Ch'an Metaphors: Waves, Water, Mirror, Lamp

Author(s): Whalen Lai

Source: Philosophy East and West, Vol. 29, No. 3 (Jul., 1979), pp. 243-253
Published by: University of Hawai'i Press
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Whalen Lai Ch'an metaphors: Waves, water, mirror, lamp

Time and again, philosophy finds that it can express itself best, not in cold
and hard concepts, but in intricate metaphors. Plato used the story of the cave
to illustrate Being and becoming. Indian philosophers oft used stock metaphors
to support their argument. In Chinese Buddhism too, key metaphors have
helped to define and even to win important debates. In the evolution of early
Ch'an, the metaphors of water and waves, mirror and lamp played significant
roles. The present article will examine the meanings of these Ch'ana metaphors
and their related texts.
The Ch'an tradition is now understood to be a complex tradition involving
more than the Platform Sitra.1 The Platform Sitra tells of the Southern Ch'an
version of its history: how Hui-nengb, from the south, was awakened by the
chanting of the Diamond Sutra, and how he went north to meet Hung-jenc,
the fifth patriarch, and outwitted Shen-hsiud, the Northern Ch'an representa-
tive. Since Hung-jen secretly passed to him the robe and begging bowl, the
Suitrasees in Hui-neng the sixth patriarch. In all likelihood, the life and teachings
of Hui-neng reported in this Sutra reflected the outlook of Hui-neng's disciple,
Shen-huie, and his circle.2 This Southern tradition eventually triumphed over
the Northern branch, such that the Platform Sutra became, for a long time,
the source of our knowledge of early Ch'an.
Other early Ch'an traditions have since been discovered. Of these, the
Northern group can pride itself now in its own version of the story told in
the Leng-chia shih-tzu-chif. It would appear that the Northern school was the
earlier school and that it specialized on the Lankivatara Sitra. Supposedly,
Bodhidharma transmitted the sitra translated by Gunabhadra in four scrolls
to Hui-k'o,3 his disciple and second patriarch. Tao-hsinh, the fourth patriarch,
received it from Seng-ts'ani and passed it on to Hung-jen. We actually cannot
be very certain about the figures prior to Tao-hsin, but in the rediscovered
writings of Tao-hsin and Hung-jen, the Lankivatara Sutra was clearly a key
inspiration. Closely associated with this sutra was the Awakening of Faith in
Mahayana, apparently a Chinese treatise modeled upon the suitra.4Tao-hsin
seems to be the first Ch'an patriarch to introduce it into Ch'an.5
The preceding brief outline shows that early Ch'an was far from being
antiscriptural, that an idealization of Hui-neng and his life as sutra developed
later, and that Ch'an iconoclasm was yet to emerge. (The iconoclastic style
began more with Ma-tsuj.6) A simple codification of the key scriptures in the
early tradition would yield this:

WhalenLai is Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at the Universityof California, Davis.

Philosophy East and West 29, no. 3, July 1979. © by The University Press of Hawaii. All rights reserved.
244 Lai

Bodhidharma: Lankivatira Sitra

Tao-hsin: The Awakening of Faith

tension Hui-neng: Diamond Sitra
I
conflict Shen-hui: Platform Suitra

Northern Ch'an Southern Ch'an

The "water-and-waves" metaphor is found in the Lankavatira Sutra and is

subtly modified by the Awakening of Faith. Shen-hsiu supposedly composed a
poem using the metaphor of "mirror and dust," and the Platform Sitra men-
tioned "lamp and light." Behind these changing metaphors is a progressively
radical understanding of the mind and its functions.
CONSCIOUSNESSAS WAVES: THE LANKAVATARATRADITION

