Fourth Patriarch Daoxin
Be constantly mindful that the six sense faculties are empty and still, and that you have no hearing or seeing. The Bequeathed Teaching Sutra says: "This time is the middle of the night, still and soundless." You must know that the Dharma preached by the Tathagata takes empty stillness as the basis. Be ever mindful that the six senses are empty and still; be constantly as if in the middle of the night. What is seen and heard by day are all things external to the body. Let is be always empty and pure within the body, preserving unity without stirring. With this eye of emptiness and purity, focus the attention and observe one thing. No matter whether it is day or night, focus the energy so that it does not move. When the mind is about to run off and scatter, quickly gather it back. It is like tying a bird's foot so that when it wishes to fly away, it is held fast. Contemplate without stopping all the time: when purified, mind will stabilize itself.
The Vimalakirti Sutra says: "Gathering in mind is the site of enlightenment." This is a method for gathering in mind. The Lotus Sutra says: "Having eliminated sleep and gathered in the mind for countless ages, by the accomplished merit of this he was able to engender meditative concentrations." This was also said in the Bequeathed Teaching Sutra: "Mind is the ruler of the five faculties: control it in one place, and all will be accomplished."
The foregoing are true principles of the Great Vehicle. All are laid out on the basis of scripture: they are not false words outside the truth. These [forms of practice described above] are stainless activities, and ultimate meanings. They go beyond the stages of the sravakas and go straight for the bodhisattva path.
Those who hear should practice: don't be doubtful and confused. It is like a person learning archery. At first he shoots at large targets. By and by he can hit smaller and smaller ones. Then he can hit a single feather, then hit it and smash it into a hundred pieces, then hit one of the hundredths. Then he can shoot the arrow before with the arrow after, and hit the notch, so the arrows line up one after another and he does not let any arrows fall.
This is a metaphor for practicing the Path, concentrating the mind from thought-instant to thought-instant, going on continuously from mind-moment to mind-moment without any interruptions, so that correct mindfulness is not broken and appears before you. Another sutra says: "With the arrow of wisdom, shoot through the gate of triple liberation. Let the arrows line up and hold each other up so that none fall."
Zen Master Dahui
"Don't draw another's bow, don't ride another's horse, don't mind another's business."
Although this is a common saying, it can also help you penetrate Zen. Just examine yourself constantly - from morning to night, what have you done that is beneficial to others and to yourself? If you notice any partiality, you should alert yourself and not overlook it.
Zen Master Ying-an
First of all, don't establish a preconceived understanding of Zen, yet don't rationalize Zen as "not understanding" either. It's just like learning archery: eventually you reach a point where ideas are ended and feelings forgotten, and then you suddenly hit the target.
You should also know, furthermore, that there is a subtlety breaking through the target, which is attained spontaneously.
Zen Master Yuansou
The mind of people of the Way is straight as a bowstring. Simply because they are not burdened by the ideas of others and themselves, of right and wrong, of sacred and profane, of better and worse, or by deception, falsehood, flattery, or deviousness, they spontaneously gain access to the substance of mind that dwells on nothing.
Zen Master Awa Kenzô, to Eugene Herrigel
Do you know why you cannot wait for the shot and why you get out of breath before it has come? The right shot at the right moment does not come because you do not let go of yourself. You do not wait for fulfilment, but brace yourself for failure. So long as that is so, you have no choice but to call forth some thing yourself that ought to happen independently of you, and so long as you call it forth your hand will not open in the right way — like the hand of a child: it does not burst open like the skin of a ripe fruit.
The right art is purposeless, aimless! The more obstinately you try to learn how to shoot the arrow for the sake of hitting the goal, the less you will succeed in the one and the further the other will recede. What stands in your way is that you have a much too wilful will. You think that what you do not do yourself does not happen.
Submitted March 23, 2018 at 08:51PM by essentialsalts http://ift.tt/2pzF071
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