A Bird in Flight Leaves No Trace Read online

  If you do not understand the discourse records of the patriarchs, then, recognizing the fact that you are a blind fool, make a vow to attain awakening. If you earnestly practice as if you were a thirsty person seeking water, then what hinders your understanding will be removed, and everything will be clearly revealed. Your experience will correspond to the patriarchs’ words, just like an arrow hitting the bull’s eye.

  “But it also is not entirely nonexistent. It exists but is imperceptible. Therefore, a patriarch [Puṇyamitra] said,

  The true nature is secreted away in the mind ground;

  it has neither head nor tail.

  It transforms into things depending on conditions;

  out of convenience, we say that it ‘knows.’150

  亦不一向是無 有而不可見 故祖師云 真性心地藏 無頭亦無尾 應緣而化物 方便呼為智.

  This is the dharma-transmission verse of Puṇyamitra, the twenty-sixth Indian patriarch. There is originally neither wisdom nor ignorance in the mind. We force the name “mind” on it. Where can you find the true mind?

  You may have affinities than enable you to encounter the Buddha’s teachings and attain awakening, but guard against the risk that you just learn and grasp those teachings intellectually and end up extremely arrogant.

  If you come to have a little bit of understanding of the Buddhadharma, you might say: “It is said that whether walking, standing, sitting, or reclining, whether speaking or keeping silence, whether active or still, nothing is not the mind. It is also said that I should awaken to the mind. What do these statements mean? You use the mind, and I also use the mind. Whether awakened or unawakened, whether aged or a newly born, everyone possesses and uses the same mind. Is there any other mind? Since this mind is that mind and that mind is this mind, what more minds should we realize? Aren’t these all mistaken words? If this is the mind, we should just believe it. That’s all!”

  But even though you arouse intellectual understanding and discriminate between what is right or wrong, you may still have some discomfort in mind that makes you worry, “Have I still not realized the mind?” Although you think you know it all in your head, if you are not content, you will definitely find yourself blocked. Your knowledge instead becomes an illness that leads you to deceive yourself. You need to come face to face with a spiritual mentor, receive his or her guidance, and delve deeply into true doubt.

  “But even when [the mind] is not responding to conditions, we cannot say that it either exists or does not exist. Even in the very moment when it is responding to conditions, it is leaving behind no trace.

  若不應緣之時 不可言其有無 正應之時 亦無蹤跡.

  Whether the mind is functioning or not, since it has no form, we cannot say that the mind exists or does not exist. However hard you look, you’ll find no proof that the mind exists. But since it has great capacity and great functioning, we also cannot say that the mind does not exist.

  It surely functions, but since it leaves no traces, it is hard to discover what the mind actually is. Until you wake up from “distorted views and dream-like conceptions,” you may listen to this explanation countless times, but you will not understand what the mind is. Once your mass of doubt has exploded, however, you will just nod your head naturally.

  “Since you have understood in this manner and these days are simply roosting in nothingness, you are definitely following the road of all the buddhas.

  既知如此 如今但向無中棲泊 即是行諸佛路.

  “Nonabiding” (muju 無住) refers to roosting in the nothingness that transcends the extremes of both existence and nonexistence. Once you have finally made the decision to wake up from this persistent nightmare, your Buddhist practice will mature.

  “A scripture advises, ‘Give rise to a mind that does not abide anywhere.’151

  經云 應無所住而生其心.

  In the Diamond Sūtra, when Subhūti asks to the Buddha how a bodhisattva maintains the mind after he or she has generated the thought of enlightenment, the Buddha says, “Give rise to a mind that does not abide anywhere.” The Sixth Patriarch Huineng suddenly awakened after hearing this phrase.

  When awakened, we will know that our mind originally is nonabiding. Therefore a bodhisattva can arouse a mind that does not abide anywhere.

