seventh world of chan buddhism - Zen Buddhist Order of Hsu Yun

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"Because Aunt Jane dislikes children." "Why?" "Because children make her nervous." "Why?" "I think it's because they remind her that she has no children of her own." "Why doesn't she have children of her own?" "Because the doctor says she can't have any." "Why?" (ad infinitum) A child perceives that in existence there are no closed systems, no spontaneously generated occasions. All events are links in a cause/effect concatenation, a network of events. They are both factors and products. Adults, however, try to tear apart the net, to isolate a knot and then deem that knot supportive of all those which appeared to radiate from it. Life does not work this way. In a network, all parts are interconnected. We have all heard `For want of a nail the shoe was lost.' A horse has been improperly shod, there being a nail missing from one shoe. The horse is ridden by a messenger who has critical information for a battlefield commander. Armed with this intelligence, the commander will be victorious. Without it, he will lose. The shoe that lacks a nail falls off and since the horse is unable to continue, the information does not get to the commander and the battle is lost. This concatenation of causes and effects is what is meant by karma. It does no good to speculate, `Ah, but even if the horse had been properly shod, something else might have intervened to prevent delivery of the message.' Probables and possibles have nothing to do with karma. The reason the blacksmith failed to shoe the horse properly may have been that he was killed before he could finish... or he was drunk... or he was exhausted... or he was out of nails... or his customer was in a hurry and said the job was good enough as it was. There is a cause antecedent to the effect of the missing nail; and that cause is itself an effect of some other cause. The network is truly infinite. And in attempting to decide for whom this battlefield karma was good or bad, we foolishly waste even more time. Let us consider an event...the crash of an airliner. Mr. Doe is on his way to the airport when his wallet is stolen. The plane leaves without him. He isolates this event and judges it to be singularly bad. While he rants about his rotten luck and curses the thief, he learns that the airliner has crashed. Now he judges the theft to be good and he blesses the thief. A few days later he learns that he has a fatal disease which will cause him great pain and will also ruin him financially, leaving his dear wife destitute. He also learns that the families of the crash victims will receive huge settlements. Now he curses the thief for if the thief had not stolen his wallet, he would have been on the airliner and would have been spared a long, agonizing death and his dear wife would have been financially secure. But while he lies in torment his wife runs off with his best friend. Now he blesses the thief for having stolen the wallet which made him miss the plane which kept his wife from becoming rich and spending the money enjoying herself with his perfidious friend. CHAPTER 11 RIGHT UNDERSTANDING S EVENTH W ORLD O F C HAN B UDDHISM 132
Insofar as these events concern our existence in the world of Samsara, we simply have no way of judging what is good karma and what is bad. If we are lucky, we are led by the chain of events to Nirvana. At some point we are receptive to an inspiring force. Our ears are opened at the particular time the calling bell is struck. We hear and follow. If we are not lucky, we die without ever having heard the call. We know we have truly been saved when we are so overjoyed by salvation that we can review all of our misfortunes and understand that had any one of these events not happened exactly as it had, we might not have arrived at salvation's shore. In other words, to be truly saved is to accept without rancor all that has happened in our lives. Of course, we regret the wrongs we have done. But salvation enables us finally to understand our own crimes even as we understand the crimes of others and to forgive ourselves even as we forgive others. This is a rare victory... which is why those who are saved are counted among life's ultimate winners and those who are not are too numerous to count. CHAPTER 11 RIGHT UNDERSTANDING S EVENTH W ORLD O F C HAN B UDDHISM 133
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THE SEVENTH WORLD OF CHAN BUDDHISM
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Table of Contents PART I: ORIGINS C
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As their population increased, so d
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from the womb of their Holy Mother
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fade quickly in early morning body-
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doctrine of Karma meant nothing les
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The other method of salvation, the
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As H.G. Wells reconstructs Siddarth
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CHAPTER 2 CHINA How wonderful! How
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in its concealed vitality, a new mo
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favor. (Unhappily, as we shall see,
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demand, or, perhaps, respectfully r
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demonstrated divine affection; and
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Believing that human nature was inh
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after a specific individual can, wh
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The Confucians also mocked the old
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Preferring to be absolutely certain
