Chán Zhōng Shuō Chán: Entanglement Is Not Entanglement, Zen Is Not Zen — A Dead Tree's Dragon Song Illuminates the Great Thousand Worlds (XIV)

2006/2/11 13:02:33

The constant Dao — regardless of whether it can or cannot be spoken — is nowhere to be found in this world. The constant Dao is not the Dao; constant practice is not practice — these are confusing verbal conventions. Those who cling to a constant Dao and practice it are fools. The sorcerers of this world who claim their Dao is constant are all speaking sorcerer's words. The world is originally impermanent — impermanence is not constancy. Those who cling to impermanence as the constant Dao are fools.

Bliss: there is no bliss to be had — the whole world is suffering. This is not to take bliss as suffering, but rather that there is simply no bliss to be had. What the world calls bliss is karma born of greed, anger, delusion, doubt, and arrogance — karma piled upon karma — truly suffering. The sorcerers of this world who claim their Dao is blissful are all speaking sorcerer's words. The world originally has no bliss. Those who avoid suffering and chase bliss only add to their karma — they are fools.

Delusion is knowledge knowing illness and illness knowing knowledge. The deluded people of this world cling to a single knowing and know from it — knowing entangled with knowing — in the end, it is illness. Illness is not constant; knowing is originally empty — it is not that knowing is empty and thereby becomes emptiness. Not-knowing becomes knowing; not-illness becomes illness; not-delusion becomes delusion. Most people in this world are like this — truly deserving of pity. There are also those who cling to not-knowing, taking not-knowing and not-illness as the ultimate — sinking into stubborn emptiness without realizing it. Not-knowing is worse than knowing; not-being-ill is worse than being ill. These are the true fools.

Fools fear birth and death, not knowing that birth and death are not birth and death — all is karma, ultimately empty. Birth does not give birth to birth; death does not cause death to die. The flowing and turning of birth and death — all is karma, ultimately empty. While alive, one does not even know the not-born nature of life — how then could one know the not-dying nature of death? Those who know death as death and life as life — they are fools.

Some say Zen transcends birth and death — that too is foolish. Birth and death: there is no escaping, no entering. People in this world love to seek immortality, using immortality as a means to transcend birth and death, not knowing that immortality is the truest birth and death. Without being unborn and undying, how can one be at ease with birth and death? Birth and death mean: not born, not destroyed.

A verse:

Death too is phantom, life too is phantom,
Who is it that torments himself over every affair?
Even dharma-marks should be relinquished — let alone non-dharma,
The boat and oars should be left behind — much less the ferry.
A thousand cartloads of yellow scrolls only blind the eyes,
A single point of the spirit terrace has no connection to conditions.
In the great Tang realm there is no true knowledge,
When has the bright mirror ever hung outside the scene?