Indeed, at the moment a polished tile becomes a mirror, Mazu becomes a buddha. At the moment Mazu becomes a buddha, Mazu immediately becomes Mazu. At the moment Mazu becomes Mazu, zazen immediately becomes zazen.
Thus, polishing a tile and turning it into a mirror has been maintained as the bones and marrow of the ancient buddha. This being so, there is an old mirror made of a tile. Although this mirror is polished, it has never been defiled. It is not that the tile is dirty. It is just that a tile that is a tile is polished. To actualize the work of making a mirror in this way is the endeavor of buddha ancestors.
If polishing a tile did not make a mirror, polishing a mirror would not make a mirror either. Who can doubt this? This making is making a buddha, making a mirror.
There may be those who question whether polishing a mirror becomes polishing a tile by mistake. The time of polishing cannot be fathomed by the measure of other times.
Nanyue’s expression, however, is an expression of expressions. Thus, polishing a tile is making a mirror. Those of you nowadays should also try to polish a tile to make a mirror. It will certainly be a mirror.
If a tile does not become a mirror, a human being does not become a buddha. If you look down at a tile as a lump of mud, you look down at a human being as a lump of mud. If a human has mind, a tile should have mind. Who knows that there is a mirror that is brought forth as a tile and is actualized as a tile? Who knows that there is a mirror that is brought forth as a mirror and is actualized as a mirror?
Presented to the assembly of the Kannondori Kosho Horin Monastery on the ninth day, the ninth month, the second year of the Ninji Era [1241].
22
READING A SUTRA
THE PRACTICE AND realization of unsurpassable, complete enlightenment is brought forth sometimes by a teacher and sometimes by a sutra. A teacher is a buddha ancestor of the entire self. A sutra is a sutra of the entire self. We say this because you yourself are the self of all buddha ancestors, and the self of all sutras.
Although it is called the self, it is not bound by “you” and “I.” It is a vital eyeball, a vital fist. Thus, there is remembering, reading, chanting, copying, receiving, and maintaining a sutra. All of these are the practice-realization of buddha ancestors.
To encounter a sutra, however, is not easy. Among the innumerable lands, it is difficult to hear the name of a sutra. Even in the assembly of buddha ancestors, it is difficult to hear the name of a sutra. Even among receivers of the life veins [of buddha dharma], there are those who have not even heard the name of a sutra.
Without being buddha ancestors, it is impossible to see, hear, read, chant, and understand the meaning of a sutra. Upon studying with a buddha ancestor, you also study a sutra. Then the hearing, maintaining, receiving, and expounding of a sutra is actualized in arriving, hearing, and speaking through ears, eyes, nose, tongue, body, and mind.
Those who expound discourses of teaching outside the way for the sake of seeking fame cannot practice the buddha sutras that have been transmitted by carvings on trees and rocks, being spread in fields and villages, being demonstrated in a great number of lands, and expounded in empty space.
Yaoshan, Great Master Hongdao, had not given a dharma talk for some time. The director of the monastery said to him, “The assembly has been wishing to have your compassionate admonition for a long time.”
Yaoshan said, “Hit the bell.”
The director hit the bell and assembled the monks.
Yaoshan ascended the teaching seat. After a while he got down and went back to the abbot’s quarters.
The director followed him and said, “You promised to expound dharma to the assembly. How come you did not say a word?”
Yaoshan said, “Sutras have sutra scholars. Treatises have treatise scholars. What do you expect from this old monk?”
What Yaoshan taught is that a fist has a fist teacher and an eyeball has an eyeball teacher.
However, ask Yaoshan, “It is not that I expect something from you. But, master, what kind of teacher are you?”
A monk called Fada, a chanter of the Lotus Sutra, visited the assembly of Huineng, Zen Master Dajian of the Baolin Monastery, Mount Caoxi, Shao Region.
Huineng taught him with a verse:
When your mind is deluded, you are turned by the dharma blossoms.
