BE WHAT YOU ARE & REMAIN WHO YOU ARE
Delivered in Taipei on  October 22, 1989

[I. "Be What You Are and Remain Who You Are" Virtually Implements "The Non-dualistic Methodology"][II.Act What You Are and Remain Who You Are][III. I Do What I should][IV.To Verify and Assure the True Self][V. To Realize Oneself and Remain As Is][VI.That Which Is True Definitely Is Original ][VII. Four Forms of Mind.][VIII.Uncontaminated by the Mundane World; Unchanged In Any Conditions ][IX. Three Unattainable Minds]

I.“Be What You Are and Remain Who You Are” Virtually Implements “The Non-dualistic Methodology”

In order to celebrate the success of sharing our experiences on the Dharma practice; I would like to offer all of you a phrase of four words. It is very common, and everyone is also quite familiar with it - “Be what you are and remain who you are.”

You all may regard it as a cliche, which is an ordinary concept of worldly laws and lack of any innovative interpretation. You should know that Ch’an embodies the non-dualistic methodology, and does not even constitute oneness. If we differentiate worldly laws from Buddhism, we are deviating from this methodology.

As it is the non-dualistic methodology, there is originally no adherence to true or false, just or evil, right or wrong, existent or non-existent, worldly laws or Buddhism, afflictions or Bodi etc.… If there are adherences, it must result from the law of halving. They are the products of the differential mind that is full of contrasting conflicts. They definitely will disturb our minds, and make our minds fail to unite and sublimate.

II. Act What You Are and Remain Who You Are

What does “act what you are and remain who you are” mean? Firstly, I would like to talk about “acting what you are”. To act what you are means to strictly abide by the guidelines of being a decent person. To act your role well and maintain your consistent manners exactly refers to what I constantly emphasize to live within one’s responsibilities and obligations. If we fail to do so, we will be unable to properly fulfill our responsibilities and obligations. As a result, our minds will be filled with illusions, then how can we live with a clear conscience?

Everyone has his own “share”. On the earth, even every object or matter has its own “share”. The meaning and value of one’s existence is subject to how the share is acted. Otherwise, one’s existence will become redundant. I ever said whenever a matter or an object became functionless on the earth, and it would simultaneously lose the meaning, value and possibility of its existence. To take this cup as an example, the reason why it can be put here is because of the need of its function. If you put a brick or a stone here, then what is it for? Can it possibly stay?

The same is true of us. Everyone has his own share of responsibilities, which is the basic feature of the traditional Chinese culture and humanistic spirit. As the Confucianism claims, “Being a subordinate officer, one aims to be respectful; being a father, one aims to be lenient; being a son, one aims to be filial….” All these are the individual share of responsibilities for being a decent person.

“The Golden Mean” claims, “If you are wealthy and elegant, you simply act as is. If you are poor and subordinate, you simply act as is. If you are a borderer, you simply act as is….” It means if you have been rich and sophisticated, you need to maintain a humble and courteous manner. If you have been poor and bare, you need to maintain a plain but pleasant attitude. If you have been living in an indigent area as a minority, you should not pretend to act as an elegant gentleman; instead, simply maintain your simple, naive and straightforward personalities. These examples are referred to “acting what you are”.

The statement of “acting what you are” is equivalent to the general concept of “I act what I am”. Actually it is not a bad thing, and it simply means that I live and build up a lifestyle that matches what I am. I simply act my role well. When a professional tailor, who was always busy at tailoring for others, occasionally saw a cement worker easily making more than one thousand dollars a day, he then put down his scissors, needles and threads, and turned to be a cement worker. Is it right for him to do so? No, absolutely not right! He simply did “not act what he was”.

Basically, a company is composed of a director, a general manager, a manager, supervisors, and staff of different departments. If a manager intends to be a general manager, he may possibly achieve it as long as he keeps acting what he is. However, if a junior clerk, who does not properly act his role, wishes to become a director, it is truly far beyond the reality. The basic prerequisite is that you need to act your present role well; then you will be able to create and accumulate your value. If a company decides to go democratic and allows their employees to freely change their positions, for example, a management manager moves to work in the marketing department, and a marketing manager moves to work in the accounting department etc., it surely will bring the company a horrible disaster or chaos. Consequently, we need to act what we are and remain who we are.

