I asked ChatGPT to make 白话 version of 道元禅师《普劝坐禅仪》 Fukan zazenji by Zen master Dogen for my mother. Original Chinese and English version below. The bai hua version is far from perfect so please do not share it elsewhere, also I welcome anyone trying to ammend to improve and send it to me. - soh.

白话:

道本就是完美无缺、普遍存在的。何须依赖修行和证悟呢?真法门自足完备,何需额外努力?实际上,我们的身心本已清净,何须劳神找寻清扫之法?它从未离我们而去;又何需四处求法呢?然而,一丝偏差,就如同天地之间的鸿沟。一旦心生喜恶,即刻迷失。


纵你自认悟透,智慧非凡,一瞥间便知晓万法,达道明心,志向冲天。你只是在门槛上徘徊,还未迈入真正解脱之路。


回想佛陀:他虽然生来就慧根深厚,但六年严格的端坐修行仍值得我们铭记。至于达摩祖师,虽然他已证得心印,面壁九年的精神至今仍被传颂。即便是古圣先贤亦是如此,我们今天怎能不致力于全心全意的修行呢?


因此,舍弃对文字的执着和追逐,学会向内反照的回光返照之法。身心自会脱落,本来面目自显。若欲此境,即刻行之。


修习禅定,宜选静室。饮食有节,诸缘放下,一切务暂搁。不计较善恶,不论真假。放弃心智意识的作用,不再以思想、观点度量万物。不务成佛,何论坐卧?


定坐之处,先铺厚垫,再设坐褥。可采双盘或单盘坐法。双盘坐,即将右足安于左大腿,左足置于右大腿之上。单盘坐,则单纯将左足放于右大腿。松解衣带,衣袍整齐。右手置于左腿,左手覆于右手上,拇指轻触相对。调正身体,端坐不偏不倚,耳肩鼻脐相对。舌尖抵上颚,牙齿轻闭,嘴唇合拢。眼睛保持微开,通过鼻子轻柔呼吸。


调整姿势后,深呼吸并完全呼出,身体左右轻摇,稳固定坐。思维中的“非思量低”,“非思量低”即是何思?即是非思量。这便是禅定的关键艺术。


所谓坐禅,非打坐的练习。它仅仅是安乐之法门,完全觉醒实相的实践体现,修与证。公案的现成(实相的呈现),无圈套可设。若领悟此理,如龙得水、虎归山。须知真法自显,从此昏沉散乱皆扫除。


起坐时,缓慢平和,有意识地移动,避免骤然起立。历览古今,无论俗圣,在坐或立终结生命,皆依赖禅定之力。


此外,指点、横幅、针刺、木槌的觉醒,以及拂尘、拳击、禅杖、喝斥的证悟,非以常规思维可解,更非以神通可知。此等行为超越形声,岂非超越知见之先?


于是,智愚非所议,不论才钝。若能一心投入,即是全身心融入道。实践证悟本自清净,向前行乃是寻常之举。


总之,在我等世界与他界,无论印度还是中国,皆同承佛印。虽各宗自有特色,但均专注于禅坐,坚如磐石。虽言差异万千,但只在于一心禅坐。何必离家寻求,徒增尘嚣?一步错,错过眼前真理。


人得此身,机不可失,切莫虚度年华。正念佛道之要务,何需闲情逸致?又如露水短暂,人生转瞬即逝。


敬请尊贵的禅修者,长习探寻不忘初心,直指真龙。敬重超越学识努力之人。与诸佛启悟相应,继承诸祖定慧。如此行之,自成其人。宝藏自开,自由享用。



Original:

1

原文

原夫道本圆通,争假修证。宗乘自在,何费功夫。况全体远出尘埃,孰信拂拭手段?大都不离当处,岂用修行脚头哉?

