07 Chapter Opportunities And Conditions

THE SIXTH PATRIARCH’S DHARMA JEWEL PLATFORM SUTRA
A Commentary by the Venerable Master Hsuan Hua

Chapter 7

OPPORTUNITIES AND CONDITIONS

Sutra:

The Master obtained the Dharma at Huang Mei and returned to Ts’ao HouVillage in Shao Chou where no one knew him. But Liu Chih Liao, a scholar, received him with great courtesy. Chih Liao’s aunt, Bhikshuni Wu Chin Tsang, constantly recited the Mahaparinirvana Sutra. When the Master heard it, he instantly grasped its wonderful principle and explained it to her. The Bhikshuni then held out a scroll and asked about some characters. 

The Master said, “I cannot read; please ask about the meaning.”

At that time the pure dwellings of the ancient Pao Lin Temple, which had been destroyed by war and fire at the end of the Sui dynasty, were rebuilt on their old foundation. The Master was invited to stay and soon the temple became a revered place. He dwelt there a little over nine months when he was once again pursued by evil men.

The Master hid in the mountain in the front of the temple, and when they set fire to the brush and trees, he escaped by crawling into a rock to hide. The rock still bears the imprints of the Master’s knees and of his robe where he sat in lotus posture. Because of this it is called “The Rock of Refuge.” Remembering the Fifth Patriarch’s instructions to stop at Huai and hide at Hui, he went to conceal himself in those two cities.

After receiving the mind-seal Dharma from the Fifth Patriarch Hung Jen, the Sixth Patriarch returned to Shao Chou. He thereupon went to Ts’ao Hou Village, the present day Shao Kuan in Chü Chiang District. When he arrived in the vicinity of Nan Hua Temple, which before had been Pao Lin Temple, no one knew that he was the one who held the robe and bowl.

Liu Chih Liao was a wealthy retired official who enjoyed studying the Buddhadharma. He welcomed the Master reverently and made offerings to him. Chih Liao and his aunt, Bhikshuni Wu Chin Tsang, “limitless treasury,” were the Sixth Patriarch’s great Dharma protectors. Wu Chin Tsang liked to recite the Mahaparinirvana Sutra. This Sutra, in ten volumes, was spoken by the Buddha just before he went to Nirvana. Hearing the recitation, the Sixth Patriarch understood the subtle principle and explained it to the Bhikshuni. Probably she couldn’t read very well, because she asked the Master, “What is this word?”

“Do you mean you can’t read it?” said the Master.

“No, I can’t,” she said.

“Well, I can’t either!” said the Master, “But if you ask about the meaning I can explain it for you.”

“If you can’t even read it, how can you know what it means?” she asked.

The Master said, “The Buddha’s heart, the mind-Dharma, the wonderful principle of Sudden Enlightenment, has nothing to do with words. Instead, it points directly to the mind so that we can see our own nature and become Buddhas. Since it is not based on language it doesn’t matter whether you can read.”

Bhikshuni Wu Chin Tsang thought that was very strange indeed. She told everyone in the village, “Here is a gentleman who has the Way! He is a virtuous Dharma Master. He may not be able to read, but he’s enlightened, so we should make offerings to him.”

Although she didn’t know a lot of characters, Wu Chin Tsang was nevertheless an incredible Bhikshuni. She ate one meal a day and never lay down to sleep, because she knew that the Fourth Patriarch recommended these practices. Although her family was wealthy, she kept the precept of never holding money. She studied and recited Sutras industriously, and when the time came, she died sitting up in meditation. Many days, many years have passed and her body still has not decayed. Because she was vigorous and worked hard at cultivation and had no sexual desire, her flesh transformed into indestructible vajra. I saw the body in a temple in Chü Chiang. It is truly awesome.

Among the villagers who paid homage to the Great Master was the great-grandson of Marquis Wu. Marquis Wu was very intelligent. He was, in fact, as clever as a fox. He was a genius, but he had a tendency to be jealous.

Bhikshuni Wu Chin Tsang promoted the Sixth Patriarch: “Do you know who he is?” she would say, “He’s the rightful successor to the Fifth Patriarch! He holds the robe and bowl.”

One flower may be beautiful, but it looks much better surrounded by greenery. If no one had protected him, the Sixth Patriarch would surely have been murdered by Shen Hsiu’s gang, or those of other religions. His Dharma assembly flourished because his disciples and laypeople such as Bhikshuni Wu Chin Tsang and her nephew, Liu Chih Liao, the scholar, guarded and protected him. Vinaya Master T’ung Ying also brought several hundred of his students to study with the Master, and each student told his friends to come. So every day for lunch there were between 1,500 and 2,000 people, seven or eight hundred of whom were members of the Sangha.

Everyone made heartfelt offerings to help rebuild Nan Hua Temple. Some gave ten thousand ounces of silver, some gave a million. They asked the Master to live there and before long it was a great Bodhimanda, big enough for several thousand people.

A little over nine months later, several hundred of Shen Hsiu’s men left Huang Mei, passing through the Ta Yü mountain range on their way to Nan Hua Temple. They traveled for over two months. If they hadn’t been intent on killing the Master and stealing the robe and bowl, they would have given up after a couple of days. Think it over: Sixteen or seventeen years had passed since the transmission, and the Master had only been staying at Nan Hua for nine months when the evil men returned. It’s not easy to be a Patriarch, unless you are a phony. Real Patriarchs live in great danger.

The Sixth Patriarch had spiritual powers and he knew that not just one or two, but several hundred men were after him. He hid in the “Rock of Refuge” which is just big enough to hold one person sitting in meditation. The evil men mingled in with the large crowd and stealthily set fire to the mountain. They burned off the entire area, but never found the Master. While hiding, the Master probably meditated with great intensity because the texture of his robe and the marks of his knees can still be seen imprinted in the rock. When I was at Nan Hua Temple I sat in the rock for a time, but I wasn’t seeking refuge, I was just trying it out. When you sit inside it, no one can see you.

Bhikshu Fa Hai

Sutra: 

“Listen to my verse:

When the mind is called wisdom, 
Then the Buddha is called concentration. 
When concentration and wisdom are equal. 
The intellect is pure.

