Bodhidharma and Emperor Wu of Liang: Compassion is the most secret ego
An emperor in a cassock knelt before the Buddha
Devout like a living bodhisattva
This is the second time he has taken off his dragon robe
I came to the monastery to become a monk
Manchu Wenwu was so anxious that he sweated profusely
And we ended up with 100 million dollars.
To redeem the emperor from the Buddha
This person is called Xiao Yan
That is to say, Emperor Wu of Liang in later generations
He reigned for 48 years
More than 2,800 Buddhist temples were built
There are more than 80,000 monks and nuns in the country
He received the bodhisattva vow himself
Break the wine and break the meat
Four times before and after the sacrifice of Tongtai Temple
He ordered all monks in the country to abstain from meat
This rule has continued to this day
It has become one of the deepest imprints of Chinese Buddhism
By any standard
He is all in Chinese history
The most pious and compassionate Buddhist emperor
None of them.
But it was during his most pious years
A monk came across the ocean from South India
This monk is called Bodhidharma.
Emperor Wu of Liang personally received
Expectedly asked a question he thought the answer was obvious
Since I ascended the throne
Temple building
Write scripture
There are countless monks
What merit
Dharma looked at him
Said four words
No merit
Emperor Wu of Liang was stunned on the spot
2,800 temples
More than 80,000 monks and nuns
Four times to become a monk
In exchange for no merit
He won't give up
ask
Why is there no merit?
Dharma says
These are human fruits
The reason for the leak
Follow You
It seems there is
It's not real merit
Emperor Wu of Liang asked again
What is true merit?
Dharma said something he didn't understand at all
Jingzhi Miaoyuan
emptiness
If merit
don't ask for it
Emperor Wu of Liang was completely confused
He changed the question.
What is the highest truth of Buddhism?
Dharma says
No saint
Empty
There is no saint who is not a saint
Emperor Wu of Liang is in a hurry
Who is that person standing in front of me?
Dharma says
do not know
This is a complete conversation
Dharma turned and left Jiankang
Crossing the Yangtze River Alone
Beishang Songshan Shaolin Temple
It's nine years in one sitting
Wall-facing practice
Decades later
The Rebellion of Hou Jing broke out
The rebels besieged Jiankang
Eighty-six-year-old Emperor Wu of Liang was trapped in Taicheng
Without water or food
There was no one around to save him
The monks he supported all his life
A temple built with countless gold and silver
Buddhism as the Son of Heaven
When he needs it most
All silent
He lay in the ghetto.
Bitter mouth
I want a sip of honey water
No one sent him
The most compassionate emperor in Chinese history
Starved to death in his own palace
This conversation
Recorded in the most important koan collection of Zen Buddhism
At the top of all koans
The entire history of Chinese Zen Buddhism
It started with this awkward conversation
And I read this story.
What was most striking was not the depth of Dharma
But the end of Emperor Wu of Liang
A person who has dedicated everything to the Buddha
Why didn't Buddha save him?
Hello
Hello.
I am Wang Lijie
Today is the fourth installment of the story about spiritual practice
The first issue is the story of our cup of coffee
It creates a low-level perception.
What's in your cup?
When hit
What's spilling?
Last time we took apart Vimalakirti.
A meat-eating and drinking merchant living in the deepest part of the world
The petals fell on him but wouldn't stick
Because in his cognitive system
Doesn't run that binary opposition classifier at all
Today's issue
I'm going to use this ancient dialogue between Dharma and Emperor Wu of Liang
One of the deepest and most hidden traps in the practice of dismantling
The reason why this trap is dangerous
Because it doesn't look like a trap at all
He is compassion
Before it unfolds
I want you to do a self-examination first
When you hear the words no merit
What was the first reaction that came to your mind?
I guess the vast majority of people
You get one of two intuitions.
The first
How can there be no merit in doing good deeds?
Dharma is too extreme
The second
Dharma was right
Good deeds are just superficial
True spiritual practice is a matter of the heart
They look like polar opposites.
But they made the same mistake
They all assume that Dharma is denying good deeds themselves
The first says you shouldn't deny good deeds.
The second is that good deeds are really useless
But what Dharma denies is not good at all
He denied it.
It was when Emperor Wu of Liang was doing good deeds
The me in my heart is secretly expanding
Let me put it more precisely.
