UnbornMind Zen

Posts Tagged ‘Lankavatara Sutra’

The untrapped Mind is the Mind of Nirvana. Where defiled minds dwell in countless positions of their own making, the untrapped Mind remains free in the shining reality of its own uncreatedness. Any mind given to the most minute desire for resistance against its own true nature is prone to the endless formations of good and evil. Though the aforementioned are mere illusory positions of a snared mind, they still, though devoid of inherent power, use the power of the trapped mind to influence Read more [...]

Perhaps the best known hell-realm within Buddhism is Avīci Hell. It’s the most ferocious and unrelenting dominion that houses the most grievous perpetrators such as those who commit matricide and patricide, rapists, in particular one Ananda (not to be confused with Gautama’s cousin)—who raped his own cousin, the Theri Uppalavanna, heinous murderers (certainly serial murderers have a special place reserved for them in Avīci) and overt slanderers against the Buddha and the Buddhadharma—most Read more [...]

Perhaps the tale that intrigues me the most about Seng Ts’an was his early encounter with his Lankavatarian teacher, Huike, who exclaimed to him, “You are riddled with leprosy, and yet you come to me?” Seng Ts’an’s classic response was, “Well, maybe my body is sick. But the internal heart-mind of a diseased one is still the same as the internal heart-mind of a whole man; how, then, is my heart different from your heart-mind?” Huike was struck by his insight and took him on as a Read more [...]

Zen Buddhism strives, to get you the fastest possible way, to the undivided light of the Unborn Mind. Your own true nature. From there on, the true path of the ariyan Mind begins, and the light of Mahayana, shining with a brilliance that cannot be matched by any known phenomenon in this universe, dissolves the body consciousness of temporal spatiality as long as you bathe your Spirit in its imageless presence. He or she whom never spent at least a full day and a full night in perfect dhyana, Read more [...]

  "Master, please tell me. What is the difference between the material body-mind and the spiritual one? I know I am supposed to cut through the dialectical mind with your koans, directly seeing for myself what truth is, but I would appreciate a basic simple explanation to my dilemma, which i share with my lesser able brothers and sisters in the sangha. Is a fair answer to this inquiry possible at all?" "You pose a fair question which deserves a good answer. Lets see now…(ponders Read more [...]

This past month studying and commentating on the new Red Pine edition of the Lankavatara Sutra has truly been an auspicious time for me; my hope is that this may prove of some benefit for present and future students of the Buddhadharma. At the beginning of this blog series I remember writing how I hoped that this new translation would be the definitive Lanka for new generations of dharma-students. Red Pine is to be highly commended for rendering this new and vibrant translation for readers Read more [...]

As the Lanka winds-down, we are left with some very constructive impressions. Red Pine masterfully translates the great malady that affects all sentient beings—the diurnal wheel of samsara and its accompanying dependent origination: “Fools let their thoughts wander among the names and appearances of convention to which they are attached. And as they wander among the multitude of shapes that appear, they fall prey to views and longings concerning a self and what belongs to a self, and they Read more [...]

Section LXXXII of the Lanka delineates the nature of the Tathagata-garbha and the Alaya vijnana (repository consciousness). This can be quite confusing because although apparently different—one pure, one defiled—they are also essentially synonymous in nature. A good analogy to break this down is the nature of “twins”; while they may be different in temperament and personality, they are a product of the same seed-bed, or womb. In UnbornMind Zen the bodhichild is the developing light-bearer, Read more [...]

Sections LXXX-XC entitled “Final Questions” by Red Pine actually combines the former Suzuki chapters 4-9 into one chapter, 4. At the beginning of this Lanka series mention was made concerning the various stages that comprise the Bodhisattva path, and that “stages are provisional and are meant to be transcended if not abandoned.” Section LXXX reveals these stages to be just that—provisional—in that it provides the developing bodhisattva a focusing device to measure their ascent Read more [...]

The Lanka once again makes reference to not equating words with meaning: “Mahamati, if one person points to something with their finger, and a foolish person looks at their finger, they won’t know what they really mean. In the same manner, foolish people become attached to the finger of words. And because they never look away from it, they are never able to discover the true meaning beyond the finger of words.” (Red Pine, pg. 220) Love the allusion, “finger of words”, reminiscent Read more [...]