楞嚴經宗通

III. INSTRUCTION ON THE THREE GRADUAL STAGES OF CULTIVATION

Sutra: “Ananda, in this way, the beings within each and every class are endowed with all twelve kinds of inversion. Just as rubbing the eyes causes wildly dancing flowers to appear, so within the perfectly luminous, pure, and wondrous True Mind, inversion produces this complete array of disordered and delusive thoughts. Now, as you cultivate and realize the Buddha’s samadhi, you must establish three gradual stages in order to eliminate the disordered thoughts that are the fundamental causes of these inversions. It is like removing poisonous honey from a clean vessel: one uses hot water, ashes, and fragrant substances to wash the vessel clean, and only afterward fills it with amrita.

“What are the three gradual stages? First, through cultivation, eliminate the contributing causes. Second, in true cultivation, scrape away the fundamental nature. Third, advance in practice by countering present karma.

Commentary: The twelve kinds of inversion all arise through transformation within the luminous and pure True Mind. They begin with a single thought of craving and grasping. Where there is love, there is hatred; where there is grasping, there is rejection. Thus, the four modes of birth—womb, egg, moisture, and transformation—all arise from emotion and thought, whose relative heaviness or lightness accords with each class of beings.

The classes of beings with form, without form, with thought, and without thought are merely the two propositions of existence and nonexistence. Yet because their birth and transformation arise from thought, as thought becomes increasingly subtle, their modes of birth and transformation become progressively purer. The classes that are neither endowed with form nor devoid of form, and neither endowed with thought nor devoid of thought, comprise within them the two categories of “also being” and the two categories of “not being.” They are indeed transformations produced by emotion; the more entangled the emotion, the more painful the transformation.

Emotion, thought, love, and hatred intermingle and manifest together, and no class of beings is without them. Therefore, every being within every class is endowed with all twelve kinds of inversion.

Emotion and thought are like diseased eyes; inversions are like the darting flowers seen in the air. Though these darting flowers appear within empty space, they cannot obstruct empty space. Though inversions occur within the wondrously perfect True Mind, they cannot obstruct its wondrously perfect nature.

Even though it contains that complete array of disordered and delusive thoughts, ultimately they never obstruct the luminous and pure True Mind; afterward, its wondrous perfection can be seen. The wondrously perfect True Mind is samadhi itself, wondrously penetrating and vast like clear, cloudless space. The twelve kinds of inversion have as their fundamental causes only the confusion of the six delusive thoughts.

Once the disease of the eyes is removed, the illusory flowers naturally cease.

Yet to eliminate disordered thoughts, three gradual stages must be established. Why? It is like a clean jar, originally intended to contain amrita. Once it has been defiled by poisonous honey, if amrita is immediately poured into it, the amrita itself becomes poison. The jar must first be rinsed with boiling water, ashes, and fragrant substances until it is smooth and clean. After months and years have passed, the poisonous residue will gradually disappear, and only then can amrita be poured into it. These three gradual stages are precisely the boiling water, ashes, and fragrant substances used to wash away disordered thoughts.

The four preceding admonitions concerning killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, and false speech fully comprise the proper precepts. Here, in addition, the contributing causes of lust, anger, and delusion are eliminated; the fundamental nature of killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, and false speech is scraped away; and the practitioner gradually leaves behind manifest ignorance. Advancing from this basis and reversing the current until there is complete unity, the functions of the six faculties no longer operate.

When present karma is countered, the mind no longer drifts. When emotional craving has dried up and disordered thoughts no longer arise of themselves, from where could inversion be born? Only when there remains the single True Mind are the stages of the sages established: the forty-four minds by which one enters the true samadhi of Wondrous Enlightenment.

It is like the poisonous honey having been eliminated so that the vessel can then contain amrita.

When Chan Master Dasui Zhen ascended the hall, he said: “This nature has always been pure and is inherently endowed with the myriad virtues. It is only because of the two conditions of defilement and purity that distinctions arise. Therefore, when the sages awaken to it, they employ purity single-mindedly and accomplish the path of enlightenment. When ordinary beings are deluded about it, they employ defilement single-mindedly and sink into samsara. Its essence is nondual; therefore, the Prajnaparamita Sutra says, ‘It is neither two nor divided into two, because it is neither separate nor cut off.’”

If one can have faith in Master Dasui’s statement, “Its essence is nondual,” then it has always been a perfectly clean vessel: containing poisonous honey does not diminish it, and holding amrita does not increase it. When one proceeds directly to unsurpassed bodhi, with neither defilement nor purity having any bearing upon it, then even setting aside the teaching of the three gradual stages would not be impossible.

Sutra: “What are the contributing causes?

“Ananda, the beings of these twelve classes throughout the world cannot sustain themselves on their own. They must rely upon four kinds of nutriment to live: nutriment in portions, nutriment through contact, nutriment through volition, and nutriment through consciousness. Therefore, the Buddha said that all beings depend upon nutriment to sustain their lives.

“Ananda, all beings live when they consume wholesome food and die when they consume poisonous food. Therefore, beings who seek samadhi must abstain from the five pungent vegetables of the world. When cooked, these five pungent vegetables arouse lust; when eaten raw, they increase anger.

Even if people in the world who eat these pungent vegetables can expound the twelve divisions of the scriptures, the heavenly immortals throughout the ten directions, disliking their foul odor, will all keep far away. Hungry ghosts and similar beings will take advantage of the time when such people are eating to lick their lips. Because they constantly dwell in the company of ghosts, their merit and virtue will diminish day by day, and in the long run they will gain no benefit.

When those who eat pungent vegetables cultivate samadhi, bodhisattvas, heavenly immortals, and benevolent spirits throughout the ten directions will not come to protect them. Mighty ghost kings will seize the opportunity to manifest in the bodies of Buddhas and come to teach them the Dharma, disparaging and destroying the precepts while praising lust, anger, and delusion. After death, such people will themselves become members of the retinue of the demon kings.

When their demonic blessings are exhausted, they will fall into the Avici Hell. Ananda, those who cultivate the path to bodhi must forever abstain from the five pungent vegetables.

“This is the first gradual stage of advancing in cultivation.

Commentary: Nutriment in portions is also called nutriment in morsels, meaning food rolled into balls by hand and eaten. Yet because some foods cannot be rolled into balls, the term was changed to “portions.” A portion is a segment cut apart, as with a knife. Foods such as rice, noodles, and vegetables are eaten in portions. This is the human mode of eating.

Nutriment through contact means feeding by way of contact among faculty, object, and consciousness. It consists solely of contact with a food’s vital essence and flavor. This is the mode of eating of ghosts and spirits.

Nutriment through volition pertains to the heavens of dhyana, where there is no nutriment in portions and beings feed solely through thought. Therefore, it is said, “When they think of food, they are fed.”

Nutriment through consciousness pertains to the realms of the boundless spheres. Beings there do not feed through thought; rather, there is only the consciousness that knows eating. Consciousness grasps and fully apprehends the flavor of dharmas, and thus they are satiated.

Nutriment through contact, volition, and consciousness can all sustain life just as nutriment in portions does. Therefore, it is said, “All depend upon nutriment to sustain their lives.” The Combined Treatise says: “Nutriment through consciousness means that the alaya-consciousness continues to exist by relying upon the preceding three kinds of nutriment. How can this be known?

The first five consciousnesses are the self-cognizing aspect of the objective appearance of the alaya-consciousness. The sixth and seventh consciousnesses are the self-cognizing aspect of the subjective vision of the alaya-consciousness. The domain of the first five consciousnesses relies upon nutriment in portions.

The discriminations of the sixth consciousness rely upon nutriment through contact. The seventh consciousness relies upon nutriment through volition. Therefore, nutriment through consciousness continues to exist by relying upon the preceding three kinds of nutriment.”

All beings live when they consume wholesome food and die when they consume poisonous food. How, then, could the five foul pungent vegetables not contribute to lust and engender anger? Ultimately, heavenly beings and immortals keep far away, while those who eat them constantly dwell with ghosts; this is no different from consuming poisonous food. As lust and anger increase day by day, such people will inevitably disparage and violate the precepts and fall into the Avici Hell. How, then, could one fail to exercise caution even in the most subtle matters?

Whenever it was time to eat, Master Jinniu would personally carry the rice bucket to the front of the Sangha hall, laughing and dancing as he called out, “Bodhisattvas, come eat your rice!”

Master Xuedou said, “Although this is so, Jinniu was not acting from good intentions!”

A monk asked Patriarch Changqing, “The ancients said, ‘Bodhisattva, come and eat your meal.’ What does this mean?”

Patriarch Qing said, “It is just like singing joyfully on the occasion of a meal.”

Master Xuedou versified:

“Amid white clouds, laughing heartily,

He brings it forth with both hands and gives it to another.

If truly a young golden-maned lion,

From three thousand miles away he discerns what is false.”

Again, a monk asked Patriarch Zhaozhou, “This student has just entered the monastery; I beg the Master to instruct me.”

Patriarch Zhou said, “Have you eaten your gruel yet?”

The monk said, “Yes, I have.”

Patriarch Zhou said, “Then go wash your bowls!”

The monk awakened.

Patriarch Yunmen said, “Now tell me: was there instruction or was there no instruction? If you say there was, what did Zhaozhou say to him? If you say there was not, why did that monk awaken?”

Master Tiantong versified:

“After the gruel, he tells him to wash the bowls;

The empty, open ground of mind is naturally all-pervading.

Now the guests who investigate Chan have eaten their fill—

Let me ask: within this interval, is there awakening or not?”

Bringing together the exhortations of these venerable adepts to make their flavor clear, even a hundred kinds of rare delicacies must be induced to be vomited out; how much more could the poisonous medicine of the five pungent plants be allowed into the mouth?

Sutra: “What is the Rectification of the Nature?

“Ananda, when such beings enter samadhi, they must first strictly uphold the pure precepts, permanently sever lust, abstain from alcohol and meat, eat only pure, cooked food, and consume nothing raw. Ananda, if such practitioners do not sever lust and killing yet seek to transcend the three realms, that is impossible. They must regard lust as a venomous snake and look upon it as an enemy or robber.

“First, they must uphold the Four and Eight Expelling Offenses of the shravaka precepts, restraining the body from transgression. Thereafter, they must observe the pure disciplinary precepts of bodhisattvas, restraining the mind from arising. When the precepts have been perfected, throughout all their lives in the world they will no longer incur the karma of mutual birth and killing.

If they do not steal or rob, they will no longer become indebted to one another and will be free from repaying former debts in the world. Such pure people cultivate samadhi in the very fleshly bodies born of their parents. Without needing the divine eye, they naturally behold the worlds throughout the ten directions, see the Buddhas, hear the Dharma, personally receive and uphold the Buddhas’ sacred instructions, attain great spiritual powers, journey throughout the worlds of the ten directions, and gain purity of the knowledge of past lives, free from hardship and peril.

“This is called the second stage of gradual cultivation and advancement.

Explanation: Why are killing, stealing, and lust called the Rectification of the Nature?

The Sutra of Perfect Enlightenment says, “All sentient beings take lust as that which ‘rectifies [constitutes]’ their lives and natures.” Because the direct retribution of sentient beings arises through the influence of lust, lust is taken as the Rectification of the Nature. These are what were previously called offenses inherent in the nature and offenses arising from prohibition. Moreover, because this is spoken in relation to auxiliary causes, it is called the Rectification of the Nature. “Scraping Clean” is like hollowing out a tree to make a boat, gradually emptying it so that it can carry a load. Therefore, only when both offenses inherent in the nature and offenses arising from prohibition are absent does this accord with the meaning of scraping and clearing away.

The root of lust is extremely difficult to sever. It must be regarded as a venomous snake because it harms the Dharma-body. It must be seen as an enemy or robber because it damages the life of wisdom.

First, one upholds the shravaka precepts so that there are no bodily transgressions. Thereafter, one upholds the bodhisattva precepts so that there are no transgressive thoughts. When the prohibitory precepts have been perfected, there is precept without any object of restraint.

When lust is ended, there is no longer the karma of mutual birth. When killing is ended, there is no karma of mutual slaughter. When stealing is ended, there is no karma of repaying debts.

Within this very body and mind, the six faculties become pure, and without needing the divine eye one realizes the Five Superknowledges. Through the Superknowledge of the Divine Eye, one beholds the ten directions. Through the Superknowledge of the Divine Ear, one hears the Buddhas teach the Dharma.

Through the Superknowledge of Spiritual Powers, one can journey throughout the realms of the ten directions. Through the Superknowledge of Past Lives, one is free from hardship and peril. Through the Superknowledge of Others’ Minds, one is sovereign therein.

Only the Superknowledge of the Exhaustion of Outflows is not easily realized. This resembles the teaching of the Lotus Sutra: “In this present body, attaining purity of the six faculties is the stage of semblance.” How, then, could one be lax in strictly upholding the pure precepts?

Chan Master Yongquan Xing ascended the hall and said, “I have been within this for forty-nine years, yet even I still sometimes fall into confusion. You people, do not merely flap your mouths and wag your lips. There are many who possess intellectual understanding, but among ten thousand who practice and understand, not one clearly comprehends the words and thoroughly knows the essential point.

If consciousness has not been exhausted, how dare you say that the matter of samsara has ended? Why is this so? Because the outflows of consciousness have not yet been exhausted.

Only when you have completely exhausted them here and now can establishment be accomplished. This is also called the Achievement within Establishment, whereby the work is transformed and the position of that is accomplished. It is also called the Achievement within Accomplishment, because one becomes intimate with that.

Therefore I say: one who is intimate cannot be delivered; he cannot deliver the intimate one. If you still do not understand even an analogy such as this, you merely advance and inhale a murky breath, merely holding fast to the restless nature at the tip of your tongue. Have you not seen Patriarch Dongshan say, ‘Continuity is the great calamity’?

You must know that there is this matter. If you do not know it, one day you will weep!”

Thus we know that vigorous observance of the precepts essentially requires immediate and complete cessation, transforming the work into the position and entering samadhi. Otherwise, one uses illusion to cultivate illusion, laboring diligently in vain—what relevance could that have to the Self-Nature?

Sutra: “What is Manifest Karma?

“Ananda, those who thus uphold the pure prohibitory precepts, whose minds do not crave lust, will not pursue the six external sense objects. Because they do not pursue them, they naturally return to their fundamental nature. Since they no longer engage with sense objects, the faculties have nothing with which to unite.

Reversing the current and returning wholly to the One, the six functions no longer operate. The lands throughout the ten directions become luminously pure, like a bright moon suspended within crystal. Their bodies and minds are open and blissful; equanimous, wondrous, and perfect, they attain great peace and stability.

The secret perfection, pure wonder of all Tathagatas appears within them. These people immediately attain the patience with the non-arising of dharmas. From that point onward, they cultivate progressively, and according to the practices they bring forth, the various stages of sagehood are established.

“This is called the third stage of gradual cultivation and advancement.

Explanation: Manifest Karma is the karma produced by ignorance in active manifestation, namely, the aforementioned karmas of killing, stealing, and lust.

By upholding the prohibitory precepts, one ceases to pursue the six external sense objects, can sever the afflictions of adventitious defilements, and can eliminate delusions of views. Since one no longer engages with sense objects, the faculties have nothing with which to meet and unite; one can break through subtle ignorance and eliminate delusions of thought. Before these two kinds of delusion have been eliminated, one still follows along with Manifest Karma and has not yet been willing to turn against it.

Now one naturally turns inward toward serene clarity, thereby reversing Manifest Karma. Because of pursuit, the six functions actively manifest; thus one turns away from enlightenment and unites with sense objects, forming the six deluded thoughts, which arise chaotically and produce present karma. Because one reverses the current, the six functions no longer actively manifest; thus one turns away from sense objects and unites with enlightenment, forming the one serene, perfectly luminous nature.

The secret perfection, pure wonder of all Tathagatas then appears within it. The principle is esoteric, wisdom is perfect, and pure conduct accords wondrously without leaving a trace. The pure Dharma-body is like crystal.

True wisdom is translucent like the bright moon. Body and mind are open and blissful; faculties and objects completely interpenetrate. Wondrously perfect and equanimous, one attains great peace and stability, thereby attaining the patience with the non-arising of dharmas and entering samadhi.

From that point onward, one cultivates gradually, establishing the stages of sagehood up to the stage of Equal Enlightenment.

This Awakening is first attained at the stage of Dry Wisdom within the Vajra Mind, whereupon one realizes the Buddha’s samadhi, thoroughly investigates the fundamental cause, and reaches the ultimate stage of Wondrous Awakening. This is the point of entry; the passage that follows concerns the place of cultivation and the ultimate realization. All are the Buddha’s samadhi, called “the single gateway into nirvana of all Buddhas throughout the ten directions.”

The essential point here is sudden realization, so why are various gradual stages further established for progressive advancement? It is because the Principle must be suddenly awakened to, while phenomena are thereafter gradually brought to cessation. First, the contributing causes are eliminated; next, the intrinsic nature is cleansed; then, one turns away from present karma. All this consists in gradually dissolving phenomena. The more deeply one enters the Real, the subtler and more meticulous the practice becomes. Although sudden awakening is primary, gradual cultivation is not abandoned. Because this encompasses all three capacities—superior, intermediate, and inferior—it is called the Perfect and Sudden Dharma Gate.

Chan Master Liaoyi of Jingshan ascended the Dharma hall and said: “Students of the Way who encounter objects and conditions yet cannot immediately penetrate and transcend them do so because their karmic consciousness is deep and heavy and their deluded emotions tightly bound. While the six gates have not ceased, not even one place is unobstructed. The pure, immaculate nature, without the slightest blemish, is difficult for ordinary people to reach. One must be able to ‘enter a forest without stirring a leaf and enter water without raising a wave’; only then can one follow the current of birth and death and enter the human world. Worthies, do you understand?”

He then swept his staff through the air and said: “Advance and accept it only within here.”

Suppose someone here could advance and accept it, like pure crystal containing the bright moon within—could that person be called one who has finished the work?

Have you not heard that Patriarch Nanquan was admiring the moon together with Zhaozhou?

Zhaozhou said: “When shall one attain something like that?”

Nanquan said: “This old Teacher Wang was once like that twenty years ago.”

Zhaozhou asked: “And what about now?”

Patriarch Nanquan then returned to the abbot’s quarters.

Tiantong brought this up, saying: “Set aside twenty years ago. What about twenty years later? Do you know where old Teacher Wang set foot? There is no memorial altar in the house, so why should the wife wear mourning clothes?”

Ah! “Pure as crystal, with the bright moon suspended within” is precisely what the passage below calls the “Stage of Dry Wisdom.” The Secret, Perfect, Pure, and Wondrous nature of all Tathagatas appears within it; thus, wherever one looks, what place is not luminous and clear? Yet the step of actual practice is still lacking. Therefore, if one knows where Patriarch Nanquan set foot, one sees that even being like that twenty years ago was not yet completion.

Section 2: Establishing the Stages of the Sages

I. THE STAGE OF DRY WISDOM

Sutra: “Ananda, in that good man, sensual desire has dried up, and faculties and objects no longer couple together. His present body and mind will no longer continue to arise. He holds fast to the empty, luminous mind, which is purely wisdom. The nature of wisdom becomes completely luminous, illuminating the worlds throughout the ten directions. At first there is only this dry wisdom; this is called the Stage of Dry Wisdom.

Explanation: Sensual desire moistens and nourishes the formation of karma. Faculties and objects create karma, causing birth and death to continue without end, while one remains deluded and does not return. Now that desire has dried up and objects have receded, this mundane body and mind will no longer continue to arise. Reversing the current and returning wholly to oneness, one necessarily holds fast to the empty, luminous mind. When the six functions no longer operate, there is only pure wisdom. Since sensual desire is no longer employed, wisdom does not depart from the self-nature, just as the radiance of a jewel does not illuminate external objects but only illuminates its own substance.

This luminosity reaches the point where no object of illumination is established, and thus the light is complete. The lands throughout the ten directions are empty, luminous, and pure, like crystal with the bright moon suspended within; therefore, it is called “luminous clarity.” Because sensual desire has dried up, wisdom arises, and only then is it called Dry Wisdom. Yet there is still only this dry wisdom, and one has not reached Wondrous Perfection; therefore, it is the initial stage.

Among the Ten Stages in the Mahaprajnaparamita Sutra, the first is called Dry Wisdom. In Tiantai’s Perfect Teaching, the Five Preliminary Grades are established before the Ten Faiths and are called the meaning of withdrawal [turning away, relinquishing], which resembles the Stage of Dry Wisdom in the Mahaprajnaparamita Sutra. Although this sutra had not yet reached here, Tiantai’s establishment of the names of the stages already accorded secretly with the Buddha-Mind.

If he had not personally reached the assembly on Vulture Peak, how could this have been so!

Grand Master Lu Xuan said to Patriarch Nanquan: “This disciple also has some slight understanding of the Buddhadharma.”

Nanquan then asked: “Throughout the twelve periods of the day, what do you do?”

He replied: “Not so much as a single hair adheres.”

Nanquan said: “You are still someone standing below the steps.”

