World Philosophical Heritage

Wisdom and teachings of
Mahayana

215 quote(s) | Page 1 / 9

D o Not Cultivate the Three Defilements Our every thought must avoid the three poisons and accord with purity (precepts), impartiality (meditative concentration) and proper understanding (wisdom).

quote 8804 | The Cultivation Guidelines for Pure Land School Practitioners
The Cultivation Guidelines for Pure Land School Practitioners

T he Six Harmonies Harmony in having the same viewpoints Harmony in observing the same precepts Harmony in living together Harmony in speaking without conflict Harmony in experiencing Dharma bliss Harmony in sharing benefits

quote 8803 | The Cultivation Guidelines for Pure Land School Practitioners
The Cultivation Guidelines for Pure Land School Practitioners

T he Ten Great Vows of Samantabhadra All Pure Land practitioners should respectfully cultivate the virtue of Samantabhadra: (1) respect all Buddhas, (2) praise Tathagata, (3) make offerings extensively, (4) repent karmic obstacles, (5) rejoice at others’ meritorious deeds, (6) request the turning of the Dharma wheel, (7) request the Buddha to remain in this world, (8) constantly follow the Buddha’s teachings, (9) accommodate all sentient beings, and (10) dedicate all merits universally. Emulate Samantabhadra and cultivate according to his great vows in thought after thought, endlessly and continuously without ceasing. My body, speech and mind will never tire of these deeds.

quote 8802 | The Cultivation Guidelines for Pure Land School Practitioners
The Cultivation Guidelines for Pure Land School Practitioners

T he Six Paramitas that Bodhisattvas Cultivate Always cultivate the Paramitas of giving, precept observation, patience, diligence, meditative concentration, and wisdom. Teach and help all beings to abide in the way to supreme, perfect enlightenment.

quote 8801 | The Cultivation Guidelines for Pure Land School Practitioners
The Cultivation Guidelines for Pure Land School Practitioners

T he Three Conditions in the Visualization Sutra The First Condition: Be filial and care and provide for parents, be respectful to and serve teachers, be compassionate and do not kill, and cultivate the Ten Virtuous Deeds. The Second Condition: Take the Three Refuges, abide by all precepts, and behave in a dignified and appropriate manner. The Third Condition: Generate the Bodhi mind, believe deeply in the law of cause and effect, recite and uphold the Mahayana sutras, and encourage others to advance on the path to enlightenment.

quote 8800 | The Cultivation Guidelines for Pure Land School Practitioners
The Cultivation Guidelines for Pure Land School Practitioners

P eople under delusion accumulate tainted merits but do not tread the Path.
They are under the impression that to accumulate merits and to tread the
Path are one and the same thing.
Though their merits for alms-giving and offerings are infinite
They do not realize that the ultimate source of sin lies in the three
poisons within their own mind.
They expect to expiate their sins by accumulating merit
Without knowing that felicities obtained in future lives have nothing to
do with the expiation of sins.
Why not get rid of the sin within our own mind,
For this is true repentance?

quote 4392 | Hui Neng
Sutra of Hui Neng 6

E ven three times a day to offer
Three hundred cooking pots of food
Does not match a portion of the merit
Acquired in one instant of love.

quote 4390 | Nagarjuna
Precious Garland 283

M ahamati, the Tathagatas do not teach a doctrine that is dependent
upon letters. As to letters, their being or non-being is not attainable;
it is otherwise with thought that is never dependent upon letters. Again,
Mahamati, anyone that discourses on a truth that is dependent upon letters
is a mere prattler because truth is beyond letters. For this reason, it
is declared in the canonical text by myself and other Buddhas and
bodhisattvas that not a letter is uttered or answered by the Tathagatas.
For what reason? Because truths are not dependent on letters....

