Shukke

The Zen'en Shingi states: "All buddhas of the three times are said to attain the Way after leaving home. The twenty-eight ancestors in India and the six ancestors in China who transmitted the buddha-mind seal are all śramaṇas. It is precisely by strictly purifying the vinaya that one can become a great model for the three realms. Therefore, for those who engage in zazen and inquire into the Way, the precepts come first. If one does not leave faults behind and guard against wrongdoing, how could one become a buddha or an ancestor?" The method for receiving the precepts is that one should prepare the three robes, the bowl, and new, clean garments.

If one has no new clothes, one should wash and dye them to make them clean and then enter the ordination platform to receive the precepts. One must not borrow robes or bowl. With single-minded concentration, be careful not to let your attention wander to other things. To emulate the Buddha's form and demeanor, to possess the Buddha's precepts, to obtain the Buddha's enjoyment—this is no small matter. How could one approach it with a frivolous mind?

If one borrows robes and bowl, even if one ascends the platform and undergoes the ordination, one does not receive the precepts. If one has never received them, one remains a person without precepts for one's entire life, one who spuriously enters the gate of emptiness and vainly receives the faithful offerings of donors. Beginners entering the Way, not yet familiar with the rules, if their master does not speak of this, will fall into this error. I now speak these bitter words, daring to hope they will be engraved on your heart. Having received the śrāvaka precepts, one should receive the bodhisattva precepts. This is the gradual entry into the Dharma.

Know clearly: the attainment of the Way by all buddhas and all ancestors is nothing other than leaving home and receiving the precepts. The lifeblood of all buddhas and all ancestors is nothing other than leaving home and receiving the precepts. Those who have never left home are not buddhas or ancestors. To see the Buddha, to see the ancestors, is to leave home and receive the precepts.

Mahākāśyapa, following the World-Honored One, aspired to leave home, hoping to cross beyond all conditioned existence. The Buddha said, "Welcome, bhikṣu!" and immediately his hair and beard fell away by themselves, and the robes covered his body. When one learns the Buddha and liberates all conditioned existence, the noble precedent of leaving home and receiving the precepts is always like this.

The Buddha, the World-Honored One, says in the third volume of the Mahāprajñāpāramitā Sūtra: "If a bodhisattva mahāsattva were to think in this way: 'At what time will I, on the very day I renounce my royal position and leave home, achieve unsurpassed, complete awakening and, moreover, on that very day, turn the wondrous dharma wheel?

I would immediately cause immeasurable, countless sentient beings to become free from dust and defilement and give rise to the pure dharma eye. I would further cause immeasurable, countless sentient beings to forever exhaust all outflows and attain liberation of mind through wisdom. I would also cause immeasurable, countless sentient beings all to attain non-retrogression in unsurpassed, complete awakening.' If that bodhisattva mahāsattva wishes to accomplish this, he should study prajñāpāramitā.

Generally speaking, unsurpassed enlightenment is fulfilled at the time of leaving home and receiving the precepts. If it is not the day of leaving home, it is not perfected. Therefore, precisely, picking up the day of leaving home manifests the day of accomplishing unsurpassed enlightenment. The day that brings forth the accomplishment of unsurpassed enlightenment is the day of leaving home. This leaving home turning a somersault is turning the wondrous dharma wheel. This leaving home causes innumerable sentient beings to attain non-retrogressing unsurpassed enlightenment.

Know that self-benefit and benefiting others are fulfilled here; that which is non-retrogressing and non-turning anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi is leaving home and receiving the precepts. Accomplishing unsurpassed enlightenment, in turn, makes the day of leaving home the day of accomplishing enlightenment. You should truly know that the day of leaving home transcends oneness and difference. Within the day of leaving home, the practice and realization of three asaṃkhyeya kalpas is accomplished.

Within the day of leaving home, one abides in the ocean of boundless kalpas and turns the wondrous dharma wheel. The day of leaving home is not like the time it takes to eat a meal; it is not sixty small kalpas. It transcends the three times; it sheds the top of the head. The day of leaving home transcends the day of leaving home. Yet, although it is like this, when the basket cage is broken, the day of leaving home is precisely the day of leaving home. The day of attaining the Way is precisely the day of attaining the Way.

The thirteenth chapter of the Mahāprajñāpāramitā Śāstra states: "The Buddha was at Jetavana. There was an intoxicated brahmin who came to the place of the Buddha wishing to become a bhikṣu. The Buddha commanded the bhikṣus to give him a head-shaving and to have him don the kāṣāya robe. When he sobered up, he was astonished and alarmed to see his body transformed, suddenly having become a bhikṣu, and he immediately ran away." The bhikṣus asked the Buddha, "Why did you permit this intoxicated brahmin to become a bhikṣu, and now he has returned home?" The Buddha said, "This brahmin, for immeasurable kalpas, has had no mind for leaving home.

Now, due to intoxication, he momentarily aroused a faint mind. Because of this cause, he will later leave home." In this way, through various causes and conditions, a śramaṇa who breaks the precepts is still superior to a layperson who upholds the precepts. This is because the precepts of the layperson are not for the sake of liberation. The principle of the Buddha's command is clearly understood: the Buddha's transformation has leaving home as its very root.

That which has not yet left home is not the Buddha-Dharma. When the Tathāgata was in the world, and the various non-Buddhists abandoned their own false paths and took refuge in the Buddha-Dharma, they invariably first requested to leave home. The World-Honored One sometimes personally conferred on them "Welcome, bhikṣu," and sometimes commanded the bhikṣus to shave their hair and beards, causing them to leave home and receive the precepts; in all cases, the method of leaving home and receiving the precepts was instantly fulfilled. Know that when the Buddha's transformation causes one to receive it with body and mind, the head hair falls away by itself and the kāṣāya covers the body. If the buddhas have not yet granted permission, the beard and hair are not shaved off, the kāṣāya does not cover the body, and the Buddha's precepts are not received. Therefore, leaving home and receiving the precepts is the personal prediction and confirmation of the buddhas and tathāgatas.

The Buddha Śākyamuni says, "Good men, the Tathāgata, seeing sentient beings who delight in lesser teachings, whose virtue is meager and whose defilements are heavy, for the sake of these people says, 'I left home while young and attained anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi. However, in truth, since I attained buddhahood, a vast, immeasurable time has passed. It is only as a skillful means to teach and transform sentient beings, to cause them to enter the buddha-way, that I make such a statement.'" Therefore, the immeasurably distant true attainment is my leaving home while young; attaining anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi is my leaving home while young.

In raising and holding up "my leaving home while young," there are sentient beings who delight in lesser teachings, whose virtue is meager and whose defilements are heavy, and there is also my leaving home while young. In the seeing, hearing, and participating in the study of the Dharma-expounding of "my leaving home while young," there is seeing the Buddha and anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi.

At the time of rescuing and liberating sentient beings who delight in lesser teachings, for the sake of these people it is said, "I left home while young and attained anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi." Yet, even though it is thus, one must ultimately ask: the merit of leaving home, how great should it be? Facing that, it should be said: it is the size of the tip of a hair.