Concepts of mind are central to the Buddhist tradition from the very beginning.
To state the logical options simply and simplistically, the Hinayana tradition
has long regarded any cittadharmaor psychic reality to be polluted. However,
among the sectarian Buddhists, the idea of an "innately pure mind" evolved
and was attributed to the Buddha himself. The liberal Mahasahghika endorsed
this idea. The conservatives had rejected it. Mahayana, however, emerged at
first with the Prajhiipramiti tradition. There the emphasis is on the emptiness
of all realities. Forms are empty, as are the other four skandhas (aggregates):
perception, conception, will, and consciousness or mind. The mind is empty
like everything else. Discriminative terms like purity and impurity would be
ultimately inappropriate. The positive concept of a "pure mind" was, however,
later revalidated by the Tathagatagarbha (Womb of the Buddha, Buddha-
nature) tradition. There is indeed in man the spark of this transcendental
mind. Distinct from this positive tradition was another stream of Mahayana
thought that developed into Buddhist idealism or Yogacara. There, the core
consciousness is called the alayavijiina, storehouse consciousness, a depository
of all past experiences. In China, there was much debate on whether this core
consciousness was or was not the pure mind itself. There was no consensus.7
Bodhidharma's teaching and transmission of the Lankavatara Sutra to
Hui-k'o coincided roughly with a Northern Ch'an interest in this issue of the
mind. In the biography of Bodhidharma by Tao-hsuank in the Hsii Kao-seng-
ch 'uan', the T'ang Lives of EminentMonks, it is said that Bodhidharma practiced
Mahayana Ch'an (meditation) when, the other leading figure, Seng-ch'oum,
practiced Hinayana meditation.8 Seng-ch'ou meditated upon the impurities
of the body, the painfulness of perception, the impermanence of mind, and
the selflessness of all realities, in other words, the "negative" aspects. He could
so reproduce death in his meditation that animals and wild beasts were awed
245

by his countenance.9 Bodhidharma had a more "positive" approach, for his

disciple Hui-k'o reported the contents of his enlightenment, which had nothing
to do with repulsive realities, but rather with the Buddha-essence ("Mani
pearl") and nonduality ("Samsara is nirvana").
Ignorant of the luminous Mani pearl, I mistook it for tiles and rubble. Now
I suddenly see the real gem itself. Ignorance and wisdom now appear the same.
Phenomena are as such the Absolute (tathata).10
Since the Mani pearl hidden behind rubble was a standard metaphor to
describe the tathagatagarbha,the hidden Buddha-nature, Hui-k'o's meditation
was directed at regaining this preexistent essence of enlightenment. The Mani
pearl has the power to purify all things. Once discovered by Hui-k'o, it purged
even the erroneous distinction between enlightenment and illusion, nirvina
and samsara, the one dharmata and the multiple phenomena. Dualities faded
away as Hui-k'o gained his insight. Repeatedly we shall encounter this Buddha-
mind in later Ch'an. This is perhaps the core of Ch'an itself: to see into one's
nature and realize one's Buddhahood.
The Lankivatira Sutra Hui-k'o received from Bodhidharma would confirm
this understanding of the mind. The sutra, however, is long and far from
molded by one singular theme. This is the first known sutra that synthesized
the tradition of the alayavijiina (the core consciousness in Yogacara) and the
tathagatagarbha (the transcendental Buddha-nature). What is unclear is
whether the two are identical. The sitra supports both positions in different
places. However, it is best to consider the work as having more a Yogacara
interest11, and that it was appreciated precisely for its more analytical insights
into the workings of the mind. By then, the nature of human consciousness
had been traced to eight levels. On top (or behind) the traditional five senses
and the cognitive mind (these constitute the first six consciousnesses), there
are two more elements. Since the sense of the ego or self is not immediately
available to the five senses and the cognitive mind-they merely register
separate, discrete sensations and integrate them into an "object," there being,
however according to the Buddhist philosophy, no real substance to it-it is
natural to posit an ego-subconscious which creates that false sense of a self.
The discovery of a deeper egoistic subconscious was made by the Samdhnir-
mocana Sitra.

