Before his awakening at the hands of Zen master Mu-chou, Yun-men (864–949) had done more than ten years of meditation in addition to mastering the Vinaya school. He understood Buddhism in theory such as Mind-only and transcendental wisdom (prajnaparamita). But in all of this he was unable to achieve the illumination of Mind.

Compared with Yun-men’s spiritual journey, the modern Zennist lacks not only the depth of a Yun-men before his awakening but, in addition, knows next to nothing about the illumination of mind of which the Buddha spoke of long ago. The only mind the modern Zennist knows is the monkey mind that chatters in his head and goes from one thing to another never satisfied. His only goal is to suppress it—not transcend it or in the words of Zen master Fo-hsing T'ai (12th century), “know the opening beyond.”

The more the modern Zennist attends to his monkey mind trying to suppress it, the more unable he is to transcend it. It boils down to reifying a fantasy. Each time he attempts to suppress this mind, the stronger grows this monkey mind. But no matter how strong it becomes, it is still the monkey mind—not the Buddha Mind.

This condition reminds me a little of people who like to play fantasy role-playing games (my brother did this for many years). No matter how much these gamers invest in their fantasy characters, they will never be more than fantasy characters. But then the real goal of role-playing games is to have fun and socialize with friends. Although some gamers go beyond the real goal of role-playing games, by and large, they know what fantasy is.

The modern Zennist should know that their monkey mind needs to be transcended. In other words, they should be working earnestly on realizing the One Mind which is immaculate.