Empty Cloud Sangha

Zen Sutras
 Table of Contents

Purification ………………………………………. 3

Heart Sutra ………………………………………. 3

Verses on the Faith Mind ………………………………………. 4-7

Great Vows For All ………………………………………. 8

Song of Zazen ………………………………………. 9,10

Evening Message ………………………………………. 10

Juakai Ceremony ………………………………………. 11-19

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 HEART OF PERFECT WISDOM (Prajñā Pāramitā – Heart Sutra)

The Bodhisattva of Compassion, from the depths of prajna wisdom,

saw the emptiness of all five skandhas
and sundered the bonds of suffering.
Know then: Form here is only emptiness, emptiness only form
Form is no other than emptiness,
Emptiness no other than form.
Feeling, thought and choice, consciousness itself, are the same as this.
Dharmas here are empty, all are the primal void.
None are born or die,
Nor are they stained or pure, nor do they wax or wane.
So in emptiness no form, no feeling, thought or choice,
Nor is there consciousness.
No eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mind;
no colour, sound, smell, taste, touch, or what the mind takes hold of,
nor even act of sensing.
No ignorance or end of it, nor all that comes of ignorance:
no withering, no death, no end of them.
Nor is there pain, or cause of pain, or cease in pain,
or noble path to lead from pain.
Not even wisdom to attain, attainment too is emptiness.
So know that the Bodhisattva, holding to nothing whatever,
But dwelling in prajna wisdom, is freed of delusive hindrance,
rid of the fear bred by it, and reaches clearest nirvana.
All buddhas of past and present, buddhas of future time,
through faith in prajna wisdom come to full enlightenment.
Know then the great dharani, the radiant peerless mantra,
the supreme, unfailing mantra, the Prajna Paramita, whose words allay all pain.
This is highest wisdom, true beyond all doubt, know and proclaim its truth:
Gate, gate, paragate, parasamgate, bodhi, sva-ha!

(Source Montreal Zen Center)

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 HSIN HSIN MING: VERSES ON THE FAITH MIND
by Sengstan

The Great Way is not difficult

for those who have no preferences.
When love and hate are both absent
everything becomes clear and undisguised.
Make the smallest distinction however
and heaven and earth are set infinitely apart.
If you wish to see the truth
then hold no opinions for or against anything.
To set up what you like against what you dislike
is the disease of the mind.
When the deep meaning of things is not understood
the mind's essential peace is disturbed to no avail.

The Way is perfect like vast space

where nothing is lacking and nothing is in excess.
Indeed, it is due to our choosing to accept or reject
that we do not see the true nature of things.
Live neither in the entanglements of outer things,
nor in inner feelings of emptiness.
Be serene in the oneness of things
and such erroneous views will disappear by themselves.
When you try to stop activity to achieve passivity
your very effort fills you with activity.
As long as you remain in one extreme or the other
you will never know Oneness.

Those who do not live in the single Way

fail in both activity and passivity,
assertion and denial.
To deny the reality of things
is to miss their reality;
to assert the emptiness of things
is to miss their reality.
The more you talk and think about it,
the further astray you wander from the truth.
Stop talking and thinking,
and there is nothing you will not be able to know.

To return to the root is to find the meaning,

but to pursue appearances is to miss the source.
At the moment of inner enlightenment
there is a going beyond appearance and emptiness.
The changes that appear to occur in the empty world
we call real only because of our ignorance.
Do not search for the truth;
only cease to cherish opinions.

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 Do not remain in the dualistic state;
avoid such pursuits carefully.
If there is even a trace
of this and that, of right and wrong,
the Mind-essence will be lost in confusion.
Although all dualities come from the One,
do not be attached even to this One.
When the mind exists undisturbed in the Way,
nothing in the world can offend,
and when a thing can no longer offend,
it ceases to exist in the old way.

