On meditation Zazen

Zazen is the gate to the great liberation, all dharmas flow out of it, and the thousand practices come from it. The divine powers of wisdom arise from within it, the way of man and of heaven opens out from it. All the Buddhas come and go through this gate, and the Bodhisattva enters his practice by it. Those of the Hinayana stop half-way, and those on the outer paths do not get on to the right road at all despite all their efforts. No doctrine, open or secret, leads to Buddhahood without this practice.

Question: What does it mean to say that zazen is the root of all dharmas?

Answer: Zen is the inner heart of the Buddha. Right conduct is his outer form, the doctrine is his word, nembutsu (mantra) is his name, but they all come from the Buddha heart and so it is their source.

Question: Zen being without form and without thought, its spiritual power does not appear, so there is no proof of its ‘seeing the nature’. How can one believe all this?

Answer: It is unity of one’s own heart with the Buddha heart – how can one say that spiritual power does not appear? If I do not know my own heart, how is there ever going to be proof from something else? If it is not proof enough that this very heart is Buddha, what would be proof?

Question: We are told to practise the heart way of Zen alone, but again to do many other spiritual practices and deeds of righteousness. How do these compare?

Answer: If one fully realizes the Buddha’s Zen, he himself is the embodiment of the six perfections and the ten thousand spiritual practices. And then, the one way of Zen is in itself all the practices. Why do you not see what is said (in the Kegon Sutra) that the three worlds are but the heart alone, and apart from the heart there is nothing else? Even if you performed ten thousand practices but did not know the heart, you could never attain realization. And to speak of Buddhahood without realization – how could that be?

Question: Why practise even this way? If spiritual practices do not necessarily give realization, Buddhahood becomes uncertain. And if after all the practices the result is still uncertain, why practise? Answer: The doctrine is profound and subtle. If once it enters the ear, in the fullness of time it will inevitably bring about wisdom awakening. An ancient has said: Tf it is heard even though not believed, that is already supreme good fortune; if it is practised though not attained, yet in the end the Buddha-fruit is had.’ Zen is called the Buddha heart sect. In the Buddha heart there is from the beginning neither illusion nor realization, and the practice of Buddhism is indeed subtle. Though realization be not attained, a sitting of zazen is a sitting of Buddha, a day of zazen is a day of Buddha, a life of zazen is a life of Buddha. And this will be so in the future. One who merely has faith in this is a man already great in his root and in his action.

Question: If so, I ought to practise it. How is it to be done when the heart is at rest, and how when the heart is active?

Answer: The Buddha heart means no attachment for any form whatsoever. Going apart from any forms is called the true form. Of the four actions of the body, going, standing, sitting and lying down, serenity is through sitting. Sitting in meditation is the true form of thought.

Question: Please explain exactly about the true form of thought in meditation sitting.

Answer: Meditation sitting is the cross-legged Buddha posture, and the true form of thought is what is called zazen. Lock the hands in the dharma-world mudra, do not agitate body or heart, keep the eyelids covering half the pupils and the attention on the tip of the nose. See everything of cause and effect as a bubble of dream illusion, and do not engage the thought in them.

Question: Locking the legs and locking the hands is well known as the Buddha posture, but what is this half-closing the eyes and keeping the gaze on the nose-tip?

Answer: One with the eyes open sees things at a distance, the attention is distracted forcibly and the heart thrown into confusion. When the eyes are closed there is a fall into darkness, and no clarity in the heart. When the eyes are half open the thought does not rush about, body and mind are at one; in that state of clear awareness, life-and-death and the passions concerning them do not press on him. This is called becoming Buddha on the spot, the great impulse and the great action.

Question: One hears this sort of teaching, but it is difficult really to believe it. By reciting the sutras and dharanis one accumulates merit, and that gives a joy, and so with obeying the traditional ordinances like not eating in the afternoon, and reciting the name of Buddha. That all acquires merit, but just meditating quietly and doing nothing, what can there be in that?

Answer: This sort of doubt is called the result of karma, this sort of doubt is called the delusive passions. To practise all the dharmas without looking for any profit, this it is which is the profound Prajna. Prajna is wisdom, and it is a sharp sword to cut the root of life-and- death. To put down good roots in the hope of getting some good results

Answer: One with the eyes open sees things at a distance, the attention is distracted forcibly and the heart thrown into confusion. When the eyes are closed there is a fall into darkness, and no clarity in the heart. When the eyes are half open the thought does not rush about, body and mind are at one; in that state of clear awareness, life-and-death and the passions concerning them do not press on him. This is called becoming Buddha on the spot, the great impulse and the great action.

