Patch-robed monks
practice thoroughly without carrying
a single thread. Open-mindedly sparkling and pure,
they are like a mirror reflecting a mirror, with
nothing regarded as outside, without
capacity for accumulating
dust.
Author Archives → Brian
all obstructions are empty
All obstructions
of defilements and karmas of worry
and trouble, are in origin, empty. All causes and
effects are dreams and illusions. The great Way is empty
and vast. It is beyond thought and deliberation.
You, at this instant, have this dharma
and are without lack.
love and faith and light
As my love
and my faith and my interest in
the inner grew, the darkness diminished,
within and without, and Lalla lost
herself in that light.
meet the source on all sides
Those who are determined to practice the Way practice self-awareness and self-understanding twenty-four hours a day. They think of this and focus on this. They know that the one Great Cause is there right where they stand, that it is in sages without being augmented and in ordinary people without being diminished. They know that it stands alone free of senses and sense objects, and that it far transcends material things.
Wayfarers don’t set up fixed locations in anything they do. They are clear and tranquil, with solid concentration, and the myriad transformations never disturb them. They appear in response to conditions and go into action as they encounter events, leaving nothing incomplete.
You should just be empty and quiet, transcending everything. Once the main basis is clear, all obscurities are illuminated. “Ten thousand years — a single thought. A single thought — ten thousand years.” Passing through from the heights to the depths, the great function of the whole potential is in operation. It is like when a strong man flexes his arm: he doesn’t depend on anyone else’s strength. Then the illusory blinders of birth and death vanish forever, and the true essence indestructible as a diamond is all that shows. Once realized, it is realized forever — there is no interruption.
All that the enlightened teachers, ancient and modern, have said and done — the scriptural teachings, the enlightenment stories, the meditation stories, the question-and-answer sessions, all their teaching functions — all of this illuminates this true essence alone.
If you can be free and clear in actual practice for a long time, naturally you will come to meet the Source on all sides and become unified and whole.
Haven’t you seen Fadeng’s verse?
Going into a wild field, not choosing,
Picking up whatever plant comes to hand,
Rootless but finding life,
Apart from the ground but not falling.
Right before your eyes, it has always been there. Facing the situation, why don’t you speak? If you don’t know it in your daily life, where then will you look for it? Better find out.
the value of emptiness
Thirty spokes
meet at a hollowed-out hub;
the wheel won’t work without its hole.
A vessel is moulded from solid clay; its inner
emptiness makes it useful. To make a room, you
have to cut doors and windows; without
openings, a place isn’t livable.
To make use of what is here,
you must make use of
what is not.
from The Tao te Ching of Lao Tzu,
ebooks & apps of the Tao the Ching, I Ching,
Hua hu Ching, and Art of War for
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