A Bird in Flight Leaves No Trace Read online

  造惡造善 皆是著相. 著相造惡 枉受輪迴. 著相造善 枉受勞苦.

  Once a distinction is made between you and me, the discriminative mind is inevitably generated. Master Huangbo made Pei Xiu awaken right away through the Seon of the patriarchs, without following a sequential series of steps. The moment Pei Xiu turned one thought around and saw what he in fact possessed innately, his transformation was complete.

  However, even after you achieve a breakthrough, if you arouse the thought that you want to become a buddha or bodhisattva, you delude yourself, regress from your achievement, and ignore the instructions of spiritual mentors.

  Neither is equal to achieving direct realization of the original dharma for oneself through the words [of a master]. This dharma is the mind; outside the mind, there is no dharma. This mind is the dharma; outside the dharma, there is no mind. The mind is itself no-mind, but it is also free from no-mind.

  總不如言下 便自認取本法. 此法即心 心外無法. 此心即法 法外無心. 心自無心 亦無無心者.

  From the standpoint of absolute truth, nothing can be named or described. The masters of old called it “mind” to have a way of referring to it. But those who have already seen it have only to firmly embrace it. When it is time to eat, you eat; when it is time to sleep, you sleep. This is the sublime and mysterious function that is just as it is.

  If you presume the mind is no-mind, your mind will instead turn into something existent.

  將心無心 心却成有.

  Everything has originally been revealed, so what is there to remove? To cling to the practice of trying to stop your thoughts from arising is all wrong. When you realize that nothing has been aroused though you rouse thoughts all day long, you simply let your thoughts flow freely. Neither cling to nor reject those thoughts.

  Just silently accord with it and let all discursive and conceptual thought come to an end. This is why it is said, “The pathways of words and speech are eradicated, and the sphere of compounded things (saṃskāra) is extinguished.”19 This mind is the buddha whose original source is pristine. All human beings possess it. Since even wriggling worms possess numinosity, they are but one single substance with all the buddhas and bodhisattvas, without an iota of difference. It is merely due to delusory thoughts and discrimination that they generate various karmic fruitions.

  默契而已 絕諸思議故 曰言語道斷 心行處滅. 此心是本源清淨佛 人皆有之. 蠢動含靈與諸佛菩薩 一體不異. 秖為妄想分別 造種種業果.

  If you attain a great awakening to the truth, you will naturally realize that you are not different from the buddhas and will understand what has brought about this presumption of difference.

  The buddhas appear in the world to reveal the path. The patriarchs and teachers have carried on this work in subsequent generations. Otherwise, how would we have come to know about this path? We should be grateful to them all.

  3. The Mind That Is Originally Pure

  For the primordial buddha, there is in reality not a single thing. He is just void, pervasive, quiescent, and serene; bright, sublime, peaceful, and blissful.

  本佛上實無一物. 虛通寂靜 明妙安樂而已.

  When light comes, the mind is bright; when darkness comes, the mind is dark. Although it is in fact neither light nor dark, the mind is the brightest of the bright and the darkest of the dark.

  If you yourself enter deeply into awakening, just like that, here it is. It is perfect and complete, without the slightest deficiency.

  深自悟入 直下便是. 圓滿具足 更無所欠.

  Whether you have awakened or not, you are endowed with the original nature. You live, but without knowing your true origin. Fortunately, you have encountered the Buddha’s teachings and achieved a spiritual breakthrough. However, since you still are subject to past habituations, you may ask yourself, “I have cultivated Buddhism for so long; why are delusions still arising?” Nonetheless, do not try to get rid of or chase after that thought.

  You may practice strenuously for three infinite [eons] and progress sequentially through all the stages and levels; even so, when in a single moment of thought you finally attain realization, you will just realize that you are intrinsically a buddha yourself.

  縱使三秖精進修行 歷諸地位. 及一念證時 秖證元來自佛.

