... The Great Function appears without abiding by fixed principles--the intent is that you'll realize there is something transcendental; it covers the sky and covers the earth, yet it cannot be grasped.
Supposing Yuanwu could provide any kind of entrance, whose mind do these words arrive at?
Under the blue sky, in the bright sunlight, you don't have to point out this and that anymore; but the causal conditions of time and season still require you to give the medicine in accordance with the disease.
But tell me, is it better to let go, or is it better to hold still? ...
Remain or relinquish?
Your position is clear... and your eyes?
It's easy, here.
Originally Te Shan was a lecturing monk, expounding the Diamond Cutter Scripture...
...in that teaching... one studies the majestic conduct of Buddhas for a thousand aeons and studies the refined practices of Buddhas for ten thousand aeons before finally fulfilling Buddhahood. On the other hand, the "southern devils" at this time were saying "Mind itself is Buddha." ...[Te Shan] went straight to the South to destroy this crew of devils.
...
...[On his travels] he met an old woman selling fried cakes by the roadside; he put down his commentaries to buy some refreshment to lighten his mind. The old woman said, "What is that you're carrying?" Te Shan said, "Commentaries on the Diamond Cutter Scripture."
The old woman said, "I have a question for you: if you can answer it I'll give you some fried cakes to refresh your mind; if you can't answer, you'll have to go somewhere else to buy." Te Shan said, "Just ask."
The old woman said, "The Diamond Cutter Scripture says, 'Past mind can't be grasped, present mind can't be grasped, future mind can't be grasped': which mind does the learned monk desire to refresh?"
Te Shan was speechless.
The old woman directed him to go call on Lung T'an.
Where would you refresh your mind?
Past mind grasps the future mind; future mind grasps the past mind.
Where is your present mind?
...
... [During the night after arriving at Lung T'an,] Te Shan entered Lung T'an's room and stood in attendance till late at night. Lung T'an said, "Why don't you go?" Te Shan bade farewell, lifted up the curtain, and went out; he saw that it was dark outside, so he turned around and said, "It's dark outside."
Lung T'an lit a paper lantern and handed it to Te Shan; as soon as Te Shan took it, Lung T'an blew it out.
Te Shan was vastly and greatly enlightened.
Immediately he bowed to Lung T'an, who said, "What have you seen that you bow?"
Te Shan answered, "From now on I will never again doubt what's on the tongues of the venerable teaching masters of the world."
The next day Lung T'an went up into the teaching hall and said, "There is one among you with teeth like a forest of swords and a mouth like a bowl of blood; even if you hit him with a staff, he wouldn't turn back. Another day he will ascend to the summit of a solitary peak and establish my path there."
Then Te Shan took all his commentaries in front of the teaching hall and raised a torch over them, declaring, "Even to plumb all abstruse locutions is like a single hair in the great void; to exhaust the essential workings of the world is like a single drop of water cast into a vast valley." Then he burned the commentaries.
Symphonies and galleries,
and schedules and calendars, and
folded paper gift cards...
These letters aren't mechanical,
each movement in my chest
between two single breaths can't cry
out,
I speak.
Standing, walking; breakfast time,
before I've washed or
seen the morning sky...
A real devil's in the details,
and words you've heard before
seem new when waking up, or
not,
I'm sure.
Only if you possess the ability to kill a man without blinking an eye can you then become Buddha right where you stand. Someone who can fulfill Buddhahood right where he stands naturally kills people without blinking an eye; thus he has his share of freedom and independence.
When some people these days are questioned, at first they seem to have the qualities of a patchrobed monk, but when they're pressed even slightly, their waists snap and their legs break; they come all to pieces. They totally lack the slightest continuity.
That is why an Ancient said, "Continuity is indeed very difficult."
There's more, soon.
Excerpts from The Blue Cliff Record, Cleary and Cleary, cases 3 and 4
Submitted December 24, 2018 at 05:48PM by i-dont-no http://bit.ly/2T60Zi4
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