After Hyangum opened his temple, Weishan sent a monk to deliver a letter and a staff. Upon receiving them, Hyangum lamented crying out, “Alas, heavens! Alas, heavens!” The monk asked, “Master, why are you like this?” Hyangum replied, “It is because the weather feels like winter during my spring outing.”
Student: “Why did the master lament crying out ‘Alas, heavens’?”
Master: “He expressed gratitude to Weishan for his compassion and to the monk for his long trip.”
Commentary:
A host and his servant give presents to a guest at the same time, but the foolish guest, dismissive of the host’s valuable present, only takes a poor gift from the servant.
Subhuti said to the Buddha, “World Honoured One, will any sentient beings develop genuine faith by hearing these words?”
The Buddha said to Subhuti, “Don’t talk in that way. In the last five hundred years after the death of me, the Realised One, there will be those who keep the precepts and do good deeds, conceive faith in these words and consider it to be true. You should know that because those people have planted roots of goodness, not with one, two, three, four, or five Buddhas, but with infinite thousands of myriads of Buddhas, they will conceive pure faith on hearing these words for even a moment.”
Commentary:
The statement “In the last five hundred years after the death of me, the Realised One, there will be those who keep the precepts and do good deeds, conceive faith in these words and consider it to be true” means that no matter how much time passes after Shakyamuni Buddha’s death, the true-Self that is the essence of not just Shakyamuni Buddha but us—what he sought to show us—remains unchanged, neither coming nor going. It signifies that there will be practitioners who cultivate merits and those who realise the true-Self.
Even after countless ages have passed since Shakyamuni Buddha’s time, those who, without seeing the living Buddha in person and only hearing his teachings, give rise to faith are individuals who, in their past lives, planted virtuous roots with countless millions of Buddhas. Due to the great merit accumulated in past lives, they encounter the Buddha’s teachings. Thus, those of you reading this Sutra at this very moment are the ones who, in past lives, planted virtuous roots with countless millions of Buddhas and have now obtained this rare and precious opportunity.
This hard-earned opportunity must not be wasted in vain.
Here, “they will conceive pure faith on hearing these words for even a moment” means hearing these words as they are for even a moment, without being swayed by forms or words, and realising the true-Self. The purpose of following the Buddha’s teachings and studying this Sutra is to give rise to pure faith in a single moment and realise the true-Self.
The purpose of the Buddha’s teaching was not to enable us to accumulate knowledge through a literal understanding of certain facts but to help us give rise to pure faith and realise the true-Self by seeing and hearing his words as they really are. In other words, the Buddha’s intention in giving sermons was not to convey facts but to reveal the true-Self.
Thus, as stated in the Avatamsaka Sutra, “When the Dharma explained in words is vainly discriminated with limited wisdom, obstacles arise, and one fails to know their own mind,” while reading the sutra, we must not stop at understanding it through words, as is our long-standing habit. Instead, we must transcend words to give rise to pure faith and realise the true-Self.
Disciple: “What is the true-Self?”
Master: “It is not words.”
Disciple: “If it is not words, how can I know it?”
A. Don’t try to find something to rely on. Thinking that there might be something to depend on and looking for it is being deluded by illusions. The aim of Buddhism is to realise that there is nothing to rely upon and no one who will rely, because not only all discriminations of right and wrong but everything else is also empty.
Even you who are looking for something to rely on are empty as well. Don’t seek something to depend on but try to realise that you are already perfection itself that needs nothing to rely on.
A monk asked Yunju, “What should a monastic ultimately be like?” Yunju replied, “It’s good to dwell in the mountains.” The monk immediately bowed, and Yunju said, “How do you understand this?” The monk answered, “A monastic should be unshaken like a mountain, even amidst the boundaries of good and bad, compliance and opposition, life and death.” The master immediately struck him and said, “You betray the ancient sages and ruin our descendants.”
Student: “Why did Yunju strike and criticise the monk for his answer?”
Master: “He showed compassion to pull the monk into the mountains.”
Commentary:
The best medicine kills people unless it is well used.
The Buddha said to Subhuti, “All forms are illusory; if you see that forms are not characteristics, then you will see the Realised One.”