The iidnavijnana (ego-clinging consciousness) is very subtle

Thus I (the Buddha) have not taught it to the foolish commoners
The seeds manifest like a torrential flood
(As) people so cling on to discrimination and a false sense of the self. 12
The image of the torrential flood depicts the agitations in the mind once it
foolishly clings on to discriminations and a false self. The water metaphor is
already here, but the Lankivatara Sutra gives the apt commentary on the
preceding.
246 Lai

The sea of storehouse consciousness is permanently subsisting

The wind of phenomenal realms stirs it
Various consciousnesses spring up, churning out like waves ...
The way in which the sea gives rise to the waves
Is the way in which the seven consciousnesses rise inseparably from
and with the (eighth storehouse consciousness).
Just as the sea agitates and the various waves swell
So too the seven consciousnesses come about, not different from the
mind.13
Our core consciousness subsists unbroken from one life to another (though
not unchanging). Our senses would not have been active except for the stimuli
of the "phenomenal realms," namely, sight, sound, odor, taste, and touch.
These "perceptables"arouse our corresponding senses: eyes, ears, nose, mouth,
skin. Once that happens, our cognitive mind ("brain") begins to work cease-
lessly. The Latnkvatara Sutra passage cited earlier says that once the lower
consciousnesses became agitated, they "swell out" of the core consciousnesses
like undercurrents churning the water into waves. Then the whole mental
apparatus is caught up in one storm and there is no way to separate out the
seven consciousnesses and the alayavijnina. The point of the metaphor is to
show the active participation of the alayavijnina in the lower consciousnesses;
the indissociability of waves and water pertains to the maze of our mind.
As the waves of the ocean depending_on the wind are stirred up and roll on
dancing without interruption, so the Alaya-flood constantly stirred up by the
wind of individuation rolls on dancing with the waves of the various vijianas.
As ... rays of light are to the sun, neither different nor not different, so too
the seven consciousnesses, like waves to the ocean, rise in conjunction with
mind .... In accordance with the intelligence and discrimination of the igno-
rant, the Alaya is compared to the ocean, and the likeness of waves and the
(psychic) evolutions is pointed out by a simile.14
The implied ideal here is that the mental activities should be ceased so that
the mind, as it were, can be turned into a calm sea. The sea (mind) can then
passively reflect the waterfront (phenomena) without reflecting upon it dis-
criminatively. In the original metaphor, no mention is made of the "wetness"
of the water.

THE INCORRUPTABLEMIND AS WETNESS: THE AWAKENING OF FAITH

The Lafikavatara teaching was inherited by Tao-hsin (580-651), but Ch'an

also took its first turn. Tao-hsinand his disciple, Hung-jen (607-675), taught
as many as five hundred disciples at the East Mountain. Whereas the legends
depict Bodhidharma and Hui-k'o practicing harsh meditations-ascetic,
perpetual wall-gazing and self-immolations in a show of yogic dedication and
indifference15- East Mountain Ch'an was known for a more relaxed approach.
The motto of the school was "Keeping to the True Mind" or "Abiding by the
One." The means was the i-hsing san-mein (ekavyiuha or ekaciryasamidhi,
247

single-focus or practice meditation), contemplation on the Absolute, suchness,

itself. The Awakening of Faith and the Lankavatara Sitra were used in the
instruction. Terms like "wu-nien°"and "li-nienP"(without thought, or departing
from thought) were taken from the Awakening of Faith to characterize Southern
and Northern Ch'an polemics.16 Although it is extremely difficult to pinpoint
where Tao-hsin might have added his touch to the tradition, his use of the
Awakening of Faith should be one clue.
The Awakening of Faith proposed the doctrine of the One Suchness Mind
that permeates all levels of consciousness and all external realities created by
the Mind. It took over the "water-and-waves" metaphor, but changed the
identity of the "wind" so that it does not symbolize phenomenal realms (the
perceptables) but ultimate ignorance itself. Ignorance as wind stirs up the
Suchness Mind into the phenomenal waves. The waves stand now for both
phenomena, that is, the form of ignorance (wu-ming chih hsiangq) and pheno-
menal consciousness, that is, the functions of the mind (hsin-shih chih hsiangr).

