Pure Land Zen: Meditation and Buddha Recitation

Once you regularly meditate, although you still have thoughts wandering through the halls of the mind, Buddha Recitation soon makes it easy to bear those thoughts without clinging.

Even though you have countless thoughts, meditation helps the mind to ignore these thoughts so that you can focus on Buddha Recitation only to uncover a mind of no-thought.

Without clinging, a mind of no-thought remains thoughtful, yet empty of form. Neither meditation or Buddha Recitation is the cause of a mind of no-thought. Rather, it is good karmic merit accumulated by meditation and Buddha Recitation.

To forget Buddha Recitation and abandon meditation is to lose the Middle Way — a tragedy.

It is a tragedy because returning to the Realms of Desire makes it difficult to meditate and regularly recite the Buddha's name.

This is why I have faith in the Primal Vow, and believe that on my death the Pure Land is where I am destined.

I also believe that regular Buddha Recitation helps

Birth and Death and the Middle Way

Life is the companion of death,
death is the beginning of life.
Who understands their workings?
Man's life is a coming together of breath.
If it comes together, there is life;
if it scatters, there is death.
And if life and death are companions to each other,
then what is there for us to be anxious about?
— Chuang Tzu

A society that fears death such that almost everyone refuses to discuss death "out of respect for the dead" has thus paid false respect for their dead.

If such a society has no coming-of-age ritual to inculcate fearlessness in the face of death, then making death taboo is a cowardly act.

By fearing death, a person is but a coward when society treasures life so much that mass media glorifies youth to the point where the elderly are mocked by placing them in old age homes to die.

Western society thus is rendered sick in the sense that we associate death with sadness and despair to the point where the dead's living relatives are called "survivors".

In Taoism, Chuang Tzu wrote the truth about how death should be treated, as a companion of life.

Furthermore, viewing death as the beginning of life makes more sense than seeing it as the end of life.

Death is only the end of life when we ignore the afterlife.

Because society sees any depiction of the afterlife as fiction, it makes sense that death is taboo.

Such a society would rather let mass media manufacture a violent parody of life than make a film about the afterlife according to Buddhism.

Indeed, there has never been a movie about the Tibetan Buddhist afterlife, despite a book being written about Tibetans who have returned from the dead to tell about it.

Is it because the Dalai Lama forbids it? Or is it out of false piety and respect for the Tibetans that Hollywood has yet to finance such a venture?

Personally I find the Buddhist afterlife to be a place where anything can happen. I could be reborn in the hells and suffer according to the evil karma I have accumulated in this life. Eons later, I may spend time in the hungry ghost realm not taking any pleasure from eating.

Later on, I may be reborn as a worm in the animal realm, only to be eaten by a bird. Then I might be reborn as a girl in the human realm. Many eons later, I could end up in the demon realm and fight with other demons.

Much later, I may be reborn in the realm of gods and live a long life only to be reborn in one of the Buddhist heavens.

However, each rebirth still requires hearing the Dharma and turning away from evil. In this case, karmic evil would occur when I act according to the realm in which I am reborn.

In the human realm, to act like other humans requires committing evil karma. All the things humanity does to glorify humankind cannot help but create seeds of evil karma which only leads to rebirth in samsara, the realms of desire — the hells, hungry ghost, animal, human, demons and gods.

What kind of existence is this? Is it worth being reborn endlessly due to evil karma?

I do not believe so. For samsara is not humanity's destiny if we choose to live according to the Buddhadharma.

Contrary to what the brahmins of Santanadharma preach, rebirth in samsara is not a person's destiny when she chooses to become a Buddha.

In choosing to become a Buddha, even one sentient being abandons ignorance for the greater good of all sentient beings. This happened to Gotama over 2500 years ago. He became Sakyamuni Buddha in one lifetime, and discovered that he too spent previous lifetimes as a Bodhisattva, preparing for Nirvana.

Even after his mahaparinirvana, which appears to us as an earthly death, the Buddha was liberated to be whatever it is causes each Buddhist to abandon human existence in samsara to become like him.

He could be your Buddhist teacher, a guru, or even someone you hate. He might appear as your mother, your father, your brother, your sister, your family, or even that bully who beat you up in Grade Two.

Whenever whatever another person does to us, good or bad, if we are inspired to learn from it and become better than we were before, then that is due to the Buddhadharma.

For it is the Buddha's aim to liberate all sentient beings from human existence and not be reborn in Samsara.

