Teisho on The Diamond Sutra, by Harada Roshi: Retreat Day 2, 16 July 2018.

Translated by Daichi Zenni and transcribed by Jirin-san.

Everyone has the text on The Diamond Sutra, Chapters 30 through to 32. Yesterday, Roshi spoke about the entire The Diamond Sutra as a whole, and since it is a Sutra, it has certain rules. There is a first section, a second section and a third section with names which I don't have the words for in English. The first is the Honu Section, the second the Shoju section, and the third the Ruju section. The third one is always about how to teach this Sutra, that has been given to society, and how to use it there. And then at the end, which would be a kind of fourth section, there is a gatha or a poem, and that always comes at the end of the sutra. The poem at the end is always also about helping people in the world with this Sutra.

In this case of The Diamond Sutra, the Buddha went out for Takuhatsu and returned. All the offerings, which had been gathered, were made into a meal, and offered – and this is very classic behaviour and following a way of doing things which is traditional – the kesa was put on his left shoulder, and then the most elderly monk gave him decided greetings. Following these traditional classic gestures and formal behaviour, Subhuti - the monk we heard about yesterday – asked the Buddha, “how should people who have raised a Bodhisattva vow, how should they train, and how can they offer their whole life to society from the place of this vow?” And this vow is stated generally as, although I have not yet been completely liberated, I vow to work to give my life to save all beings. How can we do this? What do we do to bring this vow into actuality? The Buddha's answer is the opening part of The Diamond Sutra, and yesterday the Roshi summarised that. This is a very long explanation in the actual text. However, it is boiled down to four things that are frequently given. The first is to have no extraneous thinking, no thoughts, and no extraneous mental moments. This does not mean to not think anything likely, which is added and fuzzy, and in that way to have no thinking, but when having the necessary thoughts we have to have, to not be thinking about how we are having those thoughts. We need to express how we can help, how we can liberate, and those kinds of thinking are important and necessary, but we are not at all affected by any of it. Not being moved around by this thinking and having those thoughts is what is important as the first of these four things. Not waiting for praise, because you want to help people. Not feeling appreciated because we help people. Not being altruistic in a self-centred way. Not even thinking that we have done anything that is without all of that thinking. That is why the first one is – although it is called without thought – it means to not to be having cluttered thinking.

The next is to be without form. To be without form means to again, not to be begging for approval, not wanting to have self-centred appreciation given to us for everything we do. And it says in Christianity, to not let the left hand know what the right hand is doing. There is no sense is this way of being of not being a form. There is no sense of doing in anything. No sense of doing zazen, no sense of helping somebody. Forgetting the body. Forgetting that what we are doing is zazen. If we can do this forgetting of oneself completely, then we can realise that way of being in no form.

Thirdly, we are always to be like a big river, flowing by the huge rocks in the riverbed, and not getting caught on them. Flowing by the big fallen trees across the river and not being stopped by them, with no idea about not getting caught or not being stopped. We just are that flowing. Not holding on to any idea of 'I have done this. I have done that'. Not stopped by any of that self-conscious awareness and wishing for praise. Instead, in our mind, with the fourth, we have the mysterious functioning which comes forth, when we live from the first three. This mysterious functioning which is always appropriate for behaving in each and every moment. In this way the Buddha taught from all different angles. This was the first section of The Diamond Sutra.

The section that we will look at today is from Chapter 30, and this is the final section of the Sutra, and they are telling about how to live this Sutra's way in society. Our mind, as we have seen in these chapters is without form. We are all here together, but what is it that is hearing him speak? Ears? No. They are only a physical tool. If it was our experience listening, it would not be necessary to listen to it. We would already know that experience. So what is it that is hearing when he is teaching? It is in fact, that we are not a something that is doing some hearing of something. We use all of our senses, but that which uses those senses has no form, no substance, and no shape. We have to see this clearly or we are not in accordance with the way things actually are. And that is how it has to be, if we want to say what we are talking about is true for 7.5 billion people. We are existing, in fact, without a small self, but with our true Nature. But we don't know this True Nature directly, and so we get caught again and again, believing and thinking we are this small self instead of becoming our True Nature. And then the world, we are one and the same with, and that is a fact, but we lose track of that. If we think we are hearing, we are being used by what we hear, and it is actually the mind that hears that. The mind that hears that, is that which is being heard, are actually one and the same. We see the mountain and we think it is a certain shape, which means we are not seeing a mountain in the becoming of our seeing. This is because this is a matter of the Buddha Nature; that which hears the painful cries of people in the world who are sick. We can hear these cries. We go to visit these people, and then we ask them, how are they sick? Where are they sick? When are they going to get better? We urge them to get better quickly and get well, and this only makes them into an identity of a sick person. With a sick person, then it becomes a sick person that is being visited, not a person who is being visited. And this is a great big pressure on people, when all they are looked at as a person who is sick, because they are being seen as a sick body, not as their Buddha Nature, piling misery upon misery, and mistake upon mistake. In our mind there is nothing. It is empty, there is no idea of this thing or that thing in the Buddha Nature. So how should we treat them? We have to give it space in order to see this clearly, or we act most often as if we are seeing them as sick people. And this is not the point of being able to see the world as not being phenomena. We see their being sick as who they are, and identify them by a temporary phenomenon only. We have to understand this to see clearly this section of the Sutra.

