- In self-realisation itself there are no time [-limits]; it goes beyond all the realms belonging to the various stages; transcending the measure of thought, it establishes itself as the result [of discipline in the realm] of no-appearance.
Self-realization: another dominant term that lies at the very heart of the Lanka—indeed, as Suzuki writes, its principle-thesis. This is also the principle reason why Bodhidharma handed over his copy of the Lanka to Huike, signifying the all-importance of awakening that inner-perception, the process wherein Mind awakens to the truth of ITs inner recesses and thus comes to the realization that all that is seen is seen of the Mind Itself. Suzuki develops this further within the context of the Lanka itself:
“The truth of realisation is the superior condition of an inner attainment which goes beyond words, letters and discriminations and leads to the realm of non-outflowings; it is the ground of inner realisation itself, it has nothing to do with the reasonings of the philosophers and evil doers; destroying all these philosophers and evil doers, self-realisation shines out.” (Studies in Lanka, pg. 106)
Once conferred on the Mind-adept, the passage to Spiritual-Sovereignty is thus won. The Lanka says that the one who initiates this conference is the Dharmatā Buddha. This Dharmatā Buddha is a representation of the Unborn Essence Itself, or the Dharmakaya; as the Lanka states, “it is the doing of the Dharmatā Buddha to establish the exalted state of self-realization which transcends the phenomena of the empirical mind.” So, the Dharmatā Buddha initiates the power of self-realization upon those who are ready to awaken fully from the dream of Samsara and who know through faith and reason in the Unborn that the dreaming phenomenal world is nothing apart from Mind itself. Hence, personal will abdicates its authority to the Unborn Will whose deathless suchness nullifies the former incessant chatter of conventional discrimination that habitually seeks to reproduce karmic afflictions and associations and attachments.
A side-benefit of this initiation is developing the Parato ghosa, or the deathless sound, one that is not “heard” in the conventional sense of hearing, but rather is an inward self-realization that is fostered through the Dharmasota, or Dharma Ear of the Dharmatā Buddha. Further on, the very act of Noble Self-realization fully empowers one to break the link with all composed-phenomena thus awakening within the Primordial-Consciousness (Amala-vijnana) that breaks all former karmic-associations. Finally, the Lanka concludes this all very nicely with a quote used through-out these blogs that best sums up this mystic-process:
“Perceiving that the triple existence is by reason of the habit energy of erroneous discrimination and false reasoning that has been going on since beginningless time, and also recollecting the state of Buddhahood that is imageless and unborn, the Bodhisattva (dormant garbha-child—inclusion mine) will become thoroughly conversant with the noble truth of self-realization; will also become a perfect master of one’s own mind, will conduct oneself without effort, will be like a gem reflecting a variety of colors, will be able to assume the body of transformation, will be able to enter into the subtle minds of all beings, and because of one’s firm belief in the truth of Mind Only, will, by gradually ascending the stages, become established in Buddhahood.”
- [Cleary]: Even nonexistence is seen as existence, and variety too. The ignorant have wrong notions because of grasping; for variety is a delusion.
A further example of the variety of ways the act of grasping produces delusional episodes.
- [Cleary]: When knowledge is without imagination, it is not accurate to say there’s an object; the reason why mind is not forms is being free of imagination.
An added reassurance that when the faculty of imagination is quelled, Mind recollects Its full Unborn Staturehood that is not objective in nature but prior-to all nominally-diseased attributes.
- [Cleary]: The sense faculties, and their objects, illusory appearances, are like dreams; agent, action, and procedure too are nowhere to be found.
It’s all one big animated-play with dream-agents filling up a whole universe of illusions, yet the mad director is delusion itself. In actuality then, there is no play, no actors, just animated figments of the imaginative dream-factory of the mind.
- [Cleary]: The meditations, the immeasurables, and the formless concentrations, the extinction of perception too, are not found at all in mind alone.
Mind-only is not concerned with methods leading to a formalized-mission of breaking-down the skandhic code. Recollect, IT is only concerned with THAT which is imageless and unborn.
- (Chapter II, v.130, v.177) v.130 The fruit of the Stream-entered, and that of the Once-to-come; the fruit of the Not-to-come and Arhatship—-all these are due to mental perturbation. v.177 The fruit of the Stream-entered and that of the Once-returning, and that of the Never-returning, and Arhatship—these are bewildered states of mind.
This concerns the four-stages “referred to as the fruits of recluseship.”
srotaāpanna. [alt. srotāpanna; śrotāpanna] (P. sotāpanna; T. rgyun du zhugs pa; C. yuliu [guo]/ xutuohuan; J. yoru[ ka]/ shudaon; K. yeryu [kwa]/ sudawŏn 預 流[ 果]/ 須 陀 洹). In Sanskrit, “stream-enterer” or “stream-winner”; the first of four stages of sanctity (see ĀRYAPUDGALA) in mainstream Buddhism, followed by the once-returner (SAKṚDĀGĀMIN), nonreturner (ANĀGĀMIN) and worthy one (ARHAT). These four stages are together referred to as “the fruits of recluseship” (ŚRĀMAṆYAPHALA), viz., “the effects of religious practice.” The term srotaāpanna appears very often in the Buddhist sūtras, with members of the Buddha’s audience said to have attained this stage immediately upon hearing him preach the dharma. The stage of stream-enterer begins with the initial vision of the reality of NIRVĀṆA, at which point one “enters the stream” leading to liberation.
Buswell Jr., Robert E.; Donald S., Jr. Lopez. The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism (Kindle Locations 64538-64550). Princeton University Press. Kindle Edition.
The Lanka here considers them all to be inadequate in comparison with the Self-realization of Noble Wisdom. However, within Unborn Mind Zen the notion of a stream-enterer takes on a greater mystic association; this is in conjunction with the term, Mahabodhicitta, or the great and Enlightened Mind Stream of the Tathagatas—in this sense the Mahabodhisattva becomes a True-Stream-Enterer by becoming perfumed with the very essence of the Tathagatas.
- (Chapter II, v.9) I am Mahamati, Blessed One, and am well versed in the Mahayana. I wish to ask one hundred and eight questions of thee who art most eloquent.
Introduced in the Lanka’s second-chapter, Mahamati is the chief Bodhisattva who enters into a dialog with the Blessed One. Here he begins by commencing the dialog with his famous one-hundred and eight questions. My annotation concerning this in the Complete Lanka and Discussion (found in our library) reads as follows:
Next we have a rather long litany that Mahamati lets-loose on the Blessed One that expresses the basic nature of just about everything, although some essential truths are thrown in as well. We see that the Buddha turns-the-table on Mahamati with all this discriminating hodgepodge thereby allowing him (as well as us, the reader) to see the utter futility of discriminating thought in general. While reading through such a litany it can truly become taxing on the mind—which goes to show that the Lanka is really a spiritual exercise in itself…quieting the Mind from its excessive overflows.