To round of my little series on Ying-an and his letters in Cleary's Chan Instructions, here is my favourite of the collection.
To shrine keeper Zhao
The Great Way is even—originally there is no delusion or enlightenment. It is because sentient beings get confused, following illusions and getting excited, turning away from awareness and getting mixed up in objects, producing all sorts of discrimination, that there come to be four kinds of birth, six tendencies, and nine states of existence, causing them to drift in the waves of the triple world without cease.
If someone with good grades in Buddhism can weigh in here, please do, but based on my limited understanding, the the four kinds of birth refer to births from the womb (like us), eggs (like a bird), moisture (like a frog), and from miracles (ghosts and lofty stuff like that). The six tendencies may refer to the temperaments of greed, aversion, delusion, faithfulness, wisdom, and speculative thinking. The nine states of existence may refer to the ten realms (six worldly, four holy) minus the state of actual Buddhahood, so nine sub-Buddhahood states. The triple realms are the realm of desire (where we kick around), the formless realm (deities) and formlessness realm (even fancier deities).
I don't particularly care for the bedtime story aspect of this, so I take this paragraph to essentially mean that there is only a deviation because we throw the balance out by deluded attachment to thoughts and objects. Even if you don't suffer right now, there's no way you won't in the future, the thought of which is suffering by itself. I identify with this 'issue'. Do you?
If you are able, in the midst of that, to hear a good word or see a good act so that you realize in an instant where you were wrong, and immediately arrive directly at the immovable state of the Realized, this is called enlightenment.
What is a good word or act that can be heard or seen to effect an instant enlightenment that quenches all illusions and thus the causes for suffering? I understand this to be the single exchange, phrase, or even seemingly benign happening that is part of all the enlightenment accounts we read about in Chan lore.
Whilst enlightenment is instant, I still believe that one must prepare oneself to be receptive to this 'epiphany'. Like in chemistry, the reactants come together, electrons change their position, boom. If you're drugged out in a corner watching the wallpaper move in a nautical dream, you can't penetrate at the jump of the electron, you're impure and inert - you need to turn yourself into a suitable reactant to participate in the chemical reaction. The good word or act is just what one needs to get in touch with to set off the reaction. You then change states, alchemy happens.
But where do delusion and enlightenment come from to begin with? If you think they come from mind, mind is not mind of itself. If you think they come from illusion, illusion is not illusion of itself. So where are mind and illusion? You should know that space in the ten directions is born in your mind, like a snowflake dotting absolute clarity. If you see through in this way, you will know space in the ten directions cannot be grasped. So since space cannot be grasped, the height of the mountains, the depths of the oceans, small and large, long and short, stand out before your eyes—how can they be removed? This is the step forward from a high cliff; as soon as you get self-protective, there is no way to complete the task under the patch robe.
Doesn't this remind us of the following, so incisive that you'll find it cited in BoS, Treasury, GG, etc.: Changsha said, The man sitting atop the hundred-foot pole: Though he's gained entry, this is not yet the real. Atop the hundred-foot pole, he should step forward: The universe in all directions is the whole body. The monk said, "Atop the hundred-foot pole, how can you step forward?" Changsha said, "The mountains of Lang, the rivers of Li." The monk said, "I don't understand." Changsha said, "The whole land is under the imperial sway."
You must not be self-protective to take the step forward. Self preservation, what is it good for? (HUH YEAH 🎵).
So then, the difficulty lies in letting go of the self one holds so dear. But what is the self? Die before you die, so you can live, at last. Everything before you is under the imperial sway. Who is the emperor?
Think about this.
Submitted September 06, 2020 at 09:35AM by Coinionaire https://ift.tt/330pmo1
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