念佛三昧寶王論

SECTION XIV

MINDFULNESS OF PAST BUDDHAS: CAUSE AND EFFECT ARE CORRESPONDING

Question: I have already heard your teaching on the profound meaning of concentrating upon a single object in the present practice of mindfulness of the Buddha. The Buddha who is contemplated has reached the ultimate consummation of the Way and is therefore honored with the title Tathagata, whereas the practitioner mindful of the Buddha has only just awakened the aspiration to enter the Way and still occupies the position of an ordinary being. How could one presume to say that the practitioner is equal to Perfect Enlightenment?

Answer: The Samadhi Ocean Sutra says: The Buddha who is contemplated is like a lion king that has emerged from the womb, symbolizing the fruit of Buddhahood; the practitioner mindful of the Buddha is like a lion king still within the womb, symbolizing a child of the Buddha. Although cause and effect differ, their awe-inspiring powers are connected, for when speaking of Buddha-nature, how could there be any difference? It is not yet possible for the lion king still in the womb to roar and cause birds to fall in fright and beasts to flee. But once it has emerged from the womb, one may stand on tiptoe and await this—what fault could there be in that? Thus, the meaning that cause and effect correspond is one and the same.

The Dharma Drum Sutra says: “King Prasenajit went to war against an enemy kingdom and was struck by a poisoned arrow, suffering unbearable pain. The king heard of a marvelous medicine called the King of Antidotes, which was to be applied to the face of a drum; when the drum was then beaten, the poisoned arrow would spring out in response to its sound. The king did as instructed and recovered.

If anyone hears the name of Buddha Shakyamuni and the name of the bhikshu who possesses profound faith in the Vaipulya Sutras, this alone can cause the arrows of the three poisons within that person’s body to spring out. For this reason, this sutra is called the Great Dharma Drum.” Shakyamuni is a Buddha of the past and thus represents the effect. The bhikshu who possesses profound faith in the Vaipulya Sutras represents the cause; yet their power to eradicate karmic offenses and obstructions is the same.

The meaning is one and the same.

These two sutras teach that although one has not yet reached the ultimate fruit, when others hear one’s name, they receive the same benefit as though they had heard the names of the Buddhas, without any difference. Accordingly, the fifth fascicle of the Biographies of Masters and Disciples of the Lotus Samadhi records: During the Sui dynasty, the great Chan Master Huisi of Mount Nanyue had a disciple named Chan Master Dashan, who attained the Samadhi of Loving-Kindness and Compassion.

At that time, in Hengyang, the Administrator Zheng Sengjiao, who was not originally a person of profound faith in the Buddha, organized a hunting expedition. He surrounded and captured several dozen deer and said to Chen Zhengye: “You often say that Chan Master Dashan possesses the power of compassion. What can he do for this herd of deer?” Zhengye urged those around him to proclaim together, “Namo Chan Master Dashan.” At that moment, the entire herd of deer flew into the air and escaped.

How was this any different from the spiritual power of Avalokiteshvara? Dashan and Master Zhizhe were the two most renowned figures of their time. If one does not disparage the words of the sages, the samadhi of mindfulness of the Buddha will dispel demons and bring calamities to an end, just as metal is refined in a furnace, undergoing transformation ceaselessly day and night.

SECTION XV

MINDFULNESS OF THE BUDDHA WITH NO-MIND: CULTIVATING PRINCIPLE AND PRACTICE TOGETHER

Question: I have heard the profound meaning of universally contemplating the Buddhas of the three times or concentrating exclusively while facing a single direction. Yet all these involve thought and recollection, arising and ceasing. How could they accord with the teaching, “Cultivate mindfulness of the Buddha with a mind that has nothing to contemplate,” found in the Sutra of Questions Asked by the Heavenly King Shrivatsa?

Answer: The expression “no-thought” is easily misunderstood because many people fail to examine it carefully. Let us now discuss it in terms of principle and practice. The gate of principle teaches true no-thought.

This may be explained as follows: Both existence and nonexistence are precisely this very thought, yet this thought is originally empty. Why? Because the Buddha arises from the mind, and the mind itself is the Buddha.

Just as a knife cannot cut itself and a finger cannot touch itself, the Buddha does not make itself Buddha, nor does the mind make itself mind. How, then, could a mind be established apart from the Buddha, or a Buddha established apart from the mind? Since there is no Buddha, how could there be a mind?

