Instruction to High Master Lingzhou Jing

In the past, I traveled to Haimen, ascended Miaogao Peak, entered the Limitless Samādhi, and went into the Laṅkā Chamber, where I gazed upon the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra hand-copied by the Old Man Dongpo on behalf of Zhang Fangping, which was left with Chan Master Foyin to become a permanent possession of Jinshan Monastery. At that time, the pores of my entire body felt a blissful delight, like the hundred grasses springing forth in spring; I did not know why it was so.

Later, when I examined the teaching vehicles for verification, I realized it was habit tendencies bursting forth horizontally from within, a fumigation of which I was unaware. Since then, while traveling on foot amidst clouds and waters, this state—vast as the ocean and sky, empty, bright, shining, and spacious—has often hung between my eyebrows and eyelashes like a Great Round Mirror.

Recently, played by illusory karma, I ran straight to the miasmic lands; my boat passed the mouth of Caoxi, went down the Zhenyang Gorge, passed Little Jinshan, and arrived at Yangcheng [Guangzhou], but I had no leisure to climb up and gaze out. In the autumn of the wuxu year, I finally got to view its scenic spots; together with High Master Jingxin [Mirror Mind], I passed Dongpo Hall, read the poem on "Awakening to the Previous Body," and again felt a crisp sense of loss, as if suddenly seeing an old companion from my travels.

From this, I know that heaven and earth are one instrument of illusion; the ten thousand dharmas are one thicket of illusion; appearing and disappearing are one trace of illusion; death and birth are one field of illusion; rivers and mountains are one realm of illusion; scales, shells, feathers, and fur [animals] are one matter of illusion; sages and ordinary beings are one crowd of illusion; and you and I are merely one encounter of illusion.

The High Master has subdued his mind in the white dharmas and recites the Diamond Sūtra every day as a fixed curriculum; old defilements are suddenly dispelled, and the mind-light gradually becomes bright. This is because he is willing to scrape off the grime and polish the light, and is not comparable to those who drift vaguely in the ocean of karma. Just now, he held a scroll and requested a Dharma teaching as material for his further practice. This Old Man fiercely recalled the old story of traveling to Haimen; now, seeing Dongpo in this place is like seeing a previous body. Because of this, I sigh that human life, death and birth, illusion and transformation, coming and going, are all dream matters.

If one illuminates them with the ocean-like wisdom of the Dharmadhātu, then the three times and the ten directions are instantly equal; the heavenly palaces and the Pure Land are leveled into one path. Mind, Buddha, and sentient beings are completely without distinction. Boiling cauldrons and furnace coals are, in Reality, cool; grasses, trees, and courtyard sedge, wind-sails and sand-birds, the changing shapes of mist and clouds, the rising and setting of the sun and moon—when one raises one's eyes to propagate the truth, none are not the Samādhi of Universal Manifestation of the Physical Body.

What we students of the Dao value is the Vajra True Eye. It shines through the darkness of ignorance and delusion, and radiates the primordial light of wisdom. When picked up and used in the present daily life—in the moments of coughing, spitting, or swinging one's arms, in the instant of raising eyebrows or blinking eyes, in the space of picking up a spoon or raising chopsticks—it suddenly reveals the self-nature, the stainless Dharma-body. This is called a liberated person.

It is just like when Kongsheng [Subhūti] awakened to Prajñā; he wept tears of grief and gratitude before the Buddha, saying of himself that there is truly no attainment named "Arhat." Of all the dharmas in the entire world, how could any surpass this Prajñā? However, Prajñā is nothing else; it is simply the light of the mind-mirror of us humans.

Yongjia said:

"Recently the dusty mirror has not been polished; today it is clearly analyzed and split open."

The High Master is named Jingxin [Mirror Mind]; do you take the mind as the mirror, or do you take the mirror to reflect the mind?

If you take the mind as the mirror, then Old Lu [Huineng] said: "The bright mirror is also not a stand"; if it is not a stand, then there is no mirror to be lodged.

If you take the mirror to reflect the mind, the Mind is fundamentally signless; so where can one reflect it?

In this way, if it is not mind, it is not mirror; if it is not mirror, it is not mind; if mind and mirror are both negated, from where is the name established? Thus, the High Master’s name is a false name; since the name is false, the truth is also not true. Then, regarding the Prajñā that is read, how could there be written words or sentences lodged at the tip of the teeth and cheeks?

If the High Master can awaken to this Dharma-gate, then the river light and water color, the bird calls and tide sounds, all perform the True Reality of Prajñā. The morning bell and evening drum, sending off the departing and welcoming the arriving—all are the time when Kongsheng sits peacefully in the rock chamber seeing the Dharma-body.

