The Sixth Patriarchs Sutra

7:30pm Pacific time

December 28, 2012 lecture

as outlined by a Buddhist monk
at 1777 Murchison Drive, Burlingame, California 94010, open to public (phone 650-6925912) (Listen live or recorded audio explanations at www.wondrousdharma.org)

Q&A Correlation between the ear organ method and prajna wisdom Chapter 6 Repentance and reform the 3 refuges
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Verse for opening a sutra Na Mwo Fundamental Teacher Shakyamuni Buddha (3x) Homage to the Dharma Jewel Platform Sutra (3x) The unsurpassed, deep, profound, subtle, wonderful Dharma, In a hundred thousand million eons, is difficult to encounter, Now that Ive come to receive and hold it, within my sight and hearing, I vow to fathom the Thus Come Ones true and actual meaning.
Exhortation to uphold the Dharma: 15

Ajita! All these good men take no delight in dwelling with the multitudes or in much talk. They always enjoy living in quiet places where they practice with diligence and vigor, never resting. They do not take up residence with humans or gods. (The Wonderful Dharma Lotus Flower Sutra)
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Q&A
Question: How do the principles of prajna-wisdom correlate to the

method of the organ of the ear?

Answer:

Holding onto prajna principles is the integral part of the method of the organ of the ear, and it is also the end.

How did our six sense organs come about? The six sense organs

came from the true mind out of confusion

So it is Ananda, that the six faculties come into being out of the awakened mind when another understanding is 3 added to the awakened mind.

Q&A
As a result, the essential understanding is lost and the faculties adhere to what is distorted and each one assumes a different function.

Therefore if you were now to be deprived of both light and darkness, would your seeing continue to exist or would it not?...

Q&A
All that you need to do is not allow your attention (mind) to be diverted by the twelve conditioned attributes of sound and silence, contact and separation, flavor and absence of flavor, openness and blockage, coming into being and perishing, and light and darkness.

Next extricate one faculty by detaching it from its objects and redirect that faculty inward so that it can radiate to what is original and true. Then it will radiate the light of the original understanding. (return to the original mind) 5

Q&A
The basis to disengage from sense objects in the foregoing is another way of saying empty people and empty dharmas and the journey to return to the source in the ensuing passages involves holding onto prajna principles of emptiness

Their minds and the minds of the Buddhas had been separate, but now they have become one. They gain true understanding of the Middle Way. They are like someone who endures something that cannot be repressed and yet cannot be expressed. This is called the Stage of 6 Patience.

Q&A
Venerable Master Hsuan Hua, The self nature is the Middle Way.

Your true mind is neither right nor wrong, neither true nor false. In your true mind there are no thoughts of good or evil .There is not even one single dharma. It is empty

With the direction of my hearing reversed and with sounds stilled, both sounds and silence cease to arise. So it was that, as I gradually progressed, what I heard and my awareness of what I heard came to an end.
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Q&A
There is no more discrimination between sounds and silence, subject and object emptied but the person remains.

The Great Master Sixth Patriarch caution: The most important thing is to avoid becoming attached to emptiness.

We should cultivate true emptiness which is wonderful existence, not vacuity. In true emptiness everything is known and everything is not known. (Venerable Master Hsuan Hua)
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Q&A
What do you mean by true emptiness and wonderful existence in respect of method of the ear?

You hear and at the same time you hear as if not hearing because the mind does not pay attention nor register the sound without thinking of good or evil, unless it is directed at you and

in this case you should respond with prajna wisdom of not being deluded at all times.
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Q&A
As the Great Master Sixth Patriarch says: Fully able to

discriminate, but unmoving in the primary sense. The very act of viewing in this way itself is the function of true reality.

That is why when we hear, we dont follow up with our thoughts because the appearance of true reality is without appearance

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Q&A
Nevertheless, since beings have allowed their attention to be drawn to sights and sound and have allowed themselves to be carried along in their stream of thoughts, as it has been since time without beginning, they have not yet awakened and do not yet understand the purity and wondrousness, and the permanence of their own essential nature.

To come to the stage of hearing as if not hearing or hearing without further judgment, it will help if the practitioner holds on to the principle of prajna of not accepting nor rejecting, without defiling attachment, not being deluded at all time.
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Q&A
Instead of attending to what is everlasting (emptiness), they attend to what comes into being and perishes (the interaction of sounds and silence) and hold fast to what is true and everlasting (hearing nature), then the light of everlasting will appear (inherent prajna wisdom will appear) and as a result the faculties, their objects and the sense consciousness will fade away and disappear.

