Su Dongpo and Chan Master Liaoyuan Foyin's Contest

During the Song dynasty, Su Dongpo and Chan Master Liaoyuan Foyin were good friends, and the two often discussed the Dharma together. One day, Chan Master Foyin said, "How about we compare our understanding of the Buddha's teachings? Whoever loses will pay a forfeit." Su Dongpo agreed. The Chan Master spoke first: "The way I see you, you resemble a Buddha." Su Dongpo replied, "The way I see you, you resemble a pile of dung." Thereupon Chan Master Foyin said, "You have lost; your forfeit is the jade belt at your waist," and he untied the jade belt from Su Dongpo's body and kept it for himself. Everyone, please judge: why did Su Dongpo lose?

Chan Master Foyin, having realized awakening, could perceive the existence and functioning of his own tathāgatagarbha, and could also know the tathāgatagarbha within the bodies of sentient beings. He saw that all sentient beings have the tathāgatagarbha manifesting, and that in the future they could become Buddhas by means of this tathāgatagarbha; therefore he saw all sentient beings as Buddhas. Su Dongpo, however, having not realized awakening and not understanding the tathāgatagarbha and buddha-nature within his own body and the bodies of sentient beings, attached to marks; in looking at sentient beings he could only see their outer false appearances, taking Chan Master Foyin's outward appearance to be a dung bucket. This shows that Su Dongpo's own mind was not tranquil, and he did not see the true reality of all dharmas.

Chan Master Foyin had wisdom: he transformed the other's appearance into the appearance of a Buddha. When the mind can transform into a Buddha, one can become a Buddha, drawing near to the Buddha and dwelling close to the Buddha, so becoming a Buddha comes quickly. Su Dongpo was a literary giant of his generation, skilled with brush and ink, excellent in both writing and eloquence; unfortunately he had much "Chan of the mouth" but little actual practice, and in that lifetime he did not realize awakening. In the Ming dynasty he was reborn again as a famous Chan master, still with excellent writing, full of poetic charm, and he wrote many works on the Buddha's teachings. He is said to have attained enlightenment, but in reality it is not clear; yet his wisdom was still not very high. The reason is that the habits of a literary giant from his previous life carried over into later lives, and his actual practice was still not deep and thorough enough.

Su Dongpo's manas grasped the Chan Master's appearance as a bad appearance, and his mind consciousness discriminated it as a bad appearance; thus both Su Dongpo's manas and mind consciousness were defiled, and the seeds of these two minds delivered by the eighth consciousness were defiled. This shows that Su Dongpo had not cultivated these two consciousness-minds well; the consciousness-minds had not transformed, and his mind remained filthy. The more the manas grasps at the faults of others, the more it is defiled—defiling one's own mind for no reason at all. Why bring such suffering upon oneself? After being defiled, the defiled seeds are stored in the eighth consciousness, and in the future all the seeds of consciousness delivered by the eighth consciousness will be defiled and impure—then when will purity ever be restored? Having defiled oneself, one must clean it up oneself, which is both troublesome and full of distress. One must not constantly grasp at the faults of others; one should look at the strengths of others. Then the appearances within the mind will all be good appearances, the mind will be influenced by these good appearances, the mind can become good, and what is stored in the eighth consciousness will all be good seeds, wholesome seeds; the consciousness-minds will then be wholesome. Cultivating in this way is excellent—the more wholesome one is, the closer one draws to the Buddha.