|
Post by Shi Da Dao on Oct 20, 2004 16:44:06 GMT 1
Self-cultivation for awakening to the truth is easy and is (also) difficult. For example, when we turn on the electric light, if we know how, in a finger-snap there will be light and the darkness which has lasted for a myriad years will disappear. If one oes not know how to turn on the light, the electric wires will be interfered with and the lamp will be damaged, resulting in an increase of passions and ignorance. There are also some people who, while undergoing Ch'an training and looking into the hua t'ou, get entangled with demons and become insane, while others vomit blood and fall sick. Are the fire of ignorance bursting into flame and the deep-rooted view of self and other not the obvious causes of all this? Therefore, practisers should harmonize body with mind and become calm, free from all impediments and from (the view of) self and other so as to bring about a perfect union with their latent potentialities. Fundamentally, this method used in Ch'an training is invariably the same, but the training is both difficult and easy to beginners as well as to old hands.
|
|
|
Post by Shi Da Dao on Oct 20, 2004 16:47:31 GMT 1
Where does the difficulty lie for a beginner? Although his body and mind are mature for it, he is still confused about the method of understanding it, and since his practice is ineffective, he will either become impatient or spend his time in dozing with this result: 'A beginner's training in the first year, an old hand's training in the second, and so training in the third year.'
|
|
|
Post by Shi Da Dao on Oct 20, 2004 17:00:09 GMT 1
Where does easiness lie for the beginner? It only requires a believing, a lond enduring and a mindless mind. A believing mind is, firstly, belief that this mind of ours is fundamentally Buddha, not differing from all Buddhas and all living beings of the three times in the ten directions of space, and secondly, belief that all Dharmas expounded by Sakyamuni Buddha can enable us to put an end to birth and death and to attain Buddhahood. A Long enduring mind consists in the choice of a method to be put into continuous practice in the present lifetime, in the next life, and in the life after next. The Ch'an training should be continued in this manner; the repetition of the Buddha's name should be continued in this manner; the holding of a mantra (mystic incantation) should be continued in this manner and the study of sutras, which consists in putting into practice the teaching heard (i.e. learned from the Scriptures), should be continued in this manner. The practice of any Dharma door (to enlightenment) must be based on Sila and if the training is undergone in this manner, there is no reason why it will not be successful. The old master Kuei Shan said: 'Anybody practising this Dharma without backsliding in three successive lives can surely expect to attain the Buddha-stage.' The old master Yung Chia said: 'If I utter deceitful words to cheat living beings, I shall be prepared to fall into the tongue-snatching hell for aeons as numberless as atoms.'
|
|
|
Post by Shi Da Dao on Oct 20, 2004 17:02:40 GMT 1
By mindlessness is meant the laying down of everything so that the practice will become like a dead man who, while following others in their normal activities, does not give rise to the least differentiation and attachment, and lives as a mindless religious man.
|
|
|
Post by Shi Da Dao on Oct 20, 2004 17:07:19 GMT 1
After the beginner has acquired these three kinds of mind, if he undergoes the Ch'an training and looks into, for instance, the hua t'ou: 'Wo is the repeater of the Buddha's name?' he should silently repeat a few times: @amitabha Buddha' and then look into him who thinks of the Buddha and where this thought arises. He should know that this thought does not arise either from his mouth or body. If it arises from either hs mouth or body, why when he dies, cannot his body and mouth, which still exist, give rise to the thought?
|
|
|
Post by Shi Da Dao on Oct 20, 2004 17:15:02 GMT 1
Therefore, he knows that this thought arises from his mind. Now he should watch (and locate) where his mind gives rise to this thought and keep looking into it, like a cat ready to pounce on a mouse, with his exclusive attention concentrated upon it, free from a second thought. However, its sharpness and dullness should be in equal proportions. It should never be too sharp for that sharpness may cause illness. If the training is undergone in this manner, in every state, while walking, standing, sitting and lying, it will be effective as time goes on, and when cause comes to fruition, like a ripe melon which automatically falls, anything if may happen to touch or come into contact with, will suddenly cause his supreme awakening. This is the moment when the practiser will be like one who drinks water and who alone knows whether it is cold or warm, until he becomes free from all doubts about himself and experiences a great happiness similar to that when meeting one's own father at the cross-roads.
|
|
|
Post by hengyu on Oct 20, 2004 21:21:11 GMT 1
Where do both easiness and difficulty lie for an old hand? By old hand is meant one who has called on learned masters for instruction and has undergone the training for many years during which his body and mind were mature for it and he was clear about the method which he could practice comfortably without experiencing any handicap. The difficulty met by a monk who is an old hand lies in this feeling of comfort and clearness in which he stops and stays. Thus, because of his stay in this illusion-city, he does not reach the place of precious things (i.e. the perfect Nirvana). He is fit only for stillness but is unfit for disturbance and his training is, therefore, not completely effective for really full use. In the worst case, the practiser will, when coming into contact with his surroundings, give rise to feelings of like and dislike and of acceptance and rejection, with the result that his false thinking, both coarse and fine, will remain as firm as before. His training will be likened to the soaking of a stone in water and will become ineffective. As time goes on, weariness and laziness will slip into his training which will become fruitless in the end. When such a monk is aware of this, he should immediately give rise to the hau t'ou again and rouse his spirits to take a step forward from the top of a hundred-foot pole (he has reached) until he reaches the top of the highest peak on which he will firmly stand or the bottom of the deepest ocean where he will walk (in every direction). He will cast away (his last link with the unreal) and will walk freely everywhere, meeting face to face (lit: substance to substance, or essence to essence) with Buddhas and Patriarchs. Where is the difficulty? Is this not easy?
|
|
|
Post by hengyu on Oct 20, 2004 21:29:53 GMT 1
Hua t'ou is One-Mind. This One-Mind of yours and mine is neither within nor without nor between the two. It is also within, without and between the two and is like Space which is immutable and is all-embracing. Therefore, the hua t'ou should not be pulled up or pushed down. If it is pulled up, it will cause disturbance, and if it is pushed down, it will cause dullness, and so will be in contradiction with the mind-nature and not in line with the 'mean'. Everybody is afraid of false thinking which he finds difficlt to control, but I tell you, dear friends, do not be afraid of false thinking and do not make any effort to control it. You have only to be aware of it bt should not cling to it, follow ir or push it away. It will suffice to discontinue your thinking and it will leave you alone. hence, the saying: 'The rise of falsehood should be immediately cognised, and once cognised, it will quit.'
|
|
|
Post by hengyu on Oct 20, 2004 21:35:08 GMT 1
However, in his training, if the practiser can turn this false thinking to his own advantage, he will look into where it arises and will notice that it has no independent nature of its own. At once, he will realise the non-existance of this very thinking and will recover his fundamental mindless nature, followed immediately by the manifestation of his pure self-nature Dharmakaya Buddha which will appear on the spot.
|
|
|
Post by hengyu on Oct 20, 2004 21:41:14 GMT 1
In reality, the real and the false are the same (in nature); the living and the Buddha are not a dualism; and birth-death and Nirvana as well as enlightenment (bodhi) and distress (klesa) all belong to our self-mind and self-nature and should not be differentiated, should not be either liked or disliked and should not be either grasped or rejected. This mind is pure and clean and fundamentally Buddha. Not a single Dharma is required (in the quest of enlightenment). Why so much complication?
From Ch'an and Zen Teaching - First Series; By Charles Luk, page 19-28.
|
|