Over time and with practice, the foregoing is similar to

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Q&A
My awareness and the objects of my awareness were emptied, and when that process of emptying my awareness was wholly complete, then even that emptying and what had been emptied vanished. (person also vanished, absolutely
without a self)

Coming into being and ceasing to be themselves ceased to be. Then the ultimate stillness was revealed. (Shurangama
Sutra)

When the mad mind is silenced, it is mahaprajna paramita.

What is mahaprajna paramita?
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Q&A
The ultimate stillness of the method of the ear organ is: Maha which is Good knowing advisors, the ability of ones own nature to contain the ten thousand dharmas is what is meant by great. The myriad dharmas are within the nature of all people.

If you regard all people, the bad as well as the good, without grasping or rejecting, without producing defiled attachment, your mind will be like empty space. Therefore it is said to be great or maha.
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Q&A
Prajna is Everywhere and at all times, in thought after thought, remain undeluded and practice wisdom constantly: that is prajna conduct. (that is the Middle Way of not
accepting nor rejecting and dont follow along with your deluded thoughts)

Paramita is When all delineations have melted away, these good people no longer distinguish between confusion and enlightenment and the Middle Way. This is called the Stage of Preeminence in the world. (Shurangama Sutra)

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Q&A
Coming into being and ceasing to be themselves ceased to be. Then the ultimate stillness was revealed.

All of a sudden I transcended the worlds of ordinary beings, and I also transcended the worlds of beings who have transcended the ordinary worlds.

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Chapter 6 Repentance and reform

Sutra:

From this day forward, we call enlightenment our master and will never again take refuge with deviant demons or outside religions. We constantly enlighten ourselves by means of the Triple Jewel of our own self-nature.
Comments

Taking refuge with the Three Jewels mean that we want to transform ourselves from confusion into enlightenment.

What is the Three Jewels of our own self nature?....

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Chapter 6 Repentance and reform

Sutra:

Good Knowing Advisors, I exhort you all to take refuge with the Triple Jewel of your own nature: the Buddha, which is enlightenment, the Dharma, which is right, and the Sangha, which is pure.
Comments

The Three Jewels of our self nature is to always use our wisdom nature, always adhere to the teaching that is apart from desire and defilement.

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Chapter 6 Repentance and reform

Sutra:

When your mind takes refuge with enlightenment, deviant confusion does not arise. Desire decreases, so that you know contentment and are able to keep away from wealth and from the opposite sex. That is called the honored, the doubly complete.
Comments

Our enlightened nature has no confusion; it is our inherent prajna wisdom. Our enlightened nature is free of desire in particular emotional love that causes us to continue in the six destinies; it is our limitless blessings. 19

Chapter 6 Repentance and reform

Why is our blessings limitless when we are free of desire? Desire is like a bottomless pit that flows out.

When desire is absent through contentment then there is no outflow.

Without outflow is to have limitless blessings; the Honored One apart from desire.
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Chapter 6 Repentance and reform

Sutra:

When your own mind takes refuge with what is right, there are no deviant views in any of your thoughts. Because there are no deviant views, there is no self, other, arrogance, greed, love, or attachment. That is called the honored that is apart from desire.
Comments

The right frame of mind is to be apart from the deviant views that cling to desire as a result of a false self.

Because there is a self, there is then others as distinguished from self. 21

Chapter 6 Repentance and reform

Because there is a self, there is arrogance, the sign of superior self over others.

Because there is a self, there is greed, love and attachments that benefits the self.

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Chapter 6 Repentance and reform

Sutra:

When your own mind takes refuge with the pure, your self-nature is not stained by attachment to any state of defilement, desire or love. That is called the honored among the multitudes.
Comments

It is the mind that takes refuge with the pure. Purity is the absence of defilement and outflowing of desire and love. Having limitless blessings, one is honored all.
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Chapter 6 Repentance and reform

Sutra:

If you cultivate this practice, you take refuge with yourself.

Comments

Why do we take refuge with ourselves?

We take refuge with the Buddha within us; our original mind which is eternally pure but presently covered by confusion.

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Chapter 6 Repentance and reform

Because our mind is presently covered with confusion, we take refuge with the purity within ourselves when: Our minds ceasing evil ten evil deeds itself is ten good deeds.

Our minds turn over from what is deviant to proper.

