What are we investigating in Chan

　　參禅參什麼？

　　Penetrate the meditation topic and reveal the sign

　　Smash the black pail and reveal the original source

　　參破話頭露端倪

　　打碎黑桶現本源

　　“Chan” is derived from the Sanskrit word dhyana. It means “stilling thought” in Chinese. To be still is to be serene. If your mind is busy and active, it is false thinking. The mind that does not move is the true mind, the proper mind. Calming your thoughts and reducing the activity and false thinking is called “stilling thought” and “thought cultivation.” Someone may say, “If thoughts are stilled until they are no more, then how can thought be cultivated

　　” Actually, you could say that this kind of thought seems to exist and yet doesn”t. It does not necessarily exist or not exist. Then what is it

　　 It refers to investigating Chan. And what are we investigating

　　 We investigate thought cultivation.

　　「禅」梵語叫禅那，中文叫靜慮，靜就是清靜，慮就是思慮；你動念多是妄念，不動就是真念、是正念。把你的思慮都靜下來，不動那麼多，沒有妄想，這叫靜慮，又叫思惟修。有人說：「靜慮連『想』都沒有了，怎麼還有『思』呢？」這個「思惟」是似有似無，並不一定有，也不一定沒有，就是什麼呢？就是參禅的「參」字，參什麼呢？就參這個思惟修。