Tracing Back the Radiance 

by Chinul* 

 Question: What is the mind of void and calm, numinous awareness? 

Chinul: What has just asked me this question is precisely your mind of void
and calm, numinous awareness. Why not trace back its radiance rather than
search for it outside? For your benefit I will now point straight to your
original mind so that you can awaken to it. Clear your minds and listen to
my words. 

From morning until evening, all during the 12 periods of the day, during all
your actions and activities - whether seeing, hearing, laughing, talking,
whether angry or happy, whether doing evil or good - ultimately who is it
that is able to perform all these actions? Speak! If you say that it is the
physical body which is acting, then at the moment when a man's life comes
to an end, even though the body has not yet decayed, how is it that the eyes
cannot see, the ears cannot hear, the nose cannot smell, the tongue cannot
talk, the hands cannot grasp, the feet cannot run? 

You should know that what is capable of seeing, hearing, moving and acting
has to be your original mind; it is not your physical body. Furthermore, the
four elements which make up the physical body are by nature void; they are
like images in a mirror of the moon's reflection in water. How can they be
clear and constantly aware, always bright and never obscured - and, upon
activation, be able to put into operation sublime functions as numerous as t
he sands of the Ganges? For this reason it is said: "Drawing water and
carrying firewood are spiritual powers and sublime functions." 

There are many points at which to enter the noumenon**. I will indicate one
approach which will allow you to return to the source. 

Chinul: Do you hear the sounds of that crow cawing and that magpie
(ekster) calling? 

Student: Yes. 

Chinul: Trace them back and listen to your hearing-nature. Do you hear any
sounds? 

Student: At that place, sound and discrimination do not obtain. 

Chinul: Marvelous! Marvelous! This is Avalokitesvara's*** method for
entering the noumenon**. Let me ask you again. You said that sounds and
discrimination do not obtain at that place. But since they do not obtain
(bestaan), isn't the hearing-nature just empty space at such a time? 

 Student: Originally it is not empty. It is always bright and never obscured. 

 Chinul: What is this essence which is not empty? 

 Student: Words cannot describe it. 

 

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 Excerpted from Tracing Back the Radiance by Robert Buswell. * Chinul (1158-1210) was
one of Korea’s most important and influential Zen (Ch’an) masters. As a young monk he was
disheartened by the overall worldly attitude of his fellows who were, on the whole, only
interested in name and fame. He was also disgusted by the strong sectarian climate of his age.
So he and a handful of other monks made a pact that after their training ‘they would go off i
nto the wild, form a Samadhi and Prajna Society, and live in retreat. That actually happened
about ten years later. 

** Noumenon: a thing as it is in itself, unable to be known through perception but postulated
as the intelligible ground of a phenomenon. 

*** Avalokitesvara is in the Mahayana teachings the Bodhisattva of Compassion.
Avalokitesvara literally means: ‘The one that looks down’.