When no discriminating thoughts arise,

the old mind ceases to exist.
When thought objects vanish,
the thinking-subject vanishes,
as when the mind vanishes, objects vanish.
Things are objects because of the subject (mind);
the mind (subject) is such because of things (objects).
Understand the relativity of these two
and the basic reality: the unity of emptiness.
In this Emptiness the two are indistinguishable
and each contains in itself the whole world.
If you do not discriminate between coarse and fine
you will not be tempted to prejudice and opinion.

To live in the Great Way is neither easy nor difficult,

but those with limited views are fearful and irresolute:
the faster they hurry, the slower they go,
and clinging (attachment) cannot be limited;
even to be attached to the idea of enlightenment is to go astray.
Just let things be in their own way
and there will be neither coming nor going.
Obey the nature of things (your own nature),
and you will walk freely and undisturbed.
When thought is in bondage the truth is hidden,
for everything is murky and unclear,
and the burdensome practice of judging
brings annoyance and weariness.
What benefit can be derived
from distinctions and separations?

If you wish to move in the One Way

do not dislike even the world of senses and ideas.
Indeed, to accept them fully
is identical with true Enlightenment.
The wise strive to no goals
but the foolish fetter themselves.

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 There is one Dharma, not many;
distinctions arise
from the clinging needs of the ignorant.
To seek Mind with the (discriminating) mind
is the greatest of all mistakes.

Rest and unrest derive from illusion;

with enlightenment there is no liking and disliking.
All dualities come from ignorant inference.
They are like dreams or flowers in air:
foolish to try to grasp them.
Gain and loss, right and wrong:
such thoughts must finally be abolished at once.

If the eye never sleeps,

all dreams will naturally cease.
If the mind makes no discriminations,
the ten thousand things
are as they are, of single essence.
To understand the mystery of this One-essence
is to be released from all entanglements.
When all things are seen equally
the timeless Self-essence is reached.
No comparisons or analogies are possible
in this causeless, relationless state.

Consider movement stationary

and the stationary in motion,
both movement and rest disappear.
When such dualities cease to exist
Oneness itself cannot exist.
To this ultimate finality
no law or description applies.

For the unified mind in accord with the Way

all self-centered striving ceases.
Doubts and irresolutions vanish
and life in true faith is possible.
With a single stroke we are freed from bondage;
nothing clings to us and we hold to nothing.
All is empty, clear, self-illuminating,
with no exertion of the mind's power.
Here thought, feeling, knowledge, and imagination
are of no value.

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 In this world of Suchness
there is neither self nor other-than-self.
To come directly into harmony with this reality
just simply say when doubt arises, “Not two.”
In this “not two” nothing is separate,
nothing is excluded.
No matter when or where,
enlightenment means entering this truth.

And this truth is beyond extension or

diminution in time or space;
in it a single thought is ten thousand years.

Emptiness here, Emptiness there,

but the infinite universe stands
always before your eyes.
Infinitely large and infinitely small;
no difference, for definitions have vanished
and no boundaries are seen.
So too with Being and non-Being.
Don't waste time in doubts and arguments
that have nothing to do with this.

One thing, all things:

move among and intermingle,
without distinction.
To live in this realization
is to be without anxiety about non-perfection.
To live in this faith is the road to non-duality
because the non-dual is one with the trusting mind.

Words!
The Way is beyond language,
for in it there is
no yesterday
no tomorrow
no today.

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 GREAT VOWS FOR ALL

The many beings are numberless,

I vow to save them.
Greed, hatred, and ignorance rise endlessly,
I vow to abandon them.
Dharma-gates are countless,
I vow to wake to them.
The Pathless Path is unsurpassed,
I vow to embody it fully.
(repeat 3 times)

Ceaseless daily Practice

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 HAKUIN ZENJI: SONG OF ZAZEN

All beings by nature are Buddha,

as ice by nature is water.
Apart from water there is no ice;
apart from beings, no Buddha.

How sad that people ignore the near

and search for truth afar,
like someone in the midst of water
crying out in thirst;
like a child of a wealthy home
wandering among the poor.

Lost on dark paths of ignorance,

we wander through the Six Worlds;
from dark path to dark path we wander.
When shall we be freed from birth and death?

