Culavedalla Sutra

Us Zen people do not care too much about Buddhist scriptures. We might be missing on some things. The Pali Canon has many gems...

As I was researching Mindfulness of Feelings, I discovered 2 weeks ago the Culavedalla Sutra and found it very interesting in 2 aspects :

• In this sutra, the teachings are given by a Nun named Dhammadinna while the Buddha is sitting beside her listening. After the talk, the Buddha said that he could not have taught any better and praised her. This is a good reminder of the importance of the contributions of Nuns to the Dharma.

• I finally found some clarification about the "neither pleasant nor non-pleasant" feeling, the one that leads to delusion if you let it take you away on arising. I had had quite some problems understanding what the damn thing could be. And there it was quite clearly : 

"Pleasant feeling is pleasant in remaining, & painful in changing, friend Visakha. Painful feeling is painful in remaining & pleasant in changing. Neither-pleasant-nor-painful feeling is pleasant in occurring together with knowledge, and painful in occurring without knowledge."

Beside that, this Culavedalla sutra is very insightful about the 5 aggregates and the Noble Eightfold path. You might enjoy it... 

 

May all beings be happy...

 

Should Masters adapt to their Disciples ?

Humans are a highly adaptable specie with a great ability to learn and develop expertise. Still, body types generally condition our physical abilities. 

Judokas know it is easier to throw someone taller than you and to sweep someone shorter. This is simply due to the relative position of their centers of gravity. 

O Soto Gari

So during his first sparring matches a short guy will generally put emphasis on throws, and a tall one on sweeps. With years of diligent practice, abilities change, expertise comes and a tall fighter might develop a great way to throw an shorter opponent, or a shorter guy might become excellent at sweeping a giant. 

However, at the beginning, in order to develop self confidence in students, a teacher should adapt his teachings according to their physical abilities and be able to teach both types of techniques, independently from his own preference and body type.

The same applies to spiritual practice. Dharma gates are boundless, we vowed to enter them. We should be able to teach a variety of practices. You may liken the Buddhist path to the ascension of a mountain. On your way to the top, several trail of various difficulty are available.  Zen in essence is about getting off those trails to directly climb to the top. Not everyone can do this. Some people will fall off the rocks, some will get lost on their way. 

Gravity is not just a theory...

I believe a practice leader should know how to teach different path to different disciples at different stages of progress. Before teaching them how to climb rocks, lets teach them how to walk the trail. The Buddha first talked about the 3 Noble Truths : Dukkha, Anicca, Anatta. Emptiness came much later... We should keep this in mind.

What are your thoughts ?

Knowing and Doing

There are basically 2 questions you can ask about things :

• What can I do with this  ?
• How does this work ? (How is it built)

As far as survival is involved, "What can I do with this" is better than "How does this work?"

You can drive a car without having any idea how it works. However, if you have a mechanical problem in the middle of the desert, it maybe handy to know how to disconnect the thermostat to make sure the fan stays on and keep cooling the engine (trust me on that one, personal experience...)

So again, it is interesting to know both about things, 

• what you can do with them, and 

• how they are built and work, 

And this is true for every domain. If someone comes at you and you find a stick, it is a good idea to whack them with that stick, without trying to have the perfect stance and style. You have no need to know exactly how to fight with a stick: just whack them quickly and strongly.  

If later on more people get in the habit of coming at you, it could be a good idea to learn how to use your stick more efficiently. That is what martial arts are about.

Now in Buddhism, we have a number of teachings. They are meant to be USED. If you try to understand them before you practice, you'll be in the situation of a guy who having been shot with a poisoned arrow wants to know everything about who shot it and the kind of material used to make the arrow, the bow and the string before pulling the arrow out of his thigh. Basically the guy would die before he'd know the answers to these questions. 

This story was told by the Buddha 2500 years ago,  and was recorded in the Cula-Malunkyovada Sutta.

