The Extensive Record of Baizhang
These are excerpts taken from The Extensive Record of Baizhang/Sayings & Doings of Baizhang, translated by Thomas Cleary.
Once you have “Buddha” then there are “sentient beings” there; once you have “nirvana”, then there is “birth and death” there. Once you have light, then there is darkness there. And as long as cause and effect with attachment are revolving over and over, there is nothing that does not incur a result.
If you want to avoid experiencing this reversal, just cut off dualism; then measurements cannot govern you. You are neither Buddha nor sentient being, not near, not far, not high, not low, not equal, not even, not going, not coming; just do not cling to written letters which obstruct it, and neither side (of any split) can hold you. You will avoid either form of pain or pleasure, and avoid the opposition of light and dark. The true principle is that even reality is not really real, and even falsehood is not false. It is not something calculable; like empty space, it cannot be cultivated. If there occurs any intellectual fabrication in the mind, then it is governed by measurement.
You should study like this: study is like washing a dirty garment—the garment is originally there, the dirt comes from outside. Having heard it said that all existent and nonexistent sound and form are such filth, do not set your mind on any of it at all. The thirty-two marks of greatness and eighty refinements under the tree of enlightenment all belong to form, the twelve-branch teaching of the canon all belongs to sound—right now having cut off the flow of all existent and nonexistent sound and form, the mind will be like empty space. You should “study” in this way as urgently as saving your head afire; only then will you be capable of finding a road prepared already in the past upon which you can go when facing the end of your life. If you have not accomplished that yet, when you get to the moment of death and then try to compose yourself anew to start to learn, you have no hope of succeeding.
When facing the end, all are beautiful scenes appearing—according to what the mind likes, the most impressive are experienced first. If you do not do bad things right now, then at this time, facing death, there will be no unpleasant scenes. Even if there are any unpleasant scenes, they too will change into pleasant scenes. If you fear that at the moment of death you will go mad with terror and fail to attain freedom, then you should first be free right now—then you’ll be all right. Right now, in respect to each and every thing, don’t have any attachment at all, and do not abide by intellectual understanding; then you will be free.
Right now is the cause; the moment of facing death is the result. When the resultant action is already manifest, how can you fear? Fear is over past and present. Since the past had a present, the present must have a past. Since there has been enlightenment in the past, there must also be enlightenment in the present. If you can attain now and forever the single moment of present awareness, and this one moment of awareness is not governed by anything at all, whether existent, nonexistent, or whatever, then from past and present Buddha is just human, humans are just Buddhas. Also this is meditational concentration—don’t use concentration to enter concentration, don’t use meditation to conceive of meditation, don’t use Buddha to search for Buddhahood. As it is said, “Reality does not seek reality, reality does not obtain reality, reality does not practice reality, reality does not see reality, but finds its way naturally.” It is not attained by attainment; that is why bodhisattvas should thus be properly mindful, subsisting alone in the midst of things, composed, yet without knowledge of the fact of subsisting alone. The nature of wisdom is such as it is of itself; it is not disposed by causes. It is also called the knot of substance, also the cluster of substance. It is not known by knowledge, not discerned by consciousness—it is entirely beyond mental calculation. Frozen and silent, the body exhausted, thought and judgment are forever gone—like the flow of the ocean having ended, waves do not rise again.
In reading sutras and studying the doctrines, you should turn all words right around and apply them to yourself. But all verbal teachings only point to the inherent nature of the present mirror awareness—as long as this [present mirror awareness] is not affected by any existent or nonexistent objects at all, it is your guide; it can shine through all various existent and nonexistent realms. This is adamantine wisdom, where you have your share of freedom and independence. If you cannot understand in this way, then even if you could recite the whole canon and all its branches of knowledge, it would only make you conceited, and conversely shows contempt for Buddhahood—it is not true practice.
