Tigger warning.

Foyan tells us about the two truths.

Thus when an ancient sage was asked if the created and the uncreated are different, he said they are not.

Sky and earth, rivers and seas, wind and clouds, grasses and trees, birds and beasts, people and things living and dying, changing right before our eyes, are all called created forms.

The uncreated way is silent and unmoving; the indescribable and unnameable is called uncreated.

How can there be no difference?

The created and the uncreated, phenomena and principle, relative and ultimate truth.

Grand Master Yongjia said, "The true nature of ignorance is the very nature of enlightenment; the empty body of illusions and projections is the very body of realities."

These two are each distinct; how do you understand the logic of identity?

How can you understand they are actually the same?

You have to experience the mind without seeking; then they will integrate and you will get to be trouble-free.

It is only available through the experience itself.

In the ten stages of enlightenment, the fifth is the stage Difficult to Conquer, which means that it is extremely difficult to attain equality of real knowledge and conventional knowledge: when you enter this stage, the two are equal, so it is called the stage that is difficult to conquer.

Students of the path should take them in and make them equal twenty-four hours a day.

In the fifth bhumi these things are balanced; seeing this balance is a result of contemplation of the interaction of both truths.

And do you know they are drawn up by your non discriminatory mind?

Like an artist drawing all sorts of pictures, both pretty and ugly, the mind depicts forms, feelings, perceptions, abstract patterns, and consciousnesses; it depicts human societies and paradises.

When it is drawing these pictures, it does not borrow the power of another; there is no discrimination between the artist and the artwork.

There it is; it's all you and none of it is; it is your dream.

It is because of not realizing this that you conceive various opinions, having views of yourself and views of other people, creating your own fair and foul.

So it is said, "An artist draws a picture of hell, with countless sorts of hideous forms.

On setting aside the brush to look it over, it's bone-chilling, really hair-raising."

But if you know it's a drawing, what is there to fear?

Lucidity and nightmares rarely coincide.

In olden times, when people had clearly realized this, it became evident in all situations.

Once when the great teacher Xuansha was cutting down a tree, a tiger bounded out of the woods.

The teacher's companion said, "It's a tiger!"

The teacher scolded him and said, "It's a tiger for you."

The world appears this way and that; it isn't just what appears.

What is underlying appearance is you; just under different conditions.

This is your dream, it is a tiger for you; it is all for you.

Since we need a point or two of discussion:

The two truths and ten bhumi are mahayana teachings being issued out of Foyan's mouth.

Is Foyan a teacher of the mahayana?

Why or why not?

Without the background of the mahayana what hope would someone listening to Foyan teachings have of understanding?

As always, feel free to ask about the OP or anything else about buddhadharma.

Nothing can go wrong if everything is right and everything is right somehow.

Submitted August 05, 2022 at 08:15PM by NothingIsForgotten https://ift.tt/WpK7lz9