Q: A little while ago you spoke of refraining from thinking, but you did not finish your explanation.
A: It means not fixing your mind upon anything anywhere, but totally withdrawing it from the phenomena surrounding you, so that even the thought of seeking for something does not remain; it means that your mind, confronted by all the forms composing your environment, remains placid and motionless. This abstaining from all thought whatever is called real thought; but to keep on thinking is deluded thinking and certainly not the right way to think.
Why is that? A sutra says, ‘If you teach people to entertain the six meritorious thoughts (thoughts concerned with Buddha, Dharma, Sangha, rules of conduct, almsgiving and merit) that is called “teaching them to think in the wrong way”.’ So, even entertaining those six thoughts is termed ‘deluded thinking’, while abstaining from them is known as ‘real thought’.
~ Dazhu Huihai (?-788), The Zen Teaching of Instantaneous Awakening
Submitted November 01, 2018 at 11:16AM by mojo-power https://ift.tt/2CTZ4YY
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