All forms of mind and consciousness, hsin-shih chih hsiang, are none other
than ignorance itself. The form of ignorance, however, does not exist apart
from the essence of enlightenment, therefore it can not be destroyed and yet
[on principle] it cannot not be destroyed. This is comparable to the ocean's
water and its waves churned up by the wind. Water and wind are (now) insepar-
able, but the water is not mobile by nature. If the wind ceases, the movement
ceases. But the wetness remains undestroyed. Likewise, man's Mind, pure in
itself, is stirred up by the wind of ignorance. Both Mind and ignorance were
originally without form, but now they are inseparably [in-form-ed by the
waves produced in conjunction]. Yet Mind is not mobile by nature. If ignorance
ceases, then the continuity ceases. But the essence of wisdom remains un-
changed.17(Italics mine.)

By this subtle twist in reference, the Awakening of Faith changed the whole
content of discourse. The "water-and-wave" metaphor no longer describes
the inseparable relationship between the agitated alayavijhnna and the other
consciousnesses. It is now descriptive of the intrinsic nonduality of samsaric
phenomena and Suchness Mind. The ocean here is not the polluted alaya-
vijhnna but the active tathagatagarbha.18 Because by definition, the tathiga-
tagarbha or buddha-nature remains uncorruptible even if seemingly it evolves
into phenomenal consciousness (the waves and, according to Fa-tsang, the
alayavijhana itself),19 therefore we have the additional reference earlier to
the indestructible "wetness" or essence of enlightenment. Even an agitated
tathagatagarbha remains unchanged as the womb of enlightenment, that is,
even the waves are essentially watery. The wind of ignorance can ultimately
little change the incorruptible Mind. In principle, of course, ignorance should
be eliminated. However, in fact, the forms of ignorance (samsara) or waves
need not be destroyed, because in essence they, too, are the essence of enlighten-
ment (nirvana); they are no less 'wet'.
The Lankavatara Sutra intends the metaphor to depict the illusion of our
248 Lai

wavelike, everyday consciousness; the Awakening of Faith underlines instead

the unchanging wateriness of the abiding tathagatagarbha. In one we sense
the need of continual vigilance, self-denial and discernment; in the other,
the reasons for the singleminded meditation upon the Suchness, or Keeping
to the One or Abiding by the True. The Lahnkvatira Siutra is more Indian
and more 'Yogacaric' in having a continuous but ultimately impermanent
consciousness; the Awakening of Faith, a Chinese redaction, leans toward a
tathagatagarbhadoctrine of a complete, perfect, invariable Mind-monad. In
that sense, in the "water-and-waves" metaphor, one sees more the agitated
waves, while the other the eternal essence of the water. With Tao-hsin, we may
say the changeless water overshadowed the fickle waves.