Understand this Dharma teaching 
By practicing within your own nature. 
The function is basically unproduced; 
It is right to cultivate both.”

At these words, Fa Hai was greatly enlightened and spoke a verse in praise

This mind is basically Buddha; 
By not understanding I disgrace myself. 
I know the cause of concentration and wisdom 
Is to cultivate both and separate myself from all things.

Commentary: 

Bhikshu Fa Hai, also called Wen Yün, compiled and edited the Platform Sutra from the Sixth Patriarch’s lectures. Although I dare not say that he liked to be first, when he wrote this chapter he certainly thought, “I am the Master’s number one great disciple!” and consequently wrote about himself first.

“Great Master,” said Fa Hai, “I don’t understand the sentence ‘This mind is Buddha.’ Please explain it.”

“Do not produce the former thought,” said the Master, “and just that is mind. Do not extinguish the latter thought and just that is Buddha. With neither production nor extinction, the mind itself is Buddha. All appearances are set up by the mind, and if you can set up all appearances and be separate from them, that is Buddha.”

The mind is called wisdom and the Buddha is called concentration. When concentration and wisdom are equal, the mind is Buddha and Buddha is the mind. They are one substance. When thought is pure, then wisdom and concentration, mind and Buddha, are equal. If you understand the Sudden Teaching you know that the Buddha is not separate from the mind and the mind is not separate from the Buddha; concentration is not separate from wisdom and wisdom is not separate from concentration.

You don’t understand because you have accumulated bad habits for many ages. The wonderful function of the self-nature is basically unproduced and undestroyed, so when you cultivate the mind, you cultivate the Buddha; when you cultivate the Buddha, you cultivate the mind. The same applies to concentration and wisdom. You should cultivate them equally.

When you don’t understand, there are two: mind and Buddha, When you understand you know that they are originally one. In cultivating concentration and wisdom, you should separate yourself from all marks.

Bhikshu Fa Ta

Sutra: 

Listen to my verse:

As bowing is basically to cut off arrogance, 
Why don’t you touch your head to the ground? 
When you possess a self, offenses arise, 
But forgetting merit brings supreme blessings.”

The Master asked further, “What is your name?”

The Master said, “Your name means ‘Dharma Penetration,’ but what Dharma have you penetrated?” He then spoke a verse:

Your name means Dharma Penetration, 
And you earnestly recite without pause to rest. 
Recitation is mere sound, 
But one who understands his mind is called a Bodhisattva. 
Now, because of your karmic conditions, 
I will explain it to you: 
Believe only that the Buddha is without words 
And the lotus blossom will bloom from your mouth. 

Commentary: 

Dharma Masters Fa Hai (Dharma Sea) and Fa Ta (Dharma Penetration) both received the Sixth Patriarch’s Dharma. Fa Ta left home at age seven and constantly recited the Lotus Sutra, but when he met the Patriarch he didn’t bow properly, he just pretended. He had to make some sort of show of it since everybody knew that the Great Master held Huang Mei’s robe and bowl. But the most respect he could muster was to throw himself hastily on the ground, without even touching his head to the floor, and in his heart he felt that his own merit certainly was greater than the Master’s. “After all,” he thought, “I’ve recited the Sutra over three thousand times.” When Fa Ta saw ordinary people, he couldn’t even manage a half bow. He was like a rich snob who only sees other rich snobs and looks down on everyone else. The Sixth Patriarch took one look and knew that Fa Ta had something on his mind.

The Lotus Sutra is seven volumes long and, reciting quickly, you could read through it once in a day, or three hundred and sixty-five times a year. Therefore Fa Ta had been reciting it for over ten years.

“I don’t care if you’ve recited it ten thousand times!” said the Master. “If you really understood it you wouldn’t revel in your own merit and could study with me. Not everyone can study with a Patriarch, you know. If you have obstructions and afflictions, he may not want you.”

Therefore, if you come to study here but break the rules, you are not welcome. In order to cultivate with me you must offer up your conduct in accord with the teaching.

“So many recitations,” said the Master, “and you still don’t know how conceited you are! No doubt you think your merit is even greater than mine. Such pride is an offense. But if you could forget your merit and consider your three thousand recitations as no recitations, then your merit would be limitless and boundless.”

“Speak up, Dharma Penetration!” the Master continued, “What Dharma have you penetrated?”

Fa Ta was speechless.

“Not bad,” the Master said, “You work hard. However, your recitation is of no benefit because you don’t understand what the Sutra means. If you could only understand your mind and see your nature, you would be a Bodhisattva. You have come all this way from Hung Chou because we have an affinity from circumstances in former lives. Now just believe that the Buddha is without words, and the lotus blossom will bloom from your mouth. Believe! The Buddha never said a thing, and if you recite without understanding the principle, you are wasting your time.”

The Diamond Sutra says,

One who sees me by form 
Or seeks me in sound,
Walks a deviant path 
Not seeing the Tathagata. 

The Buddha taught for forty-nine years in over three hundred Dharma assemblies, but when he was about to enter Nirvana and his disciples asked him about the Sutras, he said, “I never said a word.” Was he lying?

The Sixth Patriarch also taught that the Buddha said nothing, and if you believe this the Lotus will bloom from your mouth. But how does one obtain such rare faith?

The Sutra’s principles exist in the minds of people; they can be spoken by you; they can be spoken by me. Everyone has this wisdom and everyone can speak the Sutras. The Buddha spoke the Sutras for living beings and the Sutras flow from the minds of living beings. Therefore the Buddha spoke without speaking. This means that you should not be attached to Dharma or to emptiness. Nevertheless, you cannot say, “I don’t know any Dharma. I’m empty!”

To understand that the Buddha spoke and yet did not speak is the most difficult and yet the easiest thing one can do. Can you do it? If you can, the Buddha has not spoken. If you cannot, then the Buddha has said too much.

Sutra:

Fa Ta recited loudly until he came to the “Analogies Chapter.” The Master said, “Stop! This Sutra fundamentally is based on the principles underlying the causes and conditions of the Buddha’s appearance in the world. None of the analogies spoken go beyond that. What are the causes and conditions?

