Breakthrough Sermon

IF someone is determined to reach enlightenment, what is the most essential method he can practice?

The mind is the root from which all things grow. If you can understand the mind, everything else is included. It’s like the root of a tree. All a tree’s fruit and flowers, branches and leaves depend on its root. If you nourish its root, a tree multiplies. If you cut its root, it dies. Those who understand the mind reach enlightenment with minimal effort. Those who don’t understand the mind practice in vain. Everything good and bad comes from your own mind. To find something beyond the mind is impossible.

Beholding one’s Mind is the root of the matter. Outside of Mind considering all else is puerile and insignificant. The Unborn Mind is the Source of all that is. Outside of this Root-Source nothing exists on its own accord—sunya. Trying to become enlightened outside of this Noble Self-realization is like trying to grasp the animating essence through one of its inadequate products—such as a decaying piece of fruit or dying, lifeless flowers, or a withering branch; apart from the Root-Source there is no life but only disintegrating matter. That’s why the materialistic-mind itself withers and dies…left of its own accord devoid of the animating Spirit-Mind it’s just a mere shadow of its former glory—left fluctuating in an endless sea of changing elements…one form into another in the mad quest of trying to find satisfaction in its own insatiable mechanism—like trying to draw milk from a metal and lifeless cow. Awakening from the material mind and directly seeing through the Amala-vijnana the Life-force arrayed in the Bright-Splendor of the Undying Unborn Mind is the very root of enlightenment itself.

But bow can beholding the mind be called understanding?

When a great bodhisattva delves deeply into perfect wisdom, he realizes that the four elements and five shades are devoid of a personal self. And he realizes that the activity of his mind has two aspects: pure and impure. By their very nature, these two mental states are always present. They alternate as cause or effect depending on conditions, the pure mind delighting in good deeds, the impure mind thinking of evil. Those who aren’t affected by impurity are sages. They transcend suffering and experience the bliss of nirvana. All others, trapped by the impure mind and entangled by their own karma, are mortals. They drift through the three realms and suffer countless afflictions and all because their impure mind obscures their real self.

The obscuration of the Real is rooted in avidya. The clouded-mind just drifts along without being aware of the Sky of Mind that rests motionless amidst their meandering course. The unclouded Mind of the Unborn rises above any transient notions of pure or impure that are dependent on causal dimensions; It is not dependent and thus not time-bound…It is boundless-timelessness Itself.

The Sutra of Ten Stages says, “in the body of mortals is the indestructible buddha-nature. Like the sun, its light fills endless space. But once veiled by the dark clouds of the five shades, it’s like a light inside a jar, hidden from view.” And the Nirvana Sutra says, “All mortals have the buddha-nature. But it’s covered by darkness from which they can’t escape. Our buddha-nature is awareness: to be aware and to make others aware. To realize awareness is liberation,” Everything good has awareness for its root. And from this root of awareness grow the tree of all virtues and the fruit of nirvana. Beholding the mind like this is understanding.

As noted in an earlier blog-post, although Buddha-nature resides deep within the coil of aggregated existence, if not primed with bodhipower it remains dormant—held prisoner to the whims of the five skandhas that supplant and “uproot” its hidden potential. Once Buddha-nature enkindles within and is recognized—As It is—then the developing Bodhisattva (bodhichild) can lead others to the Other Shore of Deathless Suchness. True understanding is beholding Mind AS IT IS: Ecce Animum. The following “Dharmavidium” highlights this essential truth.

Tags: Breakthrough, Buddha Nature, Dharmavidium

Wake-up Sermon, part 5

The Wake-up Sermon’s concluding verses reconciles apparent paradoxes like awakening to Buddhahood through suffering and mortals apparently liberating buddhas.

Every suffering is a buddha-seed, because suffering impels mortals to seek wisdom. But you can only say that suffering gives rise to Buddhahood. You can’t say that suffering is Buddhahood. Your body and mind are the field. Suffering is the seed, wisdom the sprout, and Buddhahood the grain.

