Venerable Master Gangxiao: Zen Seven Lecture – Reciting the Buddha's Name with the Three Minds

Amitabha. Blessings to all the masters.

We had meant to invite the old master down to speak today, but it didn't work out—we were all disappointed. So I guess I'm the one rambling on again. It's been just me talking at all of you for days now. Whether or not anyone's found it useful, I'm certainly tired of the sound of my own voice. I started out by giving the two reasons we hold a seven-day retreat. Then I said that "seven" is equivalent to the manas consciousness, and that as long as you're not disturbing anyone else, you can keep doing whatever you've been accustomed to—chanting mantras, reciting the Buddha's name, investigating Chan—any of that counts as a seven-day retreat in the broader sense.

Yesterday I mentioned that once you really push yourself in practice, you'll start seeing different states. How do you judge whether they're genuine? If it's a true Buddha, the true Buddha has "the compassionate power to bless and protect so that the mind remains undisturbed." So if we see the Buddha and our mind still wanders and loses focus, something's definitely wrong. All of this, though, is theory for the general seven-day retreat, not specifically for our Buddha-recitation seven. But when I taught you Buddhist logic earlier, I mentioned the principle of internal pervasion—the principles that apply to a regular seven-day retreat also apply to a Buddha-recitation seven. Some of you may still feel a bit uneasy about that, so today I'll talk specifically about the Buddha-recitation seven.

Bear with me—I'm just speaking off the cuff.

Today I want to talk about reciting the Buddha's name with the Three Minds. What are the Three Minds? The first is the Upright Mind, the second is the Profound Mind, and the third is the Mind of Dedication and Vow. In fact, the Three Minds for reciting the Buddha's name are really just faith and vow; the actual recitation is the practice.

The "faith" in the triad of faith, vow, and practice means faith in the Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss and faith in Amitabha Buddha. The "vow" is the vow to be reborn in the Pure Land and meet Amitabha face to face. If you recite without faith and vow, you won't be reborn. The depth of your Buddha-recitation practice determines the grade of your rebirth.

The Upright Mind among the Three Minds means utter sincerity. "Upright" is simple, plain, honest—but our minds these days aren't upright at all. They're crooked and twisted, full of schemes, always scheming and plotting. That makes us false, wearing masks all day long. So when you recite, hold fast to the Buddha's name. Don't try to play any tricks. Do you really think you can outfox Amitabha Buddha with your little games? You can't. In his presence you can only be straight and plain. Let the Buddha's name come out of your mouth, enter your ears, and feed back into your heart—mouth and heart in sync. If they're not aligned, it won't work.

The Profound Mind, Master Shandao says, is simply faith. You must see Amitabha Buddha—no alternative, no one else will do.

The Mind of Dedication and Vow: dedication means dedicating all our merit to the Western Pure Land. We Buddhists talk about dedication until the phrase has lost all meaning—and still most of us don't really understand it. Take money: if you earn some and use it to support your parents, that's dedicating your earnings to your parents. If you support your whole family, that's dedication to your family. Give it to a beggar, and it's dedication to the beggar. Give it to the Three Jewels, and it's dedication to the Three Jewels. Some people earn a little and spend it all on themselves—that's dedication to oneself. Even worse are those who lock their money in a drawer, too stingy to spend it on anyone, even themselves. That's no dedication at all—the most wasted outcome of all.

Now we need to dedicate all our merit to the Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss.

Recite the Buddha's name with these Three Minds, and rebirth is certain. Three-mind recitation is still faith, vow, and practice. Today there's the so-called Original Vow school, which emphasizes faith alone. Originally, faith, vow, and practice are like the three legs of a tripod—and a triangle is the most stable shape there is. Faith, vow, and practice are the three legs of this sacred vessel; only when all three are balanced will the tripod stand steady. The Original Vow school has lengthened the "faith" leg. When one leg of a tripod is taller than the other two, the whole thing tilts. Tilt it far enough and it topples over.

