It's said,

The good assemble together,
The bad form gangs,
People seek out their own kind.

It's also said,

People form gangs;
Creatures are divided into species.

People who advocate virtue will not do things which are lacking in virtue. People who pay no regard to virtue will not be able to do virtuous things. So it is said,

Virtue is the root, Wealth is the branch-tip.

So, people of like types get together in this world. Students get together with students and form close relation ships. Farmers have close ties with other farmers. Laborers get together with laborers and make friends. Businessmen make their acquaintances among other businessmen. Government officials make friends with other government officials. That's the way things go among people. And among creatures? Horses end up with other horses; cows get together in herds; sheep form flocks; dogs run in packs. But the human race is the most efficacious of all the species. People's wisdom is loftier than any of the animal species. Why is that? It's because animals have to pass through King Yama's chemical factory. When that happens their efficacious spirit gets divided. Since their efficacious nature is butchered and maimed, their wisdom decreases significantly.

What kind of division takes place? Let's start with a person. If that person has to become an animal, it's not the case that he or she becomes just one animal. One person might end up as ten or even twenty different animals. There's nothing fixed about it. One criterion that's considered is how much wisdom that person has. The more knowledge he is endowed with, the more divisions are possible. But of course the animals that person ends up becoming are not wise at all, because they each possess only a little of that person's efficacious spirit. People are whole and infinitely capable, whereas other animals are only endowed with partial ability. They may be capable in some ways, but they are deficient in others. They are laden with ignorance. Their wisdom has decreased, but their ignorance is just as heavy. They are obstinate and quick to fight.

Just take chickens for example. When you get two roosters together, they square off, throw back their heads, dip their heads and then they're off and sparring. They don't have anything to fight with but their beaks and claws, but they still manage to have a go at it. All you have to do is look at them to know that when they were people--that part of them that was human--they liked to fight. They were always competing with others and so when they become animals they still retain this quarrelsomeness.

Dogs are stingy. So when they are eating if any other dog comes near and tries to get a bite, a fight will break out for sure. Most other animals are the same way. They will fight over food. This just proves that when they were people they were too selfish. So, when they
become animals they continue to be just as selfish. There's nothing else they are capable of getting but food, and so they display their selfishness in regard to food. If we people want to learn to be like the worthies and sages, if we hope to be clear-minded people, the first thing we must learn is to not be selfish or seek for self-benefit.

Thieves are out to benefit themselves, and in the process end up harming other people. We should be free of seeking for things. It's said that when one reaches the place of not seeking then one's character is lofty. Don't seek for anything! Just fulfill your responsibilities as if
nothing were going on. If you are also not greedy, then the world will be free of wars. The whole reason there are wars in this world is because people's greed is too big; they have insatiable greed. When people don't get what they're greedy for, they start fighting. So we don't want to be greedy nor fight with anyone. If you can live like that, you will know genuine bliss. You will gain true and actual understanding. But if you don't understand this, then you'll just go along with the crowd, seeking name and profit just like everyone else.

In investigating Ch'an, the first requisite is not to fight. Don't fight to be number one, thinking, "Oh, my skill is 'out-of sight!' I'm the best cultivator in America!" As soon as you have a thought like that, you wipe out any skill you might have had going. That's because you're indulging in arrogance and self-satisfaction. Anyone who is that arrogant is in fact a most stupid person. Such an attitude is not permissible within Buddhism. In Buddhism, we learn to yield and not contend. Don't investigate Ch'an only to come up with haughty and overweening pride, thinking yourself pretty special. If you have that kind of thinking you'll end up special all right--perhaps you'll end up growing two horns out of your head, because you've ended up being a bull. That's how bulls get to be bulls, you know they thought they were something special. So be careful, don't have it end up that you go from being a person to being an animal.

