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THIRTY-SEVEN WINGS OF ENLIGHTENMENT

THE FUNDAMENTAL POINT set by ancient buddhas is the teaching, practice, and realization of the thirty-seven wings of enlightenment. Climbing and descending its classifications like twining vines is further twining vines [dynamic interaction] of the fundamental point. This is calling and actualizing buddhas, calling and actualizing ancestors.

First, the four abodes of mindfulness are also called the four places of mindfulness. They are: visualizing the body as impure, visualizing perception as suffering, visualizing mind as impermanent, and visualizing that things are without a permanent and independent self.

“Visualizing the body as impure” means that the single skin bag [body] visualizing the body is the entire world of the ten directions. Because it is a true body, it visualizes the body as impure, leaping along a vital path. Not leaping must be not visualizing, not having the body, not practicing, not speaking, not having visualized. Know that visualizing is actualized, leaping along is actualized.

“Visualizing” is everyday walking, sweeping the ground, cleaning the meditation platform. You sweep the ground with the question: “Which month is it?” You sweep the ground and clean the meditation platform with the answer, “It is the second month.” Thus, you do so with the entire great earth.

“Visualizing the body” is body visualizing. It is the body visualizing and not anything else visualizing. This very visualizing is outstanding. When body visualizing is actualized, mind visualizing does not search and is not actualized. This being so, body visualizing is diamond samadhi, shurangama [solid] samadhi. These are both visualizing the body as impure.

Now, the meaning of seeing the morning star at dawn is called “visualizing the body as impure.” It is not discriminating pure from impure. Rather, [it is inevitable that] having the body is impure, manifesting the body is impure.

Study in this way: When a demon becomes a buddha, you take up a demon and turn the demon into a buddha. When a buddha becomes a buddha, you take up a buddha, paint a buddha, and turn the buddha into a buddha. When a person becomes a buddha, you take up a person, prepare the person, and turn the person into a buddha. Study thoroughly that at the place of taking up, the path unfolds right where you are.

This is like washing the robe. The water is defiled by the robe and the robe is soaked by the water. While you wash with water and with some more water, you use the water. This is washing the robe. If you don’t see cleanness at the first or second washing, you keep washing. After the water goes, you get some more water. Even when the robe is clean, you keep on washing. You use the water of all beings, which is suitable for washing the robe. When the water is soiled, you know there are fish.

You wash the robe together with the robes of various beings. Endeavoring in this way, the fundamental point of washing the robe is actualized. Thus, you understand purity. It means that dipping the robe in water is not necessarily the original intention; to defile the water with the robe is not necessarily the original intention. However, washing the robe with defiled water is the original intention of washing the robe.

Furthermore, there is a way to wash the robe with fire, air, earth, water, and space. There is a way to wash earth, water, fire, air, and space with earth, water, fire, air, and space.

The meaning of visualizing the body as impure is also like this. Thus, to cover the body, to cover visualizing, to cover impurity, is no other than the kashaya wrapped around the body born from the mother. If the kashaya were not wrapped around the body born from the mother, buddha ancestors would not have used it. How can this understanding be limited to Shanavasin [whose lay clothes turned into a buddha robe]? Keep this principle in mind and study thoroughly.

“Visualizing perception as suffering” means suffering is perception. Perception is not perception of self, other, existence, or nonexistence. It is perception of the living body, suffering [bitterness] of the living body.

“Visualizing perception as suffering” means seeing that the living body turns from a sweet melon into a bitter gourd. Thus, skin, flesh, bones, and marrow are bitter. Those with mind and those without mind are both bitter. To realize this is a part of the practice-realization of miracles—the miracle of leaping out of the calyx [of a sweet melon] and leaping out of the roots [of a bitter gourd].

“It is said that sentient beings are suffering. Furthermore, suffering is sentient beings.” [Words spoken by Jingqing Daofu.] Sentient beings are not self, not other. This statement—Furthermore, suffering is sentient beings—cannot fool others.

Although a sweet melon is sweet all the way to the calyx, and a bitter gourd is bitter all the way to the root, bitterness [suffering] cannot be easily grasped. So, ask yourself: what is suffering?

In regard to “visualizing mind as impermanent,” Huineng, Old Buddha of Caoxi, said, “Impermanence is no other than buddha nature.”

In this way, all types of impermanence understood by various beings are buddha nature.