These days, plenty of people are criticizing the Original Vow school. Just a few days ago, Venerable Master Rende launched an investigation into it. Back when I was editing Gan Lu, Rende once forwarded me a letter from the old Shanghai layman Zheng Songying. In the letter, Zheng recommended an article criticizing the Original Vow school. The main figure in that school is Sheng Su, who is Rende's own disciple. How can a master control everything his disciple does? The article was very long, but after reading it I thought it was problematic. What it said wasn't entirely wrong, but the article's own logic was off. The Original Vow school may rarely mention vow and practice, or even skip them entirely, but it doesn't deny them. You have to listen to what people actually say in full. The article claims the Original Vow school denies vow and practice, but not mentioning something isn't the same as denying it. What kind of logic is that? Say I tell you, "You have hands"—I never mention your feet. You can't turn around and claim I said you don't have feet. How is that reasonable? I suggested revisions and called the author to discuss them. The author said, "You're just a kid, how can you go changing an elder's article?" I had no answer for that. But later I saw the article appear in some periodical. Well, published is published.

Recite the Buddha's name with these Three Minds, and rebirth is absolute. If you're not reborn, it must be that you lack true faith and sincere vow. Why? Because the Buddha arises from the mind, and the mind is established by the Buddha. If you speak of the mind, the whole Buddha is the mind. If you speak of the Buddha, the whole mind is the Buddha. Because the whole Buddha is the mind, there's no Buddha outside the mind. Because the whole mind is the Buddha, there's no mind outside the Buddha. The Buddha is not different from the mind, the mind is not different from the Buddha; the Buddha is the mind, and the mind is the Buddha. Some of you will say: isn't that Chan Buddhism? Yes, it is. Then you ask: but we're talking about Pure Land here, so why have you drifted into Chan? The only difference between Chan and Pure Land is the method of practice—they were always one and the same. The Buddha and the mind are not two. So Amitabha Buddha is the Buddha of my own mind, and my mind that recites the Buddha's name is the mind within the Buddha.

The Buddha pervades all of space and time—it's inconceivable. The mind is also inconceivable. The Buddha is the mind's Buddha; the mind is the Buddha's mind. The mind never leaves the Buddha; the Buddha never leaves the mind. To recite the Buddha's name is to use your own Buddha-mind to recite the mind that is your own Buddha. If you fall into delusive thinking and discrimination, seeking the Buddha outside the mind or the mind outside the Buddha—that's the path of outsiders.

In the end, to keep you from falling into heterodox ways, you can only hold to the Three Minds: an Upright Mind that never bends, a Profound Mind that never retreats, the Mind of Dedication and Vow—and then single-mindedly recite the Buddha's name.

Some people say: the Pure Land isn't real, it's already inherent in our nature, and Amitabha Buddha is just a phantom city. Are they wrong? Of course they're wrong! In the past, I told you the Pure Land was a phantom city. Now I'm telling you again: saying the Pure Land is a phantom city is wrong. Why? Our nature inherently contains the Ten Dharma Realms. The Ten Dharma Realms are the six paths plus the four noble ones—śrāvakas, pratyekabuddhas, bodhisattvas, and Buddhas. Whatever your mind fastens onto among the Ten Dharma Realms, that's the realm you'll inhabit. If your mind fastens on the Buddha, the Buddha-realm appears. If you fasten on the three evil paths, how can the Buddha-realm show itself before you? The Dharma realms are dependently arisen. If you don't recite the Buddha-realm but it appears anyway, that breaks the law of dependent origination—and that's still wrong.

Some people also say: there's no need to recite Amitabha, our own mind is already the Buddha—isn't reciting the Buddha's name just seeking the Buddha outside the mind? To that I say: if reciting the Buddha's name is seeking the Buddha outside the mind, then by not reciting, aren't you seeking the mind outside the Buddha? Seeking the mind outside the Buddha still means you think there's a Buddha outside the mind. But there's no Buddha outside the mind, so why leave the Buddha to seek the mind? If there's no Buddha outside the mind, there's no mind outside the Buddha either. Mind and Buddha are not two.

Of course, the Pure Land school actually has a few "teachings never transmitted to the public," which I can't share with all of you today. The reason they're never transmitted is that you're not yet able to bear them. When can I teach them to you? It depends on the conditions. When I see that one of you is ready, I'll teach you one-on-one.

The Wei Na mentioned that I always run a bit over time. I'll stop here today.