this brief sermon

[AUDIO AND TEXT]

I’ve been re-reading a book titled The Zen Teachings of Bodhidharma, which is a translation by Red Pine of some of this ancient master’s talks given way back in the 5^th century (©1987. North Point Press. New York).  

As you may know, Red Pine is one of the preeminent contemporary translators and interpreters of Buddhist and Zen literature; he lives in Washington State. His subject in this book, Bodhidharma, is said to have come from India in the 5^th century to bring the way of meditation, self-illumination, and even martial arts into China. It’s reported that he brought kung-fu into the Shaolin temple in China, to help the monks there keep fit. So it is said: I don’t know.

Bodhidharma was the first teacher of the way of Chan in China, and much of our Zen practice derives from his teaching. His basic message was about mind. That is, the practices of asceticism and purification would not bring anyone to enlightenment or awakening. Rather, he taught that awakening would spring from the realization that everything is a manifestation of mind. In coming to see mind as the ground of all things, one would realize buddhahood – awakening – enlightenment.

Here are Bodhidharma’s own words, as rendered in the Red Pine translation (see pp. 41-43):

… the only reason I’ve come to China is to transmit the instantaneous teaching of the Mahayana. This mind is the buddha. I don’t talk about precepts, devotions, or ascetic practices … Once you recognize your moving, miraculously aware nature, yours is the mind of all buddhas.

Bodhidharma seems to be saying that in realizing mind in this way, one can finally “get it” – it being the fullness of life and living. You are awake to the immediate reality of all things. He’s saying that in order to wake up, you have to see through the language of doctrine and rules and material practices and embrace that which sees, that which lives, that which moves – the ground of all being.

In his “Bloodstream Sermon,” as Red Pine titles this particular talk, Bodhidharma sometimes uses analogy to illuminate the mind he has uncovered and experienced. He says:

This mind has no form or characteristics … It’s like space. You can’t hold it. … But this mind isn’t somewhere outside the material body of four elements [earth, air, fire, water] … It’s the mind that moves. Language and behavior, perception and conception are all functions of the moving mind. All motion is the mind’s motion. Motion is its function. Apart from motion there’s no mind, and apart from the mind there’s no motion.

One has to really pay attention to get what he’s saying! He goes on in this vein until he finally runs out of words – perhaps gets tired of talking, even of his own words. His “Bloodstream Sermon” ends with the following line:

I could go on. But this brief sermon will have to do.

For me, this single statement could be a profound epitaph to a life lived to the full and to the end. This “brief sermon,” as Red Pine translates Bodhidharma’s words, could actually represent the whole of a lifetime, seen in itself as a teaching. It is the teaching of a whole lifetime. Transmitted instantaneously within the beginningless and endless Universe. Out of time, yet present in every moment.

Here is Barry Magid – psychiatrist, Zen practitioner, and author of a commentary on Zen koans titled Nothing Is Hidden: The Psychology of Zen Koans (among other books). In an internet post (see this URL on the web: Ordinary Mind Zendo), Barry Magid says:

The teachings of a whole lifetime probably refers to the Buddha’s whole life of teaching, in which he is said to have taught continuously without ceasing since the day of his enlightenment until the day of his death. Everything he did and said and lived was his teaching.

I think this applies to each of us here this evening, and to everyone, everywhere around the world. And this is what prompted the content of my talk this evening. Everything we do and say and live is our teaching in the world – everything, excluding nothing! Now, isn’t that something to ponder? And to experience? In our own lives, in our own consciousness? Yes, indeed it is. At least as I see things.

So, at this point – at the end of this Thursday talk – I will steal from the Red Pine / Bodhidharma duo:

“I could go on. But this brief sermon will have to do.”

Thank you.