Today is the second day of this April 2024 seven day sesshin. And I'm going to read again today from this book, Attaining the Way: a Guide to the Practice of Chan Buddhism by Chan Master is Sheng Yen.
In the section I'm going to start reading from is entitled impermanence. The foundation view says on the practice path, there is no achieving undeserved success. Someone on retreat asked me, of the nine levels of meditative concentration, the highest is Samadhi, in which sensation and conception are obliterated, how is this cultivated? And Sheng says this is the Samadhi of total extinction the holiest of the four fruits of the Hinayana path, the so called lesser vehicle, better put the Tera Vaada path. However, if you have yet to achieve the four absorptions and the eight somebody's this is quite system, can you think of cultivating the ninth level, this is like building the top floor of a house before the foundation is in. And he goes on to learn Buddhism you must start from the foundation view of impermanence. What is impermanence, it is suffering, it is emptiness, it is no self is the absence of intrinsic identity.
The three characteristics of all existence the Buddha declared or dukkha or suffering
impermanence and no self or anata.
Life doesn't fit our desires. So we have suffering Nothing stays the same are futile efforts to create a nest of comfort. protect ourselves from suffering inevitably fails we think we live in a world of things other people we are self are some sort of thing an entity perhaps the ruler of our body but it doesn't meet reality it doesn't face up to investigation
says these are basic concepts of Buddhism and chon impermanence is inherent in the cycle of birth and death. Our bodies our minds and our surroundings are impermanent. Nothing that does not change. Everything is in constant flux. Sometimes very quickly, sometimes very slowly. remember being on the desert and seeing the huge sort of wall on one side of a wash. And you can see the strand of the rock curling up and down. Clearly bent by forces beyond anything that we normally experience
even rock isn't solid. What is there? Doesn't change.
Says Buddha Dharma holds that all mental and physical phenomena are impermanent, perpetually coming into being and extinguishing. Buddha Dharma requires that we understand this. When I asked a prominent gentleman why he entered Buddhism so late in life, he said that when his mother and elder brother died in quick succession, he felt a deep loss. Impermanence had touched him at the most painful point in his life. If we fail to reflect on impermanence, we are living in a dream, because we really do not know what life holds for us. Somebody who has never peeked through death's door and taken a look inside might feel a mortal and we do we do we find a way to shut it out the inevitability of death, the uncertainty of the time of death recently with the passing of Roberto Roshi,
tenuous condition of Wayman, my fellow monitor for so many years.
stroke that recently failed Barry Kison is now recovering very slowly. I'll point up the fragility of our lives. We're really we're here on temporary assignment.
Different ways that people try to deal with that, because everybody senses it to one degree or another. Even the carefree hedonist is aware that life is fleeting.
All the Yolo people you only live once, grab the gusto while you can. Well, that's one way. But it doesn't work so well. Because life has its way.
So this is the wonder of the Dharma way of dealing with things as they truly are really looking clearly and how things are.
When we do that, when we suddenly the penny drops, then we have the way the will to really give ourselves to practice. to wade in deeply to push through when we meet resistance to deal with stretches of boredom or pain or emptiness, whatever comes up
when we have that willingness to give ourselves to the practice. There is a stable joy that comes up we're ready for the ups and downs stead of all you always well, why me? How come? When is this going to end? We have the patience and the forbearance not only to practice, but to live a real life
not pulling the wool over our own eyes. And we have we have a sense of the preciousness of other people as well. Everyone you meet so subjected to birth and death everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle
really is the foundation view impermanence.
Sheng yen says when I was young, I respected Old Buddha As teachers, I also felt sorry for them because they were not far from death. Hope everybody feels sorry for me. Now my turn to be pitied has come. Impermanence is painful when we cannot get what we seek, or we seek to hold on to what we have. In the Three Kingdoms period following the Han dynasty in the third century, the general South sow wrote this verse, human life in the world, how much happiness can there be to it? Happiness is like the morning dew and when it vanishes, how much we suffer, not a Buddhist sow still had an insight that accords with Buddha Dharma.
