"The Buddha picked up the flowers, and Kassapa reached bliss with a smile." What did Kassapa realize? Is it the so-called one sand, one world, one tree, one Bodhi?

I hope this article I wrote before will be helpful to you. What is Zen? Text/Jue Dao Pure Zen It is difficult to write this topic because Zen cannot be explained, and the person who speaks it is not Zen. But I really want to talk about it based on my own experience. Then let’s talk about it in a practical way. If I made a mistake, please try to include it. Don't be ignorant of cause and effect, don't fall into the wild fox Zen. Ha ha!

Dhyana: The full name of Dhyana is also called Dhyana, Tuoyanana, and Holdana. Freely translated as quiet contemplation. Quiet thinking. Volume 1 of "Wu Deng Hui Yuan". : "The World-Honored One held flowers and showed them to the crowd at the Lingshan meeting. Everyone was silent at that time, except for the Venerable Kassapa who smiled. The World-Honored One said: 'I have the Dharma Eye, the wonderful mind of Nirvana, the formless reality, and the subtle Dharma door. He did not establish written texts, and taught outsiders to spread his teachings, and asked Moko Kassapa." This is probably the origin of the widespread acceptance of Zen Buddhism.

Today's Zen generally refers to the enlightenment method passed down by the Sixth Patriarch, Master Huineng. Zen teaches about knowing the mind and seeing nature, using the heart to imprint the heart, and not establishing words. Directly point to the human heart, see one's nature and become a Buddha. Get rid of all the attachments. The most prosperous periods for Zen Buddhism in history were the Northern and Southern Dynasties, and the Sui and Tang Dynasties. Especially in the Tang Dynasty, from the emperor's scholar-bureaucrats to the common people in the market, they talked about mysteries and discussed mysteries after dinner. The biggest characteristic of Zen is to get rid of attachments and common logical thinking and inertial thinking. Generally speaking, there are three main stages of Zen meditation. These three stages are difficult to express in words. Let me explain with a quotation from Volume 171 of "Wudeng Huiyuan": When the old monk did not practice Zen thirty years ago, he saw mountains as mountains and water as water. Later, when I personally saw knowledge (a good teacher, a person who practices the Way), he had a place to start. He saw mountains but they were not mountains, and water he saw was not water. Now that I have found a private pavilion, I see mountains as mountains and water as water. People, are these three views the same or different? What is the state of the three general views in this realm? It’s hard to put into words. The former is common. The middle one is to get rid of all attachments and see the truth. The last one is obviously not the same as the first one. But to achieve a higher reality, which is the state of Zen enlightenment. It's hard to put it into words. It is a process of negation of negation. It can only be explained through metaphors, and this kind of metaphor cannot be expressed through logic. Buddhist metaphors often pursue results, and logical thinking and inertial thinking are just processes. We use ordinary logical thinking and inertial thinking to compare the results of super-logical inertial thinking. Only enlightened people can perceive and confirm enlightened people. That is to say, enlighten the heart with the heart. So it's hard to say.

About Zen, it cannot be understood using ordinary scientific thinking. We believe in science, and Zen practitioners apply science just like ordinary people and respect scientific laws. But when it comes to Zen, it is different from ordinary science, because science is an inductive method, using probability as its purpose and experiment as its basis. Based on the external world. Zen is the inner world, the knowledge of one's inner world. Only Zen practitioners can describe this classification. Those who have not practiced Zen cannot understand it. Therefore, scholars can only rely on the experience passed down by their predecessors to compare themselves. As for the hundreds of samadhis in Zen, which one corresponds to you depends on your own practice. But the root of Zen is nothing more than the two words of tranquility (Samatha) and contemplation (Vipassana). There are many descriptions of Zen in the sutras, some simple and some profound. Most scholars prefer things that are easy to understand and do not delve into them in depth. As Master Kumarajiva said, "Qin people like simplicity" (Chinese people in the late Qin Dynasty like simplicity). The reason why the "Dharma Treasure Altar Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch" has been widely spread and liked by everyone is precisely because it suits our taste. Everyone likes to have enlightenment, and I wish you could tell me a way to make me enlightened right away. In fact, nothing is that simple. For example, when a person asks where the moon is, the Buddha points his finger to the moon and says, "There." The man thought his finger was the moon. In fact, the Buddha wanted to tell him to follow his fingers and look. The "Diamond Sutra" says: "If someone says that the Tathagata has said something, it is slandering the Buddha because he cannot understand what I said." This sentence means that if anyone sees his finger as the moon, he is slandering the Buddha because he does not understand. What I said. Therefore, when we look at Zen koans, we cannot simply refer to them. In fact, Zen koans are all great achievers who have studied the Samatha-Vipassana Sutra. For example, someone asked Einstein what the theory of relativity is.

He replied: "When you are alone and waiting for someone, you will feel that time passes very slowly. When a beautiful girl is with you, you will feel that time passes very quickly." That man understood what the theory of relativity was. In fact, Einstein's theory of relativity is not as simple as he said. Just to illustrate the theory of relativity through a metaphor. Just like the finger pointing to the moon above. Once, after giving a lecture on "The Treatise on the Ground of the Yogi", Elder Miaojing said, "I once saw a very famous master teaching Zen in a Buddhist magazine, but it turned out that he didn't understand Zen at all." He understands what Zen is and explains a lot of it. It’s very disappointing!” A layman wrote to the famous master to ask questions about Zen. The master wrote to answer the layman’s question. The layman thought this reply was very good and published it in a Buddhist magazine. Later, Elder Miaojing saw this article. (Note: Elder Miaojing was the former dean of Fayun Temple Buddhist Academy in the United States. He taught the practice of samatha and vipassanā and promoted the Visana-only sect, which can be called a eminent monk today. He passed away in 2003) What is the truth about Zen? Very complicated, Zen has hundreds of thousands of samadhis, which are divided into three realms: the unreached ground concentration in the desire realm, the four jhanas in the form realm, and the four emptiness realms in the formless realm. According to the division of pursuit and support, the form realm below the first jhāna is the place of pursuit and support, the intermediate jhāna between the first jhāna and the second jhāna is the place of no pursuit and support, and the second jhāna and above is the place of no pursuit and no support. According to the order of practicing Zen, there is Fenxun Samadhi, and there is Transcendence Samadhi who does not follow the order. There are also those divided according to the branches of merit, those divided according to the objects and conditions, those divided according to the antidote, those divided according to the nine dwellings of the mind, those according to the sixteen special victory points, those according to the seven actions and intentions, those according to the forty karma points, etc. When the Zen mentioned above is just a drop of water in the ocean, let me mention what I have learned. As for Xiu Mo Xue, I really don’t dare to say that I have practiced Zen and gained enlightenment. I can only briefly introduce it for everyone’s criticism and correction.