Each liberated sentient being is destined to become a Buddha when she has heard the Buddhadharma — the Four Noble Truths, dependent arising — and, repenting her former life, jumps over to the Middle Way.

Buddhists Neither Good Nor Evil

In Buddhism, not one person is a good Buddhist, nor is anyone a bad Buddhist. Rather, a person may have used skillful or unskillful means, and the karmic fruit of her actions have ripened in many interesting ways.

All karma is to the Buddhist action which bears fruit according to her skills.

When an action is done with right intentions, and no harm immediately arises, that action has sown the skillful karmic fruit of no immediate result.

When an action is done with wrong intentions, and harm immediately arises, that action has sown the unskillful karmic fruit immediate result.

When an action is done with right intentions, and harm immediately arises that action has sown
no karmic fruit, but instead a previous unskillful karmic action has born fruit.

When an action is done with wrong intentions, and no harm arises, the karmic fruit of a previous action arose to delay the unskillful karmic fruit to ripen at a later time.


However, the ideal of a good Buddhist violates the non-self principle, since it is assumed that a "good Buddhist" always is good. The truth is, if he is skillful, a Buddhist creates good by mindful practice, and by following the precepts.

He seeks neither fame nor glory, lest it distract him from fulfilling the twofold aims of the Bodhi Mind: determination to save all sentient beings, and the aspiration for Buddhahood.

Should he be unskillful, it cannot be assumed that his destiny be the Hells, since previous karmic merit
also affect the results of actions taken currently. Neither can it be assumed that his destinies is to be any one of the Three Relams (Desire, Form and Formless Realms).

Zen and Pure Land are the Middle Way

Here is proof that masters chant in addition to zazen: http://heartofus.wordpress.com/chants/hannya-shingyo/

Hannya Shingyo (the Heart Sutra) is a Zen Buddhist chant which Zen masters and their disciples chant as part of their daily practice. This sutra was used by the Japanese Zen Master Hakuin in place of the Chinese Ch'an practice of Buddha Recitation (Nian-fo). This was done mainly to avoid the ire of the established Japanese Buddhist hegemony who profited from being intercessors between Japanese people from all walks of life and Enlightenment.

Zen practice aids its practitioners to become dedicated Buddhist practice of mindfulness, meditation being as used like a tool to control the mind.

Were they to chant any one of the Pure Land Sutras with the Bodhi Mind (determination for Buddhahood and aspiration to be bodhisattvas), if they don't achieve samadhi or Nirvana in this life, then they shall become Buddha in the afterlife called Sukhavarti.

When Zen and Pure Land are practiced as one with dedication to all sentient beings, the Buddhist who follows this mindful practice is assured Buddhahood. When belief in ekayana (one path) results in a choice between Zen and Pure Land, the Buddhist may choose between the practice of self-power (the difficult path) and of other-power (the easy path).

Why not hedge all your bets and instead of becoming only self-powered, being self-powered and other-powered bodhisattvas? Self-power is reliance on your own efforts to achieve Nirvana while other-power is based on faith in Amida Buddha's Primal Vow for the sake of all sentient beings. Thus empowered, the Buddhist who practices for all sentient beings is like a bodhisattva.

Indeed, Zen and Pure Land together combine self-power with other-power as Bodhi Mind, both to achieve samadhi in this life and to attain Nirvana in the afterlife of the Pure Land.

When one believes he is destined for the Pure Land to become Buddha, it is neither an attachment for reward nor a cheat but liberation from suffering for all sentient beings.

For all sentient beings are Buddha just as samsara is Nirvana.

I sincerely believe that both aspiration to become a bodhisattva who helps all sentient beings and determination to attain Buddhahood in this manner free me of attachment to the purported reward of the Pure Land.

May all Buddhists be dedicated their practice for the sake of all sentient beings.

---

Hannya Shingyo: http://heartofus.wordpress.com/chants/hannya-shingyo/
Nianfo: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nianfo

Emptiness (poem)

All reality truly is
Empty of inherent existence,
Separate and permanent.
Awakening to this realization of
The Self Nature of true reality
Bodhisattvas return to help
All sentient beings who cling
Needlessly to the world,
Narcotized by the vain grasping
Of worldliness known as
Reality as it is supposed to be.
Rare is the one awakened to
Self Nature True Mind,
The Bodhi Mind That realizes
Buddhist Emptiness is
Neither mysterious nor unique.

