Chapter 10 - Wisdom in the Threefold Contemplation

"...the Middle Way is 'to control your thoughts and purify your mind, expel confusion to understand the truth, to awaken to one's Original Nature, so as to transcend life and death.'"

In this world, there is a very special supra-worldly method of cultivation-the "meditation for luminosity". This is the top secret to transcend this human world. As long as the practitioner follows the teachings step by step, sooner or later he will understand the truth. In due course he will understand everything and have a clear grasp of the three perspectives in Buddhism: contemplation on the void of all existence, comtemplation on the temporariness of all existence and contemplation on the truth of the middle way.

The ten spheres of Dharma, including the Four Noble Realms (Buddha,Bodhisattva, Solitary Realizer and Hearer) and the six secular realms (gods,human beings, demigods, hungry ghosts, animals and hell beings), can all be regarded as "empty". Due to birth, old age, disease and death, no life can escape impermanence. Every form of existence is only momentary. According to existentialism, if I myself don't exist, then the Four Noble Realms and the six secular realms do not exist either. All Dharmas are empty. All forms of existence are empty. That is why a Buddhist verse says: "All things are impermanent. This is the Dharma for all things. Whatever is produced is also destroyed. Tranquil extinction is pleasure."

In Buddhist practice, the first question to ask is: "What does the attachment hinge on?"

The Buddha says: "Don't get attached to appearance, but follow the six kinds of practice by which a Bodhisattva attains Buddhahood (charity, observing precepts, perserverence, effort, meditation and wisdom). This means that one should be above all appearances, and understand the truth about Heaven and Earth. Look at everything without attachment to appearance, until nothing can be attained and nothing can be said. This is what the Diamond Sutra says: "No attachment to anything is practicing charity. You should have no thought about your merit in charity. You perceive no appearance of others, of yourself, of sentient beings, of a universal self. The four appearances are all seen as empty. This is the perspective of emptiness or void."

In Buddhist practice, the second question to ask is: "How to practice?"

The answer is: practice the temporary perspective. All appearances are to be seen as visionary and illusory, so that you practice with and attitude of neither taking anything or giving up anything. That is to say, you take everything as neither empty nor substantial. We all know that mountains, rivers, and the land in the Universe are not free from formation, evolution, decay and destruction. All appearances are temporary. Take human beings for example. Humans are composed of "earth, water, fire and wind". As soon as impermanence comes, these four elements disintegrate. The human body is something temporary. The essence of our practice is to establish everything on this temporariness. Genuine practice is to dwell on the temporariness without paying attention to appearance or action, until we finally transcend the formation and decline--cultivating the genuine by contemplating on temporariness. This is the "perspective of temporariness".

In Buddhist practice, the final question to ask is: "What is the conquest of the mind?"

The Buddha says: "Practice the Middle Way to generate a pure mind." The Buddha's verse goes: "Everything created by causes and conditions is empty. Its name is a false name. This is the teaching of the Middle Way." The Middle Way is an extraordinary understanding, which transcends time and space, but amalgamates all Dharmas. One can not get the mind of the past, the present or the future. It is the self-nature that generates the wisdom body--the realization of the Middle Way.

To put it simply, the Middle Way is "to control your thoughts and purify your mind, expel confusion to understand the truth, to awaken to one's own mind to reveal one's Original Nature, so as to transcend life and death."

My own insight on the three perspectives is:

The perspective of emptiness in one of wisdom.
The perspective of temporariness is one of attaining birth in the Buddha's Pure Land.
The perspective of the Middle Way is one of Self-Nature.

For instance:

Secret practices for wisdom, samatha, the empty gate of the Tian Tai Sect, returning to the true nature--these belong to the Perspective of Emptiness.

Mahayana tantra, samapatti, the gate of existence (of the Tian Tai Sect), practice gate, gate of the accompanying appearances--these belong to the Perspective of Temporariness.