Stating that the state of suffering can produce a Buddha-seed appears to be most paradoxical indeed. Yet, in itself, suffering need not be an exclusively negative occurrence but rather one that can be the catalyst for a Buddha-seed to sprout. The gotra (bodhi-seed) mostly remains dormant unless sparked into an awakening occurrence. Suffering can actually empower one to take a great reflective pause on one’s diurnal path and see through the eyes of wisdom the folly of one’s present direction. Indeed, suffering was the root-seed of Buddha Gautama’s Noble Wisdom of the ten-fold-path leading to liberation from suffering. But suffering is not synonymous with Buddhahood. Suffering is a state and one’s pure Buddha-nature is not a state in the phenomenal sense of the term. Transcending suffering itself is the realization that suffering can be in one’s spirit, but one’s spirit is not in the suffering state. This is a pertinent realization since materialistic-buddhism like the dawn of Dogenism equates everything within the field of phenomena, like suffering, to be synonymous with one’s Buddha-nature—as Bodhidharma states, this is not true.

Mortals liberate Buddhas and Buddhas liberate mortals. This is what’s meant by impartiality. Mortals liberate Buddhas because affliction creates awareness. And Buddhas liberate mortals because awareness negates affliction. There can’t help but be affliction. And there can’t help but be awareness. If it weren’t for affliction, there would be nothing to create awareness. And if it weren’t for awareness, there would be nothing to negate affliction. When you’re deluded, Buddhas liberate mortals. When you’re aware, mortals liberate Buddhas. Buddhas don’t become Buddhas on their own. They’re liberated by mortals. Buddhas regard delusion as their father and greed as their mother. Delusion and greed are different names for mortality. Delusion and mortality are like the left hand and the right hand. There’s no other difference.

Liberation is a twofold affair: an awakening bodhi-seed within a mortal transient-mind liberates the hidden Bodhisattva whose potentiality culminates in Buddhahood. As stated earlier, suffering-afflictions can be the catalyst that sparks the awakened-drive for bodhipower; in like fashion, once the bodhi-seed is activated affliction is negated. Affliction/Awareness are both impartial characteristics since their shared, undifferentiatiated root is sunyata. One is the catalyst for liberation and the other is liberation self-realized. Perhaps the greatest paradox in all this is that the path to Buddhahood is not a self-induced affair, but rather is mysteriously and indelibly linked with soiled elements that contain the hidden mani-pearls of Noble Wisdom—much like the Lotus rising from the depths of the dung-heap in order to blossom.

Tags: bodhi-seed, liberation, Reconciliation

Wake-up Sermon, part 4

If you’re looking for the Way, the Way won’t appear until your body disappears. It’s like stripping bark from a tree. This karmic body undergoes constant change. It has no fixed reality. Practice according to your thoughts. Don’t hate life and death or love life and death. Keep your every thought free of delusion, and in life you’ll witness the beginning of nirvana and in death you’ll experience the assurance of no rebirth.

Looking for the Way of the Buddhas through corporal means is a foolhardy endeavor and will only end in great frustration. It’s like trying to discover the Dharma-mind through Karmic-coated-kaleidoscope-like lens where everything is in a state of constant change and flux. Mind Recollecting Mind alone opens the Dharma-gate to the Stillpoint of Deathless Suchness. The Way is a thought-free enterprise wherein the Mind focuses on no-thing whatsoever but Its own Nirvanic kingdom of Self—the Dharmakaya—impermeable to the icy-sting of death and the stench of ignoble re-birth.

To see form but not be corrupted by form or to hear sound but not to be corrupted by sound is liberation. Eyes that aren’t attached to form are the Gates of Zen. Ears that aren’t attached to sound are also the Gates of Zen. In short, those who perceive the existence and nature of phenomena and remain unattached are liberated. Those who perceive the external appearance of phenomena are at their mercy. Not to be subject to afflictions is what’s meant by liberation. There’s no other liberation. When you know how to look at form, form doesn’t give rise to mind and mind doesn’t give rise to form. Form and mind are both pure.

