Editing Linji Yixuan (section)

=== Nothing to do ===
In addition to faith, Linji also emphasized non-seeking and ''wú shì'' ({{lang|zh|無事}}), a term often translated as "nothing-to-do," but which also has the meaning of no affairs, no concerns, no matters, and no business.<ref>{{cite journal |first= Daisetz T. |last=Suzuki |title=Rinzai on Zen |page=15, note 7 |journal=Chicago Review |volume=12 |issue=2 |date=Summer 1958 |doi=10.2307/25293449}}</ref> He says:

{{blockquote|Followers of the Way, as I look at it, we're no different from [[The Buddha|Shakyamuni]]. In all our various activities each day, is there anything we lack? The wonderful light of the six faculties has never for a moment ceased to shine. If you could just look at it this way, then you'd be the kind of person who has nothing to do for the rest of his life.{{sfnp|Watson|1999|p=24}}}}

Accordingly, Linji taught that there was no need to make any special effort. Instead, we have simply to be ordinary: "Followers of the Way, as to buddhadharma, no effort is necessary. You have only to be ordinary, with nothing to do—defecating, urinating, wearing clothes, eating food, and lying down when tired."{{sfn|Sasaki|2009|pp=11}}As Jinhua Jia points out, this recognition of the fundamental value of the human being echoes the teachings of [[Mazu Daoyi]], for whom everyday ordinary activities were the function of buddha-nature.<ref>Jinhua Jia, The Hongzhou School of Chan Buddhism in Eighth- through Tenth-Century China, page 76, State University of New York Press, 2006</ref>

Linji further connects non-doing with [[Turning the light around|"turning one's light around"]] ({{zh|labels=no|p=fǎn zhào|c=返照}}), a term that occurs throughout various Chan texts, such as [[Guifeng Zongmi|Zongmi's]] ''Sub-commentary to the [[Sutra of Perfect Enlightenment]]'' (where it refers to recognizing one's [[original enlightenment]]).{{sfn|Sasaki|2009|pp=28, 174-175}} According to Linji, when we stop our seeking and turn our own light in upon ourselves, we will on that very instant have nothing to do.{{sfn|Sasaki|2009|p=28}}{{refn|group=note|Compare with the ''[[Xinxin Ming]]'':<br /><br />"In self-illumination, vast and clear,<br />The mind’s power exerts itself no more."<ref>Three Chan Classics, page 126, Bukkyo Dendo Kyokai and Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research, 1999</ref>}}

However, "turning one's light around" does not necessarily imply anything like staring at the mind or concentrating within. Linji quotes [[Shenhui|Shenhui's]] well-known criticism of such things as arresting the mind, staring at silence, summoning the mind to focus it on externals, controlling the mind to make it clear within, and concentrating the mind to enter into meditation.{{sfnp|Watson|1999|p=43}} Moreover, Linji says that looking for something within is just as wrong as seeking externally, since there's nothing within that can be grasped: "Outside the mind there is no Dharma, and even inside the mind it can't be grasped. So what is there to seek for?"{{sfnp|Watson|1999|p=43}}{{refn|group=note|Compare with the following, attributed to Baozhi:<br /><br />"Inward looking, outward looking, all are bad"<ref>{{cite book |author=Shi Daoyuan {{lang|zh-Hant|釋道原}} |title=Records of the Transmission of the Lamp |title-link=Records of the Transmission of the Lamp |volume=8: Chan Poetry and Inscriptions |translator-first=Randolph S. |translator-last=Whitfield |date=2020 |orig-year=1004-1007|isbn=9783751939737 |publisher= Books on Demand GmbH |location=Germany |page=27}}</ref>}}