T.N.G. SIGNS OF THE TIMES - N.M. July 20, 2001 (#97)
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The following Commentaries of Xishan on selected Buddhist sutras are taken from Essentials of Zen Buddhism by Tuiyin – translated by O’Hyun Park. Buddha gave some 84,000 teachings. These are some highlights of those teachings:
Words are the work of the demons; name and form are the work of the demons; even the sayings of Buddha are the work of the demons. When one discovers one’s origin, neither a Buddha nor a Patriarch can be of any help.
Only by the compassion of the Buddha can one reach the other shore or joy across the sea of pain. So even if you were to repay the Buddha with one’s own life, it would still be less than 1/10000th of the debt to Buddha. One must thank the Buddha and the Patriarchs for their boundless grace by cultivating one’s own mind.
All is right as it is. It goes awry as soon as you begin to think.
I have one thing to say: I sit listlessly without thought; spring comes and the grass becomes green of itself. Return to true mind whenever a thought occurs.
You think over and over. You ponder day and night until both the way of reason and the way of meaning are severed, and your mind is in agony. That is the very place where you should dedicate your body and your life, and you become a Buddha or a Patriarch.
To get profound realization, you must cut off the way of the mind.
No-mind is the way of Buddha. Differentiating mind is the Maras (illusion).
If one wants to free oneself from birth and death, one should crack One Thought.
The substances of cultivation lie merely in shaking off the thoughts of an ordinary person. There is no such thing as the knowledge of a sage distinguished from the knowledge of an ordinary person.
Be careful not to defile your original nature.
When one leaves illusion behind, then one is already awakened. The mind is the chief magician of illusion; the body is the city of illusion; the world is the clothing of illusion; and name and form is the food of illusion.
If mind does not wobble when one is confronted by the everyday existence of the actual world, this is called “no-arising.” “No-arising” is called “no-thought.” “No-thought” is called “freedom.”
True Nirvana is to understand that the mind is originally quiescent.
Keeping guard over one’s true mind is better than invoking all the Buddhas everywhere. By keeping guard over your own true mind, you can reach the Other Shore. One becomes Buddha by working inwardly on one’s nature, not by seeking help from outside. The enlightened one merely purifies his own mind.
Even if one listens and does not believe, yet the seed of Buddha has been planted in oneself.
It is like decorating a toilet when one tries either to argue with others by playing with words or to boast of learning before one becomes enlightened.
A monk studying secular writing is like cutting mud with a knife; the mud is not improved and the knife is damaged.
Buddha lamented, “There are many thieves who clothe themselves like me and create many kinds of bad karma by selling me.”
It is a pity that people eat when they are not hungry, and put on clothes when they are not cold. They don’t even suspect that their present pleasure will be pain in their next life.
A student should take food as if one were taking poison.
A great man repents of mistakes and feels ashamed of errors. Correct them and begin anew, and mistakes will vanish according to one’s own mind.
With just a gourd and a piece of clothing, one can be at ease with any place.
Trying to be realistic is like a thirsty deer seeking after a heat haze instead of water. Trying to be idealistic is like a monkey trying to catch the moon reflected in the water.
A student’s mind moves because he seeks after stillness as something to be practiced. When the mind moves, the devils can see it. A Bodhisattva leaves no trace because he realizes that his original nature is empty. Since there is no trace, the devils cannot see him.
Don’t speak, don’t speak! Unless one puts it on paper.
A great man should regard a Buddha or a Patriarch as an enemy. If you seek anything from the Buddha, you will be bound to the Buddha. Seeking for anything is no better than having nothing to do. “Seeking for anything is pain” ties in with the phrase – “All is right as it is. It goes awry as soon as you begin to think.”
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All his (Buddha’s) immature disciples complained that these words were highly difficult to understand.