Dàhuì Zōnggăo

Dàhuì Zōnggăo (1089–1163) was the 12th generation of Chán masters in the Línjì tradition. Línjì, whose teacher was Huángbò Xīyùn. Dàhuì advocated kōan practice as the quickest way to enlightenment, but he suppressed his own teacher's collection of teaching stories (Blue Cliff Record) because it had become ostensibly used as intellectual study material. He was a vigorous critic of the Cáodòng tradition, which he termed "the heretical Chán of silent illumination."

Even though hundreds of kōans were available in his time, Dàhuì seemed to use only a few in his instruction. In this respect he was in perfect agreement with his own teacher, Yuánwù, as well as other Chán masters who insisted that it was through the thorough penetration into a few kōans or even into only one that enlightenment was to be attained. Dàhuì always carried a bamboo comb when he taught his students. He would say to them:

“If you call this a bamboo comb, you are wrong. If you don’t call this a bamboo comb, you are wrong also. Don’t say anything, but also don’t remain silent. You must not think, you must not guess. You are not allowed to get up and leave the room. Nothing you do is appropriate. If you want to grab the bamboo comb, go ahead, grab it. I will then use my fist and demand you to make a statement. If you want me to put down my fist, that is all right too. But then I ask you to make a statement about the whole world. Now, can you also take that away? Once a monk compared me to an official who asked for more things after he had confiscated someone’s entire property. I like this comparison very much. Indeed I want you to hand over everything. When you have nowhere to go, you will simply have to die. Throwing yourself into the river or jumping into fire, you will die when you are ready to die. Only after you have truly died will you gradually come to life again.”

The bamboo comb, like the stick used by Deshan, is a visual haut’ou which serves to cut off conceptual thinking and verbal definition. It stops all mental activities from evolution and development. It reveals the original Mind of non-discrimination and non-duality.