I Obstruct the Manifestation of Self-Nature Like Fog

That’s all right—then keep moving. That’s all right. You can move; why not move? You can move, you can let it move. But its movement is also a false mark. Movement and stillness are just two phenomena. But when you move, you are being pulled along and carried away with it. Most importantly, you follow it into thinking about actions.

What you have moved into being is an illusion, because it is built on your six sense faculties. Why do you move? Because you see, hear, smell, or taste something, and then you move. This movement built on the six sense faculties is a movement of ignorance. Why is it called a movement of ignorance, rather than a movement of wisdom? Because your six sense faculties are limited.

You say, for example, that you see this plate is white, so you judge it and act accordingly. But perhaps it isn’t white; that isn’t the truth. So this movement of yours is an illusion. You cannot follow it and let the six sense faculties run wild.

Your movement is necessarily based on what your eyes see and your ears hear. But your eyes have not seen the truth, because they are limited; your ears have not heard the truth or the principle, because they too are limited. So this movement is a movement of ignorance. You cannot accept this movement or act on it. You cannot run after your six sense faculties. They deceive you, because your eyes see only appearances.

You still need a little time; that’s all right. When you finally enter that mark of emptiness, that emptiness, there will be neither the mark of movement nor the mark of stillness. Right now, speaking of the two marks of movement and stillness, both movement and stillness are present: sometimes I move, sometimes I am still. But both marks are contained within you. Then they will no longer affect you; right now, they are affecting you.

Or you can simply cultivate awareness. Awareness—awareness of what you see. Awareness includes the six sense faculties. Be aware of what you see, hear, smell, taste, touch, and so on; all of this falls within awareness. Just be aware of it. Do not accept it as real, and do not cognize it. That works too.

Or you can practice observing and being observed—stand back and watch yourself: yourself moving wildly, moving wildly, moving wildly, then running off with it, running off with it, and coming back, coming back. In any case, you know what is happening. Practicing this kind of detached observation works too.

Observation, awareness, and illumination are three levels. Some people enter directly through illumination. For example, you may feel that there is light in your mind, or enter a realm of light. You are directly like a mirror shining on yourself, able to illuminate every arising and movement of thoughts, every operating state of the six sense faculties. You can illuminate them—that’s all.

In any case, it is fine if you can observe, fine if you can be aware, and fine if you can illuminate. You certainly have awareness; everyone has awareness. If you had no awareness, how could you chat with me? When you talk about yesterday, it is all something you were aware of; when you talk about just now, that too is something you were aware of. You say, “I am aware of how I am,” or “I feel that I am such-and-such”—all of this is awareness. There is simply an “I” there. That “I” is the six sense faculties; that “I” of yours is a blind spot.

If it is not “I feel,” that awareness is somewhat the state of perfect awareness. As long as there is “I am aware,” that “I am aware” is an illusion—an awareness with a problem. You are limited. Because that “I am aware” is this: the six sense faculties themselves are not a problem. Seeing and hearing are not a problem. It is only when there is an “I” inside analyzing, judging, and cognizing that the six sense faculties become a problem. Everything is obstructed by that “I” there.

Why does this “I” become an obstruction? Because, at the highest level of information, you cognize that there is an “I” there, a Shao Ning there. You have a problem at the level of the highest instruction. In your entire computer, your highest instruction has always been this: from the moment you were born until now, you have cognized that there is a Shao Ning. There is a Shao Ning, and this false Shao Ning has continued to follow the six sense faculties and appear in a series of actions. This is not about simply changing it to: “My highest-level input is ‘I am the Tathāgata,’ so Shao Ning is false, and everything directed at Shao Ning…”

No—you are the Tathāgata. Your true nature is complete and omnipresent. If we must use an analogy, it is like space. First, imagine it as empty, because you cling to existence; then, within this emptiness, Shao Ning is contained, this thing called Shao Ning is contained, and everything in the universe is contained—not just Shao Ning. Shao Ning is a false mark. Shao Ning is made up of the six sense faculties and the five aggregates—form, feeling, cognition, formation, and consciousness.

These things are false marks. But now these things—this Shao Ning—are like clouds before the sun, one black cloud after another, blocking the manifestation of Buddha-nature. And you keep cognizing this black cloud as yourself. But you are not it: you are the Tathāgata, and Shao Ning is false.

Once you attain realization and return, only then will you know that the Tathāgata is Shao Ning. Not now. Now you must first separate the Tathāgata from Shao Ning: Shao Ning is false, because this Shao Ning is built on the cognition of defective six sense faculties.