Commentary:
Here, the Buddha provides a more specific method for recognising the true-Self (Tathagata). The statement “If you see that forms are not characteristics, then you will see the Realised One” means that when you see a flower, for instance, and understand that the flower is not merely a flower, or when you see a person and realise that the person is not merely a person—in other words, when you understand that what you see and hear is not what you have thought or believed it to be—then you can see the true Buddha, the true-Self.
As an ancient great monk said: “When you see form, do not be swayed by form; When you hear sound, it is not sound. In the place where form and sound do not cling, You directly reach the realm of the Buddha’s Kingdom,” when seeing and hearing, if you attach no words or concepts and perceive everything as it is, you can avoid being swayed by the illusion of the historical Buddha’s physical characteristics and see the true Buddha.
Just as the true Buddha is described in the Avatamsaka Sutra: “Before the World-Honoured One left Tusita Heaven, he was already born in the royal palace, and before emerging from his mother’s womb, he had already saved all beings in the world,” the true Buddha has no form, no name, neither is born nor dies. Identifying the Buddha with any form is idolatry, clinging to form and being deluded by illusion.
Let me introduce a story from the Sutra of Mutual Arising about the nun named Yeonhwasaek (Lotus Colour), who, deceived by form (physical body), failed to see the true-Self (Dharma-body, Tathagata) and was reprimanded by the Buddha for clinging to his physical form.
When the World-Honoured One (Buddha) was in Trayastrimsha Heaven for 90 days, preaching the Dharma for his mother, and then descended from the heavens, the fourfold assembly (laymen, laywomen, monks, and nuns) and the eight classes of beings all went into the sky to greet him. At that time, the nun Yeonhwasaek thought to herself, “As a nun, I must stand behind the great monks to see the Buddha. Instead, I will use my supernatural powers to transform into a Wheel-Turning Sage King, surrounded by a thousand princes, and approach to see the Buddha first.” She did as she intended, but the moment the World-Honoured One saw her, he rebuked her, saying, “Yeonhwasaek, how dare you bypass the order of the great monks to see me? Though you have seen my physical form, you have not seen my Dharma-body (true-Self). Subhuti, sitting quietly in a cave, has seen my Dharma-body.”
We, too, should not go to temples to see the Buddha but should strive to see, or at least attempt to see, what Subhuti saw while sitting quietly in a cave, within our own homes. The Buddha taught us not to be swayed even by his living physical form, so how could bowing to and worshipping lifeless Buddha statues not be idolatry? To prevent this, ancient great monks said that if you meet the Buddha, you must kill him.
The crucial point here is that the method of seeing the true Buddha, as explained above, is also the method of seeing ourselves. We must see ourselves in the same way we see the Buddha. The true Buddha (true-Self, Tathagata) is the essence of not only the historical Buddha but all things, including us. Being able to see the true Buddha means seeing everything, including ourselves, as the Buddha. In other words, it means realising the essence of our existence and awakening to the fact that we are eternal and perfect Buddhas. This is why Master Bodhidharma said, “Do not make a living Buddha bow to a dead Buddha.”
Disciple: “How can I see the Buddha?”
Master: “How can you not see the Buddha?”
Disciple: “What is the difference between the true Buddha and a Buddha idol?”
Master: “The Buddha you chase after is an idol; the Buddha that chases you is the true Buddha.”
Disciple: “What did Subhuti see?”
Master: “The Buddha showed it to the nun Yeonhwasaek.”
A. In Buddhism the mundane world is called the realm of form and the original home implies the realm of emptiness that is also referred to as the Pure Land, the Buddha Land, the true-Self. The former and the latter are not separate but identical just like winds and air.
The former is the function of the latter and is the way the latter is. However, we are unaware of this truth because we are deluded by illusions that are various images and words. In other words, we are not aware that we are in the original home whilst being actually there. So, returning to the original home means realising that we are already there.
A monk asked Yunju, “What should a monastic ultimately be like?” Yunju replied, “It’s good to dwell in the mountains.” The monk immediately bowed, and Yunju said, “How do you understand this?” The monk answered, “A monastic should be unshaken like a mountain, even amidst the boundaries of good and bad, compliance and opposition, life and death.” The master immediately struck him and said, “You betray the ancient sages and ruin our descendants.”
