2020年06月
Ⅸ The Four Abodes of Mindfulness
“Shakyamuni Buddha says “All buddhas and bodhisattvas rest in this Dharma forever as it is a sacred womb (a sacred body of the buddha).” Go on living like this. Nothing is more comfortable than this. What’s more, it is a sacred womb. Can we call it the sacred body of the buddha? There might be a long word ‘Seitai choyo, a sacred womb and long rest.’ “So all buddhas and bodhisattvas have regarded these Four Abodes of Mindfulness as a sacred womb, a sacred body of buddha, you should know that they are the sacred womb of balanced realization. And the sacred womb of subtle realization.” There was a person who expressed the content of realization as the stage of fifty-two ranks such like balanced realization or subtle realization. Among such studying there are this sort of expression though, in a word, it means whichever condition you are in. Whoever he is, he is really in the state of his own and see though the thing of this sort like this. The first is the observation that the body is not pure, the second is the observation that feeling is suffering, the third is the observation that mind is without constancy, the fourth is the observation that Dharma is without self. This is the practice that the Buddha did. Therefore, in Buddhism, Dharma Seals is firstly expressed, namely, all things are impermanent, all dharmas are selflessness, Enlightenment leads serenity, which are Three Dharma Seals. That is how it is called as the truth of things.
“It has already spoken of all buddhas and bodhisattvas, and so buddhas are not the subtle realization, also regard it as the sacred womb. Bodhisattvas who have sprung out being prior to balanced realization or beyond subtle realization also regard these Four Abodes of Mindfulness as a sacred womb.” Not only the realized people but also people on the way of practice go on practicing on this way. The way like this is said, “Truly, the skin, fresh, bones, and marrow of the buddhas and the patriarchs” which says that the fine realized people’s life is such in content. What are they doing? Although they live in the same way and live together, the place they are touching is different. There is big difference between just being there randomly or being able to receive the content correctly. If you don’t know things truly, you live the same life, it is entirely different. And the way of life comes to change completely. You don’t know what they are doing as it is the matter of the other, you might not know, but I can know well that there are many people around me whom I have known dozens of years. Such people have come to change. Their life has come to change utterly. If I say what they are doing, they don’t especially live differently than before. They do the same thing every day.
Therefore, firstly the four abodes of mindfulness, the four ways to touch things are. For the present I would like to finish here. Itemized like this and entitled, you are easy to study. (The end)
Ⅷ The observation that Dharma is without self
Therefore, not having such concept is really important to practice. At any rate, they all have conception in that way. So, when sitting, you say that you cannot readily become mindless. You say that you are unable to become mindless, but you don’t know what is mindlessness, then even if you can become mindless, you don’t think it being mindless. Oh! Even if you can do it yourself, you don't know what mindlessness is, so if you don't think it's mindless, you say you cannot do it. While you are having it, you don’t know it’s there. It is strange.
Ⅶ The observation that the mind is without constancy
Great Master Yoka Shinkaku was in China, and among the words left by him, there is this, “ All things are impermanent, all is empty.” Every activity, every action, is really just the way we are acting right now. There is no trace of it anywhere after or before. Even though we acted, the thing does not remain anywhere, he says. Emptiness. “Just this is the Tathagata’s Great and Perfect realization.” This is the content that the Buddha got enlighten“The present observation that mind is non-constancy is the Tathagata’s Great and Perfect realization,” When we realize that this is really just the way things are unfolding right now, we can always be saved. It is impossible to touch the state of being now to fix. OK? CLAP! (he claps his hands) You cannot hear this sound again. CLAP! It is over now. CLAP! Without doing anything. CLAP! It is fine that you can hear it as it is. There is not that you can only hear half of it. You can get all of it as it is. As it is said Great and Perfect realization, there is no deficiency. It is like that. Such a thing is clarified. 覚 “Kaku; realization” is to realize. It is self-awareness. There is no need to deal with. It is formed without necessity of fixing. Suppose if you noticed a mistake and corrected it, how would it be? If there is a person who has excellent ability to correct and he finds here something wrong and corrects it immediately, how will it be? If he corrects it as soon as he sees it, no one can find the mistake.
This is the matter of the body. If you feel pain and make it painless, if there is a person who make his body unpainful when he has a pain, he cannot notice his illness. It looks good, it looks good not to feel pain when being in pain, but when being in pain, it is really painful. It will become unknown if you touch it and fix. When you see a doctor, you change the part of the body painful from here to there, even if you complain that you have pain here, the doctor will say no problem and let you go home. In reality it hurts here. But human beings are such animals. When there is something wrong, they try to rectify it. That is not true. To clarify that what is wrong is a wrong is the only way to correct a thing. To know that what is a mistake is a mistake is the saga. An ordinary person cheats an error. That is an ordinary person. The thing of the sort comes out here.
“On the whole to reach the Supreme Truth of Bodhi, the Supreme Right realization is non-constancy” Well, the supreme state is said, though, to say what is the content is that it is just the truth of this reality. The truth called non-constancy is just maintained with the state of being now that is neither before nor after. We can recall what was yesterday, but we cannot do it today what was yesterday. We tend to think what will be tomorrow but we cannot do it now what will be tomorrow. Truly what we are doing now just exists now at where we are doing. This is the supreme state. You have nothing to say with that. Do you want anything more? Is it not enough? When living like that, people who have various jobs can manage to live. If you spend exactly being such way as it is on every occupation, on every spot, on every instance, you all can do better job. Which is really to observe the mind. The observation of the mind.
Here is another one. “stones large and small,” Stone head is written the head of stone. When we go to Sekitozan (石頭山), stone mountains, there are stones, big stones or small stones a lot of stones. There is a tale and that is why it is mentioned. That is the way you can study. In a more general sense, there is the way observing thing “as it is” that you use. Truly it is the strength to receive a thing as it is. If you practice it, you will come to be different.