The phenomenon of sudden awakening

1. What sudden awakening is

Sudden awakening (đốn ngộ) is the unexpected change of the mind from a state of darkness and delusion to a state of clarity and stillness. It happens with extraordinary suddenness and speed: in a single moment the practitioner becomes a new person. Many anecdotes from Chinese and Vietnamese Zen tell of such cases of sudden awakening, lending Zen a vigorous, strange and no less romantic air.

In fact, in the Buddha's lifetime there were many cases of people who heard the Buddha teach the Dharma and were suddenly awakened. Thanks to the Buddha, however, we know which fruit and which level of meditation those people attained. Later, in the flourishing period of Chinese Zen, we only record that certain Zen masters had the phenomenon of sudden awakening, but we cannot know precisely what level or what fruit it was. In the basic course of practice, the Buddha described the Four Dhyānas precisely and as a gradual progression, the opposite of the unexpected phenomenon of sudden awakening. The night of the Buddha's enlightenment under the Bodhi tree is also described step by step, from the First Dhyāna to the Fourth, and then through the Three Knowledges. Yet there are also many accounts of the realisation of the noble disciples as sudden awakening, or sudden realisation, in the Buddha's own time.

2. Cases of sudden awakening

Awakening after hearing a teaching happened very often in the Buddha's time, and also to a number of famous Zen masters:

Huệ Năng awakened at once on hearing the line of the Diamond Sutra, "Let the mind arise without dwelling anywhere". On hearing the Fifth Patriarch Hoằng Nhẫn repeat the Diamond Sutra up to that line a second time, he awakened more deeply still. Lương Giới Động Sơn was greatly awakened on hearing Đàm Thạnh Vân Nham quote the Amitābha Sutra: "The water, the birds and the forest trees all recite the Buddha, recite the Dharma, recite the Sangha."

Vô Ngôn Thông was greatly awakened on hearing Hoài Hải Bá Trượng answer another person about the Way with the words: "If the ground of the mind is clear, the sun of wisdom shines by itself."

The great master Thái Hư read the Prajñāpāramitā Sutra and was at once awakened, completely clear and open.

Thông Thiền (Vietnam) was awakened on hearing one saying of Thường Chiếu: "The Buddha Dharma cannot be known; this is the Dharma of not-knowing; the Buddhas are just so; practise all dharmas and yet attain nothing."

… These are teachings presented plainly, with nothing veiled or tricky, and the hearer both understood them and had their whole consciousness transformed.

Then there are cases where a leap forward came while sitting in meditation. Many people fall into this case, and the histories do not tell of them, since they seem unremarkable and unappealing. A person sitting in meditation suddenly cries out with delight, and when asked afterwards, answers clearly. (Let us be careful: do not imitate this by crying out while sitting in meditation.)

One monk awakened while sitting in meditation, and when his teacher asked what he had realised, he replied: "The nun was originally a woman." The teacher accepted this.

In the Buddha's time, countless Arhats attained the Way while sitting in meditation, and attained it to the highest degree.

Then there are cases of awakening on hearing a veiled, enigmatic, unusual remark. In the history of Zen,

these anecdotes are the most appealing and interesting, since they seem romantic and mysterious and arouse curiosity. The meditator understands some principle and their consciousness is transformed at once.

When Bàng Long Uẩn asked about the essential meaning of the Buddha Dharma, Mã Tổ answered: "When you can drink up all the water of the West River in one gulp, I will answer you." Bàng was greatly awakened at once.

A monk asked about the essential meaning of the Buddha Dharma, and Triệu Châu answered: "The cypress tree in the courtyard." The monk, doubtful, asked again. Triệu Châu again affirmed that it was the cypress tree in the courtyard. The monk awakened at once.

Huệ Cầu asked Huyền Sa, "What is the first moon?" Huyền Sa answered: "What do you want your own moon for!" Huệ Cầu was awakened at once.

Tông Huệ came to consult Văn Yển Vân Môn. Vân Môn asked about his background and circumstances. Tông Huệ answered honestly. Vân Môn said, "I'll let you off three blows of the staff." The next day Tông Huệ came and asked what fault he had committed that Vân Môn had nearly given him three blows. Vân Môn answered: "You rice bag! Is that how it is in Giang Tây and Hồ Nam?" Tông Huệ was greatly awakened.

Thiện Chiêu Phần Dương asked Tỉnh Niệm Thủ Sơn: "What does it mean when Bá Trượng rolls up the mat?" Thủ Sơn answered: "When the dragon robe is flicked, the whole is revealed." He asked, "What is your own meaning, Master?" The answer: "Where the elephant king walks, no trace of the fox remains." Thiện Dương was greatly awakened at once.

