Assembly, since you have left home to seek to leave the world, the karma of a thousand past lives and the long-buried grievances of many generations that were formed in worldly ways must all be repented of and removed, extinguished from now on and never to arise again; only then can you be clear of the suffering of recompense and retribution. But this view is held by those of the lower vehicle with poor roots: people who flee their enmities and default on their debts, the kind who fear death and crave life, a lot of small aspiration and no ability. Such people’s mind-ground is not clear and the heaven of their nature has not yet appeared; they look only to the present and give no thought to the next life. Let me tell you, the assembly, a story about this kind of outer path.
Assembly, there was a Taoist who left home in midlife and went wandering like a cloud to visit teachers. He met several companions, and together they made vows and built a hermitage on Mount Lao (Laoshan) in Shandong to engage in spiritual practice. Later, because of war and turmoil, they came down the mountain together and went to the foot of Mount Wangwu in Henan, where they lodged and practiced seated meditation. Though these five or six had an affinity, they did not share the same way; each had his own kind of practice. After a year, four or five had left. Only three remained, who renewed their vows and sought together to leave the world. Later, of the three, one passed away first while seated in meditation, and the other two grew all the more determined. Then another passed away while seated, and the last one practiced alone. Once, during seated meditation, his soul traveled to Mount Tiantai, and he suddenly met the companion who had passed away second. The two were overjoyed. The one who had passed away said: “I have been wanting to tell you: you should change the vow you made the year before last. When I vowed to practice, I wanted to repent and remove my karmic enmities in order to seek liberation. Who would have thought that the other day, when my allotted span in the dust ran out, I arrived outside the Three Heavenly Gates, and the bureau of examination and verification announced loudly: ‘So-and-so’s root of enmity still remains, and his fated calamity is hard to escape; his name is not on the heavenly roll and he has no place on the Cinnabar Terrace. He may not go forward; let him go to the Metropolitan Office of the Three Primes on the Cloud Terrace to receive a post.’ At once a strong wind and vast qi covered the heavenly gate so that it could not be seen, and my spirit went to the Office of the Three Primes. The Three Officials checked the register and said: ‘You are of the lower vehicle, a petty method of the side doors, and you vainly hoped to be liberated. In consideration of your ignorance on a deluded path, since the post of mountain spirit at Tongbai Palace on Mount Tiantai is vacant, go there for now and act in that office; when there is a vacancy in the underworld bureaus, you will be granted a substantive appointment.’ I then begged for instruction so that I might cultivate in the hidden world, and the Three Officials, with compassionate faces, instructed me: ‘When you sat in meditation on your cushion, your intention and thoughts were not pure and your mind was not empty; you never saw through the physical body as empty, and you never awakened to the non-emptiness within emptiness. You knew only to repent and remove the karmic enmities of a thousand lives and extinguish the grudges of many generations, so that once extinguished they would never arise again. But you never knew how they are extinguished or the method by which they are repented and removed. Do you really think the roots of enmity accumulated over so many kalpas would be extinguished just by a thought in your mind and a word from your mouth? For great vessels of the highest vehicle, when the ordinary mind is suddenly extinguished, heaven and earth are all empty; when illusory forms turn to ashes, empty space is one body. Only long-buried enmity and past karma cannot be escaped. That is why the Tathagata Buddha still repaid his past karma until not a hair was left owing, and only then realized himself as Shakyamuni. The Sixth Patriarch washed away his long-buried enmities, accepting even the smallest of them, and only then was realized as Dajian of the Western Heaven. Your aspiration is small and your roots poor; you would not repay your karmic enmities and wished only to escape, simply because you took the physical body as real and feared suffering retribution, being beaten or killed. Your whole mind sought only ease and comfort; this unwillingness to suffer is precisely the poor root, and this unwillingness to repay is precisely the lower vehicle. If enmity is not cleared to the bottom, its root is not cut off and it will arise again in a later kalpa; if karma is not repaid and requited, its cause remains and you will meet it again in another life. Retribution life after life all comes from the light of wisdom being shallow and