Instant Zen: Waking Up in the Present

by Ch'ing-yüan, Thomas Cleary (Translator)

Instant Zen presents the teachings of Foyan, a twelfth-century Chinese Zen master recognized as one of the greatest masters of the Song dynasty Zen renaissance in China. Returning to the uncomplicated genuineness of the original and classical Zen masters, Foyan offers many simple exercises in attention and thought designed to lead to the awakening of Zen insight into the real nature of the self. These succinct teachings emphasize independence and autonomy, and show us how to open our own eyes and stand on our own two feet, to see directly without delusion and act on truth without confusion.

Translator Thomas Cleary provides an incisive introduction and extensive references from traditional Zen sources, placing the work in both historical and contemporary contexts. Newcomers to Zen will find this book a useful and sophisticated introduction to authentic inner Zen practices from an impeccable source, without cultural exoticism or religious cultism. Instant Zen sheds new light on this vital tradition, making available the immediacy of Zen practice and unveiling our innate potential for conscious awakening.

Genres: Zen, Buddhism, Spirituality, Philosophy, Eastern Philosophy, Religion

160 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

Reviews

[Logan Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

Primed mostly by information and practice related to fairly traditional Theravada Buddhism, my first read of this collection ended before the pages did. I honestly thought it was a bunch of hogwash written by an old crank who was fed up with Zen and Buddhism. I picked it up a year or two later and was blown away by Foyan's clarity, directness, and perspective on all the things I didn't have experiential reference to before.

Foyan was in a way fed up with the state of institutionalized Chinese Buddhism in the period in which he lived (the Song Dynasty). He saw every spiritual "master" around him practicing to attain something in the future which he knew could only be found immediately, where they were, when they stopped seeking. No need to "Sit with eyebrows knitted, stubbornly declaring 'This is It'". When I first read him I was definitely the 'eyebrows knitted' type, but slowly became disillusioned with that kind of practice and seemed to pick this book back up just in time.

All that to say, if you are at all interested in Zen or Buddhism or just generally interested in not fooling yourself and being honest moment-to-moment, I highly recommend giving this book a read. I have since read it many times myself and will continue to do so.

[Jughead · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reviewed on Amazon. Destined to be a classic Chan translation, up there with Blofeld's Huang Po. When all the books on 'Zen' have faded, this one will still be held dearly. Forget 'Zen Mind, Beginners Mind' or 'Three Pillars of Zen' or any other Zen Center nonsense. This book is the real deal and T.F. Cleary will always be thought of as a real teacher of Chan!

[Mattheus Guttenberg · Rating 5 out of 5]

The lectures in this book were given by Foyan, a renowned 11th century Zen master during the Zen renaissance in Song dynasty China. Like Yuanwu, he was a student of Wuzu and his message is equally clear: penetrating to the source of your being, you witness true reality. This Truth has no opposite, no duality, no high or low, right or wrong, long or short - it is simply the inexpressible essence uniting all perceptions and phenomena. Foyan's attitude is not airy or poetic, nor is it boring and mundane. He simply urges us, sincerely, to take responsibility for our own enlightenment by stepping back and looking at the source of our being, and to not get trapped by sayings and phrases, by methods and techniques, or by professionals who pretend to be "Zen teachers" but who have not attained clarity and therefore fall apart like a dirt clod when prodded. Foyan is the real deal.

[John Xavier · Rating 5 out of 5]

Instant Zen: Waking Up in the Present
By Foyan Qingyuan
Translation and Commentary by Thomas Cleary

You may contemplate the stories of the ancients, you may sit quietly, or you may watch attentively everywhere; all of these are ways of doing the work. Everywhere is the place for you to attain realization, but concentrate on one point for days and months on end, and you will surely break through. – Foyan

My teacher said, “When you sleep, study Zen as you sleep; at meals study Zen as you eat.” – Foyan

* * *

This book is an oasis for anyone dying of thirst. The less thirsty one is though, the less meaningful this book will be. Thirst of course is a practical function of the body, a physiological response to the need for rehydration. More generally, desire itself is also like this; in fact it can even serve us on a spiritual level. In the history of Zen for example it’s well attested that many of those who came to embody the principle most were driven to do so by a fierce sense of need. That their realization of Zen fulfilled itself in an overcoming of this passion doesn’t change the fact that it was the passion itself which brought them to that point; what distinguished them passion from those who failed, either passionately or not, was the depth of their sincerity. Foyan at one point talks about two kinds of mistakes; not seeing the donkey one is riding on and not being able to dismount the donkey. This is what it’s like with enlightenment and Zen Mind; not seeing the immutable presence of enlightenment within oneself is not seeing the donkey one is riding and growing attached to this sense of enlightenment is not being able to dismount. What will distinguish the ultimate outcome for the individual is whether they are honest enough with themselves to admit that they missed the obvious. Are you?

