The Platform Sutra
The Platform Sutra
August 29, 2012
The Platform Sutra
When considering the Platform Sutra, the idea of the Middle Way in understanding the interplay between understanding and insight, meditation and wisdom, is key. “If there is a lamp there is light; if there is no lamp there is no light. The lamp is the substance of light; the light is the function of the lamp. Thus, although they have two names, in substance there are not two. Meditation and wisdom are also like this.” (Yampolsky, 1967, pg. 137) The chanting of Pure Land Buddhism is sometimes considered an ‘easy’ form which can seem superstitious or just a cultural accretion that some seem to distain. “Merely chanting with the lips is nothing more than recitation of the Buddha’s name. Chanting with a one-pointed mind is true chanting. Just mouthing the words without mindfulness, absorbed in habitual thinking, will do no real good for your practice.” (Boep Joeng, 2006, pg. 70) When we believe that the Pure Land is somewhere outside ourselves that we desire to be, we do not benefit from chanting the name of the Amitabha Buddha, just as when we sit in meditation to escape from our world or ourselves we do not benefit ourselves, but only when we sit in one pointed attention do we gain from the practice. The Platform Sutra exhorts us to practice, saying that to recite the Dharma without practice is “like an illusion or phantom.” (Yampolsky, 1967, pg 146) Yet the Buddha himself declared: “The Pure Land of the Western Paradise is far, far from here. You must pass 100,000 lands, and even 8,000 more regions, in order to reach it.” (Boep Joeng, 2006, pg. 74) Here, he uses metaphors of distance and space to illustrate the illusory distance between relative reality and ultimate reality that we currently perceive. The Buddha also expresses that “The Pure Land of the Western Paradise is not a faraway place. Why? Because the very mind of sentient beings is the place of Amita Buddha.” (Boep Joeng, 2006, pg. 74)
August 29, 2012
The Platform Sutra
When considering the Platform Sutra, the idea of the Middle Way in understanding the interplay between understanding and insight, meditation and wisdom, is key. “If there is a lamp there is light; if there is no lamp there is no light. The lamp is the substance of light; the light is the function of the lamp. Thus, although they have two names, in substance there are not two. Meditation and wisdom are also like this.” (Yampolsky, 1967, pg. 137) The chanting of Pure Land Buddhism is sometimes considered an ‘easy’ form which can seem superstitious or just a cultural accretion that some seem to distain. “Merely chanting with the lips is nothing more than recitation of the Buddha’s name. Chanting with a one-pointed mind is true chanting. Just mouthing the words without mindfulness, absorbed in habitual thinking, will do no real good for your practice.” (Boep Joeng, 2006, pg. 70) When we believe that the Pure Land is somewhere outside ourselves that we desire to be, we do not benefit from chanting the name of the Amitabha Buddha, just as when we sit in meditation to escape from our world or ourselves we do not benefit ourselves, but only when we sit in one pointed attention do we gain from the practice. The Platform Sutra exhorts us to practice, saying that to recite the Dharma without practice is “like an illusion or phantom.” (Yampolsky, 1967, pg 146) Yet the Buddha himself declared: “The Pure Land of the Western Paradise is far, far from here. You must pass 100,000 lands, and even 8,000 more regions, in order to reach it.” (Boep Joeng, 2006, pg. 74) Here, he uses metaphors of distance and space to illustrate the illusory distance between relative reality and ultimate reality that we currently perceive. The Buddha also expresses that “The Pure Land of the Western Paradise is not a faraway place. Why? Because the very mind of sentient beings is the place of Amita Buddha.” (Boep Joeng, 2006, pg. 74)
References: Boep Joeng. (2006). The Mirror of Zen: The Classic Guide to Buddhist Practice (2nd ed.) Kapleau, P. (1965). The Three Pillars of Zen (3rd ed.). New York, NY: Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc. Loori, J. (2009). The Heart of Being: Moral and Ethical Teachings of Zen Buddhism (2nd ed.) Thich Nhat Hanh. (1995). Zen Keys: A Guide to Zen Practice (3rd ed.). New York, NY: Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc. Yampolsky, P. (1967). The Platform Sutra: The Text of the Tun-Huang Manuscript