Post-awakening cultivation in Zen

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Temicco
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Post-awakening cultivation in Zen

Post by Temicco »

Other recent discussions have touched on this topic, but I wanted to create a thread focusing on post-awakening cultivation in Zen only.

First, I think a few things are worth noting:
  • most discussion about post-awakening cultivation takes place in Song-dynasty literature; many Tang dynasty Zen texts emphasize sudden awakening and suggest that it is totally realized in an instant
  • Shenxiu vs. Shenhui was a more recent memory in the Tang; perhaps this is a factor in why Tang dynasty texts are so subitist
  • it's only in the Song dynasty that we start getting a lot of reliable records of teachings, anyway
  • I don't think it makes any sense to attribute this difference to a mere difference in teaching styles, considering that it relates to how kensho is experienced, which is fundamental to Zen
  • I personally take the view that the Tang writings are less reliable, given that they are not written in the teacher's own hands, and also more incomplete, given how much smaller Tang dynasty lu are compared to Song dynasty ones.
  • most Zen literature is still untranslated, so it is quite possible that there is much more discussion of post-awakening cultivation in Zen texts than English speakers know
Anyway, I wanted to post a bunch of quotes from teachers that relate, either explicitly or arguably, to post-awakening cultivation. I will focus here on the dimension of continuity, rather than on familiarity, integration, free functioning, etc. Feel free to add other quotes.

Daoxin:

"Those who hear should practice: don't be doubtful and confused. It is like a person learning archery. At first he shoots at large targets. By and by he can hit smaller and smaller ones. Then he can hit a single feather, then hit it and smash it into a hundred pieces, then hit one of the hundredths. Then he can shoot the arrow before with the arrow after, and hit the notch, so the arrows line up one after another and he does not let any arrows fall. This is a metaphor for practicing the Path, concentrating the mind from thought-instant to thought-instant, going on continuously from mind-moment to mind-moment without any interruptions, so that correct mindfulness is not broken and appears before you." (from Anxin Famen)

Hongren (?):

"This true mind is natural and does not come from outside. It is not confined to cultivation in past, present, or future. The dearest and most intimate thing there could be is to preserve the mind yourself. If you know the mind, you will reach transcendence by preserving it. If you are confused about the mind and ignore it, you will fall into miserable states. Thus we know that the Buddhas of all times consider the inherent mind to be the basic teacher. Therefore a treatise says, "Preserve the mind with perfect clarity so that errant thoughts do not arise, and this is birthlessness." (Treatise on the Supreme Vehicle)

"The Mind King Scripture says that true thusness, the Buddha-nature, is submerged in the ocean of cognition, perception, and sense, bobbing up and down in birth and death, unable to escape. Effort should be made to preserve the basic true mind, so that arbitrary thoughts do not arise, egoistic and possessive attitudes vanish, and you spontaneously realize equality and unity with the Buddhas." (ibid.)

"Enlightenment is realized by knowing mind; confusion happens because of losing touch with nature. If conditions meet, they meet; no fixed statement can be made. Just trust in the truth and preserve your inherently basic mind." (ibid.)

"Once we know that the Buddha-nature in all beings is as pure as the sun behind the clouds, if we just preserve the basic true mind with perfect clarity, the clouds of errant thoughts will come to an end, and the sun of insight will emerge; what is the need or so much more study of knowledge of the pains of birth and death, of all sorts of doctrines and principles, and of the affairs of past, present, and future? It is like wiping the dust off a mirror; the clarity appears spontaneously when the dust is all gone." (ibid.)

Huineng

"If in all places you do not dwell on appearances, do not conceive aversion or attraction to any of those appearances, and have no grasping or rejection, do not think of such things as benefit, fulfillment, or destruction, and you are at peace, calm, open, aloof, this is called absorption in oneness. If in all places whether walking, standing, sitting, or lying down, your pure unified direct mind does not move from the site of enlightenment, truly making a pure land, this is called absorption in one practice. If people are equipped with these two absorptions, it is like the earth having seeds, able to store, develop, and perfect their fruits. Unity and unified practice too are like this." (Treasury of the True Eye of Teaching, vol. 2)

Longtan:

"At these words, Lung-t'an's mind was opened and he understood. Then he asked how to preserve this insight. The master said, “Give rein to your Nature in its transcendental roamings. Act according to the exigencies of circumstances in perfect freedom and without any attachment. Just follow the dictates of your ordinary mind and heart. Aside from that, there is no ‘holy' insight.” (from Terebess)