"It's just as if a man were wounded with an arrow thickly smeared with poison. His friends & companions, kinsmen & relatives would provide him with a surgeon, and the man would say, 'I won't have this arrow removed until I know whether the man who wounded me was a noble warrior, a brahman, a merchant, or a worker.' He would say, 'I won't have this arrow removed until I know the given name & clan name of the man who wounded me... until I know whether he was tall, medium, or short... until I know whether he was dark, ruddy-brown, or golden-colored... until I know his home village, town, or city... until I know whether the bow with which I was wounded was a long bow or a crossbow... until I know whether the bowstring with which I was wounded was fiber, bamboo threads, sinew, hemp, or bark... until I know whether the shaft with which I was wounded was wild or cultivated... until I know whether the feathers of the shaft with which I was wounded were those of a vulture, a stork, a hawk, a peacock, or another bird... until I know whether the shaft with which I was wounded was bound with the sinew of an ox, a water buffalo, a langur, or a monkey.' He would say, 'I won't have this arrow removed until I know whether the shaft with which I was wounded was that of a common arrow, a curved arrow, a barbed, a calf-toothed, or an oleander arrow.' The man would die and those things would still remain unknown to him."

In the West, we love to understand everything before we act. At times, it is a good idea, but not always. 

Intellectual analysis sometimes delays or even prevents actual experience.

Don't waste your time, Practice...

 

Clarification about the 'Self'

All forms of Buddhism teach that all dharma or phenomena have 3 universal characteristics :

All phenomena are Impermanent	The teaching of ANICCA
All phenomena are Unsatisfactory	The teaching of DUKKHA
All phenomena are Not-Self	The teaching of ANATTA

The teachings of Anicca and Dukkha are common to all religious or philosopHical traditions, but the teaching of Anatta is unique to Buddhism.

According to Anatta there is nothing that can be identified as 'self', all the things that we take to be ourself, to be I and mine, are really 'not-self'.

Buddhism holds that these notions are deceptive delusions that lead us into conflicts and suffering. To stop this suffering we have to realize the nature of all phenomena. This is achieved by intellectual understanding and through insight.

Because almost all of our thoughts and activities are centred around the idea of "I", "mine" and "myself" Anatta is the deepest and the most difficult of the 3 characteristics to realize. To grasp its exact meaning we have to clarify what it actually does and does not deny. 'Anatta' meaning literally 'not-self', what really is this 'self' denied by it ?

The word "self" can be used in three senses :

• (a) A reflexive sense, as when when we speak of "myself", "yourself", "oneself". (French “moi-meme”, “toi-meme”, “soi-meme”). Buddhism accepts such use of the word "Self". You have to train yourself, one must purify oneself, you have to make the effort yourself and so on.

• (b) "Self” as one's own person, the compound of body and mind or psycho-physical personality. Here the word 'self' is used to refer easily and economically to what really is a complex process. Buddhism accepts such use of the word "Self".

• (c) A substantial and lasting ego entity, core of the compound of body and mind. This idea of a "Self" is categorically rejected by the teaching of Anatta, for it is this assumption that draws us into suffering.

3 Dhukkas

When the First Noble Truth is told as “Life is Suffering” most people are unhappy because it sounds very negative to them.  

This is a translation problem.

 The Buddha did not speak English, French or Chinese. He did not use the word “Suffering” but “Dukkha”. Unfortunately, we do not have an accurate word to translate “Dukkha”.

Beside “Suffering” it is sometimes translated as “Stress” or “Dissatisfaction”. Actually, these 3 words- concepts - are part of Dukkha, but they do not fully represent it. So we might as well dump them and use “Dukkha”.

Dukkha

The Buddha spoke of 3 aspects of Dukkha :

• Dukkha dukkha – Dukkha of regular Suffering or Pain
• Viparinama dukkha - the Dukkha caused by Impermanence
• Samkhara dukkha - the Dukkha of Conditioned Existence

Dukkha dukkha is easy to understand by most everyone, and it is properly translated in English by “Pain”, or “Suffering. “ It is the physical pain of a tooth ache, or the mental pain of losing a loved one.

