Gatha 18 - 20
Commented by Master Yung Hsi, translated by Dr Chou Hsiang-Kuang
18
(Original)Fu Fa Tsai Shih Chien, Pu Li Shih Chien Chiao | Li Shih Mi Bo Dhi, Ch'ueh Ju Chiu Tu Chiao
(English version) The kingdom of Buddha is in this world, Within which enlightenment is to be sought | To seek enlightenment by separating from this word, Is as absurd as to search for a rabbit's horn.
The words fu fa mean Buddha-Dharma. The words shih chien mean the infinite impermanent world that is of two kinds: 1/ the world of the sentients, and 2/ the world as a vessel that contains countries.
Many people were in error when they spoke about the Buddha-Dharma as the way that leads out of the world, i.e. that [leaving the world] is enlightenment. As a consequence [in the past] many Buddhists resided in hills or caves, taking tree leaves as food; they covered their body by grassy cloths. Far away from society they pursued their solitary meditation. And in doing so they think themselves superior. But they don't know that the Buddha-Dharma is in this world, and that there is no need for leaving this world in order to seek enlightenment outside of this world.(1)
The Doctrine of the Mean(2) says:
'The path is not far from man. When men try to pursue a course, which is far from the common indications of consciousness, this course cannot be considered The Path.'
If you give up your own duty in society and search for enlightenment [by isolating yourself], it would just be like searching for horns on a rabbit's head -- rabbits don't have horns. Similarly, if you want to leave this world, there is no enlightenment [out there].
The Sixth Patriarch's Gatha says.
'For a fair mind observation of commandments is unnecessary,
For straightforward behaviour, practising Dhyana (meditation) may be dispensed with.
On the principle of gratefulness we support our parents and serve them fillialy.
On the principle of righteousness the superior and the inferior stand for each other [in times of need].
On the principle of complaisance the senior and junior are on affectionate terms.
On the principle of forbearance we quarrel not even in the midst of a hostile crowd.
If we can persevere till fire can be obtained through rubbing a piece of wood
Then the red lotus (Buddhanature) will surely shoot out from the mire.
That red lotus will for sure shoot out from the mire.
That which is bitter in taste is bound to be good medecine.
That which sounds unpleasant to the ear is sure to be frank advice.
By amending our mistakes we get wisdom.
By defending our faults we betray an unsound mind.
In our daily life we should, as a rule, practice altruïsm.
But Buddhahood is not obtained by giving away money as a charity.
Bodhi is to be found within our mind
And there is no necessity to look for mysticism outside it.
Hearers of this Gatha who put its teaching into actual practice
Will find the Western Paradise(3) in their presence.'
The Sixth Patriach again said,
'In all circumstances we should free ourselves from attachment to objects, and our attitude toward them should be neutral and indifferent [equanimous]. Let neither success nor failure, neither profit nor loss worry us. Let us be calm and serene, modest and accomodating, simple and dispassionate. Such is the 'Samadhi of the Specific Object'.
On all occasions, whether we are standing, walking, sitting or reclining, let us be absolutely straightforward. Then, remaining in our sanctuary, and without the least movement, we shall virtually be in the Kingdom of the Pure Land. Such is the 'Samadhi of the Specific Mode'. He who is complete with these two forms of samadhi may be likened to the ground with seeds sown therein. Covered up by mud the seeds receive nourishment therefrom, and grow until the fruits come into bearing.'
Those who cultivate according to this idea will, when the time comes, certainly attain enlightenment.
There was, for example, the [aforementioned] venerable Pao Hsiu. He asked a Dhyana teacher,
'— What was my original face before I was born?'
[In an all night meditation] The Dhyana teacher had been standing up until [it was now] midnight, and was in no position to answer properly. The next morning [at the end of the all night meditation] he was on his way [to leave the meditation hall]. Pao Hsiu said,
— 'Where do you want to go?'
— 'Yesterday you asked me a question that I could not answer properly. Now I'm considering going southwards to seek instructions from the learned audience.'
— 'In the south people don't come out in summertime; they come out in winter. In my place the people come out during wintertime, but not in summer. You may go out in the streets and spend your summer there. If there is a Buddha-Dharma there, you will find it among the markets. You will hear the voice of the Right Dharma [saddharma] in the vast, finite world.'
