The Sixth Patriarchs Sutra

7:30pm Pacific time

May 17, 2013 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)

Chapter 7 Bhikshu Fa Ta turning the wondrous

dharma
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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: 17/64

Therefore, I say that after the Thus Come Ones entry into stillness, if a person receives, upholds, reads, recites or explains this Sutra to others, if he writes it out, asks others to write it out, or makes offerings to this Sutra, he need not further build stupas, monasteries, or Sangha dwellings, nor need he make offerings to the Sangha. How much the more so does this apply to a person who can uphold this Sutra and at the same time, practice giving, holding precepts, patience, vigor, singlemindedness and wisdom. His virtue shall be supreme, limitlness and unbounded.(The Wonderful Dharma Lotus Flower Sutra)
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Chapter 7 Opportunities & conditions Bhikshu Fa Ta

Sutra:

When the mind is confused, the Dharma Flower turns it. The enlightened mind will turn the Dharma Flower.
Comments:

When the mind is still confused by reality, you have not turn the wondrous Dharma to get out of delusion.

When the mind is no longer confused by reality, you turn the wondrous Dharma.
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Chapter 7 Opportunities & conditions Bhikshu Fa Ta

Sutra:

Without a thought your recitation is right. With thought, your recitation is wrong.
Comments:

Understanding that the Sutra teaches one to put down attachment, then recite without being attached to the merit and virtue of the recitation. There is merit and virtue in the recitation; all you need is to avoid being attached to your recitation or any practice for that matter.
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Chapter 7 Opportunities & conditions Bhikshu Fa Ta

Sutra:

With no with and no without You may ride forever in the White Ox Cart.
Comments:

Not attaching and not detaching, one accords with reality. Without even thinking of emptying practice of recitation, one dwells in the Supreme Buddha Vehicle.

This is the demeanor of one with reality.

Chapter 7 Opportunities & conditions Bhikshu Fa Ta

Sutra:

Fa Ta heard this verse and wept without knowing it. At the moment the words were spoken, he achieved a great enlightenment and said to the Master, Until today I have never actually turned the Dharma Flower; instead it has turned me.
Comments:

What did Fa Ta realized? He realized that the Dharma Flower is the teaching of being separate from appearances whilst in the midst of appearances; the reason being that all appearances are just the mind and 6 that this mind is fundamentally empty and still.

Chapter 7 Opportunities & conditions Bhikshu Fa Ta

Sutra:

Fa Ta asked further, The Lotus Sutra says, If everyone from Shravakas up to the Bodhisattvas were to exhaust all their thought in order to measure the Buddhas wisdom, they still could not fathom it.
Comments:

When you dont know, ask a good knowing advisor; it will be faster than the time you take to progress to understand through further investigation and contemplation. A good knowing advisor does the work of a Buddha. It will be foolish to pretend to know.
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Chapter 7 Opportunities & conditions Bhikshu Fa Ta

Sutra:

Fa Ta asked further, The Lotus Sutra says, If everyone from Shravakas up to the Bodhisattvas were to exhaust all their thought in order to measure the Buddhas wisdom, they still could not fathom it.
Comments:

The enlightenment of the Buddhas and the enlightenment of the Bodhisattvas merge at this point. It is therefore called Equivalent Enlightenment. These Bodhisattvas are equal to Buddhas. But theirs is still not the Wondrous Enlightenment, still not entirely the same as the Buddhas enlightenment, because at this stage Bodhisttvas still have one bit of ignorance left .Once they break through that, they will be Buddhas. 8 (Venerable Master Hsuan Hua)

Chapter 7 Opportunities & conditions Bhikshu Fa Ta

The Vajra Prajna Paramita Sutra says:

World Honored One, the Appearance of Reality is without appearance .Such people will be without the appearance of self, the appearance of others, the appearance of living beings and the appearance of a life. Why?...

All those who are called Buddhas have relinquished all appearances.

The Buddha told Subuti, So it is, so it is.

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Chapter 7 Opportunities & conditions Bhikshu Fa Ta

Venerable Master Hsuan Hua explains:

Do not look upon all these things (10 profound analogies) as real. You should neither grasp nor reject these illusory states. That is because everything is empty and so you should not regard anything as having any real and permanent existence.