Yuanwu:

"Your only fear should be that your own correct eye is not yet perfectly clear. This will cause you to fall into duality, and then you will lose touch with reality." (Zen Letters, p.56)

"If you can make it continuous and unbroken, how will it be any different than when you were in the monastery being guided by the abbot and doing your meditation work? If you turn your back on it at all, and there is some break in the continuity, then you will lose contact." (Zen Letters, p.61)

"When this is closely continuous without any leaks, this is what is called standing like a wall miles high, lofty and steep." (Zen Letters, p.65)

"When you are in this state of great concentration, isnt this inconceivable great liberation? Just let it continue for a long time without interruption." (Zen Letters, p.72)

"Just keep boring in -- you must penetrate through completely. Haven't you seen Muzhou's saying? 'If you haven't gained entry, you must gain entry. Once you have gained entry, don't turn your back on your old teacher.' When you manage to work sincerely and preserve your wholeness for a long time, and you go through a tremendous process of smelting and forging and refining and polishing in the furnace of a true teacher, you grow nearer and more familiar day by day, and your state becomes secure and continuous. Keep working like this, maintaining your focus for a long time still, to make your realization of enlightenment unbroken from beginning to end." (Zen Letters, p.74)

You must continue this way without interruption forever -- this is the best." (Zen Letters, p.89)

"It is just a matter of never letting there be even a moment's interruption in your awareness of your real nature." (Zen Letters, p.96)

"When you reach the point where feelings are ended, views are gone, and your mind is clean and naked, you open up to Zen realization. After that it is also necessary to develop consistency, keeping the mind pure and free from adulteration at all times. If there is the slightest fluctuation, there is no hope of transcending the world." (from Zen Essence)

Dahui:

"Often people of sharp faculties and superior intellect get it without expending a lot of effort. They subsequently produce easy-going thooughts and do not engage in practice. In any case, they are snatched away by sense objects right in front of them and cannot act as a master subject. Days and months pass, and they wander about without coming back. Their Dao power cannot win out over the power of karma, and the Evil One gets his opportunity..." (from Zongmi on Chan, p.60)

Muso Soseki:

"Since ancient times it has been said that ascertainment of truth is relatively easy compared with the difficulty of preserving truth. Preservation of truth is the work of maturation." (from Dream Conversations on Buddhism and Zen)

Bankei:

"My only reason for speaking to people like this is because I want to make everyone know about the marvelously illuminating clarity of the unborn Buddha-mind. When you've confirmed it for yourself, you're the Buddha-mind from then on. No different from Shakamuni himself. The Buddha-body is yours once and for all, for endless ages, and you won't ever fall into the evil ways again.

"And yet, should you grasp the unborn Buddha-mind at this meeting and then return home and let yourself be upset over something you see or hear, even if it's a trifling thing, that little bit of anger will make the unborn mind, to which you were just enlightened, change into the way of the fighting spirits or hungry ghosts, increasing the great evil of the life you lived prior to hearing about the Unborn by hundreds of millions of times and causing you to pass endlessly through the wheel of existence." (The Unborn, p.95)

Shido Bunan:

"If you can really get to see your fundamental mind, you must treat it as though you were raising an infant. Walking, standing, sitting, lying down, illuminate everything everywhere with awareness, not letting him be dirtied by the seven consciousnesses. If you can keep him dear and distinct, it is like the baby's gradually growing up until he's equal to his father - calmness and wisdom dear and penetrating, your function will be equal to that of the buddhas and patriarchs. How can such a great matter be considered idle?" (from Sokushin-ki)

Torei:

"Mightily manipulating the pearl of awareness, I didn’t put it down for an instant. Sometimes getting it, sometimes losing it, I found correct mindfulness hard to keep continuous. Sorrow and apprehension clogged my chest, and I was uneasy whether sitting down, or up and about." (Undying Lamp of Zen, p.78)
"Deliberate upon that which does not deliberate."
-Yaoshan Weiyan (tr. chintokkong)

若覓真不動。動上有不動。
"Search for what it really is to be unmoving in what does not move amid movement."
-Huineng (tr. Mark Crosbie)

ཚེ་འདི་ལ་ཞེན་ན་ཆོས་པ་མིན། །
འཁོར་བ་ལ་ཞེན་ན་ངེས་འབྱུང་མིན། །
བདག་དོན་ལ་ཞེན་ན་བྱང་སེམས་མིན། །
འཛིན་པ་བྱུང་ན་ལྟ་བ་མིན། །
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Re: Post-awakening cultivation in Zen

Post by Virgo »

Amazing quotes. Thank you.

