Do what needs doing. When you finish, leave no trace; it is as if you never acted. You can respond to what others say and do what needs doing. Sometimes we act deliberately—calculating, intentional, and long-planned—or greed, hatred, delusion, arrogance, and doubt arise immediately deep inside us. That is the mind moving.
It is not that your body must remain still outside; it is that the mind should not move. When the mind does not move, nothing has moved. I am not saying your arms and legs should not move. It is just that you fail to notice what is inside—the process is too fast: the outside has already moved while the inside has not yet reacted. That is a lack of awareness. Your mind has not noticed what it is thinking, and in a kshana the action has already happened. Body, speech, and mind have become thoroughly unified; in that kshana, the mind moved first.
Just kidding. The main thing is for your mind to notice. Sometimes you notice it in the very first kshana; sometimes you notice it in the middle of the action, when your greed, hatred, delusion, arrogance, and doubt have arisen as habitual tendencies—perhaps while you are still doing it.
Some people notice after they have finished. They may have begun with a good intention, then afterward deep down they want some return, want something. Some notice in the middle; some notice after finishing, when they start to feel unbalanced: “Why should I do this? I have given too much,” and so on. All three points are fine. As long as you can notice, all of them are cultivation.
“I have finished. I am practicing the Bodhisattva Path now. Whatever I have done, I want the giver to be empty, the receiver to be empty, or the doer to be empty. As long as it benefits him, that is enough, so let it go.” Whether others are grateful or understand—that is their cause and effect, their matter. On your side, let this matter go.
Some people notice in the middle. Suddenly greed, hatred, delusion, arrogance, and doubt begin to stir, and they need to notice: “This matter can benefit him. My intention is to help him, or I am willing to do it, and it will not harm him.” Then, all right, continue. Do not let your greed, hatred, delusion, arrogance, and doubt become too strong.
Some people notice at the very beginning. The fastest is at the first thought: you already know what you are doing, and you know his cause and effect and the consequences for him. Of course, such a person has already cultivated nearly enough.
At first everyone is like this; no one notices. You know cause and effect; you know what consequences there will be when this matter is finished. You even know that in the middle of it you still have habitual tendencies; you know it all very well.
Your habitual tendencies may not be pure from the outset. You may even know that you will have habitual tendencies in the course of it—you know everything. You also know the result, and you know what habitual tendencies will surface; all of this is clear.
This is a very pure state. In fact, this is it: if you can notice, from the beginning—from the first thought—everything that happens along the way, that too is non-movement. Because you know everything; what you do is nothing more than an illusory appearance.
At first we cannot notice. Usually, we react only in the middle, or after we have finished; that is generally how it begins. But no matter what we have done, of course we cultivate through wholesome Dharma. What I mean is, when you do things out in the open, practicing wholesome Dharma—doing things in the sunlight—you leave fewer traces. Things that are too shadowy cannot be told to us; things done behind the scenes generally leave a much deeper trace in the nature of mind, the information is rather…
When eliminating the self, things done on the dark side are more self-oriented, because he must have considered his own interests before he could keep them from others, and so on. That is why the impact is greater. It is not that one of the two is better. Wholesome and unwholesome Dharma cannot be compared; it is simply that their impact on the nature of mind is greater.
So one attains enlightenment through wholesome Dharma. Human beings—from rebirth and birth, through growing in the sunlight, and so on—are thereby determined to be a kind of animal that can enter the Way through wholesome Dharma. Wholesome Dharma can bring joy; that is all.
(Teacher, my understanding is still that if one does not practice the Bodhisattva Path, one absolutely cannot realize Buddhahood. Then what you just said…)
Do you know why we practice the Bodhisattva Path? It is to benefit others, because the purpose of practicing the Bodhisattva Path is to remove ego-clinging. We are naturally self-oriented and selfish. When we benefit others, we gradually break through this selfishness and attachment. That is why we benefit others.
It is not that sentient beings want your help, or that they truly need you to practice the Bodhisattva Path. Sentient beings may even scold you: “Why liberate me? It is exhausting.” Some sentient beings ask you for help, while others do not. Actually, the purpose of liberating all sentient beings is for you to break your own private motives, to break your selfishness.
This movement and non-movement are within Awakening. If you are unaware and keep acting without awareness, you can finish the entire matter without ever noticing. Although you are practicing the Bodhisattva Path, the matter is good and your initial intention is good, but in the course of doing it, not even two hours in, the arising and movement of thoughts begin, a whole lot of habitual tendencies surface, and in the end you seek returns and understanding again. Then the whole process, from beginning to end, is no longer the Bodhisattva Path; it has changed in nature.
