Here is Part III of Section IV. From the Chinese Masters from the Manual on Zen Buddhism written by the late, great brilliant scholar and Zen Master D. T. Suzuki. This teaching is so important! In essence, it explains the absolute necessity for living in the Present without the dualistic nature of thought or words and actually Being the Truth within the words. You must let go of All dogma and actually Live the Oneness of our True Nature which can not be described. Just live the meaning of the word "BE"!
Everything happens for a reason and my writing this now and sharing these great words of Wisdom from an ancient Chan, or Zen, Master, are directly related to a conversation I had earlier tonight about this very aspect of Wisdom. All I can say is, "WOW"! This IS the True Nature of Reality and is realized in everyday life by those who understand the One Truth. I am constantly in Awe of the workings of this One Truth as it reveals IT's Presence and settles the waves of our illusory duality back to Reality's natural Stillness to reveal the explicit grandeur of the Calm and Peaceful Oneness within us All! With great honor and sincere humbleness, I offer you this impeccable Teaching. Enjoy!
Namaste' **
FROM HUI-NENG'S TAN-CHING[1]
24. Mahaprajnaparamita is a Sanskrit term of the Western country; in T'ang it means "great-wisdom (chih-hui), other-shore reached". This Truth (dharma=fa)
is to be lived, it is not to be [merely] pronounced with the mouth.
When it is not lived, it is like a phantom, like an apparition. The
Dharmakaya of the Yogin is the same as the Buddha.
What is maha? Maha means "great". The capacity of Mind
is wide and great, it is like emptiness of space. To sit with a mind
emptied makes one fall into emptiness of indifference. Space contains
the sun, the moon, stars, constellations, great earth, mountains, and
rivers. All grasses and plants, good men and bad men, bad things and
good things, Heaven and hell-they are all in empty space. The emptiness
of [Self-] nature as it is in all people is just like this.
25. [Self-] nature contains in it all objects; hence it is great. All
objects without exception are of Self-nature. Seeing all human beings
and non-human beings as they are, evil and good, evil things and good things, it abandons them not, nor
is it contaminated with them; it is like the emptiness of space. So it
is called great, that is, maha. The confused pronounce it with
their mouths, the wise live it with their minds. Again, there are people
confused [in mind]; they conceive this to be great when they have their
minds emptied of thoughts--which is not right. The capacity of Mind is
great; when there is no life accompanying it, it is small. Do not merely
pronounce it with the mouth. Those who fail to discipline themselves to
live this life, are not my disciples.
26. What is prajna? Prajna is chih-hui (wisdom). When every thought of yours is not benighted at all times, when you always live chih-hui (=prajna,
wisdom), this is called the life of Prajna. When a single thought of
yours is benighted, then Prajna ceases to work. When a single thought of
yours is of chih, i.e. enlightened, then Prajna is born. Being always
benighted in their minds, people yet declare themselves to be living
Prajna. Prajna has no shape, no form, it is no other than the essence (hsing) of chih-hui (wisdom).
What is Paramita? This is a Sanskrit term of the Western country. In Yang it means "the other shore reached". When the meaning (artha in Sanskrit) is understood, one is detached from birth and death. When the objective world (visaya)
is clung to, there is the rise of birth and death; it is like the waves
rising from the water; this is called "this shore". When you are
detached from the objective world, there is no birth and death for you;
it is like the water constantly running its course: this is "reaching
the other shore". Hence Paramita.
The confused pronounce [Prajna] with their mouths; the wise live it
in their minds. When it is merely pronounced, there is at that very
moment a falsehood; when there is a .falsehood, it is not a reality.
When Prajna is lived in every thought of yours, this is known as
reality. Those who understand this truth, understand the truth of Prajna
and practise the life of Prajna. Those who do not practise it are
ordinary people. When you practise and live it in one thought of yours,
You are equal to the Buddha.
Good friends, the passions are no other than enlightenment (bodhi).