Kevin...
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Re: Post-awakening cultivation in Zen

Post by Wayfarer »

They are indeed.
Hongren wrote:This true mind is natural and does not come from outside. It is not confined to cultivation in past, present, or future. The dearest and most intimate thing there could be is to preserve the mind yourself. If you know the mind, you will reach transcendence by preserving it.
I am interested in what character or word has been translated as 'mind' in these kinds of phrases. Elsewhere in Buddhism, for instance in the Pali canon, 'mind' is not referenced in this way, in fact I think it would be difficult to find anything like this expression in those sources whereas 'Mind' or 'true mind' is relatively common in translations of Ch'an and Zen texts such as these. You also find similar passages extolling 'heart' or 'mind' in the Thai and Burmese Forest tradition, where it is originally given as 'citta' (which is perhaps similar to the way 'cit' (चित्) functions in Sanskrit). Perhaps this is related to the 'luminous mind' of the Pabhassara Sutta? Perhaps also the Tathāgatagarbha sutras?

If any of the scholars here could comment it would be appreciated.

:namaste:
'Only practice with no gaining idea' ~ Suzuki Roshi
Anders
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Re: Post-awakening cultivation in Zen

Post by Anders »

Temicco wrote: Fri Aug 17, 2018 12:29 am many Tang dynasty Zen texts emphasize sudden awakening and suggest that it is totally realized in an instant
I am not sure I agree with that. The Sudden/Gradual dichotomy is not so much about whether you cross the finishing line immediately, as it is about how you do it. The sudden path is about taking the finishing line as your starting point ("one thought of bodhi makes you equal to a buddha, one thought of delusion makes you a sentient being), basically instantaneously flicking a switch into the result of buddhahood as opposed to gradually working your way towards a result that is not presently with you. But I don't think it follows from there that the switch stays flicked on, nor that there are no more deepenings of this realisation. Sudden/Gradual is more about the implications for the path (is there anything to achieve, to cultivate or get rid of) than about how the result is achieved.

While this may not be explicitly discussed much in Tang documents, I think it is very much carried out by the stories in Tang documents. The fact that the primary manifesto of sudden awakening (the platform sutra) has Huineng experience kensho, then three months later another more final one, before he could receive transmission, I think is a good example. But generally, we don't really find many, if any, cases of an adept who had a sudden awakening and was then given full transmission as being ripe for the teaching seat. It is almost a case of spending many years more with your teacher and often then going travelling to see other teachers for further maturation.
Anyway, I wanted to post a bunch of quotes from teachers that relate, either explicitly or arguably, to post-awakening cultivation. I will focus here on the dimension of continuity, rather than on familiarity, integration, free functioning, etc. Feel free to add other quotes.
Nice. I will add this one from Tang teacher Guishan Lingyou:
  • “Does a person who has had sudden awakening still need to continue with cultivation?”
    The Master said, “If one has true awakening and attains to the fundamental, then at that time that person knows for himself that cultivation and non cultivation are just dualistic opposites. Like now, though the initial inspiration is dependent on conditions, if within a single thought one awakens to one’s own reality,there are still certain habitual tendencies that have accumulated over numberless kalpas which cannot be purified in a single instant. That person should certainly be taught how to gradually remove the karmic tendencies and mental habits: this is cultivation, but it does not mean that
    there really is a definite method which one should be urged to follow and practise."
"Even if my body should be burnt to death in the fires of hell
I would endure it for myriad lifetimes
As your companion in practice"

--- Gandavyuha Sutra
Meido
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Re: Post-awakening cultivation in Zen

Post by Meido »

Nice quotes.

