Emperor Wu of Liang met Bodhidharma and asked him, "Since I ascended the throne, I have built Buddhist temples, translated scriptures, and saved people and became monks. What merits are there?" Bodhidharma said, "No merit." Emperor Wu asked, "Why is there no merit?" Bodhidharma said, "These are just small fruits of human and heaven, and the causes of leakage, like shadows, and although there are, they are not real." Emperor Wu said, "What is the true merit?" Bodhidharma said, "Pure, wisdom, perfect and wonderful, and the body is empty and silent. Such merits are not pursued in the world." Emperor Wu asked again, "What is the ultimate truth of the Holy Truth?" Bodhidharma said, "Empty and silent are not sages."
More than a thousand years have passed, have we accepted the teachings of the Patriarch Bodhidharma? I don't see. Everyone still blindly pursues the small fruits of human and heaven, and the cause of leakage. All regions have rushed to build temples, often hundreds of millions or even billions. This is a good thing, but unfortunately many of them are for commercial purposes. How great would it be if the money was used to educate children in poor areas!
Of course, there are also true practitioners, such as practitioners in Zhongnan Mountain, who can practice in a cave or a thatched hut. In fact, the practice of Buddhist disciples is to find their true self. Too many constraints cannot find themselves. We must be confident and believe that everyone is a Buddha. As long as we let go of greed, anger and ignorance and see that the five aggregates are empty, we can find the mind that is neither born nor destroyed, neither dirty nor purified, neither increasing nor decreasing, like an unmoving mind.
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