Status Updates From The Zen Teaching of Bodhidh...

Slow reading would be an optimal way to understand what's discussed in this book. This could become a reference to headstart once a spiritual journey.

90. Vairocana. The Great Sun Buddha, who embodies the dharma-self or
true body of the Buddha. As such, Vairocana is the central figure in the pantheon of five dhyani buddhas, which includes Akshobhya in the East, Ramasambhava in the South, Amitabha in the West, and
Amogasiddhi in the North.

42. Shakyamuni. Shakya was the Buddha's clan name. Muni means saint.
His family name was Gautama, and his personal name was Siddhartha. The exact dates given for him vary, but the consensus is from 557
to 487 B.C. or thereabouts

36. Zen. First used to transliterate dhyana, the Sanskrit term for medi-
tation. Bodhidharma is credited with freeing zen from the meditation
cushion, using the term instead in reference to the everyday, straight-
forward mind, the mind that sits without sitting and that acts without
acting.

32. Kashyapa. Also called Mahakashyapa, or the Great Kashyapa. He
was one of the Buddha's foremost disciples and is credited with becoming the first Zen patriarch in India. When the Buddha held up a flower, Kashyapa smiled in response, and the transmission of the zen
mind began.

14. (CONT.)
According to Nagarjuna, "That which is, when subject to karma, samsara, is, when no longer subject to karma, nirvana." (Madhyamika Shastra, Chapter
25, Verse 9)

14. Nirvana. Early Chinese translators tried some forty Chinese words
before finally giving up and simply transliterating this Sanskrit word,
which means absence of breath. It's also defined as the only calm.
Most people equate it with death, but to Buddhists nirvana means the
absence of the dialectic that breath represents.

9. Buddhas. Buddhism doesn't limit itself to one buddha. It recognizes
countless buddhas. After all, everyone has the buddha-nature. There's
a buddha in every world, just as there's awareness in every thought.
The only necessary qualification for buddhahood is complete aware-
ness.

RELEVANT NOTES

2. Walls. After he arrived in China, Bodhidharma spent nine years in
meditation facing the rock wall of a cave near Shaolin Temple. Bodhidharma's walls of emptiness connect all opposites, including self
and other, mortal and sage.

"And they don't know enough to be ashamed. How will they ever become enlightened? They see something tangible and instantly become attached. If you talk to them about formlessness, they sit there dumb and confused.
Greedy for the small mercies of this world, they remain blind to the great suffering to come "

"The people I meet nowadays are superficial. They think of merit as something that has form. They squander their wealth and butcher creatures of land and sea. They foolishly concern themselves
with erecting statues and stupas, telling people to pile up lumber
and bricks, to paint this blue and that green. They strain body and
mind, injure themselves and mislead others. "

[BUT]
"To say that the Tathagata drank the worldly concoction of impure,
rank-smelling cow's milk is the height of slander." [That which Shakyamuni drank wasn't ordinary impure milk but pure dharma-milk]

"But when Shakyamuni was a bodhisattva, he consumed three bowls of milk and six ladles of gruel prior to attaining enlightenment. If he had to drink milk before he could taste the fruit of buddhahood, how can merely beholding the mind result in liberation?

-What you say is true. That is how he attained enlightenment.
He had to drink milk before he could become a buddha ."

"The three realms correspond to the three poisons: greed corresponds to
the realm of desire, anger to the realm of form, and delusion to the
formless realm. "

"The three poisons are present in our six sense organs as six kinds of consciousness,or thieves. They're called thieves because they pass in and out of the gates of the senses, covet limitless possessions, engage in evil, and mask their true identity."

"When a great bodhisattva delves deeply into perfect wisdom, he realizes that the four elements and five shades are devoid of a personal self. And he realizes that the activity of his mind has two aspects: pure and impure ."

Breakthrough Sermon


IF someone is determined to reach enlightenment, what is the most essential method he can practice?

-The most essential method, which includes all other methods, is beholding the mind."

"But the fools of this world prefer to look for sages far away. They don't believe that the wisdom of their own mind is the sage ."

"The three bodies, like all other things, are unattainable and indescribable."

"Buddhas have three bodies: a transformation body, a reward body, and a real body."

"When a snake becomes a dragon, it doesn't change its scales. And when a mortal becomes a sage, he doesn't change his face."

"Without the mind there's no buddha means that the buddha
comes from the mind. The mind gives birth to the buddha. "

"Eyes that aren't attached to form are the Gates of Zen. Ears that aren't attached to sound are also the Gates of Zen. "

"The sutras say, "Not to let go of wisdom is stupidity." When
the mind doesn't exist, understanding and not understanding are
both true. When the mind exists, understanding and not under-
standing are both false."

"Mind and form create and negate each other."

"This is what's meant by the mind that neither exists nor doesn't exist. The mind that neither exists nor doesn't exist is called the Middle Way."

"Whoever realizes that the six senses aren't real, that the five aggregates are fictions, that no such things can be located anywhere in the body, understands the language of buddhas. "

Wake-up Sermon

"The essence of the Way is detachment. And the goal of those who practice is freedom from appearances.


Whoever hears and believes this teaching embarks on the Great Vehicle and leaves the three realms. The three realms are greed, anger, and delusion."