How about when the end of your life comes?

(...) How about when the end of your life comes, the physical elements disintegrate, the conscious spirit has no master, the road ahead is unclear, negative habits pull you along—at this point, the vigor of life cannot be relied upon, teachers, companions, and family cannot help you, gold, silver, and jewels are of no use, fields, gardens, and productive enterprises cannot be relied upon, literary learning cannot come forth, strategy and machination cannot be used—how can you get free?  Can you escape birth and death by feeding some monks or bowing to Buddha?  Can you escape birth and death by reciting a scripture or a mantra?  Can you escape birth and death by lecturing on texts?  Can you escape birth and death by discussing how to cite or versify the cases of the ancestral teachers one by one?

^{Yongjiao addressing the assembly on New Year's Eve, Chan Talks, Cleary}

Yongjiao begins his lecture thus:

"The four seasons have completed their cycle, and tonight the year is over. Checking what has been accomplished in a year, it is a dreamlike void."

And ends it so:

"This is the one great juncture for patchrobed monks, having a beginning and having an end — how is it expressed? A wooden ox swallows iron Kunlun mountains, the shock knocking down the stone statue of a guardian deity in front of the door."

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How does one escape birth and death?

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The master gives a hint:

Even if they really have perception of the fundamental and have penetrated each of the thirty-seven hundred rotten complications without a shadow of a doubt, they still can’t escape birth and death.  Why?  Because they are like fish trapped in ice; though they are immersed in water, nevertheless they cannot move around.  They are also like treasurers; though they are clear about expenditures and income, nevertheless none of this is their own.  So patchrobed monks should have Shakyamuni Buddha stand behind them and Bodhidharma go at their feet—only then will they have a way to get free.

Submitted October 06, 2020 at 06:32AM by Coinionaire https://ift.tt/3npbkG2