What is luminous is called the nature of an awakened or wise person, a buddha. This is awakening. Self and other equally possess this nature. Both enlightenment and delusion are connected with it.
Whatever things or objects may be, the soul is different from them and is unchanged for eons. The objects that exist right now are real only if the soul abides in them. As these objects arise from the soul, the original nature, they are true reality. But they are not permanent; they exist and then disappear.
As the soul intuitively knows bright and dark, it is called a knowing spirit. It is also called the true self, the source of awakening, true nature, or true body. To realize such a true nature is described as returning to permanence. This soul is called a great being that returns to reality.
After such realization, the soul does not transmigrate in birth and death; it enters the ocean of the true nature of no birth and death. There is no reality other than this. When this true nature is not revealed, the three realms and the six paths emerge one after another.
This was Shrenika’s theory.
Huizhong, National Teacher Dazheng, of Tang China, asked a monk, “Where have you come from?”
The monk said, “I have come from the south.”
Huizhong asked, “What kind of teachers are there in the south?”
The monk replied, “There are many.”
Huizhong asked, “How do they teach?”
The monk said, “Teachers there directly help students to realize that the mind itself is buddha. They say, ‘Buddha means awakening. All of you already possess the nature of seeing, hearing, understanding, and knowing. This nature can cause you to raise your eyebrows and blink. It functions in the past and future. It fills your body. If you touch your head, the head knows it. If you touch your leg, the leg knows it. Thus, it is called correct, pervasive knowing. There is no buddha other than this. Your body is within birth and death, but mind nature has neither been born nor died since beginningless time. The body is born and dies just like the skin a snake leaves behind, the bones a dragon replaces with new ones, or a house the owner walks away from. Your body is impermanent, but your nature is permanent.’ This is roughly what they teach in the south.”
Huizhong said, “If it is so, their teaching is no different from that of Shrenika, an outsider of the way. He says, ‘Inside your body there is a spirit. It knows aching and itching. When your body is destroyed, the spirit leaves, just like the owner of a house that is on fire who escapes from it. The house is impermanent, but the owner is permanent.’
“If we examine these theories, neither of them is closer to the truth than the other. When I traveled to various places, I heard many accounts of this kind of teaching. It has been particularly popular in recent times. They gather together three or five hundred monks and tell them that this is the essential teaching of the south. By taking up the Platform Sutra, altering the text, mixing in coarse stories, and leaving out sacred teachings, they confuse later generations. How can we call their statements teachings? How painful it is that our school is in such decline! If seeing, hearing, understanding, and knowing were buddha nature, Vimalakirti would not have said, ‘Dharma is different from seeing, hearing, understanding, and knowing. To practice seeing, hearing, understanding, and knowing is only to practice seeing, hearing, understanding, and knowing. It is not seeking dharma.’”
Huizhong, a senior disciple of Huineng, Old Buddha Caoxi [the Sixth Ancestor], was a great teacher of humans and devas. Clarify his essential teaching and make it a standard for study.
The mind itself is buddha, which has been maintained by buddha ancestors, is not something those outside of the way or practitioners of the Two Lesser Vehicles can even dream of. Only buddha ancestors together with buddha ancestors have been actualizing and penetrating The mind itself is buddha. Thus, it has been heard, practiced, and realized. Buddha’s one hundred grasses have been taken up; they have been made to disappear. However, this cannot be explained as the sixteen-foot golden body [of the Buddha].
This is the fundamental point, which does not wait for actualization. It does not avoid being decomposed. In itself, there are three realms—there is no walking away. Itself is not merely inseparable from mind. The mind is a wall. It is not stained by muddy water; it is not created.
Study thoroughly: “The mind itself is buddha,” “The mind is buddha itself,” “Buddha is itself the mind,” “The mind itself Buddha is,” “Buddha is the mind itself.” By studying thoroughly in this way and taking up The mind itself is buddha, you authentically transmit it to The mind itself is buddha. It has been authentically transmitted until today.
