Shoaku Makusa

The ancient buddha said, “Refrain from all evil, practice all good, purify your own mind—this is the teaching of all buddhas.” This is the universal precept of the seven buddhas and ancestral teachers, rightly transmitted from the former buddha to the later buddha; the later buddha succeeded the former buddha. It is not only the seven buddhas; this is the teaching of all buddhas. You should diligently investigate this principle. The dharma way of the seven buddhas is necessarily like the dharma way of the seven buddhas. The transmission and succession are still the intimate communication within.

Since this is the teaching of all buddhas, it is the teaching, practice, and realization of a hundred thousand myriad buddhas. Now, what is called “all evil”—within the natures of good, evil, and neutral, there is the nature of evil. That nature is unborn. Even though the natures of good and neutral are also said to be unborn, non-leaking, and true reality, within these three natures there are many kinds of dharmas.

“All evil” has sameness and difference: the evil of this world and the evil of other worlds are same and different; evil of former times and later times are same and different; evil in the heavens and evil among humans are same and different. How much more so are the Way and the world, evil of the Way, good of the Way, and neutral of the Way, vastly distinct. Good and evil are time; time is not good or evil. Good and evil are dharmas; dharmas are not good or evil. Dharmas are equal to evil, dharmas are equal to good. Yet, in learning anuttara-samyak-sambodhi, hearing the teaching, practicing, and realizing the fruit are profound, far-reaching, and wondrous.

This unsurpassed bodhi is heard either from a wise teacher or from the sutras. At the beginning, one hears “refrain from all evil.” Not hearing “refrain from all evil” is not the true dharma of the buddha; it must be a demon’s talk. Know that hearing “refrain from all evil” is the true dharma of the buddha. This “do not create all evil” is not first made and established thus by ordinary people. When hearing the teaching that has become the discourse of bodhi, it is heard thus.

Being heard thus is an expression through the words of unsurpassed bodhi. Since it is bodhi speech, therefore speech is bodhi. When, having become the speaking of unsurpassed bodhi, it is heard and grasped, one turns and aspires to “refrain from all evil,” and carries on practicing “refrain from all evil.” In the place where evil is already not being created, the power of practice immediately manifests. This manifestation uses the exhaustive measure of exhaustive lands, exhaustive worlds, exhaustive times, and exhaustive dharmas as its measure. That measure takes “refrain from” as its measure.

The right person at the right time, though they dwell and move about in the place where evil could be created, encounter conditions where evil could be created, and mingle with friends who create evil, nevertheless do not create evil at all. This is because the power and capacity of “refrain from” manifests. Evil itself does not express itself as evil; there is no equipment fixed as evil. There is a principle of picking up and putting down.

At the right time, one knows the principle of not obstructing an evil person, and the principle of not destroying a person’s evil becomes clear. When you raise your own mind to practice, raise your body to practice, there is the eighty or ninety percent of the opportunity’s forefront, and there is the “refrain from” at the back of the head.

When you pick up your own body and mind to practice, when you pick up someone else’s body and mind to practice, the power of practicing with the four elements and five aggregates is suddenly seen to be accomplished; it does not defile the self of the four elements and five aggregates, and even today’s four elements and five aggregates are brought along to be practiced. The power of the four elements and five aggregates that is the practice of this very now makes the four elements and five aggregates of the foregoing into practice. Even mountains, rivers, and the great earth, sun, moon, and stars are made to practice; mountains, rivers, the great earth, sun, moon, and stars in turn make us practice. It is not the eye of one time; it is the living eye of all times.

Because it is all times that are the living eye of the eye, it makes all buddhas and all ancestral teachers practice, hear the teaching, and realize the fruit. Because all buddhas and all ancestral teachers have never defiled teaching, practice, and realization, teaching, practice, and realization have never obstructed all buddhas and all ancestral teachers. Therefore, when making buddhas and ancestral teachers practice, there are no buddhas or ancestral teachers who evade the opportunity’s forefront or back of past, present, and future.

Although at the time when sentient beings become buddhas and ancestral teachers, they are not obstructed by the buddhas and ancestral teachers they ordinarily possess, they should carefully consider in the walking, standing, sitting, and lying of the twelve hours the principle of becoming a buddha and ancestral teacher. In becoming a buddha and ancestral teacher, one does not destroy, steal, or lose sentient beings. Yet, it is a dropping away. It makes good, evil, cause, and effect practice. This is not moving cause and effect, not creating them. Cause and effect sometimes make us practice.

The original face of this cause and effect is already clear—this is “refrain from.” It is unborn, impermanent, not obscured, not falling away. Because it is a dropping away. When investigating thus, it manifests that all evil has always been “refrain from” in a single thread. Aided and prompted by this manifestation, one thoroughly sees and decisively sits that it is “refrain from all evil.” At the right time, in the beginning, middle, and end, as it manifests with “refrain from all evil,” evil is not produced by conditions; it is only “refrain from.” Evil is not extinguished by conditions; it is only “refrain from.” If evil is equal, then all dharmas are also equal. Those who know evil is produced by conditions but do not see that these conditions themselves are “refrain from” are pitiable companions. Because the buddha-seed arises from conditions, conditions arise from the buddha-seed.

