Treasury of the Eye of True Teaching #280: 280 - Cleary Translation
Master Huanglong Xin said to an assembly,
An empty valley transmits echoes; time and again you hear what you haven't heard. Adhesive within color is clear; everywhere you see without seeing. Since there is no seeing in seeing, and what has not been heard is heard, this is called the door of absorption in the inexhaustible treasury, the door of spiritual powers of the inexhaustible treasury, the door of wisdom of the inexhaustible treasury, the door of liberation of the inexhaustible treasury. If one can know and see thus, believe thus, cultivate and realize thus, awaken and enter thus, I say this person has reached the source of the Buddha mind, entered the knowledge and vision of Buddhas. Since this is entering the knowledge and vision of Buddhas, is this subjective perception or objective perception? If it is objective perception, what do you take to be the subject? If it is subjective perception, what do you consider the object? If you consider that both subjective and objective perception are not the Buddha vehicle, what is the Buddha vehicle?
Therefore the Realized One is not intellectually clever; the Realized One is the source of wisdom. The founding teacher is not comprehended by subtlety; the founding teacher is the essence of subtlety. Once the source and essence are distinguished, clarity and pollution are self-evident. Once you understand clarity and pollution, substance and function are both complete. Once you are complete in substance and function, you attain great freedom. The precious sword of Spiritual Peak is always openly present, able to kill people and also able to give people life. Trying to advance results in loss of life; trying to retreat turns against the person concerned. But tell me, how do you express not advancing and not retreating? (pause) The pines in the valley, a thousand years old - cranes come and gather. The red cassia on the moon - phoenixes nest.
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What's more subtle than telling the difference between two things that are the same? ;)
"Adhesive within color is clear" - a bit of a twist on how the word 'clear' is normally used. It seems he's getting at something underneath the colours that we don't see - to me it is along the lines of 'everything is unique' or simply 'it is what it is'. I dunno about you but I really enjoy pondering how it's not possible to recognise something that's everywhere...and at the same time how not forming an idea of it is in a sense the most accurate way to think about it. If anything is 'sitting' that's it to me - and not because I sit when I ponder.
Like Guishan said, "Phenomena and principle are not two; the real Buddha is suchness as is." We don't achieve objective perception by rejecting the subjective.
"The pines in the valley, a thousand years old - cranes come and gather. The red cassia on the moon - phoenixes nest." Very poetic. I know planting pine forests for future generations was a thing some zen masters engaged in, obviously, not on the moon. Here are some references to pines. Cassia is apparently also known as Chinese cinnamon.
I find people who are good at these sorts of expressions are able to put themselves (or what might be called their selves) to one side and talk about things a bit more holistically. I also think after such talk about subjective and objective, he's well aware we'll have our own subjective interpretations. To me, the idea of the cranes gathering in the pines sounds like knowledgable scholars gathering around the many literary records, the seeds of which were planted a while ago, while the phoenixes nesting is finding a home in the living and dying that is letting go of preconceived notions about 'reality'. Together they're the source and the essence, in a way.
Submitted July 15, 2020 at 07:03PM by sje397 https://ift.tt/3fx5SMH
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