然毫釐之差,天地悬隔,违顺才起,纷然失心。直饶会夸悟丰,获瞥地智通,得道明心,举冲天志气,入头边量虽逍遥,几亏缺出身活路。

矧彼祗园生地,端坐六年可见踪迹,少林传心印,面壁九岁声名尚闻。古圣既然,今人盍辨?所以须休寻言逐语之解行,须学回光返照之退步。身心自然脱落,本来面目现前。恁麼事欲得,恁麼事务急。

其静室参禅宜节饮食。诸缘崩舍,万事休息,不思善恶,莫管是非。停心意识之运转,止念想观之测量。莫图作佛,岂拘坐卧?寻常坐处,厚敷坐物,上用蒲团,或结跏趺坐,或半跏趺坐,谓结跏趺坐,先以右足安左腿上,左足安右腿上。半跏趺坐但以左足压右腿,衣帯宽系可令齐整。次右手安左足上,左掌安右掌上,两大拇指相向,乃正身端座,不得左侧右倾,前躬後仰,要耳对肩,鼻对脐。舌挂上颚,唇齿相著,目须常开,鼻息微通。身相既调,欠气一息,左右摇振,兀兀坐定,思量个不思量底。不思量底如何思量,非思量,此乃坐禅要术也。

所谓坐禅非习禅,唯是安乐法门也。究尽菩提修证也。公案现成,罗笼未到,若得此意,如龙得水,似虎靠山。当知正法自现前,昏散先仆落。若坐立徐徐动身,可安详而起,不可卒暴也。

尝观超凡越圣、坐脱立亡,亦一任此力。况复拈指竿针鎚之转机,举拂拳棒喝之证契,非是思量分别之所能解,岂神通修证锁所能知哉?声色之外是威仪,何知见之前非轨则者哉。

然则不论上智下愚,莫简利人钝者,专一功夫正是办道也。修证自不染污,趣向更是平常物也。

凡夫自界他方、西天东地,等持佛印,一擅宗风,唯务打坐兀地碍,虽谓万别千差,只管参禅办道,何谩抛却自家坐床,去来他国尘境?若一步错,当面蹉过。

既得人身之机要,莫虚度光阴,保任佛道之要机。谁浪乐石火,加以、形质如草露,运命似电光,倏忽便孔,须臾即失。冀其参学高流,久习摸象,勿恠真龙,直指端的之道精进,尊贵绝学无为之人,合遝佛佛菩提,嫡嗣祖祖三昧。久是恁麼,须是恁麼。宝藏自开,受用如意也。(《普劝坐禅仪》原文翻译




English:


https://www.sotozen.com/eng/practice/zazen/advice/fukanzanzeng.html


Fukan Zazengi (Universally Recommended Instructions for Zazen)

The way is originally perfect and all-pervading. How could it be contingent on practice and realization? The true vehicle is self-sufficient. What need is there for special effort? Indeed, the whole body is free from dust. Who could believe in a means to brush it clean? It is never apart from this very place; what is the use of traveling around to practice? And yet, if there is a hairsbreadth deviation, it is like the gap between heaven and earth. If the least like or dislike arises, the mind is lost in confusion. Suppose you are confident in your understanding and rich in enlightenment, gaining the wisdom that knows at a glance, attaining the Way and clarifying the mind, arousing an aspiration to reach for the heavens. You are playing in the entranceway, but you are still short of the vital path of emancipation.

Consider the Buddha: although he was wise at birth, the traces of his six years of upright sitting can yet be seen. As for Bodhidharma, although he had received the mind-seal, his nine years of facing a wall is celebrated still. If even the ancient sages were like this, how can we today dispense with wholehearted practice?

Therefore, put aside the intellectual practice of investigating words and chasing phrases, and learn to take the backward step that turns the light and shines it inward. Body and mind of themselves will drop away, and your original face will manifest. If you want to realize such, get to work on such right now.

For practicing Zen, a quiet room is suitable. Eat and drink moderately. Put aside all involvements and suspend all affairs. Do not think "good" or "bad." Do not judge true or false. Give up the operations of mind, intellect, and consciousness; stop measuring with thoughts, ideas, and views. Have no designs on becoming a buddha. How could that be limited to sitting or lying down?

At your sitting place, spread out a thick mat and put a cushion on it. Sit either in the full-lotus or half-lotus position. In the full-lotus position, first place your right foot on your left thigh, then your left foot on your right thigh. In the half-lotus, simply place your left foot on your right thigh. Tie your robes loosely and arrange them neatly. Then place your right hand on your left leg and your left hand on your right palm, thumb-tips lightly touching. Straighten your body and sit upright, leaning neither left nor right, neither forward nor backward. Align your ears with your shoulders and your nose with your navel. Rest the tip of your tongue against the front of the roof of your mouth, with teeth together and lips shut. Always keep your eyes open, and breathe softly through your nose.

Once you have adjusted your posture, take a breath and exhale fully, rock your body right and left, and settle into steady, immovable sitting. Think of not thinking, "Not thinking --what kind of thinking is that?" Nonthinking. This is the essential art of zazen.

