Ancient colloquialisms are often accompanied by the word "help", such as "dog", not that the dog's children, but only the colloquialism "dog"; and we are still accustomed to the title: comb, fan, basin, and so on every day of our lives to say the words! If the reader says "head" and "son" is different, then I use the word with the head to look at examples: axe, girl, wood, steamed bread, old man, head of the case, the head of the year, head, verbal, and so on countless, are with the "head of the words "is the same as the common language, which refers to the direction before and after? Which means the end and the beginning and the end? Including "thoughts", remove the head of the word meaning unchanged, are said to be "ideas"!
The ancients initially proposed: look at the words of Zen, and did not say that the head of the words. Sen words, Sen research, refers to some of the ready-made masters of the case do not understand the experience, to understand, so called Sen research, Sen words, Sen Gong case, etc.! Words are mostly from the questions and answers of the masters, and a word is just a sentence! Our Zen head of words are what it is: no, hemp three pounds, dry pegs of shit, chanting who is the Buddha, all the law to one, a return to where, how is the original face of the parents before they were born, how is the master of the West to come and so on! These are all words that we have heard more or less before! Since ancient times to the Qing Dynasty, no one has said what words are talking about before the head of the words is to participate in the head of the words is to participate in a sentence, a do not understand the doubt through a sentence to participate in the study, doubt to a certain extent before the opportunity to enlightenment, like a balloon blowing up!
Lai Guo Zen Master had on the "head of the words is the beginning of the speech" and the end of the words of the statement in the enlightenment in a rebuke: the conversation head to talk about the beginning and the end, are the devil said!
The head of a conversation is best when it produces no side effects, produces no room for imagination, and is a meaningless sentence. During the Northern and Southern Dynasties, Zen master Fu Daishi described it quite aptly when he said, "Empty hands put the hoe." What does this phrase mean? The hand is empty but grasping a hoe, which cannot be understood with common sense; and again, "When a man crosses a bridge, the water on the bridge does not flow." It is not the water that flows but the bridge, which also does not correspond to common sense. Words such as these two that cannot be explained by common sense can be taken as heads of speech. There are also other phrases, such as "The eastern mountain walks on water," in which the eastern mountain walks on water, and "It rains on the eastern mountain and is wet on the western mountain," in which it rains on the eastern mountain and is wet on the western mountain, which are not in accordance with common sense.
One of the most popular sayings in ancient Chinese Zen Buddhism was the phrase "The Master came from the West". This phrase asks: What did the Dharma Master bring with him when he came to China from the Western Paradise? The Western Paradise refers to India, where Zen teachings were passed down from the first ancestor, Mahakashyapa, to the second ancestor, Ananda, and then to the twenty-eighth ancestor, Bodhidharma, who came to China and became the first ancestor of Zen Buddhism in China. Some say he brought a copy of the Lankavatara Sutra from India, but he did not translate it, but only taught people to use it. Others say he brought the Dharma of Zen. What is Zen Dharma? Zen Dharma is in fact the Dharma of the mind, so Bodhidharma used his mind to bring the incredible Zen Dharma. Since it is incredible and unexplainable, the saying, "The master came from the west" became one of the most popular sayings in ancient times, and it was a very powerful saying at that time. It was probably not very powerful because many people did not know who the "Ancestor" was.
How did the Gurus bring the Dharma? And how did he pass on the teachings to Huike, the second patriarch of Chinese Zen? There is a story of "breaking his arm to seek the Dharma": when Master Dharma was facing the wall in Songshan Mountain, Zen Master Huike came to Songshan Mountain to seek the Dharma from Bodhidharma. He said, "My heart is restless, please help me to settle it." Bodhidharma said, "Good! Bring out your heart and I will settle it for you." Immediately, Zen Master Huike looked back for his own heart to bring it to Bodhidharma, but he could not find it. Right at the moment when Zen Master Huike said, "I can't find my heart," he realized what Zen Dharma is. How to be at ease? The only way to be at peace is to have no mind to be at peace, but to have a mind to be at peace is never to have a mind to be at peace.
