Bassui: An Arrow Flies Straight to Hell

"The mind is host, the body is guest."

Zen master and historical figure, Bassui was born in Japan in 1327. Rejected by his mother at birth, Bassui is recorded to have been raised by a family servant. At age 29 he became a monk, but he did not shave his head or wear robes; he did not recite Sutras, like other monks. His practice was the most simple practice. It can be called the practice of no practice. This was to be Bassui's Way throughout his life.

As a Zen master, Bassui was often questioned; often he gave reply. In one instance he was asked: "The spirit is this skin, this skin is the one spirit. Is this correct?"

Bassui replied affirmatively to the question.

"If so,' continued the questioner, 'who will become buddha after the body's dispersed to the four winds? Who will sink into the sea? What will be the reason for keeping the precept that prevents crime?"

To this Bassui replied, "If you continue holding this view, in which you deny cause and effect [karma], like an arrow, you will fly straight to hell. Do you have dreams?

Questioner: Yes.

Bassui: What do you usually see in your dreams?

Questioner: It's not always fixed. I usually see things that occur in my mind and through my body.

Bassui: The rising and sinking after death are also like that. All thoughts that come are by way of the four elements that comprise the physical body. Dreams in the night follow suit and appear in accordance to the good or bad thoughts of the day... An ancient said, 'You receive a body according to Karma, and your body in turn produces Karma. You should realize the continuity of the body in this life and in the next... If you truly understand this, then you cannot doubt the statement that the one spirit in this skin is the one spirit in that skin.

Questioner: Now I realize that the body and the mind are not separate. This being the case, the significance of 'seeing into one's Buddha nature' is relegated to the leaves and branches [of a tree]. If you simply stop doing bad deeds concerning your physical body, practice various good deeds, practice the precepts, and eliminate evil thoughts, will you then become a Buddha?

Bassui:
All thoughts are born of deluded ideas feelings [disordered thinking]. If you do not see penetratingly into your own nature, though you try to eliminate evil thoughts, you will be like the one who tries to stop dreaming without waking up. All evil deeds are rooted in deluded thoughts. If you cut out the roots, how can the leaves grow?... If he were a man who penetrated his own nature, how could he even think of committing a sin in which he breaks precepts?

Jainism, The Ford Makers and the Ford

Ford-maker, one who leads the way across the stream of rebirths to salvation. --Jainist belief


Writing about a central belief of Jainism, Paul Dundas, in his book, The Jains, writes that while Jainism is not to be mis-taken for a sect of either Buddhism or Hinduism, it shares a recognizable cosmology with both. And while permitting the reader a broad overview of the faith, Dundas does go into some detail in regard to the notion of the "Ford Maker."

The Ford Maker and the Ford, writes Dundas is, in "western-style histories of religion, Mahavira, generally treated as the founder of Jainism in the same way Christians regard Jesus as the founder of Christianity. For the Jains, however, Mahavira is merely one of a chain of teachers who all communicate the same truth broadly in similar ways... part of the total of the Universal History, through the continuing dynamic of re-birth, and the lives of participants within it." Indeed, the Sanskrit poet, Asaga, writes of Mahivira without exception as one of the many who, like other Ford Makers, guide, leading believers to other shores.

Time, in the Jain view, is represented as a series of "continual up and down motions of a wheel," called respectively the ages. In this view, there are ages of progress, and ages of declines; there are ages of uneven progress, and an age, the sixth age, when Jainism is thought to die out. This wheel is believed to be without beginning or end; the Universal history is only concerned with this current age, the age of now, 'where human life is enacted.'

During each "motion of the wheel 24 teachers, the Ford Makers, appear[ing] in succession, who activate the Three Jewels, the uncreated Jain teachings of: Right Faith, Right Knowledge and Right Practice." These serve as a spiritual fords, to be traversed, if you will; believers who navigate these fords are like others, Jainists believe, subject to cause and effect, to Karma; thus Dharma isn't just about time, but has a relationship to the experiences of Cause and Effect.

The life pattern of the Ford Makers, according to tradition is always the same: born into great warrior families, they wander about as ascetics, found communities, generally they are awakened by the gods to their destiny as great spiritual teachers. Ford Makers renounce their status, wealth and material comforts in favor of wandering as mendicants, begging for their basic needs and in doing so, they adhere to a strict practice which "burns" away previous Karmic debts until they attain full omniscience. Ultimately a Ford Maker is freed from his body, travels to the top of the universe to abide with other freed souls.