Polishing the Mind

Recently I spent a lot of time mulling over this famous phrase from the Chinese Buddhist treatise the Cheng Wei Shi Lun (成唯識論) quoted in the book Living Yogacara:¹

Polishing their minds, the courageous do not waver.
(trans. Professor A.C. Muller)

This treatise was written by the famous Chinese monk, Xuan-Zang (玄奘), who brought Yogacara Buddhism to China from India, along with many other important Buddhist texts and observations. If there’s any monk you should remember in East Asian Buddhism, Xuan-Zang is arguably one of them due to his vast contribution, and bravery in making the treacherous journey. The Cheng Wei Shi Lun, being Xuan-Zang’s work, is also one of the foundational texts for East Asian Yogacara thought including the Hossō school in Japan, and the quote above is mentioned multiple times.

As to why I have been mulling this text, I think it’s kind of an encouragement for people who walk the Buddhist path. Life really can bring you down, and when you’re tired and exhausted, it is so easy to want to backslide and wallow in self-pity or take the low-road which is so much easier up front. But every action and thought committed perfumes the mind in Yogacara-speak, and its important to bear this in mind. There’s no such thing as a free lunch,² so every deed or intention has its price, and the only way to break free from the constant up and down cycle, the constant upkeep, is to purify the mind once and for all, bit by bit. As the Yogacara school of thought teaches that Enlightenment takes 3 massive eons to complete (literally “three asaṃkhya kalpa”), it’s a gradual process. However, in Buddhism there is a lovely passage from the Immeasurable Life Sutra that I was also contemplating lately:

“At that time the Buddha Lokeshvararaja recognized the Bhiksu Dharmakara’s noble and high aspirations, and taught him as follows: ‘If, for example, one keeps on bailing water out of a great ocean with a pint-measure, one will be able to reach the bottom after many kalpas and then obtain rare treasures. Likewise, if one sincerely, diligently and unceasingly seeks the Way, one will be able to reach one’s destination. What vow is there which cannot be fulfilled?’

Nothing worthwhile in life comes easily, and hence Xuan-Zang’s statement that the courageous do not waver. They have everything to gain in the process.

Namu Amida Butsu

¹ Compare to the ancient Dhammapada, verse 183:

The non-doing of any evil,
the performance of what’s skillful,
the cleansing of one’s own mind:
this is the teaching
of the Awakened.

² See Heinlein’s novel The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.