Day 3 The Obstacle of Fear | The Sword of Wisdom

If one is unable to take the royal feast even when hungry,
How can he be healed even if he meets the king of doctors?
Practicing Ch’an in the desire realm manifests the power of knowledge,
Indestructible as a lotus grown in a fire.
Though Pradhanasura broke the main precepts, he awakened to the unborn;
He long ago reached the Buddha state and remains there still.Yung-chia stresses that Ch’an is the best method of practice of Buddhadharma. Unfortunately, people with weak karmic roots either cannot accept Ch’an teachings or they think Ch’an methods are not right for them.

There is a story of a starving beggar who came upon a banquet fit for a king. It seemed strange to him because there was no one around. Instead of sitting down to eat, he grew frightened, because he had never seen such sumptuous food. He wondered if perhaps it were a trap, or if someone were giving him a last meal before killing him. The beggar became so scared he ran away without taking a single morsel of food.

A person with weak karmic roots is frightened when he encounters Ch’an teachings, and wonders if he is fit to practice its methods. Unless a person has great courage, he will be too scared to learn and practice, and he will choose to keep his dirty socks rather than attain liberation.

There was a man who had been ill for a long time. He tried many treatments and visited many doctors, but nothing worked. Doctor after doctor told him that he had an incurable disease and only had a short time to live. Then he went to the best doctor in the world. After examining him, the doctor said, “I can cure you.” But the man did not believe him. He had been told otherwise too many times. He figured the doctor was playing on his hopes and trying to swindle him out of money. On the way home, he threw away the prescription the doctor had given him.

Some of you have been working with the same method for a long time and you still have not made much progress. Perhaps you are convinced that you will never progress beyond square one. Yesterday, a practitioner told me, “It takes such a long time to reach Buddhahood! And right up to the point of Buddhahood there are still so many karmic obstructions. They say that all karmic obstructions disappear instantly with sudden enlightenment, but I don’t believe it. I’ve resigned myself to the fact that I’ll be stuck with my vexations for a long time.”

Most people do not like things that take a long time to happen. They prefer to see results right away. They want instant gratification. Who wants to spend three asamkhya kalpas reciting Buddhist sutras in hopes of reaching Buddhahood? Compared to that, sudden enlightenment sounds great. But you have to work very hard to experience sudden enlightenment. Unfortunately, people are terrified to let go of the self. It is your choice. Do you want to practice the gradual method or the sudden method?

While you are deciding which method to choose, remember the story of the sick man and the doctor. If you were that man, would you follow the doctor’s advice? Suppose the doctor said, “I can cure you, but it requires major surgery. First I’ll remove your hands and feet, then your arms and legs. Next, I’ll remove your mind and heart. After that, the problem will be gone.” Would you be willing? How much do you trust the doctor?

Without trust, even the king of doctors cannot help you. You must have faith in his expertise in order to accept his advice. You have already encountered Ch’an teachings, but you may be unable to accept it fully. Sentient beings do not have enough courage and confidence to accept the belief that they are Buddhas. For this reason, they cannot embrace Ch’an teachings.

The song mentions Pradhanasura, a great practitioner who lived long before Sakyamuni’s time. Yung-chia says that Pradhanasura broke the main precepts, but actually the transgressor was an exceedingly handsome monk named Yung-shih, and it was Pradhanasura who helped him solve his problem. A rich woman fell in love with Yung-shih and lured him into her home, asking that he preach to her mother. Eventually, the young woman seduced him. When her husband found out, he was furious, and wanted to kill her. She poisoned her husband and made plans to run away with the monk. Yung-shih witnessed all of this, and he despaired, because he was sure only those who kept the precepts could practice successfully. He left the woman and roamed far and wide, carrying a placard confessing his sins and begging for help and hope. Wherever he went, he got the same story: “There’s no hope for a person who breaks the major precepts.”

One day, Yung-shih met Pradhanasura. Pradhanasura asked him, “You say you have committed grave sins, but what are sins? Do sins have self-nature? If sins have self-nature, then how can you create them? If you make these sins, then they must not have self-nature.”

When Yung-shih heard Pradhanasura’s words, he immediately attained complete enlightenment and became a Buddha known as Precious Moon Buddha. Even a person who has broken the major precepts can become a Buddha.

Examine yourself. How bad are you? You have probably never killed a person. If so, you should be able to do as well as Yung-shih. The reason why you cannot is because you cannot let go of the self.

You would probably like it if I told you that the self-nature of sins is empty. You might think, “If the self-nature of sin is empty, then I can do anything I want. I can break the precepts and commit sins, but I won’t have any karmic debts, and I won’t have to accept any consequences.” That would be nice, but you probably would not like it if I told that the self-nature of the self is also empty. If the self is empty, then who is it that will eat your dinner tonight? Who will meet your children, wife or husband after the retreat? Who will go to your job next Monday? Now you might say, “There’s so much I haven’t accomplished yet. I still have a lot of plans. How can my self be empty?”

After sitting in meditation for a while, your legs begin to hurt, and your mind wanders to other things. I have told you not to think about things, but at this point you might feel that thinking can be very good. When you get tired or frustrated, you believe that thinking will help you, that it will help to relieve your discomfort and tiredness. Perhaps you fantasize about life problems yet to be solved or life plans yet to be realized. A self is definitely involved when you do this. There is no doubt who is doing all the thinking. If you cannot reach emptiness, then all of your previous karma will follow you. The nature of sin is not empty if you cannot empty yourself. When you empty yourself, all the sins you have created will also be empty.

Even when one preaches fearlessly as the lion roars, The minds of the perverse and obstinate only harden.
They continue to break the main precepts and obstruct Bodhi

And cannot see the secret the Tathagata reveals.Fearless preaching refers to Ch’an teachings. Ch’an teachings are likened to a lion’s roar because lions were thought to be the most powerful of all animals, and Ch’an is the highest of all Dharma. But even ultimate teachings are useless to ordinary sentient beings who are afraid of them. Actually, the highest teachings, those which are taught to Bodhisattvas, are wordless and formless. Such teachings are far beyond the understanding of ordinary people.

An ox that has been straining against its yoke for years will develop a thick callous around its neck. Even if you prick the callous with a needle, the ox will not feel it because its skin has grown insensitive. Many people are the same as this ox. They may think that Ch’an is irrelevant, or they may absorb the teachings so slowly that by the time they finally learn something, the sudden teaching has become the gradual teaching.

In Taiwan, many old people attend my lectures. Sometimes I ask them how they liked the talk. They usually admit that the lecture confused them. I ask what part they enjoyed most, and they tell me that the stories were the best part. I tell these stories to relax the audience, but also to get ideas across. If you follow the stories without catching the meaning, then you are missing the point of the lecture. You may as well be watching television.

I have told you that self-nature is empty, and that you can attain Buddhahood through sudden enlightenment. Unfortunately, many who hear such words are obsessed with the idea that they have sinned, and that they have tremendous karmic obstructions. They are convinced that practice will be too difficult, so they cannot accept the teachings. All you have to do is accept the teachings, have faith in yourself and the method, and practice. If you can do that, your obstructions will lessen and disappear.

If you want to accept the teachings of Ch’an, then you must let go of your thoughts immediately. If you cannot do it immediately, then work on your method; that is, hold on to your method, and do not think about yourself, or about whether you are gaining or losing something. Don’t expect me to have the energy to yell at you and push you all the time. You have to make the effort to drop your self-centeredness. Only then will you penetrate the method.

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