66 lines
12 KiB
Plaintext
66 lines
12 KiB
Plaintext
## VI. Hearing and Contemplating the True Dharma
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### Where to Go After Awakening
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Q: I previously practiced the Pure Land school and knew that reciting the Buddha's name could lead to the Pure Land. After entering the Three-Stage Practice, I understand that we should move toward awakening. What then is our future destination? I live in the Saha world and hope to reach a better place through practice. So where exactly do we go after awakening?
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A: In the Dharma, the Pure Land is not regarded as a permanent destination, but as a place for further cultivation. The environment there is conducive to practice, and you won't regress, while the Saha world is full of temptations and obstacles. Thus, attaining rebirth in the Pure Land is for better practice, and ultimately we must return to guide sentient beings.
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Moving toward awakening is not only for our own benefit, but for the sake of others as well. Only an awakened life is truly free—free to be led by compassionate vows, coming and going in the ten directions, wherever sentient beings need help. Ordinary beings drift through samsara, carried by karma and unable to steer their course, while the Buddhas and bodhisattvas have boundless compassionate vows; the entire Dharma realm is their place of practice. So after awakening, there are countless places to go, and for the awakened one, everywhere is the Western Pure Land, not the Saha world.
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### Does the Pure Land Truly Exist?
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Q: What kind of existence is the Pure Land? Madhyamaka teaches dependent origination and the emptiness of nature; Consciousness-Only teaches that all dharmas are mind-only; Tiantai teaches three thousand realms in a single thought; Huayan teaches that worlds interpenetrate without obstruction. From these perspectives, the Pure Land seems to be merely a transformation of the mind. Yet the Pure Land sutras say we can be reborn in the West to hear the Dharma. From this perspective, it seems to be a specific place. Does it exist or not?
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A: The Dharma says, "All conditioned phenomena are like a dream, an illusion, a bubble, a shadow." In the ultimate sense, the Pure Land too is like a dream or an illusion, but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Our present world is also like a dream or an illusion—a temporary appearance of dependent conditions—yet ordinary beings take it as solid and real. From another angle, even quantum mechanics, a field of worldly knowledge, shows us a very different picture.
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Does the Pure Land exist or not? The key is from which perspective we look. We ask such questions because we set existence and emptiness against each other. Calling it illusory doesn't change the fact that it exists; calling it existent doesn't change its illusory nature. Everything we see is filtered through our own karmic system. In different karmic systems, the world appears differently. So our mode of perception determines the kind of world we see. These principles are found in the teachings of Tiantai and Huayan, and will become clearer as you study. For your own practice, if you follow the Pure Land method, you should have deep faith in the Pure Land and vow to be reborn there. If you follow another method, let your own school's teachings shape your understanding. Until your study has gone deeper, don't compare these views with one another.
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### How Many Worlds Are There?
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Q: Each person's karma is different, so the world they see is different. That is to say, each person has their own world. Are there then many worlds, or ultimately only one?
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A: In the ultimate sense, the world is without distinction and does not appear in any fixed form. At the level of dependent origination, however, worlds are infinitely diverse. Because sentient beings have different karma, although we live in the same world shaped by shared karma, each of us looks through our own colored glasses and lives in a unique world. From this perspective, there are as many worlds as there are sentient beings. The problem is that this world is shaped by wrong views and afflictive emotions, which bring endless trouble to life. Learning Buddhism helps us take off these colored glasses and see the world through the wisdom of dependent origination—perceiving impermanence and no-self, and seeing the emptiness of all phenomena. In modern terms, this means seeing through appearances to the essence.
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### Are There Differences in the Unconditioned?
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Q: The *Diamond Sutra* says, "All sages and saints are distinguished by the unconditioned Dharma." Differences in conditioned dharmas are easy to understand, but why are there differences in the unconditioned Dharma?
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A: This passage is from the seventh chapter of the *Diamond Sutra*, "Nothing Attained, Nothing Spoken," and is the response of the Venerable Subhuti to the Buddha's question. It does not mean that the unconditioned Dharma itself has differences, but that the realizations of the noble ones of the Three Vehicles into the unconditioned Dharma vary in depth. It is like the same sky: what each person sees is different. Through a room window one sees only a small patch; in a city square one sees a large expanse; on an open prairie one sees a boundless sky. The sky itself has no size, but because the viewer's field of view differs, it appears to have size.
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### The Observer and the Observed
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Q: Are the wisdom that observes and the object observed in dualistic opposition? When the mind rests in emptiness, is there no longer any observer and observed?
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A: For ordinary beings who have not yet realized emptiness, there is an observer and observed; this is the functioning of deluded consciousness. When the mind produces this duality, it gets caught in attachment to it. In meditation, after seeing that objects are empty, one must also empty the deluded mind that depends on objects. When the mind is empty and objects are still, one can move from contemplative prajna to the prajna of ultimate reality. In fact, even in the state of the Buddhas and bodhisattvas there is still an observer and observed, but these are merely conditioned appearances that do not become opposites. Because they have realized emptiness that transcends observer and observed, their minds rest in emptiness rather than in conditioned appearances.
