A Commentary Literature on ‘Song of Enlightenment’

Commentary by Paramartha

Chapter 3. Annihilation of Self

When Reality is realized,
There is neither ego nor objects.
And within that instant,
Karma of eternal suffering is wiped out.
If this is a lie
To deceive living beings,
For ages as numberless as dust,
Let my own tongue be plucked out.

The above extract is the third portion of the  Chan Poem ‘Song of Enlightenment’ believed to be composed by Chuen Yung Chia (665-713C.E). Yung Chia  was the Dharma  successor of the 6th Chinese Chan Patriarch, Hui-neng. Yung Chia was extolled as the over-night Enlightened One who verified the truth of the sudden teaching to gain instantaneous enlightenment expounded by  Hui-neng  who founded the Eastern Mountain School or the Chan School of Sudden Enlightenment in China in the Tang Dynasty.  

Commentary by Paramartha

When the ultimate truth of Reality is discerned intuitively, the illusions of self and objects are penetrated into. Having perceived the illusive self and objects, one  does not perceive them as discrete entities differentiated into self and others or between the perceiver and the objects of perception. Perception of non-duality is the entrance into the door of Chan or self-awakening or self-realization. When realization occurs, mental obsessions are appeased. With  the appeasement of  obsessions, there follows the cessation of karmic formations. This purifies consciousness and terminates suffering permanently.  

The writer said that if he  did not tell the truth  and  deceived us, he would permit his tongue to be extracted for a long long period of time or for aeons of time. In other words, the writer is absolutely confident in the validity of the truth realized.