He further said: “Have you not heard, ‘When the sovereign possesses the Way, he does not retain wise ministers’?”

Later, a monk asked Chan Master Jinfeng Zhi: “What is it like when ‘a thousand mountains are cloudless and for a thousand miles every mist has vanished’?”

Master Zhi said: “From the summit of Feitian Ridge, in which direction has it not all been vomited out!”

Indeed, he and Patriarch Nanquan followed the same wheel track, one before and one after. Thus it is known that the Stage of Dry Wisdom is also only a temporary resting place. If one reaches the utmost Wondrous Awakening, the ultimate meaning must be distinct in itself.

II. THE TEN FAITHS

Sutra: “The habitual tendencies of the five desires have only just dried up, and one has not yet connected with the current of the Tathagata’s Dharma-water. Then, based upon this very mind, one enters directly into the revelation of Perfect Wonder. Following the true Wondrous, Perfect Awakening, one increasingly brings forth the true and wondrous. Wondrous faith abides permanently, and all deluded thoughts are utterly exhausted, with none remaining. The Middle Way is purely Real; this is called Abiding in the Mind of Faith.

Explanation: To enter directly into the middle is to incline neither toward emptiness nor toward provisional existence; this is the wondrous contemplation of the Middle Way. Upon first entering contemplation, the Three Truths perfectly interpenetrate, like the three points of the character Yi ( ); therefore, it is called Perfect Wonder. This lies within the power of human effort. Once contemplation has been accomplished, wonder emerges from the Real and accords with the principle of perfection; therefore, it is called Wondrous Perfection. This is beyond the power of human effort to attain by itself.

The Middle Way rests upon the Real, whereas wonder includes that which does not arise from the Real. When wonder emerges from the Real, that wonder is true wonder. Wonder that does not arise from the Real cannot be permanent. Because the Middle Way is purely Real, this wonder abides permanently. Once this wonder abides permanently, all deluded thoughts have nowhere to set foot. What is called “wonder” is understood in its intent by that person alone and cannot be revealed to others through words. Because this faith is utterly genuine, it is called Abiding in the Mind of Faith.

Patriarch Guishan said to Yangshan: “You should personally turn the light around and illuminate within; others do not know the extent of your understanding. Try presenting your genuine insight to this old monk!”

Yangshan said: “As you instruct me to look for myself, within there is no position or rank, nor is there a single thing or a single understanding that I could present to the Venerable.”

Guishan said: “The place where there is no position or rank is itself your understanding; thus you have not yet departed from mind and objects.”

Yangshan said: “Since there is no position or rank, where could there be any dharma? Would you take the absence of things as an object?”

Guishan said: “Just now, did you yourself have that understanding or not?”

Yangshan replied: “Yes, I did.”

Guishan said: “If so, then mind, objects, and dharmas are all fully present, and you have not yet escaped the mind of self and possessions of self. Fundamentally, you still had an understanding to present to me. I grant that you have understood the Stage of Faith, but not yet the Stage of Personhood!”

Later, Yangshan asked Shuangfeng: “Junior brother, what has your insight been like recently?”

He replied: “According to my understanding, there is truly not a single dharma upon which feeling may linger.”

Yangshan said: “Your understanding is still within the realm of objects.”

He replied: “That is simply how I am. What about you, senior brother?”

Yangshan said: “Do you not know that ‘there is not a single dharma upon which feeling may linger’?”

When Patriarch Guishan heard of this, he said: “That one sentence of Huiji may frighten everyone under heaven to death.”

Only through such examination and such dissection does one come to know that “in accordance with the True Nature, the Wondrous Perfection increasingly reveals the True and Wondrous.” Thus, the state of True Faith is vastly removed from the path of intellectual understanding.

Sutra: “When True Faith is radiant and clear, everything becomes perfectly unobstructed. The three—skandhas, ayatanas, and dhatus—can no longer hinder one. Thus, throughout countless kalpas of the past and future, all habitual tendencies involved in relinquishing one body and receiving another appear before one’s eyes. This good man can remember them all without forgetting or losing any; this is called Abiding in the Mind of Mindfulness.

Explanation: Within these Ten Faiths, Abiding in the Mind of Mindfulness is the knowledge of past lives. It was said previously: “When the precepts have been perfected and the six faculties purified, without needing the divine eye, one beholds the purity of past lives throughout the ten directions, attaining this without difficulty or danger, and gradually transcending all obstructions.” Here, one can remember countless kalpas of both the past and the future; thus, perfect penetration must be radiant and clear.

This arises within True Faith. Since the Nature of Emptiness is entirely pervasive, its penetration reaches everywhere without exception. Here, the True has already been realized; therefore, the stage of “semblance” cannot compare with it.

Without realization of the True, the skandhas, ayatanas, and dhatus become obstructions, and one cannot penetrate them. Now, by maintaining the empty and luminous mind, faculty and object no longer adhere to one another. In time, the True and Wondrous alone is revealed, transcending both faculty and object.

Therefore, all habitual tendencies formed by the delusions of thought—such as relinquishing bodies in the past and receiving bodies in the future—appear clearly before one’s eyes and are never forgotten.

The Mind of Mindfulness originally belongs to arising and cessation. Now, when it is maintained through True Faith, mindfulness itself also abides securely: mindfulness itself is the True, and the true and the deluded merge into one. From arhats up to beings in the Sphere of Neither Perception nor Non-Perception, and among non-Buddhist practitioners, knowledge of past lives extends backward and forward for as many as eighty thousand kalpas. But “countless kalpas” means asamkhyeya kalpas, something no one other than a Buddha can realize. In this land, there have been people who knew the past, but not many who knew the future.

Chan Master Huizhong of Niutou Mountain heard that Chan Master Wei had appeared in the world, and so went to visit him.

As soon as Chan Master Wei saw him, he said, “The master of the mountain has arrived.”

Huizhong awakened upon hearing this and remained to attend upon him.

Later, Huizhong asked permission to travel and study in various places.

One day, Chan Master Wei saw that the trumpet vine at the Precepts Hall had withered in the summer heat. Someone wished to cut it down, but the Master said, “Do not cut it down. When Huizhong returns, it will revive!”

Later, Huizhong returned, and it happened exactly as he had said. The Master then entrusted the mountain monastery to Huizhong.

Similarly, Master Lingshu had no head monk for twenty years. He often said, “My head monk has already been born! My head monk is now herding oxen! My head monk is now traveling on foot!”

One day, he ordered the bell to be struck and went beyond the three gates to welcome the head monk. When the assembly went out to receive him, it was indeed Master Yunmen who had arrived, and he was invited directly into the head monk’s quarters.

After Yunmen had unpacked his traveling bundle, he presented a letter to Patriarch Lingshu, which read: “This is the head monk of the monastery, the eye of devas and human beings.”

The Master then invited Patriarch Yunmen to ascend the Dharma seat and teach.

These two venerable masters may be said to have attained Abiding in the Mind of Mindfulness.

Sutra: “The Wondrous Perfection is purely True. The True Essence manifests its transformative power, and beginningless habitual tendencies are wholly transformed into one Essential Radiance. Relying solely upon this Essential Radiance, one advances toward True Purity; this is called the Mind of Vigor.

Explanation: By entering progressively through True Faith, one becomes capable of recollection. By entering progressively through the Purely True, one attains Essential Radiance. When the True can transform the deluded, the transformative manifestation of the True Essence is inconceivable; thus, habitual tendencies from beginningless time are transformed into Essential Radiance.

Previously, it was said, “Habitual tendencies become manifest before one.” Here, they are transformed into Supreme Awareness. Purity that stands in opposition to defilement is not yet True Purity. Neither defiled nor pure—this alone is True Purity.

By means of this Essential Radiance, one advances toward True Purity, intending thereby to eliminate even the traces of “being wholly transformed into one Essential Radiance,” so that all are completely transformed. If this transformation cannot be accomplished, one’s advancement cannot be called vigorous.

A monk asked Patriarch Huangbo, “What is vigor?”

Patriarch Huangbo said, “When body and mind do not arise, that is the foremost heroic vigor. The moment the mind arises and seeks externally, it is called ‘King Kali’s delight in hunting.’ When the mind does not roam outside, that is the ‘Patient Immortal.’ When body and mind are both empty, that is the path of Buddhahood.”

The Dharmapada says: “If one gives rise to a mind of vigor, that is delusion, not vigor. If the mind is constantly free from delusion, that is True Vigor.”

The Wise Master Zhiyi of Tiantai was reciting the Lotus Sutra on Mount Nanyue. When he reached the passage in the chapter on Medicine King—“This is True Vigor; this is called the true Dharma offering to the Tathagata”—he immediately awakened and entered the Lotus Samadhi, attaining the dharani called Complete Retention, and clearly beheld the Dharma assembly on Vulture Peak still gathered and not yet dispersed.

This may be called the complete transformation of beginningless habitual tendencies into one Essential Radiance. One must advance until body and mind are both empty; only then is it called True Purity. To seek vigor separately, apart from True Purity, is delusion.

Sutra: “When the Essential Mind manifests before one and one functions purely through wisdom, this is called Abiding in the Mind of Wisdom.

Explanation: Why was the previous Stage of Dry Wisdom not called Abiding in the Mind of Wisdom? Previously, it was said, “Maintain the empty and luminous mind,” which means there was still something being maintained. Here it says, “The Essential Mind manifests before one,” meaning that the act of maintaining has already been transformed. Previously, it was said, “It is purely wisdom,” which still carried the notion of “being.” Here it says, “One functions purely through wisdom,” meaning that everywhere there is only the functioning of wisdom, and even the notion of “being” has vanished.

Unless Essential Radiance is clear and penetrating and the numinous light manifests, this state cannot easily be expressed. At first, one speaks of possessing that wisdom. When one reaches the state of being purely wisdom, one abides securely therein, and then advances another step.

Within the Chan school, when it comes to functioning purely through wisdom, Linji alone stands supreme; it is truly difficult to find a second like him. He often said: “Here, this mountain monk determines three kinds of spiritual capacity. When one of middling or inferior capacity comes, I take away his objects but do not remove his Dharma.

When one of middling or superior capacity comes, I take away both his objects and his Dharma. When one of the highest capacity comes, I take away objects, Dharma, and person alike. But when someone with an extraordinary understanding comes, this mountain monk functions with his whole being and does not concern himself with spiritual capacity.

Virtuous Ones, when you reach this point, if the student’s exertion is not clear and penetrating, it passes at once like wind, fire, a spark struck from stone, or a flash of lightning. If the student’s fixed eye so much as moves, all connection is lost. The instant the mind deliberates, it errs; the instant a thought moves, it deviates!

Is there anyone who clearly understands? It is never apart from what is before your eyes. Virtuous Ones, carrying your sack of excrement and rushing about to other people’s houses, seeking Buddha and seeking Dharma—what is it that is running about seeking at this very moment?

Do you not know it? It is vividly alive, yet it is precisely that which does not cling. Embrace it, and it does not gather; cast it away, and it does not disperse.

Seek for it, and it immediately recedes far away; do not seek, and it is before your eyes.”

The numinous voice entrusts this directly beside your ears. If you have no faith in it, you will spend a hundred years in vain delay. If you can trust that which is “vividly alive,” how far could you be from Abiding in the Mind of Wisdom?

Sutra: “Maintaining luminous wisdom, tranquil clarity pervades everywhere; serene, wondrous, and ever still, this is called Abiding in the Mind of Samadhi.

Explanation: Since one already functions purely through wisdom and the Mind of Wisdom constantly abides, why is maintaining still necessary? “Maintaining” here means forgetting the mechanism and relinquishing discriminative knowledge. When wisdom functions constantly, its functioning responds to phenomena, and thus one cannot attain complete retention within the tranquil and clear essence. Now one gathers back the blazing radiance, maintaining it without employing it. As Patriarch Linji said, “After using the sword that cuts a hair blown across its edge, you must immediately sharpen it!” This means attaining complete retention within the wondrous and profoundly still Nature.

When the nature of the dharani is unmoving, it is ever still. This nature, tranquil and clear, fundamentally pure, wholly pervading the Dharma Realm, is originally without movement or disturbance. It is still, yet not mere stillness; it is unlike dead quietude or stagnant water, and is therefore called Wondrous Quiescence.

This abiding of the mind in samadhi is “When in samadhi, wisdom is present within samadhi.” It has absolutely nothing to do with theories such as “Samadhi first and wisdom afterward,” or “Wisdom first and samadhi afterward,” which depend upon the exertions of human cultivation.

Master Zhihuang first went to meet the Fifth Patriarch, and afterward sat in meditation in a hermitage for twenty years.

Master Xuance, a disciple of the Sixth Patriarch, came to visit and asked, “What are you doing here?”

He replied, “Entering samadhi.”

Master Ce said, “You speak of entering samadhi. Is there a mind that enters, or is there no mind that enters? If there is no mind that enters, then all insentient grasses, trees, tiles, and stones must also have attained samadhi. If there is a mind that enters, then all sentient beings endowed with consciousness must likewise have attained samadhi.”

Master Huang said, “At the very moment I enter samadhi, I do not perceive any mind of ‘existence or nonexistence.’”

Xuance said, “Not perceiving any mind of existence or nonexistence is constant samadhi; how could there be entering or emerging? If there is emerging and entering, it is certainly not the Great Samadhi.”

Zhihuang was unable to reply.

After a long while, he asked, “Who is your teacher?”

Master Ce replied, “My teacher is the Sixth Patriarch.”

Zhihuang asked, “What does the Sixth Patriarch take to be meditative concentration?”

Xuance replied, “My teacher says: ‘Wondrous stillness, perfect quiescence—essence and function are thusness. The five skandhas are fundamentally empty; the six sense objects do not exist. Neither emerging nor entering, neither concentrated nor distracted. The nature of meditation does not abide; one departs from abiding in meditative quiescence. The nature of meditation is unborn; one departs from giving rise to conceptions of meditation. The mind is like empty space, yet without even the measure of empty space.’”

Upon hearing this, Master Zhihuang went to meet the Sixth Patriarch and recounted the entire matter.

The Sixth Patriarch said, “It is indeed so. Simply let the mind be like empty space, without clinging to a view of emptiness. Let its responsive functioning be unhindered; in movement and stillness, be without contrivance. Let ordinary and sacred sentiments vanish, and let subject and object both dissolve. When nature and characteristics are thusness, there is no time that is not samadhi.”

Zhihuang immediately attained great awakening. The mind of attainment he had cherished for twenty years had no influence whatsoever. That night in Hebei [where Master Zhihuang resided], officials and common people heard a voice in the sky proclaiming, “Today Chan Master Huang has attained the Way!”

He returned to Hebei and taught the fourfold assembly.

Another monk asked Chan Master Xianduan, “What is it like when all is settled, tranquil, and clear?”

Patriarch Duan said, “That is not the place where you, Acarya, may establish body and life.”

The monk asked, “Then what is the place where this student may establish body and life?”

He replied, “Clouds possess the power to leave the mountains; water enters the ravine without a sound.”

If one understands directly here, one is perpetually quiescent without departing from perpetual illumination. Thus one can fully know that samadhi and wisdom constitute a nondual Dharma gate.

Sutra: “The light of samadhi shines forth and enters deeply into the luminous nature. There is only advance and no retreat. This is called the Mind of Non-Retreat.

Commentary: Because wisdom enters samadhi, that samadhi is true and proper. Because samadhi emits light, that light is profound. Light not born from the power of samadhi is shallow and rootless, and therefore cannot penetrate deeply.

Now that samadhi and wisdom assist one another, the luminous nature becomes ever more penetrating. What subtle place does it not illuminate? What hidden depth does it not reach?

Therefore one can seek the path upward. Advancing without cease, there is only progress and no retreat, which sufficiently reveals the profundity of that light. If even the slightest point remained unillumined, the thought of retreat would necessarily arise.

At this stage of non-retreat, beginningless ignorance has been almost entirely cast off; one can no longer be shaken or led astray, and therefore cannot fall back.

Master Qianfeng ascended the hall and said, “The Dharma-body has three kinds of illness and two kinds of light. Each must be penetrated completely before one can understand the matter of returning home and sitting peacefully. Yet you must know that there is still the one opening beyond.”

Master Yunmen stepped forward and asked, “Why does the person inside the hermitage not know what is happening outside it?”

Patriarch Feng laughed heartily.

Yunmen said, “That is also a point of doubt for this student.”

Patriarch Feng said, “What sort of mental conduct is this of yours?”

Yunmen said, “I also ask the Venerable Master to resolve it for me.”

Patriarch Feng said, “Right here, what more is needed before you understand the place of peaceful sitting?”

Master Yunmen uttered, “Yes, yes.”

Master Tiantong raised this case and said, “Stuck in sitting—the illness is beyond cure. Stuck in functioning—the light cannot penetrate and break free. Even if one ranges freely in every direction and wholly turns the single pivotal mechanism, one still does not know that there remains the one opening beyond. Can one still attain that stage of peaceful sitting? In the end, beneath the dark moonlit frost, one silently tumbles headlong into the ravine.”

Yunmen was truly a person within the gate, yet he still did not know the matter outside the gate because he had attained “the stage of peaceful sitting.” If one has not yet reached Yunmen’s measure, one must carefully chew over Patriarch Qianfeng’s words before the true course of the Mind of Non-Retreat becomes clear.

Sutra: “The mind serenely advances, preserving and safeguarding without loss, and communes with the spiritual influence of the Tathagatas of the ten directions. This is called the Mind that Protects the Dharma.

Commentary: Samadhi and wisdom merge into the state beyond arising and cessation. The mind is without a mind; advancing, there is nowhere to advance. A single thought accords with it, free from all contrivance, and therefore it is called serene. Before reaching serenity, one must still rely upon effort to preserve and safeguard it. Once serenity has been reached, it is safeguarded without loss.

When it is said that nothing is lost, what is it that is not lost? When it is said to preserve and safeguard, what is preserved and safeguarded? This is the lifeline of all Buddhas, extending throughout the ten directions.

Now that I have attained dharani, the lifeline of all Buddhas is necessarily within me; our spiritual vitality can communicate, and our spiritual influences naturally commune. When my spiritual influence communes with the Buddhas, I protect the Tathagatas’ True Dharma. When the Buddhas’ spiritual influence communes with me, the Buddhas protect my True Dharma.

Upon reaching this point, the delusions of thought throughout the three realms are completely exhausted. This is the proper stage of purification of the six sense faculties. Compared with the Great Prajnaparamita Sutra, it corresponds to the Buddha-ground, and therefore is called “that which is kept in the mindful protection of all Buddhas.”

Long ago, while the Sixth Patriarch was washing his robe upon a rock, a monk suddenly came and bowed to him, saying, “My name is Fangbian, and I am from Western Shu. Recently, while in southern India, I dreamed that Patriarch Bodhidharma entrusted me with these words: ‘Fangbian, go at once to the Central Land. The Treasury of the True Dharma Eye that I transmitted from Mahakasyapa, together with the sanghati robe, has now reached the Sixth Generation at Caoxi in Shaozhou. Go there and pay reverence.’ I, Fangbian, have come from afar hoping to see the robe and bowl transmitted by the Patriarchs.”

The Sixth Patriarch then brought them out for him to see.

This is one verification of the communion of spiritual influences.

Master Fengxue first went to Patriarch Huanglong.

Patriarch Long asked, “A stone horn pierces the road through the clouds—what is the meaning of this?”

Master Xue replied, “Crimson clouds envelop the jade elephant; barriers cast their radiance upon the river’s source.”

Patriarch Long said, “They have followed one another to this point.”

Master Xue said, “Venerable Master, speak softly!”

Master Touzi composed this verse:

“In the darkness hangs a priceless, gleaming pearl;

Deep in the night, one surely grasps the wooden man’s pole.

Who knew the clay ox would see it once again,

Swallowing the crimson clouds whole as emerald waves follow?”

When adepts meet, they never fail to encourage one another to cherish and safeguard it with utmost care. Here, too, one can discern the masters’ minds that protect the Dharma.

Sutra: “Safeguarding the luminous mind of awakening, one can use its wondrous power to turn the Buddha’s Light of Compassion back toward oneself, and then turn toward the Buddha and abide securely. It is like two mirrors whose lights face one another, within which wondrous images interpenetrate in layer upon layer. This is called the Mind of Dedication.”

Commentary: To turn back the Buddha’s compassionate light is to turn from the fruition toward the cause. To face the Buddha and abide is to turn from the cause toward the fruition. When fruition and cause accord in a single thought, their lights meet and interpenetrate; this wondrous point is difficult to express in words.

There is only this wondrous power, which has nothing to do with cultivated effort. The light manifests through the mind of compassion and requires no skillful means. Since one’s abiding is the same as the Buddha’s, there are no longer any stages.

Original Enlightenment and Initial Enlightenment—the two kinds of enlightenment—merge with each other, like lights facing one another in two mirrors. Only when there is this wondrous power can there be this wondrous reflection. If one preserves the luminous mind of enlightenment and does not revert to deluded knowing, this luminosity is Wondrous Luminosity.