So is it possible to invent one's own words? This is to be judged according to whether or not this head of speech has power and whether or not it can sustain the feeling of doubt. It is like swallowing a very hot dumpling with a very tasty filling, and not being able to spit it out because the filling is so tasty and hot, and at that moment all you want to do is to finish the dumpling as soon as possible, or to let it cool down as soon as possible, and not to have any other distracting thoughts. If the words you invent are able to produce this kind of feeling, then you can participate in it; if the words, which sometimes seem to cause you to have doubts, can only last for a while and are not strong enough to make the doubts last, then such words are just delusional thoughts. Although the words used in Zen are also one of the delusions, they are the words that can touch the alert mind and raise the mind of the Way, so they can become words.
Method and meaning
The first is to correct the mind. The so-called correcting the mind means correcting our motivation for learning Buddhism. Learning Buddhism is not about seeking fame and fortune, becoming an abbot, or making fortunes with believers, but about liberating ourselves from birth and death, abiding in the Dharma, and benefiting all sentient beings. Otherwise, if you don't do it right, you'll miss it by a thousand miles. Therefore, first of all, the mind must be correct. Therefore, Zen Master Dahui earnestly taught repentance: "Scholars learn the way of the late king, only is the right mind, the mind is right, then the evil is not related. Evil is not related, then the daily use of the place, natural head on the bright, things on the show." ? This saying says that as long as our motives are pure and our mind is correct, then if you keep going, the Dharma will flow out in your life. So the first thing you need to do when you study Buddhism is to have the right purpose, otherwise you will either become possessed or you will go to hell. The true purpose of practicing the Dharma is to break troubles, to develop wisdom, and to realize life and death; if your motives are impure and you are seeking gods and goddesses, then nine times out of ten, you will be caught in the devil's spell. If you are sitting there in meditation and reciting Buddha's name with a straight mind, how can you get into trouble when evil demons and foreigners see the light of your wisdom and don't even dare to come near you?
Secondly, we talk about the determination of the will. The first one is that I will do one thing in this life, and I won't stop if I don't do it well. If you are a Zen practitioner today, a Chinese medicine student tomorrow, and a chanting practitioner the day after tomorrow, you won't be able to achieve enlightenment for several lifetimes. So as long as you work hard, you will achieve something. Once upon a time I was confused. If I could not understand Zen in this life, wouldn't it be a waste of effort? Who knows if I will be able to make the trip again in the next life? Zen Master Dahui assured us that as long as we put in the effort in this life, even if we can't get through it in this life, we won't fall into the evil path in the next life, and we will be so wise that we will be able to realize the Dharma in no time. So don't be discouraged, even if we don't achieve enlightenment in this life, we will be able to continue practicing in the next life. "Those who have decided to aspire are determined to have their minds opened in this life until they reach the realm of the Buddhas and Ancestors, where there are no obstacles, great rest, and great liberation." "In order to participate in Myohi Zen, one must achieve a lifetime of non-retrogression." "There is no wasted effort on prajna," this refers to the aspect of practicing zazen, where there is not a single ounce of wasted effort in practicing prajna wisdom. "If one puts one's mind to it, even if one has not attained Buddhahood in this life, one has planted a deep seed, and at the end of one's life one will not be led by karmic consciousness into all the evil worlds, and will not be able to change one's shell and turn one's head, nor will one be able to realize my own ignorance." If we cannot attain Buddhahood in our present life, even if we are reincarnated, we will not be in ignorance. Zen Master Zhaozhou once said, "If you don't become enlightened after thirty years of Zen meditation, I will bear your bad karma. Therefore to participate in Zen you must let go of everything and concentrate on this path.