Therefore, Mahamati, let the son or daughter of a good family take
good heed not to get attached to words as being in perfect conformity with
meaning, because truth is not of the letter. Be not like the one who
looks at the fingertip. When a man with his fingertip points out
something to somebody, the fingertip may be taken wrongly for the thing
pointed at. In like manner, simple and ignorant people are unable even
unto their death to abandon the idea that in the fingertip of words there
is the meaning itself, and will not grasp ultimate reality because of
their intent clinging to words, which are no more than the fingertip....
Be not like one who, grasping his own fingertip, sees the meaning there.
You should rather energetically discipline yourself to get at the meaning
itself.

quote 4351 | The Lankavatara Sutra
Lankavatara Sutra 76

V eiled by ignorance,
The minds of man and Buddha
Appear to be different;
Yet in the realm of Mind Essence
They are both of one taste.
Sometimes they will meet each other
In the great Dharmadhatu.

quote 4315 | Milarepa

B lessed One, what is meant by this term Nirvana?" Replied the Buddha,
"When the self-nature and the habit-energy of all the
sense-discriminations, includ- ing ego (alaya), intellect (manas), and the
faculty of judgment (manovijnana), from which issue the habit-energy of
wrong speculations--when all these go through a revulsion, I and all the
Buddhas declare that there is Nirvana. The way and the self-nature of
this Nirvana is emptiness, which is the state of reality."

quote 4307 | The Lankavatara Sutra
Lankavatara Sutra 38

S ince all Dharmas are immanent in our mind there is no reason why we
should not realize intuitively the real nature of Suchness. The
Bodhisattva Sila Sutra says, "Our Essence of Mind is intrinsically pure,
and if we knew our mind and realized what our nature is, all of us would
attain Buddhahood."

quote 4296 | Hui Neng
Sutra of Hui Neng 2

W ithin the Essence of Mind all things are intrinsically pure, like the azure of the sky and the radiance of the sun and the moon which, when obscured by passing clouds, may appear as if their brightness had been dimmed; but as soon as the clouds are blown away, brightness reappears and all objects are fully illuminated. Learned Audience, our evil habits may be likened unto the clouds; while Sagacity and Wisdom are like the sun and the moon respectively. When we attach ourselves to outer objects, our Essence of Mind is clouded by wanton thoughts which prevent our Sagacity and Wisdom from sending forth their light.

quote 4271 | Hui Neng
Sutra of Hui Neng 6

B y reason of the habit-energy stored up by false imagination since beginningless time, this world is subject to change and destruction from moment to moment; it is like a river, a seed, a lamp, wind, a cloud; like a monkey who is always restless, like a fly who is ever in search of unclean things and defiled places, like a fire which is never satisfied. Again, [thought] is like a water-wheel or a machine: it goes on rolling the wheel of transmigration, carrying varieties of bodies and forms... causing the wooden figures to move as a magician moves them. Mahamati, a thorough understanding concerning these phenomena is called comprehending the egolessness of persons.

quote 4268 | The Lankavatara Sutra
Lankavatara Sutra 24

C ompassion is a mind that savors only
Mercy and love for all sentient beings.

quote 4206 | Nagarjuna
Precious Garland 437

M ahamati, when the bodhisattvas face and perceive the happiness of the Samadhi of perfect tranquilization, they are moved with the feeling of love and sympathy owing to their original vows [made for the salvation of all beings, saying, "So long as they do not attain Nirvana, I will not attain it myself"] and they become aware of the part they are to perform as regards the inexhaustible vows. Thus, they do not enter Nirvana. But the fact is that they are already in Nirvana, because in them there is no rising of discrimination. With them the discrimination of grasped and grasping no more takes place; as they recognize that there is nothing in the world but what is seen of the Mind itself, they have done away with the thought of discrimination concerning all things. They have abandoned adhering to and discriminating based upon the faculties of cognition (citta), analysis (manas), and judgment (manovijnana), and external objects, and self-nature. However, they have not given up the things promoting the cause of Buddhism. Because of their attachment to the inner insight which belongs to the stage of Tathagatahood, whatever they do all issues from this transcendental knowledge.

