Miscellaneous Thoughts

An externalist 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 externalist was speechless. On the way back, he deliberated: "No matter what I say, I have lost; the Buddha is the victor; I should take refuge." So he went back to the Buddha, was shaved and ordained as a monk, and studied the Dharma with the Buddha. 

Someone says: "I do not grasp at marks and discriminate." May I ask: is this statement of yours a case of grasping at marks and discriminating? "I do not grasp at marks and discriminate" — this statement, do you still discriminate about it? The other party evaded the question and changed the subject. His defeat is beyond doubt, yet he could not bravely admit it — he is not as honest as the externalist. 

Someone says: "I have always been a Buddha from the very beginning." May I ask: when did you ever sit on the altar receiving the world's veneration and offerings? When did you climb down from the altar, and by what causes and conditions did you climb down from it, to the point of being in such a wretched state as you are now?

Tracing back from this life to beginningless kalpas ago, you have never been a Buddha, not even for a single day or a single moment. Beginningless kalpas upon beginningless kalpas 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: after gold is extracted from gold ore, it will not again fuse with impurities and turn back into gold ore; gold is forever gold. After attaining buddhahood, ignorance is extinguished completely, and there will be no more ignorance, no turning back into a sentient being. Once one becomes a Buddha, one is a Buddha forever, not a sentient being. The inherent mind upon which attaining buddhahood depends can indeed 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 a sentient 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 — whom can you blame?