Practicing Chan Requires Complete Causes and Conditions, and Success Comes Naturally When Conditions Are Ripe

When the precepts, meditative concentration, and wisdom have not yet been well cultivated, and the six perfections are not yet complete, it is not yet the time to investigate Chan—one should hold off on investigation for now, and meditative concentration must keep up. If meditative concentration is not good, one cannot truly apply the mind to contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā). When meditative concentration is insufficient, one may still research out a result, but body and mind receive no benefit and there is no beneficial effect of merit, which is truly a pity. When a bodhisattva's six perfections are not yet complete, rushing eagerly to investigate Chan often ends in frustration of one's wishes. I, as a teacher, will not pull up seedlings to help them grow for anyone, and you should not pull up your own seedlings either. A small sapling has just begun to sprout, yet if it is pulled up to a meter tall, can that young seedling still survive? Once the seedling dies, there is no hope for the small tree or the great tree. If in this life of learning Buddhism one is given mere intellectual understanding, not only is this person wasted in this life, but in future lives this person will also find it hard to become a person of talent. Pulling up seedlings to force growth may ruin more than one life—the next life's pillar of strength cannot be achieved, and the opportunity to become a pillar is lost.

Quite a few people have urged me to quickly hold a three-day Chan retreat. I asked why hold a three-day Chan retreat? They said that guiding people to investigate Chan for three days would bring enlightenment. Let me ask all of you: could I bring everyone to enlightenment in three days?

Chan Master Xiangyan served as an attendant beside his master for eighteen years, and with such spiritual faculties (indriya) and such favorable conditions, he still did not attain enlightenment. Now, in this Dharma-ending age, sentient beings have no meditative concentration, cannot hold the precepts, and the bodhisattva's six perfections are incomplete—could three days of opportunity bring them enlightenment? If so, how many people in the Saha world's Dharma-ending period would have attained enlightenment while the Buddha was in the world?

However, in three days I could make everyone enlightened—it is not impossible. It is a matter of a single sentence, not difficult. But after everyone attained enlightenment this way, what would each person become? What would the Saha world become? What would the direction of the Buddha-dharma become?

In ancient times there was a Chan master whose disciple blocked him on a narrow path, threatening him with a knife, demanding that the master reveal the esoteric meaning. Facing such a situation, the master was utterly fearless and refused to answer directly. He simply pushed the disciple aside and said: "You come over, I go over." This was a master highly responsible toward his disciple—he did not engage in buying, selling, or trading, nor did he boast about how many disciples he had delivered or how capable he was. When a disciple's causal conditions are complete, he will naturally become enlightened; when the causal conditions are not complete, he must continue to supplement the conditions of the six perfections and cultivate precepts, concentration, and wisdom—favor is never given as a personal gift.

There are many such instances from ancient times. Only such a master is a good Chan master who is responsible toward Buddhism and toward sentient beings. Only in this way can one repay the four great kindnesses, without seeking personal fame.

When the Buddha-dharma flows on for a long time, defects arise. In fact, defects began appearing as early as one hundred years after the Buddha's parinirvāṇa—the teaching began to degenerate little by little. When the conditioned, arising-and-ceasing dharma was described as an "aged water crane," Ānanda was already so heartbroken he could not bear it, and he entered nirvāṇa and departed. If Ānanda were to come to today's world, where the Buddha-dharma has been transmitted for more than two thousand years, I estimate he would not want to stay even a single day, and would not want to know of or tolerate any evil dharma or evil habit. Fortunately, he had the ability to leave whenever he wished, so he could avoid seeing what vexed the heart. But what should bodhisattvas who lack such an ability do? They can only tolerate and accept, and then find ways to transform the evil trends—there is no way of retreat.