The Mahayana Tantric Mind, Dhyana, the Bodhi gate of both emptiness and existence in the secular world, the gate of mind creating everything, the Nirvana gate of neither emptiness nor existence, the gate of non-obstruction--these belong to the Middle Way.

"There is a verse on the Middle Way
Things created by causes and conditions
neither live nor die;
they are both continuous and impermanent;
neither coming nor going;
they are neither the same nor different
and defy all non-serious doctrines.
Respect what the Buddha says;
Tranquility is wondrous.

Generally speaking, meditation practitioners should first practice the perspective of the Void, viewing everything as empty. Then practice the perspective of temporariness--though we know everything is empty, we still establish all practice upon the void. This is to cultivate the temporary body in the void. Knowing that everything is both empty and temporary, we neither get attached to anything nor destroy anything. That is the Middle Way. Some people have remarked that the perspective of the Void makes your cultivation efficient and effective--so that void is void, so is temporariness, and so is the Middle Way. The perspective of temporariness enables you to make most use of the effectiveness--so that temporary is temporary, and so is void, and so is the middle way. Practicing the Middle Way, as well as the other two perspectives, the benefit is self-evident.

Master Padmasambhava says:

"Practice the perspective of the void, and the five aggregates become illusory."

This means that form is like illusory light, sensation is as floating bubbles, perception is like a racing wind, volitional activities are like wild horses, and consciousness is an empty dream. We have to cultivate until we forget perception, volitional acts, form, sensation and consciousness--the five aggregates all disappear-- then everything is empty and pure.

Master Padmasambhava says:

"Practice the perspective of temporariness to leave the four appearances."

This means that you percieve no appearances of others, of yourself, of sentient beings, or of the universal self. Once you stay far away from their appearances, you are above the appearance of life and death, and naturally, you recover your pure state from contamination.

Master Padmasambhava says:

"Practice the Middle Way in order to control your mind for internal realization."

If you channel the void and the temporary into the nature of the Dharma, then nothing is contaminated and your true nature is independent and free. This means that you abandon temporariness though in the midst of temporariness, and abandon void though in the midst of void, so that you understand the mystery of true emptiness and non-appearance. This is called "purification of your self-nature to attain Buddhahood".

I remember when I was in Taiwan, and I asked a master of great virtue the real meaning of the Three Perspectives. This master was a patriarch in Taiwan. His answers were very superficial and could not bring out the real meaning. In fact, if you have not reached the state of samahdi in your meditation, you can never understand their profound meaning. The true meaning can not be explained in words; it is to be experienced by those who have made great achievements is samahdi.

In Seattle, a master came to see me from Los Angeles.

I've come especially to ask about the meaning of the Three Perspectives."

"Why don't you ask your own guru?"

He is not clear either. I asked him again and again, but with tears in his eyes, he said that he didn't know either."

"Why don't you ask other masters?"

"I did, but this time it was me who was in tears, because I couldn't understand their answers!"

"So why did you come to ask me, a layman?"

"Because in a dream in the middle of the month, an old woman came to tell me that Sheng-yen Lu is in Seattle--why don't I go and ask him? In my dream, I asked who the old woman was, but she transformed into a rainbow on which sat Bodhisattva Kuan-yin. So you see it was Bodhisattva Kuan-yin who instructed me. Here I am to beg for enlightenment on the Three Perspectives."

I told the master: "The six organs and the seven openings are in fact one organ; the spiritual lights and the brow points are also one and the same thing; the Three Perspectives are actually one Perspective--it's for the convenience of practice only that we set up the three aspects. Ordinarily, masters who have not entered samahdi can not acquire a deep understanding of it. Superficial practice is just a formality which does not produce much effect. Only by going into samahdi can you achieve something."

The master asked me again: "How does one go into samahdi?"

"I'll write a book called The Art of Meditation. If you study and practice diligently, you will understand the great wisdom in the Three Perspectives.

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