A. ‘A pure practitioner’ implies an enlightened practitioner who is free from being deluded by illusions. He knows better than to be deluded by the word ‘Nirvana’ and to try to enter it. To such a person, everything that reaches his eyes and ears is the Buddha, and where he is, is already Nirvana.
‘A monk who violated the precepts’ means an unenlightened monk who is deluded by illusions. To such a person, where he is, is already the hell.
In fact, not only are Nirvana and hell not separated from each other but one, but also not separate from where we are as well. Where we are now is Nirvana to those who can see things as they are, but hell to those who are deluded by illusions. This is why a pure practitioner cannot enter Nirvana, and a monk who violated precepts doesn’t enter hell’. What matters here is whether you are in Nirvana, or hell.
Master Woonmun said to his students, “It is said that you should attain enlightenment by seeing forms and hearing sounds. What is it to attain enlightenment by seeing forms and hearing sounds?” No student responded. The master, raising his hand, said, “Avalokitesvara brought money and bought a piece of cake.” He, lowering his hand, said, “It was originally a slice of bread.”
Student: “What did Woonmun mean by ‘Avalokitesvara brought money and bought a piece of cake’?”
Master: “He revealed sounds.”
Student: “What did he mean by lowering his hand?”
Master: “He showed forms.”
Commentary:
Realise that sounds are not sounds and that forms are not forms and you will see the true-Self.
“Subhuti, I am telling you the truth. If a good man or a good woman filled as many billion-world universes as grains of sand in that many Ganges Rivers with seven kinds of treasures, and used all that to give in charity, would there be many blessings gained?” Subhuti said, “Very much, World Honoured One.” The Buddha said to Subhuti, “If a good man or a good woman accepts and holds even a four-line verse of this sutra and tells it to others, the blessing of this exceeds the aforementioned blessings.”
Commentary:
To make a long story short, this part says that accepting and holding even a four-line verse of this sutra and telling it to others is much more rewarding and beneficial than filling as many billion-world universes as grains of sand in that many Ganges Rivers with seven kinds of treasures and using all that to give in charity.
To get the same fruit mentioned above, we should know how to accept and hold even a four-line verse of this sutra and tell it to others.
The core of the Buddha’s teachings, as mentioned previously a few times, is not dwelling on anything, that is, seeing and hearing things as they are without being deluded by images and words. If we apply these words to seeing this sutra and therefore see it without being deluded by images and words, this sutra is not a sutra and all the words in this sutra are not words, but are part of the true-Self, Emptiness. This is why the Avatamsaka Sutra also says, “Only when one has seeing, what is seen and the observer removed, does one not damage the true-Self. Only such a person can see the Buddha.”
Seen from the same perspective, we the readers of this sutra are not human beings, and all other things are not things, but all are just part of the true-Self as well. Then, there is no difference whatsoever among this sutra, readers of this sutra and the other things, and they become one as the true-Self. Then, everything, including ourselves, is the true-Self, and every sound is a Dharma talk. In this state, we are identified with this sutra because we and this sutra are not separate from each other but one.
So, only when we are this sutra, and every sound we make is a four-line verse can it be said that we know how to accept and hold even a four-line verse of this sutra and tell it to others.
In short, the blessing of accepting and holding even a four-line verse of this sutra and telling it to others exceeds the aforementioned blessing merely when you realise, through reading this sutra without dwelling on words, that you are the true-Self, the Buddha and that all sounds you make are Dharma talks. This is why ancient masters would say that trying to grasp the Buddha’s teaching by dwelling on words is like seeing reflections in a mirror as real and trying to grasp them.
Student: “Do you mean that we don’t need printed scriptures on paper?”
Master: “Printed scriptures should not be printed scriptures.”
A. ‘He who is in the shrine’ means an enlightened person, or a monastic. ‘He who is in the shrine’ here represents the former who is in the state of Emptiness, the Pure land, that is, one who can see and hear everything as it is without being deluded by images and words, and who is not swayed by affairs of the mundane world since he sees them as empty as if he saw rabbit horns.
Masters sometimes scold their students for being deluded by images and words by saying, “Why do you live in a marketplace whilst eating meals in the shrine?” In this case, he who is in the shrine implies just a monastic.
“Once upon a time, Nam-jeon asked a lecturer monk, “What sutra do you teach?” And the lecturer replied, “I lecture on the Future Buddha Sutra” Then, Nam-jeon asked, “When will the Future Buddha come?” The lecturer replied, “At present he is in Heaven, but he will come soon.” Then Nam-jeon said, “There is no Future Buddha in heaven, and there is no Future Buddha under the earth.”
Student: “When will the Future Buddha come?”
