sixth patriarch's sutra february 8, 2013

7/29/2019 Sixth Patriarch's Sutra February 8, 2013

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The Sixth Patriarchs Sutra7:30pm Pacific timeFebruary 8, 2013 lecture

as outlined by a Buddhist monkat 1777 Murchison Drive, Burlingame, California 94010, open to public(phone 650-6925912)

(Listen live or recorded audio explanations at

www.wondrousdharma.org)

Q&A Why there is purity and defilement?

Chapter 6 Repentance and reform the rewardand transformation bodies

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Verse for opening a sutra

Na Mwo Fundamental Teacher Shakyamuni Buddha (3x)

Homage to the Dharma Jewel Platform Sutra (3x)

The unsurpassed, deep, profound, subtle, wonderful Dharma, In a hundred thousand million eons, is difficult to encounter,

Now that Ive come to receive and hold it, within my sight and hearing,

I vow to fathom the Thus Come Ones true and actual meaning.

Exhortation to uphold the Dharma: 3/690

Shariputra, the Thus Come One further thinks, If I merely useexpedients, praising for all living beings the power of the Thus ComeOnes knowledge and vision, powers, and fearlessnesses, living beings

will not be able to be saved in this way. Why is this? All of these livingbeings have not yet escaped birth, old age, sickness, death, grief andmisery. They are being scorched in the burning house of the ThreeRealms. How could they understand the wisdom of the Buddha? (TheWonderful Dharma Lotus Flower Sutra)


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Q&A

Question: Originally our Saha world has lapis lazuli for soil. There

are no mountains, rivers, and so forth, its all level and flat but to

teach living beings, Shakyamuni Buddha manifests the

appearances of purity and defilement. Thus there is the pureland and the defiled land of the 5 turbidities. Why did Buddha

Shakyamuni manifests defilement and purity?

Answer:

The Buddha manifests the appearances of purity and

defilement in the Saha world to teach and transform livingbeings

When you understand Reality, affliction becomes bodhi.3


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Q&A

In the midst of purity and defilement, we would understand the

nature of impermanence and would want to search for answers.

The primary problem is people do not want to cultivate because

they are happily attached to their amusements and play

and refuse to believe him. They are not frightened or afraidand have not the slightest intention of leaving.

What is more they dont know what is meant by fire, what

is meant by house or what is meant by being lost.

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Q&A

They merely run from east to west in play, staring at their

father.

Therefore the Buddha began by exemplifying the need to get

out of birth, old age, sickness and death.

The initial teaching of the Middle Way is that of neither clinging

to purity nor defilement, neither existence nor emptiness to getout of the burning house.

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Q&A

But people being people become attached to extinction that is

being satisfied with just getting out of the burning house, later

the Buddha revealed the final teaching

The Buddha said in the Brahma Net Sutra, I have come into

this Saha world for 8,000 times.

In the Amitabha Sutra, All those Buddhas equally praise myinconceivable merit and virtue saying these words:

Shakyamuni Buddha can complete extremely rare and

difficult deeds in the Saha land, in the evil time of the 5

turbidities. 6


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Q&A

In the midst of the kalpa turbidity, the view turbidity, the

affliction turbidity, the living beings turbidity and the life

turbidity, he can attain anuttarasamyaksambodhi

And eventually the Buddha taught that All beings with

outflows and all the lands in the ten directions, including

the Saha world, with its four great seas and with the three

thousand land masses of Jambudvipa, are fundamentally

our true mind.

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Q&A

The conditions necessary for them all to arise are illusory,

diseased distortions in visual awareness, in awareness ofsounds and in all other types of awareness.

When these conditions are present in combination, the

beings and lands come into being; when these conditionsare not present, the beings and lands ceased to be.

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Q&A

When you remain entirely untouched by conditions,

whether or not they are present in combination, you bring

to an end all the causes of coming into being and ceasing

to be.

At that moment you will awaken to perfect enlightenment,which is your true nature and which neither comes into

being nor ceases to be.

It is the pure fundamental mind the fundamental

everlasting enlightenment. (Shurangama Sutra)

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Q&A

How could I stop the madness of accumulated births?

Sheep, deer and ox provisionally set up;

Beginning, middle, end, well set forth.

Who would have thought that within the burning house

Originally the king of Dharma dwelt? (Sixth Patriarchs Sutra)

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Chapter 6 Repentance and reform

Sutra:

That non-dual nature is the real nature. Undefiled by either

good or evil, it is the perfect, full Reward-body of the

Buddha.

