the sixth patriarch's sutra march 2, 2012 lecture

8/2/2019 The Sixth Patriarch's Sutra March 2, 2012 Lecture

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The Sixth Patriarchs Sutra7:30pm Pacific timeMarch 2, 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 The discriminating mind ceased.

Chapter 2 Prajna no-thought, no remembrance, noattachments and avoiding falsehood

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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, wonderfulDharma,

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 Buddhadharma:

This Dharma cant be demonstrated, the mark of language being still andextinct,; of all kinds of living beings none there is who can understand it

except for the host of Bodhisattvas firm in the power of faith. (the WonderfulDharma Lotus Flower Sutra)


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Q&A

Question: Someone commented, By not doing anything and

carrying on with this normal life, would not Venerable Elder

Master Xu Yun allow the gang of bandits who had beaten him

continue with their ruthless spree?Answer:

The reason why Venerable Master Xu Yun did not do anything

despite having physical injuries from the beatings by a gang of

bandits is because he has put down the discriminating self and

understood the reality of the principle of karma.

Venerable Elder Master underwent the karmic retribution as if in

a dream, being careful to avoid planting new cause and

contemplating and seeing the effect as a dream.3


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Q&A

In doing so, the karmic debt ends there and then.

Should the gang continue with their ruthless deeds, whatever

may happen is just the retribution of whoever encounter them.

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Chapter 2 Prajna

Sutra: Good Knowing Advisors, Maha Prajna Paramita is

the most honored, the most supreme, the foremost. It does

not stay; it does not come or go. All Buddhas of the three

periods of time emerge from it.Comments:

The Buddha in the Heart Sutra says: All Buddhas of the threeperiods of time attain anuttarasamyaksambodhi through

reliance on prajna paramita.

Mahaprajnaparamita is the mother of all Buddhas.

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Chapter 2 Prajna

Sutra: You should use great wisdom to destroy affliction,

defilement, and the five skandhic heaps. With such

cultivation as that you will certainly realize the Buddha

Way, transforming the three poisons into morality,concentration, and wisdom.

Comments:

How do you use wisdom to overcome afflictions, defilement and

the five skandhic heaps?

By turning around the mind

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Chapter 2 Prajna

Understanding that ignorance is affliction, defilement, and

engaging in the five skandhas, wisdom is simply the mindnot

afflicted, not engaging in defilement, not engaging in the five

skandhas.

Wisdom is putting down the false mind; and the true mind is

revealed.

How is it that we are able to turnaround the mind?

It is because we understand Mahaprajnaparamita; the principle

of emptiness of all dharmas.

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Chapter 2 Prajna

Sutra: You should use great wisdom to destroy affliction,

defilement, and the five skandhic heaps. With such

cultivation as that you will certainly realize the Buddha

Way, transforming the three poisons into morality,concentration, and wisdom.

Comments:

The mind of greed, anger and delusion is the sick mind of the

7th conscious mind.

Because of the false self, to benefit self, there is these 3

poisons.

Cultivation is putting down the false mind of greed, anger and

delusion into the practice of being mindful of morality,concentration and wisdom.8


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Chapter 2 Prajna

Sutra: Good Knowing Advisors, my Dharma-doorproduces 84,000 wisdoms from the one Prajna. Why?

Because worldly people have 84,000 kinds of defilement. In

the absence of defilement, wisdom is always present, since

it is not separate from the self-nature.

Comments:

All the myriad wisdom comes from the wisdom thought ofputting down the defilement.

And after having done so, we dont have any attachment oreven any thought of having turnaround.

When we put down the false mind, the true prajna wisdom is

ever present in our self nature. 9


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Chapter 2 Prajna

Sutra: Understand that this dharma is just no-thought, no-remembrance, non-attachment, and the non-production of

falsehood and error. Use your own true-suchness nature,

and, by means of wisdom, contemplate and illuminate all

dharmas without grasping or rejecting them. That is to see

ones own nature and realize the Buddha Way.

Comments:

Wisdom is no-thought, no-remembrance, non-attachment and

non-production of falsehood and error.

How is it we are able to bring out our prajna wisdom nature?

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Chapter 2 Prajna

Because we contemplate that the reality of all dharmas: mind is

the myriad phenomena, myriad phenomena are the mind.

We dont grasp nor reject when everything is empty and false.

