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(Continued from issue #199) The Patriarch covered the two of them with his precept sash so they could not be seen, and he explained The Diamond Sutra for him down to the line, ：One should produce a thought that is nowhere supported.； The Fifth Patriarch was afraid that someone might have seen Great Master Hui Neng enter his room and might be outside the window eavesdropping. At that time, the windows were not made of glass but paper. Hence, to insure privacy, the Fifth Patriarch pulled his robe over both their heads and explained The Diamond Sutra. It is not like now when I am openly explaining the sutra to all of you. His was a secret and very difficult explanation, telling the Sixth Patriarch how to forge an indestructible vajra body. When Great Master Hui Neng heard the words, ：One should produce a thought which is nowhere supported,； he suddenly achieved great enlightenment and knew that all the ten thousand dharmas are not separate from the self-nature. Although the Sixth Patriarch knew the method of advancing with diligence, his afflictions of views and thought had not yet been completely eliminated. That he was waiting for the sieve could also mean that no one had certified him yet. Even though, in his intense vigor, he had reached a high peak, likened to the state of a furnace glowing with pure green fire, he had not yet been certified by a good knowing advisor. Thus, when the Fifth Patriarch heard him say that the rice was ready and merely waiting for the sieve, he prepared to certify the Sixth Patriarch. Because I have a kind of radar, I was able to record their conversation and I shall now replay it for you. Keep in mind that this is a T・ang Dynasty recording, not a present-day one: ：Do you want to attain Buddhahood?； asked the Fifth Patriarch. ：Yes,； said the Sixth Patriarch, ：I just want to become a Buddha. I do not seek anything else. I only want to attain Buddhahood.； The Fifth Patriarch said, ：If you want to realize Buddhahood, you must first cut off ignorance. Ignorance is that which produces the afflictions of delusion, brought on by false views and false thoughts. If you want to cut off these afflictions, you must first cut off ignorance. For example, the cycle of birth and death is based on the state of emotional love. When you break through ignorance, then the delusions of false views and false thoughts which are tied to birth and death cease to exist, for ignorance is the root of birth and death. If you want to cut off ignorance and thereby put an end to birth and death, then, as The Diamond Sutra says, ：produce a thought which is nowhere supported.； That means do not dwell in emotional love, get rid of desire, and cast out craving. Then you can bring an end to birth and death. After listening, the Sixth Patriarch suddenly became enlightened. He saw through his original face and said, ：Ah! It is basically just like this! It is not difficult at all! In fact, it・s very easy!； Thus he became enlightened. In cultivating and studying the Buddhadharma, you should first produce an unsupported thought. That means to dwell neither in emotion nor love. If you dwell in emotion and love, you dwell in ignorance, and thus in birth and death. If you do not dwell in emotion or in love, if you do not dwell in existence or nonexistence, you know the Middle Way. The Middle Way is not separate from either existence or emptiness, nor does it exist elsewhere. The ability to transform emotion and love into genuine Prajna wisdom is enlightenment. Not transforming them is confusion. It is said, ：Although the sea of suffering is inexhaustible, a turn of the head is the other shore.； The difference between confusion and enlightenment is just in knowing how to turn. If you run after emotions and desires, then the more you run, the more confused you become. If you can turn your head, you arrive at Nirvana, the other shore. If you do not turn your head, you become more and more confused. The more confused you are, the further off you get and the deeper you sink into confusion. But although you are extremely far off, one turn can become sudden enlightenment. Sudden enlightenment is awakening. Awakening is the Buddha. You may be thinking, ：If I become a Buddha, there won・t be any work for me to do. Wouldn・t I just sit in a lotus flower all day and wait for people to come and light incense and bow before me? Frankly, I don・t think that sounds the least bit interesting!