  That ‘all sentient beings cycle through birth and death’152 means that they wander on conditioned by their intentions, incessantly creating minds in the six rebirth destinies so that they experience all sorts of suffering. Vimalakīrti said, ‘The minds of people who are difficult to teach are like gibbons and macaques. This is why they need various teachings and restrictions to regulate their minds, so that they will subsequently be tamed.’153

  一切眾生輪迴生死者 意緣走作心於六道不停 致使受種種苦 淨名云 難化之人 心如猿猴 故以若干種法制禦其心 然後調伏.

  Because their minds do not stay quietly at home but wander outside, sentient beings take rebirth among the six destinies in the endless cycle of birth and death. When you arouse one thought in response to external phenomena, thoughts follow one after another so that you squander your entire life. Life is but a dream. Before long, your hair will be gray and the burial grounds of the Beimang Hills 北邙山 north of the ancient Chinese capital of Luoyang will be close at hand.

  The minds of those who have been wandering for years are like monkeys that cannot stay still even for a moment and are constantly snooping around. When your mind is like this monkey, constantly trying to go outside, it must first be calmed by applying some expedient means and then regulated. Only then will you be able to attain ‘peace of mind and the correct course in life’ (anxin liming / mimmyeong) in accord with the truth by revealing your original mind.

  Even those who have a small measure of experience in their mind can at times regress in their practice due to past karmic propensities. Although Pei Xiu tasted something the moment he met Master Huangbo, he still had a suspicious and curious mind, like that of a monkey. Pei Xiu spent years staying close to the master, asking questions to tame his mind.

  “Therefore, ‘If the mind arises, various dharmas arise; if the mind ceases, various dharmas cease.’154

  所以心生種種法生 心滅種種法滅.

  When a thought arises, all sorts of external phenomena arise accordingly. Likewise, when a thought disappears, all sorts of external phenomena disappear accordingly. However, if you try to remain in no-thought and signlessness, you will fall instead into a non-Buddhist path. Any thought of trying tries to remain in no-thought and signlessness is searching outside for the mind and creates all sorts of troubles.

  Just trust that the self-nature of bodhi is originally pure and let go of all your useless efforts. Then the original source will be naturally revealed. You cannot just stay still and let your mind wander all over the place, learning all sorts of so-called good teachings. In doing so, you will not digest those teachings and will end up simply adding to your intellectual obstructions. Thus you will stray far from your native land.

  “Therefore, know that ‘all dharmas are created by the mind’155 and even the six rebirth destinies, including humans, heavenly beings, hell denizens, and demigods, are all created by the mind. If you would nowadays master no-mind, immediately put to rest all conditioning and arouse no delusory thoughts and discrimination. There then will be no self or others, no craving or aversion, no love or hate, no winning or losing.

  故知一切諸法皆由心造 乃至人天地獄六道修羅 盡由心造 如今但學無心 頓息諸緣 莫生妄想分別 無人無我 無貪瞋無憎愛無勝負.

  “All dharmas are created by the mind” means the same as the passage we saw just before, “If the mind arises, various dharmas arise; if the mind ceases, various dharmas cease.” Therefore the mind is called the fundamental cause. Since the mind brings about the process of rebirth through the six destinies, if you turn your mind around, all relative phenomena will disappear.

  If
you master no-mind by putting to rest all the conditions that create external phenomena, then all sorts of speculations and discriminations will vanish as quickly as “a snowflake falling onto a red-hot brazier.”156 But do not make an effort to maintain no-mind, because such efforts are also based on discriminations; rather, allow no-mind to occur naturally without effort.

  “Merely eliminate various sorts of delusory thinking, and the nature will of itself be originally pristine. This is cultivating the dharma of bodhi, which is equal to that of the buddhas.

  但除却如許多種妄想 性自本來清淨 即是修行菩提法佛等.

  Whether or not you eliminate delusory thinking, the mind will be originally pristine of itself. Thus you do not need to grapple with delusory thoughts. It is not that your mind becomes pristine after removing defilements. If you maintain no-mind, you realize that your mind is originally pristine and has no connection to delusory thoughts. If, however, you make an effort to remove delusions, your efforts will continue until the end of time.

