Miscellaneous Thoughts

A non-Buddhist debated with the Buddha and put forward a thesis: "I do not accept any feeling." The Buddha said: "The feeling of not accepting any feeling—do you still accept it?" The non-Buddhist had no reply. On the way back, he deliberated: "However I put it, I have lost; the Buddha is the victor; I should take refuge." So he returned to the Buddha, was shaved and ordained, and studied the Dharma with the Buddha. 

Someone says: "I do not grasp at signs and discriminate." May I ask: is this very statement of yours an instance of grasping at signs and discriminating? As for the statement "I do not grasp at signs and discriminate," are you still discriminating? The other party changed the subject. His defeat is beyond question, yet he could not bravely admit it—he is not as honest as that non-Buddhist. 

Someone says: "I have always been a Buddha from the very beginning." May I ask: when did you ever sit upon the altar receiving the worship and offerings of the world? When did you climb down from the altar, and by what causes and conditions did you climb down from it, to end up in such a sorry state as today?

Tracing back from this life to beginningless kalpas ago, you have never been a Buddha, not for a single day or a single moment. Kalpa upon beginningless kalpa ago, your ignorance was never broken through even a little; you have always been an ordinary being obstructed by the karma of birth and death, always transmigrating through birth and death within the six realms without interruption, always bound together with the great mass of suffering. Therefore the conclusion is: you were not originally a Buddha. The Sutra of Perfect Enlightenment says: once gold is extracted from its ore, it will not again fuse with impurities and turn back into ore; gold is forever gold. After attaining buddhahood, ignorance is extinguished completely, and there will be no ignorance again, no turning back into a sentient being. Once one becomes a Buddha, one is forever a Buddha, not a sentient being. The fundamental mind relied upon for attaining buddhahood may be said to be originally a Buddha, yet your five aggregates and seven consciousnesses are a sentient being, not a Buddha—relying on the Buddha while remaining an ordinary being obstructed by the karma of birth and death is like sitting by the river yet enduring intense thirst, unable to get water to drink; who is to blame?