Only the Drinker Knows If the Water Is Warm or Cold

The Sixth Patriarch, Master Huineng, received the robe and bowl along with the mind seal from the Fifth Patriarch at Huangmei, and immediately set off into the distant hills. But word leaked out, and a Chan practitioner named Huiming set out in pursuit. When he caught up, Huiming said he had not come for the robe and bowl, but to seek the Dharma, and earnestly asked Huineng to guide him. Huineng replied: "Since you have come seeking the Dharma, I hope you will first let go of all external attachments and cut off all thinking. Only then will I teach you."

After a moment, Huineng continued: "Don't think of good, don't think of evil. Right at this moment — what is your original face?"

At these words, Huiming awakened at once. He then asked Huineng to tell him more of the secret meaning. Huineng said: "What I can put into words for you isn't the secret meaning. If you can turn the light inward and reflect on your own mind, you'll find the secret meaning already there."

Deeply moved, Huiming said: "I spent years under Master Hongren and never knew my own original face. Thanks to your guidance, I now see that attaining the Way is just like drinking water — 'only the drinker knows whether it is warm or cold.' At last I understand myself."

Huiming awoke under the Sixth Patriarch's teaching, but without those years under Hongren, this awakening might never have come. A tree has its roots, water has its source; the present moment, it turns out, is shaped by all the time that came before. This is what is meant by the ripening of conditions.