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# From the Abiding Triple Gem to the Intrinsic Triple Gem
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------A talk given at the Wutai Mountain "Refreshing Journey" Summer Camp, summer 2005
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Master Jiqun
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[I. Taking Refuge in the Buddha [2](#一皈依佛)](#一皈依佛)
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[1. Buddha Images [2](#佛-像)](#佛-像)
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[2. The Buddha's Physical Body [3](#佛的色身)](#佛的色身)
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[3. The Qualities of the Buddha [4](#佛陀的品质)](#佛陀的品质)
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[4. The Chan Perspective [5](#禅宗的见地)](#禅宗的见地)
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[II. Taking Refuge in the Dharma [6](#二皈依法)](#二皈依法)
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[1. The Mind of Sentient Beings [6](#众生心)](#众生心)
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[2. The Unfolding of a Deluded Life [7](#迷乱人生的开展)](#迷乱人生的开展)
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[3. The Continuity of Sentient Life [8](#有情生命的相续)](#有情生命的相续)
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[4. The Function of the Dharma [9](#法的作用)](#法的作用)
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[5. The Gradual Path of the Doctrinal Schools [9](#教下的渐修之路)](#教下的渐修之路)
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[6. The Sudden Path of the *Platform Sutra* [11](#坛经的顿修之路)](#坛经的顿修之路)
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[7. Reflections on the Sudden Approach [13](#顿修法门的思考)](#顿修法门的思考)
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[III. Taking Refuge in the Sangha [14](#三皈依僧)](#三皈依僧)
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[1. Choosing a Good Teacher [15](#善知识的选择)](#善知识的选择)
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[2. The Role of a Good Teacher [15](#善知识的作用)](#善知识的作用)
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[3. Conditions for Relying on a Good Teacher [16](#依止善知识的条件)](#依止善知识的条件)
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[IV. Conclusion [17](#四结束语)](#四结束语)
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The Three Jewels embody the entirety of the Buddhadharma. The whole course of study and practice is thus inseparable from taking refuge in the Three Jewels. Learning Buddhism begins with going for refuge---this is our declaration and commitment to the Three Jewels. Only through the specific ceremony of taking refuge in the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha do we formally enter the ranks of Buddhist disciples. Going for refuge is therefore the basic criterion for determining whether one is a Buddhist.
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If taking refuge marks the starting point of the bodhi path, its endpoint is the realization of qualities no different from those of the Three Jewels themselves. Regrettably, many Buddhists understand taking refuge rather superficially, some even placing their entire faith in the ceremony alone, as if their Buddhist practice were complete the moment the ritual ended---as if from then on they could forever enjoy the blessings of all buddhas and the protection of the Three Jewels. We must understand that taking refuge can never be covered by a single ceremony; it is a practice that spans the entire journey to buddhahood.
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An important distinction between other religions and Buddhism is this: in faiths centered on God, God is forever the supreme master and the believer forever the humble servant---this relationship is fixed and unchanging. For Buddhist disciples, though the Three Jewels are our refuge, the aim of taking refuge is to realize the Intrinsic Triple Gem within. When the Buddha awakened beneath the bodhi tree, he discovered that every sentient being fully possesses the wisdom and virtue of the Tathāgata. As it is said, "Mind, Buddha, and sentient beings---there is no difference among the three." In other words, though buddhas and ordinary beings appear worlds apart, on some level of life they are nondual---no different from each other.
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The reason we are ordinary beings is our present quality of life, which consists of greed, hatred, and delusion---of ignorance and clinging to self. But we need not lose heart. Beneath layer upon layer of afflictions lies an inexhaustible inner treasure, containing compassion and wisdom as perfect as those of the Three Jewels---the very foundation of unsurpassed bodhi. Spiritual practice is precisely about uncovering this latent quality. Just as mining requires mastering survey techniques, practicing refuge begins with recognizing the merits of the Three Jewels, then recalling and familiarizing ourselves with them until we can connect with them and ultimately realize them.
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The practice of recollecting the Three Jewels is profoundly important. Whatever we constantly recollect, the mind aligns with. If day after day we dwell on wealth, the mind aligns with wealth and we seek and seize every chance to get rich. If day after day we dwell on emotional attachment, the mind aligns with attachment, until it becomes an inseparable part of our life. In the same way, by continually recollecting the merits of the Three Jewels, their weight in our mind grows steadily, spurring us to draw out the merits of the Three Jewels inherent in our own nature.
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Learning Buddhism is a process of moving from recognizing to realizing the qualities of the Three Jewels. The Three Jewels are profound in meaning. Beyond the Abiding Triple Gem, there is also the Manifested Triple Gem, the Noumenal Triple Gem, the Intrinsic Triple Gem, and so on---each revealing the deeper meanings of the Three Jewels from a different dimension. Ordinary Buddhists tend to fixate on the Abiding Triple Gem while overlooking the Noumenal Triple Gem and the Intrinsic Triple Gem, never penetrating from the surface to the depths. If we stop at taking refuge only in the Abiding Triple Gem, no matter how devoted we are, our practice will scarcely progress. Yet some veer to the opposite extreme, claiming they are already buddhas and need not take refuge in the external Three Jewels. In truth, relying on the Abiding Triple Gem is an indispensable part of Buddhist practice. As long as our mind remains at the ordinary level, the Intrinsic Triple Gem is already obscured---it is present yet as good as absent. Like a mineral deposit, it requires specific techniques to be extracted and refined before it becomes useful. The Abiding Triple Gem is precisely the indispensable means that helps us recognize and draw out the Intrinsic Triple Gem.
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How can we realize life's highest value through understanding and taking refuge in the Three Jewels?
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{#一皈依佛}
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## I. Taking Refuge in the Buddha
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Buddha, from the Sanskrit *buddha*, means "the awakened one." This awakening is spoken of in contrast to the non-awakening of ordinary beings. The Buddha not only awakened himself; he was also able to guide sentient beings to awakening, fully endowed with every virtue and perfect in enlightened conduct. The boundless merits he embodies are also reflected in his ten epithets: Tathāgata, Arhat, Samyaksaṃbuddha, Vidyācaraṇa-saṃpanna, Sugata, Lokavid, Anuttara, Puruṣa-damya-sārathi, Śāstā Deva-manuṣyāṇām, and Bhagavān (the World-Honored One).
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Taking refuge in the Buddha may involve seeking the blessings of the Buddha's power, but more importantly it means following in the Buddha's footsteps, practicing what the Buddha practiced, and realizing what the Buddha realized---thereby achieving the "inherent, natural Buddha of our original nature."
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{#佛-像}
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###### 1. Buddha Images
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Buddha images, depictions of the Buddha, are one form of the Abiding Triple Gem, representing the Jewel of the Buddha. As for the origin of Buddha images, the *Ekottarikāgama Sūtra* records that while the World-Honored One was away in the Trāyastriṃśa heaven teaching the Dharma to his mother for three months, his devotees King Udayana and King Prasenajit, longing to see the Buddha, each sculpted an image---one from ox-head sandalwood, the other from purple-gold---and made offerings before it as if in the Buddha's very presence.
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After the Buddha entered *parinirvāṇa*, Buddha images became sacred symbols, reverently gazed upon, bowed to, and offered to by the faithful. The primary purpose of Buddhist imagery is "that all who gaze upon his compassionate countenance from the ten directions may experience great joy, faithfully accept the refuge, broadly plant roots of goodness, and subtly dissolve unwholesome thoughts." This warm approach of teaching through form allowed Buddhism to step from its spiritual sanctuary into society, conveying to people the meaning of loving-kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity, and revealing the realm of the Pure Land on the other shore. In every Buddhist monastery---whether Theravāda, Chinese Mahāyāna, or Tibetan---you will find sublime and majestic images of buddhas and bodhisattvas. Their styles and sizes vary: some are towering colossal statues, others exquisite carvings smaller than an inch. Yet all embody the compassionate image of the buddhas and bodhisattvas as held in the hearts of the faithful.
