 |
||
|
||
|
||
| Contents Door 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 previous next * Preface | ||
Prologue:
Seven, in order to speak of supreme conduct. In wishing to ascend to the wonderful position. If one fails to practice, one does not rank. Therefore, “The superior person does not fear having no position, but fears he himself does not stand.”Commentary:
Seven, in order to speak of supreme conduct. The Seventh Cause tells about the most supreme doors of practice. In wishing to ascend to the wonderful position, if you wish to attain the Ten Dwellings, the Ten Conducts, the Ten Transferences, the Ten Ground, Equal Enlightenment, and then Wonderful Enlightenment, which is the “Wonderful Position”, if one fails to practice, one does not rank. You have to cultivate. If you don’t have a door of practice to cultivate, you do not rank. You cannot reach those ranks or attain those positions for which cultivation is required. And so after discussing the positions, the text speaks of supreme conduct.
Therefore, in the Analects of Confucius it says, “The superior person does not fear having no position, but fears he himself does not stand.” It says, “You mustn’t be concerned about not having any position. Just worry about whether you are cultivating or not,” “Not standing” means not cultivating. If you bring forth the resolve to cultivate, you will certainly obtain the positions. In the Analects, not fearing having no position, just fearing oneself does not stand refers to standing up and seeking to be filial. The next lines go on to say:
“He does not fear not being known,
but seeks to be one who could be known.”
You shouldn’t worry about no one knowing who you are. Don’t think, “I’m studying the Buddhadharma and who knows about me?” You don’t need to let people know. If you seek to cultivate very well, people will naturally come to know about you.
There are many self-styled cultivators of the Way with no cultivation behind them who inform me, “Now I’m living in the mountains.” In Hong Kong there was someone who had lived in the mountains for three months who came down and started saying, “It’s really good to live in the mountains. Now I’m living in the mountains, just like in seclusion. I use this and that kind of effort there. It’s really fine.” Down from three months in the mountains and he’s hanging out his shingle, hiring himself our as an old cultivator.
That “old cultivator” was too worthless, and so I told him, “Wow, you are really intelligent. You lived in the mountains three months, and now you advertise it everywhere. I lived over ten years in the mountains and no one knew about it; nor was I able to say, ‘I’m living in the mountains now.’ I’m too stupid to say that.”Prologue:
Conduct is also of two kinds: One, the sudden accomplishment of all conducts, because one conduct is all conducts. The Ten Dwellings Chapter says, “The one is just the many, and the many are just the one,” and so forth. The Chapter of the Conduct of Universal Worthy says, “Because when one is cut off, all are cut off,” and so forth.Commentary:
Conduct is also of two kinds. The supreme conduct also falls into two categories. One, the first, is the Sudden Accomplishment of All Conducts. Conducts are the doors of practice which we cultivate. Of doors of conduct, some are those cultivated by individuals with dispositions for the Great Vehicle, and so there is sudden accomplishment of all conducts, one very quickly perfects all doors of conduct, because one conduct is all conducts. People who are very intelligent and have sharp roots can, by perfecting a single door of conduct, awaken to each and every door of conduct. They, as it is said:
Hear one thing and understand ten.
Confucius’ disciple Yen Yuan was like that. Upon hearing Confucius explain one principle, he understood ten principles, which is just the meaning of one conduct being all conducts. Tzu Kung would hear Confucius explain one principle, and when he went back to his quarters he understood two kinds of principles from it. His disposition was not as sharp and intelligent as that of Yen Hui.
The Ten Dwellings Chapter says, “The one just the many” One door of conduct is many kinds of doors of practice, “And the many are just the one.” When one understands this principle, one realizes that the one and the many are non-dual. One is derived from many, and the many have their source in the one. One and many are the same. The many are made up of individual one’s, and one is a unity of the many; and so forth. There are many discussions of this principle.
The Chapter of the Conduct of Universal Worthy says, “because when one is cut off, all are cut off,” and so forth. In the Chapter of the Conduct and Vows of Universal Worthy Bodhisattva, this statement talks about cutting off afflictions, severing deviant knowledge, deviant views, and ignorance. To put it more precisely, it means cutting off desire. When that is cut off, and you have no more desire, then you have cut off everything. The worst problem for those who cultivate the Way is desire. If you can rid yourself of desire and cast out love, cutting off emotion, then it is easy to accomplish your work in the Way. Then, when one is cut off, all are cut off. If you can sever your thoughts of desire, which means to cut off ignorance, then all has been cut off and you have no further faults. All faults arise from ignorance. If you don’t cut that ignorance off, then you cannot see the Buddha nature. But if you do cut it off, the light of your wisdom will shine forth.
That is why one says in making the Four Vast Vows:
Living beings are boundless, I vow to save them all.
