Question: You say that our original nature and the act of seeing into it are one and the same' This can only be so if that nature is totally undifferentiated. Pray explain how it is that, even allowing that there are no real objects for us to perceive, nevertheless we do in fact see what is near to us and are unable to see what is far away.
Huángbò: This is due to a misunderstanding arising from your own delusions. You cannot argue that the Universal Nature does in fact contain real objects on the grounds that 'no real objects to be perceived' would only be true if there were nothing of the kind we CALL perceptible. The nature of the Absolute is neither perceptible nor imperceptible; and with phenomena it is just the same. But to one who has discovered his real nature, how can there be anywhere or anything separate from it? Thus, the six forms of life arising from the four kinds of birth, together with the great world-systems of the universe with their rivers and mountains, are ALL of one pure substance with our own nature. Therefore is it said: 'The perception of a phenomenon is the perception of the Universal Nature, since phenomena and Mind are one and the same.' It is only because you cling to outward forms that you come to 'see', 'hear', 'feel' and 'know' things as individual entities. True perception is beyond your powers so long as you indulge in these.
Huángbò Xīyùn [died 850?]: On Transmission of Mind, translated by John Blofeld, 1958
Submitted September 26, 2018 at 06:32PM by WanderingRonin77 https://ift.tt/2Q9X3v5
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