The zazen I speak of is not meditation practice. It is simply the dharma gate of joyful ease, the practice realization of totally culminated enlightenment. It is the koan realized; traps and snares can never reach it. If you grasp the point, you are like a dragon gaining the water, like a tiger taking to the mountains. For you must know that the true dharma appears of itself, so that from the start dullness and distraction are struck aside.

When you arise from sitting, move slowly and quietly, calmly and deliberately. Do not rise suddenly or abruptly. In surveying the past, we find that transcendence of both mundane and sacred, and dying while either sitting or standing, have all depended entirely on the power of zazen.

In addition, triggering awakening with a finger, a banner, a needle, or a mallet, and effecting realization with a whisk, a fist, a staff, or a shout --these cannot be understood by discriminative thinking; much less can they be known through the practice of supernatural power. They must represent conduct beyond seeing and hearing. Are they not a standard prior to knowledge and views?

This being the case, intelligence or lack of it is not an issue; make no distinction between the dull and the sharp-witted. If you concentrate your effort single-mindedly, that in itself is wholeheartedly engaging the way.

Practice-realization is naturally undefiled. Going forward is, after all, an everyday affair.

In general, in our world and others, in both India and China, all equally hold the buddha-seal. While each lineage expresses its own style, they are all simply devoted to sitting, totally blocked in resolute stability. Although they say that there are ten thousand distinctions and a thousand variations, they just wholeheartedly engage the way in zazen. Why leave behind the seat in your own home to wander in vain through the dusty realms of other lands? If you make one misstep, you stumble past what is directly in front of you.

You have gained the pivotal opportunity of human form. Do not pass your days and nights in vain. You are taking care of the essential activity of the buddha-way. Who would take wasteful delight in the spark from a flintstone? Besides, form and substance are like the dew on the grass, the fortunes of life like a dart of lightning --emptied in an instant, vanished in a flash.

Please, honored followers of Zen, long accustomed to groping for the elephant, do not doubt the true dragon. Devote your energies to the way of direct pointing at the real. Revere the one who has gone beyond learning and is free from effort. Accord with the enlightenment of all the buddhas; succeed to the samadhi of all the ancestors. Continue to live in such a way, and you will be such a person. The treasure store will open of itself, and you may enjoy it freely.


Soh:


On how painful sensations stop being a cause of mental afflictions for arahants: 


https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/sn36/sn36.006.nypo.html


SN 36.6 PTS: S iv 207 CDB ii 1263

Sallatha Sutta: The Dart

translated from the Pali by

Nyanaponika Thera

© 1998

Alternate translation: Thanissaro

"An untaught worldling, O monks, experiences pleasant feelings, he experiences painful feelings and he experiences neutral feelings. A well-taught noble disciple likewise experiences pleasant, painful and neutral feelings. Now what is the distinction, the diversity, the difference that exists herein between a well-taught noble disciple and an untaught worldling?


"When an untaught worldling is touched by a painful (bodily) feeling, he worries and grieves, he laments, beats his breast, weeps and is distraught. He thus experiences two kinds of feelings, a bodily and a mental feeling. It is as if a man were pierced by a dart and, following the first piercing, he is hit by a second dart. So that person will experience feelings caused by two darts. It is similar with an untaught worldling: when touched by a painful (bodily) feeling, he worries and grieves, he laments, beats his breast, weeps and is distraught. So he experiences two kinds of feeling: a bodily and a mental feeling.


"Having been touched by that painful feeling, he resists (and resents) it. Then in him who so resists (and resents) that painful feeling, an underlying tendency of resistance against that painful feeling comes to underlie (his mind). Under the impact of that painful feeling he then proceeds to enjoy sensual happiness. And why does he do so? An untaught worldling, O monks, does not know of any other escape from painful feelings except the enjoyment of sensual happiness. Then in him who enjoys sensual happiness, an underlying tendency to lust for pleasant feelings comes to underlie (his mind). He does not know, according to facts, the arising and ending of these feelings, nor the gratification, the danger and the escape, connected with these feelings. In him who lacks that knowledge, an underlying tendency to ignorance as to neutral feelings comes to underlie (his mind). When he experiences a pleasant feeling, a painful feeling or a neutral feeling, he feels it as one fettered by it. Such a one, O monks, is called an untaught worldling who is fettered by birth, by old age, by death, by sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief and despair. He is fettered by suffering, this I declare.