Question: One hears this sort of teaching, but it is difficult really to believe it. By reciting the sutras and dharanis one accumulates merit, and that gives a joy, and so with obeying the traditional ordinances like not eating in the afternoon, and reciting the name of Buddha. That all acquires merit, but just meditating quietly and doing nothing, what can there be in that?

Answer: This sort of doubt is called the result of karma, this sort of doubt is called the delusive passions. To practise all the dharmas without looking for any profit, this it is which is the profound Prajna. Prajna is wisdom, and it is a sharp sword to cut the root of life-and- death. To put down good roots in the hope of getting some good results is a delusion of a vulgar man. The Bodhisattva practises and puts down good roots without seeking any results, and since his practice is from great compassion it becomes an aid to his awakening. But to practise good in the hope of reward, little rewards on earth or in heaven, is karma rooted in life-and-death.

Question: If the merit of good action is not accumulated, how will one ever become the Buddha, in whom all the virtues are full and complete?

Answer: If virtue and merit are accumulated, then in countless aeons he will indeed become a Buddha. But if one practises on the path of oneness of cause and effect, he is Buddha in this life. He who illumines his own heart and realizes his own nature sees the Buddha which has been himself from the beginning, and it is not a question of being a Buddha now for the first time.

Question: If the one who follows ‘seeing the nature to be Buddha’ does not rely on cause and effect, does he then abandon doing good?

Answer: This man does do good, and the rewards of it do come to him.

But that is not why he does it. The doctrine of cause and effect is taught for the upliftment of living beings, but since in fact there is no advantage for him in good actions, he does not take a satisfaction in them but is absolutely mushin (literally ‘without-heart, without- mind’) in regard to them.

Question: What is mushin? If it means absolutely without mind, then who is it who sees the nature, who is enlightened, or who teaches the doctrine?

Answer: Mushin means absolutely without that heart which is all foolishness, it does not mean without the heart which knows wrong and right. When he does not think about living beings, or long for the Buddha, or think of confusion or seek satori, or follow after the regard of the people, or hope to increase name and profit, or hate poison and injury and revenge, when he is without any thought coming up of distinctions as to good and bad, that is called a man of the way of mushin. So it is said, ‘The way, without thinking, lies before the people, and the people, without thinking, tread the way.’

Question: Following sacred ordinances and prohibitions, reciting sutras and dharanis, chanting the holy name – are these of differing degrees of merit or not?

Answer: The prohibitions remove greed, and lead to a great reward in the next life. The ordinances also check the inner faults and help the growth of virtue, and the man of virtue is born in the highest place in heaven and on earth. Reciting the sutras and dharanis protects Buddhism and brings great wisdom in the next life. Chanting the name brings one to the Buddha and he will certainly be born in the Buddha land. But this mushin is the Buddha heart. The power of the Buddha heart words cannot tell, thought cannot reach; it is a great wonder.

Question: In those other things there is a particular power which is certain, but it is not clear what power there is in mushin.

Answer: Whatever powers there are in learning about the glory of the Buddha, in spreading his word, in reciting his name, all these will be in the man of mushin. If you maintain that they are not, then they are not in the other practices either. All the powers of good deeds are causes of birth in heaven or among men; mushin is the sudden enlightenment, the way of awakening. How can its power be described? It is the cause of the one great thing (Buddhahood). Passions perish of themselves, body and mind become one, this very heart is the

Buddha – how could there be any doubt about it? An ancient has said, ‘Rather than worship of the Buddhas of the three worlds, worship one man of the way of mushin.’ This is the state where Buddha knows Buddha, and the ordinary man with his ideas of greater and less has nothing by which to judge it.

Question: None of the scriptures teaches mushin or points to it as some thing desirable. So why does this teaching of Zen esteem it so much?