Liberation consists in no longer being subjugated to defiled aggregated existence. The eyes and ears of Bodhi are not akin to their skandhic counterparts that are attached and bewitched by the sights and sounds of samsara; rather, theirs is an imageless affair that partakes in the rich primordial pool of the Sugatagarbha. As Bodhidharma states, those who perceive external phenomena are held spellbound by what they perceive; whereas remaining unattached and no longer subjected to phenomenal-apparent existence assures quietude of Mind and a Blessed-Liberated Spirit. Essentially, when looking at the phenomenal through the imageless eyes of the Bodhichild one becomes attuned to all that is pure and thus prior to anything that gives rise to suggestive appearance and the ensuing perceptional apparatus within the clouded mind. There’s no other Liberation other than the transformative power of Bodhi that awakens the dormant Dharma-child.

When delusions are absent, the mind is the land of Buddhas. When delusions are present, the mind is hell. Mortals create delusions. And by using the mind to give birth to mind they always find themselves in hell. Bodhisattvas see through delusions. And by not using the mind to give birth to mind they always find themselves in the land of Buddhas. If you don’t use your mind to create mind, every state of mind is empty and every thought is still. You go from one buddhaland to another. If you use your mind to create mind, every state of mind is disturbed and every thought is in motion. You go from one hell to the next. When a thought arises, there’s good karma and bad karma, heaven and hell. When no thought arises, there’s no good karma or bad karma, no heaven or hell.

The children of Bodhi travel through innumerable and inconceivable Buddha-fields unhindered. They are no longer plagued with incessant mind-constructs that are useless and self-empty tools in the Land of Bodhi. When the dormant bodhi-seed is not activated one remains entrapped in the perpetual wheel of Re-genesis—endlessly creating both good and bad karma, heavens and hells through endless kalpas; when the gotra is activated, ALL karmas and places of ill-conceived bliss and self-torture are no longer relevantly realized and cease to trouble the Liberated Spirit.

Tags: Bodhi, Karma, liberation

Wake-up Sermon, part 3

Whoever knows that the mind is a fiction and devoid of anything real knows that his own mind neither exists nor doesn’t exist. Mortals keep creating the mind, claiming it exists. And Arhats keep negating the mind, claiming it doesn’t exist. But bodhisattvas and Buddhas neither create nor negate the mind. This is what’s meant by the mind that neither exists nor doesn’t exist. The mind that neither exists nor doesn’t exist is called the Middle Way.

The Middle-Way refers to the self-realization that the Unborn Buddha Mind defies any conceptual reference point. The Dhammapada asks, “Can the transient mind recollect Mind?” How can something devoid of Self, and hence inadequate, ever hope to measure-up to the full-stature of That which is Prior to all aggregated existence? Mind Recollects Mind. Mind is neither created nor negated but THAT which is Uncreate and undefiled.

To see nothing is to perceive the Way, and to understand nothing is to know the Dharma, because seeing is neither seeing nor not seeing and because understanding is neither understanding nor not understanding. Seeing without seeing is true vision. Understanding without understanding is true understanding.

True vision isn’t just seeing seeing. It’s also seeing not seeing. And true understanding isn’t just understanding understanding. It’s also understanding not understanding. If you understand anything, you don’t understand. Only when you understand nothing is it true understanding. Understanding is neither understanding nor not understanding.

Bodhidharma asserts here that “understanding” is a much misused and actually—“misunderstood”—term. Trying to “perceive” the Way of the Buddhadharma through the dim-light of understanding is, in the final run, understanding nothing. Understanding in itself is a mere cognitive trick of trying to perceive and then understand something that really doesn’t exist in the first place. Seeing through imageless-eyes the Dharmadhatu is true vision. True understanding is seeing through the clear-light of no-understanding. Saying “I understand” means that you misunderstand understanding. When one can say, “I understand nothing” is when one actualizes their understanding. To perceive the Buddhadharma is the Way of no-perceiving.

The sutras say, “Not to let go of wisdom is stupidity.” When the mind doesn’t exist, understanding and not understanding are both true. When the mind exists, understanding and not understanding are both false. When you understand, reality depends on you. When you don’t understand, you depend on reality. When reality depends on you, that which isn’t real becomes real. When you depend on reality, that which is real becomes false. When you depend on reality, everything is false. When reality depends on you, everything is true. Thus, the sage doesn’t use his mind to look for reality, or reality to look for his mind, or his mind to look for his mind, or reality to look for reality. His mind doesn’t give rise to reality. And reality doesn’t give rise to his mind. And because both his mind and reality are still, he’s always in samadhi.

