by Elder Zen Master T'ien Ju
Question 26
In truth, I have always wanted to cultivate in such a way that thought follows upon thought without interruption. Regretfully, I have not yet achieved one-pointedness of Mind. I cannot even rein in the first thought, or else, the previous perception is difficult to forget, or deluded thoughts arise. I cannot keep my thoughts from being disturbed by circumstances and conditions; my Mind and feelings are confused and cannot be stilled. Each time I sit down to finger the rosary for a moment, my thoughts have gone in all directions, suddenly travelling millions of miles without my knowledge or awareness.
At times, when I am preoccupied with some problem, I turn it over and over in my Mind for days and days on end, or even for months. It is impossible to rid myself of such tangled thoughts, not to mention doing away with interruptions in recitation! I confess this not only with all humility and shame, but also, upon reflection, in all sorrow! Is there any way to suppress such occurrences? Could you please help?
Answer
Alas! This is the common disease of almost all practitioners. Under such circumstances, if you do not earnestly restrain yourself, it will be difficult to succeed in the practice of exclusive, uninterrupted cultivation. I have heard that the ancients would bitterly reproach themselves for three things, which I shall explain for your edification. You should bear them in mind.
1. Repaying one’s obligations
Cultivators have a number of important obligations. Let us put aside temporarily the debts to the Buddhas and our teachers. In your case, as a monk, do you not think that you owe a profound and heavy debt to your parents for giving you life and raising you? Having “left home” and all mundane activities, studying the Dharma far from your birth-place for so many years, you were not aware of the hardships and sufferings of your parents. You did not know of their old age and illness, and so did not take proper care of them. When they died, you either had no
knowledge, or, if you were aware of it, you probably returned home too late. When you were young, in order to provide for you and out of concern for your welfare, your parents, at times, committed numerous transgressions. After death, as they descended upon the path of suffering, they hoped that you would come to their rescue, just as a person might wait for a glass of water to assuage his thirst, or for the pouring rain to cease.
If your cultivation is haphazard, your Pure Land karma will not bring results. Thus, you cannot even save yourself, let alone your parents! In such circumstances, you have not only missed the opportunity to take care of their temporal needs, you are now remiss in your obligations to their souls. You are a most unfilial son indeed! The sutras say: “To be unfilial is to sink into hell.” Thus, the Mind of interruption, of failure to cultivate
assiduously, is indeed the karma of hell.
Moreover, you do not weave, yet you wear clothing; you do not plough, yet you eat your fill. Living quarters, bedding, food, clothing, medicine, etc. are all provided by Buddhist followers. The ancient masters have often admonished:
“Buddhist followers, out of respect and veneration for the Triple Jewel, parcel out part of their meager family food budget as a donation to monks and nuns. If the latter are not blameless in their cultivation, even an inch of cloth or a grain of rice will have to be paid back in future lifetimes. To repay the favor of your disciples, you should follow the Pure Land path assiduously, to recue yourself and others. If you let even a single intrusive thought arise and fail to persevere, you have become enmeshed in samsara — endlessly ‘borrowing’ and ‘repaying.’ That very intrusive thought is vile karma or the karma of animality.”
2. The resolute will
The practitioner should be resolute in order to achieve results. In your case, you have spent a lifetime practicing Zen but have not awakened to its meaning. Nor did you master the subtleties of the Buddhist Canon when you began studying the sutras. Even today, your Mind is not yet empty and calm; your thoughts are still in ferment. At times you want to write poetry, at other times you want to draft commentaries; at times you want to expound the Dharma, at other times you want to indulge in Zen talks. Your thoughts are scattered among three or four areas. The ancients have said:
“A Mind which is still grasping is precisely the karma of Birth and Death. As soon as feelings and thoughts [attachments] arise, you are chained for tens of thousands of eons.”
The reason you have not achieved right thought is precisely that your feelings and thoughts are still unfocussed, and such perplexed feelings and thoughts are due to lack of decisiveness. Thus, cultivating with an irresolute Mind is the beginning of rebirth in the Triple Realm.
Furthermore, if a practitioner lacks a determined Mind, he cannot be master of his senses. Because of his unfocussed Mind, he cannot control his body and mouth. As is stated in the sutras:
“I vow that I would rather pour boiling metal in my mouth than allow such a mouth ever to break the precepts and still partake of the food and drink offered by followers. I would rather wrap my body in a red hot metal net than allow such a body to break the precepts and still wear the clothing offered by disciples.”
