Gaining Enlightenment

Put a fish on land and he will remember the ocean until he dies. Put a bird in a cage, yet he will not forget the sky. Each remains homesick for his true home, the place where his nature has decreed that he should be.

Man is born in the state of innocence. His original nature is love and grace and purity. Yet he emigrates so casually, without even a thought of his old home. Is this not sadder than the fishes and the birds? We would all like to reflect the Moon of Enlightenment. We would all like to get home to Innocence. How do we accomplish this? We follow the Dharma . The Buddha saw the unenlightened life's ignorance as a diseased condition. His Four Noble Truths have a medical connotation:

One, life in Samsara is bitter and painful. Two, craving is the cause of this bitterness and pain. Three, there is a cure for this malady. Four, the cure is to follow the Eightfold Path.

First, we need to recognize that we are ill. Second, we need a diagnosis. Third, we need to be assured that what's wrong with us will respond to treatment. Fourth, we require a therapeutic regimen.

Samsara is the world seen through the ego. It is a troubled and sick world because of the ego's unceasing cravings . Trying to satisfy the demands of the ego is like trying to name the highest number. No matter how large a number we can think of, one more can always be added to it to make an even higher number. There is no way to attain the ultimate.

Constant striving results in constant strife. So what are we to do? First we must understand that the problems which the ego creates cannot be solved in Samsara's world of ever changing illusions. Why? Because the ego is itself an ever changing, fictional character that merely acts and reacts in response to life's fluctuating conditions-conditions which it can never quite comprehend.

The Eightfold Path guides, delimits, and establishes rules which are clear. Everyone can follow them.

The first step is Right Understanding: Understanding requires both study and consultation with a Master. Information acquired only through reading is never sufficient. A good teacher is indispensable. A good teacher engages us and determines if we understand what we've studied. If we are unclear about a passage in a book, we cannot question the book. If we disagree with certain views of a teacher, we cannot skip over his instruction the way we can skip over troublesome paragraphs. It's often necessary to consult with a good teacher. There is no substitute for regular, face to face interactions. Find a master who will meet regularly with you. Open your heart to him. The better he gets to know you, the better he will be able to advise and instruct you.

A good teacher is better than the most sacred books. Books contain words, and Chan cannot be transmitted by mere words.

The second step is Right Thought : Right Thought requires us to become aware of our motivations. Always we must inquire why we want to have something or why we want to do something, and we must be ruthless in our inquiry. If a friend wanted to purchase something he couldn't afford or to do something that was bad for him, we would give him sound advice, cautioning him, helping him to see the likely outcome of his foolish desires. Can we not be that kind of friend to ourselves? Can we not apply ordinary common sense to our own desires? Be ruthless in your examination of your desires. Apply to yourself the same common sense you would use to counsel a friend.

The third step is Right Speech : How often do we impress words into the ego's service. To gain some advantage, we gossip, or we exaggerate, or we neglect to tell the whole story, or we insinuate the probable guilt of others while protesting our own inviolable innocence. Sometimes, just to be the center of attention, many of us will tell sordid tales or smutty jokes. We think that words are not deeds, that they have little power and a short life, that somehow words just evaporate with the breath that speaks them. But words do have power and they can live forever and, furthermore, they can heal as well as harm. Just as Right Speech discourages us from uttering falsehoods, insults, accusations, or from bragging about our own accomplishments, it also encourages us to speak words of comfort, to utter words of forgiveness, to express acknowledgment and appreciation for the accomplishments of others. Never underestimate the power of words.

The fourth step is Right Action : Right action contains the Precepts.

1. The Buddhist vows to be nonviolent . This does not mean that he cannot defend his life or the lives of those persons who are in his care but that he cannot initiate hostile actions against others. But what about himself? He, also, is one of the people against whom he may take no hostile action. Peace is not merely the absence of war. Anxiety is not an aggressive state, but it isn't peaceful, either. The fellow who's in a coma is not at war, but he's not at peace, either. Peace is a state that is deliberately achieved and maintained . It is not enough merely to be nonviolent; we must also act to promote harmony, well-being, and good health.

Smoking, for example, is inimical not only to the smoker's health but to the health of all around him. On both counts, then, smoking is forbidden by the precept against violence.

