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July 20, 1978
Monterey, California
Dear Shih Fu,
We have arrived in Monterey--back in the city after three months of isolation among the rocks and waves of Big Sur. What a surprise! The differences I experience exist only in my mind. The Dharma Realm is one whole peaceful body. When my mind moves the wholeness is lost to view, self and others come into being, and Big Sur, Monterey, and the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas become names on a map, separated by miles of grueling steps and bows. When the mind is still and discrimination stops, then no matter where we are, we bow before the great Kuan Yin image in the Hall of Ten Thousand Buddhas. The Avatamsaka Sutra says,
What, then, is the world? What is not the world? World and non-world are merely different names. The dharmas of the past, present, and future and the five skandhas, when names, bring the world into being. When they are extinguished, the world is gone. In this way, they are only false names.
-- "Praises in the Suyama Heaven Place"
Words and names are creations of the mind. They are the tools of thought and just as false as can be. Why has the Venerable Abbot given us the constant instruction "Don't do any false thinking! Come up with a way to stop the flow of your false thoughts right there where they turn"? It's because our thoughts create the world we inhabit. They make the karma and the retribution we endure. As the Venerable Abbot says, "The Ten Dharma Realms are not apart from a single thought." From the hells to Buddhahood, we harvest the fruit of seeds we plant in out own minds. When we unite with the way, we do it right in the same mind.
The Third Patriarch, the Venerable Seng Ts'an, spoke of words, thoughts, and the Way. He said:
The more you talk and think,
the further you are from it.
If you can halt all speech and thought,
you will find it everywhere.
-- On Faith in the Mind
"The person of the Way without thought is equal to the Buddha," said a recent Ch'an session verse of the Master's.
Disciple: "Shih Fu, I've been trying hard to get rid of all my common thoughts and have only Buddha-thoughts."
Master: "Okay, let's see, what's a ‘Buddha-thought'? Come on, what's your answer?"
Disciple: "Uh, er, ummm, will, I know it's not false thoughts, and I have lots of those..."
Master: "It's because you have false thoughts that you don't know. What cannot be described, what is inexpressible, that is the Buddha. Anything that can be put into words is still superficial. The ancients said:
The mind wants to climb on
conditions,
But there's nothing left to
climb on.
The path of words and language
is cut off.
The place of the mind's workings
is extinguished.
As long as you still have thoughts, then that's when you have not realized Buddhahood."
Disciple: Oh, so no-thoughts are Buddha-thoughts!"
Master: (No comment.)
He vows that all beings attain the body
that is without fatigue and
is just like vajra.
-- Avatamsaka
"Ten Transferences" Chapter
The Venerable Abbot is teaching me as much about my body as about my mind. On this bowing journey I am learning to recite a Body-dharma Sutra, trading in my yin, stooped, stiff, skin-bag for a straight, flexible, energized yang body. The bowing and meditation are making changes in my whole world. Cultivation is a wonderful fountain of youth. Every day that I hold precepts and subdue my false thoughts I feel myself grow younger, more honest, and more genuine. Naturally!
Cultivation Subdues the body and mind. We regulate the body so that it can continue to work even when it's tired. We regulate the mind so that it doesn't create false thoughts.
Master Hua, Gold Wheel Temple
May 1978
Disciple Kuo Chen
bows in respect