眾生無邊誓願度
煩惱無盡誓願斷
法門無量誓願學
佛道無上誓願成

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Dharma Teachings

27 Apr 2018    Friday     4th Teach Total 422

Afflictions are bodhi

Awareness is divided into true awareness and deluded awareness. The mind that can be aware of afflictions is certainly the deluded awareness of the seventh consciousness, whereas true awareness is not aware of these. Because of the awareness of the deluded mind, sentient beings know that afflictions exist; because of the awareness of the true mind, sentient beings are able to give rise to afflictions, manifest afflictions—only then can afflictions appear, and only then can one introspect upon one's own afflictive nature. These two kinds of awareness play different roles: deluded awareness can perceive, and deluded awareness itself already has afflictions—it is perceiving its own afflictions. True awareness is the source from which afflictions arise, but it does not perceive afflictions.

Therefore it is said that affliction is itself bodhi. The relationship between affliction and bodhi is neither one nor different. Neither one: bodhi is not equal to affliction—afflictions arise and cease, while bodhi neither arises nor ceases; afflictions depend on bodhi to arise, while bodhi does not arise from anything else, exists without relying on external conditions, and when afflictions cease, bodhi does not cease. Neither different: afflictions originate from bodhi, are a part of bodhi, and are also the manifestation of bodhi's function. Therefore, wherever there are afflictions, bodhi can certainly be found. Enlightenment is precisely, amid such afflictive affairs as eating, drinking, relieving oneself, walking, sitting, lying down, talking, and laughing, to recognize that mind of bodhi—the mind-essence of bodhi—which is free of all these afflictions.

——Master Sheng-Ru's Teachings
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