Caitlin Clark, Rev.

No Hard Facts

Rev. Caitlin Clark

—Great Ocean Dharma Refuge, Pembrokeshire, Wales–UK—

This article is based on a Dharma talk given at a meditation morning at Great Ocean in July 2019.

I would like to say a few words about the Diamond Sutra¹ this morning. It is a teaching that I come back to over and over again, and almost on a daily basis I will either pick it up and read a little bit, or recite part of it for myself. It is said about the Diamond Sutra that to read or recite it is deeply helpful, and I find this to be true. There is something about it that can help clear or calm the mind. It is quite a short sutra, and even to read or recite it all the way through only takes about three-quarters of an hour.

 

One might describe it, in essence, as a slightly expanded version of The Scripture of Great Wisdom, with its own particular flavour. Both Sutras show that there is really no ‘thing’ that we can ­­take hold of, and that “allayer of all pain Great Wisdom is”.² Part of the slightly different flavour of the Diamond Sutra that I find particularly helpful is that it points to the ‘allaying of all pain’ in an explicit way – to the merits and benefits of “upholding this Sutra”. There is something profoundly comforting about the Diamond Sutra, I find, as well as a warmth and humanity to it that I deeply appreciate.

 

The Sutra opens with a scene from the Buddha’s daily life, as he puts on his Kesa, takes his begging bowl and goes on his alms round. He then returns to where he and all the monks (and many other beings³) are staying, has his meal, and tidies up afterwards. Seeing the Buddha going about his daily life, doing his own training, is what will inspire Subhuti to ask for the teaching that forms the heart of this Sutra. Certainly, along with a typical dose of suffering and dissatisfaction, what drew me to Buddhism in the end was seeing other people doing their training. I’d had an interest in it before, but at some point I got to know a number of Buddhists, and that’s what inspired me to start practising. I don’t think they had talked much about Buddhism, but I liked what I saw.

 

Over and over the text extolls the merits of “upholding this Sutra and expounding it to others”. In the final chapter the Buddha describes very beautifully how this Sutra should be expounded to others – by “not grasping after appearances; abiding in That Which Is, remaining unmoved”. One might say, by doing our own training, with faith in the Eternal. This is how we can really benefit beings.

In Chapter Two, Subhuti respectfully asks his question;

 

“When good men and good women”… that’s us…“commit themselves to unsurpassed perfect enlightenment, on what should they rely, and how should they pacify their minds?”

 

I find this such a wonderful concise summary of what we long to know and do. On our behalf, Subhuti asks; what is our refuge, what is our foundation, and how can we find, return to and live from that ‘place’? And secondly; how can we not be run around by our minds, a slave to our thoughts?

 

“When good men and good women commit themselves to unsurpassed perfect enlightenment…” One might say; ‘When good men and good women really mean it’, which we all do. We all have our ups and downs and seeming blips, but this is no cause to doubt our sincerity of heart and purpose. We are training. This isn’t just a passing thought or whim. We are committing ourselves to unsurpassed perfect enlightenment. The Cosmic Buddha has already grabbed us by the Buddha Curl, as my Master used to say⁴. We are already on the Way and there is no going back. It takes our willingness and effort, of course, and this is the direction we are moving in.

 

Chapter Three is titled “The Heart of the Mahayana” – the Heart of the Great Way. So there is a big flag going up here, saying, ‘listen carefully, this chapter is really important’. The Buddha’s reply to Subhuti begins;

“All Bodhisattva-Mahasattvas” – all great Bodhisattvas – “should pacify their minds in the following way”…

Another way of phrasing that might be; ‘A Bodhisattva-Mahasattva is someone who pacifies their mind in the following way’. The practice the Buddha is about to describe is something that we all can do at any moment. In any case, for our purposes I’ll say ‘we’ now instead of ‘they’:

 

“Whilst vowing to save all sentient beings, we should remember that in truth there are no sentient beings to be saved. And whilst vowing to save all of the incalculable, illimitable, infinite numbers of beings, we should remember that in reality there are no sentient beings to be saved. Whilst vowing to lead all sentient beings to Nirvana, excepting none, whether they be egg-born, womb-born, moisture-born or miraculously-born, whether they be with form or without form” … and the Buddha goes on to list and include all conceivable kinds of beings …“we should realise that in reality there are no sentient beings to be saved. And why is this Subhuti? It is because no Bodhisattva who is a true Bodhisattva, cherishes the idea of a self, a person, a being or a soul.”