In this way, the Laṅkā written by Dongpo, the wood-blocks cut by Foyin, and the affinity of three lifetimes borne by this Old Man today in revisiting this mountain—The High Master coincidentally picked up this scroll to request instruction; do not say that this is again the dream-talk of a previous body!

The Sūtra says:

"All conditioned dharmas are like dreams, illusions, bubbles, and shadows,

Like dew and also like lightning; one should view them in this way."

If the High Master can avoid obscuring the fundamental cause, then when habit tendencies burst forth horizontally, try taking this scroll and reading it; unwittingly, delusive thinking, inverted views, and the dust of emotions will naturally melt like ice and disintegrate like tiles.

Instruction to Ou Shengboyu

I have said that there are no sages or ordinary beings who do not all achieve worldly or trans-worldly karma through their aspirations. Thus we know: those of us with aspirations regarding life and nature aspire to exit birth and death; those with aspirations regarding merit, fame, wealth, and status aspire to enter birth and death.

My teacher had a saying: "The vast ocean of wisdom transforms to become the ocean of the karma of birth and death; the precious, bright, marvelous nature is obscured and becomes the karma-nature of the birth and death of greed, anger, delusion, and conceit."

Viewing it from this, for the nature of us humans, the source of truth and delusion is already non-dual; if one knows that one enters birth and death through greed, anger, and delusion, then one can use greed, anger, and delusion to exit birth and death.

There is a proverb:

"If hate is small, one is not a gentleman;

If one is not ruthless, one is not a great man."

In my daily life, I often think of Goujian, who, because of the shame at Kuaiji, aspired to take revenge on the enemy Wu; he slept on brushwood and tasted bile for more than twenty years, did not wear double layers of colorful clothes, did not eat food with multiple flavors, and finally destroyed Wu to become a hegemon.

We students of the Dao look at the birth and death of successive kalpas, imprisoned and humiliated in the jail of the Three Realms—how could this be merely the shame of Kuaiji? Greed, anger, delusion, and conceit snatch away the light of my marvelous nature and destroy the house of my Nirvāṇa—how could this be merely the enemy Wu?

We humans are happy as if eating sweets, playing and feasting among them without the slightest heart of shame or resentment; this can be called being greatly ignorant of the root. When looking at oneself, can one be called a great man?

Boyu has aspirations in this; you should gnash your teeth.

Instruction to Feng Shengwenru (Year of Gengzi)

The first thing for a student of the Dao is to give rise to a decided, long-term aspiration; even if it takes the exhaustion of this form and life, to the limit of three lives, five lives, ten lives, a hundred, a thousand, ten thousand lives, or even kalpa after kalpa of lives, it is simply fixed with awakening as the deadline.

If I do not awaken to this Mind, I am decided not to rest; even if I fall into hell or the three paths, or pass through a furnace, a womb, or a horse’s belly, I vow not to abandon this decided aspiration to become a Buddha, nor to retreat from today's faith because of suffering.

For example, if someone gives rise to the mind to take a journey of ten thousand li, they decide on the place they will arrive at as the goal. From the single step of leaving the gate today, straight until entering the gate of the place they are going to, seeing the person they seek, ascending the hall and entering the room, and interacting with them harmoniously to the limit of forgetting their form—only then do they stop; only in this way can they be said to have decided aspiration.

If there is no such distinct, decided aspiration, and one only says one is going out the gate, but looks back at what is in front of one's eyes, unable to put down various beloved things; or one procrastinates and delays, with the mouth going but the mind not going;

Or perhaps luckily there are relatives, friends, or powerful people who urge one to go out the gate, but when one gets on the road, one is leisurely and dissolute;

Or one encounters singing and instrument troupes in places of wealth and status, greedily loves the immediate entertainments of the ears and eyes, forgets the thought of having left the gate, and vaguely does not know where one is heading;

Or halfway along, conditions are wrong, and one crashes into bad friends and bad conditions, resulting in an empty sack and exhausted resources, plus being entangled in illness, pacing back and forth in fear, giving rise to immeasurable suffering;

Or the body is weary, and having long been bathed in wind and frost, one cannot bear the toil and suffering, so the thought of retreating arises;

Or one is near the door, but encounters a deviation of a single opportunity, a single state, or a single matter, or mistakenly listens to false words and takes them as true, causing one to be about to see but not able to see the person, or approaching the door but unable to enter the room.

Such people all waste their diligence in vain and in the end do not truly reach the ultimate ground; this is entirely because at the time of the initial raising of the mind, they did not have decided aspiration. If one is like this, and desires to perform small worldly deeds of merit and fame, one still cannot succeed; how much more so for the unsurpassed Buddha Way, ending birth and death, and realizing Bodhi?

Therefore it is said:

"The Buddha Way is long and far;

Only after long enduring diligence and suffering can it be achieved."

