One day while
editing a transcription of
Suzuki Roshi’s first lecture on the Sandokai,
I came upon the phrase “things as it is.” I asked him
if perhaps he had not meant to say “things
as they are,” which I thought to be
proper syntax.
“No,” he said,
“what I meant is ‘things
as it is.'”
To Shine One Corner of the World
studying texts and stiff meditation
Some people,
not knowing the essential emptiness
of good and evil, think practical cultivation of mind
means to sit rigidly immobile, subduing mind
and body, like a rock placed on
top of grass.
This is ludicrous.
That is why it is said that followers
cut off confusion in every state of mind,
yet the mind that does the cutting
off is a brigand.
…People who practice
the Way should not seek externally.
The essence of mind has no defilement; it is originally
complete and perfect of itself. Just detach from
illusory objects, and it is enlightened
to suchness as is.
The way is difficult
and very intricate. Lalla discarded her
books that told about it, and through meditation
saw the truth that never comes to anyone
from reading words.
Things fundamentally
have no origin and presently have
no extinction; there is no more to speak.
As soon as you speak, this is origination;
and if you don’t speak, this
is extinction.
Having left the Fifth Ancestral Teacher’s place, Hui Neng traveled south for two months, and had reached the Ta Yu Range. He was pursued by the monk Hui Ming, who was originally a general, accompanied by several hundred men, who wanted to seize the robe and bowl (emblematic of succession to the ancestral teachers).
Ming was the first to overtake him. The Sixth Ancestral Teacher threw down the robe and bowl on a rock and said, “This robe signifies faith: how can it be taken by force?” Ming tried to pick up the robe and bowl, but was unable to move them. At that point he said, “I have come for the Dharma, not for the robe.”
The Ancestral Teacher said, “Since you’ve come for the Dharma, you should put to rest all your motivations, and don’t give rise to a single thought, and I will explain for you.” After a silence, he said, “Without thinking of good, and without thinking of evil, at just such a time, which is your original face?”
At these words, Hui Ming was greatly enlightened. He also asked, “Besides the intimate words and meaning that struck home a moment ago, is there any further intimate message?”
The ancestral teacher said, “If it were said to you, it wouldn’t be intimate. If you turn around and reflect, what’s intimate is in you.”