---

The `No-Self' Nature of People and Things: http://www.sacred-texts.com/bud/tib/singer.htm
Madhyamika: http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Madhyamika
Ordinary Mind, Original Nature and Self Nature: http://gandhara.blogspot.com/2013/01/ordinary-mind-original-nature-and-self.html
Pure Mind is True Mind: http://gandhara.blogspot.com/2006/01/pure-mind-is-true-mind-true-mind-is.html
Emptiness as Everything and Nothing: http://gandhara.blogspot.com/2013/01/emptiness-as-everything-and-nothing-poem.html

Destroying Samsara

Samsara is the human realm where all sentient beings wish to be reborn.

For the Buddhist devotee needs to develop non-deluded doubts about samsara.

Furthermore, the devotee who develops doubts about Emptiness will damage Samsara's hold over human beings.

Even samadhi leading to Bodhi Mind will not happen due to non-doubt in what the Buddha taught.

Indeed, Buddhism arose to help its followers awaken to the fact that transmigration is not of souls as Hindu define souls.

Rather, the store (alaya) consciousness is what is reborn due to the working of karma, both good and evil.

For me then, the optimal balance of karma ought to be equal amounts since the Middle Way is the pivot between good and evil.

Good and Evil are One

To see good and evil as one is to transcend moral judgment. By creation of good by mindful practice, the disciple neutralizes evil of the Five Poisons, and embraces the true nature of her basic goodness.
When I make no moral judgment on good and evil, but see that my actions and the effect of these actions may be considered good or evil, depending on the situation.

Thus, in Buddhism, "good" and "evil" has less to do with moral judgment and more to do with my actions and the effect of those actions.

Buddhist philosophy declares that each of us has the potential to create good or evil, but we favor creating good to neutralize evil.

When the terms "pure", "real", and "true" are used, they refer to "basic goodness". On the other hand the term "evil" is not as absolute as the Western concept of evil because it can easily be neutralized by creating good with loving-kindness. For evil is created by anger, desire, fear, hatred, and ignorance, which are negative emotions and feelings that unsettle the mind.

A result of an unsettled mind is suffering, and one may make a moral judgment and mistake good for evil, and evil for good. Even when one sees good as good, and evil as evil, one may judged oneself and other sentient beings harshly. Due to such misjudgment, one entertains dualistic thoughts by making moral judgments regarding good and evil.

Such dualism is due to an unsettled mind. With the Bodhi Mind as the practitioner's goal, the mindful practice of Buddha Remembrance and meditation results in the nondual mind that sees good and evil as due to her actions and their effect on the lives of both herself and other sentient beings.

That nondual mind arises due to the mindful practice of the Middle Way

For the Middle Way transcends moral judgment involving good and evil, and allows the Buddhist to let go of clinging to such judgment to free himself of ignorant craving. As a result he chooses to create good in his life.

This is the goal of Buddha Remembrance: to mindfully practice Buddha Recitation and meditation to free oneself of the ignorance which arises from a deluded mind. Once Awake, the practitioner maintains her practice to maintain positive control over her ego, lest she fall prey to worldly desires and create evil.

For we are capable of creating good and evil in the journey called Life, and thus we bear the responsibility for our very actions on that journey.

---

Reference:
Good and Evil in Buddhism: http://gandhara.blogspot.com/2013/01/good-thoughts-destroy-evil-karma.html

In becoming an enlightened being

In becoming an enlightened being,
this does not destroy the living being,
or take it away, or lose it;
nevertheless, it does mean having shed it.

---Dogen, "Rational Zen"

One has to shed the living being in order to become an enlightened being.

This is similar to an ugly caterpillar that turns into a beautiful butterfly.

The metaphor of the butterfly is close to the original Buddhist meaning of enlightenment, since even the enlightened being is a temporary form of existence.

What truly exists then?

Reality as we think it is supposed to be exists for most people. Yet the true reality of existence is that existence is empty of permanence.

By viewing the world through the lens of impermanence, it is possible to "not destroy the living being, take it away, or lose it" i.e. the Middle Way.

Peace of Mind (poem)

Peace of mind is found
in only a single word,
and that word is Truth.

For truth frees the seeker to
walk the Middle Way
without a doubt, accepting
things as they are, with
gratitude to the Buddha.

Thus Truth takes but faith,
acceptance and gratitude
to make peace of mind.

Subdue Yourself, and Discover Your Master

Love yourself and be awake —
Today, tomorrow, always.

First establish yourself in the way,
Then teach others,
And so defeat sorrow.

To straighten the crooked
You must first do a harder thing-
Straighten yourself.