The meaning of mindfulness of the Buddha with no-mind has thus been clearly explained.

Many people say that mindfulness of the Buddha is thought, whereas I say that mindfulness of the Buddha is no-thought. Thought itself is “emptiness”; how could it be called “existent”? It is not that thought must cease before emptiness is attained; how, then, could it be called “nonexistent”?

The nature of thought is itself empty; how could it be said to “arise and cease”? Furthermore, “a mind that has nothing to contemplate” means “one should abide nowhere,” while “cultivate mindfulness of the Buddha” means “and yet give rise to that mind.” Again, “a mind that abides nowhere” means “from the fundamental basis of non-abiding,” while “cultivate mindfulness of the Buddha” means “establish all dharmas.” Again, “a mind that has nothing to contemplate” means “thought itself is emptiness,” while “cultivate mindfulness of the Buddha” means “emptiness itself is thought”([20]).

The essential purport is no different; this elucidates the Middle Way.

Simultaneous quiescence is cessation; simultaneous illumination is contemplation. If concentration and wisdom are not balanced, there is no right absorption; how, then, could it be called samadhi? Illumination that is constantly quiescent is “a mind that has nothing to contemplate”; quiescence that is constantly illuminating is “cultivate mindfulness of the Buddha.” The Tathagata’s realization of the right concentration of quiescence and illumination is the ultimate stage of the samadhi of mindfulness of the Buddha. Therefore, this samadhi can give rise to the Shurangama King Lion’s Roar Samadhi. As the verse that refutes attachment to characteristics in the Bodhisattva Mindfulness of the Buddha Samadhi Sutra says:

Contemplate the Buddha’s golden-hued body,

Abiding with a mind free from attachment.

Ponder: What dharma is the Buddha?

Always gather the mind and contemplate.

The golden hue is not the Buddha;

The remaining four skandhas are likewise.

Apart from form, there is no Buddha;

Those who contemplate form should know

That this is the most supreme,

Quiescent serenity of the Tathagata.

It can skillfully extinguish all

Wrong views of non-Buddhist paths,

As the Dragon King sends down rain,

Moistening everything everywhere.

This sutra teaches that among the six paramitas and the myriad practices, there is not a single practice that is not the samadhi of mindfulness of the Buddha.

Question: The gate of principle has now been explained. I ask that you teach the gate of practice so that students may attain true no-thought in accord with prajnaparamita, thereby expanding the profound meditative concentration of the signless Great Vehicle.

Answer: How far apart could principle and practice possibly be? The preceding passage elucidated that principle itself is practice; this passage explains that practice itself is principle. The Great Prajnaparamita Sutra says: “For those of dull faculties, the Buddha teaches that all dharmas are empty and quiescent, because such people are prone to attachment.

For those of sharp faculties, the Buddha teaches the excellent marks of the Buddhas, knowing that they are like lotus flowers unstained by dust.” Therefore, among the followers of the Lesser Vehicle, Venerable Subhuti was foremost in understanding emptiness, beyond name and characteristics; yet when he received his prediction of Buddhahood, his title was Tathagata Name-and-Form. If Venerable Subhuti had not been a follower of the Great Vehicle, he would still have feared being disturbed by forms, sounds, odors, tastes, and tangible objects, and would not yet have finished fleeing from them; how, then, would he have dared to wander freely in the garden of names and characteristics?

Yet because he had mastered names and characteristics, he received the Buddha’s prediction.

To speak of the gate of phenomena is to say that the Buddha is born within the mind; in the Pratyutpanna Samadhi, without consciously intending it, he has already arrived. The myriad objects all arise from one’s own mind; before long, the meaning of the Lotus Sutra will naturally be realized. “The mind has nothing that it thinks upon” means putting an end to all confused thoughts; “yet cultivating mindfulness of the Buddha” means skillfully contemplating a single Buddha.

The Manjushri’s Teaching of the Mahaprajnaparamita Sutra says: “It is like a person learning archery. After practicing for a long time, he becomes proficient; thereafter, even without conscious intention, his shots still strike the mark. If anyone wishes to enter the Samadhi of the Single Practice, he should face the direction in which the Buddha dwells, invoke that Buddha’s name, and continue thought after thought without interruption.

