Unmoored in midnight water,

                no waves, no wind -

                the empty boat is 

                flooded with moonlight. 

  

                  -Dogen

Hachi Dainingaku

(Eight Means to Enlightenment)  

Dogen Zenji -(1200-1253)

All the various past Buddhas were enlightened beings. Their great enlightenment is attributed to their having mastered the eight means to nirvana as human beings. These eight means were clarified by the Buddha Shakyamuni himself in his final teaching before he entered parinirvana. 

The first of these "means" is freedom from greed. This results in freedom from the five desires. The Buddha said, "Monks! People with unlimited desires, seeking only the rewards of fame and fortune, will suffer greatly. On the other hand, those with few wants are relieved of suffering and accumulate much merit and virtue. We should know this. "Unaffected by greed, those in the latter category are neither slaves to the wishes of others nor of their own five sense organs. They gain clarity and quiescence of mind and will unquestionably attain nirvana."

The second "means" is satisfaction. That is to say to be fully quenched by whatever one is given. The Buddha said, "Monks! Maintain awareness of satisfaction for this results in relief from suffering, a pacified mind and good fortune. Truly satisfied people are content even when they just sleep on the ground. The unsatisfied, on the other hand, show discontent even in a luxurious home. Generally, the latter kind of person is thought rich and the former poor. In reality, however, the reverse is true. Satisfied people pity the unsatisfied, for the latter are slaves to the five desires. This is the meaning of satisfaction."

The third "means" is to enjoy serenity (enjoy quite). This means to live in solitude, away from the world of suffering. The Buddha said, "Monks! Those who live in solitude gain the virtues of eternal peace. A quiet person is respected by both Indra, and all celestial beings. He breaks free from attachment to himself, and in this way he severs the root of suffering. Those who live with others will be hindered by them, just as a tree withers when any birds perch on it. A person attached to worldly desires is similar to an old elephant entrenched in mud—both are unable to free themselves, and both will finally be destroyed. This is the meaning of a solitary life."

       

The fourth "means" is diligence. That is to say constant striving to do good. The Buddha said, "Monks! Be diligent in your practice, for this will hasten realization of truth. For this reason you should be diligent. A trickle of water, if consistent, wears away rock; practice of the Way, if consistent, wears away the obstacles to enlightenment. Intermittent rubbing together of wood will not produce fire; likewise interrupted practice will not produce enlightenment. This is the meaning of diligence."

The fifth "means" is preserved awareness of the Dharma (correct remembrance). This means to have correct recollection of the Dharma. The Buddha said, "Monks! Those who seek a good master, a guide to the truth, should preserve right awareness of the Dharma, for this gains freedom from delusion. Heed these words. If you fail to do so you will forfeit its various associated merits. On the other hand, if you preserve awareness of the Dharma you will gain protection from the five desires, and you will be just like a soldier dressed in impenetrable armor. This is the meaning of preserved awareness of the Dharma."

The sixth "means" is practice of samadhi. This is to say close adherence to the Dharma. The Buddha said, "Monks! Learn to control your mind, for this will enable you to practice samadhi and thereby realize the true state of life and death; furthermore, be diligent in your practice of the various forms of samadhi, for this centers the mind and prevents distraction. A dam prevents leakage of water; likewise practice of samadhi prevents leakage of wisdom. This is the meaning of samadhi."

The seventh "means" is practice of wisdom. Wisdom is the result of having practiced according to the Dharma that one has heard and considered. The Buddha said, "Monks! A person of wisdom is free from attachment to greed. Engage in self-observation, for this prevents loss of wisdom and leads to enlightenment. If you fail to do this you are neither a Buddhist trainee nor a lay person. A truly wise person is like a sturdy ship crossing the seas of old age, sickness, and death; like a brilliant light illuminating the darkness of ignorance; like good medicine to the sick; and like a sharp ax cutting through the wood of delusion. Wisdom which arises as a result of having heard, considered, and practiced the Dharma produces innumerable benefits to advance oneself in the Way. The truth, once illuminated by the light of wisdom, is evident even to the naked eye. This is the meaning of wisdom."