Within Buddhism, it is necessary to become a true, good, and beautiful person. To be "true" means not to see other people's faults.
True cultivators always look after them selves in every move they make. Walking, standing, sitting and lying down, they never stray from the present moment. Don't be like a mirror which is always reflecting other people, but cannot reflect itself. That's because its reflections are all of external things. It cannot turn the light around and shine on itself. People who investigate Ch'an must shine the light within. Remember, it's the third line of the Ch'an verse,

Return the light and illumine within,
contemplate your own being.

In investigating Ch'an we turn the light back and illumine within. We do not seek outside. Contemplate your own being. Are you in the 'here and now' or not? If you're here, you're not false thinking. If you're not here, it is because you're having false thinking. False thinking is not a state of comfort and ease. It's very simple. So, are you really investigating Ch'an here? Investigating Ch'an is just turning the light back to illumine within. If you don't have false thinking, then you are contemplating with comfort and ease. Whoever is able to return the 64 light and illumine within will be selected as a worthy or a sage. Such a person will enter the flow of sagehood. But it takes real skill, it's not just something you talk about. If you have real skill you will have some accomplishment. Without real skill, your vain talk is of no use.

All living beings have the Buddha nature and can become Buddhas.
But because of false thoughts and attachments they can't certify to it.

We all have the Buddha-nature and we all can become Buddhas. But we turn our backs on enlightenment and mix with the dust.
So we can't go home. Therefore we drift and flow within the saha world of birth and death. We get born, we die and are reborn again.
Doing good deeds in this life will bring wealth and honor in the next. If we do bad deeds in this life, the next one will find us poor and lowly. Being a person in this world is much like doing business. Those who know how to do business will make money, while others will take a loss.
What is meant by knowing how to do business? If one knows how to do good, create merit and establish virtue, then one will "make money." But if one exclusively creates offenses, doing all sorts of evil things, and making all sorts of mistakes, then one will lose one's capital. This kind of transaction has been going on throughout measureless kalpas. Sometimes we make money, sometimes we lose it.

After making a bit of money we feel satisfied and don't want to work hard. And then we end up losing our money. But once we lose money, if we are very careful about getting our act together again, eventually we will make some more money. Yet when things are good, we don't want to cultivate. As it's said,

Those with wealth or in positions of honor
Don't want to cultivate the Way.

It's only when things are bad and difficult that people want to cultivate.
When one is affluent, one doesn't wish to cultivate. So sometimes we lose money and sometimes we make a profit. But all of this is just petty business dealings, and we never confront the big issue of birth and death--how to end the long flow of birth and death, how to calm the torrent of the revolving wheel.

Those who come to the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas to sit in meditation come for just this. To cut off the flow Of birth and death, and to stop the cycle of the revolving wheel. You should really recognize that this world isn't fun and games.' It's not a very peaceful place. There's danger at all times, and particularly now in the Nuclear Age. Once nuclear bombs are set off, the lives and wealth of people will be all gone. Why do such things manifest? It's just to teach us to see through it and put it down. Then will be at ease and attain self-mastery.

All those who investigate Ch'an wish to see through it. However, the most pathetic and lamentable thing is that people can't see through it. And because they can't see through it, they can't put it down; they still want to run around on the revolving wheel. They've forgotten the suffering of birth and death and feel that cultivating the Way doesn't have much meaning. So those who have left the home life want to return to lay life, and those who are at home are thinking of getting married. Day and night they are having this type of false thinking. In investigating Ch'an this is what they are investigating, or else they are just lazy and goofing off, not wanting to apply any effort. However, what they don't realize is that they aren't cheating others; they are just cheating themselves. They don't have any self-respect. They themselves are headed for a fall. This is such a good Way place, yet they don't want to use effort to cultivate well. There are such favorable circumstances here, and yet they don't know how to cherish their own divine nature--the self-nature. This Ch'an session has been going on for quite a few days now, and if anyone has had any special states or experiences they can bring them up and give a report to everyone. But be true about it; tell it like it is, and don't lie.