Another good one from Torei (currently in my sig):
It is relatively easy to accomplish the important matter of insight into one’s true nature, but uncommonly difficult to function freely and clearly [according to this understanding], in motion and in rest, in good and in adverse circumstances. Please make strenuous and vigorous efforts towards this end, otherwise all the teachings of Buddhas and patriarchs become mere empty words.
From a more recent Chan master:
After seeing your self-nature (kensho), you need to deepen your experience even further and bring it into maturation. You should have enlightenment experiences again and again and support them with continuous practice. Even though Ch’an says that at the time of enlightenment, your outlook is the same as of the Buddha, you are not yet a full Buddha. [Sheng-yen, from Dharma Drum: The Life and Heart of Chan Practice]
Hakuin lays out the crucial path of post-kensho practice, stressing the need for establishing continuity - and that even that is not the end of one's training - in Keiso Dokuzui. Apologies for posting the entire text of that part, but one never knows when links will disappear, and this excerpt is crucial for understanding how Rinzai Zen practice is structured from beginning to end:
From KEISO DOKUZUI
The Five Ranks of The Apparent and the Real:The Orally Transmitted Secret Teachings of the [Monk] Who Lived on Mount To

We do not know by whom the Jeweled-mirror Samadhi was composed. From Sekito Osho, Yakusan Osho, and Ungan Osho, it was transmitted from master to master and handed down within the secret room. Never have [its teachings] been willingly disclosed until now. After it had been transmitted to Tozan Osho, he made clear the gradations of the Five Ranks within it, and composed a verse for each rank, in order to bring out the main principle of Buddhism. Surely the Five Ranks is a torch on the midnight road, a ferry boat at the riverside when one has lost one's way!

But alas! The Zen gardens of recent times are desolate and barren. "Directly-pointing-to-the-ultimate" Zen is regarded as nothing but benightedness and foolishness; and that supreme treasure of the Mahayana, the Jeweled Mirror Samadhi's Five Ranks of the Apparent and the Real, is considered to be only the old and broken vessel of an antiquated house. No one pays any attention to it. [Today's students] are like blind men who have thrown away their staffs, calling them useless baggage. Of themselves they stumble and fall into the mud of heterodox views and cannot get out until death overtakes them. They never know that the Five Ranks is the ship that carries them across the poisonous sea surrounding the rank o f the Real, the precious wheel that demolishes the impregnable prison-house of the two voids. They do not know the important road of progressive practice; they are not versed in the secret meaning within this teaching. Therefore they sink into the stagnant water of sravaka-hood or pratyeka-buddhahood. They fall into the black pit of withered sprouts and decayed seeds. Even the hand of Buddha would find it difficult to save them.

That into which I was initiated forty years ago in the room of Shoju I shall now dispense as the alms giving of Dharma. When I find a superior person who is studying the true and profound teaching and has experienced the Great Death, I shall give this secret transmission to him, since it was not designed for men of medium and lesser ability. Take heed and do not treat it lightly!

How vast is the expanse of the sea of the doctrine, how manifold are the gates of the teaching! Among these, to be sure, are a number of doctrines and orally transmitted secret teachings, yet never have I seen anything to equal the perversion of the Five Ranks, the carping criticism, the tortuous explanations, the adding of branch to branch, the piling up of entanglement upon entanglement. The truth is that the teachers who are guilty of this do not know for what principle the Five Ranks was instituted. Hence they confuse and bewilder their students to the point that even a Sariputra or an Ananda would find it difficult to judge correctly.

Or, could it be that our patriarchs delivered themselves of these absurdi ties in order to harass their posterity unnecessarily? For a long time I wondered about this. But, when I came to enter the room of Shoju, the rhinoceros of my previous doubt suddenly fell down dead... Do not look with suspicion upon the Five Ranks, saying that it is not the directly transmitted oral teaching of the Tozan line. You should know that it was only after he had completed his investigation of Tozan's Verses that Shoju gave his acknowledgment to the Five Ranks

After I had entered Shoju's room and received transmission from him, I was quite was satisfied. But, though I was satisfied, I still regretted that all teachers had not yet clearly explained the meaning of " the reciprocal interpenetration of the Apparent and the Real." They seemed to have discarded the words "reciprocal interpenetration," and to pay no attention whatsoever to them. Thereupon the rhinoceros of doubt once more raised its head.

In the summer of the first year of the Kan'en era (1748-1751), in the midst of my meditation, suddenly the mystery of "the reciprocal interpenetration of the Apparent and the Real " became perfectly clear. It was just like looking at the palm of my own hand. The rhinoceros of doubt instantly fell down dead, and I could scarcely bear the joy of it. Though I wished to hand it on to others, I was ashamed to squeeze out my old woman's stinking milk and soil the monk's mouths with it.

