FOUR CONDITIONS FOR PRACTICING CH'AN | Getting The Buddha Mind

To investigate the ultimate Ch’an, you should fulfill four conditions. If these conditions are met, it is possible to realize the highest aims of Ch’an. Short of this, your path is uncertain, and progress is difficult. But these conditions must come spontaneously out of your pratice. Certainly a master can’t force them on you or even give them to you. Arising from within, they can be fulfilled more quickly. A master can only lead a disciple onto the Path. The disciple must follow the Path himself. I can only tell you what these requirements are and why they are necessary. The rest is up to you.

When you enter the Path, if you are full of zeal, these conditions arise very naturally. But don’t expect them all at once. You must frist begin to practice. As you make progress, they will gradually, or in some cases, quickly, be fulfilled. Much depends on your causes and conditions. Therefore at the beginning of a retreat I do not mention these requirements. I will only talk about them when I see that people are physically and mentally ready to investigate Ch’an.

What are these four conditions? The first is Great Faith;the second is Great Vow;the third is Great Angry Determination;and the fourth is Great Doubt. Great Faith always arises first, followed by Great Vow, and then Great Angry Determination. When there is Great Angry Determination, it is then possible to generate Great Doubt. This is their natural sequence. But Great Doubt is not the ordinary doubt of disbelief. Only when there is Great Faith is it possible to have Great Doubt.

Were you to have ordinary doubt at such a time, it could only be a sort of suspicion or non-belief, the opposite of faith. That kind of doubt is not a condition of practice: it is an obstacle.

Again, without Great Faith you cannot make the Great Vow. Without Great Vow, how can you practice with your whole being? And if you cannot do that, Great Angry Determination cannot possibly arise. Therefore these four conditions must come into being in the proper sequence.

Faith is the foundation for anything we set out to do. Without faith we can’t accomplish anything significant. The Great Faith of Ch’an has three aspects: faith in yourself, faith in the method discovered and transmitted by Sakyamuni Buddha and faith in your Shih-fu, who is your direct connection to the Buddha Dharma. What is faith in oneself? It means believing that you can practice effectively, believing that persistence will lead to enlightenment. It means believing that you can, like Sakyamuni, eventually become a Buddha. If you lack this faith, if you think that enlightenment can only happen to others, your practice will falter. So faith in yourself is very basic.

How does this faith arise? At first it is hard to believe that you can be enlightened. However, if you are willing to try it, when you start to practice, you find your mind getting calm and settled. You may later get some other benefits, or even experience things not possible in ordinary life. You begin to believe: “Yes, I too can practice, I too can become enlightened.” Another way of generating faith is to acquire a good understanding of Buddha Dharma, of the principles of Ch’an, and to believe that these principles are true. You come to accept the idea that one can practice and get enlightened. You have never experienced it yourself, but you have an unconditional belief in it.

Great Faith, like the other conditions, is deeply related to what I describe as going from a “small” sense of self to a “large” sense of self and finally to a state of “no-self.” Great Faith starts with faith in oneself-you first have to affirm the very narrow sense of self. After all, who is it that must have faith? It is “I” who must have faith. So you must start with grasping the narrow sense of self. You must know this self in a very clear and solid manner and be confident that you can practice. This grasping of one’s “small self” is the basis of the power of faith.

The second aspect of faith is faith in the method. I often encourage my students with a Chinese saying: “Once you’re on a pirate ship, the best thing to do is become a pirate.” You have no choice, because if you are trapped on a pirate ship, and you don’t join them, you will probably be killed on the spot. If you join them, you may survive. So once you have accepted the method, you should believe in it, and practice in a single-minded, concentrated manner. You should know that this method was taught by Sakyamuni Buddha. Since he was a Buddha, the original patriarch of Buddhism, and a great human being, he would not teach us a false method. Though you may not have gotten any benefit yet, you still should have faith in it.