For this the zazen of the Mahāyāna

deserves the highest praise:
offerings, Precepts, Pāramitās,
Nembutsu, atonement, practice –
the many other virtues –
all rise within zazen.

Those who try zazen even once

wipe away immeasurable crimes –
where are all the dark paths then?
The Pure Land itself is near.

Those who hear this truth even once

and listen with a grateful heart,
treasuring it, revering it,
gain blessings without end.
Much more, if you turn yourself about,
and confirm your own self-nature –
self-nature that is no-nature –
you are far beyond mere argument.

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 The oneness of cause and effect is clear;
not two, not three, the path is straight;
with form that is no form,
going and coming – never astray;
with thought that is no thought,
singing and dancing are the voice of the Law.

Boundless and free is the sky of Samādhi!

Bright the full moon of wisdom!
Truly, is anything missing now?
Nirvana is right here, before our eyes;
this very place is the Lotus Land,
this very body, the Buddha.

EVENING MESSAGE
I beg to urge you everyone:
life and death is a grave matter;
all things pass quickly away.
Each of us must be completely alert
never neglectful, never indulgent.

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 JUKAI CEREMONY

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Rōshi: Explanation of Procedures

Assembly: Raihai
Assembly:

PURIFICATION
ALL THE EVIL KARMA, EVER CREATED BY ME SINCE OF OLD,
ON ACCOUNT OF MY BEGINNINGLESS GREED, HATRED, AND IGNORANCE,
BORN OF MY CONDUCT, SPEECH AND THOUGHT,
I NOW CONFESS OPENLY AND FULLY.

(repeat 3 times)

VANDANA

NAMO TASSA BHAGAVATO ARAHATO SAMMASAMBUDDHASSA

(I venerate the Sacred One, the Great Sage, the Truly Enlightened One.)

TI-SARANA

BUDDHAM SARANAM GACCHĀMI;

(I take refuge in the Buddha;)
DHAMMAM SARANAM GACCHĀMI;
(I take refuge in the Dharma;)
SANGHAM SARANAM GACCHĀMI;
(I take refuge in the Sangha.)
Rōshi: Introduction

The Three Vows of Refuge

Assembly response is from a traditional Soto Zen Buddhist work that was revised by Dōgen Kigen under the
title, Kyōjūkaimon, Doctrine of Jukai. Initiates take turns reading their vows, beginning with the one sitting at
the left-front corner facing the altar. Repeat the traditional vow, and then read your own words.

Rōshi: The Three Vows of Refuge.

Assembly: The Great Precepts of all the Buddhas have been maintained and
protected by all the Buddhas, Buddhas hand them down to Buddhas, and
Ancestral Teachers hand them down to Ancestral Teachers. Acceptance and
observance of the Precepts transcends past, present, and future, and forms the
perfect accord in realization between teacher and disciple, continuing through
all ages.
Our great teacher Śākyamuni Buddha, imparted them to Mahākāśyapa
and Mahākāśyapa transmitted them to Ānanda. Already the Precepts have
passed through many generations in direct succession, reaching down to the
present head of this temple.
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 Now, receiving the Great Precepts, I vow to requite my deep obligation
to the Buddhas and Ancestral Teachers. I pledge to establish these Precepts as
essential teachings for human beings and other beings so that all will inherit the
wisdom of the Buddha.

Rōshi: I take refuge in the Buddha.

Initiate: I take refuge in the Buddha …

Rōshi: I take refuge in the Dharma

Initiate: I take refuge in the Dharma …

Rōshi: I take refuge in the Sangha.

Initiate: I take refuge in the Sangha …

Initiate(s) One full bow.

The Three Pure Precepts

The Assembly responses are from the Kyōjūkaimon.

Rōshi: The Three Pure Precepts.

I vow to maintain the precepts.
Initiate: I vow to maintain the precepts …

Assembly: This is the cave whence all dharmas of all Buddhas arise.

Rōshi: I vow to practice all good dharmas.