Traditionally, Zen teachers have employed various techniques to assist people into coming to this and other basic realizations. Foyan himself likewise uses various “turning phrases” in his lectures to try and jostle his audience out of their personal complacencies. Turning phrases however are not something to abide in either and Foyan leaves hardly a turn unstoned. Even the idea of expedient means receives a ruthless pelting. Because as soon as an expedient means devolves into conceptual thinking, its expediency evaporates. What is really at stake is always “thusness” and and this thusness is not confined to any form of being or perception but rather is that which pervades all of reality and unreality.

Reaching this insight will present a challenge to the vast majority of readers but anyone frustrated by the apparent impenetrability of the Zen koan collections will find Foyan’s concise and topically organized lectures to be much more welcome. The reader though should remain careful so as to avoid the temptation of being lazily seduced into palatable misunderstandings. Foyan’s straightforwardness is not distortion proof and insincerity will sabotage realization here just as much as it does everywhere else. A liar is never safe from themselves.

That said, a sufficiently clear-eyed reader will recognize that, with Instant Zen, Foyan effectively demolishes all methods and concepts with respect to the fundamental nature of self and the world; in fact, even speaking of these two aspects of our experience as if they were actually independent existing things is already succumbing to misunderstanding. Whatever can be grasped within the clutches of words is itself thoroughly delusional and so all our basic but unnatural concepts for navigating existence are dissolved all at once; yet this also includes the concept of these ideas themselves being in any way negated, so a kind of transfiguration of reality occurs in this state without any perceptual or intellectual differentiations. Rather the change is in the individual’s perfected freedom, their complete lack of real attachments; something we might refer to in a non-reified and disposable manner as “Zen Mind.” Meaning of course that there is no actual Zen Mind, this too is just one more rind to toss aside after its fruit is eaten.

It would help to understand that everything Foyan says here is directed towards the complete liberation of his audience, urging them towards the instantaneous realization of Zen and, accordingly, he retreads the same ground over and over to that effect. But this never becomes tedious because he continuously does so from fresh angles, offering a diverse selection of paths for the individual to arrive at their own personal breakthroughs. But to give anyone else assistance, the person offering help has to truly appreciate the other’s predicament; so someone able to share Zen realization with another will distinguish themselves by always meeting their counterpart in the latter’s own individual circumstances and using the most appropriate means this dictates. Of course, the illumination provided doesn’t reside in the words Foyan offers us but rather it lies in unlocking the shutters of our own derelict mind. At the same time, saying that words are not themselves a means to Zen realization is not the same as saying that Zen rejects words. After Zen realization, words retain all of their ordinary usage. This too is a part of going beyond words and not abiding in them. Absorbing Foyan’s “Instant Zen” then is just another step, one more along the path of life, although admittedly it may be the beginning of the most important journey the reader ever takes.

Comments on the Translation:

It should quickly become obvious that the translator has a polemical agenda; his introduction proceeds to swiftly delineate a contrast between original Zen and the religious distortions of it. To be fair here, Zen, like everything else that has ever held exceptional appeal, was eagerly appropriated by individuals and groups with no real fidelity to the thing they sought to dominate. So Cleary’s arguments in this regard have considerable merit. His own attempts to elaborate on Zen itself however tend to lapse into misleading characterizations; at one point for example he speaks about the “peculiarities” of Zen, blatantly going against the thrust of all of Zen’s historically notable teachers who emphasized that Zen has no special distinctions, being concerned as it is only with the most basic thusness. Like many other Zen commentators, he can’t seem to help capitulating to the occasional conflation of Zen with periods or aspects of the cultural history that’s surrounded it at various times.

