Only Value the Correctness of Your Eye; Do Not Speak of 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 Nirvana Sutra were spoken by Mara, not spoken by the Buddha. Why were they not spoken by the Buddha? 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 Weishan praised him greatly, saying: From now on, truly no one will be able to deal with you; your wisdom is outstanding. Yangshan said: My view and knowledge are now complete, but how should my true bodhisattva conduct be manifested? Weishan said: As long as your view is pure and correct, there is no worry that the conduct a bodhisattva should have cannot be established.

Yangshan had already seen the mind and seen his nature, and his prajñā wisdom was complete, yet he wanted 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, genuine bodhisattva in name and in fact. Weishan, however, believed that once one has truly seen the mind and seen one's 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. Weishan's view is entirely correct, but as for the eye being correct, one must still see what kind of eye is correct. If only the eye of consciousness is correct while the manas-eye is still deviant, the bodhisattva's conduct cannot be set right. Only when the manas-eye is correct will the bodily, verbal, and mental actions 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 a dream went to Maitreya's inner court and expounded the Dharma before Bodhisattva Maitreya.

Practitioners of the past cultivated with genuine practice and real verification; seeing the mind and seeing one's 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 more pure, conforming to the standards of a bodhisattva, becoming a place of refuge for sentient beings. Nowadays, however, it is different: false bodhisattvas fly everywhere, their bodily, verbal, and mental actions are reviled by others and inspire loathing — more ordinary than worldly ordinary people, utterly incomparable with true bodhisattvas, as far apart as heaven and earth. So these falsely-seeing-the-mind false bodhisattvas should not even speak of conduct.