Chan metaphors: Waves, water, mirror, lamp

·期刊原文

Ch'an metaphors: Waves, water, mirror, lamp

By Whalen Lai

Philosophy East & West

volumn 29,　no.3 (July 1979)　P245-253

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Time and again, philosophy finds that it can express
itself best, not in cold and hard concepts, but in
intricate metaphors. Plato used the story of the
cave to illustrate Being and becoming. Indian
philosophers oft used stock metaphors to support
their argument. In Chinese Buddhism too, key
metaphors have helped to define and even to win
important debates. In the evolution of early Ch'an,
the metaphors of water and waves, mirror and lamp
played significant roles. The present article will
examine the meanings of these Ch'an(a) metaphors and
their related texts.

The Ch'an tradition is now understood to be a
complex tradition involving more than the Platform
Suutra.(1) The Platform Suutra tells of the Southern
Ch'an version of its history: how hui-neng(b), from
the south, was awakened by the chanting of the
Diamond Suutra, and how he went north to meet
Hung-jen(c), the fifth patriarch, and outwitted
Shen-hsiu(d), the Northern Ch'an representative.
Since Hung-jen secretly passed to him the robe and
begging bowl, the Suutra sees in Hui-neng the sixth
patriarch. In all likelihood, the life and teachings
of Hui-neng reported in this Suutra reflected the
outlook of Hui-neng's disciple, Shen-hui(e), and his
circle.(2) This Southern tradition eventually
triumphed over the Northern branch, such that the
Platform Suutra became, for a long time, the source
of our knowledge of early Ch'an.

Other early Ch'an traditions have since been
discovered. Of these, the Northern group can pride
itself now in its own version of the story told in
the Leng-chia shih-tzu-chi(f). It would appear that
the Northern school was the earlier school and that
it specialized on the La^nkaavataara Suutra.
Supposedly, Bodhidharma transmitted the suutra
translated by Gunabhadra in four scrolls to
Hui-k'o(g),(3) his disciple and second patriarch.
Tao-hsin(h), the fourth patriarch, received it from
Seng-ts'an(i) and passed it on to Hung-jen. We
actually cannot be very certain about the figures
prior to Tao-hsin, but in the rediscovered writings
of Tao-hsin and Hung-jen, the La^nkaavataara Suutra
was clearly a key inspiration. Closely associated
with this suutra was the Awakening of Faith in
Mahaayaana, apparently a Chinese treatise modeled
upon the suutra.(4) Tao-hsin seems to be the first
Ch'an patriarch to introduce it into Ch'an.(5)

The preceding brief outline shows that early
Ch'an was far from being antiscriptural, that an
idealization of Hui-neng and his life as suutra
developed later, and that Ch'an iconoclasm was yet
to emerge. (The iconoclastic style began more with
Ma-tsu(j) .(6) A simple codification of the key
scriptures in the early tradition would yield this:

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The "water-and-waves" metaphor is found in the
La^nkaavataara Suutra and is subtly modified by the
Awakening of Faith. Shen-hsiu supposedly composed a
poem using the metaphor of "mirror and dust," and
the Platform Suutra mentioned "lamp and light.''
Behind these changing metaphors is a progressively
radical understanding of the mind and its functions.

CONSCIOUSNESS AS WAVES: THE LA^NKAAVATAARA TRADITION

Concepts of mind are central to the Buddhist
tradition from the very beginning. To state the
logical options simply and simplistically, the
Hiinayaana tradition has long regarded any
cittadharma or psychic reality to be polluted.
However, among the sectarian Buddhists, the idea of
an "innately pure mind" evolved and was attributed
to the Buddha himself. The liberal Mahaasa^nghika
endorsed this idea. The conservatives had rejected
it. Mahaayaana, however, emerged at first with the
Praj~naapaaramitaa tradition. There the emphasis is
on the emptiness of all realities. Forms are empty,
as are the other four skandhas (aggregates) :
perception, conception, will, and consciousness or
mind. The mind is empty like everything else.
Discriminative terms like purity and impurity would
be ultimately inappropriate. The positive concept of
a "pure mind" was, however, later revalidated by the
Tathaagatagarbha (Womb of the Buddha, Buddha-nature)
tradition. There is indeed in man the spark of this
transcendental mind. Distinct from this positive
tradition was another stream of Mahaayaana thought
that developed into Buddhist idealism or Yogaacaara.
There, the core consciousness is called the
aalayavij~naana, storehouse consciousness, a
depository or all past experiences. In China, there
was much debate on whether this core consciousness
was or was not the pure mind itself. There was no
consensus.(7)