Just detach from all sound and form, and do not dwell in detachment, and do not dwell in intellectual understanding—this is practice. As for reading sutras and studying the doctrines, according to worldly convention it is a good thing, but if assessed from the standpoint of one who is aware of the inner truth, this [reading and study] chokes people up. Even people of the tenth stage cannot escape completely, and flow into the river of birth and death.
But the teachings of the three vehicles all cure diseases such as greed and hatred. Right now, thought after thought, if you have such sicknesses as greed or hatred, you should first cure them—don’t seek intellectual understanding of meanings and expressions. Understanding is in the province of desire, and desire turns into disease. Right now just detach from all things, existent or nonexistent, and even detach from detachment. Having passed beyond these three phases, you will naturally be no different from a Buddha. Since you yourself are Buddha, why worry that the Buddha will not know how to talk. Just beware of not being Buddha.
As long as you are bound by various existent or nonexistent things, you can’t be free. This is because before the inner truth is firmly established, you first have virtue and knowledge; you are ridden by virtue and knowledge, like the menial employing the noble. It is not as good as first settling the inner truth and then afterwards having virtue and knowledge—then if you need virtue and knowledge, as the occasion appears you will be able to take gold and make it into earth, take earth and make it into gold, change sea water into buttermilk, smash Mount Everest into fine dust, and pick up the waters of the four great oceans and put them into a single hair pore. Within one meaning you create unlimited meanings, and within unlimited meanings you make one meaning.
If you lose your footing and become a wheel-turning king, and have everyone in the world practice the ten virtues for one day, this virtue and knowledge still cannot compare to your own mirror awareness; this is called the opportunity of kingship. When thoughts attach to various existent or nonexistent things, it is called the wheel-turning kings. But right now, do not let any existent, nonexistent, or anything at all into your guts—go away beyond the four possibilities of logic. This is called emptiness, and emptiness is called the elixir of immortality, although we say that the elixir of immortality is taken along with the king, yet they are not two things, nor are they one thing. If you make interpretations of one or two, you are also called a wheel-turning king.
But right now suppose here is someone with virtue and knowledge who offered the necessities of life to all kinds of beings in four hundred trillion infinities of worlds, satisfying them according to their desires for eighty years; then he forms this thought: “Since these sentient beings are already deteriorating with age, I should teach them and guide them in the way to enlightenment, let them attain to the realization of entering the stream of the Way, on to the path of Buddhahood.”
Such a donor, just in giving sentient beings all means of comfort, already has immeasurable merit—how much the more if he cause them to attain the fruit of entering the stream, on to the path of Buddhahood; this merit is immeasurable, boundless, yet it is not comparable to the merit of the “fiftieth person hearing the teaching and rejoicing in accord.” The Sutra on Requiting Debt says, “Lady Maya gave birth to five hundred princes, who all attained self-enlightenment, and all became extinct—for each she set up a monument, made offerings, and bowed to them one by one. Sighing, she said, ‘This is not as good as to have given birth to a single child who would have realized unexcelled enlightenment and saved me mental energy.’”
Right now, if there is one who attains, his worth is equal to a universe. That is why I always urge everyone to unlock the depths of inherent reality; if the truth within you is profound, you can use virtue and knowledge like a noble employing menials. It is also like a cart which does not stop. If you hold this as your understanding, this is called the jewel in the topknot; it is also called a jewel which has a price, and it is also called carrying excrement. If you do not hold to this as your understanding, this is like the king giving away the bright jewel in his topknot; it is also called a great priceless jewel, and it is also called getting rid of excrement.
A Buddha is just someone outside of bondage who comes back inside of bondage to be a Buddha in this way; he is someone beyond birth and death, just someone on the other side of mystic annihilation, but comes back to this shore to act thus as a Buddha. Neither humans nor apes can practice this. “Human” symbolizes the bodhisattvas of the highest, tenth stage; “ape” symbolizes ordinary people.
Reading the sutras, studying the teachings, seeking all knowledge and understanding are not to be completely forbidden, but even if you can understand the teachings of the three vehicles, skillfully obtain pearl necklaces of adornment and get the cave of the thirty-two marks of greatness, if you seek Buddhahood you won’t find it.