The meaning behind these ten profound analogies is that you should not be attached to anything at all. You have to let go. If you see through it and let it all go, then you will gain mastery over yourself.
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Chapter 7 Opportunities & conditions Bhikshu Fa Ta

Venerable Master Hsuan Hua explains:

Those who have cultivated their dispositions will not get angry even when scolded. Even if you hit them, they wont get angry. It is not that they are incapable of anger; they simply dont indulge themselves in it. Everybody has a temper. Even Bodhisattvas have tempers. The equivalent enlightenment Bodhisattvas still have one portion of temper, about as much as a hair. If they break through the hair-like particle of ignorance, they can become Buddhas.
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Chapter 7 Opportunities & conditions Bhikshu Fa Ta

Venerable Master Hsuan Hua explains:

We say break through ignorance but that has a negative connotation of destroying something. I lecture on this principle differently from others; I say you dont have to break through it, you must transform it. Change ignorance into wisdom. Ignorance is just your basic delusion. If you change it into wisdom, it disappears. Prajna wisdom is that which is transformed from ignorance.

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Chapter 7 Opportunities & conditions Bhikshu Fa Ta

Sutra: Fa Ta asked further, The Lotus Sutra says, If everyone from Shravakas up to the Bodhisattvas were to exhaust all their thought in order to measure the Buddhas wisdom, they still could not fathom it.

Now, you cause common people merely to understand their own minds, and you call that the knowledge and vision of the Buddha. Because of this, I am afraid that those without superior faculties will not be able to avoid doubting and slandering the Sutra.
Comments:

Bhikshu Fa Ta does not understand that everything is made by the mind; this is why he sought clarification. This true mind is just simply your own mind; every living being 13 has a share in this true mind.

Chapter 7 Opportunities & conditions Bhikshu Fa Ta

Sutra: The Sutra also speaks of three carts. How do the sheep,

deer, and ox carts differ from the White Ox Cart? I pray the High Master will once again instruct me.
Comments:

The three carts are expedients within the one Buddha Vehicle.

Ultimately, White Ox Cart is the teaching that the three carts are fundamentally empty; everything is made by the mind which originally was empty and everything will return to emptiness.
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Chapter 7 Opportunities & conditions Bhikshu Fa Ta

The suffering in the sheep cart, the causes and conditions in the deer cart and the six paramitas in the ox cart are like a dream that never really exist; the original mind has always been empty and clear.

The original mind is simply your own mind!

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Chapter 7 Opportunities & conditions Bhikshu Fa Ta

Sutra: The Master said, The Sutras meaning is clear. You

yourself are confused. Disciples of all three vehicles are unable to fathom the Buddhas wisdom; the fault is in their thinking and measuring. The more they think, the further away they go. From the start the Buddha speaks for the sake of common people, not for the sake of other Buddhas. Those who chose not to believe were free to leave the assembly.
Comments:

The three vehicles do not comprehend that everything is made by the mind and the ignorant mind continually makes discrimination.
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Chapter 7 Opportunities & conditions Bhikshu Fa Ta

The Lankavatara Sutra analogy of a plant, where we discriminate, and assign names to every part of the plant.

The Shurangama Sutra analogy of waves in the ocean and undercurrent in the sea.

Yet this mind is fundamentally empty; once awakened, it will return to the original mind that is empty and unmoving.
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Chapter 7 Opportunities & conditions Bhikshu Fa Ta

Sutra: Not knowing that they were sitting in the White Ox Cart,

they sought three vehicles outside the gate.

Comments:

Not knowing that the mind that creates everything is simply our own mind. Recognize the original mind, you will see your Buddha nature, the White Ox; the Buddha is your mind. Dont look for the Buddha outside yourself.
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Chapter 7 Opportunities & conditions Bhikshu Fa Ta

Sutra: What is more, the Sutra text clearly tells you There is

only the One Buddha Vehicle, no other vehicle, whether two or three, and the same is true for countless expedients, for various causes and conditions, and for analogies and rhetoric. All these Dharmas are for the sake of the One Buddha Vehicle.
Comments:

All the teachings are expedients leading you to comprehend the all-wisdom and wisdom of all modes. The One Buddha Vehicle is that everything is fundamentally empty and unmoving 19

Chapter 7 Opportunities & conditions Bhikshu Fa Ta

The Thus Come One knows the Dharma of one mark, of one flavor, that is to say: the mark of liberation, the mark of separation, the mark of extinction, the mark of ultimate Nirvana which is constantly still and extinct and which in the end returns to emptiness. (The Wonderful Dharma Lotus Flower Sutra)

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Chapter 7 Opportunities & conditions Bhikshu Fa Ta

Sutra: Why dont you wake up? The three carts are false,

because they are preliminary. The one vehicle is real because it is the immediate present.
Comments:

What is the immediate present? It is the reality that everything is empty and in stillness.