The eight "means" is to refrain from frivolous speech (refrain from random discussion). This means to transcend discriminative thought and to earnestly seek understanding of the true nature of things. The Buddha said, "Monks! Frivolous speech clouds the mind and will prevent even you, monks, from realizing enlightenment; therefore quickly cease from engaging in mind confusing frivolous speech. Only those who do this gain the pleasantries of nirvana. This is the meaning of refraining from frivolous speech."

The preceding are the eight great means to enlightenment. Each of these "means" having a further eight factors totals sixty-four in all. In a broader sense, however, the number of factors is limitless. These sixty-four means were Shakyamuni's final teaching and form the core of the Mahayana doctrine. Shakyamuni proclaimed them at midnight on February 15; they were his final words. Thereafter he remained silent until he entered parinirvana. The Buddha concluded with the following words, "Monks! Endeavor to seek the Way, for nothing in this world is permanent. Stay silent for a while, for time is passing, and I am about to enter parinirvana. These are my final words."

We trainees must study the Tathagata's final teaching. If we do not do so we are truly not a disciple of the Buddha. Still, though, many in the latter day are ignorant of this teaching. In the past during times of both true and degenerate Buddhism, all trainees studied these means and practiced accordingly. Now, in contrast, the number who are even aware they exist would be no more than one or two in a thousand. How regrettable that Buddhism has declined in this way. Yet still the essence of the Law, intact and uneroded by time, exists and can be found throughout the world. Quickly, therefore, we should begin to practice according to these eight means.

To contact the Buddha Dharma is no mean feat, and to be born a human is equally difficult. To have done both, as well as being born in the Jambudvipa continent, the best of the three continents, as we have done, is extremely fortunate. In the Jambudvipa continent we can see the Buddha, study the Dharma, and enter the monkhood. Those who died before Tathagata entered parinirvana were unable to contact these eight means to enlightenment. We, however, through having done good in previous lives, have been able to see hear, and study them. If in successive lives we continue to study them, our merit will increase, and finally we will realize supreme enlightenment; furthermore, if we proclaim them to others, we ourselves are no different from the Buddha Shakyamuni.

My master Dogen had undertaken to write the entire Shobogenzo into kana, this chapter being the twelfth to be completed. Due to his deteriorating health, however, which finally led to his death, this chapter proved to be his last. I feel a deep regret that the remaining chapters could not be completed. The teachings presented in this chapter were also the final teachings of the Buddha Shakyamuni.

Excerpted from  Shobogenzo – The Eye and Treasure of the True Law Volume 4 By: Kosen Nishiyama, John Stevens 1983

GENJO KOAN: Actualizing the Fundamental Point, by Eihei Dogen (1200-1253)

Translated by Robert Aitken and Kazuaki Tanahashi. Revised at San Francisco Zen Center


As all things are buddha-dharma, there is delusion and realization, practice, and birth and death, and there are buddhas and sentient beings.

   As the myriad things are without an abiding self, there is no delusion, no realization, no buddha, no sentient being, no birth and death.

   The buddha way is, basically, leaping clear of the many of the one; thus there are birth and death, delusion and realization, sentient beings and buddhas.

   Yet in attachment blossoms fall, and in aversion weeds spread.

To carry yourself forward and experience myriad things is delusion. That myriad things come forth and experience themselves is awakening.

   Those who have great realization of delusion are buddhas; those who are greatly deluded about realization are sentient beings. Further, there are those who continue realizing beyond realization, who are in delusion throughout delusion.

   When buddhas are truly buddhas they do not necessarily notice that they are buddhas. However, they are actualized buddhas, who go on actualizing buddhas.

When you see forms or hear sounds fully engaging body-and-mind, you grasp things directly. Unlike things and their reflections in the mirror, and unlike the moon and its reflection in the water, when one side is illumined the other side is dark.
    To study the buddha way is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be actualized by myriad things. When actualized by myriad things, your body and mind as well as the bodies and minds of others drop away. No trace of realization remains, and this no-trace continues endlessly.

When you first seek dharma, you imagine you are far away from its environs. But dharma is already correctly transmitted; you are immediately your original self. 

When you ride in a boat and watch the shore, you might assume that the shore is moving. But when you keep your eyes closely on the boat, you can see that the boat moves. Similarly, if you examine myriad things with a confused body and mind you might suppose that your mind and nature are permanent. When you practice intimately and return to where you are, it will be clear that nothing at all has unchanging self.

