Dear Dhammafriends,
once our friend and master of de-perception TMingyur (Grund) shared excerpt from The Bodhidharma Anthology (J. L Broughton) which I would like to share here. The origin of this gift incl. such a practical de-perception dance, you find
here on freesangha.com .
Note that many of the usual practices (wrong Mahayana / higher eightfold path) may lead to an existence in the formless realm, some desire it even consciously for the sake of being (Mohayana / concentration based on wrong view). How ever, one needs to be aware, that Buddha did not lead his disciples to such a destiny he was even aware that such would easy close the door to understand Dhamma, if the tool of practice and the destination is confused. Hence, even he had not much worry in certain strange practice, he fought any battle with those mistaking high realms with the very aim of liberation.
How ever, it is good to get known all kinds of realms if possible.
With deep gratitude in regard of the most talented Dhamma friend TMingyur who never failed to do an effort to help people to let go of perceptions a little.
"When one does not understand, the person pursues dharmas; when one understands, dharmas persue the person. When one understands, consciousness draws in forms; when one is deluded forms draw in consciousness. The non-production of consciousness due to forms is called not seeing forms. Whether there is no-seeking in seeking or seeking in no-seeking, there is still your seeking. Whether there is no-taking in taking or taking in no-taking there is still your taking. When mind is in need of something, we call it the realm of desire. When mind is not mind of itself but is produced due to forms, we call it the realm of form. When forms are not forms of themselves but are forms because of mind, the fact that mind and forms are formless is called the formless realm.
excerpt from The Bodhidharma Anthology, J. L Broughton
Question: "What is called Buddha Mind?"
Answer: "Mind's having no mark of variation is called Thusness. Mind's unchangeableness is called Dharma Nature. Mind's not being connected to anything is called liberation. The mind nature's quiescence is called nirvana."
Question: "What is called Tathagata?"
Answer: "To understand Thusness and respond to beings is called Tathagata."
Question: "What is called Buddha?"
Answer: "To awaken according to Dharma, to awaken to the fact that there is nothing to be awakened to, is called Buddha."
Question: "What is called Dharma?"
Answer: "Mind does not arise in accordance with Dharma, and mind does not extinguish in accordance with Dharma. This is called Dharma."
Question: "What is called community [sangha]?"
Answer: "Coming together according to Dharma is called community."
Question: "What is called the voidness samadhi?"
Answer: "Gazing at dharmas and abiding in voidness is called voidness samadhi."
Question: "What is called abiding in Dharma?"
Answer: "Neither abiding in abiding, nor abiding in non-abiding, but abiding according to Dharma - this is called abiding in Dharma."
Question: "In cultivating the path and cutting off delusions, what mental attitude is employed?"
Answer: "Use the mental attitude of devices [upaya, means]."
Question: "What is the mental attitude of devices?"
Answer: "When one examines delusion and realizes that from the outset delusion has no place to arise from, and by this device is able to cut off doubt and delusion, we call it mental attitude."
Question: "What delusion does the mind that is in accordance with Dharma cut off?"
Answer: "Delusions of interpretations concerning common men, heretics, hearers, solitary buddhas, bodhisattvas, and so forth".
Question: "What kind of mind is called craving?"
Answer: "The mind of the common man."
Question: "What kind of mind is that which is nonarising?"
Answer: "The mind of the hearer."
Question: "What kind of mind is that which understands the essencelessness of dharmas?"
Answer: "It is the mind of the solitary buddha."
Question: "What kind of mind is that which engenders neither understanding nor delusion?"
Answer: "The mind of the bodhisattva."
Question: "What kind of mind is that which is not awakened and does not know?"
No answer.
The reason there is no answer is that Dharma cannot answer. Because Dharma is no-mind, and an answer is having mind. Dharma is speechless, and an answer is having speech. Dharma is without interpretation, and an answer is interpretation. Dharma is without knowledge, and an answer is having knowledge. Dharma is without this and that, and an answer is having this and that. Such minds and words are no more than calculations. Because mind is not a form, it is not connected to forms, and yet mind is not formless and is not connected to formlessness. The mind's not being connected to anything is liberation. If one breaks the prohibitive precepts [samaya], he will turn apprehensive. However if he knows that his mind of anxiety cannot be apprehended, then he will even attain liberation. He will also know that rebirth in a heaven cannot be apprehended. Even though he knows voidness, voidness cannot be apprehended. Even though he knows that nothing can be apprehended, no-apprehension cannot be apprehended.
