Issue 287

Ananda, the first is the root of beginningless birth and death. From beginningless time onward you have endured birth after birth, death after death, death after death, birth after birth. I have already explained the meaning to you: “Unaware of the pure nature and bright substance of the permanently dwelling true mind, they use false thinking. Such thoughts are not true, and so the wheel keeps turning.” In this passage once again the fundamental root of continual birth and death is revealed. It is the mind that seizes upon conditions and that you and all living beings – not just you, but all living beings – now make use of, taking it to be self-nature. The mind that seizes upon conditions is just false thoughts.

To “seize upon conditions” is to act exclusively on the basis of false thought. For example, say, you go to school and knock yourself out trying to get on the good side of your professor by buttering him up. You flatter him by using all his titles and saying things you hope will please him. Why? In the hope that he’ll give you a high grade. You think, “It’s clear he’s going to give me an 80, but if I’m nice to him and maybe give him a gift or a little something, he might raise my grade a couple of points.” You gain advantages in imperceptible ways. That is an example of seizing upon conditions.
Another example occurs during elections for President, mayor, senator. The candidates go around drumming up votes, and soliciting support from their friends. That, too, is a case of the mind seizing upon conditions, instead of letting things naturally take their course. If it were to happen naturally that you were to become President, you wouldn’t have to campaign to let everyone know that you were a worthy candidate. Your virtue would be obvious and people would look up to you. You wouldn’t have to persuade people; they quite naturally would elect you President. That’s the ideal way to do it. Anything else falls in the realm of seizing upon conditions.

Those who study Chinese should know this story. An incident involving the Chinese Emperor Yao illustrates the point. When Emperor Yao got old, he wanted to relinquish his kingdom to a virtuous and worthy person. You see, nowadays, one would fawn on people with desire to become a president or a government official. This is all done with a mind that seizes upon conditions! But Emperor Yao didn’t want to be an emperor at the time. He had heard that Ch’ao Fu and Hsu Yu had great virtue and he decided to offer the empire to Ch’ao Fu.

Why was he called Ch’ao Fu, “Nest”? For one thing, he lived in a pretty strange place. He built a nest in a tree, just like a bird, and lived there. His manner of life was so simple that he drank by just scooping up water in his cupped hands. Once some people saw him do that and realized he didn’t have anything to drink from, so they gave him a gourd. He hung the gourd from a branch of his tree but it made such a racket when the wind blew that he finally threw it away; deciding it was just too much trouble.

Emperor Yao had heard how pure and lofty Ch’ao Fu was, and he was determined to yield the throne to him. So he went to announce his intent. “I’m old now,” he said to Ch’ao Fu. “You should come and be emperor. I’ll give my position to you!” No sooner had he gotten the words out of his mouth then Ch’ao Fu plugged up his ears and marched off. “I’m not the least bit interested in such talk!” he retorted. “In fact you’ve dirtied my ears by saying such things to me!” He headed for the river, where he proceeded to wash his ears.

Now it so happened that Hsu Yu was at the river, too, watering his ox. “Why are you washing your ears?” he demanded.

“That Emperor Yao is really odious!” Replied Ch’ao Fu as he scrubbed away. “He came here to tell me he wants to bestow the country on me, and he asked me to become the emperor. His proposal has made my ears dirty, so I’m washing them!”

“How can my ox drink the water you’re using to clean your ear?” exclaimed Hsu Yu. “My ox can’t drink such filthy stuff!” And he led the ox upstream for a drink of clean water.

You see, in ancient times, a sage would not only refuse the imperial throne, he would even say the very request had sullied his ears. And yet today it’s “Hey! Vote for me as President!” “Select me as your governor!” as candidates barnstorm across country making connections, wining and dining, wheeling and dealing, and even buying votes. But Ch’ao Fu and Hsu Yu would not seize upon conditions. They represent the ultimate in pure and lofty virtue.

Making use of the mind that seizes upon conditions, you take it to be the self-nature. You mistake your ordinary mind for your self-nature, and that is why you cannot end birth and death. You haven’t recognized it for what it is; instead you take a thief for your son. In the following text, the Buddha said directly: “You take a thief for your son who in the future will plunder all the gems in your household!” It is nothing but a false thought to think you can have any accomplishment by using the mind that seizes upon conditions. Then ultimately what should be done? There’s another, and that one can be very valuable.

“The second is the primal pure substance of the beginningless Bodhi Nirvana. It is the primal bright essence of consciousness that can bring forth all conditions. Because of conditions, you consider it to be lost.

Earlier, Ananda believed that the mind that seizes upon conditions is the self-nature. This is a mistake he made. The second is the primal pure substance of the beginningless Bodhi Nirvana. The second root is from beginningless time, the primal pure substance that is neither produced nor extinguished. In the previous text we have talked about ‘beginningless’. Which one do you say is the beginning? It cannot be pursued. So, it is call ‘beginningless’. There is no beginning; it was even before the beginning itself had occurred. That ‘beginning’ hasn’t come yet! That time is call ‘beginningless’.”Bodhi” is Sanskrit; it is interpreted to mean “awakening to the Way.” There are three kinds of Bodhi:

The Bodhi of the true nature, which refers to your inherent Buddha-nature. Initially, everyone has the Buddha-nature;

2. The Bodhi of actual wisdom, which refers to your genuine wisdom, not false wisdom;

3. Expedient Bodhi, which refers to the state of people who have accomplished Bodhi and who then use expedient and clever means to teach and transform living beings.

These three kinds of Bodhi can be said to be one. Divided they are three; in combination they are one. Together they are the Bodhi of the true nature, and from it comes the Bodhi of actual wisdom and expedient Bodhi. Therefore they are three and one, one and three.

Where does Bodhi itself come from? Bodhi doesn’t come from anywhere or go anywhere. Each of us is endowed with it. No one person has any more or less of it than anyone else. It neither increases nor decreases, is neither produced nor extinguished, is neither defiled nor pure.

“Nirvana” is a Sanskrit word which is interpreted to mean “neither produced nor destroyed.” Most people think that Nirvana follows upon death, but actually it is not necessarily an after-death state. It is the certification to and attainment of a principle. One attains Nirvana when one reaches the position of not being subject to birth and death. But Nirvana is not the Buddha’s dying. When the Buddha dies, he enters Nirvana; he enters and certifies to the principle of Nirvana with its four virtues of permanence, bliss, true self, and purity. Some people who haven’t seen things clearly in their study of Buddhism think that Nirvana is just death, but Nirvana is emphatically not death. One who holds this view does not understand Buddhist principle. Since it is neither produced nor destroyed, when you reached the state of Nirvana, there is no more birth and death, birth and death are ended. “Primal” means original. That is, from beginningless time, this Bodhi Nirvana originally is a pure substance which is neither defiled nor pure, neither increasing nor decreasing.

It is the primal bright essence of consciousness. This originally pure substance is just your bright and everywhere shinning essence of consciousness.”Consciousness” here does not refer to the eight consciousnesses, nor to the eye-consciousness, the ear-consciousness, the nose-consciousness, the tongue-consciousness, the body-consciousness, the mind-consciousness, nor the manas or the alaya consciousnesses. It is not any of the eight consciousnesses. It refers to the essence of consciousness, which is but another name for Bodhi Nirvana. The phrase is used here to avoid repetition for the sake of literary style. It refers to the most essential and wonderful aspect of consciousness, its light illuminates everywhere. It’s just the inherent Buddha-nature, the bright substance of the permanently dwelling true mind.