Firewood becomes ash, and it does not become firewood again. Yet, do not suppose that the ash is future and the firewood past. You should understand that firewood abides in the phenomenal expression of firewood, which fully includes past and future and is independent of past and future. Ash abides in the phenomenal expression of ash, which fully includes future and past. Just as firewood does not become firewood again after it is ash, you do not return to birth after death.

   This being so, it is an established way in buddha-dharma to deny that birth turns into death. Accordingly, birth is understood as no-birth. It is an unshakable teaching in Buddha's discourse that death does not turn into birth. Accordingly, death is understood as no-death.

   Birth is an expression complete this moment. Death is an expression complete this moment. They are like winter and spring. You do not call winter the beginning of spring, nor summer the end of spring.

Enlightenment is like the moon reflected on the water. The moon does not get wet, nor is the water broken. Although its light is wide and great, the moon is reflected even in a puddle an inch wide. The whole moon and the entire sky are reflected in dewdrops on the grass, or even in one drop of water.

   Enlightenment does not divide you, just as the moon does not break the water. You cannot hinder enlightenment, just as a drop of water does not hinder the moon in the sky.

   The depth of the drop is the height of the moon. Each reflection, however long of short its duration, manifests the vastness of the dewdrop, and realizes the limitlessness of the moonlight in the sky.

When dharma does not fill your whole body and mind, you think it is already sufficient. When dharma fills your body and mind, you understand that something is missing.

   For example, when you sail out in a boat to the middle of an ocean where no land is in sight, and view the four directions, the ocean looks circular, and does not look any other way. But the ocean is neither round or square; its features are infinite in variety. It is like a palace. It is like a jewel. It only look circular as far as you can see at that time. All things are like this.

   Though there are many features in the dusty world and the world beyond conditions, you see and understand only what your eye of practice can reach. In order to learn the nature of the myriad things, you must know that although they may look round or square, the other features of oceans and mountains are infinite in variety; whole worlds are there. It is so not only around you, but also directly beneath your feet, or in a drop of water.

A fish swims in the ocean, and no matter how far it swims there is no end to the water. A bird flies in the sky, and no matter how far it flies there is no end to the air. However, the fish and the bird have never left their elements. When their activity is large their field is large. When their need is small their field is small. Thus, each of them totally covers its full range, and each of them totally experiences its realm. If the bird leaves the air it will die at once. If the fish leaves the water it will die at once.

   Know that water is life and air is life. The bird is life and the fish is life. Life must be the bird and life must be the fish.

It is possible to illustrate this with more analogies. Practice, enlightenment, and people are like this.

Now if a bird or a fish tries to reach the end of its element before moving in it, this bird or this fish will not find its way or its place. When you find your place where you are, practice occurs, actualizing the fundamental point. When you find you way at this moment, practice occurs, actualizing the fundamental point; for the place, the way, is neither large nor small, neither yours nor others'. The place, the way, has not carried over from the past and it is not merely arising now.

   Accordingly, in the practice-enlightenment of the buddha way, meeting one thing is mastering it--doing one practice is practicing completely. 

Here is the place; here the way unfolds. The boundary of realization is not distinct, for the realization comes forth simultaneously with the mastery of buddha-dharma.

   Do not suppose that what you realize becomes your knowledge and is grasped by your consciousness. Although actualized immediately, the inconceivable may not be apparent. Its appearance is beyond your knowledge. 

Zen master Baoche of Mt. Mayu was fanning himself. A monk approached and said, "Master, the nature of wind is permanent and there is no place it does not reach. When, then, do you fan yourself?"

   "Although you understand that the nature of the wind is permanent," Baoche replied, "you do not understand the meaning of its reaching everywhere."

   "What is the meaning of its reaching everywhere?" asked the monk again. The master just kept fanning himself. The monk bowed deeply.

   The actualization of the buddha-dharma, the vital path of its correct transmission, is like this. If you say that you do not need to fan yourself because the nature of wind is permanent and you can have wind without fanning, you will understand neither permanence nor the nature of wind. The nature of wind is permanent; because of that, the wind of the buddha's house brings for the gold of the earth and makes fragrant the cream of the long river.