Then, within a single thought, he will behold the Buddhas of the three times, just as the archer, after becoming thoroughly skilled through practice, strikes the mark even without conscious intention.” Is this not non-thought? Therefore, the Vaipulya Sutra says: “If one earnestly maintains mindfulness without ceasing, the Buddha will appear.” The Jeweled Necklace Sutra says: “The Way is single-mindedness; manifold thoughts are not the Way.” The Sutra on the Samadhi of Seated Meditation says: “When a bodhisattva sits in meditation, he does not think upon any other dharma whatsoever, but thinks only upon a single Buddha, like golden Mount Sumeru amid the vast, clear ocean.

Even the virtues of the Dharma body are contemplated in this way.”

Question: If non-thought is said to be samadhi, why not proceed directly into non-thought? Why take a circuitous route by employing thought?

Answer: The Lankavatara Sutra says: “Use one peg to remove another peg.” A proverb says: “Send a thief to catch a thief.” Why should it not be possible now to use thought to bring thought to rest? Moreover, once mindfulness has become thoroughly practiced, there is no need to worry about non-thought, for non-thought will naturally be accomplished without expending effort. It is like a swordsman performing a sword dance who, in the midst of the dance, suddenly thrusts the sword into the scabbard on his back without the slightest obstruction.

Or it is like a master cook wielding his knife to carve up an ox, the sound of the blade harmonizing with the music of the Mulberry Grove dance. Clearly, all this comes from consummate skill. Therefore, the Treatise on the Awakening of Faith says: “If one knows that although there is speech, there is neither a speaker nor anything that can be spoken, and although there is mindfulness, there is neither one who is mindful nor anything that can be contemplated, this is called accord with the Way.

If one becomes free from thought, this is called attaining entry.” Attaining entry means the Samadhi of Suchness. Moreover, the stage of Non-thought belongs to the rank of Wondrous Awakening, for at that stage one fully comprehends the characteristic of the mind at its initial arising. Thus it is said that the initial characteristic is the state of non-thought; it is not within the understanding of bodhisattvas of the Ten Bhumi.

Now, those who have not yet reached even the stage of the Ten Faiths, yet refuse to follow the instruction of the great master Ashvaghosha—to enter the inexpressible through speech and enter non-thought through thought—are no different from those who admire a lofty terrace while disparaging the gathering of earth to build its foundation, or who hold a robe upside down while searching for its collar. How could they succeed?

The Surangama Sutra records: “The Dharma Prince Mahasthamaprapta, together with fifty-two bodhisattvas who practiced with him, rose from his seat, bowed at the Buddha’s feet, and said to the Buddha: ‘I recall that, as many kalpas ago as there are grains of sand in the Ganges, a Buddha appeared in the world named Infinite Light. Twelve Tathagatas appeared in succession, the last Buddha being named Light Surpassing the Sun and Moon.

That Buddha taught me the samadhi of mindfulness of the Buddha. Suppose one person always remembers while another always forgets. Whether the two meet or do not meet, they will neither see nor recognize one another.

If both people think of one another and their remembrance grows ever deeper, then from this life through succeeding lives they will remain as close as a form and its shadow. The Tathagatas throughout the ten directions compassionately cherish and remember sentient beings as a mother remembers her child. If the child runs away, although the mother remembers him, there is nothing she can do.

But if the child remembers the mother just as the mother remembers the child, then mother and child will never be apart throughout their lives. If the minds of sentient beings always remember and are mindful of the Buddha, then in the present and in the future they will certainly behold the Buddha. They will not be far from the Buddha and, without need of expedient means, their minds will naturally awaken.

They are like people who anoint their bodies with fragrant incense, so that their bodies become fragrant. This is called “Adornment with Fragrant Light.” At the causal stage of my original practice, I used the mind of mindfulness of the Buddha to enter the patience of the non-arising of dharmas. Now, in this realm, I gather in those mindful of the Buddha and guide them toward the Pure Land.

The Buddha asks about perfect penetration. I make no other choice: gathering in the six faculties, with pure mindfulness continuing uninterrupted, one attains samadhi. This is foremost.’”

GATE XVI

WHEN MIND AND ITS OBJECTS ARE FULLY UNDERSTOOD, DELUSIVE THOUGHTS DO NOT ARISE

Question: When mind and its conditions are not fully understood, two kinds of delusive thought immediately arise. Now there is still the Buddha who is the object of mindfulness and the mind that performs the mindfulness. Are these not two kinds of delusive thought?

