Zeng Fengyi's comments

Tseng Feng-yi says, “Practicing the perfection of wisdom is the cause of the dharma body. Practicing the other perfections [such as charity] is the cause of the reward (sanbhoga) and apparition (nirmana) bodies. If people cultivate merit and don’t cultivate wisdom, their dharma body will not be perfect. If they cultivate wisdom and don’t cultivate merit, their reward and apparition bodies will not be perfect.”   

Tseng Feng-yi says, “When Shakra teaches the Dharma to the heavenly host, the devas all gather around his throne and make obeisance. Because they venerate the teaching, they honor the throne. In China, when Lin-chi visited Bodhidharma’s stupa, the caretaker asked him if he would bow first to the Buddha or to the Zen Patriarch. Lin-chi replied that he would bow to neither. When the caretaker asked what they had done to deserve such disrespect, Lin-chi shook the sleeves of his robe and left in apparent disgust.”

Tseng Feng-yi says, “One day Wei-shan pointed to some rice fields on the slope and said to Yangshan, ‘That field is higher, and this one is lower.’ Yang-shan said, ‘Actually, this one is higher, and that one is lower.’ Wei-shan said, ‘If you don’t believe me, stand in the middle and look at them both.’ Yang-shan said, ‘I don’t need to stand in the middle, since I’m not in either one.’ Wei-shan said, ‘If that’s the case, then look at the water. Water seeks its own level. Yang-shan said, ‘But water isn’t dependable [in Chinese there’s a pun here on the words p’ing (level) and p’ing (dependable)]. In high places, its level is high. In low places its level is low.’ Wei-shan gave up. ( Chuantenglu: 9) Truly profound is the difficulty in realizing what is level [p’ing-teng = sama = undifferentiated”]. Being attached to either side is not level. Standing in the middle is not level. Because water can be level, and things are not level, only when there is no dharma at all can we speak of them as level, in which case, high is level and so is low. Only by means of such realization as this can we know that we all swim in the same Sea of Nirvana.”

Tseng Feng-yi says, “‘Wherever’ means a city or village, a farm-stead or estate, a monastery or any other place. ‘This sutra’ refers to the words, whether they’re etched on jade or written on paper, on a whitewashed wall, or on a cliff-face. Wherever this sutra is found, there’s a buddha. Thus, it should be venerated by the devas, humans, and asuras of every world.”

Tseng Feng-yi says, “Subhuti realizes that the dharma body has no attributes, but he does not yet understand that the dharma body is not separate from attributes. Thus, the Buddha approves what he says but adds that since all conditioned attributes arise from illusions, and illusions are essentially empty and lack any nature of their own, all attributes are false. But since attributes are false, what is not an attribute is real. Thus, you don’t have to leave these illusory attributes to seek a buddha of no attributes somewhere else. ‘Form is emptiness, and emptiness is form.’ Just stop your discrimination.”

Tseng Feng-yi says, “Someone once asked Tsung-mi, ‘The sutras tell us to liberate beings. But if beings are not beings, why should we make an effort to liberate them?’ Tsung-mi replied, ‘If beings were real, liberating them would require an effort. But as you say they are not beings, so why not get rid of liberating and not liberating? ’ The questioner then asked, ‘The sutras tell us that the Buddha is eternal, but they also say he entered nirvana. If he is eternal, why did he enter nirvana? And if he entered nirvana, he is not eternal. Is this not a contradiction?’ Again, Tsung-mi answered, ‘Buddhas are not attached to appearances. How could their appearing in the world and entering nirvana be real? Pure water has no mind, and yet there is no image that does not appear in it. Nor does the image have a self.’ These two questions and answers explain the profound meaning in this section.”