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male, earth and sky, dark and light
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As farmers, they of course studied
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emember. How much credence can we a
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Again, as there is no willful, exte
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CHAPTER 4 ORIGINS OF THE TWO MAIN S
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ecstatic beggars ambling through th
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As monasteries and shrines competed
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Though he could see Infinity in a s
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When, however, the fellow failed to
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was necessary, went back to South C
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intelligentsia sought refuge in Con
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She must have paid a fortune for it
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Even though Titans are noticeably h
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with the cosmos - encounters which
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The name Devil comes from the wretc
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challenge. To live in the Six World
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CHAPTER 6 THE GAP BETWEEN THE SIX W
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himself as being under siege from e
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advise him to seek sanctuary in a m
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CHAPTER 7 A WORKING MODEL OF THE PS
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that because something conforms to
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and protect them, they very likely
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follow a prescribed moral code that
Page 81 and 82: survival value. With this friend th
Page 83 and 84: Even today, a man will spend consid
Page 85 and 86: CROSS-SECTION: MODEL OF PSYCHE The
Page 87 and 88: in which we simply live out the lif
Page 89 and 90: pride, anger, security, jealousy, a
Page 91 and 92: honest, loving, witty, and good hum
Page 93 and 94: feel if we discover that our trust
Page 95 and 96: CHAPTER 9 HIGH PRICE OF DESIRE It s
Page 97 and 98: including veterans' organizations)
Page 99 and 100: the legend, "Even when you're baaaa
Page 101 and 102: Mr. Doe tells himself that he does
Page 103 and 104: Since his ex-wife and kids live in
Page 105 and 106: court press.) His new attachments w
Page 107 and 108: When evaluating dreams we must reca
Page 109 and 110: PART III: PRACTICE CHAPTER 10 FIRST
Page 111 and 112: Again, meditation requires that the
Page 113 and 114: Some people find it easier to count
Page 115 and 116: Zen is a branch of the Mahayana, an
Page 117 and 118: FIRST STEP ON THE EIGHTFOLD PATH CH
Page 119 and 120: Now, the question is this: Which ba
Page 121 and 122: It is necessary to appreciate the d
Page 123 and 124: punishment in the sense of physical
Page 125 and 126: through his troubles. It's another
Page 127 and 128: And if a single confession of past
Page 129 and 130: At the turn of the century, a famou
Page 131: and death' the moment we enter Nirv
Page 135 and 136: adiant, humble, compassionate, joyf
Page 137 and 138: Usually our love-affairs with thing
Page 139 and 140: The chronic annoyance of trivialiti
Page 141 and 142: After Dad has sympathized with Sonn
Page 143 and 144: conviction, "The friend of my frien
Page 145 and 146: Chan requires us not only to analyz
Page 147 and 148: Of all the projections one individu
Page 149 and 150: ego is so important." The layman, l
Page 151 and 152: Of greater importance to the person
Page 153 and 154: Buddhists because it is virtually i
Page 155 and 156: 1. Non-killing 2. Non-stealing 3. N
Page 157 and 158: Salesmen frequently have difficulty
Page 159 and 160: would not be able to perform such g
Page 161 and 162: CHAPTER 15 RIGHT LIVELIHOOD "The pr
Page 163 and 164: killing of animals being unambiguou
Page 165 and 166: SIXTH STEP ON THE PATH CHAPTER 16 R
Page 167 and 168: What if we don't have a whole house
Page 169 and 170: When we finally decide to get in sh
Page 171 and 172: By Right Effort we mean that we cre
Page 173 and 174: sanitized in translation and appear
Page 175 and 176: men and women involved would have q
Page 177 and 178: the gentle monk came outside and sa
Page 179 and 180: There is another revolving sensatio
Page 181 and 182: length of time he'll require. He pe
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Eventually he realizes that he is b
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"Are there any teachings which go b
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The rules which govern eating defy
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CHAPTER 19 RIGHT MEDITATION EIGHTH
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cannot describe either the rush of
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The hands may either be held high a
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for as long as possible - the durat
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OTHER FORMS OF MEDITATION The word
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Pay attention to one clock only. As
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volume and harmony until it seemed
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Fasting, never a gentle exercise, c
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So far, so good. The characters and
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What type of prayer is permissible?
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CONCLUSION I remember once being ta
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