Initiate: I vow to practice all good dharmas …

Assembly: This is the path of fulfilled enlightenment.

Rōshi: I vow to save the many beings.

Initiate: I vow to save the many beings …

Assembly Transcending profane and holy, I liberate myself and others.

Initiate(s): One full bow.

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 The Ten Grave Precepts
The first Assembly Responses to the Precepts are from comments attributed to Bodhidharma
from the book, I-hsin Chieh-men (Isshin Kaimon, The Precepts of One Mind). The second Assembly Response
is from the Kyōjūkaimon.
Rōshi: The Ten Grave Precepts.
I take up the way of Not Killing.

Assembly: Self-nature is subtle and mysterious. In the realm of the

everlasting Dharma, not giving rise to the idea of killing is called the Precept of
Not Killing.

Initiate: I take up the Way of Not Killing …

Assembly: The Buddha seed grows in accordance with not taking life.
Transmit the life of Buddha’s wisdom and do not kill.

Rōshi: I take up the Way of Not Stealing.

Assembly: Self-nature is subtle and mysterious. In the realm of the

unattainable Dharma, not having thoughts of gaining is called the Precept of
Not Stealing.

Initiate: I take up the Way of Not Stealing …

Assembly: The self and things of the world are just as they are. The gate of
emancipation is open.

Roshi: I take up the way of Not Misusing Sex.

Assembly: Self Nature is subtle and mysterious. In the realm of the ungilded
Dharma, not creating a veneer of attachment is called the Precept of Not
Misusing Sex.
Initiate: I take up the way of Not Misusing Sex …

Assembly: The Three Wheels are pure and clear. When you have nothing to
desire, you follow the way of all Buddhas.

Rōshi: I take up the Way of Not Speaking Falsely.

Assembly: Self-nature is subtle and mysterious. In the realm of the

inexplicable Dharma, not preaching a single word is called the Precept of Not
Speaking Falsely.
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Initiate: I take up the Way of Not Speaking Falsely …

Assembly: The Dharma wheel turns from the beginning. There is neither
surplus nor lack. The whole universe is moistened with nectar, and the truth is
ready to harvest.

Rōshi: I take up the Way of Not Giving or Taking Drugs

Assembly: Self-nature is subtle and mysterious. In the realm of the

intrinsically pure Dharma, not giving rise to delusions is called the Precept of
Not Giving or Taking Drugs.

Initiate: I take up the Way of Not Giving or Taking Drugs …

Assembly: Drugs are not brought in yet. Don’t let them invade. That is the
great light.

Rōshi: I take up the Way of Not Discussing Faults of Others.

Assembly: Self-nature is subtle and mysterious. In the realm of the flawless

Dharma, not expounding upon error is called the Precept of Not Discussing
Faults of Others.

Initiate: I take up the Way of Not Discussing Faults of Others …

Assembly: In the Buddha Dharma, there is one path, one Dharma, one
realization, one practice. Don’t permit fault-finding. Don’t permit haphazard
talk.

Rōshi: I take up the Way of Not Praising Myself While Abusing Others.

Assembly: Self-nature is subtle and mysterious. In the realm of the equitable

Dharma, not dwelling upon I against you is called the Precept of Not Praising
Myself while Abusing others.

Initiate: I take up the Way of Not Praising Myself while Abusing Others,

Assembly: Buddhas and Ancestral Teachers realize the empty sky and the
great earth. When they manifest the noble body, there is neither inside nor
outside in emptiness. When they manifest the Dharma body, there is not even a

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bit of earth on the ground.

Rōshi: I take up the Way of Not Sparing the Dharma Assets.

Assembly: Self-nature is subtle and mysterious. In the genuine, all-pervading

Dharma, not being stingy about a single thing is called the Precept of Not
Sparing the Dharma Assets.

Initiate: I take up the Way of Not Sparing the Dharma Assets …

Assembly: One phrase, one verse—that is the Ten Thousand Things and One
Hundred Grasses; one dharma, one realization—that is all Buddhas and
Ancestral Teachers. Therefore from the beginning, there has been no stinginess
at all.

