Where active buddhas teach, there are beings that are not limited to the four types of birth. There are realms not limited to heavenly beings, humans, or the world of phenomena. When you look into the awesome presence of active buddhas, do not use the eyes of heavenly beings or humans. Do not use the deluded thinking of heavenly beings or humans. Do not try to analyze it using human or heavenly faculties. Even bodhisattvas of the ten stages and three classes have not clarified this, so how could the analytical thinking of humans and devas reach it? When human calculation is small, knowledge is small. When a life span is fleeting, thinking is fleeting. Then, how is it possible to make calculations about the awesome presence of active buddhas?
This being so, do not accept as children of the Buddha any groups who regard mere human views as the buddha dharma, or who limit buddha dharma to human dharmas. They are merely sentient beings conditioned by karma who have not yet heard the dharma or practiced the way with body and mind. Neither their life, death, views, and learning, nor their walking, standing, sitting, and lying down, are in accord with dharma. Such kinds of beings have not been nurtured or benefited by dharma.
Active buddhas love neither original enlightenment nor acquired enlightenment, and neither possess nor do not possess enlightenment—this is true indeed.
Worldly people carry on deliberations about thinking and not thinking, having enlightenment or not having enlightenment, and fundamental or acquired enlightenment. These are merely worldly people’s categories, which have not been transmitted from buddha to buddha. The thinking of worldly people and the thinking of buddhas are completely different and cannot be compared. The original enlightenment discussed by worldly people and the original enlightenment actualized by buddhas are as far apart from each other as heaven and earth; they are beyond comparison. Even the deliberations of bodhisattvas of the ten stages or three classes do not match the expressions of buddhas. How can worldly people, vainly counting grains of sand, make accurate assessments?
Nevertheless, there are many people who merely agree to the crooked, inverted views of worldly people or of those outside the way, and then mistakenly regard such views as the realm of buddhas. Buddhas say that the unwholesome roots of such people are deep and heavy, and they are to be pitied. However endless the unwholesome roots of such people may be, this tendency is their burden. For now, look into this and release it. Grasping such obstructions and involving yourself with them are not a good direction to pursue.
The awesome presence of active buddhas right now is beyond obstruction. Totally encompassed by buddhas, active buddhas are free from obstruction as they penetrate the vital path of being splattered by mud and soaked in water. Active buddhas transform devas in the heavenly realm and transform humans in the human realm. This is the power of opening blossoms and the power of the world arising. There has never been a gap in active buddhas’ transformative work. This being so, there is complete dropping of self and other, outstanding in coming and going.
Immediately going to and coming from Tushita Heaven, this is immediately Tushita Heaven. Immediately going to and coming from blissful ease, this is immediately blissful ease. This is immediate and complete dropping of Tushita Heaven, and this is immediate and complete dropping of blissful ease. This is the immediate crushing of blissful ease in Tushita Heaven into a hundred pieces. This is no other than the immediate grasping and letting go of blissful ease in Tushita Heaven. This is swallowing up everything in one gulp.
Know that this blissful ease in Tushita Heaven is no other than transmigration, coming and going, within heavenly halls and the Pure Land. Because this blissful ease is the practice of coming and going, one practices equally in heavenly halls and the Pure Land.
Because this is great enlightenment, it is equally great enlightenment [within heavenly halls and the Pure Land]. In great delusion, it is equally great delusion. This is simply the toes wiggling in the sandals [nothing special] for active buddhas. Sometimes it is the sound of a fart or the smell of shit throughout the single path [of active buddhas]. This is smelled with the nostrils, and heard with the ears, body, and practice. Further, there is a moment of attaining “my skin, flesh, bones, and marrow.” Beyond this, there is no practice attained from others.
In regard to freely penetrating the great way that completes birth and masters death, there is an ancient statement, “A great sage surrenders birth and death to the mind, surrenders birth and death to the body, surrenders birth and death to the way, surrenders birth and death to birth and death.” As this teaching is actualized without limitation in the past and present, the awesome presence of active buddhas is thoroughly practiced immediately.