Comments

The sixth conscious mind is the mind that makes distinction; it

is not our original nature.

Our original nature is beyond good and evil because originally

there isnt anything at all; if there is good, there is evil.

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Sutra:

One evil thought arising from the self-nature destroys ten

thousand eons worth of good karma. One good thought

arising from the self-nature ends evils as numerous as thesand-grains in the Ganges River.

Comments Our self nature has both our good nature and evil nature.

The self nature can produce everything both good and evil

depending upon our thoughts.

But the original self nature is non dual and without movement.

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Sutra:

To reach the unsurpassed Bodhi directly, see it for

yourself in every thought and do not lose the original

thought. That is the Reward-body of the Buddha.

Comments

The original thought comes from the original self nature which

is non dual and without movement.

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To recap earlier

1. How unexpected! The self-nature is originallypure in itself.

2. How unexpected! The self-nature is originallyneither produced

nor destroyed.

3. How unexpected! The self-nature is originallycomplete in itself.

4. How unexpected! The self-nature is originallywithout

movement.

5. How unexpected! The self-nature can produce the ten thousand

dharmas. 14


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Sutra:

What are the hundred thousand myriad Transformation

bodies of the Buddha? If you are free of any thought of the

ten thousand dharmas, then your nature is basically likeemptiness, but in one thought of calculation,

transformation occurs.

Comments

Why arent we Buddhas of the past and present but continue to

remain Buddhas of the future?

It is because we are full of calculating thoughts; the Buddhas of

the past were the ones who were the first to forget about the

self and quickly cease calculating thoughts. 15


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Sutra:

Evil thoughts are transformed into hell-beings and good

thoughts into heavenly beings. Viciousness is transformed

into dragons and snakes, and compassion intoBodhisattvas. Wisdom is transformed into the upper

realms, and delusion into the lower realms.

Comments

Good and evil comes from the mind; everything is made by the

mind alone.

In the true reality of all dharmas, there is equality between

wisdom and confusion. 16


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Sutra:

The transformations of the self-nature are extremely

many, and yet the confused person, unawakened to that

truth, continually gives rise to evil and walks evil paths.Turn a single thought back to goodness, and wisdom is

produced. That is the Transformation-body of the Buddha

within your self- nature.

Comments

A turn of the head is the other shore; affliction becomes bodhi.

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Sutra:

Good Knowing Advisors, the Dharma body of the Buddha

is basically complete. To see your own nature in every

thought is the Reward body of the Buddha. When theReward body thinks and calculates, it is the

Transformation body of the Buddha.

Comments

The Dharma body is basically complete; one with reality.

The Reward body that sees the self nature does not think of

good or evil

The Reward body that moves creates the Transformation

body, the product of thinking and making distinctions. 18


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Venerable Master Hjsuan Hua explaining the 3 bodies:

Why do I say the Shurangama Sutra is the sutra for developing

wisdom and the Dharma Flower Sutra is the sutra for becoming

Buddhas?

Its because the Dharma Flower Sutra is the Buddhas Dharma

Body. Its the real body of the Buddha.

Its the Buddhas Reward Body.

The Buddhas clear, pure, Dharma Body Vairochana Buddha is

also the Dharma Flower Sutra.

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The perfect, full Reward Body Nishyanda Buddha is also the

Dharma Flower Sutra.

The one hundred thousand millions transformation bodies are

also the Dharma Flower Sutra.

Within the Dharma Flower Sutra you will find the three bodies of

the Buddha, the four wisdoms of the Buddha, the five eyes and

six spiritual penetrations of the Buddha as well.

The Dharma Flower Sutra is the king of the Sutras.

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Sutra:

Awaken and cultivate by your own efforts the merit and

virtue of your self-nature. That is truly taking refuge.

Comments

Once you understand the principle, you put it into practice toturn your Transformation Buddha back into the Reward Body

Buddha.

Cultivation is about creating merit and having virtue of the Way.

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Sutra:

The skin and flesh of the physical body are like an inn to

which you cannot return. Simply awaken to the three

bodies of your self-nature and you will understand the self-nature Buddha.

Comments

Cultivate the self nature is to cultivate the mind; the body is just

temporary possession.

The three bodies is about unmovingness, wisdom and

conduct

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Th e origin of the Great Masters definition of the Three Bodies of the Self

nature:

How should this Sutra be explained for others? By not

grasping at appearances and being in unmoving thusness.Why?

