Huangbo Xiyun: When the lotus opened and the universe lay disclosed, there arose the duality of Absolute and sentient world; or, rather, the Absolute appeared in two aspects which, taken together, comprise pure perfection.

When the lotus opened and the universe lay disclosed, there arose the duality of Absolute and sentient world; or, rather, the Absolute appeared in two aspects which, taken together, comprise pure perfection. These aspects are unchanging reality and potential form.

For sentient beings, there are such pairs of opposites as becoming and cessation, together with all the others. Therefore, beware of clinging to one half of a pair. Those who, in their single-minded attempt to reach Buddhahood detest the sentient world, thereby blaspheme all the Buddhas of the universe. The Buddhas, on manifesting themselves in the world, seized dung-shovels to rid themselves of all such rubbish as books containing metaphysics and sophistry.

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Huangbo Xiyun [died 850?]: On the Transmission of Mind, translated by John Blofeld, 1958

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The Perfect Way is only difficult for those who pick and choose;
Do not like, do not dislike; all will then be clear.
Make a hairsbreadth difference, and Heaven and Earth are set apart;
If you want the truth to stand clear before you, never be for or against.

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Jianzhi Sengcan [529-613]: The Hsin Hsin Ming, translated by Arthur Waley, 1954

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Commentary and questions: The first quote is perhaps my favorite single selection from Huangbo's magnum opus. It is complete in and of itself, and revelatory of the deepest principles of Zen: everything is the Absolute no matter where you may search, again and again and again. The Absolute is literally right here, right now in and of all things. Now, how can this be difficult to grasp and understand?

As revealed by the opening lines of the Hsin Hsin Ming, the potential problems arise only when distinctions are made. Making distinctions begins and ends only with the mind itself: to pick and choose, to like and dislike; all come from the mind's tendency to mistakenly attempt to cut the Absolute into one thing from the other, which is delusion.

Yet how deeply do these distinctions run? It's one thing to see and understand that all outer forms are the forms of the Absolute, but what of the body and mind? If the distinction is made that 'this is my body', it directly leads to suffering, because the body that is allowed to be born in one's mind will eventually die. Where it perhaps gets a bit more complicated is with the thoughts of the mind itself: if all that can be perceived and all that perceives is the inescapable Absolute, how can any single thought, no matter what it is, be apart from the Absolute?

Submitted January 14, 2020 at 08:56PM by _WanderingRonin_ https://ift.tt/374ZyHW