Todo lo que aparece en los tres reinos procede de la mente. Desde los Buddhas del pasado y el futuro, se enseña de mente a mente, sin preocuparse sobre definiciones.
Estudiante: Pero si ellos no lo defínen, ¿que entienden ellos por mente?
Bodhidharma: Tú preguntas. Eso es tu mente. Yo respondo. Eso es mi mente. Si yo no tuviera mente, ¿cómo podría responder? Si tu no tuvieras mente, ¿como podrías preguntar? Eso que pregunta es tu mente. A traves de interminables kalpas "sin principio, cualquier cosa que haces, donde quiera que estes, eso es tu mente real, eso es tu buddha real. Esta mente es el buddha" significa lo mismo. Más allá de esta mente nunca encontrarás otro Buddha. Buscar la Comprensión o el nirvana más allá de esta mente es imposible. La realidad de tu propia auto-naturaleza, la ausencia de causa y efecto, es lo que se entiende como mente. Tu mente es el nirvana. Tú prodrias pensar que puedes encontrar un Buddha o la Comprensión en algún lugar más allá de la mente, pero dicho lugar no existe.
Tratar de encontrar un Buddha o la Comprensión es como tratar de agarrar el espacio. El espacio tiene un nombre pero no una forma. No es algo que puedas retener o desechar. Y ciertamente no puedes agarrarlo. Más allá de la mente nunca verás un Buddha. El Buddha es un producto de la mente. ¿Por qué buscar un Buddha más allá de esta mente?
Los Buddhas del pasado y el futuro hablan sobre esta mente. La mente es el Buddha, y el Buddha es la mente. Más allá de la mente no hay Buddha y más allá del Buddha no hay mente. Si piensas que hay un Buddha más allá de la mente, ¿donde está él? No hay ningún Buddha más allá de la mente, so why envision one? Tú no puedes conocer tu auténtica mente mientras sigas engañándote. Desde el momento en que te esclavizas por una forma inanimada, ya no eres libre. Si no me crees, engañandote a ti mismo no te ayudarás. No es the Buddha’s fault. La gente, sin embargo, se engaña. Son incapaces de ver que su propia mente es el Buddha. De otro modo, no buscarían un Buddha fuera de la mente.
Los Buddhas no salvan a los Buddhas. Si usas tu mente para buscar un Buddha, jamás verás al Buddha. Tan pronto como buscas un Buddha en alguna otra parte, jamás veras que tu propia mente es el Buddha. No uses un Buddha para adorar a un Buddha. Y no uses la mente para invocar a un Buddha. Los Buddhas no recitan sutras. Los Buddhas no obedecen los preceptos. Y los Buddhas don’t break precepts. Los Buddhas don’t keep or break anything. Buddhas don’t do good or evil.
Para encontrar un Buddha, debes ver tu naturaleza. Quienquiera q vea su naturaleza es un Buddha. Si no ves tu naturaleza, invocar Buddhas, recitar sutras, hacer ofrendas, y mantener los preceptos, todo ello es inútil. Invoking Buddhas results in good karma, reciting sutras results in a good memory; keeping precepts results in a good rebirth, y making offerings results in futuro blessings-but no buddha. Si no comprendes por ti mismo, you’ll have to find a Guía to get to the bottom of life y death. Pero a menos que el vea su naturaleza, dicha persona no es un guía. Incluso si el puede recitar the Twelvefold Canon él no puede escapar de la rueda del Nacimiento y la Muerte. El sufre en los tres reinos sin esperanza de liberarse. Long ago, the monk Good Star 21 was able to recite the entire Canon. Pero él no escapó de la Rueda, porque no vio su naturaleza. Si esto aconteció con Good Star, entonces la gente de la actualidad q recitan unos cuantos sutras o shastras y creen que eso es el Dharma son necios. A menos que veas tu mente, el recitar tanta prosa carece de utilidad.
Para encontrar un Buddha, todo lo que tienes que hacer es ver tu naturaleza. Tu naturaleza es el Buddha. Y el Buddha es la persona que es libre: libre of proyectos, libre de preocupaciones. Si no ves tu naturaleza y run around all day looking somewhere else, nunca encontrarás un buddha. La verdad es que no hay nada que encontrar. But to reach such an understying you need a Guía y you need to struggle to make yourself understy. La vida y la Muerte son importantes. Don’t suffer them in vain.