quote 4202 | The Lankavatara Sutra
Lankavatara Sutra 80

O ne day the Fifth Patriarch assembled all his disciples and said to them, "Go and seek for Wisdom in your own mind and then write me a stanza about it. He who understands what the Essence of Mind is will be given the Robe and the Dharma, and I shall make him the Sixth Patriarch. Go away quickly. Delay not in writing the stanza, as deliberation is quite unnecessary and of no use. The man who has realized the Essence of Mind can speak of it at once."

Having received this instruction, the disciples withdrew, but none dared to write a stanza, as they all deferred to the head instructor Shen Hsiu... At 12 o'clock that night Shen Hsiu went secretly with a lamp to write his stanza on the wall of the south corridor, so that the Patriarch might know what spiritual insight he had attained. The stanza read,

Our body is the Bodhi tree,
And our mind a mirror bright,
Carefully we wipe them hour by hour,
And let no dust alight.

...When the Patriarch saw the stanza the next morning, he instructed that it be read and recited by all the disciples, so that they might realize the Essence of Mind. At midnight he sent for Shen Hsiu to come to the hall, and asked him if the stanza was written by him or not. "It was, Sir," replied Shen Hsiu. "I dare not be so vain as to expect to get the Patriarchate, but I wish Your Holiness would kindly tell me whether my stanza shows the least grain of wisdom." "Your stanza," replied the Patriarch, "shows that you have not yet realized the Essence of Mind. So far you have reached the 'door of enlightenment,' but you have not yet entered it. To seek for supreme enlightenment with such an understanding as yours can hardly be successful... You had better go back to think it over again for a couple of days, and submit to me another stanza."

I [Hui Neng] was pounding rice when I heard a young boy reciting the stanza written by Shen Hsiu... I asked him to lead me to the hall and show me the stanza. A petty officer who happened to be there read it out to me. When he had finished reading, I told him that I had also composed a stanza, and asked him to write it on the wall. "Don't despise a beginner," I said. "You should know that the lowest class may have the sharpest wit, while the highest may be in want of intelligence. If you slight others, you commit a very great sin." I dictated my stanza, which read,

There is no Bodhi tree,
Nor stand of a mirror bright.
Since all is void,
Where can the dust alight?

When he had written this, the crowd of disciples was overwhelmed with amazement, but the Patriarch rubbed off the stanza with his shoe, lest jealous ones should do me injury. The next night he invited me secretly to his room, and expounded the Diamond Sutra to me. When he came to the sentence, "One should use one's mind in such a way that it will be free from any attachment," I at once became thoroughly enlightened, and realized that all things in the universe are the Essence of Mind itself. "Who would have thought," I said to the Patriarch, "that the Essence of Mind is intrinsically pure!..." Thus, to the knowledge of no one, the Dharma was transmitted to me at midnight, and I became the Sixth Patriarch.

quote 4196 | Hui Neng
Sutra of Hui Neng 1

P assions consist of conceptualizations. The ultimate non-existence of these conceptualizations and imaginary fabrications--that is the purity that is the intrinsic nature of the mind. Misapprehensions are passions. The ultimate absence of misapprehensions is the intrinsic nature of mind. The presumption of self is passion. The absence of self is the intrinsic nature of mind.

quote 4195 | (Yuima) Vimalakirti
Holy Teaching of Vimalakirti 3

F or him who... knows his own mind and sees intuitively his own nature, he is a Hero, a Teacher of gods and men, a Buddha.

quote 4190 | Hui Neng
Sutra of Hui Neng 1

T he doing away with the notion of cause and condition, the giving up of a causal agency, the establishment of the Mind-only--this I state to be no-birth.

The getting-rid of the idea that things are caused, the removal of the dualism of imagined and imagining, the being liberated from the alternatives of being and non-being--this I state to be no-birth.