In the first part of the 30th Chapter, the Buddha then says, “Subhuti, if a good man or a good woman grounds an infinite number of galaxies of worlds to dust, would the resulting minute particles be many?” This whole universe, if we ground it up in the 96 elements that have been discovered, for what composes all things. Seven point five billion people are living on this planet, and that is only for humans, not even all the other kinds of beings in this one environment, and that is in fact not only numerous particles. It is our one and whole Buddha Nature. But, 7.5 billion in the world - this is not talking about humans individually here is this chapter, not talking about them only. We have countless thoughts. Each person here has already in this day since getting up had countless thoughts going through their head, and it is already still early. If we did not, then there is nothing there. Not any phenomena happening. But with all of our thoughts we become an inconceivably large number of moments of talking. And that does not mean we are scattered but that we have to realise how all of this is not divided phenomena, but one Buddha Nature. And so we have to see how it is when we make ourselves into a scattered plurality. “If a good man or a good woman ground into an infinite number of particles of galaxies of worlds to dust, would the resulting minute particles be many?” There are mountains and waters and flowers and all kinds of people all over the planet, but this is the phenomena. This is not the True Natures’ oneness. That is the meaning of the many particles referred to here. A world helter-skelter with all of the things that are blowing all around, and the Buddha is there saying, hurry up and awaken! To be able to hear, and not be caught on the hearing. To see, and not be caught on the seeing. To be tasting, and not being caught on the tasting – not to be caught on anything we do by that self-conscious awareness.

We probably think we are so busy, doing zazen included, but that is all just the thoughts about what we are doing. Actually, zazen is only dying. Some people say that is fearful but of course the whole Sutra is about this. When we bring our whole focus into one, there is nothing that cannot be realised. So we do it whole-heartedly, as he has just shown us several times, the way of giving everything to that one single breath. That breath exhales the last final point. We just have to become that, but we keep opening gaps. And so the balloon, which we are blowing up as the breath, over and over again, that balloon - because we don't go all the way to the end and give it gaps, becomes flaccid and does not explode. Then there is no aliveness to it. We have to not decorate ourselves to look like we are doing this. Not decorator ourselves at all. The mountains are myself, the world is myself, the stars are myself, the wind-sound is myself, the rain sound is myself – because it is all one and the same. One and the same life energy. And that is what the Buddha is answering here, when he asks, “a good man or a good woman ground to an infinite number of galaxies and worlds to dust, would the resulting minute particles be many?” We see this world, but actually, it is all only seeing one, it is seeing our self. But it cannot be mentally understood, it has to be understood by experiencing this. Experiencing it in each moment, as the Buddha has said, if we can bring that mind into one moment completely, then there is nothing that is beyond our capability of being seen this way, and making something that we are working toward by giving everything totally in that direction. And the Roshi has again shown us this breath, the complete way of being done. But we must remember not to put in any gaps, whatsoever. The doing of the whole process is like putting drops into a cup, just one drop after the next – one, then another one, and another one, then that is all that it takes. And how we do this is what is being talked about in the opening lines of Chapter 30. We are all only one, in fact we are truly only one, but we have to go and learn what that means. We think we have to see this clearly because the Buddha's teaching is inputted into this and explained, but in fact it is about becoming this completely. And for doing that we have to become completely our Buddha Nature so that we can see the mind in its varieties of expressions in each person clearly.

Next in Chapter 31, to Subhuti, “If anyone should say the Buddha declares any conception of egoity, do you consider he would understand my teaching aright?” “No, World Honoured One, such a person will not have any sound understanding of the Tathagatha's teaching, because the World-Honoured One declares that notions of selfhood, personality, entity and separate individuality, as really existing, are erroneous. These terms are merely figures of speech.” Next, he says this, and throughout the whole text of this Sutra, he has been saying again and again that notions of selfhood, entity, personality and separate individuality, to say those are real is an error, is not true. To see that this has to be all let go of, completely, or we cannot see the truth of anything else. So he says often, to let go of these erroneous ways at looking at things. He tells them, and then he says to Subhuti, “have you ever seen the Buddha say this?” and he says, “No”. But the Buddha has been saying this the whole time, so why does he say, “no”? It is because we are all Buddha Nature. We are not these divided notions of selfhood, personality, entity, and separate individuality, and because these are not what we are, it is Buddha Nature that we are.

