Seek Without Being Attached to Buddha, Dharma, Sangha
Leland Shields – September 15, 2026
When Huangbo went to the buddha hall and made prostrations to the Buddha, [Xuan] the [novice] secretary joined him and said, “Seek without being attached to the buddha. Seek without being attached to the dharma. Seek without being attached to the sangha. Elder, why are you making prostrations?”
In response, Huangbo slapped the novice secretary and said, “Seek without being attached to the buddha. Seek without being attached to the dharma. Seek without being attached to the sangha. Therefore, we make prostrations like this.” Then Huangbo slapped him again.
Xuan said, “That’s pretty rough.”
Huangbo said, “What is right here? How can you say it’s rough?” and gave him another slap.
Xuan was silent.
Dogen, translation Tanahashi, Treasure of the True Dharma Eye, (PDF p. 424)
Before we settle into the koan, some context might help. Huangbo and Xuan were not living in ordinary times for Buddhism in China; this story occurred during the reign of emperor Wu, who prohibited the teaching of Buddhism. And Xuan was not an everyday novice; he was the uncle of emperor Wu, who had Xuan beaten unconscious and soaked with urine for something innocent Xuan did when he was 13 years old, and long before Wu took the throne. After the beating, Xuan left the imperial city, disguised himself, shaved his head, took partial precepts, and studied with Xiangyan. After the death of Wu, Xuan took the throne and some said he did zazen night and day as emperor.
(Note: A qualification about the names I’ve used in this story: I’ve taken parts of the story from different sources, and I didn’t confirm that the names as I’ve used them are all from a single convention for their translation to English. )
Back to Huangbo and Xuan: Secretary Xuan asked a question that any of us might ask during the bows that follow the Four Infinite Vows. We’d ask, if like Xuan, our sincere desire for the dharma emboldened us enough to expose our ignorance. We’ve been advised to slay any Buddha we meet and yet we bow to the altar and to each other – why? Yet, Huangbo first replied to Xuan’s question with a slap. Don’t take this as a reprimand, the slap, too, is an immediate and affirmative response to the question. Even if the slap says something else to you in 21st century United States, what was it that Huangbo expressed?
Huangbo gives the moon with each gesture and bow, in word and slap. It would be easy to miss it, and to see a bow as offering a finger pointing to the moon instead. In this language, by pointing to it, the moon becomes a distant object outside of ourselves that we think would be lovely to find. But it’s all much more accessible than we can imagine. Celestial bodies and our ancestors are no different than the soft cushion and hard floor calling us. It’s all here, immediate and available.
Generously, Huangbo continued; we seek without being attached to Buddha, dharma, and sangha, and so we bow. Notice he didn’t deny seeking, but said we seek without being attached. That’s tricky – it leaves us seeking without goal, and better yet without an object for which we seek. The bow, like the slap, is without object or goal, hands together, bending at the waist, we lower our heads and come down to our knees. Together we call these motions a bow, or a prostration, but let’s not rush. We stand with our hands palm to palm. The ring of the bell fills the room. We bend at the waist. Knees touch the floor. Forehead to the floor with hands rising next to ears, palms up; just this.
No need to complicate bowing with wild ideas. Your body will handle it fluidly just fine.
Then Huangbo slapped Xuan again – was that excessive? Xuan seemed to find it so. Huangbo clarified his intent – Here, here! Whether that was excessive for the individual Xuan in ninth-century Chinese culture, I can’t say. Either way, you and I must find our own way to disperse the mists and point directly to the breath we borrow now to fill our lungs. Just as we must find our own response to the sound of the bell for prostrations to Kwan Yin while facing the altar that is always before us.
In a translation of this part of the story by John Blofeld, Xuan asked:
“If we are to seek nothing from the Buddha, Dharma or Saṇgha, what does Your Reverence seek by such prostrations?”
“Though I seek not from the Buddha,” replied our Master, “or from the dharma, or from the saṇgha, it is my custom to show respect in this way.”
“But what purpose does it serve?” insisted [Xuan], whereupon he suddenly received a slap. “Oh,” he exclaimed. “How uncouth you are!’
“What is this?’ cried the Master. “Imagine making a distinction between refined and uncouth!” So saying, he administered another slap, causing [Xuan] to betake himself elsewhere!
Yun, Huang Po His. The Zen Teachings of Huang Po: On The Transmission Of Mind (pp. 95-96). Hauraki Publishing. Kindle Edition.
