On the Descriptive Psychological Significance of Two Poems by Shen Xiu and Hui Neng

On the Descriptive Psychological Significance of Two Poems by Shen Xiu and Hui Neng

Sun zexian

According to the Tanjing, when Hongren (602 ~ 675), the fifth ancestor of Zen Buddhism, was in Dongshan Temple, in order to select successors, he called all his disciples and arranged an assignment, asking everyone to write a poem to express his meditation experience. Only Shen Xiu (606 ~ 706) and Huineng (638 ~ 7 13) have finished their homework.

Beautiful:

I am a bodhi tree, and my heart is like a mirror platform.

Wipe frequently, and don't create dust.

Hui Neng's Luo:

Bodhi trees have no trees, and the mirror platform is not a platform.

There is nothing, so there is no dust.

After reading two poems by Shen Xiu and Huineng, Hong Ren finally recognized Huineng and gave him the mantle symbolizing the successor of Zen Buddhism.

There are many comments on these two poems in later generations, some from a religious perspective, some from a philosophical perspective, and some from a historical perspective. I want to discuss the psychological significance of these two poems from another angle.

At that time, the monks in Dongshan Temple were puzzled by Hong Ren's preaching to Huineng. In everyone's mind, Shen Xiu is naturally the best successor. Shen Xiu read extensively in his early years, and Confucius, Mencius, Lao Zi and Zhuang Zi knew everything. Later, he became a monk and was bound by foot precepts. He studied under Hongren, the fifth ancestor, for six years, chopping wood and carrying water every day, participating in Zen and realizing Tao, and taking the lead in everything. Hongren was very valued and arranged for him to be a "professor", thinking that "the method of Dongshan lies in performance". As far as basic conditions are concerned, Huineng and Shen Xiu are not at the same level. Huineng's cultural foundation is insufficient, and he can only hear and speak, but can't read and write; He's only been in Dongshan Temple for eight months, and he hasn't become a monk. He cooks in the kitchen every day. Hong Ren passed on the mantle to Hui Neng with a sentence of "Nothing at all". What is the reason?

It turns out that ancient religious discourse often adopts the way of "analogy", that is, using metaphor. There are many common metaphors in Buddhism, such as lights, trees, mirrors, the sun, the moon and so on. Both Shen Xiu's and Huineng's poems revolve around the metaphor of "mirror" to describe the spiritual cultivation process. At that time, the mirrors were all made of bronze, and after polishing, they had the function of taking care of everything. When Li Shimin, Emperor Taizong, said, "Take copper as a mirror, you can straighten your clothes", it was this kind of mirror.

Bronze mirrors need to be taken care of, because mirrors often form rust spots due to oxidation, which affects the function of taking care of everything and must be wiped and polished frequently. Shen Xiu used this metaphor to illustrate that practice is the daily work of monks and must be persistent and diligent. Only through the efforts of "frequent wiping" can the effect of "no dust" be achieved. Hongren, the fifth ancestor, praised this poem and told all monks to study and understand it carefully.

Hui Neng expressed different views in his poems. There are three poems written by Hui Neng in different versions of Tanjing:

one

Bodhi trees have no trees, and the mirror platform is not a platform.

Buddha's nature is often pure, where there is dust.

Secondly,

? The body of all beings is the knowledge of the tree of knowledge, and the heart of all beings is like a bright mirror.

The mirror is clean, where is the dust?

third

Bodhi trees have no trees, and the mirror platform is not a platform.

Nothing. What caused the dust?

The first two songs were recorded in Fa Hai Ben, an altar sutra, and the third song was recorded in Hui Xin Ben, an altar sutra.

Then, what kind of insight does this crucial third sentence express, that is, "the Buddha's nature is always pure", "quiet in the mirror" or "nothing at all", which leads Hong Ren to pass on the great position of Zen master to Huineng who has not yet obtained a monk's certificate?

