The Rarity of True Faith
Seeing and believing, the root of goodness is deep and firm.
Subhuti said to the Buddha, "World Honored One, will anyone who gets to hear this exposition develop genuine faith?"
Subhuti is asking, "This teaching is very deep, hard to believe, hard to understand; the intelligence and insight of ordinary people of the final age are slight and inferior---how can they believe it?"
The Buddha's reply follows.
Buddha told Subhuti, "Don't talk that way. In the last five hundred years after the death of the Realized One, there will be those who keep the precepts and do good deeds who will be capable of conceiving belief in this exposition, considering it to be true. You should know that those people will have planted roots of goodness, not with one, two, three, four, or five buddhas, but with infinite thousands and myriads of buddhas. They will conceive pure belief on hearing this exposition for even a moment."
In the last five hundred years after my passing, if there are any people who can keep the formless precepts of the Great Vehichle, not mistakenly grasp appearances and not act out compulsive routines, whose minds are always empty and quiet and not bound by appearances, then this is the mind dwelling nowhere; this mind can believe in the Realized One's profound teaching. What these people say is true and trustworthy. Why? These people have planted roots of goodness, not merely for one, two, three, four, or five eons, but for infinite thousands and myriads of millions of eons.
For this reason the Realized One says, "In the last five hundred years after my death, if there are those who cultivate their conduct detached from appearances, you should know these people have planted roots of goodness, not merely with one, two, three, four, or five buddhas." What does planting roots of goodness mean? It may briefly be set forth as follows:
It means wholeheartedly supporting the buddhas and following their teachings, while always being respectful and obedient to bodhisattvas, spiritual friends, teachers, parents, old folks, experienced worthies, and venerable elders. This is called planting roots of goodness.
To develop an attitude of mercy and compassion towards all beings suffering because of craving, not conceiving disdain from them, giving them what they need according to one's ability---this is called planting roots of goodness.
To be gentle and tolerant with all bad types, treating them affably and not provoking them, causing them to develop a sense of joy, and stop being stubbornly perverse---this is called planting roots of goodness.
Not killing or harming living beings, not cheating and not despising them, not defaming and not disgracing them, not riding or beating them, not eating their flesh, always acting to their benefit---this is called planting roots of goodness.
As for belief, this means believing that prajnaparamita can eliminate all afflictions; believing that prajnaparamita can produce all buddhas; believing that the buddha-nature in your own body is originally pure, without defilement, equal to the buddha-nature of the buddhas; believing that all types of beings are originally formless; believing that all beings can attain buddhahood---this is called pure belief.
"Subhuti, the Realized One knows and sees all those beings attaining infinite blessings this way. Why? Those beings have no more image of self, image of person, image of being, or image of liver of life. They have no image of truth, and no image of nontruth either."
After the death of the Realized One, if people develop the consciousness of prajnaparamita and practice the application of prajnaparamita, cultivating enlightened understanding and attaining the profound meaning of the buddhas, they are all known to the buddhas. If people hear the teachings of the higher vehicle and accept and keep it wholeheartedly, then they are able to practice the formless, nonobsessive application of prajnaparamita, utterly without the four images of self, person, being, and liver of life.
No self means no matter, sensation, conception, conditioning, or consciousness. No person means understanding the gross elements are not substantial and ultimately disintegrate. No being means no mind being born and dying. No liver of life means our bodies are originally nonexistent---how can there be a liver of life?
Once the four images are gone, the objective eye is thoroughly clear, not attached to existence or nonexistence, detached from both extremes: the Realized One of your own mind realizes itself and awakens itself, forever detaching from mundane toils and errant thoughts, naturally attaining blessings without bound.
To say that there is no image of truth means being detached from labels and beyond appearances, not trapped in words. To say that there is no image of nontruth either means it cannot be said there is no truth to prajnaparamita. If you say there is no truth to prajnaparamita, this is repudiating the teaching.
"Why? If these beings' minds grasped at appearances, they would be attached to self, person, being, and liver of life. If they grasped at an image of truth, they would be attached to self, person, being, liver of life. Why? If they grasped at an image of nontruth, they would be attached to self, person, being, and liver of life.
"Therefore you should not grasp at truth, and should not grasp at untruth. In this sense the Realized One always says to you mendicants know the truth I teach is like a raft; even the truth is to be relinquished, let alone nontruth."
"Truth" means the truth of prajnaparamita, perfection wisdom; "Untruth" means teachings for rebirth in heaven. The truth of prajnaparamita can enable beings to cross the ocean of birth and death; once they have crossed over, they should not dwell on it, much less get obsessed with teachinngs for rebirth in heaven.
{The Sutra of Hui-Neng ~ Classics of Buddhism and Zen/Cleary}
{Images Linked/Art By Michael Cheval}