thoughts not being empty; this is called fleeing suffering, not leaving suffering. Being entangled kalpa after kalpa all comes from the power of one’s vows being thin and one’s aspiration not being broad; this is called cultivating blessings, not cultivating the Tao. You ought to have entered the cycle of rebirth again and been reborn into great blessings. But because you once recited a hundred scrolls of the Lord on High’s treasure of the Law and invoked the name of Miluo for three years, with a sincere mind and earnest thoughts, you were ranked in attendance among the Zhengyi Perfected, and should have been granted a substantive post as an official of the underworld bureaus. Now, because while in the world you never chanted scriptures in a way that confused others’ cause and effect, and gave the money and goods you received to your fellow Taoists, it is right to add merit and raise you one grade. You are selected to serve as deputy mountain spirit of a grotto-heaven; go quickly to take charge, and cultivate and refine yourself in the hidden world.’ At that I suddenly awakened, regretting that my aspiration had not been broad. When the cause is shallow, the fruit is shallow; when the vow is great, the reward is great. Regret came too late. I have wanted to enter your meditative state to tell you this, but each of us keeps to his post, and I dare not leave the mountain’s bounds to roam. It is good that you have come, my friend. Go and make your vow anew: whatever enmities and debts of kin there are, do not shrink from their retribution; with a single mind that does not fall back, your suffering will be less. If you keep a fearful mind, you will face the test of trying to escape. Then when you succeed, your fruit and rank will not be small either.” With that he vanished. The Taoist came out of stillness, and from then on he knew that he had been a lower-vehicle follower of an outer path, good only for himself, who would end up as a ghost guarding a mountain. He hurriedly burned his thatched hermitage, shouldered his gourd and cushion, and set to work on awakening the mind-ground. He endured every insult, accepted every suffering, carried out every practice, wore down body and mind, and drove out stray thoughts, vowing with a single mind: where there is enmity, he would not avoid knife or axe but repay it as before; where there is karma, he would not shrink from water or fire but repay it as the calamity required. He regarded this physical body as an external thing, while the body of the Law was in clarity and stillness, stark and naked, unhindered and unscreened, perfectly round, brilliantly shining, coming and going freely. Where there were blessings, he did not wish to receive them; where there was suffering, he did not shrink from bearing it. He held this one thought for many years. Then suddenly, again in meditation, he saw a Taoist bowing to him. Looking at him, he saw it was the companion who had passed away first. His appearance was as before, but his face was full of shame and he dared not look up. Asked how he had come to this, it turned out he had followed the heterodox way of guarding the center without understanding the principle of the center, constantly fixing his spirit and qi on the elixir field (dantian); after long and deep practice, he had become a corpse-guarding ghost. His light reached only one chi, just enough to shine on his own body; beyond his body all was dark as before, and he could see nothing. Now, because his fellow Taoist had entered stillness and his light had grown great, he had been drawn into that meditative state; after a moment that Taoist too vanished! The Taoist then understood the principle of nature all the more. Life, it turned out, lies within nature: add a portion of understanding, and there is a portion of light; add a portion of light, and there is a portion of wisdom; add a portion of wisdom, and there is a portion of blessing and virtue; add a portion of blessing and virtue, and there is a portion of fruit and rank. So he came out of stillness, taking refuge in the Heavenly Worthy of Constant Clarity and Constant Stillness. The next day he went to the homes of his lay supporters and said, “I now take my leave of you all; I am going home.” They asked, “Why so soon?” The Taoist said, “I have repaid the three karmas, but the four kindnesses are still unrepaid—all because of one mistaken thought.” When he had finished speaking of this one thought, he turned to empty space, bowed, and at once passed away while seated.
Assembly, listen: these three men differed in the orthodoxy of their ways and in the size of their vows, and so the fruit and rank they attained on returning home differed in size. Assembly, those with great aspirations become great people; those with small aspirations become petty people. If the aspiration is not great, the mind is not broad. If the mind is not broad, the qi is not vast and flood-like. If the qi is not vast and flood-like, it can fill only a skin bag; it cannot fill heaven, earth, empty space, and the myriad things.