  “If you do not comprehend the meaning [of these words], then even though you train extensively and practice arduously, eating tree bark and wearing grass garments, you will not recognize your own mind. All these are called deviant practices.

  若不會此意 縱爾廣學勤苦修行 木食草衣 不識自心 皆名邪行.

  We practice in order to know our own minds, not to perform asceticism or self-mortification.

  The Sixth Patriarch only mentioned “seeing the nature”; he did not discuss meditative absorption (dhyāna) or liberation (vimokṣa). You should be trying to see the nature so that you can wake up from your “distorted views and dream-like conceptions,” as the Heart Sūtra explains; you should not be trying to cultivate meditative absorption or to attain liberation from within this dream.

  As the clouds disperse, the green mountains will naturally appear. Do not intentionally create the clouds of meditative absorption or liberation. If you create something intentionally, no matter how good it might be, you will be far removed from the dharma of nonduality. Without understanding the import of this, then no matter what practices you cultivate, they will never bear fruit.

  “All [such practices] will lead to rebirth as the divinity Māra, as a non-Buddhist, or as a land or water spirit. What benefit will there be in practicing in this fashion? Master Zhi said, “This very body is created by your own mind. How can you search for it in words and letters?”157 If you now just know your own mind and put to rest conceptual thought and delusory thinking, then the dusty tribulations [defilements] will naturally not arise.

  Vimalakīrti said, ‘I am just lying here on my sickbed’158 — that is, his mind was not arising. Nowadays, you are lying on your sickbed and must put an end to all your clinging to karmic conditions; then delusory thoughts will cease. That is bodhi.

  盡作天魔外道水陸諸神 如此修行 當復何益 志公云 本體是自心作 那得文字中求 如今但識自心 息却思惟妄想 塵勞自然不生 淨名云 唯置一床寢疾而臥 心不起也 如今臥疾 攀緣都息 妄想歇滅 即是菩提.

  If you prize intellectual understanding and supernatural powers but do not know your mind, you will become a vassal of the demon king Pāpīyāṃs and hinder practitioners from cultivating right practices, or you will fall into baleful destinies and become a lowly spirit of the land or water.

  Focus your practice on revealing your own mind. If you foolishly search outside, you will become a prodigal son and wander for years as a beggar. Since the mind is originally complete and perfect in and of itself, there is nothing that you need to cultivate. Just accept that your mind is originally pure and let go of the mind that seeks something outside. You may look foolish sometimes, but the sprout of bodhi will grow rapidly. Bodhidharma also advised, “Externally, put to rest all conditioning; internally, make the mind free from panting.”159

  All ancient masters clearly presented the road of practice. If, like Vimalakīrti lying on his sickbed, you put to rest all your clinging to karmic conditions and discriminative thinking, then that very spot will be the pure land where lotus flowers bloom. Although you may be busy all day long, you should be able to remain free and unobstructed thanks to the everyday mind that is not busy.

  “Nowadays, if your mind is disordered and unsettled, then even though you may master all the levels of the three vehicles’ four fruitions and ten stages, in the end, you are still sitting with saints and worldlings. All compounded things eventually return to impermanence, and there will be a time when all your strength will be exhausted. Just like an arrow shot into the sky falls back to earth when its velocity is spent, so too you will return to the cycle of birth and death. If you practice in this manner, you will never understand the Buddha’s intent and will receive bitter suffering in vain. How could this not but be a great mistake?

  如今若心裏紛紛不定 任爾學到三乘四果十地諸位 合殺秖向凡聖中坐 諸行盡歸無常 勢力皆有盡期 猶如箭射於空 力盡還墮 却歸生死輪迴 如斯修行不解佛意 虛受辛苦 豈非大錯.