Afflictions are unending, I vow to cut them off.
Dharma doors are limitless, I vow to learn them all.
Buddhahood is unsurpassed, I vow to accomplish it.
It’s one thing to say, “When one is cut off, all are cut off,” but it’s not easy to understand, much the less out into practice and actually do the cutting off. It speaks of cutting off, but now I’m telling you: don’t cut if off. Don’t even cut off the one. Transform it. Ignorance is lack of understand: change it into understanding.
“How can it be transformed?” you ask. When you understand, you’ve transformed it. It doesn’t take the least bit of effort. You only need to realize it’s not right, and turn back.Prologue:
Two, the progressive accomplishment of all conducts. This is just successive gradations. It means the merit and virtue of the substance and characteristics of one’s own great thought for bodhi, up to and including the conducts within equal enlightenment.
These two are non-obstructive, in detail as discussed in the positions.Commentary:
Two, the progressive accomplishment of all conducts. This is just successive gradation. The first, the sudden accomplishment of all conducts, was perfect fusion. The second, the progressive accomplishment of all conducts, is the successive gradations. What is meant by successive gradations? It means the merit and virtue of the substance and characteristics of one’s own great thought for Bodhi. That is, when one first brings forth the thought for Bodhi, from within that substance there arise the merit and virtue of the characteristics of that substance, up to and including the conducts within equal enlightenment, leading to the accomplishment of Buddhahood. The great thought for Bodhi refers to the first production of the resolve for Bodhi. At that time you must have a straightforward mind, a profound mind, and a greatly compassionate mind. As it is said:
The straight mind is the Way Place.
If your mind is not straight, you cannot go to the Way Place; but with a straight mind you can go there very quickly. “Way Place” doesn’t just refer to a Temple, it means when one sits in the Bodhi Way Place, becomes a Buddha, and turns the great Dharma Wheel. The first requirement is a straight mind, one with no flattery or deception. By flattery is meant wanting to strike up acquaintance with rich people whom you see, giving them a high hat to wear. You put on a phony smile for them and say, “You’re really good; you do this and that.” In short, you say what the person will like to hear and flatter them. That kind of behavior may show a lack of arrogance, but it isn’t humility, which is a form of courtesy. Flattery means buttering people up in order to benefit in some way from them. Being humble and courteous to people is not with the intention of receiving gain. If you use the crooked mind of craftiness and deceit in your cultivation, you won’t be able to accomplish the Way. The straight mind is open, sincere and public spirited: it is the Way Place.
The second requirement is to have a profound mind. That means after bringing forth the great resolve for Bodhi one never retreats, never considers ceasing to cultivate. It means cultivating all wholesome conducts and never turning back. The final requirement is to have a greatly compassionate mind which wants to rescue all living beings. Whenever you see someone in distress, you should wish to save them. It means being unable to stand to see living beings suffer, feeling that if others are suffering it is the same as if I myself were suffering. To have that great determination to rescue every single being from suffering is to have a mind of great compassion.
The possession of those three kinds of minds is the great resolve for Bodhi. When those three unite into the thought for Bodhi, there is merit and virtue of the substance and its characteristics, which take you up to and including the conducts within Equal Enlightenment, to wonderful enlightenment when you become a Buddha. in the seventy-eighth roll of the Sutra it speaks of the lamp of the thought for Bodhi, which uses great compassion for its oil and great vows as its wick. Its light shines throughout the Dharma Realm. That light is the straight mind. The wick is the profound mind. The oil is the greatly compassionate mind. Upon hearing this section of text we should bring forth a straight mind, a profound mind, and a greatly compassionate mind, and cultivate.
These two are non-obstructive, that is, the sudden accomplishment of all conducts and the progressive accomplishment of all conducts, in detail as discussed in the positions. This is explained at great length in the Ten Dwellings, the Ten Conducts, the Ten Transferences, the Ten Grounds, Equal Enlightenment, and Wonderful Enlightenment.
I recently told each of you to guard his or her own house, and afterwards I saw that no one really understood what I meant, thinking it meant the house they lived in. I was talking about guarding the house of your own mind and self-nature with its valuables, inner gold, silver and other treasures. To guard the door of your house means to guard your mouth.
When the mouth opens, the body’s energy is scattered.
When the tongue moves, rights and wrong arise.
