“Virtuous ones, the unsurpassed Dharma King possesses great dhāraṇī-door, named as ‘Completely Aware.’ Flows out all purity, suchness, Bodhi, nirvana and paramitas, teaching bodhisattvas. 

All Tathāgatas originally arise from causal ground, all rely on complete illumination of purely aware attributes, permanently sever ignorance, and then accomplish the Buddha-Way.” 

What is ignorance? Virtuous ones, all sentient beings since beginning-less time have various inverted views. Just like a lost person moves in four directions changing location, misrecognizes Four Elements as self-body attributes and grasping shadows of Six Dusts as self-mind attributes. Just like that diseased eye sees flower in nothingness, and a second moon. 

Virtuous ones, nothingness actually has no flower—diseased person has illusive attachment. Due to illusive attachment, thus not only confused about this empty self-nature, and also confused that there is no real flower arising place. Due to this illusive existence, the wheel of life and death turns. Therefore named “ignorance.”

This morning is the sixth Patriarch Nirvana anniversary,
Should be celebration and praise?  Should be grief and sorrow?
Ashamed mountain monk, the monastery courtyard is desolate. Right now serve on a platter as offering. Please hopefully the Patriarch does not dislike these meager offerings! Accept them with compassion. I will take this chance to tell all my pain and bitterness, spill it all to my patriarch. In order not to become rainy night pond and autumn water depth.

Ah Sixth Patriarch! Ah Sixth Patriarch!
Please open your eyes to see the look of your offsprings.  How can it be like this outcome: Chan lineage is withering, how can it be? At this present time, weeping is superfluous. Rather retract arms and legs, and return to Caoxi, to prevent slander by others.

Today, we are so grateful to Sixth Patriarch. How to say a word to express our gratitude?

Whisk waves away three kalpas of confusion,
Show the golden body of Hui-Neng,
Unworthy offsprings bow together,
Patriarch seal united with honors, one life again.

Dharma Son, Miao Tsan
respectfully bath, prostrate, and praise

Shariputra! Form does not differ from emptiness, emptiness does not differ from form. Form is emptiness, emptiness is form. Feeling, cognition, impulse, consciousness also is such.

Shariputra! All dharmas are empty of characteristics, not birth not death, not tainted not pure, not increasing not decreasing. Therefore in emptiness, no form, feeling, cognition, impulse, consciousness, no eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, consciousness, no sight, sound, smell, taste, touch, dharma, no realm of the eye, and even no realm of consciousness, no ignorance also no ending of ignorance, and even no old age and death also no end of old age and death, no suffering accumulating extinction way, no wisdom also no attainment.

For nothing is attained so Bodhisattva rely on prajna paramita therefore mind has no hanging burden, no hanging burden thus has no terror, far away from inverted dream-thinking, ultimately Nirvana!

Three periods of time all Buddhas rely on prajna paramita thus attain annutara-samyaksambodhi. Therefore know prana paramita is a great spiritual mantra, is a great bright mantra, is a supreme mantra, is an unequalled mantra, can eliminate all suffering, authentic and not false. Thus proclaimed the prajna paramita mantra, which is spoken as:

GATE  GATE  PARAGATE  PARASAMGATE  BODHI  SVAHA! 

If the mind acts with subtlety, thought after thought enters a fine state. Perceive the state prior to thought, one is no longer seized by phenomena and coarse mind be swayed by agitated movements.

If courage is great, one is able to shoulder the responsibility of the Boundless Door. When the time comes, teach all beings, one is able to expound the Dharma fearlessly.

If strength of vow is deep, learn countless dharma teachings without tiring, and even if encounter demons, obstacles, or difficulty, in that not moving a tiny bit. Understand and let it be clearly, and one by one take it, brave and fierce diligence also.

If set aspiration high, there is no rush to search for knowledge and understanding that blocks one’s self from the door of enlightenment. Until penetrates thoroughly, reaching the state of great release and great rest, never compromise with the current opinion and bury one’s self.

If reach four achievements, how is one like ordinary tiny roots and tiny stems who only search for places bustling with noise, not knowing one’s lack of strength in practicing the way, karma of virtue is not done yet and realization is not throughout, knowledge is not broad, turned away from the self in pursuit of phenomena, merely have superficial title only.

Zen poem is the manifestation of realization in this very moment – not a product of an external seeking mind, not a manipulation of words, not an imitation or thought construct based on Zen koans or principles, and not a writer’s catharsis of worldly sentimentality.

The mind and the realization of its nature are formless and therefore can only be revealed through manifestation as a means of instructing disciples. Like the finger pointing out the moon, Zen poems are not created through grasping and attachment.

Zen poems may or may not have structurally matching verses but they must flow from of the realization of the essence of the mind and the manifestation of that non-duality of emptiness and awareness in the very moment. They are not the results of mental speculations but the authentic expression of the reality of the pure mind.

Zen poems must be anchored in the primordial mind, must be intimate with its essence, form, and function, intimate with the principle and reality, intimate with mind and manifestation, intimate with awareness and emptiness, intimate with nature and form, be free of the three minds of past, present, and future and the four marks of self, others, beings, and time – thus not falling into the ranks of mundane speeches.

