One Mind by Huangbo

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Astus
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One Mind by Huangbo

Post by Astus »

Below are a number of quotes from Huangbo Xiyun's two texts translated by Robert E. Buswell Jr. and Seong-Uk Kim as found in the book A Bird in Flight Leaves No Trace. The quotes are intended to clarify the meaning of the term one mind (yixin 一心) as used by Huangbo.

'[The master himself] just esteemed the stamp of the Supreme Vehicle, which stayed far removed from words and letters. He transmitted only the one mind; there was no other dharma. The essence of mind is also empty, and the myriad conditions are all quiescent. It is like the great orb of the sun that rises in the sky: its radiance shines brightly, and it is clear without the slightest trace of dust.'

That is from Pei Xiu's preface summarising the essentials. It highlights that Huangbo taught exclusively about the one mind that covers both the essence of mind (xinti 心體) and the myriad conditions (wanyuan 萬緣), as both are empty (kong 空) and quiescent (ji 寂).

'All the buddhas and sentient beings are only the one mind; there is no other dharma. Since time immemorial, this mind has never been produced or extinguished. It is neither green nor yellow; it has neither form nor characteristics (lakṣaṇa). It does not belong to the categories of either existence or nonexistence. It cannot be measured in terms of new or old, long or short, large or small. It transcends all limits, measures, names, traces, and comparisons. What is right in front of you — that is it. But if you start to think, you will be far off the mark.
[The one mind] is like empty space. It has no boundaries and cannot be measured. Only this one mind is the buddha. There is utterly no difference between the buddha and sentient beings. Sentient beings are attached to appearances and seek outside [for the buddha]; but in seeking the buddha, they lose the buddha. They make a buddha look for a buddha and use the mind to grasp the mind. Even though they exhaust themselves until the end of the eon, they will never be able to get it.'


That's the beginning of the first text and it contains practically all the basics to know. Both buddhas and beings are included in the one mind, it is without any characteristics (xiang 相) to identify, so it is like space. What separates beings from buddhas is only thinking (nian 念), attachment to appearances (zhuoxiang 著相), seeking outside the mind.

'Dharmas originally are unproduced, and now they are also not extinguished. Do not arouse such dualistic views as revulsion or delight. All dharmas are just this one mind; subsequently, this [insight] becomes the Buddha Vehicle. Ordinary people, generating thoughts about sense objects, pursue delights and revulsions with their minds. To be free from objects, they must forget their minds. If their minds are forgotten, sense objects will become void. If sense objects become void, the mind will be extinguished. If you just want to remove sense objects without forgetting the mind, you will not be able to remove sense objects but will only increase your bewilderment and agitation. Thus the myriad dharmas are just the mind. But as the mind also cannot be ascertained, what more do you seek? Those who train in prajñā see not a single dharma that can be ascertained. They stop conceiving that there are three vehicles. There is only the one genuine reality, which cannot be realized or attained. To claim, “I have had realization and attainment,” is the height of conceit.'

First it points to the Mahayana view that dharmas are originally unborn, and by realising that there is no more liking or disliking - that is the correct insight of the one mind. On the other hand those who are ignorant see arising and cessation and have greed and anger. It shows how letting go of mind/thoughts makes the objects empty, and in turn seeing objects to be empty eliminates delusion, thus there is neither something to cling to nor something that clings. That absence of both mind and objects is being without anything attained, without anything to seek.

'There is the phrase “in similar fashion, this one seminal brightness divides into six that combine together.” The “one seminal brightness” is the one mind. The “six that combine together” are the six sense organs. These six sense organs combine, respectively, with the six sense objects: the eyes combine with forms, the ears combine with sounds, the nose combines with smells, the tongue combines with tastes, the body combines with touch, and the mind combines with mental objects. Between them, six sense consciousnesses arise. Together, these make up the eighteen elements of cognition. If you understand that the eighteen elements of cognition have no objective reality, then these six will combine together into the one seminal brightness. This one seminal brightness is nothing but the mind. All practitioners of the Way know this. They simply cannot avoid creating conceptual understanding of this one seminal brightness and these six combinations. Eventually, these practitioners are bound by dharmas and do not conform with the original mind.'

Here it's shown that there is no one mind apart from the six consciousnesses, the only issue is whether one imagines something real to grasp at or not.

