楞嚴經宗通

Section 8: Clarifying the Source of Delusion and the Perfect Wholeness of the Nature of Awareness

I. PURNA PRESENTS HIS DOUBTS

Sutra: At that time, Purnamaitrayaniputra, who was among the great assembly, rose from his seat, bared his right shoulder, knelt with his right knee touching the ground, reverently joined his palms, and addressed the Buddha: “World-Honored One, majestic and greatly virtuous, you have skillfully expounded for sentient beings the Tathagata’s Truth of the Supreme Meaning. The World-Honored One has often declared me foremost among those who expound the Dharma.

Yet now, as I listen to the Tathagata’s subtle and wondrous Dharma voice, I am like a deaf man who, from more than a hundred paces away, listens to the sound of a mosquito—he cannot even see it, much less hear it. Although the Buddha has proclaimed the teaching clearly, wishing to enable me to dispel my delusion, I still do not understand its ultimate meaning and have not reached the state where no doubts remain.

“World-Honored One, those such as Ananda, though they have awakened through hearing, have not yet completely eliminated their outflow-tainted habitual tendencies. As for those of us who have ascended to the stage beyond outflows, although we have exhausted all outflows, upon hearing the Dharma voice expounded by the Tathagata today, we are still beset by doubts and misgivings.

“World-Honored One, if all the faculties, sense objects, ayatanas, dhatus, and so forth throughout the world are the Tathagatagarbha, fundamentally and naturally pure, how did mountains, rivers, and the great earth suddenly arise, together with all conditioned phenomena that successively change, perish, and arise again?

“Moreover, the Tathagata has said that the natures of earth, water, fire, and wind are fundamentally perfect and interpenetrating, pervading the entire Dharma-realm, utterly still and eternally abiding. World-Honored One, if the nature of the Earth Element pervades everything, how can it contain the Water Element? If the nature of water pervades everything, the Fire Element surely could not arise. How, then, can it be revealed that the natures of both the Water Element and the Fire Element pervade all of empty space without encroaching upon or destroying each other? World-Honored One, the nature of the Earth Element is obstructive, while the nature of empty space is open and unobstructed. How can both elements fully pervade the Dharma-realm?

“I do not now understand the source of this meaning. I beseech the Tathagata to bestow his great compassion and lift the clouds of delusion from me and everyone in this great assembly.”

After Purna had spoken these words, he prostrated himself with all five limbs touching the ground and reverently awaited the Tathagata’s unsurpassed compassionate instruction.

Commentary: The Tathagatagarbha—the Wondrous Nature of True Suchness—is the Truth of the Supreme Meaning. Perfectly interpenetrating and wondrously subtle, its essential point lies in awakening through the mind. Once a person has awakened, whatever he brings forth is none other than it, and wherever he applies it there is no doubt or difficulty.

With a single leap he immediately enters it; what need is there to rely upon the labor of gradual cultivation? Those such as Ananda had not yet completely eliminated their outflow-tainted habitual tendencies. They had already broken through coarse delusions, but subtle delusions still remained.

Those in the assembly who had ascended to the stage beyond outflows, although they had completely severed the afflictive obstructions, still retained the cognitive obstructions. Being confined within a stage involving cultivation, how could they comprehend the supreme Truth of the Supreme Meaning?

Those appearances are illusory. Fundamentally, they have never arisen, yet now Purna doubts how they arose. The four pure elements are like mani jewels, displaying colors according to their orientation. They seem to possess blue, yellow, red, and white, though fundamentally no such colors exist. Yet now he doubts that they encroach upon one another! It was not that Purna clung to appearances in order to challenge the Nature; rather, within the fundamentally perfect, interpenetrating, utterly still, and eternally abiding Nature, doubt arose in him. His “karma” was that, although he had ascended to the stage beyond outflows, within that freedom from outflows he saw only its Stillness, but not its Wondrous Stillness; he saw only its Abiding, but not its Non-Abiding.

Patriarch Zhaozhou said: “Other people are difficult to see but easy to know. For me, within this, they are easy to see but difficult to know.” Is this not precisely what the sutra means when it says, “Like a deaf man who, from more than a hundred paces away, listens to the sound of a mosquito”? How could these be empty words?

Dharma Master Changshui Xuan asked Chan Master Langye Jiao: “Being fundamentally and naturally pure, how did mountains, rivers, and the great earth suddenly arise?”

Patriarch Jiao said: “Being suddenly pure, how did mountains, rivers, and the great earth suddenly arise?”

At these words, Master Xuan awakened.

Now tell me: Did this answer the question, or did it not? If you say it answered the question, how do you understand its principle? If you say it did not answer, then how did he awaken?

Tiantong composed this verse:

“Seeing existence, there is no existence;

Palm turned upward, palm turned downward.

That man of Mount Langye

Did not fall behind Gautama.”

Again, a monk asked National Teacher Shao: “From where do all the mountains, rivers, and the great earth arise?”

Patriarch Shao said: “From where did this question come?”

Truly, this cuts open the belly and carves out the heart!

II. PRIMORDIAL IGNORANCE

Sutra: The World-Honored One then said to Purna and to all the outflow-free, non-learning arhats in the assembly: “Today, for the sake of this entire assembly, the Tathagata will reveal, within the supreme meaning, the Nature of the True Supreme Meaning. I shall enable those in the assembly who are sravakas of fixed nature, as well as all the arhats who have not yet attained the twofold emptiness of self and dharmas but who have resolved to advance toward the Supreme Vehicle, to attain the genuine ground of cultivation: the One Vehicle of quiescent cessation, pure and true in its single flavor. Listen carefully now, and I shall explain it for you.”

Purna and the others reverently received the Buddha’s Dharma voice and listened silently.

The Buddha said: “Purna! As you have asked, being fundamentally and naturally pure, how did mountains, rivers, and the great earth suddenly arise? Have you not often heard the Tathagata proclaim, ‘The Nature of Awareness is wondrously luminous; fundamental awareness is luminously wondrous’?”

Purna replied: “Yes, World-Honored One. I have often heard the Buddha proclaim this meaning.”

Commentary: The Tathagatagarbha is the Supreme Truth of the Supreme Meaning; here it is called the Nature of the True Supreme Meaning. This directly points to the source from which mountains, rivers, and the great earth arise, enabling people to penetrate it at its very origin and immediately see their own Nature.

Although sravakas of fixed nature are no longer disturbed by turmoil and confusion, theirs is not yet genuine quiescent cessation, because they have not realized that all dharmas are fundamentally quiescent and ceased. Although arhats have attained the emptiness of self, they have not yet attained the emptiness of dharmas. They are attached to empty quiescence and cannot yet advance toward the Supreme Vehicle. Therefore, at this point they all attain the One Vehicle, beyond which there is no other vehicle. Only when they enter the Buddha’s knowledge and vision do they reach the ground of right cultivation.

With regard to the Nature of Awareness, it is called “wondrously luminous” because its essence is inherently wondrous and constantly luminous; it does not depend upon anything else for its luminosity. With regard to fundamental awareness, it is called “luminously wondrous” because, through the inconceivable power of cultivation and permeation, one clearly realizes the wondrous Nature of Awareness. Being wondrous and yet luminous, it contains not the slightest ignorance.

Being luminous and yet wondrous, it does not remain fixed in luminosity. This is precisely where the Mind-King is plainly revealed. As for “luminous awareness” (the alaya-vijnana), it falls into discriminating consciousness; apart from awareness, it is itself ignorance—how could it be called wondrous?

Therefore, later the sutra says: “Luminous awareness is the error.”

Patriarch Zhaozhou ascended the Dharma seat and said: “The Great Way is not difficult; simply avoid picking and choosing. As soon as words are spoken, there is picking and choosing, there is clarity! This old monk does not abide within clarity. Do you cherish and safeguard this or not?”

At that time, a monk asked: “Since you do not abide within clarity, what is there to cherish and safeguard?”

Patriarch Zhaozhou said: “I do not know either.”

The monk said: “Since the Venerable Master does not know, why do you say that you do not abide within clarity?”

Patriarch Zhaozhou said: “You have asked your question. Bow and withdraw!”

Xuedou composed this verse:

“The Ultimate Way is not difficult—the beginning of words;

One: there are many kinds; two: there is no separate difference.

In the midst of emptiness, the sun rises and the moon sets;

Before the cliff, the water is cold and the mountains deep.

When the skull is dry and consciousness exhausted, where can joy be established?

In the withered tree the dragon chants—its dryness is not yet exhausted.

Difficult, difficult!”

“As for discrimination and clarity, see for yourself!”

Master Triệu Châu said, “It is not within clarity.” This was his utterly pure realm of Wondrous Illumination. He further instructed others to guard it with compassionate care, thereby disclosing a little news of that Illuminating Wonder.

The monk had secretly discerned Master Triệu Châu’s path and wished to join him in revealing it layer upon layer, so he asked, “Since it is not within clarity, what is there to guard with compassionate care?” Patriarch Châu said, “I do not know either,” openly displaying the radiant Illuminating Wonder!

The monk asked again, “Since the Venerable does not know, why do you say it is not within clarity?” This indeed was the Wondrous Illumination manifestly apparent.

Patriarch Triệu Châu was highly pleased that the monk possessed some measure of insight and that all his questions penetrated freely, so he instructed him, “Make your bows and withdraw.”

From beginning to end, the monk was never within clarity; what discrimination, then, could there be to speak of?

Master Tuyết Đậu wished to exchange the issue with Master Triệu Châu; that is precisely to require discrimination, to require clarity!

The Third Patriarch Tăng Xán’s Inscription on Faith in Mind says, “The supreme Way is not difficult; it only shuns discrimination and choice.”

Patriarch Triệu Châu therefore said, “As soon as there is speech, there is already discrimination and there is already clarity.” He feared precisely that people would fall into verbal explanations and turn it into a secondary meaning.

For one who sees clearly through, however, words present no obstruction; hence Master Tuyết Đậu said, “The source of words, the source of speech.” But if one abandons language and settles in a single place, then truly, “Before the cave, the withered tree has many paths astray, and therefore many varieties.” If one sees that each and every thing is the Way, then even though language branches into many particulars, there are not two kinds.

Thus it is said, “In the sky, the sun and moon; before the eaves, cold water”—all are that One Thing, which knives and axes cannot split apart. Upon reaching this point, discrimination and all the amusements of consciousness are utterly exhausted. This is the dragon chanting within the withered tree, naturally and wholly the single True Reality of Wondrous Illumination.

How could it be easy to reach? Hence it is said, “Difficult, difficult!” If there remains the slightest delight or the slightest consciousness, it is called “not yet completely dried out”; this is still the activity of Cognitive Illumination. Therefore it is said, “Light shining upon the eyes resembles one who is deluded.

In clarity, turning the body, one falls back from one’s station.” If so, is there no discrimination and no clarity? The words “see for yourself” are precisely an injunction to examine and determine whether this discrimination and this clarity accord with the Supreme Way.

The Third Patriarch said, “Merely be without love or hatred, and all will be thoroughly clear!”

Patriarch Triệu Châu said, “It is not within clarity.”

Master Tuyết Đậu said, “Discrimination and clarity—see for yourself!”

Each person’s words differ, yet in truth they are the same. Investigate!

Sutra: The Buddha said, “You call it Cognitive Illumination because its Original Nature is illumination and therefore call it cognition; or is it because this cognition is not illuminated that you call it Illuminated Cognition?”

Phú Lâu Na replied, “If that which has no illumination is called cognition, then there is nowhere that is illuminated—there is no object of illumination.”

The Buddha said, “If there is nowhere to be illuminated, then there is no Illuminated Cognition either. If there is an object, it is not cognition; if there is no object, then there is no illumination either. Yet the absence of illumination is not the serene and luminous Nature of Cognition. Thus the Nature of Cognition is originally illumination, but through deluded thought it is taken to be an Illuminated Cognition.

Commentary: The single word ‘Wondrous’ is the Buddha’s own hidden mystery. Remove the word ‘Wondrous’ and discuss only Cognitive Illumination, and even ten years of analysis would not bring the matter to completion! Since the essence of the Nature is originally illumination—radiantly and manifestly so—if one therefore calls it cognition, one falls within the bounds of illumination, as though the essence of cognition contained darkness and places not illuminated! But if one adds the word ‘illumination’ and calls it Illuminated Cognition, one falls within the bounds of non-illumination! Both sides are bristling with thorns; what, then, is the road of escape?

However skilled Phú Lâu Na may have been at expounding the Dharma, how could he have called that which has no object of illumination ‘cognition’? Therefore he said that if an essence devoid of illumination were called cognition, there would be neither an illuminating subject nor an illuminated object. Clearly, only because the essence of the Nature is originally illumination can it be called cognition.

Once illumination has an object, one has abandoned cognition and joined with sense-objects, thereby becoming far removed from the wonder of the Nature of Cognition, which is originally liberated from sense-objects. If one perceives its wonder, one clearly understands that when the Tathagata speaks of the ‘Wondrously Illuminating Nature of Cognition,’ it is wondrous and therefore illuminating, not non-illuminating! And when he speaks of ‘Original Cognition, Illuminating and Wondrous,’ it is illuminating and therefore wondrous; what need is there to add illumination to it?

Neither illumination nor non-illumination, apart from both the affirmative and negative paths—only this is called the Nature of Cognition.

Because the World-Honored One saw that Phú Lâu Na had not yet thoroughly understood this point, he taught him: “According to what you say, only when there is an object of illumination can it be called Illuminated Cognition, while if there is no object of illumination, there is no Illuminated Cognition. Would that mean that the Nature of Cognition exists or ceases to exist according to whether it is illuminated or not illuminated?

Do you not know that True Cognition stands alone, far removed from subject and object?” If illumination has an object, it has already departed from the station of cognition and can no longer be called cognition. If one supposes that cognition has no object and then sets out lamps and torches to shine upon it, it can no longer be called illumination. If there is no illumination whatsoever, that is indeterminate blankness, not the serene illumination of the Nature of True Cognition.

The serenely illuminating Nature of Cognition requires no additional illumination, yet there is nowhere it does not illuminate. How could that stubborn emptiness compare with it? The Nature of Cognition spontaneously knows universally and is necessarily illuminating.

But if one rigidly insists that it must be illuminated, deluded discrimination immediately arises; calculation and grasping continue without end, and it becomes Illuminated Cognition. A cognition that still must be illuminated is not Wondrous Illumination. Whether there is an object or no object, one has ultimately not yet departed from objectivity.

Whether there is no illumination or illumination is deemed necessary, one has wholly failed to depart from subjectivity. How could the wonder of the Nature of Cognition be like this?

Master Triệu Châu asked Patriarch Nam Tuyền, “What is the Way?”

Patriarch Nam Tuyền said, “The ordinary mind is the Way.”

Master Triệu Châu asked, “Can it be approached?”

Patriarch Tuyền said, “The moment you aim toward it, you go astray!”

He asked, “If it cannot be conceived, how can one know that it is the Way?”

The Patriarch replied, “The Way does not belong to knowing or to not knowing. Knowing is deluded cognition; not knowing is indeterminate blankness. If you thoroughly realize the Way, which is originally free from doubt, it is all-pervading like the great void, open and boundless. How could there still be any question of right and wrong?”

At these words, Master Triệu Châu accorded with it and awakened.

Only masters such as Nam Tuyền and Triệu Châu could possess such wondrous understanding. What a pity that Phú Lâu Na still lay within the obstruction of principle and had not yet escaped the business of turning toward the second level—the secondary meaning—to analyze it!

III. THE CAUSE OF THE DELUDED PERCEPTION THAT A WORLD EXISTS

Sutra: “Cognition has nothing that is an object of illumination, yet through illumination an object is established. Once the object is delusively established, your deluded subject arises. Within what originally admits of neither sameness nor difference, difference suddenly arises. Once that which differs from the difference has been established, sameness is established on account of that difference. Once sameness and difference have been revealed, that which is neither the same nor different is again established on their account!

“In this way, confusion arises; through mutual opposition, wearisome disturbance is produced. Prolonged wearisome thought gives rise to the characteristics of sense-objects, which cloud one another, and from this arise the defilements and afflictions of mundane toil. When movement arises, the world comes into being; when stillness prevails, empty space is formed. Empty space is sameness; the world is difference. Even what is neither the same nor different remains a conditioned dharma.”

Commentary: The Nature of Awakening is still and luminous, unmoving and all-pervasive; how could it have any place or location? Since it does not fall into any place or location, it is beyond sameness and difference. This being beyond sameness and difference is precisely the true unconditioned Dharma.

Aśvaghoṣa said: “If one says that Mind is subject to movement, then one has not attained ultimate understanding.”

Even movement does not exist; how much less could there be an object? As soon as a single deluded thought stirs, luminosity is grasped and an object is established. Once the object is established, True Awakening becomes concealed.

The object is delusively established and is called the object because of discrimination. What is discriminated is the object, and that which can discriminate is the subject. Once subject and object have been established, sameness and difference take shape, because the subject is different from the object, and the object is different from the subject.

Originally there was only the one True Awakening, originally devoid of sameness and difference, yet it suddenly became differentiated. This occurred solely because luminosity was taken as the basis for establishing an object. And it did not merely become differentiated!

In order to distinguish it from the characteristic of difference, the designation “sameness” was further established. In movement there is difference, while stillness is regarded as sameness. Difference is difference from that Awakening which is neither the same nor different.

Sameness is sameness with that Awakening which is neither the same nor different. When distinctions are elucidated within this, what is regarded as different is also found to contain sameness, and what is regarded as the same is also found to contain difference. On that basis, what is neither the same nor different is additionally established.

Through the conjunction of the unborn and undying with arising and ceasing, the ālaya consciousness comes into being.

Originally, it is neither one nor different. Yet when it is regarded as the same, the five consciousnesses assume authority in confronting objects, the sixth consciousness discriminates, and the seventh consciousness defiles. When it is regarded as different, the five consciousnesses become the objective aspect; the sixth consciousness, having no objective aspect, cannot be established; and the seventh consciousness, having no discrimination, does not exist.

This state of being neither the same nor different is also entirely consciousness. In contrast, the former state beyond sameness and difference, which exists without being established, is the True Nature, neither arising nor ceasing. This latter state of being neither the same nor different, being established, consists of seeds of arising and ceasing.

Within it are only the shadows of subject and object, sameness and difference, forming the embryo of the karmic results of the world and sentient beings. Thus there are the characteristic of sameness, the characteristic of difference, and the characteristic of being neither the same nor different. In this way confusion arises: subject and object confront one another, sameness and difference both take shape, purity is lost, and the characteristic of wearisome disturbance appears.

This characteristic of wearisome disturbance is ignorance. As this wearisome disturbance continues, it produces the characteristics of sensory objects, which mutually cloud and defile one another.

Confounding and disordering the True Nature is called “clouding”; staining its pure essence is called “defilement.” From this arise afflictions and wearisome sensory defilements—the two delusions of views and thought.

Through afflictions arise the two kinds of karmic recompense: dependent recompense and direct recompense. Movement becomes the world, while stillness becomes empty space. Empty space is the dwelling place; as stated earlier, “Because of difference, sameness is established.” Although there is neither subject nor object, this is still insensate emptiness.

The world is what was described above as “arising and thereby becoming different.” Movement is the essence of “time,” while difference is the essence of “realm”; where there are subject and object, everything is a moving sphere. What possesses sameness and difference refers only to the world as dependent recompense, the coarse traces of the conditioned. Sentient beings as direct recompense, however, because they possess Mind-Nature, are unlike the “difference” of the world; and because they possess material form, they are unlike the “sameness” of empty space.

Yet the object undergoes arising and ceasing, while the subject does not arise or cease. Ultimately, however, the subject too is subject to arising and ceasing. Even if one leaves both subject and object behind to reach what neither arises nor ceases and is neither the same nor different, all of this still belongs to conditioned dharmas.

Consciousness, because it discriminates, is conditioned. Wisdom, because it does not discriminate, is unconditioned. Because the conditioned bears the characteristics of conditioned existence, it entails karmic results. The unconditioned, being devoid of the characteristics of conditioned existence, entails no karmic results. Mountains, rivers, and the great earth do not arise by themselves; they are seen to exist only because luminosity is taken as the basis for establishing objects and because perception follows delusion.

A monk asked Chan Master Yunju Ying: “From what do the mountains, rivers, and great earth arise?”