Seeking with or without attachment as in the first translation, and not seeking while still bowing in this translation, there is no paradox, no inconsistency. It is the use of mind that is no use of mind, all words blundering to express a state. When bowing, no words are necessary to join seamlessly with Avalokiteshvara, with you, and you, in this room. When we relinquish mu, there is no one relinquishing, there is only mu, and there is not even mu.
Attachment – or clinging – is not bad or wrong. It is more comfortable when not clinging to the object of clinging, and when not clinging to not clinging. Clinging to the object to which we are clinging is to be trapped in the need to accomplish something, with focus on a result that we hope actions will accomplish; I act to achieve an outcome. Releasing the object of clinging without passivity is to be the pear tree in our garden, swaying as the free expression of branches in this wind. Tree is tree, wind is wind, and clinging is irrelevant. Yet there is a word, “clinging,” that can have its place, just as “ouch” has it’s place and time.
Clinging to non-clinging is the non-acceptance of the inability to release the desire for something we don’t have and can’t get or accomplish. Free mind is acceptance of whatever is here, including acceptance of the desire for, or the aversion to what is here.
Last month I was on a playground full of brilliant play equipment that I would have died to have as a child. If you haven’t been on a playground lately, I suggest finding a child to take as an excuse, and so you don’t get mistaken for a creep. Rope domes for climbing, all shapes of spinning devices to sit and stand on, slides high and low, twisting to the ground. My two-year old and four-year old grandsons were in tears when having to take turns on one device. We were the only three people in the whole playground! It’s easy as an adult to be on the outside, and believe all this misery could be avoided with just 30 seconds of patience, or finding another toy.
Tell me that you can hear this and say such inflexibility is foreign to you. We’re not so different. Though kids also show us open awe at the things we take as blasé, we may have learned to share some of the time. But we can rage about things important to us, and we can tell you why we should rage and it’s the right thing to do. What is non-attachment when we very much do care?
Huangbo did prostrations to Buddha, dharma, and sangha.
We’re told that Huangbo had a lump on his forehead that looked like a white pearl from doing prostrations day and night. Once this talk is done, we’ll all have a chance to do prostrations – will you be seeking something, or attached to something? If not, what will you do?
When my father died after a painful illness, I was warned that the eulogy I wrote was not fitting to the occasion. I gave it anyway and received unexpected praise. When my mother died, I was warned that for different reasons, the eulogy I wrote was not fitting to the occasion. I gave it anyway and received polite and tepid feedback. Both times I cared deeply about releasing myself to sway in the winds of feelings of loss, memories of family, and the room of caring people listening. In the years since both of those deaths and eulogies, I’m grateful for the visceral sense of ease I happened to have at those times, so my bones know what that’s like. Of course, I preferred the appreciation of the first and was disappointed by what was unsaid in the polite response of the second. Whether what I delivered in each was lacking or not, the words were spoken. I was not more or less for having spoken either time.
I don’t always respond to praise and criticism gracefully, but in the example of these two eulogies I could not help but bow in gratitude to our ancestors. Thus, I am here today without purpose.
I tell you this story not because I think I’m special for any of this, or that there is anything profound or esoteric about it. My hope is that you’ll recognize your own story here. Doing so you can recognize how you are Huangbo, bowing to Buddha, dharma, and sangha, though there is no purpose to it which words can describe.
Don’t try and figure it out, it’s already in your bones. If all is Buddha, what does it mean to be attached to Buddha? We wouldn’t say that ocean is attached to ocean, the word “attachment” here would be redundant. Why not say, “ocean,” and be done with it? Or, you could just surf.
And yet we bow to the floor.
Give yourself to each bow, to each breath, like clouds give all to rain, like rain gives all to rivers and grasses, like rivers give all to fish and grass gives all to grazing animals, and like fish and animals give themselves back to the earth. Any talk of purpose is added after the fact, like painting a smile on a face.
I’ll finish with another passage from Huangbo. I used a different translation of it in yesterday’s talk and it’s relevant here:
To say that Mind is no-mind implies something existent. Let there be a silent understanding and no more. Away with all thinking and explaining. Then we may say that the Way of Words has been cut off and movements of the mind eliminated.
Yun, Huang Po His. The Zen Teachings of Huang Po: On The Transmission Of Mind (pp. 34-35). Hauraki Publishing. Kindle Edition.