a golden thread

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stone ox gatekeeper

stands outside barring entry

to the feint of heart

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You should not set up limitations in the boundless void, but if you set up limitlessness as the boundless void, you encompass your own downfall. Therefore, those who understand voidness have no concept of voidness.

If people use words to describe mind, they never apprehend mind; if people do not describe mind in words, they still do not apprehend mind. Speech is fundamentally mind; you do not apprehend it because of describing it. Speechlessness is fundamentally mind; you do not apprehend it because of not describing it. Whatever sorts of understanding you use to approximate it, none tally with your own mind itself.

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every written word

twenty two over seven

fractionally wrong

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A high master said, "It is only tacit harmony." Because it is like this, if you haven't attained the path yet, just do not entertain any false thoughts. If people recognize false thoughts and deliberately try to stop them, it's because you see there are false thoughts. If you know you're having false thoughts and deliberately practice contemplation to effect perception of truth, this is also seeing that there are false thoughts. If you know that falsehood is fundamentally the path, then there is no falsehood in it. Therefore those who master the path have no attainment. If the path were sought by deliberate intention, the path would be something attained. Just do not seek elsewhere, and realize there is no confusion or falsehood; this is called seeing the path.

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in a tapestry

each weave supports another

hidden underneath

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In recent times, everyone says, "Nothing is not the path." They are like people sitting by a food basket talking about eating; they can never be filled, because they do not themselves partake. Realization obliterates the subject-object split; it's not that there's some mysterious principle besides. In your daily activities, when you see forms, this is an instance of realization; when you hear sounds, this is an instance of realization; when you eat and drink, this is an instance of realization. Each particular is without subject or object.

This is not a matter of longtime practice; it does not depend on cultivation. That is because it is something that is already there. Worldly people, who do not recognize it, call it roaming aimlessly. That is why it is said, "Only by experiential realization do you know it is unfathomable."

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a thousand foot line

drops into an empty bowl

finding no bottom

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People who study the path clearly know there is such a thing; why do they fail to get the message, and go on doubting? It is because their faith is not complete enough and their doubt is not deep enough. Only with depth and completeness, be it faith or doubt, is it really Zen; if you are incapable of introspection like this, you will eventually get lost in confusion and lose the thread, wearing out and stumbling halfway along the road. But if you can look into yourself, there is no one else.

Once we say "this matter," how can we know it any more than that? "Knowledge" may be arbitrary thought, but this matter itself isn't lost. The path is not revealed only after explanation and direction; it is inherently always out in the open. Explanation and direction are expedient methods, used to get you to realize enlightenment; they are also temporary byroads. Some attain realization through explanation, some enter through direction, some attain by spontaneous awakening; ultimately there is nothing different, no separate attainment. It is simply a matter of reaching the source of mind.

People say that to practice cultivation only after realizing enlightenment is in the province of curative methodology, but Zen also admits of using true knowledge and vision as a curative. In terms of a particular individual, however, this may not be necessary.

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just stand back and look

following a thread closely

misses the picture

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"The path of Buddhahood is eternal; only after long endurance of hard work can it then be realized." It is continuous throughout past, present, and future; the ordinary and the holy are one suchness—this is why it is said that "the path of Buddhahood is eternal." If you do not produce differing views, you never leave it—this is the point of "long endurance of hard work." Ultimately there is no separate reality—thus it is said that it "can then be realized."

This is a matter for strong people. People who do not discern what is being asked give replies depending on what comes up. They do not know it is something you ask yourself—to whom would you answer? When people do not understand an answer, they produce views based on words. They do not know it is something you answer for yourself—what truth have you found, and where does it lead? Therefore it is said, "It's all you." Look! Look!

Some people say, "The verbal teachings given out by the enlightened ones since ancient times circulate throughout the world, each distinctly clear. Why is all this oneself? That is profound ingratitude toward the kindness of the ancient sages." I now reply that I am actually following the source message of the enlightened ones; you yourselves turn your backs on it, not I. If you say they have some doctrine, you are thereby slandering the enlightened.

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abstraction layers

matryoshka doll interface

built out of belief

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Do not be someone who finally cuts off the seed of enlightenment; if you do not discern the ultimate within yourself, whatever you do will be artificial. No matter how much you memorize, or how many words you understand, it will be of no benefit to you. Thus it is said, "You want to listen attentively to Buddha; why doesn't Buddha listen to himself? If you seek a formal Buddha outside the listening, it will not resemble you."

An adept said, "For me to make a statement in reply to you is not particularly hard; now if you could gain understanding at a single saying, that would amount to something." If you do not understand, then I have gone wrong.

Students nowadays all consider question and answer to be essential to Zen, not realizing that this is a grasping and rejecting conceptual attitude. Terms such as study "in reference to principle" and "in reference to phenomena" are recently coined expressions. Even if you have a little perception, you still shouldn't stop; haven't you heard it said that the path of nirvana aims at absolute liberation?

You have to be able to monitor yourself. When people proceed on the path because they are confused and do not know their own minds, they come to mountain forests to see teachers, imagining that there is a special "way" that can make people comfortable, not realizing that the best exercise is to look back and study your previous confusion. If you do not get this far, even to go into the mountain forests forever will be a useless act.

Confusion is extremely accessible, yet hard to penetrate. That is why ancient worthies said, "It is hard to believe, hard to understand."

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investigation

questioning all the way down

pointing to the mind

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This is an explanation of the path characteristic of the instant school. Looking back into what has been going on is already an expression of change; but what about if you do not do so! Later generations eventually took this statement to refer to plain ordinariness, but this is just failure of understanding and absorption on the part of later students.

