The Platform Sutra: Sections 41 and 42, p220-232 (225-238 on Kindle)

[Kokuu]

Dear all

This week we look at sections 41 and 42 of the sutra.

In section 41, Huineng speaks with Chih-ch’eng, the monk who came from Shen-hsiu’s monastery. Chih-ch’eng tells him than Shen-hsiu teaches morality (sila), meditation (dhyana) and wisdom (prajna) which is a very traditional way of teaching. In Mahayana Buddhism, the Eightfold Path is presented this way with morality being right speech, action and livelihood; meditation being right effort, right concentration and right mindfulness; and wisdom is right understanding and right thought.

Huineng replies that he instead teaches the morality of your own nature, meditation of your own nature and wisdom of your own nature, when your mind is (respectively) free of error, confusion and ignorance. Instead of concentrating on a relative path, this is based purely on the perfection of wisdom and seeing that everything is the light of prajna.

Since our original nature is already free of error, confusion and ignorance, Huineng sees no need for a gradual approach but rather directly seeing the wisdom that is already there.
Section 42 tells of a monk called Fa-ta who comes to Tsaohsi mountain to ask for Huineng’s instruction on The Lotus Sutra. Fa-ta says that he has been reciting the sutra for seven years but is still confused by its meaning.

Huineng, being illiterate, says to Fa-ta that he has never read the sutra and asks the monk to read it to him so he can learn it. After that having happened, Huineng explains that the sutra is a text of metaphor and teaches us that although there are said to be three Buddhist vehicles, these are all part of the same one Buddha vehicle. He continues to explain that the causes for buddhas and bodhisattvas to appear in the world is through understanding the emptiness of our own nature.

Huineng continues by saying that once we understand this teaching our mind develops into a mind of a buddha and it does this through four ‘doorways’:

Developing the understanding of enlightenment
Manifesting the understanding of enlightenment
Realising the understanding of enlightenment
Entering the understanding of enlightenment

Huineng states that he hopes that all beings will develop the understanding of a buddha so that they stop committing harmful and foolish acts. He says that when we practice with mind, we read The Lotus Sutra but when we don’t practice the sutra does the reading.

He further declares that “To practice as a buddha is to be a buddha” which seems to me to be exactly the same as Dōgen’s notion of practice-enlightenment.

Questions:

1. How do you see the four doorways in section 42? Is this a gradual process?
2. What does it mean to read the sutra or for the sutra to do the reading?

Wishing you all a beautiful week.

Gassho
Kokuu
-sattoday/lah-

[Taigen]

Questions:

1. How do you see the four doorways in section 42? Is this a gradual process?
2. What does it mean to read the sutra or for the sutra to do the reading?

1. I think any process of growth and deepening understanding is going to have moments of realization and leaps in understanding, punctuated by the slow, gradual work of learning and unlearning habits and developing skills. As a musician, there are times when I sit down to play my instrument, and a skill that eluded me yesterday is suddenly under my fingers, but that was only possible because of the hours and hours I spent developing the physical and mental muscles to enact that new skill. I also think the 4 doorways are another example of something that seems like a sequence being a mutually supportive, interwoven set of practices (the 4 Noble Truths, 8-fold Path, 12 Links of Interdependent Arising, etc.).

2. My brother-in-law is Jewish and has told me stories about going to Hebrew school as a young boy to memorize sections of the Torah and learn to read the Hebrew script phonetically. Not to develop any understanding of what they were reading, or become fluent in Hebrew, simply to be able to read the text aloud. This feels like "the text reading you" to me, where you are not engaged to understand or enact the meaning of the text, just repeating it for the sake of repeating it. I find this happens to me too with dense Buddhist texts, my mind starts wandering and suddenly I'm 2 pages along with no memory of what I read. You can recite the Lotus Sutra over and over again, but if you aren't internalizing it, acting on it, learning from it, then it might as well just be reading you.

Gassho,
Taigen
SatLah

[Hosui]

I see the four doorways as one - as the same wholeness as Dogen’s practice-enlightenment, and as happening all at once, Uji fashion. The temptation is to see the doorways as successive practice stages, like the ox herding pictures, when (sadly) such a successive view cuts us off from the wholeness of which we’re already a part.

Since all sutras reveal buddha nature, and since we’re all manifestations of buddha nature, as the Sixth Patriarch says, it ain't complicated - our true minds ARE the sutra, expressed in the act of reading it. Anything short of this wholeness results in the paper, the glue and stitching, the print and the metaphors reading us.

Gassho
Hosui
sat/lah today

[Onsho]

How do you see the four doorways in section 42? Is this a gradual process?
I would very much see it as a gradual process in my experience. Watering seeds comes to mind. Nurturing these different ideas and feelings. Watching them bloom into understanding. Watching the blooms turn into a rich field. I would actually love to hear Jundo or any of the priests give a long indirect dharma talk on the three pillars and four understandings. Could be a nice Ango project for myself too. I would love to steep myself in this. Onsho pillar tea.



