Hua Tou (simplified Chinese: 话头;traditional Chinese: 話頭,Korean:hwadu,Japanese:watō) is part of a form ofBuddhist meditation known asGongfu 工夫 (not to be confused with the Martial Arts 功夫) common in the teachings ofChan Buddhism,Korean Seon andRinzai Zen.Hua Tou can be translated as 'word head', 'head of speech' or 'point beyond which speech exhausts itself'.^[1] AHua Tou can be a short phrase that is used as a subject of meditation to focus the mind.

Hua Tou are based on the encounter-dialogues andkoan of the interactions between past masters and students, but are shorter phrases than koans.^[2] The Hua Tou method was invented^[2] by the Chinese Zen masterDahui Zonggao (1089–1163) who was a member of theLinji school.^[3] Dahui was interested in teaching the lay community, particularly the educated Chinesescholar-officials. Support of those "literati" was essential for the survival of the individual lineages, since appointments as abbot of public monasteries were determined by this ruling class.^[2] Providing accessible methods of training for layman was a means to gather this necessary support.^[2]Hua Tou practice does not use regular interviews and question and answer sessions between student and teacher (dokusan).^[4] According to Dahui,Hua Tou is also a form of meditation that "can be carried out by laymen in the midst of their daily activities."^[5]

Dahui was also against the intellectualism and literary commentary that had begun to enter intoKoan practice with theBlue Cliff Record of his master Yuan-wu. In fact, Dahui burned his copy of the Blue Cliff Record.

Formal Hua Tou practice was promoted inKorea bySeon masterChinul. He was extremely successful in popularizing Hua Tou. According to Robert Buswell:^[6]

Hwadu is the predominant technique cultivated in [Korean] meditation halls, and almost all masters advocate its use for students at all levels.

According toBhikkhu Analayo, a similar practice is found in thePali commentaries relating to mindfulness of bodily postures. Analayo writes that according to the Papañcasudani "the difference between simple walking and walking meditation as aSatipatthana is that a meditator keeps in mind the question: 'Who goes? Whose is this going?'" (Ps I 251).^[7]

Dahui emphasised that initial insight is essential for Zen-training.^[8] Dahui stressed that it was possible for laymen to achieve enlightenment through this practice. He often gave instructions through letters to his pupils.

Chinul described Hwadu (Hua Tou) in his treatiseDharma Collection and Special Practice Record (Korean: 법집별항녹절요사기;Hanja: 法集別行錄節要私記解;RR: Beopjip byeolhaeng nok jeolyo byeongip sagi) as a practice that leads to the very limits of speech and acts as a purification device.^[6] Because the practice leads students beyond conceptual understanding, Chinul considered it an advanced practice for those of particular talent, or those who had already advanced through other practices first.

To practiceHua Tou, one concentrates on the phrase, initially repeating it silently with a questioning and open mind and then thinking about "Who" or "What" is generating the Hua Tou, this brings about "Great Doubt".^[9] Hua Tou can be practiced during sitting meditation, after the mind has been calmed through an initial period of breath meditation.^[10]

Hsu Yun said of practicing Hua Tou:

The important thing is to stick toHua Tou at all times, when walking, lying, or standing. From morning to night observingHua Tou vividly and clearly, until it appears in your mind like the autumn moon reflected limpidly in quiet water. If you practice this way, you can be assured of reaching the state of Enlightenment.

In meditation, if you feel sleepy, you may open your eyes widely and straighten your back; you will then feel fresher and more alert than before.

When working on theHua Tou, you should be neither too subtle nor too loose. If you are too subtle you may feel very serene and comfortable, but you are apt to lose theHua Tou. The consequence will then be that you will fall into the ‘dead emptiness’. Right in the state of serenity, if you do not lose theHua Tou, you may then be able to progress further than the top of the hundred-foot pole you have already ascended. If you are too loose, too many errant thoughts will attack you. You will then find it difficult to subdue them. In short, the Zen practitioner should be well adjusted, neither too tight nor too loose; in the looseness there should be tightness, and in the tightness there should be looseness.^[11]

According to Chan masterSheng Yen, there are three stages of Hua Tou practice: reciting the Hua Tou, asking the Hua Tou and investigating the Hua Tou.^[12] Through these stages it is important not to try to answer the Hua Tou intellectually, but to persistently ask the question mindfully with genuine interest and sincere desire to know.^[13] It is through this constant practice that great doubt and then insight arises.

According to Mario Poceski, althoughDahui'skanhua Chan (in which one focuses on ahuatou) purports to be a sudden method, it essentially consists of a process of gradually perfecting concentration. Poceski also observes the role thekanhua technique played in standardizing Chan practice. He argues that this contributed to the routinization of the tradition, resulting in a loss of some of the more open and creative aspects of earlier Chan.^[14]

According to Stuart Lachs, there are various popular Hua Tous such as:^[15]

• "What is it?" - very popular inKorean Seon
• "What is this?"
• "Who is repeating the Buddha's name?" - Popular with Chinese who also practicenianfo. This Huatou changes nianfo into a Chan practice.
• "Who is dragging this corpse around?" - popularized byHsu Yun, who often recommended it as a first practice, it was given to him by Master Yong-jing of the Tian-tai sect.
• "Who am I?"
• "What was myOriginal face before my father and mother were born?" - from the Sixth Patriarch Huineng, and the 23rd case in the well known koan collection, theMumonkan
• "What isMu?"^{[note 1]} - This is taken from the famouskōan,Joshu's Mu which goes as follows, "A monk askedJoshu, 'Does a dog have Buddha-nature or not?' Joshu replied, 'Mu."

• Cleary, JC. Swampland Flowers: The Letters and Lectures of Zen Master Ta Hui (1977) Shambhala.
• Luk, Charles. 'Empty Cloud The Autobiography of a Chinese Zen Master' (1988) Element.
• Broughton, Jeffrey. The letters of Chan master Dahui Pujue
• Broughton, Jeffrey. The Chan Whip Anthology: A Companion to Zen Practice

• Teachings by Master Xu Yun on “Huatou”-style Practice in Chan
• Hsu Yun Organisation,The Hua Tou practice
• Buddhist Door,Koan or Huatou in Chinese Chan Buddhism
• Yin I. Park,Zen language in our time: the case of Pojo Chinul's Hua Tou practice

• Rinzai school
• Chan Buddhism
• Nonduality

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• Articles containing Korean-language text