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Huangbo said, “You’re all gobblers of brewers dregs. 
If you run around like this, where will you meet today? 
Haven’t you figured out that in the whole country there is not a single Chan teacher?”
Someone stepped forward and asked, “But what about all those places where people are guiding students and leading gatherings?”
Huangbo said, “I didn’t say no Chan, only no Chan teachers.” 

Huangbo originated this expression, “Gobblers of brewer’s dregs” which became a popular saying used to refer to people whose meditation practice involved imitating what they read in texts and what they heard from teachers, but never making it their own, never integrating it into their lives. The literal meaning is that you eat leftovers from making rice wine and then think that you have had a taste of the real thing.

Huangbo’s warning about running around like this, going on pilgrimage, seeking wisdom, was something that he had learned from his own experience. Like most young monks, following his ordination Huangbo went looking for a teacher. Finding the right teacher didn’t come easy, but he learned as he went. Eventually he met a laywoman who suggested the person he was looking for was Mazu. Mazu was living a thousand kilometers to the southeast. By the time Huangbo got there, Mazu had died. Although Mazu was gone, his dharma heir Baizhang was a mere two days’ walk away. In their first meeting:

Baizhang said to Huangbo, “Magnificent, imposing, where have you come from?”
Huangbo replied, “Magnificent, imposing, from the mountains.”
Baizhang asked, “Magnificent, imposing, why have you come?”
Huangbo replied, “Magnificent, imposing, not for anything else.”

It is said that Huangbo was 7 feet tall, but I don’t think that’s what Baizhang was referring to when he said, “Magnificent, imposing.” When Huangbo replied, “Magnificent, imposing” I think he was talking about everything. Everything is magnificent and imposing if we get out of the way of our thinking. Especially the thinking that says that we lack something and we need to get it from someplace outside of ourselves. Huangbo wasn’t looking for anything at that moment, not wisdom, not a teacher, “not for anything else” other than that moment.

Deshan was an expert on texts, which he pulled behind him in a cart. Upon his realization he said it wasn’t about texts, “I will never doubt any more what the old master has said to me.” He was not talking about Lungtan, the old teacher who blew out his candle, allowing him to see the light in the dark. He was talking about the “old master” who is reading these words right now.

—David Weinstein

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David Weinstein Roshi, Director of Rockridge Meditation Community