If mind has something to value, it will surely have something to despise. If mind has something to affirm, it must have something that it negates. If mind takes one thing to be good, then all other things are nongood. If mind has affection for one person, then all other persons become people whom he has a grudge against. Mind does not abide in forms, nor does it abide in formlessness. It does not abide in abiding, nor does it abide in no-abiding. If mind has abiding, it will not avoid being roped in. If mind has a place where it functions, then it is bondage. If mind values dharmas, dharmas will keep you back. If mind honors one dharma, mind necessarily will have something it considers inferior. When you try to grasp the meaning of sutras and treatises, you should not value understanding. If there are places that you understand then your mind has something to be connected to. If mind has something to be connected to, then it is bondage. The sutra says: 'It is not through inferior, middle, or superior dharmas that one attains nirvana.' Even though mind has entered delusion, you must not produce a thought of delusionlessness. When mind arises, rely on Dharma to gaze at the place it arises from. If mind discriminates, rely on Dharma to gaze at the place of discrimination. Whether greed, anger, or stupidity, rely on dharma to gaze at the place they arise from. Not seeking the place they arise from is cultivating the path. If there is arising of mind, then investigate and, rely on Dharma, tidy up!
Question: "In cultivating and attaining the path, are some slow and some quick?"
Answer: "They are separated by millions of eons. In case of those for whom mind is the path, it is quick. For those practitioners who produce the thought of enlightenment and practice, it is slow. People of sharp abilities know that mind is the path. People of dull abilities seek everywhere for the path but lack knowledge of its location. Moreover, they do not know that mind from the outset is unexcelled, perfect enlightenment."
Question: "What about quickly attaining the path?"
Answer: " Mind is the substance of the path, and so one quickly attains the path. When the practitioner himself realizes that delusion has arisen, then, relying on Dharma, he gazes and brings about its exhaustion."
Question: "How is mind the substance of the path?"
Answer: Mind is unconscious like trees or stones. It is as if there were someone who painted dragons and tigers with his own hand, and yet, upon looking at them, became frightened. Deluded people are also like this. The brush of thought and consciousnesses paints Razor Mountains and Sword Forests, and yet it is thought and the consciousnesses that fear them. If you are fearless in mind, then false thought will be eliminated. The brush of mind and the consciousnesses discriminates and draws forms, sounds, smells, tastes, and touchables, and, upon looking at them in turn produces greed, anger, and stupiditiy. Sometimes it is fascinated and sometimes repelled. Due to the discriminations of thought, mind, and the consciousnesses, various sorts of karma are in turn produced. If you can realize that thought and the consciousnesses from the outset have been void-quiescent and also avoid seeing the locus of the arising of thought and the consciousnesses, then you are cultivating the path. Some, by discriminations of their own mind, draw tigers, wolves, lions, poisonous dragons, evil spirits, the generals of the five paths of rebirth, King Yama, the ox-headed guards of hell, and the Hell of the Sound of Cold. These things are discriminated by their own mind, but they are then controlled by these things, and so they undergo various sufferings. Realize that whatever mind discriminates is merely forms. If you awaken to the fact that mind from the outset has been void-quiescent and know that mind is not itself a form, then mind is unconnected. Forms are not forms. They are constructed in the manner of an illusion by your own mind. If you merely realize that they are not real, then you will attain liberation."
Question: "The sutra says: 'Walking on pathlessness, one comprehends the path of the Buddhas.' What does this mean?"
Answer: "Walking on pathlessness is to reject neither words nor characteristics. For the one who has comprehended, names are nameless and characteristics are characteristicless. It also says: 'One who walks on pathlessness rejects neither covetousness nor craving.' For the one who has comprehended, covetousness is covetousless and craving is cravingless. When walking on pathlessness, suffering is sufferingless and pleasure is pleasureless, and this is called comprehension. When walking on pathlessness, birth is birthless, and yet one does not seize birthlessness. Ego is egoless, and yet one does not seize egolessness. This is called comprehending the path of the Buddhas. If you can attain to the realization that negation is negationless, and yet not seize negationlessness, then this is called comprehending the path of the Buddhas. In summary, mind is no-mind, and this is called comprehending the mind path.
Question: "What is comprehending all dharmas?"
