As long as people desire Enlightenment and grasp after it, it means that delusion is still with them; therefore, those who are following the way to Enlightenment must not grasp at it, and if they reach Enlightenment, must not linger in it. When people attain Enlightenment in this sense, it means that everything is Enlightenment itself as it is; therefore, people should follow the path to Enlightenment until in their thoughts, worldly passions and Enlightenment become identical as they are.
– Lankavatara Sutra
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On The Menu
The Links
Koan and Story:
Just Go To Sleep
The Last Rap
Mud and Water
Have a good one!
Gwyllm
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The Links:
Eagle Mountain: Ancient rock art found at building site
Three-year-old is God’s incarnation in Bihar!
Marine life mysteriously straying far from home
Armadillos crawling into southern Illinois
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Just Go To Sleep
Gasan was sitting at the bedside of Tekisui three days before his teacher’s passing. Tekisui had already chosen him as his successor.
A temple recently had burned and Gasan was busy rebuilding the structure. Tekisui asked him: “What are you going to do when you get the temple rebuilt?”
“When your sickness is over we want you to speak there,” said Gasan.
“Suppose I do not live until then?”
“Then we will get someone else,” replied Gasan.
“Suppose you cannot find anyone?” continued Tekisui.
Gasan answered loudly: “Don’t ask such foolish questions. Just go to sleep.”
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Does one really have to fret
About enlightenment?
No matter what road I travel,
Im going home.
– Shinsho
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The Last Rap
Tangen had studied with Sengai since childhood. When he was twenty he wanted to leave his teacher and visit others for comparitive study, but Sengai would not permit this. Every time Tangen suggested it, Sengai would give him a rap on the head.
Finally Tangen asked an elder brother to coax permission from Sengai. This the brother did and then reported to Tangen: “It is arranged. I have fixed it for you to start on your pilgrimage at once.”
Tangen went to Sengai to thank him for his permission. The master answered by giving him another rap.
When Tangen related this to his elder brother the other said: “What is the matter? Sengai has no business giving premission and then changing his mind. I will tell him so.” And off he went to see the teacher.
“I did not cancel my permission,” said Sengai. “I just wished to give him one last smack over the head, for when he returns he will be enlightened and I will not be able to reprimand him again.”
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I was born with a divine jewel,
Long since filmed with dust.
This morning, wiped clean, it mirrors
Streams and mountains, without end.
– Ikuzanchu
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Mud and Water
Bassui (1327-1387)
Q: “What does it mean when it is said in a sutra, ‘If we perform the five practices- receiving and obeying; reading; reciting; expounding; and transcribing the sutra-we will obtain immeasurable merit’?”
Bassui: “It implies seeing into your own nature and obtaining Buddhahood right now. Receiving and obeying refers to the nature of one’s mind. This nature is part of the experience of saints and sinners alike. Each and every one of us is in possession of it in its perfection. Believing and understanding the significance of this nature of one’s mind is what is meant by reading and reciting the sutra. Having cut off definitions and explanations and exhausted all thoughts, seeing into one’s own nature and becoming enlightened is what is meant by expounding the sutra. Receiving the transmission when one is ripe for realization is what is meant by transcribing the sutra.”
Q: “If, as you say, these five practices are only the one mind and hence not dependent on words, what is the reason for the numerous sutras that resulted form the Buddha’s discourses?”
Bassui: “If they didn’t exist, how would those attached to form ever learn that there is no dharma outside of the one mind?
Q: “If the five practices are the same no matter which sutra we choose, why do most people adopt the Lotus Sutra?”
Bassui: “The five ideograms which make up the Lotus Flower Sutra of the Wonderful Law contain within them the five practices:
Receiving the teaching is expressed in the character Wonderful
Obeying it is expressed in the character Law.
Reading and reciting it denote the Lotus.
Expounding it is the Flower.
Transcribing it is the Sutra.”
Q: “How does ‘receive’ come to mean Wonderful?”
Bassui: “Wonderful is the inherent nature of all people. It is the master of the six senses. This inherent nature receives sensations of all dharmas, while there is no such thing as a receiver or something which is received. This is the fundamental principle of the character Wonderful. Hence ‘receive’ comes to mean Wonderful.”
Q: “How do you equate the meanings of Law and ‘obey’?”
Bassui waited a moment and then said: “Have you understood what I just said?”
Q: “No, I haven’t.”
Bassui: “The law as it is always manifests itself; nothing is hidden. All form is interconnected. When a person aspires to liberation and looks penetratingly into his own nature, the cloud of emotions will disappear, waves of discrimination will cease, and knowledge will become strikingly clear. At this point you should realize this Wonderful Law is the inherent nature of all Buddhas and ordinary beings. It is pure in itself.
“Though it exists in ignorance and delusion, it is not stained by them. Similarly the lotus living in the mud remains pure in its essence. Hence it is called ‘reading and reciting.’ The flower is liberation. This wondrous nature, the heart of original awakening, is said to be beyond ranking and classification. But for a period after a student’s first awakening there will be a shallow as well as a deep understanding.
“When knowledge becomes strikingly clear and the essence of this reasoning is understood, you have still not entered the realm of true enlightenment. It is only the shadow of reflected light, a guest outside the entrance gate. When knowledge is exhausted, when discriminating views are forgotten, when the lotus of awakening has for the first time been opened, the ten stages of bodhisattvahood can be completed and the two awakenings penetrated. Views through Buddha wisdom will become clear.
“The buds of the lotus flower will open up and fall away like objects which disappear and appear in the course of being. When students of the Way come this far, they will, for the first time, be fit to discourse on the Buddha dharma and liberate others. For this reason expounding dharma is equated to the lotus flower. When this truth is understood, the seal of the ancient Buddhas is transmitted to your mind, just as transcribing an old sutra onto a new piece of paper will produce, when completed, the same thing. Hence, ‘transcribing’ can be equated with Sutra. Sutra is another name for mind, carrying with it innumerable uncommon meanings.
From this we can see that these five practices are nothing more than metaphors used as a teaching method. The Buddha used this method to clarify this uniquely precious mind in order to point out to ordinary people that seeing into their own nature is Buddhahood.
Ordinary people, who mistakenly seek the dharma outside their own minds, not knowing that their own selves are the true Buddha, are like deluded children who have forgotten their mother. That’s why, in seeking to realize the five practices, you will perceive the one mind. Don’t covet the leftovers of others while losing the precious jewel which hangs around your own neck.
Q: “What is this precious jewel which hangs around one’s neck?”
Bassui: “When the dragon calls, clouds appear. When the tiger roars, the wind begins to blow.”
Bassui (1327-1387)
– Taken from “Mud And Water-A Collection of Talks by the Zen Master Bassui trans by Arthur Braverman (1989) North Point Press
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Evening mountains veiled in somber mist,
One path entering the wooded hill:
The monk has gone off, locking his pine door.
From a bamboo pipe a lonely trickle of water flows.
– Ishikawa Jozan
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