The mind that has been authentically transmitted is: one mind is all things, all things are one mind.
Thus, an ancient teacher said, “If you realize this mind, there is not an inch of land left on earth.”
Know that when you realize this mind, the entire sky collapses and the whole earth explodes. Or, if you realize this mind, the earth raises its surface by three inches.
Ancient masters [Yangshan and Guishan] said to each other, “What is the wondrous clear mind?” “I say it is mountains, rivers, and the earth; it is the sun, the moon, and stars.”
Thus, we know that the mind is mountains, rivers, and the earth; the mind is the sun, the moon, and stars. What is said here is not more, not less.
Mountains, rivers, and earth mind are just mountains, rivers, and the earth. There are no extra waves or sprays [in this mind]. The sun, the moon, and stars mind is just the sun, the moon, and stars. There is no extra fog or mist. The coming and going of birth and death mind is just the coming and going of birth and death. There is no extra delusion or enlightenment. The walls, tiles, and pebbles mind is just the walls, tiles, and pebbles. There is no extra mud or water. Four great elements and five skandhas mind are just four great elements and five skandhas. There is no extra horse or monkey. The chair and whisk mind is just the chair and whisk. There is no extra bamboo or wood.
This being so, The mind itself is buddha does not divide The mind itself is buddha. Buddhas do not divide buddhas. Thus, The mind itself is buddha indicates buddhas of aspiration, practice, enlightenment, and nirvana. Those who have not actualized aspiration, practice, enlightenment, and nirvana do not experience The mind itself is buddha.
Even if you arouse the aspiration for enlightenment and actualize practice-realization for a moment, that is The mind itself is buddha. Even if you arouse the aspiration for enlightenment and actualize practice-realization within the most minute particle, that is The mind itself is buddha. Even if you arouse the aspiration for enlightenment and actualize practice-realization for innumerable kalpas, that is The mind itself is buddha. Even if you arouse the aspiration for enlightenment and actualize practice-realization in a flash of thought, that is The mind itself is buddha. Even if you arouse the aspiration for enlightenment and actualize practice-realization within half a fist, that is The mind itself is buddha.
Those who say that practicing for an eon to become buddha is not The mind itself is buddha have not seen, known, and studied The mind itself is buddha. They have not met an authentic teacher who expounds The mind itself is buddha.
The buddhas spoken of here are none other than Shakyamuni Buddha. Shakyamuni Buddha is The mind itself is buddha. When all buddhas in the past, present, and future are buddhas, they unfailingly become Shakyamuni Buddha. This is “The mind itself is buddha.”
Presented to the assembly of the Kannondori Kosho Horin Monastery, Uji County, Yamashiro Province, on the twenty-fifth day, the fifth month, the first year of the En’o Era [1239].
7
CLEANSING
THE PRACTICE-REALIZATION THAT buddha ancestors have guarded and maintained is called nondefilement.
Nanyue Huairang, who would later become Great Master Dahui of the Guanyin Monastery, Mount Nanyue, was once asked by Huineng, the Sixth Ancestor, “Do you depend on practice-realization?”
Nanyue said, “It is not that there is
no practice-realization. It is just that it should not be defiled.”
Huineng said, “This nondefilement is what all buddhas have mindfully guarded. You are like this. I am like this. All ancestors in India were also like this.”
The Sutra of the Three Thousand Guidelines for Pure Conduct says, “To cleanse your body means to wash away the excrement and urine and to cut your ten fingernails.”
Thus, even if the body and mind are undefiled, there are methods of cleansing the body, cleansing the mind. It is not only cleansing the body and mind, but also cleansing the entire land, cleansing the places [of sitting] under trees.
Even if the land is not polluted, cleansing it is the intention of all buddhas. They do not turn their backs on it or give it up even after they reach the buddha fruit.