The teaching of birth and death, body and mind, as the circle of the way is actualized at once. Thoroughly practicing, thoroughly clarifying, is not forced. It is just like recognizing the shadow of deluded thought and turning the light to shine within. The clarity of clarity beyond clarity prevails in the activity of buddhas. This is totally surrendering to practice.
To understand the meaning of totally surrendering, you should thoroughly investigate mind. In the steadfastness of thorough investigation, all phenomena are the unadorned clarity of mind. You know and understand that the three realms of desire, form, and formlessness are merely elaborate divisions of mind. Although your knowing and understanding are part of all phenomena, you actualize the home village of the self. This is no other than your everyday activity.
This being so, the continuous effort to grasp the point in phrases and to seek eloquence beyond words is to take hold beyond taking hold and to let go beyond letting go.
In this endeavor, what is birth? What is death? What are body and mind? What are giving and taking? What are surrendering and rejecting? Is there no encounter while entering and exiting the same gate? Is there hiding the body but exposing the horns within a single move? Do we understand from great deliberation, or know with considerate intention? Is this endeavor one bright pearl or the entire treasury of the sutras? Is it a single monk’s staff or a single layer of the face? Does this occur thirty years later or in myriad years within one moment? Examine this in detail, and make a detailed study of this examination. In this detailed examination, you hear sounds with your entire eye and see colors with your entire ear.
Further, opening the single eye of a monk is going beyond phenomena before one’s eyes, going beyond objects before one’s eyes. There is the composure of smiling and blinking. This is the moment of the awesome presence of an active buddha. Not pulled by things or pulling things, not creating or producing causal conditions, not original nature or dharma nature, not abiding in one’s conditions, not original being, and not merely accepting any of these as suchness—this is simply the awesome presence of an active buddha.
This being so, the fluctuating circumstances of the body and phenomena are left to the mind and phenomena. For now, the awesome presence of dropping off birth and dropping off death is solely surrendered to buddha. Thus, there is an understanding: “All things are inseparable from mind, and the three realms are inseparable from mind.” Further, in an expression that goes beyond, there is a statement that “inseparable from mind” is called “walls and pebbles.” Where there is nothing inseparable from mind, there are no walls and pebbles.
The point is that the awesome presence of active buddhas is entrusted to the mind, phenomena, and the body. This awesome presence cannot be reached through the understandings of acquired enlightenment or original enlightenment. Furthermore, how can it be reached by those outside the way, those in the Two Vehicles, or bodhisattvas of the three classes or ten stages?
This awesome presence is not comprehended by any person, and is beyond comprehension on any level. However lively it may be, each branch is just as it is. Is it one long piece of iron? Is it both ends of a worm moving? One long piece of iron is neither long nor short; both ends moving are neither self nor other.
When the power of unrolling the matter and hurling insightful flashes is put into practic
e, the awesomeness encompasses all things, and the eye becomes lofty through the entire world. There is illumination that is not hindered by taking in or letting go. It is the monks’ hall, the buddha hall, the kitchen, or the monastery gate. Further, there is illumination that does not take in or let go. It is also the monks’ hall, the buddha hall, the kitchen, or the monastery gate.
Moreover, there is an eye that penetrates the ten directions and receives the entire earth. This eye is in front of the mind and behind the mind. Such an eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind have the dazzling power of illumination. Thus, there are buddhas in the past, present, and future who maintain what is beyond knowing, and there are cats and white oxen who launch the insightful response of already knowing. This is grabbing the ox’s nose and having an eye. This expresses the dharma of active buddhas and allows the dharma of active buddhas.
Xuefeng, Great Master Zhenjiao, said to the assembly, “The buddhas in the past, present, and future abide in flames and turn the great dharma wheel.”
Xuansha, who would later become Great Master Zongyi, said in response, “As flames expound dharma to all the buddhas in the past, present, and future, all the buddhas remain standing and listen.”