Answer: The Lankavatara Sutra says: “When mind and its objects are fully understood, delusive thoughts immediately cease to arise.” The mind of non-arising is precisely freedom from the characteristics of subject and object. I now contemplate such marks as the thousand-spoked wheels, the character , azure eyes, the white urna, and so forth; all are my own mind. I do not perceive any Buddha who can be sought.

Since the object does not exist, how could the mind exist either? Thus, the mindfulness that contemplates and the Buddha who is contemplated both naturally fall away. How, then, could this be called abiding in two delusive thoughts?

According to the realization transmitted successively among the ancient sages and saints, “delusive thoughts are devoid of inherent nature”; one must awaken to this directly, on the very spot.

Furthermore, one contemplates the Buddha’s true characteristic, and one contemplates the body in the same way. Whatever object one encounters is likewise; every object encountered is entirely true. No mind is other than Buddha, and the principle of the Middle Way pervades all.

How, then, could there remain a Buddha who is the object of contemplation? This may be further explained as follows: Suppose a person has a spot of ink on his nose. Looking into a mirror, he dislikes the ink spot but devotes himself solely to wiping the mirror.

Could he remove it in that way? Faced with beautiful and ugly, right and wrong objects before us, if we do not fully understand our own mind and merely try to eliminate external objects, could that succeed? It would be better to cleanse our discriminating thoughts, just as one wipes the ink spot from one’s nose.

Then the mirror will reflect with perfect clarity, the myriad objects will be wholly true, and at that very moment one will grasp stones and turn them into gold: sentient beings themselves are Buddha. Therefore, the Continued Biographies of Eminent Monks records that during the Qi dynasty, the layman Xiang wrote a letter to Chan Master Huike, which read as follows:

“A shadow appears because of a form; an echo follows a sound. To grasp at the shadow only wearies the form, because one does not know that the form is the source of the shadow. To utter a sound and then wish to stop its echo is not to know that the sound is the source of the echo.

One who eliminates afflictions in order to seek nirvana is like a person who avoids the form while searching for its shadow. One who abandons sentient beings in order to seek the Buddha-nature elsewhere is like a person who silences the sound while searching for its echo. Therefore, know that delusion and awakening follow a single path, and wisdom and ignorance are not different.

Where there is no name, a name is imposed, and because of that name, right and wrong arise. Where there is no principle, a principle is established, and because of that principle, disputes arise. Since illusory transformations are not real, what is right and what is wrong?

Since delusion is not substantial, what is nonexistent and what exists? Thus we know that attainment is the attainment of nothing attained, and loss is the loss of nothing lost. I respectfully present these idle words to you and hope that you will reply!”

Chan Master Huike borrowed brush and ink to reply to the layman:

You say the true Dharma is entirely thus,

Accord with truth, and the principle does not differ.

Originally deluded, one takes mani jewels for pebbles;

Suddenly awakening, one knows the genuine pearl.

Ignorance and wisdom are alike, without distinction;

Therefore, one should know that the myriad dharmas are Suchness.

Intended to refute those holding dualistic views,

I borrow words to convey my meaning in this letter.

Contemplate the body and the Buddha: they are not different;

Why should one seek elsewhere, far away?

The two eminent ones mentioned above both followed Master Bodhidharma’s Practice in Accordance with the Dharma. In principle, their contemplation and application of mind were both mindfulness of the Buddha’s Dharma-body—the Middle Way and the ultimate truth. Thus, they certainly did not depart from mindfulness to establish no-mindfulness, nor depart from birth to establish non-arising.

If no-mindfulness and non-arising were established apart from mindfulness and birth, this would mean that the principle “Afflictions are precisely nirvana; sentient beings are precisely the Buddhas” had not yet been understood; how, then, could one awaken to pebbles and stones as true pearls? Since separation cannot be attained, mindfulness of the Buddha is itself truly no-mindfulness, and rebirth is itself truly non-arising.

This meaning is as lucid as an autumn night when, in the clear stillness, the moon emerges from a bank of clouds. How could it resemble the foolish person who sees the pointing finger but not the moon?

