the sixth patriarch's sutra august 17, 2012 lecture

7/31/2019 The Sixth Patriarch's Sutra August 17, 2012 Lecture

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The Sixth Patriarchs Sutra7:30pm Pacific timeAugust 17, 2012 lecture

as outlined by a Buddhist monkat 1777 Murchison Drive, Burlingame, California 94010, open to public(phone 650-6925912)

(Listen live or recorded audio explanations at

www.wondrousdharma.org)

Q&A Ultimatelythere is nothing at all

Chapter 4 Concentration and wisdom

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Verse for opening a sutra

Na Mwo Fundamental Teacher Shakyamuni Buddha (3x)

Homage to the Dharma Jewel Platform Sutra (3x)

The unsurpassed, deep, profound, subtle, wonderful Dharma,

In a hundred thousand million eons, is difficult to encounter,

Now that Ive come to receive and hold it, within my sight and

hearing, I vow to fathom the Thus Come Ones true and actual meaning.

Exhortation to uphold the Dharma:

His single focus is to speak the Dharma according to causal conditions;his wish is to realize the Buddha Way and lead living beings to do thesame. This then is his greatest benefit: the offering of peace andcomfort. (the Wonderful Dharma Lotus Flower Sutra)


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Q&A

Question:

The original mind is without the 3 poisons; the difficulty is to put

down the 3 poisons. How do we put down the 3 poisons then?

Answer:

The gradual method is to use precepts, samadhi and wisdom to

overturn greed, anger and delusion respectively.

The sudden method is to realize that ultimately there is not

single thing, that is

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Q&A

ultimately this universe never really existed; it was all an

illusions of the mind.

Sudden teaching is about embracing in a single thought that

every thing is consciousness and therefore they are illusory andwithout a nature or reality of its own

this universe is just the mind And thus does space arise

within the great enlightenment, appearing like a solitary

bubble in the sea and when the bubble of confusion burst,

did this universe exist? 4


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Q&A

The awakening of Patriarch Dhyana Master Fa Yen (proclaiming the

Dharma) to illustrate the importance of investigating into the reality of this

universe

The Master studied under Dhyana Master Bai Yun. One day,

Bai Yun said to him, There are several Chan cultivators who

have come from Mount Lu, and all of them have reached a

certain level of awakening.

You ask them to talk they are able to talk.

If I cite different public records of the Chan school, they areable to understand them.5


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Q&A

If I ask them to judge certain situations, they are well able to do

that, too, nonetheless, they havent arrived there yet!

At that point the Master was filled with doubt. He thought,Since these people have awakened and are capable of

understanding and discoursing on the Dharma, why is it that

they still havent arrived there yet?

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Q&A

He looked intently into the matter for several days, and then all

of a sudden he had a great awakening.

He went and reported this to Bai Yun. Bai Yun was so pleased

that he pranced up and down.

Afterwards the Master commented, Because of this matter I

broke out in full sweat. ..

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Q&A

Then I understood that originally it was like pure breeze

blowing through.

The interpretation by the Venerable Master Hsuan Hua is:

Basically nothing was going on.

One shouldnt become attached to any appearance. Its like alight breeze and the bright moon originally there is nothing.

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Q&A

The Sudden Teaching is just this:

Basically there is not a single thing,

How can the dust alight?

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Q&A

The importance of this teaching principle is expressed in the first two of the ten

vows of Bodhisattva Guanyin:

First, I vow to quickly know all dharmas, which essentially is to

know that everything is ultimately empty.

Second, I vow to quickly attain the wisdom eye, which implies

the wisdom of putting down attachment because of theknowledge that everything is ultimately empty.

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Sutra:

No- thought means to be without thought while in the

midst of thought. No-dwelling is the basic nature of human

beings.

Comments:

To be without thought while in the midst of thought means not

to hold onto past thoughts and not to be fixated.

We become humans because we dwell on phenomena;

returning to the original mind is to empty phenomena in the

mind.11


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Sutra:

In the world of good and evil, attractiveness and ugliness,

friendliness and hostility, when faced with language which

is offensive, critical, or argumentative, you should treat itall as empty and have no thought of revenge.

Comments:

In the world of dualities, all manner of speech should be viewed

as empty and

in doing so, one empties the self by emptying the sense

organs.12


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Sutra:

In every thought, do not think of former states. If past,

present, and future thoughts succeed one another without

interruption, it is bondage. Not to dwell in dharmas fromthought to thought is to be free from bondage. That is to

take no dwelling as the basis.

Comments:

Thoughts should not pertain to past events and past thoughts.

Being free from dharmas is to be free from thinking of matters

that is over.

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Sutra:

Good Knowing Advisors, to be separate from all outward

marks is called no-mark. The ability to be separate from

marks is the purity of the Dharmas substance. It is to takeno-mark as the substance.

Comments:

No-mark means being free from any attachments to outward

appearances of the environment.

To see all appearances as no appearance.

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Sutra:

Good Knowing Advisors, the non-defilement of the mind

in all states is called no-thought. In your thoughts you

should always be separate from states; do not give rise tothought about them.

Comments:

The mind not holding on to any matters on hand is no thought;

move on.

