View full issue in PDF - The Mindfulness Bell

dhar ma TALK
In the fall and winter of 2003–2004, Thich Nhat Hanh
(Thay) taught from the Records of Master Linji, a
Buddhist monk from ninth-century China. Our lineage
descends from Master Linji, so we can consider
ourselves his spiritual grandchildren. He is well-known
for his use of the stick to wake up students who were
ripe enough for such liberation. The stick was used to
skillfully remove the notions and ideas the person was
carrying with him or her, or anything else that was an
obstacle to living a simple, free life.
The teachings are often given in the form of interactions
between Master Linji and those who came to learn
from him. The moment of human relationship is thus the
moment of waking up, of realizing our blindness and
also our capacity to live with freedom and joy. In these
interactions there is a fierceness, the punch, and also a
tenderness, the willingness to engage, to commit oneself
to another for the sake of liberation, for the sake of
becoming a real human being.
The original language of Master Linji’s teachings can
be confusing, but Thay explains their essence in a way
that makes them accessible and meaningful. Thay shows
us how to bring them down to earth with the concrete
practices of mindful breathing and walking.
The ideal person, our ancestral teacher Linji tell us, is
a free person, who lives a simple, authentic life. This
person is free from pretention, free from busyness or
business—a businessless person. His teachings were
medicine for people of his times and they are medicine
for us too. Like good medicine, these teachings kill the
disease, yet leave the person whole.
What is your business
You may describe your business as
trying to transform yourself, trying
to reach enlightenment, trying to
save human beings. Throw it away.
Good morning, dear Sangha, today is October the 12th in the year
2003 and we are in the Loving Kindness Temple of the New Hamlet
during our autumn retreat.
There is a sutra that was translated into Chinese around the second
century. It is called the Sutra of the Forty-Two Chapters. Each chapter
is very short and as a novice I had the opportunity to learn the sutra
during my first year of studying classical Chinese. In that sutra there
is one sentence that says: “My practice is the practice of non-practice.”
It reads like this: “My practice is to practice the action of non-action,
to practice the practice of no practice and to attain the attainment of
no attainment.” When we hear the teachings of our patriarch Linji we
hear the same thing. We should be an ordinary person, we should not
try to be a saint. If you are seeking for holiness you lose it. Holiness
is right there before you but when you begin to seek it you lose it. You
begin to run and run and run and you can never catch it. What we learn
from the patriarch Linji is not a set of ideas. That is what he hates the
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