It’s a matter of perception. What you apparently understand is based on your perception. Perception is an arbitrary vehicle—it varies from mind to mind. What you perceive reality to be is really based on your own perceptional apparatus and thus you determine reality to be what you want and perceive it to be. When you turn-off your understanding-perceptional-apparatus then you learn to see Reality As It Is—devoid of your own inadequate skandhic-filtering that mistakes the true to be false and the false to be true and reality for unreality. Deep samadhi is when both mind and apparent reality are absent; or, the Still-Dharma-Mind is Samadhi.

Tags: perception, samadhi, understanding

Wake-up Sermon, part 2

Using the mind to look for reality is delusion. Not using the mind to look for reality is awareness. Freeing oneself from words is liberation. Remaining unblemished by the dust of sensation is guarding the Dharma. Transcending life and death is leaving home.”

When you’re deluded, this shore exists. When you wake up, it doesn’t exist. Mortals stay on this shore. But those who discover the greatest of all vehicles stay on neither this shore nor the other shore. They’re able to leave both shores. Those who see the other shore as different from this shore don’t understand Zen.

When aligned with the proper spirit of Bodhi there is no longer any seeking—the Dharmadhatu is all pervasive but cannot be seen through discriminatory eyes. Beyond words and the accumulated dust of sensate phenomena lies the dustless-mirror of deathless suchness.

Shaking the dust from samsara off one’s feet and not looking-back again is shedding suffering in the pure light of parinirvana. Shadowed, delusional reality ends and enlightenment begins when the discursive thought process comes to an end as one turns-about and sees through the true Dharma-eye salvific Unborn Light.

The apparent samsaric shore appears to exist when projected on the shadowed-wall of delusion. Breaking free from one’s skandhic-shackles delivers one through the Dharma-gate into the pure-light of Zen wherein one discovers that there is no “this shore” or “that shore”; indeed, if one perceives some form of the other shore they remain delusional.

Delusion means mortality. And awareness means Buddhahood. They’re not the same. And they’re not different. It’s just that people distinguish delusion from awareness. When we’re deluded there’s a world to escape. When we’re aware, there’s nothing to escape.

Viewing life through the constricted lens of the skandhas one remains in the mortal-realm of delusion. Seeing through imageless eyes the Dharmadhatu one awakens as a living Buddha. And yet, in light of Deathless Suchness delusion and awareness are not the same, nor are they different. As the Lanka states, it’s when the discriminatory eye kicks-in that one perceives the delusional as being separate from the noumenal. In light of the Dharmadhatu, there’s nothing to escape from but our own discriminatory mind-projections.

In the light of the impartial Dharma, mortals look no different from sages. The sutras say that the impartial Dharma is something that mortals can’t penetrate and sages can’t practice. The impartial Dharma is only practiced by great bodhisattvas and Buddhas. To look on life as different from death or on motion as different from stillness is to be partial. To be impartial means to look on suffering as no different from nirvana,, because the nature of both is emptiness. By imagining they’re putting an end to Suffering and entering nirvana Arhats end up trapped by nirvana. But bodhisattvas know that suffering is essentially empty. And by remaining in emptiness they remain in nirvana. Nirvana means no birth and no death. It’s beyond birth and death and beyond nirvana. When the mind stops moving, it enters nirvana. Nirvana is an empty mind. When delusions don’t exist, Buddhas reach nirvana. Where afflictions don’t exist, bodhisattvas enter the place of enlightenment.

Delusional reality is “partial”—it can’t see the forest through the trees. The awakening of the Bodhi-mind is reminiscent of Yeat’s lines: “Something drops from eyes long blind…he completes his partial-mind.” The Dharma of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas is “impartial” because they know that the nature of both Dukkha and Nirvana is empty. That’s why traditional Arthatship is insufficient as contrasted with Bodhisattvahood—they think that they have to escape from something to achieve something other; whereas no movement is necessary away from something or towards something—Mind is sufficient in Itself, with no-thing coming or going.