When your mind is enlightened, you turn the dharma blossoms.
If you cannot clarify the meaning after chanting the sutra at great length, you become its enemy.
Thinking beyond thinking is right.
Thinking about thinking is wrong.
If thinking and beyond thinking do not divide the mind,
you can steer the white-ox vehicle endlessly.
In this way, when you are deluded, you are turned by dharma blossoms. Further, when you leap beyond delusion and enlightenment, dharma blossoms turn dharma blossoms.
Rejoicing in these instructions, Fada presented this verse of admiration:
After chanting the sutra three thousand times
I was annihilated by Caoxi’s single verse.
Without clarifying the meaning of birth in life,
how can one end madness throughout lifetimes?
Although there are expedient carts pulled by sheep, deer, or oxen,
wholesomeness is manifest in the beginning, middle, and end.
Who is aware that the King of Dharma
abides in the burning house?
Upon receiving this poem, Huineng said, “From now on, you will be called the Sutra-Chanting Monk.”
Know that there was a sutra-chanting monk in the buddha way who was personally named by Huineng. The chanting of Sutra-Chanting Monk is neither chanting nor beyond chanting. It cannot be measured by being or beyond being. Indeed, this is not putting down the scrolls [of the Lotus Sutra] for eons and not lacking a moment of chanting the sutra. From the sutra to the sutra there is nothing other than the sutra.
Prajnatara, the Twenty-seventh Ancestor, was once offered a midday meal by the King of East India.
The King asked him, “Everyone turns [reads] a sutra except you, venerable. Why is this so?”
Prajnatara said, “While exhaling I do not follow conditions. While inhaling I do not abide in the realm of skandhas. I turn hundreds, thousands, myriads, and billions of scrolls of sutras, not merely one or two.”
Venerable Prajnatara is a seed from East India, the twenty-seventh generation authentic dharma heir after Mahakashyapa. He had authentically received all furnishings [essentials] of the buddha house. He had maintained the top of the head, eyeball, fist, and nostril, as well as the staff, bowl, robe, bones, and marrow. He is our early ancestor and we are his cloud [monk] descendants.
What Prajnatara emphasized is that not only was he free from following conditions while exhaling, but also conditions were free from following him while he exhaled. Even if conditions are the top of the head or eyeball, the entire body or entire mind brings them here, takes them away, brings them here again; just be free from following conditions. Being free from following is thoroughly following. You hit a stone and you sound the stone [There is no separation between you and conditions].
Although exhaling is no other than conditions, do not follow conditions. Although you may not have known the activity of inhaling and exhaling for uncountable kalpas, the time when you know it has just arrived right now. This being so, you hear about being free from abiding in the realm of skandhas and not following conditions.
This is the moment when conditions thoroughly investigate inhaling, and so on. This moment has never happened before, nor will it happen in the future. This moment is just right now.
The realm of skandhas means the realm of five skandhas: form, perception, feeling, inclination, and discernment. To be free from abiding in five skandhas is to live in the world where five skandhas have not been divided.
As Prajnatara took up this key [of nonduality], the sutras he turned were not limited to one or two, but were hundreds, thousands, myr
iads, and billions of scrolls. He spoke of so many, but it is immeasurable.
Prajnatara regarded not abiding in the realm of skandhas while exhaling as hundreds, thousands, myriads, and billions of scrolls of sutras. But this cannot be counted by ordinary people or sages. It is not in the realm of ordinary people or sages. Thus, it can neither be measured by the intellect of those who are wise, nor be guessed by the wisdom of those who have knowledge. Neither can it be discussed by the intellect of those who are beyond wise, nor can it be arrived at by the wisdom of those who have knowledge beyond knowledge. Rather, it is buddha ancestors’ practice-realization, skin, flesh, bones, marrow, eyeball, fist, top of the head, nostril, staff, whisk, leaping away from making.
Zhaozhou, Great Master Zhenji of the Guanyin Monastery, Zhao Region, was once given a donation and asked to rotate [chant] the canon by an old woman.
