The Parable of Yajnadatta
Purna said, “My mind is no different from the Buddha Mind in the way that they both are inherently pure and perfect, and although I have been through the endless cycle of death and rebirth since the beginningless time due to the deluded acts of my mind, and have even attained the Sagely State, I still haven’t completely ended all falseness and realized the Ultimate Buddhahood, where only the pure and perfect Buddha Mind remains in eternity. Now I beg to ask the Tathagata why all beings suffer from delusion? Why is their inherent wondrous luminosity kept being obscured? Why do they keep drowning in samsara?”
富樓那言：我與如來寶覺圓明，真妙淨心，無二圓滿。而我昔遭無始妄想，久在輪迴。今得聖乘，猶未究竟。世尊，諸妄一切圓滅，獨妙真常。敢問如來，一切眾生何因有妄，自蔽妙明，受此淪溺。
The Buddha said to Purna, “Although you have mostly eliminated your doubts, you still got some residual delusion. I will now explain this matter by referring to a mundane event. Have you not heard about Yajnadatta, the man from Sravasti who one morning held a mirror to his own face and fell in love with the eyes and eyebrows he saw in there? But then he became upset as he thought he had lost the face. It struck him that he must have turned into a faceless ghost and so madly he ran out of his house. What do you think is the reason that caused him to act like that?”
Purna replied, “He must be insane. There’s no other reason.”
The Buddha said, “The Ultimate Bodhi is perfect and true, and when it is deluded it is called false. So how can there be any REAL cause for delusion? For if there were a REAL cause, how could it be called FALSE? Delusion has no real basis, it arises from false thinking, which further leads to more and more false thinking. All the accumulated falseness keeps adding to and heaping on one another, eons after eons, becoming as numberless as dust motes. Although the Buddha can reveal this process to you, he cannot reverse it for you.
“Beings do not realize that their delusion has no real basis, so their delusion persists. If they could only realize that their delusion has no real basis, the delusion would lose its false support and simply vanish. There’s nothing to destroy here, since delusion was never born in the first place. So, the attainment of Bodhi is as if someone awake from a dream recalls what he saw in the dream. His mind is now wide awake and all clear, why would he want to hold onto the illusory things in the dream? Delusions are baseless to start with, so they are fundamentally non-existent, just like the non-existent things in a dream.
“In the case of Yajnadatta, there was really no reason for him to worry about his head being lost. If he could only have stopped his own madness, he would have realized that his head was not found from outside of himself. Even while he was still in his madness, his head had never gone missing.
佛告富樓那。汝雖除疑，餘惑未盡。吾以世間現前諸事，今復問汝。汝豈不聞室羅城中，演若達多。忽於晨朝以鏡照面，愛鏡中頭眉目可見。瞋責己頭不見面目。以為魑魅無狀狂走。於意云何。此人何因無故狂走。富樓那言：是人心狂，更無他故。佛言：妙覺明圓，本圓明妙既稱為妄云何有因。若有所因，云何名妄。自諸妄想展轉相因。從迷積迷以歷塵劫。雖佛發明，猶不能返。如是迷因，因迷自有。識迷無因，妄無所依。尚無有生，欲何為滅。得菩提者，如寤時人說夢中事。心縱精明，欲何因緣取夢中物。況復無因本無所有。如彼城中演若達多，豈有因緣自怖頭走。忽然狂歇，頭非外得。縱未歇狂，亦何遺失。
“Purna, the same is true of the nature of delusion, which has no basis in reality. All you have to do is not to follow after the distinctions you make about the three kinds of continuity – the world, beings, and karmic retributions. By cutting off these three conditions, their causes will not arise. Thus, the madness in your mind, which is like the madness in Yajnadatta’s, will come to an end. And once it does, the cessation itself is Bodhi.
“The supreme, pure, luminous Buddha Mind is always available for anyone, extending everywhere throughout the Dharma Realm. One doesn’t have to obtain it from outside through toiling, struggling or proving. It is like someone wanders around begging for food without knowing that there’s actually a wish-fulfilling pearl sewn in his clothing. He may be poor, but his pearl has never been lost. Then suddenly someone wise points out the pearl to him, and it now fulfills every wish for him. He becomes very rich and thus realizes that the magical pearl comes not from outside.”
富樓那。妄性如是，因何為在。汝但不隨分別世間業果眾生三種相續。三緣斷故，三因不生。則汝心中演若達多狂性自歇，歇即菩提。勝淨明心，本周法界。不從人得。何藉劬勞肯綮修證。譬如有人於自衣中繫如意珠，不自覺知。窮露他方，乞食馳走。雖實貧窮，珠不曾失。忽有智者指示其珠。所願從心，致大饒富。方悟神珠非從外得。
Ananda then came forward and prostrated at the Buddha’s feet before standing up and asking, “The World Honored One has just explained that once we eliminate the three conditions of killing, stealing, and sexual desire, their three causes will not arise. Then the Yajnadatta sort of madness ceases and Bodhi appears, which does not come from outside. This clearly is the working of causes and conditions. Why then the Buddha now rejects the doctrine of causes and conditions? Like other younger disciples here, it was through hearing about causes and conditions that I became awakened. And for other senior members in the assembly such as Maha-Maudgalyayana, Sariputra and Subhuti, it was also after hearing the teaching about causes and conditions from Brahmin elders that they became enlightened with no outflows. If now you say that Bodhi does not depend on causes and conditions, does it mean that enlightenment happens on its own? It would make what is preached by the heretics in Rajagrha, such as Maskari Gosaliputra and others, sounds like the truth. I only hope the Buddha will compassionately clear up the confusion for us all.”
