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

2. Bloodstream Sermon, part one

Everything that appears in the three realms comes from the mind. Hence Buddhas of the past and future teach mind to mind without bothering about definitions. But if they don’t define it, what do they mean by mind? You ask. That’s your mind. I answer. That’s my mind. If I had no mind how could I answer? If you had no mind, how could you ask? That which asks is your mind. Through endless kalpas” without beginning, whatever you do, wherever you are, that’s your real mind, that’s your real buddha. This mind is the buddha” says the same thing. Beyond this mind you’ll never find another Buddha. To search for enlightenment or nirvana beyond this mind is impossible. The reality of your own self-nature the absence of cause and effect, is what’s meant by mind. Your mind is nirvana. You might think you can find a Buddha or enlightenment somewhere beyond the mind’, but such a place doesn’t exist.

Space has a name but no form. It’s not something you can pick up or put down. And you certainly can’t grab if. Beyond mind you’ll never see a Buddha. The Buddha is a product of the mind. Why look for a Buddha beyond this mind? Buddhas of the past and future only talk about this mind. The mind is the Buddha, and the Buddha is the mind. Beyond the mind there’s no Buddha and beyond the Buddha there’s no mind. If you think there is a Buddha beyond the mind’, where is he? There’s no Buddha beyond the mind, so why envision one? You can’t know your real mind as long as you deceive yourself. As long as you’re enthralled by a lifeless form, you’re not free. If you don’t believe me, deceiving yourself won’t help. It’s not the Buddha’s fault. People, though, are deluded. They’re unaware that their own mind is the Buddha. Otherwise they wouldn’t look for a Buddha outside the mind.

Bodhidharma (as well as Huang Po) says that if you try to seek outside Mind for Mind you will not find it; there are no set-parameters—the one asking this in the first place is the skandhic-mind. The Mind of the Buddha is always prior to anything you can ask or imagine. If you think there is a Buddha outside the Unborn Buddha Mind, you do so in vain. It’s like trying to grab space…it can’t be done. People become deluded because they search for this buddha-thing outside the Unborn Buddha Mind.

Buddhas don’t save Buddhas. If you use your mind to look for a Buddha, you won’t see the Buddha. As long as you look for a Buddha somewhere else, you’ll never see that your own mind is the Buddha. Don’t use a Buddha to worship a Buddha. And don’t use the mind to invoke a Buddha.” Buddhas don’t recite sutras.” Buddhas don’t keep precepts.” And Buddhas don’t break precepts. Buddhas don’t keep or break anything. Buddhas don’t do good or evil.

This is an excellent example showing that phenomena can never, never be equaled with Buddha-nature. Buddhas do not save some nominally-conceived notion of a buddha; if you incessantly use your skandhic-infested mind to conceive of a buddha you will never find the Buddha. Don’t use a marble-chiseled buddha to worship a Buddha; using the skandhic-mind to invoke a Buddha is like trying to sculpt in smoke. You will never find a Buddha reading a sutra, or trying to overcome both good and evil.

To find a Buddha, you have to see your nature.” Whoever sees his nature is a Buddha. If you don’t see your nature, invoking Buddhas, reciting sutras, making offerings, and keeping precepts are all useless. Invoking Buddhas results in good karma, reciting sutras results in a good memory; keeping precepts results in a good rebirth, and making offerings results in future blessings-but no buddha. If you don’t understand by yourself, you’ll have to find a teacher to get to the bottom of life and death. But unless he sees his nature, such a person isn’t a teacher. Even if he can recite the Twelvefold Canon he can’t escape the Wheel of Birth and Death. He suffers in the three realms without hope of release. Long ago, the monk Good Star was able to recite the entire Canon. But he didn’t escape the Wheel, because he didn’t see his nature. If this was the case with Good Star, then people nowadays who recite a few sutras or shastras and think it’s the Dharma are fools. Unless you see your mind, reciting so much prose is useless.

There’s no advantage in deceiving yourself. Even if you have mountains of jewels and as many servants as there are grains of sand along the Ganges, you see them when your eyes are open. But what about when your eyes are shut? You should realize then that everything you see is like a dream or illusion.