Dharma diagnosed a highly hidden disease
The Mercy of Emperor Wu of Liang
It has become his greatest obsession
And an obsession with compassion
It's harder to see through than the obsession with money
Because no one questions compassion
Let me take this mechanism apart using Consciousness Only.
Emperor Wu of Liang asked me how much merit I had
There is a whole cognitive structure hidden in this sentence
There is a me
Did a lot of good deeds
And that becomes an asset called merit.
This asset belongs to me
Did you hear that?
Mona
The ego center that we've been talking about.
Not only has it not been weakened throughout the process
Instead, it was greatly strengthened
Every time a temple is built
Write down a note
I built this.
Every scroll of scripture
Write down a note
I copied this.
Every time I give up my life to become a monk
Write down a note
This is the highest good deed
I did it.
After 48 years of good deeds
The final consciousness has expanded to an unprecedented height
Now I am not just the emperor
I am still the most meritorious Bodhisattva Emperor
So this is like what?
It's like going to the gym alone.
After each set of actions
Just take a selfie and send it to Moments
Did he exercise?
Exercised
But what he's really building isn't muscles
It's a person in my circle of friends who works out.
The good deeds of Emperor Wu of Liang
It's Empire-level Fitness Moments
He's not practicing enlightenment.
Yes, I am the character of the Bodhisattva Emperor
It's even clearer with predictive coding
Emperor Wu of Liang's brain
Running a core predictive model
I do good deeds
Good deeds accumulate merit
Merit belongs to me
I am a great practitioner
This model is extremely accurate and weighted
He used the resources of the entire empire
To keep validating it
Every new temple
Are strengthening this chain of belief
He asked Dharma how much merit he had
Essentially seeking supreme authority
Let's put a final stamp on this model.
A sentence from Dharma has no merit
Not to deny what he did
Is trying to shatter the whole model
But Emperor Wu of Liang didn't understand
His prior weight is too high
If you are so high as Dharma, you can't penetrate it at all
OK
This is the first floor.
But what really struck me about this story was the second layer.
Last time we talked about Vimalakirti
The core concept used is discrimination
You label things.
The label is the glue that sticks to you.
The problem of Emperor Wu of Liang
Deeper than separation
He's not just labeling external things
He's labeling himself.
And it has the hardest label to identify
I am a compassionate person
There is a concept in Buddhism called the greed of Zen pleasure
Practitioners are meditating
After experiencing a pure and wonderful state
Start to crave that feeling
From craving milk tea to craving meditation
The addictive variety has changed
The mechanism of addiction is exactly the same
The symptoms of Emperor Wu of Liang
Deeper than the greed of Zen Yue
He wasn't lusting after some spiritual experience.
What he coveted was the fact that I was a compassionate person.
The greed of Zen Yue is experiential
You are obsessed with a feeling
But the ego is about identity.
You're obsessed with who I am
This is the deepest pit a practitioner can fall into
Why the deepest
Because it looks the least like a pit.
You practice to a certain extent
You can detect the greed for money
You can detect the lust.
Greed for fame and power
You can see it.
You took off these clothes one by one.
You feel like you're getting close to who you are
But you look down
Still wearing one
I am a compassionate person
I am a spiritual person
This dress grows with the skin
You think it's your skin?
Actually, that was your last dress
And the whole world is helping you strengthen this dress
Who would question a person's kindness?
Who would say you are too merciful?
This is the most brilliant strategy of Mornaghi
It picked a label that everyone praised
To build identity
Your greed for money will be criticized
Lust will be criticized
But greed for mercy
Will only be applauded
The end of Emperor Wu Liang's later years
It's the price of this dress.
When Hou Jing came to descend
All ministers are against admission
This person is capricious
Accepting him is like bringing a wolf into the house
But Emperor Wu of Liang accepted
Why is that?
Because the Bodhisattva emperor cannot refuse a person who comes to defect
His decisions are not based on reality
It's identity-based.
During Hou Jing's rebellion
He has a chance to suppress
But hesitant to appease
Why is that?
Because the Bodhisattva emperor cannot kill
At the end of the day, I will not allow my compassionate personality to collapse
Even if it costs the entire country
Do you remember the last Vimalakirti story?
Vimalakirti lives in the very heart of the world
wife and children
Access to casinos and banquets
But the petals won't stick to him
Why is that?
Because he doesn't run any classifiers about himself at all
He's not fighting the world.