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Chapter 7 Opportunities & conditions Bhikshu Fa Ta

Sutra: You are merely taught to go from the false and return

to the real. Once you have returned to reality, the real is also nameless.
Comments:

The appearance of reality is without appearance.

All those who are Buddhas have relinquished all appearances in the mind; here Fa Ta still has appearance of reciting the Sutra.
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Chapter 7 Opportunities & conditions Bhikshu Fa Ta

Sutra: You should know that all the treasure and wealth is

ultimately your own, for your own use. Do not think further of the father, nor of the son, nor of the use. That is called maintaining the Dharma Flower Sutra. Then from eon to eon your hands will never let go of the scrolls; from morning to night you will recite it unceasingly.
Comments:

The Buddha nature is within ourselves; it is just our mind. Dont look for the Buddha outside yourself, or in the recitation practice because the Buddha is just your mind without appearance.
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Chapter 7 Opportunities & conditions Bhikshu Fa Ta

Sutra: Fa Ta received this instruction and, overwhelmed

with joy, he spoke a verse: Three thousand Sutra recitations: At Tsao Hsi not one single word.

Comments:

The three thousand recitations is as if not having done so because of Fa Tas attachment.

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Chapter 7 Opportunities & conditions Bhikshu Fa Ta

Sutra:

Before I knew why he appeared in the world, How could I stop the madness of accumulated births?

Comments:

Not knowing that the Buddha appears in the world to reveal the knowledge and vision of the Buddha. Without understanding this knowledge and vision of the Buddha, there is no way I could get out of the samaric cycle of birth and death. 25

Chapter 7 Opportunities & conditions Bhikshu Fa Ta

Sutra:

Sheep, deer, and ox provisionally set up; Beginning, middle, end, well set forth.
Comments:

The Dharma Flower Sutra is good in the beginning, good in the middle and good at the end; right from the onset it was to set aside the false and reveal the true.

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Chapter 7 Opportunities & conditions Bhikshu Fa Ta

Sutra:

Who would have thought that within the burning house Originally the king of Dharma dwelt?
Comments:

Affliction becomes bodhi right within the burning house when you understand that your own mind is Buddha.

Relinquish all appearances in your mind whilst in this world.

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Chapter 7 Opportunities & conditions Bhikshu Fa Ta

Sutra:

The Master said, From now on you may be called the monk mindful of the Sutra. From then on, although he understood the profound meaning, Fa Ta continued to recite the Sutra unceasingly.
Comments:

Fa Ta penetrated the meaning of the Sutra and continue to recite as if not reciting.

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Chapter 7 Bhikshu Chih Tung

Sutra: Bhikshu Chih Tung, a native of An Feng in Shao

Chou, had read the Lankavatara Sutra over a thousand times but still did not understand the three bodies and the four wisdoms. He made obeisance to the Master, seeking an explanation of the meaning. He made obeisance to the Master, seeking an explanation of the meaning.
Comments:

Not understanding you ask a good knowing advisor. The 3 bodies: Dharma body, reward body and transformation body The four wisdom is the turning around of the 5 conscious mind, 29 the 6th , the 7th and the 8th conscious mind into wisdom.

Chapter 7 Bhikshu Chih Tung

Sutra: The Master said, The three bodies are: the clear,

pure Dharma-body, which is your nature; the perfect, full Reward-body, which is your wisdom; and the hundred thousand myriad Transformation bodies, which are your conduct.
Comments:

The Dharma body pervades the entire cosmos; the original stillness. The Wisdom body reveals the teachings. The Transformation body demonstrates the teaching through 30 the conduct.

Chapter 7 Bhikshu Chih Tung

Sutra: To speak of the three bodies as separate from your

original nature is to have the bodies but not the wisdoms. To remember that the three bodies have no self-nature is to understand the four wisdoms of Bodhi.
Comments:

Wisdom is just the conscious mind transformed that reverts to the original mind. When you recognize the original mind, you see your original nature at which point you have three bodies.
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Chapter 7 Bhikshu Chih Tung

Sutra: To speak of the three bodies as separate from your

original nature is to have the bodies but not the wisdoms. To remember that the three bodies have no self-nature is to understand the four wisdoms of Bodhi.
Comments:

The three bodies are devoid self nature is to understand the four wisdom that everything is empty, including the bodies. All Buddhas have relinquished all appearances.

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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; 33 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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