The Empirical Steps of Chan Buddhism

What is Chan? What does it mean to break the first barrier and to attain great awakening? What are the steps of Chan practice?

Some people always feel that Chan is something bizarre and impossibly mysterious. In fact it is not mysterious at all — its principle is exactly the same as contemplating blue light: one proceeds by means of a corresponding method. Because our present state is also generated by the Tathāgatagarbha, every feature of the Tathāgatagarbha is already present in our current state. You are no different from the Buddhas: what the Buddhas have, you also have. Where do you differ from them? Only in that, in their state, all the features can manifest — constantly, stably, and deeply — whereas you cannot. That is the sole difference.

So you must grasp this point; otherwise, when someone tells you that you are already a Buddha, you will say, "Oh, I am not a Buddha," and not dare to acknowledge it at all.

Chan simply tells you which features of your current state are manifestations of the Tathāgatagarbha — what the ancients called "radiating light and shaking the earth at the gates of the six senses." Once you know which features are manifestations of the Tathāgatagarbha, you abide in that feature and let time continue.

So the first step is: someone points out to you which features are manifestations of the Tathāgatagarbha. Through such pointing, again and again, you finally realize — oh, so these features are manifestations of the Tathāgatagarbha. What is this called? It is called clarifying the mind, breaking the first barrier. You have passed the first gate: you now know how to apply effort, how the mind should be used, and how practice should proceed. This is only the first gate.

What do you do in the second gate? You must abide exclusively in this feature, and through this feature you return to the Tathāgatagarbha. Only this is true great awakening — only returning to the Tathāgatagarbha is great awakening. The earlier step was merely clarifying the mind; the later step is returning to the Tathāgatagarbha. We speak of "clarifying the mind and seeing one's nature." Once this gate is passed, it is called completing the return of thinking — that is, we have entered the Tathāgatagarbha.

The aspect of thinking is resolved, but you have not yet truly mastered the application of matter, so there is one final step: you must complete the application of matter, which is entering the eighth stage. The last is called "a further step beyond the top of the hundred-foot pole." Without this final step it will not do, and you will not succeed. In other words, the practice of Chan proceeds through these three steps according to this same principle.

As you can see, these three steps are the same as general Buddhist practice: first one enters the first stage, first returns to the Tathāgatagarbha, and then enters the eighth stage, attains the mind-made body, and gains freedom of matter. This is the most fundamental principle of empirical practice. You must grasp it; once you do, you will know what to do.