Huangbo Xiyun
Huangbo Xiyun
Dates uncertain
Huangbo Xiyun was a student of Baizhang Huaihai and the teacher of Linji Yixuan, the founder of the Linji school[1]. He was a physically imposing man with a prominent lump on his forehead, said to have been acquired through years of prostrations. His teaching was famed for its bluntness and its stripping away of all concepts about Buddhism or practice. His famous "thirty blows" became an emblem of the immediacy of true Chan teaching[2].
Huangbo's teaching on the One Mind is recorded in the Transmission of Mind, compiled by his student Pei Xiu: "All buddhas and all sentient beings are nothing but the One Mind, beside which nothing exists. This mind, which is without beginning, is unborn and indestructible. It is not green nor yellow, and has neither form nor appearance. It does not belong to the categories of things which exist or do not exist."[3] This description of mind as the ground of all appearance and the source of all experience represents the philosophical heart of the Linji teaching. Linji later said that it was through Huangbo's transmission that he had encountered the living Buddha[1].
Names
Disciples of Huangbo Xiyun
Teachers and lineage of Huangbo Xiyun
Teacher / root master:
Works
- Chuanxin FayaoChuánxīn Fǎyào (Essentials of Mind Transmission)
Huangbo's teachings as recorded by the Tang official and lay disciple Pei Xiu in 857. The text is a sustained treatise on the One Mind that is identical with all buddhas — no graduated practice, no entry from outside, only direct seeing. Read together with Huangbo's later "Wanling Record," it became one of the most concise statements of Hongzhou-school teaching to enter the standard Chan canon.
Teachings
- proverbCease to Cherish Opinions
Do not search for the truth. Only cease to cherish opinions.
The Master said: All the Buddhas and all sentient beings are nothing but the One Mind, beside which nothing exists. This Mind, which is without beginning, is unborn and indestructible. It is not green nor yellow, and has neither form nor appearance. It does not belong to the categories of things which exist or do not exist, nor can it be thought of in terms of new or old. It is neither long nor short, big nor small, for it transcends all limits, measures, names, traces, and comparisons. It is that which you see before you. Begin to reason about it and you at once fall into error.
All the Buddhas and all sentient beings are nothing but the universal mind, wherein nothing stirs. This mind, having no beginning, was never born and will never perish. Without form, without appearance, it transcends all categories. It cannot be perceived, it cannot be attained, and it is neither new nor old. It is neither long nor short, large nor small. It cannot be measured, named, traced, or compared. Is there anything you can add to it? Is there anything you can take away? Ordinary people and Buddhas—between them there is not a hair's breadth of distinction.
Huangbo said, "The dharma that all Buddhas teach is the same dharma—the One Mind. This Mind is without beginning, is unborn and indestructible. It is not green nor yellow, and has no form or appearance. It does not belong to the categories of things which exist or do not exist, nor is it to be considered new or old. It is neither long nor short, big nor small, for it transcends all limits, measures, names, traces, and comparisons." A monk asked, "Then how should one practice?" Huangbo said, "There is nothing to practice. Just let things be in their own way, and there will be neither coming nor going. This is called the One Mind, and there is no other dharma besides it."
- proverbOne Mind, Nothing Else
All the Buddhas and all sentient beings are nothing but the One Mind — there is no other dharma. This mind has been there from the beginning. It is not born and does not die.
- proverbMind Is Empty Like Space
The mind is like empty space — and yet it is full of every star. To find the stars, you do not need to leave the space; only to stop looking elsewhere.
- proverbBeyond the Mind, No Buddha
There is no Buddha outside the mind. To search for a Buddha is to lose your Buddha. The search itself is the only thing in the way.
- proverbCold Pierces the Bone
If the cold did not pierce the bone, how would the plum blossom be so fragrant? Practice without difficulty is fragrance without flower.
- proverbStriking the Emperor
When the future emperor questioned me sloppily, I struck him with my staff. He went on to rule the empire; he never asked a sloppy question again. The staff has many jobs.
- proverbNo Grades Among Buddhas
There are no grades among Buddhas; you are not closer or farther by years of sitting. The day you forget the question of distance, you have arrived.
Give up words, give up thinking, and stretch out to the place where words and thinking cannot reach. There you will meet me — not as a teacher, but as the same hand you use to hold this cup.
- proverbSix Realms, One Mind
Heaven, hell, animal, hungry ghost, human, demigod — six realms, one mind. The mind that wakes from one to the next is the same mind in different clothes.
Other masters in Linji
Master Record Sources
Huangbo Xiyun
Linji
- koan_refsChart of the Chan Ancestors
11 53, 86 2
- nameZen Editorial Overlay - Originals Curation
Huangbo Xiyun
- teachersZen Editorial Overlay - Originals Curation
Baizhang Huaihai