Buddha crossing a predestined person: Dharma and wisdom in life

Chapter 9: A Clash at the Head——If you don’t write about it, you will pass it on outside the classroom (3)
Does Hui Neng really not know the Dharma? Or is knowing the Dharma the same as knowing the Dharma? This irrational statement is the inevitable result of the Zen school's view of life.Its entire focus is on intuitively grasping the inner ways that lie deep within our consciousness.And the Tao that arises in our hearts cannot be expressed rationally, or at least cannot be taught to others by any logical formula.It must come from within us, grow within us, and become one with our being.What the Zen masters have pointed out is that nature is unaccustomed to being arbitrary and innovative.All they can grasp are the conditions and consequences used to accomplish this purpose regardless of its logic.This ignorance of logic is sometimes intentional, so that we know that the way of Zen is independent of reason.

Sun-faced Buddha, Moon-faced Buddha

When Ma Zudao fell ill, a student went to see him and said, "How do you feel today?"

Mazu replied: "Sun-faced Buddha, moon-faced Buddha!"

A monk asked Zhaozhou: "The scriptures say that all dharmas return to one, but where does one return to?"

Zhaozhou replied, "When I was in Qingzhou, I made a cloth shirt weighing seven catties."

A monk asked Zhaozhou: "When the body is destroyed and returned to the dust, there is something left forever. I know this thing, but where does this thing stay?"

Zhaozhou replied, "It's windy this morning."

Someone asked Muzhou, "Who is the teacher of the Buddhas?"

He just hummed the tune of "Ding Dong Dong Dong Gu Si Gu Dong".

Someone asked him what Zen is, and he replied: "Namo Amitabha."

But the monk thought he didn't understand what he meant, so Muzhou said loudly, "You poor frog, where did your bad karma come from?"

When the monk was unable to understand the true meaning of this sentence, the Zen master continued: "My clothes are completely worn after wearing them for many years, and the pieces hanging loosely on my body have been blown into the sky."

Someone asked Chan Master Xiang Linyuan why the patriarch came to the west, and his answer was: "I feel tired after sitting for a long time."

Let's take another example from Muzhou. Once, a monk asked him: "What is the saying that transcends all Buddhas and ancestors?"

The Zen master immediately raised his staff and said to everyone, "I said it was a staff, but what do you say it is?"

No one answered, so he raised his walking stick and asked the monk again, "Didn't you ask me what is beyond all Buddhas and ancestors?"

Once, someone asked an eminent monk: "What is a Buddha?"

He said, "What is not a Buddha?"

Another time, his answer was: "Never knew him."

Another time, he said, "When I have a Buddha, I will tell you then."

The monk said, "If that's the case, you don't have a Buddha in your heart."

The Zen master immediately affirmed, "That's right."

"Where is the right place?"

The Zen master replied, "Today is the last day of this month.

Someone asked Zen Master Touzishan Datong: "What is Buddha?" He replied: "Buddha." Someone asked him, "What is Dao?" He replied, "Fa."

■Sentiment——

Since it is a Zen saying, people naturally hope to find unusual things from it.Therefore, sometimes, some Zen masters will fall into the level of understanding and want to enlighten their disciples with Dharma.However, the Fifth Patriarch's speech said: "If you seek the Buddha, you will not be able to see the Buddha. If you seek the ancestors, you will not be able to see the ancestors. Melons are sweet from the root, bitter melons are bitter from the root."

What is the logical relationship between the above-mentioned questions and answers? Perhaps these answers are enough to show how freely the Zen masters deal with those profound philosophical problems that have always troubled mankind.For Zen masters, language is a cry that comes directly from inner spiritual experience.The expression of language itself is meaningless, and the meaning must be found from our own heart, because the same experience arises in our heart.

Drunk
One day, Huangbo Xiyun went to the altar to give a lecture. As soon as the monks assembled, Huangbo raised his staff and drove them out.When they were about to go out, he called them again, and they all turned around.The Zen master said: "The moon is like a bow, less rain and more wind."

When one of Linji's students took his seat and asked what the meaning of Buddhism was, Linji got down from the meditation bed and grabbed him, slapped him, and told him to go away.Ding Shangzuo stood there, not knowing what to do. At this time, a monk beside Dingshang seat reminded him why he didn't worship the teacher.When the seat is set, the general will salute, and suddenly realizes.

Later, when he was walking across a bridge, he met three monks, and one of them asked, "Why do we have to explore the depths of the Chan River?" The disciple of Linji immediately grabbed him and wanted to throw him under the bridge.The other two interceded for him, and only after being seated did they let him go, saying: "If these two friends hadn't interceded for you, I would have thrown you down immediately and let you find out by yourself."