Answer: "When in the midst of things you do not give rise to views, it is called comprehension. Comprehension means not engendering thought in relation to things, not engendering covetousness for things, and not engendering defilements in connection with things. When forms are formless, it is called comprehending forms. When existence is existenceless, it is called comprehending existence. When birth is birthless, it is called comprehending birth. When Dharma is Dharmaless, it is called comprehending Dharma. No matter what he meets, he directly comprehends. This person's wisdom eye is wide open. No matter what may come, he is incapable of seeing difference or sameness in characteristics. This is called comprehension."
Question: "How is it that the great path is said to be very easy to come to know and easy to walk on, but no one in the world is capable of knowing it and walking it? Please explain this."
Answer: "What you say is correct. When one is eminent, at rest, loose, trusting, not doing one thing, he is said to be walking the path. Not seeing one thing is called seeing the path. Not knowing one thing is called cultivating the path. Not practicing one thing is called practicing the path. It is said to be easy to come to know and easy to walk."
When at present you rely on the Dharma's three treasures of Buddha, Dharma, and community to carry out the path, you must not have such views as good/bad, like/dislike, cause/effect, is/is-not, holding the precepts/breaking the precepts, and so forth. If you make these sorts of calculations, they are all delusions manifested by your own mind. You will not notice that the realm of objects arises from your own mind. If you hold that no dharmas exist, it is also a delusion manifested by your own mind. The perceptions of your own mind are all deluded thoughts that construct 'is' and 'is-not'. If you say that the wisdom of the Buddha surpasses all, it is also a delusion manifested by your own mind. One's own mind in the manner of a sleight of hand constructs both existence and non-existence and in turn is deluded by them. The sutra says: 'If you rely on Dharma-Body Buddha to cultivate the path, construct neither illusionary sentient beings nor real sentient beings.' Therefore, the Dharma Realm is sameness, having neither gain nor loss. If you rely on Dharma-Body Buddha to cultivate the path, do not seek nirvana. Why? Because Dharma is nirvana. How could one use nirvana to seek nirvana? Also, do not seek Dharma. Because mind is the Dharma Realm. How could you use the Dharma Realm to seek Dharma Realm? If you wish to rectify mind, neither fear dharmas nor seek dharmas. If you use the Dharma-Body Buddha to cultivate the path, your mind will be like stone - dark, unaware, unknowing, undiscerning, nonchalant about everything like a stupid person. Why? Because Dharma lacks awareness and knowing. Because Dharma can give us fearlessness, it is a place of great peace. It is like someone who commits a mortal crime. He surely must be beheaded. But if it happens that the kings grants him a pardon, he avoids the anxiety of a death sentence. Sentient beings are also like this. They commit the ten evils and the five transgressions and must fall into a hell, but the Dharma King grants them a pardon of great quiescence, and so they avoid all their sins. If someone who is a good friend of the king ventures off to another locale, kills youths there, and is grabbed by local people who want to requite the injury, this person becomes fearful, for he has no one to rely upon. When he suddenly sees his great king, he obtains liberation. If someone breaks the precepts and commits murder, commits sexual crimes and thievery, and fears falling into a hell, when he sees his own Dharma King, he will obtain liberation.
In the Dharma of cultivating the path, the vital energy of those who obtain their understanding through the medium of written word is weak. If one obtains his understanding from events, his vital energy will be robust. Those who see Dharma from the medium of events never lose mindfulness anywhere. When those whose understanding is from the medium of the written word encounter events, their eyes are beclouded. To discuss events from the point of view of the sutras and treatises is to be estranged from Dharma. Though one may chat about events and listen concerning events, it is not as potent as personally experiencing events with the body and mind. If someone's understanding that events are Dharma is deep, then worldly people will not be able to fathom him. Even if the cultivator of the path time and again has his belongings stolen by thieves, he will not have a mind of attachment and will not even be vexed. If he is time and again cursed and slandered by others, he will not be vexed. If one is like this, his mind of the path will gradually strengthen. It will accumulate over years without end, until he spontaneously has no mind toward any disagreeable and agreeable thing. Therefore he who is not bound up with events can be called the bodhisattva of great power. If one wishes to make the mind of cultivating the path robust, he should send mind outside the boundaries of the norms.
Question: "What events are outside the boundaries of the norms?"
