Crossing the Ocean of Life and Death

Drawing from my personal enlightenment, I want to let the lotus practitioner know that our existence is subjected to change. The only constant is the enlightened Buddha Himself. Any mundane mortal caught in Samsara is illusory, for it is true that the ancient man is really modern man, and the modern man was once the ancient man.

Life is the beginning of death, and death likewise, is the beginning of life. Life and death are unstable by nature, and only by cultivation and attaining fruition can one arrive at eternity and immortality.

Man is caught in illusion and ignorance ever since time immemorial. Life and death in itself are therefore illusory, and man is subjected to its influence and play. What most would regard as the true reality is actually nothing more than the play of illusion and ignorance. This is the nature of life and death, the bardo spirit, and that of the illusory visions of dreams. Man is really deluded, and his delusion has blinded him from recognizing the truth.

When people die, the existence of their bardo spirits are only temporary, for the nature of life and death, including heaven or hell, is temporary. All of these states of existence have a time limit, and humans are the same: some live a long life, and some live a short life. Everything is subject to cause and effect, ignorance, and karmic hindrance.

Let me say this to you. The deliverance of sentient beings is not an event limited to this physical world - it is neither carried out solely in the bardo state nor solely in the netherworld. The Buddha is known to expound the Dharma in the Akanishtha Heaven in his Sambhogakaya form. Vairocana Buddha is thus Sakyamuni Buddha.

The purpose of cultivation is mainly to gain an understanding into the wrong thoughts and perceptions held by individuals in the level of the mundane mortal, and to remove the karma built upon the acts of delusion. This is done to reveal the true reality, which will appear as the light of the true reality of right wisdom when an individual`s karma is removed, and that his body, speech and mind are completely free from the entanglement of karmic hindrances.

Only by attaining the purity of body, the purity of speech, and the purity of mind can afflictions be truly eliminated. At this stage the mind is truly the Tathagata Store, revealed as the True Self, the True Mind, the True Reality, the True Buddha. This is the Dharmakaya, the realm of the Great Perfection.

Ever since the dawn of reincarnation, human beings (not just human beings alone, but all sentient beings) are exposed to the primal ignorance which exists in immeasurable and infinite shades of ignorance. This ignorance, which has a myriad of differences in type and intensity, and various degrees of intensity, leaves some men clever and others foolish.

The hindrances to sentient beings are: the belief of individual self-existence, greed, anger, and ignorance, mental afflictions, etc. These hindrances arise due to ignorance. To eradicate ignorance, one must recognize the deluded thoughts held by the human consciousness, and one needs to cultivate the practice of leaving delusion, which is the Path of Liberation itself. We can work with the Four Foundations of Mindfulness as expounded by the Buddha:

Contemplate on the impurity of the body.

Contemplate on the suffering of emotions.

Contemplate on the impermanence of mind.

Contemplate on the mental phenomena which are devoid of inherent existence.

The cultivation based on the knowledge that the five aggregates are empty will lead to the cessation of ignorance, and as ignorance ceases, there will be no more arising of the deluded activities of the mind. With the cessation of the arising of deluded mental activities, all causes and conditions are obliterated, and one thus attains Arhathood.

Know that all phenomena arise from the mind, and that there is nothing outside the mind. All planes of existence are born of the mind. The principal part of the eight consciousness, the consciousness of the Tathagata Storehouse (Alaya), is the wisdom that houses all wisdoms. It stores the True Buddha Tathagata, for a mind removed from delusion, deluded perception, and cognition will lead to the obliteration of all planes of existence. That which is the True Mind is inherently present, and illuminates universally.

This is why the Three Realms (Triloka) is by nature empty and illusory, which means the realm of desire, the realm of form, and the realm of formlessness are illusory, as are the six realms of Samsara. They are manifested from the mind, without which the realms of the six senses are non-existent. All existence arises from the deluded notions in our mind. As such, all differences are differences of the mind, like the moon`s reflection in water, the image in the mirror, and a mirage in the desert. When the finite mind acts, then all kinds of things arise; when the finite mind ceases to act, then all kinds of things cease.

Thus, the bardo spirit should hold the right wisdom, which is:

Remaining dauntless, unafraid, fearless, and calm. The physical form no longer exists, existing instead as a wisdom body. Through the essential nature of wisdom, it is able to manifest an infinite number of buddhas and bodhisattvas of the Ten Directions and Three Times in their Dharmakaya (Dharma body), Sambhogakaya (Bliss body), and innumerable adorned Pure Lands. Such manifestations are the free transcendental influence of the True Reality.

There are three important points to note:

* Uphold the absolute truth, as all differentiations stem from the defiled and dualistic views of birth and death.
* Cross the ocean of life and death. The mind is therefore free from all defilements, which have no reality behind them.
* The bardo spirit, in order to be completely free from erroneous attachments, should recognize the right wisdom that all things are neither matter nor mind, neither wisdom nor knowledge, neither being nor non-being; they are ultimately inexplicable. The bardo spirit`s very goal is to leave behind all views, hearing, cognition, knowledge, and return to the True Reality, thereby becoming a True Buddha.

What exactly is the True Buddha?

Ashvaghosha Bodhisattva said, `The essence of the True Self (also known as the True Reality, the True Buddha) knows no increase or decrease in ordinary men, the Sravakas, the Prateyakabuddhas, the Bodhisattvas, or the Buddhas. It was not brought into existence in the beginning, nor will it cease to be at the end of time - it is eternal through and through. From the beginning, True Reality, in its nature, is fully provided with all merits. Namely, it is endowed with the light of great wisdom, the qualities of illuminating the entire universe, of true cognition and mind, pure in its self-nature. [True Reality is also endowed with the qualities] of eternity, bliss, Self, and purity, [as well as the qualities] of refreshing coolness, immutability, and freedom.

`The Original Self is endowed with the wisdom of omniscience, which is not independent of, disjointed from, or different from its essence; it is unimaginable. Since it is endowed completely with all of these, and is not lacking anything, it is called the Tathagata-garbha and also the Dharmakaya of the Tathagata, which is the True Buddha.`

Thus, you must remember: the five aggregates are unborn in their essential nature and, therefore, are imperishable - that what is made of the five aggregates is, from the beginning, in nirvana itself. The Tathagata-garbha has no beginning, and has no end. Thus, you can attain nirvana as all Buddhas would.

I feel that I have touched on deeper topics in this chapter that deals with the `Right Wisdom of the bardo spirit,` and some may not understand it. But my repeated guidance serves to elucidate on the fact that every being has the Buddha Nature (the true Tathagata-garbha), which of itself is complete. Doesn`t the Tantric teachings tell you that you are a Buddha? The right wisdom within the bardo spirit is likewise inherent and existing.

There is no reason to fear anything. It is most vital to maintain the non-arising of thoughts, and keep the mind from distractions; free your mind of seeing, hearing, cognition, and knowledge.

The Clear Light of purity eventually appears, like a Buddha lamp being lit. Such power of the Self Nature, the Original Self, is transmitted perfectly through the lineage of the root guru, Living Buddha Lian-sheng, Sheng-yen Lu, to the followers of the True Buddha School. This is the right wisdom of the Tathagata-garbha.

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