There is an intrinsic link between impermanence as suffering, and impermanence as emptiness, our environment and all phenomena in it exist only temporarily. They're like reflections of the moon on the water, empty, illusory forms. Knowing that emptiness means impermanence, we cling to phenomena and bring suffering upon ourselves. It's part of the truth of suffering. So much of it is simply our being out of step with things as they are.
A lot of people, a common criticism of Buddhism is that it's a gloomy religion. You know, it's all about death and impermanence and suffering.
But it's not the case. That's not the case. It's realistic, looking at things with clear eyes
following the example of others, taken on birth and death, found a way way that leads to joy to equanimity.
generosity, compassion vigor and absorption, oneness with our life a lot of people are always looking at the goal at the end state want to come to great enlightenment. I want to be a Buddha I want to enter nirvana. It's more common I think with Sheng yen students than it is today. But always, you're looking you're looking past what you need you looking past this moment where you live your entire life. This is where this is the engine of change. We make progress up that steep, vast mountain. It's made step by step in the moment, not by thinking about where we're going to go. Nothing wrong with having an aspiration can really be a solid motivation. But if you're dwelling on it, you're taking your eye off the ball and causing yourself unnecessary pain.
Sheng yen says, If we understand that life is impermanent, full of suffering and void of intrinsic reality. These again are the three characteristics of existence impermanent suffering, no self. We understand our problems will mitigate and we all know a thing or two about no self. One student told me it's no use trying to avoid the inevitable is no use pursuing what is not in one's karma. What I can get I work for what I can solve, I solve the rest I let go. If I can't let it go, I just accept it. My mind has become much calmer. Then Sheng yen says, studying Buddhism has been very useful to him.
30 About 34 years ago, am I right? Yeah, about 34 years ago, when I stopped drinking, got sober. I was introduced to the Serenity Prayer, I think that went through my mind and a loop for months. God grant me the serenity, to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.
Everything changes when we stop flailing, stop pouting. Stop making demands on life and other people.
When I was in my 20s, I used to play bridge. It's actually won a tournament outside New York City once and it was duplicate. Maybe people don't know what that is. But it means that the hands that you play are also played by everybody, you're competing with their past from table to table and you move as well. And you end up playing a hand that you know, 20 or 30, or 40 Other people have played. And your results are compared. And it's much different than normally playing cards playing bridge because they are, you rejoice with a good hand, right, you're more likely to win. If a bad hand. You're disappointed. But it doesn't matter and duplicate. You're going to be judged on how you play your hand. I always love that. It was much later that I realized that's the way life is no point in complaining about the hand that we're dealt. We're here to play this. We're here to learn the lessons that it can teach us. And we find that people whose endowments aren't so great, maybe they don't have much wealth, maybe they're physically disabled. Many times there are superior in terms of just joy, solidity.
Not to say that being born in good circumstances living a life with people around you who care for you, doesn't give you a real advantage.
But in the end, it comes down to you and your decisions and your attitudes.
