sixth patriarch's sutra january 11, 2013 lecture

7/30/2019 Sixth Patriarch's Sutra January 11, 2013 lecture

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The Sixth Patriarchs Sutra7:30pm Pacific timeJanuary 11, 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 Its not the cat nor the mouse; its your mind.

Chapter 6 Repentance and reform the 3 refugesof our own nature

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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 andhearing,

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

Exhortation to uphold the Dharma: 2/440

I brilliantly illumine the world. Revered by countless multitudes, I speakthe seal of the Real Appearance. Shariputra, you should know that inthe past I took a vow wishing to lead the multitudes to be identical withme. (The Wonderful Dharma Lotus Flower Sutra)


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Q&A

Question: The previous lecture talks about harming animals is to

harm ourselves. What about insects?

Answer:

...to those who scald, burn, behead, cut or otherwise

harm animals, he speaks of repayment in kind. (Sutra of

Past Vows of Bodhisattva Earth Store)

For example, if we use boiling water or fire to get rid of ants or

an insect nest, or slice or club animals to death, we will be

repaid in kind (Venerable Master Hsuan Hua)

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Q&A

Question: I have been reciting the Sutra of the Past Vows of

Bodhisattva Earth Store for the past two anniversary days of

the departure of my father. When do I stop doing so, how long

do I need to do, like he may have been reborn?

Answer:

If one makes offerings to these pravarana Sangha, onespresent father and mother, parents of seven generations,

a well as the six kinds of relatives, will escape the three

paths of sufferings. (the Buddha Speaks the Ullambana Sutra)

You continue as long as you wish yet understand that filial

conduct is a virtue to be encouraged. 4


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Q&A

The Sutra also teaches us to dedicate merit and virtue to the

Dharma Realm because you and your deceased parents and

all your parents since time without beginning is also part of the

Dharma Realm

If they can dedicate that merit to the Dharma Realm, their

blessings will be incomparable. (Sutra of Past Vows of BodhisattvaEarth Store)

One is all, all is one. (Great Master 6th Patriarch)

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Q&A

Moreover, Earth Store, in the future, good men or good

women may plant good roots in the Buddhadharma by

giving, making offerings, repairing temples or

monasteries, binding sutras, or doing good deeds that are

as small as one strand of hair, one mote of dust, a grain of

sand, or a drop of water.

Merely by transferring the merit from that deed to the

Dharma realm, those peoples meritorious virtues will be

such that they will receive supremely wonderful bliss for

one hundred thousand lives.

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Q&A

If they dedicate it only to their own family or relatives, or

to their own personal benefit, they will receive as a result

only three lives of bliss. Thus putting aside the myriad

reward.

Earth Store, such are the conditions of giving.(Sutra of PastVows of Bodhisattva Earth Store)

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Q&A

Question: When I see a cat walking pass a dead mouse, why cant

I think that its a naughty cat?

Answer:

The act of seeing is simply to see.

The distinction you make are made by your distinction making

mind, the clever mind.

The mind has moved to form an opinion that the cat is

naughty; this is the very reason why we carry on being bornand reborn.8


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Q&A

After having speculated and form an opinion that the cat is

naughty, you insist that it is nothing wrong because you are

attached to your opinion and emotion has arisen to the point

you insist there is nothing wrong.

The mind therefore has moved from awareness, to defiledthinking and then into emotion when in fact.

in the first place our visual awareness is like the second

moon; the second moon is not the real moon; it comes about

when you confusedly put pressure on the eyeball.9


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Q&A

The Buddha told Ananda, As you see me now, the

fundamental luminous essence of visual awareness is not

the wondrous, essential mind (true mind); nevertheless, it

can be compared to a second moon rather than to a

reflection of a moon.

Why are we able to see the cat and mouse?

Because there is light and darkness.

When it is totally dark, do we still see? Yes, we do see or we

are aware of total darkness, though not the cat and mouse.10


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Q&A

Our visual awareness does not make distinction between light

and darkness, space or form of cat and mouse.

We are able to see the cat and mouse because there is

interaction between light and darkness that distinguishes theform of a cat and mouse.

When you move away, you arent aware of the cat and mouse;

and your visual awareness follow you and now you see your

Toyota car.

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Q&A

The cat and mouse is not part of you, so is the Toyota; but

your visual awareness is part of you because it follows you.

But if we still insist that the cat is naughty, then you are being

attached to this thought that is not really part of you.

Then your mind keeps on thinking how to deal with the

naughty cat

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Q&A

Nevertheless, since beings have allowed their attention

to be drawn to sights and sound and have allowedthemselves to be carried along in their stream of thoughts,

as it has been since time without beginning, they have not

yet awakened and do not yet understand the purity and

wondrousness, and the permanence of their own essentialnature.

Just remember, whatever we see in this world is just the

second moon that comes into being because we ignorantly

press our eyeball; the second moon is not the real moon

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Q&A

Awareness or consciousness is part of the five skandhas; we

know that the skandha body itself is not real.

You should see the cat and the dead mouse as just

fundamentally empty like the second moon; Bodhisttva

Guanyin illuminated the five skandhas and saw that they are

all empty.

That is why seeing is simply seeing.

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Q&A

Dont retain anything you are aware in your mind; more so,

dont think of naughty cat or innocent cat.

Thats why the Great Master 6th Patriarch says, Do not think of

good, do not think of evil.

Basically, there isnt anything at all in the first place.

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Q&AVenerable Master Hsuan Hua:

Why dont people become enlightened?