Since time immemorial, there have been two kinds of method: there is true method, which is what is called the exposition that has no interruption; then there is expedient method, which is what is referred to as subtle response to all potentials. If you gain entry by way of true method, you understand spiritually in a natural and spontaneous manner without needing to make use of contemplation, never to regress, with countless wondrous capacities. If you gain entry by way of expedient method, you must "take the seat, wear the clothing, and hereafter see for yourself" before you can attain. This can not yet be considered ultimate. These two kinds of method are one reality, and cannot be lost for an instant; students should think about this.

Xuefeng said to people, "Don't have me make a statement that refers to you; if there is a statement that refers to you, what use is it?" It is simply that the ancient had no choice and could not avoid speaking in these terms; later people who did not understand the ancient's intention thought it means that there is nothing to say about one's self; thus they misunderstood.

People nowadays mostly take the immediate mirroring awareness to be the ultimate principle. This is why Xuansha said to people, "Tell me, does it still exist in remote uninhabited places deep in the mountains?"

Enlightenment of mind and seeing its essence should be like Xuefeng and Xuansha; genuine application to reality should be like Nanquan and Zhaozhou. Students nowadays just take the methods of the ancients to be the way of Zen; they are unable to study from the same source as the ancients themselves did.

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methodology

like an instruction booklet

how to do backflips

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It is like a strong man carrying a heavy load over a log bridge without losing his balance. What supports him like this? Just his singleminded attention. Working on the path is also like this; as it says in scripture, a lion has all of its power whether it is catching an elephant or a rabbit. If you ask what power we should have all of, it is the power of nondeception. If you see anything in the slightest different from mind, you forfeit your own life. Thus for those who attain the path, there is nothing that is not it.

This power is very great; it is only that the function of the power is made deficient by infections of unlimited misapperception. Without all these different states, different conditions, different entanglements, and different thoughts, you can transform freely, however you wish, without any obstacle.

You shouldn't strain to seek the path; if you seek it, you will lose the path. You need not strain to make things fluid; if you try to make them fluid, things remain as they are. If you neither seek nor try to produce fluidity, the path will merge with things; then what thing is not the path?

Suppose a man with clear eyes goes into a jewel mine but does not know how to go about it; in other words, suppose he thinks he can go in without a torch to light the way. Then when he bumps his head and hurts himself, he thinks it to be a dangerous cave, not a jewel mine. An intelligent person going in there would take a lamp to light up the mine to view; then all kinds of jewels could be selected at will and taken out. Similarly, you should be using the light of insight and wisdom twenty-four hours a day, not letting the six fields of sense objects hurt you.

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no one lands the first

no matter how much they read

they have to fall down

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In the old days, Assembly Leader Yong took leave of Fenyang along with Ciming, but Yong had not yet completely realized the marvel; though he had followed Ciming for twenty years, after all he was not free and untrammeled. One night they sat around the brazier until very late; Ciming picked up the fire tongs, hit the embers, and said, "Assembly Leader Yong, Assembly Leader Yong!" Yong clucked his tongue and said with disapproval, "Foxy devil!" Ciming pointed at Yong and said, "This tired old guy still goes on like this!" In this way Yong finally realized the ultimate end. Nevertheless, he continued to follow Ciming to the end of his life. Whenever Ciming would pose complex stimulating questions that the students could not answer, Yong alone hit the mark, and Ciming would nod approval.

This is called medicine without disease. Few of those who study it attain the essential; needless to say, mere intellectuals of later times have no way to comprehend this matter. Your attainment of it should be like Yong, your activation of the medicine should be like Ciming; then, hopefully, you will be all right.

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in getting back up

trying over and over

a fabric woven

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When you find peace and quiet in the midst of busyness and clamor, then towns and cities become mountain forests; afflictions are enlightenment, sentient beings realize true awakening. These sayings can be uttered and understood by all beginners, who construe it as uniform equanimity; but then when they let their minds go, the ordinary and the spiritual are divided as before, quietude and activity operate separately. So obviously this was only an intellectual understanding.

You have to actually experience stable peacefulness before you attain oneness; you cannot force understanding.

In recent generations, many have come to regard question-and—answer dialogues as the style of the Zen school. They do not understand what the ancients were all about; they only pursue trivia, and do not come back to the essential. How strange! How strange!

People in olden times asked questions on account of confusion, so they were seeking actual realization through their questioning; when they got a single saying or half a phrase, they would take it seriously and examine it until they penetrated it. They were not like people nowadays who pose questions at random and answer with whatever comes out of their mouths, making laughingstocks of themselves.

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everything in place

no one thread can see its part

weaving the maypole

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People who attain study the path twenty-four hours a day, never abandoning it for a moment. Even if these people do not gain access to it, every moment of thought is already cultivating practical application. Usually it is said that cultivated practice does not go beyond purification of mind, speech, action, and the six senses, but the Zen way is not necessarily like this. Why? Because Zen concentration is equal to transcendent insight in every moment of thought; wherever you are, there are naturally no ills. Eventually one day the ground of mind becomes thoroughly clear and you attain complete fulfillment. This is called absorption in one practice.

Nowadays people only work on concentration power and do not open the eye of insight. For them, stories and sayings just become argumentation, unstable mental activity.

Zen study is not a small matter. You do not yet need to transcend the Buddhas and surpass the adepts; but once you have attained it, it will not be hard to transcend and surpass them if you wish.

Instant Zen (Foyan) #48: Keys of Zen Mind

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不 弗 否 無 毋

巫 牧 师 毋 舞 戊 吴

否 教 条 弗 旡

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Submitted June 15, 2022 at 01:13PM by eggo https://ift.tt/oq5ilmd