What does it mean to read the sutra or for the sutra to do the reading?
When you read the sutra without any reflection, the sutra is reading you. The sutras should be read slowly, studied, treated as if what you are doing is a holy process. There is meaning that isn't written and the sutras are pointing right at it.

Taking a creative risk here!
Im going to go as far as comparing this to drag queen reading. **puts on reading glasses** We are all familiar with rap battles. Two people picking each other apart ect. Drag queens "read" each other in a similar fashion where they will very deeply critique one another to a very deep and personal level. its like poetry when done well. To bring this back to reading the sutras, if they are read with the same level of attention, intimacy and tenacity, the surta will be too flustered to read you back.

Gassho
Onsho
satlah

[Chikyou]

1. How do you see the four doorways in section 42? Is this a gradual process?

To me it has definitely been a journey with stages as it were. It’s not intentional, of course, and I’m not striving for stages. But when I look back at my practice over the past couple of years I do see that new insights have come along at certain times and every new insight builds on the one before it. Taigen’s analogy of playing a musical instrument is very apt.

1. What does it mean to read the sutra or for the sutra to do the reading?

I’m reminded of another thread where we were discussing the Precepts and someone mentioned that the precepts are a mirror. I feel that this is the same way - when your mind is not right in some way, the sutra will point out your error (if you let it, of course!)

Gassho,
SatLah,
Chikyō

[Tairin]

How do you see the four doorways in section 42? Is this a gradual process?

When I read the four doorways my mind immediately went to the Ten Ox Herding Pictures. Like the Ten Ox Herding Pictures, the four doorways come across almost as if there are stages to our Path.

Developing the understanding of enlightenment
Manifesting the understanding of enlightenment
Realising the understanding of enlightenment
Entering the understanding of enlightenment

But with some reflection I see them as parallel or almost circular. One reinforcing the others. Start practicing, see what comes up, work with it, continue to practice. Whether enlightenment (kensho) is in my future or not I know that this is a continual process of developing/manifesting/realising/entering over and over and over again.

What does it mean to read the sutra or for the sutra to do the reading?


I see this as the difference between actually doing the Practice, in our case sitting Shikantaza daily and living according to the Precepts, vs reading about Zen in books but not actually practicing. Despite what appears to be backwards from what I just said, reading the Sutra here means to internalize the meaning of the Sutra, effectively grokking it. Having the Sutra do the reading means trying to understand the Practice intellectually.

This might be a process most of us need to go through. Like I suspect many here have done, my interest in Buddhism was initially fuelled by reading. I learned about Buddhism back in my teens (40ish years ago) and always sort of held the words. It wasn't until about 15 years ago that I actually started the daily Practice that continues up to today.


Tairin
sat today and lah

[Hoseki]

Hi folks,

1. How do you see the four doorways in section 42? Is this a gradual process?

I think it is both an instantaneous and gradual process but because they are opposites I think it's also safe to say it's nether instantaneous nor gradual. What I mean is from one point of view people practicing the buddha way will eventually before more buddha like. If you actively practice generosity then over time you will be generous without having to think about it. It would be a spontaneous act to give to people who need it. At the very least the person would like to give even if they aren't in the position to do so.

But from another view, I think once you've acted, thought or felt like a Buddha (I'm not sure what that last one would be like) then you're a Buddha. In fact, you will be the Buddha and the Buddha will be you and also the coat rack in the corner and you will be the coat rack as well. The ten thousand grasses interpenetrate, there is no outside. So one act of being a Buddha would mean your a buddha in the ten directions and the three times. I'm still working these kinds of thoughts out so my apologies if this isn't clear. It's not clear for me either but I think its right.

2. What does it mean to read the sutra or for the sutra to do the reading?


I think this is a matter of focus. When the mind is true, it's a buddha reading the Lotus Sutra, but when it's false, it's a sentient being reading the Lotus Sutra. I think Huineng is saying in one situation it's a Buddha reading a Sutra. But when it's a sentient being reading the Sutra then it's a sentient being being influenced by a Sutra (Buddha?). I'm trying to say that in one case (Buddha/Sutra) there is a kind of non-duality. So yes a monk reads the sutra but it's also a Buddha who reads the sutra as well as a Buddha who reads a Buddha or reads themselves. But in the second, (sentient being/Buddha) it's the sentient being doesn't know that they are a Buddha and they see the Sutra as somehow alien to them. Because the sentient being is aspiring to Buddhahood the Sutra takes on the role of a Bodhisattva by enlightening the sentient being.


Gassho,

Hoseki
sattoday/lah