Yongjia, Great Master Zhenjiao, said, “All phenomena are impermanent and everything is empty. This is the great, complete enlightenment of the Tathagata.”

In this way, “visualizing mind as impermanent” is no other than the great, complete enlightenment of the Tathagata—the Tathagata of the great, complete enlightenment. Even if the mind tries not to visualize this, as mind changes with all things, where there is mind, there is visualization. Arriving at unsurpassable, complete enlightenment, actualizing unsurpassable, complete enlightenment, is impermanence, visualizing mind.

Mind, which is not necessarily permanent, is free of the four basic modes of discernment and beyond the one hundred types of negation. This being so, walls, tiles, and pebbles, large and small stones, are mind. They are impermanence. This is visualizing.

“Visualizing that things are without a permanent and independent self” is “A tall person has a tall dharma body, a short person has a short dharma body.”

As the self is activities actualized, it is not a permanent and independent self. A dog has no buddha nature; a dog has buddha nature. No beings have buddha nature; no buddha nature has beings. No buddhas have beings; no buddhas have buddhas. No buddha nature has buddha nature. No beings have beings.

Thus, study “no beings have things” as visualizing that things are without a permanent and independent self. Know that the entire body leaps out of twining vines [entanglement] of the self.

Shakyamuni Buddha said, “All buddhas and bodhisattvas always abide in the practice and make it their sacred womb.”

In this way, all buddhas and bodhisattvas make these four abodes of mindfulness their sacred womb. Know that it is the sacred womb of bodhisattvas of enlightenment equal to that of buddhas, and it is the sacred womb of bodhisattvas of wondrous enlightenment.

Buddhas who are beyond the stage of bodhisattvas of wondrous enlightenment also make the four abodes their sacred womb. Bodhisattvas who leap beyond the bodhisattvas whose enlightenment equals that of buddhas, and those of inconceivable enlightenment, also make these four abodes of mindfulness their sacred womb. Indeed, the skin, flesh, bones, and marrow of all buddhas and all ancestors are just these four abodes of mindfulness.

The four right stoppings are also called the four right efforts. They are: Not arousing an unwholesome action that has not arisen, stopping an unwholesome action that has arisen, arousing a wholesome action that has not arisen, and allowing a wholesome action that has arisen to increase.

In regard to “not arousing an unwholesome action that has not arisen,” there is no clear definition of an unwholesome action. It has been called this merely in accordance with the lands and realms. And yet, “not arousing what has not arisen” has been called buddha dharma and has been authentically transmitted.

According to the theory of those outside the way, an unwholesome action that has not arisen is rooted in the permanent self that has not sprouted. However, it is not so in buddha dharma.

For now, ask yourself: where does the unwholesome action lie before it arises? If you say that it lies in the future [apart from the self], you will remain an outsider of the way who holds a nihilistic view. If you say that the future comes and becomes the present, it is not a statement of buddha dharma; the past, present, and future would be confused. If the past, present, and future are confused, all things would be confused. If all things are confused, the reality of all things would be confused. If the reality of all things is confused, [transmission between] “only a buddha and a buddha” would be confused. This being so, we don’t say that the future will later become the present.

Ask yourself further: What do you regard as an unwholesome action that has not arisen? Who knows this and sees this? If you can know and see this, there must already be a moment that has not arisen and a moment that has not notarisen. If so, you cannot call it something that has not yet arisen, but rather you should call it something that has already arisen.

You should study not arousing an unwholesome action that has not arisen without following the views of those outside the way. An accumulated unwholesome action that fills the sky [whole world] is called an unwholesome action that has not arisen. That is not arousing an unwholesome action. Not arousing is “speaking of the permanence of all things yesterday and speaking of the impermanence of all things today”[beyond the discussion of permanence and impermanence].

In regard to “stopping an unwholesome action that has arisen,” has arisen means entirely arisen. Entirely arisen means half arisen. Half arisen is rising right now. Rising right now is fully immersed in rising, leaping beyond the top of rising.

Stopping an unwholesome action that has arisen is Devadatta falling into hell while being alive, and Devadatta receiving a prediction of enlightenment while being alive. It is entering into a donkey womb while being alive, becoming a buddha while being alive.

Take up the meaning of this teaching and study about stopping. Stopping is stopping by leaping beyond and going through stopping.

“Arousing a wholesome action that has not arisen” means being filled with your face before your parents are born, clearly taking up the matter before things emerge, understanding what is before the King of the Empty Eon.

