(From the record of HuangBo; J. Blofeld translation)
[Q]
At this very moment, all sorts of erroneous thoughts are constantly flowing through our minds. How can you speak of our having none?
[A]
Error has no substance; it is entirely the product of your own thinking. If you know that Mind is the Buddha and that Mind is fundamentally without error, whenever thoughts arise, you will be fully convinced that they are the only source of the error.
If you could prevent all conceptual movements of thought and still your thinking-processes, naturally there would be no error left in you.
Therefore is it said: "When thoughts arise, then do all things arise. When thoughts vanish, then do all things vanish."
[Q]
At this moment, while erroneous thoughts are arising in my mind, where is the Buddha?
[A]
At this moment you are conscious of those erroneous thoughts.
Well, your consciousness is the Buddha!
Perhaps you can understand that, were you but free of these delusory mental processes, there would then be no "Buddha".
Why so?
Because when you allow a movement of your mind to result in a concept of the Buddha, you are bringing into existence an objective being capable of being Enlightened.
Similarly, any concept of sentient beings in need of deliverance creates such beings as objects of your thoughts.
All intellectual processes and movements of thought result from your concepts.
If you were to refrain from conceptualizing altogether, where could the Buddha continue to exist?
You are in the same predicament as {Manjushri} who, as soon as he permitted himself to conceive of the Buddha as an objective entity, was dwarfed and hemmed in on all sides by those two iron mountains.
...
When we talk of the knowledge "I" may gain, the learning "I" may achieve, "my" intuitive understanding, "my" deliverance from rebirth, and "my" moral way of living, our successes make these concepts seem pleasant to us, but our failures make them appear deplorable.
What is the use of all that?
I advise you to remain uniformly quiescent and above all activity.
Do not deceive yourselves with conceptual thinking, and do not look anywhere for the truth, for all that is needed is to refrain from allowing concepts to arise.
It is obvious that mental concepts and external perceptions are equally misleading, and that the Way of the Buddhas is as dangerous to you as the way of demons.
Thus, when Manjushri temporarily entered into dualism, he found himself dwarfed by two iron mountains which made egress impossible. But Manjushri had true understanding, while Samantabhadra possessed only ephemeral knowledge.
Nevertheless, when true understanding and ephemeral knowledge are properly integrated, it will be found that they no longer exist.
There is only the One Mind, Mind which is neither Buddha nor sentient beings, for it contains no such dualism.
As soon as you conceive of the Buddha, you are forced to conceive of sentient beings, or of concepts and no-concepts, of vital and trivial ones, which will surely imprison you between those two iron mountains.
[Q]
At the moment of Enlightenment, where is the Buddha?
[A]
Whence does your question proceed? Whence does your consciousness arise?
When speech is silenced, all movement stilled, every sight and —sound vanished then is the Buddha's work of deliverance truly going forward!
Then, where will you seek the Buddha?
You cannot place a head upon your head, or lips upon your lips; rather, you should just refrain from every kind of dualistic distinction.
Hills are hills. Water is water. Monks are monks. Laymen are laymen. But these mountains, these rivers, the whole world itself, together with sun, moon and stars—not one of them exists outside your minds!
The vast chiliocosm exists only within you, so where else can the various categories of phenomena possibly be found?
Outside Mind, there is nothing.
The green hills which everywhere meet your gaze and that void sky that you see glistening above the earth—not a hairsbreadth of any of them exists outside the concepts you have formed for yourself!
So it is that every single sight and sound is but the Buddha's Eye of Wisdom.
Phenomena do not arise independently but rely upon environment. And it is their appearing as objects which necessitates all sorts of individualized knowledge.
You may talk the whole day through, yet what has been said?
You may listen from dawn till dusk, yet what will you have heard?
Thus, though Gautama Buddha preached for forty-nine years, in truth no word was spoken.
[Q]
Assuming all this is so, what particular state is connoted by the word "Bodhi"?
[A]
Bodhi is no state.
The Buddha did not attain to it.
Sentient beings do not lack it.
It cannot be reached with the body nor sought with the mind.
All sentient beings are already of one form with Bodhi.
[Q]
But how does one "Attain to the Bodhi-Mind"?
[A]
Bodhi is not something to be attained.
If, at this very moment, you could convince yourselves of its unattainability, being certain indeed that nothing at all can ever be attained, you would already be Bodhi-minded.
Since Bodhi is not a state, it is nothing for you to attain.
And therefore is it written of Gautama Buddha; "While I was yet in the realm of {Dīpamkara Buddha}, there was not a grain of anything to be attained by me. It was then that Dīpamkara Buddha made his prophecy that I, too, should become a Buddha."
If you know positively that all sentient beings are already one with Bodhi, you will cease thinking of Bodhi as something to be attained.
You may recently have heard others talking about this "attaining of the Bodhi-Mind", but this may be called an intellectual way of driving the Buddha away!
By following this method, you only appear to achieve Buddhahood; if you were to spend aeon upon aeon in that way, you would only achieve the Sambhogakāya and Nirmāņakāya.
What connection would all that have with your original and real Buddha-Nature?
Therefore is it written: "Seeking outside for a Buddha possessed of form has nothing to do with you."
Submitted April 30, 2020 at 10:36PM by xXx_GreenSage_xXx https://ift.tt/2xqJ0hg
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