Notes Beside the Bamboo Window — Third Collection, Part 10

Someone asked: "Do you judge a person's character by his success or failure?" I answered: "Not at all. Confucius foretold that Zilu would not die a natural death — this was not because he considered Zilu unworthy, nor because he did not love him. It was simply that Zilu's own fierce, contentious temperament was itself the path toward such a death. Zhuowu shared Zilu's own courage, and yet, unlike Zilu, he neither kept a vegetarian diet nor abstained from killing for food; he did not withdraw to mountain forests but instead wandered through the busy world of court and marketplace; he did not devote himself quietly to Buddhist scripture but instead threw himself into writing works outside it. That such a man still managed to be buried in his own native soil, I would consider sheer good fortune. And yet, even so, the testament and instructions he left for his own students all taught austere practice, quiet cultivation, deep seclusion, and rare public appearance — exactly what a monk ought to follow. Su Zizhan once criticized Fan Zeng's own poor timing, and yet still praised him as a genuine hero among men — I would say exactly the same of Zhuowu."

Miaoxi matched the Doctrine of the Mean's own opening terms — nature, the Way, and teaching — with the Buddha's three bodies: the pure Dharma-body, the perfect Reward-body, and the countless billions of Transformation-bodies, weaving them together with genuine ingenuity. And yet, examined closely, this was only a skillful, provisional comparison suited to a particular moment — not a fixed truth valid for all time — and it would be a mistake to treat it as an actual doctrinal equivalence.

Why? He calls benevolence, righteousness, propriety, and wisdom "nature" — is this not, in a sense, pure? And yet it is not the Dharma-body's own purity, free of even the finest speck of dust. He calls the proper principle governing things and affairs "the Way" — is this not, in a sense, complete? And yet it is not the Reward-body's own completeness, possessed of countless myriad virtues. He calls the establishment of institutions and laws, transforming the people into good custom, "teaching" — does this lack countless billions of skillful applications? And yet it remains the skillful application of a single body, not the manifestation of countless billions of distinct bodies at once. Broadly similar, yet subtly different in each case — this cannot go unexamined.

Someone might say: "Benevolence, righteousness, propriety, and wisdom are Mencius's own words — the Doctrine of the Mean itself speaks only of Heaven's mandate." I would say: after "utmost sincerity alone can fully realize one's own nature," the text continues with the further sixteen characters describing breadth, generosity, warmth, and gentleness — is this not exactly benevolence, righteousness, propriety, and wisdom? From this we know that Mencius himself studied under Zisi's own disciples — this too must not go unexamined.

Lord Zhao once said of himself: "Whatever I do during the day, I must, that same night, burn incense and report it to Heaven — and whatever I would not dare report to Heaven, I simply do not do at all." I would say: only a person like this could truly study the Way. He later attained realization under Master Fa Quan of Jiangshan, composing the verse: "A single clap of thunder, and the crown of my head opened wide — awakening at last my own original self, from all along." With such genuinely sincere devotion, investigating his own mind directly, his awakening could hardly have been mere accident. As for those whose bodies have taken refuge in the Buddha while their hearts remain out of accord with Heaven — theirs is nothing more than playing at the Dharma-gate.

At Liji Temple in Wuzhen, there lived a master and disciple, both known for their careful, honest conduct. Those entrusting them with sutra-recitation and repentance rites for the dead grew more numerous by the day, and the temple gradually became prosperous — and yet the master himself grew increasingly stingy, neither enjoying his own wealth nor giving any of it away. Later he fell ill, and his relatives brought him home to recuperate; he passed away not long after, and everything he had accumulated in his lifetime went entirely to his own relatives.

Ten years later, he appeared in a dream to someone close to him, saying: "For the sutra recitations I left unfinished, the underworld tribunal examines me with terrible severity — the suffering is beyond words. What is said among the living — that in the underworld, one must recognize and read back the missing characters by the light of lightning flashes — is indeed no fabrication." I record this here as a warning to those who take on such commissioned religious services.

Someone asked: "The second vow says: 'When the gods and humans of that land come to the end of their lives, none shall ever again be reborn into the three evil paths.' This implies there is still birth and death there, only without falling into the lower realms — why, then, is it said that all who are reborn in that land possess immeasurable life?" I answered: "Does the text not go on to say: 'The lifespan of the gods and humans of that land is immeasurable, except for those whose own original vow leads them to depart in order to deliver other beings'? The Treatise on Ten Doubts likewise says: 'Having attained the forbearance of the unborn in that land, one may return to this world to save suffering sentient beings.' This describes compassionate vow and active teaching, not birth and death as it occurs in this world at all."