Gate to Zen: Wuyechang Zen Collection

Author: Jinghui
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-07-01
Features: Looking through the Biographies of Eminent Monks and the Records of the Lamp, one would not find it difficult to discover that those seeking the Dharma almost placed their lives above all else. In their eyes, the Dharma was their life, their very sustenance. It was precisely this strong desire to sacrifice their lives for the Dharma that drove countless seekers throughout the ages to perform a series of moving and tragic stories. At the beginning, we mentioned that the Second Patriarch Huikai sought the Dharma from the Sixth Patriarch Da Mo. After nine years, his red snow reached waist height, only then did he receive the Sixth Patriarch’s validation. Imagine, if the Second Patriarch had not possessed this spirit of entrusting his life, there would have been no later act of standing in the snow until his arm was severed, nor would there have been the awakening of his life and the transmission of the Dharma’s lineage. Therefore, we must remember that seeking the Dharma is no trivial matter—it is not settled by listening to a few words from a master. It requires a sincere heart that entrusts one’s life and fortune to it.
Back then, when the Buddha Shakyamuni was practicing in his past lives, he was the same. You may have heard the story of the Great Sage of Snow Mountain. In his past lives, Shakyamuni Buddha practiced on a snow mountain and was known as the Great Sage of Snow Mountain. One day, he heard someone chanting a verse. He only heard the first two lines:
"All phenomena are impermanent; this is the law of birth and death."
He felt this verse was very important and walked up to the person, hoping to hear the next two lines. Who was this person? It was a demon in the form of Indra, the Lord of the Desire Realm. The Great Sage of Snow Mountain didn’t care about this—he was solely focused on hearing the rest of the verse—and thus asked the demon:
"Your verse carries profound meaning. Where did you learn it? There must be more to it."
"There is indeed more," the demon replied, "but I am hungry and have no strength to speak the next two lines."
The Great Sage asked, "What do you wish to eat?"
"I do not eat anything but human flesh," the demon answered.
"If you wish to eat, first tell me the next two lines," the Great Sage said, "and I will let you eat me."
So the demon recited the next two lines:
"Birth and death have ceased; Nirvana is bliss."
Hearing this, the Great Sage was delighted and offered his own body to the demon to eat.
This was how seekers of the Dharma in ancient times were—unwilling to spare their lives, using their lives to exchange for the Dharma. This earnest spirit of seeking the Dharma is something we should learn from.
If we, as Buddhist practitioners, truly arise in this earnest heart from the depths of our being, entrusting our lives to it, how can we fail to awaken? How can we fail to be liberated?
In our era, where the view of annihilation is so prevalent, advocating for this spirit of entrusting one’s life to the Dharma may lead some to question: "If I give up my life for just two lines of verse, won’t I no longer be able to practice? What will happen in my next life?"
If you still harbor such doubts, you will never attain enlightenment.
We know that life is eternal. Our current life is merely a link, a stage in an infinite chain of lives. In this life, if we can hear and practice the Dharma, in our next life, we can continue to practice, achieve the person of the Dharma, and integrate our lives with the Dharma. Then, our lives will no longer be entangled in the cycle of birth and death, suffering from various afflictions and pains.
Thus, the ancients, who believed in rebirth and the eternity of life, whether seeking the Dharma directly or on behalf of others, could wholeheartedly entrust their lives to it, embodying a fearless spirit of forgetting oneself for the Dharma.
P206-207