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Monthly Archives: April 2012
The Cave
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.”
Posted in The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma, Zen
Tagged allegory, dharmadhatu, Emptiness, nirvana, Palto's Cave
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No-mind
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 Blood is the Life
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…
Posted in The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma, Zen
Tagged Bloodstream Sermon, Bodhidharma, celibacy, light, Mind, Mind-only, perception, sex
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Let there be Light
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.
Posted in The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma, Zen
Tagged Buddha Nature, Element of Truth, Enlightenment
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The Zen Mind
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.
Posted in The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma, Zen
Tagged Bodhidharma, Buddha Nature, The Way, Zen Mind
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Neti, Neti
4. Bloodstream Sermon, Part 3
And this mind, through endless kalpas without beginning, has never varied. It has never lived or died, appeared or disappeared, increased or decreased. Its not pure or impure, good or evil, past or future. It’s not true or false. It’s not male or female. It doesn’t appear as a monk or a layman, an elder or a novice, a sage or a fool, a Buddha or a mortal. It strives for no realization and suffers no karma. It has no strength or form. It’s like space. You can’t possess it and you can’t lose it. Its movements can’t be blocked by mountains, rivers, or rock walls. Its unstoppable powers penetrate the Mountain of Five Skandhas and cross the River of Samsara.” No karma can restrain this real body. But this mind is subtle and hard to see. It’s not the same as the sensual mind. Everyone wants to see this mind, and those who move their hands and feet by its light are as many as the grains of sand along the Ganges, but when you ask them, they can’t explain it. They’re like puppets. It’s theirs to use… It’s also called the Unstoppable Tathagata, the Incomprehensible, the Sacred Self, the Immortal, the Great Sage. Its names vary but not its essence. Buddhas vary too, but none leaves his own mind. The mind’s capacity is limitless, and its manifestations are inexhaustible.
Posted in The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma, Zen
Tagged Bodhidharma, imageless, images, neti, phantasm
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Teacher, teacher
3. Bloodstream Sermon, part 2
If you don’t find a teacher soon, you’ll live this life in vain. It’s true, you have the buddha-nature. But without the help of a teacher you’ll never know it. Only one person in a million becomes enlightened without a teacher’s help. If, though, by the conjunction of conditions, someone understands what the Buddha meant, that person doesn’t need a teacher. Such a person has a natural awareness superior to anything taught. But unless you’re so blessed, study hard, and by means of instruction you’ll understand.
Posted in The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma, Zen
Tagged Buddhadharma, hell-dwellers, neo-advaitists, Teacher
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Buddha-nature
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.
Posted in The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma, Zen
Tagged bodhichild, Bodhidharma, Buddha Nature, gotra
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The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma
The following is the first in a series studying “The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma”–as translated by Red Pine.
Posted in The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma, Zen
Tagged Dharmata, Red Pine, Unmoving Principle, Zen Teachings of Bodhidharma
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Tracking Bodhidharma
Looks like an interesting upcoming read. I have the first edition of Ferguson’s “Zen’s Chinese Heritage: The Masters and Their Teachings”; he’s an excellent scholar and historian with a healthy sense of spirituality to boot.