"But in the case of a well-taught noble disciple, O monks, when he is touched by a painful feeling, he will not worry nor grieve and lament, he will not beat his breast and weep, nor will he be distraught. It is one kind of feeling he experiences, a bodily one, but not a mental feeling. It is as if a man were pierced by a dart, but was not hit by a second dart following the first one. So this person experiences feelings caused by a single dart only. It is similar with a well-taught noble disciple: when touched by a painful feeling, he will no worry nor grieve and lament, he will not beat his breast and weep, nor will he be distraught. He experiences one single feeling, a bodily one.


"Having been touched by that painful feeling, he does not resist (and resent) it. Hence, in him no underlying tendency of resistance against that painful feeling comes to underlie (his mind). Under the impact of that painful feeling he does not proceed to enjoy sensual happiness. And why not? As a well-taught noble disciple he knows of an escape from painful feelings other than by enjoying sensual happiness. Then in him who does not proceed to enjoy sensual happiness, no underlying tendency to lust for pleasant feelings comes to underlie (his mind). He knows, according to facts, the arising and ending of those feelings, and the gratification, the danger and the escape connected with these feelings. In him who knows thus, no underlying tendency to ignorance as to neutral feelings comes to underlie (his mind). When he experiences a pleasant feeling, a painful feeling or a neutral feeling, he feels it as one who is not fettered by it. Such a one, O monks, is called a well-taught noble disciple who is not fettered by birth, by old age, by death, by sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief and despair. He is not fettered to suffering, this I declare.


"This, O monks, is the distinction, the diversity, the difference that exists between a well-taught noble disciple and an untaught worldling."




Mr. AD:


Soh Wei Yu yeah but the second case is not an arahant though. An arahant would have absolutely none of the mental profileration the text implies. There would be no "escape from the painful feeling" because the feeling would not be bothersome in the least. It would be empty mind appearance



Soh:


It is referring to arahats. And buddhas.


Arahants and buddhas have attained the death-free state. They have escaped the cycle of birth and death. It is only liberated and awakened beings that realize and attained that escape.


What did the buddha say?


9 Bhikshus, so long as I did not directly know these four elements as they really are, regarding the

gratification as gratification, and the danger as danger, and the escape as escape,

for that long I did not claim that I had awakened to the supreme full self-awakening in this world with

its devas, Mara and Brahma, in this generation with its ascetics and brahmins, its devas and humans.

10 But, bhikshus, when I directly knew, as they really are, thus—the world’s gratification as gratification,

and the danger as danger, and the escape as escape—

then I claimed that I had awakened to the supreme full self-awakening in this world with its devas,

Mara and Brahma, in this generation with its ascetics and brahmins, its devas and humans.

11 The knowledge and vision arose in me:

‘Unshakable is my liberation [5]—this is my last birth. There is now no more rebirth!’””



“The pleasure and joy that arise in dependence on form: this is the gratification in form. That form is impermanent, suffering, and subject to change: this is the danger in form. The removal and abandonment of desire and lust for form: this is the escape from form.”



—-


Also, excerpt from https://www.awakeningtoreality.com/2018/01/the-deathless-in-buddhadharma.html


Loppon Namdrol/Malcolm: “When you have eradicated all afflictions which cause rebirth, this is all the deathlessness you need. No more birth, BAM! no more death.”


Buddha: "SN 43 Asaṅkhata Saṃyutta (1-44 combined & abridged):


    And what, monks, is the not-fabricated (asaṅkhata)? The elimination of passion, the elimination of aggression, the elimination of delusion: this is called the not-fabricated.


    And what, monks, is the not-inclined (anata)? The elimination of passion, the elimination of aggression, the “


—-


Buddha also calls nibbana the escape:


“There is, bhikkhus, a not-born, a not-brought-to-being, a not-made, a not-conditioned. If, bhikkhus, there were no not-born, not-brought-to-being, not-made, not-conditioned, no escape would be discerned from what is born, brought-to-being, made, conditioned. But since there is a not-born, a not-brought-to-being, a not-made, a not-conditioned, therefore an escape is discerned from what is born, brought-to-being, made, conditioned.”


