Teaching You Zazen 5: The Unborn and Undying Within Life and Death

2007/8/26 14:37:30

Everything in the world is inseparable from life and death. Where there is birth, there is death—there is absolutely no monstrous thing that is born but never dies. So-called longevity and immortality, eternal life and deathlessness—these are nothing but the delusions of fools. Religions like Daoism and Christianity merely trap people in such falsehoods. The so-called one who lives as long as heaven and earth is still nothing but a fool who dies along with heaven and earth. Even if such a thing truly existed, it would be nothing more than a karmic illusion of delusional thinking—nothing to grasp.

Within life and death, there is no escaping the cycle of rebirth. From birth to death: there are always materialist fools who conceive of annihilation. From death to birth: there are always mentalist deluded ones who conceive of non-annihilation. And then there are the greedy schemers of mind-matter monism, clinging to the notion that there exists some "oneness of mind and matter."

The unborn and undying within life and death is neither annihilation nor non-annihilation, neither mind nor matter, and even less some mind-matter monism. The unborn and undying within life and death can neither be proven nor not proven; it never leaves the immediate present, yet is not something the eyes and ears can reach.

Without realizing this unborn and undying within life and death, any zazen is nothing but child's play. There are such fools who regard zazen as a means of attaining a pleasant mental state, or of developing supernatural powers—all of them are abandoning the root to chase the branches. Mental states and supernatural powers are like flowers in a mirror, the moon in water—when the mirror breaks and the water dries, it's all just a farce.

In the most colloquial language: whatever you realize, check whether it will die along with you when you die. Anything that is born and dies with you is nothing but a farce. Your body is a farce, your consciousness is a farce, your eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and mind are all nothing but a farce, and everything that corresponds to your eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and mind is nothing but a farce.

Someone might ask: is it the soul then? Does the soul exist after death? The so-called soul is nothing but the deluded fabrication of fools. When you die, your body is ground to bone dust and scattered as ash. Even the world that holds your bones and carries your ash is not free from life and death. If the body no longer exists, where can the soul find shelter? If the world no longer exists, where can the soul find refuge?

This unborn and undying within life and death is neither mind nor matter, neither Buddha nor Dao, neither blue, red, scarlet, nor white. It shines alone, penetrating the root and the dust, piercing heaven and earth. Alas, fools look but do not see, listen but do not hear, and thus cycle through life and death in rebirth. This unborn and undying within life and death—you cannot gain it through realization, nor lose it without realization. It comes from nowhere, goes nowhere. It is born and dies with you yet is unborn and undying. It never leaves the farce of life and death, yet attains great freedom within life and death. Fools mistake servant for master, carrying the wish-fulfilling jewel yet bobbing up and down in the bitter sea of life and death—pitiful, lamentable. A human body is hard to obtain; having obtained this rare human body yet failing to realize the unborn and undying within life and death—such a person is the most pitiful and shameful in the world.

Someone asks: could this unborn and undying within life and death be Zen? Fool! The unborn and undying within life and death is precisely the source of life and death. Taking this source of life and death as the ultimate, as Zen—if that's not a fool, then what is? This unborn and undying within life and death is like a raft upon the bitter sea. The bitter sea is inherently empty—how foolish to cling to the raft!

Zazen is neither Zen nor not-Zen. The unborn and undying within life and death is neither Zen nor not-Zen. The bitter sea is inherently empty yet not empty. To abandon the raft because the bitter sea is inherently empty—that is the greatest fool. Without realizing this unborn and undying within life and death, it is hard to leave the bitter sea. Clinging to this unborn and undying within life and death, it is also hard to leave the bitter sea.

Zazen requires step-by-step real, substantial gongfu. One measure of so-called gongfu is whether one can realize this unborn and undying within life and death. This can be realized instantly in the present moment, truly requiring not the slightest effort. But human foolishness prevents people from directly accepting and affirming it. People of old would sit through and wear out N meditation cushions, spending decades in bewilderment, and then one day—upon entering the hall—they'd look back and see all their former toil as nothing but a comedy. Modern people are even more foolish. To find someone willing to wear out N meditation cushions in today's world is nearly impossible. Wearing out N meditation cushions, reading through N volumes of koans—what has any of that got to do with this? Not wearing out N meditation cushions, not reading through N volumes of koans—what has that got to do with this either?

Let me put it in the plainest language: modern people fundamentally lack the karmic opportunity for sudden awakening. All so-called modern claimants of enlightenment cannot transcend the fabrications of consciousness. Modern people cannot even achieve intellectual Zen—how could they manage to directly accept and affirm, to instantly realize in the present moment?

Modern people who truly have the sincere resolve to pursue this must first attain freedom within worldly dharma. If a person cannot even navigate worldly dharma with ease, how could they possibly navigate the supreme vehicle beyond the worldly? The great masters of old were all dragons and elephants among people. How could they be compared to the temples of today—nothing but dumping grounds for the world's failures and peddlers of the Tathāgata?

Attaining freedom within worldly dharma, practicing generosity of wealth and dharma, performing the difficult-to-perform practices of a Bodhisattva, accumulating the provisions of merit—only then can one begin to approach this matter. Otherwise, entangled in worldly sentiments, pulled by the affairs of the red dust, with mind and matter constantly grasping at each other—when will it ever end?

As for those entangled in worldly dharma who seek wealth, longevity, or fame—they merely pile on bad karma, which eventually attracts bad karmic bonds that follow them. In this realm, there is no self, no other, no being with a lifespan, no sentient being—what dharma is there to seek?

This great matter of causal conditions cannot be exchanged for the rank of kings, lords, generals, or ministers, nor traded for gold, bronze, fame, or form. The bitter sea is boundless, a human body hard to obtain. Why not return? Why not return?