The Flower Sermon (Part 1/2)

Gateless Checkpoint of the Chan Tradition

(C:Wumen guan; 無門關) 

Quote:

"Once, in front of a Dharma congregation on Vulture Peak, the World-Honored One held up a flower. None but the Venerable Kāśyapa broke into a subtle smile. The World-Honored One then announced, “I possess the treasury of the true Dharma Eye, that which is the wondrous nirvanic mind, the signless ultimate reality, the wondrous and subtle Dharma door. It does not rest on words or letters and is distinctively transmitted, other than the scriptures. I confer it to the Venerable Mahākāśyapa." Wumen Guan  

【世尊昔在靈山會上，拈花示眾，是時眾皆默然，惟迦葉尊者破顏微笑。世尊云：吾有正法眼藏，涅槃妙心，實相無相，微妙法門，不立文字，教外別傳。付囑摩訶迦葉。】無門關

Remarks:

Enlightenment is achieved through a one-thought connection consisting of the arising of the wisdom of liberation pertaining to the non-arising, which results from a process whereby one contemplates through meditative concentration and understands the origin of the beginnings and endings of sentient beings’ lives.

To attain enlightenment, we must first practice the skillful means of contemplative Chan: meditative absorption in motion. Hence, we need to follow the contemplation-related instructions of a truly enlightened mentor. After attaining enlightenment, we will realize that the notion of Buddha nature (reality-suchness) is not acquired through cultivation as it already inherently exists in all sentient beings. Naturally, there is no door/gate that one can enter to see the reality-suchness. This is exactly what ancient patriarchs often said about the Chan principle: “The Dharma gate is gateless.”

Before attaining enlightenment, we aspire to become awakened, and we need to cultivate the instructional dharmas of Chan. After attaining enlightenment, we will discover that even the dharma of awakening denotes an inherently empty and tranquil nature as we will come to realize that the self-nature of all Chan-related instructional dharmas is also an empty and tranquil nature (as it was derived from the Buddha nature). Chan itself is not enlightenment; it denotes the reality-suchness (C:真如). The notion of enlightenment is only a phenomenon depicting an individual’s uncovering of the reality-suchness. Although Chan and enlightenment actually exist and are valid, they are not established or constructed as tangible items by humans and cannot be shown or demonstrated for others to see. Hence, saying that there is enlightenment or no enlightenment to the same extent is incorrect. Once they come into being, spoken of and described objects are no longer the noumenon entities of actual enlightenment.

The true essence of enlightenment is no other than the wisdom attained through a one-thought connection (C: 一念相應慧). Any “enlightenment” without a sudden awakening is not true enlightenment. In addition, conclusions drawn from speculation or thinking and analyzing based on languages or words do not point to enlightenment. Enlightenment requires a sudden awakening from deep and diligent contemplative Chan. In fact, there is no gradual enlightenment (C:漸悟), only sudden enlightenment (C:頓悟). We need to gradually cultivate ourselves so we can achieve sudden enlightenment, but we cannot achieve gradual enlightenment. Why? If sudden enlightenment is achieved through gradual accumulation efforts, when the conditional efforts gradually dissipate in the future, this enlightenment will disappear. Thus, the noumenon of reality-suchness is not attained through gradual cultivation as no gate leads to the attainment of the reality-suchness.

#Buddha #Buddhism #Chan #Suddenenlightenment #realitysuchness