Patriarch Ying replied: “They arise from deluded thinking.”

The monk said: “Master, can you imagine a gold ingot into existence for me?”

Patriarch Ying fell silent and departed. The monk would not accept this.

Later, Patriarch Yunmen said: “Since it is already a mass of clinging vines, it cannot be cut apart and joined together again. Just wait until he says, ‘Can you imagine a gold ingot into existence?’—then take up the staff and strike him!”

What degree of functioning is this?

Thus Patriarch Yunmen held up his staff and instructed the assembly: “The staff has transformed into a dragon and swallowed the whole universe. Where could mountains, rivers, and the great earth remain?”

Master Xuedou chanted:

“The staff swallows the universe—

Why speak of rushing about upon the waves of Peach Blossom [the place where the fish in the examination becomes a dragon]?

Becoming a dragon and burning off its tail [when a fish becomes a dragon, thunder and lightning necessarily burn off its tail; this signifies ending subsequent birth]—how could this mean merely drawing clouds and making fog?

Failing the examination need not make one’s gall burst and spirit quake.

It has been raised—do you hear, or do you not?

Right here it stands lofty and outstanding.

Cease your hundred tangled doubts.

Seventy-two blows of the staff lightly spare you;

One hundred and fifty blows could hardly spare you.

The Master swiftly brought his staff down from the Dharma seat;

The entire assembly scattered in every direction!”

If one penetrates this point, not only will the mountains and rivers remain as they always were, but even Awakened Luminosity will have nowhere to show its head!

Sūtra: “Awakened Luminosity and unknowing empty space stand in opposition to each other, producing movement; thus the wind wheel comes into being and sustains the world. Because movement arises within empty space, the quality of solidity is revealed and obstruction comes into being. All precious metals arise because solidity is established from Luminous Awakening; thus there is the metal wheel that bears and sustains the lands.

When Awakened Luminosity becomes solidity, precious metals come into being; when it moves, wind arises. Wind and metal rub against each other, and thus the fire element comes into being with transformation as its nature. Fire flares upward, while precious metals give rise to moisture; thus there is the water wheel pervading the realms throughout the ten directions.

Fire rises and water descends; when they intermingle, they generate solidity. Wet places become the great oceans, while dry places become continents and islets. For this reason, heat constantly rises from the great oceans, while rivers and streams constantly flow downward through the continents and islets.

When the power of water is weaker than the power of fire, high mountains are formed. Therefore, when mountain rocks are struck, they produce sparks of fire, and when heated, they melt into water. When the power of earth is weaker than the power of water, grasses and trees spring forth.

Thus, when forests and vegetation are burned, they become earth, and when pressed, they yield water.

“These various delusions interact and give rise to one another, successively becoming seeds for one another. Through these causes and conditions, worlds perpetuate one another.”

The commentary says: Primordially pure by nature, how did mountains, rivers, and the great earth suddenly arise? Previously, the five elements—earth, water, fire, wind, and space—were all the Tathagata-garbha, primordially pure by nature and pervading the entire Dharma-realm, manifesting according to karma; how could they have any fixed location? Their existence is due to the karmic power of sentient beings.

The karmic power of sentient beings arises from the primordial beginning of ignorance, when the nature of wondrous, still, all-embracing awareness was lost and a single thought suddenly stirred. Once awareness departed from space and produced illumination, space likewise departed from awareness and produced obscurity [dimness]. Illuminated awareness gives rise to consciousness.

The essence of consciousness, in its clear and unmoving state, is water. Obscured space congeals into form, which is earth. Mutual opposition produces movement, forming wind and water; because earth restrains water, wood is produced.

When the earth of obscured space moves and produces wood, illuminated awareness, being unmoving, becomes hard and obstructive; this is wood restraining earth and producing metal. Metal and wood combine to produce fire; hence it is said, “Through the friction of wind and metal, fire comes into being.” Fire and metal combine to produce water; hence it is said, “Because the flames rise upward, the water-wheel comes into being.” Water and fire combine to produce earth: fire rises and water flows downward, producing the oceans and dry land.

Earth and water combine and again produce wood; when earth is weak and water strong, plants and trees flourish. Xun is wind and wood; wind is the nature of wood. It was previously said that mutual opposition produces movement and thus brings forth the wind-wheel; only then does the nature of wood exist.

When it “sprouts forth as plants and trees,” wood clearly assumes visible form.

The five phases take mutual generation and restraint as husband and wife, and mutual generation as parent and child. The child is born from the mother, while the father is then weak; afterward, yin and yang harmonize and the child is born. Although the child is born, the vital energies of the parents remain; therefore, mountain stones can strike forth fire and can release water. This comes about because water restrains fire. Plants and trees can become earth and can become water; this comes about because earth restrains water. From this it may be inferred that all things are likewise. I have often compared this with the Book of Changes, and it agrees even in its details. Only then did I believe that the sages of earlier and later ages share but one Way.

Illuminated awareness gives rise to consciousness, the first silent and obscure source; this is the meaning of Heaven first producing water. Water produces the wood of Zhen and Xun in the east. Wood produces the fire of Li in the south.

Fire produces the earth of Kun in the southwest. Earth produces the metal of Dui in the west. The metal of Qian in the northwest, in turn, produces the water of Kan in the north.

Like a ring without beginning, they continue to serve as seeds for one another. Hence the Book of Changes says: “The Lord comes forth in Zhen and brings things into harmony in Xun.” Zhen is movement, and Xun is wind; is this not the purport that mutual opposition produces movement? Zhen is wood and Dui is metal; east and west face each other as husband and wife, and fire is born between them.

Is this not the purport that wind and metal rub against each other? Li is fire and Kan is water; south and north face each other as husband and wife, and earth is born between them. Is this not the purport that “the interaction of fire and water produces solidity”?

Kun is earth and Gen is mountain; both belong to earth, and here all things begin and end. Therefore, in spring and summer, the myriad things arise above the ground and are easily seen. In autumn and winter, the myriad things gather inward beneath the ground and cannot be seen.

The River Diagram brings about the transformations of the five phases and of ghosts and spirits; it accords not only with their functioning in circulation but also with the source of their arising. At the very bottom of this world, it rests upon the wind-wheel; at the very bottom of the great earth, it rests upon the metal-wheel. Earth and metal alike possess the nature of solidity and both belong to the element earth. Fire is not called a “wheel” because its nature is transformation: it can melt things and bring the myriad things to maturity.

The Abhidharmakosha says, “Through the karmic power of sentient beings, the wind-wheel first arises at the lowest point within space. Above the wind-wheel is the water-wheel. Only above the water-wheel is there the metal-wheel.” This differs slightly from the present account. The Abhidharmakosha discusses the establishment of the world in sequence from below upward. Here, the process of its arising is discussed. There is no danger of the two becoming confused or obstructing each other.

Patriarch Yong of Mount Yang instructed the assembly, saying: “A single utterance exhausts the mountains and rivers!”

A monk asked: “What is that single utterance?”

The Patriarch took a fire chopstick, planted it beside the stove, and then returned it to its original place.

Patriarch Touzi recited:

“One phrase raised encompasses the myriad forms;

In the city of Magadha [Magadha: in this city, non-Buddhists asked the Buddha about the formation of the universe, but the Buddha remained silent and said nothing], the gate closed of itself.

At that moment, the meditation monk slightly opened his eyes

And planted a stove chopstick beside the crimson fire.”

For one who has attained great and thorough awakening, observing the arising and ceasing of the three realms within the ocean of Great Awareness is like observing bubbles arising and ceasing upon the sea. How much more so, since they are fundamentally unborn—where could any characteristic of the three realms be found?

Sutra: “Furthermore, Purna, that deluded illumination is nothing other than the fault of making awareness into illumination. Once the delusive object of illumination has been established, the scope of that which illuminates can no longer transcend it. Because of these causes and conditions, hearing does not extend beyond sounds, and seeing does not extend beyond forms. The six delusions—form, scent, flavor, touch, and so forth—are established; consequently, seeing, hearing, sensing, and knowing become differentiated.

“Those sharing common karma bind one another, and thus there are union and separation, formation and transformation. When seeing becomes that which illuminates, form appears; when that which illuminates provides seeing with illumination, thought arises. Seeing differences produces hatred, while sameness of thought produces love.

Love flows forth and becomes the seed, while thought is gathered inward to form the embryo. Sexual intercourse brings about conception, drawing in one who shares the same karma; therefore, through causes and conditions, the kalala [Also called ca-la-la. Sanskrit: Kalala.

Translated as ‘mixed impurity’ (something defiled and intermingled). It is one of the five stages of fetal development, known as the five stages within the womb], arbuda, and so forth come into being. Birth from the womb, birth from eggs, birth from moisture, or birth by transformation occurs in response to the appropriate conditions: egg-born beings arise solely from thought; womb-born beings come through passionate love; moisture-born beings unite through responsiveness; and transformation-born beings manifest through separation.

Emotion and thought, union and separation, alternate with one another; consequently, beings undergo karma and pursue the course of rising and sinking. Through these causes and conditions, sentient beings perpetuate their continuity.

The commentary says: The world takes obscured space as its substance; hence the statement, “Thought settles and becomes lands.” Sentient beings take illuminated awareness as their nature; hence the statement, “Cognitive awareness is sentient beings.”

Obscured space manifests because of illuminated awareness; therefore, the world is formed through the karmic power of sentient beings. These two continuities are both delusive errors arising from establishing an object on account of illumination. They are not produced by the four elements themselves.

It is only because awareness is taken to be illumination that an object of illumination comes into being. The object belongs to the objective aspect, while the subject belongs to the perceiving aspect. The four elements in the external world constitute the primary objective aspect; the four elements in the body constitute the bodily objective aspect.

Once the object has been delusively established, the six faculties become mutually obstructive; therefore, within the perceiving aspect, the scope of illumination cannot transcend the six faculties.

Originally, there is only the unsurpassed, perfectly interfused Awareness; yet it is now divided into seeing, hearing, sensing, and knowing, thereby producing the three categories of faculties, objects, and consciousnesses, which give rise to illusory karma. From this, beings bound together by shared karma become the three parties—father, mother, and oneself—who share the same karma, thus forming womb-born and egg-born sentient beings. As for moisture-born and transformation-born beings, they do not arise through father and mother but become beings solely through their own karma. The attraction of shared karma arises entirely from the perception that there is a self.

When the deluded mind perceives deluded objects, form arises from seeing; without seeing, there would be no form. When deluded seeing pursues the host of deluded forms, thought and recollection arise from seeing; without seeing, there would be no thought. Seeing gathers and congeals into thought, while awareness of a self naturally becomes emotion.

This is the conjunction of shared karma through mutual attraction. When perceptions differ, affection arises, and thus the mother becomes the one whom one loves. For a daughter in the womb, the reverse is true.

When thought overflows, it becomes affection; affection will not part, and therein the seed and germ of birth arise. Therefore, loving attachment is the root of samsara. Once the mother has received this thought, it congeals into vital energy and blood, and therein the fetus is formed.

Thus thought is the intermediary in the transmission of life, and physical form arises from sexual union. When essence and blood unite, in the first week the fluid coagulates; in the second week it becomes a sac; in the third week, soft flesh; in the fourth week, firm flesh; and in the fifth week, bodily form appears. This is so for both womb-born and egg-born beings.

Moisture-born and transformation-born beings likewise undergo no more than a process of coagulation and enclosure.

Why is egg birth placed first? Because thought and recollection are set in motion first, and only afterward does emotional desire arise. Moreover, egg birth also encompasses womb birth, moisture birth, and transformation birth.

Human beings likewise exhibit all four kinds of birth. For example, the thirty-two children of Lady Visakha Mrgara were all egg-born (according to the Abhidharmakosa). Lady Amrapali gave birth from the crown of her head to a Wheel-Turning Sage King [In ancient times, there was a king named Pusatta.

A swelling suddenly appeared on the crown of his head, and from within it a child was born. When the child grew up, he became a Golden-Wheel King and was called King Crown-Born. The Golden-Wheel King Crown-Born conquered the four continents under heaven, then ascended to the Trayastrimsa Heaven, intending to kill Sakra and take his throne.

His plan failed; he returned to earth, fell ill, and died. That King Crown-Born is now Sakyamuni Buddha], and this was called moisture birth. During the Buddha’s lifetime, among the fourfold assembly was a bhiksuni named Alava who arose by transformation from the earth.

From this it may be known that emotion can change into thought and union into separation; there is fundamentally no fixed karma. Egg birth may change into womb birth, and moisture birth into transformation birth; neither has a fixed substance. Beings merely rise and fall according to karma and manifest in response to their circumstances, without any fixed course.

It is solely because thought and attachment serve as causes and parents serve as conditions that sentient beings continue in succession, endlessly so.

Master Datong Ji went to visit Layman Pang.

Layman Pang said, “I remember that while I was in my mother’s womb, there was a turning phrase. I would like to present it to you, provided that you do not turn it into a rational principle.”

Master Ji said, “It is as though separated by a lifetime.”

The layman said, “I already said you must not turn it into a rational principle.”

Master Ji said, “Are you not afraid that such words will startle people?”

The layman said, “An understanding such as yours may truly be called startling!”

Master Ji said, “You say not to turn it into a rational principle, yet you yourself turn it into one!”

The layman said, “We are separated not merely by one lifetime, but two!”

Master Ji said, “This rice-and-gruel teacher does nothing but investigate faults!”

The layman snapped his fingers three times.

There was also Chan Master Guizong Kexuan. Because a prefect became angry that the master had not conformed to official protocol and subjected him to severe pressure, the master wrote a letter to Guo Gongfu, saying, “Six years remain in my worldly affinity, but now the prefect is compelling me to die. I shall entrust the residue of this vexation that has arisen and be reborn in your household. Please do not take offense.”

When Gongfu read the letter, he was both alarmed and delighted. At midnight, his wife dreamed that the master entered her sleeping quarters, and she cried out, “This is not a place for the Venerable to enter!” Gongfu shook his wife awake and questioned her, whereupon she related the dream in detail. He called for a lamp and read the letter, and together they rejoiced without end. She then became pregnant, and when the child was born, they named him Old Xuan. It was precisely in the year foretold.

When the child was three years old, Baiyun Duan came to the house. As soon as Old Xuan saw him, he said, “My nephew has come.”

Duan asked, “How many years has it been since you left the Venerable?”

Old Xuan counted on his fingers and said, “Four years.”

Duan asked, “Where did we part?”

He replied, “At White Lotus Camp.”

Duan said, “What proof is there?”

He replied, “Tomorrow my parents will invite the Venerable to accept a vegetarian meal.”

Suddenly, the sound of a cart being pushed was heard approaching.

Duan asked, “What is that sound outside the gate?”

Old Xuan moved his hands as though pushing a cart. Duan asked, “What happens afterward?”

He replied, “On level ground, a hook at both ends [the character six].”

Indeed, six years later he died without illness. This was because Old Xuan ordinarily had no intention of fabricating rational principles; thus, although separated by a lifetime, he remained so clearly awake. Had even the slightest thread of emotional thought concerning luminous awareness been suspended in his breast, Baiyun Duan would already have exposed him!

Sutra: “Purna, when thoughts and attachments become mutually intertwined and affection cannot be relinquished, parents, children, and grandchildren in the world give birth to one another without end. Desire and greed are their root. Greed and attachment nourish one another, and craving never ceases.

Thus the womb-born, egg-born, moisture-born, and transformation-born beings in the world, according to their relative strength or weakness, devour one another in turn. Killing and greed are their root. A person eats a sheep; when the sheep dies, it becomes a person, and when the person dies, he becomes a sheep.

In this way, throughout the ten kinds of sentient beings, they die and are reborn, are born and die, devouring one another. Their evil karma arises together and continues to the exhaustion of future time. Such beings take the path of greed as their root.

“Here, one person owes another a life, and the other repays an old debt to the first. Because of these causes and conditions, they pass through hundreds of thousands of kalpas, constantly remaining within birth and death. Here, one person loves the mind of another, while the other delights in the first person’s appearance. Because of these causes and conditions, they pass through hundreds of thousands of kalpas, constantly remaining in bondage. The three—killing, stealing, and sexual misconduct—alone form the roots, and because of these causes and conditions, their karmic consequences continue without cease.

“Purna, these three inverted continuities all arise from the seeing and knowing of luminous awareness. Because of knowing, appearances arise; from deluded seeing arise mountains, rivers, and the great earth. All conditioned phenomena successively shift and change, and because of this very falsity, they end and then begin again.”

Commentary: The world belongs to the dependent recompense. Since the dependent recompense is insentient, it does not create karma. Sentient beings belong to the primary recompense.

Since the primary recompense is sentient, it entails karma. No karma is greater than killing, stealing, and sexual misconduct, and their root begins with sexual desire. When thoughts accord, affection arises; when perceptions differ, aversion arises.

This affection and aversion are themselves the very source of karma. If thought and attachment have not united, separation is still possible; but once both sides are joined, they cannot free themselves from one another through lifetime after lifetime and kalpa after kalpa. Parents, children, and grandchildren give birth to one another without end, all because sexual desire is the root.

Craving and attachment nourish one another; thus one delights in flavors, and killing arises from this. When craving for flavors does not cease, one seeks to obtain them, and stealing arises from this. In truth, all begins from a single liking: attachment.

When one cannot obtain what one loves, one resorts to coercion and killing. Secretly taking something is stealing; both are done to fulfill attachment. Therefore, within sexual desire are fully contained the two karmas of killing and stealing.

When hatred accumulates, debts and lives must be repaid, and one remains forever within birth and death. When affection accumulates, one delights in mind and form and remains forever in bondage. Thus affection and hatred are the causes of karma, while the bondage of birth and death is the fruit of karma.

All three kinds of inversion among beings in the world arise from turning away from the True and conforming to the false; all are produced by enlightened brightness. Because this false enlightened brightness falsely establishes both subject and object, mountains, rivers, lands, and the succession of worlds arise, together with the karmic fruits of beings and all conditioned appearances, which arise and then cease, cease and then arise, continuing without end.

If one immediately realizes that the false is fundamentally without self-nature and that the present moment itself is unborn, then what remains to change and pass away in sequence, and what could end and then begin to arise again? Thus the faculties, objects, ayatanas, and dhatus are plainly the originally pure nature of the Tathagata-garbha.

Patriarch Yongjia said: “Upon awakening, karmic obstructions are fundamentally empty. Before awakening, one must still repay one’s former debts.” How profoundly meaningful these words are!

Master Yunju Ying studied under Patriarch Dongshan. Once, while working, he accidentally struck and killed an earthworm with his hoe.

Patriarch Dongshan said: “You ghostly creature!”

Master Ying said: “It is not dead.”

The Patriarch said: “What then of the Second Patriarch’s going to Yedu?”

Master Ying did not reply.

Later, a monk asked him: “When the Venerable was with Patriarch Dongshan, regarding the circumstances of killing the earthworm, was it that the Venerable had no reply?”

Master Ying said: “At that time I did have something to say; there was only no one to bear witness to it!”

Observe Master Yunju Ying: he was truly a person beyond the three realms. Where feeling and conception cannot reach, what could be said of the appearances of karmic retribution and beings?

IV. CLARIFYING THAT AWAKENING DOES NOT GIVE RISE TO DELUSION

Sutra: Purna said: “If that wondrous awakening is by nature wondrously luminous and, like the Tathagata’s mind, neither increases nor diminishes, how then did mountains, rivers, lands, and all conditioned appearances suddenly arise without cause? Now that the Tathagata has attained that wondrous, awakened, luminous emptiness, when will mountains, rivers, lands, and the conditioned outflows of habitual defilements arise again?”

The Buddha said to Purna: “Suppose a confused person in a village mistakenly takes south to be north. Does that confusion exist because of confusion, or does it arise because of awakening?”

Purna replied: “Such a person’s confusion is caused neither by confusion nor by awakening. Why is this? Confusion is fundamentally without a root, so how could it be caused by confusion? Awakening does not give rise to confusion, so how could it be caused by awakening?”

The Buddha said: “While that confused person is in the midst of confusion, suppose someone who is awake suddenly points things out and causes him to understand. Purna, what do you think? Once that person has cast off his confusion, will he again become confused about directions in that village?”

“No, World-Honored One.”