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So, are Buddha images equivalent to the Buddha's true body? On this question, the Chan story of "Danxia Burning the Buddha" offers insight. Master Danxia, who lived during the Tang dynasty, once stayed at Huilin Monastery east of Luoyang. Feeling cold, he took a wooden Buddha image from the hall and burned it for warmth. The abbot, furious, demanded: "Why are you burning the Buddha?" The master replied: "I am burning it to obtain relics." The abbot was baffled: "How can a wooden Buddha yield relics?" The master answered: "If there are no relics, then bring two more and I will burn them too." Hearing this, the abbot had an insight. The master acted as he did to break people's attachment to form---their fixation on clay and wood statues as the Buddha while failing to see the true Buddha of their own nature. Of course, we must not casually imitate the extraordinary methods Chan patriarchs used to teach the stubbornly deluded.
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Though Buddha images are not the Buddha's true body, venerating them with reverence is an exceptionally profound practice---it strengthens a practitioner's refuge in the Three Jewels and serves as a vital supporting condition for progress in cultivation. If we can regard a Buddha image as the Buddha's true body and bow to it with sincere devotion, a sense of sacredness and reverence will spontaneously arise, and the mind will be purified in that very moment. If, on the other hand, we view it as nothing more than art, then beyond appreciating or deriving aesthetic pleasure from it, it will have no power to awe or shake our mental conduct. In front of a Buddha image, our mind will wander just as wildly and our afflictions will be just as heavy. Some people therefore dismiss the sacralization of Buddha images as a product of blind faith, even condemning it as "idolatry." They fail to see that it is a practice by which Buddhist disciples emulate the worthy, purify their minds, and awaken their own nature---a practice of profound significance. That is why, among Samantabhadra's Ten Great Vows, "Pay homage to all buddhas" comes first: through homage, the mind gradually comes into accord.
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It should also be noted that we must not stop at attachment to Buddha images in our practice. Otherwise, we will be bound by external forms. Moving from revering Buddha images to transcending attachment to forms represents different stages of practice---they should be cultivated in sequence, and neither is to be neglected.
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{#佛的色身}
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###### 2. The Buddha's Physical Body
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The Buddha's physical body refers to our original teacher Śākyamuni, born over two thousand years ago, who manifested the eight phases of a buddha's path to awakening. It is one aspect of the Manifested Triple Gem. Out of compassion to deliver sentient beings, the Buddha manifested in the human realm, teaching the Dharma and transforming beings in this Sahā world. From this, Buddhism spread and flourished throughout the world.
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Can the Buddha's physical body represent the Buddha? For ordinary beings, seeing someone's form is seeing the person; when speaking of someone, the image that comes to mind is their form. Is there anything more representative than that?
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The Buddha is endowed with the thirty-two marks and eighty excellent signs. Does seeing these marks and signs of excellence amount to seeing the Buddha's true body? The World-Honored One tells us in the *Diamond Sutra*: "If one were to see the Tathāgata through his thirty-two marks, then a wheel-turning sage king would be the Tathāgata." Subhūti replied: "World-Honored One, as I understand the meaning of your teaching, one should not see the Tathāgata through his thirty-two marks." The World-Honored One then spoke the celebrated verse: "Those who see me in form, who seek me through sound, walk a mistaken path and cannot see the Tathāgata."
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The Buddha's physical body is also a provisional appearance born of causes and conditions. Therefore, seeing the Tathāgata's physical marks does not equal seeing his true body. It is recorded that when the Buddha was returning from the Trāyastriṃśa heaven, his disciples all eagerly went to receive him. The nun Utpalavarṇā, wanting to be the first to behold the Buddha, transformed herself into a wheel-turning sage king and placed herself at the head of the procession. Unexpectedly, the Buddha said: "Though you see my physical body, you do not see my Dharma body. Subhūti, sitting quietly in the forest, sees my Dharma body." It turned out that while the others went to greet the Buddha, Subhūti had kept the World-Honored One's instruction "to see the Dharma is to see the Buddha" firmly in mind. Through proper contemplation of conditioned arising, he penetrated the emptiness of all dharmas and directly perceived the Tathāgata's Dharma body. This also confirms what the Buddha repeatedly emphasized in the *Diamond Sutra*---that one "cannot see the Tathāgata through his physical marks," because "all marks are illusory."
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The Tathāgata appears in the world in a physical body as a skillful means to guide sentient beings; he teaches with voice and speech out of compassion to instruct them. If we cling to physical marks, sounds, or verbal teachings, we will instead fail to see the Tathāgata's true body. Yet we should also know that while the physical body is not the true body, we cannot seek the Tathāgata apart from it. For the Dharma body pervades everywhere and is not separate from the physical body. The wise can realize the Dharma body right within the physical body.
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{#佛陀的品质}
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###### 3. The Qualities of the Buddha
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The Buddha means the awakened one---one who has perfected self-awakening, the awakening of others, and awakened conduct. The core quality of the Buddha is therefore his awakened nature, what the *Platform Sutra* calls the self-nature of bodhi. The *Platform Sutra* opens with the Sixth Patriarch announcing to the assembly: "The self-nature of bodhi is originally pure. Simply use that mind, and you will directly accomplish buddhahood." This opening statement sets the theme and directly expresses the heart of the matter. All the various merits the Buddha possesses are built upon the foundation of awakened nature. It is the power of awakening that enabled the Buddha to realize the virtue of severing afflictions, the virtue of wisdom, and the virtue of compassion.
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The virtue of severing afflictions is also called liberation---the Tathāgata has cut off all afflictions and karmic obstructions, purifying them without remainder. In the endless continuity of life, ignorance drives us to create all manner of karma; we ceaselessly wander through birth and death, cycling through rebirth and its consequences. Ignorance also gives rise to countless afflictions; moment after moment we fall into inverted delusions and sink into the sea of suffering. People endlessly chase external pleasures, trying to mitigate their distress. But in this impermanent and fragile world, all conditioned phenomena are like dreams, illusions, bubbles, and shadows. Whether wealth or status, family or friends, their effect is tainted and limited---at most they temporarily ease our afflictions, but they can never address the root cause. How then can we eradicate afflictions? The Buddhadharma tells us that within life itself lies a capacity to counteract afflictions: the awakened nature. Once it comes into play, afflictions dissolve on their own. It was through perfecting his awakened nature that the Buddha achieved the virtue of severing afflictions and transcended the twofold clinging to self and dharmas. Awakened nature and liberation are therefore inseparable.
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The virtue of wisdom is *prajñā* wisdom---the Tathāgata, with impartial wisdom, illuminates all dharmas completely and without obstruction. The *anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi* attained by all buddhas is the supreme, unsurpassed awakening, which is why they are called those who know all. "All-knowledge" includes knowledge of the way things are and knowledge of all that exists. Knowledge of the way things are means the wisdom that perceives the essential nature of things. Knowledge of all that exists means the wisdom that perceives every differentiated phenomenon of conditioned arising throughout the world. From attaining differentiated knowledge come the infinite skillful means for liberating sentient beings.
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The virtue of compassion is perfect great compassion---the Tathāgata, riding on the power of great vows, rescues and protects sentient beings; none with a karmic connection fails to be delivered. The Buddha's compassion is impartial, boundless, and immeasurable, worlds apart from the limited kindness of ordinary beings. Mencius said, "A sense of commiseration is common to all human beings." But the compassion of ordinary beings is extremely limited because it rests on a narrow sense of self. It cares only about oneself and one's family, extending at most to one's ethnic group and nation. Even those who can embrace all of humanity find it difficult to extend such care to all sentient beings. The compassion of buddhas and bodhisattvas, by contrast, is "great compassion without conditions, great compassion of shared embodiment." They regard all beings as one with themselves, without conditions or distinctions of closeness and distance. That they can reach this state is also the work of awakened nature. The Buddha has transcended the twofold clinging to self and dharmas and realized the fundamental equality of all sentient beings. He can therefore benefit beings with pure, undefiled compassion, now and forever, without interruption.