The significance of the third koan. What role does the koan play in our path of practice? And what kind of benefits does it have? "In the jungles of the recent past, evil teachings have arisen, and there are countless people who have blinded the eyes of the living beings. If we do not use the ancient public cases to raise our consciousness and lift up our tears, we will be like a blind man who lets go of the staff in his hand, and will not be able to take a single step." ? Here it is said that evil devils and foreign paths are prevalent and have blinded the eyes of everyone's wisdom, so if we can lift up and tear the ancient texts day and night, it is as if the blind man has a walking stick. The blindness here does not refer to the eyes, but to our mind's eye. When the mind's eye is blind, it does not know the true meaning of life.? "Doubt has not been broken, but only to see an ancient man into the Tao of the bottom of the words, move day by day many make delusions of the bottom of the heart to come, the words of the head of the word then everything does not work." The monk asked Zhaozhou: 'The dog still has Buddha nature or not?' The state cloud: 'No!' This word alone is the knife that cuts off the road to life and death." What is this word? The word "nothing" is the knife that cuts off the cycle of birth and death, you see how important this word "nothing" is. He said that as long as we lift up the word "nothing", all delusions will stop, you see how powerful the word is. "The monk asked Zhao Zhou: 'Does the dog still have Buddha nature?' Zhou Yun: 'No!' This word is the staff that destroys many bad knowledge and consciousness." We have many bad perceptions in our body and mind, and the word "nothing" can eliminate our bad perceptions. "Faintness and sullenness, the first saint's holler, meditate on these two diseases, but only to take the words of the dog without Buddha nature, the two diseases do not need to exert themselves to dispel, when the post is carried out." ? Drowsiness and falling asleep are two diseases that tend to arise during meditation; drowsiness is dozing off, and falling asleep is delusional thinking. These two diseases are the two roadblocks on the road to practice, get rid of them to practice can be said to be on the road, practice will have the power. And the head of the meditation can help you solve this problem, as long as you bring up the head of the meditation, there will be no drowsiness, and there will be no falling off the face of the earth. "Please just put the mind of idle contemplation back on the word 'nothing' and try to contemplate it, and then suddenly to the place where contemplation is not enough, to get this thought to break through, that is to realize the place of the three worlds." This is the way to reach the three worlds. At this point you are enlightened. "In the day-to-day use of the karmic place, only when I realize that I am involved in the realm of difference, but only in the place of difference, I hold up the words of a dog with no Buddha nature." What does that mean? What do you mean by "only realizing the difference"? This is what we are talking about separation, that is, we in our daily life in the external realm of the separate attachment, for example, today came to listen to the lecture of all of you, in front of the monk master, this side is a male student, that side is a female student, as soon as there is this kind of separate thoughts, immediately lift the dog without Buddha nature words, "no", "no "......, separate thoughts will turn to the word "nothing" above, nothing can be seen.
The fourth is how to use the power. "But to the daily use of karma place, when looking to catch, I can be with people to determine the right and wrong bottom, who is the power of grace? After all, from what place to flow? I used to be familiar with the raw place, and the raw place is familiar with the familiar place, but the raw place is born." "Only on this 'no' word mention tear, mention tear to mention tear to go, raw place since familiar, familiar place since born carry on." ? "The place of birth is ripe and the place of ripeness is born." "The place of birth" is the doubtful, penetrating mind. Can you all sit down and just sit in one place? You're not familiar with this kind of work, are you? This is our birthplace. And what is the "familiar place"? We are familiar with chatting with friends, drinking tea, dancing, playing chess, playing games, and so on. Learning Buddhism is to change our raw places into ripe places and ripe places into raw places, so how do we change them? Then how do we change? It is necessary for us to use the words of the Buddha to slowly dissolve the world's good and bad, enjoyment, fame and fortune, and the six dusts and shadows, etc., and slowly become rusty. At this time, you will have no feeling when you see a good-looking one. You may wonder how you can have no feeling when you see such a good-looking one. You may wonder why you don't feel anything when you look so good. You are not interested in dancing or shopping. Strange, why are you not interested, are you a wooden person? Why? Because your mind that chases after the six dusts is rusty. It's called ripening in the place of birth, and birth in the place of ripening. The purpose of our practice is to turn the place where we are usually familiar, the mind that is chasing after fame and fortune, sound and color, and slowly become skillful in illumination and meditation, which is a transformation of our practice, and the practice of meditation is a method of transformation. I am going to cite some of the functions of the head of speech here, which allows us to break off birth and death, allows us to gradually enter the state of practice, and allows us to eliminate boundless worries. "Since I have learned this path, when I encounter things in the twelve