Keqin, Zen Master Yuanwu, later commented on their words: “One says the monkey is white; the other says it is black. They hurl insightful flashes at each other; spirits emerge and demons vanish. Blazing flames in the spreading sky are buddhas expounding dharma; the spreading sky in blazing flames is dharma expounding buddhas. Amid the winds, these two masters cut apart the tangle of twining vines and with a single statement crush Vimalakirti in his silence.”
Now, buddhas in the past, present, and future means all buddhas. Active buddhas are all buddhas in the past, present, and future. All buddhas in the ten directions are none other than these buddhas in the three times. Expounding fully, buddhas speak like this throughout the past, present, and future. If you want to inquire about the active buddhas, they are exactly the buddhas in the past, present, and future. With or without knowing, they are none other than active buddhas as all buddhas in the three times.
This being so, the three ancient buddhas—Xuefeng, Xuansha, and Keqin—spoke like this to express their understanding of buddhas in the three times.
Study the meaning of Xuefeng’s statement The buddhas in the past, present, and future abide in flames and turn the great dharma wheel. The practice place of the buddhas in the three times turning the dharma wheel is invariably inside flames. Inside flames is always buddhas’ place of practice. Teachers of sutras and commentaries have never heard this, and those outside the way, or in the Two Lesser Vehicles, cannot know it. Know that the flames around all buddhas are not the same as the flames of other beings. Shed light on whether or not other beings are within flames.
Study how the buddhas in the three times transform beings within flames. When they abide within flames, are the flames and buddhas intimate or are they separate? Are the buddhas and their surroundings integrated or are they independent? Are they of one piece or divided?
In turning the great dharma wheel there is turning the self, turning insightful flashes. This is unrolling the matter and hurling insightful flashes, turning dharma and dharma turning. This is called turning the dharma wheel.
Even if the entire great earth is entirely in flames, there must be the dharma wheel turning the flame wheel, the dharma wheel turning all buddhas, the dharma wheel turning the dharma wheel, and the dharma wheel turning past, present, and future.
This being so, flames are the great practice place of all buddhas turning the dharma wheel. If you try to assess this with the measurements of realms, time, human capacity, or ordinary or sacred, you cannot hit the mark. Because it cannot be assessed by these calculations, all buddhas in the three times abide in flames and turn the great dharma wheel. As they are called all buddhas in the three times, they go beyond these measurements. Because it is the practice place of buddhas in the three times turning the dharma wheel, there are flames. Because there are flames, it is the practice place of all buddhas.
Xuansha said, As flames expound dharma to all the buddhas in the past, present, and future, all the buddhas remain standing and listen. You may hear this statement and say that Xuansha’s words are a more complete utterance than Xuefeng’s words, but it is not necessarily so. Know that Xuefeng’s statement is different from Xuansha’s. That is, Xuefeng speaks about the place where all buddhas in the three times turn the great dharma wheel, while Xuansha speaks about all buddhas in the three times listening to the dharma.
Xuefeng’s statement is indeed about turning the dharma, but he does not actually discuss listening or not listening to dharma at the place of turning dharma. Thus, it does not sound as if turning the dharma is always listening to the dharma. Moreover, Xuefeng in his teaching did not say that buddhas in the three times expound dharma for the sake of flames. Nor did he say that buddhas in the three times turn the great dharma wheel for the sake of the buddhas in the three times, nor that flames turn the great dharma wheel for the sake of the flames. Is there any difference between the words turning the dharma wheel and turning the great dharma wheel? Turning the dharma wheel is not limited to expounding the dharma. Isn’t expounding the dharma necessarily for the sake of others? Thus, it is not that the words of Xuefeng have not exhausted the meaning of the words that he should have said.
Definitely study in detail Xuefeng’s words abiding in flames and turning the great dharma wheel. Don’t be confused by Xuansha’s words.