In the beginning this is not easy. After using the method their master has given them, some people feel they want a different, hopefully better, method. Actually, every method is the best method. There is no method which is especially good for a particular person, and there is no method that is especially useless to someone. The basic methods are suitable for most people. It is only after you have been practicing for a while that you should think about changing your method. The important thing is to have patience. As long as you put time and genuine effort into it, any of the methods of Ch’an will yield powerful results. If you don’t persist, how do you know if the method is effective? If your practice has not matured, how can you know if the method is suitable? In practice the rule is to stick with the method your Shih-fu gives you. Some people are avid for techniques. They may learn a few methods from a master, pick some up from books or friends, and they use them one after the other. Each new technique seems to go very well, but after a while the mind gets scattered, so they find another one. These people are like the farmer in a Chinese fable who is worried that his rice crop is not growing fast enough, so he went around pulling at the shoots to encourage them to grow. Of course he only succeeded in uprooting them, and the next day when he checked again, the plants were dead. Don’t be an anxious farmer; be patient. If you are, you will definitely get results. After getting even a little bit of benefit, you will feel very relaxed and blissful in mind and body, and your faith will grow, motivating you to practice very hard.

The third aspect of faith is faith in Shih-fu. It is very difficult to have complete faith in a master you have met for the first time on retreat. If the master is very famous, some people may feel that since everybody has faith in him they should also. But the faith of most people can only be partial. They think that the master can help them, but just how much, they are not sure. They are willing to give him a chance. On the other hand, what this master says and does may be quite different from what they imagined a master should say and do. So doubts naturally arise.

For this reason, I never ask people to have complete faith in Shih-fu at the start of retreat. Only after the practitioner has experienced some results does he begin to feel that I can help him. At that point, he is willing to follow my instructions. This faith in Shih-fu is extremely important. If you doubt the master, wondering whether he is able or has an ulterior motive, it is impossible to gain genuine results. You should not even bother to practice with him. To have faith in Shih-fu is to have faith in his instructions. It is not that Shih-fu wants you to think of him as a deity, rather you should believe that Shih-fu has the ability and experience to help your practice.

If you are lost at sea or in the desert, you can become as helpless as a baby. So having faith in your Shih-fu is like having a compass to guide you when you are lost. At that time you don’t know anything, and if you cling to your own viewpoint and judgement, you will remain lost.

We often say that practice can incite demonic states. These demons do not come from without, they come from within from thoughts that are contradictory, impure, incorrect, leading you to a worse and worse state. Under these circumstances, after practice has borne some fruit, you have an even greater need for complete faith in Shih-fu. Whatever he tells you to do, you should do. If he tells you to take a rest, you cannot say, “I am very energetic now. I want to continue.” If he tells you to practice harder, you cannot say, “I’m feeling lousy now I want to rest.” It is not that Shih-fu is a dictator, but under these circumstances, his experience tells him what is happening, and he is the only one capable of helping you.

In China when you entered the Ch’an hall, it was demanded that you give up your body to the monastery and your life to the “dragons and devas” ─ the Dharma protectors. But in fact, both the monastery and the Dharma protectors are personified by the master. If you disregard Shih-fu, it is like a pilot disregarding the directions of the control tower. If he disobeys, disasters will happen. So Shih-fu is like a compass or control tower. Time and again, he corrects and adjusts your practice, leading you forward. You should understand that this faith in Shih-fu is really faith in the Buddha Dharma which Shih-fu represents. You must believe in him one hundred percent. Forget your past and future. Don’t cling to any viewpoints. Let Shih-fu guide you in all aspects of the practice.

The Great Vow is setting up and defining the goal. Without a goal, we may go in circles or backwards. But if we have a view of the proper goal, whether we travel fast or slow, eventually we reach our destination. This is the first aspect of the Great Vow. The second aspect is that the Great Vow helps us overcome selfishness. We make vows not for our own sake but for the sake of all sentient beings.

