Huangbo (d. 850 CE) was a Chinese Chan (Zen) master who lived at a monastery on Mount Huangbo in the district of Gao An during the late Tang dynasty. He traveled to the districts of Zhong Lin and Wang Lin, where his teachings were recorded by Pei Xiu, a scholar and government official. Huangbo’s students included Linji (d. 866), who became a great Chan master and an originator of the Rinzai school of Zen Buddhism.
Huangbo teaches that Mind (xin) is the nature of all things, and that all things are nothing but Mind. The nature of all sentient beings and of all Buddhas is that they are nothing but One Mind.1 One-Mindedness is the nature of the universe. The universe is nothing but One Mind.
According to Huangbo, the One Mind is the source of all things. The One Mind is the Buddha-Mind, which is the same as the Buddha. The Buddha is One Mind, and One Mind is the Buddha.2 There is no other Mind than the Buddha, and there is no other Buddha than the Mind. The Mind is a perfect unity. The One Mind is the only Mind of all Buddhas and of all sentient beings. The One Mind is the original nature of all minds, and all minds are nothing but One Mind.
Huangbo teaches that the One Mind is indefinable and indescribable. The One Mind transcends all limits and categories, and cannot be comprehended by any process of reasoning. The One Mind can only be known by a flash of intuitive insight which relinquishes any form of conceptual thinking. Any process of reasoning about the Mind leads to error, in that reasoning does not lead to an intuitive insight into the limitlessness of the Mind as an absolute unity. The One Mind is not a concept or category of Mind, but is a perfect and absolute unity which transcends any category of physical or mental reality.
The fundamental law (or the Dharma) which is taught by Huangbo is that in order for enlightenment to occur, all conceptual thinking about the Mind must be relinquished. Enlightenment occurs through a sudden flash of insight and not through a gradual process of reasoning. Reflection on the nature of the One Mind may be used as a means of preparing the mind for enlightenment, but enlightenment is a sudden flash of insight which cannot be attained by any process of conceptual thinking.
Huangbo explains that the Dharma is not a set of rules or principles but is only the One Mind. The One Mind is totally detached from anything which can be defined conceptually.
Huangbo also teaches that the path of enlightenment is found by totally relinquishing any attachment to conceptual thinking. The path of insight into the absolute unity of the One Mind is found by totally relinquishing any seeking for, or attachment to, things which can be thought about conceptually. The Way is not to seek for, and not to be attached to, anything. The Way is the cessation of striving and of attachment. To strive for, or to be attached to, anything is not to follow the Way.
According to Huangbo, the nature of all sentient beings is the same as the original Buddha-nature. There is no difference between the nature of all sentient beings and the nature of all Buddhas. Thus, enlightenment or Buddhahood is not something to be attained, but is the original nature of all sentient beings.
Huangbo teaches that there are no differences or distinctions in the One Mind. There is no form or formlessness in the One Mind. The One Mind is empty of any distinctions such as form or formlessness, origination or cessation, continuation or discontinuation, being or non-being, existence or non-existence. To refer to the One Mind as existing is as wrong as to refer to the One Mind as not existing.3 The One Mind transcends any distinctions which may be produced by conceptual thinking. Any differences between the internal and the external, between the self and the other, or between subject and object are not found in the One Mind. The One Mind is not a self or an other. The One Mind is an all-inclusive and undifferentiated unity.
Huangbo maintains that the One Mind transcends the limits of time and space, and that it is the Void in that it is empty of anything which can be defined conceptually. The One Mind is void of any differences or distinctions. The Void is the original nature of all things. To be enlightened is to know the emptiness of the Void and to know the Void as the One Mind. The Void is too deep to be fathomed, and is empty of any disunity.
Huangbo also teaches that to transmit the Mind is to know its unity. The nature of Mind cannot be transmitted by speech or by writing. The Mind is not a conceptual object which can be transmitted from person to person or from place to place. The Mind is everywhere, and can only be transmitted by a sudden flash of intuitive insight. Transmission of the Mind is not something which can be defined by conceptual thinking. Transmission of the Mind can only occur if conceptual thinking is transcended.
1The Zen Teaching of Huang Po: On the Transmission of Mind, translated by John Blofeld (New York: Grove Press, 1958), p. 29.
2Ibid., p. 78.
3Ibid., p. 78.
The Zen Teaching of Huang Po: On the Transmission of Mind. Translated by John Blofeld. New York: Grove Press, 1958.
Fischer-Schreiber, Ingrid, et al. The Encyclopedia of Eastern Philosophy and Religion. Boston: Shambhala, 1994.