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Awakened or not---this is the fundamental difference between buddhas and sentient beings. As the *Platform Sutra* says: "One thought of delusion and you are an ordinary being; the next thought of awakening and you are a buddha." Delusion makes an ordinary being (non-awakening); awakening makes a buddha (awakening). Delusion and awakening are not two diametrically opposed forms of life---both exist right in our present moment of thought. The difference between affliction and bodhi, too, is simply whether the mind clings to or detaches from objects. As it is said, "One thought clinging to objects is affliction; the next thought detached from objects is bodhi." Why do we cling to objects? Again, because of non-awakening. When the mind attaches to an object and generates the twofold clinging to self and dharmas, afflictions arise. The moment awakening surfaces and we free ourselves from clinging to objects, that very moment is bodhi. It was by opening the awakened nature within that the Buddha perfected great compassion and great wisdom, realizing great liberation and great freedom.
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{#禅宗的见地}
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###### 4. The Chan Perspective
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Awakened nature is not unique to the Buddha. In truth, every sentient being possesses it completely. In Buddhism, a great many sutras and śāstras discuss this awakened nature inherent in all beings, especially the texts of the Tathāgatagarbha tradition. Different texts describe it in slightly different terms: the *Śūraṅgama Sūtra* calls it the wondrous, luminous true mind; the *Nirvāṇa Sūtra* calls it buddha-nature, and so forth. In these scriptures, the Buddha explains it in many ways, with earnest analogies, to awaken beings to recognize and uncover their own inner treasure. The *Nirvāṇa Sūtra* states: "All sentient beings possess buddha-nature. Because of this buddha-nature, sentient beings already have the ten powers, the thirty-two marks, and the eighty excellent signs within them." The *Tathāgatagarbha Sūtra* similarly says: "Amid the afflictions of greed, anger, and delusion in all sentient beings, there sits the Tathāgata's wisdom, the Tathāgata's eyes, the Tathāgata's body, in full lotus posture, majestic and unmoving."
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Life holds a priceless treasure within, yet we live as wandering beggars---how tragic. This is why some high-entry-point practice methods directly guide practitioners to recognize awakened nature. The Chan school, as well as the Great Perfection and Mahāmudrā of Tibetan Buddhism, all take the Tathāgatagarbha as their view, recognizing that sentient beings inherently possess the qualities of buddhahood, and use this as the starting point of practice.
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Teachings on this abound in the Chan records. When Chan Master Huihai visited Mazu, "Mazu asked: 'What have you come here for?' He replied: 'I have come seeking the Buddhadharma.' Mazu said: 'You ignore the treasure in your own house and run off wandering---what for? There is not a single thing here---what Buddhadharma are you looking for?' Huihai bowed and asked: 'What is Huihai's own treasure?' Mazu replied: 'The very one asking me this question right now is your treasure. It is perfectly complete, lacking nothing, free and at ease---what need is there to seek it outside?'" Later, someone asked Master Huihai: "What is the Buddha?" The master replied: "Right across the clear pond---who is that if not the Buddha?" Everyone is fully endowed with buddha-nature. The only question is whether we recognize it and dare to own it. That is why Chan practice places great weight on directly taking it up.
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In the *Platform Sutra*, when the Sixth Patriarch Huineng first met the Fifth Patriarch, he displayed this heroic spirit: "The Fifth Patriarch asked: 'Where are you from, and what do you seek?' Huineng answered: 'Your disciple is a commoner from Xinzhou in Lingnan. I have come a long way to pay respects to you, seeking only to become a buddha, nothing else.' The Fifth Patriarch said: 'You are a man of Lingnan, and a barbarian at that---how can you become a buddha?' Huineng replied: 'People may be northerners or southerners, but buddha-nature has no north or south. The body of a barbarian may differ from yours, Your Reverence, but what difference is there in buddha-nature?'"
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At the level of buddha-nature, all sentient beings are identical, without essential difference---whether Buddhist or Christian, even mosquitoes and ants. It is only because of differences in karma and accumulated life experience that all manner of distinctions appear. The moment we uncover this treasure and realize the awakened nature---originally pure, originally unborn and undying, originally complete in itself, originally unshakable, yet able to give rise to all dharmas---life undergoes a qualitative leap. As the Fifth Patriarch told the Sixth: "If one does not know the original mind, studying the Dharma is of no benefit. But if one knows the original mind and sees the original nature, then one is called a great hero, a teacher of gods and humans, a buddha."
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Furthermore, the three bodies and four wisdoms discussed in the *Platform Sutra* are also attained through awakened nature. The three bodies are: the pure Dharma body as essence, the perfect reward body as wisdom, and the billions of transformation bodies as action. The four wisdoms are the great perfect mirror wisdom, the wisdom of equality, the wondrous observing wisdom, and the wisdom of accomplishing all actions. Awakened nature is thus the foothold of all Buddhist practice, and the very root from which the Buddha achieves all merits. As the Sixth Patriarch says in the *Platform Sutra*: "The self-nature contains the three bodies; when revealed, they become the four wisdoms. Without leaving the conditions of seeing and hearing, one ascends directly to the buddha ground."
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At the same time, awakened nature has the capacity to dissolve every affliction. While the doctrinal schools use various methods to counter different afflictions, the practice of Chan, the Great Perfection, and Mahāmudrā focuses on one supreme stroke that routs the multitudes encamped within the fortress of afflictions. In fact, once awakened nature comes into play, the citadel of afflictions collapses on its own. Afflictions have no intrinsic nature, so when the twofold clinging to self and dharmas disintegrates, they lose their objects of attachment and have no ground left to stand on.
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Taking refuge begins with the Abiding Triple Gem, moving from Buddha images to the Buddha's physical body to the Buddha's qualities, going deeper layer by layer until we finally recognize the awakened nature that is no different from the Buddha's. In the *Platform Sutra*, the Intrinsic Triple Gem is defined as awakening, correctness, and purity. Taking refuge in the Three Jewels is thus taking refuge in awakening, correctness, and purity. The meaning of taking refuge and of studying and practicing the Buddhadharma is therefore none other than opening the awakened nature inherent in our own lives.
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{#二皈依法}
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## II. Taking Refuge in the Dharma
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*Dharma*, from the Sanskrit *dharma*, generally has a very broad range of meanings, encompassing all phenomena from mountains and rivers to the myriad things of the world. Here, however, it carries a specific meaning: the Buddhadharma---the teachings that reveal the truth of sentient life and provide the methods for cutting off delusion and realizing truth. Only the Buddhadharma, therefore, can serve as the ultimate refuge for life.
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Though the Buddhadharma is vast and profound, with countless Dharma gates, its focus lies squarely on the mind. If we overlook this focus, our study and practice will inevitably go astray. So to learn Buddhism, we must first understand our own mind. Only with this in place can we truly grasp the meaning of our practice.
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{#众生心}
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###### 1. The Mind of Sentient Beings
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The continuity of life comes from the continuity of mind. The Buddhadharma tells us that the mind of sentient beings contains two levels: the awakened and the non-awakened. From these two, entirely different lives unfold. In the simplest binary division, the world is divided into the sacred and the ordinary. From awakening arises the pure world of sages; from non-awakening arises the defiled world of ordinary beings.
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Why are ordinary beings not awakened? It is precisely because of ignorance. When awakened nature is obscured by ignorance, the mind dwells in darkness and delusion, unable to see clearly the conditioned phenomena of the world or its own original face. Because the truth is not seen, the mind imposes all kinds of mistaken constructs upon reality and clings to them. Among these, clinging to self is the most conspicuous error.
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Who is this "I"? What represents the "I"? Some might say, "I am the person named so-and-so." But if you changed your name, would the "I" change? Some might say, "I am this particular body." But before this body came into being, where did the "I" come from? When the body returns to ashes, where does the "I" go? Some might say, "I am me---what else could I be, you?" Then why is the one that is not you precisely the "I"? Where do the chasm and the boundary between you and me come from?