Sheng yen goes on. The Diamond Sutra speaks of formlessness it points out that the four forms of self oneself others living beings, life are all derived from the idea of an independent intrinsic identity. Because of this, you and I and other living beings are put in opposition. Life refers to the movements of you i and living beings in space and time. For going this false self, you can witness formlessness see your real nature and open up to awakening to enlightenment. Don't imagine that after a few retreats you will be enlightened. It's possible, but as long as the self form still rules, and egocentrism is solid, how can you see your true nature some people think I am selfish and clinging but once I'm deeply engaged in the practice, the master just has to shout or hit me at the right moment. And then I'll be enlightened. And Sheng yen says I really don't have this ability. Selfish clinging is deep rooted to an intimately linked to one's life, to overcome it, you must do the work yourself. All I can do is point out the way that he quotes where water goes a channel forms and says when the necessary work has been done, successful come then all it takes is a light tap or a sudden sound and selfish clinging can suddenly be removed. In this in this book, in Sheng yen refers to enlightenment quite often and makes no distinctions really about levels of enlightenment. So and there are, there are shallow insights. There are deeper realizations and there is always the possibility of full enlightenment. But how often do we see that? Extremely, extremely rare? People have an idea that they can have an awakening and solve their problems
well, no. It changes things for sure. But it doesn't solve your problems and your karma doesn't automatically disappear. Roshi, Bowden Roshi often tells the story of Harada Roshi, which was told to him by Roshi Kapleau, Harada told Kapleau that when he was young, he had a horrible temper. He came from a samurai family. He got angry easily, and he feels that had he not begun Zen practice. He would have eventually killed somebody. Well, he worked very hard. He came to awakening. And he told Kapleau It still took me another 10 years before I felt my anger was under control. So much work to do with it's so important to become that person who can accept adversity. So willing to do what's needed, has some forbearance. In a way, awakening is an accident. What we do what we do in Zan is we make ourselves accident prone. Even if somebody never comes to awakening in this life, if they work diligently, year after year, find their footing in this practice, they will change and become vessels of the Dharma
the masters say the one who has worked sincerely what he is not finished in this life, you will finish in the next.
Sheng yen says it is true that Chan espouses sudden enlightenment. But if I told you to stop discriminating and abide nowhere Could you do it? If you could, you might be suddenly enlightened. If not, every stirring of your mind is discrimination and clinging. If people who claim to be enlightened are still living with affliction and attachment, what's the difference between being enlightened and not being enlightened?
He says, First, learn to abide nowhere. Abiding means holding on to your senses, your conditioned perceptions and your preconceived ideas, seeing, hearing perceiving and knowing in reality they encompass the whole of spiritual, mental and physical life. Clinging to any of this means there is abiding where there are concepts of self there is abiding, and there is form. This is not no self. Abiding nowhere means having no discriminating thoughts, if you refrain from discriminating you then you have no thoughts. The verses on the faith mind sign says the great way is not difficult for those who do not pick and choose. When preferences are cast aside, the way stands clear and undisguised.
Another chat, we repeat, just calmly see that all is one and by themselves false views will go
Sheng yen says if you can refrain from discriminating then you have no thoughts. If you have no discriminating thoughts, then you abide nowhere. If you abide nowhere, then you can be formless. If you can be formless, you will see your true selfless nature
the more we separate ourselves from our attachments, from abiding in concepts and ideas and desires and discriminations. The lighter we feel. The easier everything becomes, the more readily we can bear with hardship. can have a tough day, and it's still a joy doesn't mean we didn't want it to go better. We can play that hand. Sheng yen says the meditation method that we teach is an orderly process for helping you step by step until you reach the state of having no discriminating thoughts. We have thoughts all the time. When our scattered and chaotic mind is strong. These thoughts are illusions, the mind of affliction. After using the meditation method properly and consistently, you will gradually detach from the afflictions of greed, anger, ignorance, arrogance, and doubt. Perhaps some people think that meditation is also a form of attachment. This is true, but it is not an attachment that brings affliction. On the contrary, it can relieve affliction. The meditation method is the way
to genuinely benefit from Buddhism, there is no other route except to walk on solid ground and start building from the foundation of understanding impermanence. You can't enter the realm of enlightenment by imagining it.
You must exert the patience it takes to meditate. The records of Chan such as the record of the transmission of the lamp in the Jing de era, and the Five Lamps meeting at the source. Show that there are hardly any cases of great penetration and great enlightenment except through practice. Thus we have the admonition. If you don't endure the cold that pierces your bones, how can you smell the fragrance of the plum blossoms. You can't come to retreat as a caterpillar and then a few days go fluttering off as a butterfly. You must start with the basics whether in concepts or in methods. You will be arrogant to claim attainment when there is none. If you seek followers but are not qualified, you will endanger them and yourself to seek to rise but to fall instead is very unfortunate indeed.