Answer: The scriptures do teach it when they speak of cutting off words, and of what is beyond explanation, and of absolute emptiness as the cause of the one great thing. Again they teach that all things perish. Shakamuni closed his lips, Vimalakirti shut his mouth – was not this to show mushin? Bodhisattvas have already attained wisdom so the Buddha did not teach it to them, and the second path (taking many aeons) being so difficult, he did not teach that either. In the Kegon sutra it says that this sutra should not be taught to those of little wisdom, and this is the meaning. Though there are 84,000 doctrines in the holy teachings, they do not go beyond the principles of form and void. What displays any kind of shape, that is form or body. And what displays no shape, all that is the void. The body since it has a shape is called form; the heart since it has no shape is called void. No sutra goes beyond these two, form and void. The mushin state cannot be taught, or pointed to as something desirable. Words do not go there, and so it is called a ‘separate tradition outside the scriptures’.

Question: Are we ourselves taken as illusion or as realization? What is this heart, without knowing which one will not find the root and source of illusion and realization? Is the heart inside the body or outside, and where does it come from?

Answer: The form body of the four great elements and the five skandhas fills all the directions and is the root and source of all living beings. When the causes and associations come to a focus, a physical body is produced. This is called life. When the karmic effects transform themselves again, the four great elements disappear and this is called death. The form is vulgar or holy, but in the heart there is neither illusion nor satori. Still when it temporarily goes astray it is called ‘living being’, and when it is realized it is called ‘all the Buddhas’. Illusion and realization are just a deluded heart. In the true heart there is neither illusion nor realization. Living being and Buddha are caused by the illusion or realization of the one original heart. When the true nature is grasped, there is after all no distinction of vulgar and holy. So the Surangama sutra says, ‘The mystical nature perfect and bright is apart from all name and form, and from the very beginning there has never been any world of living beings.’

Question: If there is no illusion in the heart nature originally, where does it come up from?

Answer: When delusive thought arises, illusion follows, and from that the passions come to be. If delusive thought ceases, illusion goes, and from that the passions also. Passions are the dharma course of life, and the seed of life-and-death; bodhi awakening is the dharma course of extinction, and the bliss of nirvana. When you are in illusion, everything is passion; when realized, everything is bodhi. The people of the world do not know this root of illusion and realization; they suppress thoughts of life-and-death so that they do not arise, and they think this is what is intended by ‘no thought arising’ or mushin. But this itself is thought of life-and-death, and not mushin, not nirvana; to check thought by thought is reinforcing life-and-death.

Question: It is said that the Hinayana followers fall into a mere void and do not know mushin. Does the Mahayana bodhisattva attain mushin or not?

Answer: The bodhisattva attains ten stages, and still has the two obstacles of passion and wisdom. In the seventh stage he has still a notion of search, which itself is an obstacle. In the tenth stage he has a notion of realization-light, and as such, this is an obstacle. But when there is right realization, it is mushin.

Question: If a bodhisattva does not know it even in the tenth stage, how could a beginner attain this mushin?

Answer: The Mahayana is a wonder. As soon as the source of thought is cut, it is sudden satori. Buddhist philosophers have set up three grades of wisdom and ten of holiness, but this is for people of slow intelligence. One whose intelligence is clear comes to a right realization when first his heart stirs spiritually; he attains mushin and here and now sees the nature to be Buddha. In mushin there are no distinctions at all.

Question: What does it mean, ‘see the nature to be Buddha’? What is the nature, and what is this seeing? Is it knowing through wisdom, or is it a seeing with the eye?

Answer: The wisdom attained by studying the sutras is a wisdom of distinctions, a knowledge attained through senses of hearing and seeing. In our practice, it is no use. What we call the clear-sighted eye is turning the light back and perceiving one’s own original nature.

Question: So ‘seeing’ is knowing. But what is meant by one’s own original nature?

Answer: It is the nature which all beings have from the very beginning, and which upholds them. It has always been, it is without life and without death, eternal and unchanging. This it is which is called the original self-nature. It is one and the same in all beings and all Buddhas, so it is called Buddha nature. The three treasures, living beings on the six paths of reincarnation, with this nature as their root play out their parts.

Question: What is turning back the light?

Answer: It means that the light of self which illumines all things is turned round and shone back to illumine the self within. The heart- light is like the rays of sun and moon, immeasurable and unrestricted, which illumine all regions at home and abroad. There where the rays do not reach is dark and is called the demon cave of the black mountains. All the demons live there, and they do great harm to man. The heart is just like this. The heart nature is shining wisdom immeasurable and unrestricted which illumines all regions. Where it does not reach is dark, the shadow world of ignorance. All the passions live there and they do great harm to man. The wisdom heart is bright; delusive thought is shade. When the light makes the things themselves shine, that is called illumining them. When the heart does not transform itself into states of thought but faces the original nature, that is called turning the light back, or universal shining. The field of this universal shining is a state before illusion or realization have appeared. People today think that their delusive thoughts are their true heart, and try to be happy through the passions. How could they ever get out of life-and-death?

