A Bird in Flight Leaves No Trace

by Seon Master Subul

  “Why is this so? By generating thoughts and creating a view that there are buddhas, you are presuming that buddhas need to be produced. By creating a view that there are sentient beings, you are presuming that sentient beings need to be saved. Generating mental states and thinking thoughts all derive from having a point of view.

  何故如此 為汝起心作佛見 便謂有佛可成 作眾生見 便謂有眾生可度 起心動念總是汝見處.

  When practitioners are new to Buddhism and not mature in their practice, Seon masters will employ provisional descriptions to teach them, saying for example that the buddhas save all sentient beings. As these neophytes delve deeper into their practice based on initial confidence in the master’s words, they will open the correct eye of the Buddhadharma.

  To the mature in practice with a discerning eye, Seon masters directly reveal the true characteristics of things, just as Master Huangpo does here for Pei Xiu. Relative concepts such as sentient beings and buddhas never apply to the mind. At this place right before your eyes, there are neither buddhas to be achieved nor sentient beings to be saved. If you discriminate between buddhas and sentient beings, you are just creating views.

  “If you are free from all views, then where would the buddhas be? It is like Mañjuśrī, who as soon as he generated the view that there was a buddha, was condemned to the concentric Iron-Ring Mountains.”

  若無一切見 佛有何處所 如文殊纔起佛見便貶向二鐵圍山.

  That spot where you generate a thought is your buddha nature. You cannot generate even a single thought without the buddha nature. The thoughts that arise are like mirages, but if you do not chase after these mirages, a lotus flower will blossom at every step you take.

  Even Mañjuśrī would fall into the hells if he aroused a view.

  Though you may speak all day long, not even a single word is spoken.

  Pei Xiu asked, “Now, at the very moment of awakening, where is buddha?”

  云 今正悟時 佛在何處.

  In a situation like this, it would be better to strike down with a mighty blow even a highly placed official like Pei Xiu. Even though the master keeps telling him that if he keeps opening his mouth, he will be far off the mark, Pei Xiu, with his lingering intellectual tendencies, cannot keep his mind clear. He therefore asks a question concerning what he is most curious about.

  The master replied, “What does your question come from? What does your perception arise from? Speaking and keeping silent, action and stillness, and all sounds and sights are all the buddha’s events. Where else would you seek the buddha? You cannot put a head on top of your head or add lips to your lips.

  師云 問從何來 覺從何起 語默動靜一切聲色 盡是佛事 何處覓佛 不可更頭上安頭 嘴上加嘴.

  Every movement, every question, every thought, every sound, and every sight arises just at this place. Whether walking, standing, sitting, or reclining, whether speaking or keeping silent, whether active or still, none are not the buddha’s events. If you do not realize this, you will inevitably and futilely wander all around the world.

  That guy who is wandering around is the buddha! Not knowing this, you pointlessly smear excrement on the buddha’s head.

  “Simply stop generating discrepant views; then, mountains are mountains, water is water, monastics are monastics, and laypeople are laypeople. Mountains, streams, and the great earth, the sun, the moon, and the stars — none exist outside your mind. The entire trichiliocosm all derives from your own self. Where else would all these many things be?

  但莫生異見 山是山 水是水 僧是僧 俗是俗 山河大地 日月星辰 總不出汝心 三千世界 都來是汝箇自己 何處有許多般.

  If you stop generating views, the things before your eyes reveal themselves exactly as they are. They are unchanging and have never left this place, from time immemorial to the present. Since past, present, and future have all vanished, it is just this, now and forever. However, unless you have awakened, you will be unable to escape the fetters of karma. You will pass your entire life painfully oppressed by those fetters.

  “There are no dharmas outside the mind, so the green mountains that fill your eyes and the realm of empty space are utterly transparent. You cannot generate even a hair’s breadth of views and understanding.

  心外無法 滿目青山 虛空世界 皎皎地 無絲髮許與汝作見解.