Bodhidharma's teaching and transmission of the
La^nkaavataara Suutra to Hui-k'o coincided roughly
with a Northern Ch'an interest in this issue of the
mind. In the biography of Bodhidharma by
Tao-hsuan(k) in the Hsu Kao-seng-ch'uan(l), the
T'ang Lives of Eminent Monks, it is said that
Bodhidharma practiced Mahaayaana Ch'an (meditation)
when, the other leading figure, Seng-ch'ou(m),
practiced Hinayaana meditation.(8) Seng-ch'ou meditated
upon the impurities of the body, the painfulness of
perception, the impermanence of mind, and the
selflessness of all realities, in other words, the
"negative" aspects. He could so reproduce death in
his meditation that animals and wild beasts were awed

P.245

by his countenance.(9) Bodhidharma had a more
"positive" approach, for his disciple Hui-k'o
reported the contents of his enlightenment, which
had nothing to do with repulsive realities, hut
rather with the Buddha-essence ("Ma.ni pearl") and
nonduality ("Sa.msaara is nirvaa.na").

Ignorant of the luminous Mani pearl, I mistook it
for tiles and rubble. Now I suddenly see the real
gem itself. Ignorance and wisdom now appear the
same. Phenomena are as such the Absolute
(tathataa).(10)

Since the Ma.ni pearl hidden behind rubble was a
standard metaphor to describe the tathaagatagarbha,
the hidden Buddha-nature, Hui-k'o's meditation was
directed at regaining this preexistent essence of
enlightenment. The Ma.ni pearl has the power to
purify all things. Once discovered by Hui-k'o, it
purged even the erroneous distinction between
enlightenment and illusion, nirvaa.na and sa.msaara,
the one dharmataa and the multiple phenomena.
Dualities faded away as Hui-k'o gained his insight.
Repeatedly we shall encounter this Buddha-mind in
Later Ch'an. This is perhaps the core of Ch'an
itself: to see into one's nature and realize one's
Buddhahood.

The La^nkaavataara Suutra Hui-k'o received from
Bodhidharma would confirm this understanding of the
mind. The sutra, however, is long and far from
molded by one singular theme. This is the first
known suutra that synthesized the tradition of the
aalayavij~naana (the core consciousness in
Yogaacaara) and the tathaagatagarbha (the
transcendental Buddha-nature). What is unclear is
whether the two are identical. The suutra supports
both positions in different places. However, it is
best to consider the work as having more a
Yogaacaara interest(11), and that it was appreciated
precisely for its more analytical insights into the
workings of the mind. By then, the nature of human
consciousness had been traced to eight levels. On
top (or behind) the traditional five senses and the
cognitive mind (these constitute the first six
consciousnesses), there are two more elements. Since
the sense of the ego or self is not immediately
available to the five senses and the cognitive
mind--they merely register separate, discrete
sensations and integrate them into an "object,"
there being, however according to the Buddhist
philosophy, no real substance to it--it is natural
to posit an ego-subconscious which creates that
false sense of a self.

The discovery of a deeper egoistic subconscious
was made by the Sa.mdhnirmocana Suutra.

The aadaanavij~naana (ego-clinging consciousness)
is very subtle
Thus I (the Buddha) have not taught it to the
foolish commoners
The seeds manifest like a torrential flood
(As) people so cling on to discrimination and a
false sense of the self.(12)

The image of the torrential flood depicts the
agitations in the mind once it foolishly clings on
to discriminations and a false self. The water
metaphor is already here, but the La^nkaavataara
Suutra gives the apt commentary on the prceeding.