SECTION XVII

SEEKING THE LIBERATION OF THE BUDDHAS WITHIN THE ACTIVITIES OF THE MIND

Question: I now believe that mindfulness of the Buddha is called true no-mindfulness and that rebirth is called true non-arising. The Vimalakirti Sutra says: “How should one seek the liberation of the Buddhas? One should seek it within all the mental activities of sentient beings.” Since it says that it should be sought within all mental activities, why not seek it directly within one’s own mind, instead of seeking a Buddha outside oneself?

Answer: You say that the unsurpassed and wondrous meditation of the Buddha-Remembrance Samadhi is not a seeking within mental activity. That is incorrect. I shall explain it clearly for you.

Mental activity operates amid three kinds of objects. First, it operates amid wholesome objects. The Buddha-Remembrance Samadhi is the wholesome among wholesome dharmas, just as the highest heaven is foremost among the heavens.

Second, it operates amid unwholesome objects, namely evil states such as greed, anger, delusion, and so forth. Third, it operates amid neutral objects, meaning that the mind does not abide in or engage with either good or evil. When discussed in terms of the principle of intrinsic nature, that principle encompasses all three; but when discussed in terms of accord with the principle, only wholesome objects remain.

The sutra says: “Attachment to self is defilement; non-attachment to self is purity.” This means that, failing to understand that the essence of Dharma-nature is free from stinginess, one acts contrary to Dharma-nature and does not practice giving. Even if one gives, if one abides in giving and cannot relinquish the thought of giving, what could this be if not defilement? If one can fully understand and accord with Dharma-nature, practicing dana-paramita (the perfection of giving) without perceiving the characteristics of stinginess or giving, and skillfully conforming to the principle, what could this be if not purity?

The unwholesome and the neutral run contrary to Dharma-nature and have nothing to do with the wholesome. Therefore, King Supreme Heaven asked the Buddha:

“How does a bodhisattva thoroughly comprehend dhyana-paramita?”

The Buddha replied:

“A great bodhisattva who studies prajnaparamita and practices dhyana-paramita should contemplate the kinds of objects amid which this mind operates—whether wholesome, unwholesome, or neutral. If it operates amid wholesome objects, one should diligently cultivate, like a lotus flower unstained by water, not allowing even a single unwholesome dharma to adhere to it.”

According to this teaching of the Buddha, how could one fail to abandon the unwholesome and the neutral? Thus, with a wholesome mind that accords with the principle and operates amid wholesome objects, one ardently remembers the Buddha and seeks liberation within mental activity. If one maintains that the mental activity of remembering the Buddha is not liberation, could liberation possibly be found in the two mental activities of the unwholesome and the neutral?

If one is deluded regarding this liberation, one remains submerged until the end of the kalpa; but if one directly awakens to it, one immediately realizes it, as swiftly as turning over one’s hand. Looking back at the examples set by virtuous masters of meditation, they were all likewise. The Tathagata, the Hero of the World, still regarded the Buddha-Remembrance Samadhi as supreme among his teachings on meditative concentration.

Other samadhis still involve dualistic oppositions and belong to the kinds of concentration practiced by ordinary beings. The Jewel King Samadhi, however, does not abide in the characteristic of high or low, wrong or right, samsara or nirvana, affliction or bodhi, purity or disorder, attainment of perfect awakening, liberation of sentient beings, sitting at the place of enlightenment, or non-attainment. It abides in none of these characteristics, just as one who awakens from a dream has neither coming nor going.

Therefore, the Large Prajnaparamita Sutra says: “Neither coming nor going is the Buddha.” In this way it accords with the principle of the Middle Way; how could it still abide at either extreme? As the verses in the Sutra on the Non-Activity of All Dharmas state:

It is like a person within a dream

Attaining the Buddha Way and liberating sentient beings;

Here there is neither Way nor sentient being—

The Dharma-nature of the Buddha is likewise so.

Seated at the place of enlightenment, nothing is attained;

If it cannot be attained, it certainly does not exist.

Knowledge and ignorance have the selfsame characteristic;

One who knows thus is the World-Honored One.

The nature of sentient beings is itself bodhi;

The nature of bodhi is itself sentient beings.

Sentient beings and bodhisattvas are also nondual;

One who knows thus is the World-Honored One.