Especially to a practitioner, if he does not act what he is, illusions will arise in his mind and generate wrong desires to make him suffer from the pain of craving. When he is slaved by desires, he will lose the peace of his mind and deviate from the basic decency. Then, how can he continue his practice? Therefore, a realistic practice begins from acting what you are.

To a machine, though the main gear is very important, a tiny screw is also indispensable. Without it, the machine cannot function and will fall apart. Therefore, all the departments, divisions, and jobs are equally important. Only when everyone is equally important and interactively supportive, can the whole institution become strong and complete. If a practitioner is always envious or jealous of others, and pursues things beyond his abilities, he will definitely fail to practice. What he can gain is nothing but afflictions and mistakes, and he will also lose his inner An-Hsiang.

Therefore, as far as practice is concerned, that being able to remain who you are is most essential.

III. I Do What I Am

We know that Lao-zi once was a junior official librarian, and Confucius was even hired as a herder. The essential mission for a human being is to purify and upgrade oneself, but not the pursuit of vanity and power. If one does not give up pursuing vanity and power, one will fail in one’s practice, and also lose oneself in the flowing desires of manipulation, possession and pleasure. Therefore, “Be what you are and remain who you are.” is the basis of practice.

In the seventh edition of Ch’an Quarterly Magazine, there is a special column about Swei-Yun and Yang-Yun’s interview with Mr. Zhi-Zhong Cai. There are some wonderful statements made by Mr. Cai, he said: “You do what you can. If you are a watermelon, you act as a watermelon. If you are a wintermelon, you act as a wintermelon. If you are an apple, you act as an apple. A wintermelon does not envy a watermelon, and a watermelon is not jealous of an apple…..” I highly appreciate his statements. Though this is his personal philosophy, it clearly manifests why Mr. Cai has become a successful and inspiring cartoonist.

If one gives up one’s own share of responsibilities and obligations to neglect one’s role and turns to be illusive, envious or jealous of others, one will definitely become lost and gain nothing but afflictions and the negative value of a life. Therefore, we should act as what we are. Then, we can fully develop our potentials to create a meaningful and valuable life and further upgrade our roles. If we cannot even act our present roles well, we definitely cannot deal with a more advanced one. If one cannot even bear the weight of fifty kilograms, one would be unlikely to bear the weight of five hundred kilograms. Realistically, you need to get used to bearing fifty kilograms, then sixty kilograms…, and finally one hundred kilograms. Consequently, to be what you truly are is very important.

IIn a family, children are supposed to be filial, which is children’s obligation. With regards to whether parents deserve it or not, it has nothing to do with the fulfillment of one’s filial piety. Being a wife or a husband, one should be loyal to the other. A family is built on the basis of morality and responsibilities, and everyone should be supportive instead of being critical. If you insist on asking others to meet your needs, you are too critical and will never be satisfied. It is because the utopia ideal has not come true yet, and the pure land of mankind has not been built. If you subjectively adhere to pursuing what you desire to have, the only thing exposed throughout your life is nothing but one word – suffering. All the unrealistic cravings result in worries. Therefore, needless to pursue anything, you only have to fulfill what you should do, and it truly interprets “being what you are”.

IV. To Verify and Assure the True Self

What is “remain who you are”?  Before being able to “remain who you are”, you need to know who you are.  Which is your self?  Those who can recognize their true selves have completely been enlightened.  What is the true self?  Many people regard their personalities as their selves and claim that they are their personalities, which is not right.  One’s personality is definitely not one’s true self, and it deviates from the true self and is a hypocritical self.  Even the recorded data of your name, nationality, age, education, occupation, aptitude etc. is not your true self.

Practice aims at searching for one’s true self. The Ch’an School instructs people to reflect on “the original face”. Once you have recognized your true face, you can personally reach “the true state” and constantly enjoy “the original scenery”. Otherwise, you cannot enter the true state, and can only live within dualistic conflicts. All reason and matter are simply the products of one’s differential mind, which is definitely not true.

Then, how to recognize one’s true self? To those who want to verify and assure their true selves, here are two very important statements to know:

Firstly, that which is true is original, and that which is original is eternal.

