What Is the Path

Cultivating the Dao in daily life is done the way the patriarchs did it, not the way certain people replete with afflictions describe it—namely, that one must merge into everyday life and become one with sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and touches, being "delivered" by the afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion, with the result that one cannot leap free of the fetters of the five desires. When people replete with afflictions expound the Dharma, they never depart from afflictions anywhere. They themselves have afflictions and cannot teach others to escape and become liberated from afflictions; instead, they hope others will be afflicted just as they are. Having no experience of liberating themselves from afflictions and no history of escaping afflictions, they are incapable of properly teaching others, step by step, to climb out of the abyss of afflictions. Moreover, because of their craving for enjoyments, they do not even regard afflictions as an abyss. 

Some Dharma teachers, whether intentionally or not, also instill worldly afflictions in others—for example, instilling how to stand tall and get ahead in the world, how to be smooth and glib in dealing with people, self-praising and disparaging others, how to tolerate sexual desires and fights born of anger, inducing sentient beings into all kinds of greedy grasping, and even teaching rhetorical tricks and sophistry for debate. Engaging in these worldly, afflictive affairs within Buddhism will ultimately lead and incline one toward the three evil destinies, where one suffers immeasurably with little hope of escape. Therefore, if you truly wish to cultivate the Dao well, you should learn more from the demeanor of the ancient cultivators, Chan masters, and patriarchs—learn from their purity of heart and few desires in daily life, and learn from the mind of a practitioner of the Dao: straightforward and without pretense, indifferent to fame and profit, lofty in aspiration, and single-mindedly devoted to the Dao. 

Modern people need no teaching to be heavily afflicted—they already are—and with the conditioning of the social environment and customs, their minds are deeply defiled. Every day they chase about everywhere in pursuit; with the six faculties facing the six objects—sights, sounds, smells, tastes, touches, and dharmas—there is not one dharma they do not seek and not one dharma they do not grasp, and the obstruction of the five hindrances is extremely heavy. If you truly wish to make a breakthrough in this life, you should awaken as early as possible and, at all times and in all places, turn your gaze inward to see where the afflictions of your own mind lie. Whenever you find yourself seeking something, you should bring to mind: I am chasing; I am chasing everywhere. What is it like not to chase about everywhere? It is like the manner of the cultivators of old: cultivating the Dao in the mountains, taking one meal a day at midday, having few desires and knowing contentment, with the mind always at ease and joyful. Anything apart from this has the nature of chasing and seeking.