Chen Xiong's comments

“Palaces made of jewels and halls of every color are all external decorations.

This is what ordinary people call adornment. They are not what bodhisattvas call adornment. If you want to know what a bodhisattva calls adornment, look inside at what is not adorned. The bodhisattva’s adornment does not consist in external adornment. On the contrary, it is sought in the mind. If the mind is pure, what adornment could be greater?”

Ch’en Hsiung says, “The Fifth Patriarch says, ‘If you worship all day in search of blessings, and you don’t try to escape from this bitter sea of life and death, and you remain confused about your own nature, what help are blessings? Thus, the merit from worshipping buddhas, however great it might be, cannot equal even one part of the merit from upholding this sutra. In the final age, people only know how to serve buddhas and don’t know that the place where buddhas are found is in this sutra.’”

Ch’en Hsiung says, “Once the military commissioner of Shaochou asked the Sixth Patriarch why Bodhidharma told Emperor Wu that all his good works would produce no merit. Hui-neng said, ‘Such things as building monasteries and making donations, worshipping buddhas and holding banquets are called cultivating blessings. But you can’t confuse blessings with merit. Merit is present in the dharma body, not in cultivating blessings. Merit is present in your own nature. It can’t be obtained through donations and worship.’ This is why blessings don’t compare with merit, and worshipping buddhas doesn’t compare with upholding this sutra.”

Ch’en Hsiung says, “Is it possible he did not obtain any dharma? It was simply that he was not attached to the thought that he obtained anything. The Buddha thinks that his disciples have not yet rid themselves of such thoughts.”

Ch’en Hsiung says, “Once the mind is pure, nothing is more beautiful. Whoever gives birth to the mind while attached to the six realms of sensation does not have a pure mind.”

Ch’en Hsiung says, “Mount Sumeru is the king of mountains. To say someone’s body is as great as this is beyond the realm of reason. However, the Buddha’s true nature is pure and free from form, free from attachments, free from obstructions, and includes the sky and contains the world. Even Sumeru is not as big. The Bhagavan wishes to use the true mind to wake people up, hence he uses a big body. But this big body is not a body. It is the dharma body, the true mind. Manjushri once asked the Buddha, ‘What constitutes a great body?’ And the Bhagavan answered, ‘What is no body. That is a great body. It includes all pure teachings of morality, meditation, and wisdom. Thus is it called a great body.’ This true body also refers to the true mind. And the true mind can swallow Mount Sumeru.”

Ch’en Hsiung says, “Enlightened beings live in this world. Deluded beings also live in this world. The minds of those who are enlightened are pure. Dwelling in the world with such a mind, they purify the world. The minds of those who are deluded are covered with dust. Dwelling in the world with such a mind, they fill the world with dust. All this dust is the dust of the minds of all beings. The Buddha once told Manjushri, ‘To live in the world beyond the world, and to live in the dust beyond the dust, this is the ultimate dharma.’ This is what is meant by ‘no specks’ and ‘no systems’: beyond the dust, beyond the world.”

Ch’en Hsiung says, “Worldly people are only attached to the thirty-two attributes and do not cultivate the thirty-two practices on which they are based. When the Buddha talks about the thirty-two attributes, his meaning is the thirty-two practices and not the attributes. What has no attribute is the Buddha’s dharma-kaya, or real body.”

Ch’en Hsiung says, “Because they aren’t alarmed, they have no doubts. Because they aren’t frightened, they have no fears. Because they aren’t distressed, they don’t retreat.”

Ch’en Hsiung says, “If a bodhisattva’s six senses are pure, and they give birth to a mind that is unattached, why should they practice charity to satisfy their desires? Among the roots of our myriad sufferings, impurity of the eye comes first. Hence, the Buddha cuts it off saying that they should not practice charity while attached to form.”