The Sutra says, ‘All Buddhas, the World-Honored Ones, appear in the world for the causes and conditions of the One Important Matter.’ The One Important Matter is the knowledge and vision of the Buddha. Worldly people, deluded by the external world, attach themselves to marks, and deluded by the inner world, they attach themselves to emptiness. If you can live among marks and yet be separate from it, then you will be confused by neither the internal nor the external. If you awaken to this Dharma, in one moment your mind will open to enlightenment. The knowledge and vision of the Buddha is simply that.

The Buddha is enlightenment. There are four divisions:

If you listen to the opening and demonstrating (of the Dharma), you can easily awaken and enter. That is the enlightened knowledge and vision, the original true nature becoming manifest. Be careful not to misinterpret the Sutra by thinking that the opening, demonstrating, awakening, and entering of which it speaks is the Buddha’s knowledge and vision and that we have no share in it. To explain it that way would be to slander the Sutra and defame the Buddha.

Since he is already a Buddha, perfect in knowledge and vision, what is the use of his opening to it again? You should now believe that the Buddha’s knowledge and vision is simply your own mind, for there is no other Buddha.

“The minds of worldly people are deviant. Confused and deluded, they commit offenses. Their speech may be good, but their minds are evil. They are greedy, hateful, envious, given over to flattery, deceit, and arrogance. They oppress one another and harm living creatures, thus they open not the knowledge and vision of Buddhas but that of living beings. If you can with an upright mind constantly bring forth wisdom, contemplating and illumining your own mind, and if you can practice the good and refrain from evil, you, yourself will open to the knowledge and vision of the Buddha.

“In every thought you should open up to the knowledge and vision of the Buddha; do not open up to the knowledge and vision of living beings. To be open to the knowledge and vision of the Buddha is transcendental; to be open to the knowledge and vision of living beings is mundane. If you exert yourself in recitation, clinging to it as a meritorious exercise, how does that make you different from a yak who loves his own tail?”

To be unconfused, be unattached. Do not get attached to emptiness or fall into existence. If you suddenly awaken to this dharma your heart will open to the knowledge and vision of the Buddha.

If you listen to opening and demonstrating, that is, to instruction on the principles of the Sutras, you can easily wake up and understand the enlightened knowledge and vision. The Buddha’s knowledge and vision is simply that of your own mind, because your mind fundamentally is the Buddha.

What darkens your light?

Thoughts of greed 
Create thoughts of love. 
Greed is dirt, 
And love defiled. 
The impurities 
Of greed and love 
Cause self-seeking 
And make you a slave.
By now you should 
Have become enlightened. 
Stop depending on 
Outer conditions 
Which only make trouble within. 
Without them there is 
No trouble: there is 
Peace and purity. 

There are many varieties of external conditions: eyes, ears, noses, tongues, bodies, and minds; forms, sounds, smells, tastes, tangible objects, and objects of the mind; and the six consciousnesses where sense-organs and sense-objects meet. When you seek outside yourself, your mind is not at peace; you are upset and anxious, and your mind, originally the master, becomes the body’s slave. The Buddhas trouble themselves to arise from Samadhi just to tell you not to seek outside yourself. When you quit seeking outside, you are one with the Buddhas; you open up to their knowledge and vision and become just like them.

The deviant views and delusion of ordinary people causes them to perform offensive acts. While their speech may be as compassionate as the Buddha, their minds are as poisonous as a snake. Of the offenses they commit, greed, hate, and jealousy are the worst. But when they shine the light within and straighten out their own minds, they naturally are open to the knowledge and vision of the Buddha.

Sutra: 

The Master replied, “What fault does the Sutra have that would stop you from reciting it? Confusion and enlightenment are in you. Loss or gain comes from yourself. If your mouth recites and your mind practices, you ‘turn’ the Sutra, but if your mouth recites and your mind does not practice, the Sutra ‘turns’ you. Listen to my verse:

When the mind is confused, 
the Dharma Flower turns it. 
The enlightened mind 
will turn the Dharma Flower.

Reciting the Sutra so long 
without understanding 
Has made you an enemy 
of its meaning.

Without a thought 
your recitation is right. 
With thought, 
your recitation is wrong.

With no “with” 
and no “without” 
You may ride forever 
in the White Ox Cart.

Fa Ta heard this verse and wept without knowing it. At the moment the words were spoken, he achieved a great enlightenment and said to the Master, “Until today I have never actually turned the Dharma Flower; instead it has turned me.”

If you are confused, your recitation is of no benefit, but if you are enlightened, there is merit. What does this have to do with the Sutra? If you recite the Sutra and put it into practice as well, you are truly reciting the Sutra and turning the Dharma wheel. You set the Dharma Flower spinning. But if you recite the Sutra with a confused mind, the reciting turns you around so that, the more recitation you do, the less you understand. After more than ten years of work, Fa Ta was still unclear; he was a stranger to the Sutra. Without false thoughts, recitation is a correct thing, but with arrogant thoughts and conceit about your merit and virtue, your recitation becomes deviant. You should pay no attention to having or not having merit, and recite as if not reciting. Do not be attached, and you will always ride in the White Ox Cart. The White Ox Cart is an analogy for The One Buddha Vehicle.

You ask, “If I recite as if not reciting, then may I not recite as if reciting?” If you don’t recite it, you cannot understand the Sutra’s principles, and it is not as if you were reciting it. The phrase:

Reciting as if not reciting, 
Not reciting as if reciting,

is to instruct you to be unattached. But you cannot say, “I’ll be unattached and forget about reciting the Sutra.”

After listening to the Master, Fa Ta wept without even knowing it, but it wasn’t because he had been bullied or tricked. Before, he had stupidly wasted his time reciting the Sutra without obtaining the slightest benefit. Now, at the Master’s explanation, he was so overcome with joy that he burst into tears, just like friends or relatives do when they meet after a long separation He cried because of his great enlightenment.

Sutra:

The Lotus Sutra says,

If the world were filled 
With those like Shariputra 
Exhausting their thought to measure the Buddha’s wisdom, 
They couldn’t fathom it.