Once, Linji asked another student of his, Luo Pu (that is, Zen Master Yuan'an of Luopu Mountain): "One person uses a stick, and the other uses a drink. Which method do you think is closer to the Tao?"

Luo Pu replied: "There is no method closer to the Tao!"

Linji asked him again: "Then, what is the closest to Tao?"

Luo Pu replied loudly, "Drink!"

So Linji beat him.

■Sentiment——

Stick (or stick) and drinking are the most commonly used methods of enlightenment in Zen.Deshan likes to swing, Linji likes to use and drink.However, here Linji used sticks, which was the most effective method, and was accepted by his student Luo Pu.Rinzai was known for his directness and sharpness, the edge of his sword piercing to the heart of his opponent.For these people, Zen is not a joke, nor a game of ideas. On the contrary, it is a serious matter between life and death, and a way of action. When it came to questions, he thought it was not serious when he was seated, so he was thrown into the river.

wife eager
Linji Yixuan was born in Cao County, Shandong Province, and his common surname was Xing.When he was young, he decided to become a monk.Around the age of 20, he arrived in Anhui and joined Huangbo's family.

At that time, Muzhou Daoming was the head of the monks.One day I asked him, "How long have you been here?"

Linji replied, "Three years."

Muzhou asked again, "Have you ever asked the abbot?"

Linji replied, "No, I don't know what to ask?"

Mu Zhou said, "Why don't you ask him what is the essence of Buddhism?"

So Linji went to ask Huangbo according to Muzhou's instructions.Before he finished asking, Huangbo hit him with a stick.Linji had no choice but to retreat, and Muzhou asked him, "How did he answer you?"

Linji told Muzhou exactly what had happened, and said that he could not understand Huangbo's inexplicable behavior.Muzhou urged him to ask again.In this way, Linji asked three times back and forth, but was beaten three times.So he went to see Muzhou and said, "I went to ask about the Dharma, and I was beaten by the master many times. I hate that I can't fully understand the mysterious purpose, so I have to leave here."

Mu Zhou said, "Before you leave, you have to say goodbye to Master."

After Linji left, Muzhou first went to Huangbo and said, "Although the monk who asked the question is young, he is very strange. Please give him some guidance. In the future, he will definitely become a big tree and cover the world with shade." sentient beings."

After a while, Linji came to bid farewell to Huangbo. Huangbo said, "Go to Gao'an beach to see Dayu, he will definitely guide you."

When Linji arrived at Dayu, Dayu asked him, "Where are you from?"

Linji replied, "From Huangbo."

Dayu asked again: "What did Huangbo tell you?"

Linji replied: "I asked him the general idea of ​​Buddhism three times, and was beaten three times. I don't know where I am wrong."

Dayu said: "Huangbo is really a wife who is eager to help you solve your confusion. You still come to me to ask if you are at fault."

After hearing this, Linji suddenly realized, and said, "So Huangbo's Dharma is only a little like this!"

Dayu grabbed Linji and said, "You bed-wetting brat, just now you came to ask yourself if you were at fault, but now you say that Huangbo's Dharma is only this little. What did you see? Tell me quickly! Tell me quickly!"

Linji didn't answer, but punched Dayu three times in the ribs. Dayu pushed him away and said, "Your teacher is Huangbo, so it has nothing to do with me!"

After Linji left Dayu, he returned to Huangbo.Seeing him coming back, Huangbo said, "This guy comes and goes, there is no end date."

Linji said, "It's just because my wife is eager."

So he told Huangbo all about his story and what Dayu had said. Huangbo cursed and said, "Dayu is such a talkative old fellow. When he comes, I will beat him up."

Linji continued: "What are you waiting for? Fight now!"

So he gave Huangbo a slap, and Huangbo shouted, "You madman, how dare you come to stroke the tiger's beard."

Linji drank it.Huangbo asked someone to take him back to the hall.

■Sentiment——

There is only so much that each teacher can guide, but some understand it and some don't.Linji has a thorough personality, is stubborn and enthusiastic, and has gone through hardships on the road to enlightenment.He suddenly became enlightened at Dayu.

Silent is better than sound

When Manjushri asked Vimalakirti what the saying of "non-two dharmas are in opposition", Vimalakirti did not say a word.Later, a Zen master said that his silence was "deafening as thunder."

When a monk asked Chan Master Basho Huiqing to tell him what the "true face" is, Basho sat still and said nothing.

When someone asked Chan Master Zifu Rubao what a sentence of response is, Zifu did not say a word, but kept silent.

Zen Master Wenxi of Hangzhou was a disciple of Yangshan. A monk asked him, "What is the self?"

He said nothing.The monk didn't know what Wen Xi meant, so he asked him again, and Wen Xi replied, "When the sky is cloudy, the moon is dark."