No hay ventaja ni beneficio en engañarte. Incluso si ves montañas de joyas y tantos sirvientes como granos de arena tiene el Ganges, los ves cuando tus ojos están abiertos. ¿Pero que sucede cuando tus ojos están cerrados? Deberias comprender entonces que todo lo que ves es como un sueño o una ilusión.
Si no encuentras un Guía rápido, pasarás por esta vida en vano. Es cierto, tienes la naturaleza-de-Buddha. Pero la ayuda de un Guía nunca la conocerás. Tan solo una persona entre un millón consigue su propio despertar sin la ayuda de un Guía. No obstante, si debido a una serie de condiciones, alguien comprende lo que significa el Buddha, esa persona no necesita de un Guía. Such a person has a natural awareness superior to anything taught. Pero a menos que estés tan dotado, estudia duro, y por medio de la instrucción comprenderás.
La gente q no comprende pero piensa q pueden lograrlo sin estudiar no se diferencian from those deluded souls que no pueden diferenciar el blanco del negro. Quienes proclaman falsamente el Dharma-de-Buddha, tales personas de hecho blasfeman contra el Buddha y pervierten el Dharma. Ellos predican como si fueran a traer la lluvia. Pero la suya es la predicación de los demonios, no de los Buddhas. Su Guía es el Rey de los Demonios y sus discípulos son los seguidores de los Devil. La gente engañada que sigue tales enseñanzas unwittingly sink deeper in the Sea of Birth y Death. A menos que ellos vean su naturaleza, how can people call themselves Buddhas they’re liars who deceive others into entering the reino of devils. A menos que ellos vean su naturaleza, their preaching of the Twelvefold Canon is nothing but the preaching of devils. Su obediencia es hacia Mara, no hacia el Buddha. Incapaces de distinguir el blanco del negro, ¿como podrían escapar del nacimiento y la muerte?
Quien quiera que vea su naturaleza es un Buddha; quien no hace esto es un mortal. Pero si logras encontrar tu naturaleza-de-Buddha fuera de tu naturaleza mortal, ¿donde se da esto? Nuestra naturaleza mortal es nuestra naturaleza de Buddha. Más allá de esta naturaleza no hay Buddha. El Buddha es nuestra naturaleza. No existe un Buddha junto a esta naturaleza. Y no existe una naturaleza junto al Buddha.
Estudiante: Pero supón que yo no veo mi naturaleza, ¿no puedo yo lograr entonces la Comprensión invocando a los Buddhas, recitando sutras, realizando ofrendas, observando los preceptos, Practicing devotions, o haciendo buenas obras?
Bodhidharma: No, no puedes.
Estudiante: ¿Porque no?
Bodhidharma:Si logras cualquier cosa, es condicional, es kármico. Acabará siendote retribuido. Mas vueltas a la Rueda. Y con tal de que estés sujeto a nacimiento y muerte, nunca lograrás la Comprensión. Para lograr la Comprensión tienes que ver tu naturaleza. A menos que tu veas tu naturaleza, toda esta charla sobre causa y efecto es absurda. Los Buddhas no practican la absurdidad. Un Buddha libera de karma, libera de causa y efecto. To say he attains anything at all is to slyer a Buddha. What could he possibly attain? Even focusing on a mente, a power, an understying, or a view is impossible for a Buddha. A Buddha isn’t one sided. The naturaleza of his mente is basically empty, neither pure nor impure. He’s libre of practice y realization. He’s libre of cause y effect.
A Buddha doesn’t observe precepts. A Buddha doesn’t do good or evil. A Buddha isn’t energetic or lazy. A Buddha is someone who does nothing, someone who can’t even focus his mente on a Buddha. A Buddha isn’t a Buddha. Don’t think about Buddhas. If you dont see what I’m talking about, you’ll ever know your own mente. People who don’t see their naturaleza y imagine they can practice thoughtlessness all the time are lairs y fools. They fall into endless space. They’re like drunks. They can’t tell good from evil. If you intend to cultivate such a practice, you have to see your naturaleza before you can put an end to rational thought. To attain Comprensión without seeing your naturaleza is impossible. Still others commit all sorts of evil deeds, claiming karma doesn’t exist. They erroneously maintain that since everything is empty committing evil isn’t wrong. Such persons fall into a hell of endless darkness with no hope of release. Those who are wise hold no such conception.
