From the Mohezhiguan. Handout from Brook Ziporyn's June 29, 2015 dharma talk.
This is the Stillness Awareness of the mind for this practice: sit upright and mindful, eliminating any disturbing sensations, abandoning any unruly ideations. Without thinking about anything else, but also without grabbing hold of any particular forms and appearances, just fix your mind exclusively on the Total Field of All Phenomena,[1] letting each moment of experience be entirely identical to the Total Field of All Phenomena (xiyuan fajie, yinian fajie 繫緣法界， 一念法界). Fixing the mind on it is the Stillness; letting each moment of experience be entirely identical to it is the Awareness.
Trust that all phenomena without exception are aspects of Buddhahood. As such, none can be prior to or subsequent to any of the others, as there are no longer any genuine boundaries between them. Thus there can be no separate knower or describer of them. But in that case, nothing can be definitively described or known about them. Hence they cannot definitively exist or not exist, cannot be a knower or a non knower, cannot for that matter be known or unknown. Free of the duality of these extremes, they dwell only in their not dwelling exclusively anywhere or in anything, just as the buddhas dwell in their secure and peaceful Nirvana, the quiescent extinguishment which is itself also the Total Field of All Phenomena.
Do not be alarmed when learning this profound teaching: the Total Field of All Phenomena is called Awakening, but it is also called the Realm Beyond Conception. It is called Liberating Wisdom, but it is also called the Unborn and Undestroyed. In the same way, each and every phenomenon is itself none other than the Total Field of All Phenomena, without duality and without separation. Do not be alarmed in learning of this nonduality and nonseparateness.
To be able to contemplate in this way is to contemplate the [true meaning of the] Ten Epithets of the Tathāgata [i.e., of the Buddha].[2] In thus contemplating the Tathāgata, do not regard the Tathāgata as the Tathāgata. There is no definite Tathāgata available anywhere to be the Tathāgata, nor is there any definite Tathāgata wisdom with which he might know himself, for between the Tathāgata and his wisdom there is no attribute of duality, of motion, of beginning. They are neither in space nor lacking in any part of space; neither in past present future nor lacking in any past present future, neither dual nor non dual, neither defiled nor pure.
This contemplation of the Tathāgata is most rare, like space itself never going awry. Keep increasing your mindfulness of it, seeing the beautiful features of the Buddha in front of you as if you were looking at your own reflection in still water. First see it as this one Buddha, then as all the Buddhas of the ten directions. No miraculous power need take you far away to see these Buddhas: you see them and hear them preaching the Dharma right where you are. Understanding the real meaning of the phrase “how things really are,” you can, for the sake of all sentient beings, see the Tathāgata, but without taking hold of the idea of “Tathāgata” as a definite thing. You transform the lives of all sentient beings and move them toward Nirvana, but without taking hold of the idea of “Nirvana” as a definite thing. You beautify yourself for the sake of all sentient beings, but see there to be no definite thing that is “beauty.”
It is very remarkable indeed: having no definite form or attribute, and thus no seeing or hearing or knowing, [The Total Field of All Phenomena] admits of no realization, even by a Buddha. What is the reason? It is that a Buddha is himself precisely the Total Field of All Phenomena. To say that the Total Field of All Phenomena has a realization of the Total Field of All Phenomena would be contentious and meaningless talk. Rather, without any realization or any attainment, contemplate all the aspects of all sentient beings as aspects of Buddhahood, and the extent of the realm of sentient beings as the extent of the realm of the Buddha. The extent of the realm of a Buddha is beyond conception, and so is the extent of the realm of a sentient being. The realm of sentient beings dwells as space dwells: by dwelling in nothing at all, by its utter lack of any definite attribute, it dwells within enlightened wisdom itself.
Since we can find no things that are mundane and deluded, what is there to abandon? Since we can find no things that are sagely and pure, what is there to achieve? The same goes for samsara, nirvana, defilement and purity. Not abandoning, not obtaining, dwell only in the Ultimate Reality. In this way, see each sentient being as the true Buddha who is the Total Field of All Phenomena.
See lust and rage and delusion and all other afflictive passions and disturbances as actions that are always already quiescent, actions devoid of any real motion, belonging to neither samsara nor nirvana. Relinquishing neither false views nor the Unconditioned, practice the Buddha path, for such a practice is neither practicing the path nor not practicing the path. It is called truly dwelling in each of the afflictive passions and disturbances, seeing each of them to be the Total Field of All Phenomena.