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Sutra:

If you merely do not think of the hundred things, and so

completely rid yourself of thought, then as the last thought

ceases, you die and undergo rebirth in another place. Thatis a great mistake, of which students of the Way should

take heed.

Comments:

On the one hand, we are not attached to dharmas, on the other

hand we should not completelyrid yourself of any thought.

The teaching of the Buddha is the teaching of the Middle Way.

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Sutra:

To misinterpret the Dharma and make a mistake yourself

might be acceptable, but to exhort others to do the same is

unacceptable. In your own confusion you do not see, and,moreover you slander the Buddhas Sutras. Therefore no-

thought is established as the doctrine.

Comments:

It is not in the word no thought; it is in the meaning of the

teaching. It is a mistake to take no thought literally as being

completely without thought.

The teaching is the teaching of the Middle Way; neither clinging

to extremes. 17


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Sutra:

Good Knowing Advisors, why is no-thought established

as the doctrine? Because there are confused people who

speak of seeing their own nature, and yet they producethought with regard to states. Their thoughts cause deviant

views to arise, and from that all defilement and false

thinking are created.

Comments:

Speaking of seeing your own self nature, yet when we

encounter states all manner of defiled false thinking arise.

This principle of no thought reminds us to guard our minds.

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Sutra:

Originally, not one single dharma can be obtained in the

self-nature. If there is something to attain, or false talk of

misfortune and blessing, that is just defilement and deviantviews. Therefore, this Dharma-door establishes no-thought

as its doctrine.

Comments:

Originally, there is not a single thing or dharma; is there

anything to obtain?

The no thought doctrine is about returning to the original mind;

the original mind is empty and clear of dharmas and non-dual.19


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Sutra:

Good Knowing Advisors, No means no what? Thought

means thought of what? No means no two marks, no

thought of defilement. Thought means thought of theoriginal nature of True Suchness. True Suchness is the

substance of thought and thought is the function of True

Suchness.

Comments:

No means without; without thoughts of discrimination of purityand defilement.

Thought is the Thus Come Ones Matrix; the source orBuddha-nature from which everything comes about.20


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Reality is the product of thought; thought is reality.

Mind is the myriad phenomena of Reality; the myriad

phenomena are just the mind.

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Sutra:

The True Suchness self-nature gives rise to thought. It is

not the eye, ear, nose, or tongue which can think. The True

Suchness possesses a nature and therefore gives rise tothought. Without True Suchness, the eye, ear, forms, and

sounds immediately go bad.

Comments:

Mind gives rise to thought.

The five sense faculties cannot function without the mind.

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Sutra:

Good Knowing Advisors, the True Suchness self-nature

gives rise to thought, and the six faculties, although they

see, hear, feel, and know, are not defiled by the tenthousand states. Your true nature is eternally independent.

Comments:

The Buddha-nature gives rise to thought and the myriad

phenomena.

Yet the Buddha-nature is not defiled by or attached to the

myriad phenomena because this true nature is eternally

abiding. 23


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Sutra:

Good Knowing Advisors, the True Suchness self-nature

gives rise to thought, and the six faculties, although they

see, hear, feel, and know, are not defiled by the tenthousand states. Your true nature is eternally independent.

Therefore, the Vimalakirti Sutra says, If one is well able to

discriminate all dharma marks, then, in the primary

meaning, one does not move.

Comments:

Basically, one does not move whilst in the midst of the

appearances or states of the mind.

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Why do you move or react to sense objects?

It is because you are attached to sense objects and a self.

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Chapter 5 Sitting in Chan

Sutra:

The Master instructed the assembly: The door of sitting in

Chan consists fundamentally of attaching oneself neither

to the mind nor to purity; it is not non-movement.

Comments:

Chan is about the mind not being attached to objects of

afflictions and not being attached to views.

Chan is not unmoving per se, that is Chan is not just

concentration devoid of wisdom of being without attachments.26


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Sutra:

One might speak of becoming attached to the mind, and

yet the mind is fundamentally false. You should know that

the mind is like an illusion, and therefore there is nothingto which you can become attached.

Comments:

If you grasp your own mind, whats not illusion then

becomes illusory.(Shurangama Sutra)

Becoming attached to the mind is to be attached to the mind

that is dependent on perceived objects; there is no reality in the

perceived objects, they are illusions of the mind itself. 27


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Sutra:

One might say that to practice Chan is to attach oneself

to purity, yet the nature of people is basically pure.

Comments:

Why do we need to purify the mind that originally is without asingle defilement?

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Dedication of merit

May every living beings,

Our minds as one and radiant with light

Share the fruits of peace, with hearts of goodness

luminous and bright. If people hear and see, how hands and hearts can find in

giving unity

May their minds awake, to great compassion, wisdom

and to joy. May kindness find reward; may all who sorrow leave their

grief and pain;

May this boundless light break the darkness of theirendless night.

Because our hearts are one, this world of pain turns intoparadise;

May all become compassionate and wise (2x)


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Dedication of merit

I vow that merit made from this deed will become,

Adornments for the Pure Land of Bu-ddhas. Repaying the four kinds of kindness above,

And aiding those in three paths below.

May all who see and hear of this deed Bring forth the resolve to reborn

In the Land of Ultimate Bliss.

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the sixth patriarch's sutra august 17, 2012 lecture

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