Bukkyō (Sūtras)

Within this, there is the teaching of bodhisattvas, and there is the teaching of all buddhas. These are equally the implements of the great Way. The implements follow their master; the master uses the implements. Because of this, the buddhas and ancestors of the western heavens and eastern lands, at the proper time of "just this," whether through a wise teacher or through a sutra scroll, each and every one arouses the aspiration, practices, and attains the fruit, without the slightest gap.

The arousal of aspiration is through sutra scrolls and wise teachers; practice is through sutra scrolls and wise teachers; the attainment of the fruit is an intimate encounter with sutra scrolls and wise teachers. Before the pivotal moment and after the phrase, it is equally participating together with sutra scrolls and wise teachers. Within the pivotal moment and within the phrase, it is equally participating together with sutra scrolls and wise teachers. A wise teacher necessarily penetrates and masters the sutra scrolls. To penetrate and master means to make the sutra scrolls one's land, to make the sutra scrolls one's body and mind.

They employ the sutra scrolls as skillful means for others; they employ the sutra scrolls as sitting, lying, walking, and standing. They make the sutra scrolls their parents; they make the sutra scrolls their children and grandchildren. Because they make practice and understanding into sutra scrolls, this is the wise teacher's thorough investigation of the sutra scrolls. The wise teacher's washing the face and drinking tea—this is the ancient sutra. That the sutra scrolls give birth to the wise teacher is not only like Huangbo's sixty blows of the staff fostering the growth of descendants, or like Huangmei's three strikes transmitting the robe and conferring the Dharma.

Seeing peach blossoms and awakening to the Way, hearing the sound of bamboo and awakening to the Way, and seeing the morning star and awakening to the Way—all these are the sutra scrolls fostering the growth of the wise teacher. Sometimes there is a skin-bag fist that gains the eye and obtains the sutra scroll; sometimes there is a wooden ladle or lacquered bucket that obtains the sutra scroll and gains the eye. The so-called sutra scrolls are the entire ten-direction world.

There is no time or place that is not sutra scrolls. They employ the letters of ultimate truth; they employ the letters of conventional truth. Sometimes they employ the letters of the heavenly realms; sometimes they employ the letters of the human realm; sometimes they employ the letters of the animal realm; sometimes they employ the letters of the asura realm; sometimes they employ the letters of the hundred grasses; sometimes they employ the letters upon the ten thousand trees.

Therefore, the tall and short, square and round, the blues, yellows, reds, and whites densely arrayed throughout the entire ten-direction world—all these are the letters of the sutra scrolls, the surface of the sutra scrolls. These are made the implements of the great Way, the sutra scrolls of the buddha-house. These sutra scrolls spread widely throughout the ages and circulate throughout the lands. They open the gate of teaching people, not abandoning a single household in all the earth; they open the gate of teaching things, saving all categories of beings in all the earth. In teaching all buddhas and teaching bodhisattvas, they pervade all earths and all realms.

They open the gate of skillful means and open the gate of abiding in the position, not abandoning a single one, revealing the true reality. At this very time of "just this," whether it is the consideration, knowing, thought, and awareness of all buddhas and bodhisattvas, or the absence of consideration, knowing, thought, and awareness, although each is not forced by itself, they regard obtaining these sutra scrolls as the great opportunity of each face. The time of "must obtain this sutra" is not past or present; past and present are the season for obtaining the sutra. What appears manifestly before the eyes throughout the entire ten-direction world—this is obtaining this sutra.

When one reads, recites, and masters this sutra, buddha-wisdom, natural wisdom, and unlearned wisdom become manifest prior to the mind, become manifest prior to the body. At this time, there is no doubting the special ground of the new branch. That this sutra is received, held, read, and recited by us is the sutra accepting and taking us in. The message beyond the phrase, outside the words, the news from above and below, swiftly becomes the scattering of flowers and the stringing of flowers.

This sutra is precisely what is called the Dharma. Within it are contained the eighty-four thousand teachings. Within this sutra there are the letters that are all buddhas attaining perfect enlightenment; there are the letters that are all buddhas presently abiding in the world; there are the letters that are all buddhas entering complete nirvana. The Thus Come One and the Thus Gone One are both letters within the sutra, Dharma texts upon the Dharma. Holding up a flower and blinking, a slight smile breaking into a face—this is precisely the ancient sutra correctly transmitted by the seven buddhas.

