Bản tiếng Anh: GƯƠM BÁU TRAO TAY (tiếp theo)

 HANDING DOWN

the

PRECIOUS SWORD

 

(Do Hong Ngoc, MD

English translated by GT Dieu Hanh)

2. Handing down the precious sword

 

Subhuti, sitting among the assembled peers, suddenly leapt up: “It is very rare, World Honoured One! How well the Tathagata protects and thinks of all Bodhisattvas, how well He instructs all the Bodhisattvas!”

At this point, I was again more perplexed. Subhuti is no stranger!  He is one of the ten great disciples of the Buddha, an arahant, famous for his delight in living alone, foremost in Emptiness. Nonetheless, he spoke as if… he was jealous of the Bodhisattvas… “You, Bodhisattvas, be ‘joyous’ for Lord Buddha has ‘favoured’ you and devoted his teachings to you this day!”   “He minds you, protects and instructs you so earnestly as if He had never taught, entrusted, nor guided you, his greatest and closest disciples, before!”  At first I was aghast, then it dawned on me that things were not as they seemed. Arahants, Worthy Ones, had attained the state of no-rebirth, how can they be jealous and give birth to such a mental affliction? Maybe here is an important teaching, dedicated especially to the bodhisattvas– enlightened beings who choose to remain sentient in this world, and who are ready to plunge into the world of suffering in order to provide salvation for others.  Among the attendees are confirmed bodhisattvas, as well as some (religious or laymen/women) newly generated Bodhicitta who are not yet enlightened beings but are available to assist others attain enlightenment, and apply the Buddha’s teachings and doctrines in the process. They formed a new generation of Buddha’s disciples at the time He taught the Diamond Sutra.  It was a formation of Bodhisattvas aspired and ready to engage as life saviours to those in need.

Was it like:

The Emperor, handing over his precious sword, at midnight calls for war and sets the day?

“Chín tầng gươm báu trao tay / Nửa đêm truyền hịch định ngày xuất chinh” (Đoàn thị Điểm)

 A precious sword?  Absolutely.  The sword that was handed here was the sharpest, made of diamond, able to slice through all human suffering and destined misfortune of mankind.  This task is entrusted to the “future” Bodhisattvas, the good men and women who aspires to throw themselves into life’s danger with zeal, eager to spread forth the liberating Dharma. As for the Worthy Ones who had eliminated all afflictions, who had laid the “burdens” down, it would also help that they chose to commit themselves to return to the samsaric world and continue upholding the Dharma source!  I remember having read:  “when the source is deep, the stream is long!” The source must be deep so for the stream to be long!

And what about going to war?  The war here is not with other countries to defend one’s own or to occupy another but to be at war with ourselves, with the greed-aversion–ignorance foes inside each of us.  Lao Tzu said:  “those who conquer others are strong; those who conquer themselves are powerful”. It’s difficult to conquer oneself. One needs a precious sword for that.

The way Subhuti praised Buddha of “how precious, dedicated and mindful the Tathagata was taught to all the Bodhisattvas, protecting and instructing them so well” already expressed this.  Nowadays, this is known as “creating motivation” as part of the participatory education.  With the use of motivation, students study better, or else they might… fall asleep!   Maybe everybody assembled there was just as stupefied, making them more open, more enthusiastic to absorb the teaching.  Each of them vowed to strive to be a bodhisattva to deserve the Buddha’s protection and trust.

Subhuti then asked:  “World Honoured One, if good men and good women want to achieve enlightenment, upon what should they rely?  What should they do to control their mind?”

2500 years later, this question still resounds.  Especially today when globalization and the “flat world” etc… have driven mankind to fierce disputes, struggles over power and interests that lead to wars, epidemics, and natural disasters… as we all have witnessed.  Never men had been so “enflamed” and their minds so “wildly disarrayed” as much as they do now.

Indeed, to be enlightened, all you need is to focus on that mind.  You must quiet it, subdue it and that’s it!  Doing so one will be enlightened in the same way as Buddha did. As He said, ordinary people are not yet enlightened Buddhas, and a Buddha is an already enlightened ordinary man. That’s it. There’s nothing more. We need nothing more. All the disturbing elements in life, all sufferings and misfortunes come from that mind. One need only bridle it, pull it back, discipline it, coax it – in other word tame it as one would have tamed a wild horse or an angry bull— contain it somewhere and prevent it from wreaking further havoc!

