On Saturday March 4, Venerable Chang Yuan began a series of Summer Dharma talks that are to take place every Saturday at DDM Toronto Center from May to August 2024. Ven. Chang Yuan provided a solid historical foray into the Dharma Drum lineage of Chan, describing the two major Chan Schools of Caodong (Soto) and Linji and how Master Sheng Yen combined strands from these schools to form the methods that we now commonly refer to as Silent Illumination and Huatou. Master Sheng Yen’s book Attaining the Way by Master Sheng Yen is the principal text upon which these summer talks will be based.[i]
The first talk focused on excerpts from Master Boshan’s
“What Beginning Practitioners Should Know” (from Attaining the Way, pp.7-22),
with special emphasis on the meaning behind his expression “break through the mind of
birth and death”, as well as the importance of cultivating a strong vow in one’s practice. What is birth
and death after all? Before my birth, where did I come from? What is emptiness,
and how can I discover it through practice and contemplation? Ven Chang Yuan
remarked about how having a strong determination to answer a “great question”
or great matter of life—such as who we are prior to birth and after death, or how
to escape from attachment to birth and death—is one way to reduce the tendency
to magnify small vexations in life. To treat Chan practice as a strong resolve
to solve a deep problem that concerns our existence is one of the best ways
that we can ensure that we are focusing on the things that matter the most in
practice, and in life as a whole. Ven. Chang Yuan reminded us of how deep
investigation of Chan can be a powerful way of setting the right priority. He
also mentioned how some practitioners only practice Chan on the cushion, only
to practice making money off the cushion. In fact, Dharma practice needs to
soak into all of our experiences in order to reap the full benefits and find
true peace in life, rather than relying on provisional things to make us feel
secure.
I found myself gravitating to Ven Chang Yuan’s accounts of
Master Boshan’s early education in Dharma. Wuyi Yuanlai (1575-1630) ---who was
later named Master Boshan after Mount Bo where he taught Dharma-- was ordained
at the age of 16, and experienced enlightenment at age 27. Although Yuanlai was
a very studious monk and tried very hard to achieve realization through methods
such as vipassana and samatha, he could only progress in his practice when he
went beyond language and was able to see the reality of his mind directly. Ven.
Chang Yuan used this story to remind the retreat participants how essential
intensive Chan practice is, as an aid to directly experiencing what we have
read in sutras. Truly investigating the method, as the Venerable reminded us,
involves the process of knowing your method without giving it any second
thought, until it becomes a part of you, and therefore can be used at all
times, in every single moment. This is the difference between practicing on the
cushion and being able to practice in every situation of one’s daily life.
Throughout this talk, Venerable Chang Yuan stressed the
importance of having a great vow and using the vow to put in our earnest
efforts in practice. Without a great vow or even a great question like Master
Boshan’s, our practice will lack the continuity needed to strengthen our
practice and apply it smoothly across different situations we face. Furthermore,
without the truly strong vow, our life will be lead more by one’s karma than by
insight or understanding. Ven. Chang Yuan also stressed the importance of the
precepts as a means of protecting our practice, ensuring that, at the end of
our life, we have enough positive merits that we can create a strong momentum
to face death peacefully, without fear. Only with a positive perspective of
looking back on our good deeds and intentions can one look forward to a
favorable rebirth and face death openly and courageously.
One statement that most struck me during the talk was Ven.
Chang Yuan’s reminder to be humble in our practice. He warned that it’s easy
for practitioners to become arrogant when their practice experiences are quite
smooth and they have started to develop a strong practice or flow with their
method. In the Lotus Sutra, the Buddha waited for 500 arhats to leave the
space where he was preaching before he started to deliver Dharma. The arhats
left because they couldn’t accept the idea that all sentient beings possess the
seed of buddha nature, that Buddha lies within all minds. This story emphasizes
the importance of having an open and soft mind when listening to the Dharma—a
mind that admits to not knowing the profound nature of emptiness, yet is not
discouraged from wondering and trying to investigate under the guidance of sangha
and teachers.
How can we apply the method of investigation in daily life?
This was a question that one participant had raised during the Q and A. Ven.
Chang Yuan responded that we should use apply method lightly but consistently
in daily life without trying to suppress thoughts or emotions. Trying to use
the method to suppress thoughts will only lead to tiredness and tenseness, not
to mention a more distracted mind. On the other hand, when we experience strong
anger in daily life, rather than suppressing angry thoughts and emotions, we
can go to the heart of it by asking “who is it that is angry?” This would be
one way of using the method of huatou to address daily life phenomena, without
the side-effects of an intense approach or mindset.
Finally, when Ven. Chang Yuan was asked the question “what
is ignorance?” he exhorted the participants to “talk less, listen more” when
they go home. That is, if we don’t know what is wisdom and what is ignorance,
it’s best to keep our minds clear and simple, and practice rather than speaking
of what we don’t know. I believe that taking Ven. Chang Yuan’s advice slowed me
down and allowed me to be more present when others are talking. It also
reminded me that Dharma is not something we learn through words or
memorization. It’s something we put into our heart through faith, vows and
determination to apply the method to remain present with ourselves at all
times.
Keith B. May 5, 2024
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