Day 1 Non-opposition | The Sword of Wisdom

Have you not seen the idle man of Tao who has nothing to learn and nothing to do,
Who neither discards wandering thoughts nor seeks the truth?
The real nature of ignorance is Buddha-nature;
The illusory empty body is the Dharma body.

The idle man who has attained the Tao, or the Way, is not a lazy man; rather, he has nothing to do. There is no reason for him to study, to learn, to do anything. On this retreat, all of you are concentrating, intent on studying the Dharma and practicing your methods. You are different from the man of Tao. You are studying and practicing for the purpose of attaining enlightenment. For beginning practitioners, it is good to have a reason to practice Buddhadharma, otherwise you would have no means of experiencing enlightenment. If there were no purpose, no one would practice, and no one would ever attain enlightenment.

People need a goal in order to practice, but the person that Yung-chia describes is beyond practice because he has already been thoroughly enlightened. The first line introduces us to a deeply enlightened person. How did this person approach the practice? How did he attain enlightenment? What kind of attitude did he need in order to reach enlightenment? First, he did not try to cut off wandering thoughts; he did not oppose his vexations. Second, he did not crave enlightenment: he did not seek after Buddha-nature.

During retreat, I advise participants not to try to get rid of anything, oppose anything, or seek anything. Agreeing with me is easy, but accepting my advice and putting it to practice is difficult. Some of you may feel it is impossible to stop seeking and repressing things. Nonetheless, you must try. I will repeat this over and over, because if I do not, you will create more obstructions in your desire to stop wandering thoughts and to gain enlightenment.

There is no need to dispel wandering thoughts. Deluded thoughts stem from ignorance, and the essential nature of ignorance is not separate from Buddha-nature. A practitioner once asked his teacher, “How do I attain liberation?”

The teacher answered with a question of his own: “Who’s binding you?”

The student asked, “How can I get enlightened and transcend birth and death?”

Again, the master replied with a question: “Where is birth and death?”

The student asked another question: “How can I be reborn in the Pure Land?”

The master asked, “Tell me, what place isn’t the Pure Land?”

Buddha-nature and ignorance, liberation and birth and death, Nirvana and Samsara: these are not separate things; there are no dichotomies. We may speak as a matter of convention of leaving ignorance and gaining enlightenment, but when one is truly enlightened, one realizes that ignorance and Buddha-nature are one and the same. If ignorance and Buddha-nature truly existed as permanent, separate realms, then an ignorant person would never discover his Buddha-nature; he would remain ignorant, and would be unable to attain enlightenment. But this is not the case. Ignorance and Buddha-nature are not separate.
In making the transition from ignorance to Buddha-nature, you will realize that ignorance does not really exist. If it did, we would all be bound to it forever. Anyone practicing who understands this principle will not strive to get rid of ignorance or seek after Buddha-nature.

When you practice, and your body tires and your mind fills with turmoil and vexation, it is easy to start struggling with yourself. If you oppose weariness and vexation, then you will only become more tired and create more vexations. You will lose heart. It is better if you say to yourself, “This is ‘ignorance and ignorance itself is Buddha-nature. I won’t resist. I won’t get angry. I won’t fight my condition.” If what you experience is Buddha-nature, then what is there to hate or fight? But when you sit, you will suffer pains, fatigue and wandering thoughts. While you are suffering, it will be hard to believe the things I say. It is difficult to relax and allow things to be as they are. You may even think that these obstacles arise precisely because you are practicing the Way ─ that somehow, the pains have a mind of their own, and they are waiting for you to sit and meditate. When you become enlightened, you will realize that vexations are Buddha-nature, and in fact, ignorance does not exist.

The body is subject to pain, illness, disease and death. During practice, the body aches and gets tired, but the body is essentially the same as the Dharma body. The Dharma body is fundamentally pure, liberated and enlightened. You might ask, “Where is this pure and liberated Dharma body?” I would answer with a question, just like the master did in the story above: “What isn’t already a pure, liberated Dharma body?”
There is no difference between the physical body and the Dharma body, but you have not realized it yet. Until you do, you will be bothered by pain and fatigue. Only when you discover that the physical body and Dharma body are identical will you be liberated from your problems.

During the T’ang Dynasty, there was a Ch’an master who was a highly accomplished practitioner. The Emperor heard about him, and requested that he come to the palace to try and cure one of his concubines, who was extremely ill. The Ch’an master refused to come. He said to the messenger, “I am not a physician. I am a practitioner. My purpose is to practice.”

When the Emperor heard the master’s reply, he spoke to his general. He said, “Go and ask this master to come. If he refuses, cut off his head.”

The Ch’an master knew ahead of time of the general’s intentions, so he left his temple and walked down the road to wait for him. Soon the general arrived, and when he saw the master, he asked, “Why are you waiting here?”

The Ch’an master replied, “I don’t want my dirty blood to defile the temple floor, so I have come here to offer you my head.”

Most people fear death, but the Ch’an master had no fear at all. He knew that his physical body was not different from the Dharma body, and that the Dharma body cannot be destroyed. If a person truly realizes that the physical body and Dharma body are identical, then he will not fear death. Sickness, pain and old age will not trouble him.

During the course of your practice, you will suffer pains of many kinds. Even if you have not yet realized that the physical body is the same as the Dharma body, you should at least have faith that it is so. If you have faith, then you will not be vexed or distracted by sensations that arise in your practice, whether they be painful, pleasurable, or even blissful. The Dharma body is pure and immutable. It does not experience sensation. You should regard all sensations in your practice as illusions. Let them come and go. Do not attach to them. Ignore them.

Once you have truly awakened to the Dharma body, you will realize that there are no feelings, sensations or qualities that you can grasp and say, “This is the Dharma body.” The physical, mental, and so-called spiritual experiences which appear during practice are not the Dharma body. They are only reactions of the nervous system to the physical body and environment. The Dharma body has no qualities or characteristics.

I am not saying that there is no spirit, but the spirit is not separate from the body. In Buddhism, there is no division between spirit and body. In your practice, you should not distinguish between physical experiences and spiritual experiences. They are the same thing. If you did not have a body, how could spiritual experiences arise?

You cannot say that the Dharma body is separate from the material body, but you also cannot say that physical activity, or things that are moving, are the Dharma body. You cannot point to any one thing and say, “That is the Dharma body.” The true Dharma body is absolutely unmoving.

PREVIOUS: First Retreat | The Sword of Wisdom
NEXT: Day 2 Only the Present Moment | The Sword of Wisdom