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The Wisdom of Life

Within the Heart Sutra

By Master Ji Qun

(Translation from Chinese to English by Maria Lin Chen)

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About this translation

Master Ji Qun is a renowned contemporary Master in China who teaches Monks in the Buddhist Academy, Xiyuan Temple, in Suzhou. He graduated from the Chinese Buddhist Academy in 1984. He is the author of many books. Master Jin Qun gave this commentary as a talk in the summer of 1995 in Australia. By 31 December 1995 he completed the task of writing up this commentary at Nanputuo Temple, in Fujian Province in China. It was then published as a text in Chinese in October 1999. This was the first Dhamma book that I had ever read. But I couldn’t understand it at first. I was asked by a friend to go to the Heart Sutra 3-day teaching in 1999 at a temple in Melbourne. I asked who was going to teach and found out it was Master Ji Qun. How lucky I was! I took my whole family to the Master’s teaching about this sutra. There were eighty people there for the three days of teaching. It was an experience I will never forget. I asked the Master for permission to translate this book. He was very pleased to give me the task. Through all these years, he has patiently answered my questions to help me understand the complex contents of the book. His help has been essential for the completion of the translation, as without his explanation and confirmation, I would have not have had the confidence to proceed with this task. My sincere and deep thanks to Master Ji Qun for his kind help. This translation was not a small undertaking. I started in 2001 before my daughter was born. This translation was a joint effort. My sincere thanks goes to Master Yuan Chi for using his precious time in August 2003. He proof read the first few chapters for me and offered his valuable advice regarding the translation. I first met Pennie White at the beginning of the Millennium in the year 2000. In February 2004, I asked Pennie White to edit this translation when we were both volunteering at The Australian Buddhist General Conference held 20 to 22 February 2004 at Victoria University, St Albans Campus, convened by The Buddhist Federation of Australia, Victoria University and Buddhist Council of Victoria. We have worked over the years to edit the text section by section, over and over again. It took 7 years to get to the point of being half way through the editing. By 8 January 2009, we had fully edited the copy twice. Without the help of Ms Pennie White, I would never have made it. When I read this book in 1997, it laid a good foundation for my future Buddhist learning and cultivation. I hope those who are starting to learn Buddha Dharma will benefit as much from this book as I did. Now that it is available in English I hope that translation will benefit many more people who wish to learn the teachings of the Prajňāpāramitā. Any advice for the improvement of this translation will be regarded as helpful with my sincere gratitude.

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The Great Wisdom of Life: Prajňāpāramitā Heart Sutra

The full name of the Heart Sutra is Prajňāpāramitā1 Heart Sutra. In the Buddhist scriptures, the title of a sutra usually indicates the key content of the scripture. So, when we study a scripture, we must first pay attention to the title. Prajňā is a translation by pronunciation from Sanskrit. The translation of Buddhist Sutras and sastras follows two methods: translation by pronunciation and by meaning. Translation by pronunciation is only used in special circumstances; take the word Prajňā for an example, as there is no corresponding concept in Chinese language, translation by pronunciation is adopted. That’s why in the process of translation, Tripitaka Master Xuanzhuang2 stipulated that there are five situations in which one should not translate some words or phrases from the original wording of the Sutras. One such situation is that Prajňā is not translated due to respect. Since Prajňā is translated from pronunciation, obviously we can not understand its meaning from its characters. Then what is Prajňā? The ancient virtuous people sometimes translated Prajňā into wisdom to facilitate people’s understandings. However, Prajňā is different from the wisdom in this world. Wisdom in this world is limited and mingled with worries, and it is defective and unable to understand the ultimate truth of the universe and life. In the meantime, Prajňā wisdom is different. It is infinite, pure, fulfilling, being able to reasonably and sensibly understand the ultimate truth of the universe and life, and being able to free us from worries in life completely. Prajňā is most important in the improvement of our lives. Without it, people will have the following two types of afflictions: 1. Cognitive confusion When living in this world, human beings are always living in a state of confusion, not understanding themselves and not being able to have a true understanding of the world. May I ask you whether you know who is I? The question looks simple, some people would answer without a second thought, “I is me”. Then may I ask, do you hold your body as I or your thinking as I? If you hold your body as I, body is the false aggregation of four elements, when the form elements disperse, where is I? If holding thinking as I, then thinking is established upon the experience and concepts, and it continues as such. Thinking does not have any independent entity. Thus, we can see this is not an easy question to answer and that is why a most famous remark in western philosophy is: knowing yourself . Where do we come from? Where shall we go when we pass away? This is also a great puzzle in life. I remember that a western philosopher once made a vivid analogy about life. He said life is like crossing a bridge. At the head of the bridge, under the bridge and at the end of the bridge, it is full of mist. People walk from one cloud of mist to

1 The Pali/Sanskrit for The Perfection of Wisdom 2 Also translated to “Hsuan-Tsang” (596-664 BC), famous Monk in Tang Dynasty, who travelled throughout India from 629-645 BC and returned with many Buddhist texts and teachings.

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the other. It is quite true. Observing life from the perspective of Buddhist wisdom, when we were born from our mother’s womb, it was only the beginning of one period of life. When one period comes to an end, it does not mean that life is completely finished. Life will still continue without a missing a beat. The present life is only part of the continuity of life. So, a person with a little bit thinking should not only focus on the present living but should also think about “Where did we come from and where shall we go when we pass away?” These are ancient but practical questions. In real life, everyone is concerned about his or her own destiny. What is destiny? Does destiny exist in life? If there is such a thing as destiny, then it is decided by what forces? People usually have different views towards such questions. Some people do not believe in the existence of destiny, believing that there is no fixed law in the development of life. Some people believe there is destiny in life, thinking that somewhere there is a kind of force that dominates us. And some believe the force that dominates destiny comes from life itself. Some believe destiny cannot be changed and some believe it can be changed. Then, what on earth is destiny? Retribution of cause and effect is another topic that easily leads to argument among the people. If you say that there is no such a thing, it seems that everything in this world has its cause and effect, for example, if you plant a fruit, you will get a fruit; if you plant a pea, you will harvest a pea. If you say there is cause and effect, however, in real life there are many phenomena that are hard to explain. For example, some people have done a lot of evil, but they lead a carefree life; some people have accumulated lots of merit, but their lives are very poor. So, the materialists promote the theory of one life, not believing the retribution of cause and effect. Does cause and effect really exist in the world? What are human beings living for? What is the significance of living? During my seminars, these are the questions often raised by the audience. In this world, a lot of people do not know what they are living for? They only follow the habits established by their predecessors, these are; going to school, finding a job, getting married, having children, getting promotions, making wealth to enjoy and entertain until death. Human beings repeat the same way of life from generation to generation. When pondering why we are living, actually most people feel at loss, being unable to say why. However, if we want to make our life more valuable, we should surely pay attention to what people are living for. 2. Suffering caused by attachment to desire The Buddhist scriptures describe the world we are living in as the desire realm. The most obvious characteristics in the desire realm are ‘desires’. We can put it this way; people in this world are living in strong desire. What is desire? Desire is a need from within the life. Some come from physical aspects, some from psychological aspects. So, desire has two aspects: the physical element and psychological element. Desire is very complicated; its form of expression is of thousands of differences. In Buddhist scriptures, it is simply divided into five categories called five desires:

1. form desire, the eyes want to see something in good colours; 2. sound desire, the ears like to hear melodious sounds; 3. good smell desire, the nose likes to smell good smells; 4. taste desire, tongue hopes to taste delicious things;

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5. touch desire, body likes to be in contact with pleasant things.

In Buddhist scriptures the five desires sometimes refer to: 1. desire for wealth; 2. desire for sex; 3. desire for fame; 4. desire for food; 5. desire for sleep.

The lives of sentient beings actually continue in the pursuit of the state of the five desires. The so-called ‘happiness’ of life is in fact no more than the satisfaction of desires. When people have their desires satisfied, they feel happy. Desire is not a certain thing. Even though human desires have something to do with material facilities, there are no criteria as to what conditions there have to be for desire to be satiated. Usually, the criteria will go up with the improvement of the physical environment. In ancient times, people’s living conditions were simple. As long as they had enough to eat, had shelter and clothes to cover themselves, they were content; and now material conditions are rich, people’s desires have also expanded. People nowadays do not feel content even though the physical environment is rich, they are always involving themselves in the endless pursuit. The way desire is expressed has three characteristics; 1) Possession People are living in desire, thus they always want to possess everything in the society. Take those people who do not have food and clothes for example, as long as there is something to eat, to wear, to shelter themselves, they would feel ok. But once basic living needs are satisfied, they will hope to live an even more convenient and comfortable life. For example, washing clothes is too much trouble, it is better to replace manual work with a washing machine; walking is too tiring and public transport is not convenient, it is even better to buy a car or a motorcycle. And after work, it is boring; to entertain oneself by watching TV is very good. And to buy all these conveniences, one must have money; and to make money he or she has to work really hard. People who have wealth may want to gain fame and position in the society. Other rich people might spend money to buy a position and enter into the political circle. Some people might operate a charity organization to gain fame in the society. In all, whatever others have, I must have, whatever others do not have I still must have. Desires make us live in the state of constant pursuit and unceasingly possessing. For those people who are obsessed with desires, they always forget what they already have and are after what they do not have. As the Chinese saying goes, “The valley of desire is hard to fill”. For someone who is interested in making a fortune, when he has $10,000, he wants $100,000; and when he has $100,000, he wants $1,000,000. As his target is always ahead of what he has achieved, there is no time that he feels content. So even if he possesses a lot of money, he never feels that he has got enough.

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2) Comparison People are living in the realities and naturally they must have interaction with society. When we have plenty of money and others do too, comparison arises. If you have millions, I must have tens of millions and I must be richer than you are. If you drive Toyota, I will drive a Benz, more impressive than yours. If you spend $1000 for a meal, I will spend $5000 and be more luxurious than you are. If you wear ordinary clothes, I will dress up in clothes more fashionable than yours. If you watch black and white TV, I will watch the colour TV. If your computer is model 386, I will buy a 486, more advanced than yours. If you are section chief, I must be the bureau chief, a higher position than yours. Those people who live with a state mind of comparison will never be content, because the development of human society changes every month and is new everyday. Take the computer for example, model 286 was advanced two years ago, but now 386 and 486 seem to be out of date, as 586, 686 come onto the market. To live with a comparison mind, one will always want to stand out among one’s peers, hoping to experience happiness in the admiring eyes of the others. Twenty years ago, if a family had a bike, one would feel happy for a long time. But when bikes became popular, the possession of it would no longer produce a sense of happiness, at that time only the possession of a car could make one feel happy. However, when many people could afford to buy a car, the happiness produced from the possession of it will disappear accordingly. At this time, only the possession of a limousine can make one feel happy. As the society will always weed through the old to bring forth the new, those people living in the comparison with others will never be satisfied. 3) Competition As a result of lives led in a mindset of comparison, competition arises. In the same class, students compete for results; in the business world, people in the same trade compete to gain market share; in research, scholars compete for influence of their work in the academic circle; in families, brothers and sisters compete for the love of the parents; in love relationships, so many men compete to impress the girls; between countries, they compete for the land. Maybe it is due to the nature of competition that Darwin put forward the theory of, ‘The survival of the fittest’. Competition itself is cruel, thus it makes human beings live in a state of utter exhaustion. Desire makes people search externally, and human kind has lost itself in the pursuit of desires. There is a famous story in a Buddhist Sutra. One day the Buddha was walking in a forest after meditation, at this time a group of young men came up in a hurry. They asked the Buddha, “Did you see some girls passing by?” The Buddha asked, “Why are you looking for them?” The young men said that last night they enjoyed themselves with the girls, but this morning when they woke up they found the girls were all gone and so were their treasures and money. The Buddha asked, “Looking for the girls and money or yourselves, which is more important?” When worldly people persist in the pursuit of external subjects, few would be able to recognise themselves and realise the importance of knowing themselves.

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The young people in the story are quite similar to some people in the modern society. Nowadays almost all the society is crazy about making money. Some people say that among the 1 billion Chinese people, 90% are doing business. In today’s China, books that are on the topic of economy are especially popular. In the universities, the faculties that have some relevance to economics or finance are having an overflow of applying students. The academic circle is likewise, not to mention the society, where there are so many varieties of ways of making money; many people rack their brains for ways to make money, some will stoop to anything. With the development of the economy, society has created extensive consumption opportunities to stimulate the consumption awareness continuously. An obvious example is that entertainment venues such as ball rooms, nightclubs, etc have appeared. During the daytime, people are busy with making money; and during the night, they spend their time in the beautiful sounds and sights, and as a result of that they lose themselves. The modern social economy is prosperous, but the ethics in the society have become faint and dim, some people even become morally decayed. The other result led to by desire is that it brings about suffering to human beings. Yiping

3 says, those people who live in desires are constantly searching externally. Once they cannot get what they want, they will feel pain like being shot by an arrow. Unfulfilled wishes, which is one of the eight sufferings4 described in the Buddhist scriptures, is a kind of suffering caused by being unable to satisfy one’s desires. Chapter twenty five of Madhyamāgama Sūtra also expounded deeply the errors and troubles of desire. In the sutra it says, “What is called the disaster of desire? Kula–putra5 make their living by their skills. They either cultivate land, or practise other ways of livelihood, or rely on studying books, or become familiar with calculations, or know techniques, or be good at seals engraving, or write articles, or make pens, or thoroughly understand Sutras, or become a brave general, or attend to the king. When it is cold, they suffer from coldness; when it is hot, they suffer from the heat. Being thirsty and tired, bitten by the mosquitoes, they carry on the above business and trade in the pursuit of money. Kula-putras make a living in the above ways in the pursuit of money. If they are unable to make money, that will give rise to sorrows, worries and regret; if they can make money, they hold it dear, guard it and hide it in a secret place. If it is taken by force by the king, robbed by the thieves, burnt down by the fire and getting lost, they will have worries, sorrows and regret.” This explains the suffering brought about by the pursuit and loss of money and treasures. The sutra also says, “All the beings, due to their desires, hold desires as principal. Because of that, mothers argue and fight with the children, the children argue and fight with the mother, and so do the fathers and sons, brothers, sisters and relatives. As they fight with each other without an end, mothers claim that the children are evil; and the children claim that the mothers are evil. Fathers and sons, bothers, sisters and relatives all claim that the others are evil, not to mention the other people.” Many

3 Chinese word, which is a title of a Buddhist Commentary 4 These sufferings are: birth, old age, disease, death, separation from the loved ones, meeting with the uncongenial, unfulfilled wishes and the sufferings associated with five raging skandas. 5 A householder who practised Buddhism at home without becoming a monk.

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families in the society have experienced the fighting between brothers, the falling out of husband and wife, the rivalry between father and son and the separation of relatives. What is the reason for all these? These are the fruits created by the desire to possess. The sutra then says, “All the beings, due to their desire, hold desire as principal. And because of that, kings fight with kings, brāhmin fight with brāhmin,kula-pura fight against kula-putra, people fight with people, countries fight with countries. They hate each other as a result of fighting, and hurt each other by all sorts of weapons and methods. They hit with their fists and throw stones, or fight with sticks and hack with the sword. When they are fighting with each other, they would either die or become horrified, suffering extreme pain.” From this we can infer, that due to desire, business people would fight with business people; politicians would fight with politicians and countries would fight with countries. Hilter’s sweeping across the Europe, the invasion of Asia by Japan, World War I and II, had caused all sorts of sufferings to the people in the world. And the cause of these is nothing but desire. In ancient times, science and technology were not advanced and the military arms were backward, so it would have no impact when they were fighting. Nowadays, if the superpowers have insatiable desire for expansion, human kind and the earth may face the risk of extinction. This is because desire produces wars, which brings about sufferings. Only by relying on Prajňā, can human beings solve the problems of the cognitive confusion and the sufferings brought about by the attachment. When ‘Prajňāpāramitā’ is translated, ‘pāramitā’ means to ‘cross over’ and means to reach the other shore, ‘cross’ means to cross over the worries, and to cross over the current of painful life and death to the other shore. Here, the other shore does not refer to the Eastern Crystal world, nor to the Western Sukhavati land, but our present world. If we live in ignorance, lacking of Prajňā, we will have worries, sufferings, hesitation, agonies, meaningless life, unrest etc. This is this shore. If we have Prajňā, we can understand the universe and act according to Buddha Dharma principles. In this way, we will be able to possess a life of peace, auspiciousness, happiness and tranquillity. This is the other shore. Pāramitā can ferry us over to the other shore.

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Getting Rid of Sufferings

"When Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara6

practised the profound

Prajňāpāramitā, he investigated and perceived that the five aggregates

(Skandhas) were non-existent thus securing his deliverance from all

distress and suffering."

