Someone recently asked me what “no-self” is and how to get rid of “self”. Because I have not achieved this state myself, it is difficult for me to answer the question satisfactorily
No self
The Buddha taught us: “If you want to end all suffering, you should observe contentment. The method of contentment is the place where wealth and peace are hidden. A contented person is still peaceful and happy even if he is lying on the ground. A person who is not content, even if he is in heaven, Unsatisfactory. Those who are not satisfied are poor even though they are rich. Those who are content are rich even though they are poor. Those who are not satisfied are often led by the five desires and are pitied by those who are content. This is called contentment.” On the basis of observing contentment Go up, develop great bodhicitta and surpass yourself. Expand the intention to eliminate self-suffering to the intention of serving mankind and all sentient beings. Forget about yourself, become one with all living beings, love all living beings, understand the sufferings of all living beings, want to do what all living beings think, do what all living beings do, and have no thoughts of competing with others for greed or selfishness. This should be the way to eliminate the self-image. a practice process.
As for what is the sign of no-self, in addition to the above-mentioned people who gradually practice to the realm of selflessness, there is also a kind of person who seems to be born different, who is “selfless” and “non-differentiated. I thought of it. The layman Miaocheng, who had just converted to the great monk Tiguang not long ago, was quite unusual in his life and deeds. When he told his fellow practitioners about it, they wondered whether it was related to the “no-self” aspect.
Introduction to Master Miaocheng
Miaocheng, whose surname is Guo, is a woman in her early forties. She is a manager of a private company and has a considerable business volume.
She is said to be a woman because she is indeed a woman. Over forty, her beauty is still there. People who don’t know her, if they only hear her silver bell-like laughter, must think that she is a girl of seventeen or eighteen years old, because her laughter is filled with pure innocence. The Buddhist name “Miaocheng” given to her by the great monk Tiguang is very appropriate. If you compare her clarity to a stream flowing quietly in a deep mountain forest, or as clean as the white snow on Kunlun Mountain, you won’t believe it.
Si Wuxie
“Si Wu Xie” is the common evaluation of her by people who know her – whether they are old acquaintances or new friends who meet her for the first time. Miaocheng is a very talkative person, and bursts of laughter can be heard from time to time wherever she is.
Although she is a woman, she is different from other women. She never uses any cosmetics, and she is not good at dressing up. It’s not that she doesn’t love beauty, but that she believes that natural beauty is beautiful, and the beauty created by makeup is fake and not her true self. In her eyes, all the complicated things in the world are like smoke and clouds passing by. Therefore, he deals with people like a knife cutting through water. He does not reject those who come and leaves without leaving a trace. He is magnanimous and magnanimous, which is beyond the reach of ordinary men.
Get along with employees
For example, if one of her employees is gossiping and she finds out about it, she will severely criticize her immediately, regardless of whether there is anyone around or whether the other person will blush. But as long as the other person knows his mistakes and is willing to correct them, she will immediately forgive him or her and say: “It’s okay, go to work.” When we meet this person again, we will still call him or her sister, very cordial. If an employee often arrives late and leaves early, even for two or three hours, and reports it to her, she will immediately summon that person. As long as the other person casually tells her a reason, even if she knows he is lying to her, she will nod and believe it and say, “Go on.” If something happens the next time, just say hello in advance and that’s it. And she never withholds other people’s wages, saying, “It’s not easy to make some money, forget it.” Don’t think that this is a working method or leadership art, she completely reveals her heart. This kind of thing often happens to her. Even her business clients say: “Manager Guo is kind-hearted and generous, and so transparent that you can’t bear to deceive and hurt her.” It is such a simple and transparent person who is not good at using his heart. As a manager, her company’s business volume is increasing year by year. When others praise her for her blessings, she will inevitably say that this is the result of the efforts of other leaders.
Getting along with male colleagues
There are also shocking things! When she is chatting with others, she may brag about how handsome and kind a man is, even if the man is present or even in front of her husband. I never cared about what others would think, and indeed no one thought wrongly.
If she wanted to show a person some pictures or something, she would casually sit next to the person, regardless of whether the person was a man or a woman. Later, when someone reminded her to pay attention to the above issues in the future, she smiled as if she had just realized it and said, “I have never had this string in my mind!”