  What we realize after many years of practice is the simple fact that we are originally buddhas. We should not mistakenly believe that only a particular action is the correct practice. We practice at this present moment because we recognize the fact that we created karma in the past. Therefore it is ignorant to think that we need to practice; but it is even more ignorant to say that we do not need to practice. How, then, should we practice?

  Above all, nothing further can be added to that one thing.

  向上 更不添得一物.

  The nature, “that one thing,” can be neither diminished nor augmented. When it changes, it may become a buddha, bodhisattva, śrāvaka, or pratyekabuddha. It may take a specific form or no form at all. Even though it appears anywhere and anytime in various forms, it does not lose its original face, which is always the same. The moment you realize this, let it go and cling to nothing else. There may be occasional traces of you wasting time or falling into stupidity, but the nature remains unaffected and is always just the same.

  If you look back on your efforts over successive kalpas, all are illusory actions that took place in a dream. Therefore the Tathāgata says, “I indeed attained nothing from anuttara[samyaksaṃ]bodhi [supreme, perfect enlightenment]. Were I to have attained something, then the Buddha Dīpaṃkara would not have given me this prophecy.”20 He also said, “This dharma is equal [in every sentient being]; there is no superior or inferior. This is called bodhi.”21

  却觀歷劫功用 總是夢中妄為. 故如來云 我於阿耨菩提 實無所得. 若有所得 然燈佛 則不與我授記. 又云 是法平等無有高下. 是名菩提.

  The Buddha Dīpaṃkara offered the prophecy of Śākyamuni Buddha’s future buddhahood because Śākyamuni demonstated in his previous lifetimes the ability to manifest the nature in various ways. He was able to become a buddha not because he had cultivated the full range of practices that would lead to buddhahood — meaning, he did not receive that prophecy because he practiced. Rather, he received this prophecy of his future buddhahood from the Buddha Dīpaṃkara as a token gesture when the time was right. The making and receiving of the prophecy reveal that the Buddha and all sentient beings are one and the same.

  If you cower as if you are facing a sheer precipice, thinking, “Since achieving buddhahood would take eons of practice, it is irrelevant to me,” this is wrong. There is no near or far regarding the original nature. You have lived your life turning your back on your original face and never caring about enlightenment. Now, change your way of thinking and believe that enlightenment has always been innate to you. At first, when you listen to all kinds of explanations, you cannot understand them and may become confused about whether you will be able to practice correctly. However, as you recollect the teachings of the Buddha and the patriarchs, you become convinced about the truth of your original nature.

  This pure mind, the original fount — whether in sentient beings or all the buddhas, whether in the mountains or rivers of this world, whether endowed with characteristics or free of characteristics — in all cases, it pervades all realms in the ten directions. Utterly equanimous, it has no characteristics of self or other.

  即此本源清淨心 與眾生諸佛 世界山河 有相無相 遍十方界 一切平等 無彼我相.

  Everything in the past, present, and future originates from the sea of the nature. Nothing has existed except this one thing. Practitioners who have not yet opened their eyes require no further explanation. Instead, they should be pushed into a dead end, where they are forced to solve the fundamental problem for themselves.

  This pure mind, the original fount, is always itself perfectly bright, its r
adiance illuminating everywhere. Since people of this world are not awakened, they just recognize their seeing, hearing, sensing, and knowing as their minds. Since they are blinded by seeing, hearing, sensing, and knowing, they do not perceive their original essence, which is seminal and bright.

  此本源清淨心 常自圓明遍照 世人不悟 秖認見聞覺知為心 為見聞覺知所覆 所以不覩精明本體.

  Here, the fount is nothing but our own minds. This clear and bright mind, which illuminates everything and discerns the myriad things, is the nature. Since our minds are blinded by our own seeing, hearing, sensing, and knowing, we miss what makes seeing, hearing, sensing, and knowing possible.

  This explanation is very subtle, but the difference between knowing and not knowing is huge. There is no way to proceed except by finding a way out of that blindness for yourself.