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The sea of storehouse consciousness is permanently
subsisting
The wind of phenomenal realms stirs it
Various consciousnesses spring up, churning out
like waves...
The way in which the sea gives rise to the waves
Is the way in which the seven consciousnesses
rise inseparably from and with the (eighth
storehouse consciousness).
Just as the sea agitates and the various waves
swell
So too the seven consciousnesses come about, not
different from the mind.(13)

Our core consciousness subsists unbroken from one
life to another (though not unchanging). Our senses
would not have been active except for the stimuli of
the "phenomenal realms," namely, sight, sound, odor,
taste, and touch. These "perceptables'' arouse our
corresponding senses: eyes, ears, nose, mouth, skin.
Once that happens, our cognitive mind ("brain")
begins to work ceaselessly. The La^nkaavataara
Suutra passage cited earlier says that once the
lower consciousnesses became agitated, they "swell
out" of the core consciousnesses like undercurrents
churning the water into waves. Then the whole mental
apparatus is caught up in one storm and there is no
way to separate out the seven consciousnesses and
the aalayavij~naana. The point of the metaphor is to
show the active participation of the aalayavij~naana
in the lower consciousnesses; the indissociability
of waves and water pertains to the maze of our mind.

As the waves of the ocean depending on the wind are
stirred up and roll on dancing without interruption,
so the Alaya-flood constantly stirred up by the wind
of individuation rolls on dancing with the waves of
the various vij~naanas. As... rays of light are to
the sun, neither different nor not different, so too
the seven consciousnesses, like waves to the ocean,
rise in conjunction with mind....In accordance with
the intelligence and discrimination of the ignorant,
the AAlaya is compared to the ocean, and the
likeness of waves and the (psychic) evolutions is
pointed out by a simile.(14)

The implied ideal here is that the mental activities
should be ceased so that the mind, as it were, can
be turned into a calm sea. The sea (mind) can then
passively reflect the waterfront (phenomena) without
reflecting upon it discriminatively. In the original
metaphor, no mention is made of the "wetness" of the
water.

THE INCORRUPTABLE MIND AS WETNESS: THE AWAKENING OF
FAITH

The La^nkaavataara teaching was inherited by
Tao-hsin (580-651), but Ch'an also took its first
turn. Tao-hsin and his disciple, Hung-jen(607-675),
taught as many as five hundred disciples as the East
Mountain. Whereas the legends depict Bodhidharma and
Hui-k'o practicing harsh meditations--ascctic,
perpetual wall-gazing and self-immolations in a show
of yogic dedication and indifference(15) . East
Mountain Ch'an was known for a more relaxed
approach. The motto of the school was "Keeping to
the True Mind" or "Abiding by the One." The means
was the i-hsing san-mei(n) (ekavyuuha or ekacaarya-
samaadhi,

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single-focus or practice meditation), contemplation
on the Absolute, suchness, itself. The Awakening of
Faith and the La^nkaavataara Suutra were used in the
instruction. Terms like "wu-nien(o) " and
"li-nien(p)" (without thought, or departing from
thought) were taken from the Awakening of Faith to
characterize Southern and Northern Ch'an
polemics.(10) Although it is extremely difficult to
pinpoint where Tao-hsin might have added his touch
to the tradition, his use of the Awakening of Faith
should be one clue.

The Awakening of Faith proposed the doctrine of
the One Suchness Mind that permeates all levels of
consciousness and all external realities created by
the Mind. It took over the "water-and-waves"
metaphor, but changed the identity of the "wind" so
that it does not symbolize phenomenal realms (the
perceptables) but ultimate ignorance itself.
Ignorance as wind stirs up the Suchness Mind into
the phenomenal waves. The waves stand now for both
phenomena, that is, the form of ignorance (wu-ming
chih hsiang(q)) and phenomenal consciousness, that
is, the functions of the mind (hsin-shih chih
hsiang(r)).