Cutting off an arm in the snow, bowing in worship and obtaining the marrow—this is exactly the ancient sutra of the mutual succession of teacher and disciple. Ultimately, transmitting the Dharma and conferring the robe—this is precisely the season arriving for entrusting the broad text, the complete volume. Striking the mortar three times, winnowing the rice in the winnow three times—this causes the sutra's sutra to extend its hand, and the sutra to correctly succeed to the sutra.

Not only this—"What is this thing coming thus?"—this is the thousand sutras teaching all buddhas, the ten thousand sutras teaching bodhisattvas. "To call it a thing misses the mark"—it skillfully expounds the eighty-four thousand collections, expounds the twelve divisions. How much more so the fist, the heel, the staff, the whisk—these are ancient sutras and new sutras, sutras of being and sutras of emptiness. Discussing the Way in the assembly, diligent effort in seated meditation—from the outset, the head rightly is the buddha-sutra, the tail rightly is the buddha-sutra. They inscribe on the leaf of bodhi; they inscribe on the face of space.

Generally, the single movement and dual stillness of the buddhas and ancestors, together the holding firm and letting go, are naturally the rolling and unrolling of the buddha-sutra scrolls. Because they study and learn the standard of the ultimate, though there is no ultimate limit, they receive and expound sutras from the nostrils, they receive and expound sutras from the tips of the toes. There is receiving and expounding sutras even before the parents are born; there is receiving and expounding sutras even before King Vairocana.

They receive and expound sutras using mountains, rivers, and the great earth. They receive and expound sutras using the sun, moon, and stars. Sometimes they cause the self from before the empty eon to hold and confer sutras. Sometimes they use the body and mind from before the original face to hold and confer sutras. Such sutras are caused to appear by smashing a mote of dust; they are brought forth by smashing the Dharma-realm.

The Venerable Prajñātāra, the Twenty-Seventh Ancestor, said, "When this poor monk breathes out, it does not follow conditions; when he breathes in, it does not dwell in the skandhas or dhātus. I constantly turn such a sutra, a hundred thousand million myriad volumes. It is not merely one or two volumes." Having heard and grasped the Way of the Ancestral Teachers in this manner, one should study and learn the turning of the sutra in the very place of the out-breath and the in-breath. To know the turning of the sutra is to know the place where the sutra abides.

Because it is the turning of the sutra by the one who can turn and the sutra that turns, it should be completely known and completely seen.

My late teacher would often say, "In my case, I do not use burning incense, making prostrations, reciting the Buddha's name, performing repentance rituals, or studying sutras. I just wholeheartedly sit in zazen and exert myself in the practice of the Way, and body and mind naturally fall away." Such a statement is clear, yet difficult to match. Why is this? If you read a sutra and take it as a sutra, you violate it; if you read it and do not take it as a sutra, you oppose it. You cannot speak, yet you cannot remain silent. Speak quickly, speak quickly! You should investigate this principle.

Because there is this essential point, an ancient said, "To read a sutra, you must possess the eye for reading sutras." You should truly know that if there were no sutras throughout past and present, such a statement could not exist. You should investigate that there is a "reading of sutras" that is falling away, and a "reading of sutras" that is non-use. Therefore, even one or half a person who has investigated must transmit and uphold the Buddhist sutras and be a child of the Buddha. Do not vainly study the perverse views of non-Buddhist paths.

The Shōbōgenzō that is now fully realized is precisely the Buddhist sutras; therefore, all Buddhist sutras are the Shōbōgenzō. They are not one or different, not self or other. Know that although the Shōbōgenzō is vast, it is not all fully opened and illuminated. Nevertheless, when the Shōbōgenzō is expounded, there is none who do not believe. The Buddhist sutras must be like this too. Although they are vast, to believe, receive, and practice them may be a single verse or phrase. You should not try to comprehend eighty thousand. Do not rashly say that sutras are not the Buddha-Dharma just because you are not a master of them.