  If right here and now you simply maintain no-mind, the original essence manifests of itself, like the great orb of the sun that rises in the sky and shines throughout the ten directions without obstructions. Therefore, if practitioners of the Way acknowledge only what they see, hear, sense, and know, and act accordingly, then when they are emptied of what they see, hear, sense, and know, their mental pathways will be cut off, and there will be no point of access.

  但直下無心 本體自現. 如大日輪 昇於虛空 遍照十方 更無障礙. 故學道人 唯認見聞覺知施為動作 空却見聞覺知 即心路絕 無入處.

  If you maintain a state of no-mind, the essence will be immediately revealed to you. However, people turn their backs on the original mind and presume that what sees, hears, senses, and knows is the mind. Strive instead to identify the moment the mind begins to function — that is, the moment before a thought arises and the moment when this thought first arises. If the conditions are right, the wall collapses in that moment. Being “emptied” does not mean that we are emptied by doing something. Because the mind is originally empty, we only need to let it be, just as it is.

  You may have tasted the flavor of Buddhist practice, but this still may not be easy to do. “Let it be, just as it is” means that you neither swallow it nor spit it out. As you practice, this will begin to make sense. But after you finish practicing, it will mean something totally different.

  You might say that these words are difficult to digest. However, the thing that says this is difficult — let go of that thing. Say someone asks you, “How am I supposed to let go?” If you answer, “I’ve no idea; do whatever you want,” people would likely call you irresponsible. But this is not being irresponsible; it is instead directly pointing out the way forward from a standpoint of ultimate responsibility.

  You only recognize the original mind at the sites where you see, hear, sense, and know. Even so, the original mind does not involve seeing, hearing, sensing, and knowing, and it is also not separate from seeing, hearing, sensing, and knowing. To put it simply, do not try to understand intellectually what you see, hear, sense, and know; do not develop thoughts regarding what you see, hear, sense, and know; do not seek the mind separate from what you see, hear, sense, and know; and do not cling to the dharma while abandoning what you see, hear, sense, and know. It is neither identical nor discrete, neither abiding nor attached. It is completely autonomous both spatially and temporally,22 so there is nowhere that is not the site of enlightenment.

  但於見聞覺知處 認本心 然本心不屬見聞覺知 亦不離見聞覺知 但莫於見聞覺知上 起見解 亦莫於見聞覺知上 動念 亦莫離見聞覺知覓心 亦莫捨見聞覺知取法 不即不離 不住不著 縱橫自在 無非道場.

  This mind is the buddha. If you seek the buddha somewhere else, you are wrong. The pristine site of enlightenment (bodhimaṇḍa)is that which is not different from the nature anytime or anywhere. Do not make the mistake of seeking this site while turning your back on it.

  When people of this world hear that all the buddhas transmit the mind-dharma, they assume there is a discrete dharma that can be realized and acquired with reference to the mind. They then seek that dharma with the mind, not knowing that the mind is nothing but that dharma and that dharma is nothing but the mind. You cannot seek the mind with the mind. [If you try,] the day of your attainment will never come, even after millions of kalpas.

  世人聞道 諸佛皆傳心法 將謂心上 別有一法 可證可取. 遂將心覓法 不知心即是法. 法即是心 不可將心更求於心 歷千萬劫 終無得日.

  If people would just recognize that what sees, hears, senses, and knows is the mind, their practice would be far easier. Not knowing what the mind is, they seek it without understanding what they are doing. They do not grasp that the mind has been with them since time immemorial and will be with them forever. Or perhaps they know intellectually this is the mind, but until they truly realize it, they will inevitably continue wandering.

  It is better to maintain no-mind here and now; this is the original dharma. It is like a wrestler unaware that there is a jewel on his forehead who looks everywhere for it outside; even though he travels throughout the ten directions [in search of it], he is never able to find it. But as soon as a wise man points to it, he sees for himself that the jewel was there the entire time. Therefore, if you practitioners of the Way are deluded about your own original mind and don’t recognize that it is the buddha, you will seek it outside and engage in a variety of practices, relying on a graduated process of realization. Even if you diligently look for it in this manner over successive kalpas, you will never achieve the Way. It is better to maintain no-mind here and now.