Secondly, that which is not original is doomed to vanish, and that which is impermanent and temporary is absolutely not true. 

Such obvious contrasts have been considerably explicit.  As long as you can deliberately reflect on it, it should not be hard for you to find the answer and then assure your true self.

V. To Realize Who You Are and Remain Who You Are

A man can be divided into two parts, which are a body and a mind.  One’s body is physical and each organ has its individual function, and we need them throughout our lives to survive.  Our bodies are manipulated by our minds.  Dr. Sun Yat-Sen said, “A country is formed by the accumulation of people; while a man is a container of his mind.”  A mind is one’s true self.  However, there are true and false minds.  One can only search deeply into one’s mind to find one’s true self.

The mind has too many different distinctions; therefore, please do not misidentify it. From our childhood to adulthood, we have been given countless descriptions of a mind. We can simplify them to be an ordinary mind, a saint’s mind, a human mind, a Dao’s mind etc. What is an ordinary mind? It is the mind of sentient beings. Though it does not originally exist, it never stops appearing. What is the Dao’s (Way) mind? It is the mind of truth and is the original mind. Referring to the statement in “The Counsels of the Great Yu”, “Man’s mind is dangerous; Dao’s mind is subtle….” The characteristic of man’s mind is that it tends to be dangerous; whereas, that of the Dao’s mind is subtle and difficult to understand. It is the subtlety that makes the Dao’s mind uneasy to be identified and verified.

”Man’s mind is dangerous.” Therefore, most people are inclined to be destructive. Human minds are filled with occupancy, dominance, jealousy, hatred, complaint, dissatisfaction, suspicion, etc., which naturally nurture people to be destructive and extinguishing. Human desires and the craving for desires not only make them lose themselves, but also drive them onto the way of destruction.

Today, our society is so chaotic that exactly reflects the overflow and selfishness of human desires. The overflow of personal desires comes from the fact that most people are unwilling to remain what they are. People only expect harvest without cultivation, success without effort, and gain without giving. All these contribute to form an extremely dangerous environment, which is our current society. To continue being as such, we all will be in danger, won’t we? It interprets the destructive tendency of “Man’s mind is dangerous”, doesn’t it?

If we want to find the true mind, we need to search it from our original minds. Throughout our growing processes, as being a baby, a toddler, a kindergartener, a primary school student, a junior high school student, etc., our six senses have been corresponding to the six worldly dusts. Our eyes keep recording whatever images they view, and so do our ears to the sounds they hear. Identically, our six senses constantly collect and accumulate the contamination coming from the six worldly dusts. These dusts are interweaving among themselves and spreading all over the surface of our minds to form the differential mind of our superficial consciousness, which originally does not exist. In the Heart Sutra, it claims that the original form of life is free from eyes, ears, noses, tongues, bodies and consciousnesses. The truth of existence is also free from forms, sounds, smells, flavors, touches and rules. Having realized this, one then understands that this differential mind is neither the original form of mind, nor the true, original self.

As the saying goes, waves do not arise if there is no wind. Without having a piece of painting cloth, how can one complete a painting? The superficial consciousness is likened to a painting, and the original mind is likened to the piece of painting cloth. If you think that to get away from one’s superficial consciousness equates to losing one’s true mind, you are totally biased. If we can clarify and clear the confusion and find the true and original mind through the superficial consciousness, our Mahaprajna will be revealed and our perception of the mind will be raised. Furthermore, to constantly maintain the genuine perception in every moment, and do not lose it in any situation, and it is the maintenance of a Ch’an practitioner’s authentic practice. From now on, no matter what we are engaged with, we must maintain and keep this mentality to claim that we truly remain who we are.

VI. That Which Is True Definitely Is Original

People who can act what they are and constantly maintain their true minds are realistically doing practice. Only when people can act what they are, can they unite their minds to concentrate on discovering their true selves. After having discovered, recognized, and assured the true self, meanwhile, being able to constantly maintain it, one then can hold oneself without being lost again and turn to be fully self-conscious in every second. That is the true meaning of “act what you are and remain who you are”. From then on, the superficial consciousness, which is differential, originally non-existent, and eventually will vanish, has become tactless and unable to create any more trouble. The kingdom of mind turns to be completely peaceful and harmonious. This is not only a reasonable appeal, but also a true verification that can be immediately proved. If one does not start one’s practice from this point, one’s practice simply is not real. A faulty cause will surely bring a destructive effect; therefore, one’s practice is doomed to fail.