Estudiante: But if our every movement or state, whenever it occurs, is la mente, why don’t we see esta mente when a person’s body dies?
La mente is always present. You just don’t see it.
Estudiante: But if la mente is present, why don’t I see it?
Bodhidharma: ¿Alguna vez sueñas?
Estudiante: Por supuesto.
When you dream, is that you?
Estudiante: Yes, it’s me.
Y is what you’re doing y saying different from you?
Estudiante: No, it isn’t.
Bodhidharma: But if it isn’t, then this body is your real body. Y this real body is your mente. Y esta mente, through endless kalpas without beginning, has never varied. It has never lived or died, appeared or disappeared, increased or decreased. Its not pure or impure, good or evil, past or futuro. It’s not true or false. It’s not mate or female. It doesn’t appear as a monk or a layman, an elder or a novice, a sage or a fool, a Buddha or a mortal. It strives ‘for no realization y suffers no karma. It has no strength or form. It’s like space. You can’t possess it y you can’t lose it. Its movements can’t be blocked by mountains, rivers, or rock walls. Its unstoppable powers penetrate the Mountain of Five Skyhas y cross the River of Samsara." No karma can restrain this real body. But esta mente is subtle y hard to see. It’s not the same as the sensual mente. Every I one wants to see esta mente, y those who move their hys y feet by its light are as many as the grains of sy along the Ganges, but when you ask them, they can’t explain it. They’re like puppets. It’s theirs to use. Why don’t they see it?
The Buddha said people are deluded. This Is why when they act they fall into the river of endless rebirth. Y when they try to get out they only sink deeper. Y all because they don’t see their naturaleza. If people weren’t deluded why would they ask about something right in front of them? Not one of they understys the movement of his own hys y feet. The Buddha wasn’t mistaken. Deluded people don’t know who they are. A Buddha y no one else know something so hard to fathom. Only the wise knows mente, esta mente call naturaleza, esta mente called liberation. Neither life nor death can restrain esta mente. Nothing can. It’s also called the Unstoppable Tathagata," the Incomprehensible, the Sacred Self, the Immortal, the Great Sage. Its names vary but not its essence. Buddhas vary too, but none leaves his own mente. La mente’s capacity is limitless, y its manifestations are inexhaustible. Seeing forms with your eyes, hearing sounds with your ears, smelling odors with your nose, tasting flavors with your tongue, every movement or state is your entire mente. At every moment, where language can’t go, that’s your mente.
The sutras say, "A Tathagata’s forms are endless. Y so is his awareness." The endless variety of forms is due to la mente. Its ability to distinguish things, whatever their movement or state, is la mente’s awareness. But la mente has no form y its awareness no limit. Hence it’s said, "A Tathagata’s forms are endless. Y so is his awareness." A material body of the four elements" is trouble. A material body is subject to birth y death. But the real body exists without existing, because a Tathagata’s real body never changes. The sutras say, "People should realize that the buddha-naturaleza is something they have always had." Kashyapa only realized his own naturaleza.
Our naturaleza is la mente. Y la mente is our naturaleza. This naturaleza is the same as la mente of all Buddhas. Buddhas of el pasado y el futuro only transmit esta mente. Más allá de esta mente there’s no Buddha anywhere. But deluded people don’t realize that their own mente is the Buddha. They keep searching outside. They never stop invoking Buddhas or worshipping Buddhas y wondering Where is the buddha? Don’t indulge in such illusions. Just know your mente. Más allá de your mente there’s no other Buddha. The sutras say, "Everything that has form is an illusion." They also say, "Wherever you are, there’s a Buddha." Your mente is the Buddha. Don’t use a Buddha to worship a Buddha.