Answer: "The spontaneously peaceful mind does not realize the understanding of the Mahayana or the Hinayana, does not produce the thought of enlightenment, even to the point of not wishing for the omniscience of a Buddha, does not honor the person who is accomplished in samadhi, does not disdain the person who is attached and craving, even to the point of not wishing for Buddha wisdom. If one does not grasp for understanding and does not seek wisdom, he will desire to avoid the delusions and confusions of the Dharma masters and dhyana masters. If one can preserve mind and erect will, entertain no wish to be a worthy or a sage, not seek liberation, fear neither the cycle of birth and death nor the hells, and with no-mind directly carry out his responsibilities, then for the fist time he will bring to perfection a dull mind of norms. If one can see all the transformations of the worthies and sages due to their supernomal powers through hundreds of thousands of eons without producing a desirous mind, then this person will desire to avoid the deceptions and delusions of others."
Another question: "How does one produce a state of being outside the boundaries of the norms?"
Answer: "The confucian virtues of humaneness, righteousness, ritual, wisdom, and faith are called the mind within the boundaries of the norms. Birth-and-death and nirvana are also called the mind within the boundaries of the norms. If you wish to go outside the boundaries of the norms to the point of jettisoning the terms 'comon man' and ' sage', you must not know through having a method; you must not know through not having a method; you must not know through both having a method and not having a method. That which ordinary knowledge understands is also said to be within the boundaries of the norms. When you do not produce the mind of the common man, the hearer or the bodhisattva mind, and do not even produce a Buddha Mind or any mind at all, then for the first time you can be said to have gone outside the boundaries of the norms. If you desire that no mind at all arise, that you do not produce understanding, nor give rise to delusion, then for the first time you can be said to have gone outside of everything. When the worldy morons encounter a devilish, cock-and-bull fellow who babbles a demonic line, they come up with a demonic interpretation and use it as compass. This is beneath comment. How can they perform the function of a great thing? Hearing that a certain person leads a group of millions, their mind is triggered into motion. Gaze well at the dharmas of your own mind to determine whether it harbors the spoken and written word or not."
Question: "What is the mind of plainness? What is the mind of ingenious artifice?"
Answer: "Spoken and written words are called ingenious artifice. Forms and formlessness are equal. Walking, standing, sitting, or lying - all behaviour and activity are plainness, even to the extent that when one encounters any sorrowful or joyful event, the mind remains immobile. That for the first time can be called the mind of plainness."
Question: "What is called correct and what is called false?"
Anwer: "Having no mental discrimination is called correct, and having the mind interpret dharmas is called false. When you come to the point of being unaware of both false and correct, that for the first time can be called correct. The sutra says: 'Those who abide in the correct path do not discriminate whether it is false or correct.'"
Question: "What are sharp abilities and dull abilities?"
Anwer: "He who, without relying on the teaching of a master, sees Dharma from events is called one of sharp abilities. He who understands from spoken teachings of a master is called of dull abilities. In hearing the Dharma through the spoken teachings of a master there are also levels of sharpness and dullness in abilitiy. In hearing the master's words, if one is not attached to existence and yet does not seize nonexistence; if one is not attached to characteristics and yet does not seize characteristiclessness; if one is not attached to arising and yet does not seize nonarising, he is a person of sharp abilities. To covet understanding and seize meanings - views such as 'is' and 'is-not' - is the interpretation of meanings of the man with dull abilities. When the person of sharp abilities hears of the path, he does not produce the mind of the common man. He does not even produce the mind of the worthy sage. Common and sagely are both excised. This is the hearing of the man of sharp abilities. He cares not for material and sensual things, even to the point of not caring for a Buddha's enlightenment. If you care for a Buddha's enlightenment, then you will reject disturbance and seize quietude, reject stupidity and seize wisdom, reject the conditioned and seize the unconditioned. You will not be able to cut off duality and be unimpeded. This is a man of dull abilities. To do it that way is to go beyond all common and sagely realms. The man of sharp abilities hears of the path without producing a covetous mind. He does not even produce right mindfulness and right reflection. He hears of the path without producing the mind of the hearer. He does not even produce the bodhisattva mind. The bodhisattva takes the Dharma Realm as his home and the four immeasurable minds as the locus of the precepts. All behaviour, to the end, does not go beyond the Dharma Realm mind. Why? Because the body is the Dharma Realm. Even if you say and do all sorts of things, do a dance leap or a horse kick, none of them leaves or enters the Dharma Realm. If you take the Dharma Realm to enter the Dharma Realm, then you are a stupid person. Because the bodhisattva clearly sees the Dharma Realm, he is said to have the purity of the Dharma eye. Because he does not see dharmas arising, abiding, extinguishing, he is said to have the purity of the Dharma eye. As to the sutra's saying that 'without extinguishing stupidity and craving he gives rise to liberation', craving from the outset is nonarising, so how could it now be extinghuished? The stupid, craving one seeks internally, externally, and in between, but he can neither see nor apprehend stupidity and craving. Even when he seeks in the ten directions for them, there is not the slightest characteristic to be apprehended. Hence it is unnecessary to extinguish them in order to seek liberation."