You are your only master.
Who else?
Subdue yourself,
And discover your master.

-from the Dhammapada

Avoiding the Extremes Opens the Middle Way to Peace!

There are, friends, these two extremes, which not should be practiced by any, who has initiated purification: The hunt for sensual pleasures, which is low, vulgar, the common way of ordinary worldlings, ignoble, disadvantageous; and any practice of self-torture, which also is quite painful, ignoble, and rather disadvantageous! Without veering towards either of these extremes, the well-gone-beyond Buddha has awakened to the Middle Way, which leads to assured vision, to direct knowledge, which leads to ease, to peace, to certain understanding, to Enlightenment, to Nibbana. And what is that Middle Way, awakened to by the Buddha, which leads to assured vision, to direct knowledge, which leads to ease, to peace, to certain understanding, to Enlightenment, to Nibbana?

It is this very Noble Eightfold Path, which consists of:

• Right View
  
• Right Motivation
  
• Right Speech
  
• Right Action
  
• Right Livelihood
  
• Right Effort
  
• Right Awareness
  
• Right Concentration
  

It is based on the Buddhist Middle Way, awakened to by the Blessed Buddha. It leads to assured vision, and to direct knowledge which leads to ease of mind, and to certain understanding of the Buddhist sutras. With ease of mind and great understanding, peace of mind becomes bliss and joy, and eventually that pinnacle of enlightenment, Nirvana. Source: The Grouped Sayings of the Buddha. Samyutta Nikaya. Book IV [330-1] Section 42: On The 6 Senses. Rasiya: 12. http://www.pariyatti.com/book.cgi?prod_id=948507 http://www.accesstoinsight.org/canon/samyutta/index.html

True Dharma, Buddha Nature, True Mind, Self Nature

For a person of unsteady mind,
Not knowing true Dhamma,
Serenity
Set adrift:
Discernment doesn't grow full.

For a person of unsoddened mind,
Unassaulted awareness,
Abandoning merit & evil,
Wakeful,
There is no danger
No fear.

-Dhammapada, 3, translation by Thanissaro Bhikku.

Commentary: this quote is from verses 38 and 39 in Chapter 3 of the Dhammapada.

Chapter 3 is entitled The Mind, and gives the disciple instructions about the mind.

The footnote for verse 39 reveals that a soddened mind is soaked by the rain of passion.

For, just as our clothes are soaked in the rain, so too is the mind by passion.

Of course, a light rainfall will barely soak me; but a rainstorm would drench me.

Likewise, a storm of passion would harm me greatly, disturbing my mind, leaving me distracted, lost, confused, motivated by fear and prone to anger.

Thus, passion itself is harmless in moderation. Too much of it or too little of it will lead to
psychic illness.

As well, "true Dharma" is subtly realized as Buddha Nature where the realm of truth, being that of phenomenon and noumenon, is also known as Dharmakaya.

When the disciple always views Self Nature as Buddha Nature, the True Mind is bathed in the realization of the true Dharma path, the Middle Way.

---

Reference:

Footnote to Dhammapada Verse 39: http://www.accesstoinsight.org/canon/sutta/khuddaka/dhp/tb0/index.html#n39

True emptiness and wonderful existence (the doctrine of the Middle Way)

Buddhist sutras speak of true emptiness and wonderful existence, the doctrine of the Middle Way. They avoid the extreme doctrines of existence and non-existence, being and non-being. They begin with "Thus I have heard" to distinguish them from non-Buddhist texts. - Shurangama Sutra, Testimony of Faith

Before the Buddha passed onto Paranirvana, Ananda was told by him to preface his lectures based on what the Buddha said with "Thus I have heard."

In this way, they are distinguished from non-Buddhist texts which discuss existence and non-existence.

Boundless Way, Boundless Truth

The Zen master Yun-feng wrote:

The way is the perennial Way,
the truth is the perennial Truth:
don't misapply body and mind
chasing after sayings.
This is why it is said that
"even the slightest object is dust;
as soon as you arouse intent,
you’re confused by hallucination."

To which I humbly reply:

The boundless Way leads
to the boundless Truth!
For the well-applied body-mind
follows the Buddha,
not the sayings of heroes.

---

Originally posted: February 18, 2005 1747H
Update posted: March 6, 2013 0033H

Reference:

Yun-feng quote:

http://www.beliefnet.com/Quotes/Buddhist/General/Y/Yun-Feng/The-Way-Is-The-Perennial-Way-The-Truth-Is-The-Per.aspx