Linji Yixuan

“The Record of Linji”

“The Zen Teaching of Rinzai”

“An ancient said that if you call it a thing, you miss the mark. Just look for yourself: what else is there? Talk could go on forever: each of you must personally make the effort.”

“Enlightenment abides nowhere. Therefore, there is no attaining it. What else is there for really great people to be in doubt about? Who is the one before your very eyes functioning? Take hold and act: don’t affix names. This is the mystic message. If you can see things this way, there is nothing to despise or avoid. An ancient said: ‘Mind revolves following the myriad objects. Where it revolves is surely obscure. If, following the flow, you can recognize its true nature, there is no joy or sorrow.’”

“Good people, the physical body composed of the four great elements is impermanent. [All the parts of your body], your spleen and stomach and liver and hair and nails and teeth, just reveal the emptiness of all things.”

“I tell you, there is no Buddha, no Dharma, no cultivation, no realization. What are you trying to find this way as a shallow adherent? Blind people [who reify these concepts] are placing a head upon a head [imposing objects of seeking upon spontaneous reality].”

“If you love the holy and hate the ordinary, you float and sink in the sea of birth and death. Affliction exists because of mind: if you have no mind, how can affliction hold you? If you do not try to discriminate and grasp forms, naturally you find the Path that instant.”

“Good people, the real Buddha is formless; the real Dharma has no marks. The way you are acting is to erect models and patterns based upon the illusory transformations [which were provisionally put forward in the Buddhist teachings]. Even if you get something from this, you are all wild fox spirits. This is not real Buddhism at all, but the view of outsiders.”

“Even the multi-part scriptural teachings of the three vehicles are just old paper for wiping away dirt. Buddha is an illusion, an apparition. The ancestral teachers were just old monks.”

“Everywhere there are those who say that there is a Path that can be cultivated and a truth that can be realized. You tell me, what path, what truth? What is lacking in your present functioning? Where will you cultivate and repair it? The younger generation of would-be Zen people do not understand this, so they believe in these wild fox spirits. When they explain things, they tie people down. They say that enlightenment can be attained only when truth and conduct are in accord and you guard yourself from misdeeds of thought, speech, and action. This kind of talk is like springtime drizzle.”

“Outside of mind there is nothing, and what is within mind is also unattainable. What are you looking for? All of you people everywhere talk of having cultivation and having realization, but don’t make this mistake. Even if you gain something from cultivation, it is just the karma of birth and death.”

“In my view, there are no buddhas and no sentient beings, no ancient and no modern. Those who attain, attain without cultivation, without realization, without gain, and without loss, for them there is never anything else but reality. ‘Even if there is anything that goes beyond this, I would say that it is like a dream or a magical illusion.’ This is what I am saying.”

“Someone asked: “What are enlightenment and delusion?”Linji said: “A moment when your mind is in doubt is delusion. If you can comprehend that the myriad phenomena are unborn, that [deluded] mind is like an illusory transformation, so that you are everywhere pure, this is enlightenment. So enlightenment and delusion are the two objects, defilement and purity.””

“Worthy people, we must value the time. [You are wasting your chance] if you just intend to ‘study Zen’ and ‘study the Path’ as superficial adherents running busily back and forth, getting to recognize terms and phrases, seeking ‘buddhas,’ seeking ‘patriarchs,’ seeking ‘enlightened teachers’ [as you conceive of them]. You only have one father and mother: what else are you seeking? You should reflect back on yourself and see them.”

“The local officials invited Linji to preach. Linji went up to the teaching hall and said: “Today I have no alternative but to bend to human sentiment—thus I have ascended to this seat [to preach]. By the standards of the Zen school, when you attempt to extol the great matter [of enlightenment], you simply cannot open your mouth. There’s no place for you to get a foothold.””

“Be a master everywhere and wherever you stand is your true place. (Translator unsourced.)”