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Chapter 2 Prajna

Sutra: Understand that this dharma is just no-thought, no-remembrance, non-attachment, and the non-production of


and, by means of wisdom, contemplate and illuminate all

dharmas without grasping or rejecting them. That is to see


Comments:

No-thought does not mean to suppress the false thoughts.

No thought is not to give rise to discursive thinking and this is

achieved by putting down the discriminating mind andattachment to the self.

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Chapter 2 Prajna

No-remembrance is to forget about the past; move on.

Non-attachment is not being attached to anything, including the

thought of having practiced and put down the false.

Non-production of falsehood and error is to avoid creating the

cause that leads to our future suffering.

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Chapter 2 Prajna

Sutra: Understand that this dharma is just no-thought, no-

remembrance, non-attachment, and the non-production of


and, by means of wisdom, contemplate and illuminate alldharmas without grasping or rejecting them. That is to see


Comments:

Grasping is when we perceive all dharmas to be real, asexisting.

Rejecting is when we perceive all dharmas to be unreal, asempty

Neither grasping nor rejecting is to perceive all dharmas as adream; empty and yet not totally empty.14


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Chapter 2 Prajna

Grasping and rejecting are dualities that comes from

attachments and false thinking that the myriad phenomena are

real and existing.

Grasping is when we like something; rejecting is when we

dislike.

Ultimately the original mind does not hold liking and disliking.

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Chapter 2 Prajna

Sutra: Good Knowing Advisors, if you wish to enter the

extremely deep Dharma realm and the Prajna samadhi, you

must cultivate the practice of Prajna.

Comments:

Prajna is to be practiced; not for intellectualization

Use prajna wisdom to turnaround affliction, defilement, the five

skandhas and the three poisons to precepts, samadhi and

wisdom.

Practice no-thought, no remembrance, no attachments, no

production of falsehood and error and contemplate all dharmas

without grasping nor rejecting them. 16


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Chapter 2 Prajna

Sutra: Hold and recite The Diamond Prajna Sutra and that

way you will see your own nature.

Comments: The practice of prajna also involves holding onto the principles

of the Vajra (Diamond) Prajna Paramita Sutra and

The constant recitation of the Vajra Sutra as reverence to the

Sutra and to remind us of the supreme principles of emptiness

contained in the Sutra.

If people of the Great Vehicle, the Most Superior Vehicle,

hearThe Diamond Sutra, their minds open up, awaken, and

understand. They then know that their original nature itselfpossesses the wisdom of Prajna.17


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Chapter 2 Prajna

Sutra: You should know that the merit and virtue of this

Sutra is immeasurable, unbounded, and indescribable, as

the Sutra text itself clearly states.

Comments:

The reason why merit and virtue of the Vajra (Diamond) Prajna

Paramita Sutra is measureless is because the teachings

addresses the essential nature

S 14 Subhuti, if in the future there is a good man or good

woman who can accept, uphold, read or recite this Sutra,then the Thus Come One using his Buddha-wisdom will

thoroughly know and thoroughly see such a person. That

person will obtain immeasurable and boundless merit and

virtue. 18


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Chapter 2 Prajna

S 12 How much the more should they make offerings to

any place where there are people who can completely

accept, uphold read and recite this Sutra...

You should know that such people accomplish the

supreme foremost and most rare of Dharmas. Wherever

this Sutra is found, there is a Buddha or reverent disciple.

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Chapter 2 Prajna

Sutra: This Dharma-door is the Superior Vehicle, taughtfor people of great wisdom and superior faculties. When

people of limited faculties and wisdom hear it, their minds

give rise to doubt.Comments:

S 6 Subhuti addressed the Buddha, World Honored One,

in the future will there be living beings who truly believeupon hearing such phrases?

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Chapter 2 Prajna

The Buddha told Subhuti, Do not say that! In the last five

hundred years after the Thus Come Ones Cessation, therewill be those who, holding the moral precepts ad

cultivating blessings, will believe such phrases and accept

them as true

You should know that such people have not planted

good roots with just one Buddha, two Buddhas, three

Buddhas, four or five Buddhas, but they have planted goodroots at the places of immeasurable tens of millions of

Buddhas.

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Chapter 2 Prajna

Sutra: Why is that? Take for example the rain which theheavenly dragons shower on Jambudvipa. Cities and

villages drift about in the flood like thorns and leaves. But

if the rain falls on the great sea, its waters neither increase

nor decrease.

