Master Wuzhu is your typical Zen Master: he reads minds, hides himself away in inaccessible mountains and tells earthy stories. Most importantly, he jettisons all conventional religious practices, and he did this about twelve hundred years before Alan Watts, Esalen or MBSR. What makes him unique in the annals of Chan/Zen is that his followers compiled a book about his antecedents, anecdotes and aphorisms at a time (roughly 780 C.E.) when Zen was not yet a powerful religious network evolving its way into the heart of the cultures of China, Japan, Korea and Vietnam. Captured in an earnest and quirky manner in the Lidai fabao ji (Record of the Dharma-Jewel Through the Ages), Master Wuzhu's teachings were not part of a known "brand." Some of the features of the Lidai fabao ji would show up in later, mainstream works, but it was literally lost in the sands of time, walled up in a cave-temple in an oasis town in the Gobi desert, waiting to be fortuitously rediscovered in 1900.
Chan/Zen formed itself around a contentious issue: how do you teach Buddhist practice if you reject all forms of practice as misleading? Forms of practice are misleading because they make something concrete out of something that is not even abstract. As Master Wuzhu puts it: "When there is true no-thought, no-thought itself is not." This "formless practice" immediately makes the everyday challenge of making distinctions and choices even more challenging. Or does it?
If non-dual enlightenment is neither good nor evil, is this a dangerous thing to teach? How do you encourage people to get a move on in their practice while telling them there's nowhere to go? Should you be paid for doing this? Did Wuzhu's female disciple Liaojianxing compile the Lidai fabao ji? And, finally, what kind of sound does a paddy-crab make?
In the Lidai fabao ji these issues -- antinomianism, formless practice, support of monastics, the role of women and out-of-the-box teaching -- are presented through accessible dialogues and stories. Yet they have roots in complex Buddhist philosophical scriptures and treatises. Many of Wuzhu's teachings echo a style used in the PrajñÄpÄramita (Perfection of Wisdom) literature, which often links antithetical characteristics to express what is meant by "emptiness." Thus, one line of the Heart SÅ«tra reads: "no old age and death, and also no extinction of them." This in turn generated the MÄdhaymaka (Middle Way) contemplative analysis of the codependent arising of phenomena. Through use of a neither/nor, both/and dialectic, the MÄdhaymaka practitioner becomes accustomed to seeing that things neither exist nor not-exist, both exist and not-exist.
So, when I find myself wondering whether it would have mattered to Wuzhu that we are still interested in reading about him, I suspect he would have not-cared -- and he would have cared, very much.
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Pao-t'ang Wu-chu - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Teachings Of Master Wuzhu, Zen And Religion Of No-religion by ...
Nagarjuna is positing a new and different possibility. He is not positing that things both exist and do not exist or that they neither exist and do not exist. The modifying phrase which is missing from his statements is "inherent," according to Lama Tsongkhapa, following the system of interpretation of Buddhapalita and Chandrakiriti.
Things do not arise from inherent self.
Things do not arise from inherent other.
Things do not arise from inherent both.
Things do not arise from inherent nothing.
Next question, how DO they arise then, if they do not come from an inherent something?
His answer, on the basis of 4 conditions, which are also non-inherent. Sloka 1 and 2, Mulamadhamikakarika. All things known come from a process of dependent designation. Mind must know in order to exist. Nothing is inherent. Their non-inherence is proof of their existence. Their existence is proof of their non-inherence.
I.e. Heart Sutra: "Emptiness is form, from is emptiness. Emptiness is not other than form, form is not other than emptiness." Even emptiness depends on being the "emptiness of....." emptiness, therefore, is not a ground of being, a force, a principal 'out there,' God, or anything else. It is an ontological fact: "The lack of inherent existence of all things and phenomena."
~ The Diamond Sutra
"If you fixate on forms when you see forms, and activate your mind dwelling on form, then you are a deluded person. If you are detached from forms even as you see forms, and activate mind without dwelling on forms, then you are an enlightened person.
"When you activate the mind dwelling on forms, it is like clouds covering the sky; when you activate the mind without dwelling on forms, it is like the sky without clouds, sun and moon always shining.
"Activating the mind dwelling on form is errant thought; activating the mind without dwelling on form is true wisdom. When errant thoughts arise, there is darkness; when true wisdom shines, there is light. In the light, afflictions do not occur; in the dark, objects of the six senses insistently arise."
~ Hui-neng's 'Commentary on the Diamond Sutra'
But what's to thought, what's not to thought?
To thought is to be human.
To not to thought is to be vegetable.
To thought or not to thought, what is our purpose?
How do we decide, or not decide?
To be human or vegetable?
To live for humanity or live off of it?
If you have thought, it is human.
If you have not to thought, that is not.
To live or to exist, where is the joy?
To thought or not to thought, what is the answer?
To thought or not to thought, that is the question.
--- Authored by me.
I would like to think I am a sentient, sapient being, not unlike the elephant or the mouse. I had to think or I couldn't have replied to your post. You may say I was stressed by it. But I reply because I am happy to do so. I expend energy to do it, but I had an energizing lunch and if I don't exercise my brain, I think it will atrophy. Stress can be healthy. I had to think about what I should eat, to prepare lunch. Good. Did I think of every bite I took? No. I thought of a problem. I derived solutions. I decided on a course of action. I felt good about it.
If I have no thought, I have no questions. Why then would thoughtless meditation give me answers? I can observe myself and perceive to be separate from my body; some sort of spirit thingy. A good test to determine if that is true (not a hallucination) is to instruct the body to fatally stab itself and see if the spirit thingy survives.
There's no wisdom without thought.
