A. No matter how many offerings you may make, it is no more than making good karma in the realm of form. This means that the merit of your offerings is supposed to run out with time since all things in the realm of form have a beginning and an end. No matter how much wealth you may possess at the moment, for example, it is yours merely whilst you remain alive; at most for one hundred and twenty years. However, realising the true-Self implies transcending birth and death, to realise that you are eternity itself. This is why the merit of making offerings to all sentient beings in the world for billions of years is not as much as that of realising the true-Self.
Regarding the offering, giver, and receiver as one, we should make offerings not as a means of making good karma but as part of our practice to realise the true-Self.
When a monk asked Master Sukshang, “What’s the meaning of the Patriarch’s coming from the west?”, the master clapped his teeth. The monk didn’t make sense of the meaning and asked Master Goobong, “What’s the meaning of the master’s clapping his teeth?” after Master Sukshang passed away. Goobong said, “Even if I get my tongue cut out, I can’t violate what the nation prohibits.”
Student: “What’s the meaning of the master’s clapping his teeth?” Master: “Goobong already said the answer.” Student: “What is it that the nation prohibits?” Master: “It prohibits people from breaking one into many.” Student: “Why can’t I understand it?” Master: “Because you violate the national law.”
Commentary: Breaking one into many is the source of all calamities.
“Subhuti, what do you think—if someone gives seven kinds of treasures in charity that are sufficient to fill a billion-world universe, would this person gain many blessings?”
Subhuti said, “Very many, World Honoured One. Why? These blessings are not of the nature of blessing; therefore the Realised One says the blessings are many.”
The Buddha said, “If anyone accepts and holds even a single four-line verse from this Sutra, and tells it to others, the blessing exceeds the aforementioned.”
Commentary:
No matter how much valuable treasure we may give in charity, it is no better than making good karma unless we are aware that it is empty. Good karma, no matter how much it may be, is supposed not only to come to an end but also to be accompanied by bad karma since there cannot be good karma without bad karma.
We should know that ‘this Sutra’ doesn’t imply the text that is printed on paper or on silk, or carved on wood or on rock but the true-Self, Emptiness that is the essence of our being and that a four-line verse from this Sutra signifies the function of the true-Self whether it is a movement, or a sound.
As mentioned in earlier parts, everything, ourselves included, is the true-Self, the Buddha, and every movement and every sound of it is the function of the true-Self. It follows from this that not just everything we see and hear but all actions and sounds we make as well are a four-line verse.
So, ‘accepting and holding even a single four-line verse from this Sutra and telling it to others’ doesn’t mean to accept and hold even a literal verse from the material Sutra and tell it to others. Rather, just as the Lotus Sutra says that once we realise the true-Self, no matter what words we may read, or speak such as mundane books, political discourses, wealth, or careers, they will be a Dharma talk, we, aware that everything we see and hear is the Buddha’s Dharma talk, should know that all actions and sounds made by us are no other than four-line verses.
A. ‘What you can send back’ implies all words, labels such as person, male, female, Korean, Briton, father, mother, son, daughter, tall, short, young, old and so on that define your identity because they are not innate but artificial, or attached to you after your birth. ‘Send back’ here means to remove, or to detach.
Detaching all the words, imaginary labels from you that define your identity means removing all boundaries that confine your being within your physical body. The boundless state is referred to as the true-Self, Emptiness, or the Buddha, the boundless state is formless, the formless state is unchangeable, and the unchangeable state has no beginning and no end, which is no other than the essence of your being.
Zen master Sengmi of Shenshan crossed a river with his dharma brother Dongshan. Dongshan said, “Don’t make a mistake with your steps and slip into the current.” Shenshan said, “If I make a mistake with my steps, then I won’t live to cross the river.” Dongshan said, “What is the state without mistakes?” Shenshan said, “Crossing the river with the elder.”
Student: “What is the state without mistakes?”
Master: “You can walk through the current without your shoes getting wet.”
Student: “Do you mean that you can walk across a deep river without a raft, or a boat?”
Master: “Why are you getting farther into the current?”
Commentary:
Sentient beings are drowned in the current of their own creation.
“What is the reason? Because all things appear diverse and separate based on the eternal unchangeable Dharma.
Commentary:
All things mean forms, and the eternal unchangeable Dharma means the true-Self. All things are from the same root, the true-Self and they are essentially one and the same as the true-Self although each of them appears different from one another. All forms are the way that the true-Self is. Forms are to the true-Self as winds are to the air. To explain forms and the true-Self, an ancient master would say, “Everything is different from one another, and there are no two identical things in the world. However, at the same time, everything is the same as one another, and there are not two different things. The former is known to everyone, but the latter is difficult for even a saint to know.”