THE MIRRORMIND AND THE DEFILING DUST: SHEN-HSIU IN THE PLATFORMSUTRA

Shen-hsiu (605-706) was the faithful successor to the Ch'an lineage of Tao-hsin
and Hung-jen. The Platform Sutra can hardly do him justice, but even so,
its treatment of Shen-hsiu is not totally groundless. The straw man has his
say, and in a manner not uncharacteristic of the Northern Ch'an tradition.
There, it is said, Hung-jen solicited responses for a successor and a humble
Shen-hsiu was pressed by his brethren to compose this poem:
The body is the Bodhi tree
The mind a bright mirror stand
Cleanse it with daily diligence
See to it that no dust adheres20
The mirror metaphor was hardly new nor unique to the Buddhist tradition.21
Here it affirms the original purity and brightness (enlightened nature) of the
mind. The term for dust, ch'ens, is the term for klesa, defilements, and the
elimination of defilements has long been accepted as a prerequisite to any
meditation. The mirror reflects reality as it is, and without superimpositions.
What might distort the image of suchness upon the mind is the dust of defiled
thoughts. Daily vigilance would keep the latter away and preserve the clear
apperception.
Hui-neng (638-713) entered the Ch'an circle up north after a previous
encounter with the Diamond Sitra. The Diamond Sitra espouses the Emptiness
philosophy that would not put trust in any attribution of 'self' to reality or
'traits' that might evoke dualities:
Bodhisattva, great beings have no notion of a dharma (reality), Subhuti, nor
a notion of non-dharma. They have no notion nor non-notion at all....
(If they do,) they would (erroneously) seize on a self, a being.22
Compared with the verbose discussion on mind and consciousness in the
Lainkvatara Sutra and even the Awakening of Faith, the Diamond Siitra cuts
directly at the knots of all discourses. That spirit of simplicity can be seen in
one version of Hui-neng's rejoinder to Shen-hsiu:
249

Bodhi originally is no tree

Nor the mirror a stand
Buddha-nature is always pure and clear
Whence can the dust come?23
The assumption of 'self' in bodhi and mirror (mind) is negated. If indeed there
is a Buddha-nature, bright and clear, like the Mani pearl spoken of by Hui-k'o,
should not the person see through even the distinction between ignorance and
enlightenment, defilements and purity? Chuang-tzut himself had said, "If the
mirror is indeed bright, dust cannot on it adhere. If dust can adhere to it,
can it be said to be bright?"24 The daily cleansing of the mirror suggests
gradualism; Hui-neng's cutting reply suggests sudden enlightenment. To the
Southern Ch'an tradition, Hui-neng's genius was so attested to.
If we look through the writings now thought to be Shen-hsiu's, we would
find there the Emptiness philosophy also. Where then is the real difference
between North and South? Or was it just polemics and politics? Perhaps here
the message alone cannot be the criterion; the media, the ways in which the
same truth is expressed, count as much. Compared with most Northern trea-
tises, the Platform Sitra is almost unsystematic in its free use of aphorisms.
That might be its contribution, for in the Southern opposition to verbose
analysis, there was offered a new standard of truth-the subtle interaction
between mind and mind and the glorification of the individual personality as
the carrier of enlightenment. Hui-neng's real life remains little known, but the
legend preserved in the Platform Sutra stands out as a perfect paradigm. The
South would in time produce many more such personalities, each unique and
inimitable. The rather sudden flowering of such spiritual individuality remains
forever a mystery, but it may be related to a new metaphor, the Lamp, expressed
in this Chinese sutra, as a symbol for self-enlightenment.25

THE LAMP AND ITS LIGHT: CH'AN AS WISDOM IN THE PLATFORMSUTRA

According to the Southern Ch'an tradition, the line that awoke the boy Hui-
neng when he heard the Diamond Sitra was from Kumarajiva's translation.
The line is "Responding to the Nonabiding / Arouse the Mind."26 This is
taken by Shen-hui to mean the indissociable link between meditation and
wisdom. "Responding to the Nonabiding" pertains to meditation, ch'an,
while "Arouse the Mind" means wisdom, huiu. Together, they spell out the
unity of ch'an and enlightenment. Ch'an is enlightenment, ting chi huiv. The
word "Ch'an" henceforth means the truth itself. (When a student asks "What
is Ch'an?" he is asking, in fact, what is Truth, Reality or Absolute.) It is not
that ch'an leads to wisdom, as it was in the classic scheme taught by the Buddha:
sila, samddhi, and prajni (precepts -* meditation - wisdom). Ch'an is a
proper title to a school because ch'an is now both means and end.27
In the Platform Sutra, this relationship between ch'an and wisdom is ex-
plained in terms of the "lamp-and-light" metaphor:
250 Lai

