Thoughts on Twenty-three

`Undifferentiated is the dharma in which nothing is differentiated.' A practical application of this is that we should feel exactly equal to all other beings. Not better than, not worse than. In the past, and even now, I have the habit of forming judgments of people where I either am dismissive of them or I put them on a pedestal. Thinking back to my childhood, I don't think that I ever felt equal to anyone else. Usually I felt superior, and sometimes I felt inferior. There is a quote whose attribution I fail to recall, that the most enduring friendships are those between two people who each feel slightly superior to the other. I don't believe this is an unbreakable axiom, but there was a lot of truth to it in my case.

Here is a poem by Fsu Hsi

Water and land are the same true realm

flying and walking alike are real

dharmas include no this or that

the truth isn't distant or near

distinctions of self and other be gone

away with perceptions of better or worse

once we know this equalizing nature

we enter nirvana together

Red Pine notes that the term `auspicious dharmas' has a double meaning. The sanskrit word for auspicious is kushala, derived from kusha the name of a sacred type of grass in ancient India, which was used by the Buddha and others for their meditation mats. So auspicious dharmas arise from meditation. As usual, auspicious dharmas are no dharmas, and one aspect of this is the fact that we don't cultivate or practice auspicious dharmas (also called Buddha dharmas) for any kind of reward. Hui-Neng has this to say:

"If a person cultivates any auspicious dharma and expects a reward, it is not an auspicious dharma. While if a person completely carries out all six paramitas [perfections] and ten-thousand practices wihout expecting any reward, this is called an `auspicious dharma.'"

This may seem different than one possible Christian point of view, which is that we are rewarded for our good deeds in Heaven. But it is actually not so far off. A Christian teaching is that talking and bragging about our good deeds negates our reward. Similarly, I'm sure many would agree that internal bragging inside our own head would also negate our heavenly reward. Hence practicing good deeds should be undertaken not for any earthly reward. Finally, at least once, Jesus says that the Kingdom of Heaven is within us. Saying we get a reward in heaven doesn't need to mean that we will get rewarded in an afterlife, but can also mean that we get an internal spiritual reward inside of us right now. This is a reward which is no-reward. But I am calling it a `reward.'