by Tang Huyen
Tang Huyen was a scholar of Buddhist studies with deep command of Pali, Sanskrit, Chinese, and Tibetan sources. Posting under the name "Laughing Buddha, Inc." to talk.religion.buddhism and related groups from 2003 to 2008, he was among the most rigorous analytical voices in the English-language Buddhist Usenet world — unusual in his willingness to work directly from critical editions and to hold popular teachers and translations to precise standards.
This essay, posted in October 2005, arose from a question about the apparent contradiction between Buddhist mindfulness (sati) and Chan/Daoist no-mind (wu-nian) — how can one simultaneously attend closely to experience and transcend thought entirely? Tang Huyen's answer is precise: the two are not contradictory but sequential. Mindfulness is the alertness required to prevent the mind from drifting into mentation; non-mentation is what mindfulness makes possible. The essay traces this argument through the Pali canon, the Chinese Agamas, and the Dao De Jing, demonstrating that the same insight appears across the Buddhist and Daoist traditions under different vocabulary.
The canonical sources are exact: DN I.184 (9) on the conscious entry into cessation, the Chinese Madhyama-Agama 162 on transcending thought, AN IV.58-59 on transcending gender through non-mentation, and Dao De Jing chapters 19, 20, and 48 on the Daoist anti-knowledge current. His conclusion — that mindfulness and mindlessness are not opposites but partners, with mindfulness as the vigilance that makes the empty, uncluttered mind possible — resolves a debate that has confused practitioners and commentators across traditions.
Mindfulness and awareness are English translations of smṛti in Sanskrit and sati in Pali. The Indic word usually means memory, but in Buddhism it means paying attention to what one is experiencing, whether one is doing something actively or merely experiencing something passively. And paying attention to something, like what one is experiencing, presupposes that one is reasonably gathered in, recollected, and not scattered. So there are three elements to Buddhist mindfulness: one is reasonably gathered in, recollected, and not scattered; one uses one's recollectedness to pay attention to something; and that something is what one is experiencing, whether one is doing something actively (like breathing, walking) or merely experiencing something passively (like feeling one's feeling).
The Chinese translation for mindfulness or awareness is nian, which normally means to think. Thus the four stations of mindfulness (the four classes of objects for mindfulness, body, feeling, thought, objects-of-mind) are in Chinese the four places of thinking (si nian-chu).
Buddhism from the Buddha on down distinguishes between delusion and awakening, mentation and non-mentation. In mentation or thought, it distinguishes between the smaller and simpler chunks that are bagged (ideas, notions, concepts) and the bigger and more complex conglomerations that involve some desire to do something (the compositions or volitions). If you see a table, that is a notion or idea or concept — of course, you see an instance of the concept, a particular of the universal — and if you want to lift the table and move it somewhere else, that is a composition or volition.
Raw sensation is whole and fully differentiated, but it is not cut up into chunks. It takes thought or mentation to cut it into chunks and give names to the chunks (chunking and bagging). The empirical units of our daily life (tables, chairs, people, cats, dogs) are products of thought operating on raw sensation, but do not exist in raw sensation.
The awakened state merely cognises what happens in the raw, but does not start an intellective stream to cut it up, chunk it, bag it and act on it. That is non-mentation (wu-nian). The instant thought arises (qi-nian, qi-xin dong-nian), it distinguishes (fen-bie) and selects some things it likes and rejects things it dislikes. That is delusion.
Now you are familiar with wu-wei "non-doing." Buddhism has the exact equivalent in an-abhisamskara "not doing," which is based on the stem kr- "to do, to make" from which the famous karman "deed, act" (ye) comes. The Buddha calls Nirvana "not doing" (an-abhisamskara) and "not willing" (an-abhisamcetayita). The compositions (samskara, based on the same stem) or volitions (cetana) are quiesced, put into abeyance during awakening (of course the notions, ideas, concepts have been quiesced too, and mentation as a whole has ceased). He defines Nirvana as the complete calming of the compositions (sabba-sankhara-samatho), which literally can be understood as the complete calming of all doing.
The Chinese translation for an-abhisamskara "not doing" is standardly wu-wei, but also bu-zuo "not doing," wu-xing "not doing" — all exact translations. This is clear, but non-mentation is standardly wu-nian "not thinking." This is confusing, for mindfulness is translated as nian.
Xin "mind, thought, heart" can also be a verb, and wu-xin in Chinese Buddhism and Chan is a verbal binome and means "not working one's mind over something," therefore a synonym of wu-nian "non-mentation, not thinking." In Buddhism, when one's mind is at rest and not doing anything (whilst one is fully aware of what happens), that is awakening (jue).
The Buddha tells the layman Potthapada about the "conscious entry into the gradually obtained complete cessation of notion" (abhisañña-nirodha, where the emphatic prefix abhi- qualifies nirodha). The monk enters the four form meditations, then the first three formless places, and in each of the latter he ceases the notion of the previous stage. In the third formless place, which the Buddha calls the "summit of notions" (saññagga), he thinks: "To mentate at all is bad (cetayamanassa me papiyo), it would be better not to mentate (acetayamayum), but other gross ones would arise (añña ca olarika sañña uppajjeyyum). So I will not mentate and compose (na ceteyyam na abhisamkhareyyan)." So he no longer mentates and composes (so na ceva ceteti na abhisamkharoti), and to him no longer mentating and composing (tassa acetayato na abhisamkharoto), the notions cease (ta ceva sañña nirujjhanti), and other gross ones do not arise (añña ca olarika sañña na uppajjanti). So he touches cessation (so nirodham phusati). This is how the "conscious entry into the gradually obtained complete cessation of notion" (anupubbabhisañña-nirodha-sampajana-samapatti) comes about. DN, I, 184 (9), Chinese Dirgha-Agama, 28, 110b.