In regard to “allowing a wholesome action that has arisen to increase,” it is not that you increase a wholesome action that has arisen, but that you allow a wholesome action that has arisen to increase. It is seeing the morning star and letting others see the morning star. It is the eye becoming the morning star.

It is like [Mazu] saying, “For thirty years after the barbarians’ invasion, the monastery has not been short of salt and vinegar.” Because you let a wholesome action increase, it has already arisen. Thus, the valley is deep and the dipper handle is long. Because he [Bodhidharma] was, he came [to China].

The four elements of supernormal power are: the supernormal power of desire, the supernormal power of mind, the supernormal power of effort, and the supernormal power of contemplation.

The supernormal power of desire is the intention of body-mind to become a buddha, to sleep well, to be the self, and to bow to you.

The supernormal power of desire is not limited to the causes and conditions of body-mind. Rather, it is like a bird flying in the boundless sky, or a fish swimming at the bottom of deep water.

The supernormal power of mind is walls, tiles, pebbles, mountains, rivers, and the great earth. It is every part of the three realms. It is a brilliant red bamboo or wooden chair.

Because we cannot exhaust using the supernormal power of mind, there is buddha ancestor mind, mind of the ordinary and sages, mind of grass and trees, and the mind that changes. Fully exhausting mind is the supernormal power of mind.

The supernormal power of effort is walking straight ahead on top of a one-hundred-foot bamboo pole. Where is the top of a one-hundred-foot bamboo pole? It is beyond straight ahead and beyond grasping.

It is not that there is no one walking straight ahead. Where is right here? You speak of stepping forward and stepping backward. At the very moment of the supernormal power of effort, the entire world of the ten directions arrives, following the supernormal power of effort; the entire world of the ten directions reaches, following the supernormal power of effort.

In regard to the supernormal power of contemplation, all buddha ancestors have vast karma consciousness and are not based in any particular place. There is body contemplation, mind contemplation, perception contemplation, straw sandal contemplation, the self before the Empty Eon contemplation.

The supernormal power of contemplation is also called the four aspects of the fulfillment of wishes. It means no hesitation.

Shakyamuni Buddha said, “Arriving without moving forward is called the fulfillment of wishes.”

Thus, the supernormal power of contemplation is as pointed as the tip of a gimlet, and as sharp as the blade of a chisel.

The fivefold root is the root of trust, the root of effort, the root of mindfulness, the root of samadhi, and the root of wisdom.

Know that the root of trust is not self, not others. It is not forced by the self, nor is it created by the self or led by others. Because it is not established by the self, it has been intimately entrusted throughout east and west.

The entire body embodying trust is called trust. Trust invariably follows and is followed by the stage of the buddha fruit. Without being at the stage of the buddha fruit, trust is not actualized.

So, it is said [in the Treatise on Realization of Great Wisdom], “Trust makes it possible to enter the great ocean of buddha dharma.” Where trust is actualized, buddha ancestors are actualized.

The root of effort is to reflect on just sitting. Ceasing is unable to cease, being greatly occupied and yet not being occupied. Occupied and not occupied are the first month, the second month.

Shakyamuni Buddha said, “I always make an effort. That is why I have attained unsurpassable, complete enlightenment.”

Always make an effort is the entire past, present, and future, from head to tail. I always make an effort is I have attained unsurpassable, complete enlightenment. I have attained unsurpassable, complete enlightenment, therefore I always make an effort.

If not so, how would it be always make an effort? If not so, how would it be I have attained? Teachers of treatises and scriptures do not see or hear the meaning of this. How could they have studied it?

The root of mindfulness is the red flesh ball of a decayed tree. A red flesh ball is called a decayed tree. A decayed tree is the root of mindfulness.

What the self has searched for is mindfulness. There is mindfulness at the time of having a body. There is mindfulness at the time of having no mind. There is mindfulness with mind. There is mindfulness with no body.

The life root of the entire earth person is the root of mindfulness. The life root of the entire ten directions buddha is the root of mindfulness.

There are multiple persons in a single mindfulness. There are multiple mindfulnesses in a single person. However, there is a person with mindfulness, and there is a person without mindfulness.

It is not that a person always has mindfulness. It is not that mindfulness is always hanging on a person. May it be so, there is virtue in maintaining the root of mindfulness and thoroughly experiencing the root of mindfulness.

