What is this? Is it the teacher of Vairocana, master of the reality body?

There's been some sharpness being blunted, some submissiveness and tail-tucking. Why not face a challenge, get a little sharper?

National Teacher Gushan Yan said to an assembly,

If the spiritually sharp stop as soon as they’re challenged, folks like this are thousands of miles away—what salvation is there for them? Going ahead and falling back, taking in a ‘how?’ they are like drunks. What breath of patchrobed monks do people like this have? This being so, then what about the business in the school of the source? Here you must be suitable people—it’s really not easy. Brethren, I’m not sparing words to tell you it doesn’t depend on memorizing a single letter, and doesn’t need any effort; you don’t need to blink, and don’t need to puff: sitting massively, you succeed to it right away.

But tell me, what do you succeed to? Do you consider it succeeding to the Buddha, succeeding to the Dharma, succeeding to the Way, succeeding to what is beyond Buddha, the expression after nirvana? If you succeed to this expression, it can be considered a great delusion; this is called the mind looking upward not ceasing. It is irrelevant to you brethren. For your part, how do you succeed? I invite everyone to try to see: what is this? Is it ordinary? Is it holy? Is it the teacher of Vairocana, master of the reality body?

Where does it abide? For how long? Is there any square or round to it, broad or narrow, long or short, large or small? Try to say. Is there anything as big as a thread or a hair that can cover it? Is there the slightest gap? Where is it copied, where is it written?

It is so evident, so basic, why don’t you get it right away? Instead you stick your heads into the statements of others, studying in intellectual consciousness. What connection is there? Haven’t you seen the saying that intellect is a thief and consciousness is waves? Running off in search, you’ll never have any rest. If you have no eyes yourself, you go to others, selectively excerpting and copying from books.

Even if you take in the oceanic canon with its billion statements at once, this is all others’ and has nothing to do with your self. This is also called dependent understanding through conceptual learning. This is like jellyfish depending on shrimp for eyes—there’s no independence. It’s also like the blind distinguishing colors based on what other people say, therefore not being able to discern the true characteristics of color.

If you study the scriptures, codes, and treatises, there are already people for that; this is why I always say the scriptures have teachers of scriptures, the codes have teachers of codes, the treatises have teachers of treatises. They are organized, categorized, and classified, and there are already people who transmit and memorize them day and night, at bright windows and by lamplight. What about Chan masters? Can anyone say? Try to come forth and speak.

At that time a student asked, “What is the presently evident potential?”

The master said, “What are you saying?”

The monk asked again; the master shouted him out.

• Treasury of the Eye of True Teaching translated by Thomas Cleary.

Submitted November 22, 2018 at 09:13AM by Dillon123 https://ift.tt/2KrrgEr