Editing Linji Yixuan (section)

=== Iconoclasm ===
The ''Linju lu'' presents Linji as an iconoclastic teacher who used shocking language in vernacular Chinese to disrupt the tendency of his listeners to grasp at concepts such as [[Buddhahood|buddhas]], patriarchs, [[Bodhisattva|bodhisattvas]], [[Bhūmi (Buddhism)|stages of practice]] and levels of attainment.{{sfnp|Watson|1999|p=26}} He famously said, "If you meet a buddha, kill the buddha."{{sfnp|Watson|1999|p=52}} While Linji's language may sound extreme, it reflects an attitude which considers grasping at buddhas, [[Enlightenment in Buddhism|bodhi]], [[Nirvana (Buddhism)|nirvana]], [[Dharma]], and other such related Buddhist concepts, as a kind of delusion. As Burton Watson observes:

{{Blockquote|The message of Lin-chi's sermons, reiterated with almost wearisome persistence, is that his followers are allowing all this talk of goals and striving, of buddhas and patriarchs, to cloud their outlook and to block the path of understanding. All such words and concepts are external and extraneous postulations, attachment to which is just as much a delusion and impediment as attachment to any crasser objective, such as sensual gratification or material gain. Again and again he exhorts them to put aside all such external concerns and to turn their gaze within, where the [[Buddha-nature]] inherent in all beings is to be found.<ref>{{harvp| Watson|1999| pp= xxi-xxii}}</ref>}}

Such sentiments can already be seen in earlier Chan sources. For example, [[Shenhui]] points out that while lust for wealth and sex is "gross falsity," activating one's intention to grasp bodhi, nirvana, [[Śūnyatā|emptiness]], purity, and concentration is "subtle falsity."<ref>McRae, John R., Robson, James, Sharf, Robert H., Vries, Fedde de and Buswell, Robert E.. Zen Evangelist: Shenhui, Sudden Enlightenment, and the Southern School of Chan Buddhism, page 54, Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2023</ref> Likewise, [[Huangbo Xiyun|Huangbo]] said that to conceive of a buddha is to be obstructed by that buddha, while the ''[[Bodhidharma#Attributed works|Bloodstream Sermon]]'' criticized the worshipping of buddhas as holding onto appearances.<ref>The Zen Teaching of Huang-po on the Transmission of Mind, translated by John Blofeld, page 71, Grove Press, Inc. New York, 1958</ref><ref>Pine, Red. The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma, p. 25. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Nov 1, 2009.</ref>