As soon as you open your mouth, the energy you have cultivated is dispersed. If you aren’t lecturing Sutras and speaking Dharma but just indulging in gossip, you’re creating offenses. So guard your door, your mouth, for as soon as your tongue starts to talk, it results in gossip about rights and wrongs. In a Way Place, each person should use the light of inherent wisdom, the light of the lamp of Bodhi, to illumine. Ask yourself if your Bodhi lamp is lit or not.Prologue:
Eight, in order to set forth true Dharma. If one wishes to accomplishment the positions of conduct one must understand the principles of the Dharma. If there is no comprehension of principle and specifics, conduct also is not true. Therefore the Tushita verse says, “Beings do not understand true and actual Dharma, and so all Buddhas appear in the world.” This is also of two kinds: One, manifesting the Dharma of the non-obstruction of specifics and principle. Two, manifesting the Dharma of the non-obstruction of specifics and specifics, exactly as is discussed in the apportionment of meanings and principles.Commentary:
Eight, the Eighth Cause, is in order to set forth true Dharma. It states, if one wishes to accomplish the positions of conduct, one must understand the principles of the Dharma. If you fail to understand the principles of the Dharma, you won’t have any accomplishment to your cultivation. That is why it goes on to say, if there is no comprehension of principle and specifics, conduct also is not true. If you fail to understand principle and specifics, your cultivation will not be able to merge with the principle of True Suchness. Therefore the Tushita verse, that verse in the Flower Adornment Sutra, says, “Beings do not understand true and actual Dharma, and so all Buddhas appear in the world.” We people do not grasp the Dharma’s actuality, and all Buddhas come into this world of ours because of that.
This is also of two kinds. This falls into two categories: One, manifesting the Dharma of the non-obstruction of specifics and principle, the Dharma of specifics and principle not interfering with each other. Two, manifesting the Dharma of the non-obstruction of specifics and specifics, how specifics do not interfere with specifics, exactly as is discussed in the apportionment of meanings and principles. These principles are set forth in detail in the Third Door, The Apportionment of Meanings of Principles, but just stated in general here.Prologue:
Nine, in order to reveal the causal nature. That is, the previous causes, fruit, principle, and specifics, all exist because of the nature of living beings. If the nature were not gold or jade, although worked, it would not become a precious vessel.Commentary:
Nine, the Ninth Cause, is in order to reveal the casual nature. It had to be disclosed since, due to our previous covering of ignorance, we were unaware we had a casual nature, or that within our self-nature we possessed virtues many as the sands in the Ganges River. Nor did we realize our inherently enlightened wisdom was not different in substance from the Buddha’s enlightened wisdom. That is, the previous causes, fruit, principle, and specifics all exist because of the nature of living beings. They are inherently existent in the self-nature of living beings, not obtained from the outside. We had from the start, but didn’t know it, because they had not yet been revealed. Now they are revealed.
If the nature were not gold or jade, if what you had was not gold or jade to start with, although worked, even if you cut the polished it, it would not become a precious vessel. It would only turn out a precious vessel if it actually had been gold or jade in nature all along. Otherwise, you could do nothing. This is saying living beings basically have the Buddha-nature and so can become Buddhas. It’s because they don’t realize they can that they don’t cultivate those Dharma doors.Prologue:
Inasmuch as living beings comprise the virtues of the nature in their substance, they take the sea of wisdom as their source. It’s only due to the transformations of marks that the substance has differences. When emotion is produced there is severance from wisdom.Commentary:
Inasmuch as living beings comprise the virtues of the nature in their substance... Hidden within living beings are virtues of the nature many as the sands in the Ganges River, as well as the inherently enlightened wisdom of a Buddha. They are concealed inside however, and so living being are said to include those virtues of the nature in their substance. They take the sea of wisdom as their source. They draw their fundamental source from the enlightened nature. It is only due to the transformations of marks that the substance has differences. Living beings become confused about their inherent true suchness, and attach to names and appearances, forgetting all about their original self-nature of true thusness. When emotion is produced there is severance from wisdom. As soon as emotional love arises, one is cut off from one’s wisdom, so it has prevented from shining forth. That original wisdom then seems to be lost, but it has only been forgotten. You stop using that original wisdom it turns into false thinking instead.
“It is only due to the transformations of marks that the substance has differences” refers to reactions to states, while “When emotion is produced there is severance from wisdom” expresses this principle in terms of the mind. When emotion and love arise in your mind, they cover up your wisdom. Every one of us basically has the same kind of wisdom as National Master Ch’ing Liang, who could take in seven lines of writing one glance. But our emotions are so heavy they stomp our wisdom into the ground. What most prevents you from cultivating is emotion. As soon as it arises, it cuts you off from wisdom.
Speaking Dharma is very difficult. Whether you tell the truth or not, people don’t believe you. the force of living beings’ habits is such that if you tell them about good dharmas, they disbelieve, but they will believe the evil dharmas you tell them. Now quite a few people don’t believe that “When emotion is produced there is severance from wisdom” is correct. You can go home ad think it over. Whether you believe or not is up to you. That’s all I’m going to say about for now.previous next Contents * Preface
Door 1 pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
