Buddha crossing a predestined person: Dharma and wisdom in life

Chapter 24 Breaking the Precepts—In the Great Thousand World, a Free Body (6)
Zen doesn't like to use words, let alone use them to explain concepts.Just as Zen is experienced in life, so it is with concepts.Therefore, the abbot Zen Master gave Guo Ziyi a head-on blow and made him realize what "I am slow" is.

Speak out
The influence of Chan Master Pangui is growing. Many followers of other sects have changed to Zen after hearing his Zen teachings.So a certain sorcerer came to Pangui's dojo, ready to question him and make him embarrass himself in public.That day, there were huge crowds of believers who came to listen to the Fa, and the scene was grand and solemn.Sitting on a high throne, Pan Gui spoke eloquently, interpreting the profound Zen principles beautifully, vividly, and clearly.

The mage who came to ask questions sat below, the more he saw people nodding their heads frequently, the more uncomfortable he felt.He couldn't help but stood up and said loudly: "Pangui, your Zen school claims to become a Buddha by seeing one's nature. People respect the Buddha, so they have to admire you. However, a person with a brain like me knows that you are misinterpreting Buddha's will, I won't be fooled by you. Try it on the spot, can you make me listen to you obediently and admire you?"

Pan Gui said calmly, "Come to me, and I'll show you."

Sure enough, the mage separated from the crowd, and walked up to Pan Gui without fear.Pan Gui smiled and motioned him to stand to the left.He took a few steps to the left and stood proudly.Pan Gui said, "Oh, no, no. It's more appropriate for you to stand on my right."

The mage thought to himself, no matter left or right, anyway, I am not afraid of you!So it moved to the right.

Pan Gui burst out laughing: "Look, I told you to come here, and you will come right away. If I tell you to go to the right, you will not go to the left. You have listened to me very much! Moreover, you are a man who keeps his promises. Gentlemen of faith, please sit down and listen to my lecture on Zen."

The mage froze for a moment.It turned out that I had lost to Zen Master Pangui unknowingly!
■Sentiment——

Zen Master Pangui used static braking to lure the enemy to go deep, convincing the opponent to lose.This tells us that if we strive for strength, we will fail one day, but if we don't strive, we will never fail.

right or wrong
When Zen Master Zhongxing served as a waiter at Chan Master Daowu, he once brought tea to Chan Master Daowu. Chan Master Daowu pointed to the teacup and said, "Is it evil? Is it righteous?"

Chan Master Zhongxing walked up to Chan Master Daowu and faced him, without saying a word, Chan Master Daowu said: "If there is evil, it will always be evil; if it is right, it will always be right."

Chan Master Zhongxing shook his head and expressed his opinion, "I don't think so."

Zen Master Daowu asked: "Then what is your opinion?"

At this time, Zen Master Zhongxing snatched the cup from Chan Master Daowu's hand and asked loudly, "Is it evil? Is it righteous?"

Chan Master Daowu clapped his hands and laughed, and said, "You are worthy of being my servant."

Chan Master Zhongxing then bowed to Chan Master Daowu.

■Sentiment——

Is it evil?It is positive?
I don't know, I can't say it, evil is also good, and right is also evil.There is no evil or good in this world, so why should we bother ourselves to distinguish between good and evil?
"of the temple"

A monk from the south asked Zhaozhou, "What is a Buddha?"

Zhaozhou replied, "In the palace."

"Aren't the ones in the temple made of clay?"

"Yes."

"What about the real Buddha?"

Zhaozhou replied again: "In the palace."

■Sentiment——

To be a monk is to be like Mazu, "the Buddha with the sun face and the Buddha with the moon face", to realize the true Buddha in the clay Buddha, and to realize the Dao in ordinary things.The monk refused to "sun-faced Buddha, moon-faced Buddha", so Zhaozhou pointed him to "the ones in the temple" and "the ones in the temple", asking him to join immediately, but this does not mean that Zhaozhou compared the clay Buddha with the real one. Buddha is equal.In a Dharma promotion, he said to the crowd: "Golden Buddha does not burn furnaces, wooden Buddhas do not burn fire, clay Buddhas do not burn water, and real Buddhas sit inside. Bodhi, Nirvana, and Buddha-like nature are all close-fitting clothes. They are called afflictions.” Lai Seng’s problem is that he pursues the “true Buddha” as an abstract existence, so the “true Buddha” becomes an affliction.

Iron yoke around the neck

Introduced by Muzhou, Yunmen went to pay homage to Xuefeng.

When he arrived at the village at the foot of Xuefeng Mountain, he met a monk, and he said to the monk, "Would you like to go up the mountain?"

The other party replied: "Yes."

So he said: "Please bring a few words to Xuefeng for me, but don't say that someone else told you."

The other party agreed, and he said: "When you arrive at the temple, when everyone gathers and the abbot enters the Dharma hall, you come out and clap your hands, stand in front of him and say, 'Poor old guy, why don't you put the abbot on your neck? Take off the iron flail'."

The monk followed Yunmen's instructions one by one.Knowing that it wasn't the monk's words, Xuefeng ran over and grabbed the monk and shouted, "Say it! Say it!"

