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Outstanding Pat, thank you for sharing! That is very good reading I must say!
I am definately going to get a library membership this weekend and try and find that book!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- He who knows much about others may be learned, but he who understands himself is more intelligent. He who controls others may be powerful, but he who has mastered himself is mightier still.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- He who knows much about others may be learned, but he who understands himself is more intelligent. He who controls others may be powerful, but he who has mastered himself is mightier still.
When your mind doesn't stir inside, the world doesn't arise outside. When the world and the mind are both transparent, this is true vision. And such understanding is true understanding.
I have just re-discovered this thread, and subsequently read the Bloodstream Sermon.
Of all the Buddhist scriptures I have read (and that is not very many), this one is a little difficult for me to absorb. I find it incredibly profound, but there are some areas of it that I find a little bit, in all honesty, scary!
Specifically these paragraphs:
" People who don't see their nature and try to stop their thinkings all the time are great sinful poeple and fools. They will fall into the Memoryless-Emptiness. They're like drunks. They cannot tell good from evil. If you intend to practice non-doing, you have to see your nature before you can put an end to all states and conditions. To attain the Buddha's Way without seeing your nature is impossible. "
"Even if a Buddha or bodhisattva" should suddenly appear before you, there's no need for reverence. This mind of ours is empty and contains no such form. Those who hold onto appearances are devils. They fall from the Path. Why worship illusions born of the mind? Those who worship don't know, and those who know don't worship. By worshipping you come under the spell of devils. I point this out because 1 afraid you're unaware of it. The basic nature of a Buddha has no such form. Keep this in mind, even if something unusual should appear. Don't embrace it, and don't fear it, and don't doubt that your Mind is basically pure. Where could there be room for any such form? Also, at the appearance of spirits, demons, or divine conceive neither respect nor fear. Your mind is basically empty. All appearances are illusions. Don't hold on to appearances. If you envision a Buddha, a Dharma, or a bodhisattva" and conceive respect for them, you relegate yourself to the realm of mortals. If you seek direct understanding, don't hold on to any appearance whatsoever, and you'll succeed. I have no other advice. The sutras say, "All appearances are illusions." They have no fixed existence, o constant form. They're impermanent. Don't cling to appearances and you'll be of one mind with the Buddha. The sutras say, "'That which is free of all form is the Buddha."
Student: But why shouldn't we worship Buddhas and bodhisattvas?
Bodhidharma: Devils and demons possess the power of manifestation. They can create the appearance of bodhisattvas in all sorts of guises. But they're false. None of them are Buddhas. The Buddha is your own mind. Don't misdirect your worship."
"A Buddha is an idle person. He doesn't run around after fortune and fame. What good are such things in the end? People who don't see their nature and think reading sutras, invoking Buddhas', studying long and hard, practicing morning and night, never lying down, or acquiring knowledge is the Dharma, blaspheme the Dharma. Buddhas of the past and future only talk about seeing your nature. All practices are impermanent. Unless they see their nature people who claim to have attained unexcelled, complete enlightenment" are liars. Among Shakyamuni's ten greatest disciples, Ananda was foremost in learning. But he didn't know the Buddha. All he did was study and memorize. Arhats don't know the Buddha. All they know are so many practices for realization, and they become trapped by cause and effect. Such is a mortal's karma: no escape from birth and death. By doing the opposite of what he intended, Such people blaspheme the Buddha. Killing them would not be wrong. The sutras say, "Since icchantikas are incapable of belief, killing them would be blameless, whereas people who believe reach the state of Buddhahood."
Unless you see your nature, You shouldn't go around criticizing the goodness of others. There's no advantage in deceiving yourself. Good and bad are distinct. Cause and effect are clear. Heaven and hell are right before your eves. But fools don't believe and fall straight into a hell of endless darkness without even knowing it. What keeps them from believing is the heaviness of their karma. They're like blind people who don't believe there's such a thing as light. Even if you explain it to them, they still don t believe, because they're blind. How can they possibly distinguish light?"
