Living Chan on the Bodhisattva Path

Whenever we engage in any undertaking, we must cooperate with one another. Even when obstacles and difficulties arise, they should be addressed with respect and tolerance. Through the process of working together, we undergo growth and gradually wear away all the sharp edges of our personalities. The practice of the Bodhisattva path likewise grinds away these edges. Work itself is practice; practice that remains sharp becomes an obstacle. The Bodhisattva path presents learning opportunities to work with people and situations. When, in walking this path, we encounter numerous challenges, that moment is precisely the time for genuine practice. If at such times we can remember that work is practice, that work is the refinement of our own rough edges, then when these edges are truly worn away, we naturally become at ease, harmonious, and unobstructed. Conversely, when we are difficult to work with, collaboration with others becomes fraught with obstacles at every turn.

Life itself is our field of merit. Therefore, one should not regard life as lacking purpose. Not only is every task a form of practice; life itself is equally so. What is called “practice” is fundamentally letting go—releasing clinging conceptions. Cultivating the field of merit is also letting go; practice itself is letting go. To say that life is practice means that, within our work, we directly experience a mind that is non-abiding and non-attainable. These two—non-abidance and non-attainment—are precisely the fruits we gain. When the mind becomes expansive, life itself expands, and there is nothing that cannot be encompassed. If a sense of self remains, then one’s inner space contracts.

Beyond cultivating non-abidance and non-attainment in work and daily life, these are in fact exactly what we seek in sitting meditation as well. If we can realize non-abidance and non-attainment within both work and life, accomplishment will certainly follow. Beyond these, there is a third aspect of practice: allowing awareness to become clear and open, without fixation or delusion. When awareness is fixated and deluded, there is affliction; when awareness is open and lucid, there is no anxiety and no obstacles. Awareness that is without fixation and without attainment is what is called the practice of Mahamudra; it is also a particular experiential quality of Chan. All worldly achievements accumulated through our activities are impermanent, subject to arising and ceasing. These accumulations of right and wrong, good and bad, self and other, are illusory constructions and do not constitute genuine practice. What practitioners should accumulate is the open clarity of awareness that I have consistently taught.

What, then, do non-abidance and non-attainment mean? Non-abidance means not clinging or remaining attached. “Abiding” means lingering or dwelling. When the mind dwells somewhere, becomes attached there, or fixates there, this itself is an obstacle and the basis of samsara. Without abiding, there is no rebirth in the six realms. When there is non-attainment, the mind becomes selfless or egoless, open, and vast. If this cannot be realized, then all that is accumulated amounts only to a dream, an illusion, a bubble, a shadow—mere appearances of illusion.

Dharma practice means having no fixations to the past or the future. Ordinary people who practice Dharma tend to focus on what the future will become, whereas we attend to the present. In the present moment, various forms of fixation must be transformed; realization occurs precisely in the present. Whether past, present, or future, we always exist only in the present moment from the relative perspective. Therefore, we must recognize ourselves clearly. Failure to do so is samsara; it is deluded thought, attachment, confusion, and decline. Since all are engaged in practice, this point must be realized. Wandering within the six realms of samsara, practice hinges upon a single thought. The difference between the noble and the ordinary likewise rests on a single thought; thus, we must establish right view. Our life itself is practice, realization, and the continuous cycle of merit and wisdom. A single thought’s difference is merely a difference in experience—hence, one must know how to transform that single thought or intention.