SECTION XVIII

GENUINE REVERENCE EXPRESSED THROUGH OFFERINGS OF THE THREE KINDS OF KARMA

Question: I have heard the profound meaning of the contemplative approach to samadhi. As for making offerings through the three kinds of karma after the Buddha’s nirvana, does this generate abundant merit?

Answer: In discussing offerings throughout the ocean of the dharmadhatu, purifying the three kinds of karma amid the myriad practices is itself called making offerings. How much more, then, is contemplating the true object of contemplation also an offering? The Prajnaparamita Sutra on the Principle of Transcendent Wisdom says: “All dharmas, whether permanent or impermanent, are unattainable.” Is not the principle of making vast offerings to all the Tathagatas perfectly clear?

While the Tathagata was still in the world, those who presented offerings to express their sincere reverence spoke of oceans of incense and clouds of flowers perfuming and scattering throughout lands as numerous as particles of dust; yet even this was still considered meager. When a mahasattva entered contemplation, imagining Mount Sumeru as a lamp and the great ocean as its bowl of oil still did not satisfy his earnest reverence. Thus Bodhisattva Gladly Seen burned his golden-hued arm as an offering to the stupa of the Buddha Pure Radiance, his entire body blazing and illuminating the ten directions. Yet people today merely exalt their own minds and designate them as flowers, acting contrary to the proper forms of making offerings. How exceedingly arrogant this is!

You ask me whether making offerings after the Buddha’s nirvana produces abundant merit. Let me discuss this as well. Ding Lan carved wooden images of his parents and enshrined them in his home, serving them as though they were still alive.

His good name remains recorded in the annals to this day, and everyone praises him as a filial son. While the Tathagata was still in the world, his body radiant like a golden mountain and his majestic marks shining brilliantly, whoever saw him would readily arouse the mind of the Way and sincerely present offerings. That was truly easy.

Now, however, the Hero of the World has vanished; the moon has set beyond ranges of mountains. We can no longer attend upon his true form and must rely solely upon the scriptures, bringing forth the unsurpassed resolve before an image and offering a single flower. How precious such aspiration and such a mind truly are!

Is this not therefore more difficult?

The Nirvana Sutra says: “One who offers even a single flower petal will certainly be reborn in the Land of Immovability.” Therefore, a single stick of incense, a single flower, a single lamp, even one note of music, or food and drink—when offered wholeheartedly and joyfully to the Buddhas of the three times—are all wondrous causes for birth in the Pure Land and the source of attaining sagehood. How could one disdain these minor acts and fail to perform them obediently?

If one abandons these practices and instead follows such unfounded statements as, “Offer the flower of the mind, light the lamp of the mind, burn the incense of the mind, and bow to the Buddha of the mind,” while wishing to seek perfect awakening, one is no different from following the clever tricks of apes and monkeys while hoping to preserve an entire plum grove. Yet when told to wear the clothes of the mind and eat the rice of the mind, such people become distressed and object without end.

Are not the six paramitas and myriad practices intended to reveal and eliminate this mind of the view of emptiness? The assertion that “only the mind is illusory and empty”([21]) entails precisely such errors; one cannot fail to be cautious.

Yet the mantra, yoga, contemplation, and practice approach also employs the symbolic forms of the phenomenal approach; it does not cling exclusively to mind. Therefore, offerings of incense and flowers throughout the six periods are never abandoned.

SECTION XIX

THE MARKLESS OFFERING OF FLOWERS: BOTH FAITH AND SLANDER BRING RETRIBUTION

Question: Flowers belong to phenomena; where, then, is the principle? What retribution follows from faith and slander?

Answer: Flowers themselves are the principle, for form itself is emptiness. The recompense of faith is described in the Karunapundarika Sutra: “Long ago, there was a prince named Fearless, who held a lotus flower in his hand and offered it to the Buddha Ratnagarbha. The Buddha said: ‘You have impressed this lotus flower upon empty space.

I now bestow upon you the name Seal of Empty Space. In the future, you shall attain Buddhahood. Your world shall be called Lotus Flower, and your Buddha-name shall be Lotus Honored One.

That Buddha will be none other than you.’” The names of both that land and that Buddha arose from the lotus flower offered long ago. This reveals the meaning that “the fruit is experienced in accordance with the cause.” How could following the teaching of marklessness obstruct offerings of incense and flowers?