Generally, the meaning here is that when Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara entered into the state of Prjňāpāramitā, he perceived that the five aggregates were empty, thus he was able to free himself of all sufferings and disasters. According to Master Yinsun's Lecture notes on the Prajňāpāramitā Sutra, this paragraph of the Sutra is called Biaozong7, namely it marks the purpose of the sutra. The understanding of this paragraph is the critical point in the study of this sutra. The aim of Buddha's coming to this world is to liberate the human beings from suffering. The purpose of learning and cultivating Buddhism is to become free of suffering and attain happiness. But it is interesting to notice that the behaviour of the sentient beings sometimes give people an impression that they do not want to be liberated from the sea of suffering. An example of this is, when I talked about getting rid of suffering and attaining happiness during my lectures, some people would express their oppositions. According to them, life should have both suffering and happiness, in this way life would become more rich and colourful; and also suffering and happiness are only relative to each other, if there is no suffering, there is no happiness. Their theory sounds logical, but by careful reasoning, it can not hold water. Because if we say it is reasonable for life to comprise suffering and happiness, then when suffering comes, we should welcome it with cheers, the same as we welcome happiness. In reality, human being's behaviour is constantly chasing happiness and avoiding suffering. Very few people are chasing suffering on purpose, except masochists. In fact masochism is caused by too much suffering from mind and soul. In order to transfer suffering, people start to have physical masochistic behaviours to reduce pain of the mind and soul. The aim of masochism is still about seeking happiness. The view that life should have both pain and pleasure is only an idealists' view. In real life, people do not hope to have suffering. Thus, we can see that the precondition of freeing from suffering is something both Buddha Dharma and worldly dharma have to deal with. Then how do we liberate ourselves from suffering? According to Buddha, firstly we should have a deep understanding of suffering. In this way we can find the cure for the disease. Suffering can be categorized as physical or spiritual. Physical suffering is identical for most of people, just like we all feel cold in winter and hot in summer. Actually, the physical suffering we experience are the same to most people. For example, in winter, we all feel cold and in summer, we all feel hot. When we have the flu or stomach-ache, we all experience similar pain. When we are burned or

6 An embodiment of compassion, a great Bodhisattva who is known as Guanyin in Chinese. 7 A Chinese word in the form of pinyin, it refers to the principal purpose of the Sutra

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cut, we would all feel the painful. Mental suffering is caused by worries of mind; it has many varieties, which differ according to different people. For example, when we look at the bright moon in the night, some people may be happy while others may feel sad. When we visit the same scenic spot, some feel a great joy while others might become melancholic. According to Buddhism, suffering is divided into three categories: Bitter suffering, suffering from change, and suffering from impermanence. Bitter suffering: refers to the pain we experience in our daily lives. Even though it is not mentioned in Buddhist Sutra, we still regard them as sufferings. This kind of suffering includes those caused by the physical pain, like the pain of birth, aging, sickness, and death. And it also includes sufferings from leaving the loved ones due to the social environment, the inability to achieve what one desires, meeting with the uncongenial and the burning of the five skandhas8, namely the suffering of the imbalance of body and mind. Suffering from change: It normally refers to those feelings that make us feel happy. From the wisdom of Buddha Dharma, our so-called happiness is not true happiness. Its true nature is also of suffering. For instance, we want to eat when we are hungry, and we are happy when we have had sufficient. But, if we keep on eating without stopping, are we going to feel happy? We are happy to have a bath when our bodies are dirty, but if we stay in the water for a long time, are we still happy? When we feel bored, watching TV might be a good choice to make us happy, but if we watch it day and night, are we going to be happy? From the above examples, we can see that our happiness comes from the satisfaction of our desires through the stimulation of external environment, which can temporally help us reach psychological balance. The true nature of eating is by no means happiness. If it is so, then no matter how much we’ve eaten, we should still feel happy. In fact, when we have a strong desire to eat steamed buns, we might feel happy to have the first, second and third, however, after taking the fourth, fifth, sixth and so on, we will find that the initial feeling of happiness has gradually changed into suffering. Not only eating is like this, all the happiness achieved through the satisfaction of desires is the same. Because this kind of happiness or enjoyment can turn into the opposite, this is why we name it “Suffering from change”. Happy feelings, painful feelings, worried feelings and joyful feelings are the same; they all belong to a kind of mood. We like happy feelings, as well as joyful feelings, but happy feelings are surely followed by painful feelings, whilst joyful feelings are followed by worried feelings, with all these feelings belonging to the turbulent state of mind. In the cultivation of the Four states of Dhyana, at preliminary, second and third stages, we still can not avoid the disasters of water, fire, wind due to the existence of happy and joyful feelings. It is only until reaching the fourth stage of Dhyana, which is called the stage of ‘tranquility with a relinquished mind’ and is free from being happy or joyful, can one be secure without danger. Suffering from impermanence: It means that everything in the world changes constantly, which is the law of the Universe and human life. However, people in this

8 It is also called the five aggregates. They represent body and mind. The five skandhas are form, feeling, conception, impulse and consciousness.

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world do not understand this law. Instead, they are always in pursuit of eternity. They hope that their health, family, marriage, career, friendship, love relationship and so forth can last forever. Actually, there is nothing in this world that can last forever. Everything is subject to impermanence, just like an epiphylum’s blossom, which dies away quickly. Due to our understanding going against factual existence of the world, suffering from impermanence comes into existence. The significance of understanding suffering is to liberate ourselves from them. But, how can we get liberated from suffering? The worldly way is to improve the existing environment, namely to develop science, technology and the economy. It is assumed that once science and technology become advanced, the economy is prosperous, and the physical environment for existence has been improved, human beings can live happily. But in reality, the problems of present society, the sufferings faced by humankind nowadays could be much more than any era in the past. What is the reason for that? That's because humankind has been unable to find the real root of the problems. To liberate human beings from suffering through the improvement of the external environment can only be tantamount to applying a palliative, it brings about a temporary solution but not get at the root of the problem. According to Buddha Dharma, the method of getting rid of suffering is to search for the root of the suffering when we have understood the painful situation of the sentient beings. Of course, human being’s suffering is related to the external environment; however, they mainly originate from the internal factors of sentient beings themselves. From the viewpoint of Pāramitā, human being’s suffering is generated through their ignorant attachment to ‘existence’. Thus, in order to be free from the suffering, naturally we should have a correct understanding of ‘existence’. The Sutra says, “When Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara practiced the profound

Prajňāpāramitā, he investigated and perceived that the five aggregates (skandhas)

were non-existent.” This is telling us that we are supposed to use Pāramitā wisdom to perceive that Five Aggregates are empty of inherent existence. Five Aggregates are namely, form, feeling, conception, impulse and consciousness. Aggregate means accumulation and congregation. For example, form aggregate is the conglomeration of all the forms including past, present and future forms, rough and fine forms, etc., they are collectively called form, and so form aggregate is the summation of form. Form here is almost equivalent to material facility or physical body, and we can only observe them by shape and color, thus Buddhism name all of them as ‘form’. Feeling means receiving and acceptance. In favorable or adverse circumstances, the sentimental mood produced by our mind gives rise to the different feelings: suffering, happiness, worry, joy and renunciation. Conception refers to the image taken in. When we get in touch with different circumstances, we will naturally take in the image of things, and then name them respectively. Impulse is the judgment of things and put it into action. Consciousness means to know and make judgement, which is the overall understanding in the mental faculty. Feeling, conception, impulse and consciousness can be categorized as mental phenomena as a whole. Five Aggregates is a brief summary and explanation of the entire life and death phenomenon in the world. It represents everything of ‘existence’. Mundane people are unable to correctly understand the nature of ‘existence’. For example, in relation to the sentient beings' form body and thinking, people hold the notion of a self as of true

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existence; in the realm of six dusts, they hold the Dharma image as true existence, at the same time they give rise to all sorts of attachment, discrimination and confusion in regards to self and Dharma. The consequence of these incorrect understandings are the afflictions of the human beings. The quotation from the Heart Sutra “perceived that the five aggregates were non-existent” actually targets our wrong understanding of ‘existence’. When we firmly hold ‘existence’ as reality, and thus ‘existence’ becomes the reality of existence. However, all the phenomena of rising and ceasing in this mundane world do not really exist, but are empty. Of course, emptiness does not mean that nothing exists; it means ‘existence’ of the Five Aggregates is empty of inherent existence that we are clinging to. Thus, emptiness is the true perspective of ‘existence’. Emptiness can break up our wrong attachment to ‘existence’. If we can perceive that Five Aggregates are empty, then we can naturally transcend all the afflictions and sufferings.

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Existence and Emptiness are One

"Śāriputra! Form (rūpa) is not different from emptiness (sunya) and

emptiness is not different to form. Form is identical with emptiness,

(and) emptiness is identical with form. So also are feeling (vedana),

conception (sanjna) mental function (samskara) and consciousness

(vijnana) in relation to the emptiness."

Existence and emptiness are a couple of important categories in the field of philosophy, they are also one of the most important discussion topics in Buddha Dhamma. Form, feeling, conception, mental function and consciousness are the five aggregates mentioned in Heart Sutra that represent the presence of ‘existence’. In the experience of ordinary people, existence and emptiness are opposite to each other. They regard existence as not empty and that it is outside emptiness. Heart Sutra has expounded the relationship between existence and emptiness; it has explained that existence and emptiness are one, not two. To understand that existence and emptiness are one, firstly it is necessary to explain what is existence. Existence, in ordinary people's mind is connected to ‘the reality of existence.’ When we mention existence, we think it exists independently and is of substantiality. Human being's feeling of reality of existence is deep rooted, it is widespread and interlinked. For example, the primitive men did not know that dreams were not real. Once they had a bad dream, they would be scared thinking that disasters were near, so they would pray for three days. Babies do not know that the image in the mirror is not real; they try to grasp it and laugh wildly. Even though adults know that dreams are not real, they still delusively hold the state they have got to know in the daily lives as of substantiality. Though scientists, philosophers have gone beyond ordinary people's wrong impressions, they still believe that behind the elements that constitute the materials or the physical phenomena, there is a thing-in-itself (noumenon), which is substantial. Human beings’ feeling of the substantiality of ‘existence’ is an expression of the view of independent origination. ‘Self-nature’ can be translated into self-entity that includes the meaning of self-possessing, self-making, self-deciding, being what it should be, real and permanent. From the viewpoint of self-entity, naturally we have developed a sense of substantiality toward everything of ‘existence.’ But from the viewpoint of Pāramitā wisdom, ‘existence’ is dependently originated. All the worldly phenomena arise from a multitude of conditions. That is to say, the existence of any phenomenon with action is the congregation of lots of conditions, and is determined by those conditions. Dependent origination and independent origination are irreconcilable (do not co-exist) with each other. As worldly beings are ignorant and don't understand that ‘existence’ is of dependent origination, they give rise to the idea of independent origination and a feeling of substantiality. If one understands that existence is of dependent origination, surely he/she will know the nature of non existence. This is because self nature regards all the phenomena of ‘existence’ as self-possessing, self-established, self-

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determined, while at the same time, the view of dependent origination regards everything of existence as relied on, established and determined by conditions. So, ‘existence’ of dependent origination is not what it originally is, nor is it permanent and of substantiality. From the above, we can tell that the sense of substantiality of ‘existence’ is erroneous. Chapter 12 of The Treatise on the Perfection of Wisdom

9 classifies ‘existence’ into three categories, which include relative existence, presumed existence and phenomenal existence. Relative existence exists relative to something else, without the relative object, it is hard to explain. For example, we say this vase is very big, that is relative to a smaller vase; we say this person is fat, and that is relative to a person who is thin. High is relative to low, long is relative to short, beautiful is relative to ugly, good is relative to evil. Let's ask, without large, what is small? Without fat, what is thin? Without high, what is low? As large and small, fat and thin, high and low, long and short are all relative false establishments, they are relative existence. Presumed existence defines that the existence of things is no more than labelling them with a kind of false name; different names are given according to different causes and conditions. Take the platform before us for an example, people call it a table. Table is made of a big bunch of timbre, what is a table? The ancient people called the combination of this pile of timbre as a table, it then becomes a table; if the ancient people called it a chair; it is called a chair now. Thus, we can see, table or chair is no more than a presumed name. The same is true with what we call human beings. If the ancient people happened to name us sentient beings as pig and called the pig as human beings, then if now someone does not call you a pig, you would be very angry. You would think that person looks down upon you and doesn't regard you as a pig, which seems ridiculous. So, we can see that human beings or pigs and everything in this world are labelled with presumed names which come into existence by presumptions. Phenomenal existence: even though the name of everything in this world is presumed, it does not mean there is nothing at all. This is because beyond the name of things, still there are all sorts of causes and conditions, which bring about the phenomena. Although these causes and conditions are not of independent origination, their false appearances look very real. Such kind of existence which is dependent on causes and conditions is phenomenal existence. Diamond Sutra

10 has made a substantial explanation of existence. It regards existence as no more than false existence. The sutra says, All phenomena (Dharma by action) are like a dream, an illusion, bubble and a shadow, like dew and lightning. Thus should you meditate upon them?” Dharma by conscious action refers to all phenomena that are artificial, and of arising and ceasing in nature. Take a dream for an example, it is unreal, everyone knows. But the man in it holds it as real, only when he wakes up would he start to feel it is laughable. Dharma by conscious action is dream-like, invented and unreal. But the worldly sentient beings cling to it as real due

9 Mahāprajnāpāramitā Śāstra 10 Vajracchedika-prajňāpāramitā Sūtra

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to ignorance and delusions. People with wisdom wake up from the dreams of ignorance, and get to understand that all the dharma is unreal. ‘Like illusions’ refers to the illusive images such as horse, car, house, people, etc., which are presented by the magicians by using magic. Even though these things don't exist, they appear before our eyes as of true existence, which produce colour to see and sound to hear. The same is to the existence, although it is empty without self-nature, the false appearance looks very real. All dharma by conscious action are like bubbles, which come into being from gas of the water. They are flashy without substance, and disappear instantly. All dharma are like bubbles, arising and ceasing within seconds. They are also like shadows, which are casted by the sun, when the sunsets, shadows disappear with it. All dharma are like shadows, only appear when conditions are present and dissipate when the conditions disperse. ‘Like dew or electricity,’ is a metaphor used to explain the transience of all dharma existence. "One should perceive as thus…" is a requirement for us to use the above method to observe all those that could be classified as ‘existence’. The Diamond Sutra and Vimalakirti Nedersa Sutra

11 have the same conceptual system and similar expressions. In the Sutra, Vimalakirti manifested himself as a patient and talked about impermanence and voidness,

This body is like an aggregate of foam, it can not be rubbed. This body is like a bubble, it cannot stand up long. This body is like a flame, it is born from love desire. This body is like a banana, there is nothing firm inside. This body is like an illusion, produced from confusion. This body is like a dream, it is an illusive cognition. This body is like a shadow, it is the appearance of karma. The body is like sound, it is the product of various conditions. This body is like a floating cloud; it will change and vanish within a split second. This body is like electricity, it never stops arising and ceasing.

This explains the impermanence and emptiness of Dharma by action from the perspective of body form and thus reveals that the existence is unreal in nature. As ‘existence’ is being understood, we can progress to explain emptiness. Usually, we regard existence as existing, existence as not empty, and emptiness as not existence, thus existence is outside emptiness; existence and emptiness are opposite to each other. From the viewpoint of Pāramitā wisdom, emptiness and existence are not the opposite, but one. The so-called emptiness does not have to be outside existence, and we don't have to talk about emptiness until things are annihilated. As existence is of dependent origination, at the very present of existence, existence itself is by nature empty. So, Buddha Dharma relies on existence to clarify emptiness, existence and emptiness is one. Chapter 12 of The Treatise on the Perfection of Wisdom

12 has put forward three methods of understanding emptiness. The first one is analytical emptiness, the second one is visualising emptiness and the third one is emptiness of self nature. Analytical emptiness is by way of analysing emptiness from the coarse to the fine, from the fine to the finer. Some Buddhist scholars used this method to make analysis of five aggregates; they found that I (self) within the existence of five aggregates is

12 Mahāprajnāpāramitā Śāstra

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unattainable, so they put forward ‘emptiness of self’. When analysing the phenomena of form mind, they analysed the physical and mental aspects up to the unanalytical stage, and put forward the doctrine (theory) of extreme tiny particle. Thus they regarded this extreme tiny method as of real existence, which gave rise to the thinking of ‘emptiness of self, existence of dharma’. In fact the significance of analytical emptiness lies in breaking off the ego attachment. If applying analysis on the physical phenomena, theory of the extreme tiny particle can not hold water either. Vijňāptimātratā in 20 verses

13 once criticised this doctrine. If you say there is an extreme tiny particle that is indivisible, then does this extreme tiny particle have a volume. If it has a volume, there must be six directions-East, West, North, South, above and below. If it has six directions, still it can be analysed. Therefore, we can see that extreme tiny particle theory cannot be established. The method of visualising emptiness is to understand emptiness through the significance of visualisation. For example, those who practise samatha

14, when entering into the state of samatha, all sorts of images and circumstances will appear with this visualisation. Those who practise fire visualisation, when they successfully achieved visualisation, will be able to see fire everywhere; those who practise water visualisation, will be able see water everywhere upon successful visualisation. In real life, we have some classic stories. An ancient Chinese General, Li Guan, once took a rock for a tiger; as a result, he could shoot the arrow into the rock. Someone was drinking a glass of water, it happened that the bottom of the glass reflected a bow and this person mistakenly took the bow for a snake, and his stomach ached for three days. Fire and water by visualisation, the tiger and snake in the stories are all in fact non-existent, but people who visualised them believed that they did exist. As images and circumstances appear through people's visualisation, people who hold the doctrine of Vijňāptimātratā 15confirmed that the external circumstances are unreal, they appear along with mind. Thus, these people put forward that all Dharma are but Vijňāptimātratā. Those perceiving emptiness had broken the clinging to the real existence of external circumstances, but couldn't help holding circumstances as empty and mind as existing. Then, this kind of understanding of emptiness is still not ultimate. Emptiness of self-nature: self-nature means self-possessing, self-made and originally what it is. Common people do not understand that all Dharma are of dependent origination, so they cannot avoid the view of self-nature when they get in touch with things. Although the Sarvastvadins are aware of dependent origination, at the same time, they feel all Dharma are of self-nature. From the perspective of Madhyamaka16

13 a Buddhist commentary 14 samatha is a Sanskrit, it means concentration and wisdom, Zhi is to stop discriminating and to distance oneself from wrong views, resting one's mind in the state of oneness. Guan-yin refers to initiate right wisdom, illuminating all the dharma clearly. 15 vijnapti-matrata in Sanskrit, it is an important concept in WESHI Sect. It regards everything in the world as unreal, they are but phenomena reflected from the mind. 16 It is a kind of viewpoint that compliments the definition of emptiness. It has two indications. The first is to distance oneself from the extreme sides of form emptiness and everything, The second is the positive attitude which is reflected in the form of ‘the negation of negation’ of ‘emptiness is not emptiness’.

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scholars, self-nature and dependent origination cannot coexist. According to them, dependent origination is a course of action, it is produced by many conditions, while self-nature is of no action, it is self-possessing, self-made which does not need conditions. Madhyamaka scholars regard dependent origination as naturally of no self-entity, and this is emptiness of self-nature. "Form (rupa) is not different from emptiness (sunya), and emptiness is not different from form" is an explanation from the position of emptiness of self-nature. Here, ‘form’ is not the form of self-nature, which common people are clinging to; it arises as a result of many conditions. Voidness (emptiness) is neither an obstinate emptiness that has nothing at all. And some people think that when a person passes away, it is just like lights going out, a life is completely finished, which is a wrong view. Emptiness is itself of self-entity. The fourth section of Madhyamika Śāstra

17 says that not one Dharma arises without causes and conditions, thus, every Dharma, none of them is not empty. Dvādaśamukha Śāstra

18 says,"Dharma produced by causes and conditions are namely of no self-entity (self-nature)". Form is of dependent origination; it surely has no self-nature and is empty. So, it is said, ‘form is not different from emptiness, form is emptiness’. Some people say that ‘form is empty’ is easier to understand, ‘emptiness is form’ seems incoherent. The reason for this sort of thinking is that people still take emptiness as obstinate. Madhyamika Śāstra regards emptiness as emptiness of self-nature; it does not deny the false image of dependent origination. Madhyamika

Śāstra19, says, "I say that Dharma which arises from causes and conditions are but

empty, I also say it is a false name, and also name it as the meaning of Middle Path. When we say that Dharma of dependent origination has no self-nature and is empty, it does not deny the false images produced by dependent origination. It means existence by dependent origination is empty by self-nature (entity), it is empty by nature but is as if of existence. Thus, form is not different from emptiness, emptiness is of course not different from form; form is emptiness, emptiness is of course form. The originally opposite couple of dharma in the eyes of common people become united under the illumination of Madhyamika wisdom. The thought of existence and emptiness are one is used to dispel the worldly view of emptiness and existence. Due to the lack of understanding of existence, worldly people have wrong understandings and attachment to it, which leads to all sorts of afflictions and sufferings. The Sutra says ‘form is empty’, it makes us see through the substance of ‘existence’. ‘Existence’ is illusory, impermanent, of no self-nature and empty. Once someone understands the substance of ‘existence’ will he or she have afflictions due to the problems caused by ‘existence’? Will he or she be enslaved by material benefits? In this world, there is a group of people who are more intelligent, they are able to see through the illusory substance, but they do not understand cause and effect of dependent origination. As a result, they start to think that as everything in this world is illusory, the course of life will end up in extinction, what value and significance does life have? So, they ignore the social ethics and indulge themselves physically and mentally, acting wilfully, which result in nihilism. The Sutra says

17 a commentary 18 a commentary 19 a commentary

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‘emptiness is form’ which is a cure to such kind of evil view. It explains that although everything is empty, cause and effect of dependent origination is still continuing, good and evil behaviours by human beings will all have their retributions.

