The *Diamond Sutra* on Being Despised

Banshō's commentary on the case

Seeing and hearing become seeds: even amid the eight difficulties, one can surpass the ladder of the ten grounds. When understanding and practice are embodied, in one life one completes the fruit of vast eons. Guifeng classified this scripture under “turning transgression into buddhahood.” Here bodhi and affliction are nondual; birth-and-death and nirvāṇa are nondual. Prince Zhaoming of Liang classified this as the section “able to purify karmic obstruction.” Fu Dashi's verse says: A former body had an obstruction of recompense; today one receives and upholds the scripture. Temporarily despised by other people, the heavy turns and returns as light. This is precisely explaining meaning by relying on scripture. The following four lines immediately carry the breath of a patch-robed monk: If one comprehends dependent arising, one can remove imagined attachment. Constantly relying on prajñā contemplation, why worry that perfected nature will not be completed? The first four lines rely on the power of merit; the latter four on the power of contemplative practice. The Daikan Enō's oral instruction says: “The Buddha said that a person who upholds the scripture ought to receive everyone's respect and offerings. Because of heavy karmic obstruction over many lives, however, even while upholding it in this life the person is constantly despised and receives neither respect nor support. “Because the person upholds the scripture, no marks of self or person arise. Without asking whether another is enemy or friend, the person constantly practices respect. When offended, the person does not retaliate, but constantly cultivates the perfection of prajñā. Heavy transgressions accumulated through eons are all extinguished.”⁴ Interpreted through principle, “former life” is the deluded mind of the previous thought and “present life” is the awakened mind of the subsequent thought. Because the subsequent awakened thought disdains the previous deluded thought, delusion cannot remain. Thus “the harmful karma of the former life is extinguished.” Once deluded thought is extinguished, harmful karma does not form, and bodhi is attained. These two interpretations—phenomenal and principial—both concern contemplative practice. A monk asked Yunju about the quoted passage and its meaning. Yunju said, “Move, and you should fall into harmful destinies; remain still, and you are despised by others.” Chou of Chongshou said, “If a dharma exists outside mind, you should fall into harmful destinies. If you guard and abide in yourself, you are despised by others.” Banshō says: Neither old fellow has shed the odor of worldliness. Now what about Tendō's side? “Merit” is upholding the scripture; “fault” is previous karma. Once a deluded cause is established, it necessarily summons a deluded result. The Śūraṅgama Sutra says: “Have you not heard of Yajñadatta in Śrāvastī? One morning he suddenly looked at his face in a mirror. He loved that the head in the mirror showed eyebrows and eyes, but angrily blamed his own head for not displaying a face. Taking it for a demon, he ran about madly without cause.” The Buddha asked, “Why did this person run madly without cause?” Pūrṇa said, “His mind was mad; there was no other reason.”⁵ This is losing the real and grasping the deluded. Prajñā's contemplation illumines the real; merit and fault, cause and result are deluded. When true wisdom appears, deluded karma is extinguished and unsurpassed bodhi is clearly present from the beginning. This is precisely the teaching's intent. What about the patch-robed monk's side? Reverend Pozao Duo of Mount Song found a shrine in a mountain hollow whose hall contained a stove. Cooking, slaughter, and sacrifice never ceased. Duo led his attendant into the shrine, struck the stove three times with his staff, and shouted, “This stove is formed from mud and tile. From where does the sacred come? From where does the spirit arise, that living beings are cooked and slaughtered like this?” He struck it three more times. The stove collapsed and broke apart. National Teacher An therefore named him Pozao Duo, “the Broken Stove Topples.” Shortly afterward, a person in a dark robe and high cap appeared, bowed, and said, “I was originally the spirit of this shrine and long underwent karmic recompense. Today, receiving the teacher's Dharma of non-arising, I have escaped this place and been born in heaven. I came especially to offer thanks.” The teacher said, “It was originally present in you; I did not impose it through words.” The spirit bowed again and disappeared.² Formed from earth and tile—from where does the sacred come? No marks of self or person: this is prajñā wisdom. Taking true wisdom for deluded karma, one has failed it from the beginning; today it comes to congratulate. An immense number of living beings were cooked and slaughtered, producing no blessing at all. An old Zen monk struck three times with his staff, and the spirit was immediately born in heaven. Bah! A ghost fears a fierce person and cannot extend its hand; a thief relying on stolen goods readily confesses.⁶