The Ultimate Path is not
one-sided, the Final Truth is not biased.
We must not seize upon the views of just one
of these approaches. We must understand
them as one and make them all
perfect and wondrous.
In essence,
if you are confined to one
of them, they are all wrong; if you
reconcile them, they are all correct.
Forget sentiments and return
to the ocean of
wisdom.
Records of the Teachers and Students of the Lanka
This is a time for
disengagement and retreat.
In stillness you are out
of the reach of
danger.
It is inherent in the design of life that forces of darkness and disruption come into prominence from time to time. This hexagram indicates that this is such a time and advises you to respond by quietly retreating. To struggle or resist in anger now is to add fuel to the fire of negativity which threatens to consume you.
The superior person accepts that there is a natural ebb and flow between the forces of light and dark in the world. Wisdom lies not in resisting these movements but in responding to them appropriately. Just as a plant which sprouts in the dead of winter is doomed, and one which sprouts in spring flourishes, so it is with us. Success and prosperity accrue to those who advance in times of light and retreat in times of darkness. To retreat now is to benefit, in the end, from the changing tides.
Retreat is not the same thing as surrender, capitulation, or abandonment, which are desperate and unsatisfying measures. Neither is it characterized by a hardening into angry or punitive emotions. It is instead an acceptance and a choice: we calmly accept that the energies of the moment are against us, and we wisely choose to withdraw into the safety of stillness. In this dignified and balanced manner we protect ourselves from negative influences and arrive rested in a more beneficial hour.
from The I Ching, or Book of Changes
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After offering a convincing response when Kaso later challenged the validity of his awakening, Ikkyu went on to admit that he had practiced for a decade “seething with anger” only to find that as the raucous cawing of a crow shattered the evening’s silence “an enlightened disciple of the Buddha suddenly surfaced” from within the mud of his emotional torment.
Ikkyu continued practicing under Kaso for another four years, earning the deep respect of his master as well as a reputation for eccentricity. According to a biography completed by Ikkyu’s disciples not long after his death, when Kaso offered Ikkyu a “seal” of his enlightenment (inka) — a document essential for anyone seeking advancement in the Rinzai hierarchy — Ikkyu refused to accept it. Later discovering that Kaso had given the document to a laywoman for safekeeping, Ikkyu took possession of the inka, tore it to shreds, and asked his disciples to burn it.
On another occasion, when Kaso was hosting a memorial ceremony for his own master, Ikkyu spurned the custom of wearing ceremonial raiment and showed up in patched robes and grass sandals, drawing the considerable ire of the rest of the community. Questioned by Kaso about his behavior, Ikkyu said that he was dressed simply, as a monk should be, while everyone else was prancing about in sumptuous “shit covers”. At the end of the service, when Kaso who was asked who would be his Dharma successor, he reportedly surveyed the gathering and said, perhaps with some reluctance, “the crazy one”.
…Ikkyu had devoted himself to Kaso precisely because he carried the torch of Daito’s personification of a “true person of no rank” — a rigorously ascetic approach to Zen exemplified by Daito having tempered his own enlightenment by living under a bridge with beggars and other outcasts for five years.
Having
realized understanding
kindness and the excellent nature
of opportunities and dangers, one ably
breaks through the net of doubts snaring all
sentient beings. Departing from ‘is’ and ‘is not’,
and other such bondages…leaping over quantity and
calculation, one is without obstruction in whatever
one does. With penetrating understanding of the
present situation and its informing patterns,
one’s actions are like the sky giving rise
to clouds: suddenly they exist, and
then they don’t. Not leaving
behind any obstructing
traces, they are like
phrases written
on water.
The wondrous path
of the enlightened ones is straight
and direct. They just pointed directly to
the human mind so we would work to
see its true nature and achieve
enlightenment.
This mind-source
is originally empty and peaceful,
clear and wondrous, and free from the slightest
obstruction. But we screen it off with false thoughts
and give rise to defilements and blockages in this
unobstructed one. We turn our backs on the
fundamental and pursue the trivial
and foolishly revolve on the
cycle of routine.
If you
have great capacity,
you won’t seek outside anymore.
Right where you stand you will come forth in
independent realization. When the transitory blinders
of false perception have been dissolved away, the
original correct perception is complete and
wondrous. This is called the identity
of mind and buddha.
From this,
once realized, it is realized
forever. It is like the bottom falling out of a
bucket: you open through and merge with the Way,
and there is nothing occupying your mind.
Beholding the essence, pure and still,
you receive the use of it and
have no more
doubts.
My teaching
which has come down
from the ancient Buddhas
is not dependent on meditation
(dhyana) or on diligent application
of any kind. When you attain the insight as
attained by the Buddha, you realize that Mind is
Buddha and Buddha is Mind, that Mind, Buddha,
sentient beings, Bodhi (enlightenment),
and Klesa (passions) are of one and
the same substance while
they vary in names.
You should know that
your own mind−essence is neither subject
to annihilation nor eternally subsisting, is neither
pure nor defiled, that it remains perfectly undisturbed and
self−sufficient and the same with the wise and the ignorant, that it
is not limited in its working, and that it is not included in the
category of mind (citta), consciousness (manas), or
thought (vijnana). The three worlds of desire,
form, and no−form, and the six paths
of existence are no more than
manifestations of your
mind itself.
They are all like the moon
reflected in water or images in the
mirror. How can we speak of them as being
born or as passing away? When you come
to this understanding, you will be
furnished with all the things
you are in need of.