Zen Battles: Modern Commentary on the Teachings of Master Linji

So what is it that knows how to talk about and listen to the Dharma? It is the bright clarity, which has not the slightest outer form, standing in front of us here. That is what knows how to speak about and listen to the Dharma. If you are able to see that, you are no different from the Buddha and the masters. The thing is to maintain that insight

Even though the true person is the person with nothing to do and nowhere to go, doing nothing and going nowhere takes a lot of joyful practice!

“Don’t come to me seeking something. The enlightenment, happiness, stability, and freedom you seek are already inside you.”

The practitioner who does not have enough self-confidence will always direct his attention to what is external and wander around and around looking for something.

True monks must have right view in their daily life, which is the ability to distinguish Buddha from Mara, true from false, sacred from profane.

For example, Master Linji invented the term the “businessless person,” the person who has nothing to do and nowhere to go. This was his ideal example of what a person could be. In Theravada Buddhism, the ideal person was the arhat, someone who practiced to attain enlightenment. In Mahayana Buddhism, the ideal person was the bodhisattva, a compassio

Master Linji wasn’t trying to defeat his students in these battles; he was trying to defeat their tendency to engage in excessive thinking and rationalizing.

Venerable monks, time is very precious. You should stop the mind, which is always wandering around, running to the neighbor’s house to study Zen, to learn the Way, looking for a sentence, looking for words, seeking the masters, seeking the Buddha, seeking a good spiritual friend. Do not take this mistaken direction.

Buddhist teachings are skillful means to cure our ignorance, craving, and anger, as well as our habit of seeking things outside and not having confidence in ourselves.

Master Linji said that when we meet the ghost Buddha, we should cut off his head. Whether we’re looking inside or outside ourselves, we need to cut off the head of whatever we meet, and abandon the views and ideas we have about things, including our ideas about Buddhism and Buddhist teachings.