The nature of mind

One eye illuminates the universe. Concepts cannot reach it, and it cannot be grasped.

If there are no thoughts and desires, what remains is without thoughts and without desires.

The masters of old saw clearly with the same eyes, heard with the same ears, and walked the same path.

Case 15 Gateless Gate

Tozan’s Sixty Blows

Tozan went to Un-mon and Un-mon asked him where he had come from. Tozan answered, "From Sato!" Then Un-mon asked, "Where were you then during the Summer?" Tozan answered, "At Hoji Temple in Konan Province." Un-mon further asked Tozan, "When did you leave there?" Tozan replied, "I left on August 25." Un-mon told Tozan, "You deserve 60 blows, but I will forgive you today!" The next day Tozan knelt and deeply bowed to Un-mon and said, "Yesterday you forgave me the 60 blows, but I still do not understand in what respect I was wrong." Then Un mon told Tozan, "You are really a good-for-nothing rice eater! No wonder you wandered around Konan and Kosei for nothing!" At this very moment, Tozan was awakened.

Mumon’s Comment

Un-mon had Tozan feed on the genuine fodder of Zen, showed him the one way of living activity, and helped him from becoming extinct. All night long Tozan swam in the waves of Yes and No until he got nowhere. When the dawn broke, again Tozan went to Un mon to be awakened. After all Tozan was not so seasoned. Now I will ask you: Did Tozan deserve 60 blows? If you say Yes, then not only Tozan, but everyone also deserves 60 blows! If you say No, Un-mon is a swindler. If therefore you understand this clearly, Tozan and you breathe the same air!

The lion roughly teaches her cubs, She kicks them away and the cubs jump. Un-mon's thrown words hit right on Tozan's heart, While Un-mon's first arrow is light, the second arrow hits deep.

Arges Continued:

How was the first arrow light, yet the second one deep? Does everyone deserve 60 blows, or does no one? If you have not yet penetrated deeply, the weeds around you are ten feet high. To say there is no mind, no merit, no Buddha, is easy enough. But how do you know if you haven’t searched thoroughly and exhausted your studies?

There is nothing to seek, nothing to gain or lose. If you don’t have the resolve to see clearly, fall back three thousand years, study for 30 more. You won’t find it here in my words, as I haven’t found it either.

Submitted October 25, 2019 at 06:33PM by ArgesAwoken https://ift.tt/31Myudg