This kind of Bodhisattva Path does not help you break the self. Either you get hurt, or you nourish your self-conceit and strengthen your self. The more you practice the Bodhisattva Path, the more you think, “I am like a Bodhisattva.” Then it is over. If you are like a Bodhisattva, how can you become a Buddha? You have already clung to the appearance of a Bodhisattva.
So in Esoteric Buddhism, there is a term for this… This whole matter, from the beginning—although outwardly you are practicing the Bodhisattva Path—to the end, you do everything wrong. Your initial intention is right: “I want to practice it; I want to do good.” But in the middle you still give in to habitual tendencies, and at the end you seek results, merit, and returns, so you cling to appearances throughout.
So this merit—it is not that this is bad. As long as you benefit others, even if you fall into a whole series of habitual tendencies, it is still a wholesome act. Such a wholesome act can lead you to the level of the gods. If you are reborn, after death you will be reborn at a higher level among the gods; things will be better. In terms of wholesome Dharma, although you still have habitual tendencies and seek purity, returns, and understanding, you will not fall into hell. But this merit cannot lead you back to attaining enlightenment, because attaining enlightenment requires breaking the self.
So throughout this whole process of doing things, Awakening is very important, and awareness is very important. You know when a problem has appeared; you know your habitual tendencies are still there, and that you are still being pulled by them as you act. You must know all of this. You may not be able to do it so purely at first, but as long as you notice it—once, then twice, three times—you will become pure.
You are not pure because you have not awakened to emptiness; you cling to appearances. You cling to the appearance of yourself, the appearance of him, and the appearance of the matter you are doing, so only then do you become aware. If you do things for yourself, you do not cling to appearances and you do not seek understanding; if you are doing it for yourself, what return would you seek? When you do something for him, you seek a return. That is human nature.
What I am saying is, no matter what we have done in our Past Lives, lifetime after lifetime, up to today, every day you are new. You are cultivating the Way. I hope that whatever arises is immediately empty; first let it go. This is a quality a cultivator should have. Whether good or bad, once you have reflected—“What did I do wrong yesterday?”—today you are a new you. Set it completely aside and stop dwelling on it.
The entire process of cultivation and realization is really a process of continual Awakening. You keep waking up, again and again knowing that the self is illusory.
Why do I ask you to do this? Suppose the two of us are doing something, or you are helping me. There are me, you, and the matter between us—that makes three things, right? The self includes all three. When you do something, in relation to that object, the matter itself—including me—is also part of your self.
So all three must be empty for you to break the self; emptying only one will not do. One of the three is empty here, another is empty there, but the matter itself is not empty—that is what the self is made of. When you do this matter, your self includes all these things; only then are you breaking ego-clinging.
That is a matter of the human world. What you consider good may not be considered good by him; that is the human world. We are discussing a concept, so let us speak concretely about a concrete matter. Say an old grandmother is not crossing the road, and you insist on helping her across.
If your intention in this action is good, but because you do not understand, you help her across and then the old grandmother still has to walk back over—that is quite comical. But generally, mature people like us would not do this. Even if we make a mistake, everyone can forgive it; it has no real impact.
The best giving is to understand what he needs and then give; that is best. But sometimes we do not understand—we cannot necessarily truly understand, right? We always use our guesses and our imagination to think that helping him in this way is good for him. That is enough.
Most of the time, the wisdom we currently have is enough to solve things. It is just that everyone can know how habitual tendencies and desires surface while handling a problem; we can notice them. The trouble is that people cannot control them. Some things are very clear—very clear—but when someone else says so, we feel uncomfortable. That is all. We know it ourselves, but knowing it does not mean we want someone to say it to us. That is all; that is the self.
Therefore, we have little initiative to realize Buddhahood. To have the initiative to break the self completely, someone has to point it out to you. When you point it out to me, I am still unhappy: “Do I not know it myself? Why do you have to tell me? I already know it very well, but why do you have to say it? Do you think I do not understand? I just cannot change.” These are the things—the mind of resistance, and many other things. So at the beginning, this cannot be reached: this kind of rebelliousness, or all these emotions, sensations, and so on.
So at first we have to practice sitting on a meditation cushion—to escape: close our eyes and see and hear nothing. Escaping like this, sitting there alone to practice, is a remedy of last resort. At first, we are too attached.
Helping in just this way works too. Sometimes you cannot see yourself clearly; when someone else tells you, you can see clearly instead. In another person’s eyes, you are not the same as the you in your own eyes. But what he says about you may not be right. If he is right, and you really do have that problem, reflect on it and that is enough. If he is wrong, treat it as if he never said it. Do not cling to appearances; why get angry? That is all.
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.
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