Rōshi: I take up the Way of Not Indulging in Anger.

Assembly: Self-nature is subtle and mysterious. In the realm of the selfless

Dharma, not contriving reality for the self is called the Precept of Not Indulging
in Anger.

Initiate: I take up the Way of Not indulging in Anger …

Assembly: Not advancing, not retreating, not real, not empty. There is an
ocean of bright clouds. There is an ocean of solemn clouds.

Rōshi: I take up the Way of Not Defaming the Three Treasures.

Assembly: Self-nature is subtle and mysterious. In the realm of the One, not
holding dualistic concepts of ordinary beings and sages is called the Precept of
Not Defaming the Three Treasures.

Initiate: I take up the Way of Not Defaming the Three Treasures …

Assembly: The teishō of the actual body is the harbor and the weir. This is the
most important thing in the world. Its virtue finds its home in the ocean of
essential nature. It is beyond explanation. We just accept it with respect and
gratitude.

Initiate(s): One full bow.

Rōshi: Explanation of Dharma

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Presentation of Rakusu(s)

Verse of Rakusu

Rōshi and Initiate(s): I wear the robe of liberation,

the formless field of benefaction,
the teachings of the Tathāgata,
saving the many beings.

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Assembly: Heart Sutra
(as the) Rōshi & Initiate(s) offer incense
Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva, practicing deep Prajñā Pāramitā,
clearly saw that all five skandhas are empty,
transforming anguish and distress.
Shāriputra, form is no other than emptiness,
emptiness no other than form;
Form is exactly emptiness, emptiness exactly form.
Sensation, perception, mental reaction, consciousness
are also like this.
Shāriputra, all things are essentially empty –
not born, not destroyed;
not stained, not pure;
without loss, without gain.
Therefore in emptiness there is no form, no sensation, perception,
mental reaction, consciousness;
no eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mind;
no color, sound, smell, taste, touch, object of thought;
no seeing and so on to no thinking;
no ignorance and also no ending of ignorance,
and so on to no old age and death
and also no ending of old age and death;
no anguish, cause of anguish, cessation, path;
no wisdom and no attainment.
Since there is nothing to attain,
the Bodhisattva lives by Prajñā Pāramitā,
with no hindrance in the mind;
no hindrance and therefore no fear;
far beyond delusive thinking, right here is Nirvana.
All Buddhas of past, present, and future live by Prajñā Pāramitā,
attaining Anuttara-samyak-sambodhi.
Therefore know that Prajñā Pāramitā is the great sacred mantra,
the great vivid mantra,
the unsurpassed mantra,
the supreme mantra,
which completely removes all anguish.
This is truth, not mere formality.
Therefore set forth the Prajñā Pāramitā mantra,
set forth this mantra and proclaim:
Gaté gaté para gaté parasamgaté Bodhi svāhā!

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 Jukai Dedication

Rōshi: At Magdha, at this very place, deep in the sacred ground, high into the
empty sky, broadly shading living things the tree of wisdom thrives by
rain and soil and sunshine and by your loving care that we maintain.
We dedicate “The Great Prajñā Pāramitā Heart Sātra”, our ceremony
of Jukai and ourselves to you, Śākyamuni Buddha, Dai Oshō, we
celebrate your sacred presence, your boundless understanding, and
your love. Let your true Dharma continue, and your Sangha relations
become complete.

Assembly: All Buddhas through space and time

all Bodhisattvas, Mahasattvas,
the great Prajñā Pāramitā.

Assembly: Great Vows for All

The many beings are numberless,
I vow to save them.
Greed, hatred, and ignorance rise endlessly,
I vow to abandon them.
Dharma-gates are countless,
I vow to wake to them.
The Pathless Path is unsurpassed,
I vow to embody it fully.
(repeat 3 times)

Raihai

End, tea and socializing.

This Empty Cloud Sutra Book is based on the 2011 Version of the of the PATHLESS PATH S UTRA
BOOK

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