THE PRICELESS PEARL

Rev. Sunim Hyonjin

When we bow to a Buddha image, and we are not doing so to the image, nor the person of Shakyamuni, a man who lived 1,500 years ago. We are bowing to a universal power, the life force, which has no form or beginning or end, from which all forms are arising, at all times, manifesting as the entire universe and everything in it. We are this force, which Buddhists call the dharmakaya, emptiness, Cosmic Consciousness, or Buddha. In fact, we are all Buddha, we all have a living Buddha Nature within us. While not directly experiencing this Buddha Nature, we are as if asleep to our Truth. This Buddhahood reveals iteself in every moment, trying to teach us countless lessons. Since the Buddha is not limited to the form of Shakyamuni, it can continue to teach in all times, in every culture, every place. Thus, centuries after his paranirvana, or physical death, the Cosmic Buddha continues to teach us through scriptures and Dharma sutras. In the Lotus Sutra, the Buddha uses expedient means to teach us the truth of our being: we all have a priceless treasure within. It uses a parable to describe a poor ignorant man who possesses a great treasure. This poor man, drinking wine with a close friend, falls asleep. However: ... His friend who is about to leave on a business trip, wanting to give him a gift and seeing that he is asleep, sews a precious pearl inside his clothing, and then leaves. The poor man, who is in a state of drunkenness, is not aware of anything. Upon awakening, he prepares to move on and then arrives at another country needing food and clothing. After a great deal of effort and work, he is happy with what little he can get. Later he meets his close friend again, who says to him: "Hey friend! How come, for the sake of food and clothing, you have wasted so much time and energy? A while ago, wishing you peace, happiness, and the enjoyment of the Five Desires, on such and such a day, month and year, I sewed into your clothes a pearl of priceless value. From then until now, it has been present, but you did not know. Therefore,

you've worked so hard and suffered for a living. How stupid you were! Now you can take that gem and use it for what you need, and you will always have what you want, never lacking anything. "(Lotus, 8:8) The point of the parable is that we are all this poor man, traveling around the world suffering, life after life, without understanding why. Your friend is the Buddha, the dharmakaya, or the Truth of the Universe, caring and revealing the truth. Imagine the joy of this poor man upon discovering the treasure he possesses with this pearl, ending all his troubles. In the same way, we should be glad to find that we have a treasure forever within us, the treasure of our Buddhahood, hidden but always real, existing here and now, our Buddha Nature. When you wake up to this fact, accompanied with great joy, is what is called Enlightenment (Williams, 156). The Surangama Sutra also refers to this parable. It points out that people wanting material wealth, honor, entertainment and pleasure, do not realize that these worldly achievements are not real wealth or true honor. The poorest people are those who do not recognize the truth and do not understand that their true nature is like a precious pearl, though disguised and hidden. They do not understand that their true nature is the Buddha, the same supreme, pure and bright mind. It has never been lost, but is inherently ours. If we practice the teachings of the Buddha, his Dharma, entrusting them one hundred percent, we will realize that our true nature is inherently within us. We discover our innate wealth, which is the most valuable of the Universe. Upon ending the confusions of the mind, the disordered thoughts, one obtains get wealth and supreme honor (Surangama, IV: 4:162). But how to do this? It is done through practicing Zen meditation daily, sitting and watching thoughts form in the small mind. However, according Chinul, a Soen teacher (Korean Zen) of the12th century, Enlightenment is not something that takes years to accomplish. It's just a matter of understanding that the normal mind is bright, lucid, and quiet. The mind attached to duality and discrimination is abnormal. As soon as one sits and opens to the calm, lucid mind, then one directly experiences