At my current level of understanding, I think that this teaching is meant for those who have renounced everything in order to attain Perfect Enlightenment. Therefore, in this context, even that which is considered 'good' in the phenomenal world is rejected as illusory.
Would I be right to conclude that these teachings are for very advanced cultivators, and to not place too much weight on them for now?
It would be nice if those who have read the Bloodstream Sermon could give their comment.
The language can appear harsh yes, but I find it a beautiful heads-up rather then scary.
The Buddha is your own mind. Don't misdirect your worship
Very important and rarely understood. How do you not misdirect your worship? very simple;
Avoid evil, do good, cultivate the mind
About the reverence for higher beings, those that know from experience such things will know the deep, deep joy and gratitude that manifests.
However, I can imagine some people, even with good karma and understanding but not with open hearts can easily twist this into reverence and/or even fear.
I can see the text you quoted as a heads up to those with that perspective.
Last edited by Omar; 16 November 2010, 05:33 PM.
Reason: I wanted to write mooore
Thank you for your reply. I think I was reading the scripture with the wrong perspective before
Avoid Evil, Do Good, and Cultivate the Mind - Simple and Profound.
I have also found this beautiful 'heads-up' today:
ZEN MASTER LINJI'S WARNING: "Followers of the Way, do not seek for anything in written words. You will tire your heart and inhale icy air without profit"
I think I might have got a bit too wrapped up in the vast sea of holy texts recently...
I recently received a message from Sigung/Sifu, in which he kindly elaborated on Patriarch Bodhidharma's Bloodstream Sermon. He has asked that I might share his teaching in the forum, so that others might benefit from the explanation:
"You will have a better understanding if you realize that the particular teaching you quoted was meant for his direct disciples who had much background knowledge, and more importantly it was meant to help them attain enlightenment or least satori instantly. Taken out of this context, the teaching as you have rightly said can be scary.
These disciples already had great respect for Buddhas and Bodhisattvas (in the phenomenal realm). Reverence for Buddhas and Bodhisattvas involved thought, which transforms the transcendental into the phenomenal. So, to help them cut out all thoughts so that they could attain the transcendental, Bodhidharma made such drastic statements.
This was similar to a Zen master telling his disciples that if they met a Buddha, kill him! Of course the disciples knew that it did not mean they physically killed a Buddha. It meant that they cut out all thoughts, including the thought of a Buddha.
At a lower level, this understanding applies to those who read advanced internal force training methods from classics. The classics were meant for the initiated. Hence, basic knowledge that the initiated knew was not mentioned. The uninitiated who attempt these training methods on their own would harm themselves as they do not have the basic knowledge and basic skills. I explained this in some detail in one of the issues in my Question-Answer series. I can't remember where it is located; you would have to make a search in a search-engine. It concerns training for Red-Sand Palm."
- Grandmaster Wong Kiew Kit
Thank You Sigung for kindly explaining this profound text for us, and to all who have made it availiable to us by posting links to it on this forum.
It would be nice if we could continue our discussion.
Thank you Max for sharing both of these posts so openly and honestly.
I have had more than a few experiences of the appearance of these heavenly beings at many of Sifu's incredible courses. It is always fascinating to me that if I try to perceive their form once I am aware of the presence I often lose the connection quite instantly.
However when I feel the presence of a heavenly being and instead relax, smile from the heart and expand I find all at once there is no difference between myself and the heavenly being. in fact in the first few moments I am filled with reverence and actual pain from the joy of the closeness to such pure and compassionate energy and yet in the next instant I often feel a sudden oneness where I am no different from that energy and there are no words to describe how clear I feel in those moments - free from delusion I feel neither good nor bad, just one. In a moment it feels there is nothing to grasp for, nothing to attain as it is all here, always in this instant if I should just let go and accept it.