“Purna, the Tathagatas of the ten directions are also like this. That confusion has no root; its nature is ultimately empty. Originally there was no confusion; there merely seemed to be confusion and awakening. Once confusion is awakened to, confusion ceases, yet awakening fundamentally does not give rise to confusion. It is also like a person with diseased eyes who sees flowers in empty space. When the eye disease is cured, the flowers in space disappear. Suppose a foolish person waits at the place in space where those flowers have vanished, expecting them to arise again. Would you regard that person as foolish or wise?”

Purna replied: “Empty space originally has no flowers, yet one falsely sees them arise and cease. To see flowers vanish within empty space is already an inversion. To further expect them to arise again is truly madness. How could one still discuss whether such a mad person is foolish or wise?”

The Buddha said: “Since you understand this, why do you still ask, ‘When will the wondrous, awakened, luminous, and empty nature of all Buddha-Tathagatas again give rise to mountains, rivers, and lands?’ It is also like gold ore mixed with pure gold: once the gold has been refined, it does not become impure ore again. Or like a tree that has been burned to ashes: it does not become a tree again. The bodhi and nirvana of all Buddha-Tathagatas are also like this.”

Commentary: In the Sutra of Perfect Awakening, Bodhisattva Vajragarbha asked the World-Honored One: “If beings have from the beginning been Buddhas, why is there all this ignorance? If beings originally possessed ignorance, for what reason does the Tathagata say that they have originally been Buddhas? If the various kinds of ordinary beings throughout the ten directions originally accomplished the Buddha Way but afterward again gave rise to ignorance, then when will all Tathagatas again give rise to all afflictions?”

The World-Honored One replied: “Good man! In all worlds, beginning and end, arising and ceasing, before and after, existence and nonexistence, gathering and dispersing, arising and stopping—all continue from thought to thought and revolve in recurring cycles. Every kind of grasping and relinquishing is samsara. If one has not yet escaped samsara but seeks to understand Perfect Awakening, then the nature of Perfect Awakening itself will likewise seem to flow and turn. If one has escaped samsara, how could such a thing occur?”

Purna’s doubt here is no different from that of Bodhisattva Vajragarbha, but the World-Honored One refuted it in accordance with Purna’s view of arising and ceasing. He successively presented four analogies: first, awakening does not return to confusion; second, what has ceased does not arise again; third, pure gold does not revert to ore; fourth, ashes do not become a tree again. The latter two restate the principal meanings of the first two. Awakening’s not returning to confusion is bodhi. Cessation’s not returning to arising is nirvana. This is to understand Perfect Awakening after having left samsara. Since that nature of Perfect Awakening has no samsara, it is said that the bodhi and nirvana of all Buddha-Tathagatas are also like this.

While beings are in confusion, what is essential is that they awaken. Yet from the beginning there has never truly been confusion; beginningless confusion only resembles confusion. Because even in the very midst of confusion awakening has never been lost, it is said that there merely seems to be confusion.

Nor is it that there is no awakening now. To awaken from confusion likewise seems to involve awakening; yet, at the very moment of awakening, what is there to attain? Thus it is called seeming awakening.

When confusion is awakened to, confusion ceases; this is initial awakening. When awakening reaches the point where initial awakening and fundamental awakening are no different, there is only the single wondrous awakening. Thus one does not again give rise to confusion; when one is simply no longer confused, awakening itself becomes superfluous.

National Master Huizhong asked the imperial attendant Zilin: “What does ‘Buddha’ mean?”

Zilin replied: “It means awakening.”

The Master said: “Has the Buddha ever been confused?”

Zilin replied: “He has never been confused.”

The Master said: “Then what use is awakening?”

Zilin could not reply.

Again, Master Mihu sent a monk to ask Patriarch Yangshan: “Do people today need to rely on awakening?”

Patriarch Yangshan said: “It is not that there is no awakening, but I fear falling into the secondary!”

Master Mihu greatly approved of this.

Patriarch Touzi raised the matter, saying: “Yangshan’s words may work when spoken to others, but did he himself avoid falling into it? If he avoided it, there will certainly be someone who refuses to accept this. If he did not avoid it, then he too fell into the secondary. Although Mihu approved of it, did he himself have a way out? Examine this carefully! If you can discern it, both men will be like shattered tiles and melted ice! If you cannot discern it, do not be hasty!”

He then recited:

“From the lofty green summit, I ask the man:

Only at the mountain’s very peak can one securely dwell.

Though one may escape the Double Ninth festival’s command

It is also like the spirit cat that does not trespass upon spring.”

Later, Master Tiantong composed this verse:

“The second head: discerning enlightenment and breaking through delusion.

Quickly let go and cast aside net and trap;

If the work is not yet finished, they become fetters.

The aged moon, its face like snow, weeps autumn frost;

A cold bird on the jade tree—the wind is desolate.

Bring it before Yangshan to distinguish true from false:

Not the slightest blemish—white jade, pure and clear.”

In short, without the spring wind the flowers do not bloom, yet when they have bloomed, it blows them down again! Even if there is wondrous awakening, it too must be vomited out!

V. SHOWING THAT THE ELEMENTS CAN INTERPENETRATE

Sutra: “Purnamaitrayaniputra, you further asked: ‘Since earth, water, fire, and wind are by nature perfectly interpenetrating and pervade the entire world, why do I wonder how the natures of water and fire do not destroy each other? You also raised the point that empty space and the earth both pervade the Dharma-realm and therefore should not be mutually compatible.’

“Purnamaitrayaniputra, it is like empty space, whose essential substance is none of the various appearances, yet does not hinder those appearances from manifesting. Why is this so? Purnamaitrayaniputra, within that empty space, when the sun shines there is brightness; when clouds gather there is darkness; when the wind stirs there is movement; when the sky clears there is transparency; when mist accumulates there is murkiness; when dust rises there is obscurity; and when water settles there is a gleaming reflection.

What do you think? Do these various conditioned appearances arise from those phenomena themselves, or do they exist because of empty space? Purnamaitrayaniputra, if they arise from those phenomena, then when the sun shines, since it is the sun that is bright, the worlds throughout the ten directions should all become the color of the sun.

How, then, could the round sun still be seen in the midst of empty space? If it is empty space that is bright, then empty space should illuminate itself; why, then, is there no illumination at night or when clouds and mist gather? Therefore, you should know that this brightness is neither the sun nor empty space, yet it is not apart from the sun and empty space.

When closely examined, the appearances are fundamentally illusory and cannot be indicated, just as one might expect flowers in empty space to bear fruits of empty space! Why, then, do you still ask about their encroaching upon and destroying one another? When closely examined, their nature is fundamentally real; it is simply the wondrously luminous nature of enlightenment.

That wondrously luminous nature of mind is fundamentally neither fire nor water, so why do you still ask why they do not interpenetrate?

“The true, wondrously luminous nature of enlightenment is also like this. When you bring forth the manifestation of empty space, empty space appears; when you bring forth each of earth, water, fire, and wind, each one appears. If you bring them forth together, they appear together.

“What does it mean for them to appear together? Purnamaitrayaniputra, it is like the sun’s reflection appearing in water at a certain place, while two people together observe the sun in the water. Then one person walks east and the other walks west; each sees a sun following along, one going east and one going west, without any fixed standard. You should not ask: ‘There is only one sun, so why does one follow each person? Since the sun has become two, why does only one appear?’ Such circling confusion is illusory, and nothing in it can serve as a reliable basis.

Commentary: Previously, in answering the question, “Since it is fundamentally pure, why did mountains, rivers, and the great earth suddenly arise?” it was explained that, when discussed in terms of appearances, arising occurs from deluded seeing. When discussed within the nature, it is itself non-arising, for enlightenment does not return to delusion. Appearances are originally delusive, so what could encroach upon or destroy anything?

The nature is fundamentally non-arising, so what could fail to interpenetrate? Therefore, the seven elements are the wondrous nature of true suchness within the Tathagata-garbha. The Tathagata-garbha is fundamentally none of the seven elements, yet it does not prevent those seven elements from manifesting.

It is like empty space: its essential substance is none of the various appearances, yet it does not obstruct those appearances from manifesting. Within the single empty space, when earth accumulates, the appearance of earth manifests; when water settles, the appearance of water manifests; when the sun shines, the appearance of fire manifests; when the wind blows, the appearance of wind manifests; and when the sky is clear, the appearance of empty space manifests.

Brightness and darkness pertain to seeing, while turbid vapors pertain to consciousness. The seven examples above illustrate the seven elements.

The seven elements do not arise by themselves, nor do they arise from something else. Since they do not arise from something else, this is neither nonexistence nor existence. Since they arise neither from the sun nor from empty space, they do not arise from a combination of causes.

Since they are not apart from the sun and empty space, they do not arise without a cause. Therefore, it is said that they are fundamentally non-arising. Since they are fundamentally non-arising, their manifestation in accordance with karma is also like flowers in empty space.

Since flowers in empty space can never bear fruits of empty space, how could there be any encroachment or destruction, much less any failure to interpenetrate? Although appearances are illusory, their nature is fundamentally true, pure, and all-pervading; it is fundamentally no physical appearance of water or fire whatsoever. Since it is formless, what could obstruct anything else?

How could there be any failure to interpenetrate, much less any mutual harm or destruction? Since the appearances of the seven elements are like flowers in empty space, and the nature of the seven elements is also like empty space, the Tathagata-garbha—the wondrously enlightened, luminous mind—is likewise so.

When empty space is brought forth, empty space appears. In terms of phenomena, this is like digging a well. In terms of karma, it is the deluded arising of the perception that empty space exists.

Because of seeing, empty space exists; earth, water, fire, and wind are likewise so. When each is brought forth, each appears. If they are brought forth together, they appear together.

Whether clouds rise over the southern mountain or rain falls on the northern mountain, all occurs unobstructedly within empty space. It is just like the sun in water: as each person goes east or west, a sun accompanies each one. Not trusting the sun in the sky, one instead doubts the sun in the water; this is like seeing the clouds move and imagining that the moon is running, or traveling in a boat and imagining that the shore is drifting!

Since things arise from deluded seeing, how could one debate, within that deluded perception, whether they are one or not one? Would that not be an enormous error?

Someone may ask: “Earth, water, fire, and wind are truly present before our eyes. Why call them illusory?”

The reply is: “Those without wisdom call them truly existent. Those who possess the eye of wisdom do not see them that way! It is like a child who sees a reflection in a mirror and joyfully tries to grasp it. How could an understanding adult be similarly deceived? Ordinary people see motes of dust combining and call this real earth. One who possesses the divine eye can see this earth dispersing and can see that, at its point of origin, it is fundamentally unobtainable. Therefore, one should know that its appearance is originally illusory.”

Patriarch Fayan asked Elder Baosi: “The ancients said: ‘Mountains and rivers present no obstruction; the radiance penetrates everywhere.’ What is this radiance that penetrates everywhere?”

Baosi said: “On the eastern bank, the sound of beating the fishing nets!”

Guizong Rou offered an alternative reply: “The Venerable is decidedly obstructed!”

The questions and answers of these two venerable masters did not leak even a single drop, yet Guizong still discerned a flaw in them!

Tripitaka Master Dà’ěr came from India to the capital and declared that he possessed the power of knowing others’ minds. Emperor Suzong invited National Master Huizhong to test him.

The National Master said: “Tell me, where is this old monk right now?”

The other replied: “Venerable, you are the teacher of an entire nation; why have you gone to Western Sichuan to watch the boat races?”

After a while, he asked again: “Tell me, where is this old monk right now?”

The Tripitaka Master replied: “Venerable, you are the teacher of an entire nation; how could you go to Tianjin Bridge to watch the performing monkeys?”

After a while, he asked again: “Tell me, where is this old monk at this very moment?”

The Tripitaka Master was stumped and did not know.

The Patriarch shouted: “You wild-fox spirit! Where is your power of knowing others’ minds?”

The other was unable to reply.

A monk asked Patriarch Yangshan: “Why, on the third occasion, was Tripitaka Master Dà’ěr unable to see the National Master?”

Master Yangshan said, “On the first two occasions, his mind was engaging with external objects; on the last occasion, however, he entered the samadhi of personal realization, and therefore could not be seen!”

The monk related this account and asked Master Xuansha about it.

Master Xuansha said, “Tell me, what did he see on the first two occasions?”

Another monk asked Master Zhaozhou, “On the third occasion, the Tripitaka Master could not see the National Preceptor. I do not understand where the National Preceptor was.”

Master Zhaozhou said, “He was right on the Tripitaka Master’s nose!”

Later, the monk asked Master Xuansha, “Since he was right on his nose, why could he not see him?”

Master Xuansha said, “Only because he was too close!”

Master Tiantong raised the matter, saying, “Set aside for now the fact that the Tripitaka Master could not see the National Preceptor. Tell me: did the National Preceptor himself know where he was? If you say that he knew, then the hundred birds bearing flowers in their beaks and the devas making offerings would never cease! Tell me, at that very moment, where was he?”

Thus it may be understood that on the first two occasions, when the National Preceptor’s mind engaged with external objects, nothing obstructed each and every manifestation from appearing as it was discerned. How much more so with the Wondrously Awakened, Luminous Mind—the samadhi of personal realization! How could its abiding place be known? Why continue asking whether things suppress and destroy one another or fail to accommodate one another?

VI. SHOWING THAT THE WONDROUSLY LUMINOUS NATURE IS THE TATHAGATAGARBHA, APART FROM BOTH THE MEANINGS OF “NOT” AND “IDENTICAL WITH”

Sutra: “Purna, when you take form and emptiness as encroaching upon and usurping one another within the Tathagatagarbha, the Tathagatagarbha follows you and becomes form and emptiness, pervading the entire Dharma realm. Thus, within it, wind moves, space remains still, the sun shines, and clouds are dark. Sentient beings, deluded and confused, turn away from awakening and unite with sense objects; therefore, defiling toil arises, and the various characteristics of the world come into being.

“I take the wondrously luminous nature, neither arising nor ceasing, and unite it with the Tathagatagarbha. That Tathagatagarbha is precisely the wondrously luminous nature of awakening, perfectly illuminating the Dharma realm. Thus, within it, the one is immeasurable and the immeasurable is one; the great appears within the small, and the small appears within the great. Without moving from the bodhimanda, it pervades the worlds of the ten directions. The body encompasses the inexhaustible space of the ten directions. At the tip of a single hair, Buddha lands appear; seated within a mote of dust, one turns the great Dharma wheel. When sense objects are extinguished and awakening is united with, the wondrously awakened, luminous nature of True Suchness becomes manifest.

Commentary: “If one discusses Perfect Awakening before escaping samsara, the nature of Perfect Awakening will also revolve along with samsara. If one has completely escaped samsara, how could such a thing occur?” This refers to the present passage: “If one discusses the Tathagatagarbha by taking the characteristics of form and emptiness as encroaching upon and usurping one another, the nature of the Tathagatagarbha will also follow form and emptiness and become the revolving flow of the three realms.

To wish in this way to escape the weariness of the world is impossible. Deluded sentient beings do not fully realize that form, emptiness, and the self are fundamentally one essence. Bound by appearances, they encounter obstruction wherever they turn.

Precisely because they turn away from the nature of awakening, although it is inherently luminous, it cannot function wondrously; this is therefore called delusion. The characteristics of sense objects belong to arising and cessation and were never originally existent. The nature of awakening is utterly free from arising and cessation and does not depend upon anything coming from outside.

Because those characteristics were never originally existent, they can be extinguished; because the nature of awakening does not come from outside, one can unite with it. This is the wondrous awakening of True Suchness, perfectly illuminating the Dharma realm: one is all, and all is one; unhindered freedom extends horizontally and vertically, and phenomenon interpenetrates phenomenon without obstruction. This is inconceivable wondrous functioning.

It is not produced through cultivation; therefore, it is provisionally described merely as becoming manifest.

The Treatise on the Dharma Gate of Pacifying the Mind by Bodhidharma, the First Patriarch, says: When deluded, the person pursues dharmas; when awakened, dharmas pursue the person. In awakening, consciousness gathers in form; in delusion, form gathers in consciousness. Whenever there is a discriminating and calculating mind within the direct perception of one’s own mind, all of it is a dream. If the conscious mind is quiescent and extinguished, with no place in which a thought can stir, this is called Right Awakening.

Master Shenxiu composed this verse:

“The body is the bodhi tree;

The mind is like a bright mirror stand.

At all times diligently polish it;

Do not let worldly dust alight.”

That single phrase, “diligently polish it,” is precisely to unite the mind of arising and cessation with the Tathagatagarbha; therefore, he still remained outside the gate.

The verse of the Sixth Patriarch says:

“Bodhi originally has no tree;

The bright mirror is not a stand.

Originally, not a single thing exists;

Where could worldly dust alight?”

This very “not a single thing” is precisely to unite that which neither arises nor ceases with the Tathagatagarbha, thereby succeeding to the rank of Patriarch.

Master Zhaozhou ascended the hall and said, “It is like a bright jewel held in the hand: when a Hu person comes, a Hu person appears; when a Han person comes, a Han person appears. This old monk takes a blade of grass and uses it as the sixteen-foot golden body [the Buddha’s body]. He takes the sixteen-foot golden body and uses it as a blade of grass. Buddha is affliction; affliction is Buddha.”

A monk asked, “For whose household is Buddha an affliction?”

The Master replied, “He is an affliction for everyone.”

The monk asked, “How can we be free of it?”

Master Zhaozhou said, “What use would freedom from it be?”

Here, Master Zhaozhou neither employs the extinguishing of sense objects nor the uniting with awakening, yet he can manifest the great within the small and the small within the great. He is indeed fit to walk hand in hand with the Sixth Patriarch!

Master Yuanzhao ascended the hall and said, “At the tip of a single hair, Buddha lands appear; seated within a mote of dust, one turns the great Dharma wheel.”

Holding up his staff, he said, “This here is a mote of dust. How can it be said to embody the principle of turning the Dharma wheel? Today, this mountain monk will not spare his eyebrows but will explain it clearly to you: When it is raised, the ocean surges with waves and Mount Sumeru rises in range upon range! When it is lowered, the four seas are calm and clear, and heaven and earth are solemnly still. Let me ask you: Is raising it correct? Is lowering it correct? Should it be cut through or not cut through? A doubly layered koan!”

He then struck the Chan platform and descended from his seat.

Furthermore, Bhiksuni Miaozong ascended the hall and said, “Once the essential vehicle of the school is proclaimed, the Tripitaka has no path by which to explain it. When the Patriarchs’ command is put into effect, the ten directions become peacefully still. Those of the Two Vehicles, hearing of it, flee in terror; even those of the Ten Grounds still seem doubtful upon reaching this place.

If one is an outstanding person, one understands before anything is said. Even if one has the skill to shift the stars and move the Northern Dipper, deploying banners and beating drums, it is still wasted effort; what true meaning could there be? The one path of transcendence is not transmitted by the thousand sages; students labor in vain, like apes grasping at reflections!

In the entrustment on Vulture Peak, the Buddha compassionately accorded with the capacities of the time and expounded the Three Vehicles, each according to the faculties of his hearers. Beginning in Deer Park, he turned the Dharma wheel of the Four Noble Truths and liberated hundreds of thousands of myriads of beings.

“Today, this mountain monk, together with this very place—Buddhas and Patriarchs, rivers and mountains, earth and land, grasses, trees, forests, and thickets, and the fourfold assembly here and now—each and every one turns the great Dharma wheel, their radiance interweaving to form a jeweled net. If each blade of grass and each tree did not turn the great Dharma wheel, it could not be called the turning of the great Dharma wheel.

Therefore, it is said that at the tip of a single hair the lands of all Buddhas appear, and seated within a mote of dust, one turns the great Dharma wheel. Within that time and space, immeasurable and boundless great Buddha-works are performed, universally pervading the Dharma realm. One is immeasurable, and the immeasurable is one; the great appears within the small, and the small appears within the great.

Without taking a step, one roams through Maitreya’s tower. Without reversing the faculty of hearing, one enters Avalokitesvara’s universally opened gate. The sentient and insentient are equal in nature and characteristics.

This is neither miraculous power and wondrous functioning, nor is it that the Dharma is inherently so.”

If one attains clear and distinct freedom at this point, the sovereign’s kindness and the Buddha’s kindness are repaid at once! Tell me, what is the single phrase that repays their kindness?

The sky, ten thousand fathoms high, abides;

The vast sea receives a hundred rivers.