Our minds turn over from jealousy into rejoicing in merit of others.
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Chapter 6 Repentance and reform

Sutra:

Common people do not understand that, and so, from morning to night, they take the triple-refuge precepts. They say they take refuge with the Buddha, but where is the Buddha? If they cannot see the Buddha, how can they return to him? Their talk is absurd.
Comments

Confusion about the original perfect understanding results in delusion, but this delusion has no essential nature; it is based on nothing. One may wish to return to what is real, but to wish for the real is falsification. 26

Chapter 6 Repentance and reform

The true nature of the suchness of reality is not a reality that one can seek to return to.

If one were to try to return to it, one would merely experience something that does not have the attribute of reality.(Shurangama Sutra)

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Chapter 6 Repentance and reform

Sutra:

Good Knowing Advisors, each of you examine yourselves. Do not make wrong use of the mind. The Avatamsaka Sutra clearly states that you should take refuge with your own Buddha, not with some other Buddha. If you do not take refuge with the Buddha in yourself, there is no one you can rely on.
Comments

Making wrong use of the mind is to go chasing outside yourself to find the precious pearl that is within our clothing.
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Chapter 6 Repentance and reform

Sutra:

Good Knowing Advisors, each of you examine yourselves. Do not make wrong use of the mind. The Avatamsaka Sutra clearly states that you should take refuge with your own Buddha, not with some other Buddha. If you do not take refuge with the Buddha in yourself, there is no one you can rely on.
Comments

The Buddha within each and every living being is our original Buddha nature, our original mind.
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Chapter 6 Repentance and reform

Sutra:

Now that you are self-awakened, you should each take refuge with the Triple Jewel of your own mind.
Comments

Good Knowing Advisors, I exhort you all to take refuge with the Triple Jewel of your own nature: the Buddha, which is enlightenment, the Dharma, which is right, and the Sangha, which is pure. When your mind takes refuge with enlightenment, deviant confusion does not arise. Desire decreases, so that you know contentment and are able to keep away from wealth and from the opposite sex. 30

Chapter 6 Repentance and reform

When your mind takes refuge with enlightenment, deviant confusion does not arise. Desire decreases, so that you know contentment and are able to keep away from wealth and from the opposite sex. That is called the honored, the doubly complete. [the Buddha within yourself] When your own mind takes refuge with what is right, there are no deviant views in any of your thoughts. Because there are no deviant views, there is no self, other, arrogance, greed, love, or attachment. That is called the honored that is apart from desire. [the Dharma within yourself]

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Chapter 6 Repentance and reform

When your own mind takes refuge with the pure, your self-nature is not stained by attachment to any state of defilement, desire or love. That is called the honored among the multitudes. - [the Sangha within yourself]

Because within every living being there is the Triple Jewel, we should then respect every living being

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Chapter 6 Repentance and reform

Sutra:

Within yourself, regulate your mind and nature; outside yourself, respect others. That is to take refuge with yourself.
Comments

If you really understand the Buddhadharma, you will respect not just your relatives and friends, but everyone even people who dont know. Instead of slapping someone when you see him and then throwing mud in his face, you must be the most respectful toward those who act the worst toward you. This is the fundamental responsibility of students of Buddhism. (Venerable Master Hsuan Hua)
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Chapter 6 Repentance and reform

Sutra:

Good Knowing Advisors, now that you have taken refuge with the Triple Jewel, you should listen carefully while I explain to you the three bodies of a single substance, the self-nature of the Buddha, so that you may see the three bodies and become completely enlightened to your own self-nature. Repeat after me,
Comments

The 3 bodies of a Buddha is the Dharma body, the reward body and the transformation body.
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Chapter 6 Repentance and reform

Sutra:

I take refuge with the clear, pure Dharma-body of the Buddha within my own body.

Comments

The Dharma body within us is the unmoving thusness. The myriad dharmas appear when the mind moves.

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Dedication of merit
May every living beings, Our minds as one and radiant with light Share the fruits of peace, with hearts of goodness luminous and bright. If people hear and see, how hands and hearts can find in giving unity May their minds awake, to great compassion, wisdom and to joy. May kindness find reward; may all who sorrow leave their grief and pain; May this boundless light break the darkness of their endless night. Because our hearts are one, this world of pain turns into paradise; 36 May all become compassionate and wise (2x)

Dedication of merit
I vow that merit made from this deed will become, Adornments for the Pure Land of Bu-ddhas. Repaying the four kinds of kindness above, And aiding those in three paths below. May all who see and hear of this deed Bring forth the resolve to reborn In the Land of Ultimate Bliss.

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