Wondrous Luminosity is luminously wondrous: one is all, and all is one; layer upon layer of wondrous reflections interpenetrate. Although called wondrous reflections, they are not reflections of external sense objects or mental objects. Here, reflections mingle within the light, and the light likewise merges with the reflections, resembling the One Wisdom of the Great Perfect Mirror.

To turn the Buddha’s wisdom into one’s own wisdom, and to turn one’s own wisdom toward the Buddha’s wisdom—mind after mind mutually governs the other, nearly becoming identical with the Buddha. Could this be merely a communion of their vital influence?

One day, Patriarch Guishan instructed his disciples to present their understanding.

The Patriarch said, “Beyond sound and form, meet me face to face.”

Master Yangshan presented his words three times, each time saying, “It is like two mirrors reflecting one another, with no image between them.”

Patriarch Guishan said, “These words are correct, but I am right and you are not, for you have already established an image.”

Yangshan then asked the Patriarch, “My faculties are dull and my replies clumsy. I still do not know what words the Venerable presented when you were with your master, Baizhang.”

Patriarch Guishan said, “When I was with my late master Baizhang, I presented these words: ‘It is like a hundred thousand bright mirrors reflecting images; luminous reflections illuminate one another, dust mote after dust mote, land after land, each relying upon none of the others.’”

Master Yangshan immediately bowed in gratitude.

These two venerable masters spoke skillfully of the Surangama. One spoke of two mirrors with their lights facing each other. The other spoke of layer upon layer of wondrous reflections interpenetrating. Only when the two are combined is the meaning complete.

Patriarch Xuefeng ascended the Dharma hall and said, “If you wish to understand this matter, it is like an ancient mirror upon its stand: when a Hu person comes, a Hu person appears; when a Han person comes, a Han person appears.”

Master Xuansha stepped out from the assembly and said, “What happens if a bright mirror suddenly comes?”

Patriarch Xuefeng said, “Both Hu and Han disappear.”

Master Xuansha said, “The old Venerable’s heels have not yet touched the ground!”

If one knows why Master Xuansha did not accept Patriarch Xuefeng’s words, one immediately knows why Master Yangshan bowed in gratitude to Patriarch Guishan.

Sutra: “The light of the mind secretly turns back, and one attains the ever-quiescent, unsurpassed, wondrous purity of all Buddhas. Abiding in the unconditioned and never losing it is called the Abiding of the Mind of Precepts.”

Commentary: The light of the mind secretly turns back; facing the Buddha, one abides and attains the ever-quiescent, tranquil wonder of all Buddhas, remaining unmoved when encountering objects. Attaining the Buddha’s unsurpassed wondrous purity, one engages with sense objects without being defiled. This is the innately true Buddha of the self-nature, the genuine unconditioned.

Abiding therein, one neither creates nor acts, neither realizes nor attains. Whatever is attained will necessarily be lost; if nothing is attained, nothing is lost. Where loss is possible, the precepts are needed.

Where nothing is lost, what need is there for precepts? The unconditioned self-nature itself is the precepts. Precepts with nothing to be restrained are the True Precepts.

These precepts lie in the place where the mind’s light secretly turns back. It is called secret because it cannot be measured by discriminating consciousness; how could it be said to be the same as ordinary disciplinary precepts? The precepts are themselves samadhi, and the precepts are themselves wisdom: they are but one essence with different names.

Long ago, when Master Shitou first arrived to pay homage to Patriarch Qingyuan,

Patriarch Qingyuan asked, “Where have you come from?”

He replied, “Caoxi.”

Patriarch Qingyuan asked, “What have you brought here?”

He replied, “Even before going to Caoxi, it was never lost.”

Patriarch Qingyuan said, “If so, why did you go to Caoxi?”

He replied, “Had I not gone to Caoxi, how could I have known that it was never lost?”

Master Shitou then asked, “Did the Great Master at Caoxi know you, Venerable?”

Patriarch Qingyuan said, “Do you know me now?”

He replied, “Even if I know you, how could I know you?”

Patriarch Qingyuan said, “Although horned creatures are many, a single qilin is enough.”

Later, one day, Patriarch Yaoshan was sitting upon a rock. Master Shitou asked, “What are you doing there?”

Master Yaoshan said, “Not doing a single thing.”

Master Shitou said, “Then you are sitting idly.”

Master Yaoshan said, “If I were sitting idly, that would be doing something.”

Master Shitou asked, “When you say you are doing nothing, what is it that you do not do?”

Master Yaoshan said, “Even a thousand sages do not know.”

Master Shitou thereupon praised him in verse:

“Dwelling together since ancient times, its name unknown,

Following conditions, together we simply act thus.

Since antiquity, sages and worthies have not understood;

How could ordinary people know, bustling about in vain?”

Master Danxia chanted:

“The profound and subtle, utterly exhausted, is originally serene;

Even if one grants him eighty thousand years,

The moon reflected in the still river leaves no trace of fish;

Why trouble yourself with hook, cast net, or fish trap?”

Consider Master Yaoshan’s words “doing nothing” and Master Shitou’s words “never lost”: ultimately they cannot be fathomed by conceptual understanding, and are indeed most secret and wondrous. If one can pass through this barrier, one attains the Buddha’s ever-quiescent, unsurpassed, wondrous purity. This may be called the Abiding of the Mind of Precepts.

Sutra: “Abiding freely in the precepts, one can journey throughout the ten directions and go wherever one wishes. This is called the Abiding of the Mind of Vows.”

Commentary: Abiding freely in the precepts, one even forgets what the precepts are. Ever abiding in True Purity, what could one desire and not attain? Thus one can journey throughout the ten directions and go wherever one wishes. In the Perfect Teaching of the Tiantai school, if one has not yet severed ignorance, one is born in the Land of Common Residence; this is called Birth by Vow, and it truly accords with this passage of the sutra. The Tiantai school also says that those at the Ten Faiths emerge from the Contemplation of Provisional Existence to benefit sentient beings. This passage speaks of “journeying throughout the ten directions,” which also accords with that meaning.

At noon on the fourth day of the twelfth month in the third year of the Chunhua era, Chan Master Shoushan Shengnian ascended the Dharma hall and spoke this verse:

“This year I am sixty-seven;

Old and ill, I pass the days and months according to conditions.

This year, remember what will happen next year;

Next year, clearly remember this morning.”

When the appointed date arrived the following year without the slightest discrepancy, he ascended the Dharma hall to bid farewell to the assembly and then spoke this verse:

“A world of white silver, a body the color of gold;

The sentient and insentient share the One Truth.

When brightness and darkness are exhausted, neither illuminates;

The afternoon sun wholly reveals its body.”

He then sat upright and passed into quiescence.

Master Fenyang Shanzhao had an old friendship with Governor Li Hou of Longde Prefecture. The governor sent someone to Chengtian Monastery to invite him. After the envoy had invited him three times without success, he was punished and therefore pleaded with the Master to accompany him.

The Master laughed and said, “For thirty years, this old monk’s karma has been never to leave the monastery. If I go, there must be one who goes before and another after; why must we go at the same time?”

He then ordered a vegetarian feast to be prepared, made ready his traveling belongings, and told the assembly, “This old monk is departing. Who can follow me?”

A monk stepped forward and said, “I can follow you.”

The Master asked, “How many miles do you travel each day?”

The monk replied, “Fifty miles.”

The Master said, “You cannot follow me!”

Another monk stepped forward and said, “I can follow you.”

The Master asked, “How many miles do you travel each day?”

The monk replied, “Seventy miles.”

The Master said, “You cannot follow me either.”

The attendant stepped forward and said, “I can follow you. Wherever the Venerable goes, I will go.”

The Master said, “You can follow me.”

Having said this, he told the messenger, “I shall go on ahead.” Then, with joy, he sat and entered quiescence. His attendant immediately passed away while standing.

Is this not “going wherever one wishes”? Without having realized the Ten Faiths, it is not easy to reach this point. Faith is genuine and free from falsity because it accords with the ground of ultimate reality.

Thus it is said, “There is only this one truth; the other two are not true.” First, desire and craving must be exhausted and the mind maintained in luminous emptiness; only then can one enter the wondrous perfection of true nature. When true nature brings forth its transformations, even the subtlest habitual tendencies become thoroughly integrated. Furthermore, through samadhi and wisdom one preserves it, and through protective maintenance one advances; turning toward the Buddha’s light of compassion, one attains the Buddha’s pure precepts.

From then on, one is born into the house of the Tathagata and goes wherever one wishes. The Ten Faiths are not the Ten Abodes, so why are they all called “abodes”? Bodhisattva Asanga established eighteen stages, determining the successive stages of the Diamond Sutra.

Accordingly, the first stage is also called an Abode because, relying on non-abiding wisdom, one never again regresses; hence it receives the name “Abode.”

III. THE TEN ABODES

Sutra: “Ananda, that good man, using true skillful means, brings forth those ten minds. The mind’s purity manifests, and the ten functions interpenetrate one another, perfectly forming a single mind. This is called the Abode of Arousing the Mind.

Explanation: From the true, wondrous perfection, the true and wondrous is brought forth once again; this is called true skillful means. By using true skillful means, these ten kinds of minds of faith are brought forth. That faith is true; that truth is faith.

When no other thought is admitted to intrude or mingle with it, the mind is pure. The mind’s pure luminosity shines forth of itself. Whether samadhi or wisdom, precepts or vows, the ten functions interpenetrate one another: within samadhi itself, wisdom and precepts are fully present; within the precepts themselves, samadhi and wisdom are wholly complete.

In essence, this is to illuminate what is originally present and abide directed toward the Buddha; therefore it is called “perfectly forming a single mind.” If the ten functions are not complete, the mind’s capacity is not full. Only when all ten functions are perfectly accomplished can this be called the Abode of Arousing the Mind.

The Tiantai Master Zhizhe correlated the Ten Minds of the Jeweled Necklace with the ten contemplative methods of the Mahayana, using them to define the First Abode of the Perfect Teaching and reveal its full possession of the ten virtues. The meanings likewise accord.

Long ago, during the third watch of the night, the Sixth Patriarch entered the abbot’s room. The Fifth Patriarch wrapped the area with his kasaya so that no one could see and expounded the Diamond Sutra to him. Upon reaching the words, “One should give rise to the mind without abiding anywhere,” the Sixth Patriarch immediately attained great awakening at those words and understood that all the myriad dharmas are not separate from self-nature. He then said to the Fifth Patriarch:

“Who could have expected that self-nature is originally pure in itself?

Who could have expected that self-nature is originally neither born nor extinguished?

Who could have expected that self-nature is originally complete in itself?

Who could have expected that self-nature is originally unmoving?

Who could have expected that self-nature gives rise to the myriad dharmas?”

The Fifth Patriarch knew that he had awakened to the original nature and said, “Studying the Dharma is useless if one does not understand the original mind. If one understands one’s own original mind and sees one’s own original nature, one is called a great person, a teacher of devas and humans, and a Buddha.”

Therefore, only one who perfectly forms a single mind, as in the Sixth Patriarch’s awakening, can be said to have attained the Abode of Arousing the Mind.

Sutra: “Within the mind, light arises, like pure crystal within which the color of refined gold shines forth. Using the previously attained wondrous mind, one advances and establishes a stage. This is called the Abode of Preparing the Ground.

Explanation: Only when one’s vision is clear can one advance. If one’s vision is unclear, then even if one takes steps forward, one is not cultivating self-nature but merely pursuing external affairs. It is like building a house on another person’s land—what connection does it have with oneself?

Here, “within the mind, light arises” refers to wisdom without a teacher and natural wisdom, manifesting from the nature of the Dharma realm, like pure crystal within which the color of refined gold shines forth. One sees with utter truth and awakens with complete penetration. What is seen and the Dharma are nondual, yet one’s conduct has not reached it. From here one preserves it; from here one proceeds. Using each of the ten previously attained wondrous minds, one personally practices the Way. Body and mind are one, and every step is as firm as the earth. When building a house, one must first prepare the ground. This is where one begins to take steps; therefore it is called the Abode of Preparing the Ground.

Chan Master Yunju Ying ascended the hall and said, “The ancients said, ‘If you wish to be capable of sustaining this matter, you must stand upon the summit of a towering mountain and walk along the bottom of the deepest sea; only then will you have the faintest trace of it.’ If you have not yet understood the great matter, you should tread the mysterious path.”

A monk asked, “What is the place where one who advances beyond proceeds?”

Master Ju said, “Peace prevails throughout the realm.”

Another monk asked Chan Master Yuan of Guangfa Monastery, “From ancient times, toward what place have the sages proceeded?”

Master Yuan said, “The head of the crossroads (()”.

The monk asked, “Then it is empty and deficient?”

He replied, “I know that you have not yet reached that ground.”

The monk asked, “What about after one has arrived?”

Master Yuan said, “The family’s ordinary food and drink.”

Therefore, by means of what the venerable masters called “treading the path,” one may understand the Abode of Preparing the Ground. This treading is truly wondrous.

Sutra: “When the ground of the mind is universally known, everything becomes perfectly clear. Roaming throughout the ten directions, one meets no obstruction. This is called the Abode of Cultivation and Practice.

Explanation: How is the mind known to be the ground? How is the ground known to be the mind? This mind is the wondrous mind.

This practice is wondrous practice. This wisdom is wondrous wisdom. Only when the three virtues of principle, practice, and wisdom perfectly interpenetrate can it be said that the ground of the mind is universally known—luminous and unobscured, distinctly and constantly aware.

Mind itself is practice; practice itself is mind. Roaming throughout the ten directions, what obstruction could there be? Since there is no obstruction, why is cultivation and practice needed, and why is this called the Abode of Cultivation and Practice?

First, one treads upon ultimate reality without grasping or attachment; thus roaming is taken as cultivation. Second, tightly holding to the luminous mind is itself an obstruction; thus non-obstruction is taken as cultivation. In truth, it is practice with nowhere practiced and cultivation with nowhere cultivated.

Chan Master Shishuang instructed the assembly, saying, “Beginners who have not yet understood the great matter must first know how to grasp the head; the tail will then naturally follow.”

Master Shushan stepped forward and asked, “What is the head?”

Master Shuang said, “You must know that it is present right now.”

Master Shu asked, “What is the tail?”

Master Shuang said, “The present is completely exhausted.”

He asked, “What if there is a head but no tail?”

He replied, “Having vomited up refined gold, what use is it anymore?”

He asked, “What if there is a tail but no head?”

He replied, “There is still dependence.”

He asked, “What is it when head and tail correspond precisely?”

He replied, “He does not form an understanding, yet it is still not conceded that he has it!”

Later, a monk asked Chan Master Jiufeng Qian, “What is the head?”

Master Feng replied, “With eyes open, there is no understanding.”

He asked, “What is the tail?”

He replied, “Not sitting upon the platform for ten thousand years.”

He asked, “What if there is a head but no tail?”

He replied, “Ultimately, it is not precious.”

He asked, “What if there is a tail but no head?”

He replied, “Though full, one has no strength.”

He asked, “What is it when head and tail correspond precisely?”

He replied, “The descendants are capable, yet the household does not know.”

Jiufeng understood Master Shishuang’s meaning as though both had been printed from the same seal.

Master Tiantong composed this verse:

“The compass makes circles; the square makes squares

When used, it acts; when set aside, it is stored

Clumsy and sluggish, like birds clinging to their nests; circling around, like sheep butting a fence

Eating another’s rice, lying upon one’s own bed

Clouds gather and rain pours down; dew congeals into frost

A jade thread passes through the needle’s eye in perfect accord; the long strand unbroken issues from the shuttle’s core

The stone maiden’s loom comes to rest—ah!—the color of night approaches noon

The wooden man turns upon the road—ah!—the moon’s shadow shifts deep in the night.”

This verse has head and tail corresponding. Only by cultivating in this way and practicing in this way can one accord with the Dharma gate of Perfect and Sudden Awakening.

Scripture: “His conduct is the same as the Buddha’s, and he receives a share of the Buddha’s vital essence, just as the intermediate-state body seeks out its own parents. The subtle communication secretly enters the lineage of the Tathagata; this is called the Abiding of Noble Birth.

Commentary: Conduct being the same as the Buddha’s means that, in each successive measure, True Wisdom is equal to Ultimate Wisdom. Receiving a share of the Buddha’s vital essence means that, in each successive measure, True Principle is equal to Ultimate Principle. The preceding passage said, ‘Their vital essences meet and mingle,’ so there were still two. Here, upon entering the lineage of the Tathagata, they have almost merged into one.

The intermediate-state body exists when this skandha has ended but the next skandha has not yet arisen. Suspended in empty space between these two skandhas for forty-nine days, it seeks out its own parents. When karmic conditions correspond, it enters birth through the womb. Here there is subtle, secret communication; it does not come about through calculation, seeking, or pursuit. Expedient wisdom is like the father, and true wisdom is like the mother. They naturally accord without borrowed effort, and the virtues of the fruition secretly correspond. How could this spontaneous suchness be known? Thus, only through what is subtle and hidden can one enter the lineage of the Tathagata.

It is called Noble Birth just as a prince, though still in the womb, already holds a status different from that of common people and is therefore called noble. Its nobility lies in the sudden realization of the Supreme and Foremost Dharma Gate.

Patriarch Dongshan composed the Diagram of the Five Ranks of the Prince. The first is Birth. The second is Court Birth. The third is Final Birth. The fourth is Transformational Birth. The fifth is Inner Birth. All are used to elucidate the pivotal conditions for ascending beyond.

Patriarch Shishuang composed the following verses on the ‘Diagram of the Five Ranks of the Prince’:

First, Birth:

Nobility naturally has never depended upon achievement;

Virtue accords with Heaven and Earth, nurturing the flourishing line.

From beginning to end, the lineage admits no difference;

Though the palace is divided into six residences, all share one ancestry.

Those above are harmonious, those below respectful; yin and yang accord;

Sharing one vital essence, joined like branches, their capacity is the same.

If you wish to understand the Father of the Prince by Birth,

A crane soars from its silver cage and wanders at ease.

Second, Court Birth:

Through arduous study, his worldly disposition is beyond compare;

Once he emerges, all ordinary affairs are already unconditioned.

A poem completed in five characters amid three winters of snow;

The brush sweeps the finest hairs, while clouds cover the four seas.

His merit fills ten thousand volumes, fitting him for an age of sages;

With single-minded loyalty and filial devotion, he assists the enlightened sovereign.

Salty and sour are not things one can know by birth;

Why labor for the golden roster to proclaim great achievement?

Third, Final Birth:

Long dwelling in caves and hollows, he applies himself to practice;

A grass bed and wooden door preserve his solitary resolve.

For ten years, what he hears and sees is stored within his heart;

Through winter and summer, his lone body wears an empty robe.

In serene stillness, a smile holds the meaning of three autumns;

Pure in hardship, his lofty name belongs among the highest sages.

His accomplished vocation earns first rank, fulfilling his former aspiration;

Compared with him, no minister or general is his equal.

Fourth, Transformational Birth:

Relying upon the emperor’s mandate, he transmits and upholds it;

Across ten thousand miles of mountains and rivers, he manifests righteous authority.

The red sun casts its light, bringing stillness to the realm below;

Clouds gather and cool winds blow in the oppressive heat.

How could high or low abandon the decrees governing rank?

Through five storehouses, near and far know restoration and renewal.

Holding the wondrous seal in his hand, he pacifies the frontiers;

How could the celestial throne reveal the slightest subtle mechanism?

Fifth, Inner Birth:

What lies deep within the ninefold palace could hardly be proclaimed;

He dons a coarse exterior to reveal the wondrous transmission.

He serves only the one revered by Heaven and Earth;

Following him, the various paths receive their respective authority.

Behind closed purple gauze curtains, ruler and ministers are separated;

In the Yellow Pavilion the blinds hang down, and every restriction is complete.

For your sake, palace attendants everywhere cherish it;

Borrowing a golden leaf, the crying at once falls silent.

A monk asked Patriarch Ruiyan, ‘What is the Prince by Birth?’

Patriarch Yan said, ‘Even when led from the deep palace, he will not come forth.’

Master Touzi versified:

‘Natural, wondrous nobility surely has its proper time;

In the spring garden’s six courtyards, few can follow him.

At midnight, how could the stars accord with a celestial lineage unlike all others?

Torches shine within the palace, where curtains hang in silence.’

Thus, the path of Noble Birth is the essential style of the Caodong school, extraordinarily continuous and intimate. Unless one enters this inner chamber, it is difficult to speak of it with anyone.

Scripture: ‘Having entered the womb of the Way, he personally receives nourishment from the Nature of Enlightenment. It is like a fetus that has fully formed, lacking none of the features of a human being. This is called the Abiding in the Full Endowment of Skillful Means.

Commentary: Once the sacred fetus has formed, one not only receives a share of the vital essence but personally obtains nourishment from the Nature of Enlightenment, continuing the lifeline of the Buddha, responding to capacities, engaging with beings, and becoming fully endowed with skillful means. Although one has not yet reached perfect fulfillment, all the particulars are already present, like a person in the womb whose features are complete. These features manifest so that they may be seen; they belong to the responsive functioning of skillful means. It is therefore called the Abiding in the Full Endowment of Skillful Means.