As for the retribution of slander, the Great Vaipulya Dharani Sutra states: “Long ago, there was a bhiksu named Pure Life who abided in right view and offered flowers. There was also another bhiksu named Dharma Practice who held wrong views. Because he had attained the four dhyanas, he constantly declared the emptiness teaching of prajnaparamita to be supreme. He disparaged Dharma Master Pure Life, saying: ‘Pure Life receives flowers but does not offer them; instead, he uses them for himself.’ Because of these words, he underwent the retribution of being without a tongue for sixty thousand lifetimes; even when he attained Buddhahood, he still dwelt amid the five turbidities. Who was that bhiksu? He was none other than Sakyamuni Buddha.

The Buddha taught: “Those who refuse to study and understand the principle of the Way, yet within my Dharma falsely cling to the two extremes, will fall into hell after death for hundreds of thousands of kalpas. If they look upon one who has aroused the aspiration for bodhi with malicious eyes, they will receive the retribution of blindness. If they speak malicious words slandering one who has aroused the aspiration for bodhi, they will receive the retribution of having no tongue.

If bodhi could be realized merely by cultivating prajnaparamita, then when King Kasika in the past practiced the bodhisattva conduct and relinquished such cherished parts of his body as his head, eyes, marrow, and brain, was that king not a person of wisdom?” From this, we know that all six paramitas must be cultivated fully. Clinging to only one approach is itself the work of Mara. How, then, could one abandon the offering of flowers and use the “pernicious grasping at emptiness” to injure the true, markless prajnaparamita?

If there were no retribution of being without a tongue, how could one recognize one’s own error and desist? The reason the Tathagata himself cited his former error was that he wished sentient beings not to follow the same disastrous course. If even a single flower is like this, then all images made of clay or wood, scriptures written on paper or silk, and all monks and nuns who cultivate the Way and uphold the Three Jewels, as well as the disciplines of morality, concentration, and wisdom—whether or not they are fields of merit—are all worthy of reverence. All enter the ocean of the Dharma realm through the true offering of the three karmas. What could be unacceptable and therefore cast aside? The verse from the Lotus Sutra states:

If people, at stupas and shrines,

Before jeweled images and painted images,

With flowers, incense, banners, and canopies,

Reverently make offerings,

Or utter even the slightest sound,

They have all attained the Buddha Way.

SECTION XX

THE TEN THOUSAND VIRTUOUS DEEDS RETURN TO THE SAME SOURCE AND ALL BECOME SAMADHI

Question: Generally, those who keep lamps continually burning will be born in the palaces of the sun and moon. Incense, flowers, banners, and canopies are no different from lamps and candles; they likewise bring the blessed recompense of birth in the heavenly realms. Yet the Buddhist sutra says, “They have attained the Buddha Way.” Is such recompense not exceedingly profound?

Answer: When an emperor goes forth on an excursion, ten thousand carriages and a thousand officials, soldiers, and attendants all come to guard him. Anyone who violates the imperial command dies immediately. When the emperor turns his carriage back toward the palace, the troops disperse, each returning to his own encampment.

If anyone then claims to be an imperial guard, he likewise dies at once. The soldiers are the same, yet life and death differ because the conditions giving rise to the situations differ, resulting in honor in one case and disgrace in the other. If we merely use incense, flowers, banners, canopies, lamps, and candles without encountering the ultimate meaning of the Lotus Sutra, which is like the emperor’s command, then we will indeed receive recompense in heavenly palaces.

But now that we have encountered the aid of the Jewel King Samadhi, even the offering of a single flower has already become the Buddha Way. The conditions giving rise to the seed of Buddhahood also proceed from this. The principle of the teaching is likewise so: just as all birds on Mount Sumeru assume the same color as the mountain, and the ten thousand rivers flowing into the vast ocean lose their separate names.

Therefore, in the Manjusri Universal Gateway Assembly of the Maharatnakuta Sutra, all devas, nagas, the eight classes of beings, hell beings, animals, forms, sounds, fragrances, and so forth—all the ten thousand dharmas—are samadhi. It is like a single hair containing the great ocean, or a mustard seed holding all of Mount Sumeru. Are the hair and mustard seed truly so wondrous?

It is simply that their wondrousness lies in that very thing([22]). Thus, we know that understanding is like the eyes and practice is like the feet. Right understanding leads to right practice; wrong understanding leads to wrong practice.

