Commentary:
Chan or Zen practice is the right Buddhist path . It is actually the practice of the four foundations of mindfulness (cattāri satipațțhāna) and clear comprehension of the intrinsic awareness. The intrinsic awareness is the Buddha-mind. the Buddha-mind is the absolute grasping upon the five aggregates of form, feelings, perceptions, volitions and consciousness. Chan or Zen practice is actually the utility of the Buddha-mind to direct and empower all sensual activities. The Buddha-mind is the released mind purged of self-centric ego. Chan or Zen wisdom annihilates the self-centric ego arisen from ignorance of the Truth of Insubstantiality (Anattā) or Emptiness (‘Sūnyatā) and Dependent Co-arising (Pratītyasamutpāda).
‘Do not go astray from the right Path’ connotes the perfection of wisdom of Chan or Zen is maintained continuously in all daily activities. In other words, the four foundations of mindfulness (cattāri satipațțhāna) are consummated. Satipațțhā na ,which is the sole path to Nibbāna according to Gotama Buddha, is Chan or Zen practice. Chan or Zen is to be practised while walking, sitting, talking, in silence, moving or standing still. This is meant by not derailing from the right path. In other words, right mindfulness and lucid discernment of the Insubstantiality or Emptiness of five aggregates are maintained in all places and all times, i.e, in all daily activities. Mindfulness or intrinsic self-awareness of Buddha-nature is not confined merely to sitting meditation. The real practice is practice without formal practice. This is only possible when one false self has died and the True Self is born. The practice of Chan or intrinsic awareness of one’s Buddha-nature is considered fully consummated if one does not rely on any method to preserve or sustain the perfection of wisdom of Chan or Zen. If a method is still relied upon, the egoistic self is still not extinct and the self-grasping still exists . It is method of no method – non-action of all actions. True practice of Chan or Zen is manifested if and only if the false self or egoistic self is annihilated and the true Self or Buddha-mind is born . The true Self and the false self are mutually exclusive . One dies before one dies.
If the true Self is dominant and the false self is defeated , this is the true practice of Chan or Zen (monotheistically put, being born of God). With Chan or Zen, one is unperturbed by any adverse condition or situation in life . One remains equanimous even if one is assailed with criticisms, abuses, disparagements , insults and so forth.
In the past , Chan or Zen masters have no fear for attacks of weapons or poisons . They were prepared to die physically at any time in any place like a silent hero because they had entered the door of Non-duality into deathlessness. Nevertheless, I would like to highlight a spiritual distinction: The ancient adept enlightened Chan masters did employ very harsh method, such as abusing or physically striking an immediate disciple to evoke gnosis. Such harsh pedagogy displayed by a Chan Master should not be wrongly construed that the master’s gnosis was not genuine. Any genuine enlightened one can punish any disciple by harsh physical or verbal abuse with a pedagogical motive our of great compassion. He could do so because all his actions is directed and empowered by the Buddha-mind and not by the mind of a sentient being. A Chan Master acts harshly with a pure mind without aversion. All his actions are non-action.
The mind of a sentient being is directed and empowered by self-centric ego. They are all volitional actions or karmas. A sentient being cannot act harshly like a Chan master because all actions of a sentient being are morally accountable through the law of reciprocity. Any apparently harsh action of a Chan Master, directed and empowered by the True Self of the Buddha-mind, transcends the law of karmic retribution. The harsh actions of an enlightend one should not be misinterpreted and mispresented .
Therefore, when a Buddhist practioner is angry, one just notes the anger very mindfully with intrinsic clear awareness. The anger will certainly vanish. Spiritual cultivation and consummation is not the destruction of wholesome human emotions. Spiritual wisdom obliterates cravings – the selfish emotions and fosters benevolent emotions. It is only the destruction of the grasping upon the emotions. Non-grasping effaces the self-centric ego. Chan or Zen practice is not the annihilation of or the alienation from the manifest of normal human wholesome emotions. Appropriate selfless and altruistic emotions can be expressed as long as they are not directed and empowered by the willful self-centric ego.
They have been reports that even Arahants danced on hearing good news .They even shed their tears of grief . Many Arahants, immediate and foremost disciples of Gotama Buddha, shed their tears when their Exalted Master passed into parinibbāna. They were tears without clinging as their minds were pure. In their laughters or tears, no cankers had arisen in them. The abusing pedagogical approach of a Chan master towards their promising disciples should be perceived in this manner too. Whoever is not self-enlightened is not qualified to judge those who are Gnostics. The mind of a sentient being and that of an enlightened one are distinct. The former is ordinary and defiled consciousness; the latter is pure and infinite.
Of course, in a modern society, if one were a Chan or Zen master, one should report any criminal act of violence or poison attack on him or her to the authorities concerned to seek legal protection. This is the proper way of redressing an injustice. If a modern Chan Master who is a victim of violence or abuse has a convincing evidence to redress the injustice, he can resort legal action. It is sheer folly for a modern Chan master to die for nothing if he can defend oneself under the protection of the modern legal system. The ancient heroism of fearlessness of death of a Bodhisattva is not applicable in a modern society. The ancient civilization is relatively barbaric. The modern civilization is relatively civilized and cultured. Law and order are required to appease the animal nature of modern violent Man.
A genuine Bodhisattva like a Chan Master should live longer to edify and illuminate the world. If convincing evidence to defend oneself is not available, then the modern Bodhisattva should execute painless perfection of endurance (one of the six pāramitās) to destroy aversion. Any legal action of a modern Bodhisattva serves as an edifying or reformative action against the offender but not as an revengeful punishment of an eye for an eye to get even. Equanimity is always the attribute of Chan Master who is a Bodhisattva.
With Dharma, a loser becomes a winner. Without Dharma, a winner becomes a loser. As far as a genuine Bodhisattva is concerned , there is no dichotomy between winning and losing; subject and object; substance and attribute; subject and predicate . Saṃsāra and Nirvāṇa are the same for him or her. The identity of opposites is ultimately the eternal Truth as Gotama Buddha exerts that the process Reality is neither absolute existence nor absolute non-existence.
What is neither ‘Absolutely it is’ nor ‘Absolutely it is not’ is Emptiness (‘Sūnyatā). Emptiness is universal unity of existence. Monotheistically defined, the ‘Universal Unity of Existence’ is God. Emptiness is the Truth of God. The Monotheists and Buddhist worship the communal Truth of Wisdom and are liberated by the same Truth of dependently co-arisen Unity or Non-duality. Only the exoteric devices differ. The discrimination between religions are ignorance and sheer folly. The Heart Sūtra negates both absolute existence and absolute non-existence to mirror the process Thought of Emptiness. The entire core of the exposition of Heart Sūtra is the Process Thought of perennial philosophy.
