By reading Ch’an Master Han Shan’s autobiography I gained insight into the process of spiritual enlightenment within the Buddhist tradition.  It is a work which provides an excellent exemplar of the process of spiritual transformation which can be achieved within Buddhism, the Ch’an school in particular.  Through it I was able to witness the process of enlightenment in the life of one individual, and see how this spiritual gift developed over the span of his life time, and at the same time how it altered his view of the meaning of existence.  In my paper I will focus on two different experiences of Master Han Shan, the first happened in his thirtieth year and the second occurred in the thirty-third year of his life.  He calls the first one his “great awakening” [CR, 220], and after that experience he reads the Surangama Sutra in order to confirm his vision and gain insight into its meaning.  The second vision helps him to see the inter-relatedness of all things, and how true wisdom is achieved through a process of non-discrimination.

          The first vision I have chosen to write about is important because through it Han Shan achieves a new understanding of  reality, and thus sees it in a new light.  He goes for a walk as is his usual practice and suddenly enters a state of samadhi, while in this state he moves beyond his mind and body.  He no longer perceives this world; instead, he enters a different reality and sees, “a great brightness, round and full, clear and still like a huge round mirror” [CR, 219].  In this experience he is in some sense lost in the greatness around him, and he gains a clarity of vision that enables him to see the futility of this world, its transitory nature, and to recognize the greater reality of unchanging simplicity.  His poem is the key to what happens in his vision.  In it he expresses what has been revealed to him, that change within the world is illusory.  He discovers that when the mind “halts,” everything is perceived clearly and, “The rise and fall of all things are viewed without concern” [CR, 219].  Through this vision of brightness, in which “All the mountains, rivers and the great earth appeared” [CR, 219], he gains a sense of peace and tranquility.  All of his doubts concerning birth and death, which he had since the death of  his uncle, were finally removed and he recognized that they were merely creations of the mind.  The question which had trouble him from the time he was a boy of seven was at last answered.

          After his vision experience he decides to read the Surangama Sutra, in order to validate and clarify the meaning of what he saw.  Because of the vision he is able to comprehend the text by what he calls, “the power of the direct reasoning of the non-discriminating mind” [CR, 220], thus within eight months he comes to understand the text without having to make any conscious effort.  He has gained a participation in the Buddha mind, the ability to grasp the truth through direct realization [see CR, 158].  But the effects of the experience are not limited to this intuitive sense, his mind is also stilled, and so “all that previously had been tumult in the great void was now as still as when the rains have passed and all the clouds dispersed” [CR, 221].  Through his awakening he has realized the true nature of reality, in the words of the Surangama Sutra, the things of this world “when closely looked at, are but illusions seen in dreams” [CR, 221].  In his Samadhi experience he has finally achieved the stillness of mind and removal of doubt that he was searching for, and he comes to recognize that this world is the dream, while his vision is the true reality.

          The second experience is more detailed than the first, and it occurs in the thirty-third year of his life.  He explains that while in a dream he sees his body rise into the sky until it reaches into the highest realms.  He eventually sees “nothing anywhere but flat land like a crystal mirror shining throughout” [CR, 223].  There is an immense upper chamber filled with men and animals and many other things, and in the very center he sees what appears to be a Diamond Throne.  The chamber remains distant until he realizes that, “the clean and unclean are only created in the mind” [CR, 223], when he grasps this idea the chamber comes closer.  He is given the sutra and is led to Maitreya and is then told that, “Discrimination is consciousness and non-discrimination is wisdom.  Clinging to consciousness causes defilement and accord with wisdom ensures purity.  Defilement causes birth and death whereas purity leads to where there are no Buddhas” [CR, 223].  Once he is told this by Maitreya, his “body and mind suddenly become void,  . . .  [and at that moment he] thoroughly understood the difference between consciousness and wisdom” [CR, 223].

          In this vision Master Han Shan appears to have reached the realm of Totality, he realizes that non-discrimination brings wisdom.  Through non-discrimination and knowledge of the  inter-relatedness of all things he comes to understand that nothing has independent existence, but that everything which exists does so in dependence on everything else.  He understands the first of the ten causes of Totality as described in the Hwa Yen school, the fact that “all things are merely manifestations to the mind” [CR, 166].  He knows that nothing has a definite nature of its own, and that “all things are relative to one another  . . .  that is to say, they arise because of the principle of dependent arising” [CR, 166].  He has merged with the Dharma nature and has advanced beyond obstruction and discrimination, and sees the things of this reality as merely ideas which are the creation of the mind.  Ultimately Totality “is only realizable by direct experience” [CR, 167], this is what Han Shan achieves when he studies the Surangama Sutra and by “direct reasoning of the non-discriminating mind and without even the slightest use of its consciousness since there was no thinking” he completely comprehends the text after only eight months.

          In his vision he discovers that all Maya existence is a creation of the mind, and that it is empty.  What he describes is similar in content, though with less detail, to what happened to Sudhana.  Sudhana also enters into the presence of Maitreya and gains clarity of vision, “his mind was cleared of all conceptions and freed from all obstructions. Stripped of all delusion, he became clairvoyant without distortion, and could hear all sounds with unimpeded mindfulness” [CR, 170].  Han Shan also receives this gift of peace and understanding through his encounter with Maitreya, and he comes out of the darkness and gains insight into the doctrine of immutability.  He finally believes “that fundamentally all things neither come nor go” [CR, 217], and thus he has overcome his doubts.

