Don't do Contemplative Exercises. Don't Try to Settle your Mind.

Mingben said,

"Illusion, in its delicious completeness, its righteous provision, its profound substance, its scrupulous operation--all the ancient Buddhas mutually befriended it forever."

If you seperate this illusion from what is already before you, you're just running frantically trying to gain an entrance. Huangbo remarked, "Many people are afraid to empty their minds lest they may plunge into the Void. They do not know that their own Mind is the void."

To recognize that your "own mind is the void" is already a step away from it. The Fourth Patriarch himself once said, "All afflictions and obstacles of habit are originally void"--If you try to conceive of 'void' as an obstacle to your own understanding that needs to be conquered by means of sitting in meditation or destroying an "ego" you're making a mess of things.

The Fourth Patriarch continues, saying, "Just let your mind be free; don't do contemplative exercises, and don't try to settle your mind either."

Mingben carries along the single thread, stating,

"It wheels everywhere, at every point, it's like a river bursting a dam, like wind twisting in empty space, unrelated to any conceivable through-line or design. There, picking and choosing are utterly absent."

The Third Patriarch said, "The best way is not difficult, it only exludes picking and choosing. Once you stop loving and hating it will enlighten itself."

Apart from picking and choosing, loving and hating, how do you understand the Way?

Submitted March 15, 2023 at 10:09PM by ThatKir https://ift.tt/CfuMpYS