Huangbo Xiyun: Blinded by their own sight, hearing, feeling and knowing, they do not perceive the spiritual brilliance of the source-substance.

This pure Mind, the source of everything, shines forever and on all with the brilliance of its own perfection. But the people of the world do not awake to it, regarding only that which sees, hears, feels and knows as mind. Blinded by their own sight, hearing, feeling and knowing, they do not perceive the spiritual brilliance of the source-substance. If they would only eliminate all conceptual thought in a flash, that source-substance would manifest itself like the sun ascending through the void and illuminating the whole universe without hindrance or bounds.

Therefore, if you students of the Way seek to progress through seeing, hearing, feeling and knowing, when you are deprived of your perceptions, your way to Mind will be cut off and you will find nowhere to enter. Only realize that, though real Mind is expressed in these perceptions, it neither forms part of them nor is separate from them. You should not start reasoning from these perceptions, nor allow them to give rise to conceptual thought; yet nor should you seek the One Mind apart from them or abandon them in your pursuit of the Dharma. Do not keep them nor abandon them nor dwell in them nor cleave to them. Above, below and around you, all is spontaneously existing, for there is nowhere which is outside the Buddha-Mind.

Huangbo Xiyun: On the Transmission of Mind, translated by John Blofeld, 1958

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Wandering Ronin commentary: What is this Void, after all? To understand the potential problem, we must look to the things that we may attempt to cling steadfastly to in order to stay our fall into it. There is this 'body' and 'mind', and worst of all, 'understanding'. The body of course has senses, and the senses can easily fool one into somehow being present, wherever this present may be. The body is nothing more than another of the myriad things to cling to in order to prevent one's fall into the Void. Then there is this mind, which if one isn't earnestly in pursuit of understanding, seems quite like a real concrete thing. "I exist," the mind may believe, "with this very body as evidence." What happens when you inevitably lose this body and mind?

Then, in potential doubt of the inescapable original Way, the mind may pursue understanding through the teachings of Zen. One must realize that the understanding one develops in Zen is usually nothing more than fraudulence, hollow attempts by the mind to validate itself and to merely fortify and assuage the ego. All understandings, again and again, are false; cast them away at your earliest convenience. Furthermore, the inherent mistake that is often made when considering the Void is that there is anything whatsoever to begin with. The ineffable Void is absolutely inescapable; nothing besides remains. It is not death, and it is not life. Even the great entirety of the universe is nothing more than Void no matter what one attempts to holds on to or to may attempt to seek. And ultimately, there isn't even Void to rely on.

Submitted October 13, 2019 at 05:49AM by WanderingRoninXIII https://ift.tt/2B4Dj6M