Whenever possible, a Buddhist should abstain from eating meat . I say `whenever possible' because this rule is not absolute. Many people, for example, live in arctic regions where they have no choice but to eat fish and other marine creatures. They cannot grow gardens in the tundra; and we cannot deny the Dharma to human beings because their environment does not conduce to vegetarian diets. But where vegetables are plentiful, there is no reason to eat meat . On the positive side, a vegetarian diet promotes good health and for this reason, also, it should be followed.

Exercise , particularly Tai Ji Quan or Qi Gong, releases aggression and anger and also has a salubrious effect on the body. Yoga is also very beneficial.

2. The Buddhist vows to be truthful , not only in his social life, but in his business life as well. All forms of cheating and chicanery are included in this Precept. Whenever we sacrifice truth in order to gain some imagined advantage, we enter a tangled, convoluted world. Our reputations are like the label on a shipping box. Once we are known as liars and cheaters, we consign our intentions, no matter how innocent, to the place of doubt and mistrust.

3. The Buddhist vows not to appropriate property which is not his own . This is the Precept against stealing. But what is an unpaid debt? Is this not stealing? What is borrowing something and not returning it? Is this also not stealing? What is using another person's property and damaging it without compensating him for the damage? Is this not stealing? If, before we committed any act, we examined its ethics and its possible results, we would never need to worry about the gallows.

According to ancient wisdom, "The thief is sorry he is to be hanged - not that he is a thief."

4. The Buddhist vows to be sexually moral, modest, and responsible . In this one Precept we can see how easy it is to break all the others. In the cause of his lust, a man will steal. In the cause of his lust, he will ply the woman he desires with alcohol and deceive her with false promises. And when he uses and abuses her body in such a way, is he not harming her? And as greatly as we condemn immorality, so greatly do we praise morality. Much honor attends the virtuous person, the person who is chaste in his single life or faithful to his sacred marriage vows!

It is in the failure to observe the Precept of morality that we find the worst hypocrites. How often do we encounter a man who ferociously guards his own daughters, while conniving to debauch other men's daughters? Or, who strictly guards his own wife, while casually seducing another man's wife? If he were to kill a man who defiled his daughters or wife, he would expect the Courts to see him as a victim and to absolve him of guilt. Yet, when it is he who debauches and seduces, he regards himself as heroic. It is not easy for a man to overcome lust. The temptations are ubiquitous and infinite in variety. Yet, if any man were to divert some of the energy he squanders on sexual conquests into conquering his own lust, he would make true spiritual progress.

5. The Buddhist vows to abstain from the use of alcohol or other intoxicants . There are those who say, "An occasional drink won't hurt anyone." But an occasional drinker is still a drinker. It is rather like the state of being "a little pregnant." Either there is a pregnancy or there isn't. The description "occasional" is an unlocked door which any thief can enter. Either sobriety's door is locked or it isn't. Experience tells us that the best way to solve a problem is to avoid it. Complete abstention is the best way to observe and guard this Precept . The occasional drinker can remain sober when he's not beset by problems; but as soon as he's under serious stress, he may easily succumb to the dead-end escape of alcohol. Once he is captured by drink, he discovers that one drink is too many and a hundred drinks are not enough.

Alcohol relaxes our inhibitions so that we may indulge our egos . It allows us to override the rules of decorum and decency and then to blame our misconduct on the drink - not on our having taken the drink in the first place. Of course, we tell ourselves that we took that drink in order to enjoy ourselves; but when we drink and dull our senses, how can we enjoy a pleasure? And even if we could, what value is there in experiencing a pleasure that we cannot later remember or savor?

There is an old saying, "In Vino Veritas" which means "In wine there is truth" providing we drink enough of it. But the only truth we ever find when we overindulge in wine is that life in Samsara is bitter and painful .

The fifth step is Right Livelihood : Obviously, if we can't participate in illegal activities for fun, we certainly can't participate in them for profit.

The sixth step is Right Effort: We exert Right Effort when we discontinue bad habits and practices and develop good ones. This is easier to say than to do. We know that skill comes with practice, but in order to practice the spiritual lessons we have learned, we need to find opportunities. In Chan we must become aware that every breath we take provides us with an opportunity for practice.