Fa Ta questioned the Master: “Shariputra was the wisest of the Buddha’s disciples. Now, if you filled the entire universe with Shariputras, and they all tried to fathom the Buddha’s wisdom, they wouldn’t be able to do it. Great Master, how can you say that when common people merely understand their own minds, they are open to the knowledge and vision of the Buddhas? I am afraid that unless one had supreme wisdom and good roots, one couldn’t avoid slandering the Sutra. Please be compassionate and tell me how the sheep and deer carts differ from the White Ox Cart.”

The Master said, “The Sutra is perfectly clear on this point. The Shravakas, Pratyekabuddhas and Bodhisattvas cannot know the Buddha’s wisdom simply because they do try to measure it. If their minds did not have such calculating thoughts, they could understand it.

The Buddha spoke Sutras for common people, not for other Buddhas. If you don’t believe the Sutras, you can get up and walk out as you please. What is more, there is only One Buddha Vehicle; there are no other vehicles, whether two (Shravakas and Pratyeka Buddhas) or three (Shravakas, Pratyeka Buddhas, and Bodhisattvas) or any number of parables, causes and conditions, and uncountable expedient devices: all are spoken for the sake of the One Buddha Vehicle.”

Sutra: 

Fa Ta received this instruction and, overwhelmed with joy, he spoke a verse:

Three thousand Sutra recitations: 
At Ts’ao Hsi not one single word. 
Before I knew why he appeared in the world, 
How could I stop the madness of accumulated births?
Sheep, deer, and ox provisionally set up; 
Beginning, middle, end, well set forth. 
Who would have thought that within the burning house
Originally the king of Dharma dwelt? 

The Master said, “From now on you may be called the monk mindful of the Sutra.” From then on, although he understood the profound meaning, Fa Ta continued to recite the Sutra unceasingly.

Once you have returned to the real vehicle, even the real is nameless; you should discard the notion of reality. All the treasure and wealth of the Buddhadharma is yours, originally. It is the wind and light of your homeland; use it as you wish. But do not think, “These were given to me by my father. I have received them as an inheritance.” You shouldn’t think of the father, the son, or the use: just use them, that’s all. That is genuine recitation of the Sutra. From the first to the last eon, your hands won’t set the text down and you will recite it from morning to night.

“Before I knew why the Buddha appeared in the world,” said Fa Ta, “I had no way to stop the karmic process of this mad mind. But now I know that the beginning Shravaka vehicle, the middle Pratyekabuddha Vehicle, and the Mahayana Bodhisattva vehicle are nothing but expedient devices. They are not real. Who would have guessed? Who would have guessed! Nobody! Why, it’s just right here in the flaming house of the triple world, the realm of desire, the realm of form, and the formless realm, that one can cultivate, realize Buddhahood and be a Great Dharma King!”

“Yes,” said the Master, “I see that you understand, and so now you have the right to be called a Sutra-reciting monk.”

Fa Ta understood the doctrine, but he did not make the mistake some people might have and think, “I understand it, so I don’t have to recite it. I have reached the level where I:

Recite and yet do not recite; 
Do not recite and yet recite. 

If this is the case, then can you:

Eat as if not eating, and 
Not eat as if eating; 

or

Steal as if not stealing, and 
Not steal as if stealing; 

or even

Kill as if not killing, and
Not kill as if killing?

Can you get away with this? Of course not! If you truly understand and are unattached to what you do, you will not babble intellectual zen and say that you recite without reciting. Before you can make that claim, you must first have reached that level of accomplishment.

Bhikshu Chih T’ung

Sutra: 

Bhikshu Chih T’ung, a native of An Feng in Shao Chou, had read the Lankavatara Sutra over a thousand times but still did not understand the three bodies and the four wisdoms. He made obeisance to the Master, seeking an explanation of the meaning.

The Master said, “The three bodies are: the clear, pure Dharma-body, which is your nature; the perfect, full Reward-body, which is your wisdom; and the hundred thousand myriad Transformation bodies, which are your conduct. To speak of the three bodies as separate from your original nature is to have the bodies but not the wisdoms. To remember that the three bodies have no self-nature is to understand the four wisdoms of Bodhi. Listen to my verse:

Three bodies complete in your own self-nature 
When understood become four wisdoms. 
While not apart from seeing and hearing 
Transcend them and ascend to the Buddha realm.

I will now explain it for you. 
If you are attentive and faithful, you will never be deluded. 
Don’t run outside in search of them, 
By saying ‘Bodhi’ to the end of your days. 

Chih T’ung asked further, “May I hear about the meaning of the four wisdoms?”

The Master said, “Since you understand the three bodies, you should also understand the four wisdoms. Why do you ask again? To speak of the four wisdoms as separate from the three bodies is to have the wisdoms but not the bodies, in which case the wisdoms become non-wisdoms.” He then spoke this verse:

The wisdom of the great, perfect mirror 
Is your clear, pure nature. 
The wisdom of equal nature 
Is the mind without disease. 
Wonderfully observing wisdom 
Is seeing without effort. 
Perfecting wisdom is 
The same as the perfect mirror.

Five, eight, six, seven– 
Effect and cause both turn; 
Merely useful names: 
They are without real nature. 
If, in the place of turning, 
Emotion is not kept, 
You always and forever dwell 
In Naga concentration.

Commentary: 

Bhikshu Chih T’ung studied the Lankavatara Sutra because Bodhidharma recommended it above all other texts for the Ch’an School. Although he had read it over a thousand times, he still had to ask the Master about the three bodies and the four wisdoms. The Master always teaches Dharma of and from self-nature.

“The clear, pure Dharma-body is your own original nature,” he said, “and the Reward-body is your wisdom. The transformation-bodies are your conduct, because you are what you do; you are transformed according to what you practice. If you try to explain the three bodies as something apart from your self-nature, you have the bodies, but not the wisdoms. But when you understand that the three bodies are devoid of self-nature, you possess the four wisdoms of Bodhi.

