Part Seven · Chan · Gathering Concentration Back into the Present Thought

In the years of the Liang, in the Southern Dynasties, an old monk crossed the sea, came ashore, traveled north to Mount Song, and sat down facing a wall. From Bodhidharma onward, the land of China grew a tradition that called itself "not founded on words and letters, pointing directly at the human mind"—the Chan school. The third sense of the word "chan," which this book has kept sealed for six full parts, is in this part formally opened for discussion.

The five chapters of Part Seven are five vertebrae of a single spine.

Chapter one, the naming. Bodhidharma named the Chan school's concentration "pacifying the mind"—and from then on, Chan's concentration no longer stood on the ladder of the four jhānas and eight attainments. Chapter two, establishing the meaning. With one sentence—"Concentration is the substance of wisdom; wisdom is the function of concentration"—Huineng canceled the whole sequence of "first concentration, then wisdom." Chapter three, the manner of sitting. Hongzhi Zhengjue of the Song-dynasty Caodong house settled the non-duality of concentration and wisdom into a wordless sitting posture—silent illumination. Chapter four, the manner of investigation. His contemporary Dahui Zonggao pressed it into a ball of fire—watching the huatou, turning the light back upon the very source from which thought arises. Chapter five, the gathering-in. Four reconstructions, returning to one meaning: concentration is the living concentration that is amid signs, free of signs.

First, one covenant for the whole part: every pairing set forth here—the Southern school and the Northern, sudden and gradual, silent illumination and watching the huatou—this book sets side by side, not ranked, taking no line as the orthodoxy. The dividing falls on the person's capacity, not on the height of the dharma; this is not fence-sitting—it is the Chan school's own word, as the chapters ahead will show.

We begin with the old monk facing the wall.