There are different interpretations of the next 2 Dukkhas, and I will stick to one only of them. 
 

Viparinama dukkha is the dukkha due to Impermanence - the fact that things change. 
 

Example : You are working in your yard. The outside temperature is in the 80's but you do not feel hot. You walk inside your home to drink a glass of water. The AC is running and you stay inside a little to enjoy the coolness. You get back outside, and immediately feel uncomfortable because of the heat you experience. 

This is Viparinama Dukkha. The temperature has not changed outside, and you were not feeling uncomfortable before, but you enjoyed the coolness of the house, so when you went back outside, it felt too hot to you. So Viparinama dukkha describes the suffering or dissatisfaction arising in us when we lose something we were enjoying. 

 

Sankhara Dukkha is said to be deeper and more subtle, but actually I do not think it very complicated if you look at it from a certain perspective, Sankhara Dukkha deals with OUR impermance and the fact that we have to struggle to stay alive. 
 

What are we really ? We are an assemblage of living cells trying to stick together. At the moment of our conception, a sperm and an egg produce a first living cell which later splits and develops into a fetus by incorporating atoms brought to it by its mother. At the time of birth we begin to absorb food and oxygen from the outside world, and grow a bigger body. This growing of an individual being is one of 2 great trends of the universe. 
 

One trend organizes, structures and bring order. The opposite and complimentary trend disorganizes, dissolves and brings chaos. 
 

A powerful description of this is the Taoist Yin-Yang theory. Practically it describes everything is subject to 2 competing and complimentary trends, one promotes the organization of usually inanimate matter into a well defined entity separate from the rest of the universe, one trend tends to the opposite. Matter gets organized into a fawn, the fawn tries to stay alive, but eventually will die, the molecules that composed him separate, and will one day become part of an other creature. Or he could be eaten by a wolf, and part of him will become part of the wolf. There is a constant flow, it is almost a dance. Matter gets organized and disorganized constantly.

In the case of human beings, our evolution as a specie has given us one extremely potent tool to help us staying alive as individuals : our ego, or sense of self. Without this very potent tool, it is unlikely that we would have survived surrounded by the predators that were after us 100,000 years ago. One characteristic of human is their extraordinary will to live and fight to survive amazingly difficult physical or mental situations. This is the job of the ego. (And our problem comes from believing that we ARE this ego - but this is a different story).

So Sankhara Dukkha is the stress due to our constant trying to keep us alive as an entity, trying to keep together all molecules that are composing us while the rest of the universe wants them scattered... We are an assemblage of a great number of elements, we try – against the rest of the universe - to keep them together, and it is a constant effort. This is life itself, this is Sankhara Dukkha.

When you really look at them, the 3 Dukkha are not that different, They all comes back to impermanence and dependent origination. But teaching the 3 kinds will help better understand the 1st noble Truth.

Kalama Sutta

In the Kalama Sutta the Buddha taught us to not accept any teaching, including His, without testing and examining it for ourselves. While rejecting blind faith and dogmatism and encourages free and systematic personal inquiry, it does not dismiss the value of doctrines and of Master–Disciple teaching.

The sutta goes like that :

The Kalamas of the town of Kesaputta had been visited by teachers of divergent views. Each of them had exposed their own doctrines and had torn down the doctrines of their predecessors. So the Kalamas were confused. And when the Buddha arrived in their town, they asked his advice on this matter.

The Buddha first assured them that under such circumstances it was proper for them to doubt, encouraging them into doubt and free inquiry. He next advised them to abandon those things they knew for themselves - by experience - to be bad and to adopt those things they knew to be good. 

