We clearly know from this that Kumaralabdha does not deny cause and effect. But students today do not understand this. They do not revere or follow the ancient way. Calling themselves teachers of humans and devas, they are robbers of humans and devas—enemies of practitioners. Followers of the ancestral teaching should not instruct later generations to deny causation, because that is a crooked view, not the dharma of buddha ancestors. People fall into this crooked view because their studies are shallow.
Nowadays, monks in China say, “Those of us who have received human bodies and encountered buddha dharma don’t remember even one or two past lives, but the wild fox on Mount Baizhang remembered as many as five hundred past lives. He did not become a fox because of past actions. Stopped at the entrance door by a golden chain [trapped by a limited view of enlightenment], he was transmigrating only in the animal realm.” Many who are regarded as great teachers talk like this, but such a view is not acceptable among buddha ancestors.
In the realms of humans, foxes, and others, some may be born with the capacity to see past lives. Such a capacity may be the result of unwholesome action and not necessarily a seed of enlightenment. The World-Honored One has cautioned us in detail about such a point. Not to understand it reflects a lack of study. Regrettably, to know as many as one thousand or ten thousand lifetimes is not necessarily to understand buddha dharma. There are those outside the way who remember eighty thousand eons, but do not understand buddha dharma. Compared with such capacities, this fox who could recall five hundred lifetimes is not significant.
The most serious mistake made by those who study Zen in China is to believe that a person who practices completely does not fall into cause and effect. What a pity! There have been an increasing number of those who deny cause and effect, even though they witness the Tathagata’s true dharma being transmitted from ancestor to ancestor. So, those who study the way should urgently clarify this teaching. The point of Baizhang’s words Do not ignore cause and effect is that we should not be ignorant of causation.
Thus, the significance of practicing cause and realizing effect is clear. This is the way of buddhas and ancestors. Those who themselves have not yet clarified buddha dharma should not superficially explain it to humans and devas.
Ancestor Nagarjuna said, “If you deny cause and effect in the worldly realm, as some people outside the way do, you negate this present life as well as future lives. If you deny cause and effect in the realm of practice, you reject the three treasures, the four noble truths, and the four fruits of shravakas.”
Clearly know that those who deny cause and effect are outside the way, whether they are living a worldly or a renunciate life. They say that the present life is unreal and that their transient body is in this world, but that their true nature abides in enlightenment. They believe that their true nature is mind, and that mind and body are separate.
There are also those who say that people return to the ocean of true nature when they die. Without having studied buddha dharma, they say that transmigration through birth and death ends and there are no future births after they return to the ocean of enlightenment. Those who hold this view of annihilation are outside the way. They are not buddha’s disciples even if they look like monks. They are indeed outside the buddha dharma. Because they deny cause and effect, they deny present and future lives. They deny causation because they have not studied with true teachers. Those who have studied deeply with true teachers should abandon mistaken views which deny causation. Have faith in and pay respect to the compassionate teaching of Ancestor Nagarjuna.
Yongjia, Great Master Zhenjiao, Priest Xuanjiao, was a senior student of Huineng of Mount Caoxi, the Sixth Ancestor. He had initially been a student of the Lotus School on Mount Tiantai, and a dharma brother of Zuoxi Xianlang. While he was reading the Maha Pari-nirvana Sutra, a golden light filled the room and he awakened beyond birth and death. He went to Mount Caoxi to present his realization to Huineng, who gave him his seal of approval.
Yongjia later composed a verse called “The Song of Realizing the Way,” in which he wrote: “Carefree views of emptiness ignore cause and effect, and invite endless calamity.”
It is true that ignoring causation invites disaster. Past sages clarified cause and effect, but students have become confused in recent times. Those of you who have a pure aspiration for enlightenment and want to study buddha dharma for the sake of buddha dharma should clarify causation as past sages did. Those who reject this teaching are outside the way.
Hongzhi, Old Buddha, commented in a verse on the wild fox:
A foot of water has expanded to a wave ten feet tall.
Helplessly wandering through five hundred births,
the fox who struggles with not falling or not ignoring
remains entangled in twining vines.
Ha! Ha! Do you get it?
If you are not stuck,
you will let me continue my “goo goo wa wa.”
Shrine songs and dance emerge spontaneously
during clapping and cheering.
By the lines The fox who struggles with not falling or not ignoring remains entangled in twining vines, Hongzhi means that not falling is itself not ignoring.
This story of the fox is not complete. It says that the old man did become free from a wild fox’s body, but it does not say whether he was then born in the world of humans, devas, or elsewhere. This makes people wonder. If the old man is reborn in a wholesome realm, free from a wild fox’s body, it must be the realm of either devas or humans. Otherwise, he would be reborn in one of the four unwholesome realms. There is no shortage of locations for rebirth. But those outside the buddha way mistakenly believe that sentient beings return to the ocean of permanence or to the great self after death.