——


On exactly what such an escape is, here is another citation from Buddha, a partial quotation from MN 140:


https://suttacentral.net/mn140/en/bodhi?lang=en&reference=none&highlight=false


“Formerly, when he was ignorant, he experienced covetousness, desire, and lust; now he has abandoned them, cut them off at the root, made them like a palm stump, done away with them so that they are no longer subject to future arising. Formerly, when he was ignorant, he experienced anger, ill will, and hate; now he has abandoned them, cut them off at the root, made them like a palm stump, done away with them so that they are no longer subject to future arising. Formerly, when he was ignorant, he experienced ignorance and delusion; now he has abandoned them, cut them off at the root, made them like a palm stump, done away with them so that they are no longer subject to future arising. Therefore a bhikkhu possessing this peace possesses the supreme foundation of peace. For this, bhikkhu, is the supreme noble peace, namely, the pacification of lust, hate, and delusion.


“So it was with reference to this that it was said: ‘One should not neglect wisdom, should preserve truth, should cultivate relinquishment, and should train for peace.’


“‘The tides of conceiving do not sweep over one who stands upon these foundations, and when the tides of conceiving no longer sweep over him he is called a sage at peace.’ So it was said. And with reference to what was this said?


“Bhikkhu, ‘I am’ is a conceiving; ‘I am this’ is a conceiving; ‘I shall be’ is a conceiving; ‘I shall not be’ is a conceiving; ‘I shall be possessed of form’ is a conceiving; ‘I shall be formless’ is a conceiving; ‘I shall be percipient’ is a conceiving; ‘I shall be non-percipient’ is a conceiving; ‘I shall be neither-percipient-nor-non-percipient’ is a conceiving. Conceiving is a disease, conceiving is a tumour, conceiving is a dart. By overcoming all conceivings, bhikkhu, one is called a sage at peace. And the sage at peace is not born, does not age, does not die; he is not shaken and does not yearn. For there is nothing present in him by which he might be born. Not being born, how could he age? Not ageing, how could he die? Not dying, how could he be shaken? Not being shaken, why should he yearn?


“So it was with reference to this that it was said: ‘The tides of conceiving do not sweep over one who stands upon these foundations, and when the tides of conceiving no longer sweep over him he is called a sage at peace.’ Bhikkhu, bear in mind this brief exposition of the six elements.”



——


Also, here is an excerpt from the original AtR guide: 


“John TanMonday, May 12, 2014 at 6:06pm UTC+08

You are escaping into non-arising and emptiness of "no neck and no pain", trapped in the view of non-conceptual clarity also. What is the purpose of seeing the emptiness of "pain"? To ignore and rest in non-conceptual clarity? "Pain" does not arise? 


...


John TanMonday, May 12, 2014 at 6:11pm UTC+08

Buddha is telling you how to release suffering, free from birth by right understanding. Not telling you to be confused and not know what to do. He sees DO and know what causes re-birth and taught DO, anatta to free us from sufferings. The purpose of telling you there is no pain in the neck so that you don't apply wrong medicine to the pain! It is not in the neck for example. So you are not trapped! Don't keep thinking it is just the neck get it? So that you can "see" clearly the causes and conditions of this empty "pain" in the neck. Otherwise you are not curing the "pain in the neck" because there is no so called inherent "pain" in the neck… You keep pressing and poking the neck cause more problems...lol. Wrong way, wrong understanding, wrong medicine! Get it? Like a person suffered from slipped disc and the big toe always feel numb and pain, the "pain in the toe" is empty, this is not to say there is "no pain", but to tell you DO...so you can correctly see and realize the exact causes and conditions and understand that it is from the disc protrusion that touches the spinal cord. So you can "cure" it …


Soh Wei YuMonday, May 12, 2014 at 6:30pm UTC+08

ic.. so its like seeing four nobles truths.. suffering, cause, cessation and path 


John TanMonday, May 12, 2014 at 6:30pm UTC+08

Yes. Every sensation, experience, mental object, event...whatever appears to arise is so. Now if I go to the doctor and he gives me muscle relaxant and it cures for a while and come back again...what is it telling me?


Soh Wei YuMonday, May 12, 2014 at 6:44pm UTC+08

the root cause is not removed?