19

The Ultimate Truth20

of all Dharma

"Śāriputra, the emptiness21

of all things is not created, nor annihilated,

not impure, not pure, not increasing and decreasing"

‘All things’ here refers to all Dharma. ‘the Emptiness’ here does not refer to the emptiness, nor existence; it refers to the ultimate truth that is revealed by emptiness. ‘Emptiness’ here can also be called the appearance of materiality, which is manifested by existence. Ultimate truth can be manifested by emptiness or by existence. But in itself, it is neither of emptiness nor of existence. ‘Not created, nor annihilated’ is an investigation in the perspective of existence and non-existence. ‘Not created, nor annihilated’ is relative to arising and ceasing. In order to understand the meaning of not created nor annihilated, we must start by making an explanation of creation (birth, arising) and annihilation (death, ceasing). Birth and death are the characteristics of dharma of action. One of The Three Dharma Seals is ‘impermanence’, which says that all the dharma of action experience impermanent change. According to Sutras and Sastras, there is a theory of four characteristics: creation, preservation, changing, and dissolution. From nil to existence is called creation, from creation to its continuation is called preservation, metabolism is called changing, dissipation and annihilation is called dissolution. There is also a theory of three characteristics: creation, change and dissolution. It combines preservation and change. Indeed, the stage of preservation of everything in this world is also a stage of change. So, preservation can surely be classified as the characteristic of change. Four or Three Characteristics can be classified simply into two characteristics of creation and annihilation. Regarding to the contents of creation and annihilation, Sutras and Sastras have grouped them into three categories: the first one is called one period (stage), the second is called a split second and the third one is called the whole period. One stage creation and annihilation is easier to understand. It refers to the sentient being's one stage of life, which is the period from birth to death. One stage creation and annihilation is the birth and death of all sentient beings, no one can escape from it. So it is fairly realistic. A split second creation and annihilation is rather subtle. A split second is the smallest unit used by the Indians to measure time, namely it is the shortest time. A split second creation and annihilation refers to the change of arising and ceasing produced by things within the shortest period of time. For us ordinary people, we cannot feel it, but actually all things indeed arise and cease within a split second. Take the table in front of us for an example, from being brand new to becoming corrupted, it progresses without our awareness. Which one of you could say that this table is not in the process of ruin in every second? If for one second it doesn't corrupt, then for two, three or even forever it won't. That's why Confucius said when two arms touched, within this

20 We may also use the English word "reality" here. 21 Sunya in sanskrit

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short period; they were no longer the same as before. Western philosopher Heraclitus said, "One cannot tread into the same river twice". All these explains the doctrine of arising and ceasing and change within a split second. Whole period creation and annihilation is classified in terms of our endless lives. Life is like a mighty current, which has been going on from endless past to the infinite future. In the process of the continuation of life's current, a human being's life is no more than a wave thus raised. Though the waves arise and cease from time to time, the mighty current of life is still going on. This endless current of life is the whole stage of life. Usually in the people's eyes, creation and annihilation is real. When mentioning creation (arising), people regard it as self-creation, namely oneself derives self, and oneself decides self. Some people think that everything in this world happens without cause, which means things appear by accident. For example, why human beings appear in this world? It's by accident. Why am I my mother's son? It's also by accident. Why there was an earthquake in Japan? It was by accident. The view of self-creation or creation without causes regards life as independent and real. In their eyes, creation is creation, there is a real thing to be created, and it is not non-creation. Thus, creation and non-creation become the opposite, creation is not non-creation, non -creation is not creation, which is also the result of the view of self-nature. From the viewpoint of Buddha Dharma, in this world there is no such a thing that is of self-nature and arises without cause. Buddha Dharma regards that "All Dharmas arise and dissipate due to conditions." The so-called creation (arising) is the result of the gathering together (aggregation) of conditions. Take a table, for example, due to the conditions of timber, paint, nails and carpenter etc., it starts to appear. In the same way, this winter camp can be held thanks to the sponsorship of Moonlight Temple, the participation of many students, the presence of the invited masters, and the venue for the activities. Then the creation of the winter camp depends on the gathering of many conditions; as it is decided by many conditions, naturally it is neither self-created, nor created without conditions. Creation is like this, then how about annihilation? It also depends on conditions. Just now we mentioned the table. Once the paint becomes decayed, the nail is loose, the timber is old, the conditions that constitute the table are ruined, it will then disappear. Never the less, we cannot say the table arise and dissipate by itself. Its dissipation depends on many causes and conditions. So the dissipation of the table is the ceasing of the existence of the conditions. It's the same with the Winter Camp. After seven days, the activities will be over, everyone will go back to work, the masters will leave, and thus the winter camp will no longer exist. The ceasing of the existence of the camp does not mean nothing exists. It is all about dissipation of conditions. So Buddha Dharma discusses ceasing in terms of the dissipation of conditions. Once one has realised the truth of the gathering and dissipation of conditions, one will find the so-called creation and annihilation is actually non-arising and non-ceasing. Because if we look at creation from the perspective of conditions gathering, we will find that without conditions, no dharma can be created; in the perspective of conditions dissipation, we will find that without conditions, no dharma can cease. Take a table for an example, without nails, timber, paint and carpenter, please tell me

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what is a table? In fact, without conditions, there is no table. So, the creation of the table is actually non-creation, its annihilation is only the dissipation of conditions, which is not absolutely annihilated with nothing left. And without conditions of the table, it is impossible to talk about annihilation (ceasing). Thus, we can see that the ceasing of existence of the table is non-ceasing. It is the same to the Winter Camp, a house even to all things in this world. Here we need to explain a bit about existence and non-existence which are related to creation and annihilation. Generally people think that existence and non-existence is of substantiality. Or, existence must have something; non existence must not have anything. Buddha Dharma discusses existence and non-existence in light of creation and annihilation. It regards all the existence and non-existence as no more than the gathering and dissipation of causes and conditions, and existence and non-existence are no more than the phenomena of all Dharma that are of dependent origination and dependent annihilation. By observing existence and non existence in the perspective of arising and ceasing, we are able to realise they are but phenomena (false image). As to existence, there is no absolute and eternal existence; as to non-existence, it is not substantial nil. And thus, we do not have to be happy about existence and sad about non-existence. ‘Not impure, not pure’ is explained in terms of the nature of things. Not impure and not pure is relative to impure and pure. Impure and pure are a couple of concepts set up by people's likes and dislikes. Usually, we name what we like as pure and name what we do not like as impure. Based on the premise of impure and pure, in everyone's world, there comes into existence of things which are good, bad, beautiful, ugly, valuable, worthless, meaningful, and meaningless and etc. And people think that these things exist substantially, are in fact so, and are fixed and permanent. In fact, impure and pure are not of real existence. They are granted by human beings, and they are different to each individual. We can have a look at the examples in respect of food, clothes and shelter in our daily lives. Some people like onions and garlic, regarding them as good things, but some people do not like them, regarding them as no good. Some people think black and grey dresses are beautiful while others think they are ugly. For living environments, some people think cities are good place to live while others prefer the countryside. There is a story in The Treatise on the

Perfection of Wisdom. The story goes like this. There is a lady, her enemies feel angry when meeting her, when her lover sees her, he is filled with love; when her son sees her, he can't help respecting her and birds and beasts escape at the sight of her. For the same lady, why is everyone is feeling so different? This shows us that impure and pure is not a certain thing. As to the value of things, it is attributec by human beings. For example, a bowl can be worth nothing or it can be worth 50 cents or $5 or even $500. If a beggar used the bowl, we might throw it away thinking it is worthless. If it is an ordinary bowl on the shelf in a shop, it may be worth 50 cents or $5. If Confucius used this bowl two thousand and five hundred years ago, we might regard it as precious historical relic, and then it might be worth more than $5,000,000. The bowl itself may not have many differences; it may however, have difference in value due to the likes and dislikes of people.

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Again, take steamed bread and gold for an example, which is of more value? To those people who have no problems with food and clothing, of course gold is of more value. But in special circumstances, it is not the case. Here is a story, a ship sank and on it there was a poor man and a rich man. When they all jumped into the sea, the poor took steamed bread with him, and the rich man took gold with him. They drifted on the water for a long time, at this time the rich wanted to use the gold to exchange for the steamed bread with the poor, but the poor disagreed. So the rich man starved to death, while the poor guy ate his bread and survived. May I please ask at this moment, what is of more value, the gold or the steamed bread? Impure and pure in this world usually vary with individuals. Due to people’s different ideas, some take one thing for impure, the others regard it as pure. It's the same with beauty and ugliness, good and bad, worthless and invaluable. In the real world, there is neither absolute impure, nor absolute pure. So, impure equals not impure and pure is not pure. ‘Not increasing and not decreasing’ is in terms of quantity of things. It is relative to increasing and decreasing. Usually, we think increasing is an actual accumulation, decreasing an actual reduction. For example, someone made a lot of money by doing business and his deposit in the bank had increased greatly. So, he was overwhelmed with joy. Several days later, his business made a loss and his deposit dropped. Then he became extremely sad. However, increasing and decreasing are originally not fixed. Let us have a look at the sea, in different areas of the world we can see tide rising and falling everyday. When the tide is rising, we feel the water has increased; when the tide is falling, we feel the water has decreased. In terms of some part of the area, the water has increased or decreased. But in terms of the overall, has the seawater ever increased or decreased? And also, Moonlight Temple is holding this winter camp; people come from all directions to congregate, so the number of people has increased in the temple. After several days, when the winter camp is over, everyone will leave, and thus the number of people in the temple will be reduced. For the temple, the number of people will be decreased, but for the whole world, there is no increase or decrease. When we hold Dharma lectures, there will always be someone asking such a question, "Buddhism talks about transmigration. In the past, the population on the earth was less than several hundred millions, but now it has increased to several thousand millions. Where did these people come from?" This question is raised due to the isolated standpoint of view towards the relationship of increasing and decreasing. Transmigration taught by Buddhism is not limited to mankind and earth; it is in terms of the world of ten directions, and all sentient beings. Today, the population on earth has increased, that is because the living environment on earth for human being's existence is getting better. While population on earth is increasing, other types of life in other worlds are decreasing. Haven't you heard about wild lives are decreasing? Haven't you seen the morality in human society is getting worse? So, in terms of earth, there is an increase and decrease in human population, but in terms of ten directions and all the worlds, there is still no increase and decrease. From the examples above, we can see that Buddha Dharma discusses increase and decrease in light of causes and conditions. Increase is the increasing of conditions, decreasing is the decreasing of conditions, without conditions, it is hard to talk about

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increase and decrease. Since things arise depending on conditions, in reality there is no isolated and unchanged increase and decrease, then increase and decrease are merely a kind of phenomenon (false image). Virtually, increase and decrease are actually non-increasing and non-decreasing. Besides, if we look at them from their true essence, non-arising and non-ceasing, non-impure and non-pure, non-increasing and non-decreasing are different from the above comments. The above mentioned non-arising and non-ceasing, not impure and not pure, non-increasing and non-decreasing, are as if arising and ceasing; as if impure and pure, and as if increasing and decreasing. This is from the view of the worldly golden mean. In true essence, the difference between arising (creation) and ceasing (annihilation), impure and pure, increasing and decreasing are all but unattainable. They are actually not arising and not ceasing, not impure and not pure, not increasing and not decreasing, up to where words are unable to express.

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Not Dwelling on this World

“Therefore, with the emptiness (Sunyo), there is no form (rupa), and no

reception(vedana), conception (sanjna), mental function (samskara),

and no consciousness (vijnana). There is no eye, ear, nose, tongue,

body and mind; there is no form, sound, smell, taste, touch and idea.

There are (no such things as the eighteen realms of sense (dhatas) the

realm of sight up to that of the faculty of mind (vijnana).”

As said before, form, reception, mental function, consciousness, are Five Aggregates (Skandas). Eye, ear, nose, tongue, body and mind are named as six roots, whilst the form, sound, smell, taste, touch22 and ideas are respectively named as six dusts; they are called Twelve Places collectively. Thus, six roots, six dusts, together with six consciousnesses are called eighteen fields of senses. In Buddhism, aggregate, place and field are called three branches; they are the conclusions of all the phenomena in the universe and human lives in three different forms. That is to say, we can see the world from the perspective of Five Aggregates, and also from that of Twelve Places and Eighteen Fields of Senses. Five aggregates have been explained previously. ‘Place’ in the Twelve Places refers to the gate of creation. Through this gate, six roots together with six dusts create the path for spiritual activities. Eye root contacts the eye dust to create eye consciousness. Nose root feels the smell to generate nose consciousness. Tongue contacts the taste to give rise to tongue consciousness. Body feels touch to produce the body consciousness. And mind root relies on the idea to bring about mind consciousness. It is that six roots produce six consciousnesses by contacting with six dusts respectively. Furthermore, all of these three work together to give rise to physical touch. Consequently, physical touch again generates a series of mental belongings such as reception, conception, and other mental functions. Actually, the spiritual and psychological activities of human beings are all created from the contact between roots and dusts. Fields in Eighteen Fields of Senses means sorts and types. Eighteen fields classify everything in the world into eighteen categories. Six roots are in terms of the world of physiology, six consciousnesses are in terms of the world of psychology, and six dusts are in terms of the world of physics. All the Dharma of the three branches has mainly revealed the different phenomena in the world. As a Buddhist cultivator, how should we perceive and illuminate the world? In this Sutra, it says: “There is no eye, ear, the realm of sight up to that of the faculty of mind”. This indicates that we should perceive the phenomena manifested in this world as nil and empty. Do not consider nil mentioned here as having nothing by mistake. If one comprehends like this, then wouldn’t the Sutra contradict the reality? For the ‘no’ mentioned in the Sutra, we must still use the previous function to deduct, take no eye, ear, nose, tongue, body and mind for example, if we make a deduction it

22 Tactile sensations

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becomes eye is no different from emptiness, emptiness is no different to eyes, eye is emptiness, emptiness is eye. The same is true to the ear, nose, tongue, body and mind, taste, sound, smell, taste, touch and idea. Namely, all the dharma can be explained like this. Therefore, what is the significance of stating in Sutra that all the Dharma of the three branches is emptiness of no action? These three branches have included both the sentient world and the material world. The sentient world includes, for example Five Aggregates, Six Roots in Twelve Places, and Six Roots and Six Consciousnesses in Eighteen Realms of Senses. Worldly beings are unable to have the right understanding of it and from it generate the mark of self-ego, with every thought being attached to self, and giving rise to self-ignorance, self-prejudice, self-affection, and self-pride. Thus, a typical form of life of sentient beings, which is constructed by strong self-centeredness takes shape.

Due to the self-centredness, and taking the Five Aggregates as so-called ‘Self’, it brings sentient beings all sorts of afflictions in their lives. What is affliction? It is a factor that disrupts the inner peace of the mind. With the existence of the afflictions, life has no security and peace, and neither can it be carefree. Most of the sentient beings’ afflictions arise due to attachment to ‘self’. Take the example of regarding body as self, some girls feel worried about their plain looks, and some girls worry about their weight; some young boys are upset about their height, while some elderly worry about their weak and sick bodies. In daily lives, people are always worried about food for their body. The poor does not know where and what to eat for the next meal, while the rich is fed up with everything and do not know what to eat next to serve their fussy taste. And also, people are worried about clothing for their body: what should we wear in the midst of so many styles and fashions? And of course, some people are worried about having no warm clothes for the coming winter as well. Shelter also worries people, as the land prices are soaring, one has to pay more money to buy, or even rent a property. For those who only earn a salary, it is a big headache. When we’ve got the shelter, we start to worry about its space and surroundings, etc. Some people desire for the spacious luxury villa, but have no money. For the happiness, food, clothing and shelter of ‘self’, it is enough for one to be worried for the whole of his/her life. Money is the corresponding element for the basic living. In order to make ‘self’ living better, one has to go all out to work and start an undertaking. If he has no skill, he has to sell his labour; some people have their career, nonetheless, it is just like a heavy burden that they have to worry about it all day long. Working ought to be for enjoyment, but to work one has to give up leisure. It is hard to set up a business; however, it is much harder to maintain a business. When people have no money, for the survival of their ‘self’, they engage themselves in the constant fight for the pursuit of wealth; but once they become rich, there is nothing to pursue in their lives; they feel tired of their lives, which is all the more scary. Furthermore, in order to let ‘self’ become more impressive, the problem of reputation is produced. In five desires, reputation is also one of the most important desires that people are after.To live in the society, one does not only need food, clothes and shelter, but also social position. The position in society comes from one's reputation.

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If one does not have good fame and position in the society, he will feel that he is good for nothing. However, if one's reputation is good and is respected everywhere, the ‘self’ will feel impressive. Therefore, in order to make ‘self’ live even better, people regard reputation as extremely important. Among the people, some would fight if they are humiliated; among the distinguished, some go to court for the damage of reputation. There are thoughts and views, which come with the existence of ‘self’. Due to the attachment to ‘self’, we especially take the thought of our ‘self’ and the view of the ‘self’ very seriously. Normally, people have the habit of expressing their opinions and expect others to understand and accept. If not, they would feel sad. Within the government, the colleagues could be in conflict for different viewpoints; philosophers could argue due to different opinions; Western religions experienced wars because of different views. The view of ‘self’ has brought about disputes to the world, it has limited people’s understanding of the world to its original level without any improvements; it has impeded the harmony among the people, prevented people from knowing the truth and it is the root from which all the afflictions arise. There are some other afflictions of human being, which is the result of attaching to the mark of self ego. We are not going to explain them all here. In all, attaching to self is the root of all the afflictions of human kind. In Tsong-Kha-Pa’s23

“Lam Rim Chen

Mo24

” Volume 4, it says: “By the force of clinging to a self, this holding myself as dear has generated in beginning-less cyclical flow up to the present, the multiform undesired objects. Although desiring to create self-perfection, holding chiefly one’s own aim, one winds up without the means. So even after the passage of eons, neither one’s own nor the other’s aim is accomplished. And not just not accomplished, for also one reaps unceasing suffering” 25

Sentient beings are attached to self for the sake of happiness in the first place, but instead have brought about all sorts of afflictions to themselves due the very attachment. ‘Emptiness’ mentioned in the Heart Sutra, is a thorough perspective of sentient beings. Sentient beings are no more than the gathering of Five Aggregates. In terms of Twelve Places, they are only the combination of physical (Six Roots) and psychological (Six Consciousness) elements. Ordinary people regard Five Aggregates as ‘self’, however, by observing them from the perspective of Buddhist wisdom, if we seek self among the Five Aggregates we will find it unattainable. So, we should not hold to Five Aggregates as self, as the form body of Five Aggregates is impermanent. If the aggregate is self, then self is impermanent. Of course, we should neither regard that there is a self in the absence of Five Aggregates, self exists outside of Five Aggregates.

