Foyan Qingyuan [1067-1120]: 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.

Whatever you are doing... there is something that transcends the Buddhas and Zen Masters; but as soon as you want to understand it, it's not there. It's not really there; as soon as you try to gather your attention on it, you have already turned away from it... Does this mean that you will realize it if you do not aim the mind and do not develop intellectual understanding? Far from it – you will fail even more seriously to realize it. Even understanding does not get it, much less not understanding!

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. ¹

Realization obliterates the subject-object split; it's not that there's some mysterious principle besides. ²

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 attain realization 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. ³

Instant Zen: Waking Up in the Present by Foyan Qingyuan [1067-1120], translated by Thomas Cleary

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Wandering Ronin commentary and questions:

1. It is not merely to be found in the teachings of the Zen masters, and it is not merely to be found in meditation. If one looks for it in some special way, then one cannot grasp the entirety of the Way. What happens when you are not reading, or aren't able to sit in meditation at that time? What special circumstances are you looking for to achieve this special thing? How can one separate anything from the source which is Mind? No single thing is as important as the entirety of all things.

2. To further this point, compare it with what Huangbo Xiyun taught: All the Buddhas and all sentient beings are nothing but the One Mind, beside which nothing exists. This Mind, which is without beginning, is unborn and indestructible... It is neither long nor short, big nor small, for it transcends all limits, measures, names, traces and comparisons. It is that which you see before you—begin to reason about it and you at once fall into error. If we unskillfuly distinguish ourselves in any way from the myriad things, we subject ourselves to all manner of problems. Why gather up things only to eventually have them stolen?

3. Again, Foyan teaches that the path is not revealed only after explanation and direction; it is inherently always out in the open. What does this mean? It very clearly reveals that no matter where someone is in their study and practice, or lack thereof, they are always on the path and it cannot be escaped. It is only the awareness of it all that changes. This is why master Huangbo saw the gifted young monk Linji sleeping in the meditation hall and did not chastise him for doing so.

Submitted November 14, 2018 at 08:42PM by WanderingRonin77 https://ift.tt/2PrA96B