A monk begged Tùng Thẩm Triệu Châu for instruction. Triệu Châu asked, "Have you eaten your porridge?" The monk answered that he had. Triệu Châu said, "Then wash your bowl." At that moment the monk awakened.

Then there are cases of sudden awakening through a strange, baffling gesture, or through an incidental event. It is precisely these cases of sudden awakening that give Zen its odd manner, which surprises many people. In fact, in the Buddha's time too there were many such cases of attaining the Way, such as a bhikkhu who watched drops of water falling from his foot into a stream and attained the Way at once, or Venerable Culla Panthaka, who looked at a dirty cloth, entered absorption and attained the Way on the spot.

When Thúy Lạo asked about the essential meaning of the Buddha Dharma, Mã Tổ pretended to call him closer so as to explain clearly, then kicked Thúy Lạo and knocked him flat on his back, and Thúy Lạo awakened.

Trí Nhàn Hương Nghiêm was hoeing the ground when a pebble flew and struck a bamboo, ringing out, and he awakened at once. Hoài Hải Bá Trượng was attending Mã Tổ when a flock of wild ducks flew past. The Patriarch asked where the ducks were flying; Hải answered, "They've flown past." The Patriarch seized Hải's nose and pulled hard, so that Hải cried out in pain. The Patriarch said, "And you say they've flown past!" Hoài Hải awakened at once.

Thiện Hội Giáp Sơn went to consult Đức Thành Hoa Đình, the boatman, on his boat. After a few questions and answers, Đức Thành pressed Thiện Hội to say quickly what he understood. As soon as Thiện Hội opened his mouth, he was struck and knocked into the water. He climbed back on the boat, was pressed again to speak, and as soon as he opened his mouth was struck again. This time Thiện Hội was greatly awakened and nodded three times.

Bá Trượng told Linh Hựu Quy Sơn to stir the stove and look for fire. Linh Hựu stirred and found none. Bá Trượng stepped over, stirred the ashes, found a little fire, held it up and asked: "You say there is none; so what is this?" Linh Hựu awakened at once and bowed in thanks.

Huệ Lăng Trường Khánh followed Nghĩa Tồn Tuyết Phong for twenty years without result. One day Huệ Lăng casually rolled up a blind and was suddenly greatly awakened.

Văn Yển went to consult the venerable Trần and was shut out; the door was not opened for him. On the third day Yển pushed through the door and forced his way in; the venerable seized his robe and told him to speak. Yển was thinking and could not speak, and was immediately pushed out while the venerable mocked him, "In the age of Qin, the awl turned and rolled", then slammed the door and crushed Yển's foot, breaking it. The pain that pierced to the bone caused Văn Yển to awaken and enter (he later became the famous founder of the Vân Môn school).

3. The nature of sudden awakening

Sudden awakening is an unexpected change, quick as lightning, which turns consciousness from agitation to stillness, from delusion and darkness to clarity. In that sudden moment, the practitioner feels that the mind, which had always been bound and covered, is suddenly untied; the chains and dark clouds break apart, and so the mind becomes open, vast and free, and above all very clear and sharp. Before awakening, the mind is still narrow; after the instant of sudden awakening, the mind becomes broad and without boundary.

Before awakening, the mind is still obstructed and dim; after the instant of sudden awakening, the mind becomes clear and understands everything. Before awakening, the mind may lose mindfulness; after the instant of sudden awakening, the mind is constantly in mindfulness without distraction.

In fact, sudden awakening does not come by chance. It is the result of a whole process of accumulating merit and effort over many years and many lifetimes. Nearly everyone in whom sudden awakening occurs already had very high concentration, an unusually earnest longing, and some truly worthy merit. The higher the concentration, the greater the power of awakening; the more earnest the longing, the brighter the awakening; the greater the accumulated merit, the deeper the awakening.

The nature of sudden awakening is a leap in the level of meditation (on the scale of the Four Dhyānas) or a leap in the noble fruit (on the scale of the Four Noble Fruits), depending on each person's conditions. If, after sudden awakening, this person develops very good morality, the sudden awakening was the attainment of some noble fruit; if, after sudden awakening, the person gains only sharper wits and deeper meditative concentration, then that sudden awakening was only a growth in meditative concentration and not a noble fruit.

There have truly been many cases in which, after sudden awakening, the practitioner's morality did not grow but on the contrary became more arrogant and eccentric, causing others to doubt and avoid them more.

The condition for sudden awakening is the last drop that makes the cup overflow. That drop is a stimulus to the consciousness of a meditator who is already in a state of readiness. Sometimes that last drop is a principle explained clearly (the first case). Sometimes it is a principle presented in a veiled way, but the meditator grasps it and is awakened at once. But sometimes the last drop is simply a stimulus to the senses of ear or eye, which is enough to bring a sudden awakening. Zen masters often raise a hand or lift some object to stimulate the eye faculty. Many Zen masters awakened through a sudden sound. For example, Zen master Tề Liên awakened on hearing the morning board being struck. Sometimes a blow, a stimulus to the sense of touch, also brings a sudden awakening. Such sensory stimulation holds no secret principle; it is just that when the conditions of merit are complete, even the simple stimulus of a sound opens the mind.