That’s all right. For you, perhaps one day you will stop worrying about all those many thoughts; it really can’t be helped, and that’s all right. Many thoughts are no different from one thought, no different from one or two thoughts. It isn’t that many thoughts mean many obstructions; it isn’t like that. There are simply thoughts—random thoughts—and some thoughts that keep going, constantly analyzing, trying to return to emptiness through analysis.

You are trying to use this constant analysis, but you cannot figure it out, because you are accustomed to this kind of cognition. You think you must use a whole chain of analysis and that emptiness can certainly be analyzed into a result. You want to do it this way because it is your habitual way of thinking.

That very thing cannot be obtained through analysis. So you feel that you cannot figure it out, and that this is impossible. In ordinary matters, analysis proceeds link by link—how could you fail to reason them out? Those things can all be figured out.

But this thing, precisely, becomes more blind the more you reason it out, more confused the more you reason it out, as if the more you reason it out, the more you reach a dead end that can never be passed. And letting these things go—how do you let them go? Letting go makes you feel like a fool. Yes, so this is the problem right now.

Just leave it at that. Then, one day you will suddenly let go of everything—suddenly even letting go itself, and everything else, are suddenly emptied out, you know? It is like rewinding a disc and suddenly finding nothing on it. At that moment, it was neither something you let go of nor something reached through analysis; that moment simply appeared that way. You do not need to let go of anything. You only need to keep cultivating, to keep struggling—you have not struggled enough. Because, fundamentally, all cultivation is just struggle, you know?

Practicing the Bodhisattva Path seems so sacred; it seems that the Bodhisattva Path is something sacred, that Bodhisattvas are so great and sacred, you know? It is only a game. Because there is no self, who is practicing the Bodhisattva Path? Who is practicing the Bodhisattva Path? So never cling to any marks. Only when you do not cling to the mark of the Bodhisattva Path will you stop being so pessimistic and dramatic, as if you were charging into battle. Practicing the Bodhisattva Path seems like such a momentous thing; only then can you avoid clinging to the mark of a Bodhisattva. Look at that person practicing the Bodhisattva Path—crying.

But the self really does need to be let go of. That cognition through the six sense faculties remains in a state of constant analysis. If you truly want to practice the Bodhisattva Path, you still need the six perfections. Try it. Keep going for a while longer; you can all do it.

Bailing and Brother Long are practicing and realizing; they still need to break through marks. The two of you actually have nothing much left to cultivate, but it won’t do—you are still attached to marks, and he is too. Once you have broken through, once the marks are broken, the places where you cling to marks will be gone, and then it will be okay. The mark of a Buddha, the mark of a Bodhisattva, the mark of sentient beings, and the mark of a self—in the end, it is still the mark of a self, the mark of the self.

But the two of them do not analyze like you, you know? They think they have already gotten rid of it, and that is the problem. Even with the mark of emptiness, they have the mark of an empty self—an empty self. You have a solid self there; they have an empty self. You are at two extremes. You are solid, with too many things packed in, filled completely with no gaps; they are empty, an empty self.

But this empty self—once the empty self awakens, it is the state in which true emptiness gives rise to wonderful existence. Wonderful existence begins to arise within this emptiness. But why does this wonderful existence never arise? This empty self—there is an “I” within this emptiness. So true emptiness has not been reached: you have not emptied the four elements and your consciousness—that is, this thing you call your self. The four elements—you still have not emptied them all.

On the one hand, you still need to cultivate the energy channels physiologically. Cultivating the energy channels will help you arrive quickly; you also need completeness in your view and completeness in wisdom. You have not reached true emptiness. You only have the mark of emptiness; you have merely entered the mark of emptiness, not true emptiness, and have become attached to the mark of emptiness.

This is different from the Chan School’s one-sided emptiness. One-sided emptiness means that your view has become one-sidedly empty. Your view is not one-sidedly empty, but you are attached to the mark of emptiness, you know? With the mark of emptiness, nothing matters; nothing in this world matters. Gradually, you lose interest in everything. That is what the mark of emptiness is like: everything is empty, everything is illusory. What is there to take an interest in? There is nothing worth taking an interest in.

You cannot see the beauty of this glass. In other words, you can no longer give rise to that… Gradually, your mind sees everything as illusory, including your own self. You cannot genuinely settle down and do something, or simply say, “It seems I need to practice the Bodhisattva Path, so I will do it.” Because you are kind-hearted or upright, you just go and do it. That is all. But the personal compassion and motivation do not arise; you have not entered true emptiness. Instead, you have entered the mark of emptiness and are still attached to a mark—attached to the mark of emptiness.