The following classic animated allegory (narrated by Orson Welles) of Plato’s Cave marvelously illustrates how one can transcend the shadow-nature of reality into the Pure Light of That which animates.

Tags: allegory, dharmadhatu, Emptiness, nirvana, Palto's Cave

Wake-up Sermon, part 1

The essence of the Way is detachment. And the goal of those who practice is freedom from appearances. The sutras say, Detachment is enlightenment because it negates appearances. Buddhahood means awareness. Mortals whose minds are aware reach the Way of Enlightenment and are therefore called Buddhas. The sutras say, “Those who free themselves from all appearances are called Buddhas.” The appearance of appearance as no appearance can’t be seen visually but can only be known by means of wisdom. Whoever hears and believes this teaching embarks on the Great Vehicle and leaves the three realms.

The three realms are greed, anger, and delusion. To leave the three realms means to go from greed, anger, and delusion back to morality, meditation, and wisdom. Greed, anger, and delusion have no nature of their own. They depend on mortals. And anyone capable of reflection is bound to see that the nature of greed, anger, and delusion is the buddha-nature. Beyond greed, anger, and delusion there is no other buddha-nature. The sutras say, “Buddhas as have only become buddhas while living with the three poisons and nourishing themselves on the pure Dharma.” The three poisons are greed, anger, and delusion.

Detachment from form and no form negates any semblance of appearance or non-appearance. Detachment from detachment as no detachment and non, non-attachment, is not something achievable with the Mortal, Mundane-Mind. It can only be discerned through the clear-light of Noble Wisdom. The Wisdom of the Unborn Mind is devoid of the three poisons—greed, anger and delusion. The three-poisons are always demonstrable exclusively through the ken of mortal beings; seeing and condemning and desiring through mortal eyes one is incapable of recollecting that all this is really Mind Itself falling victim to Its own no-self aggrandizement. Yet, Buddha’s do not outright eliminate the three poisons—if they did that would be giving them undue recognition, thereby only firing-them up for more misfortune. Buddhas are Mindful that they are always lurking around, yet even surrounded by them they only nurture their Bodhi-being through the pure light of the Buddhadharma.

Whoever realizes that the six senses aren’t real, that the five aggregates are fictions, that no such things can be located anywhere in the body, understands the language of Buddhas. The sutras say, “The cave of five aggregates is the hall of Zen. The opening of the inner eye is the door of the Great Vehicle.” What could be clearer?

To give up yourself without regret is the greatest charity. To transcend motion and stillness is the highest meditation. Mortals keep moving, and Arhats stay still.” But the highest meditation surpasses both that of mortals and that of Arhats. People who reach such understanding free themselves from all appearances without effort and cure all illnesses without treatment. Such is the power of great Zen.

Seeing beyond the skandhas one learns the mystical and imageless language of the Buddhas. Seeing the hall of Zen within the cave of the five skandhas is no-zen Zen—getting beyond this koan opens the inner-dragon-eye that is the hallmark of the Great Vehicle—Dragonyana Zen. Mind is self-empty of no-mind and thus sees the Real Buddha hiding behind the no-buddha buddha.

Having been enamored with Osho in earlier days I was quick to buy-into his notion of “no-mind”. No-mind was his mantra, yet his no-mind was not akin to Huang Po’s realization that “Mind in itself is not mind, yet neither is it no-mind. To say that Mind is no-mind implies something existent.” Osho’s warped understanding of no-mind led many down the path of perdition and adharma; his way was excessively “Dionysian” and it opened the gate to Mara’s playground as his disciples fell victim to his hypnotic despotism, that in effect, released the skandhas with their full fury as many lost sight forever of their True Self…instead favoring the great no-self Beast of their body-consciousness. The final outcome of Osho’s nefarious tale is indeed most sad as many of his disciples are dying horrible deaths—many of them oddly from brain aneurysms.

If only Osho had realized that to give himself-up (i.e., his own excessive and grandiose image) would have been his greatest charity towards his “sannyasins.”

