Master Zhenlin Talks on the Gradual Cultivation of Dhyana

Buddhas and Bodhisattvas have been returned to their trueselves, and therefore can roam around as they will. Some are searching for the Buddha nature, but never get it. After all, the Buddha nature is bright and perfect, and is formless. For example, if you hold water with a square-shaped bottle, the water is square-shaped. If with a round bottle, it is round-shaped. May I now ask you, now, whether water is round or square? It is neither. It is formless, and attached to nothing. This is just what the Buddha Nature is about. The mind is characterized by quietude and extinction, with its essential brightness.

“Good Knowing Advisors, worldly people recite ‘Prajna’ with their mouths all day long and yet do not recognize the Prajna of their self-nature. Just as talking about food will not make you full, so, too, if you only speak of emptiness you will not see your own nature in then thousand ages. In the end you will not have obtained any benefit.

“Good Knowing Advisors, Maha Prajna Paramita is a Sanskrit word which means ‘great wisdom which has arrived at the other shore.’ It must be practiced in the mind, and not just recited in words. When the mouth recites and the mind does not practice, it is like an illusion, a transformation, dew drops, or lightening. However, when the mouth recites and the mind practices, then mind and mouth are in mutual accord. One’s own original nature is Buddha; apart from the nature there is no other Buddha.”

“What is meant by Maha? Maha means ‘great’. The capacity of the mind is vast and great like empty space, and has no boundaries. It is not square or round, great or small. Neither is it blue, yellow, red or white. It is not above or below, or long or short. It is without anger, without joy, without right, without wrong, without good, without evil, and it has no head or tail.

“All Buddha-lands are ultimately the same as empty space. The wonderful nature of worldly people is originally empty, and there is not a single dharma which can be obtained. The true emptiness of the self-nature is also like this.” This remark by the Six Patriarch is to remind us that we won’t feel full if simply watching others eat the Mantou (a Chinese bread made of flour).

Everything that we see in cultivation arises as a result of the disturbances created by the five skandas of forms, feelings, thoughts, activities and consciousness. Therefore, as long as we keep our mind from being disturbed by them, it shall all disappear into oblivion.

Well, if you are influenced by the states, you then enter the demonic states and are pestered by demons. In that case, it is what is often referred to as psychiatric. People possessed by demons are different as they are in different states. Preferably, they should meet me in person to get cured most effectively. Emptiness arises from false views. False views include the seeing of emptiness, the viewing of penetration, the viewing of solid objects, and the viewing of form. The Buddha Nature is free from fantasizing, and therefore the Buddha is clear-cut and precise in wording. Well, I shall have to lecture the Shurangama Sutra to answer your questions. All that I have said to your questions can be found in the Shurangama Sutra. Dharma is born out of conditions. Dharma is not fixed a Dharma, but arises in accord with conditions. I shall expound upon it if requested. Actually, it was not first spoken by me. The Buddha talked on it a long time ago. : )

Sitting in stillness even with false thinking helps, too. Keep it going if your mind is rattled by false thinking. False thinking gives rise to various states. However, you shall enter the state of quietude before you know it. In extreme quietude, wisdom is opened. A mind of wisdom illumines everything and all the states become clear to you. You shall be able to seek the states in further places. As is said, the exercise of Qi (or breath) will give rise to energy; the exercise of energy shall give rise to spirit; the exercise of spirit to emptiness, and the exercise of emptiness to awakening. When awakened, one sees far. If one sees far and wide. When one sees far and wide, it just all disappears into oblivion, and gets back to stillness.

Once awakened, one can keep pursing the state in a more distance place. In the final analysis, it is non-beginning as the beginning. As it proceeds further, it takes one to the state of quietude where nothing can be said. These are states found in Chan. There are so many of them. You shall know how they are if you are into the state. Keep in mind what I have just said. It is very useful, and can keep you from getting lost.

Let me explain it to you. Well, anyway, the states of Chan, once put to words, become smaller in scope. To put it simply, it is fine that if our mind is disturbed by idle thoughts or false thinking. Let it be as it should, as long as we pay attention to observing how they arise and disappear. Keep doing so in cultivation, and then gradually the idle thoughts and false thinking get less and less, and our mind is at peace. Once our mind is at peace, so is our body. We feel refreshed and comfortable both physically and mentally. Think, then, how come it is so comfortable. Gradually, the light of wisdom shall emit. Well, the light of wisdom is not really a ray of lights, but still we shall feel brightened and illuminated all over our body. Our mind shall be pure, without the least trace of dust. Keep an eye on the origin of the wisdom light as we continue with our cultivation. Where does it come from and end? During this process, innumerable states and images shall unfold before us from the wisdom light. First, it is of the Three Realm, unfolded thoroughly and completely before us. It is a temporary state in the course of cultivation and does not indicate sagehood. Keep applying efforts and observing. The states and images shall disappear, and we are the state of extinction. This is the true state, the Treasury of the Tathagata. The Treasury of the Tathagata is not the Treasury of the Tathagata. It is because our mind is discriminative that we try to speak it when nothing can be spoken. The explanation is not the real explanation, as it only makes it smaller in scope. Anyway, the key is practice and try to feel it as we practice. Observing it attentively is a wonderfully subtle way of cultivation. Remember to always reflect inwardly! When we meditate deeply on Perfection of Wisdom, we see clearly that the five aspects of human existence are empty.

You have to eat it before you know how mantou tastes, and know how comfortable it is after you are full. Eating the mantou is a Dharma. The Dharma is not fixed. If you don’t eat it yourself but only see other people do it, you shall stay hungry! After all, extremely loud sound is not audible. When your mind is open, you understand it all! Silence speaks better than sounds.