Similarly, Cleary refers to something he associates with Zen that he calls “mind cultivation.” Now, it wouldn’t surprise me if some of those who truly embodied Zen spoke of activities like mind cultivation in a positive sense (Maybe even using that specific phrase) but what Foyan is focused on in this book is fundamental Zen realization, which can only occur with sudden clarity (Hence the “instant” part of Instant Zen) So Cleary, at the very least, brings his own appreciation of his subject matter into question by speaking in this manner. In any case, what Cleary has to say is trivial in comparison to what Foyan has to say; the sectarian controversies encircling Zen can only occur in its outermost orbits, far from the fundamentals at its center. And this translation, even if it has some flaws, is more than good enough to understand the essence of Foyan’s message; the determining factor is really just whether the reader is sincere in their desire to learn. Whether they genuinely want to confront the reality of their own nature.

Which raises a tangential point worth mentioning. I’ve observed considerable debate in the lay Zen community over how Zen literature is translated. Here people are constantly arguing over linguistic minutia; all while debating the often oral sayings of teachers who consistently maintained the most radical skepticism towards language the world has ever known. Which is obviously ridiculous and only highlights just how disingenuous the majority of self-proclaimed Zen students are. After all, what’s the correct Qieyun Chinese for “twirling flower?” Anyone who answers here in words has no insight into Zen. Admittedly there’s a point when the stones of a path can become too rough to walk on but the perfection of the paving is also nothing besides making the actual journey.

Notes on Individual Lectures:

This was my first time reading Instant Zen and as I went along I made considerable notes. Most of the individual lectures stimulated some specific response so these are provided here in their original haphazard fashion. The reader of this review may in turn obtain a similar effect from them.

ZEN SICKNESSES

Foyan’s two sicknesses are searching for enlightenment outside the ordinary and attachment to enlightenment after experiencing it.

FACING IT DIRECTLY

Yunmen’s “mountains, rivers, the whole earth,” points to the fact that whatever the self absorbs comprises its own identity.

EMANCIPATION

To ask what is essential for emancipation is to already reach for something beyond thusness. Even the most profound and insightful questions about Zen are therefore always aimed a few degrees wide of their mark; here the individual employs something like a magic spell for clear vision that instead conjures the very fog which will obscure this.

STOP OPINIONS

The thusness of all forms of ignorance is the same thusness as the thusness of enlightenment; the only difference is that ignorance sees only a few aspects of a gestalt and not even the nature of the gestalt itself. Enlightenment conversely sees the nature of the gestalt and all its aspects simultaneously. A fleeting moment of enlightened awakening meanwhile is a sense of simultaneity and superposition that is unable to properly take root due to unrelinquished attachments.

Fayan’s dog is just something carved into the cavern walls of the mind.

THE DIRECTOR

What drives us is what persists throughout birth and death. It is prior to the cosmos and will endure even after the annihilation of all things. Because it is not itself something and so there’s nothing that can grow from or perish off of it. There’s no question of belonging here.

SAVING ENERGY

“Strike the evening chime at noon.” See the blazing sun for what it is, just another thing of darkness. The real luminosity is an entirely invisible reality.

ASLEEP

Asking for clarity is already the undoing of clarity.

THE BASIS OF AWARENESS

As soon as the hunter notches an arrow, the game bird flies away. You cannot chase a dream and dreaming is the cloth of every waking moment. Underneath its robes, the naked selfless mind rules over the unformed realm.

To root out the king you must burn many towns and provinces but, eventually, he will flee into the open. Then the task of Zen is to put him to death once and for all.

When you look in the mirror you are beholding the father of all your enemies and mother of all your friends.

JUST BEING THERE

When it is asked;
A single cloud taking away
The noon sun from the whole sky

TWO SICKNESSES

Snakes nesting underground,
Birds nesting in trees;
The young always having to
Free themselves,
The shells of their birth a
Fragile prison

SEEING THROUGH

To realize something through meditation is to realize the futility of meditation and all other forms of practice. There is nothing to realize because the original self cannot be surpassed. The primordial defeats all the armies of eternity.

Living Buddha,
Worms go hungry;
Dying Buddha,
Worms can feast

The crowd vanishing in assembly;
The mountain face without
Footprints

The city, the mountain;
Two sacks of dirt
Tied to a belt

The unreal is lacking,
The unreal has surplus;
Meanwhile the earth
Remains unmoved
As summer and winter
Exchange a castle

NAKED REALIZATION

In every raindrop, the bright reflection of my umbrella. And if I toss my shelter away, the rain just keeps falling.