People think the world intrudes on them. They do not understand that they are the gatekeepers of their own minds, that they can easily shut and lock the doors to their minds. If people intrude, it is because the gatekeeper has left the doors open. Some people who cannot control their own minds strive instead to control the minds of others. They find it less daunting to try to direct the thoughts of hundreds of other people than to direct their own thoughts. This situation is what the Buddha had in mind when he said that the man who conquers ten thousand men in battle is not so great a hero as the man who conquers himself.

Everyday, in all our interactions, we must act to further our goal of enlightenment and self-awareness. If we have acquaintances whose company leads us easily into error, we should avoid contact with those acquaintances. If we have insufficient time to meditate because we're too busy with clubs or hobbies or sports, we should cut back these activities.

It takes conscious effort to gain Chan tranquillity. Spiritual composure is gained by practice. A very wise man once noted that the mind of a true Man of Chan cannot be distressed or intimidated because, whether in good times or bad, it simply continues at its own steady pace, like a clock ticking in a thunderstorm. We should all try to be like clocks that even in thunderstorms just keep on ticking.

The seventh step is Right Mindfulness : In addition to keeping our minds focussed on our mantra whenever we have undertaken to follow this method and in observing the disciplined thoughts required to discriminate the real from the false should we have chosen this method, we must also remain mindful of the causes and effects of all our actions. We should never allow a day to pass without reflecting upon our conduct . Have we done all we could to be kind and helpful to others and to put them at their ease? Have we acted in ways that are contrary to the Buddha Dharma? Have we been petty or mean? proud or lazy? gluttonous or greedy? jealous or angry? Have we sullied ourselves or others with lascivious thoughts or words or actions?

The eighth step is Right Meditation :

1. The Hua Tou

According to ancient wisdom: If a man wishes to be happy for an hour, he eats a good meal; If he wishes to be happy for a year, he marries; If he wishes to be happy for a lifetime, he grows a garden; If he wishes to be happy for eternity, he examines a Hua Tou.

What then is a Hua Tou ? It is a statement designed to concentrate our thoughts upon a single point, a point that exists in the Original Mind's "head", a point immediately before the thought enters our ego consciousness. It is a "source" thought.

Let us examine the Hua Tou, "Who is it who now repeats the Buddha's name?" Of all the Hua Tou questions, this is the most powerful. Now, this Hua Tou may be stated in many different ways, but all the ways indicate one basic question, "Who am I?" Regardless of how the question is stated, the answer must be found in the same place that it originated: in the source, the Buddha Self. The ego cannot answer it.

Obviously, quick and facile answers are worthless. When asked , "Who is it who now repeats the Buddha's name? " we may not retort, "It is I, the Buddha Self !" and let it go at that. For we must then ask, " Who is this I ?" We continue our interrogations and our confrontations. A civil war goes on inside our mind. The ego fights the ego. Sometimes the ego wins and sometimes the ego loses. On and on we battle. What is it that makes my mind conscious of being me? What is my mind, anyway? What is consciousness?

Our questions become more and more subtle and soon begin to obsess us. Who am I? How do I know who I am? These questions go round and round in our minds like tired and angry boxers. Sometimes, we may want to quit thinking about the Hua Tou, but we find we can't get it out of our mind. The bell won't ring and let us rest. If you don't like pugilistic metaphors you could say that the Hua Tou begins to haunt us like a melody that we just can't stop humming.

So there we are - always challenged, always sparring. Needless to say, a Hua Tou should never degenerate into an empty expression. Many people think they can shadowbox with their Hua Tou and just go through the motions of engagement. While their minds are elsewhere, their lips say, "Who is repeating the Buddha's name? Who is repeating the Buddha's name? Who is repeating the Buddha's name?" This is the way of feisty parrots, not of Chan practitioners.

So, as we wonder who we really are we must reflect upon our ego's foolish desires and the pathetic ways it will grovel for affection.

When we ask, "Who am I?" we must also wonder whether we identify ourselves in terms of our wealth or social positions. What would happen if we lost our money or were cast out of society because of a flaw in our pedigree? Are we our bank accounts, our social circle, our lineage?

What about our jobs? Are we our occupations? If a musician injures his hand and can no longer play his instrument, does he cease to exist? Is he deprived of his humanity because he has been deprived of his identity as a musician?

Do we identify ourselves in terms of our nationalities, our cities, our neighborhoods, the language we speak, or the sports team we support? Do we lose part of ourselves if we move to a new locale?