Whether one belongs to Mara or Buddha, and whether one’s attainment is shallow or profound, all depend upon understanding. Therefore, the Nirvana Sutra says: “To be lax concerning the precepts is not called laxity; only to be lax concerning the Vehicle is called laxity.” The Vehicle is another name for wisdom and understanding. As it is with one practice, so it is with the ten thousand practices.

The Lotus Samadhi is precisely the buddhanusmrti samadhi. This samadhi is called by the Tathagata the supreme concentration, the Jewel King Samadhi, the treasury of light, the jewel that removes transgressions, the lamp that destroys wrong views, the guide leading one out of deluded paths, the king’s golden seal, the treasure store of the poor, the emptiness samadhi, the sacred samadhi, dharani, true reflection, the supreme contemplation, the wish-fulfilling jewel, Buddha-nature, Dharma-nature, Sangha-nature, the inexhaustible treasury, the supreme skillful means, the great light of wisdom, the Samadhi of Contemplating the Dharma that Extinguishes Evil, and so forth.

Therefore, one should know that all teachings, principles, practices, and fruits, and the eighty-four thousand gates of the paramitas, are all alternative names for the buddhanusmrti samadhi. Thus, offering a single flower is also to make offerings universally throughout all lands, as numerous as motes of dust, across the three times. To recollect one Buddha is, in essence, to encompass all future Heroes of the World.

It is like shooting an arrow into the vast earth—how could it fail to strike? If it were not so, it would indeed be blameworthy, as the Sutra of the Questions of Brahma says: fearing emptiness, abandoning emptiness, practicing emptiness, and seeking emptiness.

The guest said: When a physician departs, he leaves medicine behind; when a merchant departs, he entrusts his gold to another. Unless one is worthy, one cannot shoulder the principles guarded and maintained by the ancient sages. Though this disciple has not yet penetrated the principle of the Way, I have been permitted a glimpse through the gateway of samadhi.

I yearn for the unborn and hope that the truth of the One Reality may be made manifest like an imperial decree, and that the Dharma may be regarded as a precious seal. Movement and stillness illuminate each other; principle and phenomena perfectly interpenetrate. Every stirring of mind is true, and every encounter with conditions increases the Way.

Uttering a single “Namo” becomes the Buddha Way; scattering flowers or snapping one’s fingers leads directly to bodhi. Therefore, the Lotus Sutra esteems itself as the king of all sutras, a golden needle that removes the cataract obscuring the eyes. These twenty gateways of profound meaning, never heard before, have dissolved the transgression of slighting sentient beings and enabled me to roam upon a land adorned with precious jewels.

How fortunate indeed!

I now vow that, without changing this very body, I may receive the wondrous prophecy of clarified butter and realize that the Buddhas are present within sentient beings themselves. Thereafter, I shall bow my head in homage before the stupa of Prabhutaratna. Facing the Lotus Sangha, I ask them to join me in universally contemplating the World-Honored Ones throughout the ten directions and perfectly recollecting the Buddhas of the three times. Kneeling upright with palms joined, I recite this verse:

Single-mindedly recollect the Buddhas of the past

Recollect the World-Honored Ones of future ages;

The World-Heroes who abide in the present

Also practice precisely according to the Dharma as taught.

There is no Buddha belonging to the past,

Nor any in the present or the future;

There is only the subtle, pure gate of meditation,

Which cannot be expressed in words; only one who realizes it can expound it.

Notes:

[20] “The mind has nothing it recollects” pertains to contemplation of principle, while “yet one practices recollection of the Buddha” pertains to practice in phenomena. The statement “The mind has nothing it recollects, yet one practices recollection of the Buddha” may be correlated with the statement “One should give rise to that mind which abides nowhere” in the Diamond Sutra; the statement “From the fundamental basis of non-abiding, all dharmas are established” in the Vimalakirti Sutra; and the statement “Form is precisely emptiness; emptiness is precisely form” in the Heart Sutra.

[21] Clinging to the mind and falsely asserting emptiness: Clinging to the mind-nature while discarding phenomenal characteristics, speaking of the principle of emptiness while repudiating forms.

[22] Its wondrous profundity: The wondrous profundity of the true-suchness nature of all dharmas (the true Dharma, the true characteristic of reality).