Master: “No Buddha comes, or goes.”
Commentary:
Kill the Buddha and you will see the Future Buddha hidden in him.
“Subhuti, suppose there were as many Ganges Rivers as there are grains of sand in the bed of the Ganges River: would the grains of sand in all those Ganges Rivers be many?” Subhuti said, “Very many, World Honoured One. The rivers themselves would be countless, let alone their sands.”
Commentary:
The core of this Sutra is to see and hear things as they are without being deluded by images and words. This is referred to as seeing things as empty, or not dwelling on anything. As put previously in Part 10-5, not dwelling on anything means seeing everything as a rabbit horn that is not real but imaginary. When we see both the grains of sand in all those Ganges Rivers and all those Ganges Rivers as rabbit horns, there is no difference not only between a grain of sand and the Ganges River but also between a single grain of sand and billions of ones. This is why the Avatamsaka Sutra says that there is no number in the functions of the Buddha, and so the enlightened are far from being deluded by numbers. In the same way, upon hearing or reading the number of the grains of sand in the Ganges River, we should be able to hear it as the number of rabbit horns instead of being deluded by the words ‘the number of the grains of sand in the Ganges River’.
To illustrate this case, ancient masters would ask their disciples if they knew the exact number of the hairs of their heads. They asked this question to see if their students could see everything as a rabbit horn without dwelling on images and words. In the same way, we should be able to know the exact number of the grains of sand in all those Ganges Rivers without dwelling on anything as we were taught by the Buddha.
Student: “What is the number of the grains of sand in all those Ganges Rivers?”
Master: “A billion to the power of a billion minus three.”
A. Frankly speaking, I don’t think I can give you a correct answer because I have not either had or studied any other religion for as long as I have had Buddhism. To the best of my knowledge, all religions worship gods although they pray at different places to different gods on different days, or dates in different ways.
However, Buddhism has no god to worship, or pray to, although Buddha statues in temples may cause people to think that Buddhism worships the Buddha as its god. In fact, it is not for the purpose of worshipping but in honour of the historical Buddha as a great teacher that temples have Buddha statues. Buddhism is not a religion that worships and prays to a god for happiness and an eternal life but a religion that leads people to realise that everything, including themselves, is a perfect being.
“Once upon a time, Nam-jeon asked a lecturer monk, “What sutra do you teach?” And the lecturer replied, “I lecture on the Future Buddha Sutra” Then, Nam-jeon asked, “When will the Future Buddha come?” The lecturer replied, “At present he is in Heaven, but he will come soon.” Then Nam-jeon said, “There is no Future Buddha in heaven, and there is no Future Buddha under the earth.”
Student: “Where is the Future Buddha if he is neither in heaven nor under the earth?”
Master: “He is in the future.”
Commentary:
The Buddha is the Future Buddha until you see him.
“Subhuti, by way of analogy, if a person’s body is as large as Mount Sumeru, what do you think? Would you say that his body is large?” Subhuti said, “It is very large, World Honoured One, because the Buddha called that which is not a body the large body.”
Commentary:
Mount Sumeru is the most grandiose mountain in the countless worlds that symbolises the centre of the universe in Buddhism. We should understand why the Buddha said that a person’s body is as large as Mount Sumeru.
As mentioned in Part 10-4, when we don’t dwell on anything, or when we see and hear things as they are without being deluded by words, there is not a single word even though our eyes and ears are full of light and sound. When there is not a word in our seeing and hearing, there is not a single thing even though our eyes and ears are full. That there is not a thing in our seeing and hearing means to see and hear things like dreams just as the Buddha told us to at the end of this Sutra.
Then, a person’s body is not a person’s body, and Mount Sumeru is not Mount Sumeru, but they are just illusionary images like dreams. In other words, seeing everything like a dream is compared to seeing everything like a rabbit-horn that is not real but illusionary. There is no difference between a large rabbit-horn and a small one, although they appear to be different from each other, since they are not real but imaginary. In the same way, when we don’t dwell on anything, there is no difference between a person’s body and Mount Sumeru because both of them are no more than rabbit-horns. This is why the Buddha called that which is not a body the large body, and why ancient masters would say that we should be able to put Mount Sumeru into a mustard seed.
A. Every effect has its own cause. There is no effect without cause. Even a cause is also an effect of other causes. Everything is cause and effect at the same time. It follows that our birth is also an effect of causes we made, although we don’t remember what they are, and is simultaneously a cause for another effect.
Then, can we say that a person doesn’t choose to be born if his birth is the result of the causes he made previously? If his life doesn’t happen to be a life that he wants, it sounds more reasonable to say that he made a wrong choice, rather than say that he didn’t choose to be born.
Zen Fools 