"Come, Kalamas. Do not go upon what has been acquired by repeated hearing, nor upon tradition, nor upon rumor, nor upon scripture, nor upon surmise, nor upon axiom, nor upon specious reasoning, nor upon bias towards a notion pondered over, nor upon another's seeming ability, nor upon the consideration 'This monk is our teacher.' When you yourselves know: 'These things are bad, blamable, censured by the wise; undertaken and observed, these things lead to harm and ill,' abandon them. When you yourselves know: 'These things are good, blameless, praised by the wise; undertaken and observed, these things lead to benefit and happiness,' enter on and abide in them."


This advice not to rely upon established tradition, abstract reasoning, and charismatic gurus, can be dangerous if taken out of context by complete morons. So the Buddha further helped the Kalamas by questioning them, leading them to see for themselves that greed, hate and delusion, being detrimental to all, are to be abandoned, and their opposites, being beneficial to all, are to be sought.

Unfortunately, this Buddha's advise is sometimes interpreted by ego-inflated individuals as an encouragement to reject all doctrines and teachings and to do whatever they like.

This is as stupid as believing one could become a fighter without learning from a valid Master. The beauty of Martial Arts is that the delusion does not last very long. On their first incursion in a ring, a battlefield or any place loaded with alcohol and adrenaline, self taught fighters brutally get their asses back into reality.  (This also happens to people who trained under deluded self appointed Masters,  I have seen it...)

In spiritual matters, it can take much longer before one realizes one's own or one's teacher's arrogance and vanity.

Before He started his own quest, the Buddha himself spent years practising and perfecting his spiritual technique under 2 great Yoga Masters... He acquired with them those abilities and expertise that would allow him to reach awakening and teach.

So what the Buddha said was NOT to follow whatever we like as the path to liberation, but to carefully consider, examine, doubt and ponder all teachings of all Masters including His - for only us can see for ourselves and realize the Dharma - keeping faith in our ability to one day figure it out through diligent practice. 

Buddhist Humour

A monk once gained a vision of devas while meditating. The monk asked them, “Do you know where the end of the physical universe is?”
 

And the devas said, “No, we don’t know, but there is a higher level of devas. Maybe they know.” 

So the monk continued meditating and he got to the next level of devas. He asked them the same question, and he got the same answer: “There’s a higher level. Maybe they know.” This goes on for ten levels or so.
 

Finally, the last level of devas said, “No, we don’t know the end of the physical universe, but there is the Great Brahma. He must know. If you meditate hard enough, you may get to see him.”
 

The monk kept on meditating until the Great Brahma appeared in a flash of light.

He asked his question of the Great Brahma, and the Great Brahma answered: “I, monk, am Brahma, the Great Brahma, the Conqueror, the Unconquered, the All-Seeing, All-Powerful, the Sovereign Lord, the Maker, Creator, Chief, Appointer and Ruler, Father of All That Have Been and Shall Be.”  

And the monk said, “That’s not what I asked you. I asked you where the end of the physical universe is.”
 

Again, the Great Brahma said, “I, monk, am Brahma, the Great Brahma,” etc. Three times. The monk was not amused and kept asking...

Finally, the Great Brahma pulled the monk aside by the arm and says, “Look, I don’t know, but I have all these devas in my entourage who believe that I know everything. They would be very disappointed if they'd learned that I can’t answer your question.”

And Brahma sent the monk back to the Buddha, who answered the question after rephrasing it, pointing to where the physical universe has no footing in the mind. 

Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle.

"Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared."

This is generally attributed to the Buddha.  

If you try to figure out when and where He said that, from which Sutra it comes from, you better be patient and ready to never find it ! 

It is a common use to attribute to famous people words someone less famous said... Lao Tzu, Confucius, Abraham Lincoln and Einstein, among many others, are also credited with lots of apparently deep things they probably never said. 

Go figure...

Years ago, before I moved to the US, I suffered from depression. It lasted several month. It sucked. Nothing mattered to me anymore. The only time I was able to forget about my misery was when I would get on a mat to teach or study Ju Jitsu or Kendo. 