Comments:

The above is for the explanation of the following previous line:

When people of limited faculties and wisdom hear it, their

minds give rise to doubt.

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Chapter 2 Prajna

Sutra: Why is that? Take for example the rain which theheavenly dragons shower on Jambudvipa. Cities and

villages drift about in the flood like thorns and leaves. But

if the rain falls on the great sea, its waters neither increase

nor decrease.

Comments:

The above is for the explanation of the following previous line:

This Dharma-door is the Superior Vehicle, taught for

people of great wisdom and superior faculties.

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Chapter 2 Prajna

Sutra: If people of the Great Vehicle, the Most SuperiorVehicle, hearThe Diamond Sutra, their minds open up,

awaken, and understand. They then know that their original

nature itself possesses the wisdom of Prajna.

Comments:

The title of the Vajra Prajna Paramita Sutra tells us:

Vajra is indestructible

Prajna means literary, contemplative and real appearance

wisdom Paramita means reaching the other shore

In sum, this Sutra points to the inherent prajna wisdom of our

Buddha nature which is ever present.24


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Chapter 2 Prajna

Sutra: Because they themselves use this wisdomconstantly to contemplate and illuminate, they do not rely

on written words.

Comments:

When you constantly contemplate and truly understand the

principles of the Vajra Prajna Paramita Sutra, then you

understand nothing spoken, nothing attained, and all dharmasare empty in nature.

Subhuti, what the Thus Come One speaks of asappearances of dharmas are not appearances of

dharmas.

Therefore they are called appearances of dharmas. 25


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Chapter 2 Prajna

Sutra: Take for example the rain water. It does not comefrom the sky. The truth is that the dragons cause it to fall in

order that all living beings, all plants and trees, all those

with feeling and those without feeling may receive its

moisture. In a hundred streams it flows into the great sea

and there unites in one substance. The wisdom of the

Prajna of the original nature of living beings acts the same

way.

Comments:

The cause for the opening of our wisdom is the Vajra Sutra.

And finally, when do fully uncover our wisdom, we merely unite

with the great sea of our inherent prajna wisdom. 26


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Chapter 2 Prajna

Sutra: Good Knowing Advisors, when people of limitedfaculties hear this Sudden Teaching, they are like the

plants and trees with shallow roots which, washed away by

the great rain, are unable to grow.

Comments:

those who, holding the moral precepts ad cultivating

blessings, will believe such phrases and accept them as

true. You should know that such people have not plantedgood roots with just one Buddha, two Buddhas, three

Buddhas, four or five Buddhas, but they have planted good

roots at the places of immeasurable tens of millions of

Buddhas.

Conversely, those who dont believe this Sutra are those with

shallow roots, unable to receive and accept the teachings ofthe Va ra Sutra.27


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Chapter 2 Prajna

Sutra: But at the same time, the Prajna wisdom whichpeople of limited faculties possess is fundamentally no

different from the Prajna that men of great wisdom

possess.

Comments:

For those of inferior roots do possess the inherent prajna

wisdom in perfection.

The difference between is that those of deep roots have drawn

near to the Triple Jewels for many lives and those of inferiorroots dont.

Therefore the importance of drawing near the Triple Jewel.28


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Chapter 2 Prajna

Sutra: Hearing this Dharma, why do they not becomeenlightened? It is because the obstacle of their deviant

views is a formidable one and the root of their afflictions is

deep. It is like when thick clouds cover the sun: if the wind

does not blow, the sunlight will not be visible.Comments:

Why do people of inferior roots not accept the SuddenTeaching even though they may encounter them?

It is because of they are being fixated in their deviant views.

It is also because they always harbor afflictions and when they

are constantly afflicted, how could they understand and see

clearly? 29


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Chapter 2 Prajna

Sutra: Prajna wisdom is itself neither great nor small. Livingbeings differ because their own minds are either confused

or enlightened. Those of confused mind look outwardly to

cultivate in search of the Buddha.

Comments:

Every living being has the inherent prajna wisdom which isperfect and complete

Confusion is to search for wisdom outside your own self; justlike looking for a rabbit with horns

Awakening is to look inwards, shine the light inwards30


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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 march 2, 2012 lecture

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