Only Your Eye Being Correct Matters, Not Your Conduct.

沩山问仰山：“涅槃经四十卷，多少是佛说，多少是魔说？”仰曰：“总是魔说。”沩曰：“以后无人奈子何。”仰曰：“慧寂即一期之事，行履在什么处？”沩曰：“只贵子眼正，不说子行履。”

Chan Master Yangshan's reply to his master's question was very strange. Yangshan said that all forty volumes of the Nirvāṇa Sūtra were spoken by Māra, not by the Buddha. Why were they not spoken by the Buddha? Because the true Buddha has no mouth and does not speak the Dharma; the one who speaks the Dharma with the mouth accompanies the true Buddha—it is a conjured manifestation, not the true Buddha, merely a false Buddha. Hearing this, his master Chan Master Guishan greatly praised him, saying: "From now on, no one will be able to deal with you; your wisdom is outstanding." Yangshan said: "Right now my knowledge and views are complete, but how should my true bodhisattva conduct be manifested?" Guishan said: "As long as your view is correct, there is no worry that the conduct a bodhisattva should have cannot be established."

Yangshan had already seen the mind and seen its nature, and his prajñā wisdom was complete; yet he wished to quickly perfect the conduct of a bodhisattva, to refine his own bodily, verbal, and mental actions so as to conform to all the standards of a bodhisattva, resolving to quickly become a true bodhisattva in name and in fact. Guishan, however, held that once one has genuinely seen the mind and seen its nature, one's conduct will gradually transform; those former bodily, verbal, and mental actions will gradually be purified, the severing of afflictions will happen quite naturally, and the bodhisattva's mental conduct of loving-kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity will gradually become complete. Guishan's view is entirely correct, but as for the eye being correct, one must also see what kind of eye is correct. If only the eye of consciousness is correct while the manas-eye is still crooked, the bodhisattva's conduct cannot be set right. Only when the manas-eye is correct will the body, speech, and mind naturally walk on the right path, and there will be no worry about being unable to sever ignorance and afflictions, nor about perfecting the bodhisattva's mental conduct of loving-kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity. And the facts prove it: Chan Master Yangshan later passed the three barriers of the Chan school, entered the first bhūmi, and in dreams went to Maitreya's inner court, where he expounded the Dharma before Bodhisattva Maitreya.

People of the past practiced with genuine cultivation and real verification; their seeing the mind and seeing its nature was truly seeing the mind, without the slightest ambiguity, without any adulteration. After seeing the mind, not only did wisdom flow forth abundantly, but their conduct also became ever purer, conforming to the standards of a bodhisattva, becoming a place of refuge for sentient beings. Today, however, it is different: false bodhisattvas fly everywhere; their bodily, verbal, and mental actions are reviled and detested by others—they are more ordinary than worldly common people, and compared with true bodhisattvas the difference is as great as heaven and earth. So these falsely-seeing-the-mind false bodhisattvas should not even speak of conduct.