The meaning of this teaching has been made clear through the discourses of our ancestors. Do not identify zazen with the dhyana or samadhi of the six practices or the three learnings.
The authenticity of the transmission of this buddha dharma is unhidden through all time. Long ago at the assembly on Vulture Peak the Tathagata entrusted Venerable Mahakashyapa alone with the unsurpassable, great teaching—the treasury of the true dharma eye, the wondrous heart of nirvana. This event was witnessed by devas in the heavenly world; do not doubt it. The buddha dharma is protected by these devas and its merit does not decrease.
Know that the practice of zazen is the complete path of buddha dharma, and nothing can be compared to it.
Question 6: Why, among the four bodily presences taught in the buddha house, do you emphasize sitting alone, recommend Zen samadhi, and expound entry into realization?
Answer: It is impossible to know completely the methods by which all buddhas from the past practiced and entered realization, one after another. It is hard to know, but if you look into it, all buddhas are engaged in zazen as the source of realization. Don’t look for anything else.
Extolling it, an ancestor said [in the Guidelines for Zen Monasteries], “Zazen is the dharma gate of enjoyment and ease.” Thus, we know that sitting practice, among the four bodily presences, is the way of enjoyment and ease. Furthermore, it is not merely the practice of one or two buddhas, but all buddha ancestors practiced in this way.
Question 7: While it is clear that those who have not yet realized buddha dharma should practice zazen and attain realization, for those who have already understood the buddha’s correct teaching, what should they expect from zazen?
Answer: Although we should not talk about dreams with careless people, nor give a boat pole to a woodcutter, nevertheless I will give instruction about this.
To suppose that practice and realization are not one is a view of those outside the way; in buddha dharma they are inseparable. Because practice within realization occurs at the moment of practice, the practice of beginner’s mind is itself the entire original realization.
When giving instruction for zazen practice, we say that you should not have any expectation for realization outside of practice, since this is the immediate original realization. Because this is the realization of practice, there is no boundary in realization. Because this is the practice of realization, there is no beginning in practice.
In this way, Shakyamuni Tathagata and Venerable Mahakashyapa were both fulfilled by practice within realization; great master Bodhidharma and Huineng—high ancestor Dajian—were drawn in and turned by practice within realization. The ancient way of abiding in buddha dharma has always been like this.
Practice just here is not apart from realization. Fortunately, each one of us has individually inherited this wondrous practice; each beginner’s endeavor of the way brings forth original realization in the realm of the unconstructed. Know that in order not to divide this realization, which is inseparable from practice, buddha ancestors always caution you not to be lax in your practice. Release this wondrous practice and original realization fills your hands. Liberate original realization and wondrous practice is upheld throughout your body.
As I personally saw in Great Song, the Zen monasteries in various places all had meditation halls where five to six hundred, or even up to two thousand monks, practiced zazen day and night. When I asked the abbots of these monasteries, masters who had inherited the seal [authentic experience] of buddha mind, about the essential meaning of buddha dharma, I was told that practice and realization are not two different things.
Therefore, I recommend to students who are already studying with a teacher, as well as all those outstanding people who seek the truth of buddha dharma, to practice zazen and endeavor in the way under the guidance of an authentic teacher, and investigate the teaching of the buddha ancestors without distinguishing between beginning or advanced, and without being concerned about ordinary or sacred.
An ancient ancestor once said, “It is not that there is no practice and no realization; it is just that they cannot be divided.” It has also been said that “Someone who sees the way practices the way.” Understand that practice is endeavor in the midst of attaining the way.
Question 8: In the past, various teachers went to Tang China, became transmitters of the dharma, and spread the scriptural teaching widely throughout Japan. Why did they ignore a practice such as you have described and introduce only scriptural teaching?
Answer: The reason these ancient teachers did not introduce this dharma is that the time was not yet ripe.
Question 9: Did those masters in ancient times understand this dharma?
Answer: If they had understood it, it would have spread.
Question 10: One master said:
Do not grieve over birth [life] and death. There is an immediate way to be free from birth and death, namely, to know the principle that the nature of mind is permanent.
It [the principle] means that because this body is already alive, it will eventually die, but the mind-nature will not perish. You should recognize that mind-nature exists within your body and is not affected by birth and death. This is its inherent nature. The body is a temporary form; it dies here and is born there, and is not fixed. Mind is permanent; it does not change through the past, future, or present.