The root of samadhi is refraining from touching the eyebrows and brushing up the eyebrows. Thus, it is beyond obscuring cause and effect, and beyond falling into cause and effect.

From this root of samadhi, you enter the donkey’s womb, the horse’s womb.

It is like a stone wrapped around a jade. Do not say the entire stone is a jade. It is also like the earth topped with the mountain. Do not say the entire earth is the mountain. Even so, you leap out and leap in from the top of the mountain.

The root of wisdom is not known beyond the knowledge of buddhas in the past, present, and future. But it is known by badgers and white cows. Do not say why this is so. This cannot be explained. It is just like breath going through nostrils or a fist having fingertips.

A donkey remains a donkey. A well sees a well. Thus, a root succeeds in a root.

The fivefold power is the power of trust, the power of effort, the power of mindfulness, the power of samadhi, and the power of wisdom.

The power of trust is to be fooled by the self and have nowhere to escape. It is to be called by someone else and turn your head around. It is to be just here from birth to old age. It is letting go of falling down seven times and falling down eight times. Trust is like a crystal that purifies the water [it is put into]. Transmitting dharma and transmitting the robe are trust. It is transmitting buddhas and transmitting ancestors.

The power of effort is to speak of what action cannot express, to act what speaking cannot express. Thus, when speaking one sun, there is nothing like speaking one sun. When acting one sun, there is nothing like acting one sun. Effort within effort is the power of effort.

The power of mindfulness is to be a coarse person by grabbing another’s nostrils. Thus, nostrils grab the person. It is to hurl a pearl and attract a pearl, to hurl a tile and attract a tile. Not yet hurling is worth receiving thirty blows. Even if people in the world use it, it will not wear out.

The power of samadhi is like a child having a mother or a mother having a child. It is like a child having a child or a mother having a mother.

However, it is not like exchanging the head with the face or buying gold with gold. It is just that singing becomes louder and louder.

The power of wisdom is deep in time. It is like a boat meeting the river crossing.

Thus, it was said in ancient times [in the Lotus Sutra], “It is like the river crossing meeting a boat.”

The meaning of this phrase is that the river crossing cannot be separated from a boat. That the river crossing does not hinder the river crossing is called a boat. Spring is long and ice melts.

The seven limbs of enlightenment are: the selection limb of enlightenment, the effort limb of enlightenment, the joy limb of enlightenment, the retreat limb of enlightenment, the letting-go limb of enlightenment, the samadhi limb of enlightenment, and the mindfulness limb of enlightenment.

In regard to the selection limb of enlightenment [as in the poem “Engraving Trust in the Heart”], “Even if there is a hairbreadth of difference, you are as far away as heaven from earth. This being so, the ultimate way is not difficult, it is just that selection is necessary.

The effort limb of enlightenment is not to take advantage in the marketplace. Prices are set and values are known for buying and selling. It appears to be bending your body and pushing others, but even the entire body is not crushed when it is beaten. Before you have sold a turning word, you encounter a customer who buys a turning mind. Before a donkey matter is done, a horse matter arrives.

The joy limb of enlightenment is an old woman’s mind intimate with drops of blood. The great compassionate one with one thousand arms and eyes [Avalokiteshvara] is quite busy. In the snow of the twelfth month, plum blossoms begin to leak out their fragrance, predicting the cold assembly [of monks] in the following spring.

And yet, the joy limb of enlightenment is vibrant and full of laughter.

In regard to the retreat limb of enlightenment, when you are with yourself, don’t form a group with yourself; when you are with others, don’t form a group with others. It is in the spirit of “You have not attained what I have attained.” It is like speaking with blazing clarity, traveling through other types of beings.

In regard to the letting-go limb of enlightenment, it is like saying, “Even if I bring it forth, you may not accept it.” It is also like saying, “A Chinese person learns a Chinese way of walking. A Persian person looks for ivory.”

In regard to the samadhi limb of enlightenment, by concentrating on things that are about to arise, you have the eye of seeing things that are about to arise. The self pokes the self’s nostrils. The self grabs the rope [through the nostrils], and the self pulls the rope. Thus, you get to tame a single water buffalo.

In regard to the mindfulness limb of enlightenment, a pillar walks in the sky. The mouth looks like an oak leaf and the eyes are like eyebrows. In the candana [incense] tree forest, candana is burned. In the lion’s cave, a lion roars.