The ancients often used mirrors as a metaphor for spiritual cultivation. Bronze mirrors need to be polished frequently to keep them bright and flat, so that they can be seen clearly and truly. This is undoubtedly true, and most people can realize it. However, in addition to looking after everything, the mirror has an important fundamental attribute, which has been ignored by many people. This fundamental nature of the mirror is called "learning without accepting". The mirror can see everything, and at the same time it can empty everything, so that it does not stay in the mirror. Only in this way can the mirror play its normal function of looking at everything. Things come as mirrors, but things go empty. This emptiness of "learning without receiving" is the fundamental attribute of the mirror. This fundamental attribute, as far as the mind is concerned, can be called self.

Many writers in ancient China were interested in Zen and had profound knowledge. Su Shi is one of them. He has a poem called Farewell to the Senate Teacher. Senator Liao is a monk who loves poetry. After a meeting, Su Shi wrote a poem to bid farewell. There are 28 sentences in the whole poem, two of which say: "Silence is the principle of group movement, and emptiness is the principle of tolerance." One "quietness" and one "emptiness" is a high generalization of the principle of cultivating the mind. "It's superficial and eclectic" illustrates the necessity of "learning from others' strengths, but not eclectic".

Ancient scholars in China attached great importance to the relationship between body and use, that is, the relationship between ontology and use. As far as mind cultivation is concerned, learning everything is about the use of mind, and learning everything is about the noumenon of mind. Only by learning from others can we provide a fundamental guarantee for all learning. Obviously, there are many people who know how to look at everything; The truth of learning without taking is hidden and imperceptible, and few people understand it. Huineng's expressions, such as "Buddhist nature is always pure", "quiet in the mirror" and "nothing", all grasp the essence of the heart from the perspective of noumenon, and raise this important epiphany from the subconscious level to the conscious level, which is indeed a great contribution to meditation. Because of this, Hongren, the fifth ancestor, passed on the great position of the founder of Zen to Huineng.

If we look at the above truth from a psychological point of view, it can be clearer. Of course, the psychology mentioned here is not Feng Te's experimental psychology (1832 ~ 1920), but brentano's descriptive psychology (also known as conation psychology).

First of all, there is a very important question that must be learned, and that is what is psychological ontology?

Journal of Suzhou University, Education Science Edition, No.3, 20 19, published the long article of Mr. Li Qiwei, the basis of psychology, and some thoughts on psychological meta-problems. Mr. Li Qiwei is a tenured professor of East China Normal University, a member of the Chinese Psychological Association and a winner of the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Chinese Psychological Association. In this article, he emphasized that psychological noumenon is the basis of psychology, put forward that psychological research should pay attention to process and mechanism, and pointed out the significance of brentano's academic thought in clarifying psychological noumenon.

What is psychological noumenon? In my opinion, psychological ontology is intentional flow. The concept of intentional mobility originated from brentano's academic thought. In short, according to brentano's theory, intentional flow means that intentionality does not exist, and it is the unity of external perception and internal perception. From the perspective of deep psychology, intentional flow is the unity of consciousness and unconsciousness (individual unconsciousness and collective unconsciousness); From the Buddhist point of view, the stream of consciousness is the unity of eight senses (the first five senses, the sixth sense, the last seven senses and the eighth Aryan sense); From the Taoist point of view, the stream of consciousness is the unity of knowing God and Yuan God, and it is also the unity of spirit.

Intention flow has twelve characteristics:

(1) directionality

(2) Liquidity

(3) continuity

(4) Super brightness.

(5) Interaction

(6) Constructive.

(7) controllability.

(8) Subjectivity

(9) Observability

(10) Understand directly

(1 1) speaks for itself.

(12) integral

Closely related to the theme of this paper are constructiveness and self-evident.

? The "looking at everything" in the mirror is a constructive metaphor for intentional flow. Build what? Construct concepts, relationships, situations and images. This kind of construction can be carried out both consciously and unconsciously; It concerns the present as well as the past and future. There are both insights and whimsy; We can face both the real world and the unreal world. This process is a process of analysis, judgment and reasoning. In China's native psychology, constructiveness belongs to the function of knowing God.