The monk didn't know what to say, Xue Feng pushed him away and said: "These words are not what you said."

At first he still refused to admit it, but when Xuefeng asked the waiter to bring the rope and stick, he was so frightened that he could only confess: "Those are not my words, but what a monk from Zhejiang in the village asked me to say."

So Xuefeng said to everyone: "All of you go to the village to welcome back the monk who can be the mentor of 500 of you."

The next day, when Yunmen arrived at the temple, Xuefeng saw him and said, "Why are you here?"

Yunmen bowed his head and remained silent. From this moment on, their hearts agreed with each other.Yunmen lived in Xuefeng for several years, thus he received Zen's heart imprint.

■Sentiment——

The iron shackles on the neck are also the iron shackles on the soul, and these "iron shackles" are all kinds of ambitions, vigilance, and attachments of people. Only by removing all these can we get complete freedom.

just sleep
Three days before the death of Chan Master Dishui, his disciple E Shan accompanied the bedside.He had already chosen Asan as his successor.

At that time, a temple had just burned down, and Asan was busy rebuilding it.So Dishui asked him: "What will you do after the temple is rebuilt?"

"When you recover from illness, please go and speak the Dharma." Asan replied.

"What if I don't live to that day?"

"We can invite others." Asan replied.

"What if you can't find anyone?" Didan stared and asked.

Asan replied loudly: "Don't ask these unnecessary questions. Just go to sleep!"

■Sentiment——

If no one can be found in Eshan, can this newly built temple be destroyed?Dripping water is really a bit unfounded.Just let nature take its course, plant a phoenix tree, and a phoenix will come.

Nanquan cut the cat
One day, a group of monks were arguing over a cat.When Zen Master Nanquan saw it, he grabbed the cat by the neck and raised it high, saying: "Everyone, if anyone among you can speak for the cat, I will not kill the cat. If not, I will kill it immediately. Come on! Say something?"

The monks were silent.

So Nanquan killed the cat.

In the evening, when his disciple Zhao Zhou (Cong Jue) came back from abroad, Zen Master Nanquan told him what happened during the day in detail.After hearing this, Zhaozhou took off the straw sandals and put them on his head without saying a word, and walked out of the room.

Zen Master Nanquan looked at it and said, "If you had been there at that time, the cat would not have been killed..."

■Sentiment——

We know that Buddhist Zen does not kill living beings, but why did Nanquan kill cats?In fact, Nanquan's original intention was to save Mao'er, and it was those who criticized Monk Nanquan who really killed Mao'er.Nanquan wants a true Zen practitioner who can cut through the world with a single blow.Zhaozhou put his shoes on his head and walked out to remind those monks that in the true Zen state, all right and wrong values ​​in the world must be viewed upside down: all existing entities are "empty", that is, "one is Everything, everything is one".

public hug

In Japan, there was a female Zen master named Huichun.

Huichun became a monk when he was very young.Because there was no nunnery in Japan for nuns to practice at that time, she had to practice Zen under the seat of a Zen master with twenty monks.

Huichun has a very beautiful face, even though she shaved her hair and put on a plain cassock, it made her appearance even more elegant and refined.Therefore, several monks who studied Zen with her secretly fell in love with her, and one of them wrote a love letter to her, asking for a private date.After Huichun received the love letter, she remained calm.

The next day, the Zen master went to the court to give a sermon. After finishing speaking, Huichun stood up and said to the monk who wrote her a letter: "If you really love me as written in the letter, come and hug me now!"

After speaking, several monks became enlightened on the spot, sweating profusely.

■Sentiment——

For Zen practitioners, every thought and every action of life can be examined under the sunlight.It expresses a spirit of commitment in the moment.The life of Zen is not a life relying on imagination, but an open and clear face to life at this moment.Huichun's "open embrace" is also "bright and clear attitude towards life".With this attitude, even relapse is worth it.

die upside down

Zen master Yinfeng lived in Wutai Mountain in his later years. One day he climbed the peak, with a premonition that this was the last climb.A few days later, he summoned monks and disciples in the Vajra Cave and said to them:

"When Chan Master Fang Fang passed away, some were sitting and some were lying down. I have seen them all. Did any of them die standing?" One of the disciples replied, "Yes." What about the one who passed away?" The monks replied in unison: "I haven't seen it."

Yinfeng said silently.After a while, he got up to straighten his clothes, and then stood with his hands on the ground, his eyes closed.After a long time, all the monks saw him motionless, stepped forward to take a closer look, only to find that he had disappeared.

After discussing with the monks, they took care of his funeral, but the body stood upside down, unable to be pushed down or pulled up, as if it had taken root.And those monks and laymen who came from afar were all amazed and sighed.

Yinfeng had a younger sister who also became a monk in Wutai. When she heard the news, she approached her elder brother who had died standing upside down. She stroked the body and said, "My elder brother did not follow the precepts of Buddhism when he was born. bewildered everyone."

After speaking, he pushed with his hand, and the inverted body fell to the ground.

■Sentiment——

Yinfeng ingeniously stood upside down and passed away, showing that he had never been attached to appearances such as standing or standing.There are no concepts or precepts in the original Buddha nature, so how can there be any difference?

(End of this chapter)