From this perspective, although each word and each phrase of the Buddha’s Dharma talks appear and sound different from one another, they are essentially the same as the function of the true-Self. Ancient masters would compare those who clung to the literal meaning of the Buddha’s teaching to a dog, and those who recognised the true-Self to a lion, when they read or heard it.
Every form changes all the time and has a beginning and an end, but the true-Self is formless, never changes and has no beginning and no end. No matter what we may see, we should be able to see it in both ways; as a form and as the true-Self at the same time. This is referred to as seeing the Buddha in everything, or seeing everything as the Buddha. Seeing oneself as the true-Self is called transcending birth and death in Buddhism.
Student: “How can I distinguish the true-Self from a form when I see a flower?”
Master: “Seeing what never withers in a flower is seeing the true-Self.”
A. ‘When your eyes are pure’ means that you see everything as it is without being deluded by illusions. When you are deluded by illusions and can’t see things as they are, it is said that your eyes have disease. ‘What is seen is also pure’ implies that what is seen appears empty.
For instance, if your eyes are not pure, when you see a flower, you see it just as a flower which has its beginning and end from budding to withering. This is the way of seeing things that you are addicted to, but if your eyes are pure, you can see the true-Self in the flower without budding and withering. This is referred to as seeing the treasure hidden in things.
Zen master Sengmi of Shenshan crossed a river with his dharma brother Dongshan. Dongshan said, “Don’t make a mistake with your steps and slip into the current.” Shenshan said, “If I make a mistake with my steps, then I won’t live to cross the river.” Dongshan said, “What is the state without mistakes?” Shenshan said, “Crossing the river with the elder.”
Student: “What does ‘making a mistake with one’s steps and slipping into the current’ mean?”
Master: “Listen closely.”
Student: “How can you save the one who slipped into the current?”
Master: “I am sorry he is clinging to the current although I am trying my best to pull him out of it now.”
Commentary:
Regard the Buddha’s and patriarchs’ words as an enemy.
“Why? Because the Dharma preached by the Realised One can neither be obtained nor be spoken; it is neither the Dharma nor the non-Dharma.”
Commentary:
The Dharma, the true-Self that the historical Buddha talked about can neither be obtained nor be explained. The true-Self is formless and boundless and contains everything, ourselves included. It not only cannot be obtained but also cannot be discarded because we are also part of it and because there is nothing but the Dharma as mentioned previously. We can no more obtain, or discard the Dharma than winds can the air.
The Dharma is beyond description because it is formless, nameless and boundless. This is why the Buddha said that the Dharma preached by him is neither the Dharma nor the non-Dharma. Ancient masters would say that even saying ‘holy’ for the purpose of describing the Dharma is like spitting upon a face washed with perfume.
Then, the key is how we should accept the Dharma talks preached for about forty years by the historical Buddha. We, to grasp the core of his talks, shouldn’t try to realise the Dharma by accepting his words in the same way we do when getting mundane knowledge through literal understanding. An ancient master named Hwang-po would say to his students, “You are fellows who pretend to have drunk pure wine after taking only lees” to scold them for clinging to literal, intellectual understanding. His remark implies that we should grasp what is beyond words and what they are pointing to when we read, or hear the Sutras.
Student: “If the Dharma preached by the Realised One is neither the Dharma nor the non-Dharma, what is it then?”
A. Attaining enlightenment means to become free from being deluded by illusions. Typical illusions are words, and we acquire knowledge through words and keep it as a form of words. Having a lot of knowledge about enlightenment refers to having a lot of words, which can imply having a host of illusions. We sentient beings are so addicted to words that we tend to identify words to things, or facts. The more plausible words are, the stronger our such tendency is. We are likely to believe that the greater our knowledge about enlightenment is, the nearer we are to enlightenment.
However, in reality knowledge becomes more of a headwind rather than a tailwind on the voyage to enlightenment. For example, ‘everything is empty’ is one of the phrases that almost all Buddhists accept as the core of the Buddha’s teaching, and it really is. Nevertheless, paradoxically, few of them attain enlightenment through the phrase, which means that most people, captivated by the literal meaning of the phrase, fail to see what it points to. In the same way, knowledge, when we are deluded by its literal meaning, can become not a teaching but another illusion that keeps us from seeing things as empty. This is why the Buddha said on his deathbed, “Never have I said a word” in order that he might prevent people from being deluded by his words.
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