The teachings say that even those students who greedily cling to the canon of the lesser vehicle should not be approached, let alone self-accredited immoral monks and nominal saints. In the Sutra of the Great Decease [?] they are categorized among the sixteen wrong modes of behavior, the same as hunters and fisherfolk who purposely kill for profit. The universally equal branch of the great vehicle teachings is like ambrosia; it is also like poison—if you can digest it, it is like ambrosia, but if you can’t digest it, it is like poison. In reading sutras and studying the teachings, if you do not understand their living and dead words, you will certainly not penetrate the meanings and expressions therein. Then in that case, not to read is best.
You should study the teachings, and you should also call on good teachers; foremost of all, you must have eyes yourself. You must discriminate those living and dead words before you can understand (sutras and teachers); if you cannot discern clearly, you will certainly not penetrate them—this just adds to seekers’ bonds. That is why in teaching them to study the mystic essence, people are not made to read written letters. As it is said, speak of substance, do not speak of form; speak of meaning, not of wording—speaking like this is called true speech.
If you talk about the written letters, all of this is slander; this is called false speech. If bodhisattvas speak, they should speak according to the truth; this is also called true speech; they should make sentient beings hold to the heart, not hold to things, hold to practice, not hold to doctrine, speak of the person, not speak of the letter, speak of cultivation, not of literary embellishment.
“If you know the illusion, it’s not illusion.” The third patriarch of Ch’an said, “If you don’t know the hidden essence, you’ll uselessly work at concentrating on stillness.” If you recognize things and consider that seeing, this is like holding tiles and pebbles; what do you want to hold on to them for? If you say you don’t see, then how are you different from wood or stone? That is why seeing and not seeing both have their fault. I have quoted an example of that.
But right now if one hears sound as an echo, smells odor as wind, detached from all existent, nonexistent, or any things at all, and yet does not dwell in detachment, and has no understanding of not dwelling either, this person cannot be affected by any moral defilement. For one to be called renunciant because of the search for unsurpassed enlightenment and ultimate peace is still a false aspiration—how much the more so is worldly disputation, seeking victory and defeat, saying “I am able, I understand,” seeking a following, liking a disciple, being fond of a dwelling place, making a pact with a patron for a robe, a meal, a name, a gain; and they say, “I have attained total unimpeded freedom.” They are only fooling themselves. Right now if you are capable, within your own five clusters of mortal being, of not acting as the owner—though cut to pieces joint by joint by others, yet not having any thought of resentment or regret, and also not suffering, and so on, even when your own disciples are beaten head to foot by others—in each case of events such as these, if you do not have even a single thought giving rise to ideas of others and self, yet abide in the absence of even a single thought and consider that right, this is called defilement by the dust of the Dharma. Even people in the tenth stage of bodhisattvahood cannot get rid of this completely, and flow into the river of birth and death. This is why I always urge everyone to fear the affliction by the dust of Dharma as you would fear the states of hell beings, hungry ghosts, and animals—then you will have a share of independence.
Now if you wish to be able to be immediately enlightened, just let person and things both disappear, person and things both be cut off, person and things both be empty—passing through beyond the three stages, this is called someone who doesn’t fall within any categorizations.
The first patriarch in this country, Bodhidharma said, “If the mind affirms something, it must deny something too.” If you value a single thing, you are deluded by that thing; esteem anything and you are confused by it. Believe, and you are deluded by belief; disbelief still amounts to repudiation. Do not value, do not devalue; do not believe, do not disbelieve. Buddhahood is also not inactivity; though it is not inactive, yet it is not dark quiescence. Like empty space, the Buddha is a great-bodied being with much reflective awareness; but although his reflective awareness is great, his awareness is pure and clear—the demons of greed and aversion cannot hold him. Buddha is someone beyond confinement; he has not a trace of lust or attachment, and yet has no knowledge of having no lust or attachment. This is known as fulfilling myriad practices through six ways of transcendence (six perfections of wisdom). If he needs articles of adornment, he has all kinds; if he doesn’t need them and doesn’t use them, still he hasn’t lost them. He can use virtue and knowledge as cause and effect freely. This is cultivation; it is not that taking on laborious works and shouldering a burden are what is called cultivation—on the contrary, it is not so.
