Whether you're happy or angry, in quiet or noisy places, you still must bring up Chao Chou's saying "A dog has no Buddha-nature." Above all, don't conciously await enlightenment. If you consciously await enlightenment, you're saying, "Right now, I'm deluded."
If you wait for enlightenment clinging to delusion, though you pass through countless eons, you will still not be able to gain enlightenment. As you bring up the saying, just arouse your spirit and see what principle it is. Constantly take the 2 concerns-not knowing where we come from at birth and not knowing where we go at death-and stick them on the point of your nose.
Whether eating or drinking, whether in quiet or noisy places, you should make a scrupulous efforts from moment to moment, always as if you owed someone millions with no way out, your heart sorely troubled, with no opening to escape. Searching for birth, it cannot be found; searching for death, it cannot be found-at such a moment, the roads of good and evil are immediately cut off. When your awareness has gotten like this, this is precisely the time to apply effort: contemplate the story right here.
A monk asked Chao Chou, "Does a dog have Buddha-nature or no?" Chao Chou said "No." As you contemplate this, don't try to figure it out, don't try to explain it, don't demand clear understanding, don't take it verbally, don't construe the raising of it as the principld, don't fall into empty quiescencem don't conciously anticipate enlightenment, don't take your understanding from the explanations of the teachers of our school, don't drop it into the bag of unconcern.
Whether walking, standing, sitting,/or lying down, just constantly call the story to mind: "Does a dog have Buddha-nature or not? No?" When you can keep your attention on it fully, when verbal discussion and intellectual consideration cannot reach and your heart is agitated, when it's like gnawing on an iron spike, without any flavor, then you must not falter in your intent-when you get like this, after all it's good news.
Haven't you read the ancient worthy's saying?-"Buddha preached all teachings to save all minds; I have no mind at all, so what's the use of any teaching?" It's not just in the tradition of the Patriarchs that it's like this-the whole great canonical teaching spoken by the Buddha is also this same principle.
A monk asked Chao Chou, "Doea a dog have Buddha-nature or not?" Chao Chou said "No." This one word "no" is a knife to sunder the doubting mind of birth and death. The handle of this knife is in one's own hand alone: you can't have anyone else wield it for you: to succeed you must take hold of it yourself. You consent to take hold of it yourself only if you can abandon your life. If you cannot abandon your life, just keep to where your doubt remains unbroken for a while: suddenly you'll consent to abandon your life, and then you'll be done.
Only then will you believe that when quiet it's the same as when noisy, when noisy it's the same as when quiet, when speaking it's the same as when silent, and when silent it's the same as when speaking. You wont have to ask anyone else, and naturally you wont accept the confusing talk of false teachers.
During your daily activities 24 hours a day, you shouldn't hold to birth and death and the Buddha Path as existent, nor should you deny them as nonexistent. Just contemplate this: A monk asked Chao Chou, "Does a dog have Buddha-nature?" Chao Chou said, "No." ~Dahui Zonggao, Swampland Flowers
Submitted June 23, 2017 at 05:42AM by ZenMovie http://ift.tt/2tUkduH
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