sudden Enlightenment. The challenge is not our ability to experience enlightenment, but rather the gradual cultivation of this experience eliminating all our mental habits that hinder our full and free expression of Buddha Nature. Thoughts based on greed, anger and confusion are those belonging to the ego, a set of feelings, perceptions, and impulses experienced from birth, based on patterns inherited from past lives, i.e., our karma. These mental habits cause us suffering, discontent, and dissatisfaction in everyday life. Unconsciously we identify with these habits, we identify with the ego. But the ego is not real, is not our true self. Its as if we were a messenger from the royal court dreaming that we are in prison chained and padlocked forever, suffering great pain and anxiety. In our dream of prison, we plan a hundred forms of escape. But suddenly, someone wakes us, letting us see that everything was just a dream. We were always already free and at home, happy and content, with wealth and honor, equal to all of the royal court. In this metaphor, the royal messenger is our Buddha Nature. Sleep is our delusion. Prison is the prison of our ego trapping us in suffering. Padlocks and chains are our attachments to greed and desire. Our anxiety and pain are consequences of our karma. The hundred ways of escape are our studies of Zen Dharma and our desire to cultivate our practice. Someone wakes us from sleep, which is a symbol of our friends helping us to awaken to reality, as our teachers and spiritual guides. The sudden awakening mind is opening to hear the Dharma. Seeing means you see your true self, your Buddha Nature. The fact that he realizes that he was always at home means that everything is always empty, quiet and calm of the Infinite. Being happy and content means the joy of Nirvana, the perfect essence of what we really are. Our wealth and honor means that we always had this essence of sublime qualities and meritorious functions. The fact that we are equal to all of the royal court means that we are equal to all Buddhas in all times with the same intrinsic and eternal Buddha Nature (Buswell, 1992).

But it is not enough to discover and be aware of this priceless essence within us. We must also apply this knowledge to everyday life, using our energy and commitment to discipline ourselves in daily practice. The Roshi Meiten McGuire refers to the daily discipline when she wrote, "My first spiritual teacher used to say, 'The pearl of great price has a price.' The pearl of great price brings 'the peace that surpasseth understanding,' the quiet or exuberant joy that comes when we touch the place of spiritual truth - the reality that is the very source of our being. It is indescribable, ineffable. As one of my teachers said, 'It can't be taught, but it can be caught.' The great spiritual teachers can only point the way because it is right within our body-mind that the confusion and the solution lie. This is the second discipline, maintaining or sustaining our spiritual practice no matter how daunting it can seem." (McGuire, 16-17) This is really the heart of the parable, that not only do we have this priceless essence of Buddha Mind, but we must also apply it to our daily life through our continual practice as we confront the kleshas, or mental habits, that obscure its full realization. After the initial discover of our true Self, the daily work sets in using mindfulness, awareness, and our capacity to let go of our old conditioning, that conditioning that we believed was true, and which we took to mean that we are flawed, poor, paupers in the world that must suffer to merely exist. But we continually rediscover this treasure daily as we sit and open ourselves to the real Truth of who we are, One with the Infinite, at peace in our hearts, and active in the world helping others to realize true joy. Cultivating this realization, little by little, by our effort, courage, and gradual practice, we become Bodhisattvas, beings on the road to becoming the perfect expression of Buddhahood, while helping everyone to achieve their own perfection. It is the gift of the Universe to Itself, The Priceless Pearl. Bibliography Buswell, Robert E. (1992). Tracing Back the Radiance: Chinul's Korean Way of Zen", Excerpts from the Dharma Collection and Special

Practice Record." University of Hawaii Press: Honolulu. Lotus Sutra. "Five hundred disciples receive Predictions."
http://www.acharia.org/downloads/sutra_loto_capitulo_ocho_espanol.pdf

McGuire, Rev. Meiten. (2008). Reflections on the Path: Zen Training in Everyday Life. Vancouver Island Zen Sangha Publishing: Canada. The Surangama Sutra: A New Translation. (2009). Buddhist Text Translation Society:Ukiah, California. Williams, Paul. (2009) Mahayana Buddhism: The Doctrinal Foundations. Second Edition. Routledge Publishers: New York.