Bodhidharma marvelously states here that the Power of Great Zen is to transcend all notions of motion and stillness—to not become entrapped between them. The best meditation is Pi’kuan—staying prior to both Movement and Stillness. Staying prior to all appearances AND non-appearances is the best medicine that will cure all illnesses sans any form of treatment from without.

Tags: no-mind, Osho, sannyasin

Bloodstream Sermon, part 6

The concluding verses of Bodhidharma’s Bloodstream Sermon highlight that one comes face to face with two choices: the Law of Karma and Mind-Only…

I only talk about seeing your nature. I don’t talk about creating karma. Regardless of what we do, our karma has no hold on us. Through endless kalpas without beginning, it’s only because people don’t see their nature that they end up in hell. As long as a person creates karma, he keeps passing through birth and death. But once a person realizes his original nature, he stops creating karma. If he doesn’t see his nature, invoking Buddhas won’t release him from his karma, regardless of whether or not he’s a butcher. But once he sees his nature, all doubts vanish. Even a butcher’s karma has no effect on such a person.

Karma—mindless action—is a road traveled wide with perdition. Many end up in a hell of their own making—devoid of the clear-light of Mind. Ruled by their skandhic shackles, most are blinded along the path and are easily absorbed in the quicksand of their own desires—devoid of the clear-light of Reason. The clear-light of Mind is quicksilver—lightning-fast in all ten-directions and cannot be grasped by the carnal-mind because It’s like boundless-space—impervious to any karmic activity. Once one’s Original Unborn Buddha-Nature is self-realized, the Law of Karma is neutralized. Without this noble self-realization all is lost—invoking gods and buddhas in the external-arena is like trying to wash-away blood with mud—totally useless. Mind-only is an internal-affair and is not dependent on the rigid norms of societal status; Its clear—Translucent Light—shines through both sage and butcher alike and thus renders all former karmic-associations null and void.

Mind-only also has nothing to do with sex or abstinence:

I only talk about seeing your nature. I don’t talk about sex simply because you don’t see your nature. Once you see your nature, sex is basically immaterial. It ends along with your delight in it. Even if some habits remain, they can’t harm you, because your nature is essentially pure. Despite dwelling in a material body of four elements, your nature is basically pure. It can’t be corrupted.

In this sense, being sexually-active or remaining celibate has no bearing on one’s Unborn Buddha-nature. It is Unborn and Uncreate and is impervious to all carnal-affairs in the realm of sensate phenomena. It is NOT phenomena. This is a realization that has been lost even within many schools of Zen that have become materially-scared. Phenomena is corruptible whereas one’s Buddha-nature is pure and incorruptible. How one can possibly equate the corruptible with That which IS ALWAYS incorruptible defies the clear-light of Reason.

What Moves can be corrupted; what UNmoves is not corruptible but nevertheless utterly dynamic:

Language and behavior, perception and conception are all functions of the moving mind. All motion is the mind’s motion. Motion is its function. Apart from motion there’s no mind, and apart from the mind there’s no motion. But motion isn’t the mind. And the mind isn’t motion. Motion is basically mindless. And the mind is basically motionless. But motion doesn’t exist without the mind. And the mind doesn’t exist without motion. There’s no mind for motion to exist apart from, and no motion for mind to exist apart from. Motion is the mind’s function, and its function is its motion. Even so, the mind neither moves nor functions, the essence of its functioning is emptiness and emptiness is essentially motionless. Motion is the same as the mind. And the mind is essentially motionless.

All this sounds like a conundrum. This is akin to the Heart sutra wherein it states, “Form is emptiness and emptiness is form”. Motion’s impetus is not apart from Mind—hence the birth of function; but In-Itself, Mind is not function but motionless-emptiness. Thus the True-Essence of Motion’s function is emptiness in Motion but the Essential Mind is non-the-less UnMoving and motionless.

In conclusion of this section, the Bloodstream Sermon is aptly named. The Blood is the Life and Mind-only is the very life-blood of Zen Buddhism. Apart from Mind there is no life—only synthetic images passing by in the dark night of phenomena. True life is the life-blood of the Buddhas (Buddha-nature) themselves and is brought to life through the clear-light of Bodhi.