All of you who wish to plumb this deep source must make the investigation in secret with your entire body. My own toil has extended over these thirty years. Do not take this to be an easy task! Even if you should happen to break up the family and scatter the household, do not consider this enough. You must vow to pass through seven, or eight, or even nine thickets of brambles. And, when you have passed through the thickets of brambles, still do not consider this to be enough. Vow to investigate the secret teachings of the Five Ranks to the end.

For the past eight or nine years or more, I have been trying to incite all of you who boil your daily gruel over the same fire with me to study this great matter thoroughly, but more often than not you have taken it to be the doctrine of another house, and remained indifferent to it. Only a few among you have attained understanding of it. How deeply this grieves me! Have you never heard: " The Gates of Dharma are manifold; I vow to enter them all?" How much the more should this be true for the main principle of Buddhism and the essential road of sanzen!

Shoju Rojin has said: "In order to provide a means wher eby students might directly experience the Four Wisdom's, the patriarchs, in their compassion and with their skill in devising expedients, first instituted the Five Ranks." What are the so-called Four Wisdom's? They are the Great Perfect Mirror Wisdom, the Universal Nature Wisdom, the Marvelous Observing Wisdom, and the Perfecting-of-Action Wisdom.

Followers of the Way, even though you may have pursued your studies in the Threefold Learning continuously through many kalpas, if you have not directly experienced the Four Wisdoms, you are not permitted to call yourselves true sons of Buddha.

Followers of the way, if your investigation has been correct and complete, at the moment you smash open the dark cave of the eighth or Alaya consciousness, the precious light of the Great Perfect Mirror Wisdom instantly shines forth. But, strange to say, the light of the Great Perfect Mirror Wisdom is black like lacquer. This is what is called the rank of " The Apparent within the Real."

Having attained the Great Perfect Mirror Wisdom, you now enter the rank of "The Real within the Apparent." When you have accomplished your long practice of the jeweled-mirror Samadhi, you directly realize the Universal Nature Wisdom and for the first time enter the state of the unobstructed inter-penetration of Noumenon and phenomena.

But the disciple must not be satisfied here. He himself must enter into intimate acquaintance with the rank of " The Coming from within the Real." After that, by depending upon the rank of " The Arrival at Mutual Integration," he will completely prove the Marvelous Observing Wisdom and the Perfecting-of-Action Wisdom. At last he reaches the rank of " Unity Attained," and, after all, comes back to sit among the coals and ashes."

Do you know why? Pure gold that has gone through a thousand smeltings does not become ore a second time. My only fear is that a little gain will suffice you. How priceless is the merit gained through the step-by-step practice of the Five Ranks of the Apparent and the Real! By this practice you not only attain the Four Wisdoms, but you personally prove that the Three Bodies also are wholly embraced within your own body. Have you not read in the Daijo shogongyo ron: "When the eight consciousnesses are inverted, the Four Wisdoms are produced; when the Four Wisdoms are bound together, the Three Bodies are perfected?" Therefore Sokei Daishi composed this verse:

"Your own nature is provided
With the Three Bodies;
When its brightness is manifested,
The Four Wisdoms are attained."

He also said: "The pure Dharmakaya is your nature; the perfect Sambhogakaya is your wisdom; the myriad Nirmanakayas are your activities."

TOZAN RYOKAI'S VERSES ON THE FIVE RANKS

The Apparent within the Real:
In the third watch of the night
Before the moon appears,
No wonder when we meet
There is no recognition!
Still cherished in my heart
Is the beauty of earlier days.

The rank of "The Apparent within the Real" denotes the rank of the Absolute, the rank in which one experiences the Great Death, shouts "KA!" sees Tao, and enters into the Principle. When the true practitioner, filled with power from his secret study, meritorious achievements, and hidden practices, suddenly bursts through into this rank, " the empty sky vanishes and the iron mountain crumbles." "Above, there is not a tile to cover his head; below, there is not an inch of ground for him to stand on." The delusive passions are non-existent, enlightenment is non-existent, Samsara is non-existent, Nirvana is non-existent. This is the state of total empty solidity, without sound and without odor, like a bottomless clear pool. It is as if every fleck of cloud had been wiped from the vast sky.

Too often the disciple, considering that his attainment of this rank is the end of the Great Matter and his discernment of the Buddha-way complete, clings to it to the death and will not let go of it. Such as this is called it stagnant water " Zen; such a man is called " an evil spirit who keeps watch over the corpse in the coffin." Even though he remains absorbed in this state for thirty or forty years, he will never get out of the cave of the self-complacency and inferior fruits of pratyeka-buddhahood. Therefore it is said: "He whose activity does not leave this rank sinks into the poisonous sea." He is the man whom Buddha called " the fool who gets his realization in the rank of the Real."