The eightfold noble path limb [of enlightenment] is also called the eightfold noble path. It consists of: the right view path limb, the right thought path limb, the right speech path limb, the right action path limb, the right livelihood path limb, the right effort path limb, the right mindfulness path limb, and the right samadhi path limb.

The right view path limb is hiding the body within an eyeball. This being so, the body before [this life] must embody the eye of the body before. Because it magnificently sees the self in the past, it actualizes the fundamental point. It is what has been intimately seen in the past. Those who do not hide the body within an eyeball are not buddha ancestors.

In regard to the right thought path limb, when you hold a right thought, all buddhas in the ten directions emerge. Thus, the emergence of the ten directions, the emergence of all buddhas, takes place at the moment of holding a right thought.

Although the moment of holding a right thought is not the self and is beyond others, at this very moment when a thought is held, you get to Varanasi [where the Buddha first taught]. Varanasi is where this thought is.

An ancient buddha [Yaoshan] said, “Think not-thinking. How do you think not-thinking? Beyond thinking.”

This is right thinking, right contemplation. Sitting and breaking through the cushion is right thinking.

In regard to the right speech path limb, a mute is not a mute to the mute. A mute does not make an expression among people, but people in the mute world are not mutes. They do not look for sages [outside of themselves]. They do not add anything to their own spirits.

This is to study hanging the mouth on the wall, hanging all mouths on all walls.

The right action path limb is leaving the household and practicing the way, entering a mountain and attaining realization.

Shakyamuni Buddha said, “The thirty-seven wings of enlightenment are a monk’s action.”

A monk’s action is neither the Great Vehicle nor the Lesser Vehicles. Among monks, there are buddha monks, bodhisattva monks, shravaka monks, and so on.

Those who have not left the household do not succeed in the right action of buddha ancestors, nor do they authentically transmit the great way of buddha dharma. Although laypeople study the way as laymen and laywomen, there is no precedent for their mastering the way. At the time of mastering the way, people invariably leave the household. How can those who cannot bear to leave the household succeed in the rank of buddhas?

Nevertheless, many of those who call themselves Zen monks in Great Song China have said for a couple of hundred years that the study of the way by the laity and the study of the way by home leavers are the same. Those who say such things are dogs who take in the urine and excrement [property] of laypeople.

At times they say to kings and ministers that there is no difference between the minds of rulers and the minds of buddha ancestors. The kings and ministers, without knowing authentic speech and true dharma, rejoice greatly and grant them the titles of masters, and so on.

Monks who make such statements are Devadattas. In order to eat the saliva and mucus of kings and ministers, they utter such childish, crazy words. How deplorable! They are not family members of the Seven Original Buddhas, but are beasts and demons. They are like this because they don’t know the body-mind study of the way, don’t study, and don’t have the body-mind of leaving the household. They are like this because they are ignorant about kings and ministers governing with dharma, and they do not even dream of the great way of buddha ancestors.

Layman Vimalakirti, although he personally encountered the Buddha, had much he did not express and study. Layman Pangyun studied with some ancestors, but was not allowed to enter Yaoshan’s chamber and was not as good as Mazu of Jiangxi. He stole the credit for studying but did not possess the fruit of it.

Other laity, including Li Fuma and Yang Wengong, regarded themselves as having filled up with study, but they hadn’t even eaten a milk rice cake. How could they have eaten the painting of a rice cake? Even further, how could they have eaten buddha ancestors’ gruel? They did not have eating bowls yet. What a pity that the skin bags of their lifetime were wasted!

Let me advise everyone—heavenly beings, human beings, dragon beings, and all other beings—to long for the Tathagata’s dharma, quickly leave the household, practice the way, and succeed in the ranks of buddha and ancestor.

Do not listen to the words of unaccomplished Zen masters and others. They speak like this because they do not know the body and they do not know the mind. Or they say so because they do not have compassion for sentient beings. These human-faced dogs, human-skinned dogs who have turned into unwholesome dogs, have no intention of guarding buddha dharma; they just want to consume the urine and excrement of laypeople.

Do not sit with, speak with, or rely on such home leavers. They have already fallen into the animal realm while having human bodies. If these home leavers possess abundant urine and excrement, they may regard it as outstanding. They think so because they are not as good as beasts.

There is no mention in more than five thousand scrolls [of the entire Buddhist canon] and there is no trace of the statement for over two thousand years that the mind of the laity and the mind of home leavers are the same. There are no such words by fifty buddha ancestors of over forty generations.

