the sixth patriarch's sutra august 9, 2013 lecture

8/22/2019 The Sixth Patriarch's Sutra August 9, 2013 Lecture

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The Sixth Patriarchs Sutra7:30pm Pacific time, USA

August 9, 2013 lectureas outlined by a Buddhist monk

at 1777 Murchison Drive, Burlingame, California 94010, open to public

(phone 650-6925912)

(Listen live or recorded audio explanations at

www.wondrousdharma.org)

Q&A The meaning of Wonderful, and DharmaFlower

Chapter 7 Bhiskhu Chih Chang empty space

[Subscribe to the free Dharma News at www.wondrousdharma.org]


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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: 24

At that time in the country Adorned with All Pure Light, there was aBodhisattva by the name of Wondrous Sound, who had, for a longtime, planted the roots of virtue by making offerings and drawing nearto limitless hundreds of thousands of myriads of kotis of Buddhas andhad accomplished profound wisdom. He had obtained the Samadhi ofthe Wonderful Banner, the Samadhi of the Dharma Flower.(The

Wonderful Dharma Lotus Flower Sutra)


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Q&A

Question : There are many kinds of Samadhis; there is for example,

the Samadhi of the Wonderful Banner Appearance, the

Samadhi of Dharma Flower, the Samadhi of Sun Revolution

and the Samadhi of No Strife. How do the samadhi arise andwhat can we learn from them?

Answer :

Samadhi is the concentration or the stillness and calming of the

mind.

The samadhi of the Wonderful Banner describes the samadhi

that comes from understanding the real appearance of

everything is without appearance, yet there is nothing that is not

included. 3


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Q&A

How could a samadhi arise from the wisdom knowledge of

understanding real appearance of everything?

Wonderful existence does not really exist because they are

ultimately empty; true emptiness is not totally empty; they dont

obstruct each other.

There is no reality in everything; all sense objects are like dustin empty space; the four elements of the dust will ultimately

return to emptiness.

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Q&A

The Samadhi of the Dharma Flower is to understand the non

duality between cause and effect; non duality of provisional and

real; the concept of level and equal without high or low.

There is ultimate equality from beginning to the end in the Ten

Realities: the reality of the appearance, the reality of the nature,

the reality of the substance, the reality of the power, the realityof the function, the reality of the causes, the reality of the

conditions, the reality of the effects, the reality of the

retributions, and the reality of ultimate equality from beginning

to the end.

Whatever you experience today, is a cause planted in the past;

this is the ultimate equality or non duality between true andfalse, common and sagely.

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Q&A

When you combine the Samadhis of Wonderful Banner

Appearance and the Dharma Flower, it is the knowledge and

vision and purity of the Buddha; that is

everything is made by the mind that is empty and unmoving,and yet everything or wonderful existence is not apart from the

original empty mind; everything will ultimately return to stillness

and emptiness.

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Q&A

The samadhi of Sun Revolution is the samadhi the mind that

does not dwell anywhere, analogous to the sun revolving

around the earth.

The samadhi of No Strife is holding to the view of notcontending at all times and in all situation because there is

absolutely no self, other people, living beings and a life.

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Q&A

A verse from the Great Master Sixth Patriarch will also show the

intertwining of wisdom and samadhi, and that the Dharma

Flower Sutra teaches the seeing the nature through

understanding the Wonderful Banner (Principle) and theDharma Flower.

With speech and mind both understood,

Like the sun whose place is in space,

Just spread the seeing-the-nature way

Appear in the world to destroy false doctrines.8


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Chapter 7 Bhikshu Chih Chang

Sutra: The Master said, What instruction did he give you? Try

to repeat it to me.

Comments:

Let me know what you understand from the instructions ofHigh Master Ta Tung.

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Sutra: Chih Chang said, After arriving there, three months

passed and still I had received no instruction. Being eager

for the Dharma, one evening I went alone into the Abbots

room and asked him, What is my original mind andoriginal substance?

Comments:

Eager or brash?

He chose eager because of the consciousness of the self.

Good question that points to the heart of the teaching of the

Buddha.

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Sutra: Ta Tung then said to me, Do you see empty space?

Yes, I said, I see it.

Ta Tung said, Do you know what appearance it has?

I replied, Empty space has no form. How could it have an

appearance?

Comments:

Eager or brash? Brash because he didnt address Ta Tung as

the High Master, but by his name.

Nothing is attained. Do you get anything from emptiness?

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Sutra: Ta Tung then said to me, Do you see empty space?

Yes, I said, I see it.

Ta Tung said, Do you know what appearance it has?

I replied, Empty space has no form. How could it have an

appearance?

Comments:

The original mind is without appearance.

With the Dharma Realm as substance, what could be outside?

With empty space as function, what is not included? (VenerableMaster Hsuan Hua)

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Sutra: Ta Tung said, Your original mind is just like empty

space. To understand that nothing can be seen is called right seeing;to know that nothing can be known is called true knowing. There is

nothing blue or yellow, long or short. Simply seeing the clear, pureoriginal source, the perfect, bright enlightened substance, this is what

is called seeing ones nature and realizing Buddhahood. It is also

called the knowledge and vision of the Tathagata.