Easier said than done. In fact, the mind is very difficult to control, train, subdue and settle. As powerful as Thai Thuong Lao Quân, and still was unable to discipline his riding bull from breaking loose from its cage and doing damage to the world!  The bull used to smell Lao Quan’s magical medicine, which only made it even more violent! Even Tôn Ngô Không, with his 72 kinds of supernatural powers was sometimes desperate, helpless and had to ask Quan Âm Bodhisattva for help!

It is interesting to note here that Subhuti spoke of good men and women in general, and not of any men or women in particular. Firstly, they must be good, worthy. That is the primary condition to become a bodhisattva. The path leading to enlightenment recommended by the Buddha is an odd one, so strange but wonderful, hardly believable and certainly not an easy process to follow. That is why at the beginning, the Buddha hesitated a long time before giving his first sermon (turning the Dharma Wheel). It is clear today that Subhuti applied the technique of creating “motivations” to set a favourable environment for Buddha to pass on the precious sword. Another interesting point to note: there are no gender distinctions. Both men and women can become bodhisattvas! And think that this was 2500 years ago!

The Buddha answered Subhuti: “Well said, Subhuti.  Well said. So it is, Subhuti, it is as you say. The Tathagata blesses bodhisattvas with the best of blessings and entrusts bodhisattvas with the greatest trusts…” How good to hear that! Even the Buddha had confirmed Subhuti’s foresight! How then would one dare be inattentive! The atmosphere of the assembly must have been different then, more conducive and ripe.

“You should therefore truly listen, Subhuti, and consider this well”. Listening is the first skill in the contemporary world of psychotherapy. To listen truly is not just to give ears carelessly or superficially, but to be attentive with all one’s mind, all one’s body. A good listener is someone who leans forward and looks the speaker in the eyes, nods his head in approval at agreeable points, ask questions when necessary and summarizes in his/her own words what was heard to confirm good understanding of the speaker’s intent. A good listener must be an understanding, emotional person.  It is not surprising that in the Diamond Sutra, Subhuti, an arahant, who already attained the “no-rebirth” status, was still moved to tears!  The word “truly” here also has the meaning of “examining/ scrutinizing thoroughly”, not just listening and trusting absent-mindedly. When we study Buddhism, it is interesting to note that the Buddha never imposed the teachings. He always said we must not believe immediately, but instead have to analyse, test and experience what He said for ourselves.

If we pay further attention still, we will see that the Buddha is speaking personally to Subhuti and only to him. “I shall tell you…” the Buddha said, which means “I shall not tell this to anyone else, because you are the one who knows how to ask important and ultimate questions. So I’ll tell only to you. Good men and women who want to achieve enlightenment should do things like this…like this”…

Just imagine how all of us would be attentive in this situation, how we all would prick up our ears in that forum!  Everybody suddenly become astute eavesdroppers!  Eavesdropping is a good way to… learn!  The 6th patriarch Hue Nang naturally eavesdropped upon entering the temple, while daily pounding rice, cutting wood and cooking meals.  Thanks to that, he immediately recognized that “fundamentally there is not a single thing” (Bổn lai vô nhất vật), while others remains lost in their quest. In classical text, when there is something secretive, private to share, one would say “This is how you do it … like this….” and that invites curiosity. Is that a special strategy the Buddha adopted to teach the Diamond Sutra? Are the Buddha and Subhuti playing their roles in the very modern participatory method?

Subhuti grinned widely: “Yes, yes, I very much wish to hear!”

3. It looks like that but is not the way it is

Subhuti respectfully asked two questions to the Buddha: “How can we rest our mind, how can we subdue our mind?” and the Buddha said: “There is nothing difficult there, the Great Bodhisattvas should subdue their mind this way, this way… Listen carefully. I shall tell you how”. Subhuti happily answered: “Pray, do, World-honored One. With joyful anticipation we long to hear.”

