the sixth patriarch's sutra july 27, 2012 lecture
TRANSCRIPT
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The Sixth Patriarchs Sutra7:30pm Pacific timeJuly 27, 2012 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 Repaying the kindness of parents
Chapter 4 Concentration and wisdom
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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:
The Buddha Many Jewels has made a profound and solemn vow: Whenmy jeweled stupa manifests in the presence of the Buddha because theDharma Flower Sutra is heard, if there is anyone who wishes me toshow my body to the four assemblies, then the division body of theBuddha who is speaking Dharma in the worlds of the ten directions
must all return and gather together in one place. Afterward my bodywill appear.(the Wonderful Dharma Lotus Flower Sutra)
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Q&A
Question:
How do I repay the kindness of my mother who passed on in
2007?
Answer:
A specific filial ritual to reflect upon and to repay the kindness of
parents who are either alive or departed from the world is
to recite the Buddha speaks of Ullambana Sutra by
invoking the virtue of the Sangha (monastics) through making
offerings and
the mantra specifically on repaying the kindness of parent
on the fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month of the year.3
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Q&A
In that Sutra, the Buddha explained about reverence for thevirtue of the Sangha (monastics) that will enable a person to be
able to
take across the sufferings of and improved upon the lives of
parents of nine generations of the past.
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Q&A
The filial thought of wanting to repay the kindness of parents
itself is a virtue and
when it is translated into filial conduct and other virtuous acts
then
become the basis for helping the parents through dedicationof the merit and virtue to the parents.
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Q&A
The effectiveness of recitation of the mantra hinges upon being
able to focus your attention on the mantra rather than letting the
mind being scattered and
the sincerity of wanting to repay the kindness of parents that
evokes the response.
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Q&A
When a living parent who is about to die, the children can assist
the parent to be mindful of the Buddha by assisting him to recite
and be mindful of the Buddha.
During the period of forty nine days after departure, the children
can do wholesome deeds such as reciting the Sutra of Past
Vows of Bodhisattva Earth Store and the name of the Buddha
or doing wholesome deeds to help others and dedicate themerit of these virtuous acts to the deceased.
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Q&A
Being on a vegetarian diet is itself both a virtue of compassionand a virtue of being filial.
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Chapter 4 Concentration and wisdom
Sutra:
If your speech is good, but your mind is not, then
concentration and wisdom are useless because they are
not equal. If mind and speech are both good, the inner and
outer are alike, and concentration and wisdom are equal.
Comments:
When your mind is having angry thoughts that contradicts what
you say, for example, then there is no concentration and
wisdom.
When you speak whatever is in your mind without delusion,
then mind and speech are both good. 9
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Chapter 4 Concentration and wisdom
Sutra:
Self-enlightenment, cultivation, and practice are not a
matter for debate.
Comments:
Whenever you begin to debate, the mind is stirred and no
longer in concentration.
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Chapter 4 Concentration and wisdom
Sutra:
If you debate which comes first, then you are like a
confused man who does not cut off ideas of victory and
defeat, but magnifies the notion of self and dharmas, anddoes not disassociate himself from the four marks.
Comments:
In debate, thoughts of victory and defeat
Stand in contradiction to the Way;
Giving rise to the mind of four marks,
How can one obtain samadhi?
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Chapter 4 Concentration and wisdom
Sutra: Good Knowing Advisors, what are concentration and
wisdom like? They are like a lamp and its light. With the
lamp, there is light. Without the lamp, there is darkness.
The lamp is the substance of the light and the light is thefunction of the lamp. Although there are two names, there
is one fundamental substance. The dharma of
concentration and wisdom is also thus.
Comments:
Concentration is the substance of wisdom. When there wisdom,there is concentration.
Wisdom is the function of concentration; concentration
produces wisdom. 12
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Chapter 4 Concentration and wisdom
Those who seek the place of the World Honored One,
saying, We will become Buddhas, vigorously practicing
concentration, these are the superior herbs.
But herbs cannot compare with trees.
Large trees are those who dwell in Chan (stillness)
attaining spiritual powers, who hear the dharma of
emptiness and rejoice within their minds, emittingcountless lights crossing over all beings, they are called
the large trees.
