Between two moreovers; Huang Po speaking plainly.

....

Moreover, in thus contemplating the totality of phenomena, you are contemplating the totality of Mind.

All these phenomena are intrinsically void and yet this Mind with which they are identical is no mere nothingness.

By this I mean that it does exist, but in a way too marvellous for us to comprehend.

It is an existence which is no existence, a non-existence which is nevertheless existence.

So this true Void does in some marvellous way 'exist'.

According to what has been said, we can encompass all the vast world-systems, though numberless as grains of sand, with our One Mind.

Then, why talk of 'inside' and 'outside'?

Honey having the invariable characteristic of sweetness, it follows that all honey is sweet.

To speak of this honey as sweet and that honey as bitter would be nonsensical!

How COULD it be so?

Hence we say that the Void has no inside and outside.

There is only the spontaneously existing Bhutatathatā (Absolute).

And, for this same reason, we say it has no centre.

There is only the spontaneously existing Bhutatathatā.

Thus, sentient beings ARE the Buddha.

The Buddha is one with them.

Both consist entirely of the one 'substance'.

The phenomenal universe and Nirvaņa, activity and motionless placidity-ALL are of the one 'substance'.

So also are the worlds and with the state that transcends worlds.

Yes, the beings passing through the six stages of existence, those who have undergone the four kinds of birth, all the vast world-systems with their mountains and rivers, the Bodhi-Nature and illusion-ALL of them are thus.

By saying that they are all of one substance, we mean that their names and forms, their existence and non existence, are void.

The great world-systems, uncountable as Ganga's sands, are in truth comprised in the one boundless void.

Then where CAN there be Buddhas who deliver or sentient beings to be delivered?

When the true nature of all things that 'exist' is an identical Thusness, how CAN SUCH distinctions have any reality?

If you suppose that phenomena arise of themselves, you will fall into the heresy of regarding things as having a spontaneous existence of their own.

On the other hand, if you accept the doctrine of ANATMAN, the concept 'ANATMAN' may land you among the Theravadins.¹

You people seek to measure all within the void, foot by foot and inch by inch, I repeat to you that all phenomena are devoid of distinctions of form.

Intrinsically they belong to that perfect tranquillity which lies beyond the transitory sphere of form-producing activities, so all of them are coexistent with space and one with reality.

Since no bodies possess real form, we speak of phenomena as void; and, since Mind is formless, we speak of the nature of all things as void.

Both are formless and both are termed void.

Moreover, none of the numerous doctrines has any existence outside your original Mind.

....

^{Excerpt taken from Wan Ling Record #37}

Submitted February 07, 2022 at 12:48AM by NothingIsForgotten https://ift.tt/P4QwqJc