What Kinds of Actions of Body, Speech, and Mind Accord with the Dharma?

Practitioners who diligently cultivate will introspect their own minds in daily life. When observing their mental state while eating, they may notice craving for food and thus slow down their eating pace. In truth, eating ravenously when hungry is not necessarily craving; savoring food slowly with careful chewing might actually constitute greater craving. Craving for the sensory experience of taste is one form of craving. Craving for food includes craving for its form, aroma, taste, and texture. As long as one does not crave form, aroma, taste, or texture and eats merely to alleviate hunger, it is not a craving mind. Therefore, one can eat without craving, even eating quickly without craving.

How to distinguish craving from non-craving? In the past, a lay disciple asked Chan Master Dazhu Huihai: "Venerable Master, how is your eating and sleeping different from that of ordinary people?" Master Huihai replied: "Ordinary people do not eat when eating; they engage in a hundred kinds of seeking. They do not sleep when sleeping; they engage in a thousand kinds of calculation. I, however, do not have so many thoughts; I merely eat and sleep." Having no thoughts about eating does not mean thinking of nothing while eating and concentrating solely on eating. Rather, it means having no additional demands regarding food—no pickiness, no craving.

What do ordinary sentient beings seek in their "hundred kinds of seeking" regarding eating? Generally speaking, it is nothing more than form, aroma, taste, and texture, along with nourishment for the physical body to maintain it. The detailed requirements are numerous, but in summary, it is all craving—the result of the mischief of the view of self and the view of the body. When enlightened individuals eat, spoiled food or leftovers are inconsequential; it suffices to be full and not hungry so as not to hinder cultivation. They have no other requirements. What do ordinary sentient beings calculate in their "thousand kinds of calculation" while sleeping? Generally speaking, it is nothing more than calculation regarding the six sense objects of form, sound, aroma, taste, touch, and mental phenomena. In detail, it involves calculation concerning dwellings, beds, bedding, and so forth. In essence, these are all manifestations of the view of self and the view of the body.

Whether a person has cultivated practice can be clearly seen in the trivial matters of daily life. Every detail reveals whether the view of self is present. Those who have not severed the view of self have many demands for their physical body. To satisfy these demands for maintaining the body, they manifest extremely numerous cravings and greedy actions, which they themselves do not perceive. Unconsciously, greedy actions always arise—this is the craving of the mental faculty, a habitual tendency. Because it is habitual, it is considered normal and justified. If someone acts differently, being unattached and unpicky toward everything, they are deemed abnormal. This is called delusion. Regarding daily conduct, one must be adept at observing and distinguishing which actions accord with the Way and which do not, continually correcting oneself, in order to realize the Way sooner.

Physical actions and verbal actions are all governed by the mind. If the mind is that of an ordinary person’s attached and craving mind, physical and verbal actions will unconsciously manifest this craving mental activity. Some ordinary people without cultivation always wish to appear as if they have cultivated practice. Thus, they pretend to have cultivation, yet they do not know what behavior constitutes having cultivation and what behavior constitutes lacking cultivation. Even pretending cannot be sustained for long. Crucially, they do not even know how to pretend, so they periodically expose their own uncultivated behavior, which outsiders cannot discern.

In truth, from the moment ordinary people wake up in the morning, open their eyes, begin their daily activities, until they sleep at night—even in their dreams—throughout the day, they almost never engage in physical, verbal, or mental actions that correctly accord with the Way. Is this statement an exaggeration? It is not. When the mind does not accord with the Way, physical and verbal actions do not accord with the Way. Constantly, everywhere, there are actions of ignorance and affliction.

If one can know what mental actions accord with the Way, one will know what physical and verbal actions possess the Way and what physical and verbal actions lack the Way. Thus, one can roughly judge whether a person has seen the Way and attained the fruit, whether they possess the Way, and at what level their cultivation lies. Once one’s eyes are brightened, one will no longer be deceived or exploited.