the Awakening of Faith says
the Buddha and you are using the same mind
last episode we finished the Lankavatara Sutra
and left one question open
if every seed in the alaya consciousness were purified
and all the projections stopped
what would be left
the Lankavatara Sutra never answered that
it only pointed in a direction
the treatise we read today
answers it for us
hello
everyone
I am Leo Wang
today we talk about the Awakening of Faith
note this
it is not a sutra
it is a treatise
a sutra is spoken by the Buddha
a treatise is written by later thinkers
first something interesting
the author of this treatise
is traditionally listed as Ashvaghosha
an Indian master of the second century
even earlier than Nagarjuna
but in modern times
the Japanese scholar Mochizuki Shinko first raised doubts
later Paul Demieville and Walter Liebenthal did extensive research
and found it was probably not written by an Indian
but produced in China itself
Paramartha supposedly translated a Sanskrit original in the year five fifty
but that Sanskrit original has never been found
this caused a real debate among Buddhist scholars
some people feel
that if it did not come from India
its authority is diminished
but my own view is the opposite
whether an idea is right
does not depend on the passport of the person who wrote it
a math theorem does not change truth value with the nationality of who found it
this treatise has circulated in China for almost fifteen hundred years
and shaped the foundations of Huayan Chan and Tiantai
Master Fazang wrote a full commentary on it
if what it said were wrong
fifteen hundred years of testing would have discarded it
so today we will not fuss about who wrote it
we only look at what it actually says
what it says
can be boiled down to four words
one mind two gates
let me start with an analogy
have you ever gone diving in the sea
once in Okinawa
in the first seconds after I dove under
I noticed something
above the surface
the wind and waves were strong
the water kept churning
but once I sank down
about three or four meters
everything went quiet
it was still the same water
but above it moves
and below it is still
the Awakening of Faith says
your mind is like this too
it is one mind
but it has two gates
the first is the gate of suchness
the second is the gate of arising and ceasing
what does the gate of suchness mean
it means your mind has an aspect
that neither arises nor ceases
neither increases nor decreases
is neither defiled nor pure
whether you are happy or in pain right now
whether you are meditating or scrolling your phone
that aspect is always there
and has never been damaged
think of it as the depth of the sea
no matter what storm blows on the surface
the water below three meters never really moves
this is the tathagatagarbha
in its most distilled form in this treatise
the second gate
the gate of arising and ceasing
means your mind has another aspect
this aspect never stops changing
thoughts pop up one after another
emotions turn over like weather
your likes dislikes judgments expectations
are arising and ceasing every moment
this aspect is where our old friend lives
the alaya consciousness
if you watched the two Lankavatara episodes
you will remember
it said tathagatagarbha and alaya are not two things
but it said so rather indirectly
like pointing at the moon and saying look that way
the Awakening of Faith did something bolder
it drew the whole structure out
one mind
two gates
the two gates are not two different minds
not one good and one bad system
but two aspects of the same mind
like waves on the surface and stillness at the bottom
it is the same water
the first time I read this
I had a very strong feeling
the concepts tangled together in the Lankavatara Sutra
tathagatagarbha alaya awakening and nonawakening
were like a knot of thread
the Awakening of Faith spread them all out
into a perfectly clear map
let me use a modern analogy
you have used noise canceling headphones right
you put them on
you turn on the noise canceling
and the noise around you disappears
but did the noise really disappear
no
the noise is still there
you just cannot hear it
what you hear is quiet
that quiet is not nothing
that quiet is what remains after the headphones filter the noise out
now flip the metaphor around
the gate of suchness is that quiet always there
the gate of arising and ceasing is the noise
thoughts emotions desires fears all mental activity
your daily experience is all noise
not because the quiet does not exist
but because you never turned the noise canceling on
practice
is learning to press that button
now you may have a question
if suchness is always there
why have I never felt it
why is my head full of thoughts
the Awakening of Faith answers with one word
nonawakening
nonawakening does not mean you are stupid
or that you have not practiced enough
it is a structural kind of covering
this treatise describes a very fine process
it says
upon suchness
there is a first movement
this movement is called ignorance
ignorance is not a separate force attacking you
it is suchness itself stirring on the side of arising and ceasing
just as seawater naturally raises waves
no outside force is needed to push it
once that movement starts
it is like dominoes
unfolding link by link
the Awakening of Faith maps this unfolding in extreme detail
first come three very subtle shifts
the treatise calls them the three subtle marks
the first is the mark of activity
that first tiny stirring
you cannot even notice it happening
the second is the mark of the perceiver
that stirring becomes an act of seeing a subject appears
there is now a sense of someone looking
the third is the mark of the perceived
the object being seen appears an object arises
there is now a world that is being seen
did you notice
subject and object do not appear at the same time
first there is movement
then there is seeing
and only then the thing being seen
this is the exact opposite of how it feels
we assume the world is there first
and then I go look at it
the Awakening of Faith says it is not like that
your seeing creates the thing that is seen
this is the same logic as the seeing part and seen part in Yogacara
if you watched our episodes on the Samdhinirmocana Sutra and the Cheng Weishi Lun
you will see a very clear echo here
then out of these three subtle shifts
six coarser layers are born
the treatise calls them the six coarse marks
starting with discrimination you begin labeling what you see
good bad liked disliked