The venerable masters profoundly accorded with the realm of Wondrous Luminosity and extolled it with all their strength; every word was imbued with the savor of the Way.

Sutra: “Yet the Originally Wondrous, Perfect Mind of the Tathagata-garbha is not mind; it is not earth, water, wind, or fire; it is not eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, or mind; it is not form, sound, fragrance, taste, touch, or dharmas; it is not the realm of eye-consciousness, and so forth through the realm of mind-consciousness; it is not knowledge or ignorance, nor the ending of knowledge or the ending of ignorance, and so forth through its being neither old age nor death, nor the ending of old age and death; it is not suffering, accumulation, cessation, or the Path; it is not wisdom and not attainment; it is not generosity, moral discipline, diligence, patience, meditative concentration, or wisdom; it is not paramita;

and so forth through its being neither Tathagata, Worthy of Offerings, nor Perfectly and Universally Enlightened One; it is not Great Nirvana; it is not permanence, bliss, self, or purity.

It is none of these; it is neither worldly nor supramundane dharmas.

“The Wondrously Luminous Source of Mind of the Tathagata-garbha is precisely mind, precisely emptiness, precisely earth, water, wind, and fire; it is precisely eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind; it is precisely form, sound, fragrance, taste, touch, and dharmas; it is precisely the realm of eye-consciousness, and so forth through the realm of mind-consciousness; it is precisely knowledge, precisely ignorance, and precisely the ending of knowledge and ignorance; and so forth through its being precisely old age, precisely death, and precisely the ending of old age and death; it is precisely suffering, accumulation, cessation, and the Path; it is precisely wisdom and precisely attainment;

it is precisely generosity, moral discipline, diligence, patience, meditative concentration, and wisdom; it is precisely paramita.

And so forth through its being precisely the Tathagata, the Worthy of Offerings, and the Perfectly and Universally Enlightened One; it is precisely Great Nirvana and precisely permanence, bliss, self, and purity. It is all of these; it is precisely worldly and supramundane dharmas.

“The Wondrously Luminous Source of Mind of the Tathagata-garbha transcends both ‘is’ and ‘is not,’ yet is also both ‘is’ and ‘is not.’ How could beings in the three realms, as well as world-transcending shravakas and pratyekabuddhas, use a mind limited by what it knows to fathom the Tathagata’s unsurpassed bodhi, or use worldly language to enter the Buddha’s knowledge and vision?

Commentary: Only Master Changshui arranged this passage of the sutra into a systematic order.

The statement that the Originally Wondrous, Perfect Mind is not mind, not emptiness, and so forth, gathers everything under the aspect of ‘is not’ in order to reveal the Ultimate Truth.

The statement that the Originally Luminous, Wondrous Mind is precisely mind, precisely emptiness, and so forth, gathers everything under the aspect of ‘is’ in order to reveal the Conventional Truth.

The statement that the Wondrously Luminous Source of Mind transcends ‘is’ and ‘is not,’ yet is also both ‘is’ and ‘is not,’ gathers everything under both negation and illumination in order to reveal the Middle Way. Because it negates both the ultimate and the conventional, it is said to transcend ‘is’ and ‘is not.’ Because it illuminates both the ultimate and the conventional, it is said to be both ‘is’ and ‘is not.’

The Three Truths are one essence; therefore, each is said to be precisely the Tathagata-garbha.

At first, ‘is not’ is used to dispel attachment to characteristics. Next, ‘is’ is used to dispel attachment to ‘is not.’ Finally, it is explained that so long as one still bears names and words, one has not yet exhausted the purport of the One True Reality. Transcending ‘is’ and ‘is not,’ emptying both ‘is not’ and the emptiness of ‘is not,’ where language has no path and the activity of mind leaves no trace—only then is the One True Dharma-realm, the Mind of the Tathagata-garbha, revealed. Thus, in the Vimalakirti Sutra, the thirty-one bodhisattvas who expounded the Dharma-gate of nonduality all used words to dispel characteristics, while Manjushri used words to dispel words. Vimalakirti used wordlessness to dispel words, and that alone was ultimate.

All worldly dharmas fall within the five skandhas, seven great elements, faculties, objects, ayatanas, and dhatus. Supramundane dharmas fall within the two vehicles of the shravakas and pratyekabuddhas. Only bodhisattvas and Buddhas transcend the world while dwelling within it; they do not exclusively abide beyond the world.

Mind belongs to consciousness and therefore encompasses the five skandhas; the realm of eye-consciousness and so forth encompass the twelve ayatanas. These constitute the six realms of ordinary beings. Pratyekabuddhas contemplate the twelve links of dependent origination, which possess the characteristics of arising and of being cultivated and eliminated; this is the realm of the pratyekabuddhas.

Knowing suffering, severing accumulation, realizing cessation, and cultivating the Path constitute the realm of the shravakas. Wisdom, attainment, and so forth through the six paramitas constitute the realm of bodhisattvas. The three titles—Tathagata, Worthy of Offerings, and Perfectly and Universally Enlightened One—and the four virtues of nirvana—permanence, bliss, self, and purity—all belong to the realm of the Buddha.

Worldly and supramundane dharmas do not extend beyond the realms described above. If, in any realm, one becomes attached to ‘is,’ there can be no perfection; therefore, one must perceive perfection through ‘is not.’ Once one becomes attached to ‘is not,’ there is no wondrousness; therefore, one must perceive wondrousness through ‘is.’ Wondrous yet luminous, luminous yet wondrous; neither ‘is’ nor ‘is not,’ yet both ‘is’ and ‘is not’; subject and object alike transcended, with not the slightest shadow or echo to be found—this is true unsurpassed bodhi.

Master Ashvaghosha said: “This true emptiness has, from the beginning, never corresponded with any defiled dharma. It transcends all dharmas and all differentiated characteristics and contains not the slightest trace of falsely discriminating mind. One should therefore know that suchness possesses neither characteristics nor the absence of characteristics; it is neither the characteristic of existence-and-nonexistence nor not the characteristic of existence-and-nonexistence; it is not a different characteristic, nor the characteristic of unity or difference, nor is it without the characteristic of unity or difference.

In brief, because all beings engage in false discrimination, they cannot make contact with suchness. Thus, beings in the three realms perceive the provisional aspect of suchness, while shravakas and pratyekabuddhas perceive the emptiness of suchness. They therefore cannot fathom even the bodhisattvas’ Truth of the Middle Way, much less the Truth of the Ultimate Meaning.

Only a Buddha together with another Buddha can fathom it completely and ultimately. Even bodhisattvas who have entered the bhumis still have what they do not perceive; how, then, could worldly language ever trace its slightest intimation? Unsurpassed bodhi cannot be known by the intellectual mind and cannot be entered through speech and words.

The more deeply one enters it, the more one perceives its subtle wondrousness.”

A monk asked Patriarch Mazu [Chan Master Daoyi of Jiangxi during the Tang dynasty. He was a Dharma successor of Patriarch Nanyue Huairang. His surname was Ma, and his contemporaries called him Patriarch Ma. During the Yuanhe era, he was posthumously granted the title Daji.]: “Why does the Venerable Master say, ‘Mind itself is Buddha’?”

He replied: “To soothe a child and stop its crying.”

The monk asked: “What happens after the crying has stopped?”

He replied: “Neither mind nor Buddha.”

The monk asked: “How would you instruct someone who comes from outside these two kinds?”

He replied: “For his sake, I would say, ‘It is not a thing.’”

The monk asked: “What if you suddenly encountered someone who is within it?”

He replied: “I would immediately instruct him to realize the Great Way.”

Patriarch Mazu spoke from within the Wondrous Mind of Nirvana; therefore, every word he uttered and every breath he exhaled accorded with that Mind.

Furthermore, when Master Mazu heard that Master Damei was dwelling on a mountain, he sent a monk to ask him: “When the Venerable Master met Great Master Ma, what did you attain that caused you to dwell on this mountain?”

Master Damei said: “The Great Master told me, ‘Mind itself is Buddha.’ Thereupon, I settled within this.”

The monk said: “Recently, the Great Master’s Buddhadharma has changed.”

Master Damei asked: “How so?”

The monk replied: “The Great Master now says, ‘Neither mind nor Buddha.’”

Master Damei said: “That old fellow’s bewildering of people will never come to an end! Let him have his ‘neither mind nor Buddha.’ For me, mind itself is still Buddha!”

The monk returned and reported this to Master Mazu, who said: “The plum is ripe.”

Chan Master Dongsi Hui often feared that his disciples would take up the phrase “Mind itself is Buddha” and discuss it, memorize it, and recite it without cease. He told them: “Where does Buddha abide that you speak of mind itself? The mind is like a master painter; how can you say it is itself Buddha?” He then instructed the assembly: “Mind is not Buddha; wisdom is not the Way. The sword was lost long ago, yet only now do you carve a mark upon the boat!”

Patriarch Nanquan once said: “Mazu of Jiangxi taught that mind itself is Buddha, but this old Teacher Wang [Nanquan] does not say so! It is not mind, not Buddha, not a thing. Is there any fault in speaking thus?”

Master Zhaozhou bowed and then walked out.

At that time, a monk asked Patriarch Zhaozhou: “What did you mean, Venerable, by bowing and then walking out?”

The Master said: “Go back and ask the Venerable Master.”

The monk then asked Patriarch Nanquan: “What was Venerable Zhaozhou’s meaning just now?”

The Patriarch said: “He understood this old monk’s essential meaning.”

Only when one has no doubts concerning the functioning of these venerable adepts can one enter the Buddha’s Knowledge and Vision.

Sutra: “It is like the qin, se, konghou, and pipa: although they possess wondrous sounds, without wondrous fingers they can never produce them. You and all sentient beings are likewise. The precious True Mind of constant awareness is perfectly complete in each and every one. When I press my finger, the Ocean Seal emits light. But as soon as you momentarily give rise to mind, the defilements of worldly toil arise. This is because you do not diligently seek the path of Supreme Awakening, but delight in recollecting the Lesser Vehicle and, having attained a little, consider it sufficient.”

The Penetrating Commentary says: Wondrous Luminosity and Luminous Wonder are precisely this wondrous sound; neither it nor the wonder of the finger can be reached by conceptual thought. It is just as when I press my finger and the wondrous sound issues forth accordingly, or when the Ocean Seal radiates light and every form is perfectly complete—what contrivance could there be?

The Great Collection Sutra says: “All the forms and images throughout Jambudvipa are the seal-impressions of the great ocean; therefore it is called the Ocean Seal.”

As for you, the moment mind first stirs, it is as though the instrument and the hand fail to correspond. Not only do you fail to hear the wondrous sound, but the defilements of worldly toil arise in confusion. This is solely because you use the arising-and-ceasing mind to correspond with the Tathagata-garbha. You do not accord with the illuminating contemplation of samadhi and wisdom, but instead follow ignorance and afflictions; hence the defilements of worldly toil arise. When these defilements obscure you, then although the precious True Mind of awakening is perfectly complete in each and every one, it still cannot manifest.

One day, while Chan Master Dongming Tian was reading the Surangama Sutra, a practitioner named Zhong asked: “When I press my finger, the Ocean Seal emits light—what is the Buddha’s meaning here?”

The Master said: “That old fellow Shakyamuni deserves twenty blows!”

Zhong asked: “Why is that?”

The Master replied: “What need is there to press a finger?”

Zhong asked: “‘As soon as your mind stirs, the defilements of worldly toil arise’—what of this?”

The Master replied: “That too is the Ocean Seal emitting light!”

Marvelous, marvelous! Only by seeing in this way can one be said to turn the Surangama.

Chan Master Jinfu Wuben ascended the hall and said: “As soon as the Gandharva King begins to play music, the mountains, rivers, and great earth all dance. How could this be like that old cripple Yunmen blurting out, ‘The twenty-fifth day of the twelfth month!’ Today, this Boshan, if there is a rule, follows the rule; if there is no rule, follows the precedent. All that is needed is to accord with the season.”

Suddenly he raised his staff, laid it across his knees, and made a gesture as though breaking a lute. Then he said: “Do you hear and appreciate the sound of the lute?”

After a long pause, he said: “Even if one could produce the cry of the phoenix, in the end, who could understand the Dharma of the Finger!” He struck the table once and descended from the seat.

Alas! Could the Dharma of the Finger truly have gone untransmitted? Diligently seek the path of Supreme Awakening, and you will manifest it yourself.

VII. REVEALING THAT DELUSION HAS NO CAUSE; WHEN DELUSION ENDS, THERE IS BODHI

Sutra: Purna said: “The perfectly luminous, pure, and wondrous True Mind of the Tathagata and myself is equally perfect and complete, without duality. Yet from beginningless time I have been caught in deluded thinking and have long remained in samsara. Now I have attained the Holy Vehicle, but have not yet reached the ultimate. The World-Honored One has utterly extinguished all delusions, and only the one wondrous True and Eternal remains. I ask the Tathagata: For what reason do all sentient beings give rise to delusion, obscure their own wondrous luminous nature, and undergo this submersion and drifting?”

The Buddha told Purna: “Although you have dispelled your doubts, your remaining errors have not yet been completely eliminated. I shall now question you further by referring to an ordinary worldly event directly before you. Have you not heard that in the city of Shravasti there was a man named Yajnadatta who, one morning, looked at his face in a mirror? He suddenly delighted in the fact that the head in the mirror had visible eyebrows and eyes, and then became angry with his own head because he could not see its face. He regarded it as a demon and, without any reason, went mad and ran away. What do you think? For what reason did this man suddenly go mad and run away?”

Purna replied: “The man’s mind was deranged; there was no other reason.”

The Buddha said: “The nature of wondrous awakening is perfectly complete, originally luminous, wondrous, and all-pervading. Since it is called delusion, how could it have a cause? If it had a cause, how could it be called delusion? Deluded thoughts merely revolve and mutually serve as causes for one another. Delusion accumulates upon delusion throughout kalpas as numerous as dust motes. Although the Buddha points this out, beings are still unable to return. Thus the cause of delusion exists only because delusion itself becomes its own cause. Awaken to the fact that this delusion originally has no cause; then upon what could delusion still depend? Since it has no place of arising, what could there be that you would wish to extinguish?

“One who attains bodhi is like a person who awakens from sleep and recounts the events of a dream. Although the events are clear in his mind, what causes or conditions remain by which he could grasp an object from the dream? How much more so with delusion, which perceives all present phenomena although it has no cause anywhere and originally has no existence!

It is like Yajnadatta [Here, his original head is used as an analogy for the True Nature; the head in the mirror represents deluded thinking, the false image; his delight upon seeing that the head in the mirror had a face and features represents taking an imagined falsehood to be real, clinging rigidly to it, and refusing to relinquish it. He could not see his original head because the True Nature has no form or appearance whatsoever] in that city.

What cause or condition was there for him suddenly to fear his own head and run away? Once his madness naturally ceased, his head did not come to him from outside. Even while his madness had not yet ceased, had that head ever been lost?

“Purna, the intrinsic nature of delusion is just like this. What cause could there be for its existence?

“You need only cease following discriminations concerning the worlds, karmic retribution, and sentient beings—the three continuities. Once those three conditions are severed, the three causes will no longer arise. Then, within your mind, the madness of Yajnadatta will cease of itself. Its cessation is bodhi: the peerless, pure, and luminous Mind, originally pervading the Dharma-realm, attained from nowhere. Why should it require strenuous and urgent cultivation and realization?”

Commentary: Purnamaitrayaniputra had exhausted the outflows and attained the noble fruition, so why did remnants of delusion still remain unextinguished? It was only because he had previously exerted himself to eliminate deluded thoughts; yet this very mind that sought to eliminate deluded thoughts was precisely discriminating enlightened awareness—like one who, fearing that he had lost his own head, went mad and ran away!

To eliminate delusion in pursuit of the Real, supposing there is a Real to be attained, is like looking at one’s head in a mirror and seeing one’s eyebrows and eyes. The Real has never been lost, yet it cannot readily be measured, just as one’s head has never been lost although one cannot see one’s own face. Once discrimination arises—regarding this as a sentient being, that as karmic retribution, and these as different from one’s own True Suchness—then even if one attains True Suchness through eliminating delusion, it is still not the innately natural Buddha of the self-nature, which has always been present.

Purnamaitrayaniputra had not yet thoroughly understood this point, and so he thought that if delusion could be eliminated, its arising must have a cause, and that only by knowing its cause could it be cut off.

The preceding passage already stated that because of awareness, an object of awareness was established, and that it was precisely from this that delusion arose. Yet this itself is discrimination and is, in truth, delusion!

The Blessed One directly revealed the Sudden Gate: there is no need to eliminate delusion; merely cease discriminating, and bodhi is inherently complete. Simply stop the mad running, and the head you have always had remains exactly where it was!

Deluded discrimination and mad running arise through accumulated confusion. Delusion fundamentally has no cause; it is not born from delusion, nor does it come from awakening. Since delusion has no root at all, upon what could delusion depend? Delusion truly has nowhere to rest; fundamentally, it has never arisen. Since delusion originally does not arise, there is nowhere it can be extinguished. Extinguishment in which there is nowhere anything can be extinguished is the immediate presence of quiescent extinction.

The wondrous nature of enlightenment is perfectly luminous—intrinsically clear, subtle, and all-pervading. Originally, there is no arising or ceasing, and absolutely not the slightest trace of delusion. Within bodhi, even the Real cannot be found; from where, then, could delusion be found?

Therefore, if one does not follow discriminations concerning the origin of the three continuities or the causes and conditions by which they might be cut off and prevented from arising, then not a single thought arises—what fault could there be in the myriad dharmas? This is bodhi, utterly pure and free from defilement; how could it require the power of human cultivation and realization in order to be attained? When the three conditions are quiescent and the three causes do not arise, the samadhi of cessation is naturally accomplished right there.

Purnamaitrayaniputra repeatedly gave rise to discriminations, believing that bodhi was attained through cultivation and realization. One need only refrain from such tangled discrimination; then there is no delusion that can be extinguished and no Real that can be attained. This is the fundamental purity that completely pervades the Dharma realm. If one says that the Tathagata’s uniquely wondrous, real, and eternal state is realized through the complete extinction of everything, then one has not yet perceived the wondrousness of the Tathagata.

A monk asked Patriarch Huangbo, “At present, all kinds of deluded thoughts manifestly exist. Why, then, do you say they do not?”

Patriarch Huangbo said, “Delusion originally has no inherent substance; it merely arises within your own mind. If you know that the mind is originally Buddha and that the mind fundamentally contains no delusion, then how could the mind give rise to anything, vainly recognizing it as delusion? If you do not give rise to a mind that stirs up thoughts, then naturally there will be no delusion at all. Therefore, it is said: ‘When the mind arises, all dharmas arise; when the mind ceases, all dharmas cease.’”

The monk asked, “At the very moment deluded thoughts arise, where is the Buddha?”

Patriarch Huangbo said, “At the very moment you are clearly aware that a deluded thought has arisen, that clear awareness itself is the Buddha. Yet if there were no deluded thoughts within it, there would also be no Buddha. Why is this so? Because when you give rise to the mind that forms a view of Buddha, there is then a Buddha to be realized. When you form the view that sentient beings exist, there are then sentient beings to be liberated. Every arising of mind and stirring of thought is merely your own view. If there were none of these views whatsoever, where could the Buddha be? When Manjushri had barely given rise to the view of Buddha, he was immediately crushed between the two Iron Ring Mountains!

The monk asked, “At the very moment of clear awakening, where is the Buddha?”

Patriarch Huangbo replied, “From where does that question come? From where does that awareness arise? Speech and silence, movement and stillness, all sounds and forms—everything is the work of the Buddha.

Where would you seek the Buddha? You cannot place another head upon your head or add another mouth upon your mouth! Merely refrain from giving rise to divergent views.

Then mountains are mountains, waters are waters, monks are monks, and laypeople are laypeople. Mountains, rivers, the great earth, the sun, moon, and stars—all are contained within your mind. The three-thousandfold world is entirely your own self.

Where could there be a multiplicity of things? Outside the mind there is no dharma. Before your eyes, green mountains, the world, and empty space shine brilliantly everywhere, without so much as a strand of hair into which you could insert an intellectual interpretation.

Therefore, all sounds and forms are the Buddha’s eye of wisdom. No dharma arises by itself; it arises only in dependence upon conditions. Because things exist, manifold kinds of knowledge arise.