(It is) comparable to the lamp and the light that it gives forth. If there is lamp,
there is light. If there is light, there is lamp. The lamp is the substance, t'i,
of the light. The light is the function, yung, of the lamp. Although in name two,
in substance they are not two.28
The substance-function, t'i-yungw, logic was present already in the "water-
and-wave" metaphor in the Awakening of Faith. The nonduality of the rays
of the sun from the sun has been spoken of by the Lankavatara Sutra. Here,
however, the "lamp-and-light" imagery is used to show Ch'an as both the
means and the end. The mind is luminous and all illuminating. Enlightenment
is only the mind (lamp) allowed to shine forth by itself (light). The mind is
none other than its own enlightenment.29
The mirror and the lamp tell of correspondingly an objective and a subjective
approach. The mind as mirror is passive, a receptacle of external data. It is
vulnerable to the distortion by defilements (dust). The mirroring mind describes
best the philosophy of Vijnaptimdtratdor Representations-Only.
Rather than pointing toward an idealistic system, the theory of the store-
consciousness is used for totally different purposes.... It is the recognition
that one's normal mental and psychic impressions are constructed, that is,
altered and seemingly statisized by our consciousness-complexes, that forms
the actual main point....30
The mind as lamp is active, the source of light that reveals external realities.
As fire, it is also self- and other-purifying, burning off any dust or defilements
and chasing away the gloom of ignorance, wu-ming (the absence of light,
illumination): The mirror recognizes implicitly the existence of objects "out
there"; it is not so much an idealist metaphor as a metaphor describing the
re-presentation of reality by the mind and the dangers of our mental constructs
used in this very representation. The mind as lamp affirms the Chinese pre-
ference for a strict Idealism, based on a liberal reading of the line in the A vataim-
saka Sutra: The Three Realms are created by the Mind.31 "As the Mind is
pure, the realm is pure." 32 As the mind is a lamp, its every activity is enlighten-
ment. Substance and function are one. Permanence (of Buddha-nature) and
the dynamics of daily work are like lamp and light,33 never the one without the
other. Southern Ch'an indeed realized this activistic Ch'an. It went beyond
the still relatively passive style of the Northern scholars. In Southern Ch'an,
every day became a holy (literally, good) day. As Ma-tsu said, the everyday
mind itself is none other than the Tao.

CONCLUSION

The relative emphasis on one metaphor over another or one aspect of a meta-
phor over another tells of subtle changes in the understanding of the mind.
The mind is ultimately the same Buddha-nature at the heart of the Ch'an
tradition. Shades of waves, water, mirror, and lamp can be found in all the
individual treatises or representative spokesmen.34 Some of these metaphors
251

are as ancient as the traditions themselves. All these qualifications notwith-

standing, metaphors can and do show differences in nuance otherwise inex-
pressible by concepts. The analysis of such metaphors is neither self-defeating
nor hairsplitting.35 It is only an attempt to relive the historical changes and
controversies.