If she goes on a business trip with a male colleague, she will sleep on the spare bed in the male colleague’s room because she is too timid to share a room alone. Moreover, when she returned to the company, she would tell other people, even the other party’s wife was present, and no one ever made any remarks to her. On the contrary, the man’s wife was relieved that her husband would go on a business trip with the manager and would not have to worry about getting involved with women. Because you can’t find a trace of evil in her eyes, words, or every gesture or movement she makes, or in other words, you don’t think of “looking for it” at all. You see, I have only known her for less than half a year, and I already know so many anecdotes about her. In addition to my personal experiences and experiences with her when she traveled south, there are also what her colleagues told me, and of course, there are also those she herself told. Can readers have a preliminary understanding of Lay Master Miaocheng?
It seems that everyone is willing to talk to her, and her bright laughter can dilute your worries, forget your sorrows, and laugh heartily with her. Whenever this happens, I will think of the “straight heart” in “The Straight Mind is the Way”, and the Buddha said in “The Four Pure Teachings”, “If the mind of the bhikkhus is like a straight string, all truth will never exist again after entering the samadhi.” The meaning of “magic”. “The heart is like a straight string, everything is real”, perhaps it refers to people like Master Miaocheng.
Worship the Sixth Patriarch
When I stood behind the great monk Ti Guang and used a camera to record Miaocheng and the others as they knelt and listened to Master’s teachings, from the respectful and focused eyes of Miaocheng, I concluded that she has deep roots of kindness – even though I don’t have the wisdom of Miaofa. . After that, a group of seven of us went south to Nanhua Temple in Guangdong to pay homage to the 1,500-year-old body of the Sixth Patriarch. When Miaocheng raised his head after prostrating for the first time, he discovered that the Sixth Patriarch’s body was sitting cross-legged on his hands. On the palm of her hand, although she knew little about Buddhism, she understood in her heart that this was the appearance of a holy realm. Looking sideways and looking from a distance, she saw that the Sixth Patriarch’s body was still sitting on the altar. It was exactly the same as the one in front of her. She was immediately excited and cried with joy, tears welling up in her eyes. But those of us who were around her at the time didn’t know what was going on. When Master Miao Rong helped her up and sobbed for a long time, she finally told the whole story and said that before she bowed, she noticed that the Sixth Patriarch was blinking his eyes and moving his lips slightly, as if he wanted to speak. Everyone was envious. Such a holy state later appeared again in front of the Amitabha statue in the White Horse Temple in Luoyang. When she kowtowed, the huge pink lotus appeared on her palms again. She looked up and saw that Amitabha’s eyes were lowered and he was looking at her kindly. . When Miaocheng told us, I suddenly understood the reason why in Buddhism, kowtowing to the Buddha is called the head-to-face-to-foot ceremony, with the palms of both hands facing upwards. The old monk Miaofa has long said that when anyone sincerely worships the Buddha, the Buddha will appear in front of him. However, I have been worshiping the Buddha for more than ten years, but I have never experienced this state. Maybe it’s because my heart is not pure yet, or maybe it’s no longer necessary for me, because I will never lose my mind to practice Taoism. In the early days when I started to believe in Buddhism, I kowtowed to the sky every night because I believed that Buddhas and Bodhisattvas should be in heaven. So whenever I held incense, I would see Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva sitting cross-legged on a lotus in the night sky, and this happened every day. Later, I realized that this was the manifestation of Buddha and Bodhisattva to strengthen my Taoist mind. In Buddhism, I never show strange things unless it is particularly necessary. This is also a convenient way to save people. I think only those who sincerely worship the Buddha and are new believers in Buddhism Talents will appear, or there may be more people who sincerely worship the Buddha but will not appear, because the Buddha and Bodhisattvas fully understand and see the hearts of all living beings, and those who have a true and solid Taoist mind do not need the holy realm to appear.
The ancestors said: “If you control your mind, you can do anything.” Miaocheng Miaocheng’s mind seemed to be inherently purer than that of ordinary people, and he believed in the book “Modern Cause and Effect Record” and immediately cut off all unhealthy substances. . A few days later, she told me that she had repented in front of the Buddha for her past deeds and would never do them again in the future.
No male and female characteristics
I don’t know if I can say that there is no distinction between good and evil in her, and there is no distinction between male and female. The world may call it “less string”, but I think this is the manifestation of “selflessness”. Because only those who do not have the “self-image” will not have the “human image, the image of living beings, and the image of longevity.” Maybe she is far from the truth, she is still a mortal, she can marry a husband and have children, she can also lose her temper and teach others, and she also knows good and evil, beauty and ugliness, but I think for her, this is just “things come to pass”, What about “having no place to live but having a mind”? “Things go away and become empty”, so she is cheerful all day long. Master Xuanhua taught his disciples: “Developing great clumsiness is the best way to become skillful. Cultivate until you are as stupid as a fool and then you will see wonders.” From this point of view, being born with “little strings” is not necessarily a bad thing. Once you hear the Dharma and accept it, it is “Land near the water”.