Even if a Buddha or bodhisattva" should suddenly appear before you, there’s no need for reverence. This mente of ours is empty y contains no such form. Those who hold onto appearances are devils. They fall from the Path. Why worship illusions born of la mente? Those who worship don’t know, y those who know don’t worship. By worshipping you come under the spell of devils. I point this out because 1 afraid you’re unaware of it. The basic naturaleza of a Buddha has no such form. Keep this in mente, even if something unusual should appear. Don’t embrace it, y don’t fear it, y don’t doubt that your Mind is basically pure. Where could there be room for any such form? Also, at the appearance of spirits, demons, or divine conceive neither respect nor fear. Your mente is basically empty. All appearances are illusions. Don’t hold on to appearances. If you envision a Buddha, a Dharma, or a bodhisattva" y conceive respect for them, you relegate yourself to the reino of mortals. If you seek direct understying, don’t hold on to any appearance whatsoever, y you’ll succeed. I have no other advice. The sutras say, "All appearances are illusions." They have no fixed existence, o constant form. They’re impermanent. Don’t cling to appearances y you’ll be of one mente with the Buddha. The sutras say, "’That which is libre of all form is the Buddha."
Estudiante: But why shouldn’t we worship Buddhas y bodhisattvas?
Bodhidharma: Devils y demons possess the power of manifestation. They can create the appearance of bodhisattvas in all sorts of guises. But they’re false. None of them are Buddhas. The Buddha is your own mente. Don’t misdirect your worship.
Buddha is Sanskrit for what you call aware, miraculously aware. Responding, arching your brows blinking your eyes, moving your hys y feet, its all your miraculously aware naturaleza. Y this naturaleza is la mente. Y la mente is the Buddha. Y the Buddha is the path. Y the path is Zen. But the word Zen is one that remains a puzzle to both mortals y sages. Seeing your naturaleza is Zen. A menos que you see your naturaleza, it’s not Zen.
Even if you can explain thousys of sutras y shastras, a menos que you see your own naturaleza yours is the teaching of a mortal, not a Buddha. The true Way is sublime. It can’t be expressed in language. Of what use are scriptures? But someone who sees his own naturaleza finds the Way, even if he can’t read a word. Someone who sees his naturaleza is a Buddha. Y since a Buddha’s body is intrinsically pure y unsullied, y everything he says is an expression of his mente, being basically empty, a buddha can’t be found in words or anywhere in the Twelvefold Canon.
The Way is basically perfect. It doesn’t require perfecting. The Way has no form or sound. It’s subtle y hard to perceive. It’s like when you drink water: you know how hot or cold it is, but you can’t tell others. Of that which only a
Tathagata knows men y gods remain unaware. The awareness of mortals falls short. Con tal de que ,they’re attached to appearances, they’re unaware that their mentes are empty.
Y by mistakenly clinging to the appearance of things they lose the Way. If you know that everything comes from la mente, don’t become attached. Once attached, you’re unaware. But once you see your own naturaleza, the entire Canon becomes so much prose. Its thousys of sutras y shastras only amount to a clear mente. Understying comes in midsentence. What good are doctrines? The ultimate Truth is más allá de words. Doctrines are words.
They’re not the Way. The Way is wordless. Words are illusions. They’re no different from things that appear in your dreams at night, be they palaces or carriages, forested parks or lakeside ‘lions. Don’t conceive any delight for such things. They’re all cradles of rebirth. Keep this in mente when you approach death. Don’t cling to appearances, y you’ll break through all barriers. A moment’s hesitation y you’ll be under the spell of devils. Your real body is pure y impervious. But because of delusions you’re unaware of it. Y because of this you suffer karma in vain. Wherever you find delight, you find bondage. But once you awaken to your original body y mente," you’re no longer bound by attachments.
Anyone, who gives up the transcendent for the mundane, ill any of its myriad forms, is a mortal. A Buddha is someone who finds freedom in good fortune y bad. Such is his power that karma can’t hold him. No matter what kind of karma Buddha transforms it. Heaven y hell are nothing to him. But the awareness of a mortal is dim compared to that of a Buddha who penetrates everything inside y out. If you’re not sure don’t act. Once you act, you wyer through birth y death y regret having no refuge. Poverty y hardship are created by false thinking. To understy esta mente you have to act without acting. Only then will you see things from a Tathagata’s perspective.