Desire, form, and formlessness are all mirrors. Polish each and always it’s the same self-nature that’s looking back.

Because Xuansha was blind to tigers his flesh was not delicious and no beast would eat him. the person of real Zen though is a cannibal when it comes to their dharma ancestors.

The valley stream
Washes clean the one who hears it

SEEING MIND

Desire has a million faces;
The heart is a tower
And, on every one of its floors,
Leering strangers

SHOW THE TRUTH

Diamond is not found in water nor is water found in diamond. When everything exists just as it is and nothing is sought beyond individual appearances, the source is present everywhere equally. Underneath all is darkness.

REAL ZEN

Zen goes beyond the artificial boundaries of the mind. If you discard a belief without fully penetrating its illusion though you are just falling into the quagmire of a single formless illusion. The person of real Zen retains understanding in possessing it as well as when they let go of it. Because being free of the desire for understanding means a discerning of actual understanding and not just a liberation from empty words.

Freedom from grasping the illusory grasps the essence of all illusions. The false it thereby made a servant of the truth.

JUST THIS

The person who is not looking is the one we seek. Therefore we shouldn’t look for them. Stop looking and they will immediately introduce themselves. Give nothing, ask nothing, and they will remain your most steadfast companion.

As long as Zen is treated like gold, the crops will barely survive. When Zen is turned into dung though, fertilizing the crops will provide an abundant harvest.

The awesome hammer cannot pierce the cloth but the slender needle goes right through.

APPROVAL

The intimate self-nature does not exist in the immediacy of the now, rather it pervades every moment. Which is why grasping it requires letting go.

The false person falsifies even the correct teachings. To use an insight or action repetitively (Which Magu did) as a blind key is always falsifying. People or real Zen respond directly and organically to situations as they arise.

ALL THE WAY THROUGH

How to not stir. Activity unencumbered by expectation or great purpose. Things done in and of themselves; as complete as the self is complete, seamless with conditions while free of preoccupation.

COMPREHENDING EVERYTHING

When mind is not aroused, one is capable of great absorption. Why? Answer: A gardener must clear the weeds before they can grow anything.

Only when the Buddhahood of all beings is ceaselessly manifest and beyond any sort of private doubt can one even begin to talk of being a buddha without being a totally immoral fraud.

SEEK WITHOUT SEEKING

Desire deprived of any object, purpose without ambition; they are the same but what is left? How would you recognize the quintessence of the self? When seeking has nothing to seek, this is the same as ordinary seeking; both follow an identical path. Those who cultivate distinctions here place clay idols on podiums of gold.

ORIGINAL REALITY

“Seeking” doesn’t go anywhere, therefore it is “Not Seeking” and “Not Seeking” reaches for that which is most immediate, therefore it is “Seeking.” Ultimately of course these are all just names for things which don’t exist but denying their existence also involves going astray. Abiding in any one form of understanding is always an error; and this includes the totality of all multiplicities.

UNDERSTAND IMMEDIATELY

How to distinguish black and white: two armies in confused battle but everywhere they are killing each other. Wherever white goes, black follows, and vice versa.

ZEN MASTERY

Everything is the original reality, including deluded mind. Therefore deluded mind can see the original reality simply by seeing itself; and if it doesn’t see itself then everything else it perceives will be corrupted by its own deluded nature. The gate to Zen is therefore just the individual experiencing self recognition and, since there is no barrier between the individual and their own self, Zen is also gateless. Accordingly, when deluded mind sees itself, its deluded condition ceases, taking away this identity; rendering it truly selfless. The mind, without a self, has no attachments, even attachment to mind, and as such it becomes Mind Without Mind. This is absolute freedom and liberation; nothing could coerce it. This is also enlightenment; its insight infinitely profound, encompassing the whole universe. In other words, this is the realization of Zen.

EQUALITY

Fundamental enlightenment is unconscious because it does not even require thought. The awakened do not require any constant self-reminder of their being awake; as such they remain asleep in their own awakening. Being enlightened and being ordinary are the same thing for those who are enlightened and different things for those who are not. The mind which has freed itself from all habit energies is totally cleansed and therefore perfectly lucid; in this state it is a flawless vessel for the dharma.

