Zen is not meditation - Quotes from Zen Masters

» Jinshu used to tell his disciples to concentrate their minds on quietness, to sit doing zazen for a long time, and not to lie down as far as possible. One of these disciples went to Eno and asked him about it. Eno said, "To concentrate the mind on quietness is a disease of the mind, and not Zen at all. What an idea, restricting the body to sitting all the time! That is useless. Listen to my verse:

To sit and not lie down during one's life-time
To lie and never sit during one's death-time,
Why should we thus task
This stinking bag of bones?"

» Zen master Mazu Daoyi (Baso) was an attendant to Nanyue and personally received the mind seal from him, exceeding his peers. Before that, he lived in Kaiyuan Monastery and did zazen all day long. Knowing that Mazu was a dharma vessel, Nanyue went to him and asked, “Great monastic, what do you intend by doing zazen?” Baso said, “I am intending to be a buddha.” Nanyue picked up a brick and started polishing it. Baso said, “What are you doing?” Nanyue said,”I am trying to make a mirror,” Baso said, “How can you make a mirror by polishing a brick?” Nanyue said, “How can you become a buddha by doing zazen?” Baso said,"What do you mean by that?" Nanyue said,”Think about driving a cart. When it stops moving, do you whip the cart or the horse?” Baso said nothing. Nanvue said,”Do you want to practice sitting Zen or sitting Buddha? If you understand sitting Zen, you will know that Zen is not about sitting or lying down. If you want to learn sitting Buddha, know that sitting Buddha is without any fixed form. Do not use discrimination in the non- abiding dharma. If you practice sitting as Buddha, you must kill Buddha.’ If you are attached to the sitting form, you are not yet mastering the essential principle."  Mazu heard this admonition and felt as if he had tasted sweet nectar.

» Mumon's Warnings; 

1. To follow the compass and keep to the rule is to tie oneself without rope. 

3. To unify and pacify the mind is quietism, and false Zen.

» The monk asked, "It is not yet clear to me; do you practice or not?"  Joshu replied, "I wear cloths and eat food."

» Huang Po: Since you are fundamentally complete in every respect, you should not try to supplement that perfection by such meaningless practices.

Huang Po: By thinking of something you create an entity and by thinking of nothing you create another.

» Suzuki on the Platform Sutra: K'an-ching means 'to keep an eye on purity'... a quietistic contemplation of one's self-nature or self-being.

» Alan Watts: Nowhere in doctrine of all the T'ang masters have I been able to find any instructions in or recommendation of the type of za-zen which is today the principle occupation of Zen monks. On the contrary, the practice is discussed time after time in the apparently negative fashion"

» 3rd Patriarch, Faith in Mind:
For and against opposing each other --
This is the mind's disease.
Without recognising the mysterious principle
It is useless to practice quietude.

» Foyan: This is not a matter of longtime practice; it does not depend on cultivation.  

The ancients told people to try meditating quietly for a moment.  These are good words, but later people did not understand the meaning of the ancients; they went off and sat like lumps with knitted brows and closed eyes, suppressing body and mind, waiting for enlightenment.  How stupid!  How foolish!

Yantou [Ruiyan's (Zuigan's) teacher, Deshan's (Tokusan's] student)] said, "These who cultivate purification must let it come forth from their own hearts in each individual situation, covering the entire universe."  How can this be quiet sitting and meditating?

» Dahui:

"They just sit in a ghostly cave on a dark mountain after their meals. They call this practice "silent illumination", "dying the great death", "the state before the birth of one's parents." They sit there until calluses appear on their bottoms, yet they still do not dare to move."