Sudden awakening appears when a practitioner has enough merit. This merit must mostly have been accumulated over many lifetimes, not just a few years. When the Buddha Dharma has passed through a period of several hundred years of serious practice, we will then have a great number of meditators who awaken suddenly. If practice begins to go astray, we see such cases of sudden awakening disappear from the Buddha Dharma. We must see that sudden awakening has such distant origins in order to understand the Buddha Dharma correctly; otherwise it is a mistake to daydream and wait to get lucky with a sudden awakening.

Sudden awakening also varies in depth. Not all cases of sudden awakening reach the same level. Many were extraordinary in their sudden awakening, such as Lâm Tế, Động Sơn and Vân Môn. But there were also many who, after sudden awakening, had to practise for several decades more before they went beyond. Many needed forty years before they were considered truly settled and thoroughly awakened.

In the Buddha's time, many bhikkhus, after sudden awakening, were guided by the Buddha to continue until they attained Arhatship complete with the Three Knowledges and the Six Supernormal Powers. Later, especially in the heyday of Chinese Zen, although we see many extraordinary people, we still do not see any who declared the full Three Knowledges and Six Supernormal Powers as the Arhats of the Buddha's time had.

Strangely, there were some who at first had the phenomenon of sudden awakening but later behaved in ordinary ways, as in the case of the attendant Bình at Thái Dương mountain (in the Thiền Lâm Bảo Huấn). Many people who had a sudden awakening and then became worse than before their awakening are not recorded in the histories. Today too there is no shortage of cases of sudden awakening that do not make the impression the ancients did, and it is not rare for people to be slightly awakened and then go bad later.

Gradual practice serves as a supplement to the fact that after sudden awakening the practitioner is still not free in the face of birth and death, or does not yet have complete virtue, or whose power of concentration is not yet deep. Therefore, after the phenomenon of sudden awakening appears, the practitioner must rely on the newly gained power of alert awareness so as not to be distracted, and go on dwelling firmly in the mind, advancing step by step into deeper levels of meditation. However, after sudden awakening, many fall into the method of gazing at the empty, bright state of mind in order to enjoy it, without knowing to eliminate the deep, hidden deluded thoughts that continue to

govern from behind. It is precisely by gazing at and enjoying this empty state of mind that the practitioner gradually runs out of merit and may later suffer a serious decline.

If a wise teacher instructs them, the practitioner after sudden awakening will continue to gather the mind in the breath in order to go deep into absorption, rather than gazing at and being self-satisfied with the state of the mind.

In the Buddha's time, gradual practice was regarded as a firm foundation, like a teacher making pupils do addition, subtraction, multiplication and division by hand so that they master arithmetic from the roots. In the Zen period, sudden awakening was regarded as the first door to later practice, like pupils today who just press a calculator to get the result: fast, but without foundational knowledge. Eager Zen students went about consulting teachers in the hope of meeting a Zen master who would awaken them at once, after which practice would be easier.

But in the end everything comes down to the same thing. Reckoning it up, only those with a foundation from a previous life, those who earnestly and painfully travelled to study by day and sat quietly in meditation by night, could be successfully guided by a Zen master. Countless people went back and forth to consult masters, thousands and tens of thousands, yet the number who awakened suddenly was not large.

Take the example of fruit on a tree: it may fall because it is overripe, because the wind blows, or because someone picks it. The phenomenon of sudden awakening can likewise come from concentration that has become fully ripe, from an accidental jolt, or from a teacher who awakens one.

But either way, we must have done the work of planting the tree, tending and feeding it, removing pests, pulling weeds, pruning bad branches, watering and checking on it, until one day the tree flowers and bears fruit. In the same way, either way, we must create merit over many lifetimes, revere the Buddha, benefit beings, keep our precepts and conduct, cultivate morality and sit diligently in meditation, until one day concentration and wisdom flower and bear fruit.

The process of planting the tree of morality takes not only this one life but very, very many lifetimes. If we are fortunate to have sown good conditions in the distant past, then in this life we will progress easily; if not, we must make great effort and the results will still be small. So if we see that our practice makes little progress, we should understand that it is because our merit is not yet great, and tell ourselves to be all the more determined. And whoever grows discouraged because their practice has not progressed will remain lowly and ordinary for hundreds and thousands of lifetimes to come.

Another thing to note is that even with sudden awakening, it may only be a low level of awakening, not enough for us to accomplish firm morality or deep concentration. So humility is always precious.

Question: What is a person who is determined to practise meditation like?