NOTES

1. See Carl Bielefeldt and Lewis Lancaster, "T'an ChingX(Platform Sitra)," review article
of latest scholarship, Philosophy East and West 25, no. 2 (1975):197-222; and introduction to
Philip Yampolsky, trans., The Platform Sutra of the Six Patriarch (New York: Columbia Univer-
sity, 1967).
2. T'an ching claims sutra (ching) status previously limited to buddhavacana,words spoken by
the Buddha himself,fo-shuo.
3. The more recent translation of Bodhiruci was not used, and yet it is in this later version that
sudden enlightenment is better supported; see note in Todo Kyojun's essay in Hajime Nakamuraz
et al., eds., Ajia Bukkyoshiaa. Chugoku henab, 1, Kan minzoku no Bukkyoac (Tokyo, Kosei, 1975),
p. 159
4. I side with this judgment in my "The Awakening of Faith in Mahayana: A Study of the
Unfolding of Sinitic Motifs" (Harvard University, Ph.D dissertation, 1975).
5. Tao-hsin's link with Seng-ts'an is suspect. There is a likely chance that he moved away from
the T'ien-t'ai meditation based on the Wen-shu so-shuo pan-jou-chingad(Prajinapramita Sitra as
spoken by Maiijusri) to the East Mountain Ch'an by way of the Awakening of Faith. The Wen-shu
style still emphasized meditation on the deluded elements in the mind; the Awakening of Faith
supported meditation on the true mind.
6. All surviving schools in Ch'an are traced back to this line. On early Ch'an, see various
essays in forthcoming Berkeley Buddhist Studies series' volume, Early Ch'an in China and Tibet,
edited by Whalen Lai and Lewis Lancaster. It would overload the notes here to list all the relevant
essays.
7. Chinese settled on this oversimplified characterization: the Ti-lunae(Dasabhimika) school
endorsed a pure consciousness, Hsuan-tsang a deluded consciousness, and Paramartha a mixed
consciousness.
8. Taisho Daizokyo (hereafter I.), 50, pp. 595-597.
9. Unfortunately a one-sided account of Seng-ch'ou-as usual; see note 6 herein.
10. T. 50, p. 552b.
11. Compared with the Awakening of Faith; see infra.
12. T. 16, p. 592c.
13. T. 16, p. 848b.
14. T. 16, p. 523b; translation based in part on D. T. Suzuki's translation, see his Studies in
the Lankavatara Sutra (London: Rider, 1930), pp. 171-73.
15. Later legends tell of Bodhidharma without eyelids or limbs and of Hui-k'o severing a limb.
16. The word 'nienab' is the crucial term, because this is based on a Han Chinese usage in the
Pai-hu-t'ungagthat I hope to introduce some time. The only scholar to notice this is T'ang Yung-
t'ungah in Wei-Chin hsiian-hsieh lun-kaoa' (Peking: Jen-ming, 1957); see T. 32, p. 576; English
translation by Yoshito Hakeda, Awakening of Faith (New York: Columbia University Press,
1967), pp. 34-40. When properly understood, that passage would account for wu-nien, li-nien and
the sudden (hu-jenaj)emergence of ignorance.
17. My translation; compare Hakeda, op. cit., p. 41. I differ with Hakeda on the interpolation
of his to explain why ignorance "cannot be and yet cannot not be destroyed."
18. Hui-yuank in his commentary noticed the change in the identity of the wind, but glossed
over its significance in an apology; Wonhyo6' in his commentary noted for the record the higher
252 Lai

implications here; see note 4 herein.