However, all verbal teachings just cure disease; because the diseases are not the same, the medicines are also not the same. That is why sometimes it is said there is Buddha, and sometimes it is said there is no Buddha. True words cure sickness; if the cure manages to heal, then all are true words—if they can’t effectively cure sickness, all are false words. True words are false words insofar as they give rise to views; false words are true words insofar as they cut off the delusions of sentient beings. Because disease is unreal, there is only unreal medicine to cure it.
Sickness and medicine are all oneself; there is no one else. Where is there a Buddha appearing in the world? Where are there sentient beings to be saved?
In the purified state cultivating profane causes, a Buddha enters among sentient beings, becoming like them in kind to invite, lead, teach and guide them; joining those hungry spirits, his limbs and joints afire, he expounds the transcendence of wisdom to them, inspiring them with the will for enlightenment. If he only stayed in the purified state, how could he go there and talk with them? Buddha enters into various classes and makes a raft for sentient beings; like them he feels pain, unlimited toil and stress. When a Buddha enters a painful place, he too feels pain, the same as sentient beings; a Buddha is not the same as sentient beings only in that he is free to go or to stay. A Buddha is not empty space; feeling pain, how could he not suffer?
In the presence of all things in the environment, to have a mind neither still nor disturbed, neither concentrated nor distracted, passing through all sound and form without lingering or obstruction, is called being a wayfarer. Not setting in motion good, evil, right or wrong, not clinging to a single thing, not rejecting a single thing, is called being a member of the great vehicle.
Not bound by any good or evil, emptiness or existence, defilement or purity, doing or non-doing, mundane or transcendental, virtue or knowledge, is called enlightened wisdom.
Once affirmation and negation, like and dislike, approval and disapproval, all various opinions and feelings come to an end and cannot bind you, then you are free wherever you may be; this is called a bodhisattva at the moment of inspiration immediately ascending to the stage of Buddhahood.
All various things have never of themselves spoken of emptiness; nor do they themselves speak of form, and they do not speak of right, wrong, defilement, or purity. Nor is there mind which binds and fetters people; it is just because people themselves give rise to vain and arbitrary attachments and that they create so many kinds of understanding, produce so many kinds of opinion, and give rise to so many various loves and fears. Just understand that the many things do not originate of themselves; all of them come into existence from one’s own single mental impulse of imagination mistakenly clinging to appearances. If you know that mind and objects fundamentally do not contact each other, you will be set free on the spot. Each of the various things is in a state of quiescence right where it is; this very place is the site of enlightenment.
Inherent nature cannot be named; originally it is not mundane, nor is it holy; it is neither defiled nor pure. Also it is neither empty nor existent, and it is neither good nor bad. When it is involved with impure things, it is called the two vehicles of divinity and humanity. When the mind of purity and impurity is ended, it does not dwell in bondage, nor does it dwell in liberation; it has no mindfulness of doing, nondoing, bondage or liberation—then, though it is within birth and death, that mind is free; ultimately it does not comingle with all the vanities, the empty illusions, sensual passions, the mortal clusters and the elements of existence, life and death, or the sense media. Transcendent and without abode, nothing at all constrains it; it goes and comes through birth and death as through an open door.
If you are able to spend your whole life with a mind like wood or stone, then you will not be buoyed up and submerged by the mortal clusters, the elements of conscious existence, the media of sense, the five desires and eight winds. Then the cause of birth and death is cut off, and you are free to go or stay, unhindered by any causes or effects of doing; you will not be constrained by any indulgence. At that time to make a cause of causeless bondage, to share concerns as a benefactor, to respond to all creatures with an unattached heart, to open all fetters with unhindered wisdom—this is called giving medicine according to the disease.