Tags: Bloodstream Sermon, Bodhidharma, celibacy, Mind-only, sex

Bloodstream Sermon, part 5

If you’re not sure don’t act. Once you act, you wander through birth and death and regret having no refuge. Poverty and hardship are created by false thinking. To understand this mind you have to act without acting. Only then will you see things from a Tathagata’s perspective.

If one isn’t sure about their own Buddha-nature then one shouldn’t act. When action is initiated unawares then the karmic and cyclic cycle of Samsara kicks-in and pays undue allegiance to the Moving Principle. The “Moving” is false and wrecks havoc on the mundane mind; to break-free from the Moving one needs to stay centered in the Unmoving Principle (focused-action without acting)…only then can you see through the very deathless eyes of the Tathagatas.

But when you first embark on the Path, your awareness won’t be focused. But you shouldn’t doubt that all such scenes come from your own mind and nowhere else.

Or if, while you’re dreaming at night, you see the moon and stars in all their clarity, it means the workings of your mind are about to end. But don’t tell others. And if your dreams aren’t clear, as if you were walking in the dark, it’s because your mind is masked by cares. This too is something only you know.

Bodhidharma is talking about one’s naive awareness with a small “a”; it’s only an early-elementary action of trying to train one’s intuitive faculties—the misconstrued outcome should not be perceived as something different and apart from the dreaming-mind itself. If though on some point within mind’s development one encounters a Light that outshines the very Sun itself—this is an indication that a breakthrough is soon on the horizon as one’s True-Self Buddha-nature is about to be revealed. If it does occur Bodhidharma warns…one should not go about arrogantly proclaiming, “Hey, look—I’m Enlightened!” Bodhidharma reinforces in this passage again and again that this is a private-affair—indeed, if it’s shared in these early stages then its effect will be lost. Once this Clear-Light makes Its home within one’s spirit, then the Light of Discernment will be a constant and faithful companion empowering one to unmask and discern the True from the False.

To go from mortal to Buddha, you have to put an end to karma, nurture your awareness, and accept what life brings. If you’re always getting angry, you’ll turn your nature against the Way. There’s no advantage in deceiving yourself. Buddhas move freely through birth and death, appearing and disappearing at will. They can’t be restrained by karma or overcome by devils. Once mortals see their nature, all attachments end. Awareness isn’t hidden. But you can only find it right now. It’s only now. If you really want to find the Way, don’t hold on to anything. Once you put an end to karma and nurture your awareness, any attachments that remain will come to an end. Understanding comes naturally. You don’t have to make any effort. But fanatics don’t understand what the Buddha meant. And the harder they try, the farther they get from the Sage’s meaning. All day long they invoke Buddhas and read sutras. But they remain blind to their own divine nature, and they don’t escape the Wheel.

Enlightenment means to be filled with Buddhaic-Light and hence becoming One with the Immortal spirit of Buddhahood. Yet, Bodhidharma states, this Immortal gift from the Buddhas is not meant to be vaingloriously shown-off with conceit but rather daily nurtured—in this fashion the Awareness of the Tathagatagas themselves will be brought to bear on all that you do. If you always find yourself getting angry, then this is a good indication that you are squandering the gift and are only deceiving yourself. If you are truly One with your Buddha-nature then you will learn to accept whatever life brings—both good and bad…why is that? Because this Immortal Nature is free from the passing shadows of phenomena and is not held-bound by karma or the devilish antics of Mara, the evil one. This Tathatic-Awareness is never hidden, like a little cringing chipmunk, but forever delights in the Unborn and Unmoving Now of Suchness—It revels in this Nirvanic-Element of Truth. Fanatics on the other hand, those who are obsessed exclusively with external-means like the words within scripture, are forever devoid of the Light of their own True-Nature and spin endlessly about like mice entrapped within a caged-wheel.

Tags: Buddha Nature, Element of Truth, Enlightenment

Bloodstream Sermon, Part 4

Buddha is Sanskrit for what you call aware, miraculously aware. Responding, arching your brows blinking your eyes, moving your hands and feet, it’s all your miraculously aware nature. And this nature is the mind. And the mind is the Buddha. And the Buddha is the path. And the path is Zen. But the word Zen is one that remains a puzzle to both mortals and sages. Seeing your nature is Zen. Unless you see your nature, it’s not Zen.

