Heaven and Hell

Dahui

"People are backwards—ignorant of the true self, they pursue things, willingly suffering immeasurable pains in their greed for a little bit of pleasure. In the mornings, before they've opened their eyes and gotten out of bed, when they're still only half awake, their minds are already flying about in confusion, flowing along with random thoughts. Although good and bad deeds have not yet appeared, heaven and hell are already formed in their hearts before they even get out of bed. By the time they go into action, the seeds of heaven and hell are already implanted in their minds.

Did not the Buddha say, "All faculties of sense are receptacles manifested by your own mind. Physical bodies are manifestations of your own minds' representations of forms as subjectively imagined. These manifestations are like the flow of a river, like seeds, like a lamp, like wind, passing away from instant to instant. Frenetic activity, attraction to impure things, and voracity are the causes of the useless, deceptive habits that seem to have always existed, like a waterwheel always turning."

If you really see through this, you understand the meaning of impersonality. You know that heaven and hell are nowhere else but in the heart of the half awake individual about to get out of bed—they do not come from outside.

While in the process of waking up, you should really pay attention. While you are paying attention, you should not make any effort to struggle with whatever is going on in your mind. While struggling you waste energy. As the third ancestor [Hsin Hsin Ming] of Zen said, "If you try to stop movement and return to stillness, the attempt to be still will increase movement."

When you notice that you are saving energy in the midst of the mundane stress of daily affairs, this is where you gain energy, this is where you attain buddhahood, this is where you turn hell into heaven."

 

Hakuin

I want to know about heaven and hell,” said a samurai. “Do they really exist?” he asked Hakuin.

Hakuin looked at the soldier and asked, “Who are you?”

“I am a samurai,” announced the proud warrior.

“Ha!” exclaimed Hakuin. “What makes you think you can understand such insightful things? You are merely a callous, brutish soldier! Go away and do not waste my time with your foolish questions,” Hakuin said, waving his hand to drive away the samurai.

The enraged samurai couldn’t take Hakuin’s insults. He drew his sword, readied for the kill, when Hakuin calmly retorted, “This is hell.”

The soldier was taken aback. His face softened. Humbled by the wisdom of Hakuin, he put away his sword and bowed before the Zen Master.

“And this is heaven,” Hakuin stated, just as calmly.

 

Mi-an

"All people have their own living road to heaven. Until they walk on this road, they are like drunkards who cannot tell which way is which.

Then when they set foot on this road and lose their confusion, it is up to them which way they shall go—they are no longer subject to the arbitrary directions of others."

 

Submitted December 26, 2017 at 12:13AM by exitiumetsapientia http://ift.tt/2ztSALa