Wall of Text has no self nature

[ "Bankei Zen, Translation from the record of Bankei" by Peter Haskel, Grove Press ]

Opening of the Sermons

When the Zen Master Bankei Butchi Kosai,1 founder of the Ryomonji2 at Aboshi in Banshu, was at the Great Training Period3 [held] at the Ryomonji in the winter of the third year of Genroku,4 there were 1,683 monks listed in the temple register.5 Those who attended included not only Soto and Rinzai6 followers but members of the Ritsu, Shingon, Tendai, Pure Land, True Pure Land and Nichiren Schools,7 with laymen and monks mingled together, thronging round the lecture seat.8 One sensed the Master was truly the Teacher of Men and Devas9 for the present age.

At that time, the Master mounted the lecture seat and addressed the assembly of monks and laymen, saying: "We've got a big crowd of both monks and laymen here at this meeting, and I thought I'd tell you about how, when I was young, I struck on the realization that the mind is unborn. This part about 'the mind,' [though,] is something secondary. You monks, when you abide only in the Unborn, [will find that] in the Unborn, there's nothing anyone needs to tell you, nothing you need to hear. Because the Buddha Mind is unborn and marvelously illuminating, it gets easily turned into whatever comes along. So, as long as I'm telling the lay people here not to change themselves into these different things that come their way and trade their • 3 4 • BANKEJ ZEN Buddha Mind for thoughts, you monks may as well listen too!"

Listen carefully

The Master addressed the assembly: "Among all you people here today there's not a single one who's an unenlightened being. Everyone here is a buddha. So listen carefully! What you all have from your parents innately is the Unborn Buddha Mind alone. There's nothing else you have innately. This Buddha Mind you have from your parents innately is truly unborn and marvelously illuminating. That which is unborn is the Buddha Mind; the Buddha Mind is unborn and marvelously illuminating, and, what's more, with this Unborn, everything is perfectly managed. The actual proof of this Unborn which perfectly manages [everything] is that, as you're all turned this way listening to me talk, if out back there's the cawing of crows, the chirping of sparrows or the rustling of the wind, even though you're not deliberately trying to hear each of these sounds, you recognize and distinguish each one. The voices of the crows and sparrows, the rustling of the wind—you hear them without making any mistake about them, and that's what's called hearing with the Unborn. In this way, all things are perfectly managed with the Unborn. This is the actual proof of the Unborn. Conclusively realize that what's unborn and marvelously illuminating is truly the Buddha Mind, straightaway abiding in the Unborn Buddha Mind just as it is, and you're a living tathagata10 from today forever after. Since, when you realize conclusively, you abide like this in the Buddha Mind from today on, my school is called the School of Buddha Mind.11

"Well, then, while you're all turned this way listening to me talk, you don't mistake the chirp of a sparrow out back for the caw of a crow, the sound of a gong for that of Sermons • 5 a drum, a man's voice for a woman's, an adult's voice for a child's—you clearly recognize and distinguish each sound you hear without making any mistake. That's the marvelously illuminating dynamic function. It's none other than the Buddha Mind, unborn and marvelously illuminating, the actual proof of the marvelously illuminating [nature of the Buddha Mind].

"I doubt there's anyone among the people here now who'd say: 'I heard [what I did] because I was deliberately trying to hear it.' If anyone says he did, he's a liar. Wondering, 'What's Bankei telling us?' all of you are turned this way, intent only on hearing what I'm saying; no one's deliberately trying to hear the various sounds coming from out back. That's why, when all of a sudden these sounds appear and you recognize and distinguish them, hearing them without any mistake, you're hearing with the Unborn Buddha Mind. Nobody here can claim he heard these sounds because he'd made up his mind beforehand to listen for them when they were made. So, in fact, you're listening with the Unborn.

"Everyone who conclusively realizes that what is unborn and marvelously illuminating is truly the Buddha Mind, abiding in the Unborn Buddha Mind, is a living tathagata from today forever after. Even 'buddha' is just a name given to traces that have arisen,12 so, from the standpoint of the Unborn, it's only a secondary matter, a peripheral concern. The man of the Unborn abides at the source of all buddhas. That which is unborn is the source of all things, the starting point of all things. There's nothing more original than the Unborn, nothing prior to it. That's why, when you abide in the Unborn, you abide at the source of all buddhas; so it's something wonderfully precious. There's no question of'perishing' here, so when you abide in the Unborn, it's superfluous to speak about the Imperishable13 too. That's the reason I only talk about the Unborn and don't mention the Imperishable. What isn't 6 • BANKEI ZEN created can't be destroyed, so since it's unborn, it's obvious it's imperishable without having to mention it. Isn't that so?

