Life is short, with endless happiness and endless suffering.
Among the four noble truths of Buddhism's basic doctrine, the truth of suffering is the most critical one, and it is also the theoretical basis of the Buddhist outlook on life. Buddhism says that there are eight sufferings in life: birth, old age, sickness, death, resentment, separation of love, impossibility, and the five aggregates flourish. From the first cry after birth to the last smile when a person dies, he cannot escape the many disasters of life for decades. Therefore, people place their hopes on practice and hope for relief in practice, and the Buddhist way of relief is the way to eliminate suffering.
Shengyan Master divided liberation into physical liberation and heart liberation, that is, physical freedom and spiritual freedom. The liberation of the center is more important than the liberation of the body. In real life, there are often people who complain about the unsuccessful study, the fast pace of life, and the tiredness of work. These people are outside the cage but trap their hearts in the cage. This freedom is illusory; There are also people who can maintain a calm heart even when they are behind bars, appreciate the bright spring, listen to the whispers of insects and birds, and enjoy the gentle breeze.
When Daoxin met the third master Sengcan for the first time, Shili asked: "Master, you are compassionate, please show me the way to liberate." Zen Master
Sengcan did not answer his question directly, but asked: "Who tied you up?" Why did the unknown Zen Master
ask this question, so he respectfully replied: "No one binds the disciples." Zen Master
Seng Can smiled slightly and said to Daoxin: " Since no one has tied you up, why do you ask me to help you out? Isn't it a superfluous move?"
Daoxin immediately became enlightened, and later inherited the mantle of Zen Master Seng Can and became the fourth ancestor of Zen.
Daoxin before enlightenment was also pious to the heart of the Buddha, so he placed his hope on Zen, hoping to learn the liberation method of Zen Master Seng Can, but he did not realize that his own heart restrained himself and lost his freedom. . The mind is uncomfortable. Even if the body moves forward and backward freely, it will still struggle with pain and confusion. "There is nothing wrong in the world. This shows that if you want to be free, you must keep your mind free.
However, even if freedom and liberation are very similar, one cannot simply draw an equal sign between the two. Buddhism pursues a kind of "non-self" detachment. Once the mind and heart are all "I want freedom, I want liberation", then the liberation he can achieve is limited. Master Sheng Yan said: "The purpose of Buddhism's way of liberation is to liberate this concept of'I' and obtain absolute freedom." Let go of the idea of "I", let go of the attachment to "I", and even let go of the right. Only by putting everything down and completely letting go of the persistence of the Dharma can we take on the responsibility of "building the world and saving the world" and liberate ourselves and the world.
According to legend, there was a brahmin named Black Finger who came to ask for the Dharma when the Buddha was alive. He was holding two vases and was going to offer them to the Buddha. The Buddha did not teach him anything, but said to him: "Let it down!" The black finger of
humbly bent down and placed the vase in his left hand on the ground, and asked the Buddha again for advice, but the Buddha remained calm. Said to him: "Let down!" The black finger of
hesitated for a moment, and then put down the vase he held in his right hand. Before he could speak, the Buddha still said to him: "Let down!" At this time, the black finger Brahman could not sink After breathing, he asked puzzledly: "Now, I have nothing left with my hands. I don't know what you want me to put down now?"
Buddha said: "I didn't ask you to put down your hands from the beginning. The vase, what I want you to put down are your six senses, six senses, and six senses. Only when you put them down, and put down yourself, can you be free from the shackles of the world."
Buddha used this The method is that the black finger brahmin points out the path from confusion to soberness, from attachment to realization of liberation, and Master Shengyan specifically explained the methods of practicing liberation for everyone. Buddhism calls the method of realizing the path of liberation "practice", and the "three no-miss learning" is an indispensable principle among many practice methods. Master Shengyan teaches that sentient beings can enter the realm of liberation that is not bound by life and death through the three gates of precept, concentration, and wisdom. To practice
, you must first practice the precepts, that is, "do not do all evil, all good will follow." You can't do what you don't do, and you can't do what you do, and consciously abide by the precepts of Buddhism. Only by strictly observing the precepts and having a pure heart can you learn more. Practicing meditation means practicing meditation, not thinking about goodnessDo not think about evil and get rid of all false and distracting thoughts. You can start by sitting in meditation, and then improve your meditation practice through worship, reading, and repentance. The third step is to cultivate wisdom, including Wenhui, Sihui, Xiuhui, and Zhenghui. The practice of these three is both sequential and complementary. Master Shengyan generally said that the process of practice usually involves precepts and samādhi, from samādhi to wisdom, and then Hui turns his head to instruct precepts and meditation, thus forming a continuous spiral state and marching towards the path of liberation. The degree of
practice is different, the degree of freedom is also different, so the degree of liberation will also be different. The real liberation is a kind of freedom to reach the extreme, which can also be felt from the famous Zen koan "eyes and nose straight." .
In the last years of the Southern Song Dynasty, there was a well-known Taoyuan Zen master. When he was young, he hoped to obtain the Dhamma, so he traveled alone and went to the West to seek Scripture through hardships. Ten years later, Zen Master Daoyuan returned to China, and people asked him with concern whether he had obtained the truth after ten years abroad. Zen Master Dogen said happily: "I know that my eyes are long horizontally and my nose is long vertical, so I came back empty-handed."
everyone laughed, but after the laugh, they fell into contemplation. .
Eyes and straight noses is a kind of ordinary objective existence, and people who have not been completely liberated will not be able to grasp the beauty of it. Zen Master Tao Yuan has already realized in his heart, so after going through all kinds of difficulties, his hands are empty and the truth is clear.
This article is excerpted from Master Sheng Yan's "Understanding a Little Zen Heart Buddhist Language for Purifying Body and Mind Every Day"