He doesn't even have the label of secular
Emperor Wu of Liang was the opposite
His classifier is running at full speed
Just changed a superlative label
I am the Bodhisattva Emperor
Nothing sticks to Vimalakirti
Because he has no identity to maintain
Emperor Wu of Liang was covered with petals of virtue
Because each one serves my identity.
Look at these two together
The perfect mirror
OK
Now on to the third floor
It is also the most critical layer
There's a crucial distinction here.
The Sixth Patriarch Hui Neng made it very clear in the Altar Sutra
What Emperor Wudi Liang did was merit
Not merit
Fude is a good result of your good deeds
A good birth in the next life
Everything goes well in this life
It's true on a causal level.
Dharma did not deny
But Ford is leaking
Leak means it will run out
You have done good deeds and accumulated blessings
The blessing is gone
Like a deposit in a bank
Interest rate higher
Spend it, spend it.
Merit is different
Merit is not something accumulated outside
Merit is an inner cognitive transformation
Gong is the kung fu of curing troubles
Virtue is the nature that this kung fu makes you see
Merit is not what you do
It's when you do it
What's going on inside?
It's the same with building a temple.
Emperor Wu of Liang built a temple
I thought to myself that I had accumulated another great merit
This is Ford
Every temple is feeding me
If one builds a temple
Without the thought that I was doing good deeds
Just saw it needed to be done and did it
After finishing, he turned around and left.
do not keep accounts
Do not take credit
Don't label yourself
That's merit.
The Diamond Sutra says that you should live without dwelling, but walk in giving
That's what it means.
And we've all met two types of philanthropists.
The first
Doing good deeds must be seen
Be sure to let the people in the circle know
Good deeds are true in themselves
The people who benefit are also real
But when he was done
I will definitely find a chance to raise it
The whole process is online
Every donation
It's all building materials designed by the person I'm a Good Man
The second
After you've known him for many years
I happened to hear it from someone else
He quietly sponsored a dozen poor students to finish college
Never mentioned it to anyone
You ask him
He said it was easy
Then change the subject
From the perspective of external behavior
Two people do the same thing
But judging by the contents of the cup
It's completely different.
The first kind of people do good deeds
My glass is even fuller
The second kind of people do good deeds
I'm lighter in the cup
The first is the cause of leakage
The second approach is closer to true merit
OK
And at this point you might be thinking
Then when I do good deeds in the future
Just try not to think you're doing good.
If the thought comes to you
Congratulations!
You just fell into the next level of trap
I want to do good without myself
You listen to this
I want to be selfless
Subject is still me
You are using Mornah to destroy Mornah
It's like putting out a fire.
It will only make the fire burn more and more
We said at the end of the last Vimalakirti story
If you listen to it and think great
I'll just leave it alone in the future.
Then you have made a new distinction
Put the parting in the bad column
The same trap
The same structure
What to do then?
Doing good deeds will feed me
Deliberately doing nothing is also feeding me
Isn't this an infinite loop?
That's why Dharma finished chatting
No further debate
I didn't write an operation manual.
Instead, he turned around and went to the Shaolin Temple to face the wall for nine years
He's not pissed
He's demonstrating with action
It's not in the what.
The answer is to see the person who does it thoroughly first
Nine years of Dharma facing the wall
Did nothing.
He's sitting right there.
Look into your heart
No temples were built
There was no scripture copying.
No support for monks
But what he did
By his own standards
More than all the good deeds of Emperor Wu Liang combined
Are closer to true merit
Because what he is doing
Is to see exactly how I work
When I was seen clearly
It loses the ability to hijack any behavior
And then...
Only then
Good deeds can truly flow out naturally in a non-living manner
It's not that you try to be selfless
When your awareness is deep enough
Selflessness occurs naturally
Good deeds flow naturally
The order cannot be reversed.
And this brings to mind an observation in investing.
I invested in over 300 early-stage projects
I've seen too many founders make decisions
The best decisions
Almost all share a common feature
The founder describes that moment in hindsight
It's not that I analyzed all the data and made the best choice
It's that I just know what to do
That state is very close to inhabitable
Not without thinking
But thinking is no longer needed by me to be right
I can't fail these things are contaminated
Decisions flow from a clearer place
And the worst decision
It often happens when the founder is hijacked by me
I had to prove that I was right.
