你如今纔別起一念 即入十二因緣 無明緣行亦因亦果 乃至老死亦因亦果 故善財童子一百一十處求善知識 祗向十二因緣中求 最後見彌勒 彌勒卻指見文殊 文殊者即汝本地無明.
If you are not in accord with your original mind and just give rise to thoughts, you cannot escape the twelvefold chain of dependent origination. The twelvefold chain refers to the twelve links of ignorance, predispositions, consciousness, materiality and mentality, six sense bases, sense contact, sensation, craving, clinging, existence, birth, and old age and death, in that order.
Sudhana is a practitioner of the Way who goes on an extensive pilgrimage in search of the dharma in “Entering the Dharma Realm,” the lengthy final chapter of the Flower Garland Sūtra. After visiting fifty-three spiritual mentors, he entered the realm of enlightenment.
Huangbo, however, offers this astonishing statement, “ ‘Mañjuśrī’ refers to the ignorance of your original ground.” In doctrinal studies, practitioners go through a sequence of steps one by one, symbolized by these fifty-three teachers, to access the dharma realm. In Seon, regardless of ignorance, the true essence remains simply such and unmoving (ruru budong / yeoyeo budong 如如不動).
There is an expression, “When Maitreya snapped his fingers, Sudhana suddenly forgot all about birth and death.”201 Maitreya made Sudhana suddenly forget what he learned from his fifty-three teachers and sent him back to Mañjuśrī. From the standpoint of the original ground, all Sudhana had learned from his previous teachers was the mind still subject to production and cessation, which remained part of the twelvefold chain of dependent origination.
This question was asked from the standpoint of the mind that remained subject to production and cessation. Master Huangbo repeatedly instructs the questioner to turn around that mind that is subject to production and cessation and accord directly with the real characteristic of things.
Do not try to distinguish what is right and what is wrong in this world of birth and death, where all kinds of distinctions and discriminations arise, such as the twelvefold chain and the three poisons of greed, hatred, and delusion. Instead turn one thought around and realize the mind clearly.
“If you seek outside for a spiritual mentor as one thought succeeds another, then as soon as a thought arises, it ceases, and as soon as it ceases, another thought arises. Therefore you bhikṣus also experience birth, old age, sickness, and death. Since you continue to reciprocate with a cause and to respond with an effect, you are subject to the production and cessation of the five groupings [of factors]. The five groupings are the five aggregates. But when one thought does not arise, the eighteen cognitive elements (dhātu) become empty. This is the flower and fruit of bodhi. This state of mind is then numinous wisdom and the numinous terrace. But if you abide in or cling to anything, your body will become a corpse, which is also called ‘a ghost guarding a corpse.’202
若心心別異向外求善知識者 一念纔生即滅 纔滅又生 所以汝等比丘 亦生亦老亦病亦死 酬因答果巳來 即五聚之生滅 五聚者五陰也 一念不起 即十八界空 即是便是菩提華果 即心便是靈智 亦云靈臺 若有所住著 即身為死屍 亦云守死屍鬼.
Master Huangbo here says, “You bhikṣus,” suggesting that this latter part of the “Account of Activities” in the Wanling Record must not have been addressed to Grand Councilor Pei Xiu. This part was probably teachings that Huangbo had given at the monastery that were later appended to the Wanling Record.
If you seek the dharma outside your original mind, that mind will become the five aggregates that arise and cease and that are subject to the law of cause and effect. The eighteen cognitive elements consist of the six sense faculties (eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind), their six sense objects, and the corresponding six sense consciousnesses. The five aggregates and the eighteen cognitive elements are categories that are commonly used in Buddhist scripture to analyze mentality.
35. The Dharma Gate of Nonduality
[A monk] asked, “When Vimalakīrti remained silent, Mañjuśrī praised him, saying, ‘This is the true entrance to the dharma gate of nonduality.’ What does this mean?”
The master answered, “The dharma gate of nonduality is your original mind. Either to say or not to say something involves production and cessation. When he remained silent, he revealed nothing. Therefore Mañjuśrī praised him.”