Evil is not nonexistent; it is only “refrain from.” Evil is not existent; it is only “refrain from.” Evil is not empty; it is “refrain from.” Evil is not form; it is “refrain from.” Evil is not “refrain from”; it is only “refrain from.” For example, the spring pine is not nonexistent, not existent; it is uncreated. The autumn chrysanthemum is not existent, not nonexistent; it is uncreated.

All buddhas are not existent, not nonexistent; they are “refrain from.” Pillars, lanterns, whisks, staffs, and so on are not existent, not nonexistent; they are “refrain from.” The self is not existent, not nonexistent; it is “refrain from.” Such study is a manifest kōan; it is the manifestation of the kōan. Practice from the host, practice from the guest. Since it is already such, even regretting what was not created as having been created is unavoidable; furthermore, this is the power of “refrain from” practice. Therefore, to intend that if it is “refrain from” one should not create is like trying to reach the far shore by stepping on the near shore. “Refrain from all evil” is not only seeing the donkey in the well; it is seeing the well in the well.

It is seeing the donkey in the donkey, seeing the person in the person, seeing the mountain in the mountain. Because there is a principle of responsive fitting, it is “refrain from all evil.” “The true dharma body of the buddha is like space; responding to things, it manifests forms, like the moon in water.” Because the responding to things is “refrain from,” there is the “refrain from” of manifesting forms; “like space” is left clap, right clap. “Like the moon in water” is being obstructed by the water-moon. These “refrain from” are a manifestation beyond doubt.

Practice all good deeds." These "all good deeds" are the quality of goodness within the three natures. Although there are all good deeds within the quality of goodness, there are no good deeds that have been present from the beginning, awaiting the practitioner. At the very moment of performing good, there is no good deed that does not arrive. Although the myriad good deeds are without form, their reckoning at the place of performing good is swifter than a magnet. Their power is stronger than a great storm wind. The great earth, mountains, and rivers, the worlds and lands, and the power of accumulated karma cannot obstruct the reckoning of good.

However, the principle that the recognition of good differs according to the world is because the same recognition is taken as good; it is like the manner of preaching the Dharma by all buddhas of the three times. "The same" means that the preaching of the Dharma while in the world is simply a matter of time. Because life span and bodily stature are also entrusted to time, they preach the Dharma of non-discrimination.

Therefore, the good for the capacity of faith-practice and the good for the capacity of Dharma-practice are vastly different, as if they were not separate teachings. For example, the precept-keeping of a śrāvaka is like the precept-breaking of a bodhisattva. All good deeds are not born from conditions and do not perish from conditions. Even if it is said that all good deeds are all dharmas, all dharmas are not all good deeds. Conditions, birth-and-death, and all good deeds are such that if the head is upright, the tail is upright. Although all good deeds are "practice," they are not by the self, nor are they known by the self. They are not by another, nor are they known by another.

Because in the knowledge and views of self and other there is a self in knowledge, another in knowledge, a self in view, and another in view, the living eye of each is present in the sun and present in the moon. This is "practice." At the very moment of practicing, even if there is a present kōan, it is not the beginning or formation of the kōan, nor is it the abiding of the kōan; how much less can this be called "practice"?

Although it is the practice of performing good, it cannot be measured. The present practice is this living eye, yet it is not a measurement. It is not present for the sake of measuring the Dharma. The measurement of the living eye should not be the same as the measurement of other dharmas. All good deeds are not existence or non-existence, form or emptiness, etc.; they are simply "practice." Any place of presence, any time of presence, is necessarily practice. In this practice, the presence of all good deeds is necessarily found. The presence of practice, even if called a kōan, is not birth-and-death, nor is it conditions.

The abiding, entering, and emerging of practice are also like this. When even a single good within all good deeds is practiced, the whole body of the exhausted Dharma, the true ground, etc., are all practiced together. The cause and effect of this good are equally the present kōan of practice. Although the cause is not first and the effect later, the cause is fulfilled and the effect is fulfilled. The cause is equal to the Dharma, the effect is equal to the Dharma.

Although the effect is experienced due to the cause, there is no before or after; because there is a Way of equality of before and after.

Purify your own mind" means "do no evil" is itself, and "do no evil" is purity. It is the "your own" of "your own," and the "mind" of "your own mind." It is the "your own" of "do no evil," and the "mind" of "do no evil." It is the mind of "do all good," the purity of "do all good," the "your own" of "do all good," and the "itself" of "do all good." Therefore, this is called the teaching of all buddhas. So-called all buddhas are, for instance, like the lord of the heavens. Though they are said to be the same as and different from the lord of the heavens, all lords of the heavens are not all buddhas. Or they are like a wheel-turning sage king.

