Teaching You Zazen 14: The World and the Four Great Elements

2007/11/3 16:59:48

Just got home, writing a passage now. It's late — my apologies.

Because ordinary people — including science — are mostly trapped within the six-sense realm created by karmic retribution and collective karma, their understanding of both the human body and the universe is extremely narrow.

What constitutes a "world"? This thing we can observe and call "the universe" is merely the coarse portion of the world formed by our collective karma. To be precise, it is the coarse portion of the desire realm. The remaining parts of a world are not observable by the six-sense realm of ordinary people. Roughly speaking, anything beyond what desire-realm humans can observe is not perceivable by ordinary people — this includes the ghost realm, the hell realms, the asura realm, and so forth. As for the form realm and the formless realm, those are even further beyond ordinary observation.

Worlds also undergo formation, destruction, abiding, and cessation. But in essence, worlds are neither born nor destroyed — they are merely conditioned by collective karma. However, the coarse portions of worlds do undergo formation and destruction. To be precise, everything below the Third Dhyāna in the form realm, including the entire desire realm, undergoes formation and destruction.

The most common form of world destruction is that triggered by Fire-great. The Big Bang and eventual destruction of the universe as explored in physics belong to one such fire disaster triggered by Fire-great. Note that the term "fire disaster" used here does not refer to what we normally think of as fire — it is merely a borrowed term. Fire disasters can destroy worlds up to and including those below the First Dhyāna. There are two other types of great world catastrophes beyond what physics can know: disasters triggered by Water-great and disasters triggered by Wind-great, which can respectively destroy worlds below the Second and Third Dhyānas.

What is a great trichiliocosm (billion-world system)? It is one billion worlds. Each world within it, due to differing collective karma, may manifest in different forms. And the so-called great trichiliocosm is merely a single drop of water in the ocean of worlds. The ocean of worlds is boundless, and the boundless ocean of worlds is but a single speck of dust in your mind.

Of course, this "mind" is not your heart organ, nor is it your brain. So which is your mind? Investigate!

Don't think that zazen is just playing games with your own body — that's useless. Even if you could play games encompassing the entire knowable universe, it would still be useless. That's merely a small portion of the coarse part of a single drop in the infinite ocean of worlds. Even if you could play games with the entire ocean of worlds, it would still have nothing to do with Chan.

Human life and death, the formation and destruction of universes — these are trivial matters, merely karma at play. Nothing to make a fuss about. Your zazen must pierce through human life and death, the formation and destruction of universes, and the boundlessness of the ocean of worlds before it begins to resemble something — but that is still not the ultimate.

What then is the ultimate? You don't need to traverse any boundless ocean of worlds, or pierce through human life and death, or the formation and destruction of universes. The boundless ocean of worlds is but a speck of dust in your mind. The endless kalpas of birth and death are but a speck of dust in your mind.

What then is the ultimate? Investigate!