Keqin, Zen Master Yuanwu of Mount Jia, commented in verse on this ancient case:
A fish swims, making the water murky.
A bird flies, shedding its feathers.
The ultimate mirror is difficult to escape.
The great void is boundless.
Once you go, you go endlessly.
By virtue of causation, the one who practices completely
lives five hundred lifetimes.
Thunder cracks the mountains and storms shake the ocean.
The color of purified gold does not change.
This poem still has a view of a permanent self and a sense of denying cause and effect.
Zonggao, Zen Master Dahui, of Mount Jing, Hang Region, commented:
Not falling and not ignoring
are like a pebble and a lump of clay.
When they show up together on a footpath,
the silver mountain opens up.
Seeing it, the silly Priest Budai of Ming
claps his hands and bursts out laughing.
People in China nowadays regard Zonggao as an established ancestor. However, his view does not equal even the expedient teachings in the buddha dharma. It resembles a view of spontaneous enlightenment by people outside the way.
More than thirty masters have written poems or commentaries on this story. Not one of them understands the saying a person of complete practice does not fall into cause and effect as a denial of causation. What a pity! Such people waste their lives by not clarifying cause and effect. In studying buddha dharma you should first understand causation. By denying causation, you generate outrageously crooked views and cut off wholesome roots.
After all, causation is self-evident; there are no exceptions. Those who act in an unwholesome way decline, and those who act in a wholesome way thrive. There is not a hairbreadth of discrepancy. If cause and effect had been ignored or denied, buddhas would not have appeared and Bodhidharma would not have come from India; sentient beings would not have seen Buddha or heard the dharma. The principle of cause and effect is not clarified by Confucius or Laozi. Buddhas and ancestors alone have transmitted it. Students in these decadent times seldom meet a genuine teacher or hear the true dharma. That is why they do not clarify cause
and effect.
If you deny causation, endless harm results. Even if you do nothing more than deny cause and effect, this is a disastrous, poisonous view. Immediately clarify all causes and all effects if you want to make the aspiration for enlightenment your priority, and so respond to the boundless gift of buddha ancestors.
During the summer practice period in the seventh year of the Kencho Era [1255], I copied Dogen’s draft. There may be a second or final version edited by him, but I have used his draft for the time being. Ejo.
91
MONK OF THE FOURTH-STAGE MEDITATION
NAGARJUNA, THE FOURTEENTH Ancestor, said [in the Treatise on Realization of Great Wisdom]:
There was a monk among the Buddha’s disciples who experienced the fourth stage of meditation, grew arrogant, and said that he had attained the fourth fruit.
Prior to that, upon experiencing the first stage of meditation, he said he had attained the fruit of entering the stream. Upon experiencing the second stage, he said he had attained the fruit of returning once. Upon experiencing the third stage, he said he had attained the fruit of no return. And, upon experiencing the fourth stage, he said he had attained the fruit of being an arhat. Believing this, he became proud and stopped practicing further.
When his life was about to end, the monk saw an image of the realm intermediate to the next life, formed a mistaken view, and said, “There is no such thing as nirvana [with no more rebirth]. The Buddha has deceived me.” Because of this mistaken view, the image of the intermediary realm disappeared and an image of the realm intermediate to Avichi Hell appeared. When he died, he was reborn in Avichi Hell.
His fellow monks asked the Buddha, “Where was that monk of solitary practice born after his life ended?”
The Buddha said, “He was born in Avichi Hell.”
The monks were surprised: “How could this happen to someone who practiced meditation and kept the precepts?”
The Buddha answered, “This happened because he grew arrogant. Upon experiencing the fourth stage of meditation, he said he had attained the fourth fruit. At the end of his life, he saw an image of the intermediary realm, formed a mistaken view, and thought, ‘There is no nirvana. I am an arhat, but I am about to move on to another life. The Buddha has given a false teaching.’ Then, he saw an image of the realm intermediate to Avichi Hell, and he fell into Avichi Hell.”
Then the Buddha spoke in verse:
Learning extensively, keeping the precepts,
and practicing meditation are not yet being free of delusion.
They all have merit,
but it is hard to have trust in them.
Falling into hell is due to slandering the Buddha
and has nothing to do with the fourth stage of meditation.
This monk is called the Monk of the Fourth-Stage Meditation or the Monk of No-Learning. One is cautioned not to confuse the experience of the fourth stage of meditation with attaining the fourth fruit, and not to slander the Buddha. All humans and devas in the great assembly know this. From the time when the Buddha was alive to this day, in western and eastern lands, one is cautioned not to be attached to what is not correct as correct. This is ridiculed as mistaking the fourth stage of meditation for the fourth fruit.
