Nothing to Realize
The instant you open your mouth, you’re already way off.
Why is this?
Don’t you know what the venerable Shakyamuni Buddha said?
Dharma is separate from words because it is neither subject to causation nor dependent upon conditions.
Your faith is insufficient. Therefore, we have bandied words today.
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Nowadays, one who studies Buddha Dharma must seek true insight. Gaining true insight one is not affected by birth and death, but freely goes or stays. One needn’t seek the excellent. That which is excellent will come of itself.
Followers of the way, our eminent predecessors from “of old” have all had their ways of saving people. As for me, what I want to make clear to you is that you must not accept the diluted views of others. If you want to act, then act. Don’t hesitate.
Students today can’t get anywhere. What ails you? Lack of faith in yourself is what ails you.
If you lack faith in yourself, you’ll keep on tumbling along following in bewilderment after all kinds of circumstances. And being taken by them through transformation after transformation without ever attaining freedom.
Bring to rest the thoughts of the ceaselessly seeking mind and you will not differ from the patriarch Buddha.
Do you want to know the patriarch Buddha?
He is none other than you who stand before me, listening to my discourse.
But because you students lack faith in yourselves, you run around seeking something outside. Even if through your seeking, you did find something, that something would be nothing more than fancy descriptions in written words. Never would you gain the mind of the living patriarch.
Make no mistake, if you don’t find it here and now, you’ll go on transmigrating through the three realms for myriads of culpas and thousands of lives. And held in the clutch of captivating circumstances, be born in the wombs of asses or cows.
Followers of the way, as I see it, we’re no different from Shakya Buddha. What do we lack for our manifold activities today? The Six-Ray divine light never ceases to shine. See it in this way, and you’ll be one who has nothing to do their whole life.
Virtuous ones, the three realms lack tranquility, just like a burning house. This is not a place we remain for long. The death-dealing demon of impermanence comes in an instant, without discriminating between noble and base, old and young.
If you wish to differ in no way from the patriarch Buddha, just don’t seek outside.
The pure light in a single thought of yours…this is the Dharmakaya Buddha within your own house.
The nonincriminating light in a single thought of yours…this is the Sambhogakaya (Sambboakaya) Buddha within your own house.
The nondifferentiating light in a single thought of yours…this is the nirmanakaya Buddha within your own house.
This three-fold body is you listening to my discourse right now.
It is precisely because you don’t run around seeing outside that you have such meritorious activities. This physical body of yours composed of the fours great elements can neither expound the dharma nor listen to it. Your spleen and stomach, liver and gallbladder can neither expound the dharma nor listen to it. The empty sky can neither expound the dharma nor listen to it.
Then what can expound the dharma and listen to it? This very you standing distinctly before me without any form shining alone. Just this can expound the dharma and listen to it.
Understand it this way and you are no different from the patriarch Buddha. Just never ever allow interruptions, and all that meets your eyes will be right. But because when feeling arises, wisdom is barred. And when thinking changes, the substance varies. People transmigrate through the three realms and undergo all kinds of suffering.
As I see it, there are none who are not of the utmost profundity. None who aren’t emancipated. Followers of the way: mind is without form and pervades the ten directions.
In the eye it is called seeing. In the ear, it is called hearing. In the nose, it smells odors. In the mouth, it holds converse. In the hands, it grasps and seizes. In the feet, it runs and carries. Fundamentally, it is one pure radiance. Divided, it becomes the six harmoniously united spheres of sense.
If the mind is void, wherever you are, you are emancipated.
What is my purpose in speaking this way? I do so only because you followers of the way cannot stop your mind from running around everywhere seeking. Because you go clambering after the worthless contrivances of the men of old.
A true follower of the way is never like this.
Conforming with circumstances as they are, they exhaust their past karma. Accepting things as they are, they put on their clothes. When they want to walk, they walk. When they want to sit, they sit. They never have a single thought of seeking Buddhahood. Why is this so?
A man of old said, “If you seek Buddha through karma creating activities, Buddha becomes the great portent of birth and death.”
Virtuous ones, time is precious, and yet, hurrying hither and thither, you try to learn meditation, to study the way, to accept names, to accept phrases, to seek Buddha, to seek a patriarch, to seek a good teacher, to think and speculate.
Make no mistake, followers of the way…after all, you have a father and mother. What more do you seek?
Turn your own light inward, upon yourselves. A man of old said, “Yaññadatta thought he had lost his head. But when his seeking mind came to rest, he was at ease.”
Of all your various responsive activities, none leaves any traces. Thus, the more you chase it, the farther away it goes. And the more you seek it, the more it turns away. This is called the Mystery.
Virtuous ones: just be ordinary. Don’t put on airs. If you want to be free to live or to die, to go or to stay, as you would put on or take off clothes, then right now recognize the one listening to my discourse. The one who has no form, no characteristics, no root, no source, no dwelling place…and yet, is bright and vigorous.
It is urgently necessary that you endeavor to acquire true insight and stride boldly, not losing your senses. Simply don’t strive. Just be ordinary.
Yet, you look outside, searching side paths and seeking help. You’re all wrong. You keep trying to find Buddha, but Buddha is merely a name. Don’t you know what it is that you were (are?) running around seeking? The Buddhas and the patriarchs of the three periods and the 10 directions appear only in order to seek the dharma.
You followers of the way who are studying today, you too have only to seek the dharma. Attain dharma and you’re all done. Until then, you’ll go on transmigrating through the five paths of existence just as you have been.
What is dharma?
Dharma is the dharma of Mind. Mind is without form. It pervades the 10 directions, and is manifesting it’s activity right before your very eyes. But because people lack sufficient faith in this, they turn to names and phrases, attempting to grasp the Buddha dharma through written words. They’re as far away from Heaven as Earth.
As to Buddha dharma, no effort is necessary. You have only to be ordinary, with nothing to do. Defecating, urinating, wearing clothes, eating food, and lying down when tired.
Fools laugh at me, but the wise understand. A man of old said, “Those who make work for themselves outside are just a bunch of blockheads.” Just make yourself master of every situation, and wherever you stand is the true place. No matter what circumstances come, they cannot dislodge you. Though you bear the influence of past delusions or the karma of having committed the five heinous crimes, these of themselves become the ocean of emancipation.
One thought or doubt in your mind is mara. but if you realize that the 10,000 dharmas never come into being, that mind is like a phantom, that not a speck of dust nor a single thing exists, that there is no place that is not clean and pure…this is Buddha. Thus Buddha and Mara are simply two states. One pure, the other impure.
In my view, there is no Buddha, no sentient beings. No past, no present. Anything attained was already attained. No time is needed. There is nothing to practice. Nothing to realize. Nothing to gain. Nothing to lose. Throughout all time, there is no other dharma than this. If one claims there’s a dharma surpassing this, I say that it’s like a dream, like a phantasm.
This is all I have to teach.