The Fifth Patriarch, Great Master Hongren, was from Huangmei in Qizhou. In a previous life, he was the practitioner Zaisong of Potou Mountain, who once asked the Fourth Patriarch, ‘May I hear the Dharma of the Way?’

The Patriarch replied, ‘You are already old. Even if you heard it, how could you widely teach and transform others? If you are reborn, I will wait for you.’

The practitioner then departed. Reaching a riverbank, he saw a young woman washing clothes. Joining his palms, he asked, ‘May I lodge with you?’

The young woman said, ‘I have parents. You may go and ask them.’

He said, ‘Only if you consent will I dare to go.’

The young woman nodded her assent. The practitioner then turned his staff and departed.

The young woman was the youngest daughter of the Zhou family. When she returned home, she became pregnant. Her parents were deeply ashamed and drove her away. Having nowhere to depend upon, she spun thread for hire in the village during the day and slept in shops at night. She later gave birth to a son. Considering him inauspicious, she cast him into a muddy stream. The next morning, she saw him floating back upstream, full of vibrant vitality. Greatly frightened, she retrieved and raised him. The boy accompanied his mother in begging for food, and the villagers called him the nameless boy.

One day, a wise physiognomist saw him and lamented, ‘This child lacks only seven of the auspicious marks; thus, he is not the equal of the Tathagata.’

Later, when he met the Fourth Patriarch, the Patriarch asked, ‘Boy, what is your family name?’

He replied, ‘I have a nature, but it is not an ordinary nature.’

The Patriarch asked, ‘What nature is it?’

He replied, ‘It is Buddha-nature.’

The Patriarch asked, ‘Then you have no family name?’

He replied, ‘Its nature is emptiness.’

The Fourth Patriarch knew that he was a vessel for the Dharma and instructed his attendant to go to the mother’s dwelling and request permission for him to leave home. Because of the conditions of the past, his mother did not obstruct him and allowed him to follow the Patriarch as a disciple. He later succeeded to the patriarchal seat.

Master Tiantong versified:

‘At Huangmei the fruit ripens, and the white lotus blooms;

When asked, he points only to the Buddha family; his body differs from an ordinary womb.

The robe was transmitted at the Southern Range, then carried away;

Old Zaisong of the Western Mountain has returned here.

Two layers of skin-bags brought the matter to completion;

One gourdful of moonlight and wind, while the dust of the world lies still.’

Master Shui’an versified:

‘The one who departed by appointment, Zaisong, was that old man;

Returning, he delighted in the Dharma as an innocent child.

His body had a mother who gave him birth, while his father was the Nature of Emptiness;

The numinous cat beyond the kalpa does not trespass upon spring.’

If the practitioner had not reached the Abiding in the Full Endowment of Skillful Means, how could he have come and gone freely and nearly possessed the complete auspicious marks of the Tathagata?

Scripture: ‘His countenance resembles the Buddha’s, and the characteristics of his mind are likewise the same. This is called the Abiding of the Right Mind.

Commentary: The countenance symbolizes responsive functioning, while the characteristics of the mind symbolize True Wisdom. Even if the exterior is alike, if the interior differs in the slightest, it is not the Right Mind. The Right Mind is also difficult to express, for only when ordinary and sage are both forgotten, subjective feelings are completely exhausted, and the essence stands revealed can it be called right.

Chan Master Guangyong of the Southern Stupa traveled north to meet Patriarch Linji and afterward returned to attend Patriarch Yangshan.

Patriarch Yangshan asked, ‘Why have you come?’

He replied, ‘To meet and personally attend the Venerable.’

Patriarch Yangshan asked, ‘Have you seen the Venerable?’

He replied, ‘Yes, I have.’

Patriarch Yangshan said, ‘Does the Venerable resemble a donkey?’

He replied, ‘I see that the Venerable does not resemble a Buddha either.’

Patriarch Yangshan said, ‘If he does not resemble a Buddha, then what does he resemble?’

He replied, ‘If there were something he resembled, how would he differ from a donkey?’

Master Yangshan was greatly astonished and said, ‘Ordinary and sage are both forgotten, subjective feelings cease, and the essence stands revealed. I have used this point to examine people, yet for twenty years no one has penetrated it clearly. Guard and preserve it well.’

Master Yangshan would often point to the master and say to others, “He is a Buddha in the flesh.”

Viewed in this light, “His countenance is like the Buddha’s, and the characteristics of his mind are likewise the same”; only Master Guangyong came close to this.

Sutra: “When body and mind unite and grow increasingly day by day, this is called the Abiding in Non-Retrogression.

Penetrative Commentary: The stage of the Mind of Non-Retrogression [within the Ten Faiths] mentioned previously refers only to entering deeply into the Luminous Nature, advancing without retreating; thus, it speaks only from the perspective of mind. Here, however, at the Abiding in Non-Retrogression, body and mind unite and grow increasingly day by day, so that progress encompasses both within and without. At the preceding stage, one’s countenance and mental characteristics were at ease and unhurried, awaiting their natural growth; this cannot be compared with accumulating merit and amassing practices.

A monk cited a verse by Chan Master Wolun:

“Wolun possesses skillful means,

And can cut off the hundred thoughts.

Facing conditions, the mind does not arise;

Bodhi grows day by day.”

Upon hearing it, the Sixth Patriarch said, “This verse has not yet clarified the ground of mind. If one relies upon it in practice, one’s bondage will only increase.”

He then offered instruction with this verse:

“Huineng possesses no skillful means,

And does not cut off the hundred thoughts.

Facing conditions, mind after mind arises;

How could Bodhi ever grow?”

Master Tiantong brought this forth: “The sunflower turns toward the sun; willow floss follows the wind.”

Ah! The one opening that leads upward neither increases nor decreases. It is only because discriminating consciousness and emotion have not yet been completely worn away that one perceives increase and decline. If one has a view of that which neither increases nor decreases and inclines toward it, one is just like a sunflower turning toward the sun. If one has a view of that which neither increases nor decreases but neglects it, one is just like willow floss following the wind. Only when one is without contrived mind toward either, eating when it is time to eat and dressing when it is time to dress, nurturing the Sacred Embryo to maturity, can this be called the Abiding in Non-Retrogression.

Sutra: “When the numinous characteristics of the ten bodies are fully present all at once, this is called the Abiding in the True Youth.

Penetrative Commentary: The Ten Bodies are the Bodhi Body, Vow Body, Transformation Body, Power Body, Adornment Body, Majestic Might Body, Mind-Born Body, Merit Body, Dharma Body, and Wisdom Body. Compared with the previous stage, where “none of the human characteristics were lacking,” the full presence of these numinous characteristics is already perfection. Although in both stages the essence is fully present, here the child has already taken form; therefore, it is called the Abiding in the True Youth.

Chan Master Fenyang Shanzhao ascended the hall and said, “Whenever one expounds the Dharma, one must possess the Ten Wisdoms of the True Youth. If one does not possess the Ten Wisdoms of the True Youth, one cannot distinguish heterodoxy from orthodoxy or clearly discern monastics from laypeople, and cannot serve as eyes and ears for devas and humans in judging right and wrong. It is like a bird whose wings break while flying through the sky, or like shooting an arrow when the bowstring snaps.

With broken wings, the bird cannot soar through the sky; with a snapped bowstring, the arrow cannot strike its target. When the bowstring is firm and the wings are strong, both the target at which one shoots and empty space are penetrated without obstruction. What are the Ten Wisdoms of the True Youth?

Allow me to point them out to you venerable monks. First is Shared Single Substance [Sharing One Substance]. Second is Shared Great Matter [Sharing the Great Matter].

Third is Shared Universal Inquiry [Sharing Inquiry Everywhere]. Fourth is Shared True Resolve [Sharing True Resolve]. Fifth is Shared Universal Pervasion [Sharing Pervasion Everywhere].

Sixth is Shared Completeness [Sharing Complete Fulfillment]. Seventh is Shared Gain and Loss [Sharing Gain and Loss]. Eighth is Shared Giving and Taking of Life.

Ninth is Shared Roaring Voice [Sharing the Roaring Voice—the lion’s roar]. Tenth is Shared Attainment of Entry [Sharing Penetrative Entry].

He further said, “With whom do you share Attainment of Entry? With whom do you share the Roaring Voice? What is Shared Giving and Taking of Life? What shares Gain and Loss? What shares Completeness? What is Shared Universal Pervasion? Who shares True Resolve? Who can share Universal Inquiry? What shares the Great Matter? What shares the Single Substance? Can you point them out? If you can, I shall not withhold compassionate instruction. If you cannot, then you still lack the eye of one who inquires into the Way. You must choose carefully and clearly recognize the right and wrong of your present face. I cannot stand here long. Take good care of yourselves!”

These Ten Wisdoms of the True Youth reveal only the matter pertaining to the Wisdom Body. When all ten bodies are fully present, one must enter still further into the subtle and wondrous. Nevertheless, all are simply the single essence of Bodhi, bearing different names according to their respective functions. If each possessed some distinct excellence of its own, how could they be “Fully Present All at Once”?

Sutra: “When his physical form is fully developed and he emerges from the womb, he personally becomes a Son of the Buddha; this is called the Abiding as a Prince of the Dharma King.

Penetrative Commentary: Personally receiving a share of the Buddha’s vital influence, one enters the lineage of the Tathagata. Gradually the embryo forms; one proceeds to “Countenance,” then to “Growth,” and then to the “True Youth.” Only then is the body fully formed, and one emerges from the womb as a Prince of the Dharma King. Having entered the Buddha’s knowledge and vision, one must still preserve and maintain it in this way, becoming ever more luminous and penetrating, before one can propagate the teaching on the Buddha’s behalf. Such attainment is truly not easy.

Venerable Shariputra was born from the Buddha’s mouth and born through transformation by the Dharma, becoming the Buddha’s eldest son. He was foremost in wisdom, an attainment cultivated over many kalpas, not the result of effort made in a single morning or evening.

Patriarch Guishan was sleeping when Master Yangshan came to inquire after him. The patriarch then turned to face the wall.

Master Yangshan said, “How can the Venerable Master act like this?”

Patriarch Guishan sat up and said, “I have just had a dream. Try to interpret it for me!”

Master Yangshan then brought a basin of water for the patriarch to wash his face.

A little later, Master Xiangyan also came to pay his respects.

Patriarch Guishan said, “I have just had a dream. Huiji has already interpreted it for me; now you try to interpret it!”

Master Xiangyan then poured a cup of tea and brought it to him.

Patriarch Guishan said, “The understanding of you two surpasses even that of Master Qiuzhi [Shariputra].”

Ah! If even wisdom such as Shariputra’s was surpassed, was this not “the physical form fully developed and emerging from the womb,” and then “emerging from the womb yet again”?

Sutra: “When his constitution has matured into adulthood, it is like a king assigning and entrusting affairs of state to the crown prince. When the heir apparent comes of age, the Kshatriya king conducts the consecration ceremony for him; this is called the Abiding in Consecration.

Penetrative Commentary: Through skillful means, the Prince of the Dharma King has mental characteristics entirely like those of the Buddha and possesses the ability to succeed to the Buddha’s position and perform the Buddha’s work on his behalf. Therefore, the analogy is made to a king and crown prince, or to a Kshatriya king conducting the consecration ceremony for his heir apparent.

The son of a king is called a crown prince; the son of a feudal lord is called an heir apparent. When his constitution has matured into adulthood and he is about to be entrusted with the royal position, this is also similar to the Capping Ceremony. Water from the great ocean is poured over his head to symbolize that, in ruling, a king should employ the wise, just as the ocean receives the hundred rivers. To use ocean water is to use all waters. Here, this means only that affairs of the realm are assigned and entrusted to him to take charge of and administer; it is not yet the formal conferral of the royal throne whereby he attains “Identity with the Real.”

Because at this stage one secretly possesses all virtues and has the power to manifest differentiated forms throughout the ten directions to perform the work of a Buddha, it is called the Abiding in Consecration. Upon reaching the Ten Bhumi, when one’s practice is perfected and one draws near to Equal Enlightenment, only then can the office of Buddhahood be formally conferred. Therefore, at the Dharma Cloud Bhumi one is called a Consecrated Bodhisattva. This is Identity with the Real, no longer abiding in any abiding.

A monk asked Patriarch Caoshan, “What is the lion?”

The patriarch replied, “None of the beasts can approach it.”

The monk asked, “What is the lion cub?”

He replied, “It swallows its father and mother.”

The monk asked, “Since none of the beasts can approach the lion, why is it swallowed by its cub?”

He replied, “Have you not heard it said, ‘When the cub gives a roar, its ancestors are all utterly lost’?”

The monk asked, “What happens when they have been utterly lost?”

He replied, “The whole body returns to the father.”

The monk asked, “It is still unclear to me: when the ancestor is lost, where does the father return?”

He replied, “Every place is lost completely.”

The monk asked, “Then why did you just say, ‘The whole body returns to the father’?”

Answer: “It is like the king’s son, who is capable of accomplishing the affairs of the entire kingdom.”

The Patriarch further said: “Acharya, in this matter you must not become confined. Right now, cause a few blossoms to burst forth again upon the withered branch!”

This is the arising of Function from within Essence; this is called Wondrous Stillness.

Sima Toutuo came from Hunan and said to Patriarch Baizhang: “Recently, in Hunan, I found a mountain called Great Gui. It is a place suitable for a good spiritual teacher with fifteen hundred disciples.”

Patriarch Baizhang said: “Could this old monk dwell there?”

Toutuo replied: “It is not a place for the Venerable to dwell.”

The Patriarch asked: “Why is that?”

Toutuo replied: “The Venerable is a man of bone, while that is a mountain of flesh. Even if you were to dwell there, your assembly would not reach a thousand people.”

The Patriarch said: “Is there no one in my assembly who could dwell there?”

Toutuo replied: “Please let me examine them first!”

At that time, Master Hualin Jue was serving as the First Seat. Patriarch Baizhang had his attendant summon him and then asked: “What about this man?”

Toutuo asked the Master to clear his throat once and walk a few steps; then he said: “He will not do.”

Patriarch Baizhang then had Master Guishan summoned, who at that time was serving as head cook.

As soon as Toutuo saw him, he said: “This is indeed the master of Mount Gui.”

That night, Patriarch Baizhang called Master Guishan into his chamber and entrusted the Dharma to him, saying: “My conditions for teaching are here. You should dwell amid the excellent scenery of Mount Gui, continue our lineage, and broadly deliver later generations.”

Master Hualin Jue asked: “I occupy the foremost position in the assembly. How is it that the head cook is to become abbot?”

Patriarch Baizhang said: “Whoever can speak one transcendent word before the great assembly shall become abbot.”

He then pointed to a pure-water vase and asked: “Without calling it a pure-water vase, what would you call it?”

Master Hualin said: “It cannot be called a wooden stump!”

Patriarch Baizhang then asked Master Guishan. The Master kicked over the pure-water vase and walked away.

Patriarch Baizhang laughed and said: “The First Seat has lost the mountain.”

Master Guishan then went to dwell upon that mountain. His propagation of the teaching flourished throughout Hunan and became known as the Guiyang School.

Without transcendent insight, how could one broadly teach an entire region and apportion and entrust the work of the Buddha as could the crown prince of a kingdom? Those at the Ten Faiths must still abandon delusion and return to the true; those at the Ten Abodes are wholly true. It is only because their strength is not yet complete that there are stages such as these.

IV. THE TEN PRACTICES

Sutra: “Ananda, that good man has become a child of the Buddha and is endowed with the wondrous virtues of immeasurable Tathagatas. By accord with the ten directions, this is called the Practice of Joy.

Commentary: The wondrous virtue of the Tathagata is ‘unchanging while according with conditions, and according with conditions while unchanging.’ Dwelling amid the dust of the world without becoming defiled is called wondrous. Having become a child of the Buddha, one is endowed with wondrous virtue. Staff and cane following the body, when one encounters a stage one performs a lively dance; thus one can accord with the ten directions and delight oneself with the joy of dhyana. This Practice of Joy accords with sentient beings and guides them by skillful means, precisely to reveal and bring forth the wondrous virtue of the Tathagata. If one clings one-sidedly to reliance and attachment, how could it be wondrous?

Patriarch Zhaozhou was over eighty years old yet still traveled on foot. One day he arrived at Master Yunju’s place.

Patriarch Yunju said: “You are very old. Why do you not seek a place to settle?”

Patriarch Zhaozhou said: “Where could I settle?”

Patriarch Yunju said: “In front of the mountain is the foundation of an ancient monastery.”

Patriarch Zhaozhou said: “Venerable, go settle there yourself!”

Later, he went to Master Zhuyu.

Patriarch Zhuyu said: “You are very old. Why do you not seek a place to settle?”

Patriarch Zhaozhou said: “Toward what place should I settle?”

Patriarch Zhuyu said: “You are very old, yet you do not even know where to settle!”

Patriarch Zhaozhou said: “For thirty years I have sported astride a horse, yet today I have been kicked by a donkey!”

Master Yunju Xi said: “Where was Zhaozhou kicked by the donkey?”

Later, a monk took leave of Patriarch Zhaozhou.

The Patriarch asked: “Where are you going?”

The monk replied: “This student intends to go south to study the Buddhadharma.”

Patriarch Zhaozhou held his fly whisk upright and said: “Do not abide in a place where there is a Buddha; hurry past a place where there is no Buddha! If you meet someone three thousand miles away, do not mistakenly raise the matter!”

The monk said: “If so, should I not go?”

Patriarch Zhaozhou said: “Pick willow catkins, pick willow catkins!”

Master Tiantong raised this case, saying: “To become immersed in emptiness and caught in traces, to touch with the hand and strike with the nose—none of these is the destination of a patch-robed monk. You must at once refrain from entering another’s shop and from sitting upon another’s couch. The UPRIGHT establishes no mystery; the INCLINED relies upon no thing. Only then can you grasp and hold, release and let go, and have a share of freedom!

Only Zhaozhou was endowed with the wondrous virtues of immeasurable Tathagatas and had a share of freedom; therefore, he constantly practiced the Practice of Joy and, though old, never grew weary.

Sutra: “Skillfully benefiting all sentient beings is called the Practice of Benefiting.

Commentary: Benefiting sentient beings flows forth from the mind of loving-kindness and compassion. When one possesses the mind of loving-kindness and compassion, one has this ability and can moreover exercise it skillfully. Wisdom already illuminates everywhere, and Function is likewise perfectly integrated. Loving-kindness delivers sentient beings without deliberate intent. Whether it is the giving of wealth or the giving of Dharma, its sole aim is to benefit sentient beings; therefore, it is called the Practice of Benefiting.

Chan Master Niutou Farong received the Fourth Patriarch’s prediction, and thereafter his propagation of the Dharma flourished greatly. During the Yonghui era of the Tang dynasty, when his assembly lacked provisions, he went to Danyang to solicit rice, eighty li from the mountain. He personally carried a sack containing one shi and eight dou of rice, departing in the morning and returning in the evening, thereby providing two meals each day for three hundred monks. This was truly skillful practice of the Practice of Benefiting.

Sutra: “Awakening oneself and awakening others, without opposition or contradiction, is called the Practice Free from Anger and Resentment.

Commentary: One awakens oneself in order to awaken others. There is worldly wisdom, supramundane wisdom, and the highest of supramundane wisdom. When these are expounded to others, there is no opposition or contradiction, just as a stone sinks when dropped into water. This is what is meant by ‘Upon meeting, transmitting it onward, and mutually delighting in clear understanding’; thus there is no anger or resentment. This anger and resentment cannot be compared with ordinary emotions. Resentment means resenting that all sentient beings possess the wisdom and virtuous attributes of the Tathagata yet do not know it themselves; anger means being distressed that I have not yet delivered them all.

The Sixth Patriarch composed these verses:

“If you wish to guide and deliver others,

You yourself must possess skillful means.

Do not cause others to harbor doubts;

Then the Self-Nature will manifest.

The Buddhadharma is within the world

And is not apart from awakening in the world.

To seek bodhi apart from the world

Is like searching for a rabbit’s horn.

Right view is supramundane;

Wrong view is worldly.

When both wrong and right are utterly swept away,

The bodhi-nature shines clearly.”

Therefore, using worldly wisdom to awaken others is the cause for birth among devas and humans; using supramundane wisdom to awaken others is the cause of bodhi. Only in unsurpassed bodhi are both cast away; this alone is called the Highest Wisdom. Using this wisdom to awaken others is the cause of Equal Awakening and Wondrous Awakening.

Sutra: “Taking birth in accordance with each kind, throughout the utmost reaches of the future, equal in all three times and penetrating throughout the ten directions, is called the Endless Practice.

Commentary: Taking birth in accordance with each kind, one attains a mind-made body and teaches according to each kind. Vertically, one reaches throughout the three times; horizontally, one pervades the ten directions. There is nowhere that is not a place for awakening oneself and awakening others. This is what is meant by, ‘Though space may come to an end, my vows are inexhaustible.’

