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The Record of Water Mirror Turning Back
Heaven is a work written by Tripitaka Master Hsuan Hua in the
formal literary language of China. The wit and delightful humor
which mark the Master’s teachings are not as obvious here as in his
oral teachings. The language of this book is not unlike that of
Mencius. In fact, the Western reader who is not familiar with the
classical allusions often finds difficulty separating the language
of the ancients from the modern text. The formal structure and
regular parallelism make the original grand and majestic. Western
ears which find such literary conventions too rigid may miss much of
the beauty of the style, but I have done my best to retain as much
of this flavor as possible.
One way to explain the difference between the
Master’s written style, of which Water Mirror is a superb
example, and his spoken style, represented by
The Sixth Patriarch's Sutra Commentary, is by way of
musical analogy. The spoken lectures may be said to be like Bach’s
Two and Three Part Inventions, or occasionally like Scarlatti
sonatas. Water Mirror is fully as impressive as The Art of
the Fugue or the St. Matthew Passion. Furthermore, as reading a
musical score and hearing the work performed differ, so too do the
written and oral presentations of these works differ. Don’t just
read Water Mirror listen carefully for its great, majestic
sound. The Lotus Sutra says,
"Wonderful Sound, Regard the World Sound, Pure Sound, Sea Tide
Sound, Supreme Over Worldly Sound. Therefore constantly recall; in
every thought have no doubt."
The Record of Water Mirror Turning Back Heaven
Preface
In stillness, regard the
system of three thousand great thousand worlds; bad karma wells up
and fills it all. Nation kills nation creating world wars. Family
kills family creating civil wars. Man kills man creating wars of
that and this. Self kills self, creating wars of mind and nature,
and so forth until emptiness kills emptiness, and water kills water
creating the wars of shape and shapeless. So many wars. How
sorrowful! How painful! There is not one of the limitless disasters
which is not brought about because of the activity of killing.
If we do not awaken soon,
prohibit and cast off the causes, conditions, Dharmas, and activity
of killing and so forth it will certainly be difficult to turn back
those great disasters and obtain peace and happiness.
Disasters are produced
from the activity of killing; the act of killing is produced from
the mind. If the mind does not produce thoughts of killing,
stealing, sexual misconduct, false speech, and intoxication, and
awesomely maintains the five precepts, vigorously cultivating the
triple study, then all bad karma can certainly be erased. The
original face is not at all difficult to recognize; the originally
existent wisdom will certainly spontaneously manifest. The wind and
light of the original ground have a special wonderful delight. Its
flavor is indeed inexhaustible. If we wish to try its taste, we have
foremost only to purify our will and that is all there is to it.
Turn the mind toward the
good, put forth the vigorous heroic mind, establish the will to
cultivate and accomplish the fruit of the way, widely cross over
those of like kind, and together ascend to the other shore. Together
with all good superior men assemble happily in one place, eternally
companions with irreversible Bodhisattvas.
My Water Mirror
Turning Back Heaven has been written for just this reason, which
is easy to speak, but very difficult to do. Why? Consider beings
doing good; grab them by the ear, thrice admonish and five times
teach, and still they do not raise up their conduct. If they
encounter bad conditions thought after thought they increase and
grow, without teaching they can penetrate by themselves. Those who
know how to turn way from the confused road are few indeed.
Like the moon in water,
and flowers in a mirror, these have merely reflections and no shape.
It is properly called the hoping of what cannot be hoped, the
accomplishing of the unaccomplishable. Therefore, it is called
"Water Mirror Turning Back Heaven".
Commentary:
Disasters come from heaven; to turn back heaven
means to stop and reverse calamities. Such an undertaking requires
immense strength. This book speaks of the power of water and mirror
reflections to do just that.
In stillness means in
"dhyana concentration".
Dhyana is a Sanskrit word, which is explained as
"still consideration".
It is the result of disciplined training in what is
not too precisely called meditation. Cultivating dhyana
concentration aims at obtaining a special rarified insight into the
nature of things as they are, and most important into the
self–nature so that we might realize the Buddha latent in all
beings.
Karma is also a Sanskrit word, which means
"that which one does". Karma is simply the doing of any action with
the body, mouth, or mind. All activity has its effect. In Buddhism
we discover that this is true not only for the physical realm but
for the moral and spiritual ones as well.
To kill is used not only in the sense of taking
life, but metaphorically includes all manner of cruelty, arrogance,
jealousy, and the like. Nations may not actively kill in times of
"peace" but they do continue to oppress, steal, deceive, and take
advantage of one another. This kind of activity goes on for long
periods of time before it breaks into hot war. Two nations fight and
their allies join them, soon creating the great disaster which is
called world war. Families cheat, slander, gossip, and malign one
another, causing dissension within the land. Factions and parties
are followed by civil wars, which may be either ones of violent
battles, or of silent, sly, and treacherous greed which undermines
the very foundation of the state to the benefit of the great
families. Man oppresses and extorts man until there arises the war
of you and me. Individuals tear themselves apart with indecision and
anxiety. This is called the self-warring with the self. Man’s mind
and nature fight instead of being in accord and bizarre insanities
run rampant throughout the world. This process of warring is not
just peculiar to our world; throughout the universe the same
principles apply.