19. On the basis of this, Fa-tsangamwould defeat Hsiuan-tsang'sa school and place "Tathagata-
garbha causation" above "alayavijfnna causation." The latter, says his Wu-chiao-changa°,is a
derivative of the former.
20. My translation.
21. See Paul Demi6ville's early essay, "Le miroir spirituel" (1947), pp. 131-156, now collected
within his Choix d'etudes sinologiques (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1973), and Etienne Lamotte's collection
of references to the pure mind in his L'enseignment de Vimalakirti(Louvain, 1962), pp. 52f.
22. Vajracchedika6.
23. My translation. This poem is not the preferred one, since it forcibly breaks the compound
"bodhi tree," and probably misunderstands the so-called mirror stand also. The latter phrase
should go back to the term ling-t'aiap, spirited platform, altar, sanctuary in Chuang-tzu,chapters 19
and 23. The ling-t'ai-hsinq, the inner spiritual sanctuary of a mind, becomes here the (mind) that
is bright, pure (like a mirror) and elevated (like an altar), ming-chingar-tai.
24. Chuang-tzu,chapter 5, the source of key motifs in the Platform Sutra, including Hung-jen's
opening words when he solicited the poems, "Life and death are matters of great concern," the
mirror paradox here, and the doctrine of "Teaching without words," pu-yen chih chiaoas.
25. The lamp is an ancient symbol, going back to the parting words of the Buddha, "Be a lamp
unto thyself." the basis for the Ch'an idea of the "transmission of the lamp."
26. The phrase, yin wu-so-chuat/ erh sheng ch 'i hsinau,was often used by Shen-hui. It is not found
in the Tun-huang manuscript translated by Yampolsky, but frequently it is attributed to Hui-neng's
enlightenment by later Ch'an traditions. The original Sanskrit sentence cannot be so cut up to
support Shen-hui's thesis.
27. One of the ideological bases for making "meditation" a school by itself without reliance
on "theory."
28. My translation; see Yampolsky, Platform Sutra, p. 137.
29. Perhaps this is comparable to Safikara's discovery of the atman as both the reality and the
consciousness of that sole reality, that is, as the lumen intellectuale. Chinese Taoism had long
used a similar term, shen-mingav,a luminous psyche (mind, spirit, soul, even Buddha-nature).
30. Description borrowed and taken from a differentcontext: Stefan Anacker on "Vasubandhu's
Karmasiddhiprakaranaand the Problem of the Higher Meditation," Philosophy East and West 22,
no. 3 (1972):257. Since Anacker intends to disprove the oft-made characterization of Yogacara
as philosophical Idealism and redefine the Yogacara's purpose as "representation only," I take
the liberty to use the lines here to illustrate my case.
31. See my "The Meaning of Mind-Only (Wei-shinaW),"ibid., 27, no. 1, (January, 1977): 65-83.
32. A line from the Vimalakirtinirdesa, oft quoted and loved by Ch'an.
33. One reason Pa-chang'sax Ch'an monastic rules insist upon daily work.
34. One good example is the Awakening of Faith. There the mind as mirror is said to have four
modes
1. the empty, pure mirror reflecting nothing
2. the not-empty, pure mirror with images undefiled
3. the same mirror generating purifying forces
4. the same mirror shining forth to help men in their cultivation

Already here the mirror has the attributes of the shining lamp. See Hakeda, Awakening of Faith,
pp. 42-43.
35. The use of metaphorical ideal-types here actually draws on Yanagida Seizan'saYshort
history of Ch'an in Mu no tankyuiZ. Chigoku Ch'anba in the Bukkyo no shisobbseries, ed. Tsuka-
moto Zenryu, Umehara Takeshi, et al. (Tokyo: Kadokawa, 1969). The many shades of grey
between types are acknowledged. A footnote to the "'Mirror-and-Lamp' Transition: A Classic
in Literary Criticism," Meyer H. Abrams, Mirror and the Lamp (Oxford, 1953) happens to touch
upon these two representative metaphors for the Classical and the Romantic. In Classicism, the
artist "holds up a mirror to the world." (" ... hold as 'twere the mirror up to nature, to show virtue
her own features, scorn here own image, and the very age and body of the time his form and pres-
sure."-Hamlet.) In Romanticism, the artist perceives himself as the creator, the fountainhead of
inspired visions, no longer the passive reflector (mirror) but the source of all light (lamp). Roman-
253

ticism thus departed from the classical ideal of objective, rational norms and began to explore the
subjective, the individualistic, the tensioned emotions. It fostered artistic independence and
expressions. Ch'an curiously also nurtured a series of grand masters from the eighth century
onward. Maybe the coincidence of "Mirror and Lamp" tells something. Finally, it should be added
that Southern Ch'an represented "bringing mysticism out from the cloisters to the market place"
(Scholem's characterization of Hasidism). Hui-neng mingled with the city folks, and Ma-tsu
oversaw a prosperous mercantile center. These are other factors that cannot be taken into con-
sideration in this short, philosophical analysis. See my "Innerworldly Mysticism: East and West,"
in Harold Heifetz, ed., Zen and Hasidism (Wheaton, Illinois: Quest Books, 1978), pp. 186-207.
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