All forms of mind and consciousness, hsin-shih chih
hsiang, are none other than ignorance itself. The
form of ignorance, however, does not exist apart
from the essence of enlightenment, therefore it can
not be destroyed and yet [on principle] it cannot
not be destroyed. This is comparable to the ocean's
water and its waves churned up by the wind. Water
and wind are (now) inseparable, but the water is not
mobile by nature. If the wind ceases, the movement
ceases. But the wetness remains undestroyed.
Likewise, man's Mind, pure in itself, is stirred up
by the wind of ignorance. Both Mind and ignorance
were originally without form, but now they are
inseparably [in-form-ed by the waves produced in
conjunction]. Yet Mind is not mobile by nature. If
ignorance ceases, then the continuity ceases. But
the essence of wisdom remains unchanged.(17)
(Italics mine.)

By this subtle twist in reference, the Awakening
of Faith changed the whole content of discourse. The
"water-and-wave" metaphor no longer describes the
inseparable relationship between the agitated
aalayavij~naana and the other consciousnesses. It is
now descriptive of the intrinsic nonduality of
samsaric phenomena and Suchness Mind. The ocean here
is not the polluted aalayavij~naana but the active
tathaagatagarbha.(18) Because by definition, the
tathaagatagarbha or buddha-nature remains
uncorruptible even if seemingly it evolves into
phenomenal consciousness (the waves and, according
to Fa-tsang, the aalayavij~naana itself) , (19)
therefore we have the additional reference earlier
to the indestructible "wetness" or essence of
enlightenment. Even an agitated tathaagatagarbha
remains unchanged as the womb of enlightenment, that
is, even the waves are essentially watery. The wind
of ignorance can ultimately little change the
incorruptible Mind. In principle, of course,
ignorance should be eliminated. However, in fact,
the forms of ignorance (sa.msaara) or waves need not
be destroyed, because in essence they, too, are the
essence of enlightenment (nirvaa.na); they are no
less 'wet'.

The La^nkaavataara Suutra intends the metaphor
to depict the illusion of our

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wavelike, everyday consciousness; the Awakening of
Faith underlines instead the unchanging wateriness
of the abiding tathaagatagarbha. In one we sense
the need of continual vigilance, self-denial and
discernment; in the other, the reasons for the
singleminded meditation upon the Suchness, or
Keeping to the One or Abiding by the True. The
La^nkaavataara Suutra is more Indian and more
`Yogaacaaric' in having a continuous but ultimately
impermanent consciousness; the Awakening of Faith, a
Chinese redaction, leans toward a tathaagatagarbha
doctrine of a complete, perfect, invariable
Mind-monad. In that sense, in the "water-and-waves"
metaphor, one sees more the agitated waves, while
the other the eternal essence of the water. With
Tao-hsin, we may say the changeless water
overshadowed the fickle waves.

THE MIRROR MIND AND THE DEFILING DUST: SHEN-HSIU IN
THE PLATFORM SUTRA

Shen-hsiu (605-706) was the faithful successor to
the Ch'an lineage of Tao-hsin and Hung-jen. The
Platform Suutra can hardly do him justice, but even
so, its treatment of Shen-hsiu is not totally
groundless. The straw man has his say, and in a
manner not uncharacteristic of the Northern Ch'an
tradition. There, it is said, Hung-jen solicited
responses for a successor and a humble Shen-hsiu was
pressed by his brethren to compose this poem:

The body is the Bodhi tree
The mind a bright mirror stand
Cleanse it with daily diligence
See to it that no dust adheres(20)

The mirror metaphor was hardly new nor unique to the
Buddhist tradition.(21) Here it affirms the original
purity and brightness (enlightened nature) of the
mind. The term for dust, ch'en(s), is the term for
kle`sa, defilements, and the elimination of
defilements has long been accepted as a prerequisite
to any meditation. The mirror reflects reality as it
is, and without superimpositions. What might distort
the image of suchness upon the mind is the dust of
defiled thoughts. Daily vigilance would keep the
latter away and preserve the clear apperception.

