Wansong - "How can you rest easy?"

"Jianfeng said, "The Dharma body has 3 kinds of illness, 2 kinds of light. You must pass through them all one by one and realize there is still an opening going beyond ."

...

(Wansong) According to the fundamental way of the Dongshan succession,

if you're still, you sink into stagnant water,

if you move, you are limited to the present.

Thus, when going outward, do not react;

when going inward, do not dwell in emptiness.

Outwardly not pursuing ramifications,

inwardly not abiding in trance,

naturally you will get beyond the three sicknesses and two lights all at once.

After that, putting penetrating or not penetrating to one side, examine carefully: "what breath is there?"

--this too is an illness.

How can you rest easy?"

[From the Book of Serenity. Wansong's commentary on Case 11, Yunmen's Two Sicknesses.]

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Meditating in public::

This excerpt's been pinned to my wall for a while. Maybe it means something to somebody.

After 2 months of shutdown, my workshop is as quiet and clean as a museum. Meditative, but stagnant. But it was meditative when it was functioning, too. Concentration and absorption in processes. Rhythms. Juggling variables...

Now I am sitting still. It's like a state of 'no way forwards and no way backwards' - and the question is when was it ever really different?

Anchored in motion and adrift in stillness. I don't rest easy.

Anchored in stillness, adrift in motion, I don't rest easy.

What is it like, to rest easy?

(Chuanzi said, "Drift without intent.")

Submitted June 17, 2020 at 01:41PM by Lark-X5 https://ift.tt/37AEIS5