Once a month I would drive to Paris to study Ju Jitsu under Master Rolland Hernaez. I was just 1st degree black belt then. 

One night I had been driving 2 1/2 hours under rain and slit to get there, wondering why I was doing this, feeling sorry for myself - depression does that to you... I had arrived early at the Dojo and was changing clothes, by myself in the dressing room. Sensei Hernaez opened the door to see who was there. He looked at me, said nothing, and smiled - a big smile. I suppose he was happy to see me there. 

All of a sudden, my sorriness gone. Light had chased the darkness away. 

He must have been 7th Degree Black belt in Ju Jitsu back then. (Not counting his ranks in Karate, Judo and Aikido...) I was just a shodan, and this great Man  smiled at me... He did not have to do it, but he did and it made a big difference in my life.

Never waste an occasion to smile to people. It's easy to do, it is free to you, and you never know what you can bring them. 

I am under no obligation to teach you...

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The Cula-Malunkyovada Sutra

or Poisoned Arrow Sutra

Once upon a time the Buddha and a number of his disciples and followers were staying at a monastery, and the venerable Malunkyaputta was with him, training very diligently. As he was sitting in meditation the following thoughts came to him :

The Buddha has left quite a few important questions unanswered :

• “Is the Universe eternal, or is it not ?”
• “is the Universe infinite or finite? “
• “Are soul and body the same thing, or are they different ? “
• “After death does one exist, or does one not exist, or does one exist and does not exist at the same time, or does one neither exists nor does not exist ?”

I really do not approve that he does not take a clear position on these questions, and I'm going to ask him about these matters !

If he actually takes a clear position on these, then I will keep training under him. But if he does not take a clear position, then, I'm out of there !

So that evening, Malunkyaputta came out of his retreat. He went to the Buddha, bowed to him, sat beside him, and he asked : “Lord, as I was sitting in Meditation, that is what came to me :

I am not happy with the fact that you do not take position about a number of questions. So if you give me a clear answer about the question of the eternity of the Universe, or about existence or non-existence after death, then I will keep training under you. But if you don't, I'll quit and leave.

Lord, if You know whether the Universe is eternal or not, then tell me. But if you don't know, be straightforward about it and admit 'I don't know, I don't see'...

If you don't know whether there is a life after death or not, then be straightforward about it and tell me 'I don't know, I don't see.'”

The Buddha answered :

"Malunkyaputta, did I ever tell you, 'Come, and train with me, and I will tell you whether the Universe is or is not eternal or finite, and also whether there is life or not, or both, or neither, after death ?

"No, lord."

"And did you ever say to me, 'Lord, I'll train under you and in return you will tell me whether the Universe is or is not eternal or finite, and also whether after death there is existence, or not, or both, or neither ?

"No, lord."

"Well if that is the case, what possesses you moron to think you are entitled to demand anything from anyone ?

"Malunkyaputta, if anyone were to say, 'I won't train under the Buddha until he tells me that the Universe is eternal, or not... or that after death there is a life – or not;” this person would die before the Buddha would answer those questions.

Imagine that a man is wounded by a poisoned arrow and a surgeon is called to extract the arrow. And imagine that this man does not want the arrow removed until he knows everything about the man and the weapon that wounded him : the caste his aggressor belongs to, his given & clan names, his size, the color of his skin, his home town; whether he used a long bow or crossbow, the exact material of the bowstring, the nature of the arrow's shaft and feathers, the exact shape of the arrow head, and the way it is mounted... Well then ! This man would just die before he'd learn anything about these matters !

"In the same way, if anyone were to say, 'I won't train under the Buddha as long as he does not tell me whether the Universe is eternal or not, and if after death one's soul goes on or not, ' this man would die before the Buddha would answer these questions !

"Malunkyaputta, You don't have to know whether the universe is eternal or not in order to practice. No matter the answer to this question, there are still birth, aging and death, there are sorrow, lamentation, pain, despair & distress, and my teaching is about ending them.