Hui-neng (638-713) entered the Ch'an circle up
north after a previous encounter with the Diamond
Suutra. The Diamond Suutra espouses the Emptiness
philosophy that would not put trust in any
attribution of 'self' to reality or 'traits' that
might evoke dualities:

Bodhisattva, great beings have no notion of a dharma
(reality), Subhuti, nor a notion of non-dharma. They
have no notion nor non-notion at all.... (If they
do,) they would (erroneously) seize on a self, a
being.(22)

Compared with the verbose discussion on mind and
consciousness in the La^nkaavataara Suutra and even
the Awakening of Faith, the Diamond Suutra cuts
directly at the knots of all discourses. That spirit
of simplicity can be seen in one version of
Hui-neng's rejoinder to Shen-hsiu:

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Bodhi originally is no tree
Nor the mirror a stand
Buddha-nature is always pure and clear
Whence can the dust come?(23)

The assumption of 'self' in bodhi and mirror (mind)
is negated. If indeed there is a Buddha-nature,
bright and clear, like the Ma.ni pearl spoken of by
Hui-k'o, should not the person see through even the
distinction between ignorance and enlightenment,
defilements and purity? Chuang-tzu(t) himself had
said, "If the mirror is indeed bright, dust cannot
on it adhere. If dust can adhere to it, can it be
said to be bright? "(24) The daily cleansing of the
mirror suggests gradualism; Hui-neng's cutting reply
suggests sudden enlightenment. To the Southern Ch'an
tradition, Hui-neng's genius was so attested to.

If we look through the writings now thought to
be Shen-hsiu's, we would find there the Emptiness
philosophy also. Where then is the real difference
between North and South? Or was it just polemics and
politics? Perhaps here the message alone cannot be
the criterion; the media, the ways in which the same
truth is expressed, count as much. Compared with
most Northern treatises, the Platform Suutra is
almost unsystematic in its free use of aphorisms.
That might be its contribution, for in the Southern
opposition to verbose analysis, there was offered a
new standard of truth--the subtle interaction
between mind and mind and the glorification of the
individual personality as the carrier of
enlightenment. Hui-neng's real life remains little
known, but the legend preserved in the Platform
Suutra stands out as a perfect paradigm. The South
would in time produce many more such personalities,
each unique and inimitable. The rather sudden
flowering of such spiritual individuality remains
forever a mystery, but it may be related to a new
metaphor, the Lamp, expressed in this Chinese
suutra, as a symbol for self-enlightenment.(25)

THE LAMP AND ITS LIGHT: CH'AN AS WISDOM IN THE
PLATFORM SUUTRA

According to the Southern Ch'an tradition, the line
that awoke the boy Hui-neng when he heard the
Diamond Suutra was from Kumaarajiiva's translation.
The line is "Responding to the Nonabiding/Arouse the
Mind."(26) This is taken by Shen-hui to mean the
indissociable link between meditation and wisdom.
"Responding to the Nonabiding" pertains to
meditation, ch'an, while "Arouse the Mind" means
wisdom, hui(u). Together, they spell out the unity
of ch'an and enlightenment. Ch'an is enlightenment,
ting chi hui(v). The word "Ch'an" henceforth means
the truth itself. (When a student asks "What is
Ch'an?" he is asking, in fact, what is Truth.
Reality or Absolute.) It is not that ch'an leads to
wisdom, as it was in the classic scheme taught by
the Buddha: 'sila, samaadhi, and praj~naa (precepts
-> meditation -> wisdom). Ch'an is a proper title to
a school because ch'an is now both means and
end.(27)

In the Platform Suutra, this relationship
between ch'an and wisdom is explained in terms of
the "lamp-and-light" metaphor:

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(It is) comparable to the lamp and the light that it
gives forth. If there is lamp. there is light. If
there is light. there is lamp. The lamp is the
substance, t'i, of the light. The light is the
function, yung, of the lamp. Although in name two,
in substance they are not two.(28)