Question: The main point of zazen is supposed to be that no thought arises. But if we check thought by thought, surely it is like washing off blood with blood?

Answer: The original and true state of the heart is said to be no thought arising. It is not checking thought, but neither is thought unchecked. It is just that thought does not arise. If one can really come to this original state, it is called the Buddha and the dharma nature. After that there is no need even for zazen. There is no delusion and no satori – how should there be thought? And if this true state is not attained, thought will inevitably arise. Even if thought is held down forcibly, it would still all be ignorance. A stone can press the grass flat, but after a time it rises again. This point must be very deeply meditated upon – it is no easy thing.

Question: Someone has said: you must go towards the place where no thought arises. What about this?

Answer: When it is said no thought arises, it means no form of life-and-death or past or future. Life and death arise from thought and if you do not know the place where thought arises you will not know the root of life and death. Living beings all twenty-four hours are being used by the thought of passions, and going against what they really are. But if the clouds of delusive thought clear, the moon of the heart nature is revealed and the thought which before was of contemptible things changes to become pure wisdom. With this thought he teaches and instructs the living beings. Master Joshu says: ‘People are used by the twenty-four hours but I can use the twenty-four hours.’

Question: You are saying that at the time of zazen it is wrong ifthought arises but it is also wrong to check it, so what does one do?

Answer: Before there has been a sight of one’s own nature, both thought arising and the checking of it are faults. The sutras teach no arising of delusive thought, and again no eradicating of it, and all this is to bring one to a knowledge of the original nature. When the true nature is known, practice is not needed. When the disease of illusion is removed, it is pointless to continue the treatment. However when the illness of delusive feelings does come up, use the spiritual treatment. That thought arises is the illness, that it should not be continued is the treatment.

Question: Still as thought has no self nature, even if it arises what is the fault in that?

Answer: Though it has no self nature, it is a fault if it arises. The things in a dream for instance are known to be unreal afterwards on waking, but how could one say that there is nothing wrong with a nightmare? It is setting up these faults and making dreams out of them that is the illusion of living beings. Once the Buddha law is heard and faith is roused, all is well. But people with no heart for the true way are dull in their concentration and do not realize there is anything wrong. They may suppress some of their little thoughts, but they are not aware of the great thoughts. Since they do not cut off the source of them, they may make some good karma but it is difficult for them to get free from life-and-death.

Question: You have said, do not think any thought of good or bad at all, and that having no thought of good or bad is the central point of zazen. What about the little thoughts and great thoughts of everyday life?

Answer: When it is said, do not think any thought of good or bad, it means directly cutting off. This is not to be done only at the time of meditation sitting; if you reach this state, then walking and standing and sitting and lying down are all Zen. You do not necessarily have to be in the sitting posture. The Zen master says in the Shodoka poem, that walking too is Zen and sitting too is Zen; talking or silent, moving or still, the body is at peace. A sutra says, ‘Be always in it, whether in the slow Zen walking (kinhin) or sitting or lying down.’ The so- called little thoughts are those that suddenly come up about things which are in front of us. The so-called big thoughts are those of greed, anger, foolishness, prejudice, pride, jealousy, fame, profit and so on. At the time of zazen, those of weak will suppress the little thoughts but the great thoughts are in their hearts without their realizing it. Throwing away these bad thoughts is to cut off directly their root and source, and when you cut off that root and source directly, the passions become bodhi, foolishness becomes wisdom. The three poisons of greed, anger and folly become pure conduct, ignorance becomes the great knowledge of the nature. How should it not be so with the little thoughts also? This is what the Buddha meant when he said, ‘If it is you that make the thing turn, that is the Buddha.’ You just have to make the thing turn, and not be made to turn by the thing. You must be the pivot on which the thing turns; do not make the thing the pivot on which you are turned.

Question: If to be Buddha is to be the pivot of the thing, what is that thing, and what is the pivoting?

Answer: The thing is the ten thousand phenomena, and to be the pivot is to be released from the body, not to agitate the heart in regard to any circumstance whatever, but instead to face the true nature. When circumstances do not clog the heart, heaven and spirits and demons and gods, passions and life and death, will all be nothing to you and this is called making the thing turn. The essential point is not to let the heart be diverted by any thing. Even clinging to a Buddha or clinging to a dharma have to be cut off, how much more the delusive thoughts! Though the heart which does the cutting is in a way like a heart which is thinking, this is right thinking, the concentration which brings right vision.