In contemplating heavy karma, none goes beyond the five grave sins of killing father, killing mother, killing an arhat, shedding the blood of a Buddha, or sowing dissension in the Sańgha. But these five grave sins are precisely wisdom itself, for there is no definite mark of duality differentiating wisdom on the one hand and these five sins on the other. There is no separate entity that feels them, knows them, discerns them. The attributes of sin are precisely the attributes of the Ultimate Reality, for both are beyond conception and thus incapable of being destroyed, originally free of any original nature. All karma and conditionings dwell in the Ultimate Reality, neither coming nor going, neither cause nor effect. This is the contemplation of karma itself as precisely the authoritative signature of the Total Field of All Phenomena.[3] The authoritative signature of the Total Field of All Phenomena is such that the four types of demon can never destroy it or abuse it. And why? Because the demons are themselves the authoritative signature of the Total Field of All Phenomena. How could the authoritative signature of the Total Field of All Phenomena destroy the authoritative signature of the Total Field of All Phenomena? The same idea can be applied to each and every phenomenon, as should now be obvious.[4]
身論開遮。口論說默。意論止觀。身開常坐遮行住臥。或可處眾獨則彌善。居一靜室或空閑 地。離諸喧鬧。安一繩床傍無餘座。九十日為一期。結跏正坐項脊端直。不動不搖不 萎不倚。以坐自誓。肋不拄床。況復屍臥遊戲住立。除經行食便利。隨一佛方面端坐 正向。時刻相續無須臾廢。所開者專坐。所遮者勿犯。不欺佛不負心不誑眾生。口說 默者。若坐疲極。或疾病所困。或睡蓋所覆。內外障侵奪正念心不能遣却。當專稱一 佛名字慚愧懺悔以命自歸。與稱十方佛名功德正等。所以者何。如人憂喜欝怫舉聲歌 哭悲笑則暢。行人亦爾。風觸七處成身業。聲響出脣成口業。二能助意成機感佛俯降 。如人引重自力不前。假傍救助則蒙輕舉。行人亦爾。心弱不能排障。稱名請護惡緣 不能壞。若於法門未了。當親近解般若者。如聞修學。能入一行三昧面見諸佛上菩薩 位。誦經誦呪尚喧於靜。況世俗言語耶。意止觀者。端坐正念。蠲除惡覺捨諸亂想。莫雜思惟不取 相貌。但專繫緣法界一念法界。繫緣是止。一念是觀。信一切法皆是佛法。無前無後無復際畔。無 知者無說者。若無知無說則非有非無。非知者非不知者。離此二邊住無所住。如諸佛住安處寂。聞 此深法勿生驚怖。此法界亦名菩提。亦名不可思議境界。亦名般若。亦名不生不滅。如是等一切法 與法界無二無別。聞無二無別勿生疑惑。能如是觀者。是觀如來十號。觀如來時不謂如來為如來。 無有如來為如來。亦無如來智能知如來者。如來及如來智。無二相。無動相。不作相。不在方不離 方。非三世非不三世。非二相非不二相。非垢相非淨相。此觀如來甚為希有。猶如虛空無有過失. 增長正念見佛相好. 如照水鏡自見其形。初見一佛。次見十方佛。不用神通往見佛。唯住此處見諸 佛聞佛說法。得如實義為一切眾生見如來。而不取如來相。化一切眾生向涅槃而不取涅槃相。為一 切眾生發大莊嚴而不見莊嚴相。無形無相無見聞知。佛不證得是為希有。何以故。佛即法界。若以 法界證法界即是諍論。無證無得。觀眾生相如諸佛相。眾生界量如諸佛界量。諸佛界量不可思議。 眾生界量亦不可思議。眾生界住如虛空住。以不住法以無相法住般若中。不見凡法云何捨。不見聖 法云何取。生死涅槃垢淨亦如是。不捨不取但住實際。如此觀眾生真佛法界。觀貪欲瞋癡諸煩惱。 恒是寂滅行。是無動行。非生死法非涅槃法。不捨諸見不捨無為。而修佛道。非修道非不修道。是 名正住煩惱法界也。觀業重者。無出五逆。五逆即是菩提。菩提五逆無二相。無覺者。無知者。無 分別者。逆罪相實相相。皆不可思議不可壞。本無本性。一切業緣皆住實際。不來不去非因非果。 是為觀業即是法界印。法界印四魔所不能壞魔不得便。何以故。魔即法界印。法界印云何毀法界印。以此意歷一切法亦應可解。
[1] Dharmadhātu (fajie 法界)。 This means at once the entirety of all experience of all beings, and the ultimate reality, suggesting both ((TO BE CONTINUED))
[2] The ten epithets are, according to the meaning of their standard Chinese renderings: Tathāgata (“thus come one”), Worthy of Offerings (also a name for Arhats in general), Untilting Omnipresent Knowledge, Accomplished in Illumination and Action, Well- departed, Untangler of the Worlds, Master Tamer, Teacher of Gods and Humans, Awakened One, Honored of the World.
[3] Fajieyin 法界印 Literally, “seal of the dharmadhātu.” In Sanskrit this would be dharmadhātu-uddāna. A “seal” is sometimes used in Buddhist contexts to mean a characteristic mark, as in the “Three Seals of the Dharma” (non-self, impermanence, and suffering, for example), that guarantee the authenticity of a purported teaching—so something like a “seal of authenticity.” It is also used in the sense of a protective seal, or a seal stamped by an authority which guarantees the protection of that authority—something like a passport, or a guarantee that something is an authentic representative of some power and thus not to be messed with without that power getting involved. Hence the term comes to mean something like a protective spell in popular discourse. This meaning is evidently in play here in the reference to indestructibility. The idea here is that karma and demons are both genuine, inalienable manifestations of the Total Field of All Phenomena, and are indestructible—though for a different reason: because each is the whole, and the whole cannot destroy the whole.