          Both of these vision experiences express the Buddhist world view, and thus must be interpreted in that way.  For a Christian the concepts of birth, suffering and death have a different meaning.  Master Han Shan’s visions helped him to give meaning to existence as it is experienced in everyday life.  His visions are not all that different from those which occur in the various religious traditions.  The manifestation of different worlds or realms, is a common theme.  Similarly his description of the appearance of this altered state of consciousness is fairly common within the various traditions.  An example of this can be seen by looking at the revelations to Julian of Norwich, since she uses certain concepts in a similar fashion.  In the 44th chapter of her Revelations of Divine Love, she experiences the vision of God, she says, “. . . the creature seeth his God, his Lord and his Maker, how he is so high, so great and so good in comparison with him” [Julian, 121], she later states that, “Our faith is light, kindly coming from our endless Day that is our Father God.  In which light our Mother Christ and our good Lord the Holy Ghost lead us, in this passing life” [Julian, 206].  This light is God and it “. . . is the cause of our life  . . .  for we with mercy and grace, willfully know and believe our light  . . .  [and] suddenly our eye shall be opened, and in clearness of sight our light shall be full.  Which light is God, our Maker” [Julian, 206].  The common theme in her vision and that of Master Han Shan is the concept of light or brightness.  For Julian of Norwich, “. . .  the brightness and clearness of truth and wisdom  . . .  [allows one] to see and to know that he is made for love” [Julian, 121].  So the ideas expressed in vision experiences are very similar within the world’s religious traditions, but the interpretations given to them are often quite different.  This is due to the underlying philosophical systems within the different religions.

          My critique of Master Han Shan’s visions will be from a Catholic perspective.  Catholicism has a rich history of visionary saints, but that will not be the angle I will approach my task from.  Instead, I will look at the spiritual wisdom of St. John of the Cross; he lived at approximately the same time as Master Han Shan, but he looked at visions in a completely different way.  As a spiritual director he discouraged his followers from any interest in them, he saw them as a distraction from the pursuit of the unitive experience of God.  In the book two of the Ascent of Mount Carmel, St. John advises his disciples “to neither feed upon nor encumber themselves with [visions]” [St. John of the Cross, 201].  He says that even visions given by God should be ignored, because one can become enamored with them and fail to advance in their spiritual journey.  He explains that, “. . .  by refusing to pay attention to these visions, one escapes [the] effort of discernment and does what one ought” [St. John of the Cross, 212].  His reasoning in this regard is that the spiritual novice will get sidetracked from the true goal of the spiritual life, and may also misinterpret the visions and become discouraged.

          In the 17th chapter of book two, he explains his reasons for shunning visions and other spiritual phenomena, he says that, “individuals must not fix the eyes of their souls on the rind of the figure and object supernaturally accorded to the exterior senses, such as locutions and words to the sense of hearing; visions of saints and beautifully resplendent lights to the sense of sight,” he goes on to say that one must “renounce all of these things” [St. John of the Cross, 209], because attachment to them will only prevent one from experiencing the union of likeness brought about by love.  Instead, one can become obsessed with experiencing supernatural visions and suffer from a form of spiritual gluttony.  He goes so far as to say that, “. . . when there is a question of imaginative visions or other supernatural communications apprehensible by the senses and independent of one’s free will, I affirm that at whatever time or season they occur . . . individuals must have no desire to admit them even though they come from God” [St. John of the Cross, 208].  One of the principal reasons for this advice is his concern that one does not waste time trying to discern “true visions from false ones  . . .  such an effort is profitless, a waste of time, a hindrance to the soul, an occasion of many imperfections as well as of spiritual stagnancy since a person is not then employed with the more important things and is disencumbered of the trifles of particular apprehensions and knowledge” [St. John of the Cross, 209].

          I know that St. John of the Cross is not holding a unique view in this regard, and that within the Buddhist tradition itself this idea is often expressed.  The Catholic spiritual tradition and the Buddhist tradition both recognize the importance of detachment from carnal realities if one is to advance beyond a state of spiritual and meditative infancy.  The motivation for this detachment may be different, but both traditions recognize that fantastic supernatural communications can be a distraction and can even end up retarding a persons enlightenment.  St. John of the Cross is not representative of the entire Catholic tradition, many of the Fathers of the Church encouraged individuals in their visionary experiences, and of course the Church in modern times has given its approbation to various apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mother of God, including the appearances of Our Lady to St. Bernadette Soubirous at Lourdes and her appearances to the three children at Fatima.  Both of these religions are open to the idea of mystical visions and both find great importance within them.  I chose St. John of the Cross in order to highlight a problem that can occur in any religious tradition, when supernatural visions become the center of the spiritual life rather an aid to a person’s faith experience.  Visions possess an intrinsic danger because they tend to obscure the true meaning and practice of the life of faith.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

St. John of the Cross:

Kieran Kavanaugh and Otilio Rodriguez (Translators).  The Collected Works of St. John of the Cross.  (Washington, DC: ICS Publications, 1991).

Julian of Norwich:

James Walsh, S.J. (Translator).  The Revelations of Divine Love.  (Hertfordshire, England: Source Books, 1961).

Philosophy 525:  COURSE READER – The Nature of Religious Experience.

The Mystical Visions of Master Han Shan

by Steven Todd Kaster

San Francisco State University

Philosophy 525:  The Nature of Religious Experience

Dr. Ron Epstein

13 April 1999

Copyright © 1999-2025 Steven Todd Kaster