23 Tsong-Kha-Pa, 1357AD – 1419AD, founder of the Gelupa sect. 24 Also known as The Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment 25 Ethics of Tibet: Bodhisattva section of Tsong-Kha-Pa’s Lam Rim Chen Mo, translated by Alex Wayman from the Tibetan original, Page, 61, published by State University of New York Press, Albany, 1991.

27

Then how should we build up the relationship between ‘self’ and ‘Five Aggregates’? The Diamond Sutra is a Sutra that focus on the discussion of emptiness. It mainly expounds on ‘no-self’. When we open the Sutra, we can see the wording of ‘no-self’ everywhere. The Sutra says: “If a Bodhisattva clings to the false notion

26 of an ego, a personality, a being and a

life, he is not (a true) Bodhisattva.”

And also; “In a past life when my body was mutilated by Kalirāja

27, I had at that time no notion

of an ego, a personality, a being and a life. Why? Because, in the past, when my body

was dismembered, if I still held the conception of an ego, a personality, a being and a

life, I would have been stirred by feelings of anger and hatred.”

In addition, the Sutra says: “The practice of all good virtues (Dharmas), free from attachment to an ego, a

personality, a being and a life, will result in the attainment of Supreme Enlightenment

(Anuttara-samyak-sambodhi).”

Furthermore: “...another man comprehended that all dharmas were egoless and

thereby achieved perfection of patience (ksanti), the latter’s merit would surpass that

of the former.” All these have emphasised the importance of ‘no-self’ (egoless) in cultivating the Bodhisattva’s path. ‘No-self’ can enable us to surpass ‘self’. Many people in this world are not satisfied with themselves. They have tried all means to surpass ‘self’, but no matter how, they just couldn’t, and so they feel anguish and worry. What is the reason for that? It is because of attachment to ‘self’. Our present personality is formed by self-centeredness, if self-attachment is not shaken; it is very hard to change our personality. So, if one wants to surpass oneself, firstly he must stop holding to the concept of the ego28, only through reaching no self can he surpass himself. The physical world corresponds to the world of sentient beings. The physical world of the sentient beings depends on sentient beings' ability of understanding. Namely, there is a form world that the eye consciousness sees; there is a sound world that ear consciousness can hear, there is fragrance world that nose consciousness can smell, there is a taste world that tongue consciousness can taste, there is a tactile sensation world that body consciousness can feel, and there is a Dharma dust world29 upon which mind consciousness relies. One can have all these six worlds only if he can have Six Roots and consciousness. If he does not have eye root, he will lose the form world and if he lacks ear root, he will lose the sound world. The physical world is mainly about Six Places30; Six Places are also called Six Dusts. Dust has the meaning of contamination, which implies that these six places have the

26 Laksana in Sanskrit 27 A king in the past, he became Buddha’s disciple Kondañña in his later life. 28 ātmagrāha in Sanskrit 29 Dharma dust means Dharma being taken as an object to understand. Dharma dust is one of the Six Dusts, which include form, sound, scent, taste, touch and dharma.

28

function of contaminating the Six Consciousnesses. For instance, when our Six Consciousnesses are not in touch with Six Places, our mind is quiet and peaceful. In other words, what the eyes does not see the heart does not grieve for. However, when the contact takes place, for example, when our eyes see our enemies or lovers, our heart or mind will experience great turbulence. We hate the enemy and have affection with the ones we love. Then, will our mind be peceful? The worldly people do not understand Six Dusts, and become attached to them, being at the mercy of the so-called ‘eight winds’. The eight winds31 include gain, loss, disgrace, fame, praise, blame, suffering, and happiness. Gain is benefit; it could be the situation when we are making money, for example winning the lottery. Loss is a situation when we lose money, for example the stock market is in a downturn and we lose money in our business. Disgrace is a situation when we are slandered. Fame is a situation when we have a good fame. Praise is when we hear good words from others. Blame is when we are said to be at fault by others. Suffering is when we are in bad times. Happiness is when we are in good times. The ‘eight winds’ describes eight different situations in which we live. Our hearts are moved and shaken by these winds, thus we become happy at one time and upset at another. Attachment to Six Dusts makes us take disgrace and fame seriously. The worldly concepts were established by popular usage and are endorsed by people living in a specific cultural background. For instance, somebody says, “You are a great man”. For some one who has achieved something, he may feel he is being recognised and happy to accept this, however, for someone else who has nothing to be proud of, he may feel this comment is sarcastic. Thus, the same word ‘great’ might mean positive, or negative, so what on earth is the meaning of the word ‘great’? In addition, ‘great’ itself is only a symbolic word, which has nothing to do with the fact. If today somebody says, ‘you are a great man’. You might be a great man, and might not be one. This is because if you are capable of being a great man, even if nobody praises you; you are still a great man. On the other hand, if you are far from being a great man, you cannot become one just because people say, “You are great”. Nonetheless, as people are attached to Sound Dust, they take others’ comments very seriously. They are buoyant when hearing praises, and dejected when hearing criticism. They cannot control their mind, which is under the mercy of others’ tongues. Dwelling on the Six Dusts, also makes us attach importance to gain or loss. The worldly people always live in the state of gain and loss. For example, when doing business, one will either make money or lose money. When buying lottery, one will either win or lose. When sitting for the university entrance exam, one will either be selected or not. Regarding affection, one will either get married or separate. In a family, one will either get along well or not well. People always love gain and hate loss. However, gain and loss are just like a twin, which always come together. For instance, somebody opens up a business, he/she might make a fortune, but he could lose his leisure time now. Someone has a beautiful girlfriend, and he is obsessed with her, he might be satisfied with the relationship at the expense of losing time for other friends. Sometimes it is gain first and loss next, just like earning a fortune and then going bankrupt. Sometimes loss happens before gain. For example, in ancient China,

31 Asta lokadharmāh in Sanskrit.

29

King Yue lost his country in the beginning. Since then he slept on brushwood and tasted galls every day. Finally, he defeated the country Wu and overtook it. Sometimes loss is also gain, as a Chinese saying goes, “The old frontiersman lost his horse, who knows but that this may be a blessing in disguise? As the two always go together, it is not worth it for us to be joyful or sad just because of gain and loss. Nonetheless, worldly people are emotionally biased. When we do business, we regard money as the whole of our life and when we fall in love, we get the illusion that love is unparalleled. When we study, we feel that ‘there is gold in the book, and there is beauty in the book’. Therefore, we can only see one facet of our life, and ignore the others. No matter you have realised it or not, even if we have attained happiness in one area, we might have lost happiness in all other areas. In my Dharma seminars, there is a topic that I always like to mention. It is that people in the modern time only know the importance of making money, and they believe that by having lots of money, they can live a happy life. In fact, a happy life is not only comprised of money, something else is more important than it, i.e., our mind and heart and health. Having lots of money, but not good health, we cannot enjoy life; even though we are rich and healthy, without a healthy mind and heart, we can not be happy either. If someone is upset, he can escape from the surroundings, but he can not escape from his mind and heart. It's just like when someone is in a bad mood, no matter where he/she goes, he/she will still feel upset. In terms of a happy life, a healthy mind or soul should be ranked first place, physical health the second, and money the last. Nevertheless, people always put it upside down and they do not recognize how significant a healthy mind is for a happy life. They rack their brains to chase money, and indulge themselves to the extreme after they have made money, which leaves their mind and soul in a very unstable and broken state. Nowadays, there are many rich people, however, not many of them feel happy, as they are lacking a healthy mind, they do not have the state of mind to enjoy happiness. This reminds me of an instance in real life. There was a CEO from Shen Zhen City32 who came to visit me, and she told me a story about attending the birthday party of another CEO in a lavish restaurant. Many high rank officials, famous people and journalists came to celebrate, and the party was very extravagant. After that, my friend asked him how he felt about the party. He said that compared with his birthday fifteen years ago, when his mother only boiled five eggs for him; he felt that he was in a far better mood at that time. Then, is happiness materialistic or idealistic? Thus, residing on Six Dusts has brought about many afflictions to us. If we want to get rid of them, we should contemplate six dusts in light of Prajňāpāramittā and perceive the Five Aggregate as empty and apply the wisdom of Prajňāpāramittā at all the times into our daily lives. For example, when your money has brought you trouble, you might remind yourself of the formula mentioned in the Heart Sutra, that is money is not different from emptiness, and emptiness is not different from money; money is emptiness, and emptiness is money. The wisdom behind this is that money is itself of dependent origination, it comes and goes under certain conditions and it is not fixed

32 Shen Zhen City is an economic development zone in southern China.

30

but impermanent. Money and treasures are the existence of a kind of false image; they are of no real existence like dreams, illusions and bubbles. Let's think about it, if we can visualize like this, can we be enslaved by money and treasures? Diamond Sutra has the same kind of formula as the Heart Sutra, it says, "the universe is not real, but it is merely called universe". "These particles of dust are not real, but are merely called particles of dust ". We can also apply this formula to all aspects of our lives. For example, when you are upset because of your husband, you may visualize like this: the so-called husband is not a husband, but merely called husband. The meaning of this formula is that your husband becomes your husband due to some causes. The relationship between husband and wife is not permanent and constant; it has to experience the test of different causes and conditions, being under the control of the law of impermanence. The relationship of husband and wife is nothing more than a false image. If one is equipped with such kind of wisdom, he/she will not suffer from the problems caused by wife or husband. For everything in this world, we can visualize as such: for children, it is that children are not different from emptiness, emptiness is not different from children, children are emptiness, emptiness are children; the so-called children are not real, but are merely called children. For friendship, it is that friendship is not different from emptiness, emptiness is not different from friendship, friendship is emptiness, emptiness is friendship; the so-called friendship is not real, but is merely called friendship. For love, it is that love is not different from emptiness, emptiness is not different from love, love is emptiness, emptiness is love; the so-called love is not real, but is merely called love. For position, it is that position is not different from emptiness, emptiness is not different from position, position is emptiness, emptiness is position; the so-called position is not real, it is merely called position. Worldly people want to be carefree and hope to have a free and easy ife. Many people think that as long as they have money and are able to spend it like water, they can be free and easy. Some people regard wearing famous brand clothes as being natural and unrestrained. Some people regard spending more than ten thousand Yuan on one meal as being natural and unaffected. Actually, they are only ostentatious and are not truly natural and unrestrained, for the true freedom would be based on detachment. If we can contemplate all aspects of life in light of Prajňāpāramittā, not dwelling on the marks and not being enslaved by material facilities, we can really become natural and unrestrained.

31

Transcending Life and Death

"There is no ignorance33

with the end of ignorance up to old age and

death, with also the end of old age and death;"

There are many problems in our life. But if we make a condensed summary, it all boils down to two words: life and death. Usually, people are concerned with living; in fact living is only a part of life. Philosophy and religions put a lot of emphasis on investigating the origins of life and the residing place after death. Buddhist teachings as the wisdom of human life, not only has made a deep study of the problems of life and death of sentient beings, but have also provided solutions. 'Ignorance up to old age and death’ reveals twelve processes in the continuation of sentient beings' lives. Its concrete content is: ignorance causes action34 which in turn produces consciousness35 and consciousness being present, name and form36 becomes; name and form being present, six sense organs37 appear; six sense organs lead to touch38 , touch to feeling39, feeling to craving40 , craving to grasping41, grasping to becoming42, becoming causes birth43 , old age and death44 is the result of birth. In the following, the meaning and relationship of and between each of them will be explained respectively to facilitate our understanding of the continuation of sentient beings' lives. 1. Ignorance: If there is wisdom in a human being's life, their prospects are bright; but for those who are ignorant and without wisdom their future is bleak. Ignorance means no wisdom. If one is lacking the great wisdom of life, his /her life will be full of confusion. In the section of "Great Wisdom of Life", we have listed many sorts of confusions in people's understandings of life. And all those are related to ignorance, which is the origin of human beings’ afflictions and sufferings. 2. Action: Our actions come from three aspects. The first aspect is mind, for example, we have good or bad thoughts to initiate good and evil deeds. The second aspect is speech, and it refers to all sorts of speech that we use in our daily lives, of which some are good (eg. speech that is true, benefiting and loving) and some are evil (eg. speech that is gossip between two sides, abusive and untrue). The third aspect is physical

33 Avidya in Sanskrit 34 Karma in Sanskrit 35 Vijñāna in Sanskrit 36 Nāmarūpa in Sanskrit 37 sadāyatana 38 sparsa 39 vedanā 40 trsnā 41 upādāna 42 bhava 43 jāti 44 jarāmarana

32

behaviour, which includes evil deeds of killing, stealing and sexual misconduct, and good deeds of paying respect to Buddha, repenting and donation. As human beings cling to their own views, they are used to being very confident about their own behaviour, believing that "What I think and do is adequate." But do you know by what circumstances our actions are generated? According to Sutras ignorance produces action, that is to say ignorance is the psychological foundation that causes our action. From this we can see how accurate our action is. Usually, we believe that human behaviour, no matter whether good or evil, will come to an end upon the completion of that action. But it is not true. Even though something has already happened, it does not mean its impact will disappear. For example, we make a donation of $200,000 to the Hope Project45. In terms of reality, there is a social benefit. In terms of ourselves, our soul will experience a sensation of pleasure and would keep that in our mind. Why it is so? That is because when we conduct a good or evil deed, they transform into a kind of latent energy, which is stored in the principal body of our life, and will become a driving force in the continuation of our future lives. 3. Consciousness46: According to Sutra, the existence of sentient beings relies on three kinds of forces, namely life span (shou47), warmth (nuan48) and consciousness , (shi49). Shou is a span of life and death; Nuan is the warm air a healthy body possesses; Shi is the main body of our life’s continuation. For the continuation of life, none of the three can be absent. When a person's life span reaches its time limit, Shi will leave the body, the body will instantly become cold. When Shi leaves the body, it is the end of life; the physical body becomes decayed soon. That is why Shi is an important part in the existence of sentient being's life. Normally, people would think that when a person passes away, it is just like a light going off, because they look only at the physical body and are not aware of the presence of Shi. The physical body, as a form of life's existence, is tangible, while Shi as the main body of life is intangible. Usually, we only see the tangible physical body, however, its existence is temporary and only Shi continues its existence forever. So, the so-called death of someone is merely the end of a period of life, Shi is still continuing, it will appear in another form of life. "Action produces consciousness" means Shi (consciousness) needs to rely on "action" in the next life span for its continuing birth. Here "action" refers to the seeds or karma sowed by good and evil deeds in the past, by the force of which people take birth, just like a rocket pushing the satellite up to the sky. (Here the original text from Yogacārabhūmi Śāstra was not translated). Even though human beings take birth by the force of karma, still it is driven by sexual desires, which fully reveals the role of sexual desires in the life of sentient beings.

45 A project in China that helps children in poverty receive an education. 46 Shi in Chinese language 47 A Chinese word in Pinyin 48 A Chinese word Pinyin 49 A Chinese word in Pinyin

33

In his analysis, Freud presented the theories of Oedipus and Electra complex. From the viewpoint of Yogacārabhūmi Śāstra, Freud's theories are reasonable. Because the sentient beings take birth by being conceived through seeking of love, with male arising love for their mothers and female arising love for their fathers. In real life, there is a kind of tendency that girls have more passions for fathers and boys have more for mothers. From it we can see that the so called "same sex repel each other, different sex attract each other” is driven by human nature. Then, when the sentient beings take birth, what kind of scene they would see at that time? I would expect that all of us must have forgotten. The Yogacārabhūmi Śāstra

50 has some explanation about this. Chapter one of the Sastra describes in this way, "Those with few merits will be born in the humble families. When he (she) is dying, and entering the womb, he (she) will hear all sorts of chaotic noises, having an illusion of entering bushes, bamboo shrubs etc. Those with lots of merits will be born in the noble families. At that time, they will hear serene, wonderful and nice sounds, and take an illusive sight of going up to the palace and other gratifying images will appear.” According to the different merit of those taking reincarnation, the illusive scene sighted varies when one is being conceived. In regards to the constitution of life, the materialists believe that consciousness is derived from materials; consciousness is produced on the basis of materials (matter). According to the Yogacārabhūmi Śāstra, consciousness has its spiritual origin. (Here the original text from Yogacārabhūmi Śāstra was not translated) The physical foundation of life is parent's sperm and egg, the spiritual foundation is Alaya consciousness. The preliminary formation of one stage life is the combination of parent's sperm and egg with Alaya, which results in the completion of the preliminary stage of life. Then, what is the relationship between Alaya and parent's sperm and egg? According to chapter one, Alaya and parent's sperm and egg rely on each other and share common safety and danger. Alaya is the last to leave physical body. When Alaya leaves, it announces the end of one period of life. 4. Name and form: Name (ming)51 refers to four aggregates: reception (vedana), conception (sanjna)52, mental function (smaskara)53 and consciousness (vijnana)54. Here, form is namely form aggregates. The existing life entity is no more than the congregation of Five Aggregates, name and form is Five Aggregates. Here comes the question, consciousness (shi55) was discussed specifically in the preceding section, here five aggregates include consciousness aggregate, is this a duplication? Not a bit. Consciousness that was mentioned before refers to the basic consciousness of life. In Sutras, it is called Alaya or the eighth consciousness. Here, consciousness aggregates are the preceding six consciousness derived from the basic consciousness. According to Sandi Nirmochana Sutra, Chapter One, Alaya consciousness is the root foundation, only by relying on which can the preceding six consciousnesses come into effect.

