The Zennist: To go by way of the intellect

According to Zen master Dahui, the Buddha said,

"The Tathagata uses all sorts of similes to explain all kinds of things, but there is no simile that can explain this Dharma. Why? Because the road of intellectual knowledge is cut off: (the Dharma) is inconceivable."

To go by way of the intellect in trying to see our true nature or the same, to achieve kenshō, won’t work. The intellect can, with some difficulty, help us to turn in the right direction—but getting there? It is not the proper means. Only intuition is.

Most students, I dare say, don’t know when they are using the intellect and that it actually obstructs the Path insofar as the Path is beyond thoughts and concepts which are the tools of the intellect. In other words, how can students hope to arrive at the state of inconceivable great liberation, which is unconditioned, by looking for it through the prism of the conditioned such as thoughts and concepts? They can’t!

This is why the Buddha and the patriarchs were always admonishing their students for going the intellectual route, seemingly, unaware that they were doing this. When I began Zen I had no idea of how intellectual I was, never failing to have some idea or concept of what Zen was about but then finding out later I was all wrong.

Today things are much worse. Zen centers have turned more or less into out-patient clinics which means people with mental issues cannot take the Path until they get normalized. Another problem, is the over reliance on seated meditation which is often trying to compensate for not understanding that seeing our true nature (inconceivable great liberation) is an intuition—very sudden—but very, very profound. The demands of intuition are different than for sitting or using the intellect.