How can one seek immediate results and ask for speedy completion? Although this is so, having decided aspiration further requires true view. If the view is not true, and one aspires to what one should not aspire to, and practices what one should not practice, one will waste one's effort even more.

Since we humans seek the Dao and have this aspiration, we must trust our own minds implicitly; the very Essence is Buddha, originally pure without a thing, originally luminous and vast. The reason we do not obtain the use of it revealed in daily life is only because of mutual illusory delusions, the constraint of the Four Elements, and the obstruction of fleeting thoughts and floating mind; it is difficult to penetrate thoroughly. Passing this pivot of birth and death is a distance of not just some lives or ten thousand kalpas.

Since we know this Mind, trust it with truth and without doubt; giving rise to the mind today, we must set awakening as the deadline. Doing the work from the moment of giving rise to the mind today is the first step out the gate. Today, personally receiving the guidance of a spiritual friend is the prodding.

As for the prodding onto the road, the various states on the journey, the various toils, the various hesitations, staying or not staying, retreating or not retreating—all are measured on the heels of the student's own fundamental duty; none are things the spiritual friend can give.

Feng Shengwenru, you have an aspiration for this; raise your eyebrows and look at the first step out the gate beneath your heels.

Instruction to Zeng Shengliufu (Year of Renyin)

The Sage uses the mind like a mirror; it does not escort nor welcome; when [images] come, there is no sticking, and when they go, there are no tracks; this is because it is supremely empty and responds to the myriad existences.

Therefore Laozi had a saying:

"Without going out the door, one knows the world."

How could this be reached by delusive thinking, anxiety, opportunistic cleverness, or calculation? The so-called "Empty and Vastly Public" is the mind of the Sage.

The clever and opportunistic scholars of ancient and modern times tell themselves that there is nothing their thought cannot reach and nothing their intelligence cannot attain; thus they decorate their intelligence and fool themselves. This is because the mind-light has not penetrated, and the Fundamental Essence is not clear; they fall into the net of ignorant delusive thinking and take it to be great wisdom.

It is like holding a firefly and struggling for brilliance against the blazing sun. Zeng Sheng aspires to the Dao; he should encourage himself with this.

Instruction to Attendant Zan

Attendant Zhen Zan painted a small portrait of me, burned incense, paid homage, and requested a Dharma teaching. This Old Man suddenly picked up his staff, chased him, and said:

You attend to me morning and evening, yet you do not know to generate a thought of respect yourself; so why use paper and ink to paint an image as a model? Every time you personally hear the teaching of the Dharma, it is like the spring breeze passing your ears; so why use the old words on paper as a standard?

You yourself gave rise to the mind to leave home, seeking the mark of departure; yet you do not decide your will to practice the conduct of distance; are you truly leaving home, or is it actually for birth and death?

Your own mind is foolish and deluded, seeking outwardly, not knowing that suddenly halting the mad mind is the secret essential to becoming a Buddha. You triflingly grasp illusory delusion as truth, losing your head and recognizing the reflection, completely without a time of exit. Even if this Old Man sat inside your chest, you would just take it as a feverish disease.

The Buddha said:

"The mad mind does not halt;

Halting is Bodhi."

The supreme, pure, bright Mind is fundamentally not obtained externally. If you can truly be like this, it can be called sitting in investigation; one need not labor to bow to spiritual friends everywhere, but naturally enters immeasurable Dharma-gates. This, then, is named following the nature of awareness; so what is the use of wrapping up this Old Man?

Think about it yourself: in the twenty-four hours of the day, aside from dressing and eating, welcoming guests and dealing with callers, turning around and looking up and down, coughing, spitting, and swinging arms, or miscellaneous chatter and joking—what is your own Original Face?

If you penetrate thoroughly right here, I allow that you have glimpsed a single hair of this Old Man's eyebrow; if perhaps it is not so, we are face to face yet a thousand li apart.

Instruction to Chan Practitioner Mingzhe

I have been banished for four years; in the summer of the jihai year, I lectured on the New Commentary on the Laṅkā at the Lüpo Hut at the Green Gate of Wuyang [Guangzhou]. The Chan Practitioner did not consider several thousand li to be far and visited me in the miasmic lands.

Seeing his sincerity, I ordered him to manage the vegetarian food, intending to let him know the Three Virtues, harmonize the Six Harmonies, gather the One Mind, and practice the Ten Thousand Practices. The Chan Practitioner listened only to orders and exerted his strength for over half a year.

Just then, he drank the miasmic mist, was infected, and became ill; seeing that his Four Elements could not support him and he could not bear the multitude of duties, he begged to cross the ridge to the north to seek a happy place to rest and recuperate, and came to say goodbye.