If I fail, where will I put my face?
The whole process is online
Every decision is protecting me
Rather than facing the truth
OK
And then finally, I want to say something that I find particularly poignant.
After Dharma left
Zen Master Zhigong, an eminent monk beside Emperor Wu of Liang
Heard about this conversation
panicked
Is that the person who came to preach the Buddha's Heart Seal?
Emperor Wu of Liang regretted it too much
Send someone to chase
Zhigong said
Not to mention sending messengers to chase
Even if the whole country goes
He's not coming back.
Dharma gave Emperor Wu Liang a chance to face the truth
But the truth is too harsh
His first instinct was not to reflect on himself
This monk doesn't understand me.
Wait for someone to tell him what he missed
He wants to use the power of the emperor to chase the other party back
This is still Mna at work.
Use my strength to grasp the truth
But the truth is not something you can grasp
The truth is when I let go
Nature is there.
Dharma spent nine years facing the wall of Songshan Mountain
Finally waiting for someone
This is Huike.
Read through Confucian and Lao Zhuang classics as a teenager
He became a monk.
Visit famous teachers everywhere
Studied Buddhism for more than ten years
But the heart is never at peace
About forty years old
He came to Songshan to meet Dharma
It snowed heavily that day
Hui Ke stood outside the cave
From day to night
Snow to the knees
Dharma didn't even look back
Huike picked up the knife
Cut off his left arm
Put it in front of Dharma
Say
My heart is uneasy
Please reassure me
Here's a sentence to say
About Huike Broken Arm
The record of the continuation of the biography of the eminent monk is
His arm was later chopped off by thieves
Not self-breaking
The Zen tradition has chosen this version of self-disconnection
To tell the story
Because it better conveys that kind of determination
I'm using the traditional Zen narrative here
You know there are different versions
Dharma says
You bring your heart
I'll help you.
Huike searched for a long time
Say
Can't find it.
Dharma says
I've got you settled.
Emperor Wu of Liang came with a book full of merits
Look at all the good I've done.
Hui Ke came with a broken arm
I have nothing.
Only an uneasy heart
One is a full cup.
One is an empty cup.
When Huike said he couldn't find his heart
He underwent an extremely precise cognitive flip
He looks in.
Discovering the heart of the entity he thought existed
That can be taken out and given to others
It doesn't exist.
And that anxiety was a real experience.
But the me who made it uneasy
It is the label superimposed on the meter.
The moment the label is seen through
The anxiety subsided on its own
Dharma didn't do anything.
It's the same structure as the previous issue of Vimalakirti's silence.
Vimalakirti demonstrates indifference in silence
It's not that I chose not to speak
It's the whole framework of choices that disappears.
Hui Ke couldn't find her heart at that moment
Experienced the same thing
Didn't find a way to feel at ease
It's the heart that finds it needs to be pacified
It didn't exist in the first place.
This is true merit
Not adding peace of mind ingredients to the cup from the outside
It's seeing through the manufacturing mechanism of unease
In the first issue, we said
What's in the cup?
What's spilling?
The last issue of Vimalakirti showed us
The discrimination of labeling things
It's the glue that sticks to the petals.
Today's story of Dharma
One step further.
The hardest to detect labels
It's not what you put on outside things
You put it on yourself.
I am a compassionate person
I am a spiritual person
I am a kind person.
These tags grow on the skin.
You think it's you?
The Deepest Trap in Practice
Not greed
Greed is like a trap
Sooner or later you will recognize
The Deepest Trap in Practice
After you took off all your clothes
The last one that grows with the skin
I am a good person
True good deeds
From the moment you forget that you are doing a good deed
For the content of this issue
What do you think?
Do you have a temple of compassion in your heart?
Not necessarily that grand
Maybe just a label
I am a kind person
I am transparent
I'm an enlightened person.
That label
Do you dare to take it off and see what's under it?
Please let me know your observations in the comment section.
I'll leave you with one question.
Nine years of Dharma facing the wall
Did nothing.
Hui Ke cut off an arm
I got nothing.
But Zen believes that
These two individuals created the greatest merits in the history of Chinese Buddhism
If merit is not in what you do
Where is it?
Maybe the answer lies when you turn off the lights tonight
The thought stopped.
Phone down
The room is quiet
In the void where nothing is done
Is there something
It's always there.
I am Wang Lijie
See you next time.