Even a monk who breaks the precepts or keeps no precepts, with no dharma and no wisdom, excels a layperson who has wisdom and maintains the precepts. This is so because a monk’s action is wisdom, enlightenment, and dharma.

A layperson may have a fair share of merit for having a wholesome root but may ignore acquiring the merit of having the wholesome root of body-mind. This being so, during the lifetime of the Buddha, no one attained the way as a layperson. The reason is that there are so many obstacles that home is not a practice place for studying the buddha way. When we investigate the bodies and minds of those who say that the minds of rulers and the minds of buddha ancestors are the same, we see that their bodies and minds are not the body-mind of buddha dharma. They do not transmit the skin, flesh, bones, and marrow of buddha ancestors. How pitiful it is that although they have encountered the true buddha dharma, they have become beasts!

This being so, Huineng, who would later be Old Buddha of Caoxi, all of a sudden bade farewell to his mother and started looking for a teacher. This was right action. Before arousing the aspiration for enlightenment upon hearing a passage of the Diamond Sutra, he was a house-holder and woodcutter. When he was permeated by the power of buddha dharma upon hearing this passage, he let go of his heavy obligation and left home.

Know that when you have buddha dharma in your body-mind, you cannot help leaving home. This has been so with all buddha ancestors.

The crimes of those who tell others not to leave their households are heavier than capital offenses, worse than Devadatta’s. Do not speak with such people, keeping in mind that they are more guilty than the groups of the six monks, the six nuns, and the eighteen monks [of ancient times]. Our life span is too short to waste a moment speaking with such demons and beasts.

Furthermore, we have received our human body and mind due to the seed of seeing and hearing the buddha dharma in our past life. Our body and mind are like equipment in the common area [of the monastery]. We should not become a member of the demon clan. We should not associate with the demon clan. Without forgetting the benefaction of buddha ancestors, protect the nurturing of dharma milk and pay no attention to the howling of unwholesome dogs. Do not sit and eat with them.

When Bodhidharma, High Ancestor, Old Buddha of Mount Song, left the Buddha’s country of India and traveled all the way to the remote nation of China, he personally brought the authentic dharma of buddha ancestors. Without his leaving the household and attaining the way, this would not have happened. Before Bodhidharma came from India, beings in the human and deva realms in the eastern land of China had never seen or heard the true dharma. In this way, know that the authentic transmission of the true dharma eye is just the benefaction of leaving the household.

Great Teacher Shakyamuni Buddha graciously left the palace and did not succeed in the position of his father king. It is not because the throne was not precious, but because he intended to succeed in the most precious buddha rank.

The buddha rank is the monk’s rank. It is the position that all heavenly beings and human beings in the three realms revere. This position is not shared by Brahma or Indra. Even further, the buddha rank cannot be shared by human kings, or dragon kings in the lower realms.

It is a rank of unsurpassable, complete enlightenment. This rank expounds dharma, awakens beings, radiates light, and manifests miracles. Actions of this home leaver rank are right actions, embracing actions of all buddhas, including the Seven Original Buddhas.

These actions cannot be thoroughly experienced by those who are not “only buddha and buddha.” Those who haven’t left the household should serve, bow, and make offerings by dedicating their body and life to those who have left the household.

Shakyamuni Buddha said, “Leaving the household and receiving the precepts is the seed of being a buddha. This is one who has received ordination.”

Thus, know that ordination is to leave the household. Not to leave the household is to sink [in worldly defilement], which should be lamented.

In discourses during his lifetime, Shakyamuni Buddha extolled the virtue of home leaving countless times. The Buddha expounded it and all buddhas testified to it.

Even home leavers who break precepts and don’t practice attain the way. There has not been a single layperson who has attained the way.

When the emperor bows to a monk or nun, the monk or nun does not bow back. When devas bow to monks and nuns, the monks and nuns do not bow back. This is because the merit of being a home leaver is excellent. If devas are bowed to by home-leaver monks or nuns, the devas’ palaces, radiant light, and the wholesome results of their actions immediately crash and fall apart.

Since buddha dharma spread eastward to China, home leavers who have attained the way are as many as rice straws, flax, bamboo, and reeds. But there has not been a single layperson who attained the way. This is why when buddha dharma touches the eyes and ears, people rush to take on home leaving. Thus, we know that the household is not the abode of buddha dharma.