I also found that Adamek's writings on Wuzhu have been praised by other academics, but academics generally don't know Zen from toothpaste. I'd be curious to know what an actual Zen teacher might say about it. From what I can pick up from this essay, Wuzhu was outside the mainstream of Zen even in his own time, never mind now.
I would not say Chan was organized around the issue that all *forms* of practice are misleading. Zazen itself is a *form*, after all, and Bodhidharma is said to have sat for nine years. The more basic issue (which is echoed in philosophical Taoism) is that all conceptual thought, or anything graspable by intellect, is misleading.
"No thought" is not understood to be blankness, but to not live inside thought. As Dogen said, "think not thinking."
Further, to deny form is to deny the Two Truths, one of the basics of Madhyamika. Form is and is not; form and emptiness express each other. To deny form is to deny emptiness as well. To deny form in order to bring forth emptiness is antithetical to Madhyamika.
Not happening here.
I must say, I reach at point at which this issue seems to become profoundly circular. I am not sure the separation of thoughts which are intellectual versus thoughts which are something else stands up. Is there a distinction between consciousness and "thoughts"? How do I know that I have reached nirvana or that there is such a thing, if I am not aware of it; think it?
Athymhormia and Disorders of Motivation in Basal Ganglia Disease
Michel Habib, M.D.
http://neuro.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/full/16/4/509
Turn off the brain's limbic motivation and there are no spontaneous thoughts; true emptiness. It is apparently not our thoughts that motivate us. So how can we decide to have none?
generalized relaxation during meditation.... pure consciousness indicators... [few seconds of] generalized relaxation during meditation...subject presses button signaling pure consciousness state.
This explains many of the contradictory claims about the state itself: you are NOT aware that you are in the state. You become aware of coming out of the state and THEN press the button.
And you don't "decide" to have no thoughts. At least in TM practice, you merely set up the brain to start resting, which is perceived as the mind becoming quieter. Once a certain level of rest is obtained, repair activities are triggered, which is perceived as greater mental activity. Occasionally, the mind quiets completely, which is understood to be the greatest level of rest for the nervous system, which again triggers repair activity perceived as mental activity. At the point where the mind is completely quiet, you are still alert (as indicated by physiological measures EEG characteristic of alertness), but not aware of any THING . It is only after the mind's activity starts up again that you can push a button to signal an episode of no-thought, but you are only noticing the aftereffects of the state, not the state itself.
"What is freedom from thought? If you see all things without the mind being affected or attached, this is freedom from thought. Its function pervades everywhere, without being attached anywhere. Just purify the basic mind, having the six consciousnesses go out the six senses into the six fields of data without any defilement or mix-up, coming and going freely, comprehensively functioning without stagnation: this is prajna-samadhi, freedom and liberation. This is called the practice of freedom from thought. If you do not think at all, you will cause thoughts to be stopped entirely. This is dogmatic bondage; this is called a biased view.
"Good friends, those who realize the state of freedom from thought penetrate all things. Those who realize the state of freedom from thought see the realms of the buddhas. Those who realize the state of freedom from thought arrive at the rank of buddhahood."
~ Hui-neng, 6th Patriarch of Chan
aware atheists is a oxymoron.
some Buddhists believe in souls.]
Buddhism is a religion and like all religions has some dogma.
but Buddhism is a worthwhile study as all religions are a worthwhile study if not taken as complete truths. even the Buddha warned his followers not to take his teachings as complete truths but they like this person's quote above heard him not.
once we buy into any religion and yes materialism is a religion then the sincere seeking is over. we then become defenders of that religion and its teachings and even promote that religion and its teachings on huff post. :-)
all progress even atheists. now the evangels not so sure of. ok my idea of humor again.
all progress even some hindus that think they are going to have four arms when they cross over. met a guy once that stated he was going to have four arms when he left this world. my comment was two arms and hands have caused me enough problems dont need twice as much.
dont confuse no thought with no intelligence.
it is reverse. no thought is pure awareness and the ultimate in intelligence.
there is knowledge and there is intelligence. have you ever met a dumb materialist? that is intellectual knowledge but not intelligence.
intelligence is awareness. now materialism can be and I suspect is a path to that awareness. as first for some on their path must give up much of that religious dogma before awareness can awaken from within.
the level of awareness of reality on fox news is very low. the study of the evolution of consciousness process will reveal this to the sincere seeker.
we can see this evolution of consciousness process the very best in politics and religion.
in religion we have some pretty smart people believing some pretty interesting but illogical things.
Really? Gosh, thanks. I guess you are not aware of such a thing called "sarcasm."
You love to "hear" (read) your self prattle on, don't you.
Research on the physiological correlates of pure consciousness found during TM practice:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7045911
Breath suspension during the transcendental meditation technique.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10512549
Pure consciousness: distinct phenomenological and physiological correlates of "consciousness itself".
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9009807
Autonomic patterns during respiratory suspensions: possible markers of Transcendental Consciousness.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10487785
Autonomic and EEG patterns during eyes-closed rest and transcendental meditation (TM) practice: the basis for a neural model of TM practice.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19862565
A self-referential default brain state: patterns of coherence, power, and eLORETA sources during eyes-closed rest and Transcendental Meditation practice.
Research on the physiological correlates of the stabilization of pure consciousness outside of meditation in long-term TM meditators:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12406612
Patterns of EEG coherence, power, and contingent negative variation characterize the integration of transcendental and waking states.
http://www.tm.org/american-psychological-association
Abstract for the 2007 Conference of the American Psychological Association
Brain Integration Scale: Corroborating Language-based 
Instruments of Post-conventional Development
Research on the physiological correlates of the stabilization of pure consciousness outside of meditation in non-meditators:
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1600-0838.2009.01007.x/full
Higher psycho-physiological refinement in world-class Norwegian athletes: brain measures of performance capacity
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