As far as Zen is concerned the student cannot reach Zen’s pinnacle by way of thought. Human thought is never more than conditioned. We have to consider thought to be like a solidification of pure spirit. In Zen, pure spirit is usually represented as Mind with a capital M.
The problem can be crudely illustrated by using the analogy of a car and the driver, the car being thought. Going down the highway to Zen the driver takes the exit to Zen but soon finds that they have reached a dead end. The car cannot go any farther. At this point the driver can either stay seated in the car or get out. It's when the driver decides to get out of the car that the path of Zen really begins. The driver who decides to remain sitting in the car never makes any further progress.
To reach Zen’s pinnacle is a matter of intuition. We have to leave, all at once, our familiar world of thought which is never other than congealed spirit. Suddenly, we catch a glimpse of uncongealed spirit or the same, the One Mind. This was also the insight of Zen master Mazu who said,
The Great Master Bodhidharma came from India to China, and transmitted the One Mind teaching of Mahayana so that it can lead you all to awakening. Fearing that you will be too confused and will not believe that his One Mind is inherent in all of you, he used the Lankavatara Sutra to seal the sentient being's mind-ground. Therefore, in the Lankavatara Sutra, Mind is the essence of all Buddha's teachings, no gate is the Dharma-gate.
As long as we hold that the term One Mind or Mind is thinkable (both of which refer to pure spirit before it is congealed into thought) we have lost the direction of Zen. The biggest barrier that the student has to overcome is the barrier of thought itself. To reach the abode of no-thought is an almost impossible quest for the average student. Ironically, they are surrounded by thought; their whole existence is submerged in thought; yet they do not seem to know this. They pursue Zen as if it will allow itself to be put into a cage of thought.
Zen_coyote: my guess is Mind and Spirit (Geist) have become interchangeable due to the influence of Hegel's works that have been translated into English. For Zen, all forms of mentation whether they are thoughts or concepts suggest a congealing of spirit and not spirit itself. I hasten to add this is Zen's divine world of no-thought 無念 which is totally unthinkable.
In a materialistic age such as ours mind only goes as far as congealed spirit which is thought. The idea of pure spirit is alien to us. Physics seems to suggest this with the wave and a particle phenomenon. But ultimately it falls back into thought or congealed spirit.
For me, I see Zen as almost dead having fallen into the cult of just sitting. Sitting for its own sake betokens a form of materialism — call it religious materialism. Huineng, on the other hand, was very adamant that spirit is the substance of thoughts; thoughts are the manifesting of spirit.
But as a Zennist your job is to catch a glimpse of pure spirit before it is congealed into thought. It ain't easy. :)
P.S. Good question!
Posted by: TheZennist | February 09, 2021 at 08:45 AM
This is what has been very confusing for me for a long time: the use of the word “Mind” to describe what you say is spirit, while “Mind” in the West usually refers to thinking or cognition.
Out of all the words to use to describe Mind, why use “Mind?”
Posted by: Zen_coyote | February 09, 2021 at 04:18 AM