Same Reality, Different Dreams

People may sleep on the same bed, under the same covers, yet their individual dreams are not the same. An ancient sage said, “ We share the same one reality, yet do not realize it.” For example, within the single reality of life and death, there are those who can enter into life and death without being bound by life and death, and there are those who are bound by life and death in the midst of life and death. In the midst of the same common reality, one person is bound while another is freed; is this not the individual differences in the dreams?

Discussing dreams is funny; people get confused about reality. Foyan says freed; not being bound up in life and death. What lives, and what does, though? I make the assumption that Foyan is talking about a lot more than physical life and death.

 

You usually make birth and death into one extreme, and absence of birth and death into another extreme; you make thinking into one extreme and nonthinking into another extreme; you make speech into one extreme and nonspeech into another extreme. Here I have neither the business of Zen monks, nor anything transcendental; I just talk about getting out of birth and death. This is not a matter of simply saying this and letting the matter rest at that; you must see that which has no birth or death right in the midst of birth and death.

Foyan only ever points at the principle.

 

The great master Yongjia visited the Sixth Patriarch of Zen and said, “The matter of birth and death is serious; transitoriness is swift.” The Sixth Patriarch said, “Why not comprehend the birthless and realize what has no speed?” Yongjia said, "Comprehension itself is birthless; realization of the fundamental has no speed.”

I don't understand. That is birthless. Why not be free? Here it is. There is no rush. Truly hard to conceive without the stomach itching, reminding you about the temporariness of life. But where does that come from? I said I don't understand. I must be a little confused.

 

You make thought one extreme and nonthinking another extreme; you make the unspoken outside of the spoken— even if you understand the unspoken clearly, as soon as words are spoken they block you.

Why not study Zen in this way— walk, stand, sit, and recline all day long without ever walking, standing, sitting, or reclining.

Sometimes seekers come here, utter a phrase, and clap their hands; how does this amount to an understanding beyond dualistic extremes?

You should think in this way: “Clearly I am in the midst of birth and death; how can I get free of birth and death?” Don’t say this itself is It, that you basically have no birth or death. It is not realized by your uttering this statement.

Where does it all go? Am I dreaming birth and death? What about physical laws? I think the more important question is "Why can I only live my life after I have solved all of the laws of reality?"

I heard someone say today that art is throwing oneself off a cliff, and crafting your wings on the way down. Is this not life? How can I decide what works best on the next plateau from the bottom of the mountain? Ask an authority? What if I am going somewhere no one else has ever been? Isn't that the only path?

 

When Caoshan took leave of Dongshan, Dongshan asked, “Where are you going?” Caoshan replied, “To an unchanging place.” Dongshan retorted, “ If it is an unchanging place, how could there be any going?” Caoshan replied, “The going is also unchanging.”

What other path is there? I can't stop time and space with my thoughts. Why am I living a life that is in preparation for death, then?

 

There are those who hear someone say there is no birth and death, and immediately say, "Right! There is originally no birth or death!” If you make your interpretation in this way, it will be impossible to understand.

Since it does not admit of rationalization and contrived understanding, and does not admit of being explained away, how can you work on it? An ancient said, “I only use what you bring me to point out an entryway to you.” Take care.

 

𝒯𝒶𝓀𝑒 𝒞𝒶𝓇𝑒

Submitted September 18, 2020 at 05:32AM by surupamaerl https://ift.tt/35N183q