He got off the meditation platform, walked around it, and said to the messenger, “The canon has been rotated.”
The messenger went back to the old woman and reported this.
The old woman said, “I asked the master to rotate the entire canon. Why did he only rotate half of the canon?”
It is clear that rotating the entire canon or half of the canon is rotating three scrolls of sutra for the old woman. The canon has been rotated is Zhaozhou’s entire canon.
How the canon is rotated is Zhaozhou walking around the meditation platform, the meditation platform walking around Zhaozhou, Zhaozhou walking around Zhaozhou, the meditation platform walking around the meditation platform. And yet, not all rotating of the canon is walking around the meditation platform, or the walking of the meditation platform.
Dasui, Great Master Shenzhoa of Mount Dasui, Yi Region, whose priest name was Fazhen, inherited dharma from Changqing, Zen Master Da’an. He was once given a donation and asked to rotate the canon by an old woman.
Dasui walked around the meditation platform and said to the messenger, “The canon has been rotated.”
The messenger went back to the old woman and reported this.
The old woman said, “I asked the master to rotate the entire canon. Why did he only rotate half of the canon?”
Now, do not interpret this as Dasui walking around the meditation platform or as the meditation platform walking around Dasui. This is not only a circle of a fist or an eyeball, but drawing a circle, creating a circle.
However, did the old woman have an eye or not? She said, Why did he only rotate half of the canon? Although these words may have been authentically transmitted by a fist, she should have spoken further, “I asked the master to rotate the entire canon. Why did he merely fool with his spirit?” Even if she said this by mistake, she would have been someone with an eye.
Dongshan, Great Master Wuben, High Ancestor, was once given a meal offering and a donation, and asked to rotate the canon by a government official. Dongshan got off the meditation platform and bowed to the official.
The official bowed back.
Dongshan led him and walked around the meditation platform. Then he bowed to him. After a while Dongshan asked him, “Do you understand it?”
The official said, “No, I don’t.”
Dongshan said, “You and I have chanted the canon together. How come you don’t understand it?”
You and I have chanted the canon together—this is clear. It is not that walking around the meditation platform is chanting the canon, nor is it that chanting the canon is walking around the meditation platform. And yet, listen to the compassionate admonition of Dongshan.
This story was presented by Rujing, my late master, Old Buddha, as abbot of the Tiantong Monastery, when a donor from Korea visited and asked him to have the assembly chant a sutra and to give a dharma talk.
After his talk, Rujing drew a large circle with a whisk [in the air] and said, “Today I have rotated the canon for you.”
Then he threw down the whisk and descended the teaching seat.
You should rotate Rujing’s words, which cannot be compared with the words of others.
Now, do you use a single eye or half an eye to rotate the canon? For Dongshan’s words and Rujing’s words—how much of the eye or the tongue is used? See it thoroughly.
Yaoshan, Great Master Hongdao, never allowed his students to read a sutra. But one day he himself was reading a sutra.
A monk asked, “Master, you never allow us to read a sutra. How come you are reading one now?”
Yaoshan said, “I need to shelter my eyes [be one with the sutra].”
The monk said, “Can I imitate you?”
Yaoshan said, “If you read a sutra, even a calf skin would be pierced.”
The words I need to shelter my eyes are expressed by the sheltering eyes themselves. Sheltering eyes is crushing the eyeballs, crushing the sutra, totally eyes sheltering, and totally sheltering eyes. Sheltering the eyes is opening the eyes within sheltering, vital eyes within sheltering, vital sheltering within the eyes. It is adding eyelids on top of eyelids. It is taking up the eyes within sheltering, eyes taking up sheltering. Thus, if the eyeball is not a sutra, the power of sheltering the eyes will not be manifested.
Even a calf skin would be pierced means [you become] the entire calf skin, the entire skin of a calf, taking up a calf and making leather. Thus, skin, flesh, bones, and marrow, as well as horns and nostrils, become activities of a calf. At the time of imitating you, a calf becoming an eyeball is called sheltering the eyes. An eyeball becomes a calf.