The substance-function, t'i-yung(w) , logic was
present already in the "water-and-wave" metaphor in
the Awakening of Faith. The nonduality of the rays
of the sun from the sun has been spoken of by the
La^nkaavataara Suutra. Here, however, the
"lamp-and-light" imagery is used to show Ch'an as
both the means and the end. The mind is luminous and
all illuminating. Enlightenment is only the mind
(lamp) allowed to shine forth by itself (light). The
mind is none other than its own enlightenment.(29)

The mirror and the lamp tell of correspondingly
an objective and a subjective approach. The mind as
mirror is passive, a receptacle of external data. It
is vulnerable to the distortion by defilements
(dust) . The mirroring mind describes best the
philosophy of Vij~naptimaatrataa or
Representations-Only.

Rather than pointing toward an idealistic system,
the theory of the store-consciousness is used for
totally different purposes.... It is the recognition
that one's normal mental and psychic impressions are
constructed, that is, altered and seemingly
statisized by our consciousness-complexes, that
forms the actual main point...(30)

The mind as lamp is active, the source of light that
reveals external realities. As fire, it is also
self-and other-purifying, burning off any dust or
defilements and chasing away the gloom of ignorance,
wu-ming (the absence of light, illumination). The
mirror recognizes implicitly the existence of
objects "out there"; it is not so much an idealist
metaphor as a metaphor describing the
re-presentation of reality by the mind and the
dangers of our mental constructs used in this very
representation. The mind as lamp affirms the Chinese
preference for a strict Idealism, based on a liberal
reading of the line in the Avata.msaka Suutra: The
Three Realms are created by the Mind.(31) "As the
Mind is pure, the realm is pure."(32) As the mind is
a lamp, its every activity is enlightenment.
Substance and function are one. Permanence (of
Buddha-nature) and the dynamics of daily work are
like lamp and light,(33) never the one without the
other. Southern Ch'an indeed realized this
activistic Ch'an. It went beyond the still relatively
passive style of the Northern scholars. In southern
Ch'an, every day became a holy (literally, good) day.
As Ma-tsu said, the everyday mind itself is none other
than the Tao.

CONCLUSION

The relative emphasis on one metaphor over another
or one aspect of a metaphor over another tells of
subtle changes in the understanding of the mind. The
mind is ultimately the same Buddha-nature at the
heart of the Ch'an tradition. Shades of waves,
water, mirror, and lamp can be found in all the
individual treatises or representative
spokesmen.(34) Some of these metaphors

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are as ancient as the traditions themselves. All
these qualifications notwith-standing, metaphors can
and do show differences in nuance otherwise
inexpressible by concepts. The analysis of such
metaphors is neither self-defeating nor
hairsplitting.(35) It is only an attempt to relive
the historical changes and controversies.

NOTES

1. See Carl Bielefeldt and Lewis Lancaster,
"T'an Ching(x) (Platform Suutra)," review article of
latest scholarship, Philosophy East and West 25, no.
2 (1975) : 197-222; and introduction to Philip
Yampolsky, trans., The Platform Sutra of the Six
Patriarch (New York: Columbia University, 1967).

2. T'an ching claims suutru (ching) status
previously limited to buddhavacana, words spoken by
the Buddha himself, fo-shuo(y).

3. The more recent translation of Bodhiruci was
not used, and yet it is in this later version that
sudden enlightenment is better supported; see note
in Todo Kyojun's essay in Hajime Nakamura(z) et al.,
eds., Ajia Bukkyoshi(aa): Chuugoku hen(ab), I, Kan
minzoku no Bukkyo(ac) (Tokyo, Kosei, 1975), p. 159

4. I side with this judgment in my "The
Awakening of Faith in Mahayana: A Study of the
Unfolding of Sinitic Motifs" (Harvard University,
Ph.D dissertation, 1975).