But when you first embark on the Path, your awareness won’t focused. But you shouldn’t doubt that all such scenes come from your own mente y nowhere else.
If, as in a dream, you see a light brighter than the sun, your remaining attachments will suddenly come to an end y the naturaleza of realidad will be revealed. Such an occurrence serves as the basis for Comprensión. But this is something only you know. You can’t explain it to others. Or if, while you’re walking, stying, sitting, or lying in a quiet grove, you see a light, regardless of whether it’s bright or dim, don’t tell others y don’t focus on it. It’s the light of your own naturaleza.
Or if, while you’re walking, stying, sitting, or lying in the stillness y darkness of night, everything appears as though in daylight, don’t be startled. It’s your own mente about to reveal itself.
Or if, while you’re dreaming at night, you see the moon y stars in all their clarity, it means the workings of your mente are about to end. But don’t tell others. Y if your dreams aren’t clear, as if you were walking in the dark, it’s because your mente is masked by cares. This too is something of" you know. if you so your naturaleza,, you don’t need to read sutras or invoke buddhas. Erudition y Knowledge are not only useless but also cloud your awareness. Doctrines are only for pointing to la mente. Once you see your mente, why pay attention to doctrines?
To go from mortal to Buddha, you have to put an end to karma, nurture your awareness, y accept what life brings. If you’re always getting angry, you’ll turn your naturaleza against the Way. There’s no advantage in deceiving yourself. Buddhas move freely through birth y death, appearing y disappearing at will. They can’t be restrained by karma or overcome by devils. Once mortals see their naturaleza, all attachments end. Awareness isn’t hidden. But you can only find it right now. It’s only now. If you really want to find the Way, don’t hold on to anything. Once you put an end to karma y nurture your awareness, any attachments that remain will come to an end. Understying comes naturally. You don’t have to make any effort. But fanatics don’t understy what the Buddha meant. Y the harder they try, the farther they get from the Sage’s meaning. All day long they invoke Buddhas y read sutras. But they remain blind to their own divine naturaleza, y they don’t escape the Wheel.
A Buddha is an idle person. He doesn’t run around after fortune y fame. What good are such things in the end? People who don’t see their naturaleza y think reading sutras, invoking Buddhas’, studying long y hard, practicing morning
y night, never lying down, or acquiring knowledge is the Dharma, blaspheme the Dharma. Buddhas of el pasado y el futuro only talk about seeing your naturaleza. All practices are impermanent. A menos que they see their naturaleza people who claim to have attained unexcelled, complete Comprensión" are liars. Among Shakyamuni’s ten greatest disciples, Anya was foremost in learning. But he didn’t know the Buddha. All he did was study y memorize. Arhats don’t know the Buddha. All they know are so many practices for realization, y they become trapped by cause y effect. Such is a mortal’s karma: no escape from birth y death. By doing the opposite of what lie intended, Such people blaspheme the Buddha. Killing them would not be wrong. The sutras say, "Since icchantikas are incapable of belief, killing them would be blameless, whereas people who believe reach the state of Buddhahood."
A menos que you see your naturaleza, You shouldn’t go around criticizing the goodness of others. There’s no advantage in deceiving yourself. Good y bad are distinct. Cause y effect are clear. Heaven y hell are right before your eves. But fools don’t believe y fall straight into a hell of endless darkness without even knowing it. What keeps them from believing is the heaviness of their karma. They’re like blind people who don’t believe there’s such a thing as light. Even if you explain it to them, they still don t believe, because they’re blind. How can they possibly distinguish light?
The same holds true for fools who end up among the lower orders of existence or among the poor y despised. They can’t live y they can’t die. Y despite their sufrimientos, if you ask them, they say they’re as happy as gods. All mortals even those who think themselves wellborn, are likewise unaware. Because of the heaviness of their karma, such fools can’t believe y can’t get libre .
People who see that their mente is the Buddha don’t need to shave their head" Laymen are Buddhas too. A menos que they see their naturaleza, people who shave their head are simply fanatics.
Estudiante: But since married laymen don’t give up sex, bow can they become Buddhas?