； If that is what you think, you can come back as a living being, befriend the other living beings and take them across to Buddhahood. Although attaining Buddhahood may seem to be uninteresting, at least all afflictions have been severed and you are free from worries. Yesterday, I talked about the ghost who did not want to become a person. I・ve been a ghost for three thousand years, no afflictions and no worries. Shen Kung tells me to go be a human, but I really just don・t think I can! Ghosts may have no afflictions or worries, but they can only come out at night because they belong to the yin energy. The Buddha is totally yang energy, like the radiance of the sun. So, you decide. Do you want to be a ghost or a Buddha? If you want to be a ghost, then it is all right to have emotion and love. But if you want to be a Buddha, you must ：produce a thought which is nowhere supported.； At the moment he heard those words, Hui Neng experienced the great enlightenment and he knew that all the ten thousand dharmas are not separate from the self nature. He said to the Fifth Patriarch: How unexpected! The self-nature is originally pure in itself. How unexpected! The self-nature is originally neither produced nor destroyed. How unexpected! The self-nature is originally complete in itself. How unexpected! The self-nature is originally unmoving. How unexpected! The self-nature can produce the ten thousand dharmas. Great enlightenment penetrates to the beginning and to the end. It is a complete understanding of the deep Prajna wisdom. Having attained the great enlightenment, the Sixth Patriarch was able to fathom that the mind produces the myriad dharmas, and the myriad dharmas come from the mind alone. He likewise realized that all the myriad dharmas are manifestations of the self nature. The Sixth Patriarch exclaimed, ：In all honesty, it never dawned on me before that the self-nature is originally pure. Why, then, does the Sutra say earlier that the self-nature is neither defiled nor pure?； Here, the term ：pure； represents the appearance of the original substance, because the concept cannot be represented any other way. It means originally pure. It does not refer to the purity obtained after being cleansed from defilement. The term ．pure・ is contextually used in contrast to defilement. The Sixth Patriarch, Hui Neng, realized that the self-nature is originally neither produced nor destroyed. Production and destruction, birth and death, occur because living beings become attached. Without attachments, from what place would ．birth and death・ come into being and in what place would it cease to exist? There would be no such place. The Sixth Patriarch realized that the self-nature is originally complete in itself, with nothing lacking and nothing in excess, nothing more and nothing less. The original self-nature is essentially the same; either that of the Buddha or that of living beings. It is not more for the Buddha nor less for living beings. Unfortunately, living beings fail to understand this because they turn their backs on enlightenment and they mingle with the dusts of defilement. With their backs turned, they cannot recognize the precious things that are originally theirs. They cast the root aside and grasp at the branches, seeking materialistic contentment and illusory happiness. They chase after illusive fame and profit. This is really very stupid. Only now have I realized that the self-nature is replete with everything. Hui Neng said, ：Living beings are upside-down. They have no concentration power. Nonetheless, their self-nature is originally unmoving. This holds true equally for all.； Hui Neng added, ：Before, it never dawned on me that the myriad dharmas are produced from the self-nature. Now, I have certified to these wonderful principles. It is indeed ineffably wonderful!； The Fifth Patriarch knew of Hui Neng・s enlightenment to his original nature and said to him, ：Studying the Dharma without recognizing the original mind is of no benefit. If one recognizes one・s own original mind and sees one・s original nature, then one is called a great hero, a teacher of gods and humans, a Buddha.； The Fifth Patriarch knew that the Sixth Patriarch had attained enlightenment and recognized his original face. He knew whether his nostrils faced up or down. When he held his hand over his head, the Sixth Patriarch knew whether it was upside down or right-side up. Last night, I asked you all, ：When your hand hangs at your side, is it upside-down and when you raise it up over your head, is it right-side up? Or is it that when it hangs at your side it is right-side up and when you raise it over your head it is upside-down?； None of you understood this principle. Why? Because there is basically no such thing as upside-down or right-side-up! The Sixth Patriarch had a very clear understanding of all these questions and the Fifth Patriarch knew of this. For this reason, he told the Sixth Patriarch while under cover of his robe, ：Unless you recognize your original mind, it is useless to study the Dharma.