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Gunabhadra/Record

Jingjue's Preface

Gunabhadra Tripitake was a man of South India. When he studied the Great Vehicle, he was called, "Mahayana". During the Yuan Jia yars (424-454), he came by ship to Guangzhou. Emperor Taizu of the Song received him at Danyang Commandery.

He translated the Lankavatara Sutra. Princes and nobles, monks and laymen, invited him to give instructions on meditation, but Gunabhadra was embarrassed [and declined] because he did not speak Chinese well. That night he dreamed that a man took off his head with a sword: thenceforth he began to give lessons on meditation.


Gunabhadra's Teaching

This country is located in the East and lacks methods of cultivating the Path. Since they lack such methods, some fall into the teachings or the Lesser Vehicle and Two Vehicles; some fall into the teachings of the ninety-five kinds of outside paths; some fall into demonic meditation, in order to view all things and find out the good and bad deeds of other people. How bitter! What a great misfortune! They entrap themselves and entrap others. I feel sorry for these types, who fall for long ages into demonic paths subject to birth and death, and do not attain liberation. Some fall into forbidden magical arts, controlling spirits and demons, spying on other people's good and bad deeds: they falsely say, "I sit in meditation and practice contemplation." Ordinary people are blind and deluded and do not understand, and think that [such magicians] have indeed realized the Path of the Sages, and submit to them. They do not know that these are perverse, demonic methods.

In our land we have the Correct Teaching, but it is secret and not openly transmitted. Those who have an affinity with it and whose faculties are fully prepared meet good and wise men on the road who bestow it on them. If not for encounters with good and wise teachers, there would be no transmission from "father" to "son".

The Lankavatara Sutra says, "The Mind of the buddhas is supreme: when the Dharma is bestowed in our teaching, where [deluded] states of mind do not arise, it is this." This Dharma surpasses the Three Vehicles and goes beyond the ten stages. Ultimately the fruit of enlightenment can only be known for oneself with mind silent. Mindless, we nurture the spirit; without thought, we pacify the body. Without preoccupations, we sit in purity, preserving the fundamental and returning to the real. Our Dharma is secret and silent; it is not transmitted by common fools of shallow consciousness. Only people rich in merit and virtue can receive it and carry it out.

If your do not understand, if you are not liberated, the sixth [consciousness] possesses the seventh and the eighth. If you do understand, if you are liberated, the eighth [consciousness] is without the sixth and seventh.

Those who intend to be buddhas should first learn to pacify mind. Before mind is pacified, even good things are not good - so much worse for evil. When mind becomes peaceful and still, neither good nor evil has any basis. The Huayan Sutra says, "Phenomena do not see each other, phenomena do not know each other."

Since coming to this country, I have not even seen people who cultivate the Path, much less anyone who has pacified mind. I often see people who go along creating karma, who have not merged with the Path. Some are concerned with fame and reputation; some act for the sake of profit and support. They operate with the mentality of self and others; they act with the attitude of jealousy. What is jealousy? It means to engender the mentality of resentment and hatred when you see someone else cultivating the Path and reaching consummation in principle and practice, so that many people offer support and give their allegiance. It means self-satisfied reliance on your own intelligence, not using it to overcome self - this is called jealousy. Even if you scrupulously perform various practices day and night, cut off afflictions and clear away obstructions, with this kind of attitude, barriers to the Path arise one after another, and you do not find peace and stillness. This is just called "cultivating the Path"; it is not called "pacifying mind."

Even if you practice the six paramitas, expound the scriptures, sit in meditation, and advance energetically while practicing austerities, this is just called "being good"; it is not called "Dharma practice". If you do not irrigate the karmic field with the water of desire, if you do not plant the seeds of consciousness there, this is called "Dharma practice".

Just now I spoke of pacifying mind. In brief, there are four kinds of mentality.

First, the mentality that turns away from truth: this is the mentality of those who go through life as ordinary people.

Second, the mentality that turns toward truth: this means loathing birth and death and so seeking nirvana and going toward stillness.

Third, the mind that enters truth: though you cut off barriers [to the Path] and reveal inner truth, subject and object are not yet nullified: this is the bodhisattva mentality.

Fourth, the mind of truth: not mind outside truth, not truth outside mind; truth is mind. Mind is able to be everywhere equal, so it is called mind. Mind and truth are everywhere equal, so it is called buddha-mind, the mind of enlightenment.