All day long one speaks, yet when has one ever spoken? All day long one hears, yet when has one ever heard? Thus, although Shakyamuni Buddha taught the Dharma for forty-nine years, he never spoke a single word.”

The monk asked, “If so, where is bodhi?”

Patriarch Huangbo said, “Bodhi is nowhere whatsoever. The Buddha does not attain bodhi, and sentient beings do not lose bodhi. It cannot be obtained through the body, nor can it be sought through the mind. All sentient beings are themselves the characteristic of bodhi.”

The monk asked, “How does one bring forth the bodhi mind?”

Patriarch Huangbo said, “Bodhi is that which is nowhere attained. Now you need only bring forth the mind of non-attainment, firmly resolving that there is not a single dharma to be attained; this itself is the bodhi mind. Bodhi has no place of arising; therefore, there is no attainment.

Hence it is said: ‘In the presence of Dipankara Buddha, I had not the slightest dharma that could be attained, and the Buddha then bestowed upon me the prediction of Buddhahood.’ You must understand that all sentient beings are originally bodhi; how could they attain it anew? Now you ask about bringing forth the bodhi mind because you wish to use one mind to learn the Buddha Way. If you merely entertain the intention of practicing the Buddha Way, then even if you cultivate for three asamkhyeya kalpas, you will attain only the Buddha’s reward body and transformation body.

What connection would that have with the Buddha of your own original true nature? Therefore, it is said: ‘If you seek outside yourself for a Buddha possessing form and characteristics, how could he resemble you?’”

Patriarch Linji also said, “Those who study the Way in various places say that there is a Way to cultivate and a Dharma to realize. Tell me, what Dharma will you realize, and what Way will you cultivate? What is lacking in your present functioning? What is there to mend or embellish? Young teachers of later generations do not understand this and immediately believe those fox spirits, allowing them to fabricate teachings that bind others.

“They say: ‘The principles embodied in outward forms are realized as Buddhahood only by guarding and cherishing the three karmic activities.’

“Such words are no more substantial than a spring drizzle.

“An ancient said, ‘When you meet one who has attained the Way upon the road, above all, do not turn toward the Way!’

“Therefore, it is said:

“If one cultivates the Way, yet the Way is not practiced,

Myriad deviant states contend to arise.

When the sword of wisdom is drawn, not a single thing remains;

Before the light appears, darkness is already bright!”

“Thus, an ancient said, ‘The ordinary mind is the Way.’ Venerable ones, what are you seeking? Right now, the one before your eyes who hears the Dharma is the person of the Way who has nowhere to rely, clearly and distinctly manifest everywhere and never deficient. If you wish to be no different from the Buddhas and patriarchs, simply see in this way and do not give rise to doubt or error. If your mind in each successive thought does not differ, you are called a patriarch. If the mind differs even slightly, nature and characteristics immediately become distinct. When the mind remains in suchness without difference, mind and characteristics are nondual.”

Another monk asked Chan Master Jinfusi, “What is it like when there is no Buddha in the ancient hall?”

The Fourth Patriarch said, “Where does the Brahma-sound come from?”

He further asked, “Without relying on cultivation and realization, how can attainment be accomplished?”

The Fourth Patriarch said, “Cultivation and realization are precisely what prevent its accomplishment.”

The insight of each of the venerable masters accords thoroughly with the purport: “Why labor so strenuously and press on with cultivation and realization?” This itself is the Wondrous Mind of Nirvana, the Treasury of the Eye of the True Dharma. Why should one have to wait until the event on Vulture Peak, when the Buddha held up a flower and Mahakasyapa smiled, before calling it “the separate transmission of the Mind-Seal”?

Sutra: “It is like a person who has a wish-fulfilling jewel sewn inside his robe without knowing it. He therefore wanders far away begging for food, poor, gaunt, and emaciated. Though reduced to utter poverty, the jewel has never been lost. Suddenly, a wise person points out the jewel to him. Thereupon, whatever he wishes for is obtained, and he becomes immensely wealthy. Only then does he realize that the divine jewel was not acquired from outside.

Penetrating Commentary: The Lotus Sutra and the Surangama Sutra directly point to the human mind so that one may see the Nature and become a Buddha; both use the jewel inside the robe as an analogy. The Nature of the Tathagata-garbha is concealed by the five skandhas, like a jewel sewn inside a robe, and is therefore not easily seen. If one rushes outward in search of it, one finds oneself lacking more with each passing day, poor and emaciated in a distant land, madly racing through the nine realms.

Seeking the pleasures of gods and humans and clinging solely to petty benefits is still nothing more than roaming about as a beggar. But when one realizes the Original Mind, there is complete and abundant sufficiency. The jewel is called Wish-Fulfilling because whatever one wishes for is obtained.

Who would have imagined that the self-nature is originally complete in itself! Who would have imagined that the self-nature can give rise to the myriad dharmas—as the Sixth Patriarch declared upon awakening! Thus, its wondrous functioning is never deficient, and one becomes boundlessly wealthy.

This one divine jewel has never been lost in delusion, nor has it ever been acquired in awakening. One need only have a wise person point it out; then one may freely enjoy its inexhaustible use. Why would cultivation and realization be needed?

One day, the Blessed One displayed a mani jewel that changed according to color and asked the Heavenly Kings of the five directions, “What color is this jewel?”

Each of the Heavenly Kings named a different color. The Blessed One placed the jewel inside his sleeve, then raised his hand and asked, “What color is this jewel?”

The Heavenly Kings replied, “There is no jewel in the Buddha’s hand, so where could there be any color?”

The Blessed One lamented, “How deeply confused and inverted you are! When I showed you a worldly jewel, each of you contended that it was blue, yellow, white, red, and so forth. Yet when I reveal the true jewel and point it out to you, in the end you do not recognize it!”

At that moment, all the Heavenly Kings of the five directions awakened to the Way.

When Master Dazhu first went to meet Master Mazu, the Patriarch asked, “Where have you come from?”

He replied, “I have come from Dayun Monastery in Yuezhou.”

The Patriarch said, “What do you intend to accomplish by coming here?”

He replied, “Venerable Sir, I have come to seek the Buddha-Dharma.”

The Patriarch answered, “You pay no heed to the treasure house within your own home, but abandon your home and run about. What for? Here with me, there is not a single thing. What Buddha-Dharma do you seek?”

The master then bowed and asked, “What is Huaihai’s own household treasure?”

Master Mazu said, “The very one who is now asking me—that is it. Your treasure house is wholly present and complete, utterly lacking nothing. You may use it freely; why seek outside?”

At these words, Master Dazhu directly understood the Original Mind for himself, not through conceptual knowledge. Joyfully, he bowed in gratitude and attended the Patriarch for six years. Later, he wrote the Treatise on the Essential Gateway to Entering the Way through Sudden Awakening. After reading it, the Patriarch told the assembly, “In Yuezhou there is a great pearl—Dazhu—perfectly round, luminous, and translucent, freely functioning without any obstruction.”

Master Yangshan went to pay his respects to Chan Master Dongsi Hui.

The Chan master asked, “Where are you from?”

Yangshan replied, “I am from Guangnan.”

Master Hui said, “I have heard that in Guangnan there is a luminous pearl that steadies the sea. Is that true?”

Yangshan replied, “Yes, Venerable Sir.”

Patriarch Hui said, “What is that pearl like?”

Yangshan said, “When there is no moon, it is hidden; when there is a moon, it appears.”

Patriarch Hui asked, “Were you able to bring it here?”

Yangshan replied, “I was able to bring it.”

Patriarch Hui asked, “Why do you not present it to this old monk?”

Master Yangshan folded his hands, stepped forward, and said, “Yesterday, when I went to Guishan, I was also asked for that jewel! At that very moment, there were no words with which to reply and no principle that could be presented!”

Patriarch Hui said, “Truly, you are a lion cub well able to roar!”

Hundreds and thousands of years later, because the venerable masters have safeguarded this divine jewel, which is not obtained from outside, we have even greater faith that the Buddha’s words contain no error.

VIII. FURTHER REFUTATION OF CAUSES AND CONDITIONS AND SPONTANEITY

A. FROM THE BEGINNING, THERE HAS NEVER BEEN DELUSION

Sutra: At that time, Ananda, in the midst of the assembly, bowed at the Buddha’s feet, arose, and said, “The Blessed One has just spoken of the karmic acts of killing, stealing, and sexual misconduct. When the three conditions are severed, the three causes do not arise. The insane nature in Yajnadatta’s mind then ceases of itself, and that cessation itself is bodhi, not something obtained from anyone else. Yet this is plainly a matter of causes and conditions. Why, then, does the Tathagata reject the doctrine of causes and conditions? Indeed, it was through causes and conditions that my own mind was opened to awakening.

“Blessed One! This principle applies not only to young trainees among the sravakas such as ourselves. In this assembly, Mahamaudgalyayana, Sariputra, and Subhuti all heard the Buddha’s teaching on causes and conditions from the elderly Brahmin, brought forth the awakened mind, and attained the state beyond outflows. Now, upon hearing the Buddha teach that bodhi does not arise from causes and conditions, would not the doctrine of spontaneity proclaimed by Kasyali and his followers in Rajagrha become the Ultimate Truth instead? I pray that the Buddha, out of compassion, will dispel our confusion.”

Penetrating Commentary: The Blessed One taught, “When the three conditions are severed, the three causes do not arise.” This was precisely an instruction to Purnamaitrayaniputra and the others: if they did not follow discriminations concerning the three kinds of causes and conditions by which dharmas are successively annihilated and continued, then their mad nature would cease of itself and bodhi would become manifest. The Buddha did not want them to unite the mind of arising and ceasing with the Tathagata-garbha, and thus separately disclosed a Dharma-gate of sudden awakening. This means that even the notion of obtaining the unborn and undying through the severance of causes and conditions was not permitted, much less the existence of causes and conditions themselves.

Ananda, solely devoted to extensive learning and habituated to the mutually destructive views of causes and conditions and spontaneity, mistakenly understood the statement that the three conditions are severed and the three causes do not arise according to the Lesser Vehicle: when the three karmic acts of killing, stealing, and sexual misconduct lack supporting conditions, the three causes of greed, anger, and delusion do not arise.

If causes and conditions existed, then there would clearly be a corresponding duality. How, then, could it be said that there are no causes and conditions? Indeed, when Mahamaudgalyayana and Sariputra encountered the bhiksu Asvajit, who taught them, “Dharmas arise from causes and conditions; dharmas cease through causes and conditions,” they realized the First Fruition upon hearing those words.

Thus, they were awakened through causes and conditions. The other elders were likewise. If the Buddha now rejects the principle of causes and conditions, then how is this different from the claim of Maskarin Gosaliputra, Kasyali, and their followers that, “Although beings experience pleasure and suffering, these have no causes or conditions but are simply and spontaneously so”?

They did not understand that when those disciples heard the Buddha’s principle of causes and conditions and attained the state beyond outflows, the teaching that things “arise according to conditions and cease according to conditions” enabled them to awaken to the essential purport of non-arising. That arising and ceasing are themselves entirely conditioned. Therefore, having attained the state beyond outflows, how could they remain attached to causes and conditions?

One day, Patriarch Niaochao’s attendant Huitong wished to take his leave.

The Patriarch said, “Where are you going now?”

He replied, “I, Huitong, left the household for the sake of the Dharma, but the Venerable has not compassionately instructed me. Therefore, I am now going elsewhere to study the Buddha-Dharma.”

Patriarch Niaochao said, “If it is the Buddha-Dharma, I also have a little of it here.”

Huitong asked, “What is the Venerable’s Buddha-Dharma?”

Patriarch Wuchao immediately plucked out a strand of cloth fiber, held it up, and blew upon it.

Master Huitong thereupon awakened.

Master Fenyang chanted:

“At first, as an attendant, he admired superior conditions;

Leaving his master, resolved to study and investigate Chan.

Wuchao knew the moment had come when conditions were ripe;

He blew upon a fiber, and right there his mind found peace.”

As for such an occasion, could it also be called causes and conditions?

Sutra: The Buddha told Ananda: “When the causal condition for Yajnadatta’s madness in the city is eliminated, the nature that is not mad naturally appears. Ultimately, the doctrines of causes and conditions and spontaneity amount only to this.

“Ananda, if Yajnadatta’s head was originally spontaneous, inherently so of itself, and was never not spontaneous, then through what causes and conditions did he become frightened about his head and run madly away? If the head was spontaneous, while the madness arose through causes and conditions, why did the head not likewise, through causes and conditions, naturally become lost? The head was never lost; the madness and terror falsely arose, while the head itself never underwent any change.

What need, then, was there for causes and conditions? If the nature of madness was originally spontaneous and the madness and terror were inherently present, then before he went mad, where was that madness hidden? If the nature of not being mad was spontaneous, then since the head likewise remained as it naturally was, why did he run madly away?

If he awakens to the fact that his head has always been present as it is, and knows that his going mad and running away was his own doing, then both causes and conditions and spontaneity are mere frivolous theories.

Commentary: If it is said that after causes and conditions cease, the true nature of bodhi naturally appears, this is not a correct doctrine. When the matter of Yajnadatta’s becoming frightened about his head and running away is thoroughly examined, it is neither causes and conditions nor spontaneity; this is decisively clear. First, considering the head itself: the head was originally as it naturally was and certainly could not have been taken away through causes and conditions.

Why, then, did he go mad because of the causal condition of looking into a mirror? If causes and conditions are held to be correct, spontaneity can no longer stand; then why did he not actually lose his head through causes and conditions? But since the head was never lost and the man himself went mad and ran away, this madness falsely arose, and plainly had nothing to do with causes and conditions.

Since it neither arose from causes and conditions nor ceased in accordance with causes and conditions, to say that the causal nature of madness could be eliminated is entirely mistaken.

Considering the nature of madness: if the nature of madness was originally spontaneous, where was it hiding? If the nature of not being mad was spontaneous, why did he run about insanely? Neither madness nor non-madness has a self-nature, and neither has anything to do with the doctrine of spontaneity; this is perfectly clear. Since it was neither spontaneously concealed nor spontaneously produced, to say that the nature of non-madness naturally appears is mistaken. Therefore, one should know that speaking of causes and conditions or of spontaneity has nothing whatever to do with the head. To say that madness is original or that non-madness is original can never fully settle the matter of the nature of madness. All such things belong to frivolous theories and contain nothing true.

One need only awaken to the fact that the head has always been present and was never lost. Clearly knowing that the madness and running away occurred, one sees that madness itself falsely arose. This single word, “awaken,” and this single word, “know,” are precisely one’s own true functioning and enjoyment, which no speech or language can reach.

To awaken to the head is to awaken to the Original Face, in which there is not the slightest change. To know madness is to know the false arising of discrimination that runs madly through the nine realms. This awakening and this knowing are like a flash of lightning or a spark struck from stone: within a single ksana, how could there be any foothold for causes and conditions or spontaneity?

Thus it is said: “When it ends, that itself is bodhi, obtained from no one, far removed from all causes and conditions and spontaneity.”

Chan Master Zhiyan of Mount Niutou served as a military officer during the Daye era of the Sui dynasty and won many military distinctions. In the Wude era of the Tang dynasty, at the age of forty, he requested permission to leave the household life and studied under Chan Master Baoyue. Two former companions from the army heard that he was living in secluded practice and entered the mountain to seek him. When they met, they asked: “Has the military commander gone mad? What are you doing in this place?”

He replied: “My madness is about to clear, while your madness is now breaking out! Alas! Craving forms and being deluded by sounds, coveting fame and desiring profit, revolving in birth and death—from where do these arise?”

The two were moved to awakening and departed with sighs.

Later, he visited Chan Master Niutou Farong and penetrated the great matter. Patriarch Farong told him: “I received the true essential instruction from Great Master Daoxin, and all that I had attained vanished completely. Even if there were a Dharma surpassing nirvana, I would still speak of it as a dream and an illusion. Ah! A single flying mote of dust obscures the heavens! A single fallen mustard seed covers the earth! Now that you have passed through this seeing, what more have I to say?”

Thus, when madness ends as it did for Master Zhiyan, this may be called true awakening.

B. ENTERING BODHI

Sutra: “Therefore, I say: ‘When the three conditions are severed and abandoned, that itself is the bodhi-mind.’ The bodhi-mind arises and the mind of arising and ceasing ceases, but this too is merely arising and ceasing. When both ceasing and arising are utterly exhausted, that is the Path of effortless functioning. If there is spontaneity, then this amounts to saying that the mind spontaneously arises and the mind of arising and ceasing ceases; this too is arising and ceasing, while that which neither arises nor ceases is called spontaneous.

It is just as in the world: characteristics that intermingle to form a single entity are called the nature of combination, while what does not combine is called the inherent nature. The inherent is not inherent; combination is not combination; both combination and the inherent are abandoned. Both abandoning and not abandoning are not.

Such a statement alone may be called a Dharma free of frivolous theory.

“Bodhi and nirvana remain very far away. Unless you diligently cultivate and realize them over many kalpas, then even though you may retain in memory the pure and wondrous principles of the twelve divisions of scripture taught by the Tathagatas of the ten directions, as numerous as the sands of the Ganges, you will merely increase frivolous theories.

Commentary: This passage clearly elucidates the meaning of “How could it depend upon diligent and arduous cultivation and realization?” When madness suddenly ends, it is not through the laborious severing of conditions; therefore, it is not a matter of causes and conditions. If one says: “Because the three Conditions are severed, the three Causes no longer arise, and through those causes and conditions the bodhi-mind is attained,” then the arising of the bodhi-mind depends upon the cessation of the mind of arising and ceasing. If one extinguishes the false to realize the true, then the true also becomes false. This too is merely a dharma of arising and ceasing, not bodhi. Such causes and conditions belong to arising and ceasing and therefore are also easily exhausted.

When both cessation and arising have been utterly exhausted, not only is the mind of arising and cessation exhausted, but the cessation of arising and cessation is also completely exhausted. Since there is no arising to be extinguished, there is no practice to be applied. If within this there is something neither arising nor ceasing that is called Naturalness, then this naturally existent mind is revealed when cessation and arising are both exhausted; thus it is a naturally arising mind.

Yet because it exists through the cessation of the mind of arising and cessation, it too is a dharma of arising and cessation, not bodhi. The word “too” is truly meaningful! Why is that which neither arises nor ceases, called Naturalness, also said to be arising and ceasing?

Because the non-arising and non-ceasing is revealed in contrast to arising and cessation; thus there is dualistic opposition. It is likewise with revealing the non-compounded in contrast to the compounded. Where there is what is originally so, there is what is not originally so; where there is conjunction, there is non-conjunction.

Clearly, all of this consists entirely of opposites. It is like saying that an ox has horns and then saying that a hare has none; this therefore also belongs to arising and cessation. That merely renders arising and cessation empty, but cannot render Naturalness empty.

It is like saying, “There is no one in that house”: this only renders the person within it “nonexistent,” but does not yet render the house nonexistent. That is not true seeing. Hence it is called conceptual play.

If now conjunction and non-conjunction, what is originally so and what is not originally so—all such opposing dharmas—are entirely left behind, and there is not even a mind that leaves them behind, then both separation and conjunction are extinguished. Having left behind the object, one also leaves behind the subject; when both subject and object are left behind, there remains only the One Reality. Only this may be called the Dharma free from conceptual play.

But if, relying upon this statement, one clings to unsurpassed bodhi and nirvana, one is still very far away! Why is this so? Because one still remains within the conditioned, with effort and perfuming.

Perfect-enlightenment bodhi and the wondrous mind of nirvana can only be awakened to and entered in a single instant; they are not something that you can cultivate and realize through arduous practice over many kalpas. That which is attained without arduous cultivation and realization over many kalpas depends upon neither causes and conditions nor Naturalness for its attainment. Whatever must rely upon arduous cultivation and realization over many kalpas must necessarily be attained through causes and conditions or Naturalness.

Thus, although one remembers the wondrous, pure principles of the Buddhas of the ten directions as the Dharma free from conceptual play, one merely adds further forms of conceptual play concerning causes and conditions and Naturalness. How could anything truly be attained? Therefore, upon hearing that “when the three conditions are severed, the three causes do not arise,” if one discriminates accordingly and thereby obtains the mind of bodhi, this is not true attainment.

