Sakyamuni Buddha told us, ‘This body is not me.’
Do you agree? From morning to night, we cannot forget for a moment that this body is me.
How many people can let go of the wrong view that the body is oneself?
How many people know that “this body is not me” and to no longer be attached to this body?
So what is the body?
This body is what I have, it is not me.
Just like clothes. Clothes are what I have. My house is what I have.
The body is also what I have. Why is it?
The true “me” or “self” has no life or death, but the body has life and death.
A body that experiences life and death is definitely not the true me.
First of all, we need to see-through to this truth.
Break free of the wrong view that the body is me.
Out of the five wrong views, the wrong view on the body is the strongest.
So we must break free from the strongest view first, and no longer be attached to “this body is me”.
So what is ”me”?
Many people now say, ‘This body is not me, the soul is me.’
Why is it? The soul reincarnates.
The body has life and death, but the soul has no life and death.
Some people saw their souls after they died.
Their souls are younger than their physical self.
Although they were old physically, they looked young when their souls left their bodies.
So is the soul who I am? Yes and no.
Why? Because the soul is not in charge of itself.
In Buddhism the definition of me or self has two vital meanings.
The first is to be in charge of oneself and the second is to be liberated.
You see, the soul is not in charge. It has to go through rebirth.
If the soul were really in charge, it would surely be reborn to some good place it can enjoy good fortune.
But it is sometimes reincarnated into poor families, suffering hardship. So how could it be in charge?
It would even be reborn into the ghost realm, the animal realm and the hell realm, which means more sufferings.
Why would it go there? So it is clear that soul is not in charge.
In Buddhism, such soul is referred to as being deluded, not awakened.
It can be easily tempted.
It is tempted by wealth, lust, fame and profit.
It is tempted by the Five Desires and Six Worldly Dusts.
When greed arises from temptation, following greed, the soul is reborn accordingly.
It is not the master of itself.
After it is reborn, the soul regrets it but it is too late.
The soul has to live in that realm for a whole life.
In the Six Realms of rebirth, life and death are truly impermanent.
So what exactly is “me”? In Buddhism, it is called self-nature or dharma-nature. This is the true me or self.
In Zen school, there is an expression: ‘the original state of existence before birth’.
That is the true self, the dharma-nature.
Does the “true self” have a form or body? No.
But the soul has a form. That is why it can be seen.
This form of the soul is called ‘the form with no appearance’ in Buddhist sutras.
Those with sufficient level of meditative concentration can see it, but ordinary people cannot. It is transparent.
When Venerable Master Huineng attained full enlightenment, he found the true self.
His commented the essence, appearance and function of the true self.
He said, ‘Little did I expect that the self-nature is originally pure.’
It has never been and never will be contaminated.
‘… it neither arises nor ceases.’ It has no life or death.
‘… it is perfectly all-encompassing without lacking a single thing.’
It has infinite wisdom, infinite virtuous abilities, and infinite good appearances.
Buddhist teaching seeks not from outside but from within oneself.
All external things are not real. What is from within us is true.
‘… it does not move and change.’
This describes the originally unmoving and unchanging state of the self-nature.
The true mind does not move or change, but the false mind moves and changes through vibration in varied frequencies, the entire universe is moving! This state of moving is called Alaya consciousness.
The frequency of Alaya, Maitreya Boddhisattva told us,‘There are 320 trillion thoughts generated in the snap of one’s fingers’.
The snap of fingers is a very short period of time.
100X1000 is 100,000.
3.2 billion times 100,000 equals 320 trillion.
What is the frequency of a snap of our fingers? 320 trillion times.
In science we use second as a time unit.
So in one second, how many times can we snap our fingers?
I believe we can do it five times.
A regular person can do it five times.
So times five, it makes 1600 trillion per second, such a high frequency.
Such phenomenon is taking place in front of us.
This phenomenon is happening in front of our eyes.
But we cannot feel it in the slightest.
When was the universe created? Right now, at this very instance!
There is no past. There is nofuture.
Most people find it hard to comprehend this concept.
We have learned it for decades to finally understand this idea.
It is indeed right now. It is correct. Why is it?
It has no past, no future.
It is the one single thought at this moment.
If the one thought at present is awakened, we become Buddhas.
If the one thought is deluded, we are ordinary people.
This one thought is so short in time.
In one second, there are 1600 trillion arising and ceasing.
Each arising and ceasing is independent.
In this state, there is no time and there is no space.
There is no past and no future. Is there present?
There is no present either.
When we speak of the present, the present has already gone.
The Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra says,
‘All phenomena are not real. They are empty and unobtainable.’
The ‘all phenomena’ includes everything in the entire universe and beyond.
‘All phenomena are illusory.’
So how does an enlightened person deal with it?
For an enlightened person, he or she will not give rise to any thoughts.
They neither differentiate, nor be attached to any phenomenon.
This is the state of enlightenment. If a person generates thoughts, differentiates and is attached to anything, they are deluded.
What state is the deluded state?
The deluded state leads to the Six Realms of Rebirth.
The enlightened states are the Four-Sacred Dharma-Realms,
They are the sound Hearer, the pratyekabuddha, the bodhisattva and the Buddha.
The Buddhas in the Ten Dharma Realms are still boddhisattvas.
They have not yet attained full enlightenment and have not yet seen the self-nature.
In other words, they are not alleviated from the phenomena of vibration.
Vibration means the phenomenon of arising and ceasing (creation and destruction).
They have not left the process of arising and ceasing.
Away from arising and ceasing means there are no more life and death. That is truly “left”.
‘Originally self-nature does not move or change’, it has neither arising nor ceasing.
However, this self-nature can manifest all phenomena, that is, it can manifest the entire universe and manifest all phenomena.
Our forms and bodies are the manifestation of this self-nature.
It can actualize when the right conditions or affinities are in place.
Such manifestations are limitless and beyond description.
You see, how many times does it manifest per second?
Remember, it generates 1600 trillion changes per second.
So which one of those changes is “me”? It is certainly unobtainable.
Whenever we generate a thought, it has already gone through too many changes.