The Dyana teacher obeyed the instructions. Once he saw two men fighting in the street. One of them slapped the other and said, 'why don't you have face.' This awoke the Dhyana teacher and he attained enlightenment right there, in their presence.
Thereafter he called upon the ven Pao Hsiu, but before he could speak Pao Hsiu said,
— 'Now you know; no need to speak.'
The Dhyana teacher paid obeisance to Pao Hsiu.
This [episode] learns us that, with regard to the Buddha-Dharma, if we serve the people carefully, and deeply labour in our cultivation, the [fundamental spiritual] laws of this world (especially that of birth and death) is the way of leaving the world, i.e. [attaining] enlightenment. Mortality is nirvana; ignorance is the world, and enlightenment is the Western Paradise. As the Buddha said, 'If the mind is pure, the buddhaland is pure'.(4)
Ignorance and/or enlightenment are to be found in the mind; they are no external phenomena.
Confucius said, 'While you don't know mind, how can you know death?'
Mencius said, 'Jen (the principle of love) is humanitas [humanity].'
In the olden days there was a Dhyana teacher Yung of Niu T'ou who asked the Fourth Patriarch(5) about the essence of the Dharma. The Patriarch said,
'Hundred-thousands of Dharma-paryāya [Dharma-expositions] come back to the square inch (the mind); the wonderful virtues are countless as the sands of the Ganges; they are still in the mind. All the teachings of the commandments, meditations, and wisdom, the supernatural powers and the transformations (especially the mutations of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas) are in and of themselves complete and perfect; they are not away from your mind. All defilements and karmic hindrances are empty and still in origin. All causes and effects are like illusory dreams. There are no Three Realms for us to go to, and there is no Bodhi for us to seek. Between the humans and the animals is equality in nature and form. The great Way is vast and void, beyond our mentation and immagination. Such a Dharma you attained already, and there is no lack of it. You are not different from Buddha. Your mind should be free from delusion. Don't try to contemplate and act [as a form of contemplation]. There is no need of clearing the mind. Don't make any attempt on desire and hatred. Don't think of sorrowful and doubtful things. Behave as an ordinary human without worry and hindrance, and go wherever you like. Abstain from all evil, be virtuous in all actions. Whenever you are walking, abiding, sitting or lying down, whatever you have seen, whatever conviction you have, they are all wonderful utilities of Buddha. Happiness without sorrow is Buddha.'
Thereupon Dhyana teacher Yung asked the Fourth Patriarch,
'You don't allow me to contemplate and act [in the meditative way]. Should the circumstances be ripe, how to treat the mind?'
The Fourth Patriarch said,
'In circumstance itself lies no good or evil. Good and evil stem from your own mentation. If the mind doesn't call it good or evil, wherefrom the false sensations appear? If the false sensations don't start, the real mind understands all things. Your mind should be free from resistance and there is no need for thinking as to how treat them — this is called the eternal Dharmakaya.'
After that Dhyana teacher Yung attained enlightenment and his Dharmic mission became prosperous as that of the Fifth Patriarch at Hwang-may. This shows us how the Patriarch's Dharma is transmitted, that it has [the transference of] essence of mind, and that actually there is no duality of Dharma at all.
If you think of leaving this world to seek Bodhi outside, there is no [or, you will find no] thing [such as Bodhi] at all.
That is why the Gatha says, The kingdom of Buddha is in this world, Within which enlightenment is to be sought | To seek enlightenment by separating from this word, Is as absurd as to search for a rabbit's horn.(6)
Notes:
(1) [The present and the past tenses have been combined here on purpose on account of the fact that in the 20th-21rst cent. the described type of solitary meditation, living on less than the bare minimum, has become a thing for a mere handful of people - hence the past tense.]
(2) [See Gatha 5, footnote 3.]
(3) [Sukhāvati, the Pure Land of Amitābha Buddha.]
(4) [A passage from the Avatámsaka Sūtra.]
(5) [Tao-hsin (Jpn.: Doshin; PY.: Daoxin)(580-651) The Fourth Patriarch of the Chan School in China. After studying under the Third Patriarch, Seng-ts'an, he trained his successor, Hung-jen, and other disciples.]
(6) [The Lankāvatāra Sūtra abounds with similes of horns on rabbits and other non-horned animals. The Fourth Patriarch got his inspiration there.]