Sakyamuni became the Buddha because he saw that all life is full of suffering ─ birth, aging, sickness, death. He also saw that in the animal realm the weaker animals are preyed upon by the stronger animals. He realized that samsara ─ the cycle of brith and death ─ is characterized by suffering. To him the question of helping sentient beings to liberate themselves from this suffering became very crucial. He decided to give up his royal position and dedicate himself to finding a way to help all sentient beings. Therefore he made a vow to leave home and become an ascetic. After practicing many methods for many years, he became supremely enlightened, and attained Buddhahood. If he was selfishly motivated, after his liberation, Sakyamuni Buddha would not have stayed behind to teach others. But within a few days he started teaching and these teachings have been handed down until today. His vow helped him to attain Buddhahood. This Great Vow is very different from selfishness. It is not just thinking, “I want to be enlightened.” That attitude is good for developing faith in one’s self. But by the time one develops the Great Vow one should gradually drop this self-centeredness.

At this point the expanded, “large” sense of self apppears. Great Vow is needed to transcend the “small” self. If we are not willing to leave behind this self it is impossible to get enlightened. That can only come after you have let go of the self, and perceived “Wu” ─ emptiness, or “No-self”. It is for this reason that all Buddhas made Great Vows when they began their practice. The most common vows we make are the Four Great Vows:
I vow to help all sentient beings.
I vow to cut off all vexations.
I vow to master all Dharma methods.
I vow to reach Buddhahood.

The first vow is the most important. If you think only of helping sentient beings, naturally your own vexations will be lessened. If you have only helping sentient beings in mind, naturally you will learn all the Dharma methods. Finally, if you persist in helping sentient beings until there is no self, at that time sentient beings also disappear. Then you will have attained Buddhahood, for at that point there is no discrimination, no sentient beings, and no self. These vows are made every day by all Buddhas and bodhisattvas and anyone who wishes to practice seriously. Of course we cannot accomplish these vows on retreat, but we can derive great energy from them. The power of the vows pulls us ahead, because they are always kept in front of us.

Other than these Great Vows, another vow that I emphasize is one that should be made before each sitting. Before his enlightenment, when Sakyamuni sat down on his pile of dry grass, he made a vow. He said, “I will not rise until I reach the supreme awakening, though my body becomes as dust.” In later ages, his seat was considered the “diamond seat, ” in reference to the unmoving nature of his mind. So each time we sit, though we may not accomplish the diamond seat, it should at least be a stone seat. It should not be a seat of whipped cream. So before each sitting, we should vow to sit until we get to such and such a state. Well, will such vows always be accomplished? Not often. Your legs really hurt, your mind is scattered, you can’t meditate anymore. What can you do? You give up. Then you tell yourself, this time I failed in my vow. But next time, I will make the same vow, and do better. So with each sitting, making such a vow, your sittings improve, your faith and energy grow.

Great Angry Determination is not a kind of hate, but rather, has to do with the will. It is also different from the Great Vow. Great Angry Determination is the persistence to practice hard, to go forwards continuously. Basically, everybody has great inertia. When they run into difficulties, they can be disillusioned and disappointed. When tired they want to sleep. Practice is like rowing a boat upstream. If you don’t row continuously, you will drift backward. When you cook rice, you cook it until it is ready, in one cooking. If you cook it for a while, turn off the fire, then later, turn on the fire again, and so on; you definitely won’t get good rice. Just so in practice. You do it consistently, not interruptedly.

There are people who work so hard that they forget to sleep or eat. And not just practitioners. For example, a scientist trying to solve a problem will forget all about daily life and just continue plugging along. Most people, long before forgetting their environment, forgetting sleep and food, are more likely to slacken, take a break, relax their efforts. This is why we need Great Angry Determination ─ to overcome inertia and laxity.