Yefu, Zen Master Daochuan, said:
Billions of offerings to buddhas create boundless benefaction.
How can it compare to reading an ancient teaching?
Yet, letters are merely inked on white paper.
Please open your eyes and see through immediately.
Know that the virtues of making offerings to ancient buddhas and reading an ancient teaching stand shoulder to shoulder, going beyond measure. Still, an ancient teaching is inked on white paper. Who knows if this is an ancient teaching? Thoroughly study the meaning of this.
Yunju, Great Master Hongjue of Mount Yunju, once saw a monk silently reading a sutra in his room. He asked the monk through the window, “Reverend, what sutra are you reading?”
The monk said, “The Vimalakirti Sutra.”
Yunju said, “I am not asking you about the Vimalakirti Sutra. What sutra are you reading?”
At this the monk entered realization.
Yunju’s question—What sutra are you reading?—addressed a single path of silently reading throughout a vast time span. Without speaking about what the monk was reading, this question put a dead snake on the road [woke him up]. Thus, this question—What sutra—emerged. The monk unmistakably encountered a person [himself]. So he said, The Vimalakirti Sutra.
To read a sutra is to take up and assemble all buddha ancestors, turn them into an eyeball, and read it. At this very moment buddha ancestors become buddhas, expound dharma, expound buddha, and become. Without this moment of reading a sutra, the top of the head and the face of buddha ancestors had not actualized.
Currently in the assemblies of buddha ancestors, there are a variety of occasions for reciting a sutra. For example: a donor comes to the monastery and asks the assembly of monks to recite a sutra regularly or on a particular occasion; the assembly aspires to do so on their own; or the assembly recites a sutra for a deceased monk.
When a donor requests the assembly of monks to recite a sutra, the director of the monks’ hall hangs a plaque announcing a sutra recitation in front of the monks’ hall and other quarters at the morning meal time on the scheduled day. After the meal, the director spreads the bowing mat in front of the image of the Sacred Monk, and, when the time comes, strikes the bell in front of the monks’ hall three times. Or the bell can be struck just once, according to the direction of the abbot.
Following the sound of the bell, the head monk and the assembly of monks, in kashaya, enter the monks’ hall and sit on their assigned seats facing out. Then, the abbot ent
ers the hall, makes a standing bow to the Sacred Monk, offers incense, and sits on the abbot’s chair. After this, young helpers bring the sutra books.
The sutra books have been assembled in the kitchen to be transported in due time. The books are placed either in a box or on a tray. Monks receive sutra books, open them, and start reciting.
At this time the monastery host brings the donor into the hall. The donor receives a portable incense burner in front of the hall, holds it up, and enters the hall. The portable incense burner has been kept in a communal area of the monastery. A worker puts incense into a box beforehand, sets it in front of the hall, and hands the incense to the donor at the host’s signal. The host and the donor go into the hall from the southern side of its front entrance.
The donor goes to the Sacred Monk, burns incense, and makes three bows, while holding the incense burner. In the meantime, the monastery host slightly faces the donor while standing with hands in shashu at the northern side.
After bowing, the donor turns around in a rightward direction and makes a standing bow to the abbot while holding up the incense burner. The abbot, remaining seated on the chair, holds up the sutra book [between the thumbs and index fingers] with hands in gassho, and receives the donor’s greeting.
Then, the donor turns to the north, performs a standing bow, and makes a circumambulation in the hall, starting in front of the head monk’s seat. This is led by the monastery host. When the greeting circuit is over, the donor returns to the Sacred Monk and makes a standing bow while holding up the incense burner. At this time, the monastery host stands with hands in shashu facing north in the south side of the entrance. After bowing to the Sacred Monk, the donor follows the host out of the hall, walks around in front of the hall, enters the hall again, and makes three bows to the Sacred Monk.
Treasury of the True Dharma Eye Page 34