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In truth, all these judgments arise from clinging to self. Clinging to self means the deluded attachment to a substantially existent self. From one thought of delusion arise thought after thought of delusion, taking the false as true and the illusory as real, generating the entire mass of afflictions and karmic obstructions. Clinging to self is therefore the very source that constitutes the ordinary mind.
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{#迷乱人生的开展}
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###### 2. The Unfolding of a Deluded Life
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Since time without beginning, we have been entangled in the mistaken constructs of the twofold clinging to self and dharmas. It has become a deep-rooted habit, an inborn instinct. Because of this ignorance and non-awakening, a life of deluded thoughts and inverted views unfolds, with all manner of confused projections, upon which further constructs are layered. We then develop fixed attachments to these constructs, giving rise to immensely complex mental states and triggering countless, boundless afflictions.
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Take this teacup, for instance. It is itself merely a provisional appearance born of causes and conditions, without any fixed ownership. But after we spend money to buy it, we add a construct to it, feeling that this teacup is "mine." Beyond that, we attach still more labels to it: perhaps we find it exquisite, or precious, or rare, and so on, deepening our grasping attachment. In truth, none of these constructs adds anything to the teacup. The various elements that constitute the conditioned appearance of this teacup do not change in the slightest because of any construct.
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Our mind, however, is affected by them. Rather than saying these constructs are attached to the teacup, it would be more accurate to say they add an extra point of clinging within our own minds. When we damage or lose the teacup, we feel remorse and regret; when someone else damages or loses it, we feel anger and resentment. If the teacup were merely an item on a store shelf and we had never developed a sense of attachment to it, would its changes affect us as strongly? Every day, in every part of the world, losses caused by natural disasters and human tragedies occur on a scale millions or billions of times greater than our personal losses. We might sigh for them, even shed a tear of sympathy, but we soon forget. A favorite teacup, however, can stay on our minds for a long time. Why? It is nothing other than our clinging to self.
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The deeper the attachment, the stronger its disruptive force. There was once a Chan master of profound attainment named Jin Bifeng, whose skill in meditation was remarkable. When he was about to pass away, the ghostly minions could not find him anywhere. Then they learned that the master's only remaining attachment was his alms bowl, so they rattled it. Hearing the bowl ring, the master's mind was momentarily disturbed, and he immediately came out of meditation to check---only to find it was the minions' doing. Startled, he realized that a single thought of craving had not only unsettled his meditation but nearly cost him his freedom. He smashed the bowl, re-entered meditation, and left this verse: "If you wish to seize Jin Bifeng, try locking the empty sky with iron chains. When you can lock the empty sky with chains, then come and seize Jin Bifeng."
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Whether a teacup, a house, a car, or even our own physical body---all are provisional appearances born of conditions, without any "I" or "mine." When we see through this, the mind becomes like empty space, abiding nowhere, and attachment finds no place to take root. Then we are not burdened by things or entangled by emotions. Iron chains can indeed lock up all kinds of tangible objects, but they cannot lock the intangible empty sky.
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Clinging to self also produces extreme emotions such as inferiority and arrogance. Inferiority arises because we close off the self, creating a dualistic world of self opposed to the external---this mistaken construct of self-versus-other is like pitting oneself alone against the entire world, an intensely lonely and disheartening feeling. Arrogance, on the other hand, comes from strong fixation on the self, inflating some real or imagined strength of ours until it fills our already narrow and limited mind, leaving no room for others. All afflictions are therefore triggered by the inverted constructs of clinging to self.
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Beyond this there is also clinging to dharmas. Many of the constructs in the world were created simply to establish relatively uniform rules and standards for human interaction. They have no substance in themselves. Time, for example, is a construct based on the movements of the sun, the moon, and the earth, giving us the divisions of years, months, and days. But once this framework is fixed, once we cling to the concept of time, it too can bring us suffering. When we wait for a bus, that one hour of anxious waiting drags on, maddeningly slow. When we lie awake at night, that successive tossing and turning stretches out seemingly without end. The reason time disturbs us is precisely our clinging to it. When we keep fretting about how much time is left, anxiety, agony, and expectancy arise. In truth, when the mind has no concept of time, time does not exist. When we reunite with a dear friend, that same one hour races past like a white colt flashing past a crack in the wall, over before we have had our fill. And when we awaken from deep sleep, the several hours that have passed feel like a single instant, leaving no trace in our consciousness.
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When we examine the world with the wisdom of conditioned arising, nothing has intrinsic nature. Take this chair, for example: apart from wood, paint, and nails, where is the chair? The various distinctions of the chair---its height, shape, color, beauty, or ugliness---are likewise not objective, absolute existences. Tall is tall only in relation to short; short is short only in relation to tall. The chair, then, is nothing more than a provisional appearance arising from many conditions, a name we have affixed to this appearance. And this is true not only of the chair but of all things. Beyond provisional appearances born of causes and conditions and the conventional names we assign them, there is nothing that exists independently without depending on conditions. This is precisely what Buddhism means by no intrinsic nature.
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{#有情生命的相续}
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###### 3. The Continuity of Sentient Life
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Because of non-awakening, ordinary beings cling to the phenomena of the world---which lack intrinsic nature---as substantially real, thereby producing every kind of affliction. Life, we can say, is a composite of mistaken thoughts and turbulent emotions. This is the actual condition of ordinary life, and it is the force that drives sentient beings through birth and death.
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This non-awakening confines life within the solid cage built by the self. Though people live in a shared external space, each lives in a personal, private inner world. The quality of our life is determined by these thoughts, mental states, and emotions. Much of the time, we are like puppets on strings, unable to be our own masters. When anger arises, we might say: "I hate him---it's my freedom to do so." The problem is that once this emotion arises, we cannot put it aside at will, cannot stop it whenever we wish. If we truly had autonomy, we could summon any emotion at will and dismiss it at will. But this is not the case. That is why we so often hear people say: "I don't want to be angry either, but I just can't help it." The hidden hand that denies us freedom is none other than ignorance.
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What is true of anger is equally true of greed. Those who overeat know that eating too much does no good, yet they are still driven by desire to swallow down delicacies. Smokers know the harm to their health, yet they are still tormented by addiction and keep smoking. Officials know that taking bribes breaks the law, yet they are still driven by greed into graft and embezzlement. They are, in truth, pitiable. They have fed their cravings until the appetites grew too large, and now they can only be driven by them---sometimes willingly, sometimes in a daze, sometimes powerless to pull free. Not only can they not control their mind; they cannot control their body either. What a miserable life!
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Afflictions do not fall out of the sky; their root is right in our mind. If our mental state is unsound, endless afflictions can arise even if we shut ourselves indoors. Psychotherapy is popular these days, but it can only guide patients so as to ease their symptoms. Unless their view changes, relapse is only a matter of time. Until we achieve ultimate liberation, none of us is truly free. The external freedoms that society can provide are extremely limited. Even in the most democratic society, unless we are liberated from the bonds of affliction, life cannot be called free in any meaningful sense.
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Since time without beginning, ignorance and the karma it generates have been propelling us forward. Powerless to be in charge in the past, still powerless in the present, we can only drift on through saṃsāra in confusion. The root cause of this existential condition is ignorance. This is why the first of the twelve links of dependent origination is ignorance: from ignorance arise volitional formations; from formations, consciousness; from consciousness, name-and-form; from name-and-form, the six sense bases; from the six sense bases, contact; from contact, feeling; from feeling, craving; from craving, clinging; from clinging, becoming; from becoming, birth; and from birth come aging and death. Life goes on without end, and afflictions never cease.
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{#法的作用}
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###### 4. The Function of the Dharma
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We should know, however, that even beneath this surface level of utter inversion and frantic chaos, the mind still possesses a level of luminous emptiness---nondual awareness. It is only that this level has been obscured by ignorance and manifests in the distorted form of the twofold clinging to self and dharmas, producing the present ordinary mind. What spiritual practice does is to remedy this distorted condition of life and restore the original, awakened state.