Written in mid-autumn, the first year of Tempuku 1233, and given to my lay student Koshu Yo of Kyushu Island. {Revised in} the fourth year of Kencho {I252}.

Master Hsu Yun (1840 –1959)

After making obeisance to His Reverence Hsu Yun, the supervising monks invited him to come to the Meditation Hall of the monastery. He then stood in the center of the hall, while the supervisors, one of whom held a [warning] slapping board, stood in two rows on each side of the Master. The disciples in attendance, who had vowed to join this Seven Days' Meditation, and who had come from all parts of the country, stood about him in a large circle. Then the Revered Master raised his own slapping board and addressed the assembled company as follows: "This is the new month of the New Year, and now, fortunately, we can all join this Seven Days' Meditation practice. This is the place to leam the teaching of Not-Doing (Wu Wei). 'Not-Doing' means that there is absolutely nothing to be done or to be learned. Alas! Whatever I can say about 'nothingness' will miss the point. Oh, friends and disciples, if you do not attach yourselves to the Ten Thousand Things with your minds, you will find that the life-spark will emanate from everything.

"Today is the first day of our Meditation. Friends, what do you say? Ah-h-h!" Then after a long silence, the Master cried: "Go!" Immediately all the disciples, responding to his call, followed him, running in a large circle. After they had run for a number of rounds a supervising monk made the "stopping signal" by suddenly whacking the board on a table, making a loud slapping noise. Instantly all the runners stopped and stood still. After a pause they all sat down on their seats in the cross-legged posture. Then the entire hall became deadly quiet; not the slightest sound could be heard, as though they were in some deep mountain fastness. This silent meditation lasted for more than an hour. Then everyone rose from his seat and the circling exercise started again. After running a few more rounds, all suddenly stopped once more when they heard the slapping board make the signal. Then the Master addressed the company as follows: "The Head Monk in this monastery is very kind and compassionate. It was through his sincere efforts that this Seven Days' Meditation was made possible. All the elders in the Order, and you lay-patrons as well, are diligent. His teachings are all recorded and expounded in the Three Great Canons. So what is the use of my making more talk? The most I can do, and the best, is to repeat the words of our Lord Buddha and the Patriarchs. In any case, we should know that the teaching of Zen is transmitted outside the regular Buddhist doctrine. This is and inspired in the work of Tao. I was requested by all of you to lead the group in this Seven Days' Meditation. I feel greatly honored and inspired on this wonderful occasion. But I have not been too well of late; therefore I cannot talk very long. Our Lord Buddha preached the Dharma for more than forty years, sometimes preaching explicitly, sometimes implicitly illustrated most effectively in the first Zen koan. When Buddha held the flower in his hand and showed it to his disciples, no one in the assembly understood his purport except Mahakasyapa, who smiled to indicate that he understood what Buddha meant. The Buddha then said, 'I have a treasure of the righteous Dharma, and the marvelous Mind of Nirvana—the true form without any form. I now impart it to you.' Therefore you should understand that Zen is a teaching transmitted outside the regular channels of Buddhist doctrine, without resorting to many words or explanations.

(From THE PRACTICE OF ZEN by Garma C. C. Chang)

             A flash of lightning;

             Through the darkness goes

             The scream of a night heron.

