You Cannot Break Me—I Will Die Eventually

Do not think this way about anything; do not reason this way—you will take many detours. Just become empty, and you are nothing. It is only the state of your cultivation and realization right now; remain steadily abiding in the state that you are the Tathagata. There is no saying “Buddha” or “demon”: you are emptiness.

When I speak of the Tathagata, you cling to appearances; then you are emptiness, you are the substance of the Way. Abide at this point, and then cleanse and break through all attachment—attachment to the Buddha’s appearance and attachment to the demon’s appearance.

People who enter the path of the demon from the heavens still cling, at the root of their desires, to the appearances of fame and profit; they hope to become this or that. Everything else they do is a small matter. At the root of their desire, they really want to become the kind of person who conquers everything and can do anything. That desire to conquer everything is too strong, too forceful. Even in cultivation: “I want to realize Buddhahood and become a patriarch, become a religious leader. The kind where everyone listens to me, and so on.”

That kind of drive can easily lead one into the path of the demon from the heavens. There is not enough of an ordinary mind; the ordinary mind is not ordinary enough. You have not seen the ordinary person, the ordinary mind, the beauty and greatness of an ordinary mind, its sacredness. That is to say, only when your mind is very ordinary can you truly conquer everything, truly accomplish every task.

Under such circumstances, even if everyone kneels before you, they are not surrendering to you; they are surrendering to your power, to your money. One day, when you no longer have these, they will immediately get rid of you. Because that is your desire.

The Buddha acts through wisdom, unlike a Wheel-Turning Sage King, who uses force. The Buddha acts through wisdom; when all of us bow down to him, it is because he possesses the wisdom of emptiness. This wisdom of emptiness is our own nature. So when we bow to the Buddha, we are actually bowing to the Buddha within us, bowing to the most sacred, most perfect thing within us.

What everyone hopes for is that others bow—to have them bow to you. You want to reach the position of a universal religious leader, then have everyone bow to you. Of course, this is not you; I am only giving an example. The demon from the heavens wants this. He wants to rule the whole world, and he has this desire. With such a strong desire, even when his spiritual powers are complete at the end, that “I” remains there all along: “Because I want to rule.” And his energy is very strong.

Actually, this is ignorance, a manifestation of a lack of wisdom. Wisdom is incomplete; you cannot see clearly. What you rule is an empty flower; in the Buddha’s eyes, this whole illusory expanse—you want to rule this void. What is there for you to rule? You have not seen through this point, so you cling to appearances and rule these things.

You rule the whole world, the entire universe; everything in the whole world is yours—you possess it all, hold it in your name. Even if the demon from the heavens lives for several great kalpas, one day he will die. As long as you cannot break the “I” in time and space, that “I” will die one day.

His lifespan may simply be very long, and then one day he dies; he still enters samsara, still loses everything, and when he dies, there is no Attainment at all. Nothing truly belongs to you, because you yourself originally have nothing. The self is illusory too, so that ambition is illusory.

(How, in cultivation and realization, can one avoid entering this state?)

When you know that you are in this state, you let go. Whenever you notice that you have this ambition and desire, clear it away; return to an ordinary mind, to ordinariness. See clearly the greatest, most sacred things in this world.

What do you like? In this human world, before you attain enlightenment, there are many kinds of games. What do you like? There is nothing wrong with that. Some people like power: “I like that kind of power—the desire to conquer everything. That kind of power feels great; it makes me very happy.” Some people like traveling through mountains and rivers: “I do not care for fame and profit; I will roam the world, wander in all directions. I think this life is very good.” Each person likes different things; there is no real difference. Such liking is sometimes attachment—it is a matter of choosing and rejecting.

This world has all kinds of appearances; our minds are choosing and making distinctions. You choose this and not that. All choosing and rejecting takes place within samsara. As long as the mind chooses and rejects, it is in samsara, because you do not know the truth—that is why you choose and reject.

You do not know that the two are the same in essence; that is why you choose red and reject white. Because you choose red and reject white, white suffers greatly. This is why these things appear, and why inequality appears in this world. Because you make distinctions in choosing and rejecting, this world has differences—beauty and ugliness, defilement and purity—all distinguished by your mind.

But each person’s mind makes different distinctions, so this world has no fixed appearances or fixed Dharma. Because you say white is good and he says red is good, choices differ, and difference appears in this world.

If our minds no longer choose or reject, this world is the Land of Ultimate Bliss. It is the world of collective karma manifested by everyone—the Land of Ultimate Bliss: equal, undefiled, without arising or ceasing, neither defiled nor pure, without male or female appearances, without affliction, without suffering.

Note: This text was prepared from a teaching video by Yang Ning. If it differs from the video, the video takes precedence. Watch the video.