As a manager, she doesn’t seem to know how to protect her own interests in front of employees. As a woman, in front of everyone, she doesn’t even know the difference between men and women. Moreover, his heart is clean and upright, which can not but be said to be a great talent for cultivating Taoism. Although she has just entered Buddhism not long ago, I feel that if she can delve deeply into the classics and meditate in Zen in the future, perhaps she will gain wisdom in the near future. When I have the chance, I will ask the old monk Miaofa to help her.
From a former country manager who regarded gold as dirt to today’s layman Miaocheng who can pick up the rice grains dropped on the floor and eat them, it cannot but be said that it is a leap in the path of spiritual practice.
Ldealism in all things
Through the life and events of Master Miaocheng, I seem to realize that as a layman, after understanding the principle of idealism in all things, he should eat what he should eat and drink what he should drink on the basis of strictly observing the precepts. Play when you should play, have fun when you should, socialize when you should socialize, recite Buddha when you should recite Buddha’s name, and recite sutras when you should recite sutras. Let go of things when they are over, and they will be over if you don’t let them go. Clinging to daydreams will only increase troubles. Don’t lose your righteous thoughts, don’t be attached to appearances, practice the four methods of taking care of yourself, and benefit yourself and save others. “Move but not move, come and go all day long but never go, see all day but never see, laugh all day but never laugh, hear all day but never hear, know all day but never know, rejoice all day but never rejoice, walk all day but never do it, He lives all day long but has never lived.” Such a person is at ease no matter in good times or bad times (there is no good or bad time).
The purpose of chanting Buddha’s name is to stop delusional thoughts, not to chant Buddha’s name for the sake of chanting Buddha’s name. The purpose of reciting the Buddha’s name is to have the recollection of the Buddha. In life, work, and all actions of the four majesties, it is to recite the Buddha’s name without departing from it. As a householder, in addition to work, we also have a lot of housework to do, because these are all our unfinished business. Being able to stay true to the Buddha’s thoughts at all times, to deal with the complicated things in front of you, and not to change your mind according to the situation. Is this called “the mind of non-absence”? If we can develop a mind without abiding and face everything with a Buddha mind, does it mean “no-self” and “no-self”?
Learn Buddhism from the Sixth Patriarch
I taught Master Miaocheng to meditate. She moved her hands and legs to form a cross-legged posture without any effort. I taught her to read “Who is chanting the Buddha’s name?” As soon as she closed her eyes, she entered the main hall of Nanhua Temple and said that many monks were there. After going around the Buddha and reciting the Buddha’s name, the scene of the Sixth Patriarch giving a sermon later appeared. She recalled that when she entered the Sutra Collection Pavilion of Nanhua Temple to pay homage to the Sixth Patriarch’s relics, she saw a pair of the Sixth Patriarch’s monk socks. I took a photo of myself and Monk Socks. She couldn’t hide her pride and said jokingly: “I used to be a disciple of the Sixth Patriarch. I was a monk. I didn’t cultivate well. In this life, I became a woman. I must cultivate well now. I will have to learn Buddhism from the Sixth Patriarch in the next life.” Go!” Master Miaorong encouraged her with a smile: “You must aspire to become a Bodhisattva and a Buddha in this life.”
Is this delusional? Was Miaocheng really a disciple of the Sixth Patriarch? The state of Zen meditation is truly incredible!
The old monk Miaofa once taught:
There is no mind when looking inside, there is no form when looking outside, there is nothing when looking from a distance, only empty principles. And nothing is empty, everything that can be empty is empty, that is, profound silence. Silence and emptiness, the absence of all five desires, is the Zen mind, which can generate free merits and immeasurable wonderful effects.
I am also an ordinary person. I am not qualified to confirm to others. I just tell the story of Master Miaocheng in order to answer questions. I don’t know whether it is wrong or right. I am just discussing and learning. I hope that the great master will give you some advice.
Finally, I borrow a couplet to end:
I don’t live on this shore, I don’t live on the other shore, I don’t live in the middle of the stream, I ask you where to settle down
No mind of the past, no mind of the present, no mind of the future. Return to your true colors.