John TanMonday, May 12, 2014 at 6:45pm UTC+08

Yes...assuming you learn by trail and error...by experimentation ... You start pressing the neck and press until it swollen...lol...it is not working. Then you go to the doctor it gives you muscle relaxant, it cures and comes back and you visit a Chinese doctor, it gives you medicine that you purge the "heaty" stuff...and it cures and then it comes back again... You begin to know more and more of the dependencies… Until you are able to link and see the stress that associates with the "pain"...the mental factors… When that attachment to projects, the success and failure, the mental attitude of total acceptance and release...and the pain is gone… You begin to understand deeper… The projects, the mental attitudes, the stress, the medicine, the energy imbalances...how they exert into this arising. Then the mental attitude of acceptance of the pain of the raw sensations and the mental attitude of full acceptance of success and failure of the projects… And the pain in the neck...all the karmic activities. When I visited my Chinese doctor, I told him about my neck pain...he was telling me not to earn so much of "$$$"...lol. He was not just joking...but he sees "the link" in a very practical sense. Total exertion of DO is not to make us more dumb...lol. From top to bottom, there is no self, just these activities.”


In my previous post, I asked a question that was a quote from someone else. I should have crafted my own question and will attempt to do so now.
I am very appreciative of the wisdom that is shared in this group and especially the amazing contributions of Soh.
If any one wants to continue to answer my question, my request would be using only YOUR words, not links to other authors/teachers or books or ATR links of JT quotes.

I am hoping that answers could be in a few sentences or paragraphs as the truth should not require many words.
I understand that this query is significantly limited by my current level of clarity of awakening and language in general.
Soh Wei Yu
I think you wrote the following, please correct me if wrong.
Manifestation, being dependently arisen, is empty of anything truly existent. What dependently originates does not come from anywhere or go to anywhere - there isn't some ultimate source behind arising. There is just an empty and luminous apparition, a shimmering display of appearances that is fundamentally non-arising.