Even if you praise and proclaim the very marrow of the Buddhas and Ancestors, if you look at this with the true eye, it is a beginner dependent on the text. It may be equal to receiving and upholding a single phrase or verse; it may not even reach receiving and upholding a single phrase or verse. Do not, relying on this shallow understanding, slander the true Dharma of the Buddha. There cannot be greater merit than the sutras of sound and form. Even though sound and form confuse and disturb you, you still seek and crave them.

Do not fail to believe and thus slander the sutras that do not confuse and disturb you. Yet, in the Great Song dynasty, for over a hundred or two hundred years, all sorts of reckless smelly skin-bags say, "The sayings of the Ancestral Teachers should not be kept in mind. How much more so the sutras and teachings—they should not be looked at for long or made use of. You should just make body and mind like a withered tree or dead ashes, like a broken wooden ladle or a bucket without a bottom." Such fellows have vainly become like the tribes of non-Buddhist paths and demon kings. Seeking what cannot be used, they use it; because of this, the Dharma of the Buddhas and Ancestors becomes vainly the Dharma of madness. It is pitiable, it is lamentable. Even a broken wooden ladle or a bucket without a bottom is precisely the ancient sutra of the Buddhas and Ancestors. The Buddhas and Ancestors who exhaust the scroll-count and volumes of this sutra are rare.

To say that Buddhist sutras are not the Buddha-Dharma is to not discern the season when the Buddhas and Ancestors made use of sutras, to not investigate the season when the Buddhas and Ancestors emerged from the sutras, to not know the measure of intimacy and distance between the Buddhas and Ancestors and the sutras. Such reckless types are as numerous as rice, hemp, bamboo, and reeds. They ascend the lion's seat, become teachers for humans and gods, and establish monasteries throughout the land. Because the reckless learn from the reckless, they do not know the principle of not being reckless, and not knowing, they do not wish to. They enter darkness from darkness—it is pitiable.

Never having had the body and mind of the Buddha-Dharma, they do not know how bodily conduct and mental bearing should be. Not clarifying the principle of existence and emptiness, when someone questions them, they rashly raise a fist. Yet, the meaning of raising it is obscure. Not clarifying the path of right and wrong, when someone questions them, they lift a whisk. Yet, the meaning of lifting it is not clear.

Or, when trying to bestow the hand of helping others, they cite Linji's Four Positions and Four Functions, Yunmen's Three Phrases, Dongshan's Three Roads and Five Ranks, etc., and take these as standards for studying the Way.

My late teacher, Reverend Tiantong, would often laugh and say, "How could studying the Buddha be like this? The great Way correctly transmitted by the buddhas and ancestors is something that is largely received by the mind and received by the body. In studying this, when one intends to investigate it, there is no leisure. What free time would one have to take in the words and phrases of later generations?" One should truly know that the elders of various places clearly lack the mind for the Way and do not study the body and mind of the buddhadharma. Such were the instructions of my late teacher. It is true that Linji was a junior in Huangbo's assembly.

He received sixty blows of the staff and finally went to study with Dagu. Under the earnest talk of the old woman, he reflected on his past conduct and returned again to Huangbo. Because I had heard of this, I thought that Huangbo's buddhadharma was transmitted solely to Linji, and even that Linji surpassed Huangbo. But this is not entirely so. Although Linji was merely a follower in Huangbo's assembly, when Chen Zunsu urged him, it is said he did not know what to ask.

At the time his great matter was not yet clear, as a fellow student in the profound pursuit, when he stood to listen to the dharma, how could he have been so utterly bewildered? Know that he was not a person of the highest capacity. Furthermore, Linji never had the will to surpass his teacher, nor did he hear words and phrases that went beyond his teacher. Huangbo had expressions that surpassed his teacher and possessed great wisdom that went beyond his teacher. He expressed the Way not yet expressed by the buddhas; he realized the dharma not yet realized by the ancestors. Huangbo is an ancient buddha who transcends past and present.

He is more venerable than Baizhang and more outstanding than Mazu. Linji did not have such excellence. Why? He never spoke, even in a dream, phrases not spoken since ancient times. He was like one who understands the many but forgets the one, or who masters the one but is troubled by the many. How could one take things like the "four classifications" as having the flavor of the Way and make them a guide for studying the dharma? Yunmen was a disciple of Xuefeng.