Are we our bodies? If a man has a head, trunk, and four limbs, what happens if he loses two limbs? Is he only two thirds of a man? Think of how foolish this would be if he and his brother were equally to share an inheritance and his brother claimed that because he was missing an arm and a leg he was entitled to only two-thirds of his share!

May we define ourselves as our egos, our conscious sense of "I" or "me" or "mine"? What happens when we sleep? Do we cease to exist? What happens when our attention is completely focussed on a problem or a drama or on some beautiful music? When happens when we meditate and completely lose our sense of I-ness? Do saints who attain a selfless state cease to exist? And Shakyamuni Buddha, who was so bereft of Siddhartha's personality that he could only be called "Tathagata" - the Suchness of Reality, Itself - did he cease to exist because he had no ego nature?

In trying to answer the Hua Tou, "Who am I?" or "Who is repeating the Buddha's name?" we must examine our illusive identities, our shifting, conditional, samsaric identities. The Hua Tou will then reveal much to us.

The demons of sloth and pride and gluttony never negotiate peace. They are always at war. Only a fierce determination can subdue them. And subdued, they lie and wait for us to slacken in our resolve when, you may be sure, they will reappear at the earliest opportunity.

Determination and resourcefulness. These are indispensable. Never become slaves to convenience and comfort. Learn to adapt to whatever situation you find yourself in. Welcome hardship more than you welcome ease. Hardship will present you with challenges... and it is in overcoming these obstacles, that you will develop character and skill. Challenges are our greatest teachers.

Don't be afraid to fail. Just try and try again. There is an old saying that is worth remembering: Good judgment comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgment.

Break old attachments! Dissolve prideful self-images and special relationships and create instead humble, generic varieties! Don't require friends. Try merely to be someone who is friendly, someone who respects all people and treats them all with kindness and consideration. Don't confine filial affection to just parents but be solicitous towards all elderly persons, and so on.

Once we detach ourselves from specific emotional relationships and extend ourselves to all humankind, a new strength of character begins to emerge.

The Hua Tou, "Who am I" is a Vajra Sword which, when wielded properly, will cut away the troublesome ego.

A Hua Wei for example , a child, in the company of his friends, asks his father a question, "Can we go to the seashore this weekend?" and his father answers roughly, "Don't bother me!" and pushes the child away causing him to feel embarrassment and the pain of rejection.

That answer can be a Hua Wei. The man must ask himself, Why did I answer my child in this way? Why was I suddenly so upset? He knows that before his child approached him, he was in a good mood. So what was there in the question that upset him? He begins to retrace each of the words. Was it the word "weekend"? What does he associate with that word? If he can find nothing, he tries the word "seashore". He begins to recall his experiences at the seashore. He thinks of many events and suddenly he recalls one that disturbs him. He doesn't want to think about it, yet the Hua Wei discipline requires that he examine that event.

Why does the memory disturb him? What was so unpleasant about it? He continues to investigate this event until he gets to the root cause of his distress. That root cause will surely involve damage to his pride, his self-esteem.

Sometimes a Hua Tou functions as an instruction, a kind of guide that helps us to deal with life's problems. Such a Hua Tou sustains us and directs us as we travel the hard road to enlightenment.

We can't lay down is our Buddha Self. This and this alone is all that we can truly carry with us. Sometimes you hear the expression, "You can't take it with you." Usually people mean that you must leave money or fame or power behind when you go to your grave. The ego, too, cannot be taken with you when you enter Nirvana.

2. Meditation on Sound

Before beginning this instruction, it is important, to understand the difference between Host and Guest.

The traveler dines and sleeps and then continues on his way. He doesn't stop and settle there at the inn, he just pays his bill and departs, resuming his journey. But what about the innkeeper? He doesn't go anywhere. He continues to reside at the inn because that is where he lives.

"I say, therefore, that the transient is the guest and the innkeeper is the host. We identify the ego's myriad thoughts which rise and fall in the stream of consciousness as transients, travelers who come and go and who should not be detained with discursive examinations. Our Buddha Self is the host who lets the travelers pass without hindrance. A good host does not detain his guests with idle chatter when they are ready to depart.

Therefore, just as the host does not pack up and leave with his guests, we should not follow our transient thoughts. We should simply let them pass, unobstructed.

