like the moon reflected in water

koho shoda

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.

Shih−t’ou

don’t take on the confusion of others

toby harriman

The worthies of old

all had means of emancipating people.

What I teach people just requires you not to take on

the confusion of others. If you need to act,

then act, without any further

hesitation or doubt.

Lin Chi

transcend the buddhas and patriarchs

Bawa Muhaiyaddeen

Brave-spirited wearers of the patched robe possess an outstanding, extraordinary aspect. With great determination they give up conventional society. They look upon worldly status and evanescent fame as dust in the wind, as clouds floating by, as echoes in a valley.

Since they already have great faculties and great capacity from the past, they know that this level exists, and they transcend birth and death and move beyond holy and ordinary. This is the indestructible true essence that all the enlightened ones of all times witness, the wondrous mind that alone the generations of enlightened teachers have communicated.

To tread this unique path, to be a fragrant elephant or a giant, golden-winged bird, it is necessary to charge past the millions of categories and types and fly above them, to cut off the flow and brush against the heavens. How could the enlightened willingly be petty creatures, confined within distinctions of high and low and victory and defeat, trying futilely to make comparative judgments of instantaneous experience, and being utterly turned around by gain and loss?

For this reason, in olden times the people of great enlightenment did not pay attention to trivial matters and did not aspire to the shallow and easily accessible. They aroused their determination to transcend the buddhas and patriarchs. They wanted to bear the heavy responsibility that no one can fully take up, to rescue all living beings, to remove suffering and bring peace, to smash the ignorance and blindness that obstructs the Way. They wanted to break the poisonous arrows of ignorant folly and extract the thorns of arbitrary views from the eye of reality. They wanted to make the scenery of the fundamental ground clear and reveal the original face before the empty aeon.

You should train your mind and value actual practice wholeheartedly, exerting all your power, not shrinking from the cold or the heat. Go to the spot where you meditate and kill your mental monkey and slay your intellectual horse. Make yourself like a dead tree, like a withered stump.

Suddenly you penetrate through — how could it be attained from anyone else? You discover the hidden treasure, you light the lamp in the dark room, you launch the boat across the center of the ford. You experience great liberation, and without producing a single thought, you immediately attain true awakening. Having passed through the gate into the inner truth, you ascend to the site of universal light. Then you sit in the impeccably pure supreme seat of the emptiness of all things.

Yuanwu

zen letters