hours of the day, I shall not cause evil thoughts to continue, or take care of them, and when I start an evil thought, I shall be in a hurry to be wonderful and yank my head around. If you always go with him, continuous, not only obstacles to the road, but also called the wisdom of the people. In the past, Weishan asked the lazy An: 'You twelve hours, when what is the business? An Yun: 'Cattle herding.' Shan Yun: 'What do you do to herd?' An Yun: 'Once into the grass to go, suddenly pulled back.' Shan Yun: 'I am really a cowherd.' Learners of Taoism to control the evil thoughts, when the cattle as lazy An, then a long time since the pure and mature." ? This passage is about how to cultivate, we have to reflect and adjust our own mind and master our own mind in the process of cultivation ourselves. First of all, it teaches us not to raise evil thoughts, not to refrain from raising evil thoughts, but not to allow evil thoughts to continue. It doesn't matter if we have bad thoughts, the important thing is to quickly realize them and stop them. This is why it is called "Fear not the rising of thoughts, but fear the late realization. We are not afraid of the rise of delusional thoughts and evil thoughts, but we are afraid that we will be late in realizing them, and when the evil thoughts rise, they can be dissolved immediately, which is why we use the analogy of a cow as a metaphor. The cow is a metaphor for our mind, the field is a metaphor for the evil, the cow ran into other people's crops, trampling on other people's crops, we have to quickly pull it out, do not let it step on other people's fields. That's why we say, "I'm not afraid of the thought, I'm only afraid of the late realization". If you have an evil thought, quickly pull it back, and over time you will not have an evil thought. "But if you do not lose sight of the daily necessities, you will naturally become one with the sun and the moon." ? We must not obscure our mind in the place of daily application, in our daily life, not to raise evil thoughts, not to be confused, then as the sun and the moon are dipped for a long time, our mind will be purely on the good dharma.? "It is only when this word is lifted up that the world's feelings and thoughts are self-posted." ? That is, you lift up this word "nothing", "nothing!" Why don't dogs have Buddha nature? "Nothing!" What does it mean? "Nothing!" So, people's minds chasing after the six dusts naturally quieten down. "When one touches a situation and meets the edge, one should always use the words to mention the tears, not to seek quick results, but to study the ultimate theory, to realize the rules. However, the first is not to wait for enlightenment with the mind; if one waits for enlightenment with the mind, one will be blocked by the mind that is waiting for enlightenment, and will turn sharply and late." ? During our cultivation, we cannot say I want to be enlightened, I want to be enlightened. Don't care about enlightenment or not, just attend to the head of the words, and if you want to be enlightened, you will naturally be enlightened, you don't need to shout here, you don't need to think here. The practice of cultivation is just to plow and not to ask for the harvest. "Do not use many tricks in lifting up the words, but do not make interruptions in walking, sitting and lying down, and do not be separate in joy, anger and sadness." ? Don't have tricks when lifting up the words, don't have many small movements and tricks, you just lift up the words honestly. After you have participated for a long time, you will naturally know how to use skillfulness, and you don't have to use too many tricks. There is no trick, in a word, just participate honestly. "But do take the long term mind, and the dog without Buddha nature words to work together, to work together, the heart is nothing, suddenly like a sleepy dream, like a lotus blossom, like a cloud to see the sun, and then, naturally become a piece of carry on." ? After participating for a long time, the heart will become a piece, that is to say, this head of your words has become a piece. ? "Thousands of doubts, just one doubt, the head of the words of the doubt broken, then thousands of doubts a moment broken. If the head of the word is not broken, then you will have to work with it above. If you give up the head of the words, but go to other words on the doubt, scriptures and teachings on the doubt, the ancients on the case of doubt, day-to-day use of dust and labor in the doubt, are all the evil demon family." ? Therefore, when we take part in this discourse, once we take part in it to the end, we can't change the title, that is, we can't change the discourse again. I can't say, "Today, I'm going to say, "Dogs don't have Buddha nature," and then after a year or two, I don't have a taste for it, and then I'm going to say, "Who is the Nembutsu Buddha?" Then for three or five more years, again no flavor, then "All dharmas come to one, where does one come to?" It's like drilling a well. If you drill 10 meters down and there's no water, and then you drill 10 or 20 meters down and there's still no water, and then you get discouraged and try to drill somewhere else, then all your hard work will have been for nothing. If you can be persistent, 20 meters of no water and then chisel 10 meters, 20 meters, 30 meters, water will naturally come out. Therefore, if you choose to say, "The dog has no Buddha nature," then say "nothing," and if you choose to say, "Who is the Buddha," then say "who? The word "who" is the same as any other, there is no difference between good and bad, so you can refer to whatever you like, and you can refer to this one word, and you can bite down on it, and continue to refer to it for the rest of your life. This is the way to teach us to use our energy, the way to participate in the head of the words.