Don’t seek Buddha, don’t seek the teaching, don’t seek the community, and so forth; don’t seek virtue and knowledge, intellectual understanding and so forth. When feelings of defilement and purity are ended, still don’t hold to this non-seeking and consider it right—do not dwell at the point of ending, and do not long for heavens or fear hells. When you are unhindered by bondage or freedom, then this is called liberation of mind and body in all places. You should not say you have a little bit of discipline, purity of body, mouth, and mind, and immediately consider that enough. You don’t know that innumerable gates of discipline, concentration, wisdom and non-indulgent liberation have never gotten involved with so much as a single hair.
Work hard! Henceforth you must take hold and investigate vigorously. Do not wait till your ears are deaf, your eyes dim, your face wrinkled and your hair white—when the pains of old age overtake your body, sadness and affection enshroud you, your eyes flow with tears, and in your heart is fear and dread. Without anything to rely upon at all, you do not know where you are going. At this time, you won’t be able to coordinate your hands and feet; even if you have merit, knowledge, name, fame, profit and support, none of them will save you.
Because your mind’s wisdom is not yet opened, you only think of various objects; you do not know how to reflect back, and you don’t see the way of enlightenment. All the good and bad active affinities of your whole life will appear before you—you may be glad, you may be afraid; the mortal clusters of the six states of being will appear before you all at once, all spread with adornments, houses, boats, carts, brilliant shining light. Everything is what is manifest of the greed and craving of your own mind; all bad visions turn into surpassingly beautiful visions, but according to the heavy weight of greed and craving, compelled by your habitual active consciousness, you experience birth accompanied by attachments—you have no freedom at all. Whether you’ll be a dragon or an animal, freeman or slave, is entirely uncertain.
You must distinguish the terms of purity and impurity. "Impure things" have many names, such as greed, aversion, grasping love, etc. "Pure things" also have many names, such as enlightenment, extinction of suffering, liberation, etc. But while in the midst of the twin streams of purity and impurity, among such standards as profane and holy, amidst form, sound, smell, taste, touch, and phenomena, things of the world or things which transcend the world, the immediate mirror-like awareness should not have the slightest hair of grasping love for anything at all.
Only a Buddha alone is a great teacher, because there is no second person; the rest are all called outsiders, also called demons talking. Right now this is just to explain away dualism. Just do not be affected by greed for any existent or nonexistent things—when it comes to the matter of untying bonds, there are not special words or phrases to teach people. If you say that there are some particular verbal expressions to teach people, or that there is some particular doctrine to give people, this is called heresy and demon talk.
You must discern the words of the complete teaching and the incomplete teaching; you must discern prohibitive words and nonprohibitive words; you must discern living and dead words; you must discern medicine and disease words; you must discern words of negative and positive metaphor; you must discern generalizing and particularizing words.
To say that it is possible to attain Buddhahood by cultivation, that there is practice and there is realization, that this mind is enlightened, that the mind itself is identical to Buddha—this is Buddha's teaching; these are words of the incomplete teaching. These are nonprohibitive words, generalizing words, words of a pound or ounce burden. These are words concerned with weeding out impure things; these are words of positive metaphor. These are dead words. These are words for ordinary people.
To say that one cannot attain Buddhahood by cultivation, that there is no cultivation, no realization, it is not mind, not Buddha—this is also Buddha's teaching; these are words of the complete teaching, prohibitive words, particularizing words, words of a hundred hundredweight burden. These are words beyond the three vehicles' teachings, words of negative metaphor or instruction, words concerned with weeding out pure things; these are words for someone of station in the Way, these are living words.
From entering the stream all the way up to the tenth and highest stage of bodhisattvahood, as long as there are verbal formulations, all belong to the defilement of the dust of the teachings. As long as there are verbal formulations, all are contained in the realm of affliction and trouble. As long as there are verbal formulations, all belong to the incomplete teaching.