all the way to creating karma and suffering
the whole engine of samsara
starts up step by step just like that
a viewer once asked me
if we are originally buddhas
if suchness is already there
then where did the first delusion come from
I thought about this for a long time
at first I also thought it was a logical hole
later I realized
the question hides an assumption
you assume everything must have a starting point
a beginning implies a cause
a cause implies a first cause
but the Awakening of Faith answers
beginningless
there is no first cause
when you dream
when did the dream begin
can you point to the first frame of it
when you wake up and look back
you can say I had a dream
but you can never locate the moment it started on a timeline
because a dream is not an event
a dream is a state
while you are in that state
the dream exists
when you wake
the dream no longer exists
ignorance works the same way
you do not need to know when it began
you only need to know how to wake up from the state
and for that waking process
the Awakening of Faith drew a very clear route
it divides awakening into three levels
the first is original awakening
original awakening is what is always there behind the gate of suchness
you do not need to create it
and you cannot lose it
it is like the stillness at the sea floor
no matter how big the waves
it is always there
the second is initial awakening
initial awakening is the first time you see through the waves
and glimpse the sea floor
maybe your thoughts stop for a few seconds in meditation
maybe one evening you watch clouds on the horizon
with nothing in your mind
but you are very clearly present
that presence is not thinking
it is not emotion
it is just quietly being there
that is initial awakening
then you keep practicing
every time you wake up inside a thought
every time you stand steady on a wave of emotion
without being swept away
initial and original awakening move a little closer
until one day
the two merge completely
that is the third level
final awakening
final awakening is not gaining something new
it is finally recognizing what was always there
like someone wandering a long time in a dream
who suddenly wakes
and finds he never left the bed
the relation between these three levels
I can put in a modern metaphor
have you ever used an old radio
you turn the dial
and it is all static
but you know the station signal is always in the air
original awakening is that signal always broadcasting
whether or not you tune in
it keeps transmitting
initial awakening is the first time you hit the right frequency
a clear voice suddenly comes out of the static
maybe it is buried again a few seconds later
but now you know that frequency is real
final awakening is getting the antenna into the perfect position
the static is completely gone
the signal is crystal clear
the signal never changed
the antenna was never replaced
the static simply stopped
there is a deeper meaning here
the Awakening of Faith says
practice is not adding something to the mind
and not cutting out the bad parts
practice is letting the waves slowly settle
the sea does not need repair
the sea only needs the wind to stop
when the wind stops completely
you will find
the surface looks just like the depths
the waves are gone
but the water remains
and that water
was the same water all along
that is what the Buddha and you use the same mind really means
not that you have potential and can polish yourself into a buddha
but that
the very mind you are using right now
in its suchness aspect
and the mind of a buddha
are not different at all
the only difference is whether waves are present
now you can understand
why this treatise had such huge influence in Chinese Buddhism
Huayan says one is all
one mind contains all phenomena
the same underlying structure as one mind two gates
Chan says point directly at the mind
see your nature and become a buddha
you do not need to look outside
because buddha nature is the gate of suchness
you only have to push it open
Tiantai says three thousand worlds in one thought
a single thought contains three thousand possibilities
because every thought in the gate of arising and ceasing
grows on the infinite ground of suchness
one mind two gates is like an operating system
and these three schools each ran different apps on it
and if you think about it
the Yogacara we covered earlier in this series
has its place on this map too
Yogacara spent enormous effort dissecting the arising and ceasing side
how the eight consciousnesses work
how the seeds churn
how imagined clinging produces illusion
Yogacara took that side apart with extreme precision
the Awakening of Faith stands higher up
it says
after you finish taking that side apart
do not forget
there is another side
that side does not need dissecting
that side only needs to be seen
finally I want to share my own experience
when I meditate
occasionally for a few seconds
the thoughts stop
but awareness stays
that feeling is hard to describe
it is not blankness
it is not falling asleep
and it is not some blazing mystical experience
it is just quiet
like standing three meters underwater
where you can no longer hear the wind
I used to make nothing of it
I thought it was just a random gap
that thoughts would refill in a few seconds
after reading the Awakening of Faith
I started seeing those seconds differently
maybe it is not an accidental state
maybe it is the other gate
opening a crack now and then
you do not have to believe this
you only need next time you go quiet
to notice in the gap between two thoughts
whether something there is always present
if you catch a glimpse
you do not need to do anything
you do not need to hold on to it
you do not need to analyze it
you do not need to label it
you only need to know it is not an accident
it is your other gate
and it was always there
the ambition of the whole Awakening of Faith
is really to tell you one thing
you are not missing anything
what you are looking for
has never left you
it is not in the scriptures
not in the temples
not in any faraway place
it is in the very mind you are using right now
you have just been walking in and out of the arising and ceasing gate
forgetting there is another gate to push open
next episode
we enter the Surangama Sutra
it does two things
first
it unfolds the landscape behind the gate of suchness seven searches for the mind
telling you where the mind is
second
it gives you a list of fifty illusions on the path
each one can make you think you have arrived
I am Leo Wang
see you next episode