FINDING CERTAINTY

What is obvious cannot be illuminated by questions and answers. Like the path of the sun on a clear day, the individual must simply attend to the matter with their own eyes. No verbal explanation can provide a basic clarity here greater than what someone must see for themselves; at most a kind friend can gesture towards the shore where a swimmer may find rest.

KEYS OF ZEN MIND

Why falsehood is fundamentally the path: when it is recognized that all perceptions are the manifestation of delusion and every desire is a craving for falsity, the composition of the path reveals its own unreality. Only emptiness can fulfill emptiness and, seeing this, one is liberated. Likewise, mastery has no attainment because the recognition of an infinite hierarchy of falsehoods, the imperfection of every verbal formulation and created thing crafted for some purpose, leaves no intellectual terminus to abide in. So true mastery is the overcoming of mastery.

If everything is false then falsehood has no meaning and there is no longer any meaningful falsity or confusion to obstruct us.

SITTING MEDITATION

If anything involves time, it is a path that leads away from the instantaneous. Any realization meanwhile must have a degree of comprehensiveness since the exact moment of its occurrence encompasses some matter of concern; as such though, every realization is fundamentally instantaneous. And obviously the infinite cannot be reached by stages in any finite time frame so the realization of enlightenment, which includes the infinitude of suchness, necessarily demands a moment of instantaneous recognition that cannot be aided by practice or accumulation.

[Joseph Thieves Roses Kinnett · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you're interested in better understanding this life and this mind of "yours" that pushes and pulls, deceives and compels you to act; you wouldn't do bad in giving this a read. Foyan speaks intimately, in a simple manner free of indulgence and wastes not a single word, directly to you.

[One Awakening · Rating 5 out of 5]

Listened to the audiobook but clearly will need to carefully read the actual text. Very dense with Zen wisdom. Many very good pointers, just need to fully fill them with attention and then seeing clears up.

[Never · Rating 5 out of 5]

dung!

[Malum · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the better Buddhism/Zen books that I have read.

[Zeta Syanthis · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm afraid to say this isn't really a book in the conventional sense. It's a set of translations, but with no guidance as to how to read them, I can't say it's very useful.

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I truly believe this is unequivocally the greatest translated Zen text of all time. Its succinctness and simple clarity stand out against other texts published during the Tang/Song dynasty (i.e., the golden age of Zen), such as the terse Blue Cliff Record from Zen Master Yuanwu and the Book of Serenity (Equanimity) from Zen Master Hongzhi Zhengjue.

However, Instant Zen should not be compared to these texts, as it truly stands in a league of its own. This is a collection of 50+ sayings compiled from different lectures from Foyan. Thomas Cleary does a great job of translating these sayings, as it reveals a simplicity in Foyan's message that's simultaneously hard to wrap one's mind around.

Someone reminded me of how there's a grandmotherly-like kindness in Foyan's words, and it's hard to see otherwise. Foyan encourages all of us to lead life independently, free from materialistic toils, and turn attention directly to "what's presently coming into being."

It's quite a radical text regarding Foyan's "two-step process," or as he describes it, two sicknesses in his school of Zen:
- (1) Go looking for the donkey while riding on it (the sickness of spiritual seeking)
- (2) Be unwilling to dismount the donkey once you've recognized (1)

From here, to recognize that not only are you the donkey, but the whole universe is the donkey, questions about mounting or dismounting become difficult to clarify. This is why Zen is the school of instant enlightenment, of suddenly recognizing one's original nature as Buddha, of Zen's emphasis on mind-to-mind transmission originating from Bodhidharma's lineage, which purportedly goes back to Siddhartha Gautama, a.k.a. the original Shakyamuni Buddha.

There's a lot more I could say about the book, but it's a truly good one!

[Justin · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this as I agree there is a lot of knowledge to be found in reading the works of original Chinese zen masters before the practice became distorted in Japan and the West. However, this book (beyond a decent introduction) could have used a lot more in terms of explanatory notes. The translation lacked a lot of context and it was very difficult to get through. Thought the editor could have made more of an effort to bring these teachings to relevance for a contemporary western reader.

[Ahmad A. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I bought the audio book from Audible, and it was an enjoyable listen. I was listening to the book while tracing the text from the book as well. The reader has a really good and clear voice that matches the style of the book.

[Marian · Rating 5 out of 5]

This instant is Zen.