Yung-ming Yen-shou - Immovable Mind
Ivan M. Granger February 1st, 2010
Immovable Mind
by Yung-ming Yen-shou
English version by John C.H. Wu
You wish to know the spirit of Yung-ming Zen?
Look at the lake in front of the gate.
When the sun shines, it radiates light and brightness,
When the wind comes, there arise ripples and waves.
— from The Golden Age of Zen: Zen Masters of the T’ang Dynasty, by John C.H. Wu
/ Photo by tombream07 /
Let’s contemplate this image Yung-ming has given us: What does a lake have to do with Zen practice and the nature of mind?
When the sun shines, it radiates light and brightness,
When the wind comes, there arise ripples and waves.
Like the mind, the lake naturally reflects its environment. When the sun is out, the lake/mind automatically “radiates light and brightness.” But when wind arises, the lake/mind’s surface is disturbed and disjointed.
Let’s carry this image a little further into the question of duality and unity. When the sun shines, the lake reflects that singular brightness. Witnessed from the right angle, you won’t see anything else but the shining radiance, all other detail consumed in the light.
Now let’s picture a blustery night. Even if the sky is clear enough to show us the moon, the choppy surface of the lake reflects not one moon, but a thousand moons, each jostling and crashing into the others.
This is how the perception of duality emerges in the mind. The surface of the mind becomes agitated. Rather than a single calm surface, a multiplicity of ripples and waves appear, move about, collide, and disappear again. And each wave has it’s own incomplete reflective face, each with its own fragmented snapshot of reality, in conflict with the thousand other slightly different images.
But are there truly a thousand moons in the night sky? Of course not, just the one. But the only way to discover this is to bring the lake’s surface to quiet stillness again. It doesn’t even require any effort. The mind’s “water” naturally returns to a still, placid state. All we must do is cease to agitate the surface.
Only then do we discover the one moon at night. Only then do we properly radiate the sun’s brightness.
One last thing I’d like to point out: Even during the most violent storm, no matter how much the surface of the lake churns and crashes, in its depths the lake remains still and at peace.
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Yung-ming Yen-shou
China (904 - 975) Timeline |
There is scholarly debate about the life of Yung-ming Yen-shou. He is usually identified as the third patriarch of the Pure Land branch of Ch’an (Zen) Buddhism in China.
He is said to have been a military official who converted from Confucianism to Buddhism.
His writings include Treatise on the Common End of Myriad Good Deeds and Preface to the Teaching on Induction into the Bodhisattva Precepts.
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Wonderful how a military official supposedly converted to become the third patriarch of Pure Land Zen Buddhism… it seems that’s the way so many of these great Chinese and Far Eastern philosophers found their way into poetry, teachings, or enlightenment (I think - if I’m not mistaken - Lao Tzu was once a government archivist, Confucius himself, and others).
Love the commentary on the notion of the unruffled lake as the great awakened subconscious being absorbing all possible light, and also remaining as such even when its surface is ruffled by harsh wind. I guess it’s something we should keep in mind, even in our day-to-day comings-and-goings. Thanks for sharing, Ivan!!
I’ve been going out in the evenings around 8:00 or so and
gazing, practically swooning at the wonder of the current full moon. It’s being called a “wolf” moon. Not sure why.
but it does appear to be somewhat larger than the usual moon and quite a lot more brilliant. Closer to Mother Earth? I wish there were a lake nearby so as to see the moon
reflected on its surface and to see even many moons
when the winds cause a chop on the surface of the
lake and “many” moons appear reflected there.
There are now what’re called “wolf” tides that are causing
much water from the Bay to fill up the streets in places
right near the Bay, like in ‘Sausalito. Exciting times now!
Anyway, poetry about the mind and the moon are always
very meaningful to me. Thank you for this one!
Very poigniant for me as I have some Health problems and my mind is in a state os speeding thoughts and anxiety.
Ivan your commentary was very soothing for me directing me to stillness of the mind and calm.
Thank you
My immediate thought was, yes, whether the water is calm or stormy there is relflected the moon in one form or another. In the calm, it’s engulfing sheerness and in the other a vibrant dancing, sparkling light - perhaps somewhat confused, indistinct but stimulating nontheless. This is our life - one minute this way, one minute the other. Some moments we like others we hate. We seem to have to experience them both. This knowledge of what is underneath though - this stillness and vastness, this depth, this ‘ground of our Being’. If we can but put our head bravely beneath the waves, the ‘apparent’ ( isay ‘apparent’ but really, all is Reality) and witness just once this other world
To continue - sorry, i hot the wrong key! Well, i was going on to say… If we can but just once let ourselves witness this other world, how then will we view the surface? It reminds me of a saying of the Prophet Mohammed : ‘one moment of meditation is better than seven thousand years of prayer’ indeed, ‘one moment of meditation is better than seventy thousand years of prayer.’
Ivan, thank you for creating the Chaikhanna! It’s a discovery for me & I am very grateful for all the work done and for the consciousness it offers.
I’ll comment with another poem by
Mirabai (C1498 -1550)
One’s Mind
He was too shy to sing,
but I taught Him.
The Sky’s voice is such that
one’s mind must be very
quiet to hear
God
speak.