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Chapter 4 Concentration and wisdom
Sutra:
The Master instructed the assembly: Good Knowing
Advisors, the Single Conduct Samadhi is the constant
practice of maintaining a direct, straightforward mind in allplaces, whether one is walking, standing, sitting, or lying
down. As the Vimalakirti Sutra says, The straight mind is
the Bodhimandala; the straight mind is the Pure
Land.
Comments:
You should answer my question straightforwardly,because that is the path that the Thus Come One
everywhere throughout the ten directions have taken as
they freed themselves from death and rebirth. (Shurangama
Sutra) 14
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Chapter 4 Concentration and wisdom
Sutra:
Do not speak of straightness with the mouth only, while
the mind and practice are crooked, nor speak of the Single
Conduct Samadhi without maintaining a straight mind.Simply practice keeping a straight mind and have no
attachment to any dharma.
Comments:
Their minds and their words were straightforward, and
therefore, at every point in their progress from the firststage to the last, they were in the least evasive. (ShurangamaSutra)
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Chapter 4 Concentration and wisdom
Sutra:
The confused person is attached to the marks of dharmas,
while holding to the Single Conduct Samadhi and saying, I
sit unmoving and falseness does not arise in my mind.
That is the Single Conduct Samadhi. Such an
interpretation serves to make him insensate and obstructs
the causes and conditions for attaining the Way.
Comments:
Single Conduct Samadhi has the feature of wisdom of not being
attached.
It is not Single Conduct Samadhi when you are deluded with
attachments. 16
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Chapter 4 Concentration and wisdom
Sutra:
Good Knowing Advisors, the Way must penetrate and
flow. How can it be impeded? If the mind does not dwell in
dharmas, the Way will penetrate and flow. The mind thatdwells in dharmas is in self-bondage. To say that sitting
unmoving is correct is to be like Shariputra who sat quietly
in the forest but was scolded by Vimalakirti.
Comments:
No-thought means to view all dharmas with a mindundefiled by attachment. The function pervades
everywhere but is nowhere attached.
Whose mind? Your own mind, so liberate your mind. 17
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Chapter 4 Concentration and wisdom
Sutra:
Good Knowing Advisors, the Way must penetrate and
flow. How can it be impeded? If the mind does not dwell in
dharmas, the Way will penetrate and flow. The mind thatdwells in dharmas is in self-bondage. To say that sitting
unmoving is correct is to be like Shariputra who sat quietly
in the forest but was scolded by Vimalakirti.
Comments:
Chan is not in the sitting but the state of your mind.
Walking, standing, sitting, reclining, never be apart from your
original mind.18
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Chapter 4 Concentration and wisdom
A case to illustrate missing the point of the teaching:
Whatever he was asked about Zen, Master Gutei simply stuck
up his finger. He had a boy attendant whom a visitor asked, "What kind of
teaching does your master give?"
The boy held up one finger too. Hearing of this, Gutei cut off the
boy's finger with a knife.
As the boy ran away, screaming with pain, Gutei called to him.
When the boy turned his head, Gutei stuck up one finger. The
boy was suddenly enlightened. When Gutei was about to die, he said to the assembled monks,
"I received this one-finger Zen from Tenry. I've used it all my
life but have not exhausted it." Having said this, he entered
nirvana. 19
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Chapter 4 Concentration and wisdom
Sutra: Good Knowing Advisors, there are those who teach
people to sit looking at the mind and contemplating
stillness, without moving or arising. They claim that it has
merit. Confused men, not understanding, easily becomeattached and go insane. There are many such people.
Therefore you should know that teaching of this kind is a
great error.
Comments:
A reminder on the importance of cultivating the mind.
Contemplating stillness is bondage.
Not thinking of a hundred things and constantly causing your
thought to be cut off is called Dharma-bondage and is an 20
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Chapter 4 Concentration and wisdom
Practice is not to contemplate stillness:
Chih Heng replied, He always instructs us to dwell with
the mind contemplating stillness and to sit up all the time
without lying down.