To understand this is to be free from birth and death. If you understand this principle, you become free from ordinary birth and death and enter the ocean of mind-nature when your body perishes. When you flow into the ocean of nature, you attain the wondrous virtue of all buddha tathagatas. Even though you realize this now, because your body is formed as a result of deluded actions from past lives, you are not the same as all sages. If you do not recognize this principle, you will go around in birth and death forever. Therefore, you should hasten to understand that mind-nature is permanent. If you just spend your whole life leisurely sitting, what can you expect?
Does such a statement as this accord with the path of all buddhas and ancestors?
Answer: The view you have mentioned is not at all the buddha dharma, but rather the view of Shrenika, an outsider, who said:
There is a soul in one’s body, and this soul, on encountering conditions, recognizes good and bad, right and wrong. To discern aching and itching, or to know pain and pleasure, is also this soul’s capacity. However, when the body is destroyed, the soul comes out and is born in another world. So it appears to be dead here, but since there is birth in another place, it is permanent without dying.
To follow this view and regard it as the Buddha’s teaching is more foolish than grasping a piece of stone and regarding it as gold. Such shameful ignorance cannot be compared to anything. National Teacher Huizhong of Great Tang criticized this deeply. To take up the mistaken view that mind is permanent and forms perish, while regarding this as equal to the wondrous teaching of all buddhas, or to create the causes of birth and death while wishing to be apart from birth and death—is this not foolish? It is most pitiable. Just understand it as the mistaken view of someone outside the way and do not listen to it.
As I cannot refrain from being sympathetic, let me disabuse you of your mistaken view. In buddha dharma it is always taught that body and mind are not separate, and that essence and characteristics are not two. This has been known throughout India and China, so there is no room for mistake.
In fact, from the perspective of permanence, all things are permanent; body and mind are not separate. From the perspective of cessation, all things cease; essence and characteristics cannot be divided. How can you say body perishes but mind is permanent? Is it not against the authentic principle? Furthermore, you should understand that birth-and-death is itself nirvana. Nirvana is not realized outside of birth-and-death. Even if you think that mind is permanent apart from the body, and mistakenly assume that buddha wisdom is separate from birth-and-death, the mind of this assumption still arises and perishes momentarily and is not permanent.
Is it not truly ephemeral?
Reflect that the teaching of the oneness of body and mind is always being expounded in the buddha dharma. How, then, can mind alone leave the body and not cease when the body ceases? If body and mind are inseparable sometimes and not inseparable at other times, the Buddha’s teaching would be false. To think that birth-and-death must be rejected is the mistake of ignoring buddha dharma. You must refrain from this.
The so-called “dharma gate of the whole reality of mind-nature” in buddha dharma includes the entire world of phenomena without separating essence from characteristics or birth from death. Nothing, not even enlightenment or nirvana, is outside of mind-nature. All things and all phenomena are just one mind; nothing is excluded or unrelated. It is taught that all dharma gates are equally one mind, and there is no differentiation. This is the understanding of mind-nature in the buddha house. How can you differentiate this into body and mind, and separate birth-and-death from nirvana? Already, you are a buddha child. Do not listen to the tongues of mad people, quoting an outsider’s view.
Question 11: Should those who are entirely engaged in zazen strictly follow the precepts?
Answer: Holding to the precepts and engaging in pure actions is the rule of the Zen Gate (School) and the teaching of buddha ancestors. Even those who have not yet received the precepts or have broken the precepts can still receive the benefit of zazen.
Question 12: Is it all right for those who practice zazen also to engage in chanting mantras or in the practice of shamatha [calming the mind] and vipashyana [analytical introspection]?
Answer: When I was in China and asked masters about the essence of the teaching, I was told that none of the ancestors who authentically transmitted the buddha seal in India and China in the past or present had ever engaged in such a combination of practices. Indeed, without devoting yourself to one thing, you cannot penetrate the one wisdom.
Question 13: Should zazen be practiced by lay men and women, or should it be practiced solely by home leavers?
Answer: The ancestors say, “In understanding buddha dharma, men and women, nobles and commoners, are not distinguished.”
Question 14: Home leavers are free from various involvements and do not have hindrances in zazen in pursuit of the way. How can the laity, who are variously occupied, practice single-mindedly and accord with the buddha way, which is unconditioned?
Answer: Buddha ancestors, out of their kindness, have opened the wide gate of compassion in order to let all sentient beings enter realization. Who among humans and heavenly beings cannot enter?
If you look back to ancient times, the examples are many. To begin with, Emperors Dai and Shun had many obligations on the throne; nevertheless, they practiced zazen in pursuit of the way, and penetrated the great way of buddha ancestors. Ministers Li and Fang [Pei Xiu] both closely served their emperors but they practiced zazen, pursued the way, and entered realization in the great way of buddha ancestors.
