Zen Battles: Modern Commentary on the Teachings of Master Linji

“If there remains in your mind a single notion of doubt, that is Mara. If you arrive at understanding the unborn nature of all that is and know that the mind is a magic show, that there is no object, no phenomenon that has a real existence, then wherever you are there is purity, and that is Buddha.

The true person is an active participant, engaged in her environment while remaining unoppressed by it.

For example, Master Linji invented the term the “businessless person,” the person who has nothing to do and nowhere to go. This was his ideal example of what a person could be. In Theravada Buddhism, the ideal person was the arhat, someone who practiced to attain enlightenment. In Mahayana Buddhism, the ideal person was the bodhisattva, a compassio

Buddhist teachings are skillful means to cure our ignorance, craving, and anger, as well as our habit of seeking things outside and not having confidence in ourselves.

So what is it that knows how to talk about and listen to the Dharma? It is the bright clarity, which has not the slightest outer form, standing in front of us here. That is what knows how to speak about and listen to the Dharma. If you are able to see that, you are no different from the Buddha and the masters. The thing is to maintain that insight

A Buddha is a person who has no more business to do and isn’t looking for anything. In doing nothing, in simply stopping, we can live freely and be true to ourselves, and our liberation will contribute to the liberation of all beings.

When it is necessary to walk, walk. When it is necessary to sit, sit. Do not for a moment yearn for Buddhahood.

Master Linji said that when we meet the ghost Buddha, we should cut off his head. Whether we’re looking inside or outside ourselves, we need to cut off the head of whatever we meet, and abandon the views and ideas we have about things, including our ideas about Buddhism and Buddhist teachings.

Master Linji wasn’t trying to defeat his students in these battles; he was trying to defeat their tendency to engage in excessive thinking and rationalizing.