If your mind is in accordance with the true Way, even if you don't pray, the gods will protect you

In The Roaring Stream, from Rinzai Zen Master Shido Munan (1603 - 1676), it is written that he had a famous dictum, an aphoristic verse, which was

Die while you live!

Be utterly dead,

Then do what you please,

All is good.

The editors of this work, Nelson Foster and Jack Shoemaker, note that this is often misconstrued as a moral license for the awakened. They state this is not the case, and to make it clear, offer another of Sudo's verses,

How foolish to consider,

When you and nothingness are one,

That you are beyond all sinfulness

In whatever you may do.

Munan instructed both men and women. He had some interesting work worthy of being shared on Self-Nature:

Someone asked about the great Dharma. I taught him the attainment of original Mind. He then asked about how he could cultivate it. I said, "Satori is a treasure not to be traded for Heaven and Earth. The cultivation of it is in your own mind."

Someone asked, "How can you teach satori to people?"

I said, "If you do not open your eyes, you will not see the myriad things. If you are not enlightened, Buddha-nature will not be manifested.

Someone asked, "In the past and now it has been said that satori is difficult to attain. How can we become enlightened?

I said, "Under the Sixth Ancestor more than forty people and under Ma-tsu more than one hundred and thirty attained great enlightenment."

Then he asked, "What is satori?"

I said, "It is original Mind."

He asked, "What is this original Mind?"

I said, "'Not one thing.'"

He asked again, "What is this 'not one thing'?"

I said nothing.

Someone said, "This country is the country of the gods. To stop practicing the Way of the gods [Shinto], which we have been blessed with since antiquity, and to practice the Way of Buddha is a great mistake."

I said, "That is foolish. What are called the gods of this country are also Mind. A poem--

If your mind is in accordance with the true Way,

Even if you don't pray, the gods will protect you.

Here's a nice koan from Shido:

I met an old woman. I asked her, "What koan are you practicing?"

She said, "Who."

I can tell you about it," I said. "There is somethign that utilizes everyone even Shakyamuni and Maitreya." I said, "Please come over here," and she came as I asked. Then I said, "What is the thing that has just now utilized your body?"

The old woman said, "Not one thing."

I said, "We give various names to the very 'not one thing' which utilizes you, and call it koan. Not knowing this, we search outside, and so there is delusion."

Lastly,

While one is deluded, one is used by one's body. When one gains awakening, one uses one's body.

---

Note:

Buddhism "awakening" is awakening to non-dual mind, to the transcendent wisdom, not being a slave to the "elements", the passions and desires. This unformed, unaffected, radiant void is Vairocana, or "Buddha", the space element, which is a symbol for the enlightenment of the Buddha. Vairocana doesn't require any worship, it doesn't require faith to exist. It's a name or label for the state of "not being born", or abiding in the Unborn, as Bankei taught. The Unborn concept coming from the Prajnaparamita Sutra, which is where we get the Buddhist concept of the "Buddha-Nature", and of Sunyata, emptiness, Nothing, etc.

Non-duality is all about this being in "samadhi", or being in "death". Even Bankei said, "Die! Then live day and night in the world!"

I rather enjoy the succinctness of that last poem,

While one is deluded, one is used by one's body. When one gains awakening, one uses one's body.

See the top part of this image, the esoterics make Vairocana the Mind or Will.

Die while you live!

Be utterly dead,

Then do what you please,

All is good.

When Vairocana is the "Wheel-turning king", is doing the actions of non-doing, and one is abiding in the Unborn, not getting born, not becoming a demon, a hungry ghost, or an animal, etc. Remaining free from karmic bonding, all is good.

How foolish to consider,

When you and nothingness are one,

That you are beyond all sinfulness

In whatever you may do.

Zazen is sitting down, stopping all action, and putting an end to karmic causation. Bankei taught, "When abiding in the Unborn, all the time is Zazen."

When abiding in the unborn all the time is Zazen, and all is good.

Before you sticklers have to remark upon it, this is a good above good and bad.

Submitted January 02, 2019 at 07:21AM by Dillon123 http://bit.ly/2TolhUm