Part 10-2
“Subhuti, what do you think? Do Bodhisattvas adorn the Buddha-land?” “No, World Honoured One, because adorning the Buddha-land is not adornment, but it is just called adornment.”
Commentary:
We often think of the Buddha Land (Pure Land) as a place where Buddha resides, separate from the Buddha himself or from this mundane world. However, the Buddha-Land is simply another name for Emptiness, the true-Self, or Oneness. As the Heart Sutra says, it is neither stained nor pure, neither increasing nor decreasing. It is a state of perfection that remains untainted by defilements and cannot be made any purer by nirvana. It requires no further adornment because it is already complete. Just as everything is Buddha, every place is the Buddha-Land; there is no place that is not.
In the Vimalakirti Sutra, when Sariputra wondered why the land seemed impure, Buddha said, “Sariputra, it is the fault of sentient beings that they cannot see the majestic purity of the Buddha land; it is not the fault of the Buddha. My land is pure, but you simply do not see it.” We are living in the Buddha Land right now, but we are deceived by forms and words, mistaking it for a world of suffering, birth, old age, sickness, and death. To view this perfect, untouchable land as dirty is what it means to defile the Buddha Land. This is why, when a monk asked how to adorn the Buddha Land, his master replied, “Don’t think of adorning it; just don’t defile it.”
True adornment means seeing things as they truly are. It is realising that illusions and enlightenment are not two, and that Buddha and sentient beings are not two. This very world we live in is the Buddha Land. If you can see things clearly, wherever you are is the Pure Land. If you are deceived by appearances, the Pure Land appears as a world of defilement. Thus, adorning the Buddha-Land is not actually adorning it; it is merely called adornment. The true adornment of the Buddha-Land is realising that your own home and workplace are the Pure Land itself.
Disciple: “How do I adorn the Buddha Land?”
Master: “Do not even lift a finger.”
Disciple: “Why?”
Master: “To adorn it is to defile it.”
Disciple: “Then just how pure and perfect is it?”
Master: “The words ‘pure’ and ‘perfect’ are themselves stains upon it.”
Forget about adorning the Buddha-Land.
If you were to clean your own house,
Where would you begin?
To the one who knows the answer to this,
I shall permit the adornment of the Buddha-Land.
Koan:
Master Joshu preached to the assembly: A gold Buddha cannot pass through a furnace; a wooden Buddha cannot pass through fire; a mud Buddha cannot pass through water. The True Buddha sits within the house.
Question: What is the “True Buddha” sitting inside the house?
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
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