2023-01-11 The Life and Teachings of Master Bankei 5 (fragment)

10:30PM Jan 30, 2023

Speakers:

Sensei Amala Wrightson

Richard von Sturmer

Keywords:

mind

unborn

thoughts

deluded

buddha

illusory

illness

buddhahood

discrimination

thirst

self mortification

practice

great

glassman

man

stay

recite

quench

auckland

enlightenment

It took so much hard practice for the great Zen masters of the past to penetrate great enlightenment so deeply. From what I have heard your own realisation also came only after many hardships. Someone like me, who hasn't engaged in any practice or arrived at any enlightenment couldn't possibly achieve true peace of mind, simply by perceiving the necessity of living in the unborn Buddha mind and staying just as I am. Bankei: it's like this, a group of travelers climbing through a stretch of high mountains gets thirsty, and one of them strikes out and makes his way far down into the valley to fetch water. It's not easy, but he finally finds some and brings it back and gives it to his companions to drink. Don't those who drink without having exerted themselves quench their thirst the same as the one who did? Now if a person refused to drink the water, because he felt that it was doing the wrong thing, there wouldn't be any way to quench his thirst.

My own struggle was undertaken mistakenly, because I didn't happen to meet up with a clear-eyed master. Eventually, though, I discovered the mind Buddha for myself. Ever since I have been telling others about theirs, so that they will know it without having to go through this the ordeal just as those people drink water and quench their thirst without having to go and find it for themselves. So you see, everyone can use the innate Buddha mind just as it is and achieve a trouble-free peace of mind without our resorting to any misguided austerities Don't you think that is an invaluable teaching?

Self mortification, like what Bankei went through is, is definitely not necessary. And it's the teaching of what is um, has always been to avoid the extremes of, of self mortification and self indulgent, indulgent, right, because they both tend to emphasize the self. So, there is there is the side of it, but he also elsewhere points out that it's necessary for people to know this unborn wouldn't mind for themselves. And that can involve difficulty at times, and having to persist through difficulty. So the bodhisattva, Buddhas and bodhisattvas can point the way and that is of huge value. This pointing of the way that's comes out of personal experience. But still, there's work that we have to do ourselves according to our individual karma.

layman I don't question that there are no illusory thoughts in the mind. But just the same, there's no let up to the thoughts that keep coming into my mind, I find it impossible to stay in the unborn. bunkie although you arrived in the world with nothing but the unborn buddha mind, you fell into your present deluded ways as you were growing up by watching and listening to other people in their delusion. You picked all this up gradually, over a long period of time habituating your mind to it? Until now your deluded mind has taken over completely and works its delusion unchecked. But none of those deluded thoughts of yours was inborn. They weren't there from the start. they cease to exist in the mind that's affirming the unborn. It's like a sock a lover who has contracted an illness that forces him to give up drinking. He still thinks about it, thoughts about having a few drinks still into his mind whenever he has a chance to get his hands on some Sukkot. But since He abstains from drinking it, his illness isn't affected and he doesn't get drunk. He stays away from it despite the thoughts that arise in his mind. And eventually he becomes a healthy man. and cured of his illness. Illusory thoughts are no different. If you just let them come and let them go away, and don't put them to work or try to avoid them, then one day you'll find that they vanish completely into the unborn mind. Think this this analogy of the, the Sokolova is a useful one. If we think in terms of recovery from our addictions PRAK practice is a form of recovery. The late Bernie Glassman once went along to a 12 step meeting and he he took the floor and said, Hi, my name is Bernie Glassman a man and I'm attached to the self where I'm addicted to the self we we are pretty pretty strongly addicted to sorting narratives about ourselves. But if we stop if we stop feeding them with our attention, then they lose their power over us. We stopped stopped swallowing what they're telling us.

Monk I have great difficulty subduing all the desires and deluded thoughts in my mind. What should I do? Bank A, the idea to disrupt you deluded thoughts is a deluded thought itself. None of those thoughts exist from the start. You conjure them up out of your own discriminations.

We conjure them up in our own discriminations.

Visiting monk, I appreciate very much what you told us last night about everyone being born with a buddha mind. Still, to me, it would seem that if we are this buddha mind, illusory thoughts shouldn't arise. The instant you said that this is Bankai the instant you said that what illusion was there so he puts puts it back on the questioner.

laymen I can agree with what you say about seeing and hearing by means of the unborn. But while we're asleep, someone may be right next to us and we don't even know it. Isn't the unborn influence lost there? What loss is there? There's nothing lost, you're just sleeping.

Bunker continues your unborn mind is the buddha mind itself. And it is unconcerned with either birth or death. As evidence that it is when you look at things you're able to see and distinguish them all at once. And as you're doing that, if a bird sings or a bell tolls or other noises or sounds occur, you hear and recognize each of them to even though you haven't given rise to a single single thought to do so. Everything in your life from morning until night proceeds in the same way without you having to depend on thought or reflection. But most people are unaware of that. They think everything is the result of their deliberation and discrimination. That's a great mistake. The mind of the borders and the mind of ordinary men are not two different minds. Those who strive earnestly in their practice because they want Satori or to discover their self mine are likewise greatly mistaken. Everyone who recites The Heart Truth sutra knows that the mind is unborn and Undying. Think Our vision is so slightly different we say that Um

Damas here are empty all over primal void, none are born or die nor are they stained or pure nor do their works away and are born or die. No damn was born or dies so we recite this, but we haven't sounded the source of the unborn, they still have the idea that they can find their way to the unborn mind and attain Buddhahood by using reason and discrimination. As soon as the notion to seek Buddhahood or to attain the way enters your mind, you're gonna stray from the unborn, gone against what is unborn in you. Anyone who tries to become enlightened, thereby falls out of the buddha mind and into secondary matters. You are Buddhists to begin with there's no way for you to become a Buddha now for the first time we hear this again and again. But we cling to discriminating our use of this this discriminating intellect of ours we try to work things out rather than just experience them directly. We have to put down this the son strategizing scheming mind and just look what is this? What is mode? Look directly

we'll stop here and recite the four vows

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