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The Buddhadharma is the best guide for this life-transformation project. We must first use the Dharma to establish right understanding and right view, thereby dismantling clinging to self and breaking through delusion to awakening. View, of course, has different depths, encompassing the right view derived from hearing and contemplating the teachings and the right view realized through mental practice. For most beginners, we should start with the right view of hearing and contemplation---re-examining the world from the perspective of the Buddhadharma and gradually reversing our erroneous views. But merely understanding the principle is not enough; it must be embodied in our mental practice. Otherwise, even if we understand that all things lack intrinsic nature, even if we understand that clinging to self is the gate of ruin, whenever we encounter real situations, we are still swept along by habit. Despite ourselves, ignorance arises, and we feel that chair over there is solidly real and eternally ours. The force of clinging accumulated over many lifetimes is tremendous. A superficial grasp of theory without practice and realization will lose its way amid old inertia.
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View, then, must be integrated with practice. Let view guide practice, and let practice consolidate view. Among the Noble Eightfold Path the Buddha laid out for us, right view is supplemented by right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration---a comprehensive framework for adjusting body and mind, regulating, clearing, controlling, and dissolving our present chaotic emotional patterns, and restoring life's inherent quality of purity.
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{#教下的渐修之路}
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###### 5. The Gradual Path of the Doctrinal Schools
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Sentient beings differ in their karmic causes and conditions from past lives and in the capacities they have in this life. The Buddha therefore taught in accordance with their dispositions, skillfully guiding each. Afterwards, patriarchs and great masters constructed systems of study and practice based on different texts. Chinese Buddhism alone has eight major schools, which are further divided into the doctrinal schools and the Chan school, representing the approaches of gradual cultivation and sudden awakening, respectively.
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The practice of the doctrinal schools begins with the non-awakened deluded mind. Through the three undefiled studies of precepts, concentration, and wisdom, one gradually dissolves the deluded current, merges with emptiness, and opens awakened nature.
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Precepts are the behavioral standards for Buddhist disciples, including the five precepts, the eight precepts, the novice precepts, and the full ordination precepts---rules for warding off wrong and stopping evil and for restraining body and mind. If we say that law relies on the state's governing apparatus to enforce its duties, then on what do the precepts rely for their effectiveness? One factor is the willpower of the person who resolves to uphold them; the other is the power of the essence of the precepts passed down from the Buddha through successive generations of patriarchs.
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The Buddha established the precepts to help his disciples cease unwholesome conduct. Each precept was therefore formulated to address a specific unwholesome pattern of ordinary beings. Take the five precepts for lay followers: though there are only five---not killing, not stealing, not engaging in sexual misconduct, not lying, and not taking intoxicants---they essentially cover the full range of criminal behavior. Throughout human history, all evil has fallen within the scope of killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, and lying. Ceasing these misdeeds is also ceasing the continuity of greed, hatred, and ignorance. Tracing back to the source, all can be attributed to ignorance. One thought of non-awakening gives rise to countless afflictions and all manner of unwholesome deeds. In the sutras and śāstras, life is often compared to an endless waterfall of similarity-in-continuity. The life of ordinary beings is precisely the continuity of unwholesome mental states, presenting a distorted condition of existence.
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We should not only halt the unwholesome continuity within life but also channel it into a wholesome and healthy continuity. This is like a patient with a chronic illness: while actively receiving treatment, one must also strengthen the body. Only by building up the immune system can one fend off the next attack. In the bodhisattva precepts, besides the precepts of restraint, there are also the precepts of embracing wholesome dharmas and the precepts of benefiting sentient beings. On the basis of ceasing evil, we further cultivate good deeds and benefit others, activating the positive forces of life and creating a Dharma-accordant mental environment for attaining concentration and generating wisdom.
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Concentration means settling the mind on one point and abiding on a wholesome object. Our mind is made up of countless turbulent emotions and mistaken thoughts---erratic, unstable, shifting with every situation. When we encounter something pleasant, greed arises; when we encounter something disagreeable, anger arises. These minds of greed and anger are like enemies that appear and vanish without a trace, often capturing us before we even realize it. Those who cannot fight back can only be driven by them.
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The practice of concentration helps us settle the mind on a wholesome meditative object. There are two kinds: concentration with an object and concentration without an object. Having an object means resting the mind on a specific object during meditation practice. Though any object can serve as a resting place for the mind, in Buddhist practice concentration is the precursor to generating wisdom, so we should choose a wholesome object---one that will not trigger negative emotions and that also supports the opening of wisdom. For instance, in buddha-name recitation, the buddha's name is the object; in mindfulness of breathing, the breath is the object. As this positive force gradually grows, the mind can abide on the buddha's name or the breath for extended periods. Correspondingly, the distractions caused by other emotions grow weaker and weaker. It is like a punch of the same force: landing on an infant it could be fatal; landing on a giant it is light as a feather. In this way, concentration enables our mind to remain unmoving, undisturbed by external conditions.
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Concentration without an object means there is no object to abide upon---one directly abides in the essential nature of mind. More precisely, it means the mind abides nowhere. Both Chan and the Great Perfection employ this method; the details will be discussed in the section "The Sudden Path of the *Platform Sutra*." Some might ask: if such a direct and wonderful Dharma exists, why take the long way around through gradual practice spanning three great *asaṃkhyeya* kalpas? We should understand that for most people, practicing concentration without an object is like a mosquito trying to bite an iron ox---there is no place to sink its teeth. Without an insightful teacher to point out the proper route, wasting time would be the best outcome. Far more dangerous is falling into wild Chan or even demonic states, with consequences too dire to contemplate. It is better to advance with steady, sure steps---as the saying goes, "practice slowly and you will arrive quickly; practice from the low ground and you will reach the heights."
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Whether with or without an object, both approaches aim to help us transcend the deluded continuity of life. Through training, we bring a degree of stability to the mind, transforming the passive state of drifting with the currents and yielding to afflictions. This is an essential prerequisite for opening awakened nature.
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The purpose of cultivating concentration is to give rise to *prajñā* wisdom. But can concentration directly produce wisdom? The answer is no. Many non-Buddhist practitioners cultivate the four *dhyānas* and eight concentrations, yet this alone does not bring liberation. It is clear, then, that the emergence of wisdom from concentration is not an automatic transition. This is especially true of concentration with an object: if the mind remains fixed on the meditative object, one cannot merge with emptiness or penetrate the truth. Only when both the grasping subject and the grasped object fall away, when sense faculties and sense objects both drop off and subject and object vanish together, does *prajñā* wisdom brilliantly manifest. The function of concentration is to help calm our turbulent continuity---just as only a still body of water, without ripples, can reflect everything clearly. Concentration is therefore the basic condition for the arising of wisdom, but wisdom is not the inevitable result of cultivating concentration.
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In addition, two further conditions are needed. First, the right view established through hearing and contemplating the teachings. Buddhism contains an immense wealth of theory concerning right view. Chinese Buddhism, in particular, has the profound doctrinal systems of the Consciousness-Only, Madhyamaka, Tiantai, and Huayan schools---enough to exhaust a lifetime of study without reaching the end. But we need not be daunted. For practice, it is enough to master one corresponding form of right view. Whether based on the view of impermanence, the view of no-self, the Middle Way view of the Consciousness-Only school, or the emptiness view of Madhyamaka---each can help us dissolve the twofold clinging to self and dharmas and merge with emptiness. This is the very aspect that makes the Buddhadharma distinct from and superior to non-Buddhist paths.
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Second, we need the guidance of a good teacher to lead us into the essential nature of mind. The mental world is extraordinarily complex, like a book of millions of pages, and we are looking for just one of them. Studying the teachings helps us understand the content of this page, its characteristics, and the method for finding it. Without this knowledge, even if we flip through the book all day and even chance upon the right page, how could we identify and confirm it? This is where the confirmation of a good teacher is essential. Most importantly, relying on a good teacher helps us correct our course and avoid wrong turns. The mental world is deeply mysterious. Often, when you imagine what emptiness is like, it will conjure a corresponding state to seduce you, trying to capture you. Facing the unpredictable conditions along the path, a good teacher is like an old horse who knows the way, able to lead us onto the right track.