50 The Treatise on the Stages of Practice of Meditation 51 Name in Chinese Pinyin 52 In Sanskrit 53 In Sanskrit 54 In Sanskrit 55 Consciousness in Chinese Pinyin

34

When Alaya consciousness has resided in the embryo, the preliminary structure of life starts to change under the presidency of Alaya. According to Yogacārabhūmi Śāstra, Chapter One ( Here the original text from Yogacārabhūmi Śāstra was not translated)

, when basic consciousness has entered into the embryo, it enters into a state of residing in the embryo, again with the presidency of basic consciousness, the form of life starts to become completed. 5. Six sense organs: namely six roots, are six windows through which sentient beings receive external information. They are: eye root, ear root, nose root, tongue root, body root, and mind root. “Name and form being present, six sense organs appear" means six senses grow from the foundation of name and form. It was mentioned before that when the sentient beings reside in the embryo, life is at the preliminary residing stage, it is in a state of physical and mental chaos. Physiologically, the root body is not yet formed; psychologically, the activities of six consciousnesses are not obvious. But, as time goes by, name and form gradually take the shape of six entrances. This process has been described in Chapter One of Yogacārabhūmi Śāstra. 6. Touch, is a kind of mental state. According to the Twelve Nidanas, six entrances or six sense organs lead to touch. But Vijňāptimātā Siddhi Śāstra classifies six entrances as one of the causes and conditions that lead to the becoming of touch. It puts forward that the combination of the three produces touch. The combination of the three refers to three kinds of correspondence of root, circumstances and consciousness. For example, only with the combination eye root, form dust and eye consciousness can give arise to eye touch. Then the combination of six roots, six dusts, and six consciousnesses will bring about six touches. So, we know six entrances are the important cause and condition that produce touch, but they do not represent everything. Touch is a sense perception. It is a sensory mentality generated as a result of the combination of roots, circumstances and consciousness. Touch is one of the most basic mentalities of human spiritual sphere; it is also the foundation upon which all other mental activities are produced. Three kinds of important mental formations, which include reception, thinking and thought are produced under the prerequisite of touch. In Twelve Nidanas, "Touch produces feeling" are explained under such kind of situations. 7. Reception (vedana): is a kind of mental state. It means receiving. Receiving what? Receiving favourable, unfavourable, not favourable and not unfavourable circumstances. When we face favourable circumstances, we give rise to joyful feelings and enjoyment; while facing unfavourable circumstances, we give rise to bitter feelings and worried feelings. When we face non-favourable and non-unfavourable circumstances, we give rise to feeling of SHE56 (detachment). Due to the difference in the feelings, two different attitudes (love and non-love) come into existence naturally. Twelve Nidanas mentioned "feelings produce love", that's because love is the main cause of the continuation of birth and death of the sentient beings.

56 Detachment in Chinese Pinyin

35

8. Desire (trsna, love): is a kind of psychological state. Love means being reluctant to leave, feel regret at parting from. When we are dealing with favourable circumstances, we experience the joy from our heart and feel happy, thus, we generate a feeling of being reluctant to part. Due to human being's nature of clinging, everywhere in our life, there is an expression of love complex, for example, friendship, superior material conditions, comfortable living environment, harmonious family, beautiful wife, tasteful food, political rank, even more sleep in the morning during winter. Of course, among these love and attachment, the love between a man and woman is most powerful. Love is a kind of possession. When we love something or someone, we become attached to it (him or her). Like when we go shopping, if we like a suit, we will buy it. As to why a man and woman progress from falling in love to marriage, I consulted a lady. She told me that when two people love each other to a certain degree, they are attached to each other so much that they cannot bear to part. In order to stay together in the long term, they get married. Marriage is mutual possession. According Twelve Nidanas57 “desire" (love) leads to laying hold of (upadana), which shows the process of human being's feeling from falling in love to obtain possession of. Love is a sort of shackle. Love is like glue, it can put two different things together that they cannot be torn apart. Love is like two pieces of magnetic iron, attracting each other; love can also be a rope, once being tied up, and no one can expect to escape. When we are attached to the material environment, we want to possess it because we like it and think that with it in our life, we will feel comfortable, and without it we will be miserable. In that case, external things tie up our heart. Again, love between a man and a woman is called falling in love net. When lovers do not want to depart from each other, they are tied up by love. Love is a sort of worry and care as well. If you love your hometown, no matter where you go, you will always care about it. If you love your children, you will always worry about their safety, employment and future development. If you love your lover, you will often think of her (or him), care about her (or his) health and mood, her(his) relationship with others, her(his) job, safety or even everything about her (or his) worries you. 9. Getting hold of (upadana, grasping) is about possession. According to Sutras, it includes desire grasping, view grasping, and the attachment to doctrines or statements about ego. Desire grasping is about obtaining and possessing five desires circumstances, namely wealth, sex, fame, food and drink, and sleep. View grasping is the attachment to one's own ideas and opinions, holding these ideas and opinions as real, thus force them on the others. Attachment to doctrines or statements about the ego means holding to the concept of the ego, considering oneself as number one in the world. "Desire produces grasping" shows that we want to possess whatever we like and become attached to it. 10. Existence (bhava) is karmic existence. For the things we like, we want to lay hold of them, thus we take actions. These actions could be ethical and unethical. No matter

57 Twelve links of dependent origination

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what, these actions will all leave traces, that is karmic seeds and are stored in Alaya as the driving force that pushes the development of future lives. 11. Birth (jati) is taking birth. The continuation of life must go through four different stages, namely, birth existence, the present body and mind, the intermediate existence and death existence. Birth existence is the second within which one takes birth and resides in the womb. The existence of the present body and mind starts from the second after taking birth up to the second before death. Death existence refers to the second when one is dying. Intermediate existence is the second after dying up to the second before taking birth. Usually, people think that when someone is dead, life is completely finished, which is actually not true. When the form of life in this stage is dying away, another kind of form of life ‘intermediate body’ appears instantly in the form of transformation. Sutra describes this as "two ends of a balance, high and low at the same time". The appearance of intermediate body and the decay of the present body happen at the same time. The period of intermediate body's existence will come to an end at the presence of birth existence; normally that period would last seven to forty nine days. "Becoming causes birth" means taking birth is decided by karmic force. According to Sutras, there are two kinds of karmas. One is called the principal or integral direction of karma (YIN58 karma). The other is called the fruit karma (Man59 karma). Yin karma is the principal karma that leads the sentient beings to one of the six realms. Man karma is the fruit, it decides the sentient beings' state of existence in that realm, for example, male or female, fat or thin, poor or rich, beautiful or ugly are all decided by Man karma. Karmic habits are the seeds of karma. The power of karmic seed drives the retribution of the sentient beings' life and death. When the karmic fruit of the previous stage has been fulfilled, other karmic causes will become mature. Likewise, the karmic force is endless; life and death of all the sentient beings are infinite without an end. 12. Old age and death (Jaramarana). Once sentient beings take birth, they will surely march towards old age and death. The continuation of sentient beings' life is constituted by these twelve stages. In Buddha Dharma, it is called Twelve Nidanas. Nidanas (causes and conditions) are the interdependent conditions. Sutras have given it a definition: this exists, that exists; this arises, that arises; this dissipates, that dissipates; this is annihilated, that is annihilated. To conclude these with a few words: "This present, that becomes". The reason why that exists is due to the existence of this. To look at it in light of Twelve Nidanas, due to the presence of ignorance, action thus exists; action being present, consciousness thus exists…up to the presence of birth, thus old age and death becomes. Within Twelve Nidanas, the former factors are the conditions of the arising of the latter factors. Some Buddhist scholars explain Twelve Nidanas by three stages (past, present and future) and two factors (cause and effect or fruit). They take ignorance and action as past cause; consciousness, form, six entrances, touch, feeling (reception) as present consequences; take love, grasping, existence as past cause; birth, old age and death as future effect. Of course, here we should not see it in a mechanical way. Take

58 A Chinese word in Pinyin 59 A Chinese word in Pinyin

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ignorance for an example, though it is past cause, in the process of sentient beings' life and death, ignorance exists all the time and everywhere. Buddhism also classifies Twelve Nidanas as illusions, accordant actions and sufferings, among which ignorance, desire and grasping are regarded as illusion. Illusion here is confusion and it represents the present state of the sentient beings; action is karma by action, karma is karmic action; consciousness, name and form, six entrances, reception, birth, old age and death represent bitter fruits. The extension of life is the process of ignorance producing action and karmic action calling for bitter fruit, again and again the sentient beings generate ignorance in the bitter fruit of birth and death. Due to ignorance, they generate karmic action again and these karma actions produce bitter fruits. In these circumstances, life and death of the sentient beings fall into the infinite and endless cycle. The Sutra says "the end of ignorance up to old age and death". Here, Buddha is teaching the sound hearers the way of cultivation. The continuation of Twelve Nidanas is due to the sentient beings following the development of them. This present, that becomes, and it results in the continuation of the cycle of birth and death60. Then, how can we free ourselves from Twelve Nidanas? It has to be started from understanding the law of the development of Twelve Nidanas and observing the arising of Twelve Nidanas from HUAN MIE Door61 (method of returning to the extinction). It was mentioned before that the principle of Twelve Nidanas is this present, that becomes; this is absent, that is non-existent. Take old age and death for an example, everyone dislikes them. But why do we have old age and death? That is because there is birth. Then, why take birth at that time? And who has arranged all this? The answer is the karmic force you had generated in the past determined thus, and before it everyone is equal, nobody can do anything about it. Then why we performed karmic deeds? It is because at that time we were only thinking about possessing and enjoying ourselves in time, not being aware of the existence of cause and effect and believing that once we had done something it would end up there. Why wanted to possess? It is because we loved it. This inference from effect to cause is HUANMIE method(door) of observing Twelve Nidanas. The liberation of sound hearers starts from HUANMIE Door. From its observation, one can find that old age is due to birth, birth is due to existence, and up to action is due to ignorance. There is no old age and death if there is no birth and no action if there is no ignorance. Thus, the sound hearers established the right view from hearing, thinking and sutra teachings and developed faultless wisdom through the cultivation of precepts, concentration and wisdom62. Thus they destroyed the ignorant state of life completely and achieved the great liberation of a human being's life. Sutra says "no ignorance with also the end of ignorance up to old age and death, with also the end of old age and death." This is the level of a Bodhisattva. Those who have ignorance, old age and death and move with the cycle of ignorance to old age and death are the ordinary people. Those who have understood the fault and trouble of

60 samsara 61 Chinese words in Pinyin 62 three faultless learnings

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ignorance up to old age and death, and have destroyed them, are sound hearers. Those who could contemplate ignorance up to old age and death in light of Prajňā wisdom, who have perceived that they are all empty and have recognised that ignorance is no different from emptiness, emptiness is not different from ignorance, ignorance is emptiness, emptiness is ignorance, are Bodhisattvas. "There is no ignorance (avidya) with the end of ignorance up to old age and death, with also the end of old age and death." If this is translated to plain language it could be put in this way: if there is no ignorance, there will be no extinction of ignorance; if there is no old age and death, there is no extinction of old age and death. From logic, it is surely like that. In the wisdom of the sound hearers, as they feel that there is the real existence of ignorance, there exist the extinction of it; as there is the existence of old age and death, there exist the extinction of them. At the Bodhisattvas' level, ignorance up to old age and death is no more than a kind of false image, which are dreams, illusions, bubbles and shadows. So, Bodhisattvas don't have to extinguish life and death, neither do they reject and run away from them. They understand birth and death are unattainable and have surpassed birth and death within birth and death.

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Afflictions are Bodhi

"There are no the Four Noble Truths".

Suffering, cause of suffering, cessation of suffering and the path leading to the cessation of suffering, are called Four Noble Truths in Buddhism. Truth here is real meaning, and Four Noble Truths are four kinds of real principles (laws). When Buddha first started to turn the Wheel of Dharma, his discourse to the five Bhiksus was the Four Noble Truths. And thereafter, the teachings of Buddha's whole life never strayed away from this guiding principle. So, the Four Noble Truths have become the outline of learning and practising Buddha Dharma, and they are playing a very important role in Buddhist teachings. The Four Noble Truths embody two different causes and effects. The Noble Truths of suffering and cause of suffering are the cause and effect of delusions, with cause of suffering as its cause and suffering as the fruit (consequence). The cause of suffering brings about sufferings as the consequence of the defilement in the world. The Noble Truths of cessation of suffering and the path of cessation of suffering are the cause and effect of enlightenment. The path of cessation of suffering is the cause, while cessation is the fruit. To confirm the cessation through the path is an enlightened being's peaceful and pure cause and effect. These are two different kinds of human lives, one is based on feelings, and the other is based on wisdom. Learning Buddha Dharma is to return from delusions (confusions) to awareness, from pollution to purity. Buddha is a great doctor, he is specialised in curing the morbid state which exists in the sentient beings' lives. According to a skillful doctor's procedure of curing sickness, Buddha established the Four Noble Truths. As a skillful doctor, when Buddha treated the sick people, at first, he needed to have a clear idea of the state of the sick people. And after that, he must know the cause of the sickness, whether the sick could recover from the treatment or not and to what extent could the sick recover. At last he would make a prescription. Doctors treat the sick people's physical problems, while Buddha cures the sentient beings' mental sickness. Buddha delivered the Four Noble Truths in order to cure the sentient beings' sickness, and its procedure is the same with the doctors. 1.) The Truth of Suffering: Suffering is the sentient beings' symptom of morbid state. Some people say that learning Buddha Dharma is escaping reality. I do not agree with them. That is because those who learn Buddha Dharma must first clearly understand the reality of life. As a human being, what does he have to face? These include birth, old age, sickness, death, impermanence, cause and effect, sufferings, emptiness and etc. Only when he is able to see through the reality can he start to change reality. This is the premise for bringing an end to the sufferings of life. And the situation of those who do not learn Buddha Dharma could be the contrary, even though they are living in the reality of the society, they dare not face it with courage. Take ‘sickness’ for an example, usually we don't care much about the slight sickness like flu, stomach-ache. But if someone has contracted Aids and late stage cancer, few would be able to face it. You can observe that some patients would probably be talking and laughing before they knew their state of sickness, but once they got to know truth, they would mostly

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turn pale with fright and could spiritually break down. According to their original state, they might be able to live another three months, but due to the patients' mental effect, after half a month the patients' heart might stop beating. So, if the doctors have checked out that someone has got an incurable disease, normally they would keep it a secret from the patient. Why? It is because the patient cannot face them. ‘Death’ is even scarier. When we are discussing death, I start to remember a story by Mr. Lushuan. A baby was born in a family, and many dignitaries, relatives and friends came to say congratulations. Some said the child would become an official, some said the child would make a lot of money, and some said the child had a look of longevity. As these people gave false and nice talks, the host treated them warmly. At last, there came a guest who said the child would die in the future. The host cursed him and drove him out. In the future, the child would certainly die, but it is not certain whether he would be an official, make money and live a long life. Death is the reality of life, but people are not willing to accept it and dare not face it. Even though Lushuan talked about one family, it actually reflects the situation of the whole society. Usually, you can see people put words like prosperity and longevity on their door. And they say to each other ‘we wish you prosperous, healthy and a long life. No one would put the word of death on his or her door gate. Cantonese do not like the figure ‘four, because its pronunciation is similar to 'death'. During Spring Festival, people try to avoid saying ‘four’ when they talk. We can see that people are fearful of and trying to avoid the reality of death. ‘Affliction’ is a most important part of life and it is surely present in the human beings' lives. How to deal with afflictions? Most people will take an escapist attitude, for example, they would travel, watch television, dance, drink wine and etc. An ancient poem says: "wish I could be drunk and never wake up". When affliction arises, few people can face himself (herself) calmly and perceive the arising and annihilation of afflictions without seeking external help. Learning Buddha Dharma is different. It requires that one understands the present state of life and has the courage to face the music. For instance, regarding how to look at death, one of the practices of Six Mindfulness is mindfulness of death. Impermanence is classified as one of three Dharma Seals; we are required to reflect upon it at all the time. Emptiness, being of no-self nature is the true essence of conditional dharma, in Buddhist teachings, there is the practise of observing emptiness. Suffering is the substantial judgement towards life by the Buddhist teachings. In the Buddhist Sutras, all sorts of sufferings in life are introduced, as previously mentioned, there are three sufferings, eight sufferings and infinite sufferings. Understanding sufferings is the prerequisite for the liberation from sufferings in the lives of human beings. 2.) The Truth of Cause of Sufferings. It is divided into two types: affliction defilement and karma defilement. What is affliction? Sutras call it "binding", which means to tie up. Afflictions can have sentient beings tied up in life and death, so they are unable to get away from them. It is also called ‘lou’63 which means leaking out. Due to afflictions, faults constantly leak out from the sentient beings' six roots. It is also

63 Chinese word in pinyin

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called torrent, affliction is like flowing water, and it can make all the sentient beings drift in the life and death in the three realms. It is called yoke as well, which is a wooden bar that makes the ox and the cart joining together. Affliction is like a yoke in the way it binds together the sentient beings and the circumstances of life and death, making them suffer in the indulgence of life and death. Also, it can be called craving, which refers to grasping. Affliction can obtain and grasp the fruit of life and death. It can also be called 'gai'64 which means covering. Afflictions can cover up kind heart, which is pure and peaceful. Also, it can be called dirt, as afflictions are like dirt. From all these different wordings, we can see what roles afflictions are playing in our lives. As to the types of afflictions, according to Sutras, there are eighty four thousand afflictions. To make it simple, there are mainly ten: (1) greed, greed for and possession of things (2) hatred, giving arise to dislike, hatred, anger, jealousy etc. feelings to the circumstances one does not like. (3) Stupidity, ignorant of the facts of life in the universe, which leads to erroneous ideas, language and actions (4) arrogance, attaching to one's advantages and look down upon others (5) doubt toward the truths (6) holding on to the body of five aggregates as self (7) holding this body as either permanent or being cut off and perished (8) wrong views, denying cause and effect (9) regarding the view of holding the body of five aggregates as self, the view of holding this body as either permanent or cut off and perished and wrong views as truths (10) following some erroneous disciplines and believing them as ways of liberation. These ten afflictions are called root afflictions in Buddhism. They are most important ones among all afflictions. Karma, are the actions generated on the basis of afflictions. Usually, it is said there are three kinds of karmas: physical karma, verbal karma and mental karma65. An action is produced by the coherence of consciousness and thinking. When judgement and choice is made towards certain things, people put them into actions of body and speech, which constitutes karmic forces. Karma, in terms of the nature of ethics can be divided into two categories, namely virtuous and evil deeds. Actions, which can benefit this and other lives, are virtuous and vice versa. The definition of virtue and evil must be explained in light of both present and other lives. Take the happy fruit in heaven or bitter fruit in the hell for an example; even though to the present life they are either unfavourable or favourable, they can not be called virtuous or evil. Virtuous and evil deeds differ in tens of thousands of ways, but basically, there are ten virtuous and ten evil deeds. Firstly, let's talk about ten evil deeds. They include: 1. Killing, this is to end the sentient being’s lives with an evil heart. 2. Stealing, this is to possess things as one’s own without being given. 3. Sexual misconduct, which is the relationship between a man and woman without being approved by law and social ethics. 4. Lying, which are deceptive words and /or behaviours.

