Day 2 Only the Present Moment | The Sword of Wisdom

After realizing the Dharma body, there is not a thing;
Original self-nature is the innate Buddha.
The five skandhas ─ the empty comings and goings of floating clouds;
The three poisons ─ the vacant appearing and disappearing of water bubbles.

Your body, which you normally think is the self, together with all the phenomena that you experience with your senses, are the five skandhas, or five aggregates: form, sensation, perception, volition and consciousness. Yung-chia says that the five skandhas are like floating clouds that come and go in the sky. Originally, the sky is pure. Clouds appear, move across the sky, and disappear. The clouds are not the sky. There is no concrete connection between sky and clouds, yet the sky is not separate from the clouds.

The five skandhas are like these clouds. We all think we have distinct selves, minds and bodies. But our bodies, as well as the selves we identify with, did not exist before we were born. After we die, our bodies and selves will be gone again. Like the sky before and after clouds, the world does not contain us before we are born and after we die. There is no enduring “I.”

But this does not mean that there is no enduring existence. If there were no enduring existence, there would be no point in practicing. What exists is our original and fundamentally pure Buddha-nature. Originally and always, there is Buddha-nature, just as there is a sky. Whereas our bodies and minds come and go like clouds, Buddha-nature, or self-nature, always exists, just as the sky exists whether or not clouds appear.
Buddha-nature cannot be created by practice. It has always been present. If Buddha-nature were something that could be created, then it could also be destroyed. Then why practice if one already possesses Buddha-nature? Practice does not create a Buddha. Practice helps us to realize or reveal Buddha-nature, which has always been there. If someone asks, “Where or what is the Buddha?”, answer with a question: “Where or what isn’t the Buddha?”

You cannot take your body, which is a conglomeration of the five skandhas, and turn it into Buddha. Yet, Buddha is not separate from the five skandhas. Buddha is totality. The five skandhas are things we wrap up and bind into tiny individual selves. Through the five skandhas we give ourselves identities, but they are narrow, impoverished identities. If you think, “This body is mine, separate from everything else, ” and then say, “I am Buddha, ” then you have created a Buddha as narrow and impoverished as yourself.

We think that the body is the self because we are deluded by the three poisons ─ craving, anger and ignorance. The three poisons are like addictive drugs. When we are stimulated by them, we experience temporary, illusory satisfaction or excitement. We all know the phrase, “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” We see beauty in what we love. In fact, beauty is no more than an expression of the mind of craving and attachment. Because you are attached to a person, you perceive him or her as beautiful. When you are in love you are clouded by desire, and your partner becomes the embodiment of your emotions and feelings. Later, if things do not work out and you break up, you may turn to your partner and say, “I didn’t know the real you! I was confused.”

I have heard that many couples who get married do not know much about each other. As they learn about each other, they become disillusioned, and they often get divorced. They believe that their infatuation has been replaced by stark reality. This is not true. People are as clouded by emotion when they break up as when they fall in love. When people are dissatisfied, things that once pleased them seem distasteful, and things they once thought beautiful seem ugly. These people are still controlled by the three poisons.

A similar thing happens when people meditate. If you are sitting well and feel comfortable, you might think, “Meditation is fantastic! It feels so good!” In Taiwan, a person who participated in a retreat for the first time meditated well, and he was carried away with emotion. He said it was the most wonderful thing in the world; he finally felt what it was really like to be human. His second retreat was different. He was experiencing family difficulties, and because he could not leave his problems behind, he had a horrible time. You might think that his second retreat was bad, whereas his first retreat was good, but any extreme emotion causes problems. Good experiences create attachment and craving. Bad experiences create repulsion, anger and hatred. You can experience both extremes in a single retreat. They are only feelings that the self experiences through the three poisons. There is no self apart from craving, anger and ignorance.

If you practice well, craving, anger and ignorance will fade, little by little. As the three poisons subside, you will feel less need to attach to a self. You will begin to view the narrow self as a bubble in a vast ocean, momentarily forming, rising to the surface, then breaking and merging with the water again.

What is permanent beyond this transient bubble? Your self-nature. Where and what is your self-nature? That you must discover for yourself.

When the real is experienced, there is neither person nor dharma.
In an instant the avici karma is destroyed.
If I lie to deceive sentient beings,

May my tongue be ripped out for kalpas uncountable as dust and sand.In this stanza, Yung-chia says that even the worst karma ─ avici karma ─ can be eradicated at the moment of enlightenment. Regarding this truth, his faith is unshakeable. This is the sudden enlightenment teaching of Ch’an Buddhism. Someone once asked me how long one needed to practice to become enlightened. I replied, “As long as eons, as short as a single thought.” Which do you prefer, the long route or the quick route? Most of you probably prefer the quick way.

I am offering you the quick method. Take all of your thoughts ─ good, bad, indifferent ─ and drop them. If you can do this, you will be enlightened instantly. If you can reach the state of mind where there is no self, no other, no discrimination, no sentient beings, no Buddha, then you will realize the true reality of things. Take the sword of practice and cut open the mind of discrimination. When enlightenment cuts through the discriminating mind, it leaves nothing behind, because from the beginning there has never been any real self to divide.

You must have faith that this can happen. On the last day of a retreat, I encouraged two students to make the most of the time remaining. They protested that there was not enough time to accomplish anything. I said, “You can be enlightened in an instant. If you practice hard every moment, then there is plenty of time in which to experience enlightenment. One day is more than enough time, but whether you can accomplish anything is another matter.”

Forget about time while you practice. Do not think, “I don’t have enough time to experience anything.” Do not think, “I’m young, there’s plenty of time to practice.” During retreat, the best attitude is to make full use of every instant, from beginning to end, grasping hold of the moment and practicing hard. Do not think about the past or future. Stay in the present moment.

You must first liberate yourself from the past and future. If you can keep your mind on the present moment, then you are truly deriving strength and power from the practice. With power you can liberate yourself from the present moment as well. When you are liberated from time, you are also liberated from space. Space and time, like the five skandhas, are illusions. When you are free from space, time and the five skandhas, there is no self. If a self exists ─ whether it is a narrow self or a universal self ─ then craving, anger and ignorance also exist.

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