The essential meaning of cleansing is difficult to fathom. The method [of cleansing] is itself the essential meaning. Attaining the way is the method.
The “Pure Conduct” Chapter of the Avatamsaka Sutra says:
When you defecate and urinate, vow to remove defilement and become free from sexual desire, anger, and ignorance together with all sentient beings. When you arrive at the water, vow to go toward the unsurpassable way and attain the dharma beyond worldly affairs together with all sentient beings. When you cleanse with the water, vow to embody pure patience and become fully undefiled together with all sentient beings.
Water is not necessarily pure or impure by origin. The body is not necessarily pure or impure by origin. All things are like this. Water is not sentient or insentient. The body is not sentient or insentient. All things are like this.
The teaching of the Buddha, the World-Honored One, is like this. It is not that you purify the body with water; there is a method to maintain buddha dharma with buddha dharma. This is called cleansing.
You authentically receive this cleansing in person with the single body-mind of buddha ancestors. This is to see and hear a single phrase of buddha ancestors. It is to abide clearly in a sole radiant light of buddha ancestors. This is to actualize immeasurable, boundless merit.
At the very moment of embodying the awesome presence of this practice in body-mind, the timeless original practice is fully accomplished. Thus, the body-mind of this practice is originally actualized.
Cut your ten fingernails. The ten fingernails mean all your nails. Cut your toenails in the same way. According to one sutra, if the tips of your nails are longer than a grain of barley, you are found faulty. So, do not grow your nails long. Keeping long nails is following the example of outsiders of the way. Frequently cut your nails.
Among monks in Great Song, however, many who are not equipped with the eye of study keep long nails. The tips of the nails of some of them are one or two sun long, or even three or four. This is against dharma; they do not have a body-mind of buddha dharma. They are like this because they do not follow the ancient custom of the buddha house. Masters who maintain the way are not like that.
In addition, there are those who keep their hair long. This is also against dharma. Do not mistake such behavior by some monks in Great Song for true dharma.
Rujing, my late master, Old Buddha, deeply cautioned against those monks who keep their hair and nails long, by saying, “Those who do not shave their heads are neither laity nor monks. They are animals. Among ancient buddha ancestors, who did not shave their heads? Those who do not understand cleansing hair are truly animals.”
As he taught the assembly in this way, many of those who hadn’t shaved for years shaved their heads.
When he ascended to the teaching seat [for a formal talk] or when he gave an informal talk, he would snap his fingers loudly and scold:
Those who keep long hair and nails meaninglessly without knowing the reason should be pitied for violating dharma, even if they have the body-mind of the Southern Continent, Jambudvipa.
As the ancestral way has been in decline for the last two or three hundred years, there are a number of such people. They become the heads of monasteries, being authorized to receive the titles of masters, and pretend to guide others. This does not benefit humans and devas.
In the monasteries all over China there is not a single person who has the aspiration for the way, and for a long time there has not been one who has attained the way. There are only groups of those who are decadent.
When Rujing taught the assembly in this way, none of those who were mistakenly called elders of monasteries in various directions were resentful or spoke back.
Know that keeping long hair has been cautioned against by buddha ancestors, and keeping long nails is a conduct of those outside the way. A descendant of buddha ancestors should not indulge in behavior that is against dharma. Cleanse your body-mind. Cut your nails and shave your head. Do not be negligent in washing off excrement and urine.
Shariputra once converted a person outside the way with his awesome presence [in the practice of cleansing]. This is not what the person wanted or what Shariputra tried to achieve, but where the awesome presence of a buddha ancestor was actualized, the practitioner of the crooked teaching surrendered.
When you practice under a tree or in an open field, there is no toilet, so cleanse yourself with some dirt and water from a nearby river or valley brook. You may not find ash, so use two rows of seven pellets of dirt.