Byakki Smoker's "learning without receiving" is a metaphor for the self-knowledge of the stream of consciousness. Self-evident is another cognitive paradigm that is completely different from constructiveness. It does not depend on analysis, judgment and reasoning, but is grasped intuitively as a whole and can be understood correctly immediately. In China's native psychology, it belongs to the function of Yuan God.

What is the closest psychological concept to Shen Yuan? It was brentano who put forward the inner perception. Brentano said: "Internal perception not only has a special object, but also has another unique feature, that is, it is direct, unambiguous and self-evident. In all our perceptual activities, only inner perception has this feature. "

In people's spiritual life, the constructiveness and insight of intentional flow are the unity of opposites, just like a growing tree-constructiveness is like the aboveground part of the tree (trunk, branches and leaves, fruits), and insight is like the underground part (root) of the tree. Constructivism shows wisdom, and self-evident shows wisdom. Wisdom and wisdom are two opposing and complementary insight abilities of human beings. On this issue, I talked about it at the 14th Chinese Psychologists' Conference, entitled "Developing Mental Resources: Intelligent Management-One of the Four Major Managements of Intentional Flow Management", which can be used for reference.

The problem we face is that people are very familiar with the constructiveness of intentional flow, but they are very unfamiliar with the self-cognition of intentional flow. Today, brentano's inner perception and its self-evident have not become the current psychological knowledge. There are many psychological theories and psychotherapy based on constructivism, but few psychological theories and psychotherapy based on self-evident. Because of this, facing the psychological treasure house left by China traditional culture, we still have a long way to go in entering the classroom, digging and sorting out, and establishing psychology with China characteristics.

The reason why internal perception and its self-evident are ignored is that people only accept the existence that can be proved in habits, and internal perception can only be experienced but cannot be proved. As brentano said, "The truth of inner perception cannot be proved in any way at all. However, it has much more than proof: it is direct proof. If someone relies on a skepticism to attack the ultimate foundation of this understanding, he will not be able to find other foundations for building a knowledge building. "

Huineng's nature of learning from the mirror but not accepting it is a metaphor for human nature, which is very enlightening for us to understand the self-evident nature of intentional flow. Of course, we can also deepen our understanding of the relationship between constructiveness and self-evident of intentional flow from another metaphor. This metaphor is an abacus.

The abacus is a manual calculation tool invented by China in ancient times, with a history of more than 2,000 years. When calculating with an abacus, there is an indispensable procedure called "liquidation". The so-called liquidation means taking all the beads from each booth, returning all the beads to their original positions and emptying the whole plate. The constructiveness of stream of consciousness is like the calculation of abacus, and the self-evident is like liquidation. Every operation, there must be liquidation; Without liquidation, the operation will be chaotic.

Mirrors and abacus are just metaphors. The self-evident nature of intentional flow is far deeper and more complicated than any metaphor. Its important role is beyond people's imagination and constitutes people's initial self-nature. We must have enough understanding of this, because only when the constructiveness and self-evident of intentional flow become a complete unity can we have a normal spiritual life.

Zen often refers to the human heart, which is an operation to describe the intentional flow in psychology. The constructiveness of stream of consciousness comes from the day after tomorrow, and it is a process of entropy increase; The self-evident essence of stream of consciousness originates from nature and is a process of entropy reduction. On the contrary, they complement each other and form a complete unity.

? In people's acquired spiritual life, the constructive nature of stream of consciousness is a strong existence and a process of "representation-judgment-lust". In this process, concepts, connections, situations and images are constantly being constructed, day and night. Brentano compared this situation to a raging river. "In this river, the back wave follows the front wave and pushes the front wave."

