Subtle Wisdom: Understanding Suffering, Cultivating Compassion Through Ch'an Buddhism

178 Pages·2011·1.046 MB·English

by  Master Sheng-Yen

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Sheng-yen.
Subtle wisdom: understanding suffering, cultivating
compassion through Ch’an buddhism / Master Sheng-yen.
p. cm.
1. Zen Buddhism. 2. Suffering—Religious aspects—
Buddhism. 3. Compassion (Buddhism)
I. Title.
BQ9265.4.S477 1999
294.3’927—dc21 99-21089

eISBN: 978-0-307-78183-3
Copyright © 1999 by Dharma Drum Publications
All Rights Reserved

v3.1
Thus shall ye think of this fleeting world:
A star at dawn, a bubble in a stream;
A flash of lightning in a summer cloud,
A flickering lamp, a phantom and a dream.

— The Diamond Sutra
Contents

Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Epigraph
Introduction

1. Youthful Questioning
2. Who Was Buddha? What Is Ch’an?
3. Buddhism, Pain, and Suffering
4. Ch’an Training
5. Methods of Practice and Stages of Development in
Ch’an
6. Enlightenment? But What Is It?
7. Compassion
Glossary
Acknowledgments
Introduction

I would like to take this opportunity to describe the
background and development of Ch’an, both for readers
who are new to Ch’an and for those who have little or
erroneous information.
Ch’an cannot be separated from Buddhism. Since the
time of Buddha, masters have given “transmission” of his
wisdom to their disciples when they demonstrated
experience and understanding of the Dharma, the teachings
of Buddha. As a result of this form of recognition, lineages
have developed and have become separate sects or schools
of Buddhism. This does not mean that each sect holds only
part of the Buddhadharma. What is transmitted in the Ch’an
school is, in fact, the whole of the Dharma.
The Dharma is like the ocean. Whether you take water
from the Indian Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean, or the Arctic
Ocean, it always tastes salty. Likewise, in all the lineages
within mainstream Buddhism, the taste of Dharma is the
same. The taste is the whole of Shakyamuni Buddha’s
teaching.
Who was Shakyamuni, the founder of Buddhism?
Shakyamuni Buddha is not a mythical figure; he was born
over twenty-six hundred years ago, the prince of the small
kingdom of the Shakya clan in what is now Nepal.
At a certain point Prince Shakyamuni was confronted
with the inevitability of old age, sickness, and death, and he
asked himself why these are inherent parts of the human
condition. He was gravely concerned with this question,
and his inability to solve it led him to leave his household
and become a spiritual seeker in the traditional Indian way.
If you know a bit about Indian history and religion you
know that the Indian subcontinent has a rich history of
spiritual practice, and a supportive atmosphere for such
practice. Shakyamuni hoped to realize enlightenment, and
through his enlightenment to resolve the questions about
the reasons for birth, sickness, old age, and death.
For the next six years Shakyamuni mainly cultivated two
kinds of practice. The first was samadhi, the practice of
meditative concentration and absorption. The second was
asceticism. Neither of these resolved his questions about
our basic human condition. Even though he was able to
reach profound states of mind, he was not enlightened.
After six years of practicing samadhi and asceticism, he
gave them up. He felt that asceticism, in particular, was not
in accordance with wisdom, and later advocated the
“Middle Way.”1 Shakyamuni continued to meditate, and one
day as he was coming out of meditation quite naturally, with
a relaxed and joyful mind, he looked up at the sky and saw
the morning star, and his perception was transformed. He
realized that originally, intrinsically, the mind is unlimited.
All things are just as they are. There is no need to give rise
to vexations.2 At that moment he was completely
enlightened.
Buddhism teaches that although all things are
spontaneously, naturally, just as they are, without
afflictions and vexations, sentient beings have been
unaware of this since time without beginning; that is, their
mind ground3 is not luminous and bright. Because of this
unawareness, living beings cherish themselves and concern
themselves greatly with what they experience and
especially with what they like and dislike and whether they
gain or lose. Even when we gain something we suffer
because we fear losing it. We hold on to objects,
experiences, and feelings with great attachment. Out of this
attachment we create separateness between ourselves and
our environment, and all phenomena. We alienate ourselves
into individual “I’s.” Because of this illusory separateness
and our attachment to the individual “I,” we go through
cycles of birth, sickness, aging, and death; and suffering is
the result of this process.