This just depends on whether or not you have the willingness. It does not matter whether you are a layperson or a home leaver. Those who can discern excellence invariably come to trust in this practice. Those who regard worldly affairs as a hindrance to buddha dharma think only that there is no buddha dharma in the secular world; they do not understand that there is no secular world in buddha dharma.
Recently, there was a high official of Great Song, Minister Feng, who was an adept in the ancestral way. He once wrote a poem concerning his view of practice:
I enjoy zazen between my official duties
and seldom sleep lying on a bed.
Although I appear to be a minister,
I’m known as a Buddhist elder
throughout the country.
Although he was busy in his official duties, he attained the way because he had a deep intention toward the buddha way. When considering someone like him, reflect on yourself and illuminate the present with the past.
In Song China, kings and ministers, officials and common people, men and women, grounded their intention on the ancestral way. Both warriors and literary people aroused the intention to practice Zen and study the way. Among those who pursued this intention, many of them illuminated their mind-ground. From this we understand that worldly duties do not hinder the buddha dharma.
When the true buddha dharma is spread widely in the nation, the rule of the monarch is peaceful because all buddhas and devas protect it unceasingly. If the rule is peaceful, the buddha dharma gains eminence.
When Shakyamuni Buddha was alive, even those who previously had committed serious crimes or had mistaken views attained the way. In the assemblies of the ancestors, hunters and woodcutters attained enlightenment. As it was so for them at that time, it is so for anyone now. Just seek the teaching of an authentic master.
Question 15: Can we attain realization if we practice, even in this last age of decline?
Answer: In the scriptural schools they explain various categories, but in the true Mahayana teachings dharma is not divided into periods of truth, imitation, and decline. Instead, it is taught that everyone attains the way by practice. Particularly in this authentically transmitted teaching of zazen, you are filled with the treasure you already have, entering dharma and leaving bondage behind. Those who practice know whether realization is attained or not, just as those who drink water know whether it is hot or cold.
Question 16: Someone once said:
In buddha dharma, if you comprehend the meaning of “Mind itself is buddha,” that will be sufficient without any chanting of sutras or practicing the buddha way. To know that “buddha dharma originally lies in the self” is the completion of attaining the way. Other than this, you need not seek from anyone else.
Why should you be troubled with practicing zazen and pursuing the way?
Answer: This statement is entirely groundless. If what you say is true, then whoever has a mind would immediately understand the meaning of buddha dharma. You should know that buddha dharma is studied by giving up the view of self and other.
If the understanding of “Self itself is buddha” were the attaining of the way, Shakyamuni Buddha would not have taken the trouble to elucidate the way. Let me illuminate this with an excellent case of an ancient master:
Once a monk called Director Xuanze was in the assembly of Zen Master Fayan. Fayan asked him, “Director Xuanze, how long have you been in my community?”
Xuanze said, “I have been studying with you for three years.”
Fayan said, “You are a recent member of the community. Why don’t you ask me about buddha dharma?”
Xuanze said, “I cannot deceive you, sir. When I was studying with Zen Master Qingfeng [Baizhao Zhiyuan], I mastered the state of ease and joy in buddha dharma.”
Fayan said, “With what words did you enter this understanding?”
Xuanze said, “When I asked Qingfeng, ‘What is the self of a Zen student?’ he said, ‘The fire spirits are here to look for fire.’”
Fayan said, “That is a good statement. But I’m afraid you did not understand it.”
Xuanze said, “The fire spirits belong to fire. So I understood that fire looks for fire and self looks for self.”
The master said, “Indeed, you did not understand. If buddha dharma were like that, it would not have been transmitted until now.”
Then Xuanze was distressed and left the monastery. But on his way he said to himself, “The master is a renowned teacher in this country, a great leader of five hundred monks. His criticism of my fault ought to have some point.”
He went back to Fayan, apologized, and said, “What is the self of a Zen student?”
Fayan said, “The fire spirits are here to look for fire.”
Upon hearing this statement, Xuanze had a great realization of buddha dharma.
In this way, we know that mere recognition of “Self itself is buddha” is not penetrating buddha dharma. If the understanding of “Self itself is buddha” were buddha dharma, Fayan would not have given such critic
ism or guidance. Just inquire about the rules of practice as soon as you meet a master, single-mindedly practice zazen, and pursue the way, without leaving a half-understanding in your mind. Then the excellent art of buddha dharma will not be in vain.
Treasury of the True Dharma Eye Page 12