即時阿難在大眾中，頂禮佛足，起立白佛。世尊現說殺盜婬業，三緣斷故，三因不生。心中達多狂性自歇。歇即菩提，不從人得。斯則因緣皎然明白。云何如來頓棄因緣。我從因緣心得開悟。世尊。此義何獨我等年少有學聲聞。今此會中大目犍連及舍利弗須菩提等，從老梵志聞佛因緣，發心開悟得成無漏。今說菩提不從因緣。則王舍城拘舍梨等，所說自然成第一義。惟垂大悲，開發迷悶。
The Buddha said to Ananda, “Let us take the example of Yajnadatta. If the so-called causes and conditions of his madness cease, his Bodhi nature would spontaneously come forth. The entire principle of cause, condition as well as spontaneity is nothing more than that.
“Ananda, Yajnadatta was born with his head – it has been a natural part of him and will always be for as long as he is. How could there be any legitimate cause and condition to justify his madness then? If there were indeed real causes and conditions for his going mad, then there would be real causes and conditions for his head going missing too, and his worries would have sound ground then. In reality though, his head has never gone missing. His worries were merely delusion. No actual change had taken place in this case – how could then his madness have come from causes and conditions?
“Further, suppose he were naturally born with the madness, then he should have been mad all along – where was the madness before he became mad? Since his madness was not an innate characteristic of his, and his head was intact, how could there be legitimate reason for him to run mad?
“By now you should realize that it was only his deluded consciousness running mad, and the talk of cause, condition, and spontaneity serves no serious purpose. That is why I say that once the three conditions (killing, stealing, and lust) cease to be, the Bodhi appears.
“Once the enlightened mind is revealed, the worldly mind ceases to stir. Once the mind is no longer subject to arising and perishing, it puts an end to all birth and death – thus is the effortless Way.
“Suppose you say it’s due to spontaneity, but in spontaneity there would still be arising and perishing, which are still subject to birth and death and therefore still pertaining to samsara.
“Bodhi and Nirvana are still so far away that in order to realize them you must undoubtedly endure through eons of diligent practice. Even if you could succeed in memorizing the twelve collections of the Mahayana canon taught by the Buddhas in the ten directions, with their profound doctrines as innumerable as the Ganges’ sands, it would only enhance sophistry. Even though you can talk about causes, conditions, and spontaneity with such clear understanding that people name you as the foremost in erudition, and you have accumulated many lifetimes’ worth of learning, you were not able to avoid falling into the Matangi pit. Why did you have to wait for me to use the Surangama Mantra to extinguish Matangi’s fires of lust, drying her river of love and turning her into a realized practitioner who is free of rebirth, and thus rescuing you?
“Therefore, Ananda, the many eons you have spent memorizing the Buddha’s esoteric and majestic Dharma are not as good as a single day of non-outflow practice that gives you the freedom to steer clear of the two worldly torments – hate and love.
“Matangi was a prostitute but even she could give up lust with the aid of the mantra, and now she has a Dharma name called Bhiksuni Nature. She and Rahula’s mother Yashodhara both have awakened from their past causes and realized that for eons they had suffered the pains brought upon by greed and desires. Now with single-minded dedication to non-outflow practices, one of them is freed from bondage, the other has received my prediction of her future enlightenment. Why do you still continue to cheat yourself by lingering in the stage of merely watching and listening?”
After receiving the Buddha’s teaching, Ananda and the assembly, with their doubts and delusions dispelled, all awoke to Reality. They felt a lightness of body and mind which they had never known before.
佛告阿難。即如城中演若達多，狂性因緣，若得滅除。則不狂性自然而出。因緣自然，理窮於是。阿難。演若達多，頭本自然。本自其然，無然非自。何因緣故，怖頭狂走。若自然頭因緣故狂。何不自然因緣故失。本頭不失，狂怖妄出。曾無變易，何藉因緣。本狂自然，本有狂怖。未狂之際，狂何所潛。不狂自然，頭本無妄，何為狂走。若悟本頭，識知狂走，因緣自然，俱為戲論。是故我言三緣斷故即菩提心。菩提心生，生滅心滅，此但生滅。滅生俱盡，無功用道。若有自然，如是則明，自然心生，生滅心滅，此亦生滅。無生滅者，名為自然。猶如世間諸相雜和，成一體者，名和合性。非和合者，稱本然性。本然非然。和合非合。合然俱離。離合俱非。此句方名無戲論法。菩提涅槃尚在遙遠。非汝歷劫辛勤修證。雖復憶持十方如來十二部經，清淨妙理如恒河沙，祇益戲論。汝雖談說因緣自然決定明了。人間稱汝多聞第一。以此積劫多聞熏習，不能免離摩登伽難。何須待我佛頂神咒，摩登伽心婬火頓歇，得阿那含，於我法中，成精進林。愛河乾枯，令汝解脫。是故阿難。汝雖歷劫憶持如來秘密妙嚴，不如一日修無漏業，遠離世間憎愛二苦。如摩登伽宿為婬女，由神咒力銷其愛欲，法中今名性比丘尼。與羅侯母耶輸陀羅同悟宿因。知歷世因貪愛為苦。一念熏修無漏善故，或得出纏，或蒙授記。如何自欺，尚留觀聽。
阿難及諸大眾，聞佛示誨，疑惑銷除，心悟實相。身意輕安，得未曾有。
Buddha Mind 