The Great Vow pulls us forward while Great Angry Determination pushes us from behind. But how do we generate Great Angry Determination? A lot of people simply let out their anger, show their temper, or hate themselves, thinking that this is Great Angry Determination. But this is not, especially if Great Faith and Great Vow are lacking. Great Angry Determination can arise from thinking: “I haven’t done justice to Sakyamuni Buddha. He suffered tremendously to discover the Path for helping all sentient beings, and transmitted it to us. Yet now that I am on this same Path how can I not strive as hard as I can?” Thinking this way, if we still do not practice hard, we should prostrate in remorse to Sakyamuni Buddha.

The second thing I should dwell on is how rare it is to be born a human being who hears the Buddha Dharma. Imagine! Out of all the people in the world, I am one who has learned of the Path and want to follow it. I should realize how rare it is to have such good karma, and throw my whole self into the practice. I should make the best use of my time and good fortune.

The third thing I should realize is how lucky I am to have a good environment to practice in and to have met someone who is qualified to guide me. If I don’t grab it now, what other time will I wait for? If I am a lay person, I should realize that while monks and nuns can practice their whole life, I have less opportunities to practice. This is all the more reason to strive very hard.

The fourth thought is to realize the brevity of life. I don’t know when I’m going to die. Were I to die now, without accomplishing my practice, it would be very unfortunate. If I have only one spurt of energy left, I should put that energy into practice. Whether I can get enlightened or not is another question. At least I haven’t failed myself; I’ve done justice to myself. And in the next life, probably I can continue practicing. If I were to die in idleness, in my next birth my karma may not be so good as to allow me to continue practicing. So to do justice to myself, and recognizing the brevity of life I should put my whole being into practice. Great Angry Determination is actually this attitude of great earnestness and great diligence.

Most people cannot generate this Angry Determination, nor can they pretend to have it. If they try to generate it, their minds will be very confused and scattered, and they will have a lot of vexations. Only after practicing for some time, when one has Great Faith and Great Vow, when one’s mind is settled, when one’s health is good, it is possible in that state to slip into idleness and looseness. In such a situation, one should still try to generate Angry Determination. Just thinking will not make it happen, but you will at least be alert to your condition, and that can help you move forward again. But unless the two previous conditions are already fulfilled, trying to arouse Angry Determination can only produce scatteredness, vexation, and anger. This may result in disappointment and disillusion, but not Angry Determination.

We come now to Great Doubt. Great Doubt is possible, or is forceful, only when the mind is very much stable and unified. At this point, you will probably be using a hua-t’ou or kung-an. In most cases these practices come from the tradition, recorded and handed down by patriarchs and masters, but not always. It is possible for the practitioner to spontaneously generate a question, a great doubt, in his mind. And in such a situation he can simply pursue the hua-t’ou which arises spontaneously. So what is Great Doubt? It is a question, the answer to which is of the utmost importance to the practitioner. His attitude is one of great anxiousness to find the answer. And yet he cannot use any reasoning or logic, or rely on his knowledge or experience. He can only pursue the question, continue questioning without interruption.

Originally Ch’an masters did not use any recorded hua-t’ous. These simply occurred spontaneously. Later, these happenings were recorded as “kung-ans, ” and handed down to later generations to “investigate.” In the ancient days the masters just guided the disciples to the point where hua-t’ous occurred spontaneously. Later generations used these recorded kung-ans when they could not generate the questions by themselves. But kung-ans or hua-t’ous can produce Great Doubt only if one’s mind is already in a unified state, only when he has already a strong foundation of practice. Otherwise, it can become just a mechanical repetition, producing no useful effect whatsoever. And very likely the practitioner will be using reasoning, knowledge, and experience to find an answer. This is neither the Great Doubt, nor is it investigating Ch’an.
So it is possible to practice kung-ans before your mind is unified and concentrated, but it will not produce the Great Doubt. I will not give a disciple a kung-an in the very beginning. I will wait until he has a certain foundation before I will give him one or help him generate his own.