If we put it in a different way, if our ego and our habituated habits say no, it is because we are not ego. We are wisdom. We have the Four Great Wisdoms. First, the Great Perfected Wisdom. Prior to any appearances, prior to all awareness’s, and then we see how everything in that way of being, is me. And there is no difference or separation between what is seeing and what is being perceived. So it is all one and the same. This is that first Great Wisdom. Then we put a spotlight on each and everything. The sound of each song-bird singing, each suffering voice is different. Like a hospital where there are many different departments. We see all the specialties and all the kinds of problems they will have with their physical bodies. Each person is different but simultaneously, each person's difference is being seen precisely. And in that way it is equal, and all beings have the wisdom to be able to perceive in this way. So why do we not use it? Because we are afraid and don't believe in it. And so, the capabilities with which we are endowed, to see things completely as one and the same and completely, in each variety of particular-ness, we don't function from that ability. Instead, we go around worrying about how we will be reborn, when there is no birth nor death, as it is teaching us in the Heart Sutra and by the Buddha, and if we can see from that True Nature, all of these become something, which we can see, that each and every person has the ability to be wise from.

People get caught on the Buddha's words, but he only says one thing – Buddha Nature. We only have to awaken to that Buddha Nature and then we are able to see and this is all to be done even one day earlier. This is all that has to be done as soon as possible, so the Buddha is saying. And in the 32nd Chapter, The Delusion of Appearances, he is saying this in a conclusive way. Finally, it is being said clearly. For example, many volunteers come to help but all these things they are doing are conditional. They are conditional and these are not things that are being done and given that will be ongoing. They end and then that brings a result that is very similar to the ditches that are dug to bring water to the rice field. From the necessary nearby river, water ditches are built to bring the water to the rice fields, and in the meanwhile, people are drinking up the water that is supposed to go to the rice field, so then the rice field does not get its water, so the final point is not realised. This is the same with our practice. The point is to break through. The point is to know our Buddha Nature directly but because we drink up all the water out of the rivers going to that rice field, this doesn’t happen. The goal doesn't get actualised. Or, we have to see clearly how the true goal of all of this is for everyone to truly awaken. This is the one goal there is. It is for everyone, all people, even whatever challenges they might have. Everyone has to awaken. For this we have to develop our character. We are all mid way. We are part way there. This is the last chapter, and this is what it is saying in this very most important gatha. “Now, in what matter may he explain them to others? By detachment from appearances – abiding in real truth. So I tell you:

Thus shall ye think of all this fleeting world:

A star at dawn, a bubble in a stream;

A flash of lightning in summer cloud,

A flickering lamp, a phantom, and a dream.”

And all of this is not saying, as you might take it, that this world is melancholy and sad and slipping through our fingers. Rather, that we have to open our eyes in awakening and see how we can be in a state of mind of that which is not moved around by anything. Seeing how it is all fleeting, to not be moved around by it. And these are the Buddha's last words as well. It's like when he was 35, he actually said there is only the open eye of awakening. That is what is important only. And there is no other way to seeing the truth and to give life to it. “Thus, shall ye think about this fleeting world: a star at dawn, a bubble in a stream; a flash of lightning in a summer cloud, a flickering lamp, a phantom and a dream.” It is not about this world being sad and melancholy, but seeing like this as it actually is. To see everything as possible, when we understand this, then it makes clear to us, everything is possible, when we know how deeply true this gatha is. And this is the last gatha, the final gatha of The Diamond Sutra.

In The Diamond Sutra, the Buddha teaches the whole time, how the Buddha Nature, we can from it receive infinite possibilities that it gives to us. But in our head, we are always saying, oh this is impossible for me, I can't do this - but that is all mental stories and not acknowledging the depth of our true and deepest wisdom. Of course it is not that any old thing is OK. He took care of our former Abbot since 96 years old, and one day, he asked the Roshi for a mirror. The Roshi said, "what do you want that for?" “Never mind, just bring me a mirror.” So the Roshi did as he was asked and he told him that the nurses in the hospital that he was in, gave him so much every single day, and he wanted to give something back to them. “I have nothing to give to them so I want to give them a smile and tell them thank you.” But he knew that when people who are older, their smiles become stiff and look like grimaces and are not very comfortable as they look unfriendly. So, he wanted that mirror so he could practice smiling, so he could give true and sincere thank you smiles to the nurses. This was his wisdom, never ending, and non- stop.

It is very difficult to teach the Diamond Sutra in a few days, he said, but he has picked out a few points and hopes that this will reach people, and this is what he wanted to offer.

Text:

The Diamond Sutra. Translated by A.F. Price & Wong Mou-Lam. Boston: Shambala, 1990.

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Jameson

2018-08-21

Nina Davis