The fifth is to persuade and inspire. Exhortation is a Zen master to teach his disciples, you have to learn well ah, do not be delusional ah, do not doze off ah, be ambitious, not enlightened not out of the door of the Berlin Temple, and so on, all of these can be said. Because the beginner's mind is not firm, do not know how to get on the road. The sixth talk about quiet disturbing kung fu. In Taiwan there is a monk not long ago, he told me: "Master ah, I do not want to live in the monastery, I want to go to the mountains to practice hard, too many things in the temple, but also to open the light, but also to receive the believers, all day long busy, how can I practice it?" Obviously, he did not know that one cannot avoid the noise and seek silence in Zen meditation. Why? This external dusty realm, whether it is noisy or quiet, is a realm. Zen practitioners should take a calm attitude towards any realm, do not get up the mind to separate it, you noisy or quiet, I am a "no" word, a "who" word. If today you think it's noisy when there are many people, and tomorrow you think it's quiet when there are few people, aren't you interfering with your own state of mind? If you think it's noisy and you think it's quiet, aren't you creating a noisy external environment and a quiet external environment? Not only that, but you also create a mind that hates it, a mind that likes it, so isn't that adding delusion to delusion and interfering with your own mind? Therefore, not to be attached to any realm, not to be rejected, but just to take care of one's own mind as it goes along, this is the quieting and disturbing kung fu.? "Usually stay in a place where quietness prevails, and you are about to use it in the midst of disturbance; if you do not gain strength in the midst of disturbance, it is as if you have not done kung fu in quietness." The reason for practicing in a place where there is no one is to prepare for practicing in the midst of noise when one has the strength to do so. "If one is averse when one is in the midst of disturbance, one is disturbing one's mind." ?
The sixth self-examining effort. After people have practiced for a period of time, they see if they have gained strength and are on their way, and this is the self-checking kung fu. ? "Do you not know whether you are free with your fate as you wish to be in the day? Are you not overcome by dust and labor in the Four Vows? Is the two sides of sleep and sleep the same? But there is no holy understanding. Since the public smile, open the eyes, the news suddenly died, power or not, as a person drinking water, warm and cold know themselves." ? Here is to say, one's own in the process of cultivation, check whether the mind has been able to integrate with the life, so he said that follow the fate is not very comfortable and very like, in the life, thinking is not disturbed by the worldly dust and labor, there is no feel too annoyed, too bitter? Do you sleep and wake up the same? If you can have the appearance of a Buddhist student in your dream, and can grasp your own mind, this is a marvelous work. "Do you not scrutinize whether you are at ease in a swallow, relaxed and free from all devils? Within the four daily rituals, is it the same as the words of the dog without Buddha nature? Can you not distinguish between motion and stillness? Do dreams and realizations coincide? Are the truth and the matter the same? Is the mind the same as the realm?" ? This paragraph is very organized. Mind and state means whether your mind and state can be merged together, if you can do that, you have done a very good job. "I don't know that the only way to realize this is to witness it personally. Only when there are words and phrases of strange, subtle, or secret interpretations that can be passed on or taught is the Dharma not correct. There is no transmission or teaching of the true Dharma, but only my witnessing, eye to eye, heart to heart." ? If you have any idea of enlightenment in the course of your practice, it's not right; you think to yourself, "Have I become enlightened, do I have a realm? The right dharma should be that you prove it and I prove it, and we are all clear and don't need to speak. The eighth Zen disease. There are two kinds of Zen illnesses: body illnesses and mind illnesses. Body sickness means that the four great powers are out of adjustment and that something is wrong with the physical body. Mind sickness refers to different changes in our meditation realm. The Tiantai Sect has a canonical text devoted to this issue, while Dahui Zonggao omits it altogether. He talks about it from a different perspective, so let's look at it together.? "The first is not to take the knowledge of the bottom as a cause, not to mention the pursuit of wonderful enlightenment, saying that I know that he does not know, that I will and he will not, falling into the net of my view, for I am made to be in the face of the world, and in the midst of the inadequacy of the thought of fulfillment, which is especially heavier than the two diseases of speech and silence, and the good doctor arches his hand. If this disease is not removed, one is called a person with the evil view of increasing slowness." ? People should never get up the mind to say, "My realm is higher than his, I've already proved it, my kung fu is high, it's marvelous, this is the evil view of increasing slowness, and it's a disease to have this kind of mind to get up. As long as you have a mind that says, "My realm is high, my kung fu is better than others, this thought is a great disease. A true Zen master does not have the thought of how I am. "The two diseases of speech and silence cannot be removed, and the path of obstruction is determined to be unknowable, and there is an interesting point of advancement in the practice of Zen when it is known." What do you mean by "speech"? "Language" means a lot of gossip, and "silence" means that the mind is fixed in that place and does not move. Those who really practice Zen don't like to talk too much.