There are a couple of themes here that stand out as central to our practice, to our Buddhist life. To pacify our minds, to not get run around by our thoughts, the Buddha advises us to “vow to save all sentient beings” and at the same time to “not cherish the idea of a self, a person, a being or a soul”.

 

Our general human default, however, is that we do cherish the idea of a self, a person, a being or a soul. We think “It’s like this! They’re like this, I’m like this, she’s like this, he’s like this; it’s like this.” And the Diamond Sutra Sutra is saying, ‘Wait a minute! Are you sure?’ Our practice is to ‘not cherish the idea’; this is what we are doing when we sit. So often we cherish these ideas of things, we make ‘realities’ of things and we really believe them; ‘It’s like this, and it’s not like this’. When we let go of doing that, and we persist, eventually we see through these ’realities’, we see a little more clearly.

 

One of the most helpful things about the Diamond Sutra for me, is that it keeps demonstrating what we need to do. And reading or reciting it can get us in the groove, in the unset mindset of what we need to do (or rather, not do). It persistently says, ‘you can’t cherish the idea of anything’. It keeps spelling it out, because we keep thinking, “but what about this? Surely that’s true?” And the Buddha keeps on saying, ‘well, actually, yes and no; but you can’t cherish the idea of anything’. Why not? Because our ideas of ‘things’ are fundamentally unreliable, and the next chapter talks about that.

 

Even as I have many twists and turns with this, I am beginning to realise a little the incredibly helpful truth of this teaching in everyday life. I see how indeed I keep believing ‘it’s like this’. Yet I am not powerless. I can really work on letting go of ‘cherishing the idea’, even though I then come back to cherishing the idea again. But I can keep saying, “well, no thanks. I’ll not cherish that idea”, even as the ‘idea’ may be urgently and utterly convincing. And if I keep letting go of it persistently, as the Diamond Sutra demonstrates, over and over – in the end it’s like a little light bulb goes on or a bubble bursts and I see; “Oh! Oh, it’s not quite like this!” or sometimes, “It’s not like this at all!”⁵ Even the ‘not quite like this’ makes all the difference.

 

The little extra colouring or twist of fear and self that gets into a view is like the glue of it, the solidifying of it. And it is this that causes all the trouble. It is often not like we are totally off-beam. It isn’t that we need to knock ourselves down as completely stupid and deluded. It’s just that there is this bit of extra glue – a solidifying of something – that makes a hard thing that we can’t get by, and it makes it into this focus; into this hard fact. We make a hard fact, and then generally obsess about it. Or bang our heads on it, or try and hide from it, or whatever it is we do. And it is those hard facts that the Diamond Sutra repeatedly leads us to let go of and see through; “like bubbles, like shadows, like dreams”⁶ A little later on in the Sutra, the Buddha tells us that even the Buddha’s teaching, enlightenment; the Buddhadharma – it is all to be let go of. It is all ‘ungraspable and cannot be named’. We want a hard fact, and there are no hard facts, other than the ones we make. But boy we believe in those hard facts and they really trip us up.

Now to look at the second main theme of this chapter. When we get caught up in; “it’s like this” or “I’m like this” or “he’s like this” or “she’s like this”; how should we pacify our minds? “Whilst vowing to save all sentient beings, we should remember that in reality there are no sentient beings to be saved.” I have a sense with the Bodhisattva vows that often we think they are a bit beyond us, or at least beyond where we are now. Actually I don’t think this is true. On one level one might say they are stretching us. They are saying; don’t hold anything back. “As we vow to save all sentient beings…” We might think,  “How can we possibly do that?!” Well, by doing our best to keep our heart open or to give or to not hold back – with everybody. It doesn’t mean be a muggins or a fool. It means, as best we can, to diligently choose to not be­­­­ stingy or proud or close our hearts. This is what our vow is pointing to. And what it is really pointing to is that this is actually our wish. Our wish is – as it says; “to lead [or help] all sentient beings to Nirvana, excepting none.” This really is our deepest wish. When we remember or realise – wake back up to – that wish, nothing else matters. There’s not a hard fact, there is not a solid problem anywhere.⁷