Penetrating Xuefeng’s statement awesomely presents the awesome presence of buddhas. The flames that contain the buddhas in the three times prevail not only in one or two limitless worlds of phenomena, and do not merely fill one or two particles of dust. In an attempt to discern the great dharma wheel’s turning, do not measure it as large or small, wide or narrow. Turning the great dharma wheel is neither for the self nor for others, neither for expounding nor for listening.
Xuansha said, As flames expound dharma to all the buddhas in the past, present, and future, all the buddhas remain standing and listen. Although he said flames expound dharma to the buddhas in the three times, he did not say that flames turn the dharma wheel. Furthermore, he did not say that buddhas in the three times turn the dharma wheel. Although all buddhas in the three times remain standing and listening, how can the flames turn the dharma wheel of the buddhas in the three times? Do the flames that expound dharma for the buddhas in the three times also turn the great dharma wheel or not? Xuansha did not say that turning the dharma wheel occurs at this moment. He did not say that the dharma wheel does not turn. However, it might be supposed that Xuansha carelessly interpreted the turning of the dharma wheel as expounding the dharma wheel. If so, he did not yet comprehend the statement of Xuefeng.
Xuansha knew that when flames expound dharma for the buddhas in the three times, the buddhas all remain standing and listen to the dharma. However, he did not realize that where the flames turn the dharma wheel, the flames remain standing and listen to the dharma. He did not say that where the flames turn the dharma wheel, the flames altogether turn the dharma wheel. All buddhas of the three times listening to the dharma are the dharma of all buddhas, which is not dependent on others. Do not consider the flames as dharma, as buddha, or even as flames. Indeed, do not ignore the statements of this master and his disciple. This is to say that they are not only red-bearded barbarians, but that they are barbarians with red beards.
Although Xuansha’s words are like this, there is something you should study with great effort. Without regard to the limited views of the Great Vehicle or Lesser Vehicles held by teachers of sutras and treatises, just study the true characteristics that have been authentically transmitted from buddha to buddha, ancestor to ancestor.
All the buddhas remain standing and listen. This is not limited to the views of the Great Vehicle or Lesser Vehicle. Teachers of sutras and treatises only know that buddhas expound dharma in response to the readiness of those
who hear it. But they do not say that buddhas listen to the dharma, that buddhas practice, and that buddhas accomplish buddhahood.
Regarding Xuansha’s words, All the buddhas remain standing and listen, this is the essence and experience of buddhas’ listening. Do not regard the capacity to expound the dharma as superior, and the capacity to listen to the dharma as inferior. If those who speak are venerable, those who listen are venerable as well.
Shakyamuni Buddha said, “To expound this Lotus Sutra is to see me. To expound it for the sake of even one person is difficult.”
Thus, being able to expound the dharma is to see Shakyamuni Buddha, because to see me is itself Shakyamuni Buddha.
The Buddha also said, “After I pass away, to listen to and to accept this sutra, and to inquire into its meaning, will be quite difficult.”
Know that it is equally difficult to listen to and accept this sutra. Expounding and listening are not a matter of superior or inferior. Even if those who remain standing and listening are the most venerable buddhas, nevertheless they remain and listen to dharma, because all buddhas of the three times remain and listen to dharma. As the fruit of buddhahood is already present, they do not listen to dharma to achieve buddhahood; as [Xuansha] indicated, they are already buddhas of the three times.
Know that the buddhas in the three times are buddhas who remain and listen to the dharma expounded by flames. The transformative function of this single phrase cannot be traced in a linear manner. If you try to trace it, the arrowhead and the shaft will crush each other. Flames definitely expound dharma for the buddhas of the three times. With bits and pieces of red heart, an iron tree blossoms and the world becomes fragrant. Let me ask: When buddhas remain standing and listen to the flames expound dharma, ultimately what is it that is actualized? This is wisdom surpassing the master, wisdom equaling the master. Further, there are buddhas in the three times investigating the inner sanctum of master and disciple.
Treasury of the True Dharma Eye Page 39