During the Xingguo era of the Taiping reign, there was a monk in Jianyang named Biantong who traveled through the region of Mount Wutai. The senior monk of a monastery there was old and was slighted by the assembly; only Biantong continued to attend upon him respectfully. When Biantong was about to return to the capital, the old monk gave him a letter and instructed him to find Puxia north of the city and deliver it on his behalf.

After bidding farewell, Biện Thông secretly opened the letter and looked inside. Nothing else was written there, only these few words: “Once you have finished delivering sentient beings, return quickly, quickly. If you insist on remaining, I fear you will create karma.” Biện Thông was greatly alarmed and hurriedly sealed the letter again.

When he reached the region of Quảng Tế, he heard children by the river calling out, “Bộc Hạ!”

He asked, “Where is Bộc Hạ?”

A child pointed to a large pig lying at the foot of a wall on the western side of the crossroads, with a golden ring around its neck. Biện Thông asked, “Who is the butcher?”

The child replied, “The household of Triệu Sinh.”

He asked, “Why is it named Bộc Hạ?”

The child replied, “Because it eats nothing but mint, the children in the neighborhood call it that. Every day, hundreds or thousands are slaughtered. The pigs scatter in all directions and are difficult to catch, but whenever this pig leads them in, they meekly submit to death. That is why it has been kept for fifteen years!”

Biện Thông then gave the letter to the pig. It immediately ate it, suddenly stood upright like a human being, and died.

Examining this account, how could one ever fathom the manifestations of transformation bodies according to the various species? Where could any limit be set? Sentient beings are inexhaustible, and the work of delivering them is likewise inexhaustible; hence it is called the Practice of Inexhaustibility.

Sutra: “When all things are united into a single identity, and each and every Dharma-gate is free of error, this is called the Practice of Freedom from Deluded Confusion.

Commentary: Having fully acquired the wondrous virtues of immeasurable Tathagatas, awakening oneself, awakening others, and benefiting the world without end, how could one fall into deluded confusion and error? Since each and every Dharma-gate contains each and every samadhi, one who lacks the Dharma-eye of discernment cannot distinguish them. Here, all are harmonized and integrated, thereby attaining freedom from error. Just as Confucius consummately integrated the qualities of Tập, Thanh, Nhiệm, and Hòa, bringing each forth at the proper time, he fundamentally took wisdom as foremost. Wisdom is like consummate skill; it cannot be compared with mere exertion. Thus, because there is no deluded confusion, this practice comes immediately after the Practice of Inexhaustibility.

Chancellor Bùi Hưu, in his preface to Chan Master Khuê Phong Tông Mật’s Collection of Expositions on the Source of Chan, wrote: “Within every school there are disciples who have penetrated the truth. Yet because each school follows its own mode of cultivation, there is little integration and much restriction. Thus, over the past several decades, the Dharma of the Patriarchs has increasingly deteriorated.

Taking what they have learned as their respective gateways, each establishes and promotes its own system, wielding the sutras and treatises as spears with which to attack one another. Sentiments shift according to the bows and arrows aimed at them. When the Dharma enters the domain of self and others, distinctions of high and low arise.

Right and wrong become so entangled that they cannot be discerned. If the various schools dispute with one another, later students will only increase the affliction of their defilements. What benefit could there possibly be?

“Great Master Khuê Phong had long lamented, ‘Living in this age, I cannot remain silent!’

“He therefore used the three kinds of doctrinal teaching of the Tathagata to authenticate the three kinds of Dharma-gates of the Chan school. He melted basins, trays, bracelets, and rings into one kind of pure gold, and churned cream, curds, and ghee into a single flavor. When the main cord of the net was raised, every mesh followed accordingly.

When he integrated them according to the essential principle, all who came followed him. Still fearing that students would find it difficult to understand, he further pointed directly to the root and branches of the source of Chan; where the true and the false converge; where the nature of emptiness is concealed or revealed; where doctrinal meanings differ; where sudden and gradual teachings diverge; where concealment and disclosure alternate and complement one another; where provisional and ultimate teachings are shallow or profound; and where restriction and integration are right or wrong.

“My master, Khuê Phong, truly raised aloft the sun of the Buddha to illuminate every corner, sweeping away all doubts and obscurations. In accord with the Buddha-mind, he spread forth great compassion, bringing benefit throughout the utmost reaches of future kalpas. Thus, the World-Honored One was the teacher who opened and established the teaching, while my master was the one who integrated it. Root and branches accorded with one another; near and far illumined one another. It may indeed be said that he ‘completed the work of the Tathagata’s lifetime of transmitting the teaching.’

“Someone may ask, ‘Since the time of the Tathagata, there has never been such a comprehensive integration. Now, by acting contrary to the tenets and refusing to preserve them, and by abandoning the barriers and refusing to guard them, would this not violate the Way of the secret treasury and its tacit accord?’

“I reply: ‘Although the Tathagata initially taught the Three Vehicles separately, he later united them into the One Way. Therefore, in the Nirvana Sutra, Bodhisattva Kasyapa said, “The Buddhas have esoteric words, but they have no secret storehouse in which anything is concealed!” The World-Honored One then praised him, saying, “The words of the Tathagata are open, lucid, clear, and pure, concealing nothing. Fools fail to understand them and call them a secret treasury.

The wise clearly comprehend them and do not call them a hidden storehouse.” This is the evidence. Therefore, when the kingly Way flourishes, the gates need not be shut; one need only guard the borders. When the Buddha Way is complete, all dharmas naturally uphold one another comprehensively, and one need only guard against external demons.

One should not cling to emotional attachments and contend with others.’”

Bùi Hưu attained the Dharma under Patriarch Hoàng Bá and understood the transcendent matter, yet he did not reject even the tangled verbal elaborations of Khuê Phong. He could truly be said to have “harmonized all things and attained freedom from error.” Was he someone reborn from an earlier life?

Sutra: “Within identity itself, all differences are revealed. In each and every different characteristic, identity is seen. This is called the Practice of Wholesome Manifestation.

Commentary: Once one has left deluded confusion behind, principle and phenomena are necessarily unobstructed. Since phenomena are themselves principle, identity does not obstruct difference. Since principle is itself phenomena, difference does not obstruct identity. Within the essence of harmonious identity, the manifestation of differences is unobstructed. Amid differing characteristics, identity is once again seen in each and every one. The manifestation of identity and the manifestation of difference are mutually unobstructed. This is possible only because there is no deluded confusion and because distinctions are utterly clear down to the finest hair. Only then can such manifestations occur; hence it is called the Practice of Wholesome Manifestation.

Patriarch Quy Sơn was feeding the crows. Turning his head and seeing Master Ngưỡng Sơn, he said, “Today, for their sake, I shall ascend the Dharma hall once.”

Ngưỡng Sơn said, “Then I too shall have the opportunity to listen!”

Patriarch Quy Sơn asked, “How do you understand this matter?”

Ngưỡng Sơn replied, “A crow cries with the voice of a crow; a falcon cries with the voice of a falcon!”

Patriarch Quy Sơn said, “Why are there still sound and form?”

Ngưỡng Sơn asked, “What did the Venerable Master just say?”

Patriarch Quy Sơn replied, “I merely said that for their sake I would ascend the Dharma hall once.”

Ngưỡng Sơn said, “Why call that sound and form?”

Patriarch Quy Sơn replied, “Although it is so, once it has been thoroughly tested, there is no obstruction.”

Ngưỡng Sơn asked, “How is the great matter of causes and conditions to be tested?”

Patriarch Quy Sơn raised his fist.

Ngưỡng Sơn said, “Ultimately, this is only pointing east and drawing west.”

Patriarch Quy Sơn asked, “What did you just ask?”

Ngưỡng Sơn replied, “I asked the Venerable Master about the great matter of causes and conditions.”

Patriarch Quy Sơn said, “Why call it pointing east and drawing west?”

Ngưỡng Sơn replied, “Because I was caught up in sound and form, I questioned it again.”

Patriarch Quy Sơn said, “You truly have not yet understood this matter clearly.”

Ngưỡng Sơn asked, “How may this matter be clearly understood?”

Patriarch Quy Sơn replied, “Huệ Tịch is sound and form; this old monk is east and west.”

Ngưỡng Sơn said, “One moon in a thousand rivers—the essence is not divided according to the waters!”

Patriarch Quy Sơn asked, “Then how should it be?”

Ngưỡng Sơn replied, “Gold and gold ultimately do not differ in color; how could they differ in name?”

Patriarch Quy Sơn asked, “Then what is the principle of there being no difference in name?”

Ngưỡng Sơn replied, “Shuttles, trays, hairpins, and rings—make them all into a basin.”

Patriarch Quy Sơn said, “When Huệ Tịch speaks Chan, it is like a lion’s roar, terrifying all the foxes and jackals and scattering them in every direction.”

Observe how the father and son, Quy Sơn and Ngưỡng Sơn, passed the thread back and forth: manifesting difference within identity and identity within difference, speaking of identity and difference like a pearl rolling upon a tray. This is the true realization of the secret treasury of the Practice of Wholesome Manifestation. Who but one with clear eyes could possibly understand it!

Sutra: “Thus, extending throughout the ten directions, empty space is filled everywhere with motes of dust, and within each and every mote of dust the worlds of the ten directions appear. The manifestation of motes of dust and the manifestation of worlds do not obstruct one another. This is called the Practice of Non-Attachment.

Commentary: This is an expansion of the Practice of Skillful Manifestation. Not only do sameness and difference mutually reveal one another, but the one and the many also mutually interpenetrate and fuse. Motes of dust and worlds appear, intercommunicating throughout the ten directions.

The manifestation of the realms of the ten directions within a single mote of dust is called the manifestation of worlds. The fact that the appearance of those realms does not destroy the form of the mote of dust is called the manifestation of motes of dust. It resembles the infinitely interreflecting jeweled net of Indra, the realm in which phenomenon and phenomenon are mutually unobstructed.

Since one has only begun to enter this realm, it merely approaches Non-Attachment and has not yet reached the wondrous state of utterly pure, inconceivable liberation through all spiritual transformations. In this Practice of Non-Attachment, even Non-Attachment itself is absent; hence it is entirely different from the non-attachment discussed in the passage on the Sevenfold Inquiry into the Mind. If even the slightest trace of non-attachment has not been completely exhausted, it cannot be called ‘nonexistent’; for where there is opposition and relativity, how could things avoid obstructing one another?

On the day the Dharma hall was opened, a monk asked Chan Master Dahui Zonggao: “Heavenly beings and humans have assembled; the arena for selecting Buddhas has opened; the Patriarchal command is now in force. How will you proclaim it?”

Master Gao said: “A foolish bird flies against the wind.”

The monk asked: “Throughout the entire realm there remains no place where it may be found. Clearly, a single point lies at the center of the circular seat.”

Master Gao said: “The myriad nations of the human world flow eastward!”

Another monk hastened forward, but Master Gao stopped him and said: “Suppose the earth were ground into motes of dust, and every mote possessed a mouth. Every mouth would be fully endowed with a broad, long, unobstructed tongue, uttering immeasurably diverse words. Every word would contain immeasurably diverse and wondrous meanings.

There would be as many patch-robed monks as those motes of dust, and each would be fully endowed with such a mouth, such a tongue, such sounds, such words, and such wondrous meanings. If they simultaneously presented hundreds of thousands of challenges, every one different from the others, a single cough from this old monk would answer them all at once. Taking advantage of being right there in their midst, I would perform immeasurable, boundless, vast Buddha-work pervading the Dharma realm.

This is what is meant by the saying, ‘Within the tip of a single hair, spiritual transformations appear; all Buddhas preach together, throughout immeasurable kalpas without end or limit.’ And thus it would all be accomplished.

“Yet this would still be creating a commotion within the gate and courtyard. Viewed from within the true eye, it is nothing but rootless, boundless karmic consciousness. At the gate of the Patriarchs, it is not of the slightest use, much less thorny phrases and verses or playful exchanges of question and answer.

Not only does this bury the lineage transmitted from ancient times; it also makes sport of the nostrils of patch-robed monks. Therefore it is said, ‘If even a hair’s breadth is entangled in thought, it becomes the karmic cause of the three evil destinies. If the slightest feeling suddenly arises, one is bound for ten thousand years.’ The names of sages and the designations of ordinary beings are all false reputations.

Auspicious marks and lowly forms are all illusory appearances. If you pursue these, how can you avoid being burdened? Yet to reject them in disgust is an even greater calamity.

Consider how the ancient sages instructed us: ‘Like the weapons of a nation, they are used only when unavoidable.’ In the ‘fundamental matter,’ there is no such thing.

“Today this mountain monk has proclaimed matters in this way, truly resembling one who speaks of a dream without having dreamed, or gouges healthy flesh until it becomes a sore. If a person of understanding were to come, I would indeed deserve a beating. Is it only because there is now no hand capable of delivering the lethal stroke? If there is such a person, he can repay the kindness that cannot be repaid, and together we may propagate the unconditioned teaching. If no one acts contrary to this command, that will be well indeed.”

Suddenly he raised his staff and said: “Holding the divine sword crosswise, I fully enforce the true command. To bring peace beneath the vault of heaven, I cut down deluded obstinacy!”

He struck the staff once, gave one shout, and immediately descended from the seat.

According to the insight of Master Dahui, manifesting motes of dust and manifesting worlds are still nothing extraordinary. It may truly be said: “Even Non-Attachment itself is absent.”

Sutra: “Everything before one’s eyes is the foremost paramita. This is called the Practice of Veneration.

Commentary: The manifestation of motes of dust, the manifestation of worlds, the manifestation of bodies, and the manifestation of Dharma teachings do not obstruct one another; all flow forth from the Mind of Prajna. The six paramitas are called ‘reaching the other shore’ (18), but Prajna alone is the foremost and highest. Prajna is Great Wisdom, transcending all that is most venerable; hence this is called the Practice of Veneration. If one merely takes seeing, hearing, sensing, and knowing—which pursue sense objects and revolve with them—to be wondrous functioning, this belongs to the realm of ‘my children and servants’ and ‘donkeys in front and horses behind’; there is nothing venerable about it.

Master Ju said: “If a person understands every matter and penetrates every thing, he may only be called one who understands affairs; ultimately, he cannot be called Venerable. Know that the path of Veneration is itself entirely different. That which is supremely precious and supremely weighty must not, once attained, be directed toward the side of Veneration.

Know that it is inconceivable and does not await the mind’s aspiration. Therefore, an ancient said: ‘It is like two mirrors, their light facing each other; their radiance mutually illumines without ever increasing or diminishing. Is this not one and the same thing?’ Yet this is still called a matter on the side of reflected images.

When the sun rises and illuminates the world, one part is called brightness; what is the other half called? People today have not yet understood that the gleam of light at the entrance is merely a shallow matter outside the house. How could they take it to be a matter within the house?”

A monk asked Master Yunju: “What is the venerable place of a sramana?”

Master Ju said: “Where mind and consciousness do not reach.”

A monk asked Chan Master Guangli Rong: “When the thousand roads are cut off and thought and speech cannot penetrate, what then?”

He replied: “You are still someone below the steps.”

The monk asked: “What is the person above the steps like?”

He replied: “In the dragon tower, he does not raise his hand.”

Then he said: “Who is that venerable person? Try to speak! Do not merely sit forever on the Chan platform, refusing to yield when you meet another. If suddenly pressed by one with clear eyes, you immediately turn toward the Iron Encircling Mountains to hide yourself. If you come to this gate of Guangli, you must be able to utter the Foremost Phrase; then I shall open a path of the Way and discuss it with the brothers.”

At that moment, a monk stepped forward and bowed.

The Master said: “I thought the one about to speak was the master of ships from another country; who would have known he was merely a merchant of this land!”

If one does not thoroughly penetrate the foremost paramita here, it will indeed be difficult to perceive clearly the path of Veneration, as plainly as the lines in the palm of one’s hand.

Sutra: “In this manner, through perfect interpenetration, one fulfills the guiding standards of all Buddhas throughout the ten directions. This is called the Practice of Wholesome Dharma.

Commentary: At the preceding stage, motes of dust and worlds were manifested, and every wondrous function was the foremost paramita flowing forth from the inconceivable state. Thus there was perfect interpenetration without obstruction, fulfilling the guiding standards by which all Buddhas throughout the ten directions benefit beings. Those guiding standards are the Dharma. Perfect interpenetration without trace is Wholesome Dharma. Without Wholesome Dharma, one cannot liberate sentient beings. Once this practice has been perfected, one gradually turns toward the compassionate vows.

Chan Master Dahui Zonggao ascended the hall and said: “If you wish to understand the meaning of Buddha-nature, you must contemplate the proper time and conditions. When the time arrives, that Principle naturally becomes clear.”

He held his fly whisk upright and said: “Do you see?”

He struck the Chan platform and said: “Do you hear? What is it that sees and hears so distinctly? If you can bring it forth from within this, then your debt to the sovereign and your debt to the Buddha will both be repaid at once. If you have not yet reached this point, then Jingshan (19) will cut through the tangled vines for you.”

Again he raised the fly-whisk and said: “Look here, look here! Amitabha Buddha, upon the tip of Jingshan’s fly-whisk, emits a great radiance illuminating the ineffable and the ineffable; and again, throughout Buddha-lands as numerous as the dust motes in worlds beyond all telling, he turns the great Dharma wheel and performs immeasurable, boundless, vast Buddha-work.

“Among them, whether ordinary or holy, right or wrong, grass or tree, sentient or insentient, all who encounter that radiance attain unsurpassed, complete, perfect enlightenment. Thus, when all Buddhas attain it here, they fully possess the wisdom of all modes. When the great bodhisattvas attain it here, they perfect all the paramitas.

When pratyekabuddhas and solitary realizers attain it here, they appear in an age without a Buddha and manifest the radiance of spiritual powers. When the assembly of sravakas, including the five hundred arhats who came forth to welcome him, attain it here, they gain the eight liberations and fully possess the six spiritual powers. When devas and human beings attain it here, the ten wholesome deeds increase within them.

When asuras attain it here, they cast off arrogance. When beings in hell attain it here, they suddenly transcend the ten bhumis. When hungry ghosts, animals, beings of the four modes of birth and the nine manners of birth—in short, all sentient beings—attain it here, each receives its benefit according to the nature of its faculties.

“Amitabha Buddha, possessing such spiritual powers, such mastery, and such awesome might, enters into this. Is there still anyone who knows and repays kindness? If there is, bring him forth so that this Jingshan may behold him together with you. If there is not, then listen to this verse:

“The Dharma realms of the ten directions are within your mouth;

All those Dharma realms are precisely the tongue.

Relying solely on this tongue-tip and this mouth,

I wish you longevity complete, without the slightest lack.

For hundreds of millions of years, may the source of blessings flow,

Vast and deep as the ocean, never exhausted through the ages.

From a lion’s cave, a lion cub is born;

A phoenix surely emerges from the grotto of Mount Dan.

Goodness and auspiciousness pervade the nine heavens;

Plants, trees, insects, and worms all rejoice in beauty.

I bow to the Inconceivable Buddha,

As the host of stars attends the shining moon,

Enabling this subtle and wondrous verse to be proclaimed,

Speaking true reality within the Ultimate Meaning.”

This cutting through the tangled vines by Master Dahui fully reveals the rule of all Buddhas throughout the ten directions and is sufficient to serve everywhere as a model for the wholesome Dharma. It is only regrettable that, at the time, there was no understanding kindred spirit to meet him, immediately overturn his meditation seat, and see what words of instruction he might still have had!

Sutra: “Each and every one is the One Truth—unconditioned, pure, and free from outflows—for such is the fundamentally inherent nature. This is called True Conduct.

Commentary: Because the whole of the nature is cultivation, it becomes the rule. Because the whole of cultivation is the nature, it is originally unconditioned. Upon realizing that the nature is originally unconditioned, one does not advance toward bodhi, for it is originally pure in itself. One does not eliminate afflictions, for it is originally free from outflows in itself. Proceeding naturally and continuously is wholly called True Conduct. If even a single thought adheres to the conditioned, it is ultimately not true. The conditioned belongs to fabrication; how could it be fundamentally inherent?

The Venerable Mazu instructed the assembly: “The Way does not require cultivation; it only requires that there be no defilement. What is defilement? Whenever there is a mind of birth and death that fabricates and pursues things, all of that is defilement. If you wish to accord directly with the Way, the ordinary mind is the Way. What is the ordinary mind? It is free from fabrication, right and wrong, grasping and rejecting, annihilation and permanence, the ordinary and the holy. The sutra says, ‘Neither the conduct of ordinary beings nor the conduct of sages and worthies—this is the conduct of a bodhisattva.’

“Just as now, walking, standing, lying down, and sitting, responding to circumstances and receiving beings—all of it is entirely the Way. The Way is precisely the Dharma realm; even its wondrous functions, as numerous as the sands of the Ganges, do not fall outside the Dharma realm. If it were not so, how could it be called the Dharma-gate of the mind-ground? How could it be called the Inexhaustible Lamp? All dharmas are dharmas of mind. All names are names of mind. The myriad dharmas are all born from mind. Mind is the source of the myriad dharmas. The sutra says, ‘One who comprehends the mind and penetrates its source is therefore called a sramana.’