             - Basho/Aitken

Pai-chang Huai-hai
Translated by Gary Snyder

Pai Chang's Big Lecture:
A comrade asked "What about the Dharma-gate of Mahayana Sudden Enlightenment?" The Master said: "All of you: first stop all causal relationships, and bring the ten thousand affairs to rest. Good or not good, out of the world or in the world—don't keep any of these dharmas in mind. Don't have causally conditioned thoughts. Relinquish both body and mind and make yourself free, with a mind like wood or stone—making no discriminations. Then the mind is without action, and the mind-ground is like the empty sky.
     Then the sun of wisdom will appear by itself, like clouds opening and the sun coming out. Completely stop all involving causes: greed, anger, lust, attachment. Feelings of purity or impurity should be extinguished. As for the five desires and the eight lusts, one need not be bound by seeing, hearing, perceiving or knowing; or be deluded under any circumstance. Then you will be endowed with supernatural and mysterious power. Thus is the liberated man. As for all kinds of circumstances, the mind of such a man is without either tranquillity or disorder—neither concentrated nor scattered. Then there is no obstruction to the complete comprehension of Sound and Form. Such may be called a man of Tao. He is bound in no way by good or bad, purity or impurity, or the uses of worldly happiness and wisdom. This is what we call Buddha-Wisdom. Right and wrong, pretty and ugly, reasonable and unreasonable—all intellectual discriminations are completely exhausted. Being unbound, his mental condition is free. Such a man may be called a Bodhisattva whose Bodhi-mind arrives the instant it sets out. Such can ascend directly to the Buddha lands. All the dharmas, basically, are not of themselves empty. They do not, themselves, speak of form; also they say nothing of right and wrong or purity and impurity; and they have no intention of binding men. The fact is that men themselves deludedly speculate and make several kinds of understanding and bring forth several kinds of intellectual discrimination.
     If feelings of purity and impurity could be exhausted, if one didn't dwell in attachments and didn't dwell in liberation— if there were absolutely no drawing-of-lines between conditioned and unconditioned—if the mind analyzed without making choices—THEN THAT MIND WOULD BE FREE. One would not be tangled up with illusion, suffering, the skandhas, samsara or the twelve links of the chain. Remote, unattached, completely without clinging. Going or staying without obstruction; entering into or coming out of Birth-and-Death is like going through opening gates. Even when that mind meets with various sorts of suffering and things that go wrong, that mind does not retreat groveling.
     Such a one is not concerned with fame, clothing or food. He doesn't covet merit or profit; he is not obstructed by social things. Though he may be brought up against pleasure or pain, he doesn't get involved. Coarse food sustains his life, patched clothes resist the weather. He is vacant, like a complete idiot or deaf man. If one has the least inclination toward broadly studying Understanding within samsara—seeking fortune and wisdom— it will add nothing to the Principle. Instead one will be hung up by the circumstances of understanding; and return to the sea of samsara. Buddha is an unseekable One: if you seek it you go astray. The Principle is an unseekable Principle; if you seek it you lose it. And if you manage not to seek, it turns to seeking. This Dharma has neither substance or emptiness. If you are able to flow through life with a mind as open and complete as wood or stone— then you will not be swept away and drowned by the skandhas, the five desires and the eight lusts. Then the source of Birth-and-Death will be cut off, and you will go and come freely.
     You will not in the least be bound by the conditions of karma. With an unfettered body you can
share your benefits with all things. With an unfettered mind you can respond to all minds. With an
unfettered wisdom you can loosen all bonds. You are able to give the medicine according to the
disease.

                        Outdoor walking meditation, DUNEDIN, NZ

PAI-CHANG
Translated by Thomas Cleary

Question: What is the essential method for sudden enlightenment in the great vehicle?
       The master said, You all should first put an end to all involvements and lay to rest all concerns; do not remember or recollect anything at all, whether good or bad, mundane or transcendental - do not engage in thoughts. Let go of body and mind, set them free.
      With mind like wood or stone, not explaining anything with the mouth, mind not going anywhere, then the mind ground becomes like space, wherein the sun of wisdom naturally appears. It is as though the clouds had opened and the sun emerged.
      Just put an end to all fettering connections, and feelings of greed, hatred, craving,
defilement and purity all come to an end. Unmoved in the face of the five desires and eight
influences, not choked up by seeing, hearing, discerning or knowing, not confused by anything,
naturally endowed with all virtues and the inconceivable use of all paranormal powers, this is
someone who is free.
      In the presence of all things in the environment, to have a mind neither still
nor disturbed, neither concentrated nor distracted, passing through all sound and form without
lingering or obstruction, is called being a wayfarer.
      Not setting in motion good, evil, right or wrong, not clinging to a single thing, not rejecting a single thing, is called being a member of the great vehicle.
      Not bound by any good or evil, emptiness or existence, defilement or purity, doing or nondoing, mundane or transcendental, virtue or knowledge, is called enlightened wisdom.
      Once affirmation and negation, like and dislike, approval and disapproval, all various opinions and feelings come to an end and cannot bind you, then you are free wherever you may be; this is called a bodhisattva at the moment of inspiration immediately ascending to the stage of Buddhahood.