Therefore, those who say that the minds and bodies of rulers are no other than the minds and bodies of buddha ancestors have not seen or heard of buddha dharma. They are inmates in darkest hell, fools who haven’t even heard their own statements; they are criminals of the nation. Because buddha dharma is excellent, rulers are pleased with the phrase that the minds and bodies of all people are no other than the minds and bodies of buddha ancestors.

Even if the minds of rulers became the same as the minds of buddha ancestors, these rulers’ minds would not be the same as the minds of buddha ancestors becoming one with the minds of rulers. Those Zen masters who say that the minds of rulers are the same as the minds of buddha ancestors do not know how the mind of dharma moves and manifests. How can they even dream of the minds of buddha ancestors?

All kings, including Brahma, Indra, human kings, dragon kings, and demon kings, should not be attached to the karmic results of the three realms. They should immediately leave the household, receive the precepts, and learn the way of all buddhas and all ancestors. This will cause them to become a buddha in vast eons.

Don’t you see? If Old Man Vimalakirti were to leave the house-hold, we should see Monk Vimalakirti as more excellent than Layman Vimalakirti.

Today we see Subhuti, Shariputra, Manjushri, and Maitreya [in the Vimalakirti Sutra], but we don’t see even half of Vimalakirti. Then, how can we see three, four, or five Vimalakirtis? If we don’t see and know three, four, or five Vimalakirtis, we don’t yet see, know, and acknowledge even one Vimalakirti. If we don’t see, know, and acknowledge even one Vimalakirti, we don’t see Vimalakirti Buddha.

If we don’t see Vimalakirti Buddha, there is no Vimalakirti Manjushri, no Vimalakirti Maitreya, no Vimalakirti Subhuti, and no Vimalakirti Shariputra. Then, how can there be Vimalakirti mountains, rivers, and earth? How can there be Vimalakirti grass, trees, tiles, and pebbles; wind, rain, water, and fire; or past, present, future?

The reason why Vimalakirti has not seen the power of radiant light is that he has not yet left the household. If he had been a home leaver, he would have experienced such virtue.

Zen masters of the Tang and Song dynasties, however, without understanding this principle, mistakenly think that Vimalakirti got the point and say that Vimalakirti expressed the point. What a pity! These fellows who did not know the teachings by words were ignorant of buddha dharma.

There are also a number of those who think and say that the words by Vimalakirti and Shakyamuni Buddha are equal. They do not yet know and cannot access buddha dharma, the ancestral way, and even Vimalakirti.

Such people say that Vimalakirti remained silent and showed no words to all bodhisattvas and that this is equal to the Tathagata’s words, “I teach people with no words.”

I say that such people are quite ignorant of buddha dharma and lack the capacity to study the way. The Tathagata’s words are different from those of others. His no words cannot be the same as the no words of other beings. Thus, the single silence of the Tathagata and the single silence of Vimalakirti cannot be compared.

If we investigate the capacity of those who imagined that even if speeches are different silence is the same, they cannot be regarded as those who are close to buddhas. How sad! They have not even seen and heard form and sound. How can they have the radiant light of leaping away from form and sound?

Furthermore, they don’t know about studying the silence of silence and are not aware of such a thing. All beings have different ways of moving and being still. How can we discuss whether Shakyamuni Buddha and all beings are or are not the same? Those who have not studied inside the chamber of buddha ancestors speak in this way.

A number of mistaken people think and say that speeches and movements are temporary phenomena while silence and stillness are real. To speak in this way is not buddha dharma. This is a conjecture by those who have heard the scriptures of Brahma and Indra. How should buddha dharma be determined by movement or stillness? Investigate thoroughly whether buddha dharma does or does not have movement or stillness, whether buddha dharma touches movement or stillness, or is touched by movement or stillness. Latecomers to study nowadays should not be lax in this investigation.

When I see today’s Great Song China, it appears that those who have studied the great way of buddha ancestors are extinct. It is not that there are even two or three such people. All people think that Vimalakirti is genuine by having a single silence, and that not having a single silence falls short of Vimalakirti. This is no vital path of buddha dharma.

There are also those who think that the single silence of Vimalakirti is no other than the single silence of Shakyamuni Buddha. This is not the radiant light of discernment. I should say that those who speak in this way have never seen and heard buddha dharma. Do not regard this as buddha dharma although it happens in Great Song China.