Though some people have found their true selves; unfortunately, they also have had a huge misunderstanding. They are so afraid of having thoughts. Whenever there is a thought arising in their mind, they resist against it. In fact, it is needless to do so. We, living in this phenomenal realm, have a basic mission, which is to both accomplish ourselves and benefit others. To accomplish ourselves means to find out our true selves which have been lost and buried. To benefit others means to help those who have affinities to us to find their lost true selves. These are our missions.

You all may ask, “Buddhism emphasizes non-self, then Master, why are you always talking about searching for our true selves? Are there any conflicts?” Let me tell you there is no conflict at all. When you read sutras, you need to read them intelligently. In the Leng-Yan Sutra, the Buddha asked his disciple, Anan, to find the true mind from seven outside locations, but Anan failed to find it. Then he asked Anan to analyze and verify his own mind by giving away its brightness, darkness, flow, blockage, etc. to see what the remainder was. The remainder was unable to be given away or categorized. If it was not one’s true self, what else could it be?

The non-self stated by the Buddha does not refer to the non-existence of the eternal and true life. He just intended to forbid us to mistake the superficial consciousness, which can differentiate, be jealous, desirable, angry and full of folly and mistakes, for our true selves. You can start reflecting on the statement of “That which is true definitely is original. What is original?” Once you have made a breakthrough and clarified all your confusion to reach to the doubtless state, you will eventually assure your true self.

Some people regard that it is extremely difficult to view one’s own nature to become a Buddha. Actually, it is not. Buddha means awakening. When you have clearly and thoroughly seen the attribute of your life, you have simultaneously accomplished the awakening of your life.

To people who do not realistically practice Buddhism, it is true that life seems like a dream and ends up a full emptiness. Both a dream and a full emptiness are referred to your superficial consciousness. However, with regard to the authentic and eternal true self, life is neither a dream, nor a dull emptiness.

In the gathering of Leng-Yan, the Buddha applied the dialogue between him and his disciple, Anan, to teach you how to find the true mind by searching for it from seven outside locations and trying to verify your mind by eight ways. He aimed to guide you to find your lost true mind to accomplish the awakening of your life. Before entering his nirvana, the Buddha presented the statement of “Eternity, joy, self and purity” to highlight the true phenomena and meaning of life. Originally, there is no fake self; how could there be no true self? We have to realize that as far as “Different people have different minds.” is concerned, it refers to their fake self. In fact, the true self is the common phenomena of life, the original state of mind, non-dualistic, and non-discriminative, which is also the reason why the Buddha equals to sentient beings and one equals to the others.

All of you can start your searching by probing into “seeing the nature of the self”. What is “seeing the nature of the self”? The nature of the self exactly means its attribute. Once you find the basic and common attribute of life, you simultaneously see the nature of the self and become a Buddha. Buddha means awakening. At this particular moment, you have accomplished the awakening of life, which is very easy. Referring to the moisture of water and the heat of fire, what is the nature of life? You can start from this to condense and induce it to the attribute of your own life, and constantly and diligently reflect on this issue till you finally realize what it is truly about and then find your original self. When you have seen the nature of the self and also assure your true self, you will be willing to give up the fake self – the superficial consciousness. The process of giving up and denying the superficial consciousness to allow the revelation of the true and original self is claimed as “cutting off the root of one’s life”. It is the time you withdraw yourself from the edge of a cliff and decide to fully responsible for your own true self. From now on, you have no connection at all with that fake self which is full of love, hatred, complaints, anger, greed and all of the seven emotions and six desires. This exactly interprets “cutting off the root of one’s life”.

