A monastic asked Master Young-woon, “What is the crux of Buddhism?” The master answered, “A donkey’s work not being finished yet, a horse’s work has already come.” The monastic, not grasping its meaning, asked for more teaching. The master said, “Although the splendid energy moves every night, meeting the spirit is rare.”
Student: “What is the difference between a donkey’s work and a horse’s work?”
Master: “The former can’t be finished but the latter is already done.”
Commentary:
One who tries to find gold by breaking gold is one who mistakes gold for stone.
“Subhuti, if someone took heaps of jewels as big as Mt. Sumeru in a billion worlds and gave them away in charity, the blessing would not compare to a hundredth part, a hundredth trillionth part, or indeed any calculable or imaginable part of the blessing of accepting, holding, reading, reciting, and explaining to others even so much as this Sutra, or a four-line verse of this Sutra.”
Commentary:
As we have seen, in the proceeding parts the Buddha repeated the scriptures four times that emphasized the importance of accepting, holding, reading, reciting, and explaining a four-line verse of this Sutra to others. In fact, it is not an exaggeration to say that the purpose of this Sutra is to enable people to do it, because being able to do it signifies enlightenment, the final goal of all Buddhists.
The reason why the blessing of accepting, holding, reading, reciting, and explaining to others this Sutra, or a four-line verse of this Sutra is incomparably larger than that of taking heaps of jewels as big as Mt. Sumeru in a billion worlds and giving them away in charity is that the former is to become one with the true-Self and the latter is still no better than being deluded by illusions.
What we ought to bear in mind is that accepting, holding, reading, reciting, and explaining a four-line verse of this Sutra implies not only accepting, holding, reading, reciting, and explaining a four-line verse in the text we are reading now but also seeing and hearing every single thing around us, or every single sound that reaches our ears as it is, without being deluded by images and words.
Student: “Why is a four-line verse more valuable than heaps of jewels as big as Mt. Sumeru?”
Master: “Because he who can hold, read and explain a four-line verse knows that there is no difference between heaps of jewels as big as Mt. Sumeru and a mustard seed.”
One day one of Joshu’s students bade farewell to Joshu. Joshu said to him, “Where are you going?” The student answered, “I am going to search for the Buddha.” Joshu said, “Don’t stay where the Buddha is, and go quickly through the place where the Buddha is not. If you happen to meet a person one thousand miles away, don’t respond to him wrongly.”
Hearing this, the student said, “I will not leave then.” Joshu said, “Pick willow flowers. Pick willow flowers.”
Student: “Then, where should we go if we shouldn’t stay where the Buddha is, and should go quickly through the place where the Buddha is not?”
Master: “Joshu showed it to you.”
Commentary:
How impolite and foolish it is of you to shake off the Buddha’s hug and to go to seek him!
“Subhuti, the so-called wholesome Dharma the Realised One says is not the wholesome Dharma, it is just called the wholesome Dharma.”
Commentary:
Here the Buddha is teaching again how we should see and hear things. People, thinking that the wholesome Dharma, the Buddha’s teaching is very valuable as a way to rescue them from the ocean of suffering, tend to be attached to the Buddha’s teaching. Aware of sentient beings’ such tendency, the Buddha advised that we also ought to see and hear his teaching as empty and should not be attached to even his teaching.
The core of the Buddha’s teaching is that everything is empty, which means that the Buddha himself, without exception, is also empty. When the Buddha is empty, his wholesome teaching, no matter how plausible it may sound, cannot but be empty.
Student: “If the wholesome Dharma the Buddha said is not the wholesome Dharma but it is just called the wholesome Dharma, what did the Buddha call the wholesome Dharma?”
Master: “The Buddha showed it through the action of speaking.”
A. As mentioned previously many times, the purpose of Buddhism is to see and hear all things as they are. To see things as they are means to see them as the same without discrimination.
However, the act of using words, that is, the act of speaking, or writing always requires discrimination that is a prior act of comparing, and selecting in order to find words, verses, or to make sentences that fit the situation and the context. In short, words are the products of discrimination. So, ancient masters meant that we should make no discrimination.
One day one of Joshu’s students bade farewell to Joshu. Joshu said to him, “Where are you going?” The student answered, “I am going to search for the Buddha.” Joshu said, “Don’t stay where the Buddha is, and go quickly through the place where the Buddha is not. If you happen to meet a person one thousand miles away, don’t respond to him wrongly.”
Hearing this, the student said, “I will not leave then.” Joshu said, “Pick willow flowers. Pick willow flowers.”
Student: “Why shouldn’t we stay where the Buddha is?”
Master: “Because where you can stay is not where the Buddha is.”
“Furthermore, Subhuti, this Dharma is unbiased; it has no high or low. This is called unexcelled complete perfect enlightenment. Those who practise wholesome Dharmas without a self, without a person, without a being, and without a liver of life will attain unexcelled complete perfect enlightenment.”
Commentary:
This Dharma means the true-Self that is formless, boundless, changeless and nameless. All wholesome Dharmas imply the Buddha’s teaching. To realise that everything, including ourselves, belongs to the true-Self, is referred to as unexcelled complete perfect enlightenment. Those who are freed from all images through practising wholesome Dharmas attain unexcelled complete perfect enlightenment.
Student: “What is it like to attain unexcelled complete perfect enlightenment?”
Master: “It is like a thief enters an empty room.”
Once upon a time in China many monastics wanted to go to Mt. Ohdae that was famous as a place where Manjushri, the Bodhisattva of wisdom resided. There lived an old lady at the foot of the mountain. Whenever a monastic asked her the way to the mountain, she answered, “Go straight.” Seeing the monastic go straight just as she had told him to, she said behind him, “A normal monastic goes in such way again.” When one of Joshu’s students told Joshu about the lady, Joshu said, “Ok, I’ll go and check her” and went to her and asked her, “What is the way to Mt. Ohdae?”. The lady made the same answer ‘Go straight’. Seeing Joshu leaving her place, she said again, “A normal monastic goes in such way again.” Joshu returned to his temple and said to his students, “I checked her.”
Student: “How did Joshu check her?”
Master: “He checked you.”
Commentary:
Joshu didn’t go to Mt. Ohdae to check the old lady but to check you.
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