The seventh is heh silent illumination. "The person who just tells the mind to sit still and sits with no breath is called a truly compassionate person."
The seventh is silent illumination. "This mind has no substance, so how can it be taken in? Where should I put it?" (I am not sure where to put my mind.) There is a group of people who tell others to take in the mind, to take in the mind and meditate, without even breathing, and these people are very pitiful in their practice. Because the mind has no substance, as the Sixth Patriarch said, the mind is delusional, how do you take it in? And where do you put it? Of course, then again, if you can really put the mind away, it takes a little bit of effort, and that's for us mortals? "Is it not the essence of falsehood for the Duchen elders to teach the right and left to sit quietly and so on as Buddhas? And saying that there is no loss in quiet places and loss in noisy places, is it not a bad worldly phase to seek the real phase? If you practise in this way, how can you fit in with Laolong's saying that where there is no mind, there is no difference between the mind and the heart?" The first is to say that the mind is not the same as the mind. There is a kind of person who tells people to get rid of delusions and quiet the mind, which Zonggao believes is wrong. If you get rid of distracting thoughts and delusions, then where do you go to seek the reality? You should know that this reality is sought in this delusional earthly world! As the Sixth Patriarch said, "Seeking Bodhi away from the world is like searching for a rabbit's horn." ? "Then I will concentrate on my mind, take in things and return them to emptiness, close my eyes and hide my eyes, and when any thought arises, I will break it down in a whirlwind. The thought is only born, even if curbed, such an opinion, that is, the empty death of a foreigner, the soul does not scatter the dead. Dimly and indifferently, without consciousness and without knowledge, with their ears plugged in, they deceive themselves in vain." There is a class of practitioners who converge their minds and eliminate delusions to the realm of nothingness, and if a thought arises, it is immediately eliminated; this is the mind-control stopping that was mentioned earlier. According to Da Hui, those who hold such an opinion are laymen who have fallen into emptiness and death, and dead people whose souls cannot be dispersed. It is certainly true that a person is like a haystack with no delusions, but this is a layman, a dead man, who cannot get rid of birth and death, and is not a true Buddhist practice. In fact, if we want to reach the level that Zen Master Dahui rebuked today, we are already very advanced Zen masters. Zen has depths and depths, and its realms are limitless. What Zen Master Dahui is rebuking is actually our tethering and mind-control stops, which are very good practices, but by Zen standards, they are the objects of rebuke. Today, the time and space in which we live have changed a great deal, so it is important not to pooh-pooh other practices by Zen standards, because there are many people who are not yet able to accept the realm of Zen. Our purpose in analyzing these things is to understand the different methods of Zen and the Zen hierarchy so that we can choose the appropriate practice. "It is easy to empty the realm with daily use but difficult to empty the mind; the realm is empty but the mind is not; the mind is superior to the realm; but the mind is empty and the realm is empty of itself. If the mind is already empty, but more second thoughts, wanting to empty its realm, then the mind has not been empty, but again for the realm to take. If this disease is not removed, there is no way out of life and death." The mind and the realm is an issue worth exploring. It is easy to eliminate the external dusty realm, but not the mind. The so-called "karma is exhausted by kan, kan is exhausted by karma" means that the mind and the realm are two phases that are obliterated, opposed to each other, and dissolved by each other. The "mind is empty, the realm is empty," which means that it is our mind that is really empty.