'Only if there are no states of mind involving birth and death, defilements, and so forth is there then no need for such dharmas as bodhi. Therefore, it is said,
The Buddha taught all dharmas
to eliminate all states of mind.
Since I retain no states of mind,
what need is there for all dharmas?
From the Buddha to the patriarchs, they speak only of the one mind and the one-vehicle.'


Whatever mind one takes to be the real thing, it is only birth and death. That's why one mind is no mind.

'The master replied, “‘Whatever characteristics there may be, all of those are spurious. But if you see that all characteristics are free from characteristics, you will see the Tathāgata.’ Both buddhas and sentient beings are utterly false views that you have created. Because you do not recognize the original mind, in vain you create such views and understandings. The very moment you create the notion that there is a ‘buddha,’ you are obstructed by that ‘buddha.’ The moment you create the notion that there are ‘sentient beings,’ you are obstructed by those ‘sentient beings.’ If you create such notions as ‘ordinary’ and ‘saint,’ ‘pure’ and ‘impure,’ those will all become obstructions. By obstructing your mind, all these [views] lead to the cycle of rebirth, like an ape that throws one thing away and picks up another without ever taking a break. The highest training of all is invariably no-training. There is neither worldling nor saint; neither pure nor impure; neither large nor small. It is uncontaminated and unconditioned. In this way, the one mind is assiduously adorned with skillful means.'

The sole obstacle is in not seeing characteristics to be empty. To think that there is something to be discovered beyond characteristics - that is, a substance - is very much the type of thinking that can only bring misery. The last sentence is from the closing stanzas of the Brahma Net Sutra:

'If you imagine a self and attach to marks,
You cannot have faith in this teaching.
Those who extinguish affliction and seize realization
Are also not of an inferior type.
Wishing to grow sprouts of bodhi,
Your luminosity shines out upon the world.
You should quietly contemplate
The true character of dharmas,
Which neither arise nor cease,
Are neither eternal nor temporary,
Neither the same nor different,
Neither coming nor going.
Within this One Mind
There is the adornment by the application of skillful means.
The works of the bodhisattvas
Should be put into practice in order,
And you should not create thoughts of distinction
Between discipline and being beyond discipline.
This is called the Supreme Way—
It is all called the Mahayana.
All bases of intellectual play
Are fully extinguished from this point.'

(BDK ed, p 75-76)

'If there is not a single dharma that is ascertainable, you will not be obstructed by dharmas. You transcend the three realms of existence and the spheres of both worldlings and saints. Then and only then will you deserve to be called a ‘supramundane buddha.’ Therefore, it is said, ‘I bow my head before that which, like empty space, has no support.’ I have left behind non-Buddhist paths. Since the mind is already undifferentiated, dharmas are also undifferentiated; since the mind is already unconditioned, dharmas are also unconditioned. The myriad dharmas all derive from transmutations of the mind. Therefore, [it is said,] ‘Since my mind is empty, all dharmas are empty; so too are the thousands of types and the myriad species.’ The realm of space that spreads out in all the ten directions is identical to the essence of the one mind. Since the mind is originally undifferentiated, dharmas also are undifferentiated. It is only because your views and understanding are not the same that distinctions appear. ‘It is just like all heavenly beings, who eat together from the same bejeweled bowl but, depending on their merit and virtue, the color of their meals is different.’ All the buddhas in the ten directions have in fact never attained even a modicum of dharma — this is called anuttara[samyaksaṃ]bodhi. There is only this one mind; there are no differentiated characteristics. It also has no luminosity or colorations, nothing superior or inferior. Since there is no superior, there are no characteristics of a buddha; since there is no inferior, there are no characteristics of a sentient being.'

When there is nothing found to grasp, nothing relied on, nothing obtained, that is the space like one mind without conceptualisation. So Huangbo repeats that in the next three quotes:

'There is only this one mind; there are no differentiated characteristics. It is also has no luminosity or colorations, nothing superior or inferior.'
'There is only the one mind, which involves neither identity nor difference, neither cause nor effect.'
'This immaculate self-nature is originally neither deluded nor awakened. The realm of empty space that entirely pervades the ten directions is intrinsically our one-mind essence.'

'This being the case, all the worlds of the ten directions are not separated from our one mind. Lands as numerous as tiny motes of dust are not separate from our one thought. Since this is so, how can we speak of what is inside and outside? It is like the nature of honey: if honey is sweet by nature, then all honey is sweet — you cannot say that a specific honey is sweet while the rest is bitter. Where would such a thing be possible? Therefore, it is said, ‘Empty space has neither inside nor outside’; so too is it with the dharma nature. Empty space has no middle; so too is it with the dharma nature. Therefore sentient beings are buddhas and buddhas are sentient beings.'

