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The Rains Retreat - Discourses on the Practice of Mindfulness
Opening the chapter “The Four Methods of Guidance” with four ways to help people, corresponding to four states:
- Taking the person but not the environment – “thick sunshine, brocade embroidery covering the earth, the child’s hair hangs down white as silk,” only paying attention to the environment while letting go of the subject;
- Taking the environment but not the person – “the king’s decree spreads throughout the land, the border’s mist and clouds dissolve,” maintaining the mind free from attachment to the environment;
- Taking neither person nor environment – “the two border districts have no communication, the people dwell each in their own realm,” the state of neither perception nor non-perception, transcending all notions;
- Not taking person nor environment – the image of the king ascending the jeweled throne, the old villager singing, harmony without conflict.
Connection with Indian and Avatamsaka (Flower Ornament) thought:
– The Indian tetralemma: “is,” “is not,” “both is and is not,” “neither is nor is not” parallels the four methods of guidance.
– The four Dharma realms of the Avatamsaka: phenomena (the phenomenal world), noumena (the ontological ground), unobstructed interpenetration of noumena and phenomena, unobstructed interpenetration of phenomena and phenomena, expressing the harmony and non-obstruction between subject and object.