This is what is meant by “joining the mind of arising and cessation to the Tathagata-garbha.” If one simply does not discriminate accordingly, the nature of madness will cease of itself. Its cessation is bodhi, attained from no one; this is true attainment, for it is joining that which neither arises nor ceases to the Tathagata-garbha. How could this supreme opportunity be the same as the doctrine of Naturalness taught by the Kapila group?

The Sixth Patriarch taught: “The non-arising and non-ceasing spoken of by non-Buddhists uses cessation to stop arising and uses arising to reveal cessation. Thus, although cessation exists, they regard it as non-cessation; although arising exists, they call it non-arising. When I speak of non-arising and non-ceasing, it means that originally there was no arising, and now there is no cessation either. Therefore, it is not the same as the teaching of non-Buddhists.”

Master Jinshan asked Master Xiushan: “Knowing clearly that the nature of arising does not arise, why does arising still remain?”

Xiushan said: “A bamboo shoot ultimately becomes bamboo. If it has now been fashioned into bamboo strips, how could it be made to revert?”

Jinshan said: “Later, you will awaken to this yourself.”

Xiushan said: “My understanding is simply thus. What is the Venerable’s purport?”

Master Jinshan said: “This is the superintendent’s quarters; that is the chief cook’s quarters.”

Master Xiushan then bowed in homage.

Master Tiantong versified:

“Suddenly, the place of reliance is lost;

Free and unrestrained, nothing governs.

The realm at peace—who can be seen?

When strength begins to arise, ranks are divided.

Body and mind open and empty, right and wrong cease.

Right and wrong cease!

Establishing the great square—there is no trace!”

Thus, realization of unsurpassed bodhi fundamentally does not fall into stages or ranks. What trace could there be to perceive?

Sutra: “Although you expound the principles of causes and conditions and Naturalness with certainty and clarity, and people of the world praise you as foremost in learning, even the great learning you have accumulated over many lives did not enable you to escape the calamity of the maiden Matangi. You had to await my Buddha-Crown mantra, which instantly extinguished the fire of lust in the maiden Matangi’s heart, whereupon she attained anagamin. Now, within my Dharma, she advances diligently like a forest; the river of craving has dried up, enabling you to be liberated.

“Therefore, Ananda, although for many kalpas you have remembered the Tathagata’s secret, wondrous adornments, this is not equal to cultivating the outflow-free karma for even a single day and leaving far behind the two worldly sufferings of aversion and affection. The maiden Matangi was formerly a prostitute. Through the power of the mantra, her lust and craving dissolved, and now within the Buddha-Dharma she is called the Bhiksuni Nature.

Together with Yasodhara, the mother of Rahula, she awakened to causes from former lives and understood the causes that led them through many lifetimes: craving and attachment are suffering. By perfuming and cultivating the wholesome, outflow-free Dharma in a single thought, one escaped her bonds, while the other received a prediction of buddhahood. Why do you still belittle yourself and remain forever confined within hearing and seeing?”

Commentary: It is clear that although Ananda possessed great learning over many kalpas, he could not escape the calamity of the maiden Matangi. Thus, remembering the Tathagata’s wondrous, pure principles cannot bring realization of the fruit. It is also clear that the Buddha-Crown mantra could instantly extinguish the lust in the maiden Matangi’s heart, meaning that inconceivable perfuming and cultivation enabled her to free herself from bondage.

Remembering and retaining the secret, wondrous, majestic Dharma still involves outflows. Abandoning delusion to follow the True still entails the two sufferings of affection and aversion. If one cannot even escape suffering, how much less can one attain the fruit?

Cultivating the Perfect and Sudden Dharma gate is outflow-free. Upon awakening to causes from former lives, craving and attachment no longer arise, and one then receives a prediction of buddhahood—how could this be merely attaining the fruit? The maiden Matangi realized the third fruit, anagamin, which is called escaping from bondage.

Yasodhara also had causes and conditions extending over many kalpas with the Blessed One, and at the Lotus Sutra assembly she received a prediction of buddhahood. These were only women, yet by turning their minds around in a single thought, they could advance to the rank of diligent practice. How much more should you sravakas do so!

Why belittle yourselves and fail to awaken suddenly? Moreover, why rely upon causes and conditions to eliminate delusion, while clinging to the conceptual play of non-Buddhists and remaining forever within the confines of seeing and hearing?

Chan Master Chunan ascended the hall and said: “All of you, even if you understand the teachings of the Buddhas of the three times as thoroughly as water poured from one vessel into another, it is not equal to cultivating the outflow-free path in a single thought and escaping the bonds of the karmic causality of gods and humans!”

At that time, a monk asked: “How is the outflow-free path to be cultivated?”

Patriarch Chunan said: “There has never been an Acarya to grasp!”

The monk asked: “If there has never been a ‘me’ here, whom do you instruct to grasp it?”

He replied: “Even the grasping does not exist!”

If one comprehends these one or two turning words, the Tathagata’s unspoken purport is revealed!

Section 9: Indicating the Definitive Meaning

I. PRACTICES OF CULTIVATION AFTER SUDDEN AWAKENING AND THE ARISING OF THE BODHI MIND

Sutra: Ananda and the entire assembly, having heard the Buddha’s teaching, saw their doubts and delusions dissolve and awakened to the True Mark. Their bodies and minds became light, peaceful, and secure, and they attained what they had never before experienced. Once again shedding tears, they bowed at the Buddha’s feet, knelt upright with palms joined, and addressed the Buddha: “O Unsurpassed One of Great Compassion, Pure and Precious King, you have skillfully opened our minds. Through all these various causes and conditions, you have expediently guided those submerged in darkness out of the sea of suffering.”

“Blessed One, now that I have reverently heard such Dharma sounds, I understand that the Tathagatagarbha—the wondrously enlightened, luminous mind—pervades the worlds of the ten directions and encompasses all the Tathagatas’ lands throughout the ten directions, the pure, precious, and magnificently adorned Buddha lands of the Wondrously Enlightened Kings. The Tathagata has also reproached me for being learned but lacking practical attainment, and for failing to cultivate in time.

I am now like a person who has wandered adrift and suddenly encounters a heavenly king who bestows upon him a splendid house. Although he has obtained a great house, he must still enter through a door. I beseech the Tathagata, in his great compassion, not to forsake us, but to instruct those of us in this assembly who remain benighted, so that we may abandon the Lesser Vehicle and all attain the Tathagata’s fundamental path of arousing the mind that leads to nirvana without remainder.

May he enable those who are still in training to know how to subdue their long-standing involvement with conditioned objects, attain the all-embracing dharani, and enter the Buddha’s knowledge and vision.”

After Ananda had spoken these words, he prostrated himself with all five limbs touching the ground. Everyone in the assembly single-mindedly awaited the Buddha’s compassionate instruction.

Commentary: From the beginning, the True and the false were distinguished in order to elucidate the nature of enlightenment, culminating in the exposition of the nature of the True within the supreme meaning of supreme meaning, thereby resolving all doubts and entanglements and enabling one to believe and understand that the True Nature is the causal-ground mind. Only when the causal-ground mind is true can the fruition-ground of cultivation and realization be perfectly accomplished. Thus, the preceding section concerned seeing the Path. From this point onward, the cultivation of the Path is discussed separately.

Ananda had already attained the Dharma-body, yet subtle ignorance remained. Now that his delusions had been removed and he had awakened to the true characteristic, he nevertheless lamented that he had failed to cultivate in time. Ultimately, he was still outside the door.

Although he knew of the heavenly king’s splendid house, he had not yet been able to enter it. His failure to find the door of entry was due, first, to his lingering fondness for the Lesser Vehicle and his failure to understand the fundamental path of arousing the mind; and second, to his involvement with conditioned objects, which was precisely the suffering that prevented him from entering the Buddha’s knowledge and vision.

Although this resulted from his habit of pursuing extensive learning, he also asked on behalf of those in the assembly who were still in training.

Patriarch Muzhou said to the assembly: “Have all of you found the point of entry? If you have not yet found the point of entry, you must seek it out, lest you disappoint this old monk in the future.”

Chan Master Yaofeng Xian ascended the hall and taught: “Winter passes and autumn returns; the gate of the tower stands wide open. If you can enter, do not hesitate. Venerable Ones! Have you been able to step inside? If you can step inside, it is just as the ancients said: ‘Here, everyone is Maitreya; at every gate stands Sudhana.’ If you have not yet been able to step inside, then you Venerable Ones are yourselves running about madly. Do not stand there gazing fixedly forever! Take care!”

An official asked Patriarch Muzhou: “All three gates stand open. Through which gate should one enter?”

Patriarch Muzhou called out loudly: “Minister!”

The official responded: “Yes!”

Patriarch Muzhou said: “Enter through the gate of faith.”

The official then saw a painting on the wall and asked: “What are these two venerable ones discussing face-to-face?”

Patriarch Muzhou struck the exposed pillar and said: “Among the Three Bodies, which body does not expound the Dharma?”

Master Muzhou’s style towered aloft. At this point he revealed everything with perfect clarity: if one’s faith reaches its destination, one immediately passes through no stages.

Sutra: At that time, the Blessed One took pity on the shravakas and pratyekabuddhas in the assembly who had not yet attained freedom within the bodhi mind, as well as on beings in the future who would arouse the bodhi mind during the Dharma-ending age after the Buddha’s nirvana. To reveal the wondrous path of cultivation of the Supreme Vehicle, he proclaimed to Ananda and the great assembly: “Since you have resolutely aroused the bodhi mind and will not grow weary of the Tathagata’s wondrous samadhi Dharma, you should first clearly understand the two decisive principles concerning the initial mind of enlightenment.”

Commentary: Ananda’s question contained two points. First, what is the fundamental path of arousing the mind that leads to the Tathagata’s nirvana without remainder? Second, how does one subdue the mind that becomes involved with conditioned objects and enter the Buddha’s knowledge and vision? Therefore, the Blessed One explained the two decisive principles.

If one wishes to understand the fundamental path of arousing the mind, one must discern the root of birth and death so as to attain the nature that neither arises nor ceases. Taking that as the causal-ground mind, one may then perfectly accomplish the wondrous virtue of nirvana, which neither arises nor ceases. This is the first principle concerning the initial mind.

If one wishes to subdue the mind involved with conditioned objects, one must clearly examine the root of afflictions and understand that the six faculties act as intermediaries for the thieves, so that one both creates and undergoes the consequences oneself. One need only select one faculty that perfectly penetrates and enter deeply through that single gate; then the awareness of all six faculties will simultaneously become pure. This is the second principle concerning the initial mind.

To attain the unborn, one must completely extinguish the afflictions. When the afflictions are utterly exhausted, one realizes the unborn. These two have never been separable. Here the text speaks of wondrous samadhi and also of the wondrous path of cultivation, continually calling attention to the single word “wondrous.” It is essential to accord with wondrous luminosity and luminous wondrousness, without grasping at characteristics in seeking bodhi.

Shravakas and pratyekabuddhas have not yet escaped attachment to characteristics; therefore, they have not attained freedom within bodhi. Only by awakening to this single wondrous principle, without depending on laborious and diligent cultivation and realization, can it be called the Supreme Vehicle.

When the First Patriarch Bodhidharma arrived in Jinling, Emperor Wu of Liang asked: “Since ascending the throne, I have built monasteries, copied sutras, and ordained more monks than can be counted. What merit have I gained?”

The Patriarch replied: “None whatsoever.”

The emperor asked: “Why is there none?”

The Patriarch said: “These are merely the minor fruits of humans and heavenly beings, conditioned causes with outflows. Like a shadow following a form, they appear to exist but are not real.”

The emperor asked: “What is true merit?”

The Patriarch said: “Pure wisdom, perfect and wondrous; its essence is intrinsically empty and quiescent. Such merit cannot be sought through worldly means.”

The emperor further asked: “What is the holy truth of the ultimate meaning?”

The Patriarch said: “Vast emptiness—nothing holy.”

The emperor said: “Then who is it standing before me?”

The Patriarch said: “I do not discriminate.”

The emperor failed to understand. Knowing that their capacities were not in accord, the Patriarch secretly crossed north of the Yangtze River.

Master Xuedou versified:

“The holy truth is vast emptiness—

How could words ever hit the mark!

Who stands before Our Majesty?

Again he says: ‘I do not know.’ [Know: discriminate]

Thus he silently crossed the river;

How could he avoid raising thorns?

The whole realm pursued him, yet he did not return;

For a thousand ages, ten thousand years, they recall each other no more.

No more recollection!

The clear wind pervades everywhere—where could it ever end?”

The Master looked to the left and right, then said: “Is there still a Patriarch here?”

He answered himself: “If there is, summon him here to wash this old monk’s feet!”

Master Tiantong versified:

“Vast emptiness, nothing holy;

Their capacities were worlds apart.

To gain—he swung his axe without striking the nose;

To lose—he did not turn his head, but fell into the furnace bellows.

Silently he sat in stillness at Shaolin;

Without a word, he fully raised the true command.

Autumn clears, the moon moves, the frost wheels on;

At night the Big Dipper shines upon its handle.

Robe and bowl pass unceasingly to descendants;

From then on, heavenly and human beings became medicine and disease.”

If one discusses the wondrous path of cultivating the Supreme Vehicle, even the holy truth of the ultimate meaning is not admitted—how much less could one fall into a second or third meaning!

II. THE CAUSAL-GROUND MIND

Sutra: “What are the two decisive principles concerning the Initial Mind? Ananda, the first principle is this: If you wish to leave behind the shravaka path and cultivate the Bodhisattva Vehicle in order to enter the Buddha’s knowledge and vision, you should carefully examine whether the causal ground upon which you resolve to awaken and the fruition ground of enlightenment are the same or different. Ananda! If, on the causal ground, you take the mind of arising and ceasing as the basis and cultivate on that basis in pursuit of the Buddha Vehicle’s fruition of neither arising nor ceasing, this can never be accomplished.

Commentary: This is an instruction on seeing the nature according to the Ultimate Truth. When speaking of seeing the nature, one does not rely upon the effort of repeated cultivation, but merely examines whether the causal ground upon which one resolves to awaken and the fruition ground of enlightenment are the same or different. Thus, sages attain without deliberation and hit the mark without effort.

Those who preserve the mind of an innocent child also know without anxious thought and accomplish without study. Neither studying nor contriving is the cause; neither deliberating nor striving is the fruition. Therefore, it is said: “A great person never loses the mind of an innocent child.

Cause and fruition are originally in accord, with absolutely no increase or decrease.” Without seeing the nature, how could one be capable of uttering such words?

When Master Mazu was still at Mount Nanyue, he lived alone in a room at the Dharma Transmission Monastery and practiced only seated meditation, paying no attention to anyone who came to visit or inquire. Even when Great Master Huairang came, he took no notice. Seeing that Mazu possessed an extraordinary bearing, the Great Master recalled the prophecy of the Sixth Patriarch and began employing skillful means to guide and teach him.

One day, the Great Master took a brick and began polishing it in front of the hermitage. Mazu still paid no attention.

After a long while, Master Mazu finally asked: “What are you doing?”

The Great Master replied: “I am polishing it to make a mirror!”

Mazu asked: “Can polishing a brick turn it into a mirror?”

The Great Master said: “If polishing a brick cannot make a mirror, can sitting in meditation turn you into a Buddha?”

Mazu then rose from his meditation seat and said: “Then what should one do?”

The Great Master replied: “Suppose you are riding in a cart and the cart does not move. Is it right to strike the cart, or is it right to strike the ox?”

Mazu could not answer.

The Great Master continued: “Are you learning seated meditation, or are you learning to be a seated Buddha? If you are learning seated meditation, meditation is not a matter of sitting or lying down. If you are learning to be a seated Buddha, the Buddha is not a seated form. Therefore, within the Dharma of non-abiding, there is neither grasping nor rejecting. If you sit as a Buddha, you are killing the Buddha. If you cling to the form of sitting, you will never penetrate the principle.”

Mazu then bowed and asked: “How should the mind be applied so that it accords with the Formless Samadhi?”

The Great Master said: “Your study of the Dharma gate of the mind-ground is like sowing seeds. My exposition of the essential Dharma is like rain descending and soaking them. Because your conditions are suitable, you will see the Way.”

Mazu said: “The Way is not a visible form. How can it be seen?”

The Great Master said: “The Dharma eye of the mind-ground sees the Way. The Formless Samadhi is likewise.”

Master Mazu asked: “Is there formation and dissolution?”

The Great Master said: “If you see the Way in terms of formation and dissolution, gathering and dispersal, then you do not see the Way. Listen to my verse:

“The mind-ground holds myriad seeds;

When rain comes, every shoot is born.

The flower of samadhi is formless—

What could dissolve, and what could form?”

Upon hearing this teaching, Mazu suddenly awakened. He attended the Great Master for ten years, gaining ever deeper and more intimate realization each day, and later spread the teaching throughout Jiangxi.

Great Master Huairang asked the assembly: “Has Mazu Daoyi expounded the Dharma for the assembly?”

They replied: “He has already expounded the Dharma for them.”

The Great Master said: “I have yet to see anyone bring news of him.”

He then sent a monk, instructing him: “When he ascends the hall to expound the Dharma, simply ask: ‘How is it?’ Whatever he says, remember it and bring it back here.”

The monk went to Mazu and followed the Great Master’s instructions.

Upon returning, he told the Great Master: “Daoyi said: ‘Since the turmoil caused by the Hu barbarians, for thirty years I have never lacked soy sauce or salt.’”

The Great Master approved.

Patriarch Xuefeng sent word to Patriarch Yantou: “Ever since I realized the Way at Mount Ao, I have remained full until this very day and have never been hungry.”

Thus, this resembles Master Mazu’s statement above: in both cases, there is neither sameness nor difference between the causal ground upon which one resolves to awaken and the fruition ground of enlightenment. Practicing seated meditation with cultivation and attainment belongs to the dharma of arising and ceasing; compared with the Unsurpassed Vehicle, it is thousands of miles away!

Sutra: “For this reason, you must clearly understand that all things in the world are conditioned dharmas and must therefore undergo transformation and destruction.

“Ananda, examine the conditioned dharmas of the world: is there any one of them that does not decay? Yet one has never heard that empty space disintegrates. Why is this? Because empty space is unconditioned; therefore, from beginning to end, it neither decays nor perishes. Within your body, solidity is the earth element, moisture is the water element, warmth is the fire element, and movement is the wind element. Because of the entanglement of these four, your wondrous, enlightened, luminous mind—which is tranquil, perfect, and all-pervading—is divided into seeing, hearing, awareness, and discernment. From beginning to end, these form the five layers of turbidity.

“What is turbidity? Ananda, it is like clear water, which is inherently pure, while dust, earth, ashes, and sand are by nature obstructive. Since their essential natures are such, the two are incompatible. If someone in the world takes that dust and earth and throws it into clean water, the earth loses its obstructive quality and the water loses its purity. Its turbid appearance is called turbidity. Your five layers of turbidity are likewise.

“Ananda, you see empty space pervading the worlds of the ten directions. Empty space and seeing cannot be separated from one another. Empty space has no substantial form, while seeing lacks independent awareness; through their false interweaving, they come into being. This is the first layer, called the turbidity of the kalpa.

“Your body presently takes the four elements as its substance. Seeing, hearing, awareness, and knowing become obstructed and constrained, while earth, water, fire, and wind in turn become endowed with awareness. Through their false interweaving, they come into being. This is the second layer, called the turbidity of views.

“Further, within your mind, memory, knowing, and learning generate knowledge and views, while accommodating and manifesting the six sense objects. Apart from sense objects, they have no characteristics; apart from awareness, they have no nature. Through their false interweaving, they come into being. This is the third layer, called the turbidity of afflictions.

“Further, your mind arises and ceases without pause, day and night. Your knowledge and views constantly wish to remain in the world, but the turning force of karma continually causes you to migrate among the realms. Through their false interweaving, they come into being. This is the fourth layer, called the turbidity of living beings.

“Your seeing and hearing are originally not different in nature, but because they are separated by the sense objects, differences arise without any other cause. Within their nature they are mutually cognizant, but in their functions they oppose one another. Sameness and difference lose their proper standard. Through their false interweaving, they become established. This is the fifth layer, called the turbidity of lifespan.

Commentary: The first principle is that one must clearly understand the fundamental path of resolving the mind upon awakening and examine whether the causal ground upon which one resolves to awaken and the fruition ground of enlightenment are the same or different. To speak of examining means that one must investigate carefully: What is the root of birth and death, which differs from the fruition ground of enlightenment? What is the fundamental basis of neither arising nor ceasing, which is identical to the fruition ground of enlightenment?”