“When you understand that the three bodies are immanent in the self-nature, you realize the four wisdoms. Without being separated from the conditions of sight and hearing, you ascend directly to the Buddha-realm. Now, I have spoken this verse,” the Sixth Patriarch said, “and you must truly believe it. Then you will never again be confused like those people who go around saying ‘Bodhi, Bodhi, Bodhi’ all day long, but who never practice or understand Bodhi. Don’t chatter ‘head-mouth’ zen! You must truly understand the three bodies for it to count.

The Master continued, “Since you understand the three bodies, you should understand the four wisdoms as well. If you try to explain the four wisdoms as something apart from the three bodies, then although you know the name ‘four wisdoms’ you do not possess their actual substance or know their function. Your wisdoms are non-wisdoms.”

The Buddha has four wisdoms. The wisdom of the great, perfect mirror is the eighth consciousness (alayavijnana) when it has been transformed from consciousness into wisdom. The eighth consciousness is also called the “store” consciousness, because it stores up all the good and bad seeds you have planted in the past, all the good and bad things you have done in this and past lives. If you have planted good causes, you reap good effects; if you have planted bad causes, you reap bad effects. As the potential of all good and bad karma is stored in the eighth consciousness, it also comes to be called the “field of the eighth-consciousness,” because whatever you plant in it eventually sprouts.

When you are unable to use it, it is merely consciousness, but when you return to the root and go back to the source, the eighth consciousness is transmuted into the great perfect mirror wisdom, which in its essence is pure and undefiled.

The wisdom of equal nature is the seventh consciousness when it has been transformed from consciousness into wisdom. Before you understand, it is the seventh consciousness, but once you are enlightened, it is the wisdom of equal nature.

The seventh consciousness is also called the “transmitting consciousness” because it acts as a transmitter between the sixth and eighth consciousness. It is called “the wisdom of equal nature” because the minds of all Buddhas and living beings are equal when the latter’s consciousness have been transformed into wisdom. “The mind without disease” means that there is no obstruction, no jealousy, no greed, hate, or stupidity. Without these defilements the seventh consciousness is transmuted into the wisdom of equal nature.

The wonderful observing wisdom is the sixth consciousness when it has been transformed into wisdom. It is the wisdom of subtle observation. The sixth consciousness, what we think of as the ordinary mind, is the consciousness of discrimination; it discriminates good and evil, right and wrong, male and female. Such discrimination is not actually the work of intelligence, as it seems to be, but is merely a kind of consciousness. When you turn it into wisdom, it becomes wonderfully observing wisdom, which sees all realms without having to go through the process of discrimination. This wonderful observation is quite different from mere discriminative thoughts.

When certified Arhats wish to use the wonderful observing wisdom to know something, they must first sit quietly in meditation and intentionally observe, for unless they intentionally observe, their minds are no different from those of ordinary people. By intentionally observing, they can know the events of the past eighty thousand eons.

Perfecting wisdom comes from the transformation of the first five consciousnesses–eye, ear, nose, tongue, and body–into wisdom.

“Five, eight, six, seven–effect and cause both turn.” The five consciousnesses and the eighth consciousness are transformed in the period of reaping effects and the sixth and seventh are transformed in the period of planting causes. In transforming the consciousnesses into the four wisdoms, first turn the sixth and seventh in the period of planting causes, and next the eighth and five in the period of reaping effects.

“Merely useful names: they are without real nature.” Although they are said to be changed in the realms of causes and effects, there is nothing in reality which corresponds to them; they are merely names and nothing more.

“If, in the place of ‘turning,’ emotion isn’t kept;” if, in the place where your emotional feelings are being ‘turned’ you do not use your common mind and become caught up in the ‘turning…’

“You always and forever dwell in Naga concentration.” At all times you are in Naga samadhi. Naga means “dragon.” Dragons can magically appear in big or small bodies because they have a great deal of concentration. As Fa Hai tells us in his introduction to the Sutra, the Sixth Patriarch defeated a dragon by saying, “If you are really a magic dragon, you should be able to appear in a small body as well as a large one.” Then, when the dragon turned up in a small body the Master dared him to climb into his bowl. As the little dragon had a big temper and much ignorance, he jumped at the dare; but when he tried to jump out again, he couldn’t do it. The Master explained the Dharma to the dragon and the dragon then went to rebirth.

The dragon may have been constantly in samadhi, but he had not destroyed his ignorance and therefore lost his temper. “I’ll show you!” he said, “I’ll change my body into a little one right now!” If he had really been in samadhi he would have said, “You say I can’t appear in a small body? O.K. So what? I’ll just appear in this large one.” But he lost his concentration and was ‘turned,’ caught, and defeated by the Great Master.

Still, Naga samadhi is an inconceivable state. How do dragons get to be dragons? They study the Buddhadharma with mighty effort, morning to night, but they do not keep the precepts. “Precepts are for common people,” they say. “I’m extraordinary. I’m not in the same category as they are, and I do not have to keep precepts!” That’s how they turn into dragons.

Sutra:

The above passage was not part of the original text, but was added later.

Sutra:

Instantly enlightened to the nature of wisdom, Chih T’ung submitted the following verse:

Three bodies are my basic substance, 
Four wisdoms my original bright mind. 
Body and wisdom in unobstructed fusion: 
In response to beings I accordingly take form. 
Arising to cultivate them is false movement. 
Holding to or pondering over them a waste of effort. 
Through the Master I know the wonderful principle, 
And in the end I lose the stain of names. 

Commentary: 

Chih T’ung understood the function of the three bodies and the four wisdoms. “The three bodies are not to be found outside of my own body,” he said, “and the four wisdoms, too, are produced from my own bright, understanding mind. When the bodies and wisdoms interpenetrate, then I may dispense the Dharma in accord with the needs of living beings–in accord with external conditions and yet not changing; unchanging, and yet in accord with conditions. If you wonder, “How can I cultivate the three bodies and four wisdoms?” that is nothing but false thinking, false movement. The same is true of holding to them and being attached to them.

From beginning to end there is no stain of names. What is unstained by names is the original self-nature, which is untouched by worldly emotion. Unless you have no defilement, you cannot return to the root and go back to the source, which is undefiled.

