One day Master Baizhang, addressing his assembly, said, “Plough the rice field for me, and I’ll instruct you in the fundamental principles of the great matter.” After the monastics had ploughed the rice field for the master, they said, “Now Master, please instruct us in the fundamental principles of the great matter.”
The master spread open his arms.
Student: “What did the Master mean by spreading open his arms?”
Master: “He had actually paid in advance for their ploughing of the rice field, but he paid one more time for the same work because he was so generous.”
Commentary:
The Master tried to hand it to his students only to fail, and they tried to receive it only to fail. What and where was it?
Thus did I hear. One time, the Buddha was staying in Jeta Grove in Sravasti, residing with 1,250 great monks.
Commentary:
As mentioned in ‘Prior to entering into the Sutras’, we will try to open the gates instead of studying the history of the historical Buddha from now on.
‘Thus did I hear’ is the sentence with which all the Sutras begin, whose importance was emphasised to the extent that ancient masters would say that to apprehend this sentence was to understand all this Sutra. It is no exaggeration to say that the rest of the Sutra is no more than a concrete and detailed commentary on this.
So, I am going to make a commentary on each word of this sentence.
‘Thus’ here is not merely indicating the rest of this Sutra but also describing the way the true-Self, or the Pure Land is, that is, how things appear when we see them as they are without being deluded by words and forms. This implies a perfect state beyond description to the extent that ancient masters would say that even saying ‘thus’ contaminates the meaning of it.
Student: “What does ‘thus’ mean?”
Master: “It is the explanation of what is ahead of it.”
Student: “What is it?”
Master: “It’s behind it as well.”
Student: “What is it like?
Master: “It is the way the Buddha is.”
Student: “What is the way the Buddha is like?”
Master: “It is the same as the way everything is. There is nothing that is not thus.”
Student: “If the Buddha is in the same way that everything is, why can’t I see the Buddha?”
A. As a Buddhist it is good to try to see the situation as empty. However, seeing the situation as empty is one thing and getting divorced is another. If you happen to think that one who sees everything as empty should not break up from one’s spouse, no matter what he or she may do, you are misunderstanding the idea that everything is empty.
When everything is empty, not only staying married but getting divorced is also empty, and one is neither better nor worse than the other in essence. You need feel neither guilty of one choice nor proud of the other. If you are sure that everything is empty, you should be free to make a decision for your children and yourself and be willing to accept the result of your decision because it is also empty.
When Joshu was about to pass away, he made one of his students take his stick to King Jo and say to the king, “I have used this all my life but I still have not used it up.”
Student: “Why did Joshu send his stick to the king?”
Master: “In order to help him to enjoy eternal life.”
Student: “What does the stick have to do with eternal life?”
Master: “What is valuable is hidden in the stick.”
Commentary:
One who can see what is not broken when a stick is broken can enjoy eternal life.
The purpose of Buddhism is enlightenment. All the Sutras, including the Diamond Sutra that will be serialised from next week, are Dharma talks which are the words spoken by the historical Buddha for the purpose of leading people to enlightenment. So, the core of all the Sutras is just two things; how we can attain enlightenment, and how everything appears when we have attained enlightenment.
Enlightenment means being able to see and hear everything without being influenced by one’s preconceived notions and frame of thought which are made up of words and knowledge. That is to see and hear things without attaching any words, including names, which describe or explain them, to things. Seeing things in this way is referred to as seeing them as they are, or seeing them as empty, which is called seeing the true-Self, or reaching the Pure Land. Accordingly, the core of all the Sutras, it can also be said, is how we can see the true-Self, or how we can reach the Pure Land and what the true-Self, or the Pure Land is like.
What matters here is that paradoxically, while telling us to detach all words from things when we see and hear them, the Sutras are explaining in words both how we can see things without being influenced by words and knowledge, and how they appear when we see them in this way. Put in other words, the Sutras are saying what cannot be explained in words and explaining in words what can’t be said. This means that we cannot appreciate the core of the Sutras through intellectual understanding based on words. This is why the historical Buddha said, “Not a word have I said” to prevent people from missing what he really meant by clinging to intellectual understanding, and why ancient masters invented expedients of koans which are Zen questions to help people to surmount the limitations of intellectual comprehension. So, reading the Sutras requires more than intellectual understanding, and taking intellectual understanding for true understanding is regarded as being deluded by words in Buddhism.