Question: Passions and bodhi arise distinctly from the one heart. What is it that they come from?

Answer: Seeing forms, hearing sounds, smelling odours, experiencing tastes, feeling touch, knowing the things – these are the powers of the five senses and mind the sixth. Distinguishing these as good and bad, judging them as right and wrong, is wisdom. To set up an individual I in this, to bring up love and aversion, is all delusive sight. By this delusive sight there is attachment to form, and this is called illusion. From this are brought up the five skandhas (form, feeling, perception, impulse, making discriminations) ; all this is called passion. As a result of passion there is taking bodies as living beings, and then they turn towards killing, robbing, lust, lying and so on, and finally they fall into the three lower paths, in hell or as hungry ghosts or as animals. All this comes up from delusive thought. When it arises even a little, at once turn that delusive thought to face the true nature, and then immediately it becomes mushin. If once you are able to be at rest in mushin, your body of five skandhas becomes the five-fold body of the dharma (discipline, meditation, wisdom, liberation, liberated vision). This is what the Diamond Sutra means by not letting the heart settle down anywhere as a home. If the heart is applied like this, it is the great spiritual training.

Question: If someone has the merit of having done zazen for a long time so that his concentration is matured, doubtless he will not have passions and wrong illusion in his heart. But for a beginner, how will the passions ever come to a stop?

Answer: Do not hate the passions, but simply purify your heart.

An ancient has said that it takes a man of iron to train in the way. You must put your hand on your heart and then solve the riddle; do not concern yourself with rights or wrongs but go straight to the supreme bodhi-awakening. Putting your hand on the heart means to make out what is correct and what is deluded in the heart. He who knows when his heart is astray is the wise man. When wisdom comes and illusion ceases to be, it is like bringing a light into a dark cave where the rays of sun and moon have never reached. That ancient darkness does not go somewhere else; it suddenly becomes light. When the light of wisdom comes, darkness and ignorance and passions do not wait upon their going but are gone. At night the empty sky is dark, but when the dawn sun appears that sky becomes the day, becomes bright. The heart is like that. Illusion is dark, satori bright. When the rays of wisdom shine, the darkness of passion all at once becomes bright. There is no second thing beside the bodhi.

Question: So it is by the power of wisdom that the darkness of passions is brightened, and without wisdom there is no bodhi. But how then can wisdom be obtained?

Answer: There is a light of wisdom in the self which is naturally luminous and clear, but when covered by delusive thoughts it is lost and then illusion arises. When a man sees a dream, everything in it is taken as real, but on awakening there is nothing there at all. Delusive thought is like a dream, and when regarded from the waking standpoint it has never been there. Living beings are confused and take the delusion for reality.

Question: For a long time we have no satori, and suddenly we know it; do we then know things of the past and future as well?

Answer: When delusive views have all come to an end there is a sudden awakening from the great dream, and this is perception of the Buddha nature, which is called the great satori and the great piercing through. This state is not accessible to ordinary thought based on distinctions. To know past or future is a supernatural power resulting from the power of ascetic practices and it is not to be called a great satori. Demons and devils, followers of the outer paths, mountain hermits and others may have these powers by virtue of having performed difficult and painful austerities in the distant past. They have the virtue of the practices, but if they do not give up wrong views they cannot enter upon the Buddha way.

Question: Why should one who has satori not have these powers?

Answer: This body has been built up on past illusion, and super natural powers which relate to it are not manifested by one who has seen the nature to be Buddha. When satori comes, he shakes off the taint of the fields of perception of the five senses and the mind, and cuts off life-and-death. From that, he does have a supernatural power of inspired action. But this is not the supernatural powers of the outer path or of the demons, tainted with passion. The man of satori, which is universal, completes the Buddha way without passing through countless aeons; is that not a supernatural power? – what to say of supernatural power of inspiration which he has.

Question: ‘See the nature to be Buddha’ and ‘the heart, the Buddha’ – are these different or not?