No external [separate] existence, no non-existence, not even the grasping of mind; things are like a dream, a hair-net, Maya, a mirage... this is what characterizes no-birth.

It is only in accordance with general convention that a chain of mutual dependence is talked of; birth has no sense when the chain of dependence is severed.

If [someone holds that] there is anything born somewhere apart from concatenation [the chain of mutual relations], he is one who is to be recognized as an advocate of no-causation as he destroys concatenation.

If concatenation worked [from outside] like a lamp revealing all kinds of things, this means the presence of something outside concatenation itself.

All things are devoid of self-nature [separate existence], have never been born, and in their original nature are [transparent] like the sky; things separated from concatenation belong to the discrimination of the ignorant.

When this entire world is regarded as concatenation, as nothing else but concatenation, then the mind gains tranquillity.

quote 4159 | The Lankavatara Sutra
Lankavatara Sutra 78

T he world of the ignorant is observed as the continuation of birth and death, whereby dualisms are nourished, and because of the perversion [the truth] is not perceived.

There is just one truth, which is Nirvana--it has nothing to do with intellection. The world seen as subject to discrimination resembles a plantain tree, a dream, a mirage.

The Mind as norm is the abode of self-nature which has nothing to do with the realm of causation; of this norm, which is perfect existence and the highest Absolute, I speak.

Of neither existence nor non-existence do I speak, but of Mind-only which has nothing to do with existence and non-existence, and which is thus free from intellection.

Suchness, emptiness, Absolute Truth... these I call Mind-only.

quote 4152 | The Lankavatara Sutra

T he Tathagata... is the essence which is the reality of matter, but he is not matter. He is the essence which is the reality of sensation, but he is not sensation. He is the essence which is the reality of intellect, but he is not intellect. He is the essence which is the reality of motivation, but he is not motivation. He is the essence which is the reality of consciousness, yet he is not consciousness. Like the element of space, he does not abide in any of the four elements. Transcending the scope of eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind, he is not produced in the six sense media... He abides in ultimate reality, yet there is no relationship between it and him. He is not produced from causes, nor does he depend on conditions. He is not without any characteristic, nor has he any characteristic. He has no single nature nor a diversity of natures. He is not a conception, not a mental construction, nor is he a nonconception. He is neither the other shore, nor this shore, nor that between. He is neither here, nor there, nor anywhere else.…