Need we mention that, because the precepts are not respected, the Mind grows ever more perturbed, and, because of this perturbation, earnest cultivation is interrupted? Therefore, a single thought of interrupting Buddha Recitation is much more than merely the causal karma of red hot nets and boiling metal!
Moreover, if the practitioner’s determination is not strong, he cannot fully realize that all mundane dharmas are illusory, and so he easily chases after dreamlike, empty fame and fortune. When fame and fortune are on his side, he grows deluded and attached. If such fame and fortune belong to others, he develops hatred and envy. The ancients have said:
“To be sunk in the pursuit of fame and fortune is to head for the realms of animals and hungry ghosts. To be given to delusive thoughts of love and hate is to be condemned to the firepit and the boiling cauldron. Thus, a thought of interrupting cultivation is precisely the karma of hungry ghosts and hell.”
3. Seeking an Auspicious Response
Pure Land followers should strive earnestly for a response. The lives of sentient beings are ephemeral and easily cut short; the ghost of impermanence waits for no one. Your hair is already streaked with white, your face has grown wrinkled. The marks of decay and old age are very clear, and death is but a short time away. Therefore, you should strive to cultivate in earnest, to ensure that some auspicious and reliable signs of rebirth appear.
Thus, in ancient China, Elder Master Hui Yuan of Lu Shan saw the Buddha rub his crown three times. Another Elder
Master earnestly recited the Buddha’s name and immediately saw Amitabha Buddha emit rays of light and display auspicious marks. In the case of still another Elder Master, each time he uttered the Buddha’s name, the Great Assembly would see a Buddha flying out of his mouth. This was true for hundreds of thousands of his utterances; hundreds of thousands of Buddhas escaped from his mouth, like so many rosary beads, one after another.(101)
Such responses are countless. If you recite Amitabha Buddha’s name in earnest, without interruption, it is very easy to see Him. Otherwise, it is very difficult. If you do not see the Buddha, you do not have affinities with Him. Without affinities, it is certainly difficult to achieve rebirth. If you are not reborn in the Pure Land, sooner or later you will descend into the evil realms. Thus, a single thought of interrupting recitation
is precisely the karma of rebirth on the Three Evil Paths. You should bear this in mind and ponder it carefully!
The Pure Land practitioner should keep these three admonitions in mind and reflect upon them. He should restrain himself with such earnestness that his Mind becomes inseparable from the Buddha, the Buddha becomes inseparable
from his Mind — Buddha and Mind interpenetrating freely — so that he may see Buddha Amitabha in this very life. To see the Buddha of the Western Pure Land is to see all the Buddhas of the ten directions; to see the Buddhas of the ten directions is to see the Buddha of the Self-Nature. Once the practitioner has seen the Buddha of the Self-Nature, great capacities and power of expedients will develop naturally. At that time, he can rescue all sentient beings, in accordance with his compassionate vows.
This is called Pure Land-Zen, or Zen-Pure Land. Thus, at that stage, the true meaning of the following lines by the Patriarch Yung Ming is clearly demonstrated:
“To practice both Zen and Pure Land is to be like a tiger with horns. In this life, the cultivator is a leader of men. In the next life, he will be a Buddha or a Patriarch.”
You should redouble your efforts and persevere!
The visiting Zen Master, having listened to this teaching, was both shaken and joyful. He remained silent for some time, as though he had just recovered a precious object which had been lost. Elder Master T’ien Ju added, “Zen and Pure Land have always been Non-Dual.(102) If you thoroughly understand, you thoroughly understand them both; if you miss the point, you miss the point of both — because there are no dharmas outside the Mind, no Mind outside of dharmas. You should make no mistake about this!”
The Zen guest immediately made his obeisance and said, “I am very fortunate to have received instruction from you, Master. I now know the path back to my Self-Nature, the way home.” He then slowly took his leave and departed.