Bhikshu Chih Ch’ang

Sutra: 

Chih Ch’ang replied, “Your student has recently been to Pai Feng Mountain in Hung Chou to call on the High Master Ta T’ung and receive his instruction on the principle of seeing one’s nature and realizing Buddhahood. As I have not yet resolved my doubts, I have come from a great distance to bow reverently and request the Master’s compassionate instruction.”

The Master said, “Your former master’s explanation still retains the concepts of knowing and seeing; and that is why you have not understood. Now, I will teach you with a verse:

Not to see a single dharma still retains no-seeing, 
Greatly resembling floating clouds covering the sun. 
Not to know a single dharma holds to empty knowing, 
Even as a lightning flash comes out of empty space. 
This knowing and seeing arise in an instant. 
When seen wrongly, can expedients be understood? 
If, in the space of a thought, you can know your own error, 
Your own spiritual light will always be manifest. 

Commentary:

Bhikshu Chih Ch’ang left home at the early age of seven or eight. When he called on the Sixth Patriarch, the Master remembered his first meeting with the Fifth Patriarch, who had asked him, “Where are you from and what do you seek?”

“I’m from Hsin Chou,” the Master had said, “and I seek nothing but Buddhahood.”

“Hsin Chou people are barbarians,” the Fifth Patriarch had said. “How can you become a Buddha?”

“The Barbarian’s body and the High Master’s body are not the same,” countered the Sixth Patriarch, “but in the Buddha nature where is the distinction?”

Remembering this, the Sixth Patriarch asked Chih Ch’ang, “Where are you from? Just what do you think you’re doing?”

Chih Ch’ang had received instruction on seeing the nature and realizing Buddhahood, but he still had doubts. The Chinese word for doubts is literally “fox doubt” because foxes are wary of everything. When a fox walks across the ice, he takes a step, cocks his head, and listens: if the ice crackles he runs back to shore; if it does not, he keeps on walking and listening, walking and listening. Although foxes are extremely intelligent, they are full of doubts.

In his verse the Sixth Patriarch explains, “If you do not see a single dharma and the ten thousand dharmas all are empty, you still have the view of not seeing any dharmas; you still hold that view. This is just like floating clouds covering the sun, because if you truly do not see anything, you are free of the idea of not seeing.

“In the same way, if you don’t establish a single dharma and don’t know a single dharma, but still have the knowledge that you neither establish nor know dharmas, you still hold on to an empty, false kind of knowing. Your principles seem coherent, but knowing and seeing still remain. This is like the great void: originally there is nothing there, but suddenly there is a flash of lightning. Now, do you see, or not?

“This ‘knowing and seeing’ arise in an instant.” Your seeing nothing and your empty knowing, your view of not seeing and your knowledge of knowing nothing, are there before your eyes.

You should understand right this instant that you are wrong in holding to the idea of seeing nothing and knowing emptiness. Then your original wisdom, your original intelligence, your inherent Buddha nature which is the Tathagata’s Treasury will always be manifest.

Sutra: 

Hearing the verse, Chih Ch’ang understood it with his heart and mind, and he composed this verse:

Without beginning, knowing and seeing arise. 
When one is attached to marks bodhi is sought out.
Clinging to a thought of enlightenment, 
Do I rise above my former confusion? 
The inherently enlightened substance of my nature 
Illuminates the turning twisting flow.
But had I not entered the Patriarch’s room, 
I’d still be running, lost between the two extremes. 

Commentary: 

When Chih Ch’ang heard this verse, he put it all down. Having put it all down he didn’t say, “I put it all down!” If you put it down, put it down; don’t keep saying, “I put it down!” If you keep on saying that you’ve put it down, you haven’t really done it. If you truly have no knowledge or view and have returned to the root and gone back to the source, why do you keep a ‘knowing’ and a ‘viewing’?

Chih Ch’ang understood and spoke a wonderful verse: “Without beginning, knowing and seeing arise.” Without a head, without a tail, the idea of seeing nothing and the knowledge of emptiness arise from no beginning, without a causal basis or foundation. Though one is attached to marks, Bodhi is sought out. You should not be attached to marks, but now you have become attached to seeing nothing and knowing emptiness. Previously, when I explained “no-thought,” I said that if you think, “I have no thought,” just that is a thought. Isn’t it?

If you really are without thought, you are also without no-thought. The concept of no-thought is just another thought.

In Ch’an (Dhyana) meditation, when we reflect on the question, “Who is reciting the Buddha’s name?” we search for the “who” but don’t find it, because basically there is no “who.” But people can’t understand, and keep looking for a “self,” saying “Who?” In your search, do not be attached to marks; do not be attached to the mark of self when you seek Bodhi.

When you think, “I’m seeing emptiness and there is nothing at all!” you still have the thought of knowing; you still have the thought of seeing, and you don’t overcome your confusion. This is certainly not enlightenment.

“The inherently enlightened substance of my nature illuminates the turning, twisting flow.” The basic substance of the self-nature, which is enlightened from the beginning, is in accord with the shift and flow of external conditions, and yet it does not change. Understanding this, Chih Ch’ang finds the middle way between the “two extremes” of ‘seeing’ nothing and ‘knowing’ emptiness.

Sutra:

The Master said, “Chih Ch’ang, the Dharma doesn’t even have one vehicle, much less four! People’s minds are what differ. If you see, hear, and recite, you belong to the small vehicle; if you understand and awaken, you belong to the middle vehicle; if you practice in accord with the Dharma, you belong to the great vehicle. When you understand all dharmas, when they are perfected in your own mind without any obstruction, and when you know that the ten thousand dharmas are the mind and the mind is the ten thousand dharmas, and further when you are not defiled by any state, then you belong to the Supreme Vehicle. But you must cultivate on your own; I can’t do it for you.

Eat your own food and fill yourself;
End your own birth and death. 

From that time on, Chih Ch’ang served the Master. When he wanted a cup of tea, Chih Ch’ang brought it for him; when he was hungry, Chih Ch’ang brought him food. He served the Master right up until the Master’s death, at which time he left Nan Hua Temple.

