Once we detach ourselves from specific emotional relationships and extend ourselves to all humankind, a new strength of
character begins to emerge.
The Hua Tou, "Who am I" is a Vajra Sword which, when
wielded properly, will cut away the troublesome ego.
A Hua Wei or tail word traces a thought back to its origin.
This, too, can be very useful. For example, a child, in the company
of his friends, asks his father a question, let's say, "Can we go to the
seashore this weekend?" and his father answers roughly, "Don't
bother me!" and pushes the child away causing him to feel embarrassment and the pain of rejection.
That answer can be a Hua Wei. The man must ask himself,
Why did I answer my child in this way? Why was I suddenly so
upset? He knows that before his child approached him, he was in a
good mood. So what was there in the question that upset him?
He begins to retrace each of the words. Was it the word
"weekend"? What does he associate with that word? If he can find
nothing, he tries the word "seashore". He begins to recall his experiences at the seashore. He thinks of many events and suddenly he
recalls one that disturbs him. He doesn't want to think about it, yet
the Hua Wei discipline requires that he examine that event. Why
does the memory disturb him? What was so unpleasant about it? He
continues to investigate this event until he gets to the root cause of
his distress.
Dear friends, that root cause will surely involve damage to
his pride, his self-esteem. And so the man recalls and, in a way,
relives the experience, only now he is able to see it from a different,
more mature perspective. Perhaps that bitter experience actually
involved harsh treatment he received from his own father! At any
rate, he will surely see that he transferred the pain of his childhood
seashore experience onto his innocent son. He will be able to make
amends for his unkind rebuff, and in this way, his character will
grow.
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It occasionally happens that if the man concentrates on the
Hua Wei enough, the dog may bite its own tail; and he may actually
go from tail to head in one gulp.
Sometimes a Hua Tou functions as an instruction, a kind
of guide that helps us to deal with life's problems. Such a Hua Tou
sustains us and directs us as we travel the hard road to enlightenment.
You know, long ago Chan Master Hui Jue of Lang Ye
Mountain had a woman disciple
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Illustration by Yao Xin
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who came to him for instruction.
The master gave her the Hua Tou, "Let it be." He told her that if she
faithfully used this Hua Tou as a scythe, she would cut down illusions and reap enlightenment.
The woman had faith in her master and, being resolute in
her determination to succeed, she sharpened and honed this Hua
Tou. Let it be. Let what be? Who let's it be? What is being? On and
on she honed the blade. Her house burned down and when people
came running to tell her she gently closed her eyes and whispered,
"Let it be." Her son drowned and when people came running to tell
her she gently closed her eyes and whispered, "Let it be."
One day she started to prepare fritters for dinner. She got
the batter ready and the oil hot. Then, when she poured a ladle of
the batter into the hot oil, it sizzled. And this little sizzling noise
reverberated in her mind, and she attained enlightenment! Right
away she threw the pan of hot oil on the ground and began jumping
up and down, clapping her hands, laughing and laughing. Her husband naturally thought that she had lost her mind. "What a calamity!" he shouted. "Whatever shall I do?" And his wife turned to him
and said, "Let it be. Just let it be." Then she went to Master Hui Jue
and he verified that she had indeed harvested the Holy Fruit.
Keep your mind on your Hua Tou whenever you are doing
anything that does not require your undivided attention. Naturally,
if you're flying an airplane you don't want to start thinking about
your Hua Tou. Discovering whether or not a dog has Buddha
Nature will not be of much use to you if you crash your plane. Driving an automobile is also something that requires your full attention. You may not risk killing other people's small selves just
because you are trying to dispatch your own.
But there are many times during a day in which you can
safely work on your Hua Tou. Usually we try to stuff these times
with frivolous activity. We play silly games or do puzzles or listen
to the radio or gossip or become spectators at some sporting event.
These are the times that we should rivet our minds to our Hua Tou.
No one can ever tell when the magical moment will arrive.
In China we call a cut of meat "pure meat". It is not mixed
up with other ingredients as, for example, a sausage is. Sometimes
"pure meat" means the best cut of meat. People always tell the
butcher that's what they want. Pure or prime meat.
There was once a man who was considering the Hua Tou,
"Who has Buddha Nature?" Everyday he had to pass a butcher shop
on his way to work. He always heard people clamoring for "pure
meat" but he never paid them much attention.
One day a woman was buying meat and, according to custom, she insisted that the butcher give her only pure meat. That was
what she cried out. "Give me only pure meat." Her insistence particularly irritated the butcher and he shouted, "Which piece is not
pure?"
The man heard this angry shout and he suddenly realized
that all the meat is pure meat, that is to say, everyone contains the
pure Buddha Nature. Who has Buddha Nature? Hah! Who does not
have Buddha Nature?
The man attained enlightenment in that very instant! He
got so excited he hopped and jumped and kept on saying, "Which
piece is not pure? Ah, hah! Which piece is not pure?" over and over
again. "Which piece is not pure?" This craziness we call Chan Disease. It doesn't last very long, maybe only a few days before the
victim calms down; but it is a wonderful disease to catch. Fortunately, there is no medicine to cure it.
A monk once asked Master Zhao Zhou, "What happens