Additional comments
“Zen and Pure Land have always been Non-Dual. If you thoroughly understand, you thoroughly understand them both; if you miss the point, you miss the point of both.” These words of Elder Master Ti’en Ju are truly to the point. The True Mind encompasses an untold number of dharmas, an infinite number of lands. In Zen, it is called “Original Face;” in Pure Land it is called “Self-Nature Amitabha.” The Surangama Sutra states:
“[Even] the empty space of the ten directions, born in your Mind, is but a cluster of clouds in the midst of the vast, blue sky — not to mention the countless worlds in that very empty space!”
The ancients have said, as well.
“These countless dharmas are the Bodhi Way. Why think of Bodhi (enlightenment) as being so far away?”
Since the True Mind encompasses ten thousand marks and forms, if the Zen practitioner merely understands Zen through the mundane conception of emptiness [i.e., nothing exists] and rejects the existence of the Western Pure Land and the seeking of rebirth, he has not yet truly understood Zen. The reason Master Ti’en Ju carefully explained this point on several occasions, was to destroy this “attachment to emptiness.”
From the point of view of noumenon, the True Mind is all-illuminating and encompasses countless worlds — this is referred to as Zen–Pure Land. Countless worlds are reflected in the True Mind, everything is empty, still, illusory and dreamlike — this is referred to as Pure Land-Zen.(103)
From the viewpoint of skill-in-means and capacities, when the practitioner has awakened to the Original Nature and made the compassionate vow to engage in practices which adorn the Buddha lands and rescue sentient beings — this is Zen-Pure Land. On the other hand, if he teaches and transforms sentient beings, returning them to their True Nature through Pure Land practice — this is Pure Land-Zen.
In summary, Zen is Pure Land, Pure Land is Zen. To reject Pure Land is to fail to truly understand Zen; likewise, to reject Zen is to fail to comprehend Pure Land thoroughly. “If you thoroughly understand, you thoroughly understand them both; if you miss the point, you miss the point of both…”(104)
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101. This image of Buddhas emerging from the mouths of Great Masters appears frequently in Japanese Pure Land paintings; particularly in the depiction of the Patriarch Shan Tao. (cf. Joji Okazaki, Pure Land Buddhist Painting, p.173.)
102. Non-dual.
“This is synonymous with reality, voidness, etc. But it must be remembered that nonduality does not necessarily mean unity, that unity is only one of the pair unity-duality; hence nonduality implies nonunity as well.” (Robert Thurman, The Holy Teaching of Vimalakirti, p.163.) See also Glossary under “Non-Dual.”
103. “According to the recorded sayings of Ch’an Mirror, ‘the Self-Mind is all-pervading and if you see a Buddha, this means that you can see your own Buddha.’ That which is Fundamentally Unborn is existent but its existence does not alter the fact that it is Fundamentally Unborn, and so Ch’an may be said to be the Ch’an of the Pure Land and the Pure Land may also be said to the Pure Land of Ch’an. From this point of view, Dhyana [Zen] and Name-Reciting are in common with each other.’ (Hsu Heng Chi/P.H. Wei, What’s Buddhism? Theory and Practice, p.59.) The expression “Ch’an of the Pure Land, Pure Land of Ch’an” (or Zen/Pure Land, Pure Land/Zen) indicates that the various Buddhist approaches, while seemingly different, lead ultimately to the same goal: purification of the Mind. As the saying goes, “all roads lead to Rome.”
104. According to the Mahasamghata Sutra:
“To recite the Holy Name of Amita Buddha may be said to be tantamount to cultivating the profound and supreme Ch’an.” (Quoted in Hsu Heng Chi, What’s Buddhism?, p.22.)
See also Dumoulin on the Zen/Pure Land relationship:
“In Zen monasteries, the invocation of Amitabha was practiced in combination with sitting in meditation. Moreover, during the Ming period we see a complete fusing of all Chinese Buddhist schools and sects.” (Zen Buddhism: A History, p.286.)
related post: Question 1 （Doubts Based on Misreading the Sutras）
Source Of Information:
《Pure Land Buddhism (Dialogues with Ancient Masters)》, by Elder Zen Master T'ien Ju, translated with annotations by Master Thich Thien Tam, printed and donated for free distribution by: The Corporate Body of the Buddha Educational Foundation (11F, 55, Hang Chow South Road Sec 1, Taipei, Taiwan), printed in February 2023.
*** The information provided above does not contain personal opinion of this blog.
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