問 淨名默然 文殊讚歎云 是真入不二法門 如何 師云 不二法門 即你本心也 說與不說 即有起滅 無言說時 無所顯示 故文殊讚歎.
In the “Dharma Gate of Nonduality” chapter in Vimalakīrti’s Instructions, Vimalakīrti asks the bodhisattvas who had come to visit him on his sickbed: “How do bodhisattvas enter the gate of nonduality?” In response, thirty-two bodhisattvas present their answers one by one. They all answer that they entered the dharma gate by unifying ultimate truth (paramārthasatya) and conventional truth (samvṛtisatya). Finally, Mañjuśrī says, “My understanding is that it means to be free from words, speech, and cognition and to leave behind all questions and answers. This is entering the dharma gate of nonduality.” Then he asks Vimalakīrti for his response, but Vimalakīrti just stays silent, not saying anything. Mañjuśrī praises Vimalakīrti, saying, “Excellent! Excellent!”203
The eighty-fourth case in Yuanwu Keqin’s Blue Cliff Record is “Vimalakīrti’s Dharma Gate of Nonduality.”204 Xuedou’s verse commentary to that case notes, “Since Vimalakīrti escaped by remaining silent,/ the golden-haired lion had nowhere to look for him.” Vimalakīrti’s silence has been praised as a clap of thunder, the loudest sound in the world.
The attendant bodhisattvas all abandoned words in order to hear the dharma gate of nonduality. Mañjuśrī abandoned words without ever using words. However, as Yuanwu pointed out, “This was a sacred tortoise dragging its tail. In wiping away his tracks, he was leaving traces.” Vimalakīrti then swept away all of Mañjuśrī’s remaining traces by remaining silent.
[A monk] asked, “Since Vimalakīrti did not speak, does that mean that all sound was eliminated or not?”
The master answered, “Speech is silence and silence is speech, for speech and silence are nondual. Therefore, it is said, ‘The real nature of sound also never ceases.’205 Mañjuśrī’s original hearing never ceases either. Therefore the Tathāgata’s speech is eternal, for there has never been a time when he has not been speaking. The Tathāgata’s speech is the dharma and the dharma is his speech, for the dharma and his speech are nondual.
云 淨名不說 聲有斷滅否 師云 語即默 默即語 語默不二 故云聲之實性 亦無斷滅 文殊本聞 亦無斷滅 所以如來常說 未曾有不說時 如來說即是法 法即是說 法說不二故.
The sky is the clouds and the clouds are the sky, for the sky and the clouds are nondual. In the same way, speech is silence and silence is speech.
As the forms that impinge on the eyes change, perceptual phenomena arise and discriminative states of mind appear. Due to this discrimination, sentient beings become caught in the cycle of birth and death and experience suffering. Sound is like the clouds in sky, which have no real essence. You generate various shapes through your discrimination, but none of those shapes are separate from the one great matter.
Therefore, although the Tathāgata preached his entire life, he did not preach even a single word. The Tathāgata’s speech is the dharma and the dharma is his speech. Sentient beings are just the same.
An authentic patch-robed monk should sweep away even Vimalakīrti’s silence.
“This is the case even with the reward body and the transformation body, bodhisattvas and śrāvakas, the mountains, streams, and lands, and water, birds, trees, and forests: they all simultaneously preach the dharma. Consequently, speech is preaching, but silence is also preaching. [The Tathāgata] preaches all day long without ever saying anything. If you are like the Tathāgata, you would consider silence to be the root.”
乃至報化二身 菩薩聲聞 山河
大地 水鳥樹林 一時說法 所以語亦說 默亦說 終日說而未嘗說 既若如來 但以默為本.
The myriad things appear without ever leaving this very place. All the myriad dharmas are displayed in myriad different ways in accordance with causes and conditions, along with the dharma body.
Just as a bird in flight all day long leaves no traces, in the same way, if you accord with this principle, though you may preach the dharma all day long, there is nothing you preach. Thanks to your wise power that can accept changes, you live freely without abiding anywhere or clinging to anything. You can preach the dharma in accord with the capacities of your audience and deploy the dharma while remaining silent.
