Buddhist-Meditation-Systematic-and-Practical

epent of their conceit in the hour of their death.
Therefore, it is very dangerous to mistake Chan as easy.
On the other hand, if one treats Chan as very difficult,
that is not good, either. If one can meet a Chan guru and
receive his grace, with it may come some realization;
then it is not so difficult. For those who would like to
practice Chan, it is good if they read my "Lighthouse in
the Ocean of Chan." From this book they will find out
what is deep and what is shallow.
Once a monk asked his guru, "Does Chan need the three
trainings (of sila, samadhi, and prajna)?" The guru
answered shortly, "No! Such are useless things."
According to this, Chan is not a meditation. All the
accomplished teachers have simply realized; Chan has
simply happened, and in this samatha and samapatti do
not exist. Even though this is the very highest school in
our whole system of meditation, it should not be
counted among the meditations.
Despite this, there are in the tradition of Chan training
some Hua Tou, questions used as skillful means to bring
the disciple to Chan itself. These are questions or
problems of a non-rational nature which have to be
cracked by concentrated attention on them. With any
questions or problems, one has doubts, and the disciple
is encouraged in Chan training to have doubts about
these Hua Tou. As it is said: "No doubt, no
enlightenment; small doubt, small enlightenment; great
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