This Old Man consequently encouraged him, saying:

Do you take suffering and happiness to be different lands, or death and birth to have "here" and "there"? You hardly realize that the Four Elements are a temporary borrowing, suffering and happiness are a field of illusion, and death and birth are night and day. You also do not know that the mind is the source of all evil, and the body is the root of all suffering.

Originally, from confusing the mind, it becomes consciousness; grasping delusion, it becomes a body; inverting death and birth, one appears and disappears in the paths of suffering, never knowing for how many thousands of ten thousands of kalpas.

It is like dreaming of galloping on a dangerous road, terrified and panicked, seeking escape but unable, desiring to leave but unable, worried and sorrowful, gazing for rescue with no door, the spirit exhausted and weary, with no technique to rest temporarily, telling oneself one will finally fall into sinking and drowning—you are then willing to be submerged!

And how could you know to call out with extreme strength, suddenly jump up, and greatly awaken? Then the sorrow and acrid bitterness from before all become tools for laughter; now that one is awake, how is it different from the heaven and earth of seeking escape before?

Viewing it right from your perspective: the sickness, suffering, and groaning of today, and the thoughts of leaving or staying to seek escape, are exactly just matters in a dream. You cannot call out and awaken yourself; I call out greatly for you, yet you still do not know; this is a flourishing long night where there is finally no time of opening the eyes.

Why take illusory delusion and willingly undergo bitterness and suffering, recognizing a dream-thought as a real house? Now that you have encountered a call but do not awaken, apart from this, who will call again? Alas, alas! In the long night of dimness and inversion, wishing to see the light of the wisdom-sun like the affinity of today is difficult of the difficult.

Try to think on this; suddenly powerfully reflect, turn the head and rotate the brain; the emotion-pass of birth and death will instantly burst open; this is precisely the time of smashing the dream house and exiting the dangerous road.

Instruction to Chan Practitioner Shu Zhongan on Dwelling in Mountains

Chan Practitioner Shu Zhong is about to cut thatch [build a hut] on Nanyue, and requested the essentials of the Dharma of dwelling in mountains. This Old Man consequently instructed him, saying:

The Dao is not in the mountains, yet to dwell in the mountains, one must first see the Dao.

If one sees the mountain and forgets the Dao, the mountain is the root of obstruction; if one sees the Dao and forgets the mountain, then touching the eyes and following conditions—nothing is not the Dao. This is a famous saying of the ancient virtues and the truthful instruction of Yongjia.

You now aspire to dwell in the mountains; is it that you see the Dao and then dwell, or do you dwell and then see the Dao?

If you see the Dao and then dwell, then dwelling has an abiding; if there is abiding, the Dao is not the True Dao.

If you desire to dwell in the mountains and then see the Dao, the Dao fundamentally has no abiding; if there is abiding, then the Dao is not in the mountains.

What will you take as the Dao, and where will you dwell?

You merely take the mountain as a mountain; you hardly realize that in the daily use before your eyes, the body, mind, and environment are all mountains. The teaching says: "Pressed by the four mountains of birth, old age, sickness, and death." It also says "the mountain of the Five Aggregates," and "the mountain of self and other," and "the mountain of Nirvāṇa."

However, Nirvāṇa is Mind; self and other are Environment; the Five Aggregates are body and mind—these are the caves of birth, old age, sickness, and death.

Sanskrit Nirvāṇa is here called Quiescent Cessation; the illusory and delusive body, mind, and environment all belong to movement and disorder. Tracing the fundamental import, truth and delusion are not two; movement and stillness are both Thus. But because of the division of delusion and awakening, there is the difference between sages and ordinary beings. Deluding it, Nirvāṇa becomes birth and death; awakening to it, birth and death witness Nirvāṇa.

Thus we know that the mountains of the Five Aggregates and self and other are originally the peaceful house of Nirvāṇa.

In this case, all sages and ordinary beings, exiting birth and entering death, have never not dwelt in this mountain; and you have slept in the long night here for a long time. So why do you now desire to dwell in it?

If you use liking and disliking, or grasping and rejecting, as the resources for entering the Dao, this is like avoiding drowning by throwing oneself into fire.

Therefore it is said:

"I desire to flee it but cannot flee;

Outside the great direction, all is filled [with it]."

It is also said:

"The mad mind does not halt;

Halting is Bodhi."

The essential of entering the Dao lies only in halting the mad mind, obliterating seeing and hearing, cutting off understanding, forgetting subject and object, extinguishing right and wrong, and silencing this mind. It really does not lie in escaping the form into mountain valleys, eating one's fill and sleeping sideways, indulging in laziness, and increasing arrogance, taking this as the marvel of the Dao.

Sanskrit Dhūta is here called Dou Sou [Shaking Off], because it can shake off the dust of guest defilements. Simply purifying that mind is the Dao of all Buddhas; you should encourage yourself in this.