Therefore, though as long as he remains in this hiding place of quietude, passivity and vacantness, inside and outside are transparent and his understanding perfectly clear, the moment the bright insight [he has thus far gained through his practice] comes into contact with differentiation's defiling conditions of turmoil and confusion, agitation and vexation, love and hate, he will find himself utterly helpless before them, and all the miseries of existence will press in upon him. It was in order to save him from this serious illness that the rank of " The Real within the Apparent " was established as an expedient.

The Real within the Apparent:
A sleepy-eyed grandam
Encounters herself in an old mirror.
Clearly she sees a face,
But it doesn't resemble her at all.
Too bad, with a muddled head,
She tries to recognize her reflection!

If the disciple had remained in the rank of "The Apparent within the Real," his judgment would always have been vacillating and his view prejudiced. Therefore, the bodhisattva of superior capacity invariably leads his daily life in the realm of the [six] dusts, the realm of all kinds of ever-changing differentiation. All the myriad phenomena before his eyes-the old and the young, the honorable and the base, halls and pavilions, verandahs and corridors, plants and trees, mountains and rivers-he regards as his own original, true, and pure aspect. It is just like looking into a bright mirror and seeing his own face in it. If he continues for a long time to observe everything everywhere with this radiant insight, all appearances of themselves become the jeweled mirror of his own house, and he becomes the jeweled mirror of their houses as well. Eihei has said: "The experiencing of the manifold dharmas through using oneself is delusion; the experiencing of oneself through the coming of the manifold dharmas is satori." This is just what I have been saying. This is the state of " mind and body discarded, discarded mind and body." It is like two mirrors mutually reflecting one another without even the shadow of an image between. Mind and the objects of mind are one and the same; things and oneself are not two. " A white horse enters the reed flowers snow is piled up in a silver bowl."

This is what is known as the jeweled-mirror Samadhi. This is what the Nirvana Sutra is speaking about when i t says: " The Tathagata sees the Buddha-nature with his own eyes." When you have entered this samadhi, " though you push the great white ox, he does not go away"; the Universal Nature Wisdom manifests itself before your very eyes. This is what is meant by the expressions, "There exists only one Vehicle," "the Middle Path," " the True Form," " the Supreme Truth."

But, if the student, having reached this state, were to be satisfied with it, then, as before, he would be living in the deep pit of "fixation in a lesser rank of bodhisattvahood." Why is this so? Because he is neither conversant with the deportment of the bodhisattva, nor does he understand the causal conditions for a Buddha-land. Although he has a clear understanding of the Universal and True Wisdom, he cannot cause to shine forth the Marvelous Wisdom that comprehends the unobstructed interpenetration of the manifold dharmas. The patriarchs, in order to save him from this calamity, have provided the rank of "The Coming from within the Real."

The Coming from within the Real:
Within nothingness there is a path
Leading away from the dusts of the world.
Even if you observe the taboo
On the present emperor's name,
You will surpass that eloquent one of yore
Who silenced every tongue.

In this rank, the Mahayana bodhisattva does not remain in the state of attainment that he has realized, but from the midst of the sea of effortlessness he lets his great uncaused compassion shine forth. Standing upon the four pure and great Universal Vows, he lashes forward the Dharma-wheel of " seeking Bodhi above and saving sentient beings below." This is the so-called "coming-from within the going-to, the going-to within the coming-from." Moreover, he must know the moment of [the meeting of] the paired opposites, brightness and darkness. Therefore the rank of " The Arrival at Mutual Integration " has been set up.

The Arrival at Mutual Integration:
When two blades cross points,
There's no need to withdraw.
The master swordsman
Is like the lotus blooming in the fire.
Such a man has in and of himself
A heaven-soaring spirit.

In this rank, the bodhisattva of indomitable spirit turns the Dharma-wheel of the non-duality of brightness and darkness. He stands in the midst of the filth of the world, "his head covered with dust and his face streaked with dirt." He moves through the confusion of sound and sensual pleasure, buffeted this way and buffeted that. He is like the fire-blooming lotus, that, on encountering the f lames, becomes still brighter in color and purer in fragrance. " He enters the market place with empty hands," yet others receive benefit from him. This is what is called to be on the road, yet not to have left the house; to have left the house, yet not to be on the road." Is he an ordinary man? Is he a sage? The evil ones and the heretics cannot discern him. Even the buddhas and the patriarchs cannot lay their hands upon him. Were anyone to try to indicate his mind, [it would be no more there than] the horns of a rabbit or the hairs of a tortoise that have gone beyond the farthest mountain.