There have been times I thought this seeing of the heavenly being's energy as no different from my own was a sort of blasphemy and I wanted to question myself but each time the feeling is so strong, so simple and so easy I simply have to accept it for what it is.
This year at Summer camp i had a most amazing experience during the Sinew Metamorphosis course. Some piece of me truly let go of fear and in trusting Sifu completely allowed myself to expand while not fearing whether what I found would be incredible, divine, powerful etc.. I allowed myself to look at the cosmos without expecting anything.
What did I find? Absolutely nothing. Nothing that my "mind" could perceive or understand in a way I normally see or understand. And yet this experience has wrought the most profound and deepest changes in my phenomenal self that I have ever known. It is as though whatever I "saw" there in that nothingness as I relinquished consciousness as I know it, changed my entire understanding of what is around and within me in a way that I simply can NOT see or explain in words. All i can do is accept the new way I feel, the deep peace and simple feelings and watch as they change the very way I interact with the worlds within me.
While the sutras often seem obvious and clear to me my understanding from reading them is nothing compared to the experience of nothing?!?!
Thank goodness our Qi Gong teaches us to flow and accept because if I couldn't this might just make my brain implode!!
I read some passages of Bodhidharmas teachings yesterday. They are really nice. Just strait to the point.
Benedikt Vennen
Shaolin Wahnam Germany
______________________
May I be firm and resolute. may I be kind, compassionate, and friendly. May I be humble, calm, quiet, unruffled and serene. May I serve to be perfect. May I be perfect to serve.
For those of you who are still unfamiliar with the Blood Stream Sermon you can hear the talk from Speaker and Meditation Monk Hyon Gak Sunim. The talk or lecture is in 8 parts.
Young Caine: How does man rid himself of such terrible things?
Master Kahn: Each man must start with himself, within himself.. By slowly forging his Chi, the bond between the finite and the infinte, the inner essense of his strenght and the limitless power of the Universe, only thus can you conquer the power.. and the presence of evil.
After reading Sifu's "The Complete Book of Zen", I searched for more on the Platform Sutra and the 6th Patriarch; I found a beautiful comment on the Platform Sutra by the Venerable Tripitaka Master Hua; the Venerable Master's commentaries has helped me in understanding and getting the proper mindset. I was just browsing it right now and found the following excerpt, I believe it fits the discussion nicely:
Sutra:
"There are two kinds of people, not two kinds of Dharma. Enlightenment and confusion differ, and seeing can be quick or slow. The deluded person recites the Buddha's name, seeking rebirth there, while the enlightened person purifies his own mind. Therefore the Buddha said, 'As the mind is purified, the Buddhaland is purified.'"
Commentary:
The two kinds of people are not white people and yellow people, but wise people and deluded ones. There is only one Dharma; deluded or wise, you cultivate the same Dharma.
Confused people recite the Buddha's name and expect to be reborn in the Western Paradise, while the wise recite the Buddha's name in order to purify their own minds. The pure is the Western Paradise. If you understand that, then it is not 10,000,000,000 lands away; it is right here. If you don't understand, you don't know how many Buddhalands beyond even that number it is. It is said,
Confused, a thousand books are few;
Enlightened, one word is too much.
When confused, you may study this Sutra, study that Sutra, investigate back and forth and still not understand. When truly awake, there is no need to study; one word is too much. But you must truly understand. Do not pretend and say, "I don't have to recite the Buddha's name." That is just laziness. Once a man who was well-read said to me, "I have read many books, and now I find that they are all wrong, so I no longer read books." He meant that he had realized Buddhahood and he longer needed anything. This is extremely stupid behavior. Understanding nothing, he faked understanding. You may try to brew tea in cold water, forcing it to steep, but you will never get tea. How can you brew tea in cold water? There are many strange people in the world--an uncountable number.
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That is very good reading I must say!
from the Heart...
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