Hosshō

Whether one follows sutras or follows a teacher to engage in study and practice, it is to awaken alone without a teacher. Awakening alone without a teacher is the functioning of dharma-nature. Even if one is endowed with innate knowledge, one must surely seek a teacher and inquire into the Way. Even if one lacks innate knowledge, one must surely exert effort and discern the Way. Which individual is not endowed with innate knowledge? Even until one attains the fruit of buddhahood and bodhi, one follows sutras and teachers.

Know this: encountering sutras and teachers and attaining the samādhi of dharma-nature is called encountering the samādhi of dharma-nature and attaining the samādhi of dharma-nature through innate knowledge. This is to attain the knowledge of past abodes; this is to attain the three clarities. This is to realize anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi. It is to encounter innate knowledge and learn innate knowledge. It is to encounter the untaught wisdom and spontaneous wisdom and correctly transmit the untaught wisdom and spontaneous wisdom.

If one is not endowed with innate knowledge, then even if one encounters sutras and teachers, one cannot hear dharma-nature and cannot realize dharma-nature. The Great Way is not a principle of "like a person drinking water, knowing for oneself whether it is cold or warm." All buddhas and all bodhisattvas, all sentient beings, all clarify the Great Way of all dharma-nature through the power of innate knowledge. To clarify the Great Way of dharma-nature by following sutras and teachers is to clarify dharma-nature oneself. Sutras are this dharma-nature, are the self. Teachers are this dharma-nature, are the self. Dharma-nature is this teacher, dharma-nature is this self.

Because dharma-nature is the self, it is not the self falsely conceived by heretics and demons. In dharma-nature there are no heretics or demons. There is only "come eat gruel," "come eat rice," "come have tea." Yet those who call themselves long-time learners of twenty or thirty years, when they see or hear discourse on dharma-nature, pass their whole lives in茫然茫blankness.

Those who call themselves well-sated in the monastic community and climb onto the curved-wood bench, when they hear the sound of dharma-nature and see the form of dharma-nature, merely have their body-mind and environment ascend and descend into the usual,纷然confused cave-pit. Their state is such that they falsely think that after the present seen and heard three worlds and ten directions are completely stripped away, then dharma-nature will further appear, and that dharma-nature is not the present myriad phenomena arrayed. The principle of dharma-nature cannot be like that. This arrayed myriad phenomena and dharma-nature far transcend discussion of sameness and difference. They transcend talk of separation and identity. They are not past, present, or future. They are not annihilation or permanence. Because they are not form, sensation, perception, formation, or consciousness, they are dharma-nature.

The Chan master Dajian of Hongzhou, Jiangxi, known as Mazu, said: "All beings, from the boundless kalpas past, have never left the samādhi of dharmatā. They are always within the samādhi of dharmatā when putting on clothes, eating meals, speaking, and responding. The functioning of the six sense organs, all actions and deeds, are entirely dharmatā." Mazu's Way of dharmatā is the dharmatā Way of dharmatā. To study together with Mazu is to study together with dharmatā. Since there is hearing and grasping, how can there not be speaking and grasping? Dharmatā rides Mazu. People eat meals; meals eat people. Since dharmatā, it has never left the samādhi of dharmatā. After dharmatā, it does not leave dharmatā. Before dharmatā, it does not leave dharmatā. Dharmatā alongside the boundless kalpas—this is the samādhi of dharmatā. It is called the boundless kalpas of dharmatā. Therefore, this very here and now is dharmatā. Dharmatā is this very here and now.

Putting on clothes and eating meals are the putting on clothes and eating meals of the samādhi of dharmatā. Clothes are the manifesting of dharmatā; meals are the manifesting of dharmatā. Eating is the manifesting of dharmatā; putting on is the manifesting of dharmatā. If one does not put on clothes, eat meals, speak and respond, function with the six sense organs, or perform any actions and deeds, that is not the samādhi of dharmatā. It is not entering dharmatā. The manifesting of the Way here and now has been transmitted from buddha to buddha until Śākyamuni Buddha, and correctly transmitted from ancestor to ancestor until Mazu. Buddha after Buddha, ancestor after ancestor, correctly transmitted hand to hand, have correctly transmitted the samādhi of dharmatā. Buddha after Buddha, ancestor after ancestor, without entering, make dharmatā vividly alive. Even if a scholarly monk has words about dharmatā, it is not Mazu's Way of dharmatā.

The power of those beings who have never left dharmatā yet intend to be outside dharmatā—even if they attain some place—is newly these three or four pieces of dharmatā. To speak, respond, function, and act while saying it is not dharmatā—this should be dharmatā. The sun and moon of the boundless kalpas are the passage through of dharmatā. The present and future are also like this. Taking the measure of body-mind as the measure of body-mind and thinking that dharmatā is distant—this thinking is dharmatā. Not taking the measure of body-mind as the measure of body-mind and thinking that it is not dharmatā—this thinking is dharmatā. Thinking and not-thinking are both dharmatā.

To learn that if one speaks of 'nature,' water should not flow and trees should neither flourish nor wither is a non-Buddhist view. The Buddha Śākyamuni said, "Such form, such nature." Therefore, flowers blooming and leaves falling—this is such nature. However, foolish people think that in the realm of dharmatā there should be no flowers blooming or leaves falling.

Do not question others for a moment; you should model your grasping of doubt on the grasping of the Way. You should raise it as others speak of it and investigate it repeatedly. The thinking from before that seeks to escape—that is not wrong thinking; it is merely thinking before clarity. When clarity comes, it is not that this thinking is made to disappear. Flowers blooming and leaves falling are themselves flowers blooming and leaves falling. The thinking that thinks there should be no flowers blooming or leaves falling in dharmatā—this is dharmatā. It is thinking that has come through modeling and dropping off. Therefore, it is thinking as dharmatā. The undivided thinking of thinking-dharmatā has such a face. Mazu's saying "entirely dharmatā" is truly eighty or ninety percent of the Way, yet there is much Mazu has not expressed.

He does not say "all dharmatā does not leave dharmatā," he does not say "all dharmatā is entirely dharmatā," he does not say "all beings do not leave beings," he does not say "all beings are a small part of dharmatā," he does not say "all beings are a small part of all beings," he does not say "all dharmatā is half of beings," he does not say "half a being, half dharmatā," he does not say "no being is dharmatā," he does not say "dharmatā is not beings," he does not say "dharmatā escapes dharmatā," he does not say "beings drop off beings"; we only hear that "beings do not leave the samādhi of dharmatā." He does not say "dharmatā should not leave the samādhi of beings." There is no speaking and grasping of the samādhi of dharmatā entering and leaving the samādhi of beings. Moreover, we do not hear of dharmatā becoming a buddha, of beings realizing dharmatā, of dharmatā realizing dharmatā; there is no Way of insentient things not leaving dharmatā.

For a moment, ask Mazu: what do you call 'beings'? If you call dharmatā 'beings,' then "What is this thing thus coming?" If you call beings 'beings,' then "To speak of it as a thing misses the mark." Speak quickly! Speak quickly!