19
(Original) Chen Chien Min Ch'u Shih, Hsieh Chien Min Shih Chien | Hsien Chien Chin Ta Chuen, Bo Dhi Hsin Wan Jen
(English version) Right views are called 'transcendental'; erroneous views are called 'worldly'. | When all views, right or erroneous, are discarded, the essence of Bodhi appears.
The words chen chien mean 'the one and undivided view [mindset?] will not start the mental activity of discriminating [among] things, or else it would be an erroneous view.'
The Inscription of a Believing Mind, written by the Third Patriarch(1) says, 'If the mental activity doesn't come into action, the ten thousand dharma remain as they are.'
If we have the right view, then, although our physical bodies are still in the world, our minds are free from the world.
The Holy Pao Chih said, [Although] The capital is vast and crowded, it is still the great way to enlightenment.
Let me ask you a question: if your mind is not attached to the phenomena, then what will you call world? If and when your mental activity begins to discriminate among things, it will be a victim of happiness and unhappiness.(2) This is called 'the world'. Right and wrong are relative terms. Right is the medicine for curing the wrong. Once your disease is cured you should give up the medicine. However, the right should also be dismissed, [for] if the right and wrong are discarded, the spiritual light will shine and the original nature of Bodhi is seen clearly. Compare it to the previous sentence of 'when we are in a position to discard both of them.(3) The difference is this: the previous sentence explains the To illuminate our gloomy tabernacle which is stained by defilements | We should constantly set up the Light of Wisdom.(4) This sentence [of Gatha 19] refutes the idea [mentation] of 'world', and/or 'beyond this world', and that of the erroneous division between the two extremes that these ideas [of world and beyond world] entail.
[There is a] Gatha [that] says:
'Thus, without shutting your eyes and ears in order to escape from the external world
You may reach Buddhahood directly
....
Follow not those who seek 'enlightenment' on exterior paths;
these people talk about Bodhi all the time (but never find it.)'
The stand of the Chan School is that Buddha-Dharma and the worldly dharma are one.(5) If you can be mindless in the very moment, it is just as the lotus [that springs from] the mud. The mud is dirty but it will not affect the fragrance and the purity of the lotus.
Once upon a time there was a monk who had a question for Dhyana teacher Hai of Pai Chang.(6) [He asked:]
'Faced with the phenomena, how do you make the mind mindless as wood or stone'?
Dhyana teacher Hai said, 'No dharma [phenomenon] ever says it's material or immaterial. They never [speak and] say [words like] right or wrong, purity or impurity. They have no rope with which they bind people. People themselves give erroneous accounts, [they themselves give] a diversity of explanations; they [themselves] make adjustments and express many kinds of views and opinions. It is they who produce several degrees of affection and hatred. We must understand that the dharmas do not produce themselves. They appear out of our own mental activity and false thought(7), and assume different forms. If we understand that the [original] nature and essence of mind are one, we will attain liberation in this very place, and the dharmas will be silently exterminated. This very place is the seat of Dharma learning, and our original nature cannot be named. Originally it is neither lay nor saintly, neither pure nor impure, neither empty nor existing, neither good nor evil, but once it's united with phenomena(8) it is called the Two Vehicles of men and 'déva'. Once this impurity of mind disappeared we will nor be tied by a rope, nor abide in liberation -- there is no action or inaction at all. If we give up our ordinary man's calculating mind, even at the moment when we face [the end of] life, and the [immanence of] death, this mind will be free from delusion; it's no longer united with the phenomenal world -- it will be detached and free. There will be no hindrance of coming or going, [that is, next] birth's coming and [consequently] death's going will be as the usual thing of opening a door.
If the cultivators of the mind who meet every kind of happiness and unhappiness, satisfaction or dissatisfaction not retract their mind [in averseness], not think of fame, of life's necessities, not covet any desire, power or benefit, they will not be hindered by the going about of the world, nor by relations of affection; they will live through joy and hardship, they will use coarse clothes to protect their bodies from the cold, and use simple food to support their lives. They will be like the ignorant and deaf, and will have very little inclination to communicate with the outside world.
