No-Mind is Enlightenment
Huizhang, who had studied under Mazu, attained enlightenment and became Master Huizhang.
One day, Huizhang asked someone named Xitang:
“Can you grasp emptiness?”
Xitang replied:
“Yes, I can.”
“How do you grasp it?”
Xitang made gestures in the air as if trying to grab emptiness.
The Master asked again:
“How can you grasp emptiness like that?”
Xitang asked in return:
“Then how would you grasp it, Master?”
Master Huizhang said:
“Come closer. I’ll teach you how to grasp emptiness.”
Then he grabbed and twisted Xitang’s nose.
Xitang cried out in pain:
“You’re killing me! You’re killing me! You’re twisting my nose off!”
Huizhang said:
“That’s exactly how you must grasp emptiness.”
‘Can you grasp emptiness?’
Can you feel the world beyond your ego? Xitang groped at emptiness with his hands. He was trying to grasp the world of no-mind (moosim) with the world of mind (yoosim) – that is, with his hands.
There is a saying:
‘No-mind is the Way itself.’
Source: “선문답의 정수 전등록 강의: 더 나아갈 수 없는 길 1” (The Essence of Zen Questions and Answers – Lectures on the Transmission of the Lamp: The Path of No Further Progress, Vol. 1)
Original text from: 6gaknara.com
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