quote 4119 | (Yuima) Vimalakirti
Holy Teaching of Vimalakirti 12

W hat is never cast off, seized, interrupted, constant, extinguished, and produced--this is called Nirvana.
Indeed, Nirvana is not strictly in the nature of ordinary existence for, if it were, there would wrongly follow the characteristics of old age and death. For, such an existence cannot be without those characteristics.
If Nirvana is strictly in the nature of ordinary existence, it would be of the created realm. For, no ordinary existence of the uncreated realm ever exists anywhere at all.
If Nirvana is strictly in the nature of ordinary existence, why is it non-appropriating? For, no ordinary existence that is non-appropriating ever exists.
If Nirvana is not strictly in the nature of ordinary existence, how could what is in the nature of non-existence be Nirvana? Where there is no existence, equally so, there can be no non-existence.
If Nirvana is in the nature of non-existence, why is it non-appropriating? For, indeed, a non-appropriating non-existence does not prevail.
The status of the birth-death cycle is due to existential grasping [of the skandhas] and relational condition [of the being]. That which is non-grasping and non-relational is taught as Nirvana.
The Teacher has taught the abandonment of the concepts of being and non-being. Therefore, Nirvana is properly neither [in the realm of] existence nor non-existence.
If Nirvana is [in the realm of] both existence and non-existence, then liberation will also be both. But that is not proper.
If Nirvana is [in the realm of] both existence and non-existence, it will not be non-appropriating. For, both realms are always in the process of appropriating.
How could Nirvana be [in the realm of] both existence and non-existence? Nirvana is of the uncreated realm while existence and non-existence are of the created realm.
How could Nirvana be [in the realm of] both existence and non-existence? Both cannot be together in one place just as the situation is with light and darkness.
The proposition that Nirvana is neither existence nor non-existence could only be valid if and when the realms of existence and non-existence are established.
If indeed Nirvana is asserted to be neither existence nor non-existence, then by what means are the assertions to be known?
It cannot be said that the Blessed One exists after nirodha (release from worldly desires). Nor can it be said that He does not exist after nirodha, or both, or neither.
It cannot be said that the Blessed One even exists in the present living process. Nor can it be said that He does not exist in the present living process, or both, or neither.
Samsara (the empirical life-death cycle) is nothing essentially different from Nirvana. Nirvana is nothing essentially different from Samsara.
The limits of Nirvana are the limits of Samsara. Between the two, also, there is not the slightest difference whatsoever.
The various views concerning the status of life after nirodha, the limits of the world, the concept of permanence, etc., are all based on [such concepts as] Nirvana, posterior and anterior states of existence.
Since all factors of existence are in the nature of Emptiness (sunya), why assert the finite, the infinite, both finite and Infinite, and neither finite nor infinite?
Why assert the identity, difference, permanence, impermanence, both permanence and impermanence, or neither permanence nor impermanence?
All acquisitions [i.e., grasping] as well as play of concepts [i.e., symbolic representation] are basically in the nature of cessation and quiescence. Any factor of experience with regards to anyone at any place was never taught by the Buddha.

quote 4114 | Nagarjuna
Mulamadhyamaka Karika 25

V imalakirti, "Manjusri, all worlds are empty."
Manjusri, "What makes them empty?"
"They are empty because [their ultimate reality is] emptiness."
"What is 'empty' about emptiness?"
"Constructions are empty, because of emptiness."
"Can emptiness be conceptually constructed?"
"Even that concept is itself empty, and emptiness cannot construct emptiness."

quote 4112 | (Yuima) Vimalakirti
Holy Teaching of Vimalakirti 5

W hen appearances and names are put away and all discrimination ceases, that which remains is the true and essential nature of things and, as nothing can be predicated as to the nature of essence, is called the "Suchness" of Reality. This universal, undifferentiated, inscrutable Suchness is the only Reality, but it is variously characterized as Truth, Mind-essence, Transcendental Intelligence, Perfection of Wisdom, etc. This Dharma of the imagelessness of the Essence-nature of Ultimate Reality is the Dharma which has been proclaimed by all the Buddhas, and when all things are understood in full agreement with it, one is in possession of Perfect Knowledge.

quote 4101 | The Lankavatara Sutra

W hat sort of illness awaits us tonight, what sort of death tomorrow? While we have life, not to practice Buddha's Law, but to spend the time in sleep is the height of foolishness. Because of such foolishness Buddhism today Is in a state of decline. When it was at its zenith monks devoted themselves to the practice of sitting in meditation (zazen), but nowadays sitting is not generally insisted upon and consequently Buddhism is losing ground.' . . .

Upon another occasion his attendants said to him, 'The monks are getting overtired or falling ill, and some are thinking of leaving the monastery, all because they are required to sit too long in meditation. Shouldn't the length of the sitting period be shortened?' The master became highly indignant. 'That would be quite wrong. A monk who is not really devoted to the religious life may very well fall asleep in a half hour or an hour. But one truly devoted to it who has resolved to persevere in his religious discipline will eventually come to enjoy the practice of sitting, no matter how long it lasts.

quote 3970 | The Shobo Genzo
From the Shobo genzo zuimonki pp. 50-2, translated by Wm. Theodore de Bary, in De Bary (ed.), Sources of Japanese Tradition, op. Cit., Pp. 253-4

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Wisdom and teachings ofMahayana

Wisdom and teachings of
Mahayana