Question: How can one attain a mind which is like wood or stone in the presence of all situations?
      The master said, All various things have never of themselves spoken of emptiness; nor do they
themselves speak of form, and they do not speak of right, wrong, defilement, or purity. Nor is there
mind which binds and fetters people; it is just because people themselves give rise to vain and
arbitrary attachments and that they create so many kinds of understanding, produce so many kinds
of opinion, and give rise to so many various loves and fears.
      Just understand that the many things do not originate of themselves; all of them come into existence from one’s own single mental impulse of imagination mistakenly clinging to appearances. If you know that mind and objects fundamentally do not contact each other, you will be set free on the spot. Each of the various things is in a state of quiescence right where it is; this very place is the site of enlightenment.
      Inherent nature cannot be named; originally it is not mundane, nor is it holy; it is neither defiled nor pure. Also it is neither empty nor existent, and it is neither good nor bad. When it is involved with impure things, it is called the two vehicles of divinity and humanity. When the mind of purity and impurity is ended, it does not dwell in bondage, nor does it dwell in liberation; it has no mindfulness of doing, nondoing, bondage or liberation - then, though it is within birth and death, that mind is free; ultimately it does not comingle with all the vanities, the empty illusions, sensual passions, the mortal clusters and the elements of existence, life and death, or the sense media. Transcendent and without abode, nothing at all constrains it; it goes and comes through birth and death as through an open door.
      When someone who is studying the Way comes in contact with various kinds of pain or pleasure, with things agreeable or disagreeable, his mind is not wearied; he does [p80] not think at all of fame, profit, clothing or food. He does not long for the benefits of merit and virtue; he is not hindered or obstructed by the various things of the world. Nothing is dear to him, nothing lovely; he is equanimous through pain and pleasure.
      Simple clothing to keep off the cold, coarse food to sustain life; by unbending and intent, as though stupid, as though deaf and mute - then you will have some fulfillment. If in your mind you widely study knowledge and interpretation, seeking merit and seeking knowledge, all this is birth and death - it is of no benefit in respect to inner reality. On the contrary, blown up and down by the winds of understanding, you will return to the sea of birth and death.
      A Buddha is one who does not seek; seek this and you turn away. The principle is the principle of nonseeking; seek it and you lose it. If you cling to nonseeking, this is still the same as seeking; if you cling to nondoing, this is the same again as doing. Therefore the Diamond Cutter Scripture says, “Do not grasp truth, do not grasp untruth, and do not grasp that which is not untrue.” It also says, “The truth which those who realize thusness find has no reality or unreality.”
      If you are able to spend your whole life with a mind like wood or stone, then you will not be buoyed up and submerged by the mortal clusters, the elements of conscious existence, the media of sense, the five desires and eight winds. Then the cause of birth and death is cut off, and you are free to go or stay, unhindered by any causes or effects of doing; you will not be constrained by any indulgence. At that time to make a cause of causeless bondage, to share concerns as a benefactor, to respond to all creatures with an unattached heart, to open all fetters with unhindered wisdom - this is called giving medicine according to the disease.

Question: Renunciants today, having received the precepts, are clean and pure in body and mouth; already invested with all the standards, do they attain liberation or not?
      The master said, A little bit of liberation; but they have not yet attained liberation of mind and liberation in all places.

Question: What is liberation of mind and liberation in all places?
      The master said, Don’t seek Buddha, don’t seek the teaching, don’t seek the community, and so forth; don’t seek virtue and knowledge, intellectual understanding and so forth. When feelings of defilement and purity are ended, still don’t hold to this non-seeking and consider it right - do not dwell at the point of ending, and do not long for heavens or fear hells. When you are unhindered by bondage or freedom, then this is called liberation of mind and body in all places.
      You should not say you have a little bit of discipline, purity of body, mouth, and mind, and immediately consider that enough. You don’t know that innumerable gates of discipline, concentration, wisdom and nonindulgent liberation have never gotten involved with so much as a single hair.
      Work hard! Henceforth you must take hold and investigate vigorously. Do not wait till your ears are deaf, your eyes dim, your face wrinkled and your hair white - when the pains of old age overtake your body, sadness and affection enshroud you, your eyes flow with tears, and in your heart is fear and dread. Without anything to rely upon at all, you do not know where you are going. At this time, you won’t be able to coordinate your hands and feet; even if you have merit, knowledge, name, fame, profit and support, none of them will save you.
     Because your mind’s wisdom is not yet opened, you only think of various objects; you do not know how to reflect back, and you don’t see the way of enlightenment. All the good and bad active affinities of your whole life will appear before you - you may be glad, you may be afraid; the mortal clusters of the six states of being will appear before you all at once, all spread with adornments, houses, boats, carts, brilliant shining light. Everything is what is manifest of the greed and craving of your own mind; all bad visions turn into surpassingly beautiful visions, but according to the heavy weight of greed and craving, compelled by your habitual active consciousness, you experience birth accompanied by attachments - you have no freedom at all. Whether you’ll be a dragon or an animal, freeman or slave, is entirely uncertain.