Now we have aerial warfare, and missiles and
planes fill our skies. This may be called space-fighting space on
the near scale. On the far scale we are now setting foot into the
cosmos, a frontier teeming with new worlds and world systems. It is
impossible to believe that we are alone in this universe; it is only
this mind of ours bent on killing which allows us such monstrous
egotism. These principles are basic not merely to the nature of man
but to the nature of all beings. Aerial warfare certainly continues
on this earth. What the future will bring if we continue to kill
remains to be seen. And so, in stillness, we see emptiness killing
emptiness. From where will these missiles of aerial warfare be
launched? We already have launching pads, which can travel submerged
through the world’s oceans for vast periods of time without once
surfacing. What future technology will bring in the way of
improvement is yet unknown. Everything is at war; the doing of bad
fills the universe. Bodies battle bodies, space slays space, the war
of shape and shapeless.
Disasters means not only the disasters of war,
but of fire, water, wind and pestilence.
The causes, conditions,
Dharmas, and activity of killing. We are inclined, in our ordinary lives, to
consider a thing done as complete in itself, divorcing an effect from its cause
and subsequent after–effects. Hence, in Buddhism, when we take moral
restrictions and prohibitions on ourselves we do so not merely to
forbid the doing of the act itself, but also the cause which brings
it about, the conditions which make its occurrence possible, and the
dharma, or method, by which that it is realized. No one will admit
to enjoying a bed of stinging nettles, and if a gardener finds one
he will certainly remove it completely. Only the most foolish person
would attempt to leave the plants but strip them of their sting. So
too with the causes, conditions, and Dharma of killing.
The prevention of
killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, false speech, and intoxication is the subject of five
basic moral prohibitions, which are voluntarily assumed by an
individual. Although everyone ought to observe them, they are only
truly held when formally professed before the Triple Jewel.
The triple study is the cultivation of
morality, concentration, and wisdom.
The original face and the
originally existent wisdom are the goal of our cultivation. We must find and understand
them. In Buddhism this is foremost. While the Buddhadharma has a
vast and profound literature, every word of it is for the sole
purpose of leading beings to understand their own nature. The goal
of direct spiritual–gnosis has never been forgotten. Even in this,
the so–called "Dharma ending age", such experience is not only
possible, but essential. Not the shallow alterations of perception
caused by external forces, but the true confrontation and
understanding of the nature of Buddha latent in all things makes up
this experience. Without direct experience there simply is no
Buddhism, merely learned chatter.
The wind and light of the
original ground means simply that having returned home,
we once again see the long forgotten vista from the original
dwelling, the place where we belong and from which we have estranged
ourselves so very long. The other shore is the standard explanation
of the word "paramita", which may also be translated "perfection".
It is the other side, Nirvana, which is opposed to this, our restless turning in birth and
death. It is everything that this shore is not and yet, its bliss
exists only in opposition to the suffering on this shore.
All good superior men means those who have
cultivated and attained to one of the fruits of the path, holy men
who have achieved such position by dint of their own cultivation.
An irreversible Bodhisattva is one who has
reached a position from which it is impossible to regress. This is
manifested in three ways. He is irreversible in position, and is
unable to revert to the stages of the smaller vehicle; he is
irreversible in conduct, and never causes afflictions to sentient
beings; he is irreversible in thought, and having produced the
thought to cultivate the Bodhisattva path, he cannot cease from
doing so. He is unable to retreat from the utmost right and equal
enlightenment.
Thought after thought they increase and grow
means that sentient beings are such that when they encounter the
doing of evil they do not need any instruction but just naturally
learn it. Who instructs the gambler in his sport? Who teaches the
wife–beater how to wield a belt? How strange that they do so by
themselves! As for the cultivation of good, one requires a teacher;
even then, it is not easy.
The moon in water and flowers in a mirror are
merely appearances which do not correspond to reality. The moon in
the water is but one of myriads of such moons, lovely to look at but
dispersing like a phantom when a pebble is tossed in the pool.
Flowers in a mirror have no scent; drop the glass and the flowers
shatter too. Sentient beings with all their propensity for evil and
dislike of good, with all their afflictions and their various
karmas, are no more real than the moon in the water or flowers in a
mirror. In full awareness of this Dharma, knowing the ultimate
futility of the undertaking, the very impossibility of its being
accomplished, nonetheless, one must teach a turning from the
confused road, instructing and admonishing sentient beings, teaching
and transforming them. This is the hoping of what cannot be hoped,
the doing of the undoable. This is what this book is about. This is
the Great Vehicle.
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