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HENG SURE: June 6, 1977. Notes on instruction by the Master:
"If you don’t have anything true, the demons don’t bother you. If you’ve got it, they come."
"Whoever comes with me may not be lazy. You’ve got to be willing to endure hardships. If you haven’t seen me then you can go being lazy but once you have seen me, you’ve got to stop your lazy ways. If you draw near, you’ve got to work hard and take on a lot of suffering. If you can’t do it, the then you’d better stay away."
"The eyes see forms but inside they don’t exist. The ears hear sounds but the mind does not know."
"Whether or not you can cultivate is right at this point. After you work, if you go off and rap and chatter, then you completely lose the value of your cultivation. It disperses and scatters and is wasted.
"The twenty minute rest break was designed to give you a chance to relieve nature or to do any business you might have to do, like writing etc. If you don’t have anything to do, don’t waste time. Don’t wait around. You can’t just let the time pass and be lazy.
"You can cut the rest time short but you can’t cut the bowing time short. You can advance and progress in your cultivation every day but you can’t decrease and fall back. Worldly people may do so, but not cultivators. If you’ve talked about cultivation, you’ve got to stand on solid ground yourself. If you’re off by an inch in the beginning, you’ll be off by a thousand miles in the end. If you don’t want to cultivate, then there’s no use talking at all.
"When you cultivate you should vigorously advance. If you are lazy you will not succeed in the future. You absolutely can’t go over the twenty minute break time. If you don’t recognize this then you just can’t cultivate. As to discriminating what is right and wrong in the matter of time, you should only use effort in cultivating, don’t use effort in watching the clock. Is less right and more wrong or is less wrong and more right? You shouldn’t discriminate like this. You should totally forget about time altogether. Only then does it count. In fact, you can only bow more you may not bow less. If you wind up bowing less then this is totally, absolutely wrong. To pay all your attention to the time and not to your cultivation is just like my disciple who when she meditated, just listened for the bell and then the garbage would start flowing into her head and the false thoughts would come in. Waiting for the bell and watching the time are just the same thing.
"Right, there is a benefit to having a schedule, but if that’s all you pay attention to then all the value of the bowing is lost.
"You’ve got to hang on the energy that you get form your cultivation and not just casually throw it away or else you’re totally wasting your time.
"In the past you haven’t been particularly sincerely and now is the time to be sincere to the utmost. Do it as if you were doing it for yourself, not for someone else.
"Cultivators of old would starve to death for the sake of the Buddhaharma. What’s ore, to starve to death for the sake of Three Steps, One Bow is a vast and lofty deed. It’s a chance you might seek and never get. Now that you’ve got it you shouldn’t fear it. So don’t recite the "food is coming" mantra anymore.
"When you who are bowing are really sincere, you will actually see Samantabhadra Bodhisattva; you won’t just feel that he is there. When you see him it won’t just be the white elephant there on your little street, but he will be everywhere in the Dharma Realm. But you’ll have to see it to make it count. When you see Samantabhadra Bodhisattva your karmic obstacles decrease and your good roots increase. You should think, "My body is the same as Samantabhadra Bodhisattva. We are one, not two.
"You two are actually bowing to bring the ten thousand Buddhas to the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas, did you know? In fact that’s what you’re doing. But everyday you bow to "lunch is coming, lunch is coming" instead of "ten thousand Budhas are coming, ten thousand Buddhas are coming." Well never mind, it’s a secret dharma anyway.
"You don’t cheat, do you? Rain or shine or sun or heat or cold you bow, don’t you?
"If the Buddhas come too soon then you’ll stop bowing.
"What he does is as is he hadn’t done it. Because he doesn’t claim the merit, the merit therefore eternally abides.
"You can keep on sitting in meditation even if you sleep. Just sit through the sleep and then sit again when you wake up. Cultivation often takes roundabout paths.
"The point of cultivation is suffering. But it must also be natural, not forced. This is a chance you might seek and never get. Don’t sell your cultivation.
"I don’t control any of my disciples. However they like it is just fine with me. Everything’s okay. If they want to kill, they can kill; if they want to rob a bank, that’s their business; if they want to set fires, they can do it. I’m not the boss. I can’t control anyone of them, not even the kids. All I can do is cheat the kids."
I try to always hold the Master in my mind--what would he do in this situation? "If you want to help others, be empty." Then he can work through you until your own wisdom appears. Until then, don’t trust your own mind. To witness the Master’s selflessness, his compassion, his virtue, his water-like qualities, always causes me wonder and delight. He does not struggle at any point; he yields. He accords but does not move.
The Master’s first visit tuned the trip in wonderful ways. The bowing itself: my stance is wider so that returning the light give the ox cart a place to do. The down-drop to bow is slower, more mindful. Listening to the words both going down and coming up clears false thoughts. Repenting while down. Being ever mindful and alert to the work.
The Master took the pressure off the timekeeping, making it natural and regular. "Only bow more, don’t bow less." Keep it natural.
"Have no thoughts at all. Don’t think."
"You’re trying to save your own lives."
"Don’t rest if you’re not tired or it there is no pressing matter to attend to."
"Do this work for yourself as if you were involved in it, not as if it were for someone else and doesn’t matter."