Listeners also should open their wisdom eyes so they can listen to the teaching of the dharma from both sentient beings and insentient things. This practice is wide, profound, and limitless. Although you are always close to it, it is inconceivable.
Huangbo’s words here are intended to help the practitioners who have tasted the flavor of the practice but are still trying to understand the true quality of nonduality with their discriminative mind. These people still have a lingering propensity to discriminate between right and wrong.
However, it will not be easy for those who have not properly entered the path to understand and digest his words. If you try always to remain close to the dharma, you will have a chance to receive it more extensively and profoundly. If you take his precious teachings as a means to arouse your aspiration for enlightenment, then, transcending space and time, you will become an intimate friend of Master Huangbo and enjoy great freedom in this human realm.
36. No Traces
[A monk] asked, “How is it that śrāvakas hide their bodies away in the three realms of existence but cannot hide away in bodhi?”
The master answered, “The body is matter. Śrāvakas are only able to eradicate the views and conduct associated with the three realms of existence; they remain far removed from defilements, but they still cannot hide away in bodhi, so they may still be plucked out of bodhi by King Māra. Therefore they sit serenely in the forest and instead have only the slightest perception of the bodhi mind.
問 聲聞人藏形於三界 不能藏於菩提者 如何 師云 形者質也 聲聞人但能斷三界見修 巳離煩惱 不能藏於菩提 故還被魔王於菩提中捉得 於林中宴坐 還成微細見菩提心也.
Disturbances (huo/hok 惑) is an early Chinese equivalency for the Buddhist technical term defilements (kleśa, fannao/beonnoe 煩惱), referring to deluded states of mind. Disturbances are of two types. The disturbances deriving from wrong views (jianhuo/gyeonhok 見惑) refers to the defilements that the sixth mental consciousness creates in response to mental objects. The disturbances deriving from conduct (xiuhuo/suhok 修惑) refer to the defilements of greed, hatred, and delusion that the first five sense consciousnesses of eye, ear, nose, tongue, and body generate due to clinging to sense objects. It is said that if you overcome these two types of disturbances, you will attain nirvāṇa and escape continued birth and death in the three realms of existence.
If you overcome the disturbances deriving from wrong views, you will reach the stage of the path of vision (darśanamārga; jiandaowei/gyeondowi 見道位); if you remove the disturbances deriving from conduct, you will reach the stage of the path of cultivation (bhāvanāmārga; xiudaowei/sudowi 修道位). Those who overcome these two disturbances hide their bodies away in the three realms of existence — sensuality, subtle materiality, and immateriality — because they have left behind defilements. However, they still retain the subtle delusion that they must cultivate the Way. Therefore they continue their meditation practice in the forest and enjoy just doing that. Those who cultivate the Way should completely sweep away all traces of enlightenment and, without settling even for no-mind, live in a state of everyday mind.
“Bodhisattvas absolutely neither abandon nor cling to either the three realms of existence or bodhi. Since they do not cling to anything, they cannot be found among the seven elements. Since they do not abandon anything, non-Buddhists and Māra will never be able to locate them either. If you are disposed to clinging to a single dharma, imprints will already have been already created. If you imprint ‘clinging to existence,’ the imprints of the six rebirth destinies and the four modes of birth will be displayed. If you imprint ‘clinging to emptiness,’ the imprint of signlessness will appear. Now, you just need to know that if you absolutely do not imprint a single thing, that imprint will be neither identical to nor different from the void. Voidness is originally not void; the imprint is originally not existent.
菩薩人 巳於三界菩提 決定不捨不取 不取故 七大中覓他不得 不捨故 外魔亦覓他不得 汝但擬著一法 印子早成也 印著有 即六道四生文出 印著空 即無相文現 如今但知 決定不印一切物 此印為虛空不一不二 空本不空 印本不有.
Since bodhisattvas act without doing anything, you cannot find them though you may try to locate them in the seven great elements of earth, water, fire, wind, space, sight, and consciousness. Since they do not fall into emptiness either, non-Buddhists and Māra cannot find them either, however much they try. If you try to reveal, realize, or cultivate something, that will always leave behind traces, because it is like printing something with a stamp.
