Path: typhoon.sonic.net!pants.skycache.com!newsfeed.skycache.com!logbridge.uoregon.edu!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!nntp2.deja.com!nnrp1.deja.com!not-for-mail From: ilgu@angelfire.com Newsgroups: alt.zen Subject: Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma et al. (for newcomers) Date: Thu, 09 Mar 2000 03:35:58 GMT Organization: Deja.com - Before you buy. Lines: 530 Message-ID: <8a766u$mtu$1@nnrp1.deja.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: 205.164.84.107 X-Article-Creation-Date: Thu Mar 09 03:35:58 2000 GMT X-Http-User-Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 4.01; Windows 95; MindSpring Internet Services) X-Http-Proxy: 1.1 x28.deja.com:80 (Squid/1.1.22) for client 205.164.84.107 X-MyDeja-Info: XMYDJUIDilgu Xref: typhoon.sonic.net alt.zen:165478 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma, Fo-yen Ching-yuan, Hui-neng and Buddha -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1. Bodhidharma's Sermons: (excerpts) (Red Pine, "The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma". North Point Press, New York, 1987.) 1.1 "Outline of Practice": "Many roads lead to the Path, but basically there are only two: reason and practice. To enter by reason means to realize the essence through instruction [scriptures] and to believe that all living things share the same true nature, which isn't apparent because it's shrouded by sensation and delusion. ... Without moving, without effort, they enter, we say, by reason. To enter by practice refers to four all-inclusive practices: suffering injustice, adapting to conditions [karma], seeking nothing, and practicing the Dharma. ... " 1.2 "Bloodstream Sermon": "Everything that appears in the three realms [worlds of desire, form and formlessness] comes from the mind. Hence buddhas of the past and future teach mind to mind without bothering about definitions [words and letters]. ... As long as you look for a buddha somewhere else, you'll never see that your own mind is the buddha. ... To find a buddha, you have to see your nature. ... Whoever sees his nature is a buddha; whoever doesn't is a mortal. But if you can find your buddha-nature apart from your mortal nature, where is it? Our mortal nature is our buddha-nature. Beyond this nature there's no buddha. The buddha is our nature. There's no buddha besides this nature. ... To attain enlightenment without seeing your nature is impossible. ... But this mind is subtle and hard to see. It's not the same as the sensual mind. Everyone wants to see this mind, and those who move their hands and feet by its light are as many as the grains of sand along the Ganges, but when you ask them, they can't explain it. They're like puppets. It's theirs to use. Why don't they see it? The Buddha said people are deluded. This is why when they act they fall into the River of Endless Rebirth. ... And all because they don't see their nature. If people weren't deluded, why would they ask about something right in front of them? Not one of them understands the movement of his own hands and feet. ... Deluded people don't know who they are. ... Our nature is the mind. And the mind is our nature. ... Buddhas of the past and future only transmit this mind. Beyond this mind there's no buddha anywhere. But deluded people don't realize that their own mind is the buddha. ... Just know your mind. ... Your mind is the buddha. ... Even if a buddha or bodhisattva should suddenly appear before you, there's no need for reverence. This mind of ours is empty and contains no such form. ... Seeing your nature is zen. Unless you see your nature, it's not zen. ... But someone who sees his own nature finds the Way, even if he can't read a word. ... ... Buddhas of the past and future only talk about seeing your nature. ... Your real body is basically pure. It can't be corrupted. Your real body has no sensation, ... It's only because you cling to this material body that things like hunger and thirst, warmth and cold, and sickness appear. Once you stop clinging and let things be, you'll be free, even of birth and death. ... In India, the twenty-seven patriarchs only transmitted the imprint of the mind. And the only reason I've come to China is to transmit the instantaneous teaching of the Mahayana: This mind is the buddha. ... Buddhas of the past and future only talk about transmitting the mind. They teach nothing else. If someone understands this teaching, even if he's illiterate he's a buddha. ... But this mind isn't somewhere outside the material body of four elements [earth, water, fire and air]. Without this mind we can't move. The body has no awareness. Like a plant or stone, the body has no nature. So how does it move? It's the mind that moves. ... Motion is the mind's function, and its function is its motion. Even so, the mind neither moves nor functions, because the essence of its functioning is emptiness and emptiness is essentially motionless. Motion is the same as the mind. And the mind is essentially motionless. Hence the sutras tell us to move without moving, ... to see without seeing, ... to hear without hearing, to know without knowing, ... And the sutras say, "Go beyond language. Go beyond thought." Basically, seeing, hearing, and knowing are completely empty. Your anger, joy, or pain is like that of a puppet. You can search, but you won't find a thing. ... But once you know that the nature of anger and joy is empty and you let them go, you free yourself from karma. If