When Zen Master Bao-tong first visited Zen Master Shitou Xiqian, Zen Master Shitou asked:
"Where and which is your heart?"
Bao-tong replied: "The one who sees the language!"
Zen Master Shitou said disapprovingly:
"Seeing and speaking is a delusional mind. I can't see your Chitta by your words! "
Bao-tong felt ashamed, then visited and studied day and night, what is his Chitta (genuine heart)? Ten days later, Zen Master Bao-tong came back to ask for instructions:
"My answer last time was wrong. Today, I know what my heart is."
Zen Master Shitou asked, "What is your heart?"
Bao-tong replied: "When eyebrows raise, when eyes blink."
Zen Master Shitou continued to ask:
"In addition to raising your eyebrows and blinking your eyes, please bring your heart!" This means that no movements can be used, and "Chitta(genuine heart)" is not an act of raising eyebrows and blinking.
Bao-tong said: " If that were the case, there would be no "Chitta" to bring!"
Zen Master Shitou raised his voice and said, " There is Chitta among everything originally. If you say there is none, it would be slander. Seeing, hearing, and knowing are although delusional mind. But if you don't use heart, how can you become enlightened?"
Zen Master Bao-tong finally came to a realization.
" Chitta " is separated from all appearances, away from words, away from language, away from all actions (raising eyebrows and blinking eyes), and more importantly, away from all phenomenon of delusional mind, this is the Chitta that is free from all phenomena, it is wrong to say exists, and it is also wrong to say none.
As Huineng said: "Deliberate not on the Good, nor on the Evil—and right at that very instant, that which is manifested is just Elder Ming's Original Visage."
Do Zen practitioners understand this?
Why do Zen masters often say that no-mind is the Zen mind?
Because all the thoughts are delusional, sometimes going to heaven, sometimes going to hell. Everyone goes back and forth from heaven and hell countless times every day. If a Zen practitioner can settle himself in a place where there is no mind, as the Diamond Sutra says:
"Should not abide in anything, and Chitta manifests." There is only "Mountains exhausted and rivers end, there seems to be no way out, while willows dark, flowers bright, seeing another one village."
