
There is nothing I dislike.

Just don’t seek
from another or you’ll be far
estranged from the Way.
I now go on alone
Meeting it everywhere
It now is just what I am
I now am one with it.
You must comprehend
in this way to merge
with thusness.
we are all wanderers in the unknown

By even speaking a phrase to you,
I have already doused you with dirty water.
It would be even worse for me to put a twinkle in my eye
and raise my eyebrow to you, or rap on the meditation seat
or hold up a whisk, or demand, “What is this?”
As for shouting and hitting, it’s obvious
that this is just a pile of bones
on level ground.
There are also the type
who don’t know good from bad and
ask questions about Buddha and Dharma and Zen
and the Tao. They ask to be helped, they beg to be received,
they seek knowledge and sayings and theories relating to
the Buddhist teaching and to transcending the world
and to accommodating the world. This is washing
dirt in mud and washing mud in dirt —
when will they ever manage
to clear it away?
Forget the words and
embody the meaning.

Sattva, the activity that always results in good, is the controlled activity, when we have a rein over it. This is the most difficult to attain, and needs the work and effort of a whole lifetime. All the saints and sages have had to journey through these grades and learn from experience, and they understand how difficult it is to attain control over our activity in life.
There are two ways in which we may attain control over our activity. The first is confidence in the power of our own will; to know that if we have failed today, tomorrow we will not do so. The second is to have our eyes wide open, and to watch keenly our activity in all aspects of life. It is in the dark that we fall, but in the light we can see where we are going.

You disciples and apostles,
you all do the same work, yet you try
to determine who’s above and who’s below.
Each of you thinks you’re special, and in that
vanity you irritate each other mightily.
You think there will not be enough,
so you fight for your portion
like dogs in the street.
Being in harmony
is the true way, not this itch
of greed, this constricted stall where
you and other donkeys get beaten with a stick.
Move instead to the praise-place, inside the
mystery, where prayer is unlimited,
and you feel the delight of
giving homage.