The Platform Sutra - The Formless Stanza

Talk presented by Venerable Guo Xing
Report written by Sylvie Sun 03/07/2010

    On Sunday, March 7th, Abbot Ven. Guo Xing continued his talk on the topic of "The Platform Sutra – The Formless Stanza". Venerable gave examples of daily life to explain how discrimination, prejudice, and a judgmental mind bring out both sides of things, such as good and bad, right and wrong. With a calm and stable mind, we can see the original nature and beauty of things, without labels, then transcend from good and bad, right and wrong. By knowing it's our own discrimination that makes us see things as good or bad and right or wrong, we often compare ourselves to others with our own standards in mind. If things meet our standards, we see it as good and right, if not, we see it as bad or wrong.

    Everything is neutral. If we put aside these standards, we will see things for their face value. Sometimes, we can ask ourselves, "Who is judging this?" when we criticize other's faults. If we think using structures like I, this person, and my standard, the result will come with answers that fall in "good or bad" and "right or wrong." If we could take these structures of thought off our minds, there would not be "good or bad," "correct or incorrect" issues. We often set a standard in our mind and use it to measure and judge others and different situations. In turn, others also have their own standard in mind to measure and judge people and situations as well. This standard makes us live comfortably or uncomfortably. In fact, all events are neutral. It is our discriminate mind that limits us from seeing things as they really are. It also explains that when we have standards set in our mind, we have faults when we criticize others.

    Our mind should function like a mirror. As an old Chinese saying goes, "When a foreigner stands in front of mirror, it shows a foreigner, if a Chinese person stands, it will show a Chinese person. Shi Fu used to say that he could get along with anyone; he even gets along with ghosts! Sometimes, we cannot get along with children because we think they are childish, or we can't get along with elders because we think they are needy. It is all because we have set this standard to limit ourselves. We often blame external situations instead of seeing our internal problem. We should think if it is the external situations that limit ourselves, or it is our inner situations that limit ourselves. We should understand it is our own standards that give us the limitations that bind us and make us feel the way we feel. We should think of dealing with the external situations, or indeed, we should deal with our internal limitations.

    If one discards the faulty mind, vexations will be broken. This sentence talks about if we let go of the idea of "I," "others," "right and wrong," we will get rid of greed, hatred and ignorance. When we feel we are right, our mind will raise the greed, if we see wrong in things, we give raise to the hatred mind. We are then affected by greed, hatred and ignorance. We also have to let go of the idea of "wrong," and the idea of "right."

    When hate and love don’t operate in the mind, one can then stretch out one’s legs and rest. We love "right" things and we hate "faulty" things. The hate and love are from our discriminate mind, and it has nothing to do with the mind of wisdom. Love makes us comfortable, hate makes us uncomfortable. Love and hate do not bring us mind of equanimity, and the nature of true mind is equanimity. The goal of our practice should be to focus on the mind of equanimity, which functions likes a mirror, reflecting the phenomenon truthfully as it is. Chasing after joyous feelings and resisting painful ones do not bring us equanimity. Venerable encouraged everyone to practice the mind of equanimity.

    By answering the audience's questions, Venerable mentioned that in order to connect with others through friendly relationships and to help others, we can cultivate Bodhisattva's four qualities to make amicable relationships: be giving, speak kindly, act in ways that benefit others, and be cooperative with others. These practices will help us understand each other and let us be willing to take advice from each other. Venerable said that in Sakyamuni Buddha time, there was an old lady who lived in the east side of the village, even Buddha wanted to teach her Dharma and she would not listen to him. And yet, the trusted relationship established through lifetime after lifetime that Buddha built with his disciples, some disciples got enlightenment just heard Buddha said to him "Here, Bhikkhu." Similar situations happened to some great Chan masters and their disciples, and with only one sentence, his disciples attained their enlightenment.