If our mind is only bent on learning and knowledge, or on prosperity and [ordinary] wisdom, then all these are but mortal things; they will not benefit our cultivating of the mind. Instead we will be caught up in phenomenal existence and [will go] back [to] the ocean of samsara.
You cannot [seek and] obtain anything from Buddha [as a gift or something that you wrestle out of him]. We would be wrong to seek anything out of him. [The same goes for spirituality]. The moment you seek anything, it will disappear. If you insist on non-attachment, it will be attachment. If you insist on inaction [of the mind], it will be action. Therefore the Sūtra(9) says, 'It is neither taken from Dharma, nor from not-Dharma'. Again it says, 'The Dharma that the Tathāgata obtained is neither substance nor voidness.
If we can make our mind mindless as wood or stone, we will not be caught by the five skandha and the eight winds.(10)
As a result the chain of samsara is broken and we come and go freely [from one life into another]. We will no longer be bound by the causes and effects of action, or be restrained by [mental] defilements. When the time comes the attachment with the causes and the effects of action [will be severed], and this will cause us to benefit all. The mind will unattachedly respond to the phenomena, and unhindered wisdom will be used to release all bondages. One may say that this would be just like administering medicine in order to cure a disease.
This Dharma talk of master Hai can serve as a commentary to the Gatha, When all views, right or erroneous, are discarded, the essence of Bodhi appears.
Notes:
(1) [See Gatha 3 on the name.]
(2) [Bold statements like these do not invite you to not discriminate between a running train and one that is not in motion at the moment you're crossing the railway. Statements like these invite you not to have opinions in the sense of like and dislike, god or not good.]
(3) [Gatha 8.]
(4) [Gatha 6.]
(5) [Here as elsewhere the notion of sameness (samatá) of the mundane and Buddha or the highest spiritual principle is based on the teachings of the Avtámsaka Sūtra.]
(6) [Pai-chang Huai-hai (720 - 814) who was the Zen Master famous for establishing the Zen monastic rules.]
(7) [The main tenet of the Mind Only or Yogacāra philosophy.]
(8) [Such as the things you see or think.]
(9) [Passages such as these occur in the Lankāvatāra sūtra.]
(10) [Gātha. See Gatha 3, footnote 3. The eight winds: prosperity, decline, falling out of grace, honor, praise, meeting criticism, suffering and pleasure.]
20 - Concluding words
[The first paragraphs of this commentary are about the rest of the Formless Gatha that continues with eighteen sentences in Chapter 3, and twenty sentences in Chapter 4. The venerable gives an exposition on some technical terms in the Chinese language that, in condensed form come down to the fact that e.g. the words Shih Tung Chiao stand for the sudden teaching of the Eastern Hill, Tung Shan. He also points to the words yi min ta fa chuan that indicate this 'big ship' of the sudden school used for crossing the ocean of samsara as explained in the Platform Sūtra. The venerable continues his reading in that same Platform Sūtra:]
'This Sutra [The Diamond Sūtra(1)] belongs to the highest School of Buddhism, and the Lord Buddha delivered it specially for the very wise and quick-witted. If the less wise and the slow-witted should hear about it they would doubt its credibility. Why? For example, if it rained in Jambudvipa (the Southern Continent), through the miracle of the celestial Naga, cities, towns, and villages would drift about in the flood as if they were only leaves of the date tree. But should it rain in the great ocean the level of the sea as a whole would not be affected by it.'
Therefore it is called the Great [Mahā].(2)
[The rest of his concluding words are a repetition of previously explained traits and mindset of the Chan-practitioner. They are not given here. He ends his exposition with a few stanzas of his own in which, among other things, he says:]
I pray this Buddha reward
Will give blessings to countless beings.
We people and the [other] sentients
Wil all attain Buddhahood.
Notes:
(1) [The given passage from the Platform Sūtra is preceded by: 'Learned Audience, if you wish to penetrate the deepest mystery of the Dharmadhātu and the Samādhi of Prajñā, you should practice Prajñā by reciting and studying the Vajra-cchédika (Diamond) Sūtra, which will enable you to realize the Essence of Mind. You should know that the merit for studying this Sūtra, as distinctly set forth in the text, is immeasurable and illimitable, and cannot be enumerated in details.']
(2) [The words, 'Therefore it is called the Great', are taken from the Mahāyana Sradhotpāda Shastra.]
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