you don't see your nature, quoting sutras is no help. ... " 1.3 "Wake-up Sermon": " ... Not thinking about anything is zen. ... The impartial Dharma is only practiced by great bodhisattvas and buddhas. To look on life as different from death or on motion as different from stillness is to be partial. To be impartial means to look on suffering as no different from nirvana, because the nature of both is emptiness. By imagining they're putting an end to suffering and entering nirvana arhats end up trapped by nirvana. But bodhisattvas know that suffering is essentially empty. And by remaining in emptiness they remain in nirvana. ... When the mind stops moving, it enters nirvana. Nirvana is an empty mind. ... When a thought begins, you enter the three realms. When a thought ends, you leave the three realms. ... Mortals keep creating the mind, claiming it exists. And arhats keep negating the mind, claiming it doesn't exist. But bodhisattvas and buddhas neither create nor negate the mind. ... The mind and the world are opposites, and vision arises where they meet. When your mind doesn't stir inside, the world doesn't arise outside. ... When the mortal mind appears, buddhahood disappears. When the mortal mind disappears, buddhahood appears. When the mind appears, reality disappears. When the mind disappears, reality appears. ... Every suffering is a buddha-seed, because suffering impels mortals to seek wisdom. ... Your body and mind are the field. Suffering is the seed, wisdom the sprout, and buddhahood the grain. ...Whoever wants to see a fish sees the water before he sees the fish. And whoever wants to see a buddha sees the mind before he sees the buddha. ... Mortality and buddhahood are like water and ice. ... Eliminate ice and there's no more water. Get rid of mortality and there's no more buddhahood. Clearly, the nature of ice is the nature of water. ... And the nature of mortality is the nature of buddhahood. ... Mortals liberate buddhas and buddhas liberate mortals. This is what's meant by impartiality. Mortals liberate buddhas because affliction creates awareness. And buddhas liberate mortals because awareness negates affliction. ... When you're deluded, buddhas liberate mortals. When you're aware, mortals liberate buddhas. ... Buddhas regard delusion as their father and greed as their mother. ... " 1.4 "Breakthrough Sermon": " ... The most essential method, which includes all other methods, is beholding the mind. ... The mind is the root from which all things grow. If you can understand the mind, everything else is included. ... Those who understand the mind reach enlightenment with minimal effort. Those who don't understand the mind practice in vain. ... If you can just concentrate your mind and transcend its falsehood and evil, the suffering of the three realms and six states of existence [gods, demons, humans, animals (and plants), hungry ghosts, and hell] will automatically disappear. ... You should realize that the practice you cultivate doesn't exist apart from your mind. ... [The sutra says, "If your mind is impure, sentient beings are impure. If your mind is pure, sentient beings are pure."] ... Thus by overcoming the three poisoned states of mind the three sets of precepts are automatically fulfilled. ... The sutras of the Buddha contain countless metaphors. Because mortals have shallow minds and don't understand anything deep, the Buddha used the tangible to represent the sublime. ... Our true buddha-nature has no shape. And the dust of affliction has no form. How can people use ordinary water to wash an intangible body? It won't work. When will they wake up? To clean such a body you have to behold it. ... If you cling to appearances while searching for meaning, you won't find a thing. Thus, sages of the past cultivated introspection and not speech. This mind is the source of all virtues. ... The eternal bliss of nirvana comes from the mind at rest. Rebirth in the three realms also comes from the mind. The mind is the door to every world and the mind is the ford to the other shore. ... If you can simply concentrate your mind's inner light and behold its outer illumination, you'll dispel the three poisons [greed, anger and delusion] and drive away the six thieves [six kinds of consciousness] once and for all. And without effort you'll gain possession of an infinite number of virtues, ... and doors to the truth. Seeing through the mundane and witnessing the sublime is less than an eye-blink away. Realization is now. Why worry about gray hair? ... " ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 2. Sermons by Chinese Zen Master Fo-yen Ching-yuan (1067-1120): (excerpts) (Thomas Cleary, "Instant Zen: Waking Up in the Present". North Atlantic Books, Berkeley, 1994) " ... There is no particular pathway into it ... If your own self is clear and everything is It, when you visit a teacher you do not see that there is a teacher; when you inquire of yourself, you do not see that you have a self. ... When you see in this way, are you not independent and free? " ... Here, I am thus every day, thus all the time. But tell me, what is "thus"? Try to express it outside of discriminatory consciousness, intellectual assessments, and verbal formulations. This reality is not susceptible to your intellectual understanding. ... How can you think of your original mind? How can you see your own eye? ... What can be seen by the eye or heard by the ear can be studied in the scriptures ... but what about the