A Comparison Between the Two Vehicles and the Mahāyāna

Ru Chun: Recently I have had some insights from contemplating the dharma of the twelve links of dependent arising. For example: the eye faculty sees (contacts) a beautiful piece of clothing (form); putting it on, one feels beautiful and receives others' admiration, and inwardly one greatly enjoys it (feeling), and wants more (craving). In order to achieve this goal, one busies oneself ceaselessly with fabricating and striving. Feeding oneself in all sorts of ways on the material and mental levels (grasping), and all of this makes us sink ever deeper into these lowly worldly pursuits, with body and mind craving full expression in every way. Yet we do not realize that these cravings and expressions, like thousands upon thousands of threads, bind body and mind tightly to the illusory realm of the six sense objects, so that we cannot return to what is real. At the same time, these mental states take root in the field of the mind like seeds, and thus there arise the conditions and basis for the next birth (existence); carrying all the accumulated karmic seeds of good and evil, we are born (birth).

After birth, due to the habitual tendencies carried by the karmic seeds, we are driven to indulge fully in wealth, sex, fame, food, and sleep, and helplessly, passively, pushed along by the current of karma, we slowly grow old and die (aging-and-death, sorrow, lamentation, suffering). Carrying this thick layer of ignorance, we begin the next round of life. Thus the eye faculty contacting form brings the suffering of birth and death; and in the same way, the six faculties contacting the six sense objects bring all manner of suffering of birth and death. If contact is severed, the subsequent chain reaction can be cut off. Simply put: do not crave form, sound, smell, taste, touch, or dharmas; do not pursue form, feeling, perception, volitional formations, or consciousness; do not take these as the basis for launching all sorts of bodily and mental activities. Rather, remain awake, restrain body and mind, in hopes of defying fate and changing one's destiny, and cutting off the cycle of saṃsāra.

Assessment: Ru Chun has explained the dharma of dependent arising and the chain of birth and death in a rather concrete, straightforward, and thorough way. This is the Hīnayāna and intermediate vehicle dharma practiced at the beginning stage—the foundational dharma, the dharma that leads toward nirvāṇa without remainder (anupadhiśeṣa-nirvāṇa)—but it is not yet the ultimate dharma. The ultimate dharma is the Mahāyāna dharma. The Mahāyāna dharma is not confined to the surface appearances of dharmas; it probes deeply and sees through their essence. Once the essence is grasped, the surface things no longer matter—one no longer cares about them; anything goes. The mind does not cling: existence is as good as nonexistence, yet existence is not extinguished. How wonderful this is! Without the foundation of the Hīnayāna and the intermediate vehicle, this wonder cannot arise—everything is just craving, attachment, and clinging to existence, and the result is still sinking through birth and death.

Only after realizing the emptiness of the Hīnayāna and then further cultivating the emptiness of the Mahāyāna can one come to realize that the essence of existence is non-existence, that it is emptiness—that existence is provisional existence. Since it is provisional existence, what is there to fear? If flowers adorn the body, let them adorn the body—they are not real flowers anyway, there is no truly existing flower; and the body is not a true body, there is no truly existing body. If flowers contact the body, let them contact—what is there to dread? The eye sees form—seen is seen, it doesn't matter; do not take form seriously, the mind does not cling, and there is no plan for the next step; the outcome is of no consequence. In this way, seeing is as good as not seeing, contact is as good as no contact. With no mind toward form, what can form do to me? The eyes filled with green mountains, yet not a single speck of dust obscures them; wandering through the world like drifting in empty space. Is this not wonderful? Possessing both emptiness and existence, lacking nothing—why, like the two vehicles, sweep everything away and annihilate it all? No need to expend that effort: everything exists, yet nothing obstructs—when has anything ever obstructed emptiness?