Answer: The direct meaning of the words ‘the heart, the Buddha’ is that there is no Buddha apart from the heart. Anyone who can accept this meaning directly is a man of penetrating intelligence. The other phrase ‘no heart, no Buddha’ also points to the same thing. ‘See the nature to be Buddha’ means perceiving one’s own nature directly, cutting off the root of individual existence and knowing the fullness of the spiritual nature. Then there is neither life-and-death nor passion, and this is provisionally called ‘to be Buddha’. It is realization of Buddha, full realization that there never was any illusion. There is no real difference between the two phrases, but as the way of entry is different the phrases are different in form.

Question: It is said that the nature is eternal and unchanging and one and the same in living beings and in Buddhas. Yet the living beings are in illusion with the pain of life and death. So can it be said to be one and the same?

Answer: It is one and the same under the light of wisdom, but not in the sight of ignorance. The words of the patriarchs are a tile to knock on the gate. Before the gate is opened, ‘see the nature to be Buddha’ is the ultimate word, but when one goes in, all forms are left behind and even to be Buddha is meaningless.

Question: All the doctrines open and secret teach these eight: teaching, principles, wisdom, cutting off, practice, states, cause, effect. The shravakas of the Hinayana have four dhyanas and eight samadhis by which they enter Nirvana of absolute extinction, not to be touched by fire, water or storm, and empty of the five skandhas. Bodhisattvas hold to the ordinances of the Mahayana, practise innumerable deeds of benevolence, pass through the three stages of wisdom and the ten of holiness, cutting off all passions within and without. If cutting off the passions is Buddhahood, how is it that the Buddhas of the three worlds leave the region of the absolute and come into the desire- world of life-and-death at all?

Answer: Buddhas and Bodhisattvas are in response to the prayers of the living beings; if there were no prayers of the living beings there would be no Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. In the Hinayana there is no such response and so the Mahayana calls it entering a liberation-abyss. The Bodhisattvas of wisdoms and holiness progress in their practices and enter the gate of freedom in everything, and to help living beings they leave the paradise of pure light and come into this world of five taints, as trees of bodhi. Just as on the uplands, clean and dry, the lotuses do not grow, but in the despised slime the lotuses do grow, so it is with them. Or take the case of agriculture. The seedlings cannot be planted in clean, dry ground, but they are put in slimy mud with dirty manure on them. So the rice is planted and in due season the sun does its work and the dews and rain bathe them and the sprouts grow, and root and stem and branches and leaves flourish in abundance. So till the rice is fully grown, the work is complete and the farmers sing the harvest song. The coming of a Buddha into the world is just like that. The Buddha law cannot be founded like a thunderbolt from a blue sky. He puts on a humble shabby vesture for his role of persuading the beings of wrong deeds and passions, he adapts his preaching to them, and plants the seed of secret virtue. In due season the sun of wisdom shines on it, the breeze of compassion fans it, the rain of dharma bathes it, the dew from heaven washes it, and the Way puts forth its sprouts, and root and stem and branches and leaves flourish in abundance. So the bodhi tree grows, and the blossoms of realization begin to open and the fruit of final realization appears. This is called the fulfilment of the transformations of the path, the eternal bliss of nirvana.

The man of the Way too is like the vitality of the seed of a tree. The manure of the six defilements is put in the ground and then the spiritual seed is set down in it, and the sprout of the physical body grows up, putting forth feeling and knowledge. The root of the mind develops, will and imagination expand and the branches of the conscious spirit spread wide; the leaves of spiritual desire are luxuriant. There is happiness in root and branch, the blossoms of knowledge open and the fruit of realization ripens. After the efforts of the way, he sings the happiness of mushin.

The ordinary man also is like a seedling. In the earth of illusion the manure of desire and aversion is set, and a seed of ignorance put down; the sprouts of the skandhas grow and the passions draw sap from the deep alaya-consciousness. The root of attachment develops and the stem of egoism grows strong; twisted branches of doubt spread wide, and the leaves of jealousy are luxuriant. It becomes a tree of passion, the flowers of temptations open on all sides and the fruit of the three poisons ripen. After all the efforts for profit and fame, he sings the happiness of the five desires.

Say now, of these three kinds of tree, is one better than another or not? If there is a man who in one hand grasps the three seedlings, nourishes their root, and then all at once pulls them out and plants them in the realm of absolute sameness where there is no yin or yang, making there a bodhi tree which has no shadow, truly this will be a mighty man. Heaven and earth and myself of one root, the ten thousand things and myself are of one body. Now say, What kind of thing are you? If you can shout aloud your Buddhahood, you are far beyond heaven and earth.