basis of awareness itself -- how do you study that? " ... I will settle something for you right now: the ultimate rule is to see your own mind clearly. ... An ancient said, "The mind does not know itself, the mind does not see itself." So how can you see it clearly? ... Mind does not see mind; to get it, you must not see it as mind. " ... Do you want to understand? Just discern the things perceived; you cannot see the mind itself. " ... All that is necessary is that there be no perceiver or perceived when you perceive [no separation of perceiver and perceived], ... no thinker or thought when you think [no separation of thinker and thought]. Buddhism is very easy ... Just let go, then step back and look ... " ... How about when they say the sound of the rain has given you a sermon? Is that correct? I do not agree; the sound of the rain is you giving a sermon. But do you understand? Clarify it directly; then what else is there? " ... There is nothing in my experience that is not true. If there were anything at all untrue, ... how could I presume to guide others? As for you, obviously there is something not true; that is why you come to someone to find certainty. " ... Where is your mistake? ... Fundamentally not understanding [nobody does originally], you then seek understanding. ... Since you basically do not understand, what are you capable of doing? ... Look to see where the not understanding comes from. Do you want to know? This nonunder- standing of yours basically comes from nowhere. Since it comes from nowhere, how could this not understanding be? And when you understand, the nonunderstanding goes nowhere. " ... If you know that falsehood is fundamentally the path, then there is no falsehood in it. Therefore those who master the path have no attain- ment. ... Just do not seek elsewhere, and realize there is no confusion or falsehood; this is called seeing the path. ... The path is ... inherently always out in the open. ... Thus for those who attain the path, there is nothing that is not it. ... " ----------------------- Another book has a chapter on Zen Master Fo-yen: (Thomas Cleary, "Zen Essence: The Science of Freedom". Shambhala Publications, Boston, 1989) " ... Scripture also says [Diamond Sutra], "All appearances are illusory. If you see appearances are not the same as true characteristics, you see where enlightenment comes from [you see the Tathagata]." An ancient Zen master said, "if you deny appearances as you see them, you do not see where enlightenment comes from [you do not see the Tathagata]." Just step back, stop mental machinations, and try to become aware of all the implications of these sayings. If you suddenly see through, how can you be affected by anything? " ... When you see, let there be no seer or seen; when you hear, let there be no hearer or heard; when you think, let there be no thinker or thought [no separation of seer and seen, of hearer and heard, of thinker and thought]. Buddhism is extremely easy and saves the most energy. It's just that you yourself waste energy and cause yourself trouble. ... The ancients saw people helpless, and told them to try meditating quietly. This was good advice, but later people didn't understand what the ancients meant, and closed their eyes, suppressed body and mind, and sat like lumps waiting for enlightenment. How foolish! [You must not just sit: you must also realize that the one sitting, i.e. you, is your only teacher.] ... " ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 3. Hui-neng's First Sermon: (Buddhadharma and Buddha-nature, or "What was transmitted between the Fifth and Sixth Patriarchs?") (Master Hsuan Hua, "The Sixth Patriarch's Dharma Jewel Platform Sutra". The Buddhist Text Translation Society, San Francisco, 1977. ISBN 0-917512-19-7.) ... One day Hui-neng thought, "The time has come to spread the Dharma. I cannot stay in hiding forever." Accordingly, he went to Fa Hsing Monastery in Kuang Chou where Dharma Master Yin Tsung was giving lectures on The Nirvana Sutra. At that time there were two bhikshus who were discussing the topic of the wind and a flag. One said, "The wind is moving." The other said, "The flag is moving." They argued incessantly. Hui Neng stepped forward and said, "The wind is not moving, nor is the flag. Your minds, Kind Sirs, are moving." Everyone was startled. Dharma Master Yin Tsung invited him to take a seat of honor and sought to ask him about the hidden meaning. Seeing that Hui Neng's expositions of the true principles was concise and to the point and not based on written words, Yin Tsung said, "The cultivator is certainly no ordinary man. I heard long ago that Huang Mei's [Fifth Patriarch's abode] robe and bowl had come south. Cultivator, is it not you?" Hui Neng said, "I dare not presume such a thing." Yin Tsung then made obeisance and requested that the transmitted robe and bowl be brought forth and shown to the assembly. He further asked, "How was Huang Mei's doctrine transmitted?" "There was no transmission," replied Hui Neng. "We merely discussed seeing the nature [kensho, enlightenment - seeing the original nature of self]. There was no discussion of Dhyana samadhi [Zen meditation] or liberation." Yin Tsung asked, "Why was there no discussion of Dhyana samadhi or liberation?" Hui Neng said, "These are dualistic dharmas. They are not the Buddhadharma. THE BUDDHADHARMA IS A DHARMA OF NON-DUALISM." Yin Tsung asked further, "What is this Buddhadharma which is the Dharma of non-dualism?" Hui