64 A Chinese word in Pinyin 65 of deed, word, thought or body, speech and mind

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5. Backbiting or double -tongue, which refers to words that set one party against the other. 6. Coarse language, also called harsh speech, is languages that hurt others with evil heart. 7. Frivolous chatter or talking nonsense, which is a kind of language that induces other people's worries and afflictions. 8. Covetousness, meaning coveting or wanting things that belong to the others. 9. Anger, it is the intention of harming sentient beings. 10. Wrong views, it is denying cause and effect, and also denying the sages and men of virtue. The opposites of ten evil deeds are ten virtuous deeds, namely no killing up to abstaining from wrong views. 3.) Cessation of Sufferings: Cessation is calmness and extinction. The path to nirvana is achieved through the elimination of afflictions and sufferings. 4. )Path of Cessation of Sufferings: The achievement of confirming nirvana does not fall from heaven. One must achieve it by cultivation and this is the content of the truth of path of cessation of sufferings. According to Sutras, there are many methods to cultivate, which include eighty four thousand dharma doors. But mainly it is the Eightfold Noble Path, which is the non-dual middle way for all sentient beings toward nirvana. Eightfold path includes the following:

(1) Right view: perceiving the world and life as they really are. Right view is relative to cognitive confusion of the worldly people. The worldly people used to confound (reverse) right and wrong, taking deer as horse. For example, there is no self in Five Aggregates, but people hold on to it that there is a self. This world is impermanent, but people hold it as eternal. Things and images are false, but people hold them as of true existence, being unable to see the continuation of cause and effect of past, present and future and saying there is no cause and effect. In this world, there are sufferings, but people hold these sufferings as happiness. Right view is to see the true picture of the world which makes one's understanding be in conformity with the true essence of the universe and life, and which enables the liberation from confusion of ignorance. (2) Right Thought: it is the correct thinking. Thoughts and understandings are interrelated. It is impossible for an ignorant person who is full of confusion about life and carries wrong views to have a proper thinking. Right thought requires one's thinking to accord with truth and correspond to truth. And this must be generated on the foundation of right view. Sutra says, "Listening to correct doctrine is like straightening out thinking." It means the same thing. Right thought is also called Right Aspiration, which is about the establishment of a noble goal in life and being guided by it in one's action. (3) Right Speech: it is the virtues of language. Four sorts of languages are to be avoided, namely, lying, double tongue, harsh language and idle chatter (talking nonsense). Talking truthfully means true words, which conform to real nature of things. Talking beneficially means the words spoken will all

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benefit others without any intention to harm anybody. Talking lovingly is about talking with a caring and loving heart towards others. Loving words do not just mean what others like to hear, but about having a loving heart. (4) Right Action is the virtue of actions. There are three kinds of karmic actions inflicted by body (action), mouth (words) and mind (thought). Keeping one away from ten evil deeds and practise ten virtuous deeds are right actions. Keeping away from confusion and affliction and be diligent in practising the precepts, concentration and wisdom are right actions. And the abstaining from self-centredness, good understanding of no self, the practice of Six Paramitas66 and Four Embracing Virtues67 widely are right actions. (5) Right Livelihood is the virtue of making a living. There are right and wrong livelihoods. The wrong livelihood is an undertaking of improper ways to make a living in terms of social morality and law. It includes trading weapons and drugs, running casinos, cheating and etc. In terms of Buddhist precepts, it includes all trades that are associated with killing, stealing, sexual misconduct and lying. To make a living by methods accepted by morality and law or occupations allowed by Buddhist precepts is called Right Livihood. (6) Right Effort68 is the virtue of making a great effort in life. Everyone in the society has his (her) own objectives to struggle for. In order to reach the objectives, one should constantly make great efforts. As the objectives are different, the efforts made are different. Some efforts are ethical and some could be criminal. For example, the book written by Hitler shows a war madman's process of effort in achieving the objective of conquering the world. This is the contrary of the right effort. Buddhism is against the effort of undertaking crimes, and it encourages the efforts of working toward virtues. According to the Sutras, there are Four Right Efforts, namely, not to initiate evil not yet arisen, eliminate evil already arisen, to initiate virtues not yet arisen and consolidate (increase) virtues already arisen. This is to take the cultivation of virtues and giving up the evils as the virtuous actions of right effort in human being's life. (7) Right Mindfulness is the virtue of mental activities. What is meant by cultivation in one's practise? Basically, it is about cultivating and improving our mind. All human beings' actions are decided by their mind, and all the things in this world originate from people's mind. Mind, is divided into virtuous and evil, confused and enlightened, defiled and pure. So, in this world, there is the difference between ordinary person (mortal) and the sage, good and bad person. The Six Patriarch said, "When the previous thought is in delusion, one is a sentient being; when the latter thought is enlightened, one becomes a Buddha". The gap between Buddha and all sentient beings is in such a disparity, but the difference is no more than a single mind. As the

66 Dana (charity), Discipline (shila), Kshanti(forbearance), Virya (zeal), Dhyana(concentration) and Prajna (wisdom) 67 Dana (donation or giving), cordial and kind speech, conduct that benefits others and accord with and cooperate with others 68 diligence

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saying goes, "Once putting down the butcher's knife, one will instantly become a Buddha". From an evil person to becoming a Buddha, it is only about letting go one thought. So we know that mastering one's mind is the key in the study and practice of Buddhism. Sutra says that six kinds of mindfulness should be the idea possessed by those who study and practise Buddha Dharma. These include 1. Mindful of the Buddha's virtues and yearn for them. 2. Mindful of Dharma, and mindful of the whole truth of the universe and human life, the virtue of perfect personality. 3. Mindful of the Sangha, and learn from the virtues and the dignified manner of the virtuous and sage. 4. Mindful of the precepts, abiding by ethical norm in behaviour is the starting point toward emancipation. 5. Mindful of the merit of renunciation, externally renounce property to cultivate merits and virtues, internally renounce afflictions to perfect personality. 6. Mindful of the merits of deities, it is not to admire the heaven but to be mindful of the merits and virtues the heavenly beings enjoy and to acknowledge the importance of cultivating good deeds. Also, the Sutras have mentioned Ten Mindfulnesses, which add four to the Six Mindfulnesses. These include, (1) Mindfulness of resting, which is about stopping illusive thought and bringing mind-heart into tranquillity. (2) Mindfulness of breathing, which is to observe one's own breathing, knowing wether it is coarse or delicate, long or short, cold or hot. The heart is dwelling on the breathing with both relying upon each other. (3) Mindfulness of the impermanence of the body, being aware at all the time of the impermanence of the form body and not being attached to this world. (4) Mindfulness of death, being mindful of death is coming at any time and so one should be diligent in cultivation. In terms of emancipation, Sutras also talk about four meditations: 1. Mindfulness of the mind heart as impermanent, it is the visualising of the impermanent change of the mind heart, mastering and dwelling upon right mind and not be at the mercy of the impermanent change. 2. Mindfulness of Dharmas without self entity: it is to contemplate all Dharmas as impermanent and in constant change, the mastering self entity arise and annihilate dependent on conditions, and its existence and non-existence is not a certain thing. 3. Mindfulness of body as impure: contemplating our form body as impure. Even though our bodies look clean after taking showers and changing clothes, actually our bodies are filled with blood, stool and urine with dirt flowing out of nine holes at all the time. 4. Mindfulness of feeling as suffering. Even though there is a difference between painful and joyous sensation, if one becomes indulged in joyous sensations, it could turn into painful ones. Four-Mindfulnesses is a cure to the four kinds of confused beliefs of permanence, joy, self- entity and purity, which are originated from our mind heart, feeling, dharma and body.

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8) Right Samadhi (concentration): Samadhi is concentrating on oneness. It is a kind of training to the mind. Usually, our body and mind are separated, and our heart and soul are broken. All these result in our spirit being slack. Practising concentration is to unify body and mind, to restrain the mind thoughts. Like cultivating mindfulness of breathing, it brings back the mind from chasing after external environment and contemplating the ins and outs, long and short, cold and hot of the breathing of the internal body, dwelling mind upon breathing. Gradually, body and mind will become one. As mind is concentrated on breathing, mind thought will naturally come together, and so one will be physically healthy and vigorous in spirit. The Sutra says, "Controlling mind on one point, anything can be achieved." This well explains the effectiveness of cultivating concentration.

Concentration can be divided into right (orthodox) and wrong (heterodox) ones. Indulging in the joy of concentration is heterodox concentration. When practising meditation, the joy of Chan will come about. One should neither be attached to the joy of Chan nor to the joy of desire. If the sound hearers are attached to Chan joy, they will be unable to achieve emancipation. If Bodhisattvas are attached to Chan joy, they will not be able to benefit others. That is why Bodhisattvas' precepts regard this attachment as breaking the precepts. To seek magic power through the cultivation of concentration is a heterodox concentration. Magic power is only a kind of ability. Without a perfect personality as its foundation, it is quite dangerous for one to possess magic power. This is just like a small child playing the fire. And that's why in Buddhist teachings, compassion, morality and wisdom are far more important than magic power, at the same time, the seeking of magic power by ignoring the virtues is not recommended. The cultivation of Buddhism is by way of three learnings, namely precepts, concentration and wisdom. The steps of cultivation are conducted in succession of generating concentration by relying on precepts, developing wisdom by cultivating concentration. From this we can tell that in Buddhist teachings, the aim of cultivating concentration is to develop wisdom. Because, only by developing wisdom, can afflictions be removed, one's personality become perfect, nirvana be confirmed and emancipation from life and death be achieved. The Chan concentration that triggers the faultless wisdom is right (orthodox) concentration. Chapter 3 of Dirghāgama

Sūtra69states that one should rely on his/her own effort and Dharma to achieve

emancipation. What is Dharma then? It is the Eightfold Path. It is the best way for human kind to achieve emancipation. Four Noble Truths were taught mainly to the Sravaka (sound hearers). When Buddha started turning the wheel of Dharma to the five Bihikus, he said, "These sufferings, thou should know; these causes of sufferings, thou should cut off; this cessation of sufferings, thou should confirm; this path of cessation, thou should cultivate." So the cultivation of Four Noble Truths by the Sound Hearers is to know the sufferings, to cut off causes of sufferings, to admire cessation of sufferings and to cultivate the path of cessation. That is to say, there are sufferings to know, causes of sufferings to cut

69 Long Discourses

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off, cessation of sufferings to confirm and path to cultivate. This is the level of the Sound Hearers. To contemplate Four Noble Truths in light of Pāramitā wisdom, it is another different matter. The Sutra says, "There are no Four Noble Truths". By contemplating Four Noble Truths with Pāramitā wisdom, the Four Noble Truths Dharma Door is also of no-self nature. Here, we can also use the previous formula: suffering is no different from emptiness, emptiness is no different from suffering, suffering is emptiness, and emptiness is suffering. This is the same with cause of suffering, cessation of suffering, and the path. Four Noble Truths, in their phenomena, there still exists the difference between defilement and purity, but by looking from their essence of no self and emptiness, suffering, cause, cessation and path become equal and one. From the significance that there exists no difference among Four Noble Truths, one can be aware further that afflictions are Bodhi. If the bitter fruit of worldly defilement is of true existence, fixed and cannot be changed, this is really something that makes people worried. Now, by contemplating in the perspective of Pāramitā wisdom, the existence of suffering is not fixed and not unchangeable. In other words, in the same circumstances, if you face it with a worried state of mind, it can be too painful to bear, but if you use wisdom to contemplate instead, you can take it calmly. Just as when some people slander and harm you, you will only be worried if you do care about it. If you don't mind and do not stick to it, are you going to be worried? So, in a human being's life, if one lacks Pāramitā contemplation, there would only be afflictions everywhere and no Bodhi70 at all. And if one can contemplate with Pāramitā wisdom, there is Bodhi everywhere and there would be no afflictions.

70 It is a word in Sanskrit, which refers to the utmost wisdom of Buddha.

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An Emancipated and Free Life

"There is no wisdom and also no gain. Because of there is no gain,

Bodhisattvas who rely on Prajňāpāramitā, have no hindrance in their

hearts, and since they have no hindrance, they have no fear, are free

from contrary and delusive ideas and attain the final Nirvana."

Due to the lack of full understanding of ‘existence’, the sentient beings live in the state of mind that thinks there is always something to be gained (attained), and they seem to give rise to clinging to everything in life. For example, in daily life, we would cling to money and property, to position, to feelings, to belief, to the environment of existence, to family, to relationships, to possessing knowledge, to our own views, to our profession, to our skills, and etc. Because of grasping, we generate a mentality with a strong desire to possess and a reluctance to part with things. This grasping has brought about all sorts of afflictions to in lives. The Heart Sutra, from contemplating that the five aggregates are empty up to no suffering, cause, cessation and path, is directed against our wrong understanding of and attachment to ‘existence’. It reveals that the existing phenomena are empty without self-nature, and they are false existence. Here the aim of the Sutra is to make us give up the wrong understanding and renounce the grasping to it at the same time. "No wisdom, and also no gain, because there is no gain" is talking about giving up attachment to the phenomenal world upon realising that the phenomena to be understood are in fact empty. Then does this mind which is able to know (understand) exist or not? Not really, because the mind is also of dependent origination. Take the generation of cognitive activities of sight consciousness for an example; it should rely on nine conditions: eyes, form dust, light, space, seed, Juyouyi71, Fenbieyi72, RANJINYI73 and fundamental conditions. All the other spiritual activities are the same; they are also of dependant origination. When we have realised that the object to be understood is empty, and do not give arise to substantial attachment to ‘existence’, here it is gainless; at this time delusive thoughts will naturally die out, this is no wisdom. The Large Sutra on Perfect Wisdom says, "When all the Dharmas cease to arise, then Pāramitā arises. When all the Dharmas are not present, then Pāramitā becomes present." When the deluded mind, deluded environment and deluded attachment die out, the pure mind and original mind74 will appear, and this is the function of Pāramitā. "Bodhisattvas who rely on Prajňāpāramitā, have no hindrance in their hearts", When translating Bodhisattvas from Sanskrit into Chinese language, it means enlightened sentient beings, which refers to someone who is enlightened or who can enlighten

71Chinese word, referring to things or conditions on which one relies, or from which things spring 72 Chinese word, referring to something one relies on to discriminate or discern 73 Chinese word referring to something that makes impurity and purity 74 It is the mind in its original state, which is free from defilement.

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other sentient beings. Enlightened sentient being is relative to the sentient being. The sentient beings hold desire as their centre, they want to possess and control everything in this world, they want to have everything that associated with them belong to them, so that they can achieve their own freedom within the infinite expansion of what they possess. What they do not know is that the more related association one has, the more tied up one becomes. The enlightened ones are the contrary, as they contemplate life in light of Pāramitā, being of no self and no possessions, they have surpassed the worldly fame and gains, and thus have no hindrance in their mind and heart. In the Tang Dynasty there was a Chan Master whose name is Lanchan. He was known far and wide due to his great attainment. One day, the Emperor sent a messenger to give him an invitation. At this time, the master was baking sweet potatoes in the mountain cave. The messenger read out the Emperor's imperial edict, but the Chan Master didn't show any interest. It was mid-winter, the Chan Master was feeling very cold that his nose was running. The messenger urged him to wipe his nose when he saw what happened. The Chan Master said, “I don't have time to wipe nose for the lay person". The Chan Master once wrote a poem about his life and it reflected what a free life he had:

Endless worldly affairs are no better than mountains and hills.

The sun is shut out by the green pine trees. The blue gully is flowing

afar.

The cloud in the mountain is my curtain and the night moon is its hook.

Sleeping under the Chinese wisterias and take a piece of stone as my

pillow.

Not having to have an audience with the Emperor, how would I envy

the nobility?

Life and death are not a concern, what else worry can I have?

Moon in the water has no shape; I am always but at peace.

All the Dharmas are as such, nothing is of self-origination.

Sitting up there with nothing on my mind and nothing to do.

When the spring comes, the grass will naturally turn to green.

The Chan Masters lived in seclusion in the mountains and forests. Facing the green mountains and water, and only possessing a water bottle and a bowl, they had no hindrance at all. To them, life and death were not a problem, what was worth worrying about? In Buddha's time, there was a prince who was doing meditation in the mountain forest with two of his Dharma friends. Unconscientiously, the three shouted out, “Joyful, joyful!" Upon hearing that, the Buddha asked them, "What makes you feel so happy?" The prince said, "When I was in the palace, I was occupied with administration affairs day and night, dealing with complicated relationships between people. And at every time, I was worried about the safety of my life. Even though I was living in the palace surrounded by the high walls, eating precious food from the mountain and seafood, wearing silk and satin clothes and being guarded by a lot of bodyguards, I was always in fear and unrest. I could not eat and sleep well. Now, I have renounced home and I am doing meditation, I have no burden at heart. Everyday is spent in Dharma joy, no matter where I go, I always feel free."