Bhikshu Chih Tao

Sutra: 

Chih Tao replied,

“All activities are impermanent, 
Characterized by production and extinction; 
When production and extinction are extinguished,
That still extinction is bliss. 

My doubts are with respect to this passage.”

Commentary:

Once in the past, during the period when Shakyamuni Buddha was cultivating to plant causes for the attainment of Buddhahood, he was a Brahman. Deep in the mountains he cultivated many Dharma doors so heroically that the god Shakra was moved and said, “He works so hard! I wonder if I can break him?” and he transformed himself into a rakshasa ghost to test the Brahman. He told him, “The Buddha known as ‘Free from Fear’ said, ‘All activities are impermanent, characterized by production and extinction.’”

“Who said that?” said the Brahman.

The rakshasa ghost, who was hideously ugly, appeared and said, “I was just quoting a verse spoken by the Buddha who is free from fear.”

“But you didn’t recite the entire verse, only the first half. Please complete it,” said the Brahman.

“I don’t have the energy because I haven’t eaten for several days. Find me something to eat and I will speak it for you,” the ghost said.

“What would you like?” asked the Brahman.

“I don’t eat anything but fresh, warm, human meat,” said the ghost.

“In that case,” replied the Brahman, “you may speak the verse and then I will give you my own body to eat.”

The ghost stared at him. “Can you really do such an awesome deed? Can you really give up your body for half a verse?”

“I speak the truth; I do not lie,” said the Brahman, “and if you don’t believe me I can ask the Buddhas of the ten directions to bear testimony to the fact. Now, recite the verse and then I will feed you.”

The ghost quickly recited, “‘All activities are impermanent, characterized by production and extinction; When production and extinction are extinguished, that still extinction is bliss.’ Now give me your body!”

“Wait a minute,” said the Brahman. “Once you have eaten me there will be nothing left of the verse unless I write it down. Let me carve it on this tree so that future generations may cultivate according to it.” Then he stripped the bark from a tree and carved the verse on its trunk.

The ghost said, “Can I eat you now?”

“Just a minute…” said the Brahman.

“So you’re backing out, are you?” the ghost said.

“No, I’m not,” said the Brahman, “but what I have written on the tree will eventually be worn away by the wind and rain. I want to carve the verse in stone so that it will last forever. I’ll gladly give you my body, but I must also leave the Buddhadharma for those of the future.”

“Not a bad idea,” said the ghost.

The Brahman carved the words in stone and said, “All right, I’ve done what I had to do. I give my body to you as an offering. You may eat me now,” and he shut his eyes and waited for the ghost to devour him. But just then the ghost flew up into empty space, transformed himself back into Shakra and said, “Very good! Very good! You are a true cultivator, one who gives up his own body for the sake of the Buddha Way. In the future you are sure to become a Buddha!”

This is an event in a former life of Shakyamuni Buddha, when, as a Brahman, he offered his life for half a verse.

Sutra:

“Is it the physical body which is extinct and the Dharma body which receives the bliss?” Chih Tao wanted to know, “or is it the Dharma body which is extinct and the physical body which receives the bliss?

“How could it be the physical body which receives the bliss? The body is composed of the elements earth, air, fire, and water. At death, the elements scatter and that is a state of unspeakable suffering. You can’t call suffering happiness.”

“Hey!” said the Great Master, “you are a disciple of Shakyamuni Buddha. You have left home and are a member of the Sangha. How can you harbor the deviant views and deviant knowledge of non-Buddhist religions? You say that there is a Dharma-body apart from the physical body and its extinction and that there is a tranquil extinction apart from the process of production and extinction. Isn’t this what you’re saying? You also say that there is a body which enjoys the four virtues of Nirvana: permanence, bliss, true self, and purity. In fact, your theories are nothing but niggardly attachment to birth and death and worldly pleasure. Stuck in the mundane world, you cannot possibly know transcendental bliss.”

Sutra:

“You should now know that deluded people mistook the union of five heaps for their own bodies and discriminated dharmas as external to themselves. They loved life, dreaded death, and drifted from thought to thought, not knowing that this illusory dream is empty and false. They turned vainly around on the wheel of birth and death and mistook the permanence and bliss of Nirvana for a form of suffering. All day long they sought after something else.

“Taking pity on them, the Buddha made manifest in the space of an instant the true bliss of Nirvana, which has no mark of production or extinction; it has no production or extinction to be extinguished. That, then, is the manifestation of tranquil extinction. Its manifestation cannot be reckoned; it is permanent and blissful. The bliss has neither an enjoyer nor a non-enjoyer. How can you call it ‘one substance with five functions?’ Worse, how can you say that Nirvana suppresses all dharmas, causing them to be forever unproduced? That is to slander the Buddha and defame the Dharma.”

The Buddha spoke for those who thought that their bodies were actually made up of a union of the five heaps, and who thought dharmas were something external to themselves. They were attached to life and death because they didn’t know that everything is like a dream, a bubble, a lightning flash, or a dew drop–illusory. They underwent birth and death over and over again, uselessly and pitifully spinning on the wheel of the six paths of rebirth.

Some people thought that the wonderful virtues of Nirvana were a kind of suffering, but the Buddha mercifully revealed to them the true happiness of Nirvana, where there is no mark of production and no mark of extinction. Further, there is absolutely no extinction of production and extinction, because right within production and extinction there appears the state of non-production and non-extinction. That is the manifestation of tranquil extinction.

You can’t say that the manifestation of tranquil extinction is so long or so short, so high or so wide. It’s a kind of permanent happiness which is without an enjoyer or a non-enjoyer. If you would like to have this kind of happiness, you should know that there is no one who enjoys it or does not enjoy it. Why? It is the manifestation of the original self-nature.

