Though others may talk of the Way of the Buddhas as something to be reached by various pious practices and by Sūtra-study, you must have nothing to do with such ideas. A perception, sudden as blinking, that subject and object are one, will lead to a deeply mysterious wordless understanding; and by this understanding will you awake to the truth of Zen.
When you happen upon someone who has no understanding, you must claim to know nothing. He may be delighted by his discovery of some 'way to Enlightenment'; yet if you allow yourselves to be persuaded by him, you will experience no delight at all, but suffer both sorrow and disappointment. What have such thoughts as his to do with the study of Zen? Even if you do obtain from him some trifling 'method', it will only be a thought-constructed dharma having nothing to do with Zen. Thus, Bodhidharma sat rapt in meditation before a wall; he did not seek to lead people into having opinions. Therefore it is written: 'To put out of mind even the principle from which action springs is the true teaching of the Buddhas, while dualism belongs to the sphere of demons.'
Huangbo Xiyun, On the Transmission of Mind, translated by John Blofeld, 1958
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Wandering Ronin commentary: What is the potential difficulty involved in the Zen teachings of subject and object being one? When I think of the myriad things for even a short duration, I quickly understand the difficulty in preventing separations of subject and object. There are, in fact, distances. There are different shapes, myriad forms, vast ranges of colors... and so many, many things outside of my view and grasp. Are they all One, all throughout the universe? How can I actualize a mountain on the other side of the world that I cannot touch, or lay claim to a river in China?
Submitted June 17, 2019 at 07:09PM by WanderingRoninXIII http://bit.ly/2ZxDMIH
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