In the Scripture on the Analysis of the Six Modalities, at the fourth form meditation, after concentrating on equanimity, the meditator can reflect: "If I move this equanimity, purified thus, into the place of infinite space [and so on for each of the other three formless attainments] and should develop my thought in accordance with it, leaning on it, supported by it, standing on it, taking it as object, attached to it, this equanimity, purified thus, leaning on the place of infinite space, is therefore composed (sankhatam etam). What is composed is impermanent, what is impermanent is suffering; if it is suffering, I know suffering; after knowing suffering, from the equanimity I do not move into the place of infinite space [and so on for each of the other three formless attainments]." If the monk with regard to the four places contemplates them with wisdom as they are, he does not accomplish them, does not move into them. He therefore neither composes nor wills out/mentates (neva abhisankharoti nabhisañcetayati) for becoming (bhava) or un-becoming (vi-bhava). "[I] am" (asmiti) is a thought (maññita, Skt. manyita), "I am this" (ayam aham asmiti) is a thought, "I will be" is a thought, "I will neither be nor not be" is a thought, "I will be with form" is a thought, "I will be without form" is a thought, "I will be with notion" is a thought, "I will be without notion" is a thought, "I will be neither with notion nor without notion" is a thought; the monk thinks: "If there is none of these thoughts, agitations, etc., the mind is quiesced." The Pali says: "when he is gone beyond all thoughts, the sage is said to be at peace" (sabba-maññitanam tveva samatikkama muni santo ti vuccati). Chinese Madhyama-Agama, 162, 692a, MN, III, 246 (140).
At AN, IV, 58–59 (7, 48) the Buddha speaks of the woman who has transcended her womanhood (itthi itthattam ativattati) and the man who has transcended his manhood (pusiso purisattam ativattati), in both cases by not thinking it (na manasi-karoti), not attaching to it and not delighting in it (na rajjati nabhiramati).
Manaskara (where manas is mind and kara is from the stem kr-, as above) means "working one's mind over something," and is standardly translated zuo-yi "to work the mind" (zuo here is the same as in bu-zuo "not doing," which translates an-abhisamskara). Thus the absence of mental work (bu-zuo, wu-xing, wu-nian, wu-wei) denotes awakening. Only raw sensation and consciousness of raw sensation proceed then.
However in order to keep mind from working up an intellective stream, one has to exercise very high alertness, otherwise one easily drifts away in thought, memories, expectations, daydreams — and that alertness is mindfulness. So in order to be in mindlessness (wu-xin) or thoughtlessness (wu-nian) one uses mindfulness: in less esoteric terms, one pays rapt attention, in full devotion, to what happens, from moment to moment, so that one is not diverted to the past with memories and the future with expectations.
In Chinese only, there is the curious fact that in order to have no thought (wu-nian) one uses nian (which standardly means thought, but in Buddhism it means mindfulness). Another curiosity is the famous expression nian-nian jie-tuo "one is liberated from thought to thought." Here nian translates Sanskrit ksana "instant," which is the time atom, discrete from other time atoms. It means "one is liberated from instant to instant," and one is liberated from instant to instant because one does not give rise to thought (bu qi-nian) in any instant. By not giving rise to thought, one leaves one's mind empty and uncluttered, and one's mind is liberated because it is not bound to anything, though what happens still is cognised in it, and cognised all the more vividly as there is no thought to cloud it up. Mind (xin) does not stop at anything, does not stand in anything, does not attach to anything. It is highly alert to what happens, but simply does not settle down to anything. It does not even chunk and bag (chunking and bagging is the prelude to settling down).
On the side of Daoism, many famous sayings of the Old Man are quite apposite. "Doing away with learning, one does not worry" (chapter 20). "When one studies, one's learning benefits daily; but when one practices the Way, one damages [learning and knowledge] daily, and after damaging [them], one damages [them] some more, until one gets to not-doing" (chapter 48). "Eradicate saintliness, forsake knowing" (chapter 19). The anti-knowledge, anti-intellect trend of the Old Man cannot but end up with an empty, uncluttered mind, vast like the sky. No-mind (wu-xin) and no-thought (wu-nian) are practically there, all but in letter. The damaging (sun) can be understood idiomatically in English as dropping: one drops everything to attain to non-doing, one drops everything to walk free, without baggage.
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Written by Tang Huyen (Laughing Buddha, Inc.) and posted to talk.religion.buddhism, alt.zen, and alt.religion.buddhism.tibetan, October 2005. The post arose from a discussion about the relationship between Buddhist mindfulness and Chan/Daoist no-mind, but stands as a self-contained comparative essay tracing non-mentation across the Buddhist and Daoist traditions. Primary canonical sources: DN I.184 (9), Chinese Dirgha-Agama 28, 110b; Chinese Madhyama-Agama 162, 692a, MN III.246 (140); AN IV.58-59 (7, 48); Dao De Jing chapters 19, 20, 48. Original Message-ID: [email protected].
Preserved from the Usenet archive for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.
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