5. Tao-hsin's link with Seng-ts'an is suspect.
There is a likely chance that he moved away from the
T'ien-t'ai meditation based on the Wen-shu so-shuo
pan-jou-ching(ad) (Praj~naapaaramitaa Suutra as
spoken by Ma~nju'sri) to the East Mountain Ch'an by
way of the Awakening of Faith. The Wen-shu style
still emphasized meditation on the deluded elements
in the mind; the Awakening of Faith supported
meditation on the true mind.

6. All surviving schools in Ch'an are traced
back to this line. On early Ch'an, see various
essays in forthcoming Berkeley Buddhist Studies
series' volume, Early Ch'an in China and Tibet,
edited by Whalen Lai and Lewis Lancaster. It would
overload the notes here to list all the relevant
essays.

7. Chinese settled on this oversimplified
characterization: the Ti-lun(ae) (Da'sabhuumika)
school endorsed a pure consciousness, Hsuan-tsang a
deluded consciousness, and Paramaartha a mixed
consciousness.

8. Taisho Daizokyo (hereafter I.), 50, pp.
595-597.

9. Unfortunately a one-sided account of
Seng-ch'ou-as usual; see note 6 herein.

10. T. 50, p. 552b.

11. Compared with the Awakening of Faith; set
infra.

12. T. 16, p. 592c.

13. T. 16, p. 848b.

14. T. 16, p. 523b; translation based in part on
D. T. Suzuki's translation, see his Studies in the
Lankavatara Sutra (London: Rider, 1930), pp, 171-73.

15. Later legends tell of Bodhidharma without
eyelids or limbs and of Hui-k'o severing a limb.

16. The word 'nien(ab)' is the crucial term,
because this is based on a Han Chinese usage in the
Pai-hu-t'ung(ag) that I hope to introduce some time.
The only scholar to notice this is T'ang
Yung-t'ung(ah) in Wei-Chin hsuan-hsueh lun-kao(al)
(Peking: Jen-ming, 1957); see T.32. p. 576; English
translation by Yoshito Hakeda, Awakening of Faith
(New York: Columbia University Press. 1967), pp.
34-40. When properly understood, that passage would
account for wu-nien, li-nien and the sudden
(hu-jen(aj)) emergence of ignorance.

17. My translation; compare Hakeda, op. cit., p.
41. I differ with Hakeda on the interpolation of his
to explain why ignorance "cannot be and yet cannot
not be destroyed."

18. Hui-yuan(ak) in his commentary noticed the
change in the identity of the wind, but glossed over
its significance in an apology; Wonhyo(al) in his
commentary noted for the record the higher

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implications here; see note 4 herein.

19. On the basis of this, Fa-tsang(am) would
defeat Hsuan-tsang's(an) school and place
"Tathaagatagarbha causation" above "aalayavij~naana
causation." The latter, says his Wu-chiao-chang(ao),
is a derivative of the former.

20. My translation.

21. See Paul Demieville's early essay, "Le
miroir spirituel" (1947), pp. 131-156, now collected
within his Choix d'etudes sinologiques (Leiden: E.
J. Brill, 1973), and Etienne Lamotte's collection of
references to the pure mind in his L'enseignment de
Vimalakiirti (Louvain, 1962), pp. 52f.

22. Vajracchedika 6.

23. My translation. This poem is not the
preferred one, since it forcibly breaks the compound
"bodhi tree, " and probably misunderstands the
so-called mirror stand also. The latter phrase
should go back to the term ling-t'ai(ap), spirited
platform, altar, sanctuary in Chuang-tzu, chapters
19 and 23. The ling-t'ai-hsin(aq) , the inner
spiritual sanctuary of a mind, becomes here the
(mind) that is bright, pure (like a mirror) and
elevated (like an altar), ming-ching(ar)-tai.

24. Chuang-tzu, chapter 5, the source of key
motifs in the Platform Suutra, including Hung-jen's
opening words when he solicited the poems, "Life and
death are matters of great concern," the mirror
paradox here, and the doctrine of "Teaching without
words," pu-yen chih chiao(as).