The constructiveness of intentional flow will lead to all kinds of anxiety from ideas, which are often traceable and belong to the rational category. There is also a kind of anxiety, which does not belong to the rational category. This kind of anxiety stems from the continuous suppression of the self-knowledge of intentional flow, which constitutes a puzzling fundamental anxiety. This repression is so deep that elephants are invisible that many people simply don't realize the existence of this tendency. The purpose of Taiyi Jinhua is to describe this tendency with "strong slaves bully the Lord" and "too arrogant". This tendency is very dangerous. Because the self-knowledge of intentional flow is a function of human beings, it will follow the law of "using it and discarding it". In the operation of intentional flow, there is no self-evident harmonious constructiveness, just like a runaway wild horse, which will lock people's spiritual life in the turbulent flow of concepts. For a long time, people have not been alert to this dangerous tendency. In the process of psychotherapy, it is often difficult to achieve satisfactory results by only solving conceptual anxiety and ignoring fundamental anxiety.

The purpose of Zen Buddhism is to break through the imprisonment of ideas and release the self-evident nature of stream of consciousness, that is, the so-called "teaching others, not writing articles, pointing directly at people's hearts and treating nature as Buddha." Huineng's contribution lies in raising the major problems that are generally ignored in the cultivation of mind to the level of consciousness, and clearly points out the importance of self-evident stream of consciousness with five "He Qi":

What period of self-nature, this self-purity;

What self-nature period, this is not birth and death;

When is self-nature, it is self-sufficiency;

The self-nature of what period has never wavered;

When you are self-centered, you can produce all kinds of dharma.

Enlightenment is the most important term in Zen. Zen emphasizes "understanding nature with a clear mind", which means fully experiencing one's own nature. Being able to reach the highest level in this experience is called enlightenment. In the view of Zen, enlightenment is an important symbol of becoming a Buddha.

It must be clear that the religious meaning and psychological meaning of enlightenment are different. Enlightenment has the function of increasing mystery, helping worship and strengthening religious belief, and is regarded as the end of spiritual cultivation. However, from the psychological point of view, enlightenment is a full experience of intentional flow of self-knowledge, a symbol of the perfect unity of self-knowledge and constructiveness, and an important link in developing mental resources. Therefore, enlightenment is not the end of understanding, but a new starting point of understanding.

Around the question of how to realize, Shen Xiu and Huineng's poems embody different opinions, forming two different Zen methods, namely, Northern Sect and Southern Sect. Shen Xiu's Northern Sect Zen emphasizes "gradual practice", and holds that practice is a long-term effort. Only by knowing the true source, not doing evil, persisting in abstinence and not forgetting to make progress can we achieve natural success. Huineng's Nanzong Zen method emphasizes "epiphany" and thinks that "Tao does not need to be cultivated", which is really like Buddha's nature and self-purification. Everyone has it. There is no need to ask for it. You can practice it without faking it.

Xu Yun (1840 ~ 1959), an old monk, made a pertinent comment on these two Zen methods. He said: "Therefore, although the five ancestors of Huangmei praised the six ancestors' nothingness, they still praised Xiuzu's constant rubbing and praised the six ancestors' rubbing.

Here, the old monk Xu Yun did not compare the two Zen methods, but pointed out the applicable groups of the two Zen methods from the reality. Huineng's Zen method is suitable for very few people, as little as "a catastrophe" (a catastrophe in Buddhism is equal to 4.32 billion years). The magical Zen method is suitable for most people, so that "everyone can practice according to it."

Some people are not qualified to go to school and refuse to practice hard. They just like to talk about Zen. They often guess the literal meaning of Huineng's quotations at will, add emptiness to the imagination and mystery to the outside, and bring the Zen life originally intended to transcend the concept back to the drama theory of imagination. In the end, they mistook someone else and wasted their time. The old monk Xu Yun called this situation a "mantra".

Xu Yun, an old monk, lived for more than 100 years after three generations of penance. He is the first monk in China in modern times. His words are highly credible.