Those who understand reality do not see any difference between birth and death and nirvana, or ordinary and holy. Objects and knowledge are not two: inner truth and phenomena are fused. Real and conventional are viewed as equal; defilement and purity are one Suchness. Buddhas and sentient beings are fundamentally equal and at one.

The Lankavatara Sutra says, "There is no nirvana in anything: no nirvana-buddha, no buddha-nirvana. It is detached from awakening and that which is awakened to, detached from both being and nothingness." The Great Path is fundamentally omnipresent, perfectly pure, and basically [i.e. fundamentally, originally] existent: it is not attained from causes. It is like the sun hidden behind floating clouds: when the clouds are gone, the sun appears by itself. What's the use of any more learning or views? Why become involved in written or spoken words, and come back again to the path of birth and death? Those who take verbal explanations and literary accounts of the Path covet fame and profit: they ruin themselves and ruin others. It is like polishing a mirror: when the dust on the surface has been totally removed, the mirror of itself is bright and clear.

All things are uncompounded. The sutra says, "The Buddha is not Buddha, nor does he save sentient beings. Sentient beings impose distinctions, and think Buddha saves sentient beings: thus they do not realize this Mind, and they have no stability." With realization, there is awareness, and Great Function amid causal origination, penetrating perfectly without obstruction: this is called "Great Cultivation of the Path". There is no duality between self and other. All practices are carried out at once: there is no before or after, and no in between. It is called the Great Vehicle.

Having no attachments within or without, the great ultimate relinquishment - this is called danaparamita/, the perfection of giving. Good and evil equal, so neither can be found - this is silaparamita, the perfection of morality. To have no transgressions amid the objects of mind, the harm of rancor forever ended - this is ksantiparamita, the perfection of patience. Great stillness unmoving, the myriad activities spontaneously so - this is viryaparamita, the perfection of energetic progress. The flourishing of wondrous stillness - this is dhyanaparamita, the perfection of meditation. Wondrous stillness opening forth illumination - this is prajnaparamita, the perfection of wisdom. People who are like this are lofty and vast, taking in everything perfectly without obstruction, achieving rich and varied functioning. This is the Great Vehicle.

If they do not first learn to pacify mind, those who seek the Great Vehicle are sure to err in their knowledge. The Mahaprajnaparamita Sutra says, "The five eyes of all the buddhas observe the minds of sentient beings and all phenomena, ultimately without seeing." The Huayana Sutra says, "If you have no views, then you can see." The Si Yi Sutra says, "It is not something seen with the eyes or known by the senses. It must be seen by according with Thusness. All the senses are Thus, and so is the Thusness of the Dharma. Seeing like this is called correct seeing." The Chan Jue says, "Bats and owls do not see things in daylight, but rather by night. This is due to the inversions of false thinking. How so? Bats and owls see what to others is darkness as light. Ordinary people see what to others is light as darkness. Both are cases of false thinking. Because of their inverted perceptions, because of their karmic barriers, [ordinary people] do not see reality. This being so, light is not definitely light, and darkness is not definitely darkness. If you understand like this, and you are not confused by inverted thinking, then you will enter into the eternity, the bliss, the personality, and the purity of the tathagatas."

The Lankavatara Sutra says, "How can one purify one's thoughts? Do not allow false thinking. Do not allow defiled thinking. Put your utmost energy into mindfulness of buddha. Let mindfulness of buddha continue without a break: you will be still, without thoughts, and you will witness the fundamental empty purity." Once this is received, you do not fall back from eternal stillness. Thus Buddha said, "How can it be increased?"

You learn from the teacher, but enlightenment does not come from the teacher. Whoever would 'make people wise' has never expounded the Dharma. It is verified in the event.


Gunabhadra said, "Can you enter a jar? Can you enter a pillar? Can you enter fire? Can you go through a mountain? Do you enter bodily or do you enter mentally?"

He also said, "In a room there is a jar. Is the jar also outside the room or not? Is there water in the jar? Is the jar in the water? Are there jars in all the waters in the world? What is this water?"

He also said, "The leaves of a tree can preach the Dharma. A jar can preach the Dharma. A pillar can preach the Dharma. A staff can preach the Dharma. A room can preach the Dharma. Earth, water, fire and air can all preach the Dharma. Earth, wood, tile and stone can also preach the Dharma. What is this?"