Question: "Worldly people apply themselves to various sorts of learning. Why do they fail to obtain the path?"
Answer: "Because they see a self, they do not obtain the path. If they were able to avoid seeing a self, then they would be able to obtain the path. Self means ego. The reason why the sage meets suffering without being sad and encounters pleasure without being happy is that he does not see a self. The reason why he has neither suffering nor peace is that he has lost self. When you attain to emptiness, even the self is lost, so what further thing can there be that is not lost? In the world how many can there be who have lost self? If you can lose self, everything from the outset will be nonexistent. The self arbitrarily produces calculations, and then one is affected by birth, aging, sickness, death, sadness, commiseration, suffering, defilement, cold, heat, wind, rain, and everything that is not in accord with one's wishes. These are all manifestations of false thought. In the manner of a magician's sleight of hand, departing to another birth and staying in this birth are not under control of a self. Why? Aribtrarily the ego of worldly people produces resistance and opposition, and they fail to achnowledge that departing and staying are not under the control of the ego. The defilements exist because of the grasping of the self, and from this springs departing and staying. If you now that departing and staying are not under the control of the self, then for you 'mine' will be a sleight-of-hand-dharma incapable of holding you back. If you do not resist sleight-of-hand-dharmas, then, no matter what may come, you will not be hindered. If you are capable of not resisting transformations, then, no matter what may happen, you will have nothing to repent of."
Question: "The sutra says: 'The outsiders take joy in the various views; the bodhisattva is immobile in the midst of the various views. The Heavenly Evil One takes joy in birth-and-death; the bodhisattva does not reject birth-and-death.'"
Answer: "Because false views are the same as correct views, the bodhisattva is immobile. That outsiders take joy in the various views means that they view existence as existence and view nonexistence as nonexistence. Existence does not partake of existence, and nonexistence does not partake of nonexistence. This is called immobility. Immobility just means not being apart form the correct and not being apart form the false. Just at the time of correct understanding, there is no false and correct, and it is unneceesary to reject the false to seek the correct. Existence does not partake of existence and in that light the bodhisattva in a state of immobility sees existence. Nonexistence does not partake of nonexistence and in that light the bodhisattva sees nonexistence. Because he relies on Dharma to gaze at the lack of difference between the false and the correct, the bodhisattva is said to be immobile. Also, because it is unnecessary for him to reject the false to enter the correct, he is said to be immobile in the midst of various views. The sutra says: 'By false characteristics enter the correct Dharma'. It also says :'Do not reject the eight falsities to enter the eight liberations.' Because birth-and-death is the same as nirvana, he does not reject birth-and-death. Birth is birthless. Death is deathless. He does not depend upon rejecting birth in order to enter birthlessness and upon rejecting death in order to enter deathlessness. Because everything is quiescent, it is nirvana. The sutra says: ' All sentient beings from the outset have been quiescent. They are not extinguished again.' It also says: 'All dharmas are nirvana.' It is unnecessary to reject birth-and-death for it to begin to be nirvana, just as it is unnecessary that a person reject a chunk of ice for it to begin to be water. They have the same essence. Because birth-and-death and nirvana are also in essence the same, it is unnecessary to reject birth-and death. Therefore the bodhisattva does not reject birth-and-death. As to the bodhisattva's being fixed to immobility, being fixed to the unfixed is called fixedness. Because the outsiders take pleasure in the various views, the bodhisattva teaches that views are viewless and that one does not toil over getting rid of views, only afterward to have viewlessness. That the Heavenly Evil One takes pleasure in birth-and-death and the bodhisattva does not reject it means that the bodhisattva wishes to make sentient beings aware to the fact that birth is birthless and that one does not have to wait for the rejection of birth in order to enter birthlessness. It is unnecessary to reject water to find wetness, to reject fire to get heat. Water is wetness, and fire is heat. Birth-and-death is nirvana. therefore the bodhisattva does not reject birth-and-death to enter nirvana, because birth-and-death is identical to nirvana. The hearer cuts off birth-and-death and enters nirvana. The bodhisattva experientially comes to know that in essence they are sameness, and so he can by means of compassion identify with beings and take on the function of transforming sentient beings. 'Birth' and 'deat' are different terms with one meaning. 'Immobility' and 'nirvana' likewise are different terms with one meaning.