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"Since they have no hindrance, they have no fear." Due to the attachment and worries, the sentient beings give rise to fears over everything they possess. For example, if a person has money and property, he is afraid to lose them, and thus tries to preserve them. If he (or she) has position, he (or she) is afraid that the others would covet his (or her) power and position. If one has a beautiful wife, he might be scared of the possibility that someone could take her away or she would go away with someone. Even when one dresses in beautiful clothes, he (or she) would be afraid to get it dirty. Talking in front of a crowd, one may be afraid to lose face if he (or she) makes improper remarks. When walking in the dark, one might be afraid that someone could attack him (or her). If one is in the relationship with someone, he (or she) could be afraid to lose the loved one. In all, the worries about and attachment to what is possessed make us live in fear everyday. The enlightened ones see through the worldly right and wrong, gain and loss, honour and disgrace, so they have no worries and naturally no fear. Death in the eyes of the worldly beings is most formidable, but the Chan Masters still feel as free and easy as ever. For example, Chan Master Depu in Tang Dynasty collected all his students before his death. He asked them, "How do you prepare to treat me after my death?" The students expressed promptly, "We will pay respect to you by offering abundant fruits, holding memorial meeting, writing elegiac couplet". The Chan Master said, "I won't be able to see you doing this when I am dead. It is better for you to hold all those rituals when I am still alive. Make me happy before I die, is that OK?" The students looked at each other, but dared not disobey their Master. So, they arranged mourning hall, prepared precious and tasty food, writing elegiac address, held a grand memorial ceremony. When the Chan Master had enough food and had seen enough of these, he praised the students, and then passed away in a carefree posture. Chan Master Xinkong's death is also interesting. Before his death, he wrote a poem. "Passing away in a posture of standing and sitting is no better than water burial. Firstly, it saves wood and secondly it saves mining. Let go and leave, how joyful. Who is my understanding friend? It is Chuanshi monk75." He declared his idea of water burial before his death, asking his students to make a wood basin and carry it to the riverside. Warmly farewelled by his students, he got in the wood basin and flew with the waves. Sitting in the wood basin, which had a hole in the bottom, he played his flute, and in the leisurely music and following the waves and current, he passed away in the water. In front of death, the Chan Masters are so free, and then there is nothing in this world that can make them feel uneasy. As to honour and disgrace, the Chan Masters would not even mind them at all. In Japan, there was a Chan Master named Baiyin who was of great virtues. He had a disciple who was running a linen shop. This disciple had a daughter who had a relationship with a young man and became pregnant without being married. The father was very angry and asked who the child’s father was. The daughter was afraid that if her father knew it was her boyfriend, he might beat the boyfriend to death. Then she thought of Master Baiyin whom her father revered most and thus she told her father it was the master. Upon hearing that, the father became very angry. He took a wood stick with him and beat the Master soundly. The Chan Master accepted without knowing the reason. Later on, when the baby was born, it was thrown to the

75 an ancient monk who passed away by using water burial

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Master. The Master begged milk to feed the baby everywhere like a maid. Everywhere he was insulted and laughed at, but he didn't care about it, only hoping to bring up the child. Before that, the daughter's boyfriend ran away to another place in fear. After several years he came back to the hometown and got to know what had happened. He found the young lady and said to her, "How can we make the Master be humiliated? The sin is really boundless". Then he told the young lady's parents the truth. The whole family went to make an apology to the Chan Master. The Chan Master didn't feel wronged at all. He simply said, "Since the child is yours, take him home with you." "…are free from contrary and delusive ideas and attain the Final Nirvana". Contrary (upside down) and delusive ideas are wrong ideas, which are not consistent with truth. To conclude it simply with one sentence, it is delusions. The word "delusion" originates from Buddhist teachings, but now it is widely used in the daily lives. For example, sometimes we have some ideas that are not practical, and they are said to be delusions, or some wishes that would be unlikely to come true are always said to be delusions. From the viewpoint of Buddhism, even though the above are delusions, those wishes that are practical and may be realised but if they don't correspond with truth, are still delusions. "Delusion" has a wide connotation. Looking from the perspective of Buddhist wisdom, the human beings almost all live in the delusions. Delusion is originated from ignorance, desire is its driving force and the attachment to possessions is its aiding condition. The Twelve Nidanas states that ignorance generates action. This explains that the ideological foundation of human behaviour is ignorance, which is a confused state of life. All the ideas and thoughts coming up under such kind of conditions are called delusions. Desire is the driving force of delusions. There are always a lot of ideas in this world and most of which are based on the needs of personal desires. When we feel cold, we want to put on clothes. When we feel hungry, we want to have food; and when we feel what we eat is too boring, we want to change taste. When we feel too tired to walk, there comes the invention of motor vehicle. When we feel there is not enough glory, there comes the thirst for power. Feeling lonely by ourselves, we have the desire to establish a family and feeling spiritual life is poor, arts, religious beliefs come into existence. Having nothing to entertain us, Mahjong, TV etc entertaining equipment appear. In all, whatever desire human beings have, whatever delusions will appear, and whatever the delusions may be, whatever phenomena will appear in this world. The attachment to possessions is the assisting conditions to the delusions. Attachment plays an important role in assisting the generation of delusions. It is just like an ignorant child, who lights fire onto a heap of dry wood and the house catches the fire. At this moment, there starts a strong wind. Fanned by the wind, the flame burns more and more furiously. The child lighting the fire is an analogy to ignorance, the dry wood is like desire, and the strong wind is like the attachment. The fire of desire is generated by the ignorance of the child; it becomes furious by the wind. Thus, delusion comes into existence under the force of desire, and it is strengthened by attachment. The deeper the attachment, the bigger the delusions will be.

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In the present society, everyone has attachment. As these attachments are different, everyone's tendency of delusion is different. For an example, if a girl is attached to clothing, then she will care about what is the current fashion is. She will always think about what clothes can make her look beautiful, and she will pay attention to whether everyone's clothes are suitable. She would want to make money to get the clothes she likes and when she puts on clothes, she would spend a lot of time before the mirror. Before she has decided which clothes to put on, she would spend a lot of time selecting from her wardrobe. Because of the attachment to the clothes, these things occupy a bigger part of her thinking. These people who are too much attached to clothing would sometimes overlook the inner beauty of life. Those people, who are attached to their families, take pains for their families day and night. Especially, as the parent of a family, a lady has to solve the financial problems, prepare daily living requirements. She has to care about every child’s growth, study, employment and marriage. She has to properly manage the human relationships around her, mediate the difference in ideas between the family members and think about ways to improve the living conditions. It is no surprise that many Buddhist disciples come to tell me that they cannot concentrate on sitting meditation and chanting Buddha's holy titles. If she has to worry about so many things and is really much attached to them, while holding endless delusions, just imagine, how can she calm down? As to people who are attached to arts, they will have delusions of arts. Those who are attached to power will have delusions of power. Those who are attached to love will have delusions of love. Those who are attached to literature will have delusions about literature. Those people who are attached to science will have delusions about science and those attached to religion will have delusions about religious beliefs. So, the peasants have their delusions, workers have theirs, philosophers have theirs, writers have theirs, politicians have theirs, students have theirs, business people have theirs. In this world, everyone has his/her own attachment; everyone has his/her own delusions. Everyone is living in the delusions of himself/herself. Delusions make us live in the world constituted by our own consciousness, which makes us unable to understand the truth of universe and life in a correct way. The Vijnapti-matrata Sect76 in Buddhism divides this world into three different levels (or three aspects of the nature of a thing). The first is called partial nature of a thing77, which refers to the subjective false world that is constructed by our consciousness. The second is called partially reliable nature78. It refers to the objective phenomenal world. The last one is the objective essential nature79, which refers to the objective essential world. The reason of failing to understand the world in the right way lies in the human being’s understanding itself. So, the eighteenth century western philosophers had good reasons to pay great attention to epistemology. As human beings use delusive mind to understand the world, thus what is understood is naturally

76 It Chinese it is Vijňāptimātratā sect. It refers to the perfect doctrine of idealism. 77 Parikalita in Sanskrit, in Chinese it is Bianjizhixin 78 Paratantra in Sanskrit, in Chinese Yitaxin, which refers to the nature of incomplete inference 79 Parinispanna in Sanskrit

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delusive circumstances as if we are wearing a pair of light sensitive glass to see the world. Of course, what we see will not be the true face of the world. Delusions keep us constantly on the run in the journey of life. Chickens are struggling for a handful of rice, while mouse struggling to store food for the evening and birds struggling for the preparations of the winter. Students struggle for the entry of a higher school, workers struggle for their wages; business people struggle for the operation of their business; politicians struggle for the laurel of highest power. In this world, everyone is struggling to realise his (or her) own delusions. The bigger the delusion, the harder the struggle will be; the smaller the delusion, the less the struggle will be. Delusions make people give their all until their hearts stop beating, just for the struggle of life. There could be an end to the enduring universe, but there is no ending to the ongoing delusions. Delusions bring about all sorts of afflictions to life. When an aged person looks back at the past good times, he would be unable to face the cruel reality. A scholar, who takes himself too seriously, will always feel that others are not paying enough respect to him, and then he would be much upset about it. Day and night, an entrepreneur is thinking about how to manage his organisation well, as a result he could not sleep well. A young man falls in love with a beautiful girl, but if she does not notice or does not care about him; he will suffer much from missing her. A young girl admires other people’s luxurious lives, dreaming of having this life one day, but her financial situation does not allow it, she would feel much pain about it. Delusions make people feel restless, idle away time, become unable to concentrate, become inefficient in their work, their spirit loose and feel unable to calm down to do meditation. Delusions lead to all kinds of mistakes and disasters in life, and that is why the Sutras tell us to keep far away from confusions and daydreaming. How to keep oneself away from them? It is not an easy task. When sitting back in meditation, many people feel that "The tree wants to be calm, but the wind does not help". Delusions are endless like thread. The more you try to control them, the stronger they become, and so it is very hard to have the mind calm down. The fact of which makes many people feel frustrated. Then, what can be done? The Heart Sutra has a unique method to deal with delusions. That is, "realising that the five aggregates are empty80”. When one has realised that all Dharmas are like dreams, illusions, bubbles and shadows, he/she will not rest on the notion of an ego, human being, living beings and a life and neither will he/she rest on form, sound, odour, taste, tactile sensations (touch). Thus there is no wisdom and no gain. And in this way, one has no worries at heart and delusions will naturally be out of the way. Here I start to remember a poem by a Chan Master," Sitting quietly on the southern platform until the incense fully burns out, all day long, being concentrated, I forget tens of thousands of worries. It is not because I calm down the mind to remove the delusions; it is because there is nothing to think about.” When ordinary people are sitting in meditation, lots of delusions will arise. They have to counter the delusions by cultivating observing the mind, chanting Buddha's holy titles or mantras. For the Chan practitioners, they do not have to remove delusions in their cultivations at all.

80 they do not exist from their own side

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As they have seen through the world, worries would be tamed and there is nothing in this world that can attract their special interest, naturally the delusions won't arise. The Ultimate Nirvāva81: When translated into Chinese from Sanskrit ‘Nirvāna’ means extinguishment, reincarnation and escape from sufferings. Extinguishment is to remove the attachment to possessions, destroy the afflictions, worries, fears and confusions, surpass life and death and confirm nirvana. Nirvana is the absolute fundamental reality82 of universe and life. Nirvana is not separated from this world. Looking at the illusive phenomena from the perspective of both the world and nirvana, although it seems that creation and annihilation is different from calm extinction and nirvana, actually, in this world the very moment of life and death is ultimate emptiness, calm extinction and nirvana. Nirvana is not separated from this world; it should be confirmed through life and death in this world. Then, is nirvana identical to the worldly creation and annihilation, existence and non-existence? No, nirvana is away from creation and annihilation, existence and non-existence. The Middle Treatise, Nirvana section says, "existence is not nirvana, let alone non-existence. There is no existence in nirvana, where can non-existence be found?" We should not understand nirvana in terms of the worldly concept of relative existence and non-existence. The Middle Treatise Nirvana section further explains that nirvana is not constant, not cut off, not creating and not annihilating; it is the absolute reality83 of all Dharmas, which are confirmed by the practitioners by keeping themselves away from the confusions and afflictions, and by relying on Pāramitā. When nirvana being confirmed, the environment and intelligence becomes one, the subject and the object all die away, existence and non-existence are all deserted, self and others are not two, and one has transcended all the differences in language and thinking. That's why in Diamond Sutra, it says, “Anuttara-Samyak-Sambodhi 84 , not gained anything whatsoever” and “Arhat does not have this thought; I have obtained the enlightenment of an Arhat”.

81 Sanskrit 82 Dharmata 83 Dharmata 84 supreme enlightenment

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The Only Way to Achieve Buddhahood

"All Buddhas of the past present and future obtained complete vision

and perfect enlightenment85

by relying on Prajňāpāramitā."

The aim of learning Buddha Dharma is to become a Buddha. In an ordinary persons’ mind, to become a Buddha seems mysterious. Some cannot help asking, “Since the ancient times, who has become a Buddha?" The Sutras have mentioned Buddhas of the past, present and future. Some of the Buddhas we know of include Shakyamuni Buddha, Amitaba Buddha and the Medicine Buddha, etc. Actually, many more beings have achieved Buddhahood than these. The Mahayana Sutras and Sastras say that there are as many Buddhas as there are grains of sand in the River Ganges86. From this we get to know that there have been countless Buddhas that have appeared in the past. Now, in the worlds of ten directions, there are many Buddhas delivering teachings at the same time and in the future, countless more Buddhas will appear. This is why many Sastras refer to ‘all the Buddhas of the ten directions’. There is a scripture called The Smaller Sukhavati-Vyuha, which many Buddhists read often and which has the description of the Buddhas of the ten directions. The Sutra says, “Before their meal, the beings who are born there worship a hundred thousand kotis of Buddhas by going to other worlds and having showered a hundred thousand kotis of flowers upon each Thathagata, they return to their own world in time for the afternoon rest." The Sutra introduced the situation in the Western Sukhavati land. The Western Sukavati world is to the west of our world and is 10,000 billion worlds away from our world in distance. In that world, every morning, the people bring fragrant flowers to offer to the Buddhas of ten directions. In the Sutra, it mentions that the Buddhas of six directions praised Amitabha's Pureland. From these scriptures, we can see there were countless beings who had attained Buddhahood. Then, how can Buddhahood be attained? The Sutra says, “All Buddhas of the past, present and future obtained complete vision and ‘perfect enlightenment87’ by relying on Prajňāpāramitā”. This is telling us that Buddhas of past, present and future of ten directions attain Buddhahood by relying on Prajňāpāramitā and it also reveals to us the importance of Prajňāpāramitā in achieving Buddhahood. But, Prajňāpāramitā is the wisdom of the sages, how can lay people understand and master it? Based on this premise, the Sutra says that there are three kinds of Prajňāpāramitā: Prajňāpāramitā in words, Prajňāpāramitā of meditative contemplation on reality and Prajňāpāramitā of absolute reality (Dharmata). Among the three, only the one of absolute reality is the essence of Pāramitā. Prajňāpāramitā in words and by contemplation can give rise to Pāramitā, that's why they are classified as Pāramitā as well. Pāramitā is the core of learning Buddha Dharma. From learning Buddha Dharma to becoming a Buddha, the sentient beings can not do away with this dharma door. We can look at it through the following four aspects;

85 anuttara-samyak-sambodhi in Sanskrit 86 Ganges (or Ganga) river in India 87 anuttara-samyak-sambodhi in Sanskrit

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1) To study Buddhism you must start from Prajňāpāramitā in words. The Sutra says, "To enter the door of liberation through hearing, thinking and cultivation, or being close to good teachers, listening to the right dharma, thinking according the the principles of Buddha Dharma, and making an effort to practice accordingly to accord with Buddha Dharma." And also, the Eightfold Noble Path takes right view, right thinking as the initial steps. Pāramitā in writing does not mean one should take writing as Pāramitā. There are many writings in this world, and in most situations are unable to lead to Pāramitā and could in fact be a force that actually obstructs the generation of Pāramitā. So, the Sutras particularly point out that being close to good teachers and hearing the right dharma should achieve Pāramitā in words. Being close to the good Kahyana88 enables one to have the opportunity to get in touch with Pāramitā in words. Because only by being close to the good teachers can one be able to hear the right dharmas which can lead to Pāramitā. So, the right dharma is Pāramitā in words. Even the worldly honoured one emphasised the importance of being close to Kahyana in Ahan Sutra. The saying goes, “He who stays near vermilion gets stained red, and he who stays near ink gets stained black”.89 By being close to the Kahyana, there is the effect of ‘getting stained in red'. People like the Buddha90 who possessed vast wisdom had to be close to the Kahyana in order to make achievements, not to mention people like us. The right dharma is the teaching of the Tathagatas. The worldly ignorant people cannot understand life and universe correctly. As a result black and white are blurred and Pāramitā is covered up. Thus the sentient beings remain in the state of endless and infinite afflictions, delusions and attachment. Listening to the right dharma is to get the right view of universe and life. Only by understanding the nature of dependent origination, impermanence, suffering, emptiness in this world and by correcting the wrong understandings and attachment, can the delusive mind be eliminated. Upon its elimination, Pāramitā will naturally appear. Among these three Pāramitā, Pāramitā of contemplation is generated from Pāramitā in words. Pāramitā of contemplation uses the right Pāramitā view to contemplate everything. As the Sutra says, "perceived Five Aggregates are empty", or "form is not different from emptiness, emptiness is not different from form, form is emptiness, emptiness is form". All these are the expression of Pāramitā of contemplation. Through contemplating the right view of Pāramitā and the true essence of all dharmas, it triggers Pāramitā of absolute reality. 2) The Sravaka sound hearers take wisdom as the pivot in their pancha-dharmakaya91. The five dharma bodies refer to precepts, concentration, wisdom, liberation and knowledge of liberation. Precepts, which have the function of preventing mistakes and stopping the arising of evil and also the function of controlling the six roots and three karmas, are the guidelines for actions towards liberation. Usually, our six roots take actions at the discretion of our emotions. As we have strong sense of ego, being filled with greed, anger and ignorance, we cannot avoid deeds of killing, stealing,

88 A Sanskrit word for teacher or people who listen to the right Dharma and cultivate the path of Buddhahood. In Pali the word used is Kalyanamitta friend which means true and wise friend such as your Buddha Dhamma teacher. 89 Another way to say this would be, “One takes the odour of one's company”. 90 Here we refer to the Shakyamuni Buddha. 91 five attributes of the dharmakaya or spiritual body of a Tathagata

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sexual misconduct and lying. Only precepts can restrain our behaviour. Also, precepts can generate concentration. This is because while precepts restrain three karmic actions, they can also restrain the overflow of delusions. So people who are holding precepts will not have chaotic thoughts and it is easy for them to achieve Chan concentration. Concentration can trigger wisdom. Ordinary people's light of wisdom is covered due to deluded thoughts and attachment. When the force of concentration subsides the delusive thoughts and attachment, the faultless wisdom will naturally be manifested. Wisdom accomplishes liberation. The faultless wisdom enables our soul to be liberated from the afflictions, and enables us to confirm the calm nirvana. Perfect knowledge of liberation is attained through liberation itself, and this perfect knowledge is the cut off wisdom’ and ‘no birth wisdom. The ‘cut off wisdom’ refers to the wisdom of putting an end to all afflictions and entering the state of Arhatship with nothing more to learn. ‘No birth wisdom’ refers to the wisdom achieved by confirming the law of no birth or immortality92. These two kinds of wisdom are produced after the attainment of liberation (nirvana). The five attributes of the Dhamma body of the Tathāgata93 take wisdom as pivot, this is because abiding by the precepts and cultivating concentration is not a special dharma door of the Buddhist. Like precepts, all sorts of religions in the world have precepts of their own (commandments), and every country has laws similar to precepts. As to the cultivation of concentration, four Chan and the eight concentrations mentioned in Buddhist teachings are worldly Chan, Indian Yoga sect practises Yoga dharma door, and Chinese Taoism practises breathing in and out as a way of cultivating concentration. The difference between Buddhism and other religions is that Buddhist teachings do not take holding precepts as ultimate. In six fundamental afflictions, the seeking of liberation by the heterodox through holding precepts is regarded as forbidden. Buddhist teachings do not take the cultivation of concentration as ultimate, and in Bodhisattvas’ precepts, the attachment to the taste of Chan is regarded as breaking the precepts. In Buddhist teachings, the purpose for observing the precepts and cultivating concentration is to develop faultless wisdom. Only by having wisdom, can one start to be set free from the afflictions and confirm nirvana. 3) The Six Pāramitā Dharma Door is led by Prajna. The six Pāramitā include dana94, sila95, ksanti96, virya97, dhyana98, prajna99. The preceding five Pāramitā are practised by worldly beings, but why can not they become the sambhāra100 for Bodhi? This is because there is no Prajňā. While practising five Pāramitā, whether one is equipped with Prajňā or not makes a lot of difference in the effect.

