Duality

Zen Master Bankei on Duality

A layman asked: "I'm grateful for your teaching of the Unborn, but I find that thoughts easily come up as a result of my ingrained bad habits, and when I'm distracted by them, I can't wholeheartedly realize the Unborn. How can I put my faith totally in the Unborn Buddha Mind?"

The Master said: "When you try to stop your rising thoughts, you create a duality between the mind that does the stopping and the mind that's being stopped, so you'll never have peace of mind. Just have faith that thoughts don't originally exist, but only arise and cease temporarily in response to what you see and hear, without any actual substance of their own."

It's fine just to feel that way:

A layman said: "I sometimes feel startled when I'm surprised by some sound, such as a clap of thunder. Is this because I'm not in control all the time? How can I guard against this so that, no matter what happens, I won't feel startled?"

The Master said: "If you feel startled, it's fine just to feel that way. When you try to guard against it, you're creating duality."

The one who sees and hears

A layman asked: "For years now I've entrusted myself to the teaching of the old masters, [trying to answer the question] 'Who is the one who sees and hears?' What sort of practice can I do to find 'the one who sees and hears'? I've searched and searched, but today I still haven't found him.

The Master said: "Since my school is the School of Buddha Mind, there's no duality between 'the one who sees and hears', and the one who searches. If you search outside, you'll never find him, even if you travel the whole world through. The One Mind, unborn--this is 'the one' that, in everybody, sees images in the eyes, hears sounds in the ears, and generally, when it encounters the objects of the six senses, reveals whatever is seen or heard, felt or thought, with nothing left concealed."

Submitted December 24, 2017 at 09:02PM by Dillon123 http://ift.tt/2BJyjHn