Still, he must not consider this state to be his final resting-place. Therefore it is said, "Such a man has in and of himself a heaven-soaring spirit." What must he do in the end? He must know that there is one more rank, the rank of " Unity Attained."

Unity Attained:
Who dares to equal him
Who falls into neither being nor non-being!
All men want to leave
The current of ordinary life,
But he, after all, comes back
To sit among the coals and ashes.

The Master's verse-comment says:

How many times has Tokuun, the idle old gimlet,
Not come down from the Marvelous Peak!
He hires foolish wise men to bring snow,
And he and they together fill up the well.

The student who wishes to pass through Tozan's rank of " Unity Attained " should first study this verse.

It is of the utmost importance to study and pass through the Five Ranks, to attain penetrating insight into them, and to be totally without fixation or hesitation. But, though your own personal study of the Five Ranks comes to an end, the Buddha-way stretches endlessly and there are no tarrying places on it. The Gates of Dharma are manifold.
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Re: Post-awakening cultivation in Zen

Post by Astus »

The works of Guifeng Zongmi are from the Tang era, and he was the proponent of sudden awakening followed by gradual cultivation. He also writes that the Hongzhou school taught sudden awakening and sudden cultivation. That double suddenness is there in the few teachings of Mazu, the whole of Huangbo, and Dazhu Huihai, all from the Tang times. The extensive record of Baizhang is a little less subitist, while the Platform Sutra, and the teachings of the Oxhead and Baotang schools are quite on the sudden side of cultivation.
1 Myriad dharmas are only mind.
Mind is unobtainable.
What is there to seek?

2 If the Buddha-Nature is seen,
there will be no seeing of a nature in any thing.

3 Neither cultivation nor seated meditation —
this is the pure Chan of Tathagata.

4 With sudden enlightenment to Tathagata Chan,
the six paramitas and myriad means
are complete within that essence.


1 Huangbo, T2012Ap381c1 2 Nirvana Sutra, T374p521b3; tr. Yamamoto 3 Mazu, X1321p3b23; tr. J. Jia 4 Yongjia, T2014p395c14; tr. from "The Sword of Wisdom"
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Re: Post-awakening cultivation in Zen

Post by Virgo »

You know I used to believe Tibetan polemical debates that felt that Zen does not lead to a realization beyond the realization of emptiness, and does not produce a moment of unfabricated mind (which goes beyond just realizing emptiness), but I have to say that reading these quotes, I am not totally convinced of that anymore.

Kevin...
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Re: Post-awakening cultivation in Zen

Post by ItsRaining »

Virgo wrote: Fri Aug 17, 2018 5:34 pm You know I used to believe Tibetan polemical debates that felt that Zen does not lead to a realization beyond the realization of emptiness, and does not produce a moment of unfabricated mind (which goes beyond just realizing emptiness), but I have to say that reading these quotes, I am not totally convinced of that anymore.

Kevin...
How did this stereotype type even come to be, the topic of mind is extremely important in Chinese Buddhism especially in texts like the Shurangama Sutra which focus a lot more on things other than emptiness.
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Re: Post-awakening cultivation in Zen

Post by Virgo »

ItsRaining wrote: Sat Aug 18, 2018 12:21 am
Virgo wrote: Fri Aug 17, 2018 5:34 pm You know I used to believe Tibetan polemical debates that felt that Zen does not lead to a realization beyond the realization of emptiness, and does not produce a moment of unfabricated mind (which goes beyond just realizing emptiness), but I have to say that reading these quotes, I am not totally convinced of that anymore.

Kevin...
How did this stereotype type even come to be, the topic of mind is extremely important in Chinese Buddhism especially in texts like the Shurangama Sutra which focus a lot more on things other than emptiness.
It's more connected with the debates at Samye, and tantra.