It is not the case that on the one hand there is one mind, and on the other there are everything else. All are such already. It's only grasping at characteristics, taking things to be real and essential, that one is led into differentiating conceptualisation.

'If you can avoid clinging to a single sign, then it is said,
In this way, the one mind,
is assiduously adorned with skillful means.'


For the last quote again the same stanza from the Brahma Net Sutra as above that brings one mind to not clinging to characteristics, translated here as sign.
1 Myriad dharmas are only mind.
Mind is unobtainable.
What is there to seek?

2 If the Buddha-Nature is seen,
there will be no seeing of a nature in any thing.

3 Neither cultivation nor seated meditation —
this is the pure Chan of Tathagata.

4 With sudden enlightenment to Tathagata Chan,
the six paramitas and myriad means
are complete within that essence.


1 Huangbo, T2012Ap381c1 2 Nirvana Sutra, T374p521b3; tr. Yamamoto 3 Mazu, X1321p3b23; tr. J. Jia 4 Yongjia, T2014p395c14; tr. from "The Sword of Wisdom"
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Re: One Mind by Huangbo

Post by Tao »

May thanks. :namaste:

It sounds a lot Yogachara to me (which is not bad). Maybe Lankavatara was an important sutra for Haungbo? Samdhinirmocana?

There is some point about conditioning... Vasubandhu talks about absolute nature and conditioned nature (and imagined nature). But Hungbo seems to say that there's no conditioned nature. That may lead to pure idealism as there's only absolute and imagined.

What's your opinion on it?

Thank you very much in advance.
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Astus
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Re: One Mind by Huangbo

Post by Astus »

Tao wrote: Thu May 19, 2022 11:47 amIt sounds a lot Yogachara to me (which is not bad). Maybe Lankavatara was an important sutra for Haungbo? Samdhinirmocana?
Neither of those two sutras are quoted directly in Huangbo's records. It's mostly from the Treatise on Awakening Mahayana Faith, as likely the most influential treatise in East Asian Buddhism, and there are Fazang and Mazu as additional sources. Huangbo's contemporary, Guifeng Zongmi also uses the term one mind.

The term one mind, as used by Huangbo, is unlikely to be of Indian origin. Although for instance Zongmi quotes the Lankavatara Sutra (Zongmi on Chan, p 127): "The calmed is called one mind. One mind is the buddha-in-embryo.", but that passage (T16, no. 671, p. 519a1-2) is better translated otherwise as done by Red Pine: "Tranquility means oneness, and oneness means the tathagata-garbha", because 'one mind' (yixin 一心) here is ekagra, one pointed.
1 Myriad dharmas are only mind.
Mind is unobtainable.
What is there to seek?

2 If the Buddha-Nature is seen,
there will be no seeing of a nature in any thing.

3 Neither cultivation nor seated meditation —
this is the pure Chan of Tathagata.

4 With sudden enlightenment to Tathagata Chan,
the six paramitas and myriad means
are complete within that essence.


1 Huangbo, T2012Ap381c1 2 Nirvana Sutra, T374p521b3; tr. Yamamoto 3 Mazu, X1321p3b23; tr. J. Jia 4 Yongjia, T2014p395c14; tr. from "The Sword of Wisdom"
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Re: One Mind by Huangbo

Post by master of puppets »

Astus wrote: Wed May 18, 2022 11:59 am
'If you can avoid clinging to a single sign, then it is said,
In this way, the one mind,
is assiduously adorned with skillful means.'
Isn't this what we call freedom?
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Re: One Mind by Huangbo

Post by Astus »

master of puppets wrote: Thu May 19, 2022 1:32 pmIsn't this what we call freedom?
If you mean freedom from afflictions, then yes.
1 Myriad dharmas are only mind.
Mind is unobtainable.
What is there to seek?

2 If the Buddha-Nature is seen,
there will be no seeing of a nature in any thing.

3 Neither cultivation nor seated meditation —
this is the pure Chan of Tathagata.

4 With sudden enlightenment to Tathagata Chan,
the six paramitas and myriad means
are complete within that essence.


1 Huangbo, T2012Ap381c1 2 Nirvana Sutra, T374p521b3; tr. Yamamoto 3 Mazu, X1321p3b23; tr. J. Jia 4 Yongjia, T2014p395c14; tr. from "The Sword of Wisdom"
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