What is esotericism?

"Esoteric Buddhism" and "Manifest Buddhism" are treated relatively. There are two major categories of scriptures and teachings taught by the Buddha, one is "esoteric teaching" and the other is "manifest teaching". As the name suggests, "manifestation" means to manifest and manifest: any law that can be expressed or declared in words is called "manifestation law" or "manifestation teaching"; "Secret" means "the secret realm of the Tathagata", which is separated from verbal contemplation, beyond the scope of verbal interpretation, that is, beyond the scope of ordinary people's "words and thoughts", and cannot be known by ordinary people, so it is called "secret".

Therefore, the Tathagata's "tantra" or "esoteric teachings" are not only difficult to express in words, but even with ordinary people's thoughts, they cannot imagine it, and such a state is called "tantra" or "Tathagata's secret realm". The secret realm of the Tathagata, with its great compassion, in order to liberate sentient beings, appears above his pure body, speech, and mind three karmas, and becomes the "three secrets" of the Tathagata; The Tathagata uses these "three secrets" to bless sentient beings, so that they can quickly remove obstacles, get rid of contamination, cut off confusion, realize the truth, and become enlightened Buddhas.

So it can be seen that The main content of esoteric practice is the "three secret methods" of body, speech and mind, which are used to obtain the "three secret blessings" of the Tathagata and quickly become Buddhist.

As mentioned above, the so-called "three secrets" are "body secrets", "language secrets", and "intention secrets". The Tathagata blesses sentient beings with his body, speech, and mind "deep and inconceivable secret realm", so that they can quickly cut off the three obstacles and enlighten and enlighten them.

Therefore, it is generally thought that only Buddha has the "Three Cs", but does not know that sentient beings also have the "Three Cs". The only difference is that the "three secrets" of sentient beings, like their "three karmas", are polluted; The Buddha's "three secrets" are made up of his "three pure karmas", so they have immeasurable merit, and the difference is like this.

The "three secrets" of sentient beings and the "three secrets" of the Buddha are briefly explained as follows:

1. The "secret realm" of sentient beings and Buddha is found in the six mortals and four saints in the ten Dharma realms.

The "secret" realm of ordinary people, such as love, hate, hate, like, etc., even the parts that cannot be fully expressed in words, can also convey different degrees of love, hate, admiration or contempt through the movements of the eyes, mouth and other facial features, and even raising eyebrows, blinking, frowning, pursing lips, etc. Therefore, not only do sentient beings have the function of "body secrets" and can convey meanings beyond the scope of words, and even according to the research of behavioral scientists, we know that there is so-called "body language" or "behavioral language", that is, our body roots and the whole can be used to convey the "incredible realm" that cannot be expressed by words. This is the "secret" realm of ordinary people.

As for the Buddha's "body secret" realm, it not only goes beyond the realm of "words", but also goes beyond the scope of "thinking". Another difference is that the Buddha's "body secret" is made of pure body karma and has immeasurable merit, so the Buddha can use his "body secret" to transform immeasurable sentient beings.

2. The "secret" realm of sentient beings and Buddhas.

The language of sentient beings also has its secrets, which is the "secret of language" of sentient beings. The "secret language" of sentient beings For example: Why do sentient beings have so much to say? (——Talking almost all day long, I don't feel tired!) Why are there so many languages in the world? You see, how many languages are there in this world? It's incredible. In so many languages, beings convey their infinite thoughts and messages. Even the same sentence will change its meaning due to its time, place, object, speaker's mood, degree of understanding, and the difference in pitch, volume, intensity, etc., right? For example, someone respectfully brings a plate of food and says, "Please use this." Yu shouted loudly in a disdainful tone: "This is for you to eat!" (Hey, come and eat!) The meaning between the two is vastly different; Another example is to yell: "Take it!" This is the same as the Japanese woman Isaac's delicate tone and said: "Hey-take! (Hmm~ Take it!) The same sentence, but the emotions and meanings conveyed are very different. Therefore, the same sentence, in various tones, will have a great difference in effect, or even completely opposite. This is the secret realm in the language of ordinary people - that is, the so-called "meaning beyond the words, sound outside the strings", which can only be understood. But in any case, the language realm of sentient beings is "impermanent": the meaning it expresses will be different everywhere due to different people, events, times, and places.   

Compared with the "secret" state of sentient beings, the Tathagata's "secret language" is always "pure and untainted" and "constant", and its expression is always the same meaning, and will not change because of the identity, status, people, events, time, place, cause and effect of sins and blessings, and the volume of speech. In short, it means that "the Buddha's words are true", "the Buddha has no other language", and "the Buddha's non-dual language", so their meanings are constant and always pure and the same: the Buddha's words recited by good people have the same meaning; The same meaning is read by bad people; The meaning of what is pronounced in a good or bad mood is still the same. The meaning of past, present, and future thoughts will not change. The meaning of the mantras recited by people in the Tang Dynasty is no different from that of modern people. The ancients chanted Amitabha, and the modern people also recited Amitabha, but the meaning expressed by Amitabha Buddha is not different from ancient to modern; Therefore, the meaning of the sutras, Buddha's names, etc. will not change or change: the meaning of the sutras preached by the Buddha himself has remained unchanged throughout the ages: since ancient times, whether Indians, Chinese, Japanese, Europeans or Americans, the meaning of the scriptures has been exactly the same. As long as the pronunciation is not too bad, depending on the local dialect of each place, whether you recite Amitabha Buddha, Amitabha Buddha, or Amitabha Buddha, you can understand it, there is not much difference, they are all expressing the same meaning, so this is the Tathagata's "language secret", or "language secret", that is, it is not changed by various "impermanent laws".