Originally, there is but one wondrously enlightened, luminous Mind, tranquil, clear, perfect, and all-pervading. Fundamentally, there is no difference; whence, then, could distinctions arise? It is only because the clear, tranquil nature becomes sealed over that the four great elements arise and congeal into the six sense faculties.

The faculties and their objects mutually defile one another, forming the five layers of turbidity, while the wondrously enlightened, luminous Mind departs from its original station and becomes divided into seeing, hearing, awareness, and knowing, revolving within the cycle of birth and death. From beginning to end, from form through consciousness, this seeing, hearing, awareness, and knowing never leaves the domain of the five skandhas and is precisely the root of birth and death.

If this is taken as the cause through which to seek the Buddha Vehicle, attainment is impossible. Why? All conditioned dharmas of the world undergo change and cessation, whereas space cannot be produced and therefore is not destroyed.

The Buddha alone is unconditioned and thus does not fall within any enumeration; this is True Emptiness. Even worldly space must ultimately disappear, how much more so the four great elements within the body, each of which has a place to which it may be returned! Since seeing, hearing, awareness, and knowing have no intrinsic substance apart from their objects, can the arising-and-ceasing cognition belonging to these five layers of turbidity truly be taken as the cause of cultivation?

What are the five turbidities? Form belongs to the aspect of appearances, while consciousness belongs to the aspect of seeing. Water is used as an analogy for consciousness, and earth as an analogy for form. Seeing and space interweave with one another, like water mingling with earth; hence this is called turbidity.

When seeing first stirs, it beholds only space. Space without form or substance is insensate emptiness. Seeing without awareness is ignorance. Once space pervades the worlds throughout the ten directions, formation, abiding, decay, and emptiness begin from it; therefore it is called a kalpa. Space and seeing are not differentiated—that is, the aspect of seeing and the aspect of appearances intermingle and become turbid. This is therefore called the Turbidity of the Kalpa, and it belongs to the form skandha.

Seeing, hearing, awareness, and knowing are fundamentally unobstructed, but they become obstructed because the four great elements block them. Earth, water, wind, and fire fundamentally possess no awareness, yet through the reciprocal functioning of the six sense faculties they come to possess awareness. Thus the aspect of seeing and the aspect of appearances within the body intermingle and become turbid. This is therefore called the Turbidity of Views, and it belongs to the feeling skandha.

Previously, the six sense faculties were gathered together as the great element of seeing; here, too, the six faculties are collectively subsumed under seeing. When this turbid seeing encounters an object, it grasps and receives it; this pertains to the first five consciousnesses. Recollection and study pertain to the sixth consciousness.

Seeing and knowing arise from the True Nature. When the Nature manifests, knowing arises; therefore seeing and knowing are consciousness and cannot be called the Nature. It is precisely within conceptual thought that the six sense objects are received and retained, and their reflected images appear.

These are called internal objects and may also be called appearances. Apart from the six sense objects, internal objects have no true appearance of their own; apart from awareness, they have no true nature of their own. These are the afflictions and defiling toils that disturb the tranquil Nature of Enlightenment.

Thus awareness and dharma-objects—the internal objects—intermingle and become turbid. This is therefore called the Turbidity of Afflictions, and it belongs to the perception skandha.

Conceptual understanding desires to remain forever in the world and clings to the three realms; this is easy to understand. Yet the cycle of rebirth and the turning power of karma constantly cause migration among realms, bringing about subtle transformations and transitions that are not easily perceived. None of this lies outside the causes and effects of sentient beings. The understanding of the mind and the forms of sentient beings flow on and become turbid. This is therefore called the Turbidity of Sentient Beings, and it belongs to the formations skandha.

The formations skandha pertains to the seventh consciousness, and its turbidity is easy to distinguish. The consciousness skandha pertains to the eighth consciousness, and its turbidity is difficult to discern. Seeing, hearing, awareness, and knowing are differentiated from the originally clear and tranquil source, and thus are fundamentally no different from the original nature.

The six sense objects, however, differ from one another, and through their influence the six consciousnesses arise: the eye cannot distinguish sounds, the ear cannot distinguish forms, and they cannot be used interchangeably; hence differences arise. Since the original nature is undifferentiated, within the Nature they are fundamentally mutually cognizant. It is only because the various sense objects obstruct one another that, in their functioning, they become mutually opposed.

The Nature is fundamentally neither born nor extinguished and therefore is the same. Its functions unite with arising and ceasing and therefore differ. Until the eighth consciousness is transformed, subsequently attained wisdom does not arise; therefore, with regard to the first five consciousnesses, perfect and wondrous functioning is not attained.

Thus, within the Nature they are fundamentally clear and mutually cognizant, yet when put into operation, their functioning runs contrary to that of the Tathagata. Because the transformation is incomplete, they lose the proper standard and are called consciousness. When the transformation is complete, the proper standard is not lost; hence they are equal and are called the Nature.

The Tathagatagarbha is fundamentally one Nature without duality. Relying upon this proper standard, the Buddha extinguishes the mind of arising and ceasing. Those of the Two Vehicles, however, perceive individual characteristics and shared characteristics and therefore lose the proper standard within sameness.

The Tathagatagarbha manifests form and emptiness in accordance with conditions; following this, the Tathagata teaches that both kinds are empty. Those of the Two Vehicles, however, grasp the real and realize cessation, and therefore lose the proper standard amid differences.

So long as even a hair’s breadth remains untransformed, the life faculty still persists. At birth it arrives first, and at death it departs last, acting as the master. Here, Nature and consciousness interweave and become turbid. This is called the Turbidity of Life, and it belongs to the consciousness skandha.

These five layers of turbidity do not truly exist; therefore they are said to arise falsely. It is like pure water, which originally contains no dust or earth, or like obstructive earth, which originally contains no water. The two natures do not truly combine, for mind and objects never actually reach one another.

If one knows that the clear, tranquil Nature fundamentally possesses no quality of being sealed over, one knows that to recognize delusion is to depart from it, and to depart from delusion is enlightenment. There is only the wondrously enlightened, luminous Mind, tranquil, quiescent, perfect, and all-pervading, which does not fall into seeing, hearing, awareness, and knowing. Just as water is originally clear and bright in itself, how could any turbidity exist?

One must thoroughly comprehend that, from the beginning, there has never been any turbidity; only then can this serve as the unborn and undying causal basis for subsequent cultivation.

A monk asked Patriarch Liangshan, “What is the matter before the kalpa of emptiness?”

The Patriarch replied:

“Beat the drum that resounds through heaven and earth;

The people of the world listen, yet do not hear.”

Master Danxia versified:

“Make all of empty space a drum that must be struck;

Though many beat it, few can hear.

At midnight, the dry skull awakens, its dream shattered;

Its head filled with the radiant moon, it has no thought of returning.”

When the Fourth Patriarch Daoxin was fourteen years old, he came to pay homage to the Third Patriarch Sengcan and asked, “May the Venerable Master compassionately bestow upon me the Dharma gate of liberation.”

The Third Patriarch said, “Who binds you?”

He replied, “No one binds me.”

The Third Patriarch said, “Then why seek liberation?”

Upon hearing these words, the Fourth Patriarch attained great awakening. This is what is called having great roots and great capacity.

Chan Master Benjing of Mount Sikong composed this verse:

“Seeing, hearing, awareness, and knowing are unobstructed;

Forms, fragrances, tastes, and touch are constant samadhi.

Like a bird in the sky, it simply flies thus;

Neither grasping nor rejecting, neither loving nor hating.

If one understands that the locus of response is not the mind,

Only then may one be called Avalokitesvara.”

As for Chan Master Benjing, although he dwelt in this evil world of the five turbidities, when was he ever impure?

Sutra: “Ananda, if you now wish to make seeing, hearing, awareness, and knowing accord forever with the Tathagata’s permanence, bliss, self, and purity, you must first select and cast aside the root of birth and death. Rely upon that which is neither born nor destroyed, so that the all-pervading, tranquil nature may be fully realized. Use this tranquility to turn all illusory arising and ceasing back toward Fundamental Enlightenment.

Attain the purely luminous, neither-arising-nor-ceasing nature of Fundamental Enlightenment and take it as the causal-ground mind; only then can you perfectly accomplish the fruition-ground of cultivation and realization. It is like settling turbid water: place it in a vessel and leave it undisturbed. When it remains profoundly still and motionless, the earth and sand naturally sink to the bottom, and clear water appears before you.

This is called the initial subduing of the afflictions of transient dust. When the mud has been completely removed and only clear water remains, this is called permanently severing fundamental ignorance. When luminosity is pure and refined, none of the transformations that arise are any longer afflictions; all accord with the wondrous, pure virtues of nirvana.

Penetrating Commentary: The Great Learning says, “Only after knowing where to rest can there be concentration.” These few words are the secret key of the thousand sages. This passage of the sutra accords with that saying. Lu Xiangshan said, “This mind and this principle are the same”; thus, these are not empty or false words.

The statement, “You must first select the root of birth and death; relying upon that which is neither born nor destroyed, the all-pervading, tranquil nature is fully realized. It is like settling turbid water by placing it in a vessel and leaving it undisturbed,” expresses “Only after knowing where to rest can there be concentration.”

The statement, “Use this tranquility to turn all illusory arising and ceasing back toward Fundamental Enlightenment. When the water remains profoundly still and motionless, the earth and sand naturally sink, and clear water appears immediately before you,” expresses “Only after concentration can there be tranquility.”

The statement, “When clear water appears, this is called the initial subduing of the afflictions of transient dust. When the mud has been completely removed and only clear water remains, this is called permanently severing fundamental ignorance,” expresses “Only after tranquility can there be peace.”

The statement, “Luminosity is pure and refined, and none of the transformations are any longer afflictions,” expresses “Only after peace can one respond to affairs.”

The statement, “All accord with the wondrous, pure virtues of nirvana,” expresses “Only after responding to affairs can there be attainment.”

Permanence, bliss, self, and purity are the four wondrous virtues of nirvana. Only Buddha together with Buddha can comprehend them ultimately. Here, seeing, hearing, awareness, and knowing are made to accord with them; hence it is called “forever,” meaning enduringly.

First, one must select the root of birth and death. Although this refers to the karmic functioning of the five turbidities, the skandha of consciousness is precisely the root of birth and death. This consciousness receives its name because it depends upon a union between that which neither arises nor ceases and that which arises and ceases.

Therefore, one must select and cast aside the seeds of arising and ceasing and rely upon the tranquil, perfect, all-pervading nature that neither arises nor ceases. The skandha of consciousness is tranquil and unmoving, seemingly devoid of arising and ceasing, yet this very tranquility is actually the basis of arising and ceasing. The perfect and tranquil nature, however, is originally complete in itself and is not produced through deliberate action; it is the True Suchness of the Ground of Ultimate Reality.

Relying upon this perfect tranquility, which is originally free of all affairs, one turns all illusory arising and ceasing around within this perfectly tranquil nature. All the practices involving arising and ceasing undertaken in the past were illusory. Even when one reaches the point where arising and ceasing have entirely ended, because this was attained through the conditioning of practice, it is not Fundamental Enlightenment.

When the skandha of consciousness is turned back, Fundamental Enlightenment manifests before one. This luminous Fundamental Enlightenment is originally devoid of arising and ceasing. Only because it is divided into seeing, hearing, awareness, and knowing does it fall within the domain of the skandha of consciousness, where it is concealed by that skandha and cannot reveal itself.

Now consciousness ceases and the nature manifests, revealing once more our original face. This luminous Fundamental Enlightenment is precisely seeing, hearing, awareness, and knowing, yet it is not seeing, hearing, awareness, and knowing. Seeing, hearing, awareness, and knowing arise and cease, whereas the luminous nature of Fundamental Enlightenment neither arises nor ceases.

Therefore, one does not take seeing, hearing, awareness, and knowing as the causal-ground mind, but takes luminous Fundamental Enlightenment as the causal-ground mind; only then does one perfectly accomplish the Tathagata’s fruition of neither arising nor ceasing. The four virtues of nirvana are precisely the fruition that neither arises nor ceases; hence it is said that they can sever the afflictions of transient dust and fundamental ignorance.

Thus it is called “the purely luminous nature”: like pure gold, it never again becomes ore; like ashes, it never again becomes wood; it no longer produces afflictions. Therefore, a single thought of non-arising is itself the realization of nirvana: cause is itself fruition, and in a single moment everything is complete. As for the saying, “Although the principle may be suddenly awakened to, phenomena are gradually eliminated,” the cause encompasses the Ten Faiths, extending until the fruition-ground is completely penetrated and every part is perfectly fulfilled.

In sum, it is nothing other than the complete realization of the originally luminous nature of enlightenment.

The Patriarch Caoshan, upon seeing the practitioner Paper Robe [Paper Robe: a robe made of paper], asked, “Are you the practitioner Paper Robe?”

Master Paper Robe said, “I dare not claim so.”

Patriarch Caoshan said, “What is the matter of the Paper Robe?”

Master Paper Robe replied, “As soon as a single fur robe is draped over the body, all the myriad dharmas are Suchness.”

Patriarch Caoshan said, “What is the function of the Paper Robe?”

Master Paper Robe stepped forward and responded, “Yes.” He then died while standing.

Patriarch Caoshan said, “Since you knew how to depart in this manner, why did you not know how to come in this manner?”

Master Paper Robe suddenly opened his eyes and asked, “When the wondrous One True Nature does not borrow a womb, how is it?”

Patriarch Caoshan said, “That is still not wondrous.”

Master Paper Robe said, “What is wondrous?”

Patriarch Caoshan said, “Not borrowing that which is borrowed!”

Master Paper Robe then respectfully descended to the Sangha hall, where he sat down and passed into stillness.

Master Caoshan composed this verse:

“The enlightened nature, luminous and full, bears no bodily mark;

Do not take seeing and knowing as deluded estrangement or familiarity.

When another thought arises, darkness lies within the mysterious purport;

When the mind goes astray, it no longer accords with the Way.

Discriminating consciousness divides the myriad dharmas and sinks into objects before it;

Consciousness illuminating numerous strands loses the True Source.

If one can understand it thus within this phrase,

One is naturally free of affairs—the person of the original ground.”

Again, Master Jiufeng Qian served as attendant to Patriarch Shishuang. After Patriarch Shishuang passed into stillness, the assembly wished to invite the Head Seat to succeed him as abbot.

Master Jiufeng would not consent, saying, “Wait until I have questioned him! If he understands the late Master’s meaning, I shall serve him just as I served the late Master.”

He then asked, “The late Master said: ‘Cease! End! Let one thought last ten thousand years! Be cold ashes and withered wood! Be an incense burner in an ancient shrine! Be one bolt of plain white silk!’ I shall not ask about the others. What is meant by ‘Be one bolt of plain white silk’?”

The Head Seat said, “That merely clarifies a matter on the side of form.”

Master Jiufeng said, “You still do not understand the late Master’s meaning.”

The Head Seat said, “Do you not accept me?”

The Head Seat then lit incense and said, “If I do not understand the late Master’s meaning, then after this incense smoke rises, may I be unable to pass away!”

Having spoken, he immediately sat down and passed into stillness.

Master Jiufeng then patted the Head Seat on the back and said, “It is not that there are none who can pass away while sitting or die while standing, but as for the late Master’s meaning, you have not even seen it in a dream!”

Master Tiantong composed this verse:

“The single lineage of Shishuang

Was personally entrusted to Jiufeng.

Lighting incense, he passed away,

Yet the true lineage was hard to penetrate!

(The crane) makes the moon its nest—a thousand-year dream!

In the house of snow, a deluded man performs the work of the single color!

Though he cuts off the ten directions by sitting, he is still exposed;

Silently shift a single step and behold the flying dragon.”

Master Shunmo composed this verse:

“Why sit and vainly waste a single stick of incense?

How could Jiufeng have slighted a lofty worthy?

If one takes the single color as inheriting the seat,

One fails the late Master and cannot rely upon conditions.”

Patriarch Shishuang, in instructing the assembly, said: “Never having lost illumination still remains an external succession [succeeding to the Dharma outwardly]; it is merely the class of ministers, also called borrowing. If, upon birth, not even a hair’s breadth is exposed, like a Crown Prince newly born, then one can succeed to the precious throne. This is called internal succession [succession from within], the royal lineage, requiring no borrowing of names and phrases.”

Borrowing is merely a matter belonging to one side of a single form. If one has fundamentally not yet attained the nature that neither arises nor ceases as the causal mind-ground, yet wishes to perfect the fruition-ground and accord with the pure wondrous virtue of nirvana, that will indeed be difficult.

A. CLEARLY EXAMINING THE ROOTS OF AFFLICTIONS

Sutra: “The second principle is this: If you wish resolutely to bring forth the resolve for bodhi, and, within the Bodhisattva Vehicle, courageously and decisively cast aside all conditioned characteristics, then you must clearly examine the roots of afflictions: from beginningless time until now, what has generated karma and perpetuated its growth? Who is the agent, and who is the recipient?

“Ananda, if you cultivate the path of bodhi without carefully examining the fundamental afflictions, you cannot know where the faculties and their objects are illusory and inverted. If you do not even know where the inversion lies, how can you subdue them and preserve the station of the Tathagata?

Commentary: Examine the causal ground from which the resolve arises in order to realize the True. Examine the root of afflictions in order to bring the False entirely to an end. Yet within the False there is ultimately no False; thus the False itself is the True.

There are two kinds of fundamental affliction. First is the arising of karma through ignorance, which consists of afflictions from past lives. Second is the perpetuation of ignorance: at the time of entering the womb, consciousness and emotion [the six consciousnesses within the six modes of sentience] give rise to love and aversion toward the parents.

Neither kind of affliction possesses an inherent nature. If one knows that they are without inherent nature, then ultimately there is neither an agent who creates nor a recipient who undergoes. Their very substance is empty and quiescent—what, then, is affliction?

Followers of the Lesser Vehicle, not yet free from conditioned effort, regard afflictions as truly existent and therefore requiring destruction and elimination. This is because they have not yet understood that the faculties and their objects are illusory. The Bodhisattva Vehicle is different: one proceeds directly within unsurpassed bodhi and, solely between the faculties and their objects, clearly examines what acts and what receives.

Suddenly one shatters beginningless ignorance and immediately comes to rest.

Master Luoshan Xian once asked Patriarch Shishuang: “What is it like when arising and ceasing never stop?”

Shishuang said: “Become cold ashes and withered wood at once! Let one thought last ten thousand years! Let lid and chest fit perfectly together! Be utterly pure, without a trace!”

Luoshan did not understand and went to ask Patriarch Yantou. Yantou shouted: “What is it that arises and ceases?”

Master Tiantong composed this verse:

“Sever the old vines;

Smash the fox’s hollow cave.

The leopard encounters mist and changes its markings;

The dragon relies on thunder and transforms its bones.

Ha!

What is that which arises and ceases in restless confusion?”

If one awakens here, one will no longer turn toward the gates of the six faculties to grasp and distinguish the familiar from the unfamiliar.

Layman Pang said in verse:

“A band of six thieves

Have deceived and slain people life after life.

Now I have seen through you;

I shall no longer consort with you.

If you do not submit to me,

Wherever I go, I shall proclaim it,

Teaching everyone to know you completely.

If you consent to submit to me,

Then I shall make no distinctions,

But dwell together with you in one place,

And together realize non-arising and non-ceasing.”

This is truly knowing where inversion lies, and thus being able to subdue it and preserve the station of the Tathagata.

Sutra: “Ananda, observe how people in the world untie a knot. If they cannot see where the knot is tied, how can they know how to untie it? Yet one never hears that empty space can be broken apart. Why is this? Because empty space has no form or characteristics and is neither tied nor untied. So it is with you now: the six faculties—eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind—act as intermediaries for thieves, causing you to rob the treasures of your own house. Consequently, from beginningless time, the world of sentient beings has produced entanglement with worldly phenomena and has been unable to transcend them.

Commentary: Previously, empty space was used as an analogy for what is indestructible and therefore neither arises nor ceases. Here, empty space is used as an analogy for having no knots and therefore no afflictions. If this is so even of empty space, how could the true emptiness of the inherent nature contain afflictions that arise and cease?

