There Is No Second Path Back to the Source

The Linji school is known for its sharp, uncompromising style. As the Record of All Dharmas Returning to the Mind puts it:

Its uncontrived methods strike with the force of a collapsing mountain, its responsiveness flashes faster than lightning. Bare-handed it slays, its fierce blows hound the very breath of ignorance. Blows and shouts fly back and forth; illumination and function move as one. Host and guest stand clearly apart; person and environment are seized and let go in turn. Yet all the distinct names and forms never depart from this one supreme principle.

Every exchange of blows and shouts has its reason. Each is aimed at keeping every name and form from straying from that one supreme principle. All of them arise from the wisdom of the ancestral masters and their compassion for living beings — something we see especially clearly in the teachings of Master Cunjiang.

From this, we also come to understand why the Buddha taught 84,000 skillful methods. These provisional teachings were tailored to the different afflictions and capacities of living beings; it doesn't mean the Dharma itself takes different forms.

In truth, all dharmas ultimately return to a single source: this very mind of the present moment — clear and lucid, unmoving, endlessly aware.

In practice, we should keep returning to the fundamental meaning of the Dharma. Otherwise, we risk mistaking provisional teachings for ultimate truth, giving rise to attachment, discrimination, and confusion — and falling into wrong views instead.

Only by continually returning to the true meaning of the Dharma and to the mind of this present moment can we truly see that all methods are, in the end, just skillful means. Only then can we settle into the mind of the Great Vehicle and freely open the gates of expedient teaching.

Note 1: This is one of the four shouts characteristic of the Linji school. Master Linji Yixuan once said: "Sometimes a shout is like the sword of the diamond king, sometimes a shout is like a golden-maned lion crouched on the ground, sometimes a shout is like a probe cast to test the shadows, and sometimes a shout is not used as a shout at all."