■Sentiment——

Zen Master Wenxi uses "cloud" to imply human language, and "moon" is compared to human's true face, and when the cloud rises, the moon will lose its light. Similarly, when a person speaks, the person's self-nature or true face is also covered.Zen uses this to tell people that language is not only useless for practicing Zen, but on the contrary, it can also cover up the Buddha-nature and lead people astray.

please play the harp for me

A monk ran to Shoushan and said, "Please play the qin for me."

After a long silence, Shoushan said, "Did you hear that?"

The monk replied, "I didn't hear you."

Shoushan said, "Why don't you ask louder?"

A monk asked Zen master Cao Shan Benji: "How can you show your silence?" Cao Shan replied: "Don't show it here." The monk asked again: "Where should you show it?" Cao Shan replied: "Last night at three o'clock, the bedside lost three words. money."

■Sentiment——

What piano sounds the best? "There is only better, not the best". Therefore, all sounded piano sounds cannot be the best, only the "sound" from a stringless piano is the best.And this "stringless piano sound" is actually the sound from our nature. It does not need to pass through our ears, but to listen directly with our heart, that is, to observe our nature with our heart.To contemplate the nature, silence is better than sound.

Drumming

Monk Heshan has a famous saying: Learn to learn, learn to learn, learn to be neighbors, and hear neighbors thoroughly, then it is true.Master Seng Zhao also said in "Bao Zang Lun": There are three ways to learn the Tao, one is the truth, the other is the neighbor, and the third is the hearing.To study knowledge is to hear, to learn all the knowledge is close to the true way, and to have both is true. "True passing" refers to the real transformation environment.

A monk asked, "What is real fault?"

He Shan said, "I will untie the drum."

The monk asked again: "What is the truth of becoming a monk?"

He Shan still replied: "I know how to play drums."

The monk continued to ask: "I don't ask you what it means that the heart is the Buddha, I just ask you what the non-mind is not the Buddha?"

He Shan still replied: "I am good at drumming."

The monk chased after him persistently: "If you meet a real person with a high realm, how can you teach him?"

He Shan is wise and foolish, and the answer is still: "I play the drums very well."

■Sentiment——

Here, the "jie" in "jiebagu" is not the "jie" of understanding, but the meaning of the modal verb "hui".Monk Heshan deserves to be an expert who enlightened to Taoism by hearing the sound of drums beating.This is exactly "true pass".

no thoughts
The King of the Long Night asked God and said: "You often say 'no thought' (no thought or unconsciousness), and you want people to get used to no thought. I wonder if there is an entity corresponding to the concept of 'no thought'?"

Shenhui is Huineng's most eloquent disciple. He said: "I would not say that no thought is a substance, nor would I say that no thought is not a substance."

The king asked, "Why?" God would reply, "Because, if I say that it exists, it is non-existent in the sense of ordinary people's so-called actual existence; In the sense of existence, it is not non-existent. Therefore, no thought is neither real nor non-existent.”

The king asked, "Then what do you call it?"

God would reply, "I don't call it anything."

Wang asked, "In that case, what could it be?"

God will answer: "There is no name. Therefore I say that no-mind cannot be described in words. The reason we are talking about it is because many questions have been asked about it. If no one has asked various questions about it If there is such a problem, there will be no discourse. It is like a mirror. If nothing appears in front of it, nothing can be seen in it. When you say that you see something in it, it is because there is something behind it. Face it."

Wang asked: "When the mirror has nothing to shine on, does the brightness of the mirror lose its meaning?"

God would answer: "When I speak of the object being illuminated and its brightness, the fact is that this brightness is always of the nature of the mirror, and does not refer to the presence or absence of the object before the mirror."

Wang asked: "You say that it has no form, that it cannot be described in words, and that the concepts of real and non-existent cannot be applied to it. Then why do you talk about brightness? What kind of brightness is it?"

God will answer: "We speak of brightness, because the mirror is bright, and its nature is bright. Because the mind present in all things is pure, there is the light of prajna in it, and this light of prajna permeates the world."

Wang asked, "Even so, when will you get it?"

God will answer, "I see nothing."

The king then said, "Even if it is nothing, you see something."

Shenhui then said: "Although it is seeing, it should not be called a thing."

Ask again: "If it should not be called a thing, how can there be 'seeing'?"

God will answer, "Seeing nothing, this is the true and constant view."

■Sentiment——

God would compare our "mindless" nature or Buddha nature to a mirror.Its nature is always bright, and it can see everything about us; but it is different from a mirror, because a mirror is real, but it is not real, and it does not exist in front of us like a mirror.But it does not have to exist, it does exist, and it can see everything about us.Therefore, God will say that it is both "existent" and "non-existent".