25. The lamp is an ancient symbol, going back to
the parting words of the Buddha, "Be a lamp unto
thyself." the basis for the Ch'an idea of the
"transmission of the lamp."

26. The phrase, yin wu-so-chu(at)/erh sheng ch'i
hsin(au), was often used by Shen-hui. It is not
found in the Tun-huang manuscript translated by
Yampolsky, but frequently it is attributed to
Hui-neng's enlightenment by later Ch'an traditions.
The original Sanskrit sentence cannot be so cut up
to support Shen-hui's thesis.

27. One of the ideological bases for making
"meditation" a school by itself without reliance on
"theory."

28. My translation; see Yampolsky, Platform
Sutra, p. 137.

29. Perhaps this is comparable to 'Sa^nkara's
discovery of the aataman as both the reality and the
consciousness of that sole reality, that is, as the
lumen intellectuale. Chinese Taoism had long used a
similar term, shen-ming(av) , a luminous psyche
(mind, spirit, soul, even Buddha-nature).

30. Description borrowed and taken from a
different context: Stefan Anacker on "Vasubandhu's
Karmasiddhiprakara.na and the Problem of the Higher
Meditation," Philosophy East and West 22, no. 3
(1972):257. Since Anacker intends to disprove the
oft-made characterization of Yogaacara as
philosophical Idealism and redefine the Yogaacara's
purpose as "representation only," I take the liberty
to use the lines here to illustrate my case.

31. See my "The Meaning of Mind-Only
(Wei-shin(aw))," ibid., 27, no. 1, (January, 1977):
65-83.

32. A line from the Vimalakiirti nirde'sa, oft
quoted and loved by Ch'an.

33. One reason Pa-chang's(ax) Ch'an monastic
rules insist upon daily work.

34. One good example is the Awakening of Faith.
There the mind as mirror is said to have four modes

1. the empty, pure mirror reflecting nothing
2. the not-empty, pure mirror with images undefiled
3. the same mirror generating purifying forces
4. the same mirror shining forth to help men in their cultivation

Already here the mirror has the attributes of the
shining lamp. See Hakeda, Awakening of Faith,
pp.42-43.

35. The use of metaphorical ideal-types here
actually draws on Yanagida Seizan's(ay) short history
of Ch'an in Mu no tank yu(az) Chugoku Ch'an(ba) in
the Bukkyo no shiso(bb) Series. ed Tsukamoto Zenryu.
Umehara Takeshi, et al. (Tokyo: Kadokawa, 1969). The
Many shades of grey between types are acknowledged. A
footnote to the "'Mirror-and-Lamp' Transition: A
Classic in Literary Critieism," Meyer II, Abrams.
Mirror and the Lamp (Oxford, 1953) happens to touch
upon these two representative metaphors for the
Classical and the Romantic. In Classicism, the artist
"holds up a mirror to the world." ("...hold as 'twere
the mirror up to nature, to show virtue her own
features, scorn here own image, and the very age and
body of the time his form and pressure." Hamlet.) In
Romanticism, the artist perceives himself as the
ereator, the fountainhend of inspired vistons, no
longet the passive reflector (mirror) but the source
of all light (lamp). Roman-

P253

ticism thus departed from the classical ideal of
objective, rational norms and began to explore the
subjective, the individualistic, the tensioned
emotions. It fostered artistic independence and
expressions. Ch'an curiously also nurtured a series
of grand masters from the eighth century onward.
Maybe the coincidence of "Mirror and Lamp" tells
something. Finally, it should be added that Southern
Ch'an represented "bringing mysticism out from the
cloisters to the market place" (Scholem's
characterization of Hasidism). Hui-neng mingled with
the city folks, and Ma-tsu oversaw a prosperous
mercantile center. These are other factors that
cannot be taken into consideration in this short,
philosophical analysis. See my "Innerworldly
Mysticism: East and West," in Harold Heifetz, ed.,
Zen and Hasidism (Wheaton, Illinois: Quest Books,
1978), pp. 186-207.

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