More than 2,500 years later, more so now we very much long to hear and prick our ears to listen, because man has never lived so much in fear, anxiety and stress as we do now within the scope of global conflicts, epidemics, natural disasters and the like! Man is infected with various diseases which modern medicine cannot heal just yet! So many different kinds of diseases manifests around us, one induces another because their roots are not to be found in our body! We go to see every kind of doctors eventually ending up resorting quack specialists. An abundance of drugs are available like anti-depressants, sleeping sedatives, anxiolytics, even very potent drugs to help people disengage themselves from their thoughts and induce a temporary sensationless state just to provide momentary rest, peace and isolation from the taxing emotions and distress of anguish or fear.

The Buddha taught: How to control your mind? Where must your mind dwell? You only need to bring all living creatures of whatever class to the final extinction, to the unbounded liberation, Nirvana! But actually none of them was brought to the final extinction!

Oh my goodness! What a whirlwind! The Buddha continued on before one recovered from the first train of thought:

“Why so? Because no Bodhisattva who is a real Bodhisattva cherishes the conception of an ego, a personality, a being or a life span”.

Upon hearing this many listeners felt the contradiction to commit themselves further and they started to reconsider their idea of becoming Bodhisattva.

Even Subhuti cried out:

“I might easily understand the Buddha’s teaching, but in 500 years, what about the people of that time, will they be able to understand?”

The Buddha admonished him:  “Subhuti, do not utter such words.”

This is because the Buddha has great faith in the future, as people are more likely to easier understand his teaching thanks to modern technology, mode of media communication, and so forth… though material improvements and life conveniences will be abundant… people will be more prone to suffer and their destructive emotions will also soar up! The Buddha added: “In the future, if someone hears this Sutra and is not frightened, or alarmed, or terrified, you should know that person is most rare”.

Half a century ago, Edward Conze (Ph.D. in Psychology and well-known Buddhist scholar who translated the Diamond Sutra into English) said that an intellectual theologian friend of his, upon reading the translation bewilderedly exclaimed: “It’s crazy! Utterly crazy!”  But Edward Conze didn’t think this was crazy at all, on the contrary he affirmed that the results will be acknowledged through daily application of its principles!

Nguyen Du read the Diamond Sutra over and over, thousands of times, until he had the opportunity as Ambassador to make a trip to China. As he looked at Prince Luong’s stone terrace and its fading carved words, he lamented:

“Finally I understand that only wordless sutras are genuine teachings!”

(Chung tri vô tự thị chân kinh)

The ancients similarly attested: “We vow to understand the true meaning of the Tathagata’s teachings” (Nguyện giải Như Lai chân thật nghĩa).

Perhaps there is something … some secret here.

The Buddha said hat to discipline one’s mind, one must bring together countless types of beings – beings born from womb, from egg, from moisture or from transformation, beings with form or without forms, with perception of without perception, with neither perception nor non-perception… to the final extinction (of rebirth), to the Nirvana without exception. Then, although these countless, incalculable beings have been brought to extinction, in reality… no one been extinguished!

Up to now, we think that beings are animated things, inclusive of human beings, so if we bring every ‘being’ to extinction then whom are we left to live with? Some texts say that we must bring the totality of beings to extinction without pride on oneself, in so doing to achieve the magnanimous deed that is the way of a Bodhisattva.

Other texts have alluded to beings not as human beings or animated things but as thoughts, ideas, concepts!

To ordinary people as ourselves, the sentence “bring to extinction”, then moving toward Nirvana is somewhat terrifying! In fact, to bring people to extinction does not mean to kill them, but to bring them across the way to the other shores, i.e. to liberate them!

If we think it through, maybe the premise here is the word “being”. If we manage to decode it, we might perhaps open even the “Lost secrets of Martial Arts” (Càn khôn đại nã di tâm pháp) as Vô Kỵ (the knight errant of Kim Dung’s martial novels) did while he stayed in a deep crypt.