 

The great Christian saint Teresa of Avila, when talking to her community of nuns, said something like “when there’s love for each other, it doesn’t really matter what we all do”. We might get on each other’s nerves sometimes, but we can see it in the context of sympathy and love and kindness. We all know this; when we are in that ‘place’, something difficult or unwelcome might happen, and ‘oh, well’ – we can just let it go. On another day, when we already have our nose up against our hard facts, something can really ‘ping’ us and get us going. So the Buddha is helping us to remember our Heart Wish here, and to remind us that there aren’t these hard facts that we invest in and believe in.

 

In difficult times, reading the Diamond Sutra can be like prising a wee wedge under our little heavy boulder of hard facts, which we may then see to be neither substantial nor heavy at all. It can be like sticking a toe in the dark door of hard facts – just that little bit of light and air can make all the difference to lighten things up and help us see through them. “Oh!…actually!… maybe I’ve not quite been seeing clearly here.” There’s relief. It takes the persistence of the Diamond Sutra; keeping on letting go of those things that we really believe in. Sometimes our views have become so ‘normal’ to us that we no longer see what we are believing and investing in. It helps to remember that there is no refuge in thoughts. That can be our bottom line. And especially there is no refuge in thoughts that we are letting ourselves be slave to or driven by; those ‘hard facts’ that are the building blocks of suffering.

 

The fourth chapter is called “The Wondrous Practice of Non-Attachment”. The Buddha has given teaching on ‘How we can pacify our minds’ and now he will talk about ‘On what we can rely’ – what is our refuge, what is our foundation? He begins;

 

“Moreover Subhuti, within this phenomenal world, a Bodhisattva should practise generosity without relying on any idea, dwelling nowhere.”

 

Again, I find this such a wonderful summary of our wish and practice. Then the Buddha spells it out for us;

 

“That is to say, you should not cherish the idea of ‘things seen’ when practising generosity. Nor should you cherish the idea of things heard, touched, tasted, smelled or thought. In this way should a Bodhisattva practise generosity; without relying on appearances. Wherefore? When a Bodhisattva practises generosity without relying on appearances, the merit of such a one will be incalculable.”

 

So – “within this phenomenal world, a Bodhisattva should practise generosity without relying on any idea, dwelling nowhere.” It is all just unreliable; it’s a phenomenal world. We know how different we are from one day to the next, how different the mountain looks from one day to the next, how different the weather and politics and sport are from one day to the next. There is some kind of continuity, but to say “it’s like this or I’m like this” – in a sense it is just not true, and so it’s not helpful. We can’t base our lives on that. To “not cherish the idea of things seen” – so often we hold onto something we have seen or heard, and rapidly it becomes a hard fact.

 

Many years ago I watched a Wimbledon final between Serena and Venus Williams. The next day I read the rather small write-up about it in The Times. I was struck by how little resemblance the article bore to the match I had watched on TV. This was clear, even though I wasn’t there at the match or playing in it. Even so, how could one possibly sum up the complexity and richness of that little swatch of life in four hundred words, or in a whole newspaper, or capture it in TV coverage? Yet this is what we do all the time. We sum things up. And we usually have some kind of ‘Tabloid Truth’ headline, in big letters – IT’S LIKE THIS, AND IT’S NOT LIKE THIS! It isn’t that there is nothing at all to it, but as my Master used to say to me, “Some things have one grain of truth in them, and nine grains of delusion”. Maybe it was the other way around, but when we leave the Buddha out of it, it is always one way or the other; there is always something missing. Often, with tabloid headlines it is more like one grain of truth and ninety-nine grains of delusion. Yet we so easily come up with those ‘tabloid truths’ too – about ourselves, and about others, and about life – not seeing the compassionate workings of the Eternal in all conditions but just seeing the difficulty, or what we feel we are lacking, or whatever our particular version is.