Even if you can explain thousands of sutras and shastras, unless you see your own nature yours is the teaching of a mortal, not a Buddha. The true Way is sublime. It can’t be expressed in language. Of what use are scriptures? But someone who sees his own nature finds the Way, even if he can’t read a word. Someone who sees his nature is a Buddha. And since a Buddha’s body is intrinsically pure and unsullied, and everything he says is an expression of his mind, being basically empty, a buddha can’t be found in words or anywhere in the Twelvefold Canon.

These passages are the very Heart of Zen. As Bodhidharma eloquently states, Buddha is Sanskrit for being miraculously aware. Notice here that he’s not saying “your awareness”; no, this is not constitutive of the skandhic mind—but the very Unborn Buddha Mind! It is this Mind who sees through the eyes of awareness—in this sense it’s the Tathagatas’ alone and “no one” else’s. When this “awareness” is present, it is as if the Buddhas themselves are arching your eyebrows, moving your every limb, making it all miraculously awake and alive and vibrating with Buddha-nature—it is when you and the Dharmakaya are One—One Mind and Spirit. This is the very nature of the path—because it is the very Buddha Nature Itself—Alive Zen, remarkable, ineffable Wordless Zen that speaks to the very Heart of the Tathagatas. Zen is the language of the Buddhas and unless Buddha-nature is seen of Its own accord then it’s not Zen. Can you see the incredible self-realization in all this? Awareness is Buddha-nature Recollecting Itself and It is devoid of words—that’s why the illiterate Sixth Patriarch, Hui Neng, is arguably the most influential Zen Master ever—because he so freely and un-obstructively became the vehicle through which the Buddha-nature found self-expression.

The Way is basically perfect. It doesn’t require perfecting. The Way has no form or sound. It’s subtle and hard to perceive. It’s like when you drink water: you know how hot or cold it is, but you can’t tell others. Of that which only a Tathagata knows men and gods remain unaware. The awareness of mortals falls short. As long as they’re attached to appearances, they’re unaware that their minds are empty.

They’re not the Way. The Way is wordless. Words are illusions. They’re no different from things that appear in your dreams at night, be they palaces or carriages, forested parks or lakeside ‘lions. Don’t conceive any delight for such things. They’re all cradles of rebirth. Keep this in mind when you approach death. Don’t cling to appearances, and you’ll break through all barriers. A moment’s hesitation and you’ll be under the spell of devils. Your real body is pure and impervious. But because of delusions you’re unaware of it. And because of this you suffer karma in vain. Wherever you find delight, you find bondage. But once you awaken to your original body and mind, you’re no longer bound by attachments.

Being instilled with the Zen Mind one transcends the sphere of dissatisfied gods and mortals—that incorrigible sensate realm that is hopelessly addicted to the bottomless belly of appearances; never being filled-up they are unaware that their Mind is originally empty of all this garbage. Mind-Only is no mere doctrine but a real Turn-About wherein the discovery is made of That which is the sole image-maker; if one remains attached to the images then one is indelibly UNaware and then even the scriptures themselves are useless tools in the hands of the feeble-minded. Truth is what is revealed “between” the lines of scripture—if one remains focused exclusively on those lines themselves then one is forever blinded to the Truth that is Beyond Words. Doctrine means being attached to dead-words and is far from the Zen Way that is vibrant and Pulsating with bodhipower; Bodhidharma advises to consider words as nothing more than those phantasmal images procured from sleep—within that dreaming dungeon-mind that is the very cradle of rebirth. He says to even keep this in mind when death itself approaches—because death is the final phenomenal barrier that needs to be broken in order to embrace one’s true Buddha-nature. The body-consciousness is the shell wherein the bodhi-spirit is entrapped; unless one breaks-free from the shell one is never “Awakened” to the true self-realization of the Buddhakaya that is like boundless space. The following video from the Dragon-Mind of Zen series depicts what it’s like to be free from the Mind of Darkness and seeing freely with the Mind of Zen.

Tags: Bodhidharma, Buddha Nature, The Way, Zen Mind