Assembly, heaven covering and earth bearing, the sun and moon shining down, the water and soil of the sovereign, and the nurture of one’s parents are the four kindnesses. If you do not repay their vast kindness, you can hardly escape calamity and suffering. If calamity is not dispelled, blessings do not last; if blessings do not last, wisdom does not continue; if wisdom does not continue, the heaven of your nature cannot remain constantly clear and still. Assembly, since you have taken refuge under the gate of the Three Treasures to practice, and yet do not know to repay old debts, whenever calamity or hardship befalls you, you must not seek to avoid it improperly but accept it with a peaceful mind. With all your enemies and adversaries, you must not become angry, but simply untie the knot so that there is never enmity again. And your enemies are in fact the roots of love for wife and children—those are the old debts. From now on cut them off with one stroke, and never again keep a heart that pities your wife and dotes on your children. As for those who have left home, they must cut off entirely the mind that clings to living in a temple and guarding a mountain estate, and the mind that thinks of passing things to disciples and caring for grand-disciples; cut off the roots of love, and then repay the four great kindnesses above. How are these four great kindnesses repaid? Assembly, if only your mind’s capacity is bright, your love of life, compassion, and mercy vast, and your nature and body of the Law clear, still, and understanding, liberating all, widely exercising the power of kindness, and saving all beings—that is repaying heaven. If your mind is broad and generous, enduring insult and bearing filth, protecting all things, the sea of your nature boundless—that is repaying earth. If your mind and nature are bright, your wisdom illuminating all things, instructing with true words, pointing out delusion and breaking through darkness, teaching the Law and saving living beings without obstruction—that is repaying the sun and moon. If your mind and nature are bright, you practice carefully, always act with goodness, dare not do wrong, do not break the laws of the state, dare not deceive others, nor even deceive yourself; if you urge people to do good and each to be content in his livelihood, revere the sovereign as heaven and dare not lie or be reckless, keep the monastic rules and follow the canons of the teaching, pray for the emperor’s long life and protect the fortunes of the state—that is repaying the sovereign. If you dare not harm your body, cultivate yourself and nourish your nature, remove the notions of self and others, repent of the faults of three lifetimes; if for your parents of past lives and your present father and mother you wish only to spend this physical body in doing many good deeds and widely offering help, filial in heart without contrivance; if, while saving yourself, you do not dare to presume to save others but first deliver your parents so that they ascend, and only then save all universally; if you revere all people’s parents as your own and regard all people’s descendants as your own kind, wishing universally to protect them and free them from past calamities—then your departed ancestors ascend to heaven; when your mind and nature are bright, your ancestors are saved, seven generations of forebears rise up and three generations soar high—that is repaying one’s parents.
Assembly, if there is even a hair of obstruction in your mind, you cannot see the Heavenly Worthies of the Three Pure Ones or the Jade Emperor; how can that be called repaying heaven? If you cannot endure a single matter or tolerate a single person, with a little capacity and a narrow heart, habitually giving way to ignorance and always dividing self from others, what kind of repaying earth is that? Only when my body and mind are bright, upright, and great is it repaying heaven and earth. Those whose mind-ground is unclear and whose aspiration is small, who do not examine origins and mistake right and wrong, whose wisdom is shallow and thin, without tolerance or self-cultivation, who rejoice at honor and grow angry at insult—they do not count.
Assembly, to repay the kindness of heaven and earth, you must understand the Tao of heaven and earth and open the heart of heaven and earth. You need only not deceive yourself, sweep away all selfish feelings, and let your own mind and nature radiate light; hide filth and endure insult, be able to embrace things without claiming credit, with results as numinous as the earth’s—only then do you repay the kindness of heaven and the virtue of earth. When my work is earnest and wisdom arises, illuminating the mountains, rivers, great earth, all things, and human feelings without separation—only then do I repay the sun and moon. When my mind cuts off the false and preserves the true, my Tao is lofty and my virtue weighty, spirits revere me and ghosts submit; above I can move and communicate with the imperial throne, below I can command the thunder; in drought I pray for rain to moisten the common people, in floods I pray for clear skies to dispel the disaster of water; my blessings and virtue can dispel war and fire, and my orthodox Tao can subdue goblins and the heterodox; above I protect the eternal stability of the imperial domain and pray for the emperor’s boundless longevity, and the world is at peace and all the people live in contentment—only then do I repay the sovereign. If one muddles along, drifting with the current, chanting scriptures and performing repentance rites without cultivating the Tao and virtue, not following the precepts, not doing good deeds, not accumulating merit and practice, then at the altar the ghosts and spirits will not descend and talismanic methods will hardly work; when calamity comes, one flees into the deep mountains, craving life and fearing death—how can one repay the sovereign? As for my body, it came from my parents; I ought to do my utmost with all my heart to serve and support my parents with filial devotion—that is nothing remarkable. What is your duty you must not fail to do. But when parents are ill or in trouble, although there are filial sons who bear it in their place, in the end that heart is not as deeply felt as the parents’ own.
