The following are letters that were appended to Bodhidharma's Two Entries and Four Practices. The text was passed around with these additions attached, and then people would add more additions. Think about it like the r/zen comments section on Bodhidharma's OP, only not as insightful or compassionate.
1.
I have always revered the previous sage (i.e., the Buddha). I have extensively cultivated all the practices, have always taken joy in the Pure Land, and have valued the legacy of his teaching like a thirsty man in need of water. There are many millions who realized the great enlightenment and innumerable ones who attained the four fruits through their encounter with Sakyamuni. I truly believed that heaven was a separate country and hell another place and that, upon achieving enlightenment and attaining the [ultimate) fruit, one’s body became changed, one’s form different. [Thinking thus, I] opened the scriptures seeking blessings and [sought to make the] motivation of my practice pure. In a confused whirl of activity I practiced as I might, thus passing many years with never a moment of rest.
Eventually, though, I sat upright in serenity and fixed my attention on my mind. Having long cultivated false thoughts, however, I perceived forms on the basis of my feelings (i.e., experienced hallucinations), the transformations of which seemed neverending. Eventually I penetrated the Dharma Nature (fa-hsing) and crudely cultivated Suchness (chen-ju) so that for the first time I understood that there was nothing that did not exist within the square inch [of my own mind]. The bright pearl penetrated brilliantly, mysteriously attaining the Profound Truth. From the Buddhas above to the squirming insects below, there is nothing that is not identified according to [the criteria of our own] minds [and that is not] a separate name of [our own] false thoughts.
Therefore, I have poured my deepest feelings into the composition of a modest verse on the expedient means of entering into enlightenment, which I address to those of a common background and like inclinations. If you have the time, please read this. If you practice seated meditation, you will surely perceive the Fundamental Nature (pen-hsing).
If you can meld the mind and make it pure,
then [you will realize that] a split second of discriminative consciousness is samsara.
Mentation undertaken within [samsara results in] the creation of wrong livelihood.
If you search for the Dharma with a calculating [mind], your karma will not change.
2.
In its ever-increasing defilement, the mind is difficult to [bring to the] ultimate. When the Sage heard the eight words [of the verse “All things are impermanent; this life is samsara” (?)], he instantly realized for the first time that his six years of asceticism had been wasted effort.
The world is universally entangled with demons who pointlessly argue and fight. They make incorrect interpretations [of Buddhism, by which they] teach sentient beings. They speak of remedies, but they have never cured a single illness.
Serene, serene—from the beginning there have fundamentally never existed any ascriptive views and [superficial] characteristics (?), so how can there be good and evil, false and true? Birth is also nonbirth, extinction also nonextinction. Motion is equivalent to nonmotion, meditation equivalent to nonmeditation.
[McRae, Northern School]
essentialsaltsbook notechandex - If you had to type a reply to one of these two letters, as if it were a reddit comment, what would your reply be? For my part, I think "meditation equivalent to nonmeditation" is my favorite novel phrase here. And the first letter is a great synopsis of the progression from merit-seeking practice to meritless practice.
Submitted January 26, 2018 at 05:02AM by essentialsalts http://ift.tt/2BuXPLz
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