January 19^th, 2021

It is not only that the Buddha is an expediency but that the direct and non-verbal transmission of the Mind in the Ch'an tradition is an expediency. The Buddha's turning of a flower, Kasyapa's response in a smile, and Bodhidharma's coming from the West, are known as the doctrine of direct pointing to the Mind and the means for realizing one's own Buddha-nature. But by calling it "direct pointing" its meaning becomes distorted.