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{#坛经的顿修之路}
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###### 6. The Sudden Path of the *Platform Sutra*
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Unlike the gradual practice of the doctrinal schools, Chan is a path of sudden cultivation and sudden awakening, grounded directly in awakened nature and guiding the practitioner to merge with emptiness. Here I will briefly introduce the Chan method of mind practice based on the *Platform Sutra*.
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Learning Buddhism begins with taking refuge. The *Platform Sutra*'s approach to refuge starts directly from the Intrinsic Triple Gem: the Buddha as the meaning of awakening, the Dharma as the meaning of correctness, and the Sangha as the meaning of purity. Regarding the cultivation and realization of the Intrinsic Triple Gem, the Sixth Patriarch instructed his disciples: "When the mind takes refuge in awakening, deviant delusions do not arise. You have few desires, know contentment, and can detach from wealth and sensual pleasures---this is called the One Honored as Perfect in Both Merit and Wisdom. When the mind takes refuge in correctness, thought after thought is free of wrong views. Because there are no wrong views, there is no sense of self and other, no arrogance, no craving, no clinging---this is called the Honored One Free of Desires. When the mind takes refuge in purity, the self-nature is not defiled by any mental defilements or objects of craving---this is called the Honored One Among All Beings." Base the Intrinsic Triple Gem on awakened nature, abide in it, and at all times remain free of delusion, free of deviance, and free of defilement---then the Intrinsic Triple Gem will be realized.
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Regarding the cultivation of precepts, concentration, and wisdom, the *Platform Sutra* also differs from the doctrinal schools. In the Sixth Patriarch's teaching, concentration and wisdom are a single whole, not two separate things. The Sixth Patriarch said: "In my Dharma gate, concentration and wisdom are the foundation. Everyone, do not be deluded into saying that concentration and wisdom are separate. Concentration and wisdom are one essence, not two. Concentration is the essence of wisdom; wisdom is the function of concentration. When wisdom is present, concentration is within wisdom; when concentration is present, wisdom is within concentration. If you understand this principle, then concentration and wisdom are studied equally." Concentration and wisdom are established based on the different functions of awakened nature, so naturally they are nondual. If we can abide in awakened nature, the mind is unmoving, undisturbed by external conditions---this is what is meant by concentration as the essence of wisdom. The concentration cultivated in the Śrāvaka vehicle requires a relatively controlled environment; the concentration of Chan, by contrast, never departs from awakened nature in walking, standing, sitting, or lying down. Whether in formal meditation or daily activities, one knows distinctions yet remains detached from them, undisturbed by outer circumstances.
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Awakened nature is intrinsically unmoving and undisturbed, yet it is not insentient like wood or stone. On the contrary, awakened nature has the function of all-pervasive awareness. This is why buddhas and bodhisattvas know everything in the Dharma realm without needing to stir a thought---their minds are present with all things yet abidingly still, so they can illuminate everything clearly, with nothing left out. The ordinary mind, by contrast, dwells in a defiled state of consciousness, with objects and limits. When it clings to one particular state, a single leaf before the eye blocks out everything else.
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In addition, the *Platform Sutra* sets forth three essential guidelines for mind practice: no-thought, formlessness, and non-abiding. "In my Dharma gate, from the beginning, the central principle has been no-thought, the essence has been formlessness, and the foundation has been non-abiding. Formlessness means to be amid forms yet detached from forms. No-thought means to be amid thoughts yet free of thoughts. Non-abiding is the original nature of human beings: amid the world's good and evil, beauty and ugliness, even amid enemies and kin, and in the face of words that offend, provoke, deceive, or contend, treat it all as empty and do not contemplate retaliation or harm. In thought after thought, do not dwell on past events. If past thought, present thought, and future thought continue thought after thought without cease, this is called bondage. Amid all dharmas, if thought after thought does not dwell, then there is no bondage. This is taking non-abiding as the foundation."
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Regarding formlessness as the essence, the Sixth Patriarch taught: "To be outwardly detached from all forms is called formlessness. When one is able to be detached from forms, the essence of the Dharma is pure. This is taking formlessness as the essence." The essence of mind has no form whatever. A chair has form, a house has form, but our mind is formless like empty space. In daily life, we often describe various feelings of the mind---we say our heart is happy, our heart aches, our heart is thinking, and so on. But what exactly is the mind? When we turn inward and look, we cannot find a single trace. As the saying goes, searching for the mind, we find it utterly ungraspable.
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The "thought" in no-thought refers to mental constructs, the mind's fabrications. The *Platform Sutra* says: "Not to be defiled by any object is called no-thought. To always detach from objects within one's own thoughts, not to generate thoughts in response to objects---this is no-thought. But if one simply stops thinking of anything and eliminates all thoughts, then the moment thought ceases, one dies and is reborn elsewhere. This is a grave mistake." On the surface, no-thought might seem to mean eliminating mental activity entirely, so the mind ceases to fabricate. In fact, Chan practice does not eliminate mental activity, still less does it pursue a mere state of no thinking, no thought. It is thinking yet not thinking---right at the moment of mental activity, one is clearly aware, yet without getting caught up in it. In other words, by way of thought one merges with the essence of mind that is free of thought, abiding in no-thought yet without obstructing mental activity.
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The "abiding" in non-abiding as the foundation means attachment, dwelling on form. Even while carrying firewood and drawing water, walking, standing, sitting, or lying down, the mind must not cling to any object. That is why a Chan master's way of eating and sleeping is essentially different from ours. Ordinary beings are habituated to dwelling on form---whenever a thought arises, it inevitably latches onto some object and gets entangled in it. A Chan master, however, can maintain clear awareness in all daily activities. As the saying goes, "Eating three meals a day without ever biting a single grain of rice." This does not mean he tastes nothing---that would make him no different from wood, stone, or an imbecile. Many people misunderstand the Chan teaching of non-discrimination, thinking it means not knowing anything at all. This is not the case. The key to non-abiding is to know distinctions without clinging---though one knows good and bad, cold and warm, there is not the slightest defilement, nor is one swept along by feelings of like and dislike. Clear awareness, without the least defilement. The practice of non-abiding is also emphasized repeatedly in the *Diamond Sutra*, which says: "A bodhisattva practicing giving should not give rise to a mind that abides in form, nor one that abides in sound, smell, taste, touch, or mental objects; they should give rise to a mind that abides nowhere. If the mind abides anywhere, that is not true abiding." Whatever we do, even altruistic practice, we should not cling to anything. This requires activating the function of awakened nature; otherwise, it is extremely difficult to avoid abiding.
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In the *Platform Sutra*, the Sixth Patriarch also taught the practice of the Samādhi of One Practice. What is the Samādhi of One Practice? It is to at all times maintain a straightforward mind and an ordinary mind. The *Platform Sutra* says: "The Samādhi of One Practice means, in every place, whether walking, standing, sitting, or lying down, always practicing with a straightforward mind. The *Vimalakīrti Sūtra* says: 'The straightforward mind is the seat of enlightenment; the straightforward mind is the Pure Land.' Do not be crooked in mind and conduct while merely speaking of being straightforward. Do not speak of the Samādhi of One Practice with your mouth while failing to practice the straightforward mind. Simply practice the straightforward mind and be without attachment to any dharma. Deluded people cling to the form of dharmas and fixate on the Samādhi of One Practice. They declare that merely sitting still without moving and suppressing thoughts from arising is the Samādhi of One Practice. Those who interpret it this way are the same as insentient beings and create obstacles to the path." What is the straightforward mind? It is freeing the mind from its habitual state of distortion. And what is the ordinary mind? It is not the restless, unsettled mind we ordinarily have. To mistake that for the ordinary mind is sheer self-deception. The ordinary mind is the original mind, free of any contrivance.
