On the Transmission of Mind (Huangbo) #53a: 53a
Q: To whom did the Patriarch silently transmit the Dharma?
A: No Dharma was transmitted to anybody.
Q: Then why did the Second Patriarch ask Bodhidharma for the transmission of Mind?
A: If you hold that something was transmitted, you imply that the Second Patriarch reached Mind by SEEKING, but no amount of seeking can ever lead to Mind; so we TALK of only transmitting Mind to you. If you really GET something, you will find yourself back on the wheel of life and death!
T. O. M's comment.
It seems to me that Huang po's Teaching is quite simple, there is just the one mind, and we all have access to it, and use it constantly.
Its just that people don't usually trust this mind, and seek for wisdom and knowledge outside of themselves, even to the point of chopping off one's own arm as a sacrifice to the learned to prove dedication.. ( I think that the story of the second Patriarch chopping off his own arm is symbolic of the way in which we can possibly mutilate our own minds, searching for something that we already have within ourselves)
So, it comes back to an issue of trusting in one's own mind essence, and and being able to discern the essence from the form, the thing that animates from the thing that is animated, the root, the void, the one mind.
How can a person tell the difference between the activities of the mind, and the one mind, or is their no difference?
If there is no difference, then I doubt Huang po would have bothered giving sermons at all.
How can a person develop this unflinching trust in one's own mind source?
Frustration?
Submitted April 16, 2021 at 12:42PM by transmission_of_mind https://ift.tt/3dmwvFy
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