The complete teaching is obeisance, the incomplete teaching is transgression—at the stage of Buddhahood there is neither obedience nor transgression, as neither the complete nor the incomplete teachings are admissible.
From the sprouts discern the ground, from the impure discern the pure. Just be aware, mirrorlike, right now; if you assess the mirror awareness from the standpoint of purity, it is not pure, but absence of mirroring awareness is not pure either, neither is it impure. Nor is it holy or not holy. Also it is not seeing the impurity of the water and speaking of the ills of the water's impurity. If the water were pure, nothing could be said; speech instead would defile that water.
If there is a questionless question, there is also speechless speech. A Buddha does not explain the truth for the sake of Buddhas; in the equanimous, truly-so world of reality there is no Buddha—it doesn't save living beings. A Buddha does not remain in Buddhahood; this is called the real field of blessings.
If one no longer loves or grasps, and yet abides in not loving or grasping and considers it correct, this is the elementary good; this is abiding in the subdued mind. This is a disciple; he is one who is fond of the raft and will not give it up. This is the way of the two vehicles. This is a result of meditation. Once you do not grasp any more, and yet do not dwell in nonattachment either, this is the intermediate good. This is the half-word teaching. This is still the formless realm; though you avoid falling into the way of the two vehicles, and avoid falling into the ways of demons, this is still a meditation sickness. This is the bondage of bodhisattvas.
Once you no longer dwell in non-attachment, and do not even make an understanding of not dwelling either, this is the final good; this is the full-word teaching. You avoid falling into the formless realm, avoid falling into meditation sickness, avoid falling into the way of bodhisattvas, and avoid falling into the state of the king of demons. Because of barriers of knowledge, barriers of station, and barriers of activity (practice), seeing one's own enlightened nature is like seeing color at night. As it is said, the station of Buddhahood cuts off twofold folly; the folly of subtle knowledge and the folly of extremely subtle knowledge. Therefore it is said that a man of great wisdom smashes and atom to produce a volume of scripture.
If one can pass through these three phases, one will not be constrained by the three stages. The doctrinal schools cite this and liken it to a deer leaping three times and getting out of the net. This is called an enlightened one beyond confinement—no thing can capture or bind him. He is one of the Buddhas succeeding to the Burning Lamp. This is the supreme vehicle, the highest knowledge—this is standing on the way of enlightenment. This person is Buddha, and has the enlightened nature; he is a guide, able to employ the unobstructed wind. This is unimpeded illumination.
After this, one will be able to freely use cause and effect, virtue and knowledge; this is making a cart to carry cause and effect. In life one is not stayed by life; in death, one is not obstructed by death. Though within the clusters of matter, sensation, perception, coordination, and consciousness, it is as if a door had opened, and one is not obstructed by these five cluster. One is free to go or to stay, going out or entering in without difficulty. If you can be like this, there is no question of stages or steps, or superior or inferior; even down to the bodies of ants—if you can just be like this—all is the land of pure marvel. It is inconceivable.
This principle is originally present in everyone. All the Buddhas and bodhisattvas may be called people pointing out a jewel. Fundamentally it is not a thing—you don't need to know or understand it, you don't need to affirm or deny it. Just cut off dualism; cut off the supposition “it exists” and the supposition “it does not exist”. Cut off the supposition “it is nonexistent” and the supposition “it is not nonexistent”. When traces do not appear on either side, then neither lack nor sufficiency, neither profane nor holy, not light or dark. This is not having knowledge, yet not lacking knowledge, not bondage, not liberation. It is not any name or category at all. Why is this not true speech? How can you carve and polish emptiness to make an image of Buddha? How can you say that emptiness is blue, yellow, red, or white?
For now, just do not depend on anything existent, nonexistent, or whatever; and do not dwell in non-dependence, and also do not make an understanding of not depending or dwelling. This is called great knowledge.