Comments:

Recognize your original mind and see the nature. What is our

original nature like? Like empty space

Clear is the oceanic nature of enlightenment;

Flawlessly clear it is, and wondrous at its origin. 13


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It is not the confused empty space that comes from delusion:

But from within that fundamental mind that understands,

Objects appear and with creation of these objects then

The fundamental understanding vanishes.

Then from confusion and delusion, empty space appears;

And all the worlds come into being clinging to that space;14


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space. To understand that nothing can be seen is called

right seeing; to know that nothing can be known is called

true knowing. There is nothing blue or yellow, long orshort. Simply seeing the clear, pure original source, the

perfect, bright enlightened substance, this is what is called

seeing ones nature and realizing Buddhahood. It is also


Comments:

Recognize the original mind that is wisdom mind unattachedand patient mind, see the Buddha nature.

How can we arrive this wisdom and patient mind?... 15


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In the first stage of freeing a faculty, one understands that

the self is empty.

Once that emptiness is fully understood, one can become

free of attachment to phenomena.

Once one is free from attachment to phenomena, then bothself and phenomena have been emptied and will no longer

arise.

This is the patience that the Bodhisattva develops by

means of samadhi (stillness of mind) the patient with the

state in which no mental objects come into being.

(Shurangama Sutra) 16


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true knowing. There is nothing blue or yellow, long or short. Simplyseeing the clear, pure original source, the perfect, bright enlightened

substance, this is what is called seeing ones nature and realizing

Buddhahood. It is also called the knowledge and vision of the

Tathagata.

Comments:

Seeing is simply seeing; turn around the obstacles of affliction.

Let go of your views of seeing is simply seeing; turn around

the obstacles of knowing. 17


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true knowing. There is nothing blue or yellow, long orshort. Simply seeing the clear, pure original source, the

perfect, bright enlightened substance, this is what is called

seeing ones nature and realizing Buddhahood. It is also


Comments:

The proper knowledge of a Buddha is that the original emptymind produces everything and everything will return to the

original mind.

How do we apply this principle in our daily life? 18


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Now that we know ultimately everything is empty and still then

we would be patient in the midst of everything, let go of

attachments to self and dharmas.

What do we mean and how do we see everything as empty andstill?

Now you see a lightning flash,

Now you dont see it anymore.

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Venerable Master Hsuan Hua says:

This like a great empty space: originally there is nothing there,

but then suddenly there is a flash of lightning.

Now do you see or not?

Bodhisattva Manjusri says in the Shurangama assembly:

And thus does space arise within the great enlightenment,

Appearing like a bubble on the sea,

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And thus do beings with outflows and the worlds

uncountable

Arise within that empty space, and when space disappears

And when that bubble bursts could the three realms not

vanish?

In the eyes of the Bodhisattvas, the coming into being and the

ceasing of the Solar system is like a blink of an eye.

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Sutra: Although I heard his instruction, I still do not

understand and beg you, O Master to instruct me.

The Master said, Your former masters explanation still

retains the concepts of knowing and seeing; and that iswhy you have not understood.

Comments:

Concepts, principles or practices are meant to take you to the

other shore; when you arrive at the other shore, you must let go

of the concepts, principles or practices.

Now do you understand the wordless dharma?

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Sutra: Now, I will teach you with a verse:

Not to see a single dharma still retains no-seeing,

Greatly resembling floating clouds covering the sun.

Comments:

When you still have a knowledge of no seeing, it is like clouds

covering the brilliance of the sun.

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Sutra:

Not to know a single dharma holds to empty knowing,

Even as a lightning flash comes out of empty space.

Comments:

Now you know

Now you empty this knowledge from your mind.

Just like a lightning flash; when it is over, it returns to empty

space.

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Sutra:

This knowing and seeing arise in an instant.

When seen wrongly, can expedients be understood?

Comments:

When the mind moves even with a single thought of eitherknowing nothing or seeing nothing, then you have not

understood the principle of no seeing.

Two obstacles common people experience: obstacles of

knowing and the obstacles of afflictions.25


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Sutra:

If, in the space of a thought, you can know your own error,

Your own spiritual light will always be manifest.

Comments:

But, if you understand that you shouldnt hold to the notion ofunderstanding and practicing emptiness, then you see your

original nature.

There is no suffering, no accumulating, no extinction, no

way and no understanding, and no attaining.26


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Because nothing is attained, the Bodhisattva, through

reliance on prajna paramita, is unimpeded in his mind.

Because there is no impediment, he is not afraid, and he

leaves distorted dream thinking far behind.

Ultimately nirvana! (Heart of Prajna Paramita Sutra)

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Sutra:

Hearing the verse, Chih Chang understood it with his heart

and mind, and he composed this verse:

Without beginning, knowing and seeing arise.

When one is attached to marks bodhi is sought out.

Comments:

Since time without beginning, I have remained in confusion

because of the obstacles of knowing and the obstacles of

afflictions.

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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 9, 2013 lecture

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