Sutra:

“Listen to my verse:

Supreme, great Nirvana is bright 
Perfect, permanent, still and shining. 
Deluded common people call it death, 
Other teachings hold it to be annihilation. 
All those who seek two vehicles 
Regard it as non-action. 
Ultimately these notions arise from feeling, 
And form the basis for sixty-two views, 
Wrongly establishing unreal names. 
What is the true, real principle? 
Only one who has gone beyond measuring 
Penetrates without grasping or rejecting, 
And knows that the dharma of the five heaps 
And the self within the heaps, 
The outward appearances–a mass of images– 
The mark of every sound,
Are equally like the illusion of dreams, 
For him, views of common and holy do not arise 
Nor are explanations of Nirvana made. 
The two boundaries, the three limits are cut off. 
All organs have their function, 
But there never arises the thought of the function. 
All dharmas are discriminated 
Without a thought of discrimination arising. 
When the fire at the eon’s end 
burns the bottom of the sea 
And the winds blow the mountains 
against each other, 
The true, permanent, still extinct bliss, 
The mark of Nirvana is ‘thus.’ 
I have struggled to explain it, 
To cause you to reject your false views. 
Don’t understand it by words alone 
And maybe you’ll understand a bit of this.”

After hearing this verse, Chih Tao was greatly enlightened. Overwhelmed with joy, he made obeisance and withdrew.

The Sixth Patriarch said, “Listen. Great Nirvana is full, complete and bright. It’s permanent, unchanging, and constantly illuminating. Ordinary people say that it is death, and those of non-Buddhist religions say that it is annihilation. The two vehicles of the Shravakas and Pratyeka Buddhas think that it is non-action; that it is uncreated and arises spontaneously. But these are all discriminations which arise from emotion, and they form the basis of sixty-two wrong views. What are the sixty-two wrong views?

When each of the four above are applied to the five heaps– form, feelings, perceptions, impulses, and consciousness–they make twenty. The twenty multiplied by the three periods of time–past, present, and future–make sixty. Adding the two extremes of permanence and annihilation makes sixty-two. None of them are real; they are all empty and false.”

Then “what is the true real principle?” Only one who has gone beyond measuring penetrates without grasping at or rejecting them. Therefore he truly understands that the dharma of the five heaps and the self within those heaps, the marks of form and sound, are all like dreams, illusions, bubbles and shadows.

“For him, views of common and holy do not arise.” He doesn’t have the views of a common person, he doesn’t have the understanding of the sage, and he doesn’t try to explain the bliss of Nirvana. “The two boundaries, the three limits are cut off.” He is attached neither to the boundary of emptiness, nor to the boundary of existence. Therefore the three limits of the past, present, and future are cut off and he is not attached to them.

“All organs have their function, but there never arises the thought of the function.” The true suchness self-nature has the ability to function in accord with external conditions and yet not change. It’s responsiveness is inexhaustible and yet there is no thought of “Ah! I am functioning!” All “Dharmas are discriminated without a thought of discrimination arising.” You don’t think, “I am not making discriminations.” If you do think that, you have the mark of discrimination. To be truly without discrimination is to be without the mark of non-discrimination as well.

“When the fire at the end of the eon burns the bottom of the sea and the wind blows the mountains against each other:” At the end of an eon, there are three disasters: flood, fire, and wind. “The true permanent, still, extinct bliss, the mark of Nirvana is ‘thus.’” If you have attained true permanence and the bliss of tranquil extinction, then the mark of Nirvana is just as it was explained above, and the three disasters cannot affect you.

The Great Master concludes by saying that he has spoken the verse to encourage his listeners to cast aside their present knowledge and views. “When you no longer rely on the text in order to explain the Sutras,” he said, “I will grant that you understand just a little bit of what I’ve said.”

Bhikshu Hsing Szu 

Sutra:

Having obtained the Dharma, Hsing Szu returned to Ch’ing Yüan Mountain in Chi Chou, to propagate the Dharma and transform living beings. After his death he was given the posthumous title “Dhyana Master Hung Chi.”

Dhyana Master Hsing Szu walked and thought about things at the same time. What did he think about? Do you know? I know. He walked and thought, “Who is mindful of the Buddha? Who is mindful of the Buddha?” and so he was called Hsing Szu, “walking thinker.”

At that time the reputation of the Dharma Assembly at Ts’ao Hsi had spread all over China. Everyone knew that the person to whom the Fifth Patriarch had transmitted the robe and bowl was spreading the Dharma there. People “drift away from the empty and gather with the flourishing.” If there are only a few people in your place, it will soon be empty. For instance, here there are thirty people, but if there were only three or four people, soon they would all run away. The more people there are, the more will come from the outside. “There are a lot of people at the Buddhist Lecture Hall!” “Hippies who go there cut their hair and shave their beards. It’s inconceivable. There must be something happening there. Let’s go and see!”

The Dharma Assembly at Ts’ao Hsi flourished. “Gather with the flourishing” can also be explained as “gather with the sages,” because in Chinese the words “flourishing” and “sage” sound the same. Many sages and common people came to support the Patriarch.

Hsing Szu asked the Patriarch which Dharma door he should cultivate in order to avoid the successive stages of the gradual teaching. The sudden teaching does not have successive stages. Therefore, what he actually asked was, “How do I cultivate the sudden dharma?” He must have heard someone say, “The Sixth Patriarch is truly inconceivable. He has the five eyes and the six spiritual penetrations. I went there and didn’t say a thing and he knew what I was thinking and asked me about, it!”

The Master regarded Hsing Szu highly. “What this man says makes sense,” he thought. “He surely must have good roots.” He appointed Hsing Szu head of the assembly and thereafter Hsing Szu always walked in front, leading the others during the ceremonies.

The Sixth Patriarch saw Hsing Szu as a vessel of the Dharma, a Dharma-door “elephant and dragon.” This means that he had the capability of a patriarch, not a self-made patriarch, but one who had received the Sixth Patriarch’s certification and permission to teach. “Go and teach elsewhere,” said the Master. “You should not stay here with me but should go in such and such a direction to be a teaching master. Do not let the Dharma become extinct!”

Hsing Szu received the robe and bowl and carried the transmission of the lamp of the wonderful Dharma.

The posthumous title was conferred by the Emperor. Hsing Szu was given the name Hung Chi, “extensive crossing,” just as the Sixth Patriarch received the name Ta Chien, “great mirror.”

Dhyana Master Huai Jang