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From this, we can see that the difference between sudden and gradual approaches in the Chan school and doctrinal schools lies fundamentally in their different views and methods of practice. The doctrinal schools start from the deluded mind, gradually dismantling the ordinary mind through precepts, concentration, and wisdom until they merge with emptiness. The Chan school, by contrast, is directly grounded in awakened nature, starting from recognizing and developing awakened nature to perfect the supreme fruit of buddhahood. In how they merge with awakened nature, the Chan school takes a direct approach while the doctrinal schools follow gradual cultivation---hence the Chan school has always been called the path of sudden cultivation.
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{#顿修法门的思考}
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###### 7. Reflections on the Sudden Approach
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The Chan school's entry point is extremely high. But once you break through, it is direct and simple, with remarkable results. Precisely because the starting point is so lofty, it demands an extraordinary caliber in both practitioner and teacher. After the Chan school reached its glorious zenith---described as "one flower blooming into five petals"---its great masters dwindled and the tradition gradually declined. Today, it carries an air of lonely sublimity---too high, too cold. What, then, is the problem?
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Chan identifies itself as "a special transmission outside the teachings, not dependent on words and letters." This has often been used as an excuse by later generations to bypass scriptural study. In truth, without right view as the discerning eye that chooses the Dharma, one's understanding of awakened nature can be quite vague---one may even mistake the twofold clinging to self and dharmas, dressed up and refashioned by the conscious mind, for awakened nature. The mind's capacities are remarkably powerful. Whatever you imagine awakened nature to be, the mind will conjure a corresponding state to seduce you, drawing you into a self-generated mental condition that has nothing whatsoever to do with emptiness. Only with right view firmly in place can one accurately discern the various states that arise during practice and remain undeceived.
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That the Chan school in the Sui and Tang dynasties did not particularly emphasize scriptural study and hearing-and-contemplation had its historical reasons. First, doctrinal study was highly developed at the time, and practitioners generally had a strong foundation. Their understanding and view were already sufficient for practice; they could devote their energy to realization rather than further study. Second, great masters abounded. Even if a practitioner's view was somewhat weak, with a good teacher at their side offering constant guidance, their practice was unlikely to go seriously astray.
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But for people today, without a good teacher's guidance and without right view, what exactly are they cultivating as they sit in the meditation hall? And where exactly are they heading? From what I have seen and learned, the situation is hardly encouraging. The inner world is far too complex---it is no exaggeration to say pitfalls lie everywhere. Without an insightful teacher to point the way, it is best to choose a more stable and secure mode of practice, lest we squander our time or even descend into demonic states and madness.
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Furthermore, we must emphasize building a solid foundation. Since the Tang and Song dynasties, Chan has steadily declined, giving rise to all manner of deviations---wild Chan, wild-fox Chan, literary Chan, lip-service Chan---and even becoming material for literati to indulge in empty, elegant chatter. It is heartbreaking to see a noble teaching reduced to this. Through many years of study and practice, I have deeply realized that there are certain common foundations in Buddhist practice that cannot be bypassed. In addition to the right view of hearing and contemplation mentioned earlier, there are also taking refuge, generating aspiration, and observing precepts. Trying to circumvent these in search of a shortcut will only lead us further and further in the wrong direction.
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For a high-level practice like Chan, laying this foundation is all the more necessary. Otherwise, one's mind practice will simply not connect. To many people today, seeing the nature seems as distant as clouds on the horizon---utterly out of reach. In fact, seeing the nature may not be as mysterious or as difficult as it seems. The dimension seen in seeing the nature is already innately complete within us. With the right method, it can be touched at the level of our present mind practice. Of course, this requires the convergence of causes and conditions, the right foundation and accumulation---it is not something one can casually talk one's way into.
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On the other hand, Chan practice is like a swordstroke struck off-center---an unorthodox, risky approach. Take the *Platform Sutra*, for instance: its view and its methods of practice are both piercing and swift, loftier the higher one looks up to them. Yet, as a structure for the bodhi path, it is not a complete framework. As Mahāyāna practitioners, in addition to seeing the nature, we must also generate the bodhi mind and walk the bodhisattva path, thereby perfecting great compassion and completing the twin virtues of compassion and wisdom that a buddha embodies.
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From this we can see that studying Chan and practicing Chan cannot be separated from scriptural study, from the Mahāyāna aspiration that unites compassion and wisdom, or from the foundational building blocks of the Buddhadharma. Otherwise, the practice can easily go astray or become a castle in the air. In my own study and practice, I also integrate the doctrinal schools and the Chan school. In fact, the teachings exist to serve the essential purpose, and the essential purpose cannot be separated from the teachings. In past times, when Bodhidharma came from the West, he used the four-fascicle *Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra* to seal the mind. From the Fourth and Fifth Patriarchs onward, the focus gradually shifted to the *Diamond Sutra*. Beyond this, the Chan school has produced a *Complete Collection of Chan Texts* totaling over a hundred volumes---hardly less, and perhaps even more, than the doctrinal schools. So although Chan identifies itself as not dependent on words and letters, the patriarchs still placed great importance on the guiding role of scriptural study in practice, as expressed in the phrase "borrowing the teachings to awaken to the essence." This tradition is something today's practitioners would do well to reflect on carefully and carry forward.
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{#三皈依僧}
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## III. Taking Refuge in the Sangha
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*Saṅgha*, from the Sanskrit *saṃgha*, includes both ordinary monastics and noble sages of the Sangha. The Jewel of the Sangha is not only a teacher of gods and humans but also the pillar that upholds the Tathāgata's legacy and a symbol of the true Dharma's enduring presence. Without the Sangha, there would be no transmission of the Buddhadharma in the world.
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Taking refuge in the Sangha means taking the qualities embodied by the noble Sangha as the ultimate refuge---namely, undefiled wisdom and the virtue of liberation. Yet on the level of concrete forms, this refuge cannot be separated from ordinary monastics. If, for instance, we resolve to take refuge but lack the conditions to meet a sage, should we wait and wait, at the cost of missing this very life? We must understand that we take refuge in the Jewel of the Sangha throughout the ten directions and three times, not in a particular monk or a particular teacher. Moreover, we must take refuge in the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha as a complete whole, without slighting any of the three.
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Of course, taking refuge in the entire Sangha does not mean we should draw close to every monastic. Monastics in the real world are of varying quality. Practitioners should selectively draw close to good teachers. Both the *Āgama Sūtras* and the Mahāyāna scriptures repeatedly stress the importance of good teachers. The key point of taking refuge in the Sangha, therefore, is to choose a virtuous teacher and rely on that teacher for one's practice.
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{#善知识的选择}
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###### 1. Choosing a Good Teacher
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A good teacher is one endowed with right view, excelling in both virtue and ability, who can guide sentient beings to abandon evil and cultivate goodness, leading them toward the Buddha path. Such a person is also called a good friend or a noble friend. The famous account of "Sudhana's Fifty-Three Visits" in the *Avataṃsaka Sūtra* is the classic model of relying on good teachers. How, then, should we go about finding a good teacher? The sutras and śāstras provide many criteria.
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Among the ten qualifications summarized by Master Tsongkhapa for choosing a teacher are the following: tamed---one who accords with the precepts; pacified---one who accords with concentration; afflictions eliminated---one who accords with wisdom and has subdued and severed afflictions; virtue enhanced---one fully endowed with precepts, concentration, and wisdom, lacking nothing; courageous---one tireless and fearless in benefiting others; learned in scripture---one of wide learning; awakened to truth---one with genuine realization; eloquent in teaching---one who does not distort the Dharma; deeply compassionate---one with no ulterior motives; never retreating---one who teaches with respect at all times.
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A person endowed with these merits is fit to serve as a refuge for beings. But in this degenerate age, it is difficult to encounter a teacher possessing all ten qualities. Even if we are fortunate enough to meet one, various obstacles often prevent us from staying constantly by their side. And yet our practice cannot proceed without a good teacher's guidance. So, when conditions are insufficient, we may begin by relying on a teacher who possesses only a portion of these merits. Here, I will briefly discuss three points---the essential minimum that any good teacher must have. In other words, these are the baseline qualifications. If even these are not met, one must exercise extreme caution and never follow such a teacher blindly.