With regard to what I just said, please do not misunderstand that you need to dispose of your fake self when you have found your true self, or to dispose of your superficial consciousness once you have verified your true self. You have to realize that to dispose of one’s superficial consciousness equates to having reached one’s nirvana. Before reaching your nirvana, your superficial consciousness still functions as a necessary tool for your life, so how can you dispose of it? As long as it can appropriately act as a tool for your life, and will not come to the throne of your mental kingdom to drive or manipulate you, it is fine to stay. In fact, you cannot completely dispose of or isolate your superficial consciousness. On the contrary, you need to cherish it, properly apply it, protect it but not spoil it; meanwhile, you have to constantly clean it to keep it pure, safe, workable and functional. Then, you can claim that you have managed it well.

VII. Four Types of Mind
　
I always say that the mind can be categorized into four forms, while going through the process of being transformed from the fake superficial consciousness to its true self.

(1) The Mind of Inverted and Delusive Thoughts

What is “the mind of inverted and delusive thoughts”? Obviously, harvest results from cultivation; what harvest to gain depends on what cultivation one has made. Unfortunately, people are always reluctant to cultivate, but only expecting to harvest.

Though sitting in the office with a file in hand, one’s mind is totally obsessed with the thought – “If I won a lottery, I would have a wife, a son and a house arriving at my door. If a car could be added, it would even be much better….” This is exactly daydreaming. Many people enjoy unrealistically dreaming like this. In the long run, they will eventually become psychopathic. The so-called “inverted and delusive thoughts” does not necessarily refer to dream while sleeping, but actually means people’s daydreaming with their eyes widely open.

There is also another kind of people, when they cannot get what they want, they would comfort themselves by means of making illusions. They are always thinking of how much pay rise they can get next year and how much more they can get if they can be promoted to a higher position through a special connection etc. etc…. What they have been doing is to work unrealistically on their finances. Or one would be thinking of the development of one’s career, and building all sorts of ideas on the issue through the whole night. Nevertheless, on the next day, when he walks out to work, all his efforts are in vain.

Some other people are used to dreaming fantasy. They would be simply thinking, but do not intend to have any conclusion. In the long run, they eventually become psychopathic. While they are thinking of one issue, the other issues will also pop up, and vice versa. When it comes to the point where they cannot manage their own thoughts, they will become multi-conscious and psychopathic. All these horrible consequences result from having “inverted and delusive thoughts”.

(2). The Mind of Dualistic Conflicts

When one’s mind is constantly filled with concepts of advantages or disadvantages, gain or loss, others or self, black or white, goodness or badness, kindness or evil, beauty or ugliness, merits or faults etc…., in the long run, it will tend to go to extremes and cannot deviate from bias. One at times would think of doing something evil; however, one’s conscience does not allow it to happen, which develops a battle of doing it or not doing it. When one plans to invest in something, one’s mind is meanwhile trapped in the fear of gain and loss. Then, again one is struggling against the battle of gain and loss.

Many people throughout their entire lives cannot settle their restless minds. If a practitioner can reveal Mahaprajna to release his mind from these dualistic conflicts, he can reach the third form of mind.

(3). The Mind of Pure-Self Likened to be in the Womb

This kind of mentality is likened to a baby living in its mother’s womb. The baby exists all by itself, which state is addressed by modern psychology as “the sole consciousness”.

When practitioners of the past reached the climax of their reflection, they would have attained this mentality. With this mentality, though there were mountains, water, people or even ghosts, they saw none of them at all. It was because they would gather all those dualistic, dividing, and illusive things to be a skeptical mass, which turned them into a chaotic self or a living skeleton without any discrimination but only being conscious. When some practitioners came to this point, they thought they had reached their final goal. In fact, they had not. This sole consciousness needs to wait for the critical access to be crashed and cracked open to reach the stage of non-self consciousness. It was like Master Xu-Yun. When he was reflecting to a state, where he seemed walking on cotton, forgot having meals in daytime, or sleeping at night, and even poured boiling water onto his own hand instead of the cup; suddenly, he was awakened by the sense of pain coming from the burned hand. Then, the cup was dropped to break into pieces, and so was his sole consciousness.

(4). The Mind of Non-Self that is Purely Objective

Purely objective non-self consciousness equates to the true and original mentality, and it exactly displays the true self of the non-self. The self of the non-self is equivalent to the state of “Perfect union of both heaven and men” addressed by Confucianism. Having returned to the original mentality of the original face equates to having attained the grand enlightenment of the Ch’an practice. When you have reached this state, the full revelation is nothing but the attribute of life, and it is absolutely free from any adherences and mistakes. Furthermore, one can immediately enjoy the grand completeness of true independence, freedom and equality.