When your antecedent thought is confused yours is an ordinary mind; as
soon as your succeeding thought is enlightened, you are a Buddha.
Good friends, Prajnaparamita is the most honoured, the highest, the
foremost; it is nowhere abiding, nowhere departing, nowhere coming; all
the Buddhas of the past, present, and future issue out of it. By means
of Great Wisdom (ta-chih-hui=mahaprajna) that leads to . the other shore (paramita),
the five skandhas, the passions, and the innumerable follies are
destroyed. When thus disciplined, one is a Buddha, and the three
passions [i.e. greed, anger, and folly] will turn into Morality (sila), Meditation (dhyana), and Wisdom (prajna).
27. Good friends, according to my way of understanding this truth, 84,000 wisdoms (chih-hui)
are produced from one Prajna. Why? Because there are 84,000 follies. If
there were no such innumerable follies, Prajna is eternally abiding,
not severed from Self-nature. He who has an insight into this truth is
free from thoughts, from recollections, from attachments; in him there
is no deceit and falsehood. This is where the essence of Suchness is by
itself. When all things are viewed in the light of wisdom (chih-hui=prajna), there is neither attachment nor detachment. This is seeing into one's Nature and attaining the truth of Buddhahood.
28. Good friends, if you wish to enter into the deepest realm of Truth (dharmadhatu),
and attain the Prajnasamadhi, you should at once begin to exercise
yourselves in the life of Prajnaparamita; you just devote yourselves to
the one volume of the Vajracchedika-prajnaparamita Sutra, and you
will, seeing into the nature of your being, enter upon the
Prajnasamadhi. It should be known that the merit of such a person is
immeasurable, as is distinctly praised in the sutras, of which I need
not speak in detail.
This Truth of the highest order is taught to people of great
intelligence and superior endowments. If people of small intelligence
and inferior endowments happen to hear it, no faith would ever be
awakened in their minds. Why? It is like a great dragon pouring rains
down in torrents over the Jambudipa: cities, towns, villages are all
deluged and carried away in the flood, as if they were grass-leaves. But
when the rain, however much, falls on the great ocean, there is in it
neither an increase nor a decrease.
When people of the Great Vehicle listen to a discourse on the Vajracchedika
their minds are opened and there is an intuitive understanding. They
know thereby that their own Nature is originally endowed with
Prajna-wisdom and that all things are to be viewed in the light of this
wisdom (chih-hui) of theirs, and they need not depend upon
letters. It is like rain-waters not being reserved in the sky; but the
water is drawn up by the dragon-king out of the rivers and oceans,
whereby all beings and all plants, sentient and non-sentient,
universally share the wet. All the waters flowing together once more are
poured into the great ocean, and the ocean accepting all the waters
fuses them into one single body of water. It is the same with
Prajna-wisdom which is the original Nature of all beings.
29. When people of inferior endowments hear this "abrupt" doctrine
here discoursed on, they are like those plants naturally growing small
on earth, which, being once soaked by a heavy rain, are all unable to
raise themselves up and continue their growth. It is the same with
people of inferior endowments. They are endowed with Prajna-wisdom as
much as people of great intelligence; there is no distinction. Why is it
then that they have no insight even when listening to the Truth? It is
due to the heaviness of hindrance caused by false views and to the
deep-rootedness of the passions. It is like an overcasting cloud
screening the sun; unless it blows hard no rays of light are visible.
There is no greatness or smallness in Prajna-wisdom, but since all
beings cherish in themselves confused thoughts, they seek the Buddha by
means of external exercises, and are unable to see into their
Self-nature. That is why they are known to be people of inferior
endowments.