That is not emptiness. You have not realized and entered emptiness. Your state is the mark of emptiness. To break through the mark of emptiness, you need to break through the empty self. Only after breaking through the mark of emptiness can you truly realize it and enter the state where Form and emptiness are not two. When you realize and enter this state, everything begins to happen again. It is as if everything is beginning anew: spring has arrived, and all the motivation and vitality can arise in the field of your mind.

This is very difficult to break through. This is neither one-sided emptiness, nor is it that, in your view, Form and emptiness are not two while you are still attached to the mark of emptiness. In fact, you still need to work on the self—on breaking through the self’s habitual tendencies.

If anything makes your mind attached, pulls you along, or stirs your mind, then you need to be as clearly as possible aware of the arising and movement of thoughts in your mind. Of course, it is best to break through whatever you are attached to. You become stirred up in this area and cannot break through it. If you become stirred up in this area, there must be a problem here; wherever you are most deeply touched, there must be an obstruction there. If you can resolve this point, you will suddenly become completely clear and open up.

You also need to be clearly aware of this, because the mark of emptiness is very subtle. With every tiny arising and movement of thought, even the slightest selfishness, you smoothly wrap it up so that you do not notice it. You find many excuses and wipe it away without a trace, because the mark of emptiness leaves no trace. Because your view is so perfectly rounded, it is all a dream, an illusion, a bubble, a shadow; you always find a reason, always find an excuse for yourself, and muddle through. This mark of emptiness can never be broken through.

True emptiness—this mark of emptiness of yours, this part of it—still has impediments, attachments, and marks; there are still marks there. It is even like an arhat’s cessation samadhi: this mark of emptiness is self-deceiving. You cannot break through this mark of emptiness or realize and enter emptiness; it is not true emptiness. So your view always feels slightly incomplete, not perfectly rounded, and your depth of realization never rises; wonderful existence never arises. This is the problem you two have now. Each person’s entry into the Path and realization is different.

Actually, practicing through the Diamond Sutra and viewing all conditioned phenomena as like a dream, an illusion, a bubble, a shadow is somewhat close to the Lesser Vehicle arhats. But the Lesser Vehicle arhat is not like this. He separates himself from emotion and desire: because of emotion and desire, he leaves them behind. “I do not touch them; they do not affect me.” In fact, when you view all conditioned phenomena as like a dream, an illusion, a bubble, a shadow, you do the same thing: with habitual tendencies and desire, if you really like something, you regard it as a dream, an illusion, a bubble, a shadow, and then leave it.

You leave it by treating it as a dream, an illusion, a bubble, a shadow, but you have not actually seen through it. It is not because you have seen through its true reality, where Form and emptiness are not two. It is not because you have seen through the truth and then picked it up or put it down. It is because you imagined it as a dream, an illusion, a bubble, a shadow, and viewed it as, “Isn’t it just like that?” Gradually, this takes you farther and farther from the world. You see everything as a dream, an illusion, a bubble, a shadow, and cast it away. This too is a way of letting go of marks. It is a method of cultivation and realization, but ultimately you must return.

The phrase “a dream, an illusion, a bubble, and a shadow” only means that, in essence, it has no self-existence; it does not mean that it is not real. In this moment, here and now, it is right here, genuinely right here. So nothing real can arise in your emptiness; everything remains illusory, merely cognized at the level of the nature of mind.

The phrase “a dream, an illusion, a bubble, and a shadow” means that it has no self, not that it is not real. Because of dependent origination, everything in this world is right here; it is reality. Though like a dream, an illusion, a bubble, and a shadow, it has no self, but it is reality; it is genuinely here, genuinely existing here. Even when all conditions are complete, it is still here. As long as all conditions are complete, it must appear. How could it not appear? So when many things appear, as long as you cling to marks, they can still affect you; they will certainly appear. Many things do not disappear just because you view them as a dream, an illusion, a bubble, and a shadow. They are all still here.

You can also view all conditioned phenomena as like a dream, an illusion, a bubble, a shadow, and regard yourself as a dream, an illusion, a bubble, and a shadow. Regarding Shao Ning as a dream, an illusion, a bubble, and a shadow is the most direct way. You care about yourself, so you simply do not exist. Treat yourself as nonexistent. Sit here and watch other people; everyone seems perfectly normal. You can regard other people as a dream, an illusion, a bubble, and a shadow too. That’s all right; this is all a method of cultivation.

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.