Question: "What is bodhisattva practice?"
Answer: "It is not the practice of the worthies and sages. It is not the practice of the common man. It is the practice of the bodhisattva. If one is training to be a bodhisattva, one neither seizes worldly dharmas nor rejects worldly dharmas. If you can enter the path with thought and the consciousnesses as they are, there will be no common men or hearers capable of taking your measure. As is said, every locus of events, every locus of forms, and every locus of evil karma is used by the bodhisattva, and all are made into Buddha events. They are all made into nirvana. They are all the great path. Every locus is without locus. This is the locus of Dharma. This is the locus of the path. The bodhisattva examines the fact that every locus is the locus of Dharma. The bodhisattva does not reject any locus, does not seize any locus, does not select any locus, and makes all of them into Buddha events. Birth-and-death are made into a Buddha event, and delusion is made into a Buddha event.
Question: "All dharmas are without dharma. How is it that they are made into Buddha events?"
Answer: "The locus of making every locus into a Buddha event is not a locus of making. There are no dharmas of making, and so in all places, good or otherwise, the bodhisattvas see the Buddhas."
Question: "What is seeing the Buddhas?"
Answer: "To see no characteristic of greed in greed is to see the greed dharma. To see no characteristic of suffering in suffering is the to see the suffering dharma. To see no characteristic of dream in dream is to see dream dharma. This is called 'in every locus seeing the Buddhas'. If you see characteristics, then in every locus you will see demons."
Question: "Where is the essence of the Dharma Realm?"
Answer: "Every locus is the locus of the Dharma Realm."
Question: "Within the essence of the Dharma Realm are there such things as holding the precepts or breaking the precepts?"
Answer: "Within the essence of the Dharma Realm there exists neither the common nor the sagely. Heavenly mansions and hells also do not exist. 'Is' and 'is-not', suffering and joy, and so forth are constant like space."
Question: "Where is the locus of enlightenment?"
Anwer: "The locus you are walking on is the locus of enlightenment. The locus you are lying on is the locus of enlightenment. The locus you are sitting on is the locus of enlightenment. The locus you are standing on is the locus of enlightenment. Wherever you lift your feet or put them down is the locus of enlightenment."
Question: "Please explain the realm of all the Buddhas."
Answer: "Dharmas neither exist nor inexist. Not seizing the understanding that they neither exist nor inexist is called realm of the Buddhas. If mind is unconscious like trees or stones, it cannot know by a wisdom of existence, nor can it know by a wisdom of nonexistence. Buddha Mind cannot be known from the point of view of existence. The Dharma Body cannot be seen through imagery. That which ordinary knowledge understands is the discrimination of false thought. Though you make various interpretations, they are all the calculations of your own mind, false thought of your own mind. The insight of all the Buddhas cannot be shown to people through speech, nor can it be hidden away, nor can you plumb it by means of dhyana. Cutting off understanding and cutting off knowing are called the realm of all the Buddhas. That which cannot be measured is called Buddha Mind. If you can have faith that Buddha Mind is like this, then you will extinguish the defilements, which are innumerable as the grains of sand of the Ganges. If you can preserve such a mind and be mindful that Buddha insight is like this, your mental focus on the path will grow stronger day by day.
Question: "Why is it said that the sun of Tathagata insight sinks beneath the land of existence?"
Answer: "If you see the nonexistent as existent, the sun of insight sinks beneath the land of existence. This is also the case if you see characteristicless as one more characteristic."
Question: "What is called characterized by immobility?"
Answer: "When you do not apprehend existence, there is no existence to be moved by. When you do not apprehend nonexistence, there is no nonexistence to be moved by. When mind is no-mind, there is no mind to be moved by. When characteristics are characteristicless, there are no chracteristics to be moved by. Therefore, we say characterized by immobility. If there is one who comes to this sort of realization, he is said to have deluded himself. The above is not yet understanding. When you understand there are no dharmas to be understood."
