Tag Archives: The Ch’an Factor

The opening blog of this series touched upon the Ch’an usages of shou-i, or “Keeping the One”:

To “guard the one without wavering” means to be intent on viewing the one thing [the Buddha-mind] with this void and pure eye. Without asking whether it is day or night, devote yourself to remaining constantly unmoving. Should the mind be about to gallop off, quickly work to rein it back in. It is just like a cord binding a bird’s foot, which would hold the bird fast should it try to fly off. View the whole day through, unceasingly. Then, extinguished, the mind will become concentrated on itself. (Buswell, The Formation of Ch’an Ideology in China and Korea…pg. 142) read more