The Work

Foyan repeatedly talks about doing the work.

Just keep focused in this way. Do not take it for idleness; time does not wait for anyone. An early teacher said, “Don’t waste time!” Each of you should work on your own.

And also

My teacher said, “When you sleep, study Zen as you sleep; at meals, study Zen as you eat.” An ancient also said, “When you sit, there is the logic of when you sit; when you stand, there is the logic of when you stand.”

But what is the work?

I tell you, the instant you touch upon signals, you’re already alienated; when you want to manifest it by means of the light of knowledge, you’ve already obscured it. Now, don’t hold onto my talk; each of you do your own work independently. You may contemplate the stories of the ancients, you may sit quietly, or you may watch attentively everywhere; all of these are ways of doing the work. Everywhere is the place for you to attain realization, but concentrate on one point for days and months on end, and surely you will break through.

Concentrate on one point? What point?

The Third Patriarch of Zen said, “Don’t seek reality, just put a stop to opinions.” He also said, “As soon as there are judgements of right and wrong, the mind is lost in a flurry.” These sayings teach you people of today what to work on.

All of this is familiar to Wumen’s advice on “no”

Does it not happen to be essential to pass through this foundation checkpoint? Use your three hundred sixty bones and joints and your eighty four thousand hair follicles throughout your body to start up a single mass of doubt to meet this single word “Not.” Daytime and nighttime lift up and tear. Do not establish an association between nothingness and “Not.” Do not establish an association between “Is” and “Not.”    Examine this as if you swallowed a single hot iron ball and vomiting and vomiting doesn’t get it out. First clean and extinguish your foul knowledge and foul consciousness from long long ago, and when naturally mastered, inside and outside become one.    It’s as if the mute person gets a dream allowing only oneself to know.

So everywhere, all the time do the work. It’s a solitary journey. No one can do it for you. Just say no to opinions, judgements of right and wrong. Do the inner work

Submitted February 09, 2019 at 06:00AM by Pistaf http://bit.ly/2WTqiqz