  不如當下無心 便是本法 如力士 迷額內珠 向外求覓 周行十方 終不能得. 智者指之當時 自見本珠如故. 故學道人 迷自本心 不認為佛. 遂向外求覓 起功用行 依次第證. 歷劫勤求 永不成道 不如當下無心.

  The Lesser Vehicle teaches a sequence of stages and steps leading to enlightenment, ones that are adapted to the śrāvakas’ mental capacities. Since the Great Vehicle and the Supreme Vehicle know that such steps are just provisional expedients, they dispense with stages of practice and instead reveal directly the original state of no-mind. If you attain awakening in one moment of thought, you see the nature directly and achieve the goal without having to master a series of stages. If this sudden approach seems too difficult, though, you might find yourself thinking, “I should just go as far as I can as a first step. How could I possibly reach the end all at once?” People have this view because they have not encountered the right conditions; whether they are “going” or “not going,” they are always using the original mind.

  If somebody who already knows this truth helps you open your eyes to the fact that what is here right now is the mind, you can open yourself to that truth. But sometimes you may fail to accept it even though your eyes have been opened. Some confused people say their progress in practice feels constrained even though it appears to be taking effect. Such people may eventually turn their backs on Buddhist training and end up going in a different direction.

  The “Tathāgata’s Nature” chapter of the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra23 tells a story about a wrestler, an attendant in the royal court, who had a diamond on his forehead between his eyebrows. One day, during a wrestling match, his opponent bumped his forehead and, as a result, the diamond he was so proud of was pushed under his skin so he couldn’t see it. Thinking that he had lost it, he began to search for it everywhere. Later, a wise doctor informed him that the diamond had been there on his forehead the entire time. At that moment, the wrestler realized the inconceivable principle. This story tells us that all sentient beings originally possess the buddha nature, but they sometimes need guidance from a spiritual mentor in order to see it.

  Know with certainty that all dharmas originally are nonexistent and unascertainable. There is nothing on which to rely and nothing in which to abide; there is no subject and no object. If you do not arouse deluded thoughts, you will realize bodhi.

  決定知一切法 本無所有 亦無所得. 無依無住 無能無�
��. 不動妄念 便證菩提.

  Delusions may arise, but if you allow yourself to be dragged around by them, you will end up turning your back on enlightenment. If you keep your mind clear and notice how those delusions arise, you can allow them to flow freely and no longer be dragged around by them. This becomes the perfection of the vow, one of the ten perfections (pāramitā).24 When you perfect for yourself the vow to save all sentient beings, you can draw on that aspiration in your actions in the ordinary world, but you have to be careful not to create unnecessary mirages that you then wander around within, saying that you are helping others when you are not even saving yourself.

  Speaking of cultivating the prefections, adherents of other religions may be just as good as Buddhists at practicing them. They may also labor without sparing themselves in order to help others. However, such practices bring only temporary relief. This relief does not compare to the well-being you experience when you discover the cause of suffering and realize that there are originally no delusions.

  It is correct to say that if you do not arouse delusion, you will realize wisdom right away. However, depending on your spiritual maturity, this claim might be confusing. If you are in the position to arouse faith based on your vow, this statement could expel all mirages. But if you try to remove delusions intentionally, you are creating problems for yourself. You do not enter into enlightenment by getting rid of delusions. Whether there are delusions or no delusions, if you recognize this fact, you will no longer be swayed by the arising of delusions, and they will simply vanish.

  When you realize the Way, you simply realize the buddha that is your original mind. Your efforts over successive kalpas will all have been needless practice. It is just as when the wrestler discovered the jewel, he only found the jewel that had been there all along on his forehead; it had nothing to do with all the efforts he had made looking for it outside. The Buddha said, “I in fact gained nothing from anuttara[samyak]sambodhi.”25 Because he was afraid that people would not believe him, he demonstrated it by drawing on what is seen with the five types of eyes and what is spoken of through the five types of speech. This is true, not false; it is absolute truth (paramārthasatya).