The way to use two rows of seven pellets of dirt is first to take off the dharma robe, fold it, and set it to the side. Then take up brown dirt, not so dark, and make pellets as large as soybeans. Set them on a rock or something nearby in two rows, seven in each row. Also set up a stone for rubbing [for washing hands]. Then defecate, and afterward use a piece of wood or paper. When you are done, go to the water and cleanse yourself. First use three pellets of dirt. Put one on your palm, mix it with water to make it liquid, and wash off the urine. With another pellet, wash yourself of the excrement in the same way. [Repeat this a few times.] Take up another pellet and clean the place where the excrement has dropped. Finally, use another pellet to wash your hands in the same way.
Since monks started living in monasteries, a toilet house has been used. It is called the “east building.” It used to be called the “brook house.” It is sometimes called the “wash house.” This is a building essential to an abode of monks.
For going to the east building, always carry a hand towel. To do so, fold the towel in two [the long way] and hang it [folded in half again] over the left sleeve of the outer robe near the elbow.
At the east building hang the hand towel on the bamboo hanger, just as you hang it over your sleeve. If you are wearing a kashaya of nine or five strips, hang it beside the towel. Hang them carefully so that they don’t fall down. Don’t throw them. Remember the ideograph on the bamboo hanger. Ideographs are written on white sheets of paper, cut in circles like a full moon, and arrayed in a row on the bamboo hangers. By remembering the ideograph, you know where you have put your outer robe. As a number of monks use this building, do not confuse your hanging position with someone else’s.
Meanwhile, if other monks come and stand in line, greet them with your hands in shashu. You don’t necessarily stand face to face and bow to each other, but just bring your hands in shashu up to your chest and show a sign of greeting. In the east building, even if you don’t wear an outer robe, make a gesture of greeting in this way.
If you have not yet used your hands for cleansing, and if you are not holding anything in your hands, hold them in shashu for greeting. If you have already used a hand or are holding something in one hand, use the other hand for greeting. To do so, hold your palm up, slightly cup your fingers just as if you were scooping water, and lower your head. If someone else greets you in this way, return the greeting in the same way. If you greet someone else in this way, the person should do so as well.
Before using the toilet, take off and hang your upper robe and outer robe on the bamboo hanger, next to the hand towel. Put the backs of the sleeves of the outer robe together, hold the armpit part of the sleeves [with the r
ight hand], and pull up to keep the sleeves overlapped. At that time, hold the rear neck part of the outer robe with the left hand so that the ends of the sleeves, as well as both lapels, overlap each other. Then fold the outer robe vertically to make sure that the ends of the sleeves are aligned with the lapels. Fold the outer robe again vertically and bring the top part of the outer robe over the bamboo hanger. The lower part of the outer robe and the sleeves hang on your side of the bamboo hanger, while the waist part of the outer robe touches the bamboo hanger.
Then, cross both sides of the towel, which is already hanging, pull them around the outer robe, and tie a knot two or three times to keep the outer robe from slipping down. After this, bow to the outer robe. Next, take a strap and tie the sleeves of your underclothes across your armpits over your shoulders [in the undergarment].
Then, walk to the toilet area, get water in the wooden bucket, carry it with the right hand, and step into the toilet room. When pouring water into the bucket, do not fill it—make it nine out of ten. Change your sandals in front of the toilet door. Put on the cattail sandals [provided at the toilet] and leave your own straw sandals in front of the toilet. This is called “changing sandals.”
The Guidelines for Zen Monasteries says, “When you want to go to the wash house, go early enough. Do not hurry and create accidents. Fold your kashaya and put it on the shelf, or hang it on a bamboo hanger in the wash house.”
Step inside and slide the door shut with the left hand. Pour a bit of water into the wooden barrel. Then, place the bucket in front of you where it is supposed to be. While standing, snap the fingers [of the right hand] three times [for removing impurity], while keeping the left hand in a fist on the left side of the waist.
Treasury of the True Dharma Eye Page 15