Bai Xuexiang's Unraveling of the Dharmic Characteristics

The mind of hatred, the mind of arrogance, the mind of jealousy, the mind of affliction—look, how do these minds arise? Let me give an example, say jealousy and arrogance. These are actually the same type of mind: when others are better than "me," I feel very uncomfortable—that is jealousy; when "I" am stronger than others in certain respects—that is called arrogance.

Observe carefully: there must be a matter, a cognition of a matter. When others do better than me, I am jealous; when they do worse than me, I am arrogant. How to resolve this? Throw away the "me." As for worldly affairs, there is an idiom among worldly people called "the myriad phenomena" (sen luo wan xiang), and the Huayan Sutra has a phrase describing "the myriad phenomena reflected in the ocean-seal" (hai yin sen luo). That is to say, worldly affairs are far too many; each has his own specialty. When others do well, they should be praised; when I do well, I should be humble, because there are plenty of people who do better than me—there is nothing worth being arrogant or proud about. The matter itself carries no emotion whatsoever; what produces emotion is merely human imagination, empty, illusory, and unreal. The matter itself is also changing and arising-ceasing from instant to instant—where is there anything that needs pride or jealousy?

Observe even more carefully. I said to throw away the "me." Look: I produced an emotion, and I threw away the emotion. In fact, what was thrown away was an empty, illusory thing; nothing was really thrown away. In regard to the matter, nothing is added and nothing is diminished; nothing is hindered in doing anything, and one remains very calm.

Just now I mentioned various minds. The mind has various discriminations, and with various discriminations there are various minds—this is called "the myriad phenomena" (sen luo wan xiang). The myriad phenomena are like shadows in a mirror—this is called the mind-dharma, also called the dharmadhātu. That the mirror can reflect the myriad phenomena is a function inherent in the mirror itself; the term in Buddhist sutras is "naturally so" (fa er ru shi). This function is called "nature" (xing), which is precisely "seeing one's nature" (jian xing). The function that can discriminate the myriad phenomena is consciousness (shi); subdividing consciousness gives the eight consciousnesses. The mirror is called "such" (ru), and the objects within it are called "coming" (and going). This mirror also has another function: after reflecting, it can retain a negative, like the film of a camera. This is called "seed" (zhongzi). The function of storing seed-negatives is called "store" (cang), and the whole is called "tathāgatagarbha" (Rulai Zang). Because one does not know and does not understand how to use it, it is called "store" (cáng, hidden); once one understands and is greatly awakened, it becomes a "treasure" (zàng).

The "I" spoken of by worldly people and the "I" spoken of by Buddhas and Bodhisattvas are not the same thing. The "I" of worldly people is a role—all the various worldly roles, which can be listed: father, mother, son, daughter, superior, subordinate, vegetable buyer, goods seller, driver, American, Chinese, believer, and so on—countless, immeasurable roles. "I" can play all kinds of roles, but the role is not me. With what does one play this role? The answer is the body. One enters the role by means of the body; this is the reason we always take the body to be "I." The body is like an object, so it needs thought to direct it; hence we also take thought to be "I." Thought is the role's script, and the body is the role's prop.

Thought, this role, is a mind-dharma. One thought of fundamental ignorance gives rise to the three subtleties: the karma-appearance, the turning-appearance, and the realm-appearance. Read the Master's Dharma teachings carefully; Yogācāra explains these classifications in great detail—truly a great essential Dharma that can enable one to transcend the world. The Master emphasizes the importance of the manas, with the precondition that one must first clarify all these threads clearly at the level of the mind consciousness, and then use the manas to realize them. In fact, for us ordinary people the manas also has realization-attainment: for example, being extremely attached to worldly fame, profit, and affection—this too is the manas's realization, only it is crooked, like a funhouse mirror; otherwise it would not be so hard to realize. Transform the manas's cognition. Before transformation, the manas is a tangled mass of hemp; after one has correct cognition and rectifies the manas's cognition, after transformation it becomes cool and refreshing.

Assessment: This is purely insight gained from actual realization, very wise, having broken through the dharma-appearance of name and material form in the worldly realm, and the degree of breakthrough is not shallow. In this way, the dharma-appearance of the five aggregates is also broken through. Only by breaking through the dharma-appearance can one be liberated from the dharma-appearance of the five aggregates and not be bound by it. To break through, one must actually realize the suffering, emptiness, impermanence, and non-self nature of the dharma-appearance; the role of intellectual understanding by the mind consciousness is very slight—once it comes to concrete matters, it is of no use.

Only those who have actual realization are without afflictions. What is worked out by the mind consciousness does not solve the problem of afflictions. That is why quite a few people skip over the contemplative practice and actual cultivation of the Small Vehicle, and also skip over meditative concentration and the precepts, going straight to working out the Mahāyāna tathāgatagarbha intellectually. Even if they work it out, they lack the wisdom to break through the five aggregates. With the five aggregates unbroken, they remain the same old self, laden with afflictions, and will continue to create evil karma, without a trace of liberation. True cultivation skips over no stage whatsoever, nor does it look down on the cultivation function of any single dharma, still less overestimate one's own wisdom. Only by being realistic and down-to-earth can one achieve something, bring forth true wisdom, and have the mind detach from the worldly realm and attain liberation.