Student: “What is wrong with the monk’s answer?”
Master: “The monk is littering up the mountains with rubbish.”
Commentary:
Life in the mountains is so simple that it is free from mundane things such as good and bad, life and death.
“Subhuti, what do you think—is it possible to see me, the Realised One in terms of physical characteristics?” “No, World Honoured One; it is not possible to see you, the Realised One in terms of physical characteristics.”
“Why? Because physical characteristics explained by you, the Realised One are not physical characteristics.”
Commentary:
This passage explains how we can see our true Buddha-nature.
As mentioned earlier, Shakyamuni Buddha taught that those who regard the 32 physical marks and 80 minor characteristics of the Buddha as his true form cannot truly see the Buddha. This is because those physical attributes are not the reality but merely a form of illusion.
Regarding these physical characteristics as the true Buddha is to be deluded by form, images, which goes against the core of the Buddha’s teaching: “If you know that form is not form, you will see the true-Self (Tathagata).” This means that one must not dwell on any form to see the Tathagata(true-Self).
However, not clinging to the form of things does not mean ignoring it.
As taught in the phrase “Form is emptiness, emptiness is form”—meaning that form (material reality) is emptiness (the true-Self, Buddha-nature) and emptiness is form—we should understand that, just as the wind and air are one, where wind is air and air is wind, the physical form of the Buddha is one with the infinite true-Self (Emptiness). Through the Buddha’s physical form, we should be able to see the true-Self.
Just as the wind, regardless of its form, is a function of air and cannot be separated from it, and just as the cessation of wind does not mean the air disappears, our bodies, as forms, arise and cease due to causes and effects as part of Emptiness (the true-Self). Even if the wind stops, its essence, the air, remains; in the same way, though our bodies may disappear, our essence, the true-Self (Emptiness), never vanishes.
When we are deluded by forms and names, we see only the small—the form—and fail to see the great—the true-Self (Emptiness). Seeing only the historical, physical Buddha and not the original Buddha that He spoke of is called an “open secret” or “the true-Self hidden within form,” because we can’t see Him although He is revealing himself before us all the time. The Avatamsaka Sutra admonishes such sentient beings, saying: “Even if one gazes upon the Buddha for hundreds of thousands of kalpas, if they do not rely on the true principle and see the one who saves the world as the Buddha, one clings only to form, adding to the net of foolish doubts, bound by the prison of birth and death, blind and unable to see the Buddha.”
The true form of the Buddha, as taught by the Buddha, is emptiness. This is not only the original form of the Buddha but of all of us. Realising this original form is the enlightenment that is the goal of Buddhism. When we see our existence as a physical body, birth and death are evident. However, when we see our existence as Emptiness (the true-Self), the essence of all things, there is no birth and death. Realising Emptiness is called “liberation from birth and death.”
Disciple: “Why did the historical Buddha say that the Buddha has 32 marks and 80 minor characteristics?”
Master: “One person spoke falsely, but ten thousand people heard it as truth.”
A. No one knows it. Maybe tomorrow, or this evening. What is certain is that it is not because enlightenment is sufficiently far away to be out of your reach that you cannot attain it easily. You have it in your hands all the time and are facing it at every moment.
Trying to attain enlightenment is like seeking to reach Britain while staying in London and like thinking over how to return to your home whilst sitting in your living room. If you recognise it any moment, that is the enlightenment.
When Linji was about to pass away, Sansheng was the head of the monastery. Linji addressed him, saying, “After I depart from this world, you must not let my True Dharma Eye be extinguished.” Sansheng replied, “How could I ever let the Master’s True Dharma Eye be extinguished?” Linji asked, “If someone suddenly asks you about it, what will you say?” Sansheng gave a shout. Linji said, “Who would have thought that my true Dharma Eye would vanish with this blind donkey?”
Student: “What did Linji mean by saying that his True Dharma Eye would vanish with this blind donkey?”
Master: “Why do you still have his True Dharma Eye that vanished then?”
Zen Fools 