What the "Ginseng Fruit" Reveals About "Seeing the Mind and Recognizing the Nature

 What the "Ginseng Fruit" Reveals About "Seeing the Mind and Recognizing the Nature

Nantai

 

The "Ginseng Fruit" is a famous item in *Journey to the West*. Although its power is not as great as the peaches in the Queen Mother’s garden, it leaves a deeper impression on people. So what does the Ginseng Fruit really symbolize? Let’s review how it is described.

 

First, "Ginseng Fruit" (rénshēn guǒ) sounds identical to "Human Life Fruit" (rénshēng guǒ), referring to the arising of life. Notice the character **"birth"** (shēng). All worldly phenomena are relative: where there is **birth**, there is **extinction**; this is the cycle of birth and death, the condition of ordinary beings in the mundane world. Yet this state emerges from the **non-birth and non-extinction** into the realm of birth and extinction — a descent from the sacred to the ordinary, an **outflow**.

 

This teaches the principle from the *Śūraṅgama Sūtra*:

> **The mind manifests all dharmas; not a single dharma exists apart from the mind.**

 

This is called **"Seeing the Mind" (Míngxīn)**.

 

Next, the Ginseng Fruit is also known as **"Grass Reverting Elixir"** (Cǎo Huándān).

- **"Grass"** represents all things in the world.

- **"Elixir"** is the sacred fruit attained only by successful practitioners.

 

Moving from an ordinary mortal to a sage who has realized the elixir is an inward journey, a sage who has **entered the stream**. This reveals another teaching from the *Śūraṅgama Sūtra*:

> **All dharmas are only the mind; not a single dharma exists apart from the mind.**

 

The term **"dharmas"** is equivalent to "grass" — it includes everything in the world: sun, moon, stars, wind, clouds, rain, mist, mountains, rivers, earth, trees, flowers, heavenly beings, humans, ghosts, and spirits. This is **"Recognizing the Nature" (Jiànxìng)**.

 

Taken together, the outward movement of the Ginseng Fruit and the inward return of the Grass Reverting Elixir represent Buddhism’s most profound teaching: **"Seeing the Mind and Recognizing the Nature" (Míngxīn Jiànxìng)**.

 

Note the direction:

- **Zhenyuanzi** goes outward — he sees the mind, an outflow. Though he is the ancestor of earth immortals and more spiritually powerful than Sun Wukong, he descends from the sacred to the ordinary and remains a mortal.

- **Sun Wukong** journeys inward — he recognizes the nature, an inflow, and becomes a sage entering the stream.

 

This explains why the Ginseng Fruit tree is:

> "A numinous root produced at the first division of chaos and the beginning of the cosmos, before heaven and earth separated. Among the four great continents, it grows only in the Wuzhuang Temple in Xiniu Hezhou."

 

It is Zhenyuanzi’s private treasure in his rear garden.

The character **"West"** in "Xiniu Hezhou" means the place where the sun sets, the ultimate destination — one’s **original face**. In truth, this is the **mind**.

The mind is the Buddha; to find the mind is to see the Buddha; to understand the mind is to attain Buddhahood. This is why "Seeing the Mind and Recognizing the Nature" means **becoming a Buddha**.

 

Note that "Seeing the Mind and Recognizing the Nature" has different levels:

- In the **common teaching**, it sees emptiness — not ultimate.

- In the **distinct teaching**, it sees the middle way — still not ultimate.

- Only in the **perfect teaching** of bodhisattvas does it see the full nature — the truly unconditioned and ultimate realization.