Even so called nothingness is just mere manifestation, mere appearance, that passes. Waking state passes. Dream state passes. Deep sleep passes. Nothingness, presence, etc all passes - contrary to what many masters say, there is in fact nothing special, ultimate or unchanging about these. None of these are I, me, mine. All of them are like dreams, illusions, bubbles and shadows.
Awareness is perception. Even what seems to transcend all this, is still more manifestation.
The above is a very clear statement.
My question is as follows:
From above: “there isn’t some ultimate source behind arising”. Without attempting to reify anything or go Advaita, logic dictates that there cannot be something from nothing. What would that nothing be? Undeniably, experience is. What is this isness from which arisings spring?
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Mr. PP
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The undeniable nature of experience is nothing but the appearances. Appearances are unceasing and undeniable. That's it. We don't need an "isness" from which appearances spring. All ideas of 'isness' behind appearances actually depend on the appearances themselves! So it's a strangely circular question to ask where the isness comes from that "arisings spring" out of. All notions of 'isness' are nothing but conceptual proliferations built on top of appearances.
Notions of something and nothing also depend on appearances, not the other way around. So appearances are freed from the proliferations "something" and "nothing".
As to the exact way that appearances appear, this is just dependent arising. But since nothing is established by dependent arising we don't need to ask where it comes from. We don't need to ask 'how could something come from nothing?', because no 'something' is ultimately established. What is 'established' is nothing but an illusory appearance.
Those appearances do follow relative rules, in the same way that inside the story world of harry potter there are relative rules about how, for example, spells are cast (say a magic word, wave the wand a certain way lol). The world of Harry Potter is not ultimately established, and yet what appears in that world has self-consistency and relative validity to the other appearances in that world. All appearances are like this. Clearly apparent, but illusory, dreamlike, without substance, not truly established. Yet like a story book what appears still follows rules which are conventionally valid.
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Mr. SM
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Thank you Mr. PP
Soh Wei Yu
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Appearance is isness. There is no background from which arising springs, be it a 'something' or a 'nothing'. Isness is the springing, the arising. Experience is only ever the appearance, there is no experiencer or experiencing besides that appearance, no more than the wind blowing has a blower or that wind exists as anything besides a name for the blowing. That extra agent is a deluded reification, and seeing through that is the realization of anatta.
An ultimate background substratum or source behind appearance is precisely the illusion seen through in anatta realization, only vivid radiant appearance itself knows and rolls without a knower. Without that insight, one does not go beyond I AM or at most substantialist nondual realization.
Different Degress of No-Self: Non-Doership, Non-dual, Anatta, Total Exertion and Dealing with Pitfalls
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Different Degress of No-Self: Non-Doership, Non-dual, Anatta, Total Exertion and Dealing with Pitfalls
Different Degress of No-Self: Non-Doership, Non-dual, Anatta, Total Exertion and Dealing with Pitfalls
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Soh Wei Yu
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Zen Master Dogen:
Mind is skin, flesh, bones and marrow. Mind is taking up a flower and smiling. There is having mind and having no mind... Blue, yellow, red, and white are mind. Long, short, square, and round are mind. The coming and going of birth and death are mind. Year, month, day, and hour are mind. The coming and going of birth and death are mind. Water, foam, splash, and flame are mind. Spring flowers and autumn moon are mind. All things that arise and fall away are mind.
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Dogen:
‘Mind as mountains, rivers, and the earth is nothing other than mountains, rivers, and the earth. There are no additional waves or surf, no wind or smoke. Mind as the sun, the moon, and the stars is nothing other than the sun, the moon, and the stars.’
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“For Dōgen, Buddha-nature or Busshō (佛性) is the nature of reality and all Being. In the Shōbōgenzō, Dōgen writes that “whole-being (Existence itself) is the Buddha-nature” and that even inanimate things (grass, trees, etc.) are an expression of Buddha-nature. He rejected any view that saw Buddha-nature as a permanent, substantial inner self or ground. Dōgen held that Buddha-nature was “vast emptiness”, “the world of becoming” and that “impermanence is in itself Buddha-nature”.[23] According to Dōgen: Therefore, the very impermanency of grass and tree, thicket and forest is the Buddha nature. The very impermanency of men and things, body and mind, is the Buddha nature. Nature and lands, mountains and rivers, are impermanent because they are the Buddha nature. Supreme and complete enlightenment, because it is impermanent, is the Buddha nature.[24] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dōgen#Buddha-nature
Dōgen - Wikipedia
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Dōgen - Wikipedia
Dōgen - Wikipedia
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Soh Wei Yu
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But to answer more precisely 'where it comes from', the answer is, if you read my other thread, you will know that 'from where' does not apply. There is only ever this presencing-appearance that dependently originates, and what dependently originates never truly originated. I won't elaborate here as you will need to read a bit more.
If you want a simple answer, this presencing-appearance rolls on via dependent origination without an agent, nor an ultimate source, nor a background.. without beginning and end. No beginning, and definitely no ultimate beginning or origin either, and if you wanna get a little intellectual, we can say, Buddhists have no problem with the infinite regression of beginningless dependent origination on a relative level -- infinite regression is not a problem or illogical to us, instead the whole 'uncaused Cause' is itself illogical to us (if everything must originate from a creator source, why doesn't that logic also apply to the creator?). There is simply no starting point from which this 'the whole thing started'. With insight it is so clearly seen that there is only ever luminous manifestation, there is no such thing as an 'unmanifest source', and no such thing as some kind of unmanifest God that got bored with its loneliness and thus want to 'play'. No such thing at all, the stream of consciousness has always been inseparable from conditions without beginning for countless lifetimes, and there is no ultimate beginning state 'prior manifestation'. Even the nothingness of deep sleep is just another illusory phenomena, another transient state no less empty than any other appearance, like dreams and illusions. So is the pure formless presence realized in I AM yet another manifestation -- no more/less purer, no more/less empty and no more/less luminous than pure sight-presence-consciousness and so on.
