Dahui's Real Original, the First Shobogenzo:
313) National Teacher Zhong asked a Chan practitioner where he’d come from. He said, “From the South.” The teacher said, “What teachers are there in the South?” He said, ‘The teachers are quite numerous.” The teacher said, “How do they teach people?” He said, “The teachers there directly point out to students that mind itself is Buddha—Buddha means awareness, and you presently are fully equipped with the nature of perception and cognition. This nature is able to raise the eyebrows and blink the eyes; its functions, going and coming, pervade the body—in the head, the head knows; in the feet, the feet know. ** Therefore it is called accurate pervasive knowledge. There is no Buddha apart from this.** This body has birth and death, but the nature of mind has never ever been born or passed away. The birth and death of the body is like a dragon changing its bones, a snake shedding its skin, a person leaving an old house. So the body is impermanent, while that nature is permanent. Teaching in the South is generally like this.”
The teacher said, “If so, it’s no different from the outsider Sanjaya. He said there is a spiritual nature in this body; this nature can recognize pain and itch. When the body disintegrates the spirit leaves, like the owner of a house getting out when the house burns down. The house is impermanent, while the owner is permanent. Clearly those with such a view cannot distinguish falsehood from truth. How can this be right? When I was traveling around I saw a lot of this type; recently they’ve become especially abundant. They gather groups of three to five hundred cloud gazers, saying this is the message of the Southern School, taking the Platform Scripture and altering it, adding confused drivel and excising what the sage meant, deluding followers. How can this be the verbal teaching? Ouch! Our school is lost!
If perception and cognition were the Buddha-nature, Vimalakirti would not have said, ‘The truth is beyond perception and cognition; if you act on perception and cognition, this is perception and cognition—it is not seeking truth.’” The monk also asked, “The definitive doctrine of the Lotus of Truth opens up the knowledge and perception of Buddhas—what about this?” The teacher said, “This doesn’t even speak of bodhisattvas or the two vehicles—how could the ignorant confusion of sentient beings be considered the same as the knowledge and perception of Buddhas?”
The monk also asked, “What is the Buddha mind?” The teacher said, “Fences, walls, tiles, and pebbles.” The monk said, “This is very much at variance with scripture. The Nirvana scripture says, ‘It is other than inanimate things like fences and walls, therefore it is called Buddha nature.’ Now you say these are the Buddha mind—are mind and nature different or not? The teacher said, “When confused, they’re different; when enlightened, they’re not different.” The monk said, “Scripture says Buddha nature is permanent, while mind is impermanent; now you say they’re not different—why?”
The teacher said, “You’re just going by the words, not by the meaning. It is like water freezing into ice during the cold months, and ice melting into water when it’s warm. When people are confused, this freezes nature into mind; when people are enlightened, this melts mind into nature. If you cling to the inanimate having no Buddha nature, scripture shouldn’t say the triplex world is only mental. So it is you yourself who are at variance with scripture, not me.”
.
(Welcome) ...ewk note: The truth is beyond perception and cognition! Whoops. At variance with scripture! Whoops. Ordinary people aren't like Buddhas! Whoops. Frozen water challenge. Show me your tiles and pebbles.
Submitted November 10, 2019 at 04:36AM by ewk https://ift.tt/2NuzY7Y
No comments:
Post a Comment