“Names are equal, meanings are equal, and all dharmas are equally of one pure unity, without admixture. If, within the teaching, you gain freedom according to the occasion and establish the Dharma realm, then everything is wholly the Dharma realm. If you establish suchness, then everything is wholly suchness.

If you establish principle, then all dharmas are wholly principle. If you establish phenomena, then all dharmas are wholly phenomena. Raise one, and a thousand follow.

Principle and phenomena do not differ; all are entirely wondrous functioning, and there is no principle apart from this. Everything proceeds from the mind’s turning and responsive functioning. It is like reflections of the moon: however many there may be, there is only one moon.

There are many kinds of water, yet the nature of water is originally one. Every manner of establishment therefore comes from the One Mind. Establishing is permissible, and sweeping away is also permissible.

All of it is wondrous functioning; all of it belongs to one’s own house. There can be no place of establishment apart from suchness. The place established is itself the true; all of it is the true essence of one’s own house.

If it were not so, whose else could it be? All dharmas are the Buddha-Dharma. All dharmas whatsoever are liberation.

Liberation is suchness. No dharma lies outside suchness. Walking, standing, lying down, and sitting are precisely inconceivable living functions; why wait for a particular time?

The sutra says, ‘In every place and everywhere, there must be a Buddha.’

“Buddha means the Capable and Benevolent One, perfect in wisdom and skillful in expedient means. He can destroy the net of doubts of all sentient beings and free them from the bonds of existence and nonexistence, emotion and the distinction between ordinary and holy. Both person and dharmas are empty. He turns the unequaled Dharma wheel, transcends all reckoning, acts without obstruction, and thoroughly comprehends phenomena and principle. It is like clouds arising in the sky: suddenly they exist, and then they are gone, leaving no trace or obstruction. It is also like tracing characters upon water: neither arising nor ceasing. This is the Great Quiescent Cessation.

“While within bondage,(20) it is called the Tathagatagarbha. Freed from bondage,(21) it is called the Pure Body. The Dharmakaya is limitless; its essence neither increases nor decreases. It can be large or small, square or round. Responding to beings, it manifests forms like the moon in water, functioning clearly and distinctly without planting shoots or roots. It does not exhaust the conditioned, nor does it abide in the unconditioned. The conditioned is the constant functioning of the unconditioned; the unconditioned is the basis upon which the conditioned relies. Because it does not abide in its basis, it is called ‘Like Space, Depending on Nothing.’

“The meaning of the mind’s arising and ceasing is also the meaning of the mind as suchness. The mind as suchness is like a bright mirror reflecting images. The mirror symbolizes the mind, and the images symbolize all dharmas. If the mind grasps at dharmas, it becomes entangled with external causes and conditions; this is the meaning of arising and ceasing. Not grasping at any dharma is the meaning of suchness.

“Sravakas hear of and perceive Buddha-nature; bodhisattvas see Buddha-nature with their own eyes. Thoroughly realizing nonduality is called the Nature of Equality. How could the nature differ? Yet its functions are not the same. In delusion, it is consciousness; in awakening, it is wisdom. To accord with principle is awakening; to accord with phenomena is delusion. Delusion means being deluded about one’s own original mind. Awakening means awakening to one’s own original nature. Once awakened, one is forever awakened and does not return to delusion, just as when the sun rises, it cannot coexist with darkness. When the sun of wisdom appears, the darkness of affliction remains no more.

“When mind and its objects are clearly penetrated, false thoughts no longer arise. When false thoughts no longer arise, this is the patient acceptance of the non-arising of dharmas. It existed in the past and exists now; there is no need to rely upon cultivating the Way or sitting in meditation. Neither cultivating nor sitting—this is the Tathagata’s Pure Chan.

“If, as of now, you perceive this true and correct principle, you will create no karma. According to your circumstances, pass through this lifetime with one body and one robe, sitting and standing in mutual support, while the conduct of the precepts increasingly perfumes and accumulates within pure karma. It is simply thus—why worry that you will not penetrate it? You have all been standing for a long time. Take good care of yourselves!”

Great Master Mazu spoke of the Originally True and Real, which does not depend upon cultivation or contrivance, yet neither does it discard the observance of the precepts and virtuous conduct, by which pure karma is increasingly nurtured and accumulated. He had indeed attained the essential Dharma of the Perfect and Sudden Teaching.

These Ten Practices do not depart from the preceding Ten Abodes. As one advances through the stages, there is no Practice that does not unfold the Nature of Enlightenment; this is simply the maturation of the fruit of Buddhahood.

Following the Abodes come the Practices, precisely because one must practice the bodhisattva conduct without abiding in any basis of reliance, just as Great Master Mazu clearly instructed. That alone is the one true flavor of True Practice.

V. THE TEN DEDICATIONS OF MERIT

Sutra: “Ananda, after that good man has fully developed spiritual powers and accomplished the work of the Buddha, he becomes wholly pure and truly genuine, far removed from all faults and adversities. While manifestly liberating sentient beings, he extinguishes all appearances of having liberated them. He turns his unconditioned mind toward the path of nirvana. This is called the Dedication of Rescuing and Protecting All Sentient Beings While Transcending the Appearance of Sentient Beings.

Commentary: When the Ten Practices have been fulfilled, one may manifest motes of dust and manifest lands; the One is the Immeasurable, and the Immeasurable is the One. These are spiritual powers. Being able to accomplish the standards established by all Buddhas throughout the ten directions is the work of the Buddha.

Wholly pure and truly genuine means that there is only the one sole Reality, pure and free of afflictions, far removed from all obstructing faults and adversities. Such a person may be said to have liberated himself. Proceeding directly toward the Unconditioned in this way, he is called one who has completed the matter and is therefore able to undertake the liberation of sentient beings.

If, while liberating sentient beings, the appearances of having liberated them have not yet been extinguished, then one remains attached to self, person, sentient being, and life span. One must therefore extinguish every display of having effected a rescue, turn one’s own unconditioned mind toward all those sentient beings, and together with them enter the path of tranquil and quiescent nirvana. When one personally realizes nirvana, the Nature is originally Unconditioned.

When one manifests to guide sentient beings toward nirvana, this too is nothing but the Unconditioned. Thus, although one liberates sentient beings throughout the entire day, in truth there is no appearance of liberation that can be attained. If one sees anyone who can be rescued, one immediately becomes tainted by the conditioned, contrary to the path of tranquil and quiescent nirvana, and cannot return to the fundamental source that is definitively neither born nor extinguished.

Therefore, extinguishing all appearances of liberation is called the Dedication of Transcending the Appearance of Sentient Beings. If even the appearance of liberation does not exist, how could any appearance of sentient beings be found?

A monk asked Patriarch Huangbo, “Does the Buddha liberate sentient beings?”

Patriarch Huangbo said, “In truth, there are no sentient beings for the Tathagata to liberate. The self cannot be attained, so how could a non-self be attained? Neither Buddha nor sentient beings can be attained.”

The monk asked, “The thirty-two marks are presently manifest, as is the liberation of sentient beings. How, then, can it be said that they do not exist?”

Patriarch Huangbo said, “Whatever has characteristics is illusory and false. If one sees that all characteristics are not characteristics, one immediately sees the Tathagata.”

A layman named Shi asked Chan Master Guifeng, “All the sutras speak of liberating sentient beings, yet if sentient beings are precisely not sentient beings, why labor to liberate them?”

Patriarch Guifeng replied, “If sentient beings truly existed, liberating them would indeed be laborious. But since you yourself have said, ‘They are precisely not sentient beings,’ how could this differ from liberating while not liberating?”

Taken together, these two accounts suffice to explain this passage of the sutra.

Again, when Great Chan Master Nanyue Huisi heard that Master Zhigong had sent someone to tell him, “Why do you not descend the mountain to teach and transform sentient beings, instead of persisting in being one who ‘raises his eyes to gaze at the clouds’?”

He said, “When all the Buddhas of the three periods have been entirely swallowed by my one mouth, where could there still be any sentient beings to liberate?”

Baojue Yi sang:

“Eyes gaze upon the misty haze, reclining in white clouds;

Who cares that beneath the mountain heaven and earth remain?

Whence could there be sentient beings to liberate?

One mouth swallows the Buddhas of all three periods.”

Bhikshuni Xianlin An sang:

“One mouth swallows Buddhas and sentient beings alike;

Not establishing even the slightest thing, all becomes perfectly clear.

The tip of the staff stirs up the orb of sun and moon;

Its clamor sets the trichiliocosm’s mountains and seas trembling in the haze.”

Great Master Huisi [the First Patriarch of the Tiantai School] truly attained the Dedication of Transcending the Appearance of Sentient Beings. Could he have realized only the Iron-Wheel Stage?

Sutra: “Destroying that which can be destroyed and transcending all acts of transcending is called the Indestructible Dedication.

Commentary: Destroying that which can be destroyed means transcending the appearance of sentient beings. Transcending all acts of transcending means that even the state of having transcended appearances is relinquished. Destroying all appearances is emptiness of the object; transcending the act of transcending is emptiness of the subject. Both subject and object are empty, yet Fundamental Enlightenment is indestructible; therefore, this is called the Indestructible Dedication. It is called Indestructible to distinguish it from the stubborn emptiness of the Two Vehicles and the annihilationist view of non-Buddhist paths. Although all appearances are destroyed, the Indestructible ever remains. Only this is the Indestructible Dedication.

Chan Master Zhen asked Chan Master Benjing, “Since the Way is without mind, does the Buddha have a mind? Are the Buddha and the Way one or two?”

Patriarch Jing said, “Neither one nor two.”

Chan Master Zhen asked, “The Buddha liberates sentient beings because he has a mind. The Way does not liberate sentient beings because it is without mind. One liberates and the other does not; how can they not be two?”

He replied, “If you say that the Buddha liberates sentient beings while the Way does not, then the Venerable has delusively given rise to the dualistic view. This mountain monk does not see it that way. ‘Buddha’ is an empty name, and ‘Way’ is also established through delusion. Neither has any reality; both are entirely provisional names. Since they are wholly contained within a single provisionality, how can they be divided into two?”

He asked, “If ‘Buddha’ and ‘Way’ are provisional names, then who establishes those names at the very moment they are established? If someone establishes them, how can you say there is no one?”

He replied, “Buddha and Way are established because of the mind. When this mind that establishes them is investigated to the end, it too is empty. Neither of the two is real. By knowing them to be like dreams and illusions, one immediately awakens to Fundamental Emptiness. To forcibly establish the two names ‘Buddha’ and ‘Way’ is the understanding of those of the Two Vehicles.”

On that occasion, he spoke the Verse on Neither Cultivation nor Contrivance:

“Seeing the Way, one then cultivates the Way;

Without seeing it, what can one cultivate?

The nature of the Way is like empty space;

Where in empty space can cultivation occur?

Look all around at those who cultivate:

They stir fire, seeking bubbles in water.

Just observe the dancing wooden puppet;

When its strings are cut, everything stops.”

The dancing wooden puppet can be destroyed, but the one who makes the wooden puppet dance cannot be destroyed. Thus, when the appearance of sentient beings is destroyed, it is like empty space, which is not destroyed. It is not that, apart from the appearance being destroyed, there separately exists something called indestructible. Destruction itself is indestructibility; therefore, this is called the Indestructible Dedication.

Sutra: “Fundamental Enlightenment is lucid, quiescent, and thus-so; this enlightenment equals the enlightenment of the Buddhas. This is called the Dedication Equal to All Buddhas.

Commentary: The characteristics of conditioned activity can be destroyed, but the Knowing of their destruction is not destroyed. What is transcended can be transcended, but the Knowing of that transcendence is not itself transcended. This is Fundamental Enlightenment. Lucid quiescence merges with lucid quiescence, and consciousness itself is wisdom; this too may be called lucid, quiescent, and thus-so.

Here, the phrase “Fundamental Enlightenment is lucid, quiescent, and thus-so” does not refer to the unmoving state of quiescent consciousness. It is only because this Fundamental Enlightenment is not consciousness that it can equal the enlightenment of the Buddhas. Ordinary sentiments and interpretations of the sages all dissolve, leaving only the one Reality; therefore, it can be equal to all Buddhas. Although it equals the enlightenment of all Buddhas, it is not the stage of Equal Enlightenment, because dedication still remains within it and there is still further progress to be made. Therefore, it is called the Dedication Equal to All Buddhas.

Patriarch Huangbo said: “A sravaka is so called because he attains awakening through sound. He simply does not understand his Own Mind, but gives rise to conceptual understanding based upon the verbal teachings. Whether through spiritual powers, auspicious marks, speech, or conduct, he hears that there are bodhi and nirvana and cultivates for three asamkhya kalpas to accomplish the Buddha Way. All this belongs to the path of the sravakas and is called the Sravaka Buddha. Only by directly and immediately penetrating one’s Own Mind—originally the Buddha, with not a single dharma to attain and not a single practice to cultivate—does one realize the Supreme Way; this is the Buddha of True Suchness.

“O students of the Way, you need only fear the arising of a single thought, for then you are immediately separated from the Way. Thought after thought without characteristics, thought after thought unconditioned—that itself is the Buddha. O students of the Way, if you wish to become Buddhas, there is no need to study any of the Buddha-Dharma; learn only not to seek and not to cling. When there is no seeking, the mind does not arise; when there is no clinging, the mind does not cease. Neither arising nor ceasing—that itself is the Buddha.

“The eighty-four thousand Dharma gates are intended to counteract the eighty-four thousand afflictions; they are merely expedient gateways for guidance and instruction, but in truth there is originally no dharma at all. Detachment itself is the Dharma; knowing detachment is the Buddha. Simply detach from all afflictions, and then there will be no dharma whatsoever to attain.”

Once one has savored Patriarch Huangbo’s words, “Knowing detachment is the Buddha,” one clearly understands the meaning of the scripture: “Fundamental Enlightenment is still, pure, and naturally so; that enlightenment is equal to the enlightenment of the Buddha.”

Again, Huichao asked Patriarch Fayan: “What is the Buddha?”

Patriarch Fayan said: “You are Huichao.”

A monk asked Patriarch Shushan: “What is the Buddha?”

Patriarch Shushan said: “Why do you not ask the old man Shushan?”

Answers of this kind are exceedingly numerous. They are all intended to awaken Fundamental Enlightenment, through which one is immediately equal to the Buddha.

Scripture: “The essence of truth emits light; the stage is like the Buddha Stage. This is called the Dedication Reaching All Places.

Explanation: The true essence of Fundamental Enlightenment is not merely numinous, lucid, steadfast, and enduring; it can also radiate light everywhere and advance step by step to establish the stages. A stage like the Buddha Stage is indeed far removed from the initial Abode of Governing the Ground. When the essence of True Suchness pervades the entire dharma realm in this way, the function of True Suchness likewise pervades the entire dharma realm. Therefore, as the Buddha’s enlightenment pervades every place, so too does the Buddha’s conduct pervade every place. If there remains any place it does not pervade, it is not the Buddha Stage. At this point one can only be like the Buddha, but cannot yet be one with the Buddha; therefore it is called the Dedication Reaching All Places.

A monk asked Patriarch Linji: “What are the Three-Eyed Lands?”

Patriarch Linji said: “I enter with you into the Pure and Wondrous Land, put on the robe of purity, and expound the Dharmakaya Buddha. Then I enter the Land Without Differentiation, put on the robe of nondifferentiation, and expound the Sambhogakaya Buddha. Then I enter the Land of Liberation, put on the robe of radiance, and expound the Nirmanakaya Buddha.

These Three-Eyed Lands are all transformations of the dependent recompense. According to the exponents of the scriptures and treatises, the Dharmakaya is taken as the basis, while the Sambhogakaya and Nirmanakaya are its functions. As this mountain monk sees it, the Dharmakaya has no need of words.

Thus an ancient said, ‘The bodies—Dharma, Recompense, and Transformation—are discussed according to their meanings, while the lands are discussed according to their essence.’ The Dharma-Nature Body and Dharma-Nature Land are plainly constructed dharmas. The lands of dependent and shared recompense are an empty fist, a yellow leaf used to deceive children. With caltrop fruit, horned water chestnuts, and shriveled seeds, what juice could you possibly seek?

Outside the mind there is no dharma; even the inside cannot be apprehended, so what thing could you seek?”

Chan Master Tianyi Huai ascended the hall and said: “Throughout the boundless Buddha lands, this place and that are not separated by even a hair’s breadth. Tell me, what Dharma is Aksobhya Tathagata expounding in the world of Abhirati? From beginning to end, throughout all ages past and present, it has never departed from the present thought. Then, in the very first assembly, how many people did the Buddha King of Awe-Inspiring Sound deliver? If there is truly someone who has penetrated everywhere, try to tell me!”

After a long while, he said: “The road is difficult! The road is difficult! Atop the ten-thousand-fathom peak, you must see for yourself!”

Therefore, the essential point in awakening to the Dharma-Nature Body and Dharma-Nature Land is to return to No-Thing—Huìnéng’s “Originally, not a single thing”—and that is the True Buddha Stage. If there is anything attained, there is already a particular place; how then could one “reach all places”?”

Scripture: “Worlds and Tathagatas mutually merge and enter into one another, attaining unobstructedness. This is called the Dedication of the Inexhaustible Treasury of Merit.

Explanation: Worlds are the dharma realm of True Suchness and belong to the objective aspect. The Tathagata is the fundamental essence of True Suchness and belongs to the perceiving aspect. The perceiving and objective aspects originally share a single source.

Thus, although faculties and objects are clearly distinguished, this and that still merge and enter into one another. When the perceiving aspect is brought forth, the objective aspect is right within it. When the objective aspect is brought forth, the perceiving aspect is right within it.

Nothing in perception is not appearance, and nothing in appearance is not perception. Therefore, worlds and Tathagatas mutually merge and enter into one another. They are originally unobstructed; when obstruction nevertheless remains, it is because one’s vision has not yet achieved perfect interpenetration.

The essence of truth emits light and reaches every place, yet one still sees duality in every place. Now they mutually merge and enter into one another: the essence of truth is every place, and every place is precisely the essence of truth. Mind and objects perfectly interpenetrate, and neither obstructs the other. Principle does not obstruct phenomena, and phenomena do not impede Principle. It fills every place; therefore it is called the Inexhaustible Treasury of Merit.

The Immeasurable Merit of the preceding Ten Practices merely perfects virtue within oneself, whereas this Inexhaustible Treasury of Merit is an unending treasury of merit: though used, it is never exhausted; though drawn upon, it is never depleted. This points to the Tathagata’s Oceanic Treasury Consciousness. It is nearly equal to the Bodhisattva Treasury of Space, whose body and lands interpenetrate and who can extensively perform the work of the Buddhas in accord with sentient beings.

Patriarch Wuzu Fayan ascended the hall and said: “A thousand mountains display their blue-green hues; willows by the ford trail their golden branches. An old woodcutter sings; a fisherman leaps and dances. Mouth organs and clappers sound in lively concert; birds sing and warble. A beauty wears rosy powder; a young nobleman is elegant and carefree. Each and every one reveals for you the highest function and opens the Eye of the True Dharma. If you can present it from within this, the Golden-Hued Ascetic—Kasyapa—will have nowhere to lodge his body. If you do not understand, then while eating gruel and chewing rice, I shall allow you seven tunnels and eight holes!”

Likewise, Master Fadeng spoke this verse:

“Who believes in the Buddha of Innate Truth?

His great compassion extends through myriad ways.

Along the ancient bank, smartweed blossoms;

A white heron stands upon the golden shoal.

Frost descends, and grass grows in the courtyard;

Clouds withdraw, and the moon chills the stream.

Each and every thing points it out—

Look carefully and see.”

Here, the world and the Tathagata have together become a single whole. Awakening and entering through this is called True Liberation. With this merit one guides sentient beings; because worlds are inexhaustible, merit is likewise inexhaustible.

Scripture: “In the state equal to the Buddha Stage, each and every cause of purity arises. Relying upon those causes, one develops and manifests them, embracing the path of nirvana. This is called the Dedication of Good Roots Conforming to Equality.

Explanation: If one is equal in the Buddha Stage, equal in purity, and equal in nirvana, why, when relying upon causes and manifesting them, is each nevertheless different? This is because the good roots planted in previous lives have each acquired their own distinctive characteristics through habituation. Although the nature of goodness is equal, sprouts grow from their respective roots; relying upon causes to realize their fruits, the myriad things are not the same. Though they differ, this does not hinder each from cultivating and awakening for oneself and realizing nirvana. Indeed, there is no need to cling rigidly to a single Dharma gate or require everyone to follow the same path.

To say “conforming” means guiding beings according to their capacities, without forcing what cannot be accomplished. This alone is the great expedient means for universally delivering sentient beings.”

Master Xuefeng served as cook under Patriarch Dongshan.

One day, while winnowing rice, the Patriarch asked, “Are you winnowing out the sand and keeping the rice, or winnowing out the rice and keeping the sand?”