In ancient time, Tiantai Deshao Zen Master composed a poem that went like this:

Pinnacle of the Unfathomable,
Not an ordinary world;
Nothing outside the Mind,
Full view of Green Mountain

Upon hearing this, Master Fayen Wenyi said, “This one verse alone can initiate our lineage.”

One should know that Zen poem is not a fabricated oddity or an imaginary scenery; it is reality as told. The realized mind finds amble opportunities to express the truth; it resonates with the no-birth no-death essence that displays myriad dream-like reflections of the empty moon in the water. Zen poem is therefore the expression of the mind, the manifestation that reveals the state of realization, not an exercise of triviality.

Now hear my verse:

Huayen permeates Ten Directions
Not one measure outside its dominion
If you ask what it really means
Outside the Mind all traces vanish

Miao Tsan

Six realms of reincarnation immemorial,
Hastily coming and going none fared well;
Poor, abject, wealthy, or revered, all submerged in karmic ocean,
None can escape the sword of passing time.

Ancient sages also said, “Wait not till old age to practice the Way, buried in lonely tombs are mostly the young.” One must heed this stern warning. Another verse went like this:

Floating duckweed, life spans few years,
Ignorant at first, beyond help in old age;
Guests of fame and fortunate, the young and strong,
Who is really practicing the Way?

People often said that one should wait until retirement to practice the Way, or try to achieve social standing and wealth first. Some said having a family and establishing a business should come first; others advised to wait until children have grown. Day after day, there is always more tomorrow to speak of. While the suffering of birth-death begins with greed, which is also endless. One should know when the breath stops, life ends instantly. The cycle of birth and death that should’ve ended did not end; in fact it gets worse. On the march toward death, there are not distinction between the young and the old, there is only the constant flow of impermanence. Listen to my verse:

Practice the Way soon, without delay,
Awakening can be rather far off;
Visiting the Lapis Lazuli palace,
How can one be at ease like the breeze?

Miao Tsan

Expounding the Dharma requires vast mind capacity, strict observance of the precepts, wisdom, compassion, spiritual realization, skillful means, continuous refinement and training, and most importantly one must resonate and go deeply in the teaching with a singular focus.

This solemn task is beyond merely researching the Internet and passing along to others what one considers to be good information. Even worse is where one considers spreading speculative ideas to others as propagating the Dharma. Doing so is to mistake confusion for breadth of knowledge and cleverness for realization. A disciple must first enter the lineage of a teaching, deepening and immersing oneself in it until breaking through the Initial Gate, the Second Gate, and the Final Prison Gate. After the fetters of false views have been dispelled and the fetters of habitual tendencies are gradually purified, one inquires deeply into the core of sutra teachings, then one may carefully expand and absorb the views and realizations from different lineages and sects. Before reaching this stage, studying teachings from other sects are at best a form of distracted and varied practices.

In the lineage of Zen, the moment a thought arises one becomes aware, and that awareness instantly terminates and empties that thought. One ceaselessly inquires and penetrates into his primordial nature, breaking through barriers after barriers until he is firmly established on that singular, upward, straight Path to the truth. Other than this, all considerations are nothing but the birth and death of the discriminating consciousness.

Training a disciple is like treating an eye disease with a golden acupuncture needle; a slight error can injure and destroy the eye itself. To administer a cure, one must know clearly the name of the medicine, its energetic quality, quantity, combination, conflict and synergy, preparation procedure, protocol of taking it and various dietary prohibitions. Any mix-up in this process will not only fail to deliver a cure – even with the highest quality of medicine – but also increase toxicity. In the practice of Zen, one must avoid distracting the mind and dissipating the energy of one’s effort. If the mind is still covetous and grasping, a practitioner will eventually descend into the ranks of those trapped in discursive thinking and distracted and varied practices.

Without the urgency to end birth and death, the profundity and severity of birth and death cannot be appreciated; without genuine practice and solid realization, all teachings will turn into games of mental discrimination. This is true of individual practice and even more so for in the task of teaching and liberating all sentient beings. Most people like to present themselves as teachers yet never honestly assess their own qualification. They do not know the progressive stages of the Dharma and the purity and defilement of phenomena. Therefore, they must exercise caution, treading carefully as if on thin ice when expressing their own view.

Ordinary beings lack awareness; they know neither who they are nor who their teacher is. To speculate the teacher’s meaning is like attempting to measuring the vastness of the ocean using a ladle with no hope of ever arriving at the truth.

The path of individual cultivation is far from over,
How can one attempt to benefit others;
If one knows not to focus on his own affairs,
The deluded mind wanders endlessly in speculative thoughts.

One’s own task has not completed,
Extraneous words benefit no one;
Essence is to be realized though ‘no-mind’,
Don’t turn teachings into trivial talk.

A disciple must know – before the barriers broken, attachments severed, delusion dispelled, awakening realized, emptiness perfected – that even the most wondrous philosophical discourse is nothing more than speculation, not real. A disciple in every utterance and conduct of the four dignities – sitting, standing, walking, and lying down – must be measured, cautious, restrained and devoid of all discursive speculation.

Miao Tsan