Let me examine the case of this monk who made three mistakes:
First, because he was a person of no learning who could not distinguish the fourth stage of zazen from the fourth fruit, he left his teacher groundlessly and practiced all by himself. As he had the fortune of living at the time when the Tathagata was in the world, if he had visited the Buddha constantly, seen the Buddha, and listened to the dharma, he would not have made this mistake. However, as he lived in a solitary place, did not visit the Buddha’s place, and did not hear and listen to the Buddha, he made such a mistake. Even if he had not visited the Buddha, he should have visited various great arhats and asked for instructions. To live in a solitary place groundlessly was a mistake caused by his arrogance.
Second, to regard the first stage of meditation as the first fruit, the second stage as the second fruit, the third stage as the third fruit, and the fourth stage as the fourth fruit is a mistake. The aspects of the first, second, third, and fourth stages of meditation and the aspects of the first, second, third, and fourth fruits do not resemble each other and cannot be compared. His mistake is based on his ignorance due to his having no learning and no teacher.
[Zhanran said:]
Among the disciples of Upagupta, there was a monk who had left the household with aspiration, experienced the fourth stage of meditation, and thought he had attained the fourth fruit. Using skillful means, Upagupta sent the monk to another land. On the monk’s way, Upagupta magically made robbers and five hundred traders appear. The robbers attacked and slaughtered the traders. The monk was frightened by the scene and said to himself, “I am not an arhat. I have merely experienced the third fruit.”
After the monk left the traders, he saw one of their daughters. She said to him, “Please, reverend, take me with you.”
The monk said, “The Buddha wouldn’t allow me to travel with a woman.”
The woman said, “I will follow you and keep you in sight.”
The monk pitied her and let her follow him. Upagupta then made a wide river appear. The woman said, “Reverend, would you please cross the river with me?”
So the monk went into the river downstream and the woman went in upstream. She fell into the water and cried, “Reverend, please help me.”
The monk took her hand and pulled her out. As he thought of her delicate body, his carnal desire was aroused. As a result, he realized that he hadn’t attained the third fruit of no return. He was extremely attracted to the woman, led her to a secluded place, and was about to make love to her when the monk realized that it was his own master [creating an illusion]. Fully ashamed, he stood up quickly and made many bows.
Upagupta said to him, “You thought you were an arhat. How come you are doing such an awful thing?”
Upagupta took the monk to the assembly, made him repent, expounded essential dharma, and caused him to be an arhat.
Although this monk had a self-generated mistaken view, he was frightened by the scene of slaughter and realized that he was not an arhat. But he thought he had experienced the third fruit. Later he thought of the delicate body of the woman, aroused carnal desire, and realized that he had not experienced the fruit of no return. He did not arouse the thought of slandering the Buddha, did not intend to slander the dharma, and did not have the thought of going against the sacred teaching. He was not the same as the Monk of the Fourth-Stage Meditation. Rather, because of the power of having studied the sacred teaching, he realized that he was not an arhat and had not experienced the fruit of no return.
Nowadays, because those of no learning do not know what arhats and buddhas are, they do not realize that they are not arhats or buddhas; they groundlessly think and say that they are buddhas. This is a great mistake. It is a deep offense. Those who study the way should first learn what buddhas are.
An ancient teacher [Zhanran] said, “Those of you who study the sacred teaching should know what comes next. Even if you try to skip stages, you would come to know the truth.”
How true this ancient teacher’s words are! Even if you have a mistaken view about the next birth, you will not deceive yourself or be deceived by others if you study buddha dharma even a little bit.
[Zhanran said:]
I have heard: Someone thought that he had become a buddha. He waited for dawn but it did not arrive. He thought this was due to a demon’s obstruction. Finally, the day broke, but he was not asked by Brahma to expound dharma. As a result, he realized that he had not become a buddha, but he did think he was an arhat. Later, insulted by another, he became angry and realized that he was not an arhat. He thought he had merely attained the third fruit. But, when seeing a woman, he aroused his carnal desire and realized that he was not a sage. He realized all of this because he understood various as
pects of the teaching.
Now, those who know buddha dharma realize their faults in this way and quickly cast off their mistakes. Those who don’t know it remain ignorant for the rest of their lives. To receive rebirth after this birth is also like this.
This disciple of Upagupta experienced the fourth stage of meditation and thought it was the fourth fruit, but he had the wisdom to realize that he was not an arhat. If the Monk of the Fourth-Stage Meditation had seen an image of the intermediary realm when he was about to die and realized that he was not an arhat, he would not have slandered the Buddha. Further, since he had experienced the fourth stage of meditation for a long time, how did he not realize that it was not the fourth fruit? If he had realized that it was not the fourth fruit, how would he not have changed his view? Instead, he remained in his mistaken thought and was drowned in his crooked view.
Treasury of the True Dharma Eye Page 99