If you do not cling to anything you do, then “wherever you are, you will be your own master, and wherever you stand, all will be just right.”206
“The appearance of all the buddhas of the worlds as vast as space in the ten directions is like the sight of a flash of lightning. All the numinous wriggling creatures appear like an echo. Lands as numerous as tiny motes of dust in the ten directions appear like a drop of water in the ocean. All the profound teachings sound like an illusion or a conjurer’s trick. Each and every mind is not different; each and every dharma is not different. It is the same as a thousand sūtras and ten thousand treatises being just your one mind. If you can avoid clinging to a single sign, then it is said,
In this way, the one mind,
is assiduously adorned with skillful means.207
十方虛空世界諸佛出世 如見電光一般 觀一切蠢動含靈 如響一般 見十方微塵國土 恰似海中一滴水相似 聞一切甚深法 如幻如化 心心不異 法法不異 乃至千經萬論 祇為你之一心 若能不取一切相 故言如是一心中 方便勤莊嚴.
Although it is said that all the buddhas in the worlds of the ten directions save sentient beings with their skillful means, there are in fact no sentient beings to be saved.
Therefore, although the buddhas appear in the world, they in fact never appear. Appearance and disappearance, birth and death, are just illusions. Even though the Buddha provided all sorts of steps and provisional means in order to help suffering sentient beings, in fact not even once did he provide them. However, like Master Huangbo, if you thoroughly understand the one mind, you will live a life in the middle way, which will be “assiduously adorned with skillful means.”
If you listen repeatedly to Master Huangbo’s teachings, you can understand them to some degree. Just like Pei Xiu, those who have an experience will obtain the gist of Seon. But even if you do not, you will gain a great benefit if you arouse your aspiration for enlightenment. If you come to have an ear for Seon teachings, you will gradually be able to let things go. You will gain the strength to listen without actually listening to anything.
Even so, be careful to not just study the words alone.
37. The Sage Kṣāntivādin
[A monk] asked, “What is the meaning of ‘long ago, my body [of the sage Kṣāntivādin] was dismembered by King Kaliṅga’?”208
The master replied, “The sage is your mind and Kaliṅga is the penchant to seek out something. Not guarding the throne [and instead going out hunting] is called craving for gains. Practitioners these days do not accumulate merit or amass blessings; instead they choose to study whatever it is that they see. How are they any different from Kaliṅga? Seeing visual objects i
s like poking out the sage’s eyes; hearing sounds is like cutting off the sage’s ears; it is the same whenever they perceive or sense anything. This is why he said that his body was torn limb from limb.’ ”
問 如我昔為歌利王 割截身體 如何 師云 仙人者即是你心 歌利王好求也 不守王位 謂之貪利 如今學人 不積功累德 見者便擬學 與歌利王何別 如見色時 壞卻仙人眼 聞聲時 壞卻仙人耳 乃至覺知時 亦復如是 喚作節節支解.
Master Huangbo is referring here to the Diamond Sūtra’s story of King Kaliṅga, which he discussed above in chapter 13 of the Wanling Record. As the sūtra relates, King Kaliṅga was jealous of the ascetic Kṣāntivādin (“Endurer”), who was Śākyamuni Buddha in a former life, and dismembered his body. Master Huangbo here reveals the deeper meaning of this story. The sage Kṣāntivādin is our original mind while King Kaliṅga symbolizes the three poisons of greed, hatred, and delusion. The king going out hunting and neglecting his royal duties refers to forgetting our original mind because of our craving for material possessions. According to the master, practitioners who ignorantly look outside for learning, without staying in accord with their own original minds, are just like King Kaliṅga. We see, hear, sense, know, conceive, and discriminate; we look outside when we generate thoughts to chase external phenomena. Master Huangbo compares this tendency of ours to the king who went out hunting and dismembered the sage’s body.
When we practice holding a hwadu, we sometimes feel unwittingly the violence of explosive energy welling up inside. In the story, the more the king tears the sage’s body apart, the brighter his body becomes; in the same way, the more we overcome all sorts of conflicts and tensions welling up inside us by relying on the hwadu’s power, the clearer and brighter our minds and bodies become.
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