"Of course, the expression 'unborn and imperishable'14 has appeared here and there in the sutras and records from times of old—but not the actual proof of the Unborn. Everyone just learns the expression 'unborn and imperishable' and goes about repeating it; but when it comes to realizing conclusively and actually getting right to the heart of the matter, they haven't any idea of what the Unborn is.

"When I was twenty-six, I first hit on the realization that all things are perfectly managed with the Unborn, and, in the forty years since, I've taught everyone with the actual proof of the Unborn: that what you have from your parents innately is the Unborn Buddha Mind—the Buddha Mind which is truly unborn and marvelously illuminating. I was the first to teach this. I'm sure that even among you monks in the assembly now, and everyone else too, nobody's heard of anyone before me who taught people with the actual proof of the Unborn—that the Buddha Mind is truly Unborn and marvelously illuminating. I was the first to teach this. If anyone claims he's heard of somebody before me who taught people with the actual proof of the Unborn, he's a liar!

"When you abide in the Unborn, you're abiding at the source of all things. What the buddhas of the past realized was the Unborn Buddha Mind; and what buddhas in the future will realize is the Unborn Buddha Mind too. We today are living in the Degenerate Age of Buddhism,15 yet when there's even one man who abides in the Unborn, the true teaching16 has been restored to the world. All of you, isn't it so? It certainly is! When you've conclusively realized this, then and there you'll open the eye that sees into men's minds, and that's why my school is called the ClearEyed School.17 When the eye that sees into men is manifested, whenever it happens to be,18 that moment is the complete realization of the Dharma.19 I want you to know Sermons • 7 this. Whoever you may be, at that moment, you are my heir!"

My Commentary: A few things jumped out, the self nature is evident, or Buddha nature is evident and well Buddha is just a " trace" we attribute to the " unborn". Contrasted to Christianity, words like " we are already enlightened" and " Buddha is just a trace" sound pretty Heretical. I think this idea that salvation must come from an authority isn't just a Western thing though. When Bankei ends this sermon with the line "When the eye that sees into men is manifested... at that moment you are my heir" this basiocall speaks to the heart of the matter and was probabley pretty Radical in Bankeis time. It is not an achievement in Bankeis view I do not think, just a a seeing what is always present. Heir is a teq of language. Bankeis eye is the same eye as everyone else, he just doest throw water at the moon calling it rain. Which brings me to my central question, why am I not enlightened? Well Winddrake, I' s do not get enlightened. Well why not? Cause there is no I to become enlightened. What! That is preposterous, look I will show you! ( hits winddrake with stick)) see! Pain! Pain happening to I! ok, fair enough. Pain is a sensation, so I is sensation? well no, it's part of I, it is the I sense. Ok what part is the true I winddrake? Um the part that feels it. The body? Yes, specifically in this ( imaginary) case your arm. Ok so I is arm? No it is the circuitry that send the pain signal to you prain thus affirming both pain and I. Ok so I is pain and ciruits and brain? Yes. Ok but it musty also include you, the object that hit me and this discourse? Um.. ok. SO I is you and me and stick and pain, and ciruits and discourse? Um, yeah. Ok we figures it out, I is you and me and senstion and motion and intention and reaction are the tru eye. But isnt this all predicated on mind? And as we saw Mind has no self nature? I guess, so No sensation, action, pain, curcuits yad yadda? Um no, its more like no escape from self nature and no self nature. WTF? well if you get hit there is pain, but no independent self to feel it, more like a self sense as a product of mind, but mind has no self nature as it is just as far as we can know ( hint hint) just arisings and ideas, dependent on mind, so it can be said to be no 'thing" or as Bankei likes to say " the marvelous illuminating Bhuddah mind" which would probaley make more sense.

Submitted December 19, 2019 at 12:47PM by windDrakeHex https://ift.tt/2MbBcEh