Yinshun's comments

Yin-shun says, “Because beings are confused by their everyday concocted views, when they hear about ultimate emptiness, they can’t help feel alarmed and frightened. Disciples of other religions are afraid it will upset their supreme deity. Philosophers are afraid it will destroy their materialistic or nonmaterialistic conceptions. And students of Buddhism are afraid that if the wheel of rebirth stops they will have no place to stand. Thus the Maha Prajnaparamita Shastra says, ‘When the five hundred sects hear about ultimate emptiness, it’s like a knife in their hearts.’”

Yin-shun says, “There are three kinds of forbearance: forbearing the suffering of human affairs is called ‘existential forbearance’; forbearing the physical and mental suffering from illness and exhaustion as well as the suffering from wind and rain, heat and cold is called ‘material forbearance’; and forbearing the birthless nature of all dharmas is called ‘forbearance of birthlessness.’ The forbearance of birthlessness is the practice of prajna wisdom.”

Yin-shun says, “First we are told there are no beings we can save, now we are told there is no such thing as setting forth to save anyone.”

Yin-shun says, “There are two tasks a bodhisattva accomplishes who attains the forbearance of birthlessness. One is the transformation of a buddha realm. The other is the perfection of other beings. The first is based on the power of resolution. Some people think that if a person becomes a buddha, the world is purified. This is a great misunderstanding. Buddhas and the beings they teach together complete the perfection and transformation of a world.”

Yin-shun says, “When the Buddha was in the world, the Buddha was the chief of the Three Treasures [the Buddha, the Dharma, the Sangha]. After the Buddha’s Nirvana, it was the age of shravaka Buddhists, who considered the Sangha as the central member of the Three Treasures. It wasn’t until the age of Mahayana Buddhism that the Dharma became the center. And since prajna is the central teaching of the Dharma, it should be venerated as if it were the Buddha’s own stupa.”

Yin-shun says, “There are three kinds of forbearance: forbearing the suffering of human affairs is called ‘existential forbearance’; forbearing the physical and mental suffering from illness and exhaustion as well as the suffering from wind and rain, heat and cold is called ‘material forbearance’; and forbearing the birthless nature of all dharmas is called ‘forbearance of birthlessness.’ The forbearance of birthlessness is the practice of prajna wisdom.”

Yin-shun says, “The question isn’t simply is one willing to undertake this, but is one able to undertake this. Thus, those who set forth on the foremost of paths must believe this most profound of teachings and undertake such a journey out of selfless compassion and complete it by helping others without limit.”

Yin-shun says, “Karma is the residual force of actions. Whether actions are good or bad, they depend mainly on the mind. Thus, the presence of exceptionally strong wisdom or resolution can cause karma to change. Karma means what is possible not what is predetermined. Hence, it can be transformed. Thus, Buddhism stresses past karma but does not fall into the doctrine of fatalism.”

Yin-shun says, “If you inoculate with smallpox so that you allow it to develop in a weakened state, you keep it from recurring in a more life-threatening form. Suffering contempt is also like this.”

Yin-shun says, “It’s like talking to a frog in a well about something as vast and boundless as the sky.”