Assembly, those who have left home are different from those at home. Having left home, you must truly do the things of one who has left home, and it is best to bring about the ritual deliverance of the dead for your ancestors and parents. If after leaving home you wander about aimlessly all day and forget your parents entirely, how can you still talk of repaying kindness? Assembly, love must be cut off, but kindness must not be forgotten. Love is bound to wife and children, and even to all things; kindness is that of heaven and earth, sun and moon, sovereign and parents. Were it not for the lofty and deep four kindnesses, you would not even have this body. To be able to repay the four kindnesses, you must first extinguish the three poisons; when greed, anger, and delusion are wholly removed, the three karmas of body, mind, and intention are pure. When the three karmas are pure, the three calamities and eight hardships, the nine untimely deaths and five sufferings, all vanish as the mind does; only then can you repay the four kindnesses above. Assembly, when calamity comes, those who do not reflect that they have not done good, but instead blame heaven and earth, make their sin all the deeper. Those who break the law and suffer punishment, and do not reflect that they did not obey the law, but instead curse the officials and the court, make their sin all the heavier. Those who cannot support their parents with filial devotion, cannot respect their parents, and cannot bring about their parents’ deliverance, but are instead disobedient and unfilial; and those who have left home yet do not keep the precepts or resolve to practice, doing only foolish things that go against the Tao, dragging down their parents and ancestors—their sin becomes boundlessly great.
Assembly, the four kindnesses are not spoken of lightly. First revere your teachers and elders and understand this principle; then be filial to your parents, and you can exert your strength to fulfill your duty as a son. If you can fulfill your duty as a son, you can be loyal to the sovereign, giving your very person and fulfilling the duty of a subject. If you can fulfill the duty of a subject, only then are you selfless. Being selfless, bright, upright, and great, you repay the sun and moon. A bright, upright, and great person surely has a broad and generous capacity, surely keeps a heart of humaneness, righteousness, the Tao, and virtue, surely holds thoughts of compassion and universal benefit, surely has the virtue of tolerance and forbearance, surely has the merit of fully realizing nature and establishing destiny, surely has the Tao of leaving birth and death, and surely has the method of saving people and helping the world; only then can he repay the kindness of heaven and earth. When the four kindnesses are fully repaid, the five blessings increase of themselves, and the two roads of birth and death and the cycle of rebirth can be brought to rest—all of which comes from revering one’s teacher and understanding principle.
Assembly, if you wish to dispel calamity, first honor the Tao and its virtue; only when the Tao is lofty and virtue weighty do calamities and hardships vanish. Do not mislead your own nature and life. The four kindnesses, lofty and deep, are not yet repaid, because deluded people are unwilling to cultivate. If there is a man of great capacity who embraces all phenomena, he will ascend to Danqiu, the hill of immortals. Revere your teacher and ask about the Tao, and come out of the dust; while even a hair of worldly thought remains, one’s nature does not open. If you can be without thought and constantly clear and still, you will leap out of the circle and never come back.
Assembly:
With the four kindnesses unrepaid, the heart is ashamed; with the three karmas hard to dispel, the Tao is not accomplished.
To repay the four kindnesses, first keep the precepts; to dispel the three karmas, cultivate perfection.
Keeping the precepts, one naturally walks the orthodox way; cultivating perfection, one in the end awakens to this floating life.
Once awakened to this floating life and seeing through impermanence, when the three karmas are empty, one repays the four kindnesses.