  According to the teachings of the three vehicles of śrāvakas, pratyekabuddhas, and bodhisattvas, you practice and attain the four fruitions of stream enterer, once-returner, nonreturner, and arhat, or else you progress further and reach the ten stages of the bodhisattva path. But though you master all of these levels, you would still not be able to escape the dichotomous states of saints and worldlings. Even if you enjoy pleasure and happiness in the heavens — the highest realm in saṃsāra — through the merit you accumulated in previous lifetimes, once that merit is exhausted, you will end up falling to lower realms of existence.

  The Buddha preached that we should escape the six rebirth destinies, not try to ascend through them. Do not slumber away dreaming great dreams; awaken from your sleep. You may be dreaming a good dream at the moment, but if you keep sleeping, eventually nightmares will come.

  The same is true for trying to develop no-mind through practice. Since this sort of no-mind eventually turns back into discrimination and delusory thought, you must attain the original no-mind that transcends the mind’s existence or nonexistence. Once you wake up, there will be nothing but what has been originally revealed.

  Although practitioners discover no-mind, if they try to approach it intellectually, they will be immediately engulfed in the clouds of birth and death and sink back into utter darkness.

  “Master Zhi said, ‘If you have not yet met a supramundane bright teacher, you are ingesting in vain the dharma medicine of the Great Vehicle.’160 If you will now just practice no-mind at all times, whether walking, standing, sitting, or reclining, there will then be nothing to discriminate, nothing to rely on, and nothing to abide in. You will cavort playfully (renyun tengteng / imun deungdeung 任運騰騰) all day long, like a simpleton.

  志公云 未逢出世明師 枉服大乘法藥 如今但一切時中 行住坐臥 但學無心 亦無分別亦無依倚 亦無住著 終日任運騰騰 如癡人相似.

  Mundane affairs always derive from dichotomies, but supramundane matters always transcend subject and object. A bright-eyed enlightened master helps practitioners break their bad habit of approaching the Buddhadharma from a dualistic perspective. Hence, if you do not meet such a master, no matter how long you practice, you will still remain in discriminating delusion, painting a false picture. The more you practice alone and as you like, the greater your intellectual understanding becomes. The good medicine of the Great Vehicle then changes into something that reeks like the dregs of alcohol.

  A true practitioner should live a life of nonaction, eating when hungry and sleeping when tired. Then, in accordance with conditions, he or she will be able to respond naturally and reflexively, like a flash of lightning.

  “Although no one in this world may recognize you, you still need not teach others to either recognize or not recognize you. Your mind is like coarse stone with no fissures or cracks, so no dharmas are able to penetrate your mind. Transfixed, you are free
from clinging. In this wise, you will finally have a modicum of concurrence [with no-mind].

  世人盡不識爾 爾亦不用教人識不識 心如頑石頭 都無縫罅 一切法透汝心不入 兀然無著 如此始有少分相應.

  If your original place is obvious and you can go with the flow, you need then only let time pass. When you move, you move; when you stop, you stop. Whatever people in the world say, it’s of no consequence to you.

  People think that training means to go here and there learning things. However, those who arouse the aspiration for enlightenment will go visit a Seon master and, turning one thought around, will come into accord with no-mind and put everything down (fangxiazhao/banghachak 放下着).

  “One who escapes the sense objects connected with the three realms of existence is said to be a buddha appearing in the world. Mentality that is not contaminated (āsrava) is called uncontaminated wisdom (anāsravajñāna). You make no karma to be reborn among heavenly beings, humans, or the denizens of the hells. When you do not give rise to any states of mind, and all conditioning is completely unproduced, your body and mind will be that of a free person.

  透得三界境過名為佛出世 不漏心相名為無漏智 不作人天業 不作地獄業 不起一切心 諸緣盡不生 即此身心是自由人.

  Not arousing even a single thought is what is meant by “uncontaminated.” If your mind follows external phenomena, it creates defilements (kleśa). If you realize that even defilements are products of the sublime functioning of the self-nature, defilements will be immediately transformed into bodhi. When your every move, word, and thought clearly becomes a manifestation of the one mind, the uncontaminated wisdom is revealed.