3. The "secret" realm of sentient beings and Buddhas.

The third secret realm is the "secret realm". What is "meaning"? It means "heart". From the beings of the six realms (six mortals) and even the four saints, namely the sound and hearing, dependent awareness, bodhisattvas, and Buddhas, all beings and saints in these ten realms have "minds". Although the hearts of the six mortals and four saints are different, this "heart" has a secret. Therefore, the minds of sentient beings also have their secrets, why? Because "secret" means "incredible." Because the mind of sentient beings will incredibly give birth to many kinds of thoughts and ideas: the mind of sentient beings, for some unknown reason, is always like playing a movie or a slideshow in their hearts, whether day or night, it often broadcasts non-stop, delusions fly; sometimes his delusions are disorganized and disorganized; Sometimes the same delusions continue day and night, and I don't know what the truth is; Therefore, the hearts of sentient beings are incredible; This is called the "secret realm" of sentient beings.

Furthermore, you don't know why this is the case, but your "mind" will naturally give rise to many thoughts, as well as many delusions such as greed, foolishness, anger, and jealousy. Sometimes it gets angry for no reason or for no reason; or unhappy, or bored; sometimes even if it's not a big deal, they will yell in anger; If you want it not to be angry, you just can't help it, which is something that can't be helped. Sometimes this heart will naturally become jealous. For example, if a woman sees that her husband is talking happily with other women, she will be troubled, so she may start to inquire in detail, and she will have to ask questions that come to light, or bow her head to confess and apologize before she stops. The same is true for men, if they see their wives talking and laughing when they talk to other men, it is also unbearable; This is truly incredible. But if he thinks with reason, then there is actually nothing! Knowing that there is nothing, he will naturally have those "troubled hearts", so he will entangle him all night and make a lot of trouble. So this is the "incredible mind of sentient beings"; Even if you know that nothing will happen, it will still produce immeasurable "afflictions" and "afflictions", so it is called the "secret of the mind" of sentient beings. The Tathagata's mind also has its secrets, but they are different from the secrets of the minds of sentient beings. The secret of the minds of sentient beings is due to "ignorance", and under various causal environments, all kinds of afflictions will arise, even immeasurable.

However, the Tathagata's "secret of the mind" contains immeasurable wisdom because of the immeasurable merit that has been continuously cultivated and accumulated over the beginningless eons. For example, the Sixth Patriarch of Zen Buddhism said to the Fifth Patriarch: "Disciples always produce wisdom from their own hearts. This sentence is not so simple to say! What ordinary people say to the patriarch is probably "Disciples often have troubles in their hearts!" "Because my heart is full of dark and messy troubles. So this is the incredible part of the saint's heart.

Therefore, if a person practices, his mind will naturally always produce wisdom; If you don't practice, you will always have troubles. …… This is the difference between the "secret of the heart" of sentient beings and the "secret of the heart" of the Tathagata.

…… Now let's briefly review: The so-called "esoteric Buddhism" is to explain the three "secrets" of sentient beings and Buddhas: sentient beings have the three karmas of defilement and secrets, and become the three secrets of "body secrets, language secrets, and mind secrets" of sentient beings; The Buddha has three secrets of purity: "body secret, speech secret, and mind secret". The Buddha uses his three pure secret realms to transform the three defilements of sentient beings, purify them, and thus become enlightened, liberated, and enlightened.

Then the Buddha passed on his self-evident "Three Secret Realms" to the Patriarch Bodhisattva, who continued to pass on this Dharma lineage to future generations, and the continuous inheritance of this pure and secret Dharma lineage is the "Mantra Esoteric Teaching", which is beyond the scope of verbal contemplation.

However, among all the teachings of the Tathagata, there are also those that are close to this esoteric realm, that is, Zen Buddhism; Because Zen Buddhism's teachings also belong to an incredible realm, Therefore, Zen Buddhism and Tantric Buddhism are practiced by "great root vessel people".

Zen Buddhism and Tantric Buddhism have similar realms that are difficult to convey and understand; In other words, both of these sects have many methods of practice, but in the end, they will reach a state that cannot be reached by learning alone, so it is an "incredible method".

As for other sects, most of them are within the scope of words and thoughts, while Zen Buddhism and Tantric Buddhism are ultimately beyond the scope of words and thoughts, that is, the "incredible realm"; Whether a practitioner can enter that incredible realm depends on the good roots, merits, causes and conditions and intentions he has cultivated over eons.