This principle is easy to clarify. Right actions are monks’ actions. This is not known by teachers of treatises and scriptures.

Monks’ actions are endeavor in the cloud hall [monks’ hall], bowing in the buddha hall, and cleansing in the wash house. Further, putting palms together, greeting, burning incense, and boiling water are all right actions. It is not replacing the tail with the head, but replacing the head with the head, replacing the mind with the mind, replacing the buddha with the buddha, and replacing the way with the way. This is the right action path limb.

If you go astray and try to fathom buddha dharma other than this, your eyebrows and beard will fall out and your face will break up.

The right livelihood path limb is having the morning meal in early morning and the midday meal at midday, playing with the spirit in the monastery, and pointing directly from the teaching chair. Old Man Zhaozhou’s assembly with fewer than twenty monks was right livelihood actualized. Yaoshan’s assembly with fewer than ten monks was a life vein of right livelihood. Fenyang’s assembly with seven or eight monks lived right livelihood. This is because they were free from a variety of crooked livelihood.

Shakyamuni Buddha said, “Shravakas have not attained right livelihood.”

In this way, shravakas’ teaching, practice, and realization are not yet right livelihood. But nowadays people in mediocre schools say that shravakas and bodhisattvas should not be distinguished, and that the guidelines and precepts of both schools should be used. They judge the bodhisattva guidelines in comparison with the guidelines for shravakas in the Lesser Vehicles.

Shakyamuni Buddha said, “Ashravaka’s keeping the precepts is a bodhisattva’s breaking the precepts.”

In this way, what shravakas regard as keeping the precepts is breaking the precepts in light of the bodhisattva precepts. The rest of the three learnings—samadhi and wisdom—are also like this.

Although the aspects of not killing and so on appear to be common between shravakas and bodhisattvas, they are certainly different, more apart from each other than heaven from earth. Even further, how is it possible that the teaching authentically transmitted by buddhas and ancestors could be the same as the teaching of shravakas?

There is not only right livelihood but also pure livelihood. Studying with buddha ancestors alone is right livelihood. Do not adopt the views of teachers of treatises.

Because they have not attained right livelihood, theirs is not genuine livelihood.

Right effort path limb is the activity of plucking out the entire body. It is plucking out the entire body and hitting a human face with it. It is to ride the buddha hall upside down and move in a circle. Because you ride two, three, four, and five times, it is nine times nine equals eighty-one circles. It is one thousand and ten thousand greetings. It is changing the heads freely, changing the faces freely. It is entering the abbot’s room, ascending the teaching seat. It is meeting at the Land View Pavilion, meeting at Crow Stone Peak. It is an encounter in front of the monks’ hall, an encounter inside the buddha hall. It is two mirrors facing each other creating three reflections.

The right mindfulness path limb is to be fooled by oneself and achieve eight or nine out of ten. To think that from mindfulness comes the aspiration for wisdom is to abandon your own father and escape [to a foreign land]. To think that within mindfulness there is the aspiration for wisdom is an extreme trap. To say that having no mindfulness is the right mindfulness is to be a person outside the way.

Also, do not regard spirits of earth, water, fire, and air as mindfulness. Do not call confusion of consciousness mindfulness. Indeed, “You have attained my skin, flesh, bones, and marrow” is itself the right mindfulness path limb.

The right samadhi path limb is dropping away buddha ancestors, dropping away right samadhi. It is letting someone else take it up. It is drilling the head top and making nostrils. It is holding up an udumbara blossom within the treasury of the true dharma eye. It is hundreds and thousands of Mahakashyapas smiling inside an udumbara blossom. It is using this activity for a long time and breaking a wooden dipper. Thus, weeds keep dropping for six years and blossoms open overnight. Tremendous fires blaze and a billion worlds crumble and disappear all of a sudden.

These thirty-seven wings of enlightenment are the eyeball, nostrils, skin, flesh, bones, marrow, hands, feet, and face of buddha ancestors. The onefold buddha ancestor is being studied as the thirty-seven wings of enlightenment. Thus, this is one thousand three hundred sixty-nine [thirty-seven times thirty-seven] fundamental points, wings of enlightenment, actualized. Cut through them by sitting. Drop them away.

Presented to the assembly of the Yoshimine Temple, Echizen Province, on the twenty-fourth day, the second month, the second year of the Kangen Era [1244].