As the legal heir, Huineng accepted the mantle handed down by Hong Ren, the fifth ancestor, and became the sixth ancestor of Zen. However, as far as Zen is concerned, Huineng did not inherit the Dongshan method of the five ancestors, but became a family of his own, and completely negated the traditional cultivation methods of Zen, such as meditation and chanting Buddha. It was Shen Xiu who inherited and developed Dongshan Mind Method, and his "Five Convenient Doors" laid a solid foundation for the Northern Sect of Zen. This "five-way convenient door" is five important links in Zen practice:

(1) Always show the Buddha's body away from the door, that is, show the Buddha's body away from thoughts according to the Mahayana belief theory.

? (2) Opening the door of wisdom means opening the door of wisdom according to Hokkekyo's statement.

(3) Show the incredible door, that is, show the incredible method according to the Vimalakīrti Classic.

(4) Understand the positivity of all laws, that is, according to the scriptures asked by Brahma, understand the positivity of all laws.

(5) There is no difference, that is, according to Hua Yan Jing, it is free from obstacles.

Shen Xiu's Zen method is widely spread in the northern region centered on Luoyang and Chang 'an, and is deeply supported by believers. Where there are lectures, there are fairs. At that time, Emperors Wu Zetian, Zhong Zong and Zong Rui invited Shen Xiu to give lectures in the palace and gave them the highest courtesy. Shen Xiu can become the "master of two capitals and three generations", and he can live a hundred years, and he can still preach at the age of 90, which fully shows the physical and mental benefits brought by spiritual practice.

From the perspective of descriptive psychology, the essence of nourishing the heart in ancient times is the management of intentional flow. Why manage it? Because the constructiveness of intentional flow has a strong inertia. This kind of construction begins with appearance (presentation of objects), followed by judgment (right and wrong), and at the same time produces lust (love and hate), and a new round of "appearance-judgment-lust" process takes place under the impetus of lust. This process goes round and round, day and night, which is the basic procedure of intentional traffic operation. This was first discovered by Descartes (rene descartes, 1596 ~ 1650), but it was gradually forgotten by people, and brentano carried it forward. In the operation of stream of consciousness, lust is the driving force. Driven by secular desires, the stream of consciousness runs like a choppy river. Whether you go downstream or upstream determines the outcome of your life. The ancients often said: Obey others, you can become immortal. Practice is like sailing against the current. If you don't advance, you will retreat. Because of this, "abstinence wisdom" is the first of the three major schools of Buddhism. Without "example", "determination" and "wisdom" are just a dead letter. "Caution" is management, in which the management of lust occupies a large proportion. Of course, the management of stream of consciousness not only manages lust, but also manages judgment, wisdom and belief. At the same time, the management of intention flow is not only an idea, but also a practical operation technology. These four kinds of management are a descriptive psychological summary of ancient spiritual cultivation.

China's traditional culture has left us precious psychological resources, and the heart-nourishing techniques of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism, including Zen, deserve our good inheritance and development, so that China elements can be continuously added to the field of psychological healing.

Huangdi Neijing pointed out: "Those who get what they want stop at a word; I don't know what it is, it's endless. " What is the "want" here? It's the entry point This breakthrough point is to clarify the psychological ontology-intentional flow and its operating law in the context of this paper. Only by grasping this breakthrough point can we find the key to open the treasure house of China's native psychology and realize that the book is full of Qian Qian, which is nothing more than inspiration; Practice thousands of doors, originally a family.

When we talk about Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism in China's traditional culture, we often hear the saying of "idealism of the three religions". The "heart" here is the operation of intentional flow. Shen Xiu once said: "The heart is the source of all saints, and the heart is the master of all evils. Nirvana is always happy, born from the heart, and the samsara of the three realms begins from the heart. The heart is the door to birth, and the heart is the door to liberation. " This view can be seen not only in internal culture, but also in external culture. The Bible also has this opinion: "You should guard your heart above all else, because the fruit of life comes from your heart. Most importantly, protect your heart, because it is the source of life. " (Proverbs 4: 23) Therefore, all kinds of spiritual cultivation in ancient and modern times, at home and abroad are not mysterious. In a word, they all want to benefit from management. All the physical and mental benefits come from the management of intentional flow: management wisdom, management judgment, management lust and management belief.