Going on, Sheng yen says, When I was a child, Time passed slowly, I had to wait so long to be a year older. When I became an adult, time passed very quickly. Now I have lived 63 years in vain and time flies ever faster 63
You know, you'll come to a point if you don't die first where 63 Seems pretty young. Oh, would it be 70 again. The Buddha spoke of impermanence and the Chan patriarch spoke of sudden enlightenment. If you do not study Buddha Dharma you will not know impermanence and if you do not cultivate practice you will not know sudden enlightenment. When Shakyamuni Buddha first turned the Dharma Wheel at Deer Park, he taught impermanence. Before entering nirvana, you reminded his disciples that whatever is born must perish. Birth, death and impermanence characterize worldly existence. It's only in the liberation of nirvana that birth and death perish. If you do not practice toward general realization, how can you escape the delusive snares of the demons of impermanence? Every day, in the evening session, we recite bodhisattva Samantabhadra. This warning, the day has passed our lives to our closing, like fish in shallow water, joy will not last. Let us work with pure effort as if our heads were a flame. Be mindful of impermanence. Beware of idleness. I used to have trouble with that phrase work as if your head was on fire. But I've come to understand it as work directly and completely without hesitating, if your head was on fire, you'd put it out in no time at all. told the story before of sitting in a cabin we had down in southern New York, reading a book with the wind door open in the cabin, just an old rustic shack, basically. And our car was parked on the Hill that led up to the door. And unbeknownst to me, my son had gotten in there he was, I don't know five or six years old. And I looked up from my book, and saw the car rolling backwards towards the ravine. Without knowing how I did it, I was at the car throwing the door open, throwing my poor child to the other side of the car. And because he was in the driver's seat, and then stomping on the brake, that brake pedal was huge, filled the sky
we have enormous reserves and abilities.
If you really devote yourself to your practice, sink into it. Keep going. You'll find that burst of power
and Sheng yen says, Life is too short, and time passes too quickly. If we do not value the time and work as hard as we should, we will miss our chance. If we are alert to the brevity of life, we will not waste our precious time afflicting ourselves and others dealing and affirmation and denial, benefit and harm gain and loss. As you practice, John, if every thought is imbued with a sense of impermanence, you will transform delusion into mindfulness. It's easy to take some of this advice the wrong way some people may get discouraged thinking Well, I I don't see myself working that hard. I'm not I seem to be slipping back into thoughts all the time my mind is scattered. what hope is there for me, but this is a gradual process. We gain strength as we continue all this required as the faith to put one foot in front of the other to work with this moment as it is to work with our mind and body as they are. If we are faithful if we are continuous or steady, we will find the benefits
take it as it comes.
Each of us can transform our lives. maybe a little, maybe a lot. All of us are going in the right direction. This path that we found
Sheng yen says there are people at this retreat. It's true here too, of course, who have practiced Chan for 20 or more years without losing faith. This is rare and precious, and there must be a profound reason. Many have stayed in temples and Buddhist centers and have gone to one or more intensive retreats a year. But your incomes, but did they practice every single moment during that time, and their ordinary lives most meditate an hour or two a day or so a day? Otherwise, they're busy with their lives, their families and their work, busy with delusions, afflictions and boredom. What does it mean then to say that someone has practiced for 20 or more years during a seven day retreat, even though you are in the Chan Hall from morning to night, please clarify for yourselves how much of this time is actually occupied by delusions of oblivion and scattered thoughts. How much of this time is spent in wholehearted meditation? If you truly understood that the time you actually practice is really not that much. You would determine not to Slack and and begin making energetic progress how much of this time is spent in awareness?
Back in Rochester, in the foyer, outside the Zendo, the Han hangs and there's an inscription on it. Great is the matter of birth and death. Life slips quickly by Time waits for no one. Wake up, wake up. Don't waste a moment.
Good place to stop. So we'll stop here and recite the Four Vows