 

The Buddha shows us it doesn’t have to be this way. The chapter continues with him describing the vastness of space, then concludes;

 

“Equally incalculable is the merit of the Bodhisattva who practises generosity without relying on appearances. Subhuti, this is the fundamental teaching on which Bodhisattvas should rely.”

 

We all know this. It is in living the life of Buddha – in the practice of living generously and letting go of appearances – that we come to know Buddha, our True Nature; that we find our True Refuge and peace of heart.

 

Chapter five is titled “Seeing through appearances, seeing the True Reality”. This is what our meditation practice is about and helps us to do; to let go of or to see through appearances, to not stay on the surface of things. In a way this is where The Diamond Sutra begins to get very interesting, because it starts cutting away all of our shaky ideas about everything. The chapter begins;

 

“Subhuti, what do you say, can you recognise the Tathagata by His excellent physical appearance?”

 

We have heard that we can’t cherish ideas of beings or rely on appearances – our ideas of what we perceive. Now here is the Buddha himself, looking magnificent. Can you recognise the Tathagata, can you know the essence of Buddha by his physical appearance? Can we grasp onto or rely on that?

Subhuti replies;

 

“No, World-Honoured One … The Tathagata has explained that a physical appearance is not actually a physical appearance.”

The Buddha continues; “All appearances are illusory. If you can see that all appearances are not what they appear, you can see the Tathagata.”

 

This is where the brain starts to go, “whoooah!” It is pointing us ‘beyond this human mind’ as it says in The Scripture of Great Wisdom. Sometimes I’m walking down the road and I think, “OK, a physical appearance is not actually a physical appearance.” I’m seeing this, I think it’s like this; there can just be a question mark. Just not to fix things. “An appearance is not actually an appearance” – one might rephrase this as, ‘things are not what they appear’, or ‘there is more going on than meets the eye’.

 

When we look with the mind of Buddha – with the mind that doesn’t cherish ideas of things, that doesn’t rely on appearances – we see or sense the compassionate workings of Buddha in everything – in the true essence of the ‘hard fact’ rather than the hard fact we are banging our head on. We see that if we bow, things are not what they seemed; and what they are is Buddha.

Notes

1. 1. Passages from the Diamond Sutra cited in this article are mainly based on the following three translations and texts;

The Diamond Sutra and the Sutra of Hui Neng, trans. A.F. Price and Wong Mou-Lam, (Boulder, CO: Shambhala Publications, 1969).

Describing the Indescribable, A Commentary on the Diamond Sutra. Hsing Yun, trans. Tom Graham, (Somerville, MA: Wisdom Publications, 2001).

A Manual of Zen Buddhism, by D.T. Suzuki (contains a partial translation of the Diamond Sutra).

For those who may be interested in further reading, the great Chinese Master Hui Neng gives a wonderful commentary on the Sutra – see The Sutra of Hui-Neng Grand Master of Zen, with Hui-Neng’s Commentary on the Diamond Sutra, trans. Thomas Cleary, (Boulder, CO: Shambhala Publications, 1998). There are numerous published translations of the Diamond Sutra into English, and also several commentaries available.

2. 2. From The Scripture of Great Wisdom.
3. 3. In the final chapter we hear that “all the bhikshus, bhikshunis, lay brothers and sisters, and the whole realms of devas, humans and asuras were filled with joy by his teaching, and taking it faithfully to heart they went their ways and practised accordingly.”
4. 4. A paraphrase of a favourite saying of Reverend Master Jiyu. The Buddha Curl is the swirl of hair at the crown of the head.
5. 5. As all meditators know, this is generally not a one-time process. We may easily lose sight of our insights and need to keep on turning within and practising the precepts in order to more readily live and assimilate the truths we see.
6. 6. From the final chapter of the Diamond Sutra.
7. I in no way wish to minimise how difficult or testing inner or outer conditions can be; it is just that nothing is, at heart, the insurmountable impasse or obstacle we may imagine it to be.