Although he is worthy of being a master for humans and gods, he should still be said to be in the stage of learning. To take these as having attained the root would only be to worry about the branches. Before Linji appeared and before Yunmen emerged, by what did the buddhas and ancestors take as the standard for studying the Way? Therefore, know that the Way-practice of the buddha-house was not transmitted within their houses. Because there is no reliable basis, they recklessly speak such confused talk. This lot recklessly slanders the Buddhist sutras; people should not follow them. If one is to discard the sutras, one should discard Linji and Yunmen as well.

If the Buddhist sutras are not to be used, there is no water to drink and no dipper to draw it with. Furthermore, the "three roads and five ranks" of the eminent ancestors are nodal points; they are not realms to be known through careless fabrication. The essential teaching is correctly transmitted; the buddha-work is directly pointed to. They are by no means the same as other schools.

Furthermore, some reckless fellows say, "The ultimate point of Daoism, Confucianism, and Buddhism is one and the same. There is only a temporary difference in the gate of entry." Some compare this to the three legs of a tripod. This is the main point discussed by many monks in the Great Song country today. If one speaks in this way, then for these fellows, the Buddha-Dharma has already been swept from the earth and has perished. And one must say that the Buddha-Dharma has never come, even as much as a mote of dust.

Such fellows, attempting to speak recklessly of the obstruction or passage of the Buddha-Dharma, mistakenly say that the Buddhist sutras are of no use, and that within the gate of the ancestral teachers there is a separately transmitted essential principle. This is a trifling capacity. It is because they do not glimpse the ultimate limit of the Buddha-Way. If one says the Buddhist sutras should not be used, then when there are ancestral sutras, should they be used or should they not be used? Within the ancestral way, there are many dharma-gates like the Buddhist sutras. How can one decide to use or discard them?

If one says there is an ancestral way apart from the Buddha-Way, who would believe in the ancestral way? The fact that there are ancestral teachers is due to the correct transmission of the Buddha-Way. An ancestral teacher who does not correctly transmit the Buddha-Way—who would call him an ancestral teacher? The reason for venerating the First Patriarch is that he is the Twenty-Eighth Patriarch. If one speaks of an ancestral way apart from the Buddha-Way, how could the ten or twenty patriarchs be established? It is because of the direct transmission from successor to successor that the ancestral teachers are revered; it is due to the gravity of the Buddha-Way.

An ancestral teacher who does not correctly transmit the Buddha-Way—with what face would he meet with humans and devas? Moreover, it is difficult to turn over the profound mind that reveres the buddhas and follow instead an ancestral teacher who is not of the Buddha-Way. Now, the reckless madmen idly disparage the Buddha-Way because they are incapable of investigating and discerning the dharma possessed by the Buddha-Way.

It is not merely lamentable foolishness to temporarily compare that Daoism and Confucianism to Buddhism; it is a cause for karmic offense, it is the decline of the nation. It is because the Three Treasures are in decay. The way of Confucius and Laozi cannot yet equal that of an arhat; how much less could it reach the stage of equal enlightenment or wondrous enlightenment? Although the teachings of Confucius and Laozi barely distinguish the sage's seeing and hearing as the great image of heaven and earth, they cannot clarify the cause and effect of the Great Sage over one lifetime or many lifetimes.

Although they barely distinguish the movement and stillness of body and mind as the action of non-action, they cannot clarify the reality of the whole ten-direction world as inexhaustible, unbroken, and uninterrupted. Generally speaking, the inferiority of the teachings of Confucius and Laozi to the Buddhist sutras is a discussion that does not reach the gap between heaven and earth. To discuss them recklessly as one and the same is to slander the Buddha-Dharma and to slander Confucius and Laozi.

Even if there is subtlety in the teachings of Confucius and Laozi, how could the elders of recent times clarify even a small part of it? How much less could they grasp the great handle for ten thousand aeons? They too have teachings and training. It is not something the vulgar crowd of today can easily do. Even among those who practice and exert their minds, there are still none. One mote of dust cannot be the same as another mote of dust. How much less could the profound mystery of the Buddhist sutras be acknowledged and affirmed by the latecomers of today?