Bodhidharma: I only talk about seeing your naturaleza. I don’t talk about sex simply because you don’t see your naturaleza. Once you see your naturaleza, sex is basically immaterial. It ends along with your delight in it. Even if some habits remain’, they can’t harm you, because your naturaleza is essentially pure. Despite dwelling in a material body of four elements, your naturaleza is basically pure. It can’t be corrupted.
Your real body is basically pure. It can’t be corrupted. Your real body has no sensation, no hunger or thirst’, no warmth or cold, no sickness, no love or attachment, no pleasure or pain, no good or bad, no shortness or length, no weakness or strength. Actually, there’s nothing here. It’s only because you cling to this material body that things like hunger y thirst, warmth y cold, sickness appear Once you stop clinging y let things be, you’ll- be libre , even of birth y death. You’ll transform everything. You’ll possess Spiritual powers " that cant be obstructed. Y you’ll be at peace wherever you are. If you doubt this, you’ll never see through anything. You’re better off doing nothing. Once you act, you can’t avoid the cycle of birth y death. But once you see your naturaleza, you’re a Buddha even if you work as a butcher.
Estudiante: But butchers create karma by slaughtering animals. How can they be Buddhas?
Bodhidharma: I only talk about seeing your naturaleza. I don’t talk about creating karma. Regardless of what we do, our karma has no hold on us. Through endless kalpas without beginning, its only because people don’t see their naturaleza that they end up in hell. Con tal de que a person creates karma, he keeps passing through birth y death. But once a person realizes his original naturaleza, he stops creating karma. If he doesn’t see his naturaleza, invoking Buddhas won’t release him from his karma, regardless of whether or not he’s a butcher. But once he sees his naturaleza, all doubts vanish. Even a butcher’s karma has no effect on such a person. In India the twenty-seven patriarchs only transmitted the imprint of la mente.
Y the only reason I’ve come to China is to transmit the instantaneous teaching of the Mahayana This mente is the Buddha. I don’t talk about precepts, devotions or ascetic practices such immersing yourself in water y fire, treading a wheel of knives, eating one meal a day, or never lying down. These are fanatical, provisional teachings. Once you recognize your moving, miraculously aware naturaleza.
Yours is la mente of all Buddhas. Buddhas of el pasado y el futuro only talk about transmitting la mente.
They teach nothing else if someone understys this teaching, even if he’s illiterate he’s a Buddha. If You don’t see your own miraculously aware naturaleza, you’ll never find a Buddha even if you break your body into atoms.
The Buddha is your real body, your original mente. This mente has no form or characteristics, no cause or effect, no tendons or bones. It’s like space. You can’t hold it. Its not la mente or materialists or nihilists. Except for a Tathagata, no one else- no mortal, no deluded being-can fathom it.
But esta mente isn’t somewhere outside the material body of four elements.Without esta mente we can’t move. The body has no awareness. Like a plant or stone, the body has no naturaleza. So how does it move? It’s la mente that moves. Language y behavior, perception y conception are all functions of the moving mente. All motion is la mente’s motion. Motion is its function. Apart from motion there’s no mente, y apart from la mente there’s no motion. But motion isn’t la mente. Y la mente isn’t motion. Motion is basically menteless. Y la mente is basically motionless. But motion doesn’t exist without la mente. Y la mente doesn’t exist without motion. Theres no mente for motion to exist apart from, y
no motion for mente to exist apart from. Motion is la mente’s function, y its function is its motion. Even so, la mente neither moves nor functions, the essence of its functioning is emptiness y emptiness is essentially motionless. Motion is the same as la mente. Y la mente is essentially motionless. Hence the Sutras tell us to move without moving, to travel without traveling, to see without seeing, to laugh without laughing, to hear without hearing, to know without knowing, to be happy, without being happy, to walk without walking, to sty without stying. Y the sutras say, "Go más allá de language. Go más allá de thought." Basically, seeing, hearing, y knowing are completely empty. Your anger, Joy, or pain is like that of puppet. You search but you won’t find a thing.
According to the Sutras, evil deeds result in hardships y good deeds result in blessings. Angry people go to hell y happy people go to heaven. But once you know that the naturaleza of anger y joy is empty y you let them go, you libre yourself from karma. If you don’t see your naturaleza, quoting sutras is no help, I could go on, but this brief sermon will have to do.