Many people strive to empty their mind of all thoughts. This is their meditation practice. They try not to think. They think and think, "I will not think." This is a very difficult technique and one that is not recommended for beginners. Actually, the state of "no-mind" that they seek is an advanced spiritual state. There are many spiritual states that must precede it.

Progress in Chan is rather like trying to climb a high mountain. We start at the bottom.

Enthusiasm for the achievement is what makes people try to take shortcuts. But the journey is the real achievement.

A better way than deliberately trying to blank the mind by preventing thoughts from arising is to meditate on sound. In this method we calmly sit and let whatever sounds we hear pass in one ear and out the other, so to speak. We are like good innkeepers who do not hinder guest-thoughts with discursive chatter. If we hear a car honk its horn, we merely record that noise without saying to ourselves, "That horn sounds like Mr. Wang's Bentley! I wonder where he's going!" Or, if we hear a child shouting outside, we just let the shout pass through our mind without saying, "Oh, that noisy boy! I wish his mother would teach him better manners."

We should use the sound of his breathing or his movements as we would use the sound of an auto's horn or a child's shout. We should just register the noise without thinking about it at all. We should not let our ego get involved in the noise. Just let it pass through our minds unhindered, like a guest at an inn. A guest enters and departs. We don't rummage through the guest's belongings. We don't detain it with gossip or idle chatter.

Always remember that when meditating on sound it is essential to remove the ego from the listening process and to let the non-judgmental Buddha Self record the sounds that enter our ears. In whatever place we do this, we make that place a Bodhimandala, a sacred place in which enlightenment may be obtained.

We do not need to be in a mediation hall to practice this technique. Every day, in all of our ordinary activities, wherever we happen to be, we can practice it.

3. Meditation on a Specific Object

Sometimes a guest is not a transient. Sometimes a guest comes to the inn with the intention of staying awhile. Well, then the host must pay him special attention.

The innkeeper does not investigate the guest (object) before he lets him sign the register. This is another way of saying that before sitting down to meditate we do not go and study the object that we will be meditating on.

Suppose we pick as our object a rose. This is a particularly nice object for Chan meditation because, after all, roses are one of China 's gifts to world horticulture.

A rose can engage our senses in many ways.

After we have attained calmness and regulated our breathing, we begin by gently closing our eyes and trying to construct a rose in our mind. We do not allow ourselves to digress into personal recollections about roses.

We see a stem - how long it is, how thick, how green, and so on. We see thorns, their shape, their points, their arrangements on the stem. Again, we don't digress into thinking about specific occasions when we were stuck by thorns. Perhaps we gingerly feel the thorn, but only in our mind. Then we come to the various parts of the flower. Depending on our knowledge of botany we assemble the flower... pistil, stamen, petals, and so on. The petals are so soft. What color are they? The pollen is so yellow and powdery. We see the yellow dust on nearby petals. A rose has fragrance. What is the specific scent of our rose? We actually begin to smell it.

This is how to meditate on a rose or on any object. Remember, we never allow ourselves to digress into "Roses I have known..." or instances in the past when roses were given or received. No thinking at all! We just become aware of a rose in all its parts and sensations .

Soon, the rose will glow in our mind. The rose will be of such exquisite beauty that we will know we have seen the Ideal Rose of Heaven, itself. Afterwards, we may squeal with delight. Not many people are permitted to view one of Heaven's treasures.

4. Meditation on the Buddha's Name

In Mahayana Buddhism, the Buddha Amitabha, the Buddha of the West, is very important. Chinese people pronounce Amitabha Amitofo. And so, repeating the name Amitofo is an excellent practice.

First, we keep in our mind an image of the Buddha Amitabha. We also acknowledge our great debt to him. Did not the Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara-Guan Yin spring from his brow? Where would Mahayana salvation be without our beloved Guan Yin? So we keep the Buddha in our mind as we repeat his sacred name.

That is the wrong way to repeat the Buddha's name? That's easy to describe. Think of a sick person who is given a bottle of penicillin pills. Think of him sitting there holding the unopened bottle repeating "penicillin, penicillin, penicillin". Will that cure him? No. He must take the penicillin into himself. He must swallow and assimilate it. Merely repeating the name of the medicine will not cure him.