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### Self-Nature, Dharma-Nature, Emptiness, and Buddha-Nature
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Q: What does the Dharma mean by self-nature? Are Dharma-nature, emptiness, and Buddha-nature the same?
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A: The self-nature spoken of from the perspective of conventional truth is what the Dharma rejects. The Dharma teaches that all things in the universe arise dependently and are empty of self-nature. What is negated by this lack of self-nature is the self-nature built upon conditioned phenomena; such a self-nature definitely does not exist. The *Heart Sutra* repeatedly emphasizes no, without, and empty, and what it empties is precisely this view of self-nature.
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Yet the Dharma sometimes also speaks of establishing self-nature. This is from the perspective of ultimate truth and differs from the concept of self-nature rejected by the *Heart Sutra*. This self-nature refers to Buddha-nature or emptiness. As the *Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch* says, "The bodhi self-nature is originally pure; simply use this mind, and directly become Buddha." Here, bodhi self-nature refers to Buddha-nature—the awakened power inherently present within life.
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In essence, Buddha-nature, Dharma-nature, and emptiness are without distinction. However, these names are used with different emphases: Buddha-nature emphasizes the side of sentient beings, while emptiness and Dharma-nature emphasize the side of dharmas. Yet whether emptiness or Buddha-nature, their essence is nondual and without distinction.
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### Samantabhadra's Vows Are True Merit
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Q: When the Dharma teacher expounded *Samantabhadra's Vows*, he said that practicing the Ten Great Vows brings much merit. I am not clear what is meant by merit and what is meant by virtue.
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A: In ordinary usage, merit and virtue aren't clearly distinguished; both come from good conduct. However, the *Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch* distinguishes between them: actions arising from self-nature, pure and undefiled, are called merit. As it says, "Seeing the nature is *gong*; equality is *de*; thought after thought without obstruction, constantly seeing one's original nature, and true, wondrous function are called merit." Good deeds performed by ordinary people with an ordinary mind are conditioned and can only be called virtue; in essence they aren't true practice. This is what the *Platform Sutra* means by saying, "You spend all day seeking only fields of blessing, not seeking to escape the sea of birth and death. If the self-nature is deluded, how can blessing save you?"
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If we contemplate according to the principles explained in *Samantabhadra's Vows*, using a boundless mind and relying on boundless objects, cultivating the Ten Great Vows from revering the Buddhas to universally dedicating all merit, this belongs to the category of merit—indeed, immeasurable merit. For it directly models the mind and conduct of the Buddhas and bodhisattvas, developing their qualities rather than remaining within the ordinary mind.
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### Seeing and Not Seeing
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Q: What does it mean that "when seeing the nature, one sees the mind and not the objects"? How can such an understanding be applied in practice?
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A: The awakened nature realized in clear mind and seeing the nature has no substance or form, no marks of distinction. It is neither mind nor object, yet it doesn't obstruct any phenomena; so emptiness and appearance are not in opposition. When seeing the nature, it is not only objects that are not seen; even the mind is not seen, as the *Diamond Sutra* says, "The past mind cannot be grasped, the present mind cannot be grasped, the future mind cannot be grasped." The sutra takes the arousing of mind without attachment as the essence of practice. How do we remain unattached? First, we must establish the right view of impermanence and no-self. With this understanding we view the world, which reduces clinging to objects, and then through meditation we realize the empty nature of both mind and objects. Then we truly see that all dharmas are indeed impermanent, and that the five aggregates are indeed without self.
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### Not Knowing One's Own Mind, Studying the Dharma Is of No Benefit
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Q: What is clear mind and seeing the nature? How can one achieve clear mind and see the nature?
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A: The theme of this series of talks, "Leaving Samsara, Moving Toward Liberation," uses the Buddha's own experience of practice to explain how to realize clear mind and see the nature, and what exactly is made clear and what is seen. If you've been listening attentively, this should already be clear. Clear mind and seeing the nature is the core of Buddhist practice and our shared goal. Its source lies in the Buddha's own practice: seated in meditation beneath the Bodhi tree, he contemplated the Twelve Links of Dependent Origination in forward and reverse order, saw the true nature of all dharmas, and attained awakening. Later, the various schools approached this from different angles, presenting views based on their own traditions and corresponding methods of practice. Consciousness-Only does so through understanding the mind, transforming the defiled into the pure, and turning consciousness into wisdom. Madhyamaka does so through sweeping away attachment at every level and realizing emptiness. Zen does so by finding the bodhi self-nature that is originally pure, neither arising nor ceasing, unmoving, and inherently complete. Although the methods differ, the core is the same. To stray from this root is to make practice mere outward show, as the ancient masters said, "Not knowing one's own mind, studying the Dharma is of no benefit."
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