Whoever turns-about from sensate phenomena will invoke Unborn Light that shines on your true-nature—this is called climbing into the Dharma-womb; when the bodhi-seed is activated through bodhicitta—this is when the potential for Buddhahood arises. If one does not discover the dormant gotra (bodhichild with mystical familial ties with the Tathagatas), merely memorizing scripture or invoking mantras and engaging in soteriological practices will be a totally useless endeavor. Even if you find an erudite teacher, if he or she has not discovered the hidden bodhichild then their teaching is done in vain. Self-deception consists in taking the false fata morganas to be real; once one drinks those mystical waters from within the Dharma-womb one will never be subject to the diurnal wheel of samsaric life and death ever-again

Tags: bodhichild, Bodhidharma, Buddha Nature, gotra

I sense there are many searching wanderers, spiritual seekers out there looking to find that place of rest that spirituality promises. I spent my youth wandering from philosophy to philosophy, from worldview to worldview. I experimented with many attitudes to life, from hedonistic to ascetic. The German philosopher, Immanuel Kant, condensed the philosophical questions in this way:

What can I know?
What ought I to do?
What can I hope?

Truly, isn’t the burden of uncertainty that made life so hard to bear for us in the past, centered around those three questions? I’d like to share a little autobiographical recollection with you all.

Heidegger once wrote that western metaphysics is riddled with a certain forgetfulness. I, too, was under the impression I’m delivered to a forgetfulness, an oblivious existence of my true nature, and ultimately, nihilism. I fell into a depressive state of complete meaninglessness. Needless to say, reading philosophy didn’t help. It occurred to me I need something other than thinking to save myself from the depressive, nihilistic state of existence I found myself in – from that existential crisis of meaninglessness.

Fast forward a few dozen books and months of research, I found what I thought was the Eastern practice of meditation. Intellectually, I was most attracted to shikantaza. Shikantaza or just-sitting appealed to me the most because it was the complete opposite of what I was doing for years: pondering, thinking, thinking about thoughts, reflecting upon reflections on questions of substance, quality, quantity, being, essence, reality, subject and object, and all those topics philosophy concerns herself with.

So this practice was completely non-intellectual, mere sitting. Verily this practice healed my depression and many other self-destructive patterns. In retrospective I must ask myself what this shikantaza practice really did. It is not that it did anything: the depressive state I was in was a self-created torture chamber made of thoughts. Sitting was merely a doing nothing, and undoing, that reverted me to a more natural state. But solving my little depression was not what I was after.

The question of life and death, the one great matter – remained unattended. I have found peace of mind through this sitting practice, I thought, but there is still dukkha (unsatisfactoriness), there is still samsara (birth-and-death). So it occurred to me that the problem must be in my laziness and unwillingness to sit enough, or to find a place of practice rigorous enough with long hours of ritualized and dictated sitting. After conquering my depression through my own effort, I was convinced that to attain the highest spiritual goal, I need to relocate to a physically existing Zen temple.

The misery was rising again, but this time it wasn’t about my former self-image, but my spiritual inadequacy. While searching online for a Zen temple in Asia that would accept Westerners, I was told by some interesting individual about the School of the Unborn and its teachings. I suddenly felt – a gut feeling or a Socratic daimonion type “call” – that this is genuine.  And what was different about this school? – Unlike all other schools, this one showed me the Mirror right from the start. No wasting time. There was no talk about irrelevant matters, but the pointing to Mind began right from the get go. Engaged in spiritual discussion with one of the school’s former teachers, I had asked what lineage revolved around the school’s origins: was it Rinzai Zen, or perhaps connected with Bankei Zen, or was it something else? What authorizes it?”

The answer I received – was in the form of this koan:

Where can the lineage of the Unborn be found?

This didn’t feed my delusions, but instead it spoke to my still unawakened, dormant Buddha-Nature directly. The recollective resolve awakened within, through that question and its dark call. Here, I must stop. Words cannot delve deep into what is referred to as the “dark call”. – Yet, to you, dear reader, I pose the same question. Wandering from philosophy to philosophy, worldview to worldview, practice to practice – trying various meditations, and always positing “Truth” outside of yourself – to temples, to masters, to words … since all that you perceive externally is subject to impermanence, how can the Unborn be found by chasing appearances, by chasing externals? How can it have to do with sitting, temples, statues or chanting? What is the correct practice of the Unborn? – Just this. Whenever my mind drifts away into such question, I cut it right at its root with the “Unborn koan” and its “dark call”:

 

… meaning is not to be found in words. Our Ch’an predecessors always referred to this as “dark-call-secret-command.” But this “dark call” or code means something quite different from talking. To read the Chinese character for “sky” and to think only of the blue expanse above you would be a complete misunderstanding of the character. So you must think of all koans as “dark-call-secret-commands.

(Seongcheol)

Tags: Buddha Nature, Heidegger, koan, Rinzai Zen, suffering, Unborn Mind School of Zen, Zen