With regards to these four forms of mind, the first two forms belong to the superficial consciousness. The third one is the restrained superficial consciousness, and the true self has not yet been disclosed. So it has not reached the final step yet. It is the fourth form of mind that obviously reveals one’s true self, and this true self is both purely objective and subjective. Once you have found your true self, you can enjoy “being what you are and remaining who you are.”

VIII. Uncontaminated by the Mundane World;and Unchanged in any Conditions

The life of those ancient people, who had been fully enlightened, was not different from the ordinary ones at all. They realistically acted as what they were and remained within their character. (What seems to be inaction is in fact the most active approach to preserve one’s identity.) Let us observe the example of the second Patriarch, after he passed on his robe and bowl to the third Patriarch, he went to tea houses or city markets to blend in with the environment. After the fifth Patriarch transmitted the Dharma to the sixth Patriarch, he built a hut at the back of the East-Mountain Temple to live with his mother. His life was truly simple and plain.

When you enter the fourth stage of the mind, which truly equates to the self of the non-self, neither the heaven nor devils can see or even peep into it. Those who have not yet been enlightened mistakenly think that they should eliminate everything related to the fake self after having reached the stage of absolute objectivity and the verification of the non-self and true self. In fact, they should not do so. In the journey of these four types of consciousness, they are realistically complementary to one another. When the fourth true mind has been revealed, it will enclose the other three forms of mind to blend in together. They will try to compromise and not to be individually distinctive. However, when necessary, they will function simultaneously and harmoniously; otherwise, they will simply behave and do not annoy. This is virtually the true “Golden Mean”. If one departs from this mentality, one can never correspond to the golden mean.

We now realize that after having found our true original self, we should just be what we are and remain who we are. We can live within the community, and stay uncontaminated or unchanged by the environment. It is needless to hide in deep mountains; but instead, one can practice at any road crossing.

In the last lecture on “Compliments to Oxen”, I mentioned about what a fully enlightened person would do after having completed his full practice. He does nothing but “walking freely in the markets” as one of the commoners. He would not leave sentient beings alone; instead, he would apply his realization to help people in needs. Realistically, he is not contaminated by the mundane world, nor changed in any conditions (yuan).” With regards to “yuan”, it refers to one’s living environment and conditions. Though you eat and work regularly, your mind of Bodhi is absolutely not manipulated or contaminated by the external environment, nor disturbed to arise any illusions.

During the course of the Dharma practice, the main purpose is to pursue eternity and search for your true self, which is also the essential subject of this gathering. Realistically speaking, it aims to purify one’s superficial consciousness (as the true and original mind is originally flawless, and needless to be “fixed”.) How to purify and adjust our superficial consciousness and to discover and assure our true and original self is exactly the common subject for us to practice. I believe some of you have already made great achievements, though not fully enlightened yet. It is likened to having entered into a room full of orchids’ fragrance, where each practitioner can benefit from the learning experiences of one another and attain the perception of An-Hsiang.

Conclusively, all of you come to attend this gathering to share your experience in practice. Then, what is it to practice? It is to practice one’s mind. By means of purifying one’s fake mind, one can eventually discover one’s true mind. Moreover, one should manage to eliminate one’s human mind and try to fully reveal one’s Bodhi mind.

IX. Three Unattainable Minds

Whenever speaking of mind, I will always think of an anecdote – the famous“De-Shan's bat”of the Ch'an School.

Whenever speaking of mind, I will always think of an anecdote – the famous “De-Shan’s bat” of the Ch’an School.