Neng said, "[The Dharma Master has been lecturing The Nirvana Sutra so one can clearly see the Buddha-nature: that is the Buddhadharma which is the Dharma of non-dualism. For example, as] Kao Kuei Te Wang Bodhisattva said to the Buddha, 'Does violating the four serious prohibitions, committing the five rebellious acts, or being an icchantika ["of incomplete faith"] and the like cut off the good roots and the Buddha-nature?' "The Buddha replied, 'There are two kinds of good roots: the first, permanent; the second impermanent. The Buddha-nature is neither permanent nor impermanent. Therefore it is not cut off.' "That is what is meant by non-dualistic. The first is good and the second is not good. The Buddha-nature is neither good nor bad. That is what is meant by non-dualistic. Common people think of the heaps [forms, feelings, perceptions, impulses and consciousness] and realms [six sense organs, plus their six objects and their six associated consciousnesses] as dualistic. The wise man comprehends that they are non-dualistic in nature. THE NON-DUALISTIC NATURE IS THE BUDDHA-NATURE." Hearing this explanation, Yin Tsung was delighted. He joined his palms and said, "My explanation of Sutras is like broken tile, whereas your discussion of the meaning, Kind Sir, is like pure gold." ... ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 4. Buddha's Teaching on Meditation: (excerpts) (Walpola Rahula, "What the Buddha Taught", Grove Press, New York, 1974.) ... There are two forms of meditation. One is the development of mental concentration (samatha or samadhi), of one-pointedness of mind (cittekaggata, Skt. cittaikagrata), by various methods prescribed in the texts, leading up to the highest mystic states such as 'the Sphere of Nothingness' or 'the Sphere of Neither-Perception-nor-Non-Perception'. All these mystic states, according to the Buddha, are mind-created, mind-produced, conditioned (samkhata). They have nothing to do with Reality, Truth, Nirvana. This form of meditation existed before the Buddha. Hence it is not purely Buddhist, but it is not excluded from the field of Buddhist meditation. However it is not essential for the realization of Nirvana. The Buddha himself, before his Enlightenment, studied these yogic practices under different teachers and attained to the highest mystic states; but he was not satisfied with them, because they did not give complete liberation, they did not give insight into the Ultimate Reality. He considered these mystic states only as 'happy living in this existence' (ditthadhammasukhavihara), or 'peaceful living' (santavihara), and nothing more. (See Sallekha-sutta (no.8), of Majjhima-nikaya.) He therefore discovered the other form of 'meditation' known as vipassana (Skt. vipasyana or vidarsana), 'Insight' into the nature of things, leading to the complete liberation of mind, to the realization of the Ultimate Truth, Nirvana. This is essentially Buddhist 'meditation', Buddhist mental culture. It is an analytical method based on mindfulness, awareness, vigilance, observation. ... The most important discourse ever given by the Buddha on mental development ('meditation') is called the Satipatthana-sutta, 'The Setting-up of Mindfulness' (No. 22 of the Digha-nikaya, or No. 10 of the Majjhima-nikaya). ... It should be clearly borne in mind that whatever the form of 'meditation' may be, the essential thing is MINDFULNESS OR AWARENESS (sati), attention or observation (anupassana). ... Notice that all the spiritual and mystic states, however pure and high they may be, are mental creations, mind-made, conditioned and compound (samkhata). They are not Reality, not Truth (sacca). ... ----------------------- [ The essential content of Mindfulness/Awareness is: To live observing the activities of the body and mind. ("Watch over your body and mind.") ] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 5. Liberation and Awakening: The following texts were quoted to serve as our "Zen story": (Alan W. Watts, "The Way of Zen". Vintage Books, New York, 1957.) 5.1 Peace of mind: << ... Hui-k'o [486-593, Second Zen-Patriarch] again and again asked Bodhidharma for instruction, but was always refused. Yet he continued to sit in meditation outside the cave, waiting patiently in the snow in the hope that Bodhidharma would at last relent. In desperation he finally cut off his left arm and presented it to Bodhidharma as a token of his agonized sincerity. At this Bodhidharma at last asked Hui-k'o what he wanted. "I have no peace of mind," said Hui-k'o. "Please pacify my mind." "Bring out your mind here before me," replied Bodhidharma, "and I will pacify it!" "But when I seek my own mind," said Hui-k'o, "I cannot find it." "There!" snapped Bodhidharma, "I have pacified your mind!" At this moment Hui-k'o had his awakening ... >> 5.2 Liberation (Moksha): << ... The Fourth Patriarch, following Seng-ts'an, is believed to have been Tao-hsin (579-651). When he came to Seng-ts'an he asked, "What is the method of liberation?" "Who binds you?" replied Seng-ts'an. "No one binds me." "Why then," asked Seng-ts'an, "should you seek liberation?" And this was Tao-hsin's satori [Awakening]. >> 5.3 Awakening (Bodhi): If you have closely followed the above stories, then you would have no difficulty in "figuring out" what Awakening is all about. So, what IS Awakening? ------------------------------------------------------------------ Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ Before you buy.