From The Sutra of Hui-Neng, Grand Master of Zen: With Hui-Neng's Commentary on the Diamond Sutra. Everything italicized is from the Diamond Sutra proper, the rest is Hui-Neng's commentary. Let me know what you guys think of Hui-Neng's commentary.
All kinds of living beings -- be they born from eggs, born from wombs, born from moisture, or born from transmutation, be they material, immaterial, thinking or non-thinking, or neither thinking nor non-thinking -- I have them all enter nirvana without remainder...
"Born from eggs" means confusion, "born from wombs" means habituation, "born from moisture" means deviation, "born from transformation" means opinionation. Confusion is the reason for creating all sorts of karma, habituation is the reason for constant repetitious routines; a deviant mind is unstable, and opinionation tends toward obsession.
When you excite the mind about cultivating the mind, with arbitrary views of right and wrong, inwardly you do not realize the formless truth. This is called being material.
When you keep to simplicity in your inner mind and do not practice respect and charity, if you just say the simple mind is buddha and do not cultivate virtue and knowledge, that is called being immaterial.
If you do not comprehend the middle way, but see and hear and think and ponder, fixated on the externals of doctrine, talking about the conduct of Buddha without applying it in your own mind, that is called having thinking.
Confused people who sit in meditation fanatically trying to get rid of illusion and do not learn kindness, compassion, joyfulness, equanimity, wisdom and expedient skills, and so are like wood or stone, without any function, are called non-thinking.
Not clinging to the concept of duality is called "neither thinking," while still consciously seeking noumenon is called "nor non-thinking."
Afflictions differ in myriad ways; all of them defile the mind. Physical forms are countless; all area called living beings. The Realized One teaches with great compassion, enabling all to enter the remainder less nirvana.
u/Nimtrix1849 Thoughts:
Confusion, habituation, deviation, and opinionation. I dare say that these four iron mountains have crushed each of us before. Hui-Neng here does us a great service by telling us that cultivating the mind based on views of right and wrong is to be material. But how compassionate! He doesn't let us fall into utter blankness either, for to keep our minds simple but not cultivate virtue and knowledge is also off the wayside. What is this Middle Way that allows us to perceive the formless truth and not simply descend into blankness?
I am reminded of koan #26 from the Book of Serenity:
Yangshan pointed to a snow lion and said, "Is there any that can go beyond this color?"
Yunmen said, "At that point I'd have pushed it over for him."
Xuedou said, "He only knows how to push down, he doesn't know how to help up."
And part of Wansong's commentary:
Now white is the basis of all colors, and the color of snow is sheer white--how can there be any going beyond this? I say, since it's called 'color' it must relate with the eye--the color that goes beyond white is only the colorless--it does not relate to the eye. Yunmen therefore said, "At that point I'd have pushed it over for him." If you then grasp the point of ultimate blankness, where there isn't even white, this indeed is falling into the formless realm--that is why Xuedou pointed out a living road besides, having him help up what he pushed down.
Submitted June 07, 2019 at 02:44AM by Nimtrix1849 http://bit.ly/2MANIjc
No comments:
Post a Comment