And it is also true for the other questions : Whether the Universe is finite or not, whether soul and body are the same or different, whether there is existence or not, or both, or neither after death. No matter the answers to these questions, there is birth, aging and death, there is sorrow, lamentation, pain, despair, & distress and my teaching is about ending them.

"So, Malunkyaputta, keep in mind which questions I left unanswered, and which ones I answered. I did not say anything about the infinity or the eternity of the Universe, I did not say whether Soul and Body are or are not the same, and I did not say anything about a continuation of existence or lack of it, or both, or neither, after death.

And the reason I did not say anything about these things is that it would not help. Knowing about these things would not free you. And this is why I did not say anything about this.

And what is it that I teach ? I teach about suffering, about the cause of suffering, about the cessation of suffering, and about the path that leads to this cessation of suffering. And the reason I teach about this is that these teachings are fundamental to achieve our goal and realize our practice. These teachings and practice will free you.

"So, Malunkyaputta, remember which things I did not speak about, and which things I did.

Malunkyaputta was delighted and went back to his cushion.

Comments :

Beside the parabola of the poisoned arrow, which does not need any comment, as it is very eloquent, I see 2 important points made by the Buddha in this sutra.

When the Buddha asks : "Malunkyaputta, did I ever tell you, 'Come, and train with me, and I will tell you whether the Universe is or is not eternal or finite, and also whether there is life or not, or both, or neither, after death ? “ He is basically asking him if he ever asked him to become his student.

When he later asks him : "And did you ever say to me, 'Lord, I'll train under you and in return you will tell me whether the Universe is or is not eternal or finite, and also whether after death there is existence, or not, or both, or neither ? “, He is basically asking him if Malunkyaputta ever asked him to become his teacher.

To both questions, the answer is “No Lord”.

So basically, Malunkyaputta is under no obligation to be Buddha's student, and Buddha is under no obligation to be his teacher.

And this is important. Practically, back to our 21st century, this means that when you do your best to teach Zen or Martial Arts, or anything else, put you r heart in it, give of your time and energy for this, students should have the decency to follow your directions without questioning you too much. And if they don't, I suggest you remind them that you are under no obligation to teach them, and that they are under no obligation to stay.

Said in a different way : “The door is open. “

I did not say that, the Buddha did ! 

 

Zazen to the end of the year

Last night we sat for 4 hours to celebrate the end of the year. This was part of a joint effort of different members of the Mokurai - Silent Thunder Order - founded by Michael Elliston Roshi, Abbott of the Atlanta Soto Zen Center.

Wherever they were, members of the Sangha sat in Zazen til the end of the year, then celebrated. As there are different time zones, it lasted a while I suppose. 

Our program was simple : we sat 3 for sessions of 25 minutes each, with 5 minutes kinhin (walking meditation) in between from 8:20 til 9:45 pm. Then we took a short break for tea and cookies. 

After that, we sat back, facing the center of the dojo, and read the   

 

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IPPYAKUHACHI-HOMYOMON

108 Gates of Dharma - Illumination of Master Dogen. Actually, I read part of the introduction to it, and then every minute, each one of the other participants read part of the 108 stanza. As there were 3 of them, each read 36 stanza - well actually, the last one read 37, because there are 109 stanza to the 108 gates... Every minute I would ring the bell, and the stanza would be read, living us one minute to consider its meaning. 

Finally I read the conclusion of Master Dogen's text. 

It was Midnight ! The locals having burnt all of their fireworks between 9:00 and 10:30 pm, it was rather quiet, and we enjoyed Cookies Bubbly and Company !

Picture by Carl Rippe

Happy New Year in Buddha ! 

Writings of Suzuki Shosan - II

A warrior asked Suzuki Shosan, "They say the law of Buddha and the law of the world are like the two wheels of a chariot. But nothing would be lacking in the world even without Buddhism. Why liken them to two wheels of a chariot?”