Question: "In what appears before us one sees that there is arising, and extinguishing. Why is it said that there is no arising and extinguishing?"
Answer: "That which arises from conditions is not said to have arisen, precisely because it arose from conditions. That which extinguishes due to conditions is incapable of extinguishing on its own, precisely because it extinguishes due to conditions."
Question: "Why is it that that which arises from conditions is not said to have arisen?"
Answer: "It arises from conditions. It does not arise from another, nor does it arise from itself; it does not arise from both, another and itself, nor does it arise without a cause. There are no dharmas that arise. There is nothing that arises. There is no locus of arising. Therefore, we come to know nonarising. That which you see as arising and extinguishing is illusionary arising, not real arising, and illusionary extinguishing, not real extinguishing."
Remark: Original words of the translator are maintained. The word "sin" (and its accompanying concept) should be replaced by concepts referred to as "breach of sila/vow/samaya" and/or "misdeed" and/or "defilement", "hindrance", "fetter" and "punishment" should be replaced by "kamma vipaka", "karmic fruition"
Question: "Why does the common man fall into evil rebirths?"
Answer: Because he has an ego, is stupid, and therefore says 'I drink wine.' The wise one says: 'When you have no wine, why don't you drink winelessness?' Even if the stupid person were to say 'I do drink winelessness', the wise one would say: 'Where is your I?" The stupid person also says: 'I commit a sin.' The wise one says: 'What sort of thing is your sin?' All of this is conditioned arising, lacking an essence. When it arises, you already know there is no ego. So who commits a sin and who receives punishment? The sutra says: 'Common man insist on discriminating: "I crave; I am angry". Such ignorant persons will the fall into the three evil rebirths.' The sutra says: 'Sin is intrinsically neither internal nor external, nor is it between the two.' This illustrates that sin is unlocalized. The unlocalized is the locus of quiescence. When human beings fall into a hell, from mind they calculate an ego. They remember and discriminate, saying: 'I commit evils, and I receive punishment. I do good deeds, and I receive rewards.' This is evil karma. From the outset no such things have existed, but they arbitrarily remember and discriminate, saying that they exist. This is evil karma."
Question: "Who can cross over the ego to nirvana?"
Answer: "Dharma can cross over the ego. How can this be known? By seizing characteristics, one falls into a hell. By examining Dharma, one is liberated. If you see characteristics, remember, and discriminate, then you will suffer from a scalding cauldron, a blazing furnace, the ox-headed guards of hell, the Hell of the Sound of Cold, and so forth. You will see manifested before you the characteristics of birth-and-death. If you see that the Dharma-Realm nature is the nirvana nature and you are without memory and discrimination, then it is the substance of the Dharma Realm."
Question: "What is the substance of the Dharma Realm like?"
Answer: "The mind substance is the substance of the Dharma Realm. This Dharma is insubstantive. It is without boundaries, as expansive as space, invisible. This is called the substance of the Dharma Realm."
Question: "What is knowing Dharma like?"
Answer: "Dharma is called no-awakening and no-knowing. One whose mind is without awakening and without knowing is a person who knows Dharma. Dharma is called not knowing and not seeing. If mind does not know and does not see, this is called Dharma. Not knowing any dharma is called knowing Dharma. Not apprehending any dharma is called apprehending Dharma. Not seeing any dharma is called seeing Dharma. Not discriminating any dharma is called discriminating Dharma.
Question: "Dharma is said to be no-seeing. What is unimpeded knowing and seeing?"
Answer: "Not knowing is unimpeded knowing. Not seeing is unimpeded seeing."
Question: "Dharma is said to be no-awakening. 'Buddha' means 'awakened one'. Why is this?"
Answer: "Dharma is said to be no-awakening, and 'Buddha' means 'awakened one'. No-awakening is awakening, and awakening in a state of identity with Dharma is Buddha awakening. If you are diligent in the practice of gazing at the characteristics of mind, you will see dharma characteristics. If you are diligent in the practice of gazing at the locus of mind, then you will realize that it is the locus of quiescence, that it is the locus of nonarising, the locus of liberation, the locus of voidness, the locus of enlightenment. The mind locus is unlocalized. It is the locus of the Dharma Realm, the locus of the seat of enlightenment, the locus of the Dharma gate, the locus of wisdom, the locus of dhyana unimpeded. A person who has this sort of understanding is a person who has fallen into a pit or slipped into a ditch."