But the dependent origination and emptiness is deep and will need some time to discover its depths and profundity.
tl/dr: this moment of consciousness is the total exertion/dependent origination of all conditions of all times and all space, which includes importantly, a previous moment of consciousness (and this stream of consciousness can be traced back into infinite past and will continue into infinite future).
Consciousness is the momentary manifestation/appearance of each moment, and not some kind of background and substratum. A permanent consciousness or substratum is Advaita view, not in line with Buddhist insight of anatta.
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Mr. SM
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Soh Wei Yu thank you !
Tommy McNally
I may be misunderstanding your question, but I'd say the short answer is the habitual pattern of ignorance which leads to the appearance of arising in the first place.
The direct experience of dharmata makes it clear that questions of something vs. nothing come from the same deluded mind that causes us to perceive ourselves as independently existent entities.
I'm on my way somewhere right now, but I'll add more/answer/clarify whenever I get a chance.
Look at your experience and see that this self-arising display of light and colour is truly miraculous! No beginnings or endings beyond their mental imputation!!
Mr. SM
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Tommy McNally thanks !
Aditya Prasad
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There is a problem with "logic dictates." Where does logic come from, if not your mind? How can it dictate the nature of reality? It gets us into all sorts of messes, like "if there is observation, there must be an observer."
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Soh Wei Yu
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On dependent origination of consciousness
Something I wrote before:
• ⁠The six types of consciousness are also provisional, but it is important in order to deconstruct the idea that consciousness is a singular and unchanging/inherently existing consciousness like brahman, some unchanging substance independent of conditions and various manifestations. The point is to point out the emptiness of inherent existence of consciousness, and also to point out dependent origination. The raft of the teachings of aggregates, six consciousness are not meant to be clung to or reified. See the sutta where Buddha scolded Bhikkhu Sati for holding substantialist view of consciousness: https://suttacentral.net/mn38/en/bodhi
Buddha: “* Misguided man, have I not stated in many discourses consciousness to be dependently arisen, since without a condition there is no origination of consciousness?”
….
Buddha: ““Bhikkhus, consciousness is reckoned by the particular condition dependent upon which it arises. When consciousness arises dependent on the eye and forms, it is reckoned as eye-consciousness; when consciousness arises dependent on the ear and sounds, it is reckoned as ear-consciousness; when consciousness arises dependent on the nose and odours, it is reckoned as nose-consciousness; when consciousness arises dependent on the tongue and flavours, it is reckoned as tongue-consciousness; when consciousness arises dependent on the body and tangibles, it is reckoned as body-consciousness; when consciousness arises dependent on the mind and mind-objects, it is reckoned as mind-consciousness. Just as fire is reckoned by the particular condition dependent on which it burns—when fire burns dependent on logs, it is reckoned as a log fire; when fire burns dependent on faggots, it is reckoned as a faggot fire; when fire burns dependent on grass, it is reckoned as a grass fire; when fire burns dependent on cowdung, it is reckoned as a cowdung fire; when fire burns dependent on chaff, it is reckoned as a chaff fire; when fire burns dependent on rubbish, it is reckoned as a rubbish fire—so too, consciousness is reckoned by the particular condition dependent on which it arises. When consciousness arises dependent on the eye and forms, it is reckoned as eye-consciousness…when consciousness arises dependent on the mind and mind-objects, it is reckoned as mind-consciousness.”
——-
Also, the Dalai Lama also have quoted and commented on this sutta in his recent book:
• ⁠
• ⁠“Because it is easy to consider consciousness with its thoughts, feelings, moods, and opinions to be the person, it is worthwhile to examine this notion more closely. The Buddha clearly states that consciousness is not the self. In the Greater Sutta on the Destruction of Craving, he calls Bhikṣu Sāti and questions him about his wrong view that the consciousness is the self. The following dialogue ensues (MN 38.5):
• ⁠(The Buddha): Sāti, is it true that the following pernicious view has arisen in you: As I understand the Dhamma taught by the Blessed One, it is this same consciousness that runs and wanders through the round of rebirths, not another?
• ⁠(Sāti): Exactly so, Venerable Sir. As I understand the Dhamma taught by the Blessed One, it is this same consciousness that runs and wanders through the round of rebirths, not another.
• ⁠(The Buddha): What is that consciousness, Sāti?
• ⁠(Sāti): Venerable Sir, it is that which speaks and feels and experiences here and there the “ the result of good and bad actions.
• ⁠(The Buddha): Misguided man, to whom have you ever known me to teach the Dhamma in that way? Misguided man, have I not stated in many discourses consciousness to be dependently arisen, since without a condition there is no origination of consciousness?
• ⁠Sāti’s view is that consciousness exists in and of itself, independent of conditions. Saying the self is that which speaks shows the I as an agent of the action of speaking. Saying the self feels is the notion that the I is a passive subject that experiences. “Here and there” indicates the self as a transmigrator that remains unchanging as it passes through many rebirths. This consciousness or self goes from life to life, creating karma and experiencing its results, but not being transformed or changing in the process. It has an unchanging identity that remains the same as it experiences one event after another and goes from one life to the next. In short, Sāti views the consciousness as an ātman or Self.
• ⁠The commentary explains that Sāti was an expert in the Jātaka Tales, in which the Buddha recounts his previous lives, saying, “At that time, I was[…]”
• ⁠Excerpt From
• ⁠Realizing the Profound View
• ⁠Bhikṣu Tenzin Gyatso, Bhikṣuṇī Thubten Chodron
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Mr. SM
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Thanks Soh!
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