Evolution of Love 2

TRUST YOUR PATH FULLY

If one’s believing mind wavers, nothing can be achieved.
For instance, if someone says that Chan is better than Pure Land, you try Chan and stop reciting the Buddha’s name; then if others praise the Teaching School, you read the sutras and drop Chan meditation; or if you fail in your studies of the teachings, you concentrate upon mantras instead. If you practice the Buddhadharma in this way, you will be confused and achieve no result. Instead of blaming yourself for this ineffectual practice, you will accuse the Buddha of deceiving living beings; by so doing, you will slander the Buddha and vilify the Dharma, thereby creating an unintermittently (Avici) hellish karma.

Chan and Pure Land seem to be two different methods as seen by beginners, but are really one to experienced practitioners.

The hua-tou technique in Chan meditation, which puts an end to the stream of birth and death, also requires a firm believing mind to be effective. If the hua-tou is not firmly held, Chan practice will fail. If the believing mind is strong, and if the hua-tou is firmly held, the practitioner will be mindless of even eating and drinking, and is training will take effect. When sense-organs disengage from sense data, his attainment will be similar to that achieved by a reciter of the Buddha’s name when his training becomes effective and when the Pure Land manifests in front of him.

In this state, noumemon and phenomenon intermingle, Mind and Buddha are not a duality and both are in the state of suchness which is absolute and free from all contraries and relativities. Then what difference is there between Chan and Pure Land?