With neither side clarified, they merely idly engage in the wild talk and reckless speech of "oneness." In the Great Song today, such fellows, inscribed with the title of teacher, occupying the position of teacher, shameless before past and present, foolishly discuss the Buddha-Way in a disorderly way. One cannot grant that there is Buddha-Dharma here. Such elders, each and every one, say, "The Buddhist sutras are not the original intent of the Buddha-Way; the ancestral transmission is the original intent.

Strange and wondrous mysteries are transmitted in the ancestral transmission." Such words and phrases are the height of extreme folly, the talk of madmen. Within the correct transmission of the ancestral teachers, there is not a single phrase or half a line that differs from the Buddhist sutras as something strange and special. The Buddhist sutras and the ancestral way are equally what has been correctly transmitted and spread from Śākyamuni Buddha. However, the ancestral transmission is only what has been directly transmitted from successor to successor. Nevertheless, how could one not know the Buddhist sutras? How could one not clarify them? How could one not recite them?

An ancient virtue said, "You are confused by the sutra; the sutra does not confuse you." There are many stories of ancient virtues reading sutras. One should say to the reckless ones: As you say, if one should discard the Buddhist sutras, then one should discard the Buddha-mind, and one should discard the Buddha-body. If one discards the Buddha-body-and-mind, then one should discard the Buddha-sons. If one discards the Buddha-sons, then one should discard the Buddha-Way.

If one discards the Buddha-Way, how could one not discard the ancestral way? If one discards both the Buddha-Way and the ancestral way, one would become a single bald-headed commoner. Who would say you have no share of the beating with the staff? Not only would there be the driving force of the king's ministers, but there would surely be the torment of King Yama. The elders of recent times, merely holding the commission of the king's ministers and calling themselves masters of Brahma-monasteries, have such mad talk. There is no one to distinguish right and wrong. Only my late teacher laughs at these fellows. The elders of the various mountains are all ignorant of this.

Generally speaking, one should not think that because a monk is from a foreign land, he necessarily has a clear understanding of the Way; nor should one assume that because someone is an imperial teacher of a great country, he has surely attained realization. The beings of foreign lands are not necessarily suited to be vessels of the monastic seed. Good beings are good; evil beings are evil. Throughout the many realms of the dharmadhātu, the kinds and grades of beings should be the same. Furthermore, becoming an imperial teacher of a great country does not necessarily mean one has been selected for possessing the Way.

The emperor, too, may find it difficult to recognize those who possess the Way, and merely appoints people based on the recommendations of his ministers. Throughout past and present, there have been imperial teachers who possess the Way, and many imperial teachers who do not possess the Way. Those who are appointed in a corrupt age are people without the Way; those who are not appointed in a corrupt age are people with the Way. Why is this? It is because there are times when one recognizes people, and times when one does not.

One must not forget that in the past at Huangmei, there was Shenxiu. Shenxiu was an imperial teacher. He lectured on the Dharma before the emperor's curtain; he expounded the Dharma before the throne. Not only that, he was the head seat among seven hundred eminent monks. One should believe that in the past at Huangmei, there was the Lay Practitioner Lu. He shifted from being a woodcutter to being a practitioner; though he avoided carrying firewood, he still took pounding rice as his duty.

Though his body was lowly and base, worthy of pity, he left home, surpassed the monks, obtained the Dharma, and received the robe—a peerless, lofty path that had never been heard of even in the past, not even in the Western Heavens, one that alone emerged in the Eastern Land. The seven hundred eminent monks could not compare to him; it was as if the dragons and elephants of the world had no trace to follow. He truly succeeded to the thirty-third generation of the ancestral seat and is the legitimate heir of the Buddha. If the Fifth Patriarch had not been a kalyanamitra who recognized people, how could it have been like this?

One should quietly contemplate such principles and not act rashly. One should earnestly seek to acquire the power of recognizing people. Not recognizing people is a great calamity for oneself and others, a great calamity for the world. Extensive learning and scholarly erudition are not the essential point. One should urgently seek the eye that recognizes people and the capacity to recognize people. If one lacks the power to recognize people, one will sink into oblivion for countless kalpas. Therefore, one should know that in the Buddha Way there are certainly Buddhist scriptures, and one should study the vast texts and profound meanings as if traversing mountains and seas, making them the standard for pursuing the Way.