Master Xuefeng replied, “Sand and rice are both discarded at once.”

The Patriarch said, “What will the assembly eat?”

Master Xuefeng then covered the rice basin.

The Patriarch said, “According to your causes and conditions, you are suited to Deshan.”

Later, he indeed succeeded to the Dharma of Patriarch Deshan.

Master Touzi raised this case, saying, “Great assembly! What principle lies in Patriarch Dongshan’s words? Although heaven and earth are of one hue, alas, the mountains are high and the rivers wide. Therefore, this old rustic says, ‘When the work has not reached completion, it is neither square nor round. When words fail to communicate, there is no kinship.’”

Then, speaking in their stead, he said, “Winnowing out the sand and keeping the rice; winnowing out the rice and keeping the sand: The ever-living cinnamon tree casts no shadow; passing through frost and snow, its fruit ripens evenly.”

“What will the assembly eat? The golden phoenix gathers blossoms but cannot hold them all in its beak; the jade fledgling [an imitation bird made of jade] feeds upon stamens, and its leaves remain forever fresh.”

His verse says:

“Manifest, filling the alms bowl: not a single thing;

How could it resemble the delicacies conjured in the Fragrant Land?

The sun and moon revolve endlessly, yet cannot shine through;

A wooden man waves his hands toward the glowing furnace.”

Master Touzi was thoroughly versed in Patriarch Dongshan’s essential meaning and distinguished it with perfect clarity.

A monk asked Master Wuzu Fayan, “What is the affair of the Linji house?”

Master Fayan said, “A perpetrator of the five heinous offenses hears the thunder!”

He asked, “What is the affair of the Yunmen house?”

The Master replied, “A crimson banner shines dazzlingly.”

He asked, “What is the affair of the Guiyang house?”

The Master replied, “Remove the stele obstructing the ancient road.”

He asked, “What is the affair of the Caodong house?”

The Master replied, “The letter does not reach the household.”

The monk bowed.

Master Fayan said, “Why do you not ask about the affair of the Fayan house?”

The monk replied, “I leave that for the Venerable.”

Master Fayan said, “The night watchman himself violates the nighttime prohibition.”

Here, each of the five Schools has its own point of accord according to the practitioner’s wholesome roots. It was not merely Patriarch Dongshan who directed Master Xuefeng to Patriarch Deshan.

Patriarch Hui’an of Mount Song directed Nanyue Huairang to meet the Sixth Patriarch; Patriarch Shitou directed Yaoshan to meet Master Mazu; and then Master Mazu directed Danxia to Master Shitou. In every case, they impartially followed the practitioners’ wholesome roots, enabling them to develop according to their causes and secure the path to nirvana. How could they ever have clung exclusively to one Dharma gate as the means of realizing the Ultimate Fruition?

Sutra: “When the True Root has been established, all beings throughout the ten directions are one’s own Original Nature. When that nature is perfected and fulfilled, not a single being is left out. This is called the Dedication of Impartially Contemplating and Accordantly Following All Beings.

Commentary: The wholesome root is the wholesome root with which everyone is inherently endowed. Relying upon this wholesome root and securing the path to nirvana, the wholesome root is transformed into the True Root. There is then no goodness left to indicate, but solely the one Reality, whose essential nature is perfectly interfused and pervades the entire Dharma Realm.

Thus, all beings throughout the ten directions are one’s own Original Nature. When the Original Nature is perfected and self-fulfilled, it is called perfect. Unobstructed, it unites with all beings as one essence, yet it does not obliterate the characteristics of beings.

Beings may not yet each have attained fulfillment, but when our nature is perfected, there is no being who is not Buddha-nature. Therefore, when the nature is perfectly and thoroughly fulfilled, not even a single being is left out.

This Impartial Contemplation and Accordant Following of All Beings makes no distinction between people and other creatures, good and evil, and so forth. Even the lowliest crawling and wriggling sentient beings all possess Buddha-nature. It is not merely a matter of impartially following wholesome roots. Bodhisattva Never Disparaging, for example, bowed to everyone he met and said, “I dare not slight you. You will certainly become Buddhas.” This truly accords with the present essential meaning.

Chan Master Yuwang Yu ascended the hall and said, “The whole great earth is the eye of the śramana, and throughout the ten directions shines one’s own light. Why, then, when the drum is beaten in Eastern Pūrvavideha, does Western Aparagodānīya not hear it? When a lamp is lit in Southern Jambudvīpa, Northern Uttarakuru remains dark. Even if you can speak exhaustively within this, you are still making your livelihood amid shadows and reflections!”

The Master shook his whisk and said, “When the hundred miscellaneous things have been shattered, what is the single road of escape?”

Casting away the whisk, he said, “Investigate! If you do not genuinely investigate and genuinely realize this matter, how could you secretly glimpse any tidings of the True Root?”

Master Xuefeng taught, “At the Wangzhou Pavilion, I have already met with you! At the summit of Wushi, I have also met with you! Before the Sangha hall, I have already met with you as well!”

At that time, a monk stepped forward and asked, “Let us set aside the meeting before the Sangha hall. What were the meetings at Wangzhou Pavilion and the summit of Wushi like?”

Patriarch Xuefeng suddenly withdrew to the abbot’s quarters.

Only upon seeing this can one believe that all beings throughout the ten directions are one’s own Original Nature.

Sutra: “Identical with all dharmas, yet apart from all characteristics. Neither identity nor separation has any point of attachment. This is called the Dedication of the Characteristic of True Suchness.

Commentary: Previously, the words “Apart from all characteristics, identical with all dharmas” meant being amid characteristics while transcending characteristics; there nevertheless remained the characteristics of dharmas. Here, the words “Identical with all dharmas, yet apart from all characteristics” mean being amid dharmas while transcending dharmas, forgetting even the characteristics of dharmas. If there is identity and there is separation, then although there are no characteristics of dharmas, it is not that there is no absence of Dharma-characteristics; this still amounts to the elimination of Dharma-characteristics.

Here, all are equally nonexistent; every last hairbreadth is swept clean, leaving only the one True Essence, such as it is, unmoving. This is called the Characteristic of True Suchness. It cannot be compared with any sort of characteristic, such as characteristics, Dharma-characteristics, or even the elimination of Dharma-characteristics.

The phrase “Apart from all characteristics” regards separation from the characteristics of beings as the subtle secret. The phrase “Neither has any attachment” regards separation from every form of separation as the subtle secret. At this point, the cognitive obstruction has been purified, and the True Nature manifests before one. It comes from nowhere and goes nowhere; it is originally such as it is, and is therefore called True Suchness.

Chan Master Yuwang Yu ascended the hall and said, “When acting, all traces of action vanish; when speaking, there is no vestige of speech. If action and speech have somewhere to arrive, then as soon as a destination arises, a name follows. If action and speech are not yet perfectly clear, the point of the numinous sword must decisively reveal them.

Even if speech has no leaks and action is not confused about its place, one is still entangled in the bodily shell. If one is a golden-winged garuḍa, one soars upward hundreds of thousands of yojanas. If one is the divine steed that surpasses ten shadows, one races swiftly through the four quarters and eight directions, needing no successive stages of nourishment and following no place in which to bury the body.

In sum, when there is nothing upon which to rely, is there still a share of treading and practice? Everywhere, in every minute thing, is precisely the Shore of Awakening!”

This teaching may be said to have attained the very marrow of True Suchness. When one gains liberation at this point, one immediately accords with Suchness as it is.

Sutra: “Truly attaining Suchness as it is, one is unobstructed throughout the ten directions. This is called the Dedication of Unbound Liberation.

Commentary: To transcend all characteristics, leaving only the one True Suchness, is called being unbound, free of bondage. Yet if the Characteristic of True Suchness remains, one is still bound by being unbound and cannot yet be unobstructed; therefore, this is not yet True Liberation.”

When one truly realizes Suchness, everything everywhere is Suchness, without any further obstruction; even the characteristic of True Suchness itself is forgotten. At first, eliminating attachment to dharmas is called Liberation While Still Bound. Now, eliminating even non-attachment to dharmas is called Liberation Without Bondage. Since there is no bondage from which to be liberated, what bondage could remain? Since there is nowhere one is bound, where could there not be Suchness? Unless one has realized the Utmost Truth within True Suchness, one would not have the power to speak of this “unobstructedness throughout the ten directions.”

Master Luopu initially served as attendant to Patriarch Linji. The Patriarch often praised him before the assembly, saying: “He is the solitary arrow within Linji’s gate. Who dares confront its point?”

Master Luopu considered himself fully accomplished and took leave of the Patriarch to journey southward in search of instruction.

Patriarch Linji said: “Within Linji’s gate is a somewhat pure carp, now tossing its head and fanning its tail toward the south. I wonder into whose pickling jar it will plunge and perish?”

After journeying in search of instruction, Master Luopu went directly to Jiashan and built a hermitage, yet for an entire year he did not inquire after Patriarch Jiashan. The Patriarch then wrote a letter and instructed a monk to deliver it. Luopu received the letter and immediately put it away, then held out his hand to ask for something more. The monk could not respond.

Master Luopu struck him and said: “Go back and tell the Master to send someone else.”

The monk returned and related this to Master Jiashan. The Patriarch said: “If that monk opens the letter, he must come here within three days. If he does not open it, he is beyond saving.”

Three days later, Master Luopu indeed came to meet Patriarch Jiashan. Without bowing, he stood directly before the Patriarch.

Master Jiashan said: “A chicken lodging in a phoenix’s nest is not of the same kind. Withdraw!”

Master Luopu said: “Having heard of your reputation from afar, I have come here. I ask the Master to receive me once.”

Master Jiashan said: “Before my eyes there is no Acharya; here there is no old monk!”

Luopu then shouted: “Not even the single word ‘No’ may be established!”

Master Jiashan said: “Do not be rash and hurried! You should know that clouds and moon are the same, while mountains and valleys each differ. Cutting off the tongues of everyone under heaven is not nonexistent, but how would you teach a tongueless person to speak?”

Luopu had no reply.

Master Jiashan then struck him. Luopu submitted. Indeed, he had plunged into Jiashan’s pickling jar and perished there.

Master Touzi raised this case and said: “Having arrived here, what would you do? If you can utter one phrase, you share the same body and life, the same breath, with leaves joined to branches!”

He then answered on Luopu’s behalf: “A pair of eyeless phoenixes possesses all five colors. Soaring into the heavens, they do not penetrate the blue clouds!”

The verse says:

“A stone man, companionless, enters the mountain at night;

Clouds shroud the crimson summit, his green robe cold.

A shout opens the portent at the final peak of the kalpa;

He brings forth the golden brocade robe and examines it beneath the sun.”

The first two lines versify this purport: the tongues of everyone under heaven are utterly severed—the place where one conceals oneself and all traces disappear.

The latter two lines versify this purport: the tongueless person speaks again—where all traces disappear, do not conceal yourself.

That confused fellow Luopu had attained only an iron jaw, and Patriarch Linji had already seen through him. Had he not encountered Patriarch Jiashan, he would nearly have been bound by non-bondage and buried for an entire lifetime.

Sutra: “When the virtue of the nature is perfectly accomplished and all limitation concerning the Dharma Realm vanishes, this is called the Dedication of the Immeasurable Dharma Realm.

Explanation: From the Nature of True Suchness arises its virtuous function. The three virtues of Principle, Wisdom, and Practice are all perfected. Principle and phenomena are unobstructed; neither emptiness nor existence applies. The pure and natural One Nature is accomplished, ultimately leaving no trace. Previously, the words ‘reaching every place’ seemed still to imply a perception of limitation [according to where things exist], and thus the nature of the Dharma Realm had not yet transcended measure. Now all limitation concerning the Dharma Realm has vanished [the Dharma Realm is entirely free of things], and so it is called Immeasurable [without things].

Patriarch Foguo Keqin met the layman Zhang Wujin, and they engaged in a vigorous discussion of the essential purport of the Avatamsaka Sutra.

The Patriarch said: “In the directly perceived realm of the Avatamsaka, Principle and phenomena are wholly true. From the very beginning, there are no provisional dharmas. Therefore, the One is at once the myriad; clearly, the myriad are the One. The One returns to the One, and the myriad return to the myriad, boundless and inexhaustible. Mind, Buddha, and sentient beings—these three are without distinction. Rolling up and unfolding are free and sovereign, perfectly interfused without obstruction. Although this is the ultimate principle, in the end it is still waves rising in circles where there is no wind!”

The layman could not comprehend this and rocked his meditation seat.

Patriarch Keqin then asked: “At this point, is it the same as or different from the intention of the Patriarch’s coming from the West?”

The layman said: “Yes, it is the same.”

Master Keqin said: “You have merely attained the place where there is no connection.”

The layman appeared angry.

Master Keqin said: “Have you not heard Yunmen say, ‘The mountains, rivers, and great earth are not at fault in the slightest’? That is still a turning phrase. ‘Not seeing a single form’ is only half the proposition. You must also know the complete proposition of the transcendental occasion. Were Patriarchs Deshan and Linji not the complete proposition?”

The layman then nodded in agreement.

The following day they again discussed the Dharma Realm of Phenomena, the Dharma Realm of Principle, and finally the Dharma Realm of the Unobstructed Interpenetration of Principle and Phenomena.

Patriarch Keqin again asked: “Can this be called Chan?”

The layman replied: “This indeed should be called Chan.”

The Patriarch laughed and said: “No! Precisely because it still remains within deliberation concerning the Dharma Realm, the limitations concerning the Dharma Realm have not yet vanished. Only when one enters the Dharma Realm of the Unobstructed Interpenetration of Phenomenon with Phenomenon, where all limitations concerning the Dharma Realm vanish, should it be called Chan! What of ‘The Buddha is a dry shit-stick’? What of ‘The Buddha is three pounds of flax’? Therefore, Patriarch Zhenjing composed this verse:

‘Phenomenon with phenomenon, unobstructed;

Free and sovereign as one wishes.

His hand grasps a pig’s head;

His mouth recites the pure precepts.

He rushes out of the privy,

Yet has not repaid his wine debt.

At the crossroads,

He flings open his cloth bag!’”

The layman said: “How sublime this discourse is! Could it easily be heard?”

Such a wondrous meaning could not be fully expounded in its essential purport without such profound discussion.

The ten stages of Dedication above turn back toward the True and proceed toward the Conventional, turning Wisdom toward Compassion, so that True and Conventional are perfectly interfused and Wisdom and Compassion are nondual. At this point, all limitations and emotional views have been wholly transformed, and one can then ascend the bhumis and realize the fruit of a bodhisattva.

VI. THE FOUR AUXILIARY PRACTICES

Sutra: “Ananda, after that good man has completed these forty-one pure states of mind, he next accomplishes the four kinds of Wondrous and Perfect Auxiliary Practices. He takes the Buddha’s awakening and uses it as his own mind. It is as though it were about to emerge but had not yet emerged, just as one drills wood to produce fire with which to burn the wood. This is called the Stage of Warmth.

Explanation: In the forty-one states of mind above, from Dry Wisdom through the Ten Dedications, one progressively corrects and progressively subdues oneself, purging ordinary sentiments until one attains the utmost purity. Yet the sacred stages are difficult to ascend, and the sacred fruit is difficult to bring to maturity. Upon reaching this ground, the spirit cannot fathom it, and ‘transformation cannot assist its growth.’ One can only remain serene and at ease, awaiting its arrival of itself.

Throughout many kalpas of cultivation, the Blessed One thoroughly penetrated and clearly understood this profound subtlety. Here he further established the four kinds of Wondrous and Perfect Auxiliary Practices. Between impending accomplishment and accomplishment not yet attained, these four stages truly exist. Who but one possessing the Buddha-eye could distinguish them?

Previously, it was said, ‘Awakening by means of the Buddha’s awakening.’ This means that it was clear within the mind but could not yet be put to use. Here, one ‘takes the Buddha’s awakening and uses it as one’s own mind.’ One raises it up and contemplates it, yet it does not emerge, like drilling wood to produce fire when the wood has not yet ignited. Therefore, this is called the Stage of Warmth. When fire emerges, it does so without intention; after drilling for a long time, the wood ignites of itself. When awakening functions, it also does so without deliberate intent; after samadhi has endured for a long time, wisdom manifests of itself. In the interval, no human effort is permitted to intervene.

Patriarch Cuiyan Zhen ascended the hall and cited Patriarch Longya’s verse:

“Studying the Way is like drilling wood for fire;
Seeing smoke, one must not yet stop.
Wait until the golden spark appears—
Only then, upon returning home, have you arrived!”

And Patriarch Shending’s verse:

Patriarch Zhen said, “If we speak of the Sudden Teaching, Longya has indeed stopped halfway! If we speak of the Gradual Teaching, Shending has understood only a little. What about here? Worthy ones, many leaves have fallen this year; where will you sweep them home?”

According to Cuiyan’s insight, when burning is inexhaustible, wood appears; when functioning is inexhaustible, fire appears. What need is there to employ drilling? Even so, only one who transcends convention can bring the matter to completion!

Sutra: “Again, one takes one’s own mind as the sphere of the Buddha’s conduct. It seems to have a support, yet does not have a support, like ascending a high mountain: the body has already entered empty space, yet beneath it there remains a slight obstruction. This is called the Stage of the Summit.

Commentary: One’s insight does not differ from that of the Buddha, but one must still value conduct that accords with it. If one can already take the Buddha’s awakening as one’s own mind, one can take one’s own mind as the sphere of the Buddha’s conduct. Speaking from the standpoint of mutual dependence and opposition, because there still remains the view of Buddha and self, it seems to have a support yet does not have a support: one sees that the Buddha has a model.

Seeming to rely upon the Buddha, however, is merely one’s own model. When there is nowhere to rely, that is the traceless conduct of the Buddha. Now there remains a slight degree of comparison and calculation because the traces have not yet vanished.

It resembles ascending a high mountain: the body has already entered empty space, yet beneath it there remains a slight obstruction.

If it is said to have support, the body is in empty space, so it does not have support. If it is said to have no support, the feet still tread upon the summit, so it is not without support. One is about to enter the realm of wondrous transformation, yet the slightest hair-tip has not dissolved; therefore there seems to be an obstruction. The Mahaprajnaparamita Sutra regards attachment to empty space as the Dharma-body and calls it ‘Falling from the Summit’—falling at the summit—which corresponds precisely to this point.

A monk asked Patriarch Zhaozhou, “What is the solitary summit of the Wondrous Peak?”

Zhaozhou said, “This old monk will not answer that question of yours.”

The monk asked, “Why will you not answer that question?”

Zhaozhou said, “If I answered you, I fear I would fall onto level ground.”

How meaningful! Clearly, he had already answered.

Later, Baofu and Changqing were wandering in the mountains.

Baofu pointed with his hand and said, “Right there is the summit of the Wondrous Peak!”

Changqing said, “If that is indeed so, what a pity!”

A monk related this to Jingqing. Jingqing said, “Were it not for the venerable master, we would see skulls covering the fields!”

Xuedou composed this verse:

“On the solitary summit of the Wondrous Peak, grasses grow thick;
Having clearly raised it, to whom shall it be entrusted?
Were it not for the venerable master’s precise discernment,
Skulls would cover the earth—yet how many would know?”

The venerable Changqing’s lament, “What a pity!” was precisely his fear of falling onto level ground. If one falls onto level ground and deliberates there, before the dry skulls one will behold innumerable ghosts and demons!

Again, Patriarch Dongshan asked a monk, “Where have you come from?”

He replied, “I have returned from wandering in the mountains.”

Dongshan said, “Did you reach the summit?”

He replied, “Yes, I did.”

Dongshan said, “Was anyone on the summit?”

He replied, “There was no one.”

Dongshan said, “Then you surely did not reach the summit.”

He replied, “If I had not reached the summit, how could I know there was no one?”

Dongshan said, “Why did you not remain there?”

He replied, “I do not refuse to remain there; it is only because someone in the Western Heaven would not permit it.”

Dongshan said, “And yet all this time I have been suspicious of that fellow!”

A monk such as this reaches the summit but does not abide there; what obstruction could remain? Even the peril of Falling from the Summit is absent—why worry about the calamity of Level Ground?

Sutra: “Mind and Buddha are both identical, and one skillfully attains the Middle Way. It is like a person who exercises forbearance, neither harboring something within nor expressing it outwardly. This is called the Stage of Forbearance.

Commentary: One’s own mind and the Buddha’s conduct—the traces of both are completely interfused and merge into one essence, without further obstruction. It is neither ‘mind itself is Buddha’ nor ‘neither mind nor Buddha’; one merely says, ‘It is not a thing.’ This is what is called the Middle Way.

At first, one enters directly through the very center, until the Middle Way becomes pure and true. Only when the successive stages of Faith, Abiding, Practice, and Dedication have reached this point can one skillfully attain the Middle Way. It is called ‘skillfully attaining’ because not the slightest hair’s breadth of effort is expended; this is attaining that which has nowhere to be attained. Since there is nowhere to attain, there is also nothing to expound. It is like a forbearing person who neither harbors doubt within nor speaks it aloud, but merely contains it in silence. Therefore it is called the Stage of Forbearance.