Master De-Shan Xuan-Jian was born in Si-Chuan, where he was ordained and did his practice. Since he was young, he had been intelligent and full of wisdom. He had been good at researching various Sutras, especially the Diamond Sutra; therefore, he wrote a book named “Green Dragon Notation”. (「青龍疏鈔」) If we use No.5 fond of today to compile it, its volume just equates to that of one book today. However, he wrote it with a Chinese calligraphy pen, it was ended up with a huge volume. When he heard of the Ch’an School’s slogan – “Needless to write into words; transmitting beyond the mere doctrines; directly corresponding to one’s mind and viewing one’s nature to become a Buddha,” he regarded the statement absolutely impossible. He was so angry to comment that – “Practitioners spend thousand kalpas of time on learning the manner of the Buddha and ten thousand kalpas of time on learning the delicate conduct of the Buddha, they still cannot achieve their Buddhahood. Why dare those devils in the south claim that “they can transmit their minds between and among people, and turn to be a Buddha by having viewed one’s nature.”? Where to find such an easy thing! I had to destroy their nests and eliminate those scum to render the Buddha’s favor.”

Therefore, De-Shan carried a stack of “Green Dragon Notation”, which interpreted the Diamond Sutra, and he left Si-Chuan. When he arrived at Hu-Nan Fong-Yang, he was very hungry. He saw an old lady selling biscuits, so he put down his stack and went to buy her biscuits as snacks. The old lady looked at him and asked, “What are you carrying in your stack?” De-Shan answered, “The Diamond Sutra Green-Dragon Notation.” When the old lady heard of the Diamond Sutra, she then talked to De-Shan, “I have a question for you. If you can answer it, I will sell you my biscuits. Otherwise, I would not sell it to you.” De-Shan said, “Yes, Ma’am, please go ahead!” The old lady asked, “In the Diamond Sutra, it states – ‘The mind of the past cannot be attained; the mind of the present cannot be attained; the mind of the future cannot be attained.’ Then, which mind are you going to order now (Phonetically, in Chinese, the sound of ‘order’ and ‘mind’ together is identical to that of ‘snack’.)?

This question immediately stunned De-Shan, and made him speechless. He was so upset to leave. It was this question that seriously defeated De-Shan’s pride and sharpness. When he arrived at Dragon-Pond where Master Chong-Xin practiced, he was walking back and forth in the Dharma Hall and said, “Longing to visit Dragon-Pond; however, I arrived to see neither a pond, nor a dragon.” Master Chong-Xin then replied, “You truly have arrived at Dragon-Pond!” This dialogue made De-Shan stay to settle at Dragon-Pond and followed Master Chong-Xin to continue his practice.

One night, De-Shan was standing beside Master Chong-Xin and had no intention to leave. Master Chong-Xin said to him, “It’s getting really late now; you should leave to have a break.” So De-Shan walked out a few steps, then came back again and said, “It’s too dark outside!” Master Chong-Xin lit a piece of paper and gave it to De-Shan. When De-Shan was going to take the paper torch, Master Chong-Xin put it out straight away. This made De-Shan fully enlightened.

Master Chong-Xin asked De-Shan what he had realized. De-Shan answered, “From now on, I would never doubt the tongue of an old monk!”

We do not discuss how De-Shan was enlightened or what he had realized. However, I am concerned about the old lady’s three statements – “The mind of the past cannot be attained; the mind of the present cannot be attained; the mind of the future cannot be attained.” They really made De-Shan frustrated, upset and speechless. Ladies and gentlemen, is there anyone who would be willing to answer it for De-Shan? Even if your answer is wrong, it is fine. Who can help De-Shan find a way out? (Pause for a moment.) Well, let me tell you that De-Shan was specialized in researching the Diamond Sutra. Then, why couldn’t he answer the question? It was all because of his theoretical obstacles. If a practitioner who had been truly liberated, and free from any adherence to both self and the Dharma and also without any obstacles from reason and matter, he would have easily answered the question. “The mind of the past cannot be attained; the mind of the present cannot be attained; the mind of the future cannot be attained. Then, which mind are you going to order now?” – De-Shan could simply reply to her, “Thanks for your kind offer!” Then he could pick up his stack and left gracefully without any frustration. He surely would not be humiliated, and the old lady should be truly embarrassed.

I just asked you to help De-Shan get out of the mess, but you would not. Now, I have done it for him. Does anyone know where the key of this statement is? If you do, I dare acknowledge that you have successfully graduated, though no diploma is issued. Otherwise, you need to continue your studies. If you insist on asking where the key is, I can only tell you:

Twilight and the wild duck both fly;

Fall water and the vast sky are in the same tone.

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