The Five Levels of Mind

The five classifications of mind as set forth by Dongshan Liangjie (807-869) one of the root teachers attributed with the founding of the Caodong House of Chan (Soto school in Japanese Zen). The study uses as its base the relative bifurcation of opposites know in the common consciousness of the delude masses. The opposites are: the absolute / the relative; the fundamental / the phenomenal; form / emtiness; one / many; etc. Below I have mapped these five classifications on the Compass neumonic that Zen Master Seung Sahn would often use.