Day 3 Awakening From the Dream of Existence. | The Sword of Wisdom

With sudden enlightenment to Tathagata Ch’an,
The six paramitas and myriad means are complete within that essence.
In dreams there are clearly six paths of sentient beings;
Upon awakening the great chiliocosm is completely empty.

We do not understand ourselves or the world around us; we do not know where we come from; we do not know where we are going. We live in a dream. Our dreams may be blissful or nightmarish, but they are still dreams. You have come to this retreat because you have already realized that you are dreaming, that your lives are illusory and transient. The goal of practice is to awaken from the dream of life and to discover your self-nature ─ Buddha-nature ─ the fundamental reality that underlies transient existence.

Today, someone mentioned that she sometimes feels she is on the brink of a breakthrough; yet no matter how hard she tries, it eludes her.Clinging to the idea of a breakthrough is itself an obstacle. In order to experience a breakthrough, this person must forget about it.You cannot awaken from the dream of life by making that your goal. When you begin to practice, it is good to have this idea because it increases motivation. However, if you hold onto an idea of “waking up, ” it will become an obstruction to your practice.

Sometimes we are aware in our sleep that we are having a nightmare, and we are anxious to wake up. At other times we dream blissfully, and waking up is a rude and unwanted intrusion. The same is true in our lives. Many people who come to Buddhism do so because their lives are filled with suffering. People who live carefree, untroubled lives normally do not feel a need to meditate. But there is no one who is free from the suffering that stems from the three poisons of craving, anger and ignorance; our lives are filled with vexation and confusion. Many people would like to awaken from this dream of suffering. It is for this reason that we practice. When this student talks about making a breakthrough, she means awakening from her dream of life.

Seeing your self-nature is waking from the dream of vexation. When you dream, you perceive the world and phenomena through the six senses, but when you truly awaken, it seems as if the universe disappears.

However, it is not the universe, but rather the self that disappears when you become enlightened. The attachments of craving, anger and ignorance vanish. When the three poisons are extinguished, so is vexation.

When we perform meaningless or bad actions, we are dreaming. When we practice diligently to become enlightened, we are also dreaming. Before enlightenment, anything we do, say or think, whether it be virtuous, neutral or evil, is a dream. We practice in order to hasten our awakening.

The six paramitas (six perfections) mentioned by Yung-chia are methods of practice through which one realizes enlightenment.The paramitas ─ generosity, morality, patience, effort, meditation and wisdom ─ encompass many methods of practice. One must practice a method to become enlightened, but after enlightenment, one realizes that one does not become a Buddha by practicing. We have always been Buddhas.

At the moment you become enlightened, you awaken from the dream and practice disappears. Although practice is illusory, it is needed in order to awaken. One day. Master Pai-chang came upon his already enlightened disciple, Huang-po. Huang-po was curled up on the floor, dozing in the corner of the meditation hall. Pai-chang woke him, but when Huang-po saw who it was, he rolled over and went back to sleep.

Pai-chang walked over to another disciple who was sitting up-right, deep in meditation, and knocked on his cushion with the incense board. He then pointed toward Huang-po and said, “You useless thing! Look how hard Huang-po works. Why are you dozing off?”

I bet many of you would like to try Huang-po’s method. But Huang-po was enlightened. The point of the story is this: Before seeing your self-nature, there is a cause and effect relationship between practice and enlightenment. Practice leads to enlightenment. In the enlightened state, however, there is no practice. In the story, despite appearances, it was really the second, unenlightened disciple who was asleep.

There is no sin or merit, no loss or gain.
Do not look for anything in this Nirvanic nature;
Originally a dusty mirror which has never been polished,
Today it must be taken apart and analyzed.

Ordinarily, we think that if we do good things, we will gain merit and reap good results; if we do evil things, the opposite will occur. Good actions result in good karma, and bad actions result in bad karma. Today, a student slapped himself hard during meditation. I asked him why he did it, and he said he did not know. I asked him if he felt better afterward. He said he felt somewhat better, but his cheek hurt. These are examples of cause and effect relationships. Perhaps this student was moved by subtle, unconscious motivations or physiological reactions. During retreats, people laugh and cry out loud for no apparent reason. Some do even stranger things. If an outsider observed these actions, he might think these people were odd, even deranged. Usually, however, they feel better afterward.

Such phenomena are a result of practice, and they almost always have good benefits. They bring relief to practitioners, dissipating their excess energy and allowing them to sink deeper into the method. In truth, however, the purpose of practice is to reach a point where there are no results at all, where there are no expectations ─ no rewards for good actions, no retribution for bad actions. There should be no thought of gain or loss, no thought of benefit or harm, of ignorance or enlightenment.

Nirvana is motionless, and it is not separate from you. How can you gain it or lose it? After enlightenment, there is nothing to gain or lose. Before enlightenment, however, sentient beings feel they must rid themselves of vexations and gain liberation. When you study Buddhadharma and begin to practice, you become aware of vexation, and you give it a name. People who do not know about Buddha-nature and the Dharma, on the other hand, may live their entire lives in vexation without being aware of it.

Do you think ignorance is bliss? Do you think intelligent people have the most vexation? Perhaps in the entire animal kingdom, human beings know the most suffering. If we base vexation on suffering, then it would seem that lower life forms have less vexation than humans. But vexation is not based on suffering; it is based on ignorance. Among human beings, then, the greater the wisdom ─ not necessarily intelligence ─ the less the vexation.

The more you practice, the more aware you become of vexation. When you practice, it may seem as though you are developing more vexations. You might think the retreat has turned out poorly, or that you are not progressing, but it is only because you have more self-awareness.

If you are in a dark room and a few rays of sun stream through a window, it is possible to see dust motes floating in the air. When the room is dark, however, the dust is invisible, and you might assume the air is pure. Before we practice, we live in a dark room. As we practice, we become aware of vexation by the light of self-awareness.

Before enlightenment, our mind is a mirror covered with the dust of vexation. People who do not practice may not be aware of this, and they may wallow in despair and helplessness, blaming their misfortune on other things. But those who practice and perceive their vexations and confusion are more aware of their condition, and how they may correct it. For this reason, you should not be upset by your dirty mirror. If it were not for the mirror, you would not be aware of the dust.

Practice is like wiping dust off the mirror. Before enlightenment, we make a distinction between the mirror mind and the dust of vexation. After enlightenment, when the mirror is free of dust, we realize there is neither mind nor dust. The mirror is only a reflection of the illusory self, and the dust is the vexation to which this illusory self attaches. The true mirror reflects neither self nor vexation; in essence, the true mirror is no mirror.

While we practice, mirror and dust co-exist. We are aware of a self because of vexation. Buddha-nature only exists while there is vexation. It is because we have vexation that we conceive of Buddha-nature. During practice, do not be troubled by your vexed or confused mind. They are the same as Buddha-mind.

This is the essence of the Song of Enlightenment. Across the centuries, Yung-chia tells us: Awaken to enlightenment, do not seek after it. Put your mind squarely on the method and work hard.

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