| |
SUFFER. DOES ANYBODY WITH A BODY KNOW PEACE?
In this passage a few things certainly give the flavor of Bodhidharma, but a few things look not of the same quality. For example, SEEKING NOTHING is Bodhidharma. THE WISE WAKE UP... this is Bodhidharma. THEY CHOOSE REASON OVER CUSTOM. I would like to change the word reason to meditation. They choose meditation over custom. They choose their own intelligence over custom and tradition.
This certainly cannot be from Bodhidharma. THEY FIX THEIR MINDS ON THE SUBLIME AND LET THEIR BODIES CHANGE WITH THE SEASON. The man who is saying that the sinner and the saint are the same, the ordinary man and the sage are not different, cannot make this statement -- because for him the mundane and the sublime are not different, they cannot be different.
Yes, this statement can be confirmed as Bodhidharma's: ALL PHENOMENA ARE EMPTY. Whatever happens outside you in life is just empty, as empty as dreams; it is made of the same stuff. THE WISE WAKE UP and see the whole of life as a long series of dreams -- sometimes good, sometimes bad, sometimes sweet, sometimes nightmarish, but they are all dreams. The awakened one neither dreams in his sleep nor is deluded by the dreams of the outside world while he is awake. They contain nothing worth desiring.
CALAMITY FOREVER ALTERNATES WITH PROSPERITY. TO DWELL IN THE THREE REALMS IS TO DWELL IN A BURNING HOUSE. The three realms are of the body, of the mind and of the heart. To dwell in the fourth, the TURIYA, is to be at peace with existence.
FOURTH, PRACTICING THE DHARMA. THE DHARMA IS THE TRUTH THAT ALL NATURES ARE PURE. BY THIS TRUTH ALL APPEARANCES ARE EMPTY. DEFILEMENT AND ATTACHMENT, SUBJECT AND OBJECT DON'T EXIST.
This can be said to be purely Bodhidharma.
THE SUTRAS SAY, "THE DHARMA INCLUDES NO BEING BECAUSE IT IS FREE FROM THE IMPURITY OF BEING. AND THE DHARMA INCLUDES NO SELF, BECAUSE IT IS FREE FROM THE IMPURITY OF SELF." THOSE WISE ENOUGH TO BELIEVE AND UNDERSTAND THIS TRUTH ARE BOUND TO PRACTICE ACCORDING TO THE DHARMA.
These are additions by the people who are taking notes.
SINCE THE EMBODIMENT OF THE DHARMA CONTAINS NOTHING
|
|
|