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These three essential conditions are: purity in upholding precepts, right view, and a compassionate heart. Among them, right view is the most crucial. It is the core of practice and the very feature that distinguishes the Buddhadharma from other religions. As the Buddha says in the *Sūtra of Perfect Enlightenment*: "In the final age, those sentient beings who aspire to the great resolve, who seek good teachers and wish to engage in practice, should seek out those with right knowledge and right view, whose minds do not abide in any mark, who do not cling to the states of śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas. Though they may manifest worldly defilements, their minds are ever pure. They reveal their faults while extolling pure conduct, and they do not allow sentient beings to fall into improper conduct. Seek such a person and you will attain *anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi*." This shows that right view is the root of all roots. If one's view is not correct, one can only lead the blind while blind oneself---how could one possibly speak of liberation?
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{#善知识的作用}
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###### 2. The Role of a Good Teacher
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In both the Hīnayāna and Mahāyāna sutras and śāstras, the Buddha frequently extols the importance of good teachers. The *Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya Kṣudrakavastu* records: "Ānanda said: 'Through the power of good friends, practitioners can accomplish their practice. By gaining good friends, one distances oneself from bad friends. For this reason, we can know that good friends constitute half of the holy life.' The Buddha replied: 'Ānanda, do not say such a thing---that good teachers constitute half of the holy life. Why? Good teachers are the whole of the holy life. Through them, one can leave unwholesome companions behind, refrain from all evil, constantly cultivate all good, and become purely and wholly spotless, fully perfect in the holy life. For this reason, if one gains a good companion and dwells together with them right up to nirvāṇa, there is nothing that cannot be accomplished. Therefore they are called the whole of the holy life.'" This tells us that by drawing close to good teachers, we can distance ourselves from harmful companions, cease creating unwholesome deeds, and at all times cultivate wholesome deeds. Relying on a good teacher is therefore enormously significant---it is the whole of the holy life, the guarantee that all aspects of practice will be fulfilled.
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The *Platform Sutra* also highlights the role of good teachers in many places: "The wisdom of *prajñā*-bodhi is innately possessed by people in the world. It is only because their minds are deluded that they cannot awaken by themselves. They must rely on a great good teacher to show them the path and guide them to see their nature." And again: "If you cannot awaken on your own, you must seek out a great good teacher, one who understands the supreme Dharma, who can directly point out the right path. Such a good teacher has great causes and conditions---that is, instructing and guiding so that one may see the nature. All wholesome dharmas arise only through the agency of good teachers. The buddhas of the three times and the twelve divisions of scripture are all inherently present within human nature, but if one cannot awaken by oneself, one must seek a good teacher to point them out." Although people innately possess bodhi-wisdom, they are caught in delusion and cannot recognize their original mind. Only a good teacher who has truly seen the nature can guide us to unveil the supreme Dharma and enter directly into our self-nature. Only one with clear eyes who knows every rapid and hidden reef along the path can help us avoid the countless pitfalls and move forward smoothly. If the teacher himself is still groping in the dark, though he may help us in various ways, he cannot resolve the fundamental problem. The good teacher spoken of in the *Platform Sutra* must therefore be one with clear eyes who has seen the nature---only such a person can point us to the entry into our original mind.
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Looking through Chan history, records of traveling thousands of miles in search of a teacher, of sacrificing body and life for the Dharma, are everywhere. They have also left us many terms still used today, such as "cloud and water" and "journeying on foot," both referring to monastics who roam far and wide, crossing mountains and rivers, visiting every region in quest of an enlightened master. Chan records are full of lively stories of good teachers discerning capacities, adapting their teaching, and speaking the Dharma according to the individual. In the presence of such patriarchs, often a few simple words were enough to bring the seeker to the original mind. Beyond this, there were all manner of extraordinary methods that transcended normal conventions---the shout of Linji, the cakes of Yunmen, the tea of Zhaozhou, the staff of Deshan---all skillful means by which the great masters awakened their disciples. At the same time, we must also understand that the records capture only the climax of awakening. The fact that a practitioner could break through to see the original mind upon hearing a few words was inseparable from the accumulation that preceded it. Only the meeting of this inner cause with the outer condition produced that sudden moment of brilliant clarity. We must never mechanically copy these stories or blindly imitate them.
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{#依止善知识的条件}
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###### 3. Conditions for Relying on a Good Teacher
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Choosing a good teacher requires corresponding criteria. And for the student of the Dharma, becoming a qualified disciple also requires meeting certain conditions. Otherwise, even if one has the karmic fortune to encounter a good teacher, one will gain very little, or may even create unwholesome karma through failing to understand what it means to rely on the teacher properly.
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If upholding precepts, right view, and compassion constitute the baseline for a good teacher, then the maxim summarized by Master Yinshun in *The Path to Buddhahood*---"Observe virtues, not faults; follow and comply, do not resist"---can be taken as the baseline for relying on a good teacher. "Observe virtues, not faults" in particular is a profound test of the student's faith. The ordinary mind is defiled, and what a defiled mind sees is bound to deviate, even to be fundamentally inverted. Therefore, once you have determined your teacher through careful observation and selection, you must never engage in further discrimination with your ordinary mind.
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Ordinary beings always start from "I," clinging to "my" understanding, "my" thoughts, "my" views. If these obstacles are not laid down, the Buddhadharma we learn will often be processed and distorted by the self. Relying on a good teacher requires laying down our personal likes and dislikes even more thoroughly. Otherwise, the teacher's strictness will be taken for harshness; the teacher's compassion will be seen as indulgence. Often, we have preset notions of what a good teacher should be. The moment reality fails to match these notions, we instantly judge---based on our own views, not the Dharma---and doubt sets in, perhaps even leading to retreat.
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There was once a student who relied on a Chan master for instruction. One day the master accidentally sat on a needle and cried "ouch!" as he sprang to his feet. The student immediately lost all faith, convinced that the master had not yet awakened---for how could an awakened person react to a needle like that? The master, knowing the student had abandoned him, sighed: "That pitiful soul. He should understand that not only I, but even the needle and that 'ouch' are not truly existent." This story vividly illustrates the point and is worth deep reflection. As beginners, we are likely to encounter the same kind of doubt that student did. The question is how we handle it, and how we prevent that doubt from turning into impulsive mistakes.
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Although Buddhism emphasizes wisdom and highlights self-power, it cannot do without the important supporting condition of faith---as the saying goes, "Faith is the source of the path and the mother of all merits." The higher the Dharma gate, the more crucial faith becomes. Without faith in one's good teacher, one cannot undertake the great Dharma. The Buddhadharma is profoundly deep and subtle, yet utterly ordinary. True seeing of the nature is not necessarily as wondrous as we imagine; it is not that upon seeing it, one radiates light and shakes the earth. At the moment of first seeing, it is often very plain. This is where faith is needed to accept it. Then, under the teacher's guidance, we gradually become familiar with the nature of mind and progressively develop its potency. If one has never generated faith in a good teacher, one is not even a fit vessel---how then could one receive the pure, sweet rain of the Dharma?
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Although taking refuge in the Jewel of the Sangha is directed toward the entire Sangha community, for our actual practice it must be concretized in reliance on a good teacher. Once we have chosen and confirmed our teacher, we must generate pure and undefiled faith in them. Only in this way can we, under their guidance, recognize our original nature and find the entry point for opening awakened nature, ultimately achieving a quality of life that is awakened without delusion, correct without deviance, and pure without defilement.
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{#四结束语}
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## IV. Conclusion
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Today, I have offered an introduction on the theme "From Recognizing the Abiding Triple Gem to the Intrinsic Triple Gem." The ultimate purpose of taking refuge in the Three Jewels is to realize the Intrinsic Triple Gem, but this cannot be separated from the external Abiding Triple Gem. The theme of this summer camp is "The *Platform Sutra* and Buddhism for Life," and for this purpose, I have restudied the *Platform Sutra* and shared some of my thoughts with all of you. I hope they will be of help and inspiration in your study and practice.
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iacore