[Ming Dynasty] Fahai Temple Mural - Picture of the Meeting on the West Wall. Four Bodhisattvas: Manjushri, Samantabhadra, Avalokitesvara, and Ksitigarbha.

[Ming Dynasty] Fahai Temple Mural - The meeting on the west wall shows the four Bodhisattvas: Manjusri , Samantabhadra , Guanyin, Ksitigarbha . The four great Bodhisattvas are , and the four great Bodhisattvas of Lotus are Maitreya , Manjusri, Avalokitesvara, and Samantabhadra. There are different opinions. (Picture source from the Internet)

4. Pay equal attention to interpretation and action

(3) Someone asked: How can we understand and interpret the Dharma and make our mind clear and clear?

I answer: Don’t recite the Buddha’s name, don’t catch your thoughts, don’t look at your mind, don’t care about your mind, don’t think about your mind, don’t observe your mind’s behavior, don’t let your mind wander, just let it happen naturally. Not seeking to let this thought go, nor seeking to let this thought dwell, in the only ultimate place, the mind itself is pure. If you carefully meditate on your mind, distracting thoughts will not arise, and your mind will become clear and clear. The mind is like a bright mirror. If you work hard like this, in one year or three to five years, your mind will become clearer and clearer. At this time, you may gain enlightenment and understanding of the Dharma due to the guidance of a good teacher, or you may become enlightened on your own without the help of others.

The Sutra says: The mind of all living beings is like a pearl sunk in water. When the water is very turbid, the orb is hidden in it and cannot be seen. Once the water becomes clear, the beads are revealed. Because sentient beings have slandered the Three Jewels and destroyed the harmony of the Sangha, they have been polluted by all kinds of distorted and wrong views and greed, anger and troubles. They do not know that their own nature of mind is always pure. Students have different natures, and the situations in which they gain enlightenment and understanding are also very different. I only briefly pointed out the differences in roots and causes. A good teacher is a role model for others. He should be good at identifying the foundation of his students and teach them promptly. Otherwise, it will be useless to talk too much.

"The Avatamsaka Sutra" says that the body of Samantabhadra is like space, and space is boundless and formless. The body of Bodhisattva is also boundless and formless, and does not depend on any country. This is the true state. After understanding this, you will know that the so-called lands of Buddhas are the same as the true reality, without boundaries, and cannot be understood as a real land and world. The sutra says: There is a Bodhisattva with a boundless body. His body is vast and boundless, like space. It is also said that this Bodhisattva exudes brilliant light, like the summer sun, dispelling all ignorance and darkness. It is also said that because the body is immeasurable and boundless, it is called the Big N P. It is also said that the Big N P is vast and incomparably free. Therefore, it can be seen that there are four types of scholars: superior people who have practices, explanations, and certifications; middle-class people who have no practices, interpretations, and certifications; middle-class people who have practices, interpretations, and no certifications; and low-level people who have practices, no understandings, and no certifications.

[Ming Dynasty] Fahai Temple Mural - One of the four Bodhisattvas attending a meeting on the west wall (picture source from the Internet)

Someone asked: How do you usually observe the mind?

I answer: Just let it happen naturally. Nothing artificial.

The other party asked again: Is it necessary to face the West?

I answer: The mind is neither born nor destroyed, and is ultimately pure. This is the pure land of the Buddha's Kingdom. Where can the Buddha's Kingdom have its direction? "The Avatamsaka Sutra" says: There is no difference between the moment of a thought and the eternity of countless kalpas; there is no difference between one place and endless places. The reason why the Buddha talked about the Western Buddha Land was because he was targeting people with dull faculties, not those with sharp faculties.

Deeply practicing Bodhisattvas, that is, Bodhisattvas above the first level, have cut off the delusion of following greed and the delusion of separation and persistence. They can enter into the torrent of life and death and transform sentient beings without feeling tired or tired. If you see the life and death of all living beings and have compassion, and think that you are the savior and all living beings are the ones to be saved, then you are not a Bodhisattva. A true Bodhisattva understands that the true nature of all living beings is empty and unavailable, so how can there be any physical life and death for living beings? A true Bodhisattva saves all sentient beings while saving nothing. " Diamond Sutra " says that countless sentient beings can be saved, but in fact no real sentient beings have been saved. The Bodhisattva of the First Ground initially realized that everything is empty, and then realized that everything is not empty. What is empty is the two obstacles of human beings, self, Dharma, self and troubles. What is not empty is the great compassion with immeasurable merits. This is the wisdom of non-discrimination, which is also the so-called "form is empty". It is not that the ever-changing forms and colors are used to destroy the meaning of emptiness, but the nature of form is emptiness, and form and emptiness are inherently non-dual. The Bodhisattva takes emptiness as his witness.

Beginners always think that the nothingness they directly perceive is the real emptiness, but this is not the case.A Taoist who realizes the nature of emptiness does not see emptiness or non-emptiness at all, and there is no distinction between views. It is necessary to understand the subtle principles of form and emptiness, to sweep away all dharmas in the first truth, to establish all dharmas in the conventional truth, and to harmonize the worldly and supramundane worlds.

Know how to learn from others carefully, be able to clearly understand the operation of the mind, and have a clear understanding of the nature and rationality of all dharmas, and only then can you be a role model for others. In addition, you also need to be in harmony with your body and mind, be consistent externally and internally, be unified in knowledge and action, cut off words and all conditioned dharma, and be alone in a pure place to practice self-cultivation and realize the Tao and fruit.

If someone does not understand the ultimate meaning of the Dharma, but only teaches sentient beings for the sake of fame and gain, without distinguishing the basic skills of sentient beings, and casually proves it when they encounter a state of enlightenment that seems to be special, then that is really bad, it is a big disaster! Or when you see someone who is relatively pure and clear, you will think that their state has reached home. Such a teacher is corrupting Buddhism and deceiving himself and others. Regardless of whether the situations of these people who are randomly impressed are similar or different, they are just superficial phenomena. They do not truly understand the nature of the heart. People who truly understand the original mind have a clear mind. After long-term practice, they will automatically open their Dharma Eyes to identify the true and false of the seal.

If someone thinks that the mind will perish with the disappearance of the body, this is a wrong view, which is the same as heretics and is not a disciple of the Buddha. If someone thinks that the mind will never die, this is common and the same as heretics. I now tell Buddhist disciples seven points of justice: Don’t be obsessed with the cessation and immortality of your mind, you must always save all sentient beings, and at the same time, you must have no worries and no worries; you must always practice wisdom and understand that ignorance and wisdom are equal; you must always practice meditation, so that silence and distraction are the same; Surrounded by all living beings, you must understand that all living beings are neither born nor destroyed and have never really existed, but are just various forms that appear everywhere; you must understand everything without making any choices, and it is as if you have never heard of it; although it is only a limited body and has no ability to clone itself, it can fill the Dharma Realm with an infinite body.

Zen Master Zhimin in ancient times once taught: The method of learning Taoism, understanding and practice must complement each other. First, you must understand the origin and function of the heart, make the reasoning clear, understand clearly and have no doubts, and then you can successfully follow the Tao. Once you understand, all kinds of confusion will be solved, and once you are confused, all kinds of doubts will arise. Therefore, it is not an empty lie to say that a slight error can lead to a mistake of a thousand miles.