not apart from the body.

The material body is temporal, having birth and death. The real mind is like space, unending and unchanging. Thus it is said, “When the physical body decays and dissolves back into fire and air, one thing remains aware, encompassing the universe.”

Unfortunately, people today have been confused for a long time. They do not know that their own mind is the real Buddha. They do not know that their own essence is the real Dharma.

Wishing to seek Dharma, they attribute it to remote sages; wishing to seek Buddhahood, they do not observe their own mind.

If you say that there is Buddha outside the mind, and there is Dharma outside of essence, and want to seek the Way of Buddhahood while clinging tightly to these feelings, even if you spend ages burning your body, branding your arms, breaking your bones and taking out the marrow, wounding yourself and copying scriptures in your own blood, standing for long periods of time without sitting down, eating only once a day, reading the whole canon and cultivating various austere practices, it will be like steaming sand to produce cooked rice; it will only increase your own fatigue.

Just know your own mind and you will grasp countless teachings and infinite subtle meanings without even seeking. That is why the World Honored One said, “Observing all sentient beings, I see they are fully endowed with the knowledge and virtues of Buddhas.”

He also said, “All living beings, and all sorts of illusory events, are all born in the completely awake subtle mind of those who realize suchness.”

So we know that there is no Buddhahood to attain apart from this mind. The Realized Ones of the past were just people who understood the mind, and the saints and sages of the present are people who cultivate the mind; students of the future should rely on this principle.

People who practice the Way should not seek externally. The essence of mind has no defilement; it is originally complete and perfect of itself. Just detach from illusory objects, and it is enlightened to suchness as is.

Chinul (1158-1210)

excerpted from Minding Mind – A Course in Basic Meditation- Thomas Cleary

Secrets of Cultivating the Mind was composed by Chinul (1158 – 1210). Ordained as a monk at eight, Chinul had no teacher. His first awakening occurred as he read a Chan Buddhist classic when he was 25 years old. After that Chinul went into seclusion in the mountains. Eventually Chinul began to instruct others, and this manual of meditation clearly defines and contrasts the principles and methods of sudden and gradual enlightenment.

“Unfortunately, people today have been confused for a long time. They do not know that their own mind is the real Buddha. They do not know that their own essence is the real Dharma. Wishing to seek Dharma, they attribute it to remote sages; wishing to seek Buddhahood, they do not observe their own mind.”

This is worthy of repeating because it essentializes so much in our own practice. I have often thought the enlightenment stories of those long ago tend to cause us to compare where we think we are to what they went through to attain enlightenment.

And, we never measure up. So much for comparing mind; once again it only gets in the way to add another layer of confusion.

The utter simplicity of turning the light around, stopping the outward flow of our doing minds to return to sitting in the lap of the Universe could not be more clear. And yet, we manage to get caught up in all sorts of “practices” to help us achieve what is already innately present.

May your way ahead be clear,

Elana, Scribe for Daily Zen