Question: How is it possible to realize a share of freedom?
      The master said, Right now you have it if you have it. Otherwise, in the face of the five desires and eight winds, if there is no grasping or rejection in your feelings, when feelings of possessiveness, jealousy, greed and craving, of self and possessions, all come to an end, defilement and purity are both forgotten - you will be like the sun or moon in the sky, shining independently. When mind and mental conditions are like earth, wood, or stone, moment after moment, like saving your head were it ablaze, also like the great scent-bearing elephant crossing a river, cutting off the flow as he passes, causing there to be no doubt or error, this person neither heaven nor hell can contain.

(SAYINGS AND DOINGS OF PAI-CHANG Ch'an Master of Great Wisdom
Translated by Thomas Cleary)

PURIFICATION
All the evil karma, ever created by me since of old;

on account of my beginningless greed, hatred and ignorance;

born of my conduct, speech and thought;

I now confess openly and fully.

VERSE FOR INFORMAL MEALS

We venerate the Three Treasures

and are thankful for this meal,

the work of many people

and the sharing of other forms of life.

THE EVENING MESSAGE

(Called out from just outside the dojo during the ceremony at the end of each day of sesshin.)

I beg to urge you everyone:

life and death is a grave matter;

all things pass quickly away.

Each of you must be completely alert;

never neglectful, never indulgent.


ON OPENING THE DHARMA

The Dharma, incomparably profound and minutely subtle,

is rarely encountered, even in hundreds of thousands

of millions of kalpas;

We now can see it, listen to it, accept and hold it;
May we completely realize the Tathagata's true meaning.


GREAT VOWS FOR ALL

The many beings are numberless, I vow to save them;

Greed, hatred, and ignorance rise endlessly,

I vow to abandon them;

Dharma gates are countless, I vow to wake to them;
The Buddha's way is unsurpassed, I vow to embody it fully. 

(Honolulu Diamond Sangha)

Sermon of Zen Master Bassui

Bassui Tokusho (1327-1387)

If you want to avoid the pains of transmigration, you should directly know the way to become enlightened. The way to become enlightened is to realize your own mind. Since your own mind is the fundamental nature of all sentient beings, which has never changed since before your parents were born, before your own body existed, it is called the original face.

This mind is originally pure: when the body is born, it shows no sign of birth; and when the body dies, it has no sign of death. Neither is it marked as male or female, nor has it any form, good or bad. Because no simile can reach it, it is called enlightened nature, or Buddha nature.

Furthermore, all thoughts arise from this inherent nature like waves on the ocean, like images reflecting in a mirror. For this reason, if you want to realize your inner mind, first you must see the source of thoughts arising. Whether awake or asleep, standing or sitting, deeply questioning what thing is your inner mind with the profound desire for enlightenment, is called practice, meditation, will, and the spirit of the way. Questioning the inner mind like this is also called zazen.

One moment seeing your own mind is better than reading ten thousand volumes of scriptures and incantations a day for ten thousand years; these formal practices form only causal conditions for a day of blessings, but when those blessings are exhausted again, you suffer the pains of miserable forms of existence. A moment of meditational effort, however, because it leads eventually to enlightenment, becomes a cause for the attainment of buddhahood.

Even someone who has committed the worse crimes is a buddha if he instantly transforms and becomes enlightened, but that doesn't mean that you should do wrong on the pretext that you should become enlightened; when you delude yourself and degenerate into evil ways, even the buddhas and patriarchs can't help you. It's like the case of a child sleeping next to its father, having a bad dream about being beaten or falling sick; though he calls to his parents to help him in his distress, since they can't go into his dreams, even his father and mother cannot help him. Even if they are going to give him medicine, they have to wake him up.