Kevin...
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Re: Post-awakening cultivation in Zen

Post by Caoimhghín »

Wayfarer wrote: Fri Aug 17, 2018 4:35 am They are indeed.
Hongren wrote:This true mind is natural and does not come from outside. It is not confined to cultivation in past, present, or future. The dearest and most intimate thing there could be is to preserve the mind yourself. If you know the mind, you will reach transcendence by preserving it.
I am interested in what character or word has been translated as 'mind' in these kinds of phrases. Elsewhere in Buddhism, for instance in the Pali canon, 'mind' is not referenced in this way, in fact I think it would be difficult to find anything like this expression in those sources whereas 'Mind' or 'true mind' is relatively common in translations of Ch'an and Zen texts such as these. You also find similar passages extolling 'heart' or 'mind' in the Thai and Burmese Forest tradition, where it is originally given as 'citta' (which is perhaps similar to the way 'cit' (चित्) functions in Sanskrit). Perhaps this is related to the 'luminous mind' of the Pabhassara Sutta? Perhaps also the Tathāgatagarbha sutras?

If any of the scholars here could comment it would be appreciated.

:namaste:
Here is just one example. One has to used texts with Indic originals that are popular in East Asia, so the Lotus Sūtra is where one can go:
 我常住於此  以諸神通力
 令顛倒眾生  雖近而不見
 眾見我滅度  廣供養舍利
 咸皆懷戀慕  而生渴仰心
 眾生既信伏  質直意柔軟
 一心欲見佛  不自惜身命
 時我及眾僧  俱出靈鷲山
(T262.43b10)

Always living here,
speaking dharma,
I always live here.
Through many godly powers,
I lead into error sentient beings:
although close by,
not seen.

Many see me,
I pass into extinguishment,
widely they worship my ashes,
sweetly, their hearts, each and every,
wish to look upon my heart with reverence.

When someone becomes faithfully obedient,
noble in heart,
soft and gentle,
and with oneness of heart,
wishes to see the Buddha,
with no hesitations,
and with no illusions about this world,
and this life,
then I and the assembly,
entirely without exception,
have appeared on the Eagle Peak.


parinirvṛtaṃ dṛṣṭva mamātmabhāvaṃ
dhātūṣu pūjāṃ vividhāṃ karonti|
māṃ cā apaśyanti janenti tṛṣṇāṃ
tatorjukaṃ citta prabhoti teṣām||
ṛjū yadā te mṛdumārdavāśca
utsṛṣṭakāmāśca bhavanti sattvāḥ|
tato ahaṃ śrāvakasaṃgha kṛtvāḥ
ātmāna darśemyahu gṛdhrakūṭe||


The Sanskrit passage that I cut-and-pasted only vaguely corresponds with the Chinese, because my Sanskrit is too poor to identify where the beginning is, but IMO gṛdhrakūṭe is a locative of gṛdhrakūṭa, which corresponds to the end of the Chinese pericope.

They seem to use "citta".
Then, the monks uttered this gāthā:

These bodies are like foam.
Them being frail, who can rejoice in them?
The Buddha attained the vajra-body.
Still, it becomes inconstant and ruined.
The many Buddhas are vajra-entities.
All are also subject to inconstancy.
Quickly ended, like melting snow --
how could things be different?

The Buddha passed into parinirvāṇa afterward.
(T1.27b10 Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra DĀ 2)
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Re: Post-awakening cultivation in Zen

Post by Wayfarer »

Beautifully chosen passage, thank you @Coëmgenu. And makes the point again about the 'heart-mind' ambiguity.

:namaste:
'Only practice with no gaining idea' ~ Suzuki Roshi
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Re: Post-awakening cultivation in Zen

Post by Caoimhghín »

Wayfarer wrote: Sat Aug 18, 2018 4:55 am Beautifully chosen passage, thank you @Coëmgenu. And makes the point again about the 'heart-mind' ambiguity.

:namaste:
Turns out my Sanskrit is better than I thought:


parinirvṛtaṃ (final nirvana) dṛṣṭva (seeing) mamātmabhāvaṃ (my being)
dhātūṣu (my relics) pūjāṃ (worshiping) vividhāṃ karonti|

That is not a translation, just a vague sense of what the words mean.

Anyways that enough off-topic business from me.
Then, the monks uttered this gāthā:

These bodies are like foam.
Them being frail, who can rejoice in them?
The Buddha attained the vajra-body.
Still, it becomes inconstant and ruined.
The many Buddhas are vajra-entities.
All are also subject to inconstancy.
Quickly ended, like melting snow --
how could things be different?

The Buddha passed into parinirvāṇa afterward.
(T1.27b10 Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra DĀ 2)
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