Huang Po

[Guest guest]

Question: " Master, you spread Dharma now, so how can you say that

there is no Sangha and no Dharma? "

 

 

The master answered: " If you think that I have Dharma to spread, that

means you perceive the Tathagata by sound. If you really have seen

the Tathagata, that means you also perceive a place. The true Dharma

is no-Dharma! The true Dharma is Mind!

 

So be aware that in the Dharma of Mind Transmission, Dharma has,

indeed, never been Dharma. Without the view of Dharma and mind', we

would understand immediately that all mind is Dharma. At this instant

we would set up the Bodhimandala. Remember, there is really nothing

to obtain, for the Bodhimandala is without any view whatsoever.

 

To the enlightened ones, the Dharma is voidness and nothingness. Then

where has it ever been defiled by any dust? Such is the Bhutatathata

in its purity. If you comprehend this truth intuitively, you will

have joy and freedom beyond comparison. "

 

 

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Question: " You say that originally there is nothingness. Doesn't this

view assume that nothingness' is'? "

 

The master replied: " Nothingness also is not is'. Bodhi is nowhere

and also has no such view. "

 

 

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Question: " What is Buddha? "

 

The master answered: " Your Mind is Buddha. Buddha and Mind are not

different. If the Mind were to depart, nothing else would be Buddha. "

 

Question: " If one's own Mind is Buddha, how can it be transmitted by

the Patriarch who came from the West? "

 

The master responded: " The patriarch who came from the West only

transmitted the Buddha Mind and directly pointed out that your

Original Mind is Buddha. Original Mind itself is no different from

the so-called Patriarch. If you comprehend this meaning deeply,

suddenly you transcend the Three Vehicles and all the stages of a

Bodhisattva's progress and realize that, since all is Buddha

originally, it is not necessary to practice. "

 

 

Questions: " If suddenly all Buddhas were to appear from all the ten

directions of space, what Dharma would be preached by those Buddhas? "

 

The master replied: " All Buddhas appearing from the ten directions of

space would only spread the Dharma of One Mind. Therefore, the World

Honored One handed down just this esoteric Dharma to Mahakasyapa. The

Dharma of One Mind consists of utter voidness and the universal

Dharmakaya, which alone is called The Truth of All Buddhas.'

 

One cannot seek this Dharma in subjective and objective duality;

neither can it be found by searching out books and concepts, nor can

it be perceived in time or space. It can only be tacitly understood.

This is the doorway to understanding the non-action Dharma.

 

If you want to comprehend, just be without mind and you will suddenly

be enlightened; for if you intend or plan to learn about or desire to

get something, you will find yourself very far away from the truth.

However, if you have no discrimination, do not grasp thought and

abandon all views, then the mind, as firm and hard as a piece of wood

or stone, will have a chance to realize the Tao. "

 

 

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Question: " Now, there really are many false thoughts, so how can you

say there are none? "

 

The master replied: " False thoughts have no self-nature, for they

arise from your discriminating mind. If you recognize that the Mind

is Buddha, then the Mind is not false nor does any thought arise that

views the Mind as false. Thus, if you do not raise any thought or

start any thinking, then naturally there is no false thought; however,

when the mind stirs, all sorts of things are created; but when the

mind is annihilated, all sorts of things vanish. "

 

 

 

Question: " When false thought stirs, where is the Buddha? "

 

The master replied: " When you perceive false thought stirring, that

very perception is the Buddha. If there is no false thought, there is

no Buddha. Why not? Just because if you have a view of Buddha, you

will think that there really is a Buddha to be attained. If you have a

view of sentient beings, you will think there really are sentient

beings to be delivered. Such is the totality of your false thought.

 

However, if you are without any thought or view at all, where then is

the Buddha? So this is why Manjusri said, To have any view of Buddha

whatsoever is like being limited and obstructed by the two

iron-enclosing mountains'. "

 

 

Question: " At the moment of perception of and upon reaching

Enlightenment, where is the Buddha? "

 

The master said: " From where does the question come and from where

does perception arise? Conversation and silence, movement and

tranquillity, sound and form are all Buddha's affair, so where else

can you seek a Buddha? You should not seek to put a head on a head or

add a mouth to a mouth. Just let go of any discriminating view, and a

mountain is a mountain, water is water, Sangha is Sangha, laymen are

laymen; and these mountains, rivers, the earth, the sun, the moon and

all the planets are absolutely nothing outside of your own mind.

 

 

Even the three kinds of thousands of great chiliocosms are all your

own self, nor are they anything at all outside your own mind. It

follows then that the green mountains and blue water and the

multitudinous eyes of the infinite would are just voidness that is

very clear and bright. Moreover, if you have the no-view' of things,

then all sounds and forms are the wisdom-eyes of Buddha. The Dharma

that phenomena are real does not raise a solitary thing that depends

on a created realm. Even so, for sentient beings the Buddha used many

different kinds of wisdom. However, Buddha spoke all day and said

nothing; and sentient beings listened from morning to night but heard

nothing. In this sense it can be asserted that Buddha Sakyamuni spoke

the Dharma for forty-nine years but never spoke a single word. " "

 

 

 

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Question: " If it is really thus, then where is Bodhi? "

 

The master replied: " Bodhi is nowhere! Even Buddha has never attained

Bodhi, while all sentient beings have never lost it. It is neither

gotten by the body nor sought by the mind. All sentient beings are,

indeed, the form of Bodhi. "

 

 

 

Question: " How is it possible to develop the Supreme-Enlightenment

Mind? "

 

The master said: " Bodhi means nothing to attain. Even now, just as

you allow a thought to arise, you get nothing. Thus, realizing that

there is absolutely nothing to attain is the Bodhi Mind. The

realization that there is nowhere to abide and nothing to attain is

the Bodhi.

 

Therefore, Sakyamuni Buddha said, Since there was really no Dharma by

means of which the Tathagata attained Supreme Enlightenment, so

Dipamkara Buddha predicted about me in my last lifetime, " In your next

lifetime, you will be a Buddha named Sakyamuni " .' It is very clear,

then that originally all sentient beings are Bodhi, so there is no

Bodhi to again attain. Thus, you have just now heard how to develop

Bodhi Mind. Do you think there really have a Mind to develop? Do you

think that you really is a Buddha to attain?

 

If you practice with this view or in this way, even throughout the

three Asankhyeya kalpas, you would only have attained the Sambhogakaya

and the Nirmanakaya. What have these got to do with your Original

Buddha Mind? Furthermore, to seek the form of Buddha Mind outside

your own mind is illusion, for that ? whatever you find ? is not your

Original Buddha Mind. "