If one can awake on his own, he can avoid suffering in dreams without the help of others; in the same way, if you realize that your own mind is Buddha, you can suddenly avoid repeated involvement in routines of birth and death. If the Buddhas could help us, how could anyone go to hell? You must realize the truth of this yourself.

Now, then, when you look what is the host, the master who is now seeing colours, hearing sounds, raising hands and moving feet, though you realize all this is the doing of your own mind, actually you don't know what its inner reality is. If you say it is non-existent, it is clear that it is free to act; if you say it exists, still its form cannot be seen. As it is simply inconceivable, with no way at all to understand, when your ideas are ended and you are helpless, this is good work; at this point, if you don't give up and your will goes deeper and deeper, and your profound doubt penetrates the very depths and breaks through, there is no doubt that mind itself is enlightened. There is no birth and death to detest, no truth to seek; space is only one's mind.

For example, it is like getting lost in a dream, losing the road to return home, asking people or praying to gods and Buddha’s to find the way back, until you awaken, when you find you've been in your own bedroom all along; then you realize that there was no other way to return from your dream journey except to awaken. This is called "returning to the fundamental, “and it is also called "birth in the world of peace and ease."

This is a way of understanding through attainment of power from a little bit of cultivation; everybody who cultivates meditation and works at it, whether householders or homeless, has at least such experience. This already is beyond the ken of people who do not meditate. This is already real enlightenment, but if you think you have no doubts about reality, you're greatly mistaken. This would be like giving up the search for gold when you see copper. When you have such a tendency, you should resolutely deepen your effort by observing your body as an illusion, like a bubble, like a reflection and see your mind as like space, with no form. Here, hearing sound in the ear, what is the host that cognizes the echo?

Tenaciously, profoundly, wholly doubting, when no cognizable principle exists anymore and you have forgotten about the existence of your body, when your former views and understanding die out and your doubt has become complete, your enlightenment will be complete, just as no water remains in a bucket when its bottom falls out. It will be like a dead tree bursting suddenly into bloom. If you can be like this, you will realize freedom in the midst of things and become greatly liberated.

But even if you have such an enlightenment, you must give up every enlightenment you realize and time and again return to the awakening host, go back to the fundamental; if you can guard it firmly, as sentimental consciousness dies out, your inherent nature will become clear just as a jewel becomes more lustrous with polishing; eventually it will illuminate the worlds in all directions. Don't doubt this; if your determination is not deep, even if you don't awaken in this way in this life, people who face death in the midst of meditation will surely become enlightened easily in the coming life, just as a journey prepared for yesterday is easily travelled today.

When working on sitting meditation, don't suppress arising thoughts, but don't enjoy them; just search out the inner mind, source of thought. Realizing that whatever drifts through the mind or appears to the eyes is illusory, not real, you shouldn't fear, esteem, like or dislike; if your mind is like empty space not affected by things, then when you die also you will not be attacked by the devil of heaven. Also, when doing meditation work, it should only be a question of what your own mind is, without keeping such and such a thing or such and such a principle on your mind.

When you realize what the host is who hears all sounds right now, this mind is the fundamental source of all buddhas and sentient beings. Kannon is called Seer of the Sounds of the World because she attained enlightenment by way of sound. Just see what it is that hears this sound, whether standing or sitting, look for this; when you don't know what you're hearing anymore and your direction is ended and you are diffused and far out, even here as long as sound is being heard, when you look deeper and deeper, even the appearance of vague diffusion dies out, and it is like a clear cloudless sky.

Herein there is nothing that can be called self. The host who hears cannot be seen either. This mind is the same as universal space, yet there is no place that can be called space. At this time you think this is enlightenment, but you should doubt even more; who hears this sound? If you go on investigating without producing a single thought, the realm where seems like nothing exists, like empty space, also dies out, there is no more taste at all; where it is dark as night, if you exert all your power to fully doubt what it is that hears this sound, then when the doubt shatters and you are like someone who has completely died coming back to life, this then is enlightenment, satori.

Excerpted from The Original Face: An Anthology of Rinzai Zen translated by Thomas Cleary, 1978

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