All conditioned dharmas

Are like dreams, an illusion, a bubble or a shadow,

Like dew on a lightning flash

Contemplate them thus. (Vajra Sutra)23


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Sutra:

I have a verse without marks. If you can recite and

memorize it, it will wipe away-accumulated eons of

confusion and offenses as soon as the words are spoken.The verse runs:

Comments

Verse without appearance so dont be attached to them for in

reality, there isnt wisdom nor delusion.

The appearance of Reality is without appearance. (Vajra

Sutra) 24


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Sutra:

A confused person will foster blessings, but not cultivate

the Way; And say, To practice for the blessings is practice

of the Way.

Comments

Blessings come from giving; why dont we then foster

blessings?...

It is because it is not in the gift but the state of mind when you

give; ...

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it has to accord with reality that originally there isnt anything

at all

forgetting the self as you give.

When there is no self, what happens?...

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Sutra:

While giving and making offerings brings blessings

without limit,

It is in the mind that the three evils have their origin.

Comments

Though giving without any conditions brings limitless blessings,

ultimately it is about forgetting the self so that

we can put down the three poisons in the mind.

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Sutra:

By seeking blessings you may wish to obliterate offenses;

But in the future, though you are blessed, offenses still

remain.

Comments

Blessings accumulated will not wipe away offenses.

Offenses arise because of the three poisons; offenses areextinguished because of the mind no longer cling to the three

poisons.

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Sutra:

You ought to simply strike the evil conditions from your

mind;

By true repentance and reform within your own self-nature.

Comments

Note the wiping away of the evil mind of the three poisons.

True repentance and reform is not just mere bodily action but

the reversal from evil to good in the mind.

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Sutra:

A sudden awakening: the true repentance and reform of

the Great Vehicle;

You must cast out the deviant, and practice the right, to bewithout offense.

Comments

True repentance and reform is the mind without any evil; this is

the Sudden Awakening to the Great Vehicle

the teaching of the mind.

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Sutra:

To study the Way, always look within your own self-nature;

You are then the same in kind and lineage as all Buddhas.

Comments

Never be apart from your own original self nature; your original

mind.

This method is one in which the mind seals the mind, atransmission outside the teaching. One takes ones own nature

across. And after one has taken across the river (of afflictions),

one leaves the raft (the Dharma) behind. How can there be

anything but this? (Venerable Master Hsuan Hua) 31


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Sutra:

Our Patriarch passed along only this Sudden Teaching;

Wishing that all might see the nature and be of one

substance.

Comments

the First Patriarch Bodhidharma made amends for suchbiased teachings and patched up the flaws. His compassionate

instructions were apart from speech; his teaching were not

imparted through words.

He taught that this mind of ours is none other than the Buddha,

that the precious pearl hidden within our robe is not something

obtained from outside 32


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One only needs to concentrate ones energy and refine

ones mind to a single focus, then

One day suddenly all connects right through and then the

myriad substances are reached everywhere, whether externalor internal, fine or coarse.

The great functioning of the entire substance of the enlightened

mind is nowhere without clarity.

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One becomes open to the vast and ultimate enlightenment,

returns to the source and plumbs the origin.

At this time, one can appreciate the subtlety behind the

interchange: the World Honored One held up a flower, andMahakasyapa, the Golden-Hued Ascetic, smiled: originally it

was like this!

This method is one in which the mind seals the mind, a

transmission outside of the teachings

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One takes ones own nature across.

And after one has made ones way across the river, one leaves

the raft behind. How can there be anything but this? (VenerableMaster Hsuan Hua)

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Sutra:

In the future if you wish to find the Dharma body;

Detach yourself from Dharma marks and inwardly wash the

mind.

Comments

To find the Dharma body is to see your self nature

Separate from external appearances and focus your

attention to your own mind.

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Dedication of merit

May every living beings,

Our minds as one and radiant with light

Share the fruits of peace, with hearts of goodness

luminous and bright. If people hear and see, how hands and hearts can find in

giving unity

May their minds awake, to great compassion, wisdom

and to joy. May kindness find reward; may all who sorrow leave their

grief and pain;

May this boundless light break the darkness of theirendless night.

Because our hearts are one, this world of pain turns intoparadise;

May all become compassionate and wise (2x)


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Dedication of merit

I vow that merit made from this deed will become,

Adornments for the Pure Land of Bu-ddhas. Repaying the four kinds of kindness above,

And aiding those in three paths below.

May all who see and hear of this deed Bring forth the resolve to reborn

In the Land of Ultimate Bliss.

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sixth patriarch's sutra february 8, 2013

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