； It is said, ：If one recognizes one・s own mind, the great earth doesn・t have an inch of dirt.； The dust and dirt of the great earth will turn into yellow gold, and the great earth will be adorned with the seven precious jewels. You say, ：It doesn・t look like that to me.； Of course it doesn・t. You haven・t recognized your original mind. When you recognize it, you will see things differently. It・s like wearing tinted glasses. If you wear red glasses, people look red, and if you wear green glasses, they look green. If your glasses are yellow, then everyone looks yellow. Because you haven・t recognized your original mind, the great earth appears to be covered with dirt. This is because the dirt within you is so great. What is the dirt? It is simply your delusive thinking and scattered thoughts, for without them, the great earth doesn・t have an inch of dirt. Studying the Buddhadharma is of no benefit unless you recognize your original mind. Look at it! What color is it? Is it green, yellow, red, white, or black? Is it long or short, square or round? What does it look like? What is its appearance? To say it has an appearance is an analogy, because fundamentally it has no appearance. When you recognize this ：no appearance； you will understand. But before you have recognized it, do not speak about it in a confused way. At that point when you recognize your original mind and see your inherent nature, then you are a great hero, a teacher of gods and humans, a Buddha. We all have the possibility of becoming a Buddha because living beings are originally Buddhas and Buddhas are originally living beings. If you have not recognized your original mind nor seen your original nature, you still have to study the Buddhadharma more. He received the Dharma in the third watch and no one knew about it. The Fifth Patriarch also transmitted the Sudden Teaching and the robe and bowl saying, ：You are the Sixth Patriarch. Protect yourself carefully. Take living beings across by every method. Spread the teaching for the sake of posterity and do not let it be cut off. Listen to my verse: With feeling comes the planting of the seed, Because of the ground, the fruit is born again. Without feeling there is no seed at all, Without that nature there is no birth either. At midnight, the Fifth Patriarch transmitted the wonderful Dharma to the Sixth Patriarch, using the mind to seal the mind, and no one at all knew about it. The insiders didn・t know, the outsiders didn・t know, not even the ghosts and spirits knew. The Fifth Patriarch transmitted the Teaching of Sudden Enlightenment which points directly to the mind to see one・s original nature and realize Buddhahood. He pronounced, ：You are now the Sixth Patriarch.； In learning Buddhadharma, you must take it seriously. You must realistically walk the true path, not just doing lip service. You may be eloquently doing the lip service of speaking the Dharma, but mind you, doing lip service does not provide you with any actual skills in cultivation. Or, you may be obsessed with the desire to be number one, and in the process, get into the difficulties of jealousy and obstructions. If you are like that, you certainly can・t obtain the patriarchate. The allies of Shen Hsiu put him on a high pedestal, thinking that he would certainly be the next patriarch. That・s why they were scattered in every corner snooping for news. If they knew that the Fifth Patriarch had transmitted the patriarchate to someone else, they would have killed that successor right away. Nevertheless, they did not know that the Fifth Patriarch was a clear-eyed good-knowing advisor who knew the mind of Shen Hsiu, and therefore, had secretly transmitted the dharma to Hui Neng as the Sixth Patriarch. The Fifth Patriarch transmitted the Dharma to Hui Neng because Hui Neng always practiced the Bodhisattva Way. He pounded rice for everyone to eat and so helped them along their way in cultivation. That same Bodhisattva conduct is practiced here in the kitchen of this temple by the volunteers. They prepare very good food for everybody to eat. However, when I eat I don・t notice whether it is good or not because I don・t have time to investigate the subject of eating. Practicing the Bodhisattva Way is helping others in every situation. Do not pose a hindrance to others. It is said that a gentleman will lend support for the success of others. For instance, when I announced that several people were going to leave home and asked if anyone objected, no one did. This demonstrates the virtue of lending support for the success of others. I give my consent to anyone who wants to leave the home-life. Why should I object? Well, I do not want any problems. If I take in unwholesome left-home disciples, I myself will be disgraced. (To be continued ..) |