The Master said, To dwell with the mind contemplating
stillness is sickness, not Dhyana. Constant sitting restrainthe body. How can it be beneficial? Listen to my verse:
When living, sit, dont lie. When dead, lie down, dont sit.
How can a set of stinking bones
Be used for training? 21
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Chapter 4 Concentration and wisdom
Practice is not to contemplate stillness:
When living, sit, dont lie.
When dead, lie down, dont sit. How can a set of stinking bones
Be used for training?
Dont be fixated.
When it is time to sit, sit.
When it is time to lie down, lie down. It is not about sitting or lying down.
Its about your mind not attached anywhere.
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Chapter 4 Concentration and wisdom
Sutra:
The Master instructed the assembly: Good Knowing
Advisors, the right teaching is basically without a division
into sudden and gradual. Peoples natures themselvesare sharp or dull.
Comments:
The teaching is neither sudden or gradual; it is how quick or
slow you understand the principles.
Sudden understanding comes from our gradual cultivation in
the past.
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Chapter 4 Concentration and wisdom
Sutra:
When the confused person who gradually cultivates and
the enlightened person who suddenly connects each
recognize the original mind and see the original nature,they are no different. Therefore, the terms sudden and
gradual are shown to be false names.
Comments:
The enlightenment of those who gradually become enlightened
and those who suddenly get enlightened is the same; when
your merit and virtue is full you become enlightened.
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Chapter 4 Concentration and wisdom
Great Master Huang Po:
In the attainment of no-mind, some are quicker than others.
There are some who attain to a state of no-mind all at once byjust listening to a discourse on the Dharma (true mind), while
there are others who attain to it only after going through all the
grades of Bodhisattvaship such as the ten stages of faith, the
ten dwellings and the ten conducts and the ten transferences.
More or less time may be required in the attainment of no-mind,
but once attained it puts an end to all discipline, to allrealization; and yet there is really nothing attained. It is truth
and not falsehood.
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Chapter 4 Concentration and wisdom
Great Master Huang Po:
Whether this no-mind is attained in one thought orattainedafter going through the ten stages, its practical working is the
same and there is no question of one being deeper or shallower
than the other.
Only the one has passed through long ages of hard discipline.
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Chapter 4 Concentration and wisdom
Sutra:
When the confused person who gradually cultivates and
the enlightened person who suddenly connects each
recognize the original mind and see the original nature,they are no different. Therefore, the terms sudden and
gradual are shown to be false names.
Comments:
The enlightenment of those who gradually become enlightened
and those who suddenly get enlightened is the same; whenyour merit and virtue is full you become enlightened.
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Chapter 4 Concentration and wisdom
Sutra:
Good Knowing Advisors, this Dharma-door of mine, from
the past onwards, has been established from the first with
no-thought as its doctrine, no-mark as its substance, andno-dwelling as its basis. No-mark means to be apart from
marks while in the midst of marks.
Comments:
Essentially, the word no indicates to empty or let go
To be apart from marks while in the midst of marks is to be like
a lotus coming out from the filth of the mud remaining
unstained.
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Chapter 4 Concentration and wisdom
Sutra:
No- thought means to be without thought while in the
midst of thought. No-dwelling is the basic nature of human
beings.
Comments:
To be without thought while in the midst of thought means not
to hold onto past thoughts and not to be fixated.
We become humans because we dwell on phenomena;
returning to the original mind is to empty phenomena in the
mind.
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Chapter 4 Concentration and wisdom
Sutra:
In the world of good and evil, attractiveness and ugliness,
friendliness and hostility, when faced with language which
is offensive, critical, or argumentative, you should treat itall as empty and have no thought of revenge.
Comments:
In the world of dualities, all manner of speech should be viewed
as empty and
in doing so, one empties the self by emptying the sense
organs.
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Chapter 4 Concentration and wisdom
Sutra:
In every thought, do not think of former states. If past,
present, and future thoughts succeed one another without
interruption, it is bondage. Not to dwell in dharmas fromthought to thought is to be free from bondage. That is to
take no dwelling as the basis.
Comments:
Thoughts should not pertain to past events and past thoughts.
Being free from dharmas is to be free from thinking of matters
that is over.
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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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