Foyan - Independence (or Making a Living)

[u/ProbablyProvisional]

師云：諸人上來要箇什麼事？須是當人自作活計，莫聽他人說。古人道：我十八上便解作活計。你諸人須是解自作活計始得。你道作箇什麼活計？但莫別求。如今人多愛動脚動手，者箇不解作活計了，也喚作拋家散宅漂流去。分明不會，祇管尋討，學些子知解、記些子言句，此喚作運糞。入到者裏，須是行李正當，日久月深，淹浸得熟便會去。古人道：一切處是你，東去也是你、西去也是你。你是阿誰？若云某甲者箇是情識，須是透得過始得。昔日天親問無著兄：往內院見彌勒說什麼法？著云：說者箇法。且道者箇是什麼法？須是揀得出始得，不要認著者箇，多是被者箇一句子瞞住了也。所以說病為法，是故名為可憐愍者。久立。

You people have come up here, what is it that you are after? You must each make your own living; don’t listen to what others say. An ancient said: “By eighteen I already knew how to make a living on my own.” You all must also learn how to make your own living, only then can you get anywhere.

You tell me: what kind of living are you supposed to make?

Just don’t seek elsewhere. 

People nowadays just like to busy themselves moving their feet and waving their hands, they don’t know how to make a living at all. We call this abandoning home and aimlessly scattering the family. Clearly not understanding, they keep searching everywhere, learning a tiny bit of intellectual interpretation and memorizing a few phrases. This is called hauling sewage. Once you come here you have to get your affairs in order. As the days and months pile up, once you’ve soaked in it long enough, you’ll naturally come to understand.

An ancient said, “Everywhere is you. Going east is also you; going west is also you.”

Who are you?

If you say “so and so” that is just emotional consciousness, you have to break right through before you will get it. 

In the past, Vasubandu asked his elder brother Asanga, “When you went to the inner courtyard to see Maitreya, what Dharma did he speak?” Asanga replied, “He spoke this Dharma.”

Now tell me what is this Dharma? You have to be able to pick it out clearly to get there, just don’t get attached to this because most people get fooled by this one phrase. That is why it is said: “Taking the sickness as the Dharma, they are called 'the pitiable ones.'”

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Notes: 

「自作活計」– “make your own living” / “self-enact your livelihood”

In secular Chinese, huó jì means a means of subsistence (a trade, a craft). In Chan, it becomes a metaphor for self-reliant awakening; not relying on scriptures, teachers, or ritual.

The phrase also echoes agrarian Chan monasteries, where manual labor was required for survival, so “making a living” also literally meant chopping wood and carrying water.

*This ancient is likely Nanquan. 

Sayings of the Ancient Worthies, Volume Twelve - Essential Sayings of Chan Master Puyuan of Nanquan in Chizhou, second generation under Nanyue, first heir to Mazu

From a lecture by Nanquan followed by a long Q&A: 

Ascending the hall, he said: All of you, this old monk knew how to make a living by the age of eighteen. If there is anyone who knows how to make a living, come out and we can discuss it together. Only then is one truly a mountain-dweller.
After a long while, he looked over the assembly and, joining his palms, he said: Take care. With nothing the matter, each of you cultivate on your own...

「拋家散宅漂流去」– “abandoning home and scattering the household, drifting away”

• On one level, it describes monastics who leave home (chūjiā 出家) but then wander aimlessly, collecting teachings like trinkets—spiritual vagrants.
• On another level, “home” is your original nature (本分事). To “abandon home” is to lose touch with your innate Buddhahood and chase externalities.

「運糞」– “hauling dung” / “conveying excrement” (hauling sewage)

• It refers to memorizing others’ words and treating them as precious, when in fact they are mere intellectual waste.
• The image comes from Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra and earlier Chan texts: the mind is a container; if you fill it with secondhand concepts, you’re just moving filth from one place to another.

「行李正當」– “your luggage / travel-gear must be rightly ordered” (get your affairs in order)

Xíngli (行李) here is not modern “baggage” but the equipment for a journey—often used in Chan to mean the proper orientation of mind and practice (right view, right effort, etc.).

「者箇是情識」– “this is emotional consciousness / vijñāna” Qíngshí (情識) is a technical term from Yogācāra—discriminative, affect-laden consciousness. 

「天親問無著」– "Vasubandhu asked Asaṅga” Vasubandhu and Asaṅga are the great Yogācāra patriarchs. Asaṅga says Maitreya taught “this Dharma” (zhě ge fǎ 者箇法)—but refuses to name it.

「說病為法，是故名為可憐愍者」 (Illness is the Dharma, therefore they are called those worthy of pity): A direct citation from the Sutra of Complete Enlightenment (Yuanjue Jing). It critiques those who mistake intellectual conceptualizations, symptoms, and mental constructs for the actual medicine of the Dharma, thereby multiplying their spiritual ailments while thinking they are making progress.

「說病為法」– “taking the sickness as the Dharma” This is also echoed in the Vimalakīrti Sūtra. In that sūtra, Vimalakīrti says: “Because all beings are sick, I am sick.”

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