giving to each thing the same respect
Those who wear the
patched robe of a zen wayfarer
should be completely serious about
taking death and birth as
their business.
Don’t
covet name and fame.
Step back and turn to reality, until
your practical understanding
and virtue are fully
actualized.
If you wish
to bring the two matters
of birth and death to conclusion,
and pass directly beyond the triple-world,
you must penetrate the koan “This
very mind is Buddha.”
Tell me:
What is its principle?
How is it that this very mind
is Buddha? And “this very
mind” — just what is
it like?
Investigate it coming. Investigate it going.
Investigate it thoroughly and exhaustively.
All you have to do is keep this koan
constantly in your thoughts.
Repeatedly undergoing
birth and death is just due to grasping
at objects. When we reflect back on the mind that
grasps at objects, we see that the real identity of mind
is originally pure. Within this purity, grasping mind
does not exist. Within nirvana, fundamentally
there are no thoughts moving; the
movement is ever still. Being
still, there is no
seeking.
Nothing,
nothing at all is born,
dies, the shell says again and
again from the depth of its hollowness.
Its body swept off by tide — so what? It sleeps
in sand, drying in sunlight, bathing in moonlight.
Nothing to do with sea or anything else.
Over and over it vanishes
with the wave.
Can you
marry your spirit and
body to the oneness and
never depart
from it?
Can you
ride your breath until
your entire being is as supple
as the body of an
infant?
Can you cleanse
your inner vision until you
see heaven in every
direction?
Can you love
people and govern them
without conniving and
manipulating?
Can you bear
heaven’s children in all
that you do and
are?
Can you give
the wisdom of your heart
precedence over the
learning of your
head?
Giving birth,
nourishing life,
shaping things without
possessing them, serving without
expectation of reward, leading without
dominating: these are the profound
virtues of nature, and of nature’s
best beings.
from The Tao te Ching of Lao Tzu,
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