This is why the Sutras should not be read and taken in the same way that worldly literature is.
In the case of worldly books, the contents of them can’t be fully comprehended until at least half, if not all, of each book is read. However, in the case of the Sutras, if we appreciate even a single word correctly in the Sutra we are reading, it is no other than enlightenment and the same as having read all the other Sutras, not to mention the one we are reading at that moment because each word, each phrase and each sentence contains all that the Sutras say. In short, each of them is the gate to enlightenment and we have only to open and pass any one of them. This is why the Dharma talks refer to ‘a gate to enlightenment’ and not ‘a text on enlightenment’. This is also why ancient masters would even say that the Sutras are not supposed to be read but to be seen. So, we should regard each word, each phrase and each sentence as a gate to enlightenment instead of being deluded by words and clinging to intellectual understanding.
Therefore, you should keep it in mind that if you have not attained enlightenment, no matter how many times you have read or copied a Sutra, you have not understood even a single word correctly in the Sutra, that is, you have knocked hard on and touched the gate only to fail to pass the gate.
A. It doesn’t mean that we should throw lust and greed away in the way we remove waste but that we should realise they are the seeds of enlightenment. Attaining enlightenment doesn’t mean to find it in a special place in the way we find diamonds or gold in mines but means to realise that everything, including lust and greed, is the function of the true-Self. When we don’t see lust and greed as they are, they are called illusions and when we see them as they are, they are called the Buddha, the true-Self. This is why an ancient master said that lust and greed are all Buddhas’ mother and that all Buddhas are children of lust and greed.
Student: “How can I discard lust and greed?”
Master: “Jade is hidden in stone, and a pearl is hidden in a shell.”
Rinzai was about to die. Sitting up, he said, “After my death do not allow my True Dharma Eye to perish.”
Sansho burst out, “How could your True Dharma Eye perish?” Rinzai asked, “What then will you say when in the future people put questions to you?” Sansho gave a Katsu. “Who could know that my True Dharma Eye would perish through this blind ass,” said the master, and revealed his Nirvana.
Commentary:
Sansho’s words ‘How could your True Dharma Eye perish?’ means that his True Dharma Eye symbolising the true-Self can never perish. Then, in order to confirm Sansho’s enlightenment, Rinzai asked, “What then will you say when in the future people put questions to you?” Sansho, sensing Rinzai’s meaning to the core, gave a Katsu. Very satisfied with Sansho’s answer, Rinzai left his final beautiful words by saying, “Who could know that my True Dharma Eye would perish through this blind ass?” He approved Sansho’s enlightenment by referring to him as a blind ass, which meant that Sansho was so free from making a discrimination that he was above being deluded by the illusion of Rinzai’s True Dharma Eye. This is why he said that his True Dharma Eye would perish through Sansho. The true-Self is eternal and formless everywhere all the time. It cannot be either attained or lost. If you, attached to its illusion, try to attain and keep it, that is to be deluded by the illusion of the true-Self. This is to degrade Buddhism to superstition. This is why ancient masters would say, “Kill the Buddha if you see him.”
Student: “Rinzai told Sansho not to allow his True Dharma Eye to perish, and Sansho said that he wouldn’t. Why was Rinzai happy that his True Dharma Eye would perish through Sansho?”
Master: “Because making his True Dharma Eye perish is the best way to keep it.”
A. According to the Avatamsaka Sutra, the true-Self is revealing itself in numerous forms in accordance with the capacity of each sentient being. This is why we sentient beings have different perspectives even when seeing and hearing the same things. It follows that everything is essentially the same, just as all waves are the same as water although they appear to be different from each other, depending on our capacity of seeing and hearing. This is why the third Patriarch said, “Even if there is a difference as tiny as a small hair, there will be a gap as large as a gap between the sky and the earth.”
Student: “How is it when there is no difference at all?”
Master: “When you drink a cup of tea, the cloud in the sky comes along with it.”
Zen Fools 