One day, as he listened to a man who was trying to explain the Diamond Sutra, he noticed that the fellow was struggling with the meaning of a line that dealt with the nonexistence of the ego personality "Perhaps I can help you," Pang said. "Do you understand that that which is conditional and changing is not real and that which is unconditional and immutable is real?"
"Yes," replied the commentator.
"Then is it not true that egos are conditional and changing, that no ego is the same from one minute to the next? Is it not true that with each passing minute, depending on circumstances and conditions, we acquire new information and new experiences just as we forget old information and experiences?
"Yes," added the commentator.
"But what is there about us that is unconditional and unchanging? asked Pang.
"Our common Buddha Nature!" replied the commentator, suddenly smiling, suddenly understanding. "That alone is real! The rest is mere illusion!" He was so happy that he inspired Pang to write him a poem:
Since there is neither ego nor personality
Who is distant and who is close?
Take my advice and quit talking about reality.
Experience it directly, for yourself.
The nature of the Diamond Wisdom
Is truth in all its singular purity.
Fictitious egos can't divide or soil it
The expressions,
"I hear," "I believe," "I understand,"
Are simply expedient expressions
Tools in the diamond-cutter's hands.
When the work's done, he puts them down.
Layman Pang and his daughter Ling Zhao traveled around China meeting their
expenses by selling bamboo articles they made. They grew old together, becoming legends of enlightenment. Their last residence was a mountain cave.
Pang knew that it was time for him to lay his burden down. He was very tired and could not go on. Inside the cave there was one particular rock that he always sat on when meditating; so he took his seat and, intending to pass away when the sun was directly overhead, he sent Ling Zhao outside to watch for the moment that noon had come. In a few minutes, however, Ling Zhao returned to the cave breathless with excitement "Oh Father," she shouted, "you must come outside and see this! There's been an eclipse of the sun!"
Well, this was an extraordinary occurrence if ever there was one. Pang could not resist having a look at it. So he rose from his meditation rock and went outside. He looked and looked but there was no eclipse. Noon had come, that was all. But where was Ling Zhao?
Pang returned to the cave and found her dead, her body sitting upright on his meditation rock. "Oh, that girl!" cried Pang. "She always was ahead of me:'
He buried her and then, a week later, he, too, entered Nirvana. His body was cremated and the ashes scattered on the waters of a nearby lake.
