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Rains Retreat - The Record of Linji
The five heinous karmas are the five gravest actions; according to Zen Master Linji, only by looking deeply into their nature can liberation be attained.
- killing one’s father
- killing one’s mother
- killing an Arhat
- causing the Buddha to bleed
- causing division in the Sangha and burning scriptures and images
In the Vimalakirti Sutra, there is the phrase “With the appearance of the five heinous acts, one attains liberation,” which demonstrates the principle of interbeing – using the worst to become the best, like the fragrant lotus blooming from the foul mud.
Here, father symbolizes delusion, the root of samsāra and suffering; mother symbolizes craving. When we cease seeking, no longer clinging to the arising and passing of phenomena, that is killing the father of delusion. When we see clearly that sensual pleasures are unreal and are no longer entangled, that is killing the mother of craving. From these two actions arises the path of liberation that the ancestral teachers expounded as freedom, not bound by Buddhist scholastic forms.
Even a single moment of mindfulness – reciting the name of the Buddha or a Bodhisattva, a single mindful breath – is a life-saving raft, creating conditions for liberation. In the Discourse on the Establishment of Mindfulness, seven days of diligent contemplation—feeling in feelings, mind in mind, Dharma in Dharma—will lead to liberation; but even three days, one day, one hour, or one sincere minute is enough. In the Pure Land Dharma door, ten recitations of “Namo Amitabha Buddha” in the midst of a busy life can also lead to rebirth in the Pure Land.