Those beings who, listening to the "Abrupt" doctrine, do not take
themselves to external exercises, but reflecting within themselves raise
this original Nature all the time to the proper viewing [of the Truth],
remain [always Undefiled by] the passions and the innumerable follies;
and at that moment they all have an insight [into the Truth]. It is like
the great ocean taking in all the rivers, large and small, and merging
them into one body of water -'this is seeing into one's own Nature. [He
who thus sees into his own Nature] does not abide anywhere inside or
outside; he freely comes and departs; he knows how to get rid of
attaching thoughts; his passage has no obstructions. When one is able to
practise this life, he realizes that there is from the first no
difference between [his Self-Nature] and Prajnaparamita.[2]
30. All the sutras and writings, all the letters, the two vehicles
Major and Minor, the twelve divisions [of Buddhist literature]-these are
all set forth because of the people of the world. Because there is
wisdom-nature (chih-hui-hsing), therefore there is the
establishment of all these works. If there were no people of the world,
no multitudinous objects would ever be in existence. Therefore, we know
that all objects rise originally because of the people of the world. All
the sutras and writings are said to have their existence because of the
people of the world.
The distinction of stupidity and intelligence is only possible among
the people of the world. Those who are stupid are inferior people and
those who are intelligent are superior people. The confused ask the
wise, and the wise discourse for them on the Truth in order to make the
stupid enlightened and have an intuitive understanding of it. When the
confused are enlightened and have their minds opened, they are not to be
distinguished from the people of great intelligence.
Therefore, we know that Buddhas when not enlightened are no other
than ordinary beings; when there is one thought of enlightenment,
ordinary beings at once turn into Buddhas. Therefore, we know that all
multitudinous objects are every one of them in one's own mind.[3] Why not, from within one's own
mind, at once reveal the original essence of Suchness? Says the Bodhisattvasila Sutra:
"My original Self-nature is primarily pure; when my Mind is known and
my Nature is seen into I naturally attain the path of Buddhahood." Says
the Vimalakirti Sutra: "When you have an instant opening of view you
return to your original Mind."
48. The Great Master died on the third day of the eighth month of the
second year of Hsien-t'ien (713 C.E.). On the eighth day of the seventh
month of this year he had a farewell gathering of his followers as he
felt that he was to leave them forever in the following month, and told
them to have all the doubts they might have about his teaching once for
all settled on this occasion. As he found them weeping in tears he said:
"You are all weeping, but for whom are you so sorry? If you are sorry
for my not knowing where I am departing to, you are mistaken; for I know
where I am going. Indeed, if I did not, I would not part with you. The
reason why you are in tears is probably that you do not yourselves know
whither I am going. If you did, you would not be weeping so. The Essence
of the Dharma knows no birth-and-death, no coming-and-going. Sit down,
all of you, and let me give you a gatha with the title, "On the
Absolute"[4]
There is nothing true anywhere,
The true is nowhere to be seen;
If you say you see the true,
This seeing is not the true one.[5]
Where the true is left to itself,
There is nothing false in it, which is Mind itself.
When Mind in itself is not liberated from the false,
There is nothing true, nowhere is the true to be found.
A conscious being alone understands what is meant by "moving";
To those not endowed with consciousness, the moving is unintelligible;
If you exercise yourself in the practice of keeping your mind unmoved, [i.e. in a quietistic meditation] [6]
The immovable you gain is that of one who has no consciousness.
The immovable you gain is that of one who has no consciousness.
If you are desirous for the truly immovable,
The immovable is in the moving itself,
And this immovable is the [truly] immovable one;
There is no seed of Buddhahood where there is no consciousness.
Mark well how varied are aspects [of the immovable one],
And know that the first reality is immovable;
Only when this insight is attained,
The true working of Suchness is understood.
I advise you, O students of the Truth
To exert yourselves in the proper direction;
Do not in the teaching of the Mahayana
Commit the fault of clinging to the relative knowledge of birth and death. [7]
Where there is an all-sided concordance of views
You may talk together regarding the Buddha's teaching;
Where there is really no such concordance,
Keep your hands folded and your joy within yourself.
There is really nothing to argue about in this teaching;
Any arguing is sure to go against the intent of it;
Doctrines given up to confusion and argumentation
Lead by themselves to birth and death.
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