The next section in the book is entitled “Step Back and Turn to Reality.” One of Yuanwu’s most successful students Gao (Dahui Zonggao) became a great associate and friend because he was “not content to follow small understanding.” When he decided to leave and go out on his own he asked Yuanwu for some advice. Here is what he said,
You should work to melt away the obstructions caused by conditioned knowledge and views and interpretive understanding, and penetrate through to a realization of the great causal condition communicated and bequeathed by the buddhas and ancestral teachers. Don’t covet name and fame. Step back and turn to reality, until your practical understanding and virtue are fully actualized (page 26).[1]
Remember your greatest successes became reality because of your perseverance! Not because you went out seeking fame and/or money. Because you reached out for practical understanding of your talent, for knowledge through the courses you were studying, or with a mentor or coach you discovered those things deep within yourself!
On YouTube AsapScience has a short video on productivity that I share with my students every term. They talk about “deliberate practice” and ask you to focus on the hardest tasks first. Then they have you divide the time up on the “work” and then on a “break.” They don’t rely on “will power” but on good habits of study—90 minutes of study and then a 15 to 20-minute break.[2] Remember to give yourself a deadline! All of this requires perseverance and consistency!
Great, if I do all of this how will I know that I have had real attainment?
Yuanwu says,
Wait until you are like a bell sounding when struck or a valley returning an echo. Wait until you are like pure gold coming forth from a forge where it has been smelted and refined ten thousand times. So that it will not change in ten thousand generations, so that it is ten thousand years in a single moment (page 26).[3]
You will hear the “bell” and see the “bell” when you’ve taken the time every day to practice your craft, to hold on to your passion, and consistently raise the bar for yourself. Whether it is setting aside a certain time each day for meditating, or being involved in a Buddhist or mindfulness group that meets on a regular basis to learn and grow your practice—consistency is imperative. All great athletes, musicians, artists, singers, teachers, inventors, and scientists attained success through persistence and consistency.
Then one day, without trying, they heard the valley returning the sound of the bell. There practical understanding and virtue was fully actualized.
Good luck with that! Let me know how it goes!
In gassho, Shokai
[1] Cleary, (1994) Zen Letters Teachings of Yuanwu
[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHfjvYzr-3g
[3]Cleary, (1994) Zen Letters Teachings of Yuanwu