How is Patriarch Xi Laiyi
Zen Master Zhenlang of Yuguo Temple in Changsha saw Shitou Xiqian and said, "What is the meaning of Patriarch's coming from the West?"

Shitou replied, "Ask Lu Zhu."

Zhenlang said, "I don't understand what you mean."

Shi Shi said, "I don't understand either."

This sentence enlightened Zhenlang.

A monk asks Yaoshan to enlighten him as he is still groping for the meaning of his life.Yaoshan was silent for a long time.

■Sentiment——

"Patriarch Xi Laiyi" refers to the meaning of Bodhidharma's coming to China, which is the same as the exploration of the meaning of life. From the perspective of Zen, these are unspeakable, so Xiqian and Yaoshan both avoided answering.Here is Yaoshan's explanation: "It is not difficult for me to explain the problem you are facing. However, the most important thing is to grasp its meaning immediately without thinking. In this way, you can get a shortcut. On the contrary, If you hesitate and start thinking, it will be my sin in the end. So, it is better not to say anything, so that we can all avoid more bondage."

No heart can be used, no way can be repaired

Zen Master Daoguang once asked Zen Master Dazhu Huihai, "Chan Master! You usually work hard, but why do you cultivate the Tao?"

Hui Hai: "The old monk has no heart to use, and no way to cultivate."

Daoguang: "Since this is the case, why do you gather people every day to persuade people to practice meditation?"

Hui Hai: "Old monk, I have no tiles above me, no place to stand below, so where can I gather people?"

Daoguang: "In fact, you gather people to talk about Taoism every day. Isn't this teaching to save people?"

Hui Hai: "Please don't wrong me, I can't even speak, how can I talk about the Tao? I haven't even seen a single person, how can you say that I save the crowd?"

Daoguang: "Zen Master, you are lying."

Hui Hai: "The old monk doesn't even have a tongue, how can he lie?"

Daoguang: "Could it be that the world, the world of love, the existence of you and me, and the fact of practicing Zen and preaching are all false?"

Hui Hai: "It's all true!"

Daoguang: "Since it is true, why do you deny it?"

Hui Hai: "If it is false, it must be denied; if it is true, it must be denied!"

Daoguang finally realized what he said.

■Sentiment——

Dao Guangming gathers people to teach the Dharma every day to save all living beings, why he refuses to admit it?Why did he later admit that those facts were true?In the end, why did he say "if it is false, it must be denied; if it is true, it must be denied"?When Master Huineng saw two monks debating whether "the wind moves" or "the flags move", in fact, our naked eyes did see the wind moving and the flags moving too, but these are false, and what really moves is ours. Heart.Therefore, Daoguang is also the same. The gatherings of people and sayings we see are false, and what is real and real is our heart.Therefore, he finally said, if it is true, it must be denied, and if it is false, it must be denied.

Liu Tiemo

Weishan Lingyou was a Zen master in the heyday of the Tang Dynasty. As the No. 1 independent sect of Zen, Lingyou founded Weiyang School in Weishan.It is said that the number of disciples who followed him reached a record 500, and Weishan is the leader among the world's preachers of Buddhism.

In a hermitage ten miles away from Weishan Mountain, there lived a nun named Liu Tiemo.Liu Tiemo is a Zen master who has participated for a long time, and his wit is so fierce that he will not give way to the great master Weishan Lingyou.

One day, she came to Dawei Mountain again to meet Master Lingyou.

Seeing her coming in, Weishan Lingyou said, "Old cow, are you here?"

Master Weishan once said that he wanted to go to the foot of the mountain to be a water bull, and write on the left flank: Weishan Monk Lingyou.Therefore, it is not surprising that he called the nun Liu Tiemo an "old cow".But what he really meant seemed to be to say: an old woman like you, it is best to stay in a comfortable nunnery and enjoy the peace of spring.Why do you leave that quiet place and walk around? That is to say, the mind of a Zen practitioner should rest in the empty, pure and bright, and cannot follow the external environment.

Liu Tiemo said to Master Weishan: "Tomorrow, there will be a large vegetarian meeting in Mount Wutai, old monk, are you going to attend?"

What about Master Weishan? Can he fly to such a distant place?
What Wei Shan did was to lay down on the ground!
What was the reaction of that old nun Liu Tiemo?
Without saying a word or doing anything, she walked away on her own.

Originally, this story was over, but, as if to make a footnote to Liu Tiemo, a monk came in immediately and paid respects to Master Weishan who was lying on the ground.The old man Wei Shan sat up.The monk said, "Master, please don't get up."

Wei Shan said, "The old monk didn't sit down either."

The monk said, "Then, I didn't pray either."

Master Wei Shan said, "Why are you being rude?"

The monk was speechless.

■Sentiment——

(End of this chapter)