Shosan replied, ‘The law of Buddha and the law of the world are not two separate things. According to a saying of Buddha, if you can enter the world successfully there is nothing more to leaving the world.

“Whether Buddhism or worldly law, there is nothing more than reasoning correctly, acting justly, and practicing honesty.

“There are differences in depth of honesty. Not twisting reason, preserving justice, correctness in social relations, not crossing people, not being egotistical - these constitute honesty in the worldly sense. This is a way into the deep via the shallow.

“Honesty in the context of Buddhism means realizing that all conditioned phenomena are illusions, and using the original reality-body in its natural state. This is true honesty.

“The fact is that the ordinary people are very sick patients, while the Buddha is a very great physician. Ordinary people ought to recognize sickness first. In the ignorant mind that fluctuates, there is the sickness of delusion, there are sicknesses of greed and false views, there are sicknesses of weakness and injustice. Based on the mind infected by the three poisons, there are diseases of eighty-four thousand afflictions. Getting rid of this mind is called Buddhism. How is this any different from worldly law?

“People who attain the Way know the principle of fundamental emptiness, use principle and duty as a forge to temper this mind day and night, get rid of the residue of impurities, make it a pure unhindered mind-sword, cut through the root of selfish and obsessive thoughts, overcome all thoughts, surmount everything, and are unfazed by anything, unborn and undying. These are called people of the Way.

“Now, then, ordinary people are those who take the falsehood of illusions to be true, produce a selfish mind attached to what has form, develop greedy, angry, and ignorant thoughts, create all sorts of afflictions and lose their basic mind, always distracted, overcome by thoughts as they occur, racking their brains and belaboring their bodies, without buoyancy of mind, vainly passing the time benighted, alienated from themselves and fixated on things. This is called the mind of ordinary people.

‘That being so, you should know the different terms for the original mind. It is called the adamantine actuality, the indestructible body of reality, This mind is not hung up on things; it is unafraid, unshakable, undismayed, unfazed, undisturbed, and unchanged, master of all. Those who realize this and use it effectively are called great; they are said to have iron guts, and to have attained the Way. People like this are not obstructed by myriad thoughts; able to let go of all things, they are very independent.

“However, people who would practice the Way of Buddha will be unable to succeed unless they have an intrepid mind first. It is impossible to gain access to the Way of Buddha with a weak mind. If you are not rigorously observant and do not practice vigorously, you will experience misery along with those afflictions.

“One who overcomes all things with a firm mind is called a wayfarer. One who has thoughts fixated on appearances, is burdened by everything, and so suffers misery is called an ordinary person.

“So people who work up the courage of violence with an afflicted mind may have the force to’ break through iron walls for the moment, but violence ‘eventually comes to an end. The mind of a strong person, being immovable, does not change. If men who are warriors cultivate this, why would they not attain a strong mind?

“Even people of outstanding heroism, when the killing demon of impermanence comes lose their usual power, their ferocity, and ability to exert any effort. When they try to open their eyes they cannot see anything; their ears can't hear, their tongues shrivel and can't speak. When the killing demon enters the heart and destroys the internal organs, breathing becomes difficult, pain invades their bodies, and under it they become unable to overcome and kill the demon of impermanence, unable to bear the great hardships of the mountain of death, drowning in the river between here and the afterlife, shamed at the court of the king of death, falling forever into the three evils and four dispositions, disgraced generation to generation, lifetime after lifetime, as self and as other, unable to escape. 

Would you say this disgrace is insignificant because shallow people don’t know of it ? Even in the illusory human society disgrace is nothing to take lightly; how much the more so is eternal disgrace ?

“Can someone ignorant of this logic be called someone who knows principle or embodies justice? Think ahead before you act.

If you know the principle, you should fear it. If you embody justice, use the fierce and firm mind-sword to cut down the enemy of birth and death and live in great peace.”

Somehow, this story reminds me of the - probably apocryphal - episode of the viper coming upon Takuan Soho and Miyamoto Musashi meditating together.

How about that ?