92 Wu sheng fa in Chinese, which is the law of no birth or immortality, it is taken as the fundamental law of the suchness and the embodiment of nirvana. 93 Pañca-dharmakāya in Sanskrit 94 Alms, charity in Sanskrit 95 keeping precepts in Sanskrit 96 patience, tolerance, endurance in Sanskrit 97 Diligence in Sanskrit 98 Concentration in Sanskrit 99 Wisdom in Sanskrit 100 The supplies for body or soul, e.g. food and wisdom in Sanskrit

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(1) Dana is what we usually called alms giving. Giving away money and property is called dana of material goods101. The giving of knowledge and technology is called dana of dharma102. Giving people courage and confidence is call abhayapra-dana. Even though dana is for the others, the dana giver himself/herself actually will receive great benefits. The first benefit is breaking one's stinginess. Due to our greed for money and property, normally we will show our stinginess and reluctance to part with whenever there is a need to give others. For an example, in our life, we feel many things are unnecessary, but once we should give them to the others, we find that everything becomes important and this is an expression of stinginess. Dana can help us overcome stinginess. The second major benefit of breaking poverty is introducing great treasure and wealth. Why do some people suffer from poverty for their whole life? That's because of their unwillingness to make dana. In Buddhism, making dana is called cultivating the field of merits. Only when one has cultivated the field of merits, will one start to possess merit and virtue. So, dana can help us to eliminate poverty and enables us to have merit and virtue.

Worldly beings, when practising dana dharma door, always involves inappropriate factors. Some people make dana to win good fame, making the others feel that he/she is a philanthropist. Some make dana out of remorse, they want to have peace of mind by doing this. Some people are doing it for utility purpose; their giving can reap more return. Some people have an attitude of contempt when giving; their aim is to show off their wealthiness. Some people make dana to avoid bad luck, it is so called giving away money in exchange of security. Some people give alms to make others feel good about them and advocate them, so that they themselves can reach their own ambitions. Some people practise charity out of the desire to outshine others, to show that they are wealthier than others. From the viewpoint of Buddhism, these dana giving are not in conformity with dharma. Even though they can bring about certain benefits to the people, there are flaws in their practice.

Dana that is in conformity with dharma is generated from compassionate heart. It is the cultivation of dana by contemplating with Prajna wisdom according to the needs in the world. When making dana, one should not dwell on the image of giver, not regarding oneself as a person that is able to give, the others as a receiver, and not dwell on how much money and property is given. That is to say, in regards to your action of making dana, you should feel as if nothing had happened at all. The Diamond Sutra says, "A Bodhisattva should not dwell anywhere when he gives. He should not dwell in forms when he gives, nor should he dwell in sounds, smell, tastes, tangible objects or dharma when he gives. If a Bodhisattva does not dwell in marks when he gives, his blessings and virtues are immeasurable." This means the same thing. When one gives without dwelling on anywhere, his/her merits and virtues are like the vast space, which is boundless.

101 amisa-dana 102 dharma-dana

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(2) Observing precepts. Bodhisattva precepts include three: precept of conserving rule and ritual, which refers to the precepts of stopping evil deeds (not committing any evil deeds); precept of conserving good dharma, which is about cultivating all good deeds; precept of benefiting sentient beings, it is about benefiting all sentient beings. Observing precepts gives the following benefits.

(a) It can help to stop and remove evil precepts. Those who observe Bodhisattva precepts will not observe evil precepts. (b) It can shut the door to evil realms, as observing precepts can stop all evil deeds, one will not fall into three evil realms. (c) It enables one to be born in three good realms. Observing precepts can make us born in human and heavenly realms, (d) It enables us to obtain samādhi103, which is concentration specifically achieved through observing precepts.

Precepts are the standard of behaviour. As they put an emphasis on the form of rituals, people tend to dwell on the appearance, becoming occupied all the day with what should be or should not be done, what is wrong and what is not. Thus, when upholding precepts, sometimes one is tied up by them and is unable to attain liberation. Led by Prajňā, such kind of mistakes are to be avoided. From the perspective of dependent origination, there is a difference between wrong and not wrong, but when looking deep down to the nature of emptiness with the contemplation of wisdom eye, there is no difference between wrong and not wrong, their original nature is empty. So, wrong and not wrong are no more than a kind of false appearance. Only perceiving in this way can we be free from the appearance of wrong and not wrong. (3) Patience, it shows the Bodhisattvas' ability to control themselves. Firstly, forbearing with resentment and harm, which is an ability to put up with all sorts of unreasonable blame by one's enemies. Secondly, enduring the suffering of miseries while at ease, this is to forbear all sorts of harsh circumstances like physical sickness and weakness, hot and cold weather, lacking proper clothes and food etc. in the process of one's cultivation and helping other sentient beings. Thirdly, Dharma endurance, it is the acceptance of the truths that run contrary to our ordinary people's knowledge. Patience can help us extinguish hatred and anger. If a person is filled up with hatred and lacks the ability to control himself, he will always be angry. When one has the ability of patience, he/she will not be angry. If you can face other people calmly with a kind attitude even though they are doing you harm, it is very hard for you to make enemies. So, the ability of patience can enable both parties be in harmony with each other peacefully. Ordinary people cannot practise patience because their mind and heart is moved by phenomena. How can one's mind and heart remain unmoved? One has to use Prajňā wisdom to contemplate by understanding self and dharma marks are not attainable. Diamond Sutra states,

103The other name of concentration

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“It is as in the past when the king of Kalinga dismembered my

body. At that time I had no mark of self, no mark of others, no

mark of living beings, and no mark of a life. And what is the

reason for that? When I was cut limb from limb, if I had a mark

of self, a mark of others, a mark of living beings, or a mark of a

life, I would have been outraged.”

When the Buddha recalled the time he was cut limb by limb by the king Kalinga, he explained that it was because he had no notion of self, and so he was able to endure this. So, as long as one can contemplate with Prajňā and fully understand the nature of emptiness, knowing that all dharma are like illusions, there is no self and others, then naturally one will not be moved by phenomena and be able to accomplish patience dharma door. 4) Diligence. Chapter two in The Summary of Mahayana104 says, “It can distance oneself from all the slackness and evil dharma, also it can give arise to numerous good dharma and enable their growth, thus it is called diligence". Diligence has the meaning of putting on an armour suit and fighting in the battlefield. This is an analogy to the Bodhisattvas’ persistent bravery in stopping evil and cutting off afflictions. Diligence in cultivation of good dharma is about cultivating all good dharmas diligently. Diligence in benefiting all sentient beings is benefiting all sentient beings unceasingly with diligence. Diligence can stop evil dharma and cure slackness, enabling the accomplishment of good dharma and making them increase daily. Prajňā should lead diligence. In the world, there is a lack of Prajňā. In their whole life, the worldly beings are fighting hard for the money, family, position, and sometimes they are diligent in killing people, animals, stealing, robbery, sexual misconduct and lying. Even though they get some illusory unreal benefits, they have committed endless sins. Diligence under the guide of Prajňā holds stopping evil and doing good as criterion. It will not only make this life of yours at ease and justified, but also will benefit your future lives infinitely. (5) Samadhi. Chapter two in The Summary of Mahayana says, “It can also demolish all the scattering and can lead to the peace within the mind, that's why it is called silent consideration." It is the opposite of scattering, like water to fire. When there is scattering, one cannot obtain concentration. When Chan105 concentration is achieved, scattering can be extinguished. Chan concentration enables mind to rest in a state of quietude. When Chan concentration is led by Prajňā, it is contemplated that all dharma are illusory, thus one's mind will not be moved by environment, and will not be scattered as a result. In the world, those who practise Chan concentration are more likely to dwell on Chan concentration and get attached to the joy of Chan. Only by relying on the contemplation of Prajňā, will one be able to distance oneself from the attachment to the taste of Chan.

4) Buddhahood is the accomplishment of wisdom. Buddha in Chinese translation

104 Mahāyānasamgrapha Sāstra 105 Meditation in Chinese language

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means ‘the enlightened one’ or ‘ the awakened one’, ‘the one with wisdom’. Buddhahood is called the accomplishment of supreme Bodhi. Those who have made up their mind to cultivate the path to Buddhahood are called people who have generated the Bodhi-citta mind. Bodhi means wisdom, enlightenment. Obtaining Buddhahood is the accomplishment of supreme wisdom and supreme enlightenment. Generating Bodhi-citta mind refers to making up one's mind to seek supreme wisdom and supreme enlightenment. Bodhisattva is the practitioner who cultivates the supreme wisdom. On the path of liberation, for the Sravaka (Sound Hearers), the accomplishment of nirvana dharma door is called Thirty-Seven Limbs (aids) of enlightenment (Bodhyanga). These are: the Four Mindfulness106, the Four Right Efforts107, the Four Bases of Miraculous Powers108, the Five Good Roots109, the Five Powers, The Seven Factors of Enlightenment110, and the Eightfold Noble Path. Enlightenment (Bodhyanga) is the cause of Bodhi, these thirty seven dharma doors are the cause of the accomplishment of Bodhi. Attainment of Buddhahood is the achievement of wisdom, thus in the Buddhist Sutras, wisdom is regarded as the parents that give birth to the Buddhas. Wisdom is the parent of all Buddhas, all Buddhas succeeded by relying on wisdom. As Prajňā can bring up all the Buddhas, then if the Buddha is the kind father of all sentient beings, Prajňā becomes the grandfather of all sentient beings

106 These are: 1. Mindful of the body as impure; 2. Mindful of feeling as suffering; 3. Mindful of the mind as impermanent; 4. Mindful of dharmas as dependent, without self entity 107 These are 1. effort not to initiate sins not yet arisen; 2. effort to eliminate sins already arisen; 3. effort to initiate virtues not yet arisen and 4. effort to consolidate, increase and not deteriorate virtues already arisen. 108 1. strong aspiration; 2. vigour; 3. intense concentration; 4.intense contemplation 109 1. faith; 2. vigour; 3. mindfullness; 4. concentration; 5. wisdom. They are called roots because they can give rise to other wholesome dharmas. 110 These are 1. mindfulness; 2. discriminative investigation of dharma; 3. vigour; 4. joy; 5. ease of body and mind; 6. concentration; and 7. equanimity

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Supreme Dharma Door

"So we know that Prajňāpāramitā is the great supreme mantra, the

great bright, unsurpassed and unequalled mantra which can truly and

without fail wipe out all sufferings."

The Diamond Sutra holds the Prajňā Dharma Door as the most supreme dharma door that the Tathagatas delivered to the Mahayana people. This Sutra also holds Prajňā Dharma Door as the great supreme Mantra, the Mantra of illumination, and the highest of all mantras, the unequalled Mantra. It is obvious how superb the Prajňā Dharma Door is. Mantra is a kind of secret language that is of special effectiveness, which cannot be explained in words; usually it is also called supreme mantra, forbidden mantra, secret mantra, true words, which are secret verses sung when praying. They have the functions of making enemies suffer from disasters, or request the blessings for oneself and eliminating the disasters etc. The Indians consider mantras as being able to solve problems beyond human being's ability. Before the emergence of Buddhism, mantra was quite popular in India. When Buddhism was established, Buddha adopted mantra as well. Among all the sects in Buddhism, the Esoteric Sect especially attaches great importance to mantras. In The Heart Sutra, the prajňā dharma door is likened to a mantra. ‘A supreme mantra’, it means the prajňā dharma door is of incomparable extraordinary power, which can eliminate the afflictions of human life. “the great bright… mantra” describes prajňā as the great light of wisdom, which can break the darkness of ignorance in the human world. ‘Supreme Mantra’, here Prajňā Dharma Door is regarded as the most superb one among all Dharma doors, which are practised by Buddhists. ‘Unequalled Mantra’ means no Dharma door can be compared with Prajňā Dharma Door. From the above, we can tell that wisdom is being held in great esteem in the Buddhist teachings.

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Advice and Encouragement

"Therefore, he uttered the Prajňāpāramitā Mantra which reads: Gate,

gate, paragate, parasamgate, Bodhi svaha!"

In the preceding chapters, Prajňā Dharma Door was made simile to a mantra, here it is explained in a more straight forward manner by classifying it in the form of mantra. To accomplish prajňā through practising this dharma door, usually one has to rely on hearing, thinking and Sutra teaching, namely one has to start from prajňā in words, and then enter into prajňā of contemplation, finally achieving prajňā of ultimate reality. To those people whose ability of enlightenment is poor, it is undoubtedly very difficult. So, the Sutra puts forward another path for these people to accomplish prajňā. That is the chanting of the mantra, by chanting the mantra attentively, one can distance from the delusions and discrimination, leading mind and heart into a state of Samadhi from which prajňā can be generated. People normally think that mantras have no meaning. This is due to our inability to understand them. Mantras in the Chinese language were translated from Sanskrit by their pronunciation, so we cannot tell their meaning. But if we translate the content from Sanskrit, still there is a meaning. Let's take the mantra of the Heart Sutra as an example, ‘gate’ means ‘go’, ‘para’ means ‘the other shore’, ‘sam’ means all, ‘bodhi’ means enlightenment, ‘svaha’ means ‘to accomplish instantly’. Therefore, the comprehensive meaning of The Heart Sutra mantra is "Go, Go, Go to the other shore! All of us go! Have the wish to accomplish enlightenment instantly!" 31 December, 1995, Nanputuo Temple

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References

(1) The Seeker’s Glossary of Buddhism, 1998, Sutra Translation Committee of the U.S. & Canada, [where was it published] (2) Fojiao Da Cidian, 1992, Wu Ru Jun, Beijing China (3) The Diamond Sutra and The Heart Sutra, 1976, translated from Chinese into English by Upasaka Lu K’uan-Yu, originally translated from Sanskrit to Chinese by Kumrajiva, printed by: H.K. Buddhist Book Distributor, Hongkong. (4) A Dictionary of Chinese Buddhist Terms, 1937, compiled by William Edward Soothill and Lew Hodous, Routledge Curzon, London. Other versions of translation of The Heart Sutra 1. Buddhist Wisdom Books , The Heart Sutra, translated and expalained by Edward Conze. Buddhist Youth Association Ltd. Hongkong, 1994 When the Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara Was Coursing in the Deep Prajna Paramita, He Perceived That All Five Skandhas Are Empty. Thus He Overcame All Ills and Suffering. Oh, Sariputra, Form Does Not Differ From the Void, and the Void Does Not Differ From Form. Form is Void and Void is Form; The Same is True For Feelings, Perceptions, Volitions and Consciousness. Sariputra, the Characteristice of The Voidness of All Dharmas Are Non-Arising , Non-Ceasing, Non-Defiled, Non-Pure, Non-Increasing, Non-Decreasing. Therefore, in the Void There Are No Forms, No Feelings, Perceptions, Volitions or Consciousness. No Eye, Ear, Nose, Tongue, Body or Mind; No Form, Sound, Smell, Taste, Touch or Mind object; No Realm of the Eye, Until We Come to No Realm of Consciouness. No Ignorance and Also No Ending of Ignorance, Until We Come to No Old Age and Death and No Ending of Old Age and Death.Also, There is No Truth of Suffering,

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Of the Cause of suffering, Of the Cessation of Suffering, Nor of the Path. There is No Wisdom, and There is No Attainment Whatsoever. Because There is Nothing To Be Attained, The Bodhisattva Relying On Prajna Paramita Has No Obstruction in His Mind Because There is No Obstruction, He Has No Fear, And He Passes Far Beyond Confused Imagination, And Reaches Ultimate Nirvana. The Buddhas of the Past, Present and Future, By Relying on Prajna Paramita, Have Attained Supreme Enlightenment. Therefore, the Prajna Paramita is the Great Magic Spell, The Spell of Illumination,the Supreme Spell, Which Can Truly Preotect One From All Suffering Without Fail. Therefore He Uttered the Spell of Prajnaparamita, Saying Gate, Gate, Paragate, Parasamgate,Bhodhi Svaha. 2. The Prajna Paramita Heart Sutra, commentary by Grand Master T'an Hsu , translated into English by Master Lok To. Sutra Translation Committee of the United States and Cananda, 1995.

The Heart Sutra HOMAGE TO THE PEFECTION OF WISDOM OF WISDOM, THE LOVELY THE HOLY ALALOKITA, THE HOLY LORD AND BODHISATTVA, WAS MOVING IN THE DEEP COURSE OF THE WISDOM WHICH HAS GONE BEYOUD. HE LOOKED DOWN FROM ON HIGH, HE BEHELD BUT FIVE HEAPS, AND HE SAW THAT IN THEIR OWN-BEING THEY WERE EMPTY. HERE, O SARIPUTRA, FORM IS EMPTINESS AND THE VERY EMPTINESS IS FORM; EMPTINESS DOES NOT DIFFER FROM FORM, FORM DOES NOT DFFER FROM EMPTINESS ; WHATEVER IS FORM, THAT IS EMPTINESS,

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WHATEVER IS EMPTINESS, THAT IS FORM, THE SAME IS TRUE OF FEELINGS, PERCEPTIONS, IMPULSES AND CONSCIOUSNESS. HERE, O SARIPUTRA, ALL DHARMA ARE MARKED WITH EMPTINESS; THEY ARE NOT PRODUCED OR STOPPED, NOT DEFILED OR IMMACLATE, NOT DEFICIENT OR COMPLTE. THEREFORE, O SARIPUTRA, IN EMPTINESS THERE IS NO FORM, NOR FEELING, NOR PERCEPTION, NOR IMPULSE, NOR CONSCIOUSNESS; NO EY, EAR, NOSE, TONGUE, BODY, MIND; NO FORMS, SOUNDS, SMELLS, TASTES, TOUCHABLES OR OBJECTS OF MIND; NO SIGHT-ORGAN ELEMENT, AND SO FORTH, UNTIL WE COME TO : NO MIND-CONSCIOUSNESS ELEMENT; THERE IS NO IGNORANCE, NO EXTINCTION OF IGNORANCE, AND SO FORTH, UNTIL WE COME TO; THERE IS NO DECAY AND DEATH, NO EXTINCTION OF DECAY AND DEATH. THERE IS NO SUFFERING, NO ORIGINATION, NO STOPPING, NO PATH. THERE IS NO COGNITION, NO ATTAINMENT AND NO NON- ATTAINMENT. THEREFORE, O SARIPUTRA, IT IS BECAUSE OF HIS NON- ATTAINMENTNESS THAT A BODHISATTVA, THROUGH HAVING RELIED ON THE PERFECTION OF WISDOM, DWELLS WITHOUT THOUGH- COVERINGS. IN THE ABSENCE OF THOUGHT-COVERINGS HE HAS NOT BEEN MADE TO TREMBLE, HE HAS OVERCOME WHAT CAN UPSET, AND IN THE END HE ATTAINS TO NIRVANA. ALL THOSE WHO APPEAR AS BUDDHAS IN THREE PERIODS OF TIME FULLY AWAKE TO THE UTMOST, RIGHT AND PERFECT ENLIGHTENMENT BECAUSE THEY HAVE RELIED ON THE PERFECTION OF WISDOM. THEREFORE, ONE SHOULD KNOW THE PRAJNAPARMITA AS THE FREAT SPELL, THE SPELL OF GREAT

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KNOWLEDGE, THE UNTMOST SPELL, THE UNEQUALLED SPELL, ALLAYER FO ALL SUFFERING, IN TRUTH--FOR WHAT COULD GO WRONG?BY THE PARJNAPARMITA HAS THIS SPELL BEEN DELIVERED. IT RUNS LIKE THIS: GONE, GONE, GONE BEYOUND, GONE ALTOETHER BEYOUND, O WHAT AN AWAKENING, ALL-HAIL.