If one relinquishes arising and ceasing and holds to the True and Eternal, then the eternal light continually manifests before one’s eyes. When the faculties, objects, and consciousnesses disappear, how could the world of sentient beings still produce bonds? When the light shines forth from within, the world’s transforming phenomenal appearances melt away like ice encountering boiling water and instantly become unsurpassed awareness.

Thus one transcends worldly phenomena while remaining amid them. Such are the treasures of one’s own house—why not guard and cherish them oneself?

The six consciousnesses within and the six objects without are all led by the six faculties to generate entanglement of themselves; hence the faculties are called intermediaries for thieves.

A monk asked Patriarch Caoshan: “Is a shramana not one who possesses great loving-kindness and great compassion?”

Caoshan said: “Yes.”

The monk asked: “What if he suddenly encounters six thieves coming to rob him?”

The Patriarch said: “He must still possess great loving-kindness and great compassion.”

The monk asked: “What does it mean to possess great loving-kindness and great compassion?”

The Patriarch said: “Cut them all down with a single stroke of the sword!”

The monk asked: “What then, after they have all been wiped out?”

Caoshan said: “Only then is harmony attained.”

Another monk asked Patriarch Baofu: “What is to be done when a destitute household encounters robbers?”

Baofu said: “They cannot be completely eliminated.”

The monk asked: “Why can they not be completely eliminated?”

Baofu said: “The robbers themselves are members of the household.”

The monk asked: “Since they are members of the household, why do they turn into robbers of the household?”

Baofu said: “If there is no accomplice within, what can those outside do?”

The monk asked: “If the robbers are suddenly caught, to whom does the merit belong?”

Baofu said: “I have never even heard of a reward.”

The monk asked: “If so, is there toil without merit?”

Baofu said: “It is not that there is no merit, but success has no abiding place.”

The monk asked: “Since success has been achieved, why does it have no abiding place?”

Baofu said: “Have you not heard it said: ‘Peace is what the general has always longed for, yet the general must not be allowed to see peace’?”

From this one can understand that the Chan School does not discard the use of cultivation to disclose one’s stage. How could it ever have taught exclusively that Chan means having nothing to do and nothing to cultivate?

Sutra: “Ananda, what is meant by the world of sentient beings? ‘World’ denotes the temporal flow of change; ‘realm’ denotes spatial directions and locations. You should now know that east, west, south, north, southeast, southwest, northeast, northwest, above, and below constitute the realm. Past, future, and present constitute the world.

There are ten spatial directions and three modes of temporal flow. All sentient beings weave together this falsity, mutually giving rise to such a formation. Change and movement occur within the body, where time and space are bound together.

Although the nature of the realm is established as ten directions, only certain locations can be clearly determined. People in the world recognize only east, west, south, and north. Above and below have no clearly defined positions, while the center also has no fixed position.

Once the realm’s number of four has been clearly established, it combines with the world’s number of three: three multiplied by four, or four taken three times, revolves to form the number twelve. Through three successive transformations, tens become hundreds and then thousands. Within each of the six faculties, encompassing both its earlier and later aspects, there may accordingly be as many as one thousand two hundred merits.

“Ananda, further examine these six faculties and determine their respective superiority and inferiority.”

“As with the eye faculty: in seeing, behind is dark and before is bright. The direction in front is entirely bright, while the direction behind is entirely dark; of the three parts—left, right, and behind—only two are available. In sum, the merit of the eye faculty is not complete; of the three parts, one is lacking. Therefore, know that the eye faculty has only eight hundred merits.

“As with the ear faculty: hearing pervades everywhere, omitting none of the ten directions. When there is movement, sounds seem to be far or near; when there is stillness, hearing has no boundary. Therefore, know that the ear faculty fully possesses one thousand two hundred merits.

“The body faculty is aware of contact, discerning pleasant and unpleasant sensations. When there is contact, it knows; when there is separation, it does not know. Separation accounts for only one part, while contact accounts for two parts; thus, upon examining the body faculty, one of its three parts is lacking. Therefore, know that the body faculty has only eight hundred merits.

“The mind faculty silently contains all worldly and supramundane dharmas throughout the ten directions and the three periods of time. Whether pertaining to sages or ordinary beings, there is nothing it does not encompass, reaching to the utmost limits. Therefore, know that the mind faculty fully possesses one thousand two hundred merits.

The Comprehensive Explanation says: “All beings weave together delusion, mutually bringing about such conditions. Change and displacement occur within the body, while time and space are bound together.” This means that the world is formed through the karmic power of beings. The body is the direct retribution, while the world is the circumstantial retribution.

Their forms arise solely through karmic results, becoming transient guests that shift and drift without end. All interaction with the sensory world is mediated by the six faculties. Each of the six faculties has one thousand two hundred merits.

In terms of the nature of awareness, they are identical; but in terms of the discriminating functions of the six faculties, they differ. Thus, there are differences between completeness and deficiency.

Earlier it was said, “That which causes you to undergo cyclic existence is the fault of the mind and the eyes.” Therefore, the mind was questioned seven times and seeing was returned to its sources in eight ways, in order to reveal the delusory nature of seeing. Here it is further revealed that all six faculties serve as intermediaries for thieves, and therefore the relative superiority and inferiority of the six faculties are discussed clearly.

This is to lead one to select the perfect penetration of the ear faculty as the basis for cultivation and realization. The eye faculty, nose faculty, and body faculty each lack one of the three parts and do not fully possess the capacity of the Nature. Although the tongue faculty and mind faculty possess merits as fully as the ear faculty, the tongue faculty falls into speech, while the mind faculty falls into thought.

Neither equals the ear faculty, which has no form and no odor and is very close to the essential Nature. Therefore, one should follow it.

When space interacts with time, this is called multiplication through three levels. First, the four directions together with the three periods of time make twelve. Second, one direction interacting with the three periods becomes ten; the other directions are likewise, together making one hundred twenty.

Third, one direction develops from ten into one hundred; the other directions are likewise, together making one thousand two hundred. The number of time is three, and therefore multiplication is performed three times. The spatial directions number ten, and therefore one becomes ten.

This is a natural number. In the Book of Changes, the number of the Great Expansion is fifty: five is multiplied by ten, and ten by five, in the same manner as this method. The sages of earlier and later times employed the same principle.

Each cardinal direction has two hundred merits, and each intermediate direction has one hundred merits. In sum, each direction has three hundred merits. The eye faculty now sees the three cardinal directions in front and to both sides, and thus has six hundred merits; adding the two intermediate directions in front, which amount to two hundred, it has six hundred merits.

Behind, however, it lacks one cardinal direction—two hundred—and two intermediate directions—one hundred multiplied by two—which cannot be seen. In truth, when the six faculties are purified, they can function in one another’s place. As taught in the Avatamsaka Sutra, if one practices in accordance with the sutra and has developed an understanding resembling realization, then although the eye faculty has only eight hundred merits, it nevertheless fully possesses as many merits as the other five faculties.

But if the six faculties act as intermediaries for thieves and plunder the treasures within one’s own house, they weave delusion and undergo change without limit. Therefore, when one cultivates, merit is fundamentally inexhaustible; when one does not cultivate, karmic results are likewise inexhaustible.

Patriarch Fayan ascended the hall and said: “An ancient said, ‘What is Chan? The three realms, utterly exposed! [Without the slightest omission.] What is the Way? The ten directions, boundlessly vast!’ Why is it said that the three realms are utterly exposed?

Where are the ten directions boundlessly vast? Can you comprehend this principle? Cover your eyes, cover your ears, and cover your tongue, body, and mind as well!

Where is anything lacking? Where is anything stirred? Venerable ones, how do you understand this?

Horizontally will not do; vertically will not do. Letting go will not do; grasping will not do. There is nowhere to apply the mind and nowhere to make arrangements!

If you can understand in this way, only then will you penetrate the Dharma gate that utterly transcends choosing and rejecting, where all language ceases to leak!”

“Once a monk asked, ‘What are words that have utterly ceased to leak?’ I replied to the monk, ‘It would be exactly right if the mouth were like the nostrils.’ Venerable ones, if you can understand this point, you will naturally become empty and penetrating. If you penetrate it completely, then all the worlds throughout the ten directions are the vajra pupil of the eye. Be free of concerns! Take care.”

Furthermore, Chan Master Huanglong Zhen ascended the hall and said: “When an ancient case is raised and you, Acarya, are questioned about it, you must not understand it according to the ancients. If you understand it according to the ancients, you lose your present eye. When a present case is raised and you, Acarya, are questioned about it, you must not understand it according to the present.

If you understand it according to the present, you obscure your eye that has existed from the beginning. Even if it is neither lost nor obscured, neither ancient nor present, this still amounts to medicine and illness treating one another, merely words used to coax a child to stop crying! But as for a single statement that penetrates and breaks free, can you, Acarya, speak it?

If you cannot, wait until I have discussed the True Mark with Arhat Peak, and then I shall tell you.”

Although the foregoing words specifically reveal only the matter that transcends all, they also accord with what this sutra discloses. Then the mouth is like the nostrils, the eyes resemble the eyebrows, and the six faculties have nowhere to lodge or depend; one thereby realizes the wondrousness of the Unborn. When the entire great earth is the single eye of the sramana, there is no longer any place either to swallow or to spit out. How could this merit possibly be sought through worldly affairs?

Sutra: “Ananda, you now wish to reverse the current of desire and of birth and death, returning to the ultimate source of this flow and reaching the state of neither arising nor cessation. You must therefore examine the six faculties you presently employ: which is united, which is separate, which is deep, which is shallow, which is perfectly penetrating, and which is incomplete. If, among them, you awaken to a perfectly penetrating faculty, reverse the current of beginningless karma that has woven delusion, and accord with the perfectly penetrating Nature, then compared with cultivating through a faculty that is not perfectly penetrating, your progress will truly be many times faster, like one day compared with an entire kalpa.

I have now fully revealed the inherent merits of the six faculties, which are serene, perfect, and luminous, together with their respective numbers. Carefully choose whichever one can serve as your entrance, and I shall elucidate it so that you may advance.

“The Tathagatas of the ten directions cultivated through each and every one of the eighteen dhatus and thereby attained the complete perfection of unsurpassed bodhi. Among those dhatus, none is superior or inferior. It is only because your capacity is inferior and you have not yet perfected sovereign wisdom within them that I have explained them to you, enabling you simply to enter deeply through a single faculty. Once you enter through one and delusion is no more, all six faculties will simultaneously become pure.”

Commentary: The very root of cyclic flow is the Wondrous, Unmoving Stillness. When separated from it, one drifts along with conditions; this is called the stream of birth and death. When one reverses course and enters it, going against the current and returning wholly to the One, this is called the Unborn and Undying.

Birth and death are delusion; where there is neither birth nor death, there is no delusion. Although the functioning of the six faculties is connected with delusion and manifests their respective virtues, it is in truth originally a single essential luminosity divided into parts, all sharing the same perfectly luminous, tranquil nature. One need only enter deeply through a single gateway, penetrate directly to the source, accord with the nature of perfect penetration without becoming bound, subdue the formerly clinging mind, and enter the Buddha’s knowledge and vision; then all the functions of the six faculties become wondrous functions.

The Sixth Patriarch taught: “If true and proper prajna contemplation arises, all deluded thoughts vanish within a single instant. If one recognizes one’s own nature, then with a single awakening one immediately reaches the ground of Buddhahood. Good and wise friends!

When wisdom illuminates through contemplation, the inside and outside become lucid, and one penetrates one’s Original Mind. To penetrate the Original Mind is liberation. Liberation is the Samadhi of Prajna.

The Samadhi of Prajna is no-thought. What is called no-thought? To see all dharmas while the mind is neither defiled by nor attached to them is no-thought.

Its function extends throughout all places, yet it clings to no place. Purify the Original Mind, allowing the six consciousnesses to emerge through the six gateways and, amid the six sense objects, remain undefiled and unmixed; coming and going freely, functioning everywhere without obstruction—this is the Samadhi of Prajna, sovereign liberation, called the Practice of No-Thought.”

These words of the Sixth Patriarch enter through the faculty of mind and directly continue the lineage tradition of Mahakasyapa.

While Master Yangshan was staying with Master Guishan, he was tending an ox before the mountain slope when he saw a monk ascend the mountain and then descend again not long afterward.

Master Yangshan asked: “Venerable, why did you not remain on the mountain?”

The monk replied: “Only because the conditions were not in accord.”

Master Yangshan said: “What were the circumstances? Try presenting them!”

He replied: “The Venerable Master asked me my name. I said, ‘Guizhen—Return to the Real.’ The Venerable Master said, ‘Where does Guizhen return?’ I was unable to answer.”

Master Yangshan said: “Venerable, go back and tell the Venerable Master, ‘I can answer now.’ When the Venerable Master asks, ‘What is your answer?’ simply reply, ‘Within the eyes, within the ears, within the nose!’”

The monk returned and did as instructed.

Master Guishan said: “That reckless liar! Those are the words of a good and wise teacher of five hundred people.”

Chan Master Pan’an Cheng ascended the hall and said:

“Within the nose is sound; within the ears, fragrance.

Within the eyes are saltiness and blandness; the tongue is black and yellow.

The mind perceives sensations; the body makes distinctions.

A house of snow is like spring; summer is cool and clear.”

Seeing in this way, one then knows that samadhi entered in a man’s body is emerged from in a woman’s body. The sunflower turns in accord with the sun; the markings of the rhinoceros calf arise from gazing at the moon! The fragrant maple becomes an old man; an insect becomes the fruit of the guoluo plant. If you do not know this, how distressing for the Buddha! I grant that each of you possesses “a single solitary eye!”

Only if it is truly as seen by these venerable masters does one receive news of the purification of the six faculties.

Sutra: Ananda said to the Buddha: “World-Honored One! How can reversing the current and entering deeply through one faculty cause all six faculties to become purified simultaneously?”

The Buddha told Ananda: “You have now attained the fruit of stream-entry and eliminated the delusions of views belonging to beings in the three realms of the world, but you still do not know the delusive habitual tendencies accumulated within the faculties since beginningless time. Those habitual tendencies must be eliminated through cultivation. How much more so the categories and enumerations of ‘arising, abiding, changing, and ceasing’ within them.

Commentary: On the Path of Seeing, the eighty-eight fetters are severed; on the Path of Cultivation, the eighty-one delusions of thought are severed. Although a stream-enterer who has attained the first fruit has severed the coarse delusions of conceptual discrimination, the subtle innate delusions have not yet been severed; thus, one has not yet realized the ultimate limit of suffering. Upon realizing the ultimate limit of suffering and reaching the stage beyond learning, one knows not only the categories and enumerations of arising, abiding, changing, and ceasing in a single sentient being, but also the subtle modes of activity of all sentient and insentient beings throughout the three-thousand-great-thousand world system.

This ultimate penetration is certainly attained through elimination by means of cultivation.

A monk asked Master Guishan: “Does one who has undergone sudden awakening still need to cultivate?”

Master Guishan said: “If one has truly awakened to the root, that person will know for himself; at that point, cultivation and non-cultivation are merely dualistic expressions. Although one may now, through conditions, attain the Initial Mind and in a single thought suddenly awaken to the principle inherent within oneself, the habitual tendencies accumulated since beginningless kalpas cannot be purified at once. One must teach that person to purify and eliminate the manifest karma retained within consciousness; that itself is cultivation. There is no separate dharma by which to instruct that person to proceed with cultivation.

“Entering the principle through hearing, both hearing and principle manifest wondrously; the mind naturally becomes perfectly luminous and no longer remains in delusion. Even if one possesses hundreds of thousands of wondrous meanings capable of subduing others on the spot, one has still only managed to sit down and put on one’s clothes; one must personally understand how to make a livelihood. In brief, at the level of ultimate reality not a single mote of dust is admitted, yet within the gateway of the myriad practices not a single dharma is abandoned. When a single blade pierces straight through, both ordinary sentiments and notions of sagehood are utterly exhausted; the essence of True Permanence stands revealed, principle and phenomena are nondual—this is the Thus-Thus Buddha.”

In principle and phenomena being nondual, there is neither cultivation nor realization. Master Guishan exhausted his words in revealing the supreme path. How could this mean sweeping away gradual cultivation entirely and no longer requiring skillful means as aids?

Sutra: “Now examine whether your present six faculties are one or six.

“Ananda, if you say they are one, why do the ears not see and the eyes not hear? Why does the head not walk and the feet not speak?

“If the six faculties are definitively six, then as I now proclaim this subtle and wondrous Dharma gateway to you in this assembly, which of your six faculties receives it?”

Ananda replied: “I hear with my ears!”

The Buddha said: “If your ears hear by themselves, what does that have to do with your mouth and body? Yet your mouth asks about the meaning, while your body rises to receive the teaching reverently! Therefore, you should know that although they are not one, they ultimately become six; and although they are not six, they ultimately become one. In the final analysis, your faculties are originally neither one nor six. Only because, since beginningless time, inverted perception has bound and compounded them together have the concepts of one and six arisen within the perfectly pervasive, tranquil nature. You are a stream-enterer; although the six have dissolved, you have not yet entirely relinquished the one.

“It is like vast empty space combined with various vessels: because the vessels have different shapes, one speaks of empty space as having differences! If the vessels are removed and empty space is contemplated, one then says that empty space is one. How could that vast empty space become the same or different on your account, much less be called one or not one? The aware and perceptive functions of your six faculties are likewise so.”

Commentary: This passage precisely explains the doubt concerning the statement, “When one enters deeply through a single faculty, all six faculties are simultaneously purified.” If the six faculties are originally one and inherently pure, why are they called six thieves? If the six faculties are originally six and cannot function in one another’s stead, how can they be purified all at once? Consider space: it is originally one, yet when it is associated with various vessels, it appears to become six.

Because the vessels differ in shape, the spaces are said to differ and are therefore called six rather than one. If all the vessels are removed and one looks at space, one says that space is one, regarding the six as having vanished and only the one remaining. This illustrates the meaning of the arising of one and six.

Yet how could that vast space ever be combined with the forms of the vessels? It is originally neither the same nor different. Since there is neither sameness nor difference, where could the names “six” and “one” be established?

This illustrates that originally there is neither one nor six. When one sees that originally there is neither one nor six, but only tranquil, perfect clarity, primordially quiescent and extinct, what could there be that is not pure?

A stream-enterer, a Srotapanna, is said to “enter the stream,” yet there is nowhere that he enters. Not entering into form, sound, fragrance, flavor, touch, or dharmas means that the six have dissolved. Yet because he still clings to the existence of nirvana somewhere, he has not yet lost the One. From where does the One come? From where does space arise? Thus one realizes that even after “going beyond,” there is still something further!

Patriarch Yaoshan asked Yunyan, “Apart from Baizhang’s place, where else have you been?”

He replied, “I once went to Guangnan.”

The Patriarch said, “I have heard that outside the eastern gate of Guangzhou there is a great rock that was moved by the Provincial Governor. Is that true?”

Yunyan said, “Not only the Provincial Governor—even if all the people in the country tried to move it, it would not budge.”

Patriarch Yaoshan then asked, “I hear that you know how to perform playful tricks with a lion. Is that so?”

He replied, “Yes.”

The Patriarch asked, “How many acts can you perform?”

He replied, “I can perform six acts.”

The Patriarch said, “I too can perform.”

Yunyan asked, “How many acts can the Venerable perform?”

The Patriarch said, “I can perform one act.”

Yunyan said, “One is six, and six is one.”

Later, Yunyan went to Patriarch Guishan. The Patriarch asked, “I have heard that when the Elder was at Yaoshan’s place, you performed playful tricks with a lion. Is that true?”

He replied, “It is true.”

The Patriarch asked, “Do you play with it continually, or do you sometimes put it away?”

Yunyan said, “When I wish to play, I play; when I wish to put it away, I put it away.”

The Patriarch asked, “When it is put away, where is the lion?”

Yunyan said, “Completely put away—completely put away.”

One should understand that Yunyan played with a lion, not with some wandering spirit, for he possessed a rock that would not move even if all the people in the country pushed it.

Sutra: “Because the two aspects of brightness and darkness reveal one another within the wondrous, perfect nature, they adhere to and obscure the tranquil nature, giving rise to seeing. The essence of seeing projects itself toward form, and form congeals into a faculty. The basis of this faculty is called the four purified great elements. From these arises the physical eye, shaped like a grape. The superficial faculty, composed of the four defiling elements, races in pursuit of forms.