The Longtu official Wang Xiao, whose courtesy name was Guanfu, was one day at Zhaojue Monastery when he heard the wooden board signaling the end of meditation and awakened.

He then asked Patriarch Nantang, “I have an insight, but if someone suddenly questions me, I cannot open my mouth. I do not yet understand where the fault lies.”

Nantang said, “The fault lies in having an insight.”

The patriarch then asked him, “When did you assume office?”

He replied, “On the fourth day of the eighth month last year.”

The patriarch asked again, “When did you leave your post?”

He replied, “On the twentieth day of last month.”

Nantang said, “Then why do you say that you cannot open your mouth?”

Thereupon Xiao attained accord and awakening.

Wang Longtu seemed to have realized the Stage of Forbearance; through a few words from Patriarch Nantang, his insight immediately vanished.

Yet there are also cases in which one has surpassed the Stage of Forbearance but has not achieved complete penetration and liberation. For example, Wuzu Fayan was directed by Fushan Yuan to call upon Patriarch Baiyun Duan. Wuzu Fayan presented the story of the monk who asked Patriarch Nanquan about the mani jewel and requested instruction in its essential meaning. Duan immediately shouted at and rebuked him. Fayan awakened and presented this verse of striking the mechanism:

“Before the mountain lies a tract of idle land;
With folded hands, I respectfully asked the patriarch.
How many times I sold it and bought it back again,
For love of pines and bamboo sporting in the clear wind.”

Duan gave him special confirmation and appointed him an administrator in the monastery. Before long, Duan came and said, “Several meditation visitors have arrived from Mount Lu, all of whom have attained some entry through awakening. Ask them to speak, and they can speak with some coherence. Raise a causal encounter and question them, and they can explain it. Ask them to offer a turning phrase, and they can also produce one. The only thing is that they are not yet within it.”

At this point, Fayan aroused great doubt and thought to himself, “Having awakened, they can speak of it, and clearly they already understand it. Why, then, are they not yet within it?”

He investigated for many days and suddenly awakened. All at once he relinquished his former mind that cherished the treasure and ran to find Baiyun Duan. Duan stamped his feet and waved his hands. Fayan merely burst into laughter.

Patriarch Fayan later told people, “Through this, I escaped from a dead corpse and immediately understood the matter of sporting in the clear wind.”

Thus one should know that if even the slightest thread has not been transformed, the obstruction of principle still remains. The four wondrous and perfect preparatory practices are like this; how could there be only four approaches?

Sutra: “Measurement and enumeration are extinguished; delusion, awakening, and the Middle Way alike have no designation. This is the Stage of Foremost in the World.

Commentary: Mind and Buddha being both identical means that here and there have already been forgotten; skillfully attaining the Middle Way means that the two extremes have already been left behind. Yet if there are two things that are identical, some trace of information still remains therein. This is measurement and enumeration; this is designation. Measurement and enumeration are what worldly people can calculate; designation is what worldly people can point out. Thus one has not yet gone beyond the world.”

The Buddha-body is unconditioned and does not fall within measure or number. When all measuring and counting are extinguished, there is no matter of falling into them. What is meant by extinction? Whatever involves sameness or difference, delusion or awakening, attainment or loss, belongs to measure and number and can be classified under categories. Here, one solely and skillfully realizes the Middle Way; therefore, it cannot be called delusion. Yet even the place of attainment is to be forgotten; therefore, it cannot be called awakening. It cannot be conjectured or conceived. This is precisely the true place where every measure and number is extinguished.

The reach of worldly thought and calculation extends only to knowing that there is a Buddha and that there is a Way. Now it is said, “Mind is not Buddha; wisdom is not the Way.” Where, then, can thought find a place to lodge? The reach of worldly categories extends only to such sameness and such attainment. Now it is said, “In sameness there is nothing made the same; in attainment there is nothing attained.” Where, then, can one steal a glimpse of the wondrous?”

At this point the stages of the Inner Ordinary Ones are exhausted, and one is about to enter the noble stages. Only a noble one can know a noble one; this cannot be glimpsed through worldly opinions. Because it surpasses what the world regards as lofty, it is called the Foremost Stage of the Worldly Truth. Upon entering the Ten Bhūmis and reaching the culmination of Wondrous Awakening, it is again called the Foremost Transcendent Stage.

A monk asked Patriarch Dongshan, “Among the three bodies, which body does not fall within measure and number?”

The Patriarch said, “I am always within it, without the slightest gap.”

Master Tiantong versified:

“Not entering the world, not yet following conditions,

Through kalpas, the house of ‘No Abode’ transmits its lineage.

On the autumn river, the breeze is gentle, the water-parsley white;

At the ancient ferry, an evening boat bears a single mantle of frost.”

This verse is even more intimately accordant with the place that does not fall within measure and number.

Chan Master Tongan Zhi succeeded Patriarch Tongan Pi. When Patriarch Pi was about to pass away, he ascended the Dharma hall and said, “Before the Many-Sons Stupa [where the Buddha shared half his seat with Patriarch Mahakasyapa], all are outstanding descendants. What of the affair of the five elder predecessors?”

He said this three times, but no one could answer.

At last, Tongan Zhi stepped forward and said, “Throughout the bright night, beyond the curtain all is spread out securely; for ten thousand miles, joyful songs proclaim the Way of great peace.”

Patriarch Pi said, “Only this donkey-named fellow will do.”

Later, when serving as abbot, a monk asked Master Zhi, “Where the two functions do not reach, how is it raised and proclaimed?”

Patriarch Zhi said, “Nowhere is it encountered; within the Mysterious it is not lost.”

Master Danxia versified:

“That shore and this bank can scarcely meet;

Even the two words ‘impartiality’ are empty within.

The crimson orb sinks westward beyond the distant mountains,

Vainly leaving its solitary reflection upon the eastern stream.”

Here, delusion and awakening, as well as the Middle Way, have no place whatsoever to which they may be referred. This is precisely where the two functions and conditions cannot reach. Yet Tongan Zhi establishes neither side, does not abide in the Middle Way, and does not remain even in the Middle Way. Only this is the True School of Nonattachment, the loftiest and foremost within the Chan school. How could it be merely the Foremost Stage of the World?

VII. THE TEN BHŪMIS

Sutra: “Ananda, that good man has skillfully attained complete penetration within Great Bodhi. His awakening communicates with the Tathagata, and he has fully penetrated the Buddha-realm. This is called the Bhūmi of Joy.

Commentary: Great Bodhi here is precisely the “single path beyond,” the vital nexus of the lifeblood of all Buddhas. To penetrate it thoroughly is to attain great and complete awakening: “Seeing that all characteristics are not characteristics, one thereby sees the Tathagata.” Having seen the Tathagata, one fully penetrates the Buddha-realm.

The Buddha-realm can be fully and ultimately penetrated only by Buddhas together with Buddhas; it is an inconceivable realm. Even correspondence through the perfect interfusion of the Three Truths [Emptiness, Provisional Existence, and the Middle] is not yet ultimate. The purely true Middle Way appears no different from Bodhi, yet knowing that the Middle Way is not to be abided in—that is Great Bodhi.

The preceding stage of the Practice of Joy was replete with immeasurable wondrous virtues and accorded with all ten directions. Because it was spoken of in terms of meritorious qualities, it belonged to Practice. Here, one thoroughly penetrates unsurpassed Bodhi, transcends the ordinary, and enters the noble.

Having set foot in the Buddha-realm and ascended to a fruition stage, it is therefore called a Bhūmi.

One first attains the joy of the Dharma. Joy arises from thorough penetration and from attaining freedom from every obstruction. Yet in truth, it is attainment with nothing attained and joy with nothing in which to rejoice. It is not a joy that worldly sentiments can fathom.

Assistant Commissioner Liu Jingshen entered official service at a young age by virtue of his talent, but he had not yet developed faith in the Buddhadharma. After receiving guidance from Chan Master Zhaojue Zong, he became deeply devoted to the Patriarchal Way.

When he arrived in the capital, he paid his respects to Chan Master Huilin Chong. At that time, a monk asked Patriarch Xuedou, “What is the original source of all Buddhas?”

He replied, “The chill hue of a thousand mountains.”

As soon as these words ended, Liu experienced an awakening.

For more than a year, while awaiting an official appointment, he studied under Master Shaoshan Gao. When he was about to depart to assume office, he took leave of the Master. The Master admonished him, “Apply your mind in this way; why worry that you will not awaken? Later, should an extraordinary state arise and immeasurable joy appear, quickly gather it in. If you can gather it in, you will immediately become a vessel of the Dharma. If you cannot, illness and unrest will arise, resulting in the fault of a deranged mind.”

Not long afterward, he returned to the capital and inquired into this matter under Chan Master Zhengjue Yi.

Patriarch Yi said, “The ancients said, ‘The ordinary mind is the Way.’ Now, throughout the twelve periods of the day, you emit light and shake the earth without knowing it yourself; instead, you run wildly outward in search of it, becoming stranger to it and farther away with each passing day!”

His doubt only deepened, and he did not understand.

One night, when Liu entered the Master’s chamber, Patriarch Yi brought up a passage from the Record of the Transmission of the Lamp: “King Xiangzhi asked the Venerable Patriarch Bharati, ‘What is Buddha?’ Patriarch Bharati said, ‘The nature of seeing is Buddha.’” He then questioned Liu about it.

Liu was unable to say anything, and his doubt became still more intense. He then returned to his quarters and fell sound asleep.

During the fifth watch, he awoke. Just as he suddenly recalled the matter, he beheld all kinds of extraordinary signs. Inside and outside were completely transparent; the six sense faculties trembled, and heaven and earth revolved together. It was like clouds parting to reveal the moon, and no joy could surpass it. Suddenly he remembered Patriarch Shaoshan’s admonition when they parted, so he restrained himself and waited until morning before relating what he had realized.

He said, “Is there no need to practice it?”

Patriarch Yi said, “What sort of affair is that, that you should speak of practicing it?”

Liu remained silent and accorded with it.

Later, he composed eight Verses Illuminating the Mind-Ground and the essay Clarifying the Way to Admonish the Confucians, in order to awaken the world.

As for what Commissioner Liu realized, it is not known how it compares with the First Bhūmi; nevertheless, his extraordinary joy did not fail the prediction bestowed by Master Shaoshan. Was this not also the affair of manifesting in the body of a high official and arriving at this point?

Sutra: “The nature of difference enters into sameness, and the nature of sameness is also extinguished. This is called the Stainless Bhūmi.

Commentary: Previously, mind and Buddha were both the same, and measure and number were extinguished; this was discussed solely in terms of returning to the one good nature that is our own. Now, “the nature of difference enters into sameness” reveals that sentient beings and lands share this single nature. Snakes and dragons mingle, ordinary beings and noble ones intermix: this is the realm of a bodhisattva.

Unless one awakens to and fully penetrates the Tathagata’s intent of neither defilement nor purity, it is not easy to comprehend this point. If one sees the nature of sentient beings as different, one thereby sees sentient beings as defiled. Now that difference has entered into sameness, one has departed from the defilement belonging to the boundary of defilement.

If one sees sentient beings as having the same nature, the nature of sameness has not yet vanished; this is the defilement of Dharma. Now the nature of sameness is also extinguished, and one thereby departs from the defilement belonging to the boundary of purity. This Stainless Bhūmi is especially honored among the bodhisattva stages: it severs and abandons the defilement belonging to the boundary of purity and returns to the Tathagata’s originally undefiled fundamental essence.

It cannot be discussed merely in terms of departing from the defilement belonging to the boundary of defilement.

A monk asked Patriarch Ruiyan, “What is Buddha?”

He replied, “A stone ox.”

Question: “What is the Dharma like?”

Answer: “A stone ox-calf.”

Question: “Then is it not sameness?”

Answer: “It cannot be joined.”

Question: “Why can it not be joined?”

Answer: “When there is no Sameness with which to be the same, what could it be joined with?”

Again, a monk asked Patriarch Caoshan: “Snow covers a thousand mountains; why is that solitary summit not white?”

The Patriarch said: “You must know that there is Difference within Difference.”

Question: “What is Difference within Difference?”

Patriarch Caoshan said: “It does not fall within the colors of the various mountains.”

Patriarch Ruiyan was skilled in speaking of Sameness; Patriarch Caoshan was skilled in speaking of Difference. Consider the two cases together, and you will know that when the nature of Difference enters Sameness, there is no Sameness with which to be the same. When defilement is left behind, there is difference; thus it is Difference within Difference. How could this be fathomed through a shallow view?

Sutra: “When purity reaches its utmost and luminosity arises, this is called the Ground of Radiance.

Explanation: When a great round mirror is entirely free of dust, it may already be called pure, yet it is not utterly pure, for the Defilement of Dharmas [the defilement caused by attachment to dharmas] remains. Once the Defilement of Dharmas has been left behind and the obstruction of the knowable has been cleansed, the luminosity of Original Enlightenment then arises. From samadhi, wisdom emerges, naturally possessing a measure of brilliant light that cannot be compared with ordinary awakened illumination.

The preceding verse already said: “When purity reaches its utmost, luminosity penetrates throughout. Tranquil illumination pervades empty space.” In such a realm, each and every thing is luminous in itself, and all phenomena are penetratingly clear in themselves; how could any dimness remain there?

Patriarch Dongshan asked Elder Mishi: “What are you doing?”

He answered: “Holding a needle.”

Patriarch Dongshan said: “What is the matter of holding a needle like?”

He answered: “Every needle is the same.”

Patriarch Dongshan said: “We have traveled together for twenty years, and still you speak such words?”

Mishi asked: “Then what about you, Elder?”

Patriarch Dongshan said: “The great earth bursts into flame!”

Master Tiantong brought this up, saying:

“The great earth bursts into flame;

Within it, not a single hair is admitted.

The South Sea and Kunlun—

In cold weather, they wear no socks.

Patriarch after Patriarch transmitted it:

One mass of filth!”

This points out that when true awakening has arisen, mind seals mind with the Buddhas and Patriarchs. This Ground of Radiance cannot be discussed casually.

Venerable Yinshan composed this verse:

“From ancient times I have dwelt in three thatched rooms;

One path of wondrous light, and the myriad scenes are still.

Do not bring right and wrong forth to examine it;

How could the contrivances of this fleeting life concern it?”

Is what he speaks of not precisely “When purity reaches its utmost and luminosity arises”?

Sutra: “When luminosity reaches its utmost and enlightenment pervades everywhere, this is called the Ground of Blazing Wisdom.

Explanation: When luminosity has reached its utmost and enlightenment pervades everywhere, it is like a great mass of fire: whatever touches it is burned, and all conditioned shadows are utterly consumed. It is called not merely Wisdom but Blazing Wisdom, for it is wisdom at its ultimate point. It cannot be approached; it is the Wisdom of Prajnaparamita.

A tiny insect may alight anywhere, but it cannot alight upon a blazing flame. Discriminating consciousness [the mind of samsara] can form conditions everywhere, but it cannot form conditions upon the Wisdom of Prajnaparamita. Therefore, it is called the Ground of Blazing Wisdom.

Patriarch Panshan ascended the hall and said: “That solitary, perfectly full moon of mind—its radiance swallows the myriad forms. The radiance does not illuminate objects, and objects no longer remain. When both radiance and objects have vanished, what is it?”

Patriarch Dongshan offered an alternative, saying: “When radiance and objects have not yet vanished, what is it?”

Patriarch Baofu presented this to Master Changqing and asked: “According to these two masters, ultimately it has not been completely extinguished. How, then, can it be completely extinguished?”

Master Changqing remained silent for a long while.

Patriarch Baofu said: “Clearly, you make your livelihood inside a demon’s cave!”

Master Changqing asked: “Then what would you do?”

Patriarch Baofu said: “With both hands, hold the water buffalo above the knees!”

Master Tiantong brought this up, saying: “Both vanished and not yet vanished—taking away the person and taking away the objects. Why did Patriarch Baofu disapprove of Master Changqing? Peace throughout the realm was originally brought about by the general, yet the general is not permitted to see that peace.”

From Patriarch Baofu’s perspective, one is not allowed to rest or cling even to the Ground of Blazing Wisdom; the profound becomes more profound still.

Sutra: “That which all Sameness and Difference cannot reach is called the Ground Difficult to Conquer.

Explanation: The wisdom of those who have not yet entered the Grounds is called Difference; the wisdom of those who have ascended the Grounds is called Sameness. Thus, even within what is originally Same, there are Sameness and Difference. Leaving defilement behind is purity, and when purity reaches its utmost, luminosity arises.

Emitting light is luminosity, and when luminosity reaches its utmost, enlightenment pervades everywhere. Before reaching the full ten parts, there are still Sameness and Difference of which one may speak; once all ten parts have been reached, there is no longer any Sameness or Difference to point out. When gold has regained its original color, what could be added or subtracted?

On what basis could it be designated as Same, and by what could it be designated as Different? Since there is no Difference to point out, ordinary sentiments cannot reach it. Since there is no Sameness to point out, sagely understanding cannot reach it.

If ordinary sentiments could reach it, the ordinary could gain superiority over it. If sagely understanding could reach it, the sage could gain superiority over it. But now all Sameness and Difference, sage and ordinary person, wisdom and thought, are unable to reach it. Since there is no reaching it, what could surpass or conquer it? Therefore, it is called the Ground Difficult to Conquer.

The Buddha said: “If there were even one dharma superior to nirvana, I would also declare it to be like a dream or illusion.”

Such nirvana is the Dharma Most Difficult to Conquer.

Patriarch Linji visited Master Fenglin.

The master asked: “I have a matter concerning which I would rely upon you; may I ask?”

Patriarch Linji said: “Why gouge the flesh and make a wound?”

Master Fenglin said: “In the silvery sea of moonlight there is no reflection. The fish sporting alone becomes lost of itself!”

Patriarch Linji said: “Since the moonlit sea has no reflection, how can the sporting fish become lost?”

Master Fenglin said: “Seeing the wind, behold the waves arise. Gazing at the moon, let the sail drift.”

Patriarch Linji said: “The solitary orb shines alone; mountains and rivers are still. At one long howl, heaven and earth grieve.”

Master Fenglin said: “Just use your luminous ‘Three Inches’ to illumine heaven and earth. Encountering the occasion, let me hear you utter a phrase.”

Patriarch Linji said: “When meeting a swordsman on the road, one should present a sword. Unless one meets a poet, one should not offer a poem.”

Master Fenglin then desisted.

Patriarch Linji then chanted:

“The Great Way cuts off sameness,

Freely following east and west.

A spark struck from stone cannot catch it;

A flash of lightning cannot penetrate it.”

Patriarch Guishan asked Master Yangshan: “If a spark struck from stone cannot catch it and a flash of lightning cannot penetrate it, then since ancient times, by what have the sages acted for the sake of people?”

Master Yangshan said: “What is your meaning, Venerable?”

Patriarch Guishan said: “There are only words, utterly devoid of true meaning.”

Master Yangshan said: “That is not so.”

Patriarch Guishan said: “Then what is your view?”

Master Yangshan said: “The barrier does not detain the needle, yet carriages and horses pass through separately.”

In essence, when Linji and Fenglin met, not even a flash of lightning or a spark struck from stone could adequately illustrate it; yet Yangshan said that carriages and horses pass through separately. This is precisely what is meant by: “For one who awakens, Kasyapa concealed nothing; for one who does not awaken, the Tathagata has secret words.”

Unless one has truly awakened in accord with reality to this place “which all Sameness and Difference cannot reach,” who could understand why it is Difficult to Conquer?

Sutra: “The pure, unconditioned nature of True Suchness is clearly revealed; this is called the Ground of Manifest Presence.

Explanation: Sameness and Difference cannot reach it, and it cannot be fabricated. Since it is not fabricated, it is True Suchness. This nature of True Suchness does not diminish in delusion or increase in awakening. It is only because it is obscured by defiled views and sentiments that it is not clearly revealed. Only when purity reaches its utmost and luminosity reaches its utmost does it become ‘perfectly round, brilliantly luminous, and crystal clear,’ impossible to grasp. The essence of quiescent extinction then becomes immediately present; therefore, it is called the Ground of Manifest Presence.

Master Da’an was about to pass through Hongzhou. On the road, after he had passed Shangyuan County, he met an old man who told him, “When you go to Nanchang, there will be a place where you attain realization.”

Master An then went to Patriarch Baizhang, bowed, and asked, “If a student wishes to seek knowledge of the Buddha, what is that?”

Patriarch Zhang said, “It is truly like riding an ox while searching for the ox!”

Upon hearing these words, Master An awakened and asked, “Once it is known, what then?”

Patriarch Zhang said, “It is also like riding the ox home.”

Master An said, “I still do not understand how it is to be safeguarded from beginning to end.”

Patriarch Zhang said, “It is like an oxherd holding a whip and keeping watch, preventing the ox from trampling another’s crops.”

From then on, Master Da’an received the essential meaning and sought no further. Later, he succeeded to the Dharma and became abbot at Mount Gui.