It is because they let themselves be distracted by illusory

objects of perception.

They are under influence of their perception of objects (cat anddead mouse).

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Q&A

You can go against the current and decline to follow the twelveconditioned attributes of light and darkness (cat and mouse),

sound and silence, openness and blockage, flavor and

blandness, contact and separation, and coming into being and

ceasing to be (naughty cat).

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Chapter 6 Repentance and reform

Sutra:

Good Knowing Advisors, now that you have taken refuge

with the Triple Jewel, you should listen carefully while I

explain to you the three bodies of a single substance, theself-nature of the Buddha, so that you may see the three

bodies and become completely enlightened to your own

self-nature. Repeat after me,

Comments

The 3 bodies of a Buddha is the Dharma body, the reward bodyand the transformation body.

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Sutra:

I take refuge with the clear, pure Dharma-body of the

Buddha within my own body.

Comments

The Dharma body within us is the unmoving thusness.

The myriad dharmas appear when the mind moves.

The Dharma body is our nature, the Buddha-nature.19


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The worldly persons nature is basically clear and pure,

and everything are produced from it.

The thought of evil produces evil actions and the thought

of good produces good actions.

Thus all dharmas exist within the self nature.

If people wish to understand the nature of the Dharma

Realm, everything is made by the mind alone.20


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Sutra:

I take refuge with the hundred thousand myriad

Transformation-bodies of the Buddha within my own body.

Comments

The Transformation body is our conduct.

The Transformation body is sometimes called the smaller

Reward Body because the conduct comes from wisdom; the

Reward Body is the greater wisdom body.

Wisdom gives rise to wise conduct; wisdom is represented by

Manjusri and conduct is represented by Universal Worthy.21


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Sutra:

I take refuge with the complete and full Reward body of the

Buddha within my own body.

Comments

The full Reward body is the representation of wisdom nature.

The non dual nature is the real nature. Undefiled by either

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

Buddha.

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Sutra:

Good Knowing Advisors, the form-body is an inn; it

cannot be returned to.

Comments

Do not take refuge with your physical body by being a slave toyour body

because the physical body is just our possession like an inn

but not our true permanent body/self.

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Sutra:

The three bodies of the Buddha exist within the self-nature

of worldly people, but because they are confused, they do

not see the nature within them and so seek the threebodies of the Tathagata outside themselves. They do not

see that the three bodies of the Buddha are within their

own bodies.

Comments

Before you understand this principle, you need a good knowing

one to help guide you across by pointing to your own nature.

After you understand, you take your own nature across. 24


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Ultimately you have to take yourself across;

you have to walk the path because Buddhas merely showthe Path.

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Sutra:

Listen to what I say, for it can cause you to see the three

bodies of your own self-nature within your own body. The

three bodies of the Buddha arise from your own self-natureand are not obtained from outside.

Comments

The precious pearl is within us; turn your light of attention

inwards.

Recognize your original mind and you will see your Buddha-

nature.

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Our original mind is pure without anything at all; in confusion

everything comes from it.

Our original mind is wise without attachment to good or evil.

Our original mind is in samadhi; the unmoving thusness that

unites with Reality.

Recognize the original mind and you will see the originalnature.27


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Sutra:

What is the clear, pure Dharma-body Buddha? The

worldly persons nature is basically clear and pure, and the

ten thousand dharmas are produced from it. The thought ofevil produces evil actions and the thought of good

produces good actions. Thus all dharmas exist within the

self-nature.

Comments

The actual appearance of Reality is without appearance; there

isnt anything at all.

If people wish to understand the nature of the Dharma

Realm, everything is made by the mind alone.28


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Basically the Buddha nature within us is without any attributes,

(true emptiness)

but from within it because of confusion, everything both good

and evil manifest within it (wonderful existence) and

it is explained in the Ten Suchness applicable to each of the10 Dharma Realms.

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As to that foremost, rare, and hard to understand Dharma

accomplished by the Buddha, only the Buddhas and the

Buddha can exhaust the Real Appearance of all dharmas;that is to say, with regard to all dharmas: the suchness of

the appearance, the suchness of the nature, the suchness

of the substance, the suchness of the power, the suchness

of the function, the suchness of the causes, the suchness

of the conditions, the suchness of the effects, the

suchness of the retributionss and the suchness of the

ultimate equality from beginning to end.(The Dharma Flower SutraChapter 2 Expedient Device)

The Great Master Sixth Patriarch gives the analogy of the

clouds in the sky to depict the suchness of people 30


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Sutra:

This is like the sky which is always clear, and the sun and

moon which are always bright, so that if they are obscured

by floating clouds it is bright above the clouds and darkbelow them. But if the wind suddenly blows and scatters

the clouds, there is brightness above and below, and the

myriad forms appear. The worldly persons nature

constantly drifts like those clouds in the sky.

Comments

The worldly person sometimes manifest his good nature andsometimes manifest his evil nature.

When we do more good, we ascend; the inverse applies

equally.31


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Sutra:

Good Knowing Advisors, intelligence is like the sun and

wisdom is like the moon. Intelligence and wisdom are

constantly bright, but if you are attached to external states,the floating clouds of false thought cover the self-nature so

that it cannot shine.

Comments

The pure mind is like the moon in water;

The quiet mind like a cloudless sky;

True blessings: the mind stopped, thoughts cut off;

True fields of blessing: all desires ended. 32


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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 january 11, 2013 lecture

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