Once I talked to a monk regarding my question about “beings”, he answered briefly “those who depend on causes and conditions to come into being” and that was all he said. But to me that was enough, that was very clear; after long periods of searching and pondering, my concerns finally resolved. Now I understand why Zen masters used to demand that their disciples pound rice, fetch water and cut wood for many years without any semblance of teachings, until the disciple internalized a sense of maturity. Like in the old days when an apprentice wanted to learn from a master alchemist, the master would examine the disciple from every angle before proceeding to teach him skills on how to cut herbs, shed, pound and cook them… only after five to seven years would the disciple be allowed to check pulses and prescribe remedies because a minor mistake can be fatal! And when he succeeds, the master might even give him his daughter’s hand in marriage! So we can say that the context of “beings” here is not what we typically understand but refer to the causes and conditions linking up with one another and coming together, or coming into ‘being’, that is why we call them “beings”. As the chanced meeting ends, so does the act of ‘being’.  In Buddhist studies we cannot rely on words alone, nor can we depart from them…

In the latter parts of the Diamond Sutra, it is said clearly that “the beings are not beings”. We are acquainted now with the “it is no…, therefore it is called…” phrasing in this sutra. This kind of saying, this unconventional, beyond-the-thinking language helps us to refute false tenets and to destroy concepts which have long been frozen in our cortex. To be liberated, a man must first free himself from his extremely solid concepts and perceptions into which, as in a spider’s web, he is entangled, caught up, hampered and unable to move.

Every branch has its own terminology that those within the same specialization can understand completely, unlike non-specialists who may not comprehend fully. For example, a large number of medical terms cannot be translated, and must be pronounced phonetically in their original forms in order to completely express their meaning (subtlety and all). That is why doctors used to add Latin terms when talking to each other, to the great confusion of their patients who don’t have the slightest idea of their meaning and subsequently get them all wrong and entangled in more confusion.

“Arisen from causes and conditions”, sentient beings differ greatly from one another. That is why they are innumerable. We ourselves also are a sentient being, a being constituted by the five aggregates (skandhas) combined together: Aggregate of Matter (or of Form), Aggregate of Feeling or Sensation, Aggregate of Perception, Aggregate of Mental Formations and Aggregate of Consciousness … In other words, our parents were “fated” [i.e when the causes and conditions were complete and linked together] to meet in order to… have us. In the case they were not “fated” to meet, “even face to face they could not see each other” (vô duyên đối diện bất tương phùng), we by no means can be here! And what about our grand-parents? If they did not happen to wonder once “Why did I meet this person? Are we fated to live a lifelong together?” (người đâu gặp gỡ làm chi, trăm năm biết có duyên gì hay không?), our presence here would also be highly improbable! Therefore we have the opportunity to inherit the genes of the entire clan, even those of our character, or those of asthma, of diabetes. The two H and O atoms are “bound to meet” so that different matters come into being, and if we add the C atom, sometime the combination of them would give rise to vinegar, some to alcohol. And if we are “bound to meet” with alcohol, not a few new beings will be “fated” to come to life! Let’s take anger, for example. Because of an offensive comment, we can react in explosive anger! A few harsh words are exchanged and soon a few problems spring into “being”! From words, these “beings” can easily come to blows. The anger, greed, sadness, fear and anxiety or stress are also “beings” which can wreak havoc in our mind and lead to endless flusters, afflictions, sufferings! Even those around us might be very sweet like angels in the morning, but easily turn to demons in the afternoon. And so can we, as the others see us!

“Tea, alcohol and females,

these few trifles are keeping me distracted…”

Một trà một rượu một đàn bà,

ba cái lăng nhăng nó quấy ta (Tú Xương)

Is it true that these “trifles” distract us? Not really! “The wind does not move, the flag does not move. Only the mind does” [said the 6th Zen Patriarch]. When our mind is peaceful, what can “distract” us? Should anger or sadness (or anything else) come into being, we only need to “extinguish” them all, to let go of them entirely and that’s it! The surface of a lake must be motionless for the moon’s reflection to hold. But that takes time. We have to train painfully for a long time, it will not do to rush progress. The word “extinguish” here does not mean to destroy but to put aside, or “not to let it come into being again”, or let it be in an “unborn state”. If we train skillfully, we can “extinguish all the sentient beings”, why not? To “extinguish all the sentient beings” also means that no sentient being has been extinguished, because if they no longer come into being, what is left to be extinguished?

But it seems that even this [explanation] doesn’t entirely make sense!

(continued)