People who study the path clearly know there is such a thing; why do they fail to get the message, and go on doubting? It is because their faith is not complete enough and their doubt is not deep enough. Only with depth and completeness, be it faith or doubt, is it really Zen; if you are incapable of introspection like this, you will eventually get lost in confusion and lose the thread, wearing out and stumbling halfway along the road. But if you can look into yourself, there is no one else.
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If you ask what power we should have all of, it is the power of non-deception. 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.
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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.
Foyan Qingyuan [1067-1120]: Instant Zen: Waking Up in the Present, translated by Thomas Cleary, 1994
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Wandering Ronin commentary and questions: Here Foyan says it is simply a matter of reaching the source of mind, but what exactly is this mind, and how do we reach it? Through introspection we can seek this mind and look for the source, but what is this source we are looking for? Is mind awareness of the myriad things, all at once? Is it a tacit understanding of what lies beyond? Buddha nature or the Unborn? Even further, we've heard that the true dharma is the dharma of no dharmas. What is there to be done?
And in the spirit of synergy among the Zen teachings, what does Huangbo Xiyun have to say on the matter at hand? This Mind is no mind of conceptual thought and it is completely detached from form. So Buddhas and sentient beings do not differ at all. If you can only rid yourselves of conceptual thought, you will have accomplished everything. But if you students of the Way do not rid yourselves of conceptual thought in a flash, even though you strive for aeon after aeon, you will never accomplish it.
Submitted February 05, 2019 at 08:48PM by WanderingRoninXIII http://bit.ly/2WILHCE
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