The object of the hua-t’ou is to cause sudden enlightenment. If one were to practice hua-t’ou with a scattered mind, then it would be similar to reciting a mantra. This is not to negate the usefulness of mantras. If you recite a mantra with a concentrated mind, you can enter samadhi. If you merely recite a hua-t’ou instead of “investigating” it, you can also enter samadhi. And in samadhi a certain wisdom can be generated. But this wisdom is very limited. The purpose of Ch’an is to be suddenly enlightened to Buddha nature. What is Buddha-nature? What is enlightenment? It can only be known from the actual experience. Samadhi itself cannot produce wisdom. You must have Great Doubt which leads to a cataclysmic experience.

Therefore one must wait until the student’s mind is settled, and then explode this settled, unified mind. I describe the process as starting with scattered mind, then using a method to unify the scattered mind into samadhi, and finally applying the method of Ch’an to dissolve the unified state. A scattered mind lacks the focus and energy necessary for this great event. It must first be collected and concentrated. Then, at that stage, you need the power of Great Doubt to cause a great explosion, and enter the enlightened state.

The unified mind is like a balloon. As you inflate it steadily with pressure, it will yield and expand. If you continue without letting up, at a certain point it will expand no more, and explode. So when the mind is in a unified state, it is ready to generate the Great Doubt. This doubt can be generated by the hua-t’ou-the great question that must be answered: “What is Wu?” “Who am I?” “What is my original face?” “What is the meaning of this kung-an?” But you must continue without stopping, without letting in stray thoughts. When you’re blowing up a balloon, you can’t blow a few breaths, then let the air out, then start up again. This way you’d never get it to stretch to the maximum point. When people are in samadhi they may feel that there is no mind, no thoughts. But even at that state there is a mind left. It’s just that you are not aware of it. One is not aware of this sense of “large self.” But you must lose even this to be genuinely enlightened. At that stage there is no problem of “small” or “large” sense of self, no more attachment or vexations, no more greed, hate, ignorance, pride, doubt. In the state of one-mind, there is still a sense of self. But after the explosion, even this sense of expanded self is gone, though everything still exists.

So if there is a sense of “I love sentient beings, I want to help sentient beings, ” this is not ultimate enlightenment. Genuine enlightenment means being liberated from concepts of self, as well as of sentient beings.
As in Great Angry Determination, before one is sufficiently calm and stable, one should not try to generate this Great Doubt. Great Doubt would not arise, and it would most likely result in scattered mind. Even worse, it would create a lot of anxiety. And when you’re overanxious you can’t even reach samadhi, much less get enlightened. A person may not have a settled mind and yet anxiously seek an answer. To be hoping for an answer is all right, but to be anxious can be bad. To be overanxious is a great obstruction to practice. So without a reliable Shih-fu, a person should not try to generate Great Angry Determination or Great Doubt. One will lead to anger without determination, and the other to anxiety, both bad for practice.

On the other hand, if you are pursuing Great Doubt in a mild or lukewarm manner, this could lead to scattered mind, or at best you may enter samadhi. So while anxiousness is bad, Great Doubt cannot be raised in a casual way. The hua-t’ou must be followed with energy, persistence, without let-up, in every act, through every moment of practice. Eventually the Ch’an power accumulates, and the door of Ch’an can be entered.
It is hoped that all who go on retreat can fulfill the four conditions. In reality, there will be a few who can begin to fulfill them. For most, this is not possible. Often people can fulfill Great Faith, which can then give rise to Great Vow, but the last two require persistence and practice. Practice is not like giving an injection to a patient to get quick results. It takes time and patience, and the power and energy must come from within. It must be a part of your life. If you’re just curious to try Ch’an for a while, that can bring you some benefit, but such a casual approach will never fulfill the four conditions for investigating Ch’an, can never lead you to the ultimate Ch’an.

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