Yunmen Wenyan [864-949]: When a monk asked the master, "Who is my self?" he answered, "The one who roams freely in the mountains and takes his delight in the streams."

Master Yunmen Wenyan was deeply convinced that "true Emptiness does not destroy the existential realities," and that "the Formless, is one with the world of forms." He assured a prominent lay disciple of his that there is no difference between the lay and the cleric in the matter of self-realization, quoting a passage from the Lotus Sutra in support of his conviction that all activities by way of ministering unto the existential needs of oneself and others are in no way incompatible with the nature of Reality.

Of course, different states of life entail different duties, and everyone must put his feet solidly on the ground and walk steadily in the path of duty. This is much better than to indulge in wild fancies and empty speculation. To the enlightened man, "Heaven is heaven, earth is earth, mountain is mountain, river is river, monk is monk and layman is layman." Yunmen discouraged all theoretical and epistemological inquiries as a waste of one's precious time. The important thing is to be oneself.

Once you have become your self, you are freed from all the inhibitions and fears bred by the ignorance and cravings of your ego. Then you will be happy when you work, happy when you play, happy to live and happy to die. When a monk asked the master, "Who is my self?" he answered, "The one who roams freely in the mountains and takes his delight in the streams." This might not be descriptive of the state of the questioner, but certainly revealed the beautiful inner landscape of Yunmen himself. In fact, one of his happiest utterances was: "Every day is a good day!"

The Golden Age of Zen by John C. H. Wu: Yün-men Wen-yen: Founder of the Yün-men House

Submitted October 16, 2020 at 06:44PM by __WanderingRonin__ https://ift.tt/2SXwsVN