However, all wheel-turning sage kings are not all buddhas. You should thoroughly study and practice the principle of this kind. Though you may study without asking what all buddhas are like, and it may seem like useless hardship, you are further a sentient being undergoing suffering and are not practicing the buddha-way. "Do no evil" and "do all good" are the donkey's business not yet departed, the horse's business already arrived.

The Tang dynasty's Bai Juyi was a lay disciple of Chan Master Foguang Ruman and a dharma descendant of Chan Master Jiangxi Daji. When he was serving as the governor of Hangzhou, he went to visit Chan Master Daolin of the Bird's Nest. By the way, Juyi asked, "What is the essential meaning of the Buddha-dharma?" Daolin said, "Refrain from all evil, practice all good." Juyi said, "If it is like this, even a three-year-old child could say it." Daolin said, "Though a three-year-old child may be able to say it, an eighty-year-old man cannot practice it." Upon hearing this, Juyi immediately bowed in gratitude and withdrew.

Truly, although Juyi was a descendant of General Bai, he was a rare genius, a poet-immortal of his age. It is transmitted that he was the literary talent of twenty-four lifetimes. He had the epithet of Mañjuśrī and also the epithet of Maitreya. There was no one who did not know of his elegant sensibility; there should be no morning when his sea of writing did not surge. However, in the Buddha Way, he was a beginner, a latecomer. Moreover, regarding this "Refrain from all evil, practice all good," it seems he had never even dreamed of its essential meaning.

Juyi thought that Daolin was merely acknowledging a deliberate, intentional approach, teaching "do not create evil, you should practice good," and thus, not knowing or hearing the eternal principle of "Refrain from all evil, practice all good" that permeates past and present throughout the ancient ages of the Buddha Way, because he did not inquire into the place of the Buddha-dharma and lacked the power of the Buddha-dharma, he spoke as he did. Even if one warns against fabricated evil, even if one encourages fabricated good, it must be the non-creation of the presently manifest.

Generally, the Buddha-dharma is first heard at the place of a true teacher, and the ultimate fruition is the same. This is called "the head is upright, the tail is upright." It is called wondrous cause and wondrous effect, buddha-cause and buddha-effect. The cause and effect of the Buddha Way, if it is not a theory of maturation and equal outflow, etc., then without buddha-cause one cannot realize buddha-effect. Because Daolin expresses this principle, he possesses the Buddha-dharma.

Even if all evils fill the entire world in layers upon layers and swallow the entire dharma in layers upon layers, this is the liberation of non-creation. Since all good is already good in the beginning, middle, and end, it is such that the nature, characteristics, essence, power, etc., of practice are just as they are. Because Juyi had never trodden this trace, he said, "Even a three-year-old child could say it." He speaks thus because he lacks the very power to truly say it. Pitiable, Juyi, what are you saying? Because you have not yet heard the Buddha's wind. Do you know the three-year-old child? Do you know the principle of the child's birth?

One who knows the three-year-old child surely knows the buddhas of the three times. One who does not yet know the buddhas of the three times, how could they know the three-year-old child? Do not think that because you face it you know it; do not think that because you do not face it you do not know it. One who knows a single speck of dust knows the entire world; one who penetrates a single dharma penetrates all dharmas. One who does not penetrate all dharmas does not penetrate a single dharma.

When one who has studied penetration thoroughly penetrates, because they see all dharmas and see a single dharma, one who studies a single speck of dust inevitably studies the entire world. To think that a three-year-old child cannot speak the Buddha-dharma, to think that what a three-year-old child might say is easy, is extreme folly. The reason is that clarifying life and clarifying death is the one great matter of cause and condition for the Buddha's house. An ancient worthy said, "When you were first born, you already had the share of the lion's roar." The share of the lion's roar is the merit of the Tathāgata turning the dharma wheel; it is turning the dharma wheel.

Also, an ancient worthy said, "Birth and death, coming and going, are the true human body." Therefore, to clarify the true body and manifest the merit of the lion's roar is truly the one great matter; it cannot be easy. For this reason, to clarify the causal conditions and practice of a three-year-old child is an even greater cause and condition. This is because it is both the same and not the same as the practice and causal conditions of the buddhas of the three times.

Juyi, foolishly, because he had never heard the saying of a three-year-old child, spoke thus without even suspecting that such a thing could exist. He did not hear Daolin's voice of the Way, more thunderously manifest than thunder, and intending to say it cannot be said, he said, "Even a three-year-old child can still say it." This is to neither hear the child's lion's roar nor to miss the Chan master's turning of the dharma wheel.

The Chan master, unable to cease his compassion, further said, "Though a three-year-old child may be able to say it, an eighty-year-old man cannot practice it." The meaning of these words is that there are words which a three-year-old child can say; one should thoroughly investigate this. There is a Way which an eighty-year-old man cannot practice; one should thoroughly exert effort in it. He was saying: The child's saying is entrusted to you, yet it is not entrusted to the child. The old man's not practicing is entrusted to you, yet it is not entrusted to the old man. The Buddha-dharma takes such discernment, such expression, and such upholding of the essence as its principle.