  There is no mind outside the dharmas and no dharmas outside the mind. Yellow is yellow; green is green. Without thinking, you raise your head and look right in front of you: your eyes are filled with green mountains; the mountains are tall; the water is flowing.

  It is not green mountains or empty space that create views. You create mirages yourself and laugh and cry while wrestling with them. How beautiful is a person laughing aloud after waking from a spring dream!

  Therefore all sounds and sights are the buddha’s eye of wisdom. Dharmas do not arise on their own; they are produced in dependence on the perceptual environment. Because those things exhibit variations, there are all sorts of things to know.

  所以一切聲色 是佛之慧目 法不孤起 仗境方生 為物之故 有其多智.

  All sounds and sights are the buddha’s appearance. If you are enveloped in ignorance, you will not be able to understand these words. People try to put what they learn into practice. However, it is all too easy to become unwittingly attached to that and become stubborn, rigidly confined within yourself.

  Whenever you try to become a buddha, you end up becoming a devil. This is why you must be humble during your mental cultivation, always guarding your original intention.

  To have nothing to attain is the right way forward.

  Since all things are differentiated in accord with the perceptual environment, you must have wisdom that is able to deal with countless situations. However different may be the forms they assume, if you know the fundamental source, they will all return to a single form.

  “You may speak all day long, but what have you said? You may listen all day long, but what have you heard? For this reason, Śākyamuni Buddha may have taught for forty-nine years, but he never actually said even a single word.”

  終日說何曾說 終日聞何曾聞 所以釋迦四十九年說 未甞說著一字.

  Although you may speak all day, you have never really spoken even one word. Although you may listen all day, you have never really heard even one word.

  Just as many reflections appear and disappear in a bright mirror, the myriad things pass by this immutable place.

  If you know and use your mind, the thirty-six thousand days of the hundred years of your lifespan are just repetitions of this one place and nothing more. Every day’s events pass by evanescently, while this place remains completely unmoving.

  It is like saying that, although Śākyamuni Buddha preached his whole life, he never actually preached anything.

  If you brighten your wisdom, your life will be full, and everything will go smoothly.

  Pei Xiu asked, “If this is so, then where is bodhi?”

  The master replied, “Bodhi is not anywhere.

  云 若如此 何處是菩提 師云 菩提無是處.

  Master Huangbo does not test Pei Xiu. Rather, through this encounter dialogue, the master gives elaborate responses to Pei Xiu’s questions.

  Ordinarily, if a person asks a question like the above, a Seon master would compel the questioner to raise a doubt by rendering him speechless or he would use various means to help him suddenly awaken.

  If you are awakened, you are not confined by the three periods of past, present, and future or by the six directions of east, west, north, south, up, and down.

  Time and space are also nothing but mirages produced in accord with the law of causality.

  “The buddhas do not attain bodhi, but sentient beings also do not lose bodhi. It can neither be attained with the body nor sought with the mind. All sentient beings are marked by bodhi.”

  佛亦不得菩提 眾生亦不失
菩提 不可以身得 不可以心求 一切眾生即菩提相.

  Since the whole world is replete in the one mind, there can be no awakening outside this mind.

  The buddhas do not attain any special awakening, and sentient beings are never apart from awakening. It’s just that the buddhas have awakened to this fact while sentient beings have not. Therefore there is not the slightest distinction between the mind, the buddhas, and sentient beings. If you do not understand this, you will have only “distorted views and dream-like conceptions.”139

  Pei Xiu asked, “How do we arouse the bodhi mind?”

  云 如何發菩提心.

  Pei Xiu’s question is this: even though sentient beings live amid awakening, they have not yet been able to arouse the bodhi mind (bodhicittotpāda). What can they do to arouse that mind?

  His underlying question may well be: since sentient beings are already perfect and complete, is it really necessary to arouse the bodhi mind? Intellectuals can easily fall into this kind of trap.

  The master replied, “Bodhi is not something to be attained. Right now you need only arouse this mind that is unascertainable, which is certain that there is not a single dharma that can be attained. That is the bodhi mind.

  師云 菩提無所得 爾今但發無所得心 決定不得一法 即菩提心.

  Bodhi means awakening, but awakening is not something that can be attained. This is because bodhi is inherent to us. Hence, the Buddha compared people seeking awakening to “a head seeking its head.”

  However, since sentient beings are deceived by the mirages of their karma and have not realized this fact, they should abandon “distorted views and dream-like conceptions ” through the help of a spiritual mentor.

  “Bodhi has no abiding place; this is why it is not something that is attained.

  菩提無住處 是故無有得者.

  The mind is not originally something that is abiding. Therefore it is not an object to be gained or lost. Since the bodhi mind does not abide anywhere, where would it be?

  “Therefore, [Śākyamuni Buddha] said, ‘When I was at Dīpaṃkara Buddha’s abode, there was not the slightest dharma for me to attain. The Buddha then made the prophecy (vyākaraṇa) of my future awakening.’140

  故云 我於然燈佛所 無有少法可得 佛即與我授記.

  If there is not even a single dharma for you to attain, that means you have achieved perfect awakening.

  In the same manner, the nonduality of the one mind, as something that cannot be described with words and letters and that is transmitted outside the scriptural teachings, is transmitted through the mind-to-mind transmission.

  However, since there is nothing that is attained, there is also nothing that is transmitted. That is why the Sixth Patriarch said, “The self-nature is originally pure in and of itself; it is neither produced nor extinguished; we are originally endowed with it; it is originally unmoving. Therefore the self-nature is able to produce the myriad dharmas.”141

  Since it is originally perfect in and of itself, nothing can be added to it.

  “Know clearly that all sentient beings are originally bodhi. There is no further bodhi you need to attain.

  明知一切眾生本是菩提 不應更得菩提.

  If you believe that all sentient beings are intrinsically endowed with bodhi, you can rest the mind that chases things outside. Seeking something outside is not Buddhist. Only when you believe that the seeking mind is identical to the original mind with which you are inherently endowed and you move toward the unconditioned path will you partake of Seon practice.

  “Now, you may have heard that you must generate the bodhi mind, which suggests that you use this mind to train yourself to achieve the Buddhadharma. But merely by being intent on becoming a buddha, though you may practice for three asaṃkhyeya kalpas, you will end up attaining only a buddha’s reward or transformation body. What connection would this have with the fundamental buddha of the true nature? Therefore, it is said,

  You may seek outside for the buddha that has characteristics,

  but it has nothing to do with you.”142

  爾今聞發菩提心 將謂一箇心 學取佛去 唯擬作佛 任爾三秖劫修 亦秖得箇報化佛 與爾本源真性佛 有何交涉 故云 外求有相佛 與汝不相似.

  The dharma body is perfect just as it is; it has nothing that needs to be augmented or diminished.

  If you are told to generate the bodhi mind and thus try to seek the buddha by arousing your mind, it is like placing a head on top of your head.

  True practitioners know how to both increase and decrease. This is because, while others may see them sitting still, they are in fact fiercely striving against their most deep-rooted and subtle desires.

  11. The Simile of Mercury

  Pei Xiu asked, “As we are originally buddhas, how can there be four modes of birth and six rebirth destinies, each with various physical forms and appearances and each different?”

  問 本既是佛 那得更有四生六道 種種形貌不同.

  The four modes of birth (yoni) are egg-born, womb-born, moisture-born, and metamorphic-born. Human beings are womb-born while heavenly beings are metamorphic-born. Birds are egg-born and most insects are traditionally said to be moisture-born. The six rebirth destinies (gati) refer to the six kinds of rebirth that sentient beings undergo: birth as the denizens of the hells, hungry ghosts, animals, demigods, humans, and heavenly beings. The question here is: Why are there these different kinds of rebirths if all sentient beings are endowed with the buddha nature?

  The master replied, “The essence of all the buddhas is perfect, with nothing to be added or subtracted. Although it flows into the six rebirth destinies, in each and every place it remains perfect. It is present in myriad species, for each and every one of them is a buddha.

  師云 諸佛體圓 更無增減 流入六道 處處皆圓 萬類之中 個個是佛.

  Although these outward appearances may change in various ways, the buddha nature has never changed. It is unmoving just as it is and is always clear. It is just that sentient beings cycle through rebirths, assuming various physical forms.

  Regardless of the physical forms in which they appear, if they look for an opportunity to encounter the Buddhadharma and they open their eyes to the fundamental source, they will be able at any time to recover their original mind. Even though the forms they take may be infinitely different, the nature of each and every one of those forms is neither produced nor extinguished, neither augmented nor diminished.

  “It is like a drop of mercury: when divided over many places, each and every individual droplet is still round; but when no longer divided, they will combine back into a single drop. This is [what is meant by] ‘one is all; all is one.’143

  譬如一團水銀 分散諸處 顆顆皆圓 若不分時 秖是一塊 此一即一切 一切即一.

  Mercury always stays round regardless of whether it is condensed or dispersed, or comingled with something different. The original nature of the myriad dharmas is just like mercury: even were it combined with something else, it would remain a round drop; even were it to be divided, each droplet would remain round.

  Therefore, the Buddha says that we do not need to taste every spot in the entire ocean to make sure they all have the taste of seawater.144 Similarly, all the buddhas and sentient beings in all the universes share just this one mind.

  Therefore, if you come into accord with your own mind, you will reveal at once the secret of the universe.

  ‘One is all; all is one’ refers to the principle of the unimpeded interpenetration between phenomenon and phenomena (shishi wu’ai / sasa muae 事事無礙) in Flower Garland thought.

  “The various physical shapes and appearances may be compared to dwellings. You may leave a donkey stable and enter a human dwelling; [likewise,] you may leave a human body and take a heavenly body.

  種種形貌 喻如屋舍 捨驢屋入人屋 捨人身至天身.

  Time in the heavens passes quickly, and he
avenly beings may fall to a lesser rebirth when their merit runs out. Time in the hells passes slowly, but denizens of the hells may escape and rise to a better rebirth after they have exhausted all of their karmic debts. In this way, sentient beings are reborn throughout the six rebirth destinies, descending or ascending.

  Because the bodhisattva Kṣitigarbha could not ignore the suffering of the hell denizens, he took a vow to “dim his light and comingle with the dust” (heguang tongchen / hwagwang dongjin 和光同塵) — that is, to continually take rebirth in the world of suffering in order to save all sentient beings.

  “You may eventually even enter the dwellings of śrāvakas, pratyekabuddhas, bodhisattvas, or buddhas, but these are all places you choose to either take up or abandon, which is what accounts for their differences. But how could there be any differences in the nature of their original source?”

  乃至聲聞緣覺菩薩佛屋 皆是汝取捨處 所以有別 本源之性 何得有別.

  The myriad changes in these physical appearances all occur in accord with causes and conditions. But no matter what appearances things may take, they are not worth clinging to any longer.

  12. The Buddha’s Loving-Kindness and Compassion

  Pei Xiu asked, “Why do all the buddhas cultivate loving-kindness and compassion and preach the dharma to sentient beings?”

  The master replied, “The buddhas’ loving-kindness and compassion are unconditional; therefore they are called great loving-kindness and compassion.”

  問 諸佛如何行大慈悲 為眾生說法 師云 佛慈悲者無緣 故名大慈悲.

  The buddhas’ loving-